vi The Lost Sheep The Lost Coin. \\\ 



The same doctrine of the possibility of forgive- 

 ness and reconciliation in a future life for those who 

 pass out of the present life unforgiven and un- 

 reconciled, is suggested under the same image, but 

 even more distinctly, in the following passage : " The 

 kingdom of heaven is likened unto a king which 

 would make a reckoning with his servants. And 

 one was brought unto him which owed him ten 

 thousand .talents (about two millions and a half 

 sterling). But forasmuch as he had not wherewith 

 to pay, his lord commanded him to be sold, and his 

 wife and children and all that he had, and payment 

 to be made." l Every word of Our Lord's is signi- 

 ficant, and the concluding statement of the parable 

 that payment was to be made at the debtor's expense, 

 is altogether inconsistent with a never - ending 

 imprisonment. The evident meaning of this, as of 

 the previous passage quoted, is that salvation will be 

 possible in the future life, but on harder terms than 

 in the present. 



The final restoration of all is also strongly 

 suggested in our Lord's two parables of the Lost 

 Sheep and the Lost Coin : " What man of you, 

 having a hundred sheep and having lost one of them, 

 doth not leave the ninety and nine in the wilderness 

 and go after that which is lost, until he find it 1 . . . 



1 Matt, xviii. 23-25. The servants were evidently governors 

 of provinces, and the debts were tribute, for the punctual 

 collection and remittance of which the governors were 

 responsible. 



