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for us to gather together some of the Bible references to the vine. The vines of Palestine were famous for their growth, and for the immense clusters of grapes which they produced. We all remember that splendid bunch that the spies bore on the staff from the valley of Eshcol (Num. xiii. 23). We cannot wonder, then, to find the vine and the vineyard among the most precious of the Bible metaphors. Israel is a vine brought out of Egypt, and planted in the Land of Promise by the Lord (Ps. lxxx. 8-10). To dwell under the vine is the choice emblem of domestic happiness (1 Kings iv. 25). It is a vine which Jesus selects to typify the union between His disciples and Himself (John xv. 1-6). And the vineyard becomes the figure of God's kingdom. Long centuries before, Jeremiah had cried, 'Many pastors have destroyed my vineyard' (Jer. xii. 10); and now our Lord, who had very profoundly studied Jeremiah, presses the same emblem into His service. Can we give two or three of the clear likenesses, that would make this metaphor a favourite with Jesus?

AGAIN, observe God's anxiety for workers. Above

the door of the tramway office in a certain city there is written just now, 'No men wanted: none need apply.' All posts are full; there is no call for hands; men may be very poor and very hungry, but there is no help for them there. But the householder whom we read of in our story had no such notice on his vineyard gate. His great concern was not to keep workers out, but somehow or anyhow to get them in. So we find him early in the morning going out to the market-place to hire his men-how different a scene from the London Docks, for instance, where early in the morning the men are clamouring at the gates, and only a few out of the crowd are hired! And then at nine o'clock he is out again, and then in the height of noon, and then at three. These hours were the great hours of prayer in

Jewry: was not this householder's work a kind of prayer? And he has not done yet: he will make one more effort an hour before sunset he is out again. It is clear that the great passion of the man is to get the idlers set to honest work. May we not say, with reverence and gratitude, that that is the passion of the Father of Jesus Christ? He has service for all, and He wants all to come and serve Him. His finger never wrote, 'No men need apply.' Whenever any of our young people, then, get the opportunity of doing something kind, when the hour comes that they can make some little sacrifice, and help in any way the cause of Jesus, let them not say, 'Bother!' or do it with a grudge; but just let them think that the Lord of the vineyard has come with this very bit of work for them to do.

NOTE

[OTE once more that God rewards all service. In the old times of feudal law in Scotland, there was many a man who laboured all his days, and never got a penny of reward. In the Southern States, while slavery existed, the men and the women who did all the work dreamed often of the lash, but never of a wage. And in many a campaign, written of in our histories, the soldiers never saw their hire. But this householder was so careful of his word, that he began with the last comers in making account; and none of his men got less than they expected, while the great majority of them got far more. All which, I take it, is meant to teach us this-that all our service for Christ shall be rewarded. No worker shall ever get less than was agreed on; and the great multitude, to their own sweet surprise, shall be given more than they could ask or think. Now if it should seem to any of my readers that this is a mercenary view of spiritual things, I would bid them remember that even the choicest parable can only rudely embody the things of God. The reward

of plucking grapes may be a penny-there is a kind of gulf between the two. But, spiritually, the wage of service is new power to serve; and the reward of love is ever-deepening capacity of loving; and the hire for all honest effort to know Jesus, is to know Him at last as the chiefest among ten thousand.

LASTLY, observe God's measures are not ours.

Do

not think that this parable is meant to teach us that the self-same reward is to be given to all. If that were so, what about the talents? It so happens that all the workers get the penny; but it is not on that that the stress of the story lies. Had the latest comers chanced to begin at dawn, we feel that the householder would have given them sixpence. He was delighted with them because of their earnest spirit. They came at once; they did not stop to haggle. He saw that their whole heart was in their work, and he really paid them according to their heart. Do we not learn, then, that God does not measure service by length of time or anything external? God measures service by the motive of it, by the spirit that prompts it, by the secret heart. An hour with the heart in it for Jesus Christ is better and worthier than a heartless day. We really have not been serving well, if the first thing we do at sunset is to murmur (v. 11). 'My son, give me thine heart!' 'Yes, Lord, we give it, and all these questions of the pence we leave with Thee!'

TWENTY-SIXTH SUNDAY

Morning

THE EWE LAMB

Passage to be read: 2 Sam. xii. 1-6.

WE have several examples in the Old Testament

WE of the parable, but the parable in our chapter for

power.

to-day stands unmatched in its beauty and its

In the fourteenth chapter of this book, we have the parable spoken by the widow of Tekoah. We have then the parable of the vineyard and the grapes, directed by Isaiah against Jerusalem (Isa. v. 1-6). Again we have the parabolic fable, whereby Jotham sought to instruct the Shechemites, of the trees choosing a king (Judg. ix. 7-15). These parables, and a few others, are well known; there is a fresh and homely appeal in them that makes them memorable. But they are all surpassed in the qualities that really give rank to parables, by Nathan's little story of the ewe lamb. How simple it is, and yet how sharply pointed! How true, and yet how exquisitely tender! We have to turn to the parables of Jesus, before we light on any other so telling. Let the children be so familiar with the story (I am sure that Jesus knew it by heart in boyhood) that whenever they see a lamb upon the hill, they will catch a glimpse of prophet and of king.

NOTE OTE firstly how wisely and well Nathan played his part. This was not the first time, and it was not the last, that prophets and preachers stood in the presence of princes. In our own history there are some famous

instances of the ministers of the Word rebuking sovereigns. John Knox stood, more than once, before Queen Mary, and spoke to her, almost harshly, on her behaviour. And Andrew Melville, in audience with King James, never flinched in boldly uttering the truth. But brave as Knox was, and polished as Melville was, I think that Nathan did better than either of them. We feel that the Lord who sent him to the king, was signally present at the interview. Was not this little story of the lamb exquisitely fitted to the heart of David? Is there not the music of heart-poetry in it, that would appeal to the poetic king? Nathan was perfectly faithful to his task, yet in the performance of it, most wise and tender. He came as the agent of a most righteous God, and yet the smoking flax he would not quench. Let us be sure that when we go at God's bidding, we shall not lack the necessary gifts. If He sends us out to any difficult duty, He will see to it that all our need is met. Nathan was entering on a struggle with kingly sin, but he went not a-warring at his own charges.

ONCE

NCE more remark how clearly we observe another's faults. As Nathan went on with the tale of the rich man, you picture the flashing eye of David. You see his hand groping for his sword—his heart was so hot at that high-handed work! He was mightily angry—it was a dastardly act. The man must die, and the lamb be restored fourfold! David discerned the sin of it at once. It stood out clear in the frame of another's life. We are all quick to observe another's faults. And perhaps we are never readier to observe them, than when these faults in another are our own. The sins we are aptest to suspect in others, are the sins that have been playing havoc with ourselves. The vices that we are surest to detect are those that our own characters have known. It is not the boy who would never think of cheating who is always suspecting cheating in the class. The boy who is always suspicious of his comrades has done a good deal of

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