Q. Is this a singular translation?

A. It is most singular. It is as requisite that psuche should be rendered life, in the last part of the passage as the first; for it means simply the life, in each instance.

LESSON XVI.

Parable of the Master of the House.

"Strive to enter in at the strait gate: for many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in, and shall not be able. When once the Master of the house is risen up, and hath shut to the door, and ye begin to stand without, and to knock at the door, saying, Lord, Lord, open unto us; and he shall answer and say unto you, I know you not whence ye are then shall ye begin to say, We have eaten and drunk in thy presence, and thou hast taught in our streets. But he shall say, I tell you, I know you not whence ye are ; depart from me, all ye workers of iniquity. There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when ye shall see Abraham and Isaac, and Jacob, and all the prophets, in the kingdom of God, and you yourselves thrust out. And they shall come from the east, and from the west, and from the north, and from the south, and shall sit down in the kingdom of God." (Luke xiii. 24-29.)

Q. In reply to what question, did Jesus speak this parable?

A. In reply to a question put him by a certain Jew "Lord, are there few that be saved?"

Q. Is there any evidence, or any reason to believe, that this question related to another world? A. There is not.

Q. Are not saved and salvation, frequently applied in the Scriptures, to an escape from danger and wretchedness, in this life?

A. They are.

Q. Can you give an instance of this description?

A. "And spared not the old world, but saved Noah, the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness."-(2 Pet. ii. 5.) "And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved.” -(Matt. xxiv. 22.)

Q. From what were those persons saved, who are referred to in the above passages?

A. The former was saved from the flood, and the latter was a salvation from the destruction of the Jews.

Q. What did Peter exhort his hearers to save themselves from?

A. "And with many other words did he testify and exhort, saying, Save yourselves from this untoward generation.”—(Acts ii. 40.)

Q. What does Dr. Hammond say of the meaning of the inquiry, "Are there few that be saved?"

A. "And then the clear meaning of this uncertain man's question, will be this-Whether this doctrine or faith of Christ, so contrary to the humor and passions of the world, should be able to propagate itself, and prove so successful as to be received by many, or whether it should be contained and enclosed within a narrow pale, that so he might either resist Christ with the many, or have the honor of being one of the few singular persons that received him."

Q. What does Kenrick say of the salvation under consideration?

A. He says, "believing in Christ, is with propriety called being saved, because it was attended with temporal deliverance; whereas unbelief produced inevitable destruction, in the calamities which awaited the Jewish nation."

Q. How did the Redeemer proceed to reply to the question propounded to him?

A. He answered by uttering the parable, "Strive to enter in at the strait gate.”

Q. Into what were they to strive to enter through the strait gate?

A. Into the gospel kingdom, or the enjoyment of the religion of Jesus Christ.

Q. What was "the strait gate?"

A. It was that commandment of Christ, which embodied the whole spirit of his moral teachings"All things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so unto them."-(See Lesson VIII., p. 39.)

Q. What is the language of Kenrick, on the commencement of the parable?

A. " Christ, in his answer to the question, exhorts the person who made it, and others who might hear it, to enter the strait gate, that is, to embrace his religion, which was at that time attended with many difficulties, and which might fitly be compared to entering a strait or narrow passage."

Q. What does the Saviour add to this exhortation?

A. "For many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in, and shall not be able."

Q. What would they seek to enter in?

A. The gospel kingdom, or the privileges and enjoyments of the religion of Christ.

Q. Why would they not be able to enter in?

A. The reason assigned by Jesus in the parable, is, that the door of the gospel will be closed-" When once the Master of the house is risen up, and hath shut to the door."

Q. Who is meant by the Master of the house? A. Jesus Christ, who is the Master or Ruler in his mediatorial kingdom.

Q. Who were those against whom the door would be shut?

A. They were the Jews.

Q. What says Dr. Whitby?

A. He says, 66

They who seek to enter and shall

not be able, because the Master has shut to his door, are those Jews who sought for righteousness by the works of the law, and not by faith, and therefore found it not.

Q. What do you understand by the shutting to of the door of the gospel?

A. This undoubtedly represents the exclusion of the Jews from the benefits of the gospel. As a people, they were not to be permitted, at present, to participate in the blessings conferred on the world by the religion of the Saviour.

Q. Why were they to be thus rejected, and the door closed against them?

A. It was because of the blindness of their eyes, and the hardness of their hearts. They did not perceive the evidence of the divine authenticity of the Messiah's mission, nor feel the loveliness and power of his sublime system of religion and morals.

Q. Was this blindness sent upon them by God, as a punishment for their crimes?

A. It was. St. Paul says, "God hath given them the spirit of slumber, eyes that they should not see, and ears that they should not hear.”—(Rom. xi. 8.)

Q. What are the words of Christ, on this subject? A. "In them is fulfilled the prophecy of Esaias, which saith, By hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and shall not perceive; for this people's heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed."-(Matt. xiii. 14, 15.)

Q. The Jews being thus blinded, and the door of the gospel closed against them, what does the Saviour represent them as saying in the parable?

A. "And ye begin to stand without, and to knock at the door, saying, Lord, Lord, open unto us; and he shall answer and say unto you, I know you not whence ye are. Then shall ye begin to say, We

have eaten and drunk in thy presence, and thou hast taught in our streets."

Q. What does this language represent?

A. It represents the condition of the Jews after their rejection of the Redeemer. When the door of the gospel had been closed against them, in consequence of their blindness and unbelief-when they had been cast into "the outer darkness," and became involved in the woes and horrors, which Christ denounced on that wicked generation-then they would begin to think of the Redeemer they had persecuted and put to death-then they would call to mind his reproofs, his warnings, his exhortations for them to flee the wrath about to come-and would heartily regret, in dust and ashes, that they had turned a deaf ear to his gentle voice of entreaty.

A. It would not.

Q. Would this sorrow save them from the punishment due their iniquities? 'He shall say, I tell you, I know you not whence ye are : depart from me all ye workers of iniquity."

Q. Does sorrow for crime save the criminal from deserved punishment?

A. It does not; and it availed not the Jews. In vain they cried, "Lord, Lord, open unto us!" The time had passed when they could have been benefited by the gospel-they were given over to blindness and unbelief-the Saviour knew them not as his followers-they had stumbled at the promises of God, and must fall. The sentence is passed against them 66 Depart from me, all ye workers of iniquity." Q. Did the Jews depart from Christ and his religion?

A. They did; and became involved in punishments of the most terrific description, even before that generation passed away, as Jesus had forewarned them.

Q. How did Christ describe this punishment, in the parable?