the offered boon, and "went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions1." On this our Lord took occasion to remark, as may be seen in the preceding chapter, on the fascinating nature of worldly wealth, and the absolute necessity of a more than common dispensation of celestial grace, to enable the rich man to break the chain of pleasure and of pride, to resist the many and peculiar temptations with which his path in life is strewn, and to resign, if it should become his duty, his rank, his fortune, and his ease, in the service of that God from whom he has received them.

While He was thus speaking, and thus, as it should seem, lamenting the dangerous wealth of the young man who had just gone away, it is easy to perceive what was passing in St. Peter's mind. "If the sacrifice of wealth would have been so precious in the eyes of God, then, surely, the selfdevotion of the poor must, at least, be equally well pleasing to Him. I and my fellows had, indeed, somewhat less to resign, but what we had, we gave up for Christ; the comfort of a settled home, the security of peaceful labour, the endearments of our kindred, the implements of our toil, and all those numberless and nameless ties which bind the poor man, even more than the rich, to the scenes of his childish sports, the recollections of his earliest love, the limits of his humble ambition,—all these we resigned, and we resigned them cheerfully."

1 St. Matt. xix. 22.

"Behold we have forsaken all and followed Thee! what shall we have therefore?"

The answer of our Lord is more than usually impressive and beautiful. While assuring His ardent and affectionate disciple of an ample and overflowing recompense, He replies to his thoughts as well as to his words, and cautions him against supposing that all who now seemed comparatively backward in the cause of the Gospel, should remain for ever idle and indifferent; or that none but those who were the first and immediate companions of the Messiah, should be admitted to their proportionate share in the toils and honours of His kingdom." I say unto you," are His words, "that ye which have followed me in the regeneration, when the Son of Man shall sit on the throne of His glory, ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. And every one that hath forsaken houses, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my name's sake, shall receive an hundred fold, and shall inherit everlasting life. But many that are first shall be last, and the last shall be first1."

As if He had said, "Doubt not, Peter, that thou and thy companions will receive from a bountiful God a rich return for all your labours in His cause; doubt not that whatever sacrifices are made, for my sake, of present ease, of present possession, of present and worldly affections, will be all no less duly

'St. Matt. xix. 28-30.

and mercifully appreciated by Him, who will not suffer even a cup of water given in His name to pass without its recompence. But deem not yourselves so secure of my love by the sacrifices which you have made as to relax in your future services. Judge not those who stand idle now, for the time of their labouring may come. Of you who have been my earliest followers there is one who shall betray his Lord; and another, even thou thyself, shalt basely and shamelessly deny me. And there is one whose name ye know not, and who is now my bitter enemy, one Saul of Tarsus, to whom I shall, hereafter, make myself known, who, having received my faith, shall labour more abundantly than you all, and come not a whit behind the chiefest of my earlier Apostles." "For the kingdom of Heaven," our Lord proceeds to say, "the kingdom of Heaven is like unto a man which is an householder, which went out early in the morning to hire labourers into his vineyard; and when he had agreed with the 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 shall ye receive. So when even 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 wrought but one hour, and thou hast made them equal unto us which 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 that thine is, 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 be called but few chosen."

Is there any here who can impugn the justice of such an expostulation? Is there any who does not perceive that, when the earliest labourers had received their stipulated hire, they had no colourable ground of murmuring against their employer for giving an equal sum to any other whom he chose to favour? Can we fail to recollect that of all these labourers the necessities were the same, though their opportunities of earning a supply had

not been equal; that the same kindness which called them in when so little remained to be done, might naturally be expected to prompt a liberal employer to proportion his bounty to their wants rather than to their merits; and that he who might unblamed have relieved those wants without exacting any labour at all, was equally justified in exacting no more labour than the approach of night enabled them to apply effectually?

Though, therefore, (as we have seen from the circumstances under which the parable was spoken) its primary application was plainly to the hope and reward of the Christian ministry, and its intention was to rebuke the self-exaltation of Peter, and to prepare both himself and his fellow apostles for the reception of future teachers of the Gospel and future participants in glory; though this was, I say, its primary meaning, yet its principle is obviously capable of a far wider and more important application, as illustrative of the general dealings of the Almighty with mankind, and of the manner, more particularly, in which, under the Gospel, mankind in general are admitted to mercy and salvation.

I do not mean, as some have mistakenly supposed, I do not mean, that this parable can be fairly said to convey the doctrine (which is not very consonant with reason, and which is directly opposed to many positive assertions of Scripture) that the condition of the blessed in another world is to be alike to all; and that, whatever their ex