iv to the most unselfish Spirit. 49 



with which his brother's return was welcomed) ; 

 intimating that if they persisted in their exclusive- 

 ness, they would exclude themselves from the 

 marriage feast of the King's Son. 1 It is true, as Our 

 Lord, not long after, taught the disciples in the 

 parable of the Ten Virgins, 2 that profession of Christ 

 before the world, symbolised by the lamps, and legal 

 purity of life, symbolised by virginity, will not avail 

 to save without the true spirit of religion in the 

 heart. But no one parable can teach all truth, or 

 answer every question that may be raised upon it ; 

 and it is not in the least like the teaching of Christ, 

 to hold that those who habitually serve God and 

 keep all His commandments like the elder son, or 

 live from youth to age in the unbroken service of 

 God like the first hired labourers, are in danger of 

 losing their eternal reward for a fit of anger or 

 sullenness at a manifestation of Divine grace which 

 they have not imagination enough to understand. 3 



In the warning at the end of the parable of the 

 Labourers in the Vineyard, " Many that are first shall 

 be last," there is no allusion to such a case as that 

 of Judas, who, being one of the twelve, was among the 

 first, and yet fell away altogether ; for the crime by 

 which Judas fell was not a deficiency in the love 

 and charity taught by Christ, but a treason which 



1 Matt. xxii. 2. 2 Matt. xxv. 1. 



3 The words at the end of the parable in the old text, 

 " Many are called but few chosen," though elsewhere spoken by 

 Our Lord, are now known to be spurious in this passage, and 

 are rejected by the Revisers. 



E 



