Inter oves locum praesta, Et ab hoedis me sequestra, Statuens in parte dextra. (Among the sheep grant me a place, separate me from the goats, placing me on Thy right Hand). _Resolution._ To remember "the doctrine ... of eternal judgment" (Heb. VI. 2) to-day. _Spiritual Bouquet._ "He shall come again to judge the living and the dead." TRADERS AND TALENTS. "A man going into a far country called his servants and delivered to them his goods; and to one he gave five talents, and to another two, and to another one, to every one according to his proper ability; and immediately he took his journey." (St. Matt. XXV. 14). _1st. Prelude._ JESUS telling this parable to His disciples. _2nd. Prelude._ Grace to learn the lessons from it which He intended. POINT I. THE TALENTS. It is Christ Himself Who is the Author of this parable and He told it to show us how we are to prepare for His Coming. Every word of it is of importance and bears some instruction or warning for Advent. The "_man going into a far country_" is the Man-God, He Who came from Heaven to take our human nature and to redeem us to God by His Blood. His work of Redemption is finished and He is going back to His own country--"_A far country_"--implying that He will be gone a long time. (He) "_called His servants_." They are His own servants, He has created them, He has bought them with His Blood, they belong to Him--their service, their time, their very lives are His, and this not because they are _slaves_ forced to labour, but because of their own free will and out of love and gratitude to Him who has bought them from the cruel slavery of sin, they have said: "I love my Master ... I will not go out free" (Ex. XXI. 5). "_And (He) delivered to them His goods._" They are _His_ goods not the servants', they all belong to Him and He entrusts them to His servants to take care of them and to do the best they can with them while He is gone. What are these "goods?" All the good things which God has given to man--his life, his preservation, his Baptism, his christian education, intellect, faith, health, rank, wealth, talents, conscience, opportunities of doing good, position,--and all have to be traded with, for the Master to Whom they belong. His "goods" include too what the world would label "evils"--ill-health, difficulty, failure, poverty, incapability; these have to be traded with too, and there is often a higher profit to be made out of these than out of the others. They are all the Master's goods and He delivers them to His servants.