August 23

33 ¶ Hear another parable: There was a certain householder, which planted a vineyard, and hedged it round a out, and digged a wine-press 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.

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 receive me 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.

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 thereof.

44 And whosoever shall fall on this stone shall be broken, but on whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder.

45 And when the chief priests and Pharisees had heard his parables, they perceived that he spake of them.

46 But when they sought to lay hands on him, they feared the multitude, because they took him for a prophet.

In this parable we note two things:

"I. The Owner's Claim. His right and authority are complete. God presses His right to our love and service. Blessings are privileges, and privileges are obligations. II. The Owner's Loving Patience. There never was an earthly employer who showed such persistent kindness towards such persistent rebellion. The account of servants sent again and again, in spite of insults and death, is a faint picture of His forbearance towards Israel. Mercies, deliverances, revelations, pleadings gather, a shining host, around all their history as the angelic camp was close to Jacob on his journey. But all along the history stand dark and blood-stained images of mercies despised and prophets slain. The tenderness of God in the old dispensation is wonderful; but in Christ it appears in a pathos of yearning."—Charles M. Southgate

Let us be thankful that God has planted His vineyard among us. We are situated, not in any of the deserts, or wastes, or commons of the world, but in the vineyard, in "a garden inclosed," in the very garden of the Lord. What reception are we giving to God's ministers, and especially to God's beloved Son?

"Nothing so cold as lead, yet nothing more scalding if molten; nothing more blunt than iron, and yet nothing so keen if sharpened. . . . Thus it is that mercy abused turns to fury; God, as He is a God of mercies, so He is a God of judgment; and it is a fearful thing to fall into His punishing hands."—John Trapp.

Closet Promise.—Who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto Himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.—Titus ii. 14.

The word "peculiar" contains the fundamental idea of divine ownership. A "peculiar people;" that is, a people for His own possession.

Robert Hall said: "We are not a race of independent creatures, abandoned to live without control; we are not sent into the world to follow the dictates of our own will. We cannot commit a greater mistake than to suppose that we are in any sense our own; we belong to another; even our limbs and faculties do not so much belong to ourselves as we do to our Maker. To do His will, to conform to His pleasure, to keep His commandments, to promote His glory—these are the great ends of our existence, and to attain them ought to be the fundamental law of our being; otherwise we live in vain—worse than in vain, and it would have been better for us never to have had an existence."