humbly with their God." This is "the end of the commandment:" and these are the fruits which the heavenly husbandman demands from the vineyard which He has reclaimed by His law and watered by His spirit.

The heart of every Christian is such a vineyard. Let Him see that it is making a due return to its rightful owner.

The Lord of the vineyard is described as commissioning servants one after another to receive from the husbandmen of the fruit of the vineyard. These servants are the prophets, whom God from time to time inspired, that they might call the Jewish nation to account, and reprove their disobedience. Isaiah was one; when he warned them, saying, "Hear, O hea vens, and give ear, O earth: for the Lord hath spoken. I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me. The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master's crib but Israel doth not know, my people doth not consider." We do not however find that any general repentance followed the mission of Isaiah: he was sent empty away :— and, in the end, was shamefully handled and killed. So, again, "the word came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying, "Hear ye the words of this covenant, and speak unto the men of Judah,

1 Mic. vi. 8.

* Isa. i. 2. As is thought, by Manasseh, in the first year of his reign.

Jerem. xi. 1—4.

and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem; and say thou, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel; Cursed is the man that obeyeth not the words of this covenant, which I commanded your fathers in the day that I brought them forth out of the land of Egypt." But he also, instead of receiving of the fruits of the vineyard, proved the obstinacy of the husbandmen: at him they cast stones, and wounded him in the head, and sent him away shamefully handled. He announced, as he had been enjoined to announce, the approaching_destruction of the rebellious city, saying, "Thus saith the Lord, This city shall surely be given into the hand of the king of Babylon's army, which shall take it." "Then

5

took they Jeremiah, and cast him into the dungeon which was in the court of the prison: and they let down Jeremiah with cords: so Jeremiah sunk in the mire."

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Thus persecuted they the prophets. Ah, sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity: they have forsaken the Lord, they have provoked the Holy One of Israel to anger!""

Still God will "reason" with them, before He proceeds to judgment.

6. "Having yet therefore one son, his well beloved, he sent him also last unto them, saying, They will reverence my son.

7. "But those husbandmen said among themselves, This is the heir; come, let us kill him, and the inheritance shall be ours.

5 Jerem. xxxviii. 3-6.

• Isa, i. 4.

8. "And they took him, and killed him, and cast him out of the vineyard.

9. "What shall therefore the Lord of the vineyard do? he will come and destroy the husbandmen, and will give the vineyard unto others.

10. "And have ye not read this scripture; The stone which the builders rejected, is become the head of the

corner:

11. "This was the Lord's doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes?

12. "And they sought to lay hold on Him, but feared the people for they knew that He had spoken the parable against them: and they left Him, and went their way."

They might well know that He had spoken the parable against them: it described them too truly to be mistaken: it convinced their understandings, and struck home to their consciences; but it did not affect their hearts. They sought to lay hands on Him. They took no pains to avert the just and sure conclusion, The Lord of the vineyard will come and destroy the husbandmen, and give the vineyard to others. And accordingly, not forty years after this was spoken, the husbandmen were miserably destroyed: not one stone of the city was left upon another. And the vineyard was given unto others which should "render the fruits in their seasons." The apostle proclaimed to his disobedient countrymen, "It was necessary that the word of God should first be spoken unto you, but seeing that ye put it from you, and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life, lo, we turn unto the Gentiles."7

7 Acts xiii. 46.

Many, indeed, of these rejoiced to hear it, and received the word gladly. And we acknowledge with gratitude, that the vineyard, no longer confined within the narrow limits of Judea, has enlarged its borders to "the uttermost parts of the earth," whilst husbandmen from the east, and from the west, and from the north, and from the south, have been sent into it, and have rendered the fruits of righteousness to the Lord of the vineyard. And some of these, we trust, are returned to him from our own land.

Still, when we think of the words, They will reverence my Son; when we consider the just grounds of that expectation; and when we compare these with the event: there is great room for humiliation in this and in every Christian country. Men indeed do outwardly and nominally revere the name of Jesus, and profess to call Him Lord and Saviour. But how few really love, or serve, or honour, or obey Him!

We may judge of this from one test, which can hardly be disputed. Christ Himself, before He left the world, appointed an ordinance by which it might be seen, in after times, in what value He was held. He commanded His disciples to break bread as His body was broken, and to pour out wine as His blood was poured out, and to eat and drink the bread and wine in a solemn ceremony, to remind us that our souls must be nourished by the spiritual food of his body and blood, as our bodies are supported

by natural food.

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"This do," He said, "in remembrance of me.' And might He not suppose, They will reverence my command? Were we then to judge of the number who indeed reverence Him, by the number who observe this memorial of what He has done for men, what conclusion must we reasonably form? For if they were indeed reverencing Christ as He deserves to be reverenced; if they were trusting to the atonement which He made, and looking to be cleansed from sin by His blood; if they were depending upon His grace to purify their hearts, and enable them to "work out their salvation:" it appears impossible that they should refuse to kneel at His holy table, in remembrance of His sufferings, and entreat His Spirit to complete in them the good work which He has begun.

When, therefore, we find almost all that are young, and a vast proportion of those who have reached riper years, habitually neglecting this ordinance, are we not obliged to own, that whatever others do, these do not reverence the Son of God? And when we consider how large a number of the husbandmen are thus deficient, can we think that the just expectations of God are answered, They will reverence my Son?

Alas! the hearts of men were but too well understood by Him who said, "Many are called, but few are chosen."

Whether, however, they be many or few,

Luke xxii. 19. 1 Cor. xi. 24.