minds, and make themselves quite easy about it. It is a very bad habit even in trifling affairs to be always "going to do" so and so "some day," which day never comes. It is a bad habit, even when it respects things as to which it is of no great importance whether they are done or left undone, because it cheats us with the idea that we are very much more diligent and industrious than we are. But when God calls us by the voice of conscience to work in His vineyard, to do something which is a real duty; nothing but really going will be of any avail. No mere saying "I go, Lord," will be accepted instead. May God give us grace to be prompt and faithful in obedience, and not to deceive ourselves with good purposes and fair professions!

The second lesson is, to be indulgent to the afterthoughts of repentance in others. When the son rudely refused to go to work, but afterwards repented and went, the father did not repulse him and say, "No, as you did not go when I first bade

you,

I will not have you now." Those who have the care of the young ought especially to notice this. A child will often petulantly refuse to come or to do what it is told at first, and yet by and by will feel ashamed, and come of itself, and do what is required. If the better mood is harshly disregarded, and the child held to the first refusal, the effect will, most probably, be to harden the heart and freeze the generous affections.* It is a blessed thing for us

It would be well, also, if servants and others who are in subordinate situations would take note of this parable, and not be ashamed of an afterthought. A servant, a shopman, a clerk, some

that God does not always take us at our first word. If it had not been for an afterthought many a one would never have been a worker in His vineyard at all. There are some who are conscious that when they were called they resisted and refused the yoke. There are others who know that though they promised with alacrity to do all that is required, they have as yet not taken a step forwards. For both classes, the one thing, and the only thing, that will avail, is to repent and Go.

SECTION XLVII.

THE REBELLIOUS HUSBANDMEN.

MATTHEW xxi. 33-46; MARK Xii. 1—12; LUKE XX. 9-20.

"HE

EAR another parable: There was a certain householder, which planted a vineyard, and hedged it round about, and digged a winepress in it, and built a tower, and let it out to husbandmen, and went into a far country."

Having in the Parable of the Two Sons rebuked the hollowness of false professions, our Lord now proceeds to a more aggravated phase of disobedience. He represents His Father as a "householder," who, having inclosed and planted a vineyard, let it out to

times gives warning in a passion, and then is too proud to retrace the false step. And on the other hand, masters and mistresses should be willing to meet with kindness and forbearance those who "repent and go," remembering that in the Lord's estimation they did the will of the father, though tardily, yet more truly, than those who make ready promises which they never keep.

a set of tenants who were to pay their rent in kind. "And when the time of the fruit drew near"-the vintage" he sent his servants to the husbandmen, that they might receive the fruits of it. And the husbandmen took his servants, and beat one, and killed another, and stoned another." St. Mark gives the details a little more fully, saying that "at the season he sent a servant, and they caught him, and beat him, and sent him away empty." It would have been bad enough to refuse payment of their just obligation; but they added to this gross injustice, ill-treatment of the unoffending messenger. They knew the proprietor was a long way off, and perhaps they hoped to intimidate any one else who might venture to come on the same errand. "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." They were resolutely determined to go all lengths rather than give up any share of the proceeds. What was the proprietor to do? He could not come in person-so "having yet one son, his wellbeloved, he sent him also last unto them, saying, 'They will reverence my son."" Such a height of insolence as ill-treatment of his son, the proprietor could not bring himself to believe. But those husbandmen said among themselves, 'This is the heir; come, let us kill him, and the inheritance shall be ours' "-there will be none left to molest us in our possession. They were committed already

by their past deeds, but this great crime, if they did not shrink from it, would, they fancied, secure impunity for the former ones. "So they took him, and killed him, and cast him out of the vineyard.”* But could it be supposed that such monstrous wickedness should come off triumphant in the contest? The Lord puts the case to the common sense of His hearers. "When the lord of the vineyard cometh, what will he do unto those husbandmen ?” Hurried

on probably by the interest of the story, some of the more candid of the listeners "say unto Him, 'He will miserably destroy those wicked men, and will let out his vineyard unto other husbandmen, which shall render him the fruits in their seasons.' This just judgment which they were surprised into giving, resembled David's,—"As the Lord liveth, the man that hath done this thing shall surely die ;" and the Lord, in like manner, delays not to point His "Thou art the man," saying, "Therefore I say unto you, the kingdom of God shall be taken from you, and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof. And when they heard it," says St. Luke, they said, 'God forbid.' Jesus saith unto them, 'Did ye never read in the Scriptures, The stone which the builders rejected, the same is become the head of the corner: this is the Lord's doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes? And whosoever shall fall on this stone shall be broken: but on whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder."" "And when the Chief Priests and Pharisees had

* Mark vers. 2-9.

Matthew vers. 40-43.

heard His parables, they perceived that He spake of them."* They knew full well in their secret consciences how close was the parallel to their own conduct. God had let out His vineyard to them, had entrusted to the Jewish people, and to them as the representatives of that people, His cause in the world. They had now been long in possession of the trust. "For the vineyard of the Lord of Hosts," said Isaiah, "is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah his pleasant plant; and He looked for judgment, but behold oppression, for righteousness, and behold a cry"—a cry of appeal from the oppressed. They "sent him away empty." Thus was it in Isaiah's time. Since then other messengers had been sent, with no result but redoubled insult and violence. And now the Son-the wellbeloved-was come to demand his Father's due; and these priests and Pharisees knew in their Own hearts that they were saying one to another, “Come, and let us kill him, and the inheritance shall be ours.' This fearful act of open hostility would surely bring down upon their heads the weight of that rejected power which, like a mass of stone, should crush them for ever. And the like doom is suspended over every church, nation, community, which presumes to act in God's world as if it were its own, and which, when called to account, answers with insolent outrage the commissioned servants of its Lord. Forgetfulness of God's claims-bitter hostility to those who would make them heard

* Matth. ver. 42-45.

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