have chosen this parable of our Blessed Saviour's for my present sermon, and I beg your attention whilst I endeavour to explain it to you, and to caution you against the dangerous and deceitful notions which some people have conceived from reading it.

Jesus tells us, The kingdom of heaven is like unto a man that is a householder, which went out early in the morning to hire labourers into his vineyard; and when he had agreed with his 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 market-place, and said unto them, Go ye also into the vineyard, and whatsoever is right I will give you. And they went their way. Again he went out about the sixth 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 ye shall receive. So when the evening 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 good man of the house, saying, These last have worked but one hour, and thou hast made them equal unto us who have borne the burden and heat of the day. But he answered one of them and said, Friend, I do thee no wrong: didst not thou agree with me for a penny? take what is thine, 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 are called, but few chosen.

Now what our blessed Saviour chiefly meant by this parable was, to convince the Jews that they were not the only people to whom God would shew mercy. They had long been the chosen people of the Almighty, the only nation in the world.

who had any knowledge of the true God. They were, in consequence, puffed up with vain conceit, trusting in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others, and conceived, that of all mankind, they only should come to the kingdom of heaven.

But Jesus came down from heaven to be the Saviour not of the Jews only, but of all mankind: that all nations, and tongues, and kindred, and people, throughout the world, should be delivered from everlasting punishment, upon their hearty repentance and true faith in Him: and He teaches the Jews, in this parable, that though they had long been blessed with the knowledge of God, and the hopes of heaven, having been, as it were, hired early in the morning to work in the vineyard, yet that it was God's purpose and intention to give to all nations the same knowledge and the same hopes and that those peoples who had long been suffered to sit in darkness and the shadow of death, if they received the light of the gospel, when sent to them, with joy and gladness, should be placed on an equal footing with the Jews in the

favour of God, and receive equally with them the promised gift of everlasting life. He teaches them yet more than this: He tells them plainly, that if they to whom the gospel was first preached would not believe it, they should be cast off from the favour of God; and that other nations who should believe it, though invited to do so much later, should take their place: the last should be first, and the first last.

No doubt our Blessed Saviour, besides giving this instruction and warning to the Jews, as a nation, meant also by the parable to give encouragement and comfort to every sinner in particular, who, from whatever cause, has lived in ignorance of the gospel.

If a man shall have lived even to the last hour of his life in sin, and without faith in Christ, because he has never had the means of hearing Christ preached to him, and therefore knows nothing of His holy laws and commandments; if, even at the last hour of his life, he should be told of the mercy which God has shown us in Christ Jesus, and should joyfully receive

the glad tidings, putting his trust in Him as the only Saviour of his soul, and repenting of all his past wickedness, this parable would encourage us to believe that such a man was saved; for God is a God of mercy and justice, and it is not possible to imagine that He will punish those, if any there be, who have sinned because they knew no better, and have not believed in Jesus Christ, because they have never been taught to do so, Indeed, our Saviour Himself, in the last action of His life, has shown us that this can never be the case: I mean when He pardoned the repentant thief, who suffered death upon the cross at the same time with Himself. There was a man who had, probably, spent his whole life in open wickedness; he had never stopped to call his ways to remembrance, and to repent of his sins, till he himself was stopped short in the midst of them, and brought to suffer a disgraceful death as the just punishment which they had deserved. The spotless Son of God was crucified together with him and another, who had been the companion of his crimes,