accordance with our profession. Let us consider the parable before us as a lively illustration of our Saviour's declaration, "Not every one that saith unto me Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven." And let us continually look up, with all humility and faith, to him who alone can put good desires into our hearts and can enable us to bring those desires to good effect.

HYMN.

Father, to thee my soul I lift,

My soul on thee depends, Convinc'd that every perfect gift From thee alone descends. Mercy and grace are thine alone,

And pow'r and wisdom too; Without the Spirit of thy Son We nothing good can do.

We cannot speak one useful word,
One holy thought conceive,
Unless in answer to our Lord,

Thyself the blessing give.

His blood demands the purchas'd grace,—
His blood's availing plea
Obtain'd the help for all our race,
And sends it down to me.

Thou all our works in us hast wrought,
Our good is all divine;
The praise of every virtuous thought,
Or righteous work, is thine.

From thee, through Jesus, we receive
The pow'r on thee to call,

In whom we are, and move, and live,
Our God is All in all.

C. WESLEY.

§ LXIX.

CHAP. XXI. 33-46.

Parable of the Vineyard let out to unthankful husbandmen.

33 Hear 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.

34 And when the time of the fruit drew near, he sent his servants to the husbandmen, that they might receive the fruits of it.

k

35 'And the husbandmen took his servants, and beat one, and killed another, and stoned another.

36 Again, he sent other servants more than the first: and they did unto them likewise.

37 But last of all he sent unto them his son, saying, They will reverence my son.

38 But when the husbandmen saw the son, they said among themselves," This is the heir; come, let us kill him, and let us seize on his inheritance.

n

39 And they caught him, and cast him out of the vineyard, and slew him.

40 When the lord therefore of

the vineyard cometh, what will he do unto those husbandmen? 41 They 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. 42 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?

43 Therefore say I unto you, 'The kingdom of God shall be taken from you, and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits

h Psalm 1xxx 9. Cant. viii. 11. Isaiah v. 1. Jer. ii. Mark xi. 1 Luke xx. 9.-i ch. xxv. 14, 15.-k Cant. vili 11, 12.- 2 Chr. xxiv. 21; & xxxvi. 16. Neh. ix. 26.

21

Reader. This parable was doubtless designed, in the first instance, to foretel the rejection of the Jews, and the calling of the Gentiles, consequent upon the rejection of the Messiah by the ungrateful and wicked rulers of God's ancient church and people. But it is adapted also to convey instruction to the Christian church, and to every individual professor of religion. The following interpretation will serve as a key to the parable, considered in both these points of view. With reference to the case of the Jews, "The Householder denotes the Supreme Being; the Vineyard, the Jewish Nation and Church;-the Fence, the Divine protection;—the Winepress, the Law and Sacrificial Rites;-the Tower, the Temple, in which the Divine presence was manifested;— the Husbandmen, the Priests and Doctors of the Law;-Went from home, i. e. entrusted the cultivation of the vineyard (the oversight and instruction of the church) to the husbandmen (the priests, &c.), as a man would do who had the most trusty servants and was obliged to

-

absent himself from home for a certain time;"-the Servants sent, the prophets whom God raised up from time to time; the Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. If we regard the parable in its especial application to the state of things under the Gospel dis

representing

of the Householder as the Lord Jesus Christ;-the Vine

22. Isaiah xxviii. 16. Mark xii. 10. Luke xx. 17. Acts iv. 11. Eph. ii. 20. 1 Peter ii. 6,7.-7 ch viii. 12-u Isaiah viii. 14, 15. Zech. xii. 3. Luke xx. 18 Rom. ix. 33. 1 Peter ii. 8.- Isaiah Ix. 12. Daniel ii. 44.-y ver. 11. Luke vii. 16. John vii. 40.

the Fence, winepress, and tower, religious ordinances; the Husband

men, ministers of the Gospel;-the Servants sent, Apostles and Evangelists and the sacred writings;-the Son sent last of all, the Holy Spirit, with his gifts and graces, whom Christ sent unto his church from the Father; -the Householder going from home, the ascension of the Lord Jesus into heaven; the Householder returning, the Lord coming again to judge the world. Perhaps the analogy does not hold so exactly in this case as in the former; and there can be no doubt that the application to the Jews is in accordance with the primary and immediate intention of the parable. Again, there is another application, of a personal and practical kind, which may perhaps present to our minds the most just and profitable view of the secondary meaning of this instructive parable. The Householder is the Lord Jesus Christ; the Vineyard, the Gospel dispensation, the whole state and circumstances of professing Christians, including their religious privileges and their religious duties; the Householder going into a far country, the Lord Jesus ascending into heaven, and retiring from the visible government and management of the church;-the Husbandmen, individual Christians;-the Servants sent from time to time, the Apostles, Evangelists, the Holy Scriptures and all faithful ministers of the Gospel; -the Son, the Spirit of the Son, the grace with which he accompanies the ministration of his word;-the fruits to be rendered, holy tempers and holy lives;-the beating and illtreatment of the servants, the

neglect of holy Scripture and the persecution and contempt of faithful ministers ;-the Householder's return, the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ to judgment.

The quotation in verse 42, is from Psalm cxviii. 22, 23. These words refer in their primary and more limited sense to David; but in a secondary signification, more extensive and complete, to David's Lord. "As the church," says one, “is represented in Scripture under the name of the Temple and House of God, in allusion to the temple of Jerusalem, which was a type of it, (1 Cor. iii. 16; Heb. iii. 6; 1 Pet. ii. 5)—so Jesus Christ is represented as the foundation on which this edifice is laid (1 Cor. iii. 11; Eph. ii. 20, 21).-The builders denote the chief priests and elders of the people, with the doctors of the law.— The expression concerning the rejection of the stone is borrowed from the practice of masons, who, having found a stone, and having tried it in a particular place for which it appears improper, throw it aside and take another; but at last it may happen that the very stone which had been before rejected, may be found the most suitable as the head stone of the corner. The passage, as applied by our Lord to himself, contains an abridgment of the whole doctrine of the Gospel.-1. The Lord's peculiar work is astonishingly manifested in the mission of Jesus Christ.-2. He, being rejected and crucified by the Jews, became an atonement for the sin of the world.-3. He was raised again

from the dead, a proof of his conquest over death and sin, and a pledge of immortality to his followers.-4. He was constituted the foundation on which the salvation of mankind rests, and the corner stone which unites Jews and Gentiles,-beautifies, strengthens, and completes the whole building, as the head stone, or uppermost stone in the corner, does the whole edifice.5. He is hereby rendered the object of the joy and admiration of all his followers, and the glory of man. 'This is the Lord's doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes.'

Verse 44, is supposed to contain an allusion to the custom of stoning as a Jewish punishment. On occasion of such executions, we are told, "a scaffold was erected, twice the height of the man who was to be stoned. From the edge of this scaffold he was violently struck off by one of the witnesses; if he died by the blow and the fall, nothing further was done; but if not, a heavy stone was thrown down on him, which at once killed him. (The stone thus thrown on the culprit was, in some cases, as much as two men could lift up.) So the Saviour speaks of the falling of the stone upon his enemies. They who reject him, oppose him, and continue impenitent, shall be crushed by him in the day of judgment, and perish for ever."

READER.-Hear another parable. This appears to have been framed,

to a certain extent, upon the model of that recorded in Isaiah v. 1–7. Both are adapted to remind us of our possession of invaluable privileges and means of grace,―of the goodness of God in imparting them to us,-and of the just punishment which certainly awaits our unthankful neglect or abuse of them. Well indeed may the Lord say, in the words of the prophet, "What could have been done more to my vineyard that I have not done in it?" Most justly does he "look that it should bring forth grapes," and expect "to receive the fruits of it." And who is it, after all, that derives the benefit, when the fruits are duly rendered? None but the creature, who, through grace given, makes the acceptable offering! God is not debtor to man, in any sense whatever. Our goodness extendeth not to him; nor is He the gainer by our services.-How great are our Christian privileges ;-we live in that spiritual vineyard which has been planted, fenced, and furnished by an heavenly husbandman and friend! How rich is the grace of God,-the root which he plants in the soul is indeed the choicest vine! How great and irreparable will be our loss, if, having refused to render the fruits of faith and holy obedience, we should be at length cast out of the sacred enclosure, and banished for ever from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power!

"The church of Christ," says Quesnel, "is his Vineyard, planted by his own hand; and, although

from his church, yet he is always present by his protection, by his spiritual abiding, and by the Holy Ghost. Jesus Christ requires the produce of his gifts, the fruit of his mysteries and his blood, from those unto whom his graces are dispensed. Death, in the midst of undischarged duty, is a terrible stroke; and not to anticipate this awful state argues the absence of faith.-God demands especially from his ministers the fruit of his vineyard; and they outrage the Holy Spirit when they pervert their office to personal advantage, and live in sloth and self-indulgence, without labouring in the vineyard.-The Holy Scriptures are as it were the other servants who are sent to warn of duty, and to demand its diligent discharge; and it too frequently occurs that they are entreated shamefully. But woe to that unfaithful servant, and especially to that selfish and negligent minister, who rejects counsel, or receives it in an angry spirit, whether given directly by God or by the instrumentality of good men, whether conveyed through the medium of words or of example!

"Jesus Christ himself, the heir, is too often sacrificed to avarice, ambition, and passion. How many there are who thus "crucify the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame," by an unblushing preference of pleasure and interest to duty, and by the unjust persecution of those who rebuke them by maintaining their own fidelity! But

The stone which the builders rejected, the same is become the head of the corner. "To whom coming," says St. Peter, "as unto a living stone, disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of God, and precious, ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ." 1 Peter ii. 4, 5, (see also verses 6-8). "The church is the temple of God. Jesus Christ is its corner stone and foundation. He binds and sustains all its parts, and it is by faith in him that we are as stones in that living temple, that we subsist in him, and are savingly united to him.-It was. in the order of the Divine designs. that this stone should be despised, mutilated, and rejected, before it could become the bond and glory of the church. How precious is that faith which enables us to behold in Jesus Christ such majesty and such marvellous characters, while to the carnal mind he is an object of contempt, a stone of stumbling and a rock of offence !-What avails it to the Christian that his creed distinguishes him from the Jew, if the lowliness of the Gospel, and the