away from God by sin: we have "gone astray like lost sheep." We are lost, as depraved and helpless. We are lost, as a criminal who is condemned to death. We are " by nature children of wrath." We are lost to virtue, to happiness, and to God. But, if we wish to have the most impressive view of what it is to be lost, we must think of the state of those who are in hell and consigned to misery unmixed, uninterrupted, and eternal, and then reflect that unbelievers are ripening for that state, condemned to it, and actually on the way to it. How dreadful! And yet they are not irrecoverably lost; there is hope for them, for, "the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which is lost." The Son of man, who is also the Son of God, Immanuel, God with us, has come for the very purpose of saving those who are thus far lost; and the worst of them may be saved through him. He has come to save by merit-by the merit of his perfect obedience and atoning death; and, "whosoever believeth in him shall not perish, but shall have everlasting life." He has come to save by power-by the power of his Holy Spirit. He has come to seek, as well as to save, or to seek, in order to save, the lost. If he had not provided efficacious means for recovering sinners, none of them would ever have found their way back, none of them would have returned to God, but they would all have continued to wander farther and farther off from him for ever. Blessed be his name for the means he has provided, in his ordinances and his grace, for bringing his lost sheep into his fold at first, and also for bringing them back again when they stray ! "Thus saith the Lord God, Behold I, even I, will both search my sheep and seek them out," and "will deliver them out of all places where they have been scattered in the cloudy and dark day."- "I will seek that which was lost, and bring again that which was driven away, and will bind up that which was broken, and will strengthen that which was sick."

By those of you who are found of him, and saved and called with a holy calling, let the liveliest gratitude be cherished in your hearts, and manifested in your lives. And let those of you who are in a lost condition, sensible of its misery and danger, and encouraged by this plain declaration of the gracious purpose for which the Son of God came into the world, and for which he is preached to you, yield yourselves up to him now that he is thus in search of you, and he will lead you to a place of safety.

LECTURE C.

LUKE XIX. 11-27.

"And as they heard these things, he added and spake a parable, because he was nigh to Jerusalem, and because they thought that the kingdom of God should immediately appear. 12. He said therefore, A certain nobleman went into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom, and to return. 13. And he called his ten servants, and delivered them ten pounds, and said unto them, Occupy till Í come. 14. But his citizens hated him, and sent a message after him, saying, We will not have this man to reign over us. 15. And it came to pass, that when he was returned, having received the kingdom, then he commanded these servants to be called unto him, to whom he had given the money, that he might know how much every man had gained by trading. 16. Then came the first, saying, Lord, thy pound hath gained ten pounds. 17. And he said unto him, Well, thou good servant: because thou hast been faithful in a very little, have thou authority over ten cities. 18. And the second came, saying, Lord, thy pound hath gained five pounds. 19. And he said likewise to him, Be thou also over five cities. 20. And another came, saying, Lord, behold, here is thy pound, which I have kept laid up in a napkin: 21. For I feared thee, because thou art an austere man: thou takest up that thou layedst not down, and reapest that thou didst not sow. 22. And he saith unto him, Out of thine own mouth will I judge thee, thou wicked servant. Thou knewest that I was an austere man, taking up that I laid not down, and reaping that I did not sow: 23. Wherefore then gavest not thou my money into the bank, that at my coming I might have required mine own with usury? 24. And he said unto them that stood by, Take from him the pound, and give it to him that hath ten pounds. 25. (And they said unto him, Lord, he hath ten pounds). 26. For I say unto you, That unto every one which hath shall be given; and from him that hath not, even that he hath shall be taken away from him. 27. But those mine enemies, which would not that I should reign over them, bring hither, and slay them before me."

THIS is the parable of the ten pounds; and it is found only in Luke, though another parable similar to it-namely, that of the talents-is related by Matthew, in his 25th chapter, as having been spoken by our Lord after his triumphant entry into Jerusalem. The passage under consideration comes in after the account of what took place in the house of Zaccheus; and, if we are to understand the clause, as they heard these things," very rigidly as to the time, then we

66

66

must suppose that this parable was spoken by Christ immediately after what he said of his having come to seek and to save that which was lost," and even before he left the house: and then, too, as it is also said that he spoke the parable when "he was nigh to Jerusalem," we must suppose that Luke speaks comparatively with other places at a greater distance, from which Jesus had lately come. Some critics, however, judging that it would have been unnatural for the historian to speak of Christ as being nigh to Jerusalem if he was still in or near Jericho, which was about twenty miles distant from it, suppose that this parable was spoken by Christ the day after he had been in the house of Zaccheus, and when he had accomplished the greater part of his journey from Jericho to Jerusalem, the clause, "as they heard these things," being, of course, to be understood with some latitude.*

Our Lord," added and spake," or proceeded to speak this parable, "because he was nigh to Jerusalem, and because they thought that the kingdom of God should immediately appear." Not only did the great body of the Jewish people and their rulers expect that Messiah, when he should come (for they would not allow that Jesus was he), would deliver them from the Roman yoke, and raise them to a high pitch of power and splendour among the nations of the earth, but the disciples themselves, as we have frequent occasion to notice, though they acknowledged Jesus as Messiah, laboured for a long time under the same mistake as to the nature of his kingdom; and now it appears, that when he was approaching Jerusalem, they imagined that as soon as he should enter the city he would declare himself king, and assume the government, in the common acceptation of the words. Because they entertained this idea, he spake a parable which was admirably adapted to undeceive them, inasmuch as it taught that, instead of remaining much longer on earth, either to reign or to do anything else, he was soon to leave it, and then, at the appointed time, to return to rule, and to reckon, both with his friends and enemies, in a very different way from what even his friends then supposed. Let us consider the parable, first, in its literal meaning, and then in its figurative application.

* Dr Adam Clarke says, "I believe the participle of the present tense here is used for the participle of the past, or rather, that the participle of the present conveys sometimes the sense of the past." Dr Campbell translates the clause simply, " As the people were attentive."

A flood of light is thrown on the literal meaning of the parable, and the mode of representation adopted in it is accounted for, by the way in which, in those days, the government in most of the nations was obtained and held. The Romans had conquered the greater part of the then known world, and the rulers held power under the Roman emperor and senate. Even after great men, by hereditary claims, or personal weight, or popular favour, had obtained an influence sufficient to raise them to the government, they did not reckon themselves secure in it, nor indeed, generally speaking, would they formally assume it, till they obtained the express consent and appointment of the supreme power at Rome. Commission to this effect was sometimes sent to them; but they often had to repair personally all the way to Rome to obtain it. Thus, Josephus relates how Herod, that is, Herod the Great, went up to Rome for this purpose, and had his cause espoused by Mark Antony and Cæsar himself. "So a senate was convocated," says the Jewish historian; "and Messala first, and then Atratinus, introduced Herod to it, and enlarged upon the benefits they had received from his father, and put them in mind of the good-will he had borne to the Romans." 66 Antony informed them farther, that it was for their advantage," " that Herod should be king. This seemed good to all the senators; and so they made a decree accordingly." "When the senate was dissolved, Antony and Cæsar went out of the senate-house with Herod between them, and with the consuls and other magistrates before them, in order to offer sacrifices, and to lay up their decrees in the capitol." And thus did this man "receive the kingdom." Then he returned from Italy to Judea, to assert the government. The same historian relates, at considerable length, how, on the death of Herod the Great, his son Archelaus proceeded to Rome, in order to prevail with Augustus to confirm his father's will in his favour, but how Herod Antipas, another son of Herod the Great, "sailed to Rome at the same time, in order to gain the government;" and how, after hearing the pleadings of the parties, the emperor "appointed Archelaus ethnarch of one half" of the territories which had been governed by his father," and promised to give him the royal dignity afterwards, if he governed well;" and divided the other half between Herod Antipas, and Philip, another brother.* After this illustration from the history of the times, nothing need be added Josephus, Ant. lib. xiv. 14, xvii. 9, 10, 11. Whiston's translation. VOL. III.

I

to open up the literal meaning of the supposition here made in the 12th verse, or to show its naturalness. "A certain nobleman," or man of high birth, "went into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom"-royalty, or kingly power

"and to return."

"

Were a nobleman leaving his own country for some time, with this view, there would be two classes of persons with whom he would be concerned, and with whom he would intend to reckon on his return. There would be, in the first place, his servants, those who were in his own personal, private employment, over whom he would justly consider himself as having authority, whatever might be the result of his journey; and there would be, in the second place, his citizens, or the inhabitants of the city, or country in general, over whom also he would have authority, on the supposition of his returning with kingly power. Accordingly, the remainder, or the great body of this parable, just describes the way in which he who left the country as a nobleman, and returned as its king, dealt with these two classes. All the remaining verses, with the exception of two, namely the 14th and 27th, relate to the mode of his employing and reckoning with his servants.

"called

The nobleman, before he set out on his journey, his ten servants,' or perhaps, rather, ten of his servants, "and delivered them ten pounds," that is, gave one pound to each of them. The sum of money here meant by no means corresponded with our pound, and the exact value of it is a matter of dispute; it would therefore have been better to have used in the translation the original word, or one formed on it. The "mina," or "maneh" (Ezek. xlv. 12), was not a coin, but a particular weight, which, in money, was either in gold or silver; and there was a larger and a smaller mina, while even these seem not to have been always respectively the same. Supposing the "mina" of silver to be intended in this parable, it has been variously estimated at from three pounds two shillings and sixpence to nine pounds sterling money. A "mina" of gold would, of course, be proportionally of much greater value. Having delivered to each of these servants a pound, or " mina," he said to them, "Occupy," trade, or do business, “ till I come." He

66

* For more full information on this subject, which is perplexingly involved, the following authors may be consulted. Calmet on Weights and Mina. Arbuthnot's Tables. Prideaux, Preface, and on Shekel, Mina, Talent, as by Index. Dr Campbell's Dissert. VIII. i. 7.