They are very solemn words of our Lord,-words that should raise serious thoughts in many a heart: "Verily I say unto you, that the publicans and the harlots go into the kingdom of heaven before you.” Before whom? Before hypocrites, before mere professors, before those who say and do not, before those who have a name to live and are dead. Great and awful is the danger of all sinners; but that man seems in greatest danger, who is priding himself on a moral life, and wrapping himself up in the fancied security of his own merits. God's grace can change any heart; but, humanly speaking, the gross sinner, who knows himself to be in the wrong way, is more likely to be brought to God than the smooth offender who fancies himself in the right way already.

For both there is but one way, the Living Way, Jesus Christ. His grace can reach all, his blood can cleanse sinners of every shade. He has opened the gate of mercy to publicans and harlots, to self-deceivers, yea, even to the self-righteous, if they will cast aside all other dependence, and simply look to him.

XXXIX.

THE WICKED HUSBANDMEN.

"A certain man planted a vineyard, and set an hedge about it, and digged a place for the winefat, and built a tower, and let it out to husbandmen, and went into a far country. And at the season he sent to the husbandmen a servant, that he might receive from the husbandmen of the fruit of the vineyard. And they caught him, and beat him, and sent him away empty. And again he sent unto them another servant; and at him they cast stones, and wounded him in the head, and sent him away shamefully handled. And again he sent another; and him they killed, and many others; beating some, and killing some. Having yet therefore one son, his wellbeloved, he sent him also last unto them, saying, They will reverence my son. But those husbandmen said among themselves, This is the heir; come, let us kill him, and the inheritance shall be our's. And they took him, and killed him, and cast him out of the vineyard. What shall therefore the lord of the vineyard do? he will come and destroy the husbandmen, and will give the vineyard unto others. And have ye not read this scripture; The stone which the builders rejected is become the head of the corner: This was the Lord's doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes? And they sought to lay hold on him, but feared the people: for they knew that he had spoken the parable against them: and they left him, and went their way."

MARK xii. 1-12; see also MATT. xxi.; LUKE XX.

HIS parable is found in all the Gospels, except that of St. John, and with very little differ

ence.

There is no doubt about its meaning, or about the persons to whom our Lord meant to apply it; for we read that the chief priests and Pharisees themselves "knew that he had spoken the parable against them." Conscience told them so, and they were right; our Lord did not contradict their thought.

The Jewish teachers were well acquainted with their

own Scriptures, and this parable no doubt at once brought to their minds the fifth chapter of the prophecy of Isaiah, in which the same figure of a vineyard is used: "My well-beloved hath a vineyard in a very fruitful hill: and he fenced it, and gathered out the stones thereof, and planted it with the choicest vine, and built a tower in the midst of it, and also made a wine-press therein." That parable of the Old Testament was meant, as they well knew, to describe the Jewish nation, "for the vineyard of the Lord of Hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah his pleasant plant." When therefore the Jewish teachers heard our Lord use the same figure (though in rather a different way), and when they heard him go on to describe conduct which exactly agreed with their fathers' and their own, they well understood that he spoke the parable against them.

The vineyard, which the man in the parable planted with so much care, represented the Jewish church established by Almighty God. The rest of the world was in spiritual darkness, but God chose the Jewish nation to be enlightened by his word, and to enjoy religious privileges. Thus this nation occupied, as it were, an enclosed place. While the rest of the world was spiritually in a wild and desert state, the Jews were in a vineyard carefully prepared for them. Every provision was made for their good, their comfort, and their usefulness. As in the parable there were the hedge, the wine-press, and the tower; so did God give them laws and ordinances which fenced them off from other nations and their idolatrous practices, and promised them his protection, and taught them how to serve and please him. They were the husbandmen who

were to occupy the vineyard. It was not theirs, but it was let out to them as tenants.

But tenants have rent to pay; and in ancient times, and in eastern countries, rent was often paid in kind; no money passed, but a part of the produce of the land went to the landlord as his rent. Accordingly, at the season for gathering the grapes, this householder sent to the husbandmen for his share of the fruit. But, instead of giving it, they ill-treated his servants; and when he sent again and again, they still refused, and only used his messengers worse and worse, “beating some, and killing some." This part of the parable represents the way in which the Jews treated God's messengers, the prophets. God looked for fruit from them, in return for their religious light and knowledge, -the fruit of righteousness; and prophets were sent from time to time, as his messengers, to declare his will to them, to speak to them his word, and to call them to repentance. But they would not listen to the messengers of God. Some righteous doubtless there always were among them, but, as a nation, they rebelled against God, and rejected and ill-treated his servants. Our Lord himself reproached them for this: "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, which killest the prophets, and stonest them that are sent unto thee!" The martyr Stephen did the same: "Which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted ?" Thus did the Jews, generation after generation, treat the messengers of God.

The owner of the vineyard, finding it useless to send servants, at length determined to send his only and well-beloved son. "They will reverence my son," said he. But, on the contrary, these wicked husband

men now went further than ever in crime. Far from reverencing their master's son, no sooner did they set eyes on him, than they determined to put him to death. "This is the heir," said they; "come, let us kill him, and the inheritance shall be ours." This plan they carried out at once. 66 They took him, and killed him, and cast him out of the vineyard." We know what this means. In the fulness of time God sent his Son, his only and well-beloved Son, into the world, and first to the Jewish nation. But the Jews rejected him, and caused him to be put to death. They ought to have reverenced him; for his coming had been foretold, and gracious words and wonderful works, and even a voice from heaven, proclaimed him to be the Son of God. Instead of this, they filled up the measure of their iniquities by crucifying the Lord of glory; the Jewish rulers thinking that they would thus keep the power which they possessed over the people, and that so the inheritance would be theirs. We may perhaps apply these last words in this way; or it may be that this plan of the husbandmen is but the filling up of the story of the parable, and has no application to the Jews; especially as in the parable the husbandmen knew and acknowledged their lord's son, while the Jews on the other hand denied that Jesus was the Son of God.

How

We cannot but be struck with the proof here given, that our blessed Lord is the Divine Son of God. great a difference is made in the parable between the servants and the son! Probably the lord of the vineyard sent the highest and best of his servants on such an errand, yet his sending his son, his one son, his well-beloved," is spoken of as a distinct thing alto

"