borne the burden
and heat of the day. But he answered one of them, and said, Friend, I do
thee no wrong; didst not thou agree with me for a penny? Take that thine
is, and go thy way: I will give unto this last, even as unto thee. Is it
not lawful for me to do what I will with mine own? Is thine eye evil,
because I am good? So the last shall be first, and the first last: for
many be called, but few chosen" (Matt. xx. 8-16).

These words imply--

1. That there is infinite grace, through which a certain equity shines,
in the things which God has provided for all who have wrought, even
though feebly and tardily, at His work. The work is honour and
happiness; the want of it is shame and pain. The early labourers are the
enviable; the late labourers are the pitiable. But God in His boundless
grace adds a boundless gift to all: "the gift of God," which "is eternal
life, through Jesus Christ our Lord." But through the grace a certain
equity shines. Man was made for Life, he was born for it. To miss the
glorious boon which God has the power to bestow on him through Christ,
were to miss the very end and issue to which God touched his spirit. A
well-nigh infinite capacity of being, loving, and enjoying, is in him,
which God only can satisfy and eternity only can complete. And God in
His boundless love and mercy meets him in his idleness and degradation,
and proposes to him a work which His grace will crown with glorious,
everlasting joy.

2. None shall miss the blessing through the order of the dispensations.

If the Jews were called, and the Pagans were left sad and idle in the
streets, the evenfall shall adjust the balance, the evening of earth's
life, the morning of the everlasting day. Idle and sad, I say. When you
are next at South Kensington Museum, place yourself before the cartoon
of "Paul preaching at Athens." Mark the foremost in the group of pagan
hearers; he bears in his sad wistful countenance the whole tale of
Gentile waiting, longing, hoping, disappointment, despondency, and
despair. Few preachers can preach such a sermon as utters itself mutely
from that man's eyes and lips. This parable is Christ's answer to the
mute appeal: "No man hath hired thee, poor outcast! the day spent, the
soul lost! Come in, at the last hour, come in. These have wrought in a
noble service the long day through. The sweat of manly toil is on their
brow, the joy of a work well done is in their hearts. Come in; the sun
still lacks some