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I. THE DESIGN OF THIS PARABLE.

1. It corrects false notions about the immediate appearance of God's kingdom as temporal and visible.

2. It teaches that Christ would take His departure from earth, and delay His return.

3. It enforces the need of present fidelity to our trust.

4. It illustrates the folly of expecting good from the future if the present be neglected.

5. It contains the promise of our Lord's return.

II. WHEN WILL HE COME TO US INDIVIDUALLY?

1. Either at our death.

2. Or, at the last day to institute judgment.

3. The time for either, for both, is unknown to us.

III. CLASSES PASSED UPON IN JUDGMENT AS HERE FORESHADOWED.

1. This parable contains no reference to the heathen.

2. Those who improved their pounds were approved and rewarded according to the measure of their fidelity.

3. He that knew his master's will and neglected his trust was reproved and deprived of his pound.

4. The Lord's enemies, who would not have Him to reign over them, were punished with the severity their hate and wicked opposition merited.

IV. SOME LESSONS.

1. Our Lord's return has already been delayed 18 — years.

2. We are not to infer from this that He never will return.

3. He that is faithful only in the visible presence of his master, is not entirely trustworthy.

4. Each one of the ten servants received ten pounds. The outward circumstances of none are so meagre that in them each one may not equally serve his Lord.

5. If the parable of the talents refers to inward gifts, which are equally distributed, then the parable of the pounds refer to our opportunities for doing good, which to all are alike.

6. Improved opportunities increase our capacity to do and get good. They are like money at interest. After Girard had saved his first thousand, it was the same, he said, as if he had a man to work for him all the time.

7. Neglected opportunities never return. You cannot put your hand into yesterday to do what was then neglected, or sow the seeds of future harvests.

8. Even if we knew that the Lord would return to-morrow, to-day's work should not be neglected. "Trade ye herewith, till I come."

(L. O. Thompson.)

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KJV: And as they heard these things, he added and spake a parable, because he was nigh to Jerusalem, and because they thought that the kingdom of God should immediately appear.

WEB: As they heard these things, he went on and told a parable, because he was near Jerusalem, and they supposed that the Kingdom of God would be revealed immediately.