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tell the communicants to remain, two-thirds of the congregation retire; and it seems as if the sounds of their departing footsteps echoed in our hearts, We don't belong to Christ, we are not fit to go to his table on earth; of course we are not fit to go before his judgment-seat in heaven. Deeds say so. With the sword suspended in the distance —with diseases of all sorts, like terrible miasma, hovering on our shores—with lives frail as the spider's web-with responsibilities that eternity will not exhaust, hell will not quench, and nothing but the blood of Christ can meet-one may well ask, is it right, is it reasonable to remain in this suspensive, this unsettled, this undecided state, whether we are the people of God or not? I do not say that all who come to that table are Christians; but I do say that all who are purposely absent from it, declare themselves that they do not pretend to be so. It is our Lord's last command, his dying command, Do this in remembrance of me: and, if we were to look at it in a right light, spread, as it is, upon Calvary, not upon Sinai; for poor sinners, not for cherubim nor for angels around the throne of God, but for the hungry, the thirsty, the feeble, the faint, the doubting, the suspecting, the agitated, the almost despairing-I am sure it would not be so deserted as it is. What, is the soldier ashamed of his country and his queen? Is one who believes himself a Christian ashamed to say, Christ's death is my life, his life my pattern, his atonement my trust, his heaven my home? I count all but loss for him, I rejoice in his grace; in life I serve him, in heaven I hope to be with him, and this day I solemnly and deliberately avow him.

Thus met as neighbours around a communion table on earth, we anticipate, or rather have an instalment of, that holy festival at which we shall again meet as happy neighbours in the age to come.

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LECTURE XV.

THE SON OF GOD.

Hear another parable: There was a certain householder, which planted a vineyard, and hedged it round about, and digged a winepress in it, and built a tower, and let it out to husbandmen, and went into a far country: and when the time of the fruit drew near, he sent his servants to the husbandmen, that they might receive the fruits of it. And the husbandmen took his servants, and beat one, and killed another, and stoned another. Again, he sent other servants more than the first: and they did unto them likewise. But last of all he sent unto them his son, saying, They will reverence my son. But when the husbandmen saw the son, they said among themselves, This is the heir; come, let us kill him, and let us seize on his inheritance. And they caught him, and cast him out of the vineyard, and slew him. When the lord therefore of the vineyard cometh, what will he do unto those husbandmen? They say unto him, He will miserably destroy those wicked men, and will let out his vineyard unto other husbandmen, which shall render him the fruits in their season.-MATT. xxi. 33-41.

In my discourse on the labourers of the vineyard, I explained at length the appropriate symbol of a vineyard, as descriptive of the kingdom of God, committed in trust. to a people. The vineyard here I conceive to be just that sacred deposit, that guardianship of the truth, which was intrusted first to the Jews, and on their unfaithfulness and treachery, committed to the Gentiles. The kingdom of God I look upon as having for its elements, not meat nor drink, but righteousness, and peace, and joy; and as having for its subjects regenerated, sanctified, believing, redeemed men. This kingdom, which has those characteristic elements, and distinctive subjects, was first committed to the Jews; it was a vineyard intrusted to them;

its laws were the sacred oracles; its administrators were the priests and Levites anointed of God for the purpose; its rites and ceremonies, from the minutest to the greatest, were all laid down and described by God. It was thus a sacred trust, a hallowed deposit, which was committed to the Jews for the benefit of their nation and for the glory of their God; the misuse of which was the greatest ingratitude, the betrayal of which was the greatest sin.

This vineyard thus committed to the Jews-this sacred trust-was meant to bring forth fruit; and we read that, as the time of the fruit drew near, the householder resolved to enjoy that fruit. It is here presumed, that when it was let out or lent to the Jews, the payment, as it were, to the lender, that is, God, was not to be in money, but in kind; he expected to have his rent in grapes, not in coin; and, therefore, when the time of the fruit draws near, God looks for the fruit or rent that is fairly due to him. This teaches us, that wherever God has left a blessing, there he has laid a responsibility; wherever God has given a talent, there he looks for the use of it. If we are conscious that we have received from God the blessing of health, of strength, of wealth, of power, of talent, of influence, whatever it may be, God comes at the proper season, and looks for the appropriate fruit; and if we have failed, the talent will be taken from us, the vineyard will be lent to others, and all the responsibility only, without the least enjoyment, of that great blessing, will remain with us.

The first question that occurs in endeavouring to explain the meaning of this parable is, Who were the servants that the householder, or the original landlord, sent into the vineyard, in order to bring him the fruit? It is said, "he sent his servants to the husbandmen;" and, "again he sent other servants." As to the treatment which these servants received, we are told that some were beaten, some

were stoned, and some were killed. The priests, the Levites, and the Jews were God's ordinary ministers; they cultivated the vineyard, tended the vines, watered them, pruned them, and were appointed to do every thing which might contribute to their fruitfulness. But the servants that he sent cannot be the parties to whom the vineyard was intrusted; for these last were the Pharisees, the Jews, the Levites, and the priests. The servants that he sent were his prophets. They were extraordinary messengers; they were not priests, but strictly and properly laymen. Isaiah was a layman, so was Ezekiel, so was Malachi; but they were anointed and raised of God to execute a special mission, to make known to the people of Israel truths which, except by those channels, could not be made known. The servants then were the prophets that God sent at successive epochs in the history of Israel, beginning with the first, and ending with the last, to call for the fruit of the vineyard, and each in turn to make his report to God as to the fertility and the produce of that precious deposit, which had been intrusted to the Jews. The reception. these servants met with is frequently alluded to in Scripture, so frequently as to show that God laid great stress upon it. For instance, in Jeremiah xxxvii. we read, "Then Jeremiah went forth out of Jerusalem to go into the land of Benjamin, to separate himself thence in the midst of the people. And when he was in the gate of Benjamin, a captain of the ward was there, whose name was Irijah, the son of Shelemiah, the son of Hananiah; and he took Jeremiah the prophet, saying, Thou fallest away to the Chaldeans. Then said Jeremiah, It is false; I fall not away to the Chaldeans. But he hearkened not to him so Irijah took Jeremiah, and brought him to the princes. Wherefore the princes were wroth with Jeremiah, and smote him, and put him in prison." This is

one specimen of the treatment of God's prophets. We have another allusion to this very same course of treatment in the Acts of the Apostles, in that striking appeal of Stephen's, where he says, "Ye stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost: as your fathers did, so do ye. Which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted? And they have slain them which showed before of the coming of the Just One, of whom ye have now been the betrayers and murderers." In the Epistle to the Thessalonians also we read, "For ye, brethren, became followers of the churches of God, which in Judea are in Christ Jesus; for ye also have suffered like things of your countrymen, even as they have of the Jews; who both killed the Lord Jesus, and their own prophets, and have persecuted us; and they please not God, and are contrary to all men." In Hebrews xi. 36, we have another reference to the same treatment: "And others had trial of cruel mockings and scourgings, yea, moreover, of bonds and imprisonment: they were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword: they wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins; being destitute, afflicted, tormented." We have thus then every portion of Scripture bearing testimony to the fact that the Jews maltreated, persecuted, and destroyed the servants that were sent to them. Isaiah was sawn asunder, and to him the apostle in the Hebrews probably alludes; Jeremiah was stoned to death; and if we knew the biography of each of the rest of the prophets, we should find that they too suffered in a similar manner. So true is it, what God says to Jeremiah, "I sent unto you my servants the prophets, rising up early and sending them; saying, Oh, do not this abominable thing which I hate." "Nevertheless they rebelled against thee, and cast thy laws behind their back, and slew thy prophets who testified unto

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