and, lastly, his Son; but the only reception this last received from the persons in the vineyard was, " Away with him, away with him; crucify him, crucify him;" and with wicked hands they crucified the Lord of glory. What will God do to this Jewish vineyard? He will scatter the nation to the four winds of heaven; he will leave it to be trodden down by the Moslem, the Arab, and the Bedouin, and the Romanist; and the Gentiles shall get possession of the blessings until that day when the Jews shall be graffed in.

He next quotes the Psalm that he had quoted before" Did ye never read in the Scriptures, The stone which the builders rejected, the same is become the head of the corner?"

Let us see, my dear friends, that we are not barren, but fruitful fig-trees. Let us see that in this vineyard we are reverencing Him who has redeemed us by his blood, and who tends it, and cares for it every day. Let us remember, as a nation, that what occurred to the Jew is still applicable and possible to us. If we give this wicked reception to God's providential and evangelical missionaries, and to the Word of God, and the privileges that we enjoy, he will miserably destroy our nation, and give our privileges to others. The Church is a candlestick-not a fixture, but a movable thing; and when a nation fails to use it as it should, it will be removed from its place, as the seven churches of Asia testify, and given to another.

CHAPTER XXII.

THE GREAT FEAST-THE INVITED-THE DESPISERS.

THE chapter opens with a parable, and continues and concludes with a series of carping questions prepared and put to our Lord by the Pharisees and Sadducees. These men sought not information to guide them, but laboured, if possible, to make snares wherein to catch the Great Teacher. The chapter, I have said, begins with a parable, which is a similitude, a fact, or story, real or supposed, recorded in order to be the mirror and the background of some great spiritual lesson or seasonable and precious truth. He says, "The kingdom of heaven," that is, the Christian dispensation, composed of baptized and regenerate, of those who are professors and those who are true Christians, "is like unto a certain king, which made a marriage for his son." The word translated "marriage" may be applied to any festival, feast, or banquet, prepared either at the marriage of a son, or on his accession to some dignity, or at his coming of age. It denotes a royal banquet, to which the king, in his condescension, is pleased to invite many in the terms recorded in the sequel of the parable. He "sent forth his servants to call them that were bidden to the wedding: and they would not come." The provision of the Gospel is the festival;

the servants are the Apostles, the Evangelists, the ministers of the truth in every age, and Jesus himself, above all, who took upon him the form of a servant, and became the preacher of that salvation of which He was also the author. These servants invited many to come and participate in this festival. The Great King would not be alone; and it is said, what is painful to find still, not, they could not come, because it was so decreed, but, “they would not come." It was neither to their taste, disposition, nor liking. They minded other things. The reason why any one rejects the Gospel is, not that he cannot believe, but that he will not believe. The inability is in the heart, not in his own physical power. And therefore, if any one perish, it is because he will not, not because he cannot be saved. The lost are suicides.

Well, when these refused," he sent forth other servants.” First, he sent the prophets of old to offer salvation to the Jews; next, he sent the Apostles and Evangelists to offer it to those to whom it never had been offered before. And he gives them the strongest of all reasons, "My oxen and my fatlings are killed, and all things are ready: come unto the marriage." You have not something to do, or something to pay, or something to offer; or a month, a day, or a year to wait; but "all things are ready;" sacrifice is offered— the price is paid-the gates are open, and all that you have to do is to believe God's sincerity in inviting you, and joy in giving welcome: accept the invitation, eat, drink, and be happy. Thus it is with the blessed Gospel. We have not a sacrifice to make, nor an atonement to offer; this He did, once for all. We have nothing to pay the debt is paid; nothing to promise,

for all is unconditional; nothing to pledge, but simply to believe God's testimony respecting his Son, and be saved, and act as the new relationship prompts.

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But," it is said, "they made light of it." What a sad statement is here of the reception given by sinners, to the Gospel! Men make light of God's love; they make light of Christ's sufferings; they make light of their own peril; they disregard and treat with contempt alike the promises and threats of the blessed Gospel. And if they were sinful who made light of an invitation to a festival that was soon finished, how shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation for us already prepared?

And the reason they made light of it was, not that they positively disapproved or disliked the provision, but that they had a stronger liking of something elseanother preference shut out this. The reason why men will not accept Christianity is, not that they dislike it instinctively, or after having put it to the test, but because they so like something extrinsic to it, that they have no time to examine it at all, and no room in their hearts for its presence. The reason why these men would not come to the festival, and made light of it, was, not that they disapproved of it, or disbelieved the person who invited them, but that they were so taken up with other avocations, so absorbed, one with his farm, and another with his merchandise, that they had no time to give the invitation serious and solemn consideration. Perimus in licitis is an ancient proverb; that is, we perish, not so much by doing what is sinful, as by the excessive and idolatrous love of what is perfectly lawful. Sin consists not only in doing what is wrong, but it consists also in so loving something that

is right, that that something dislodges from the heart the higher, holier, and more instant claims of the soul, of eternity, and of God.

These parties not only did thus make light of the welcome, but they evidently became provoked with the earnestness of the servants, and in consequence entreated them spitefully, "and slew them." John the Baptist preached in such a way as to be liked by Herod; but when he came to press home too closely and earnestly his message, Herod consented to the beheading of the preacher. So, those who were invited, at first were indifferent, next were exasperated, and lastly became persecutors of them who simply did their duty to their Lord, and tried to do them good.

"When the king heard thereof, he was wroth: and he sent forth his armies, and destroyed those murderers, and burned up their city." This parable up to this point was fulfilled in the case of the Jews. They were offered the Gospel first by the prophets, and next by the apostles and evangelists; they rejected and slew both; and at last the Great King "sent forth his armies, and burned up their city."