BUT the altar at Bethel was an ill-omened altar. The

shadow of ruin was on it from the first. On the very morning of its inauguration, when Jeroboam stood with the incense ready, an unknown prophet of Judah strode forward from the crowd-and what a thrill ran through the people! He seemed to see nobody, not even the king. His eye was riveted upon the altar. He cried to it, 'O altar, altar!' and foretold that a child should be born of the house of David who would offer on it the bones of its ministering priests. Then, as a sign that the word was from the Lord, the altar was rent, and the ashes on it scattered. Well for the people, as the ashes were drifted over them by the mountain breeze, had they thought that ashes were the symbol of repentance! Jeroboam was furious; he pointed to the intruder; he cried to his retinue to seize him. But in that instant his outstretched and pointing arm was withered, and was only healed at the prophet's intercession. Then the unknown herald disappeared, refusing all kingly offers of entertainment; and the passage concludes with a pitiful tragedy that opened in disobedience and closed in death. Two centuries later the altar was rent again. Then came Josiah who 'stamped it small to powder,' and who took the bones of the priests out of their sepulchres, and burned them there. So was fulfilled 'the word of the Lord, which the man of God proclaimed' (2 Kings xxiii. 15-16).

Now let us note three lessons here, and first, the same temptations will come back again. This unnamed prophet was tempted by the king, and he had the strength. and courage to be firm. God had bidden him accept no hospitality, and he was true to the bidding of his Lord so far. No doubt he felt the strength of having conquered; there was something of the glow of victory upon him. He could lay aside his spiritual armour now, and take a little ease under the oak-tree. And it was then, just when

he seemed victorious, that the same temptation leaped back on him again. The battle with self and ease had to be refought, and he had slackened his grip upon his sword. It was the very temptation meeting him again that he was congratulating himself on having conquered; I think the man was lost, because he won. Now that is a lesson in temptation for us all. Satan is rarely content with one assault. He sometimes lets himself be beaten in the first, just to get us at greater advantage in the second. Never cease watching. Beware of that oak-tree. The time has not come to be pleased with our little victories. Some day we shall sit under His shadow with great delight; but to-day our Lord is saying to us, 'Watch!'

NEXT mark how others may be ruined by our falsehood.

When the old prophet went after the prophet of Judah, he told him that the Lord had bidden him come. This was not an invitation from the king; it was an invitation (he said) from the King of kings. But, says the Scripture, he lied unto him (v. 18). Now what was the purpose of that lie, I hardly know. There was all manner of treachery behind it. The old prophet would be a poorer man for ever, for having taken God's name in vain like that. But what I want you to note is this, that the brother-prophet was ruined by that lie. It was that lie that led him into danger; it was that lie that cost him his life. Let us learn, then, that in every falsehood, we are doing certain injury to others. Some one suffers, be quite sure of it, every time you tell a lie. Not only for your own sakes, but for others' sakes, determine, whatever it costs, never to deceive. We serve others just by being true.

THEN

'HEN lastly—and this is the main lesson-our safety lies in simple obedience. The prophet of Judah was a true prophet of God. God had honoured him by giving him this work. Still more, God granted him the power

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of working miracles-the altar was rent and the king's hand restored. Surely with all these gifts and signs of favour, the prophet might think himself tolerably safe? Yet, spite of them all, what a terrible end he came to— and all because of disobedience. Learn, then, that our gifts may be our danger; our talents or genius may be our peril, if we ever think that in the strength of these we can dare be disobedient to God. It is the brightest and the cleverest people-it is those whom God has dowered most liberally-it is they who are often tempted to be careless, and to take their ease under the oak-tree. God teaches us that gifts are no safeguard. The brightest must obey just like the dullest. For the greatest genius, as for the poorest dunce, there is only one road to safety and to happiness. It is to obey God unswervingly. It is to follow Jesus all the way.

THIRTY-FIRST SUNDAY

Evening

THE TEN VIRGINS

Passage to be read: Matt. xxv. 1-13.

HE ceremonies at a marriage in the East were very different from those we are accustomed to, and

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the more clearly we can picture one of these Eastern weddings, the better we shall understand this parable. There was no religious service, as with us; no priest or minister was present. The essential thing was that the bridegroom should lead his bride from her father's house to his own. Hence the old phrase, 'to take a wife,' was literally true in Eastern countries, and we know that to this day, among the Arabs, the bride is taken as if she were an enemy-captured after some

show of violence, and removed as a prisoner to her husband's home. Among the Jews, the bridegroom, with his friends (John iii. 23), went to the home of his bride in the late evening. It was dark, and lights were needed for the procession-which lights, among the Greeks and Romans (as the boys who are reading Latin poetry know) were generally torches; but among the Jews were more commonly lamps. The bride was waiting for the bridegroom there, in a white dress, decked out in all her jewels; and John would recall many a village scene when he wrote that the wife of the Lamb was arrayed in fine linen, clean and white (Rev. xix. 8), and that the New Jerusalem came down from heaven prepared as a bride adorned for her husband (Rev. xxi. 2). Then the bridegroom led his bride into the street, with her maiden friends bearing her company, amid music and a score of flashing lights. And as the procession made its way back to the bridegroom's home, through the crowds who had poured out to see the bridal party, a little group of maidens at this corner, and a few more who had been waiting in that court, joined themselves to the happy company, and passed on with it to share in the marriage feast.

THIS, then, was the homely scene that Jesus transfigured in this exquisite parable, and the ten virgins, who take the chief place in it, may either (as many have thought) have been attending the bride in her own home that evening, or they may have formed one of those little bands that waited for the return of the procession. Will the reader please observe that number

It is a favourite number in the Bible. When Abraham's servant went on his great journey, he took ten camels of the camels of his master (Gen. xxiv. 10). When the kinsman of Ruth desired to deal with Boaz, he took ten men of the elders of the city (Ruth iv. 2). The dragon in Revelation had ten horns (Rev. xii. 3).

There were ten lepers who were cleansed by Jesus (Luke xvii. 12). The commandments were ten, and the talents and pounds were ten, and here our Lord says there were ten virgins. Now we are not told that these ten were good and bad; but we are told that five were wise and five were foolish, and we recall another parable where we read of a wise and of a foolish builder (Matt. vii. 24-27). The strange thing is that the foolish as well as the wise, here, had each her lamp, and it was burning merrily. The sad thing is that the foolish were not prepared for a quite possible, and indeed quite common, delay. The night deepened, and still there was no bridegroom. The wisest of them nodded off into sleep. Then at midnight there rang the cry, 'Behold the bridegroom!' and in a twinkling every eye was open. No lamp was out, but all were going out (read v. 8 in the Revised Version). The wick even of the wise was sputtering. But then the wise had little flasks of oil with them; it was the work of a moment to trim their lamps. But the foolish had no oil, and there was none to borrow, and when they hurried out to buy it at the merchant's-can you not hear the jesting of the crowd? And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came; and they that were ready went in with him to the marriage, and the door was shut.

NOW I trust that no one will spoil this matchless story

by arguing what the lamp or what the oil must be. I do not think that Jesus built up His parables laboriously. It is better to keep to the broad lessons of a parable, and there are three here which any one may grasp. The first is, want of forethought is true foolishness. Can you tell me why the one builder was a foolish man (Matt. vii. 26)? It was just because he never foresaw the storm. He built in the May-time, when the birds were singing, and the sand was firm enough for summer weather; but he forgot November and its gales, when