ment of her heart, amid all the failures and disappointments of the present-the assurance of her preciousness in His eyes, the assurance of His love, which passeth knowledge.

The last parable of the series is usually designated "the parable of the draw-net;" perhaps it might more appropriately be named, "the parable of the final separation of good and bad," for, both in the parable itself, where the use of the net is evidently a mere preliminary to the principal transaction in view, and in the terms of the Lord's explanation, in which the preliminary action is entirely lost sight of, it is evidently this solemn view of that judicial act, in which the kingdom of heaven shall be established, that is the subject of comparison. "Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a net that was cast into the sea and gathered of every kind; which, when it was full, they drew to shore, and sat down and gathered the good into vessels, but cast the bad away. So shall it be at the end of the world: the angels shall come forth and sever the wicked from amongst the just, and shall cast them into the furnace of fire, there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth." To the hearers of the Lord this imagery must have been very familiar and impressive. Greswell, who seems entirely to fail in the interpretation, very well describes the material circumstances of the parable: "The sagene was not an ordinary fishing-net, nor was the use of the sagene with a view to any ordinary cast or draught of fish. It was much too large for common occasions; nor was the intention of using it to take only a part of the fish to be found in a particular quarter, but, if possible, to take all, to let none escape, to sweep a stream or pool through the whole of its extent, and consequently of all its contents."

The description of the net and its uses might satisfy any one but a minister of a national church that the Church of

Christ is not the subject of this parable. In the popular interpretation of it, however, almost every thing in the imagery is applied to the Church—the fisher, the net, and the fish that are caught in it-as though in the parables of Scripture, which, even in a human point of view, are so remarkable for their appropriateness and consistency, any such preposterous confusion could be found, as a fisherman fishing with himself as a net, and catching himself as a fish. This is even worse than making believers the birds which fly into the tree, and at the same time considering the tree an emblem of the Church, which is composed of these same believers. There is no instance of the use of similar imagery in Scripture from which we may derive any aid in the interpretation of this, unless we may take a hint from the Lord's call to some of His Apostles: "Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men." In that case the means used was the preaching of the Gospel, but in that case the appropriate figure would be the ordinary casting-net, and not the sagene of this parable. It is to be observed in the case before us, that the agent in casting the net is purposely kept out of view, so that we cannot suppose it to be designed to teach any such lesson as the parable of the sower, regarding the ordinary results of a Gospel ministry. If we understand it as relating to the Gospel at all, it must be to its general tendency and influence in the world, from the time it was first preached, and which, in a certain sense, incloses all men within a responsibility which they cannot escape. And it is a solemn view of the relations of men at large to the Gospel, which, for the most part, they despise, that there is a responsibility which they cannot cast off. It does not leave them as it found them. And thus encompassed, they are, so to speak, dragged along to a day of final decision, when to have

believed or to have rejected it will make all the difference there is between heaven and hell.

But in another view of it the drag-net, which sweeps all before it, may represent rather what the world would call inexorable fate, and what we would call the purpose of God advancing irresistibly to its consummation, in which all mankind will meet their doom or their deliverance. No failure of the professing Church, no hostility of its avowed enemies, neither indifference nor opposition, can retard it for a moment. His counsel shall stand, and He will do all His pleasure. "When it is full," when the purpose of God, embracing all men and advancing irresistibly through all the period of God's long-suffering and man's ingratitude, shall have reached the point of accomplishment, then He who appears in the gracious character of the sower of seed, He who in grace redeemed a lost world to be the scene of His glorious reign, He who loved the Church and gave Himself for it, will appear in a new character-as the Administrator of judgment—as He was announced by John the Baptist, "whose fan is in His hand, and He will thoroughly purge His floor, and gather His wheat into the garner, but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire." This final act of discrimination and judgment, as introductory to the establishment of His glorious kingdom, is frequently and variously described in the Word of God; but whatever the description, this is always the result of it—a final separation of the two classes of mankind, whether found within or without the visible Church; when one class shall be welcomed to the joy of His kingdom, and the other overwhelmed with destruction from His presence—the removal of all that are opposed to His righteous sceptre by judgments as terrible as they are certain, so that the purged world may be a fitting seat of His empire, with not one left to mar the peace and harmony of His reign. The angels,

it will be remembered, are always represented as His agents in the accomplishment of this solemn work, as in the Lord's interpretation of a preceding parable, where we are told: "The Son of Man shall send forth His angels, and they shall gather out of His kingdom all things that offend, and them that do iniquity, and shall cast them into a furnace of fire there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth." The peculiar truth in this parable, as distinguished from the others of the series is, that they relate to the Church and a professed Christianity; but this to all men who come within the range of Gospel influences. The act of judgment among His professed followers is that which is described in the passage just quoted; and the neglecters of the Gospel might congratulate themselves (as they often do) on the fact that, making no profession, they are not exposed to that terrible doom. But the parable before us cuts off all such miserable evasions of responsibility. Since, according to the uniform testimony of Scripture, "there is none righteous, no, not one,” the word "just," in this and all similar connections, can mean only "the just by faith." The word wicked, in contrast with it, must include all unbelievers. "He that believeth not is condemned already, and the wrath of God abideth on him." The wrath so long suspended will then be executed, and unbelievers and hypocrites, amid all the varieties of aggravation in their guilt and condemnation, will yet be involved in a common doom. Neither in this place nor elsewhere is there any of the details of the sinner's doom, in which the distorted fancies of men so strangely revel. The silence of an unutterable horror rests upon it; but surely it is a terrible thing to fall into the hands of the living God. "There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth," the anguish of insupportable woe, the impotent fury of a desperate soul armed against itself in still more insupportable self-reproach.

FILIAL DUTIES.

THE importance of the subject of this essay may claim for it earnest consideration wherever the highest interests of mankind are discussed, and after the example of the Master and the practice of inspired writers, no public teacher can regard it as beneath the place which he occupies, however honored or influential it may be, to address himself to the young. Following the highest example, we purpose not to speak about the duties of children in a general and abstract way, but to speak to children of the duties they owe to their parents, and as in doing so we shall have the prevailing tendency of this age, as well as the natural insubordination of the human heart, in opposition to the views we maintain, we would at once carry the matter up to the Fountain-head of all authority, by quoting as a comprehensive summary of all that needs to be said, a passage from Paul's epistle to the Colossians: "Children, obey your parents in all things, for this is well-pleasing unto the Lord." This is not the address of the unknown friend who pens these lines to you in love; it is not even the address of the Apostle Paul; but God Himself speaks to you by Paul, and there is no one, old or young, who may dispute His authority or question the propriety of what He requires.

It is proper to say that the word "children" in this passage does not mean children in the sense of persons young in years, but children at any age in their relation to their par