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 cannot transgress those laws which omnipotent wisdom has laid down. To be the just and Omnipotent Being I am, I must be regulated by the same laws of justice which I impose upon you. If you are in a state, the one to sit at My right hand, the other at My left, you will assuredly sit there; but, or except, you are in such a state of preparation, I cannot violate the laws of order, and interpose My omnipotence to sanction a manifest injustice; therefore a seat at My right hand, and at My left, are not mine to give, except to such as have prepared themselves to enjoy it."

That this is the obvious meaning, and that the Lord does possess omnipotence—but an omnipotence always guided by divine justice—may be inferred from what is recorded of Him in the following words:—"When the Son of Man shall come in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then shall He sit upon the throne of His glory. "And He shall set the sheep on His right hand, but the goats on His left. Then shall the king say to them on His right hand, Come, ye blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world." (Matt. xxv. 31, 33, 34.) After this follows the condition of their acceptance, namely, a good and useful life, as well as a belief in the Lord. Therefore, in the case of Zebedee's children and their ambitious mother, the plain and obvious instruction is, that the Lord is not like an earthly sovereign, who makes choice of a particular person or persons, and elevates them to high dignities and honours, and by favouritism, keeps them always near his royal person. The highest glories of the kingdom of heaven can only be bestowed on such persons as are properly prepared for the august