here to group together the last series of Parables. Most, if not all of them, were spoken

on that third day in Passion week: the first four to a more general audience; the last

three (to be treated in another chapter) to the disciples, when, on the evening of that

third day, on the Mount of Olives,1 He told them of the 'Last Things.' They are the

Parables of Judgment, and in one form or another treat of 'the End.'

1. The Parable of the Labourers in the Vineyard.2 As treating of 'the End,' this Parable

evidently belongs to the last series, although it may have been spoken previously to

Passion-Week, perhaps on that Mission-journey in Peræa, in connection with which it is

recorded by St. Matthew. At any rate, it stands in internal relation with what passed on

that occasion, and must therefore be studied with reference to it.

We remember, that on the occasion of the rich young ruler's failur e to enter the

Kingdom, to which he was so near, Christ had uttered an earnest warning on the danger

of 'riches.'3 In the low spiritual stage which the Apostles had as yet attained, it was,

perhaps only natural that Peter should, as spokesman of the rest, have, in a kind of

spiritual covetousness, clutched at the promised reward, and that in a tone of self-

righteousness he should have reminded Christ of the yet part of what He, the Lord. had

always to bear, and bore so patiently and lovingly, from their ignorance and failure to

understand Him and His work. And this want of true sympathy, this constant contending

with the moral dulness even of those nearest to Him, must have been part of His great

humiliation and sorrow, one element in the terrible solitarine ss of His Life, which made

Him feel that, in the truest sense, 'the Son of Man had not where to lay His Head.' And

yet we also mark the wondrous Divine generosity which, even in moments of such sore

disappointment, would not let Him take for nought what should have been freely offered

in the gladsome service of grateful love. Only there was here deep danger to the

disciples: danger of lapsing into feelings kindred to those with which the Pharisees

viewed the pardoned Publicans, or the elder son in the Parable his younger brother;

danger of misunderstanding the right relations, and with it the very character of the

Kingdom, and of work in and for it. It is to this that the Parable of the Labourers in the

Vineyard refers.

The principle which Christ lays down is, that, while nothing done for Him shall lose its

reward, yet, from one reason or another, no forecast can be made, no inferences of

self-righteousness may be drawn. It does not by any means follow, that most work

done, at least, to our seeing and judging, shall entail a greater reward. On the contrary,

'many that are first shall be last; and the last shall be first.' Not all, not yet always and

necessarily, but 'many.' And in such cases no wrong has been done; there exists no

claim, even in view of the promises of due acknowledgement of work. Spiritual pride

and self-assertion can only be the outcome either of misunderstanding God's relation to