The daily morning journal and courier., 1898-03-15
'..p,Anr1CrpATIOy IN GoD,D
Rev. Dr. J. Lee Mitcheil's Eloquent Ser mon-Words on the Late Deacon Hem

Mathew 201-16. Psalms 1-121,) There are passages in the Scriptures upon which all exegesis and history and archaeology will never throw the light of tallow-dip. The only thing that explains them is life. If you have lived that life yourself they are seen clear, and even if you have only lived beside such life they are illu- minated for you by sort of moonlight. Such a living commentary on this pas sage Is fresh in our memory.
 Look at this parable as you will in other lights and it is confusing, no ethi- pal theory can be devised which makes It satisfactory. To be sure its bit of hard sociological fact is repeated every day. Go into any large dry goods store pr factory and 1t takes no great dis cernment to discover that of men get ting the same wage, some are worth twice as much or else some are not worth half as much One hour of some mems work is worth twelve hours of the work of other men, but also of men whose work is of equal value some work twelve hours for the penny for which others work only one hour. To be sure the parable is true as a fact of earth but that does not make it right and precisely what we expect of heav- en and the perfect adjustment of God Is that they will remedy these injus- tices.
 Indeed even law to-day denies the validity of the householders plea that he paid to each man what he agreed to pay him and if the man was satisfied with his own bargain he had no right ta 1oi, ofo ', inc ttn hn11Sp- holder made with others. The law says you shall not get your wheat hauled from Omaha and Duluth to Boston for lust the same price that men pay from Albany to Boston even if the railroads are willing to agree to do it. It is an injustice.
 And so of the challenge with which the parable closes "Is it not lawful for me to do what I will with mine own?' The only ethical answer is mo it Isn't" and no man ever stood out for that answer either more than this very Jesus who speaks the parable. If Jesus taught anything he taught that a man cannot do what he will with his own, does so at least at his own peril, that he is accountable to men and God for the use of what he controls, that the very calling it his own is a peril bus blunder And if what is not true in the essence of the parable could be shifted on to the application it is not true of God either as an unmodified proposition; the nature of God, every name by which he delights to call him. Self signifies that his use of his univer- sal own is limited by justice, mercy, love. If God can do what He will with His own it is only because what He wills must be right.
 No, the parable from first to last is confusing, utterly confounding, and that is just what it was intended to be, that is it's teaching says Jesus. If you are going to calculate eternal values by arithmetic will give you an exam pIe that shall be found on your slates pnsolved when times great school bell sounds the last session closed. If you are going to try to put the kingdom of heaven among listed stocks I will tell you some things about it that will for sver bother you to quote it.
 Last week there passed to his rest pne who fifty-one years ago the third of last January stood here and profess ed his desire to be disciple of Christ. All these years he has stood in that herce light that beats upon a Christian man. A few days ago little bud of life that had scarcely opened the pet hls of it's eyes sighed wearily and gave It up. And about the same time man an old man too, who had humanly speaking led bad life, who had pleas ed himself, who had escaped a good deal of criticism because he never claimed nor tried to be anything, de elared his regret for it all, and his de- sire to express his faith in Christ These three, the old warrior, the little child, and the untried recruit have gone up to God together. Two of these lives at least, the soldier and the baby will never ask God for the penny, ant never be offered the penny by God Suddenly you see what that parable means. That all measures between Goo And His friends are absurd. You art not servants naid Christ, you are no In my pay at all the mention of it is Insult and inconceivable. Does mar pay his wife for the loving fidelity o. years. Do husband and wife keep tai ly of love and say T have loved SC much to-day how much have your The men who stood by the stone wal
 at Gettysburg were drawing $1
 } month from the government. Doe the nation consider that that pait
 those men, that there was any rela x ton at all between the SIS and wha
 they did. The SIS furnished certain
 material requisite of life, but no ma
 ton pretends to pay it's patriots of wa
 br peace.
 But a life like that we miss teaches u
 more about this parable than the ab
 surdity of material calculations il z spiritual affairs. It recalls us to al
 Identification which Christ often un hesitatingly put forth but which w
 are still slow to literally grasp, tn S4 Identification of the life for Christ ant # in Christ with Christ The most fire # uuent error unto which this slownes
 of apprehension leads us is pervert
 ed view of the judgement with it
 God on one side and His people on tn
 other. God and his people are on tn % same side, Christ and Christianity ar % bne If lives which have stood for Go, ' Tor fifty years are to be unidentified wit # any figure in this parable it is with tn N householder himself, the vineyard @ theirs they are one with God Tea V hot little flock" said Jesus, flor it i # your Fathers good pleasure to gv s you not a. penny-the kingdom"
 s Now do not suppose that if I ha ~ gone over to the store some day S week ago I could have got your frien *s and mine to admit this view of himself