The Penn's Grove record., 1913-11-14
WILL ENDURE LONG
Parable of the Savior Cannot Die
Out From the Minds
of Men.

For The kingdom Of heaven Is like
unto a man that is an householder,
which vent out early in the morning
to hire laborers into his vineyard"
etc.-Matt. 20:1-15.
The occasion of this parable we find
in the previous chapter where the rich
man came to Christ, the young man
who had a desire for spiritual things,
but who thought more of his material
possessions and at last went away
sorrowful. The disciples, and especial
ly Peter. had been bordering the Incl.
dent. The young man had refused the
service Of Christ and chung to his
riches; they on the contrary had for
saken what little they possessed and
thrown in their lot with the Master.
What would be their reward? So at
last Peter asks the question, Behold
we have forsaken all and followed
Thee, what shall we have t~herefore?"
The answer of Christ is that all those
who have made sacrifices for his sake
shall receive in the present world an
hundredfold and, in addition, life ever.
lasting.
But the spirit of Peters question
also requires an answer. 1t was the
spirit of circumstances, of self.
complacency and bargaining. So Jesus
tells him that many that are last shall
be first, and the first last, meaning
that not the mere fact of having made
a sacrifice for the kingdom insures
the great reward, but the spirit in
which the sacrifice is made, and then
Jesus tells the parable.
This parable deals with work and
wages. The social science of today
probably does not take into considera-
ton what this parable has to say, or
possibly looks upon it as foolishness,
n yet it's teaching will stand when
much of the so-called social science
n tine-spun theories of the age have
passed into the limbo of forgotten
things.
The kingdom of heaven is like unto
a man who goes to hire laborers into
his vineyard" Let US pause right
there. 1t is a fine thing when you feel
discouraged at conditions, and feel as
if in this work-a-day world the king,
dom of God were an ethereal and I'm.
real quantity-it is a fine thing then to
recall how many things Jesus says the
kingdom of heaven is like. Gather
those Ikenesses together and you find
that the kingdom touches your life
n work, no matter what your occu.
nafinn q u hn XNhu II caaDoo lilo ~,
invitation from God to join his forces
when you find that his kingdom is in
the midst Of your life, and so it is. The
kingdom of heaven is like a man who
goes to hire laborers. That very first
sentence o~verthrows some of our pre-
conceptions. We probably had an idea.
that the kingdom of heaven was like
the Garden OF Eden where there would
be no labor to speak of, and where the
old question of wages would never be
brought up. 1t may be rather startling
to some of US to find that the kingdom
means work and wages, labor end re-
ward, industry and faithfulness. If we
learn that lesson from the paH&Ake we
have learnt a great deal. 1t is the COS.
pei of work. Some one says that there
is no gospel of work, that it is a stern
law of necessity from which nan is
continually striving to escape. No, it
is a gospel. God has made work a
means of grace. The idle man is thu
farthest from the kingdom, and the
hardest to save.
Jesus represents God as hiring la.
borers for his vineyard. To the Chris,
tan every honest calling is a sacred
calling since it is an integral part of
the necessary work of the kingdom OF
God. We often hear the ministry
spoken of as the sacred calling, but
that deserves the title only when it is
striving to infuse s~acredness into
every life, and into the so-called secu.
lar calling of every life.
The world is filled with different
kinds of work. There is for example
the work of the homemaker, concerned
with the preparation of food, the car
ing for house and clothing, and all
those innumerable activities which
Solomon loved to linger upon when he
described the good fortune of that
hcme whose presiding angel is a good
woman. Is not that work of the king
dom of God? And perhaps that class
has more reason to go on a strike than
those who work in our mines and fac
tories. There is the necessary work
of all those who labor in wood, and
iron, and stone; of those who trans
form the ores into tools and machin-
cry; of those who transform the raw
materials into textures of cotton and
wool and silk. There is the work of
those who open the furrow, and SOW
the seed and reap the harvest. Can
we say to any of these, we have no
need of you? Are they not all neces-
sary factors in Gods wise economy?