LECTURE XII. THE GREAT SEPARATION. BY THE HON. AND REV. H. MONTAGU VILLIERS, M.A. CANON RESIDENTIARY OF ST. PAUL'S, AND RECTOR OF ST. GEORGE, BLOOMSBURY. Parable of the Wet and Fishes. MATTHEW XIII. 47-50. Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a net, that was cast into the sea, and gathered of every kind : You will have gathered, my brethren, from this course of Lectures that the parables ought to be taken in their general scope, and not examined in The their more minute detail. It is in this manner that we may distinguish the difference between the parable which I have just now read to you as the subject for our consideration to night, and that to which we listened a few evenings ago upon the tares and wheat. There are indeed points of similarity between them both, but at the same time the general scope is essentially different. object which our Lord seemed to have in view when he spoke the parable of the tares and wheat was to show us the corruption which would creep into the church,-a corruption of doctrine and a corruption of practice that ought to forbid any one expecting to find a perfect church on earth: but the scope of the parable which I have to bring before your notice this evening is to shew that the mixture of the evil and the good will not always continue, but that a time will one day come, when there shall be a final separation between them. This is the subject which I am now to bring before you. I can scarcely conceive, my brethren, any topic more solemn for one who believes that there is a day in which he himself must give account to God. It is not a subject of unfulfilled prophecy, as we generally use that expression. It does indeed refer to something which is yet future, but it is not a matter which admits of any doubt in our mind as to its fulfilment; it requires no intricate argument; it requires no close and careful comparison of Scripture with Scripture: but it may be described as a simple and solemn assertion of God. THERE IS TO BE A FINAL SEPARATION. I would ask you, my brethren, to lift up your hearts in prayer this night that a blessing may attend the word spoken: for, I repeat to you, there cannot be found a subject more solemn,-a subject more calculated to make the youngest or the most careless think. And I do pray, and I ask you to pray, that God may be in an especial manner present amongst us, solemnizing all our hearts, and bringing the word home with power to every soul in this place, for Jesus Christ's sake. In opening the subject, I shall first show you THE GROUNDS UPON WHICH THIS FINAL SEPARATION WILL TAKE PLACE; SECONDLY, THE TIME OF THE SEPARATION; AND, LASTLY, WE WILL CONSIDER THE NATURE OF THE SEPARATION ITSELF. First, THE GROUNDS OF THAT SEPARATION. They are very different from those which men of the world appear to expect. If we consider the language of men in general, they seem to be willing to allow that the grossly immoral-the murderer and the thief-will probably perish; but they look at those who commit sins of apparently a less awful character as if they were almost sure of sal vation; and more especially do they look at the moral and the amiable as if, in their case, there could be no doubt of their eternal safety. But the decision will turn upon something beyond all this. It will not be a question between the outwardly moral and amiable, and those who are immoral and unamiable. It will not be a distinction between rich and poor; for although we are taught in one of the parables of our blessed Lord that the rich man. who fared sumptuously every day awoke up in hell, and that Lazarus, the poor man, who lay at the rich man's gates, and whose sores the very dogs came and licked, was carried into Abraham's bosom; yet let us not think that every Dives will be found, like his namesake, in hell, nor every Lazarus in heaven. The great separation will not turn upon this world's wealth. It will not be a question, as some almost seem to think, between Jews and Gentiles, as if every Jew were to be lost, and every Gentile to be saved; for there is One who hath broken down the middle wall of partition, and in Christ there is no difference between Jew and Gentile. This subject bears equally upon the poor Jews scattered over the face of the whole earth, and it bears upon you Gentiles who are in this church. You and I are most intimately concerned with the whole of this subject; it will be something more than a national question which shall determine our lot hereafter. Let me add, it will not be a matter between the heathen and the professing Christian; though there are many who have a name to live here, who will be found in that day to be dead in the sight of God. The net which is here spoken of will somewhat explain the matter. It clearly refers to the great Gospel net which encloses all men who have heard that Gospel, and brings them within the visible church; but when the fulness of the times shall be accomplished, then this net will be dragged ashore, and its contents will be most fully scrutinized. The good and the bad fish will then be distinguished, not by the names which men give them, but by their real value in the sight of Him with whom we have to do. The question will turn, I say, not upon those points to which I have now referred, but it will turn upon our justification in Christ Jesus, and our sanctification by the Holy Spirit of God. I mean that those, and those alone, will be counted good who are complete in Christ, -who are clad in his righteousness, and stand not in any righteousness of their own. We are told in the Second Epistle to the Corinthians (v., 21), that Jesus Christ was "made sin for us who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him." And St. Paul, in his Epistle to |