Зображення сторінки
PDF
ePub

heartily forgive him. If you have borne any secret illwill in your heart, immediately put it away. If there is any malice or bad feeling, lurking like a little grain of poison in a hidden corner of your bosom, at once cast it out.

Call to mind often your own guilt, and what a gracious God has done for you. Constantly think of His tender mercy to

wards you. This will prevent you from being harsh and unfeeling. This will keep your heart right. This will make you "kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you."

92

THE LABOURERS IN THE VINEYARD.

MATT. XX. 1-16.

"For the kingdom of heaven is like unto a man that is an householder, which went out early in the morning to hire labourers into his vineyard. And when he had agreed with the labourers for a penny a day, he sent them into his vineyard. And he went out about the third hour, and saw others standing idle in the marketplace, and said unto them: Go ye also into the vineyard, and whatsoever is right I will give you. And they went Again he went out about the sixth

their way.

and ninth hour, and did likewise.

And about the

eleventh hour he went out, and found others standing idle, and saith unto them, Why stand ye here all the day idle? They say unto him, Because no man hath hired us. He saith unto them, Go ye also into the vineyard; and whatsoever is right, that shall ye receive. So when even was come, the lord of the vineyard saith unto his steward, Call the labourers, and give them their hire, beginning from the last unto the first. And when they came that were hired about the eleventh hour, they received every man a penny. But when the first came they supposed that they should have received more; and they

likewise received every man a penny. And when they had received it, they murmured against the goodman of the house, saying, These last have wrought but one hour, and thou hast made them equal unto us, which have borne the burden and heat of the day. But he answered one of them, and said, Friend, I do thee no wrong: didst thou not agree with me for a penny? Take that thine is, and go thy way: I will give unto this last, even as unto thee. Is it not lawful for me to do what I will with mine own? Is thine eye evil, because I am good? So the last shall be first, and the first last: for many be called, but few chosen."

THE Parable which is now before us is certainly not one of the easiest. There are difficulties about it, which require much thought and consideration.

Let us do what I recommended in the beginning of this Book-namely, look back a little, and see if we can find anything which led to the Parable; for, if so, this will greatly help us to understand it.

Now, in the foregoing chapter, the nineteenth, we read of a Young Ruler coming to Jesus, with an earnest enquiry as to how he could obtain eternal life. And upon our Lord

proposing to him to give up his riches, to which he was evidently clinging too closely, he went away with a downcast look and a sorrowful heart.

Upon this Peter puts a question to the Saviour, "Behold, we have forsaken all, and followed thee. What shall we have therefore?" Jesus assures him that such should indeed receive an ample reward. "But," he adds at the close of the chapter, "many that are first shall be last, and the last shall be first." That is to say, many who seem to be the first and foremost are not so in God's estimate. Then follows the Parable.

Now, there was clearly something wrong lurking in Peter's mind, when he asked the question; and that led our Lord to speak the Parable. You see, Peter wished to know what their reward should be, who had done the very thing which the Young Ruler was so unwilling to do-who had forsaken all for the gospel's sake. The question, "What shall we have therefore," was not quite a right one. It was putting their devotedness to Christ on a wrong footing. It was as if they were making a sort of calculation-so

much work, so much reward. There was a comparing of themselves with that young man, who felt the Saviour's proposal too hard for him.

Now let us examine the Parable.

Here is a certain Householder, or, as we should say, a certain Occupier of Land, who possesses among his other fields a Vineyard. These Vineyards required much the same kind of cultivation as we give to our Hopgardens. The ground was dug in the Spring time, and care was taken to keep them clear of weeds. Then, at the end of the summer, when the gathering time came, many hands were needed to pick the grapes.

At one of these busy seasons, the Householder goes to the most likely place to find labourers, namely, into the market-place of the neighbouring village or town.

He first goes out at daybreak, and engages some. He promises to give them a penny for their day's work, which is about eightpence of our money. And they agree to his terms, and go into the vineyard.

Finding he wants more labourers, he goes

« НазадПродовжити »