are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are ye when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely for my sake. Rejoice and be exceeding glad, for great is your reward in heaven." Here, then, the Gospel commences with the promise of a glorious reward in heaven. Retribution there is, not in the sense of threatening and terror, but of consolation, hope, and encouragement. And this is precisely what the toiling, suffering, frail, and tempted children of earth need, to sustain them in their daily trials, and to nerve them to their daily duties.

But as the discourse proceeds, a higher law of retribution is set up. Men are not to be rewarded for their good deeds unless the motive has been pure. Here is a distinction which the Mosaic code did not make, and which had never been insisted on by the saints and sages of the olden dispensation. "Take heed that ye do not your alms before men, to be seen of them; otherwise ye have no reward of your Father which is in heaven. Therefore, when thou doest thine alms, do not sound a trumpet before thee, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory of men. Verily I say unto you, they have their reward. But when thou doest alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth, that thine alms may be in secret; and thy Father, which seeth in secret, shall reward thee openly."

Here is the doctrine of retribution declared in a most stringent and impressive form. It lays the foundation of a thorough and spiritual virtue, of a

divine and not a mere human and ostensible morality. It proclaims a retribution as eternal as God, and as universal as his omnipresence; as certain as his allpervading agency, and as secret as the consciousness of the soul.

The discourse winds up with a broader, though milder, statement of the doctrine of retribution. It is such a retribution as may extend no further than the operation of natural causes. "Therefore, whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock; and the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house, and it fell not, for it was founded upon a rock. And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand; and the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it."

In this view of things, no change in the succession of events is supposed to take place in order to bring about a retribution, but natural causes are supposed to proceed according to the established order of the universe, and in that order virtue is rewarded and vice is punished.

As all causes contain the seeds of all effects, he who thoroughly knows all causes can infallibly predict all effects; so that the annunciation of laws and the foretelling of events become at last identical. All preaching is reduced to the one simple message of the ancient prophet: "Say ye to the righteous that it shall be well with him; for they shall eat the fruit

of their doings. Woe unto the wicked! it shall be ill with him; for the reward of his hands shall be given him."

The images, in that case, in which future retributory suffering is bodied forth, become accidental and conventional. In the book of Daniel, the future happiness of the righteous is symbolized by the brightness of heaven and the celestial luminaries. "And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament, and they that turn many to righteousness, as the stars, for ever and ever." The misery of the wicked is condensed into the significant expression of "shame and everlasting contempt." In after ages, the symbol of future misery became hell-fire, from a valley in the neighborhood of Jerusalem, where the offal of the city was thrown and consumed by a perpetual fire. The flames of this fire, gleaming through the darkness of the night, became a most impressive image of terror to those who beheld it. Jesus availed himself of these images, then familiar among the people, to impress upon them the spiritual realities of the future retribution. Hence "the fire that never shall be quenched," and "the worm that never dies."

In another part of the Gospel, Jesus draws still closer the bonds of obligation, and announces a more stringent rule of retribution. We are liable to be called to account, not only for what we do, but for what we leave undone. It is in the parable of the talents. There we are taught, that not only is a life of positive transgression sinful, but a life of mere uselessness and self-indulgence. We must diligently cultivate our faculties, and we must do good to

others. We are sent into the world for this purpose. We can do much good, both to ourselves and others. Not only can those do this who are highly endowed, but those of the humblest capacity; not only those who have five talents, but he who has two, and he who has one. Not only is this announced in the teaching of Jesus, but it takes hold on the human conscience as equitable and obligatory.

Life and faculties and the power of action are given us, not that we may idle away our earthly existence, not that we may immerse ourselves in pleasure, or take advantage of those around us, but to be up and doing while the sun of our day is above the horizon, to exercise and thus improve our faculties, and help those who stand in need of our aid. There is no human mind or heart that does not assent to these propositions as reasonable and just, and which does not acknowledge that, if man be a responsible being at all, there may be sins of omission as well as of commission.

"For the kingdom of heaven is as a man travelling into a far country, who called his own servants, and delivered unto them his goods. And unto one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one, to every man according to his several ability, and straightway took his journey. Then he that had received the five talents went and traded with the same, and made them other five talents. And likewise he that had received two, he also gained other two. But he that had received one went and digged in the earth, and hid his lord's money. After a long time the lord of those servants cometh, and reckoneth with them.

And so he that had received five talents

came, and brought other five talents, saying, Lord, thou deliveredst unto me five talents; behold, I have gained besides them five talents more. His lord said unto him, Well done, thou good and faithful servant; thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord. He also that had received two talents came, and said, Lord, thou deliveredst unto me two talents; behold, I have gained two other talents besides them. His lord said unto him, Well done, good and faithful servant; thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord.

"Then he which had received the one talent came, and said, Lord, I knew thee that thou art an hard man, reaping where thou hast not sown, and gathering where thou hast not strawed; and I was afraid, and went and hid thy talent in the earth: lo, there thou hast that is thine. His lord answered and said unto him, Thou wicked and slothful servant, thou knewest that I reap where I sowed not, and gather where I have not strawed. Thou oughtest, therefore, to have put my money to the exchangers, and then at my coming I should have received mine own with usury. Take, therefore, the talent from him, and give it unto him which hath ten talents...... And cast ye the unprofitable servant into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

Such is the retribution which is to overtake mere unprofitableness. The law, at first sight, seems to But no one can complain of it as unjust

be severe.