an needs something beyond the
mere play of his powers, though their free play is an intense
exhilaration and delight. He needs the fellowship of beings to satisfy
the yearning, to feed the appetite, of his nobler nature; he needs the
love of God, and communion with all that is of God, that he may rest and
be blessed. This is the reward which the earthly day of his toil and
patience will bring. The true workman is happy in his work, and sings
while he toils. But God has a yet richer benediction for His children
when the work is done, a blessing which will beautify and glorify life
through eternity. This He gives to the workman out of His royal bounty,
His own blessedness. It is His own to give; and all true workmen,
whatever the measure of their work, because of the spirit of their work,
shall claim it at His hand.

II. The reason of the idleness of the husbandmen who were not called
till the eleventh hour to the work.

"And about the eleventh hour he went out, and found others standing
idle, and said unto them, Why stand ye here all the day idle? They say
unto him, Because no man hath hired us." The true key to the parable
lies here. There are many other answers conceivable. They might have
said, Because we like to lounge and loaf, work is irksome; or, Because
we are over-tired with yesterday's toil; or, Because the pay does not
suit us, we are out on strike. Imagine that any one of these answers had
been given; the whole character of the parable would have been changed,
and the equity of the ways of God would then have been dark, dark
indeed. But no. The men were willing to work; they were waiting to be
hired; they made no bargain about their pay. "Go ye into the vineyard;
and whatsoever is right, that shall ye receive," the Master said; and
they went, content to leave their wage to His justice. The men evidently
cared more about the work than the pay. In truth the idlers were to be
pitied. The Master pitied them, and He gave to their will the wage which
lack of opportunity had forbidden them to earn before.

And this opens up some serious thoughts about the pagan world, and its
relation to the kingdom of God. There is a profound, but not an
impenetrable mystery hidden in the words, "the fulness of the time."
Through long ages the pagan world was left groping in the darkness,
"_feeling after God if haply it might find Him_," and moaning as it
grasped at phantoms in the gloom, and saw them slip from its empty hand.
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