25, 26. "Agree with thine adversary quickly, whiles thou
art in the way with him; lest at any time the adversary deliver thee to
the judge, and the judge deliver thee to the officer, and thou be cast
into prison. Verily I say unto thee, Thou shalt by no means come out
thence, till thou hast paid the uttermost farthing."

This parable our Lord seems to have spoken at least twice, as He did
several others. For we find it also in the 12th chapter of St. Luke.
But it is there part of quite a different discourse. I think that by
seeing what it means there, we shall see more clearly what it means here.

Our Lord there is speaking of the sins of the whole Jewish nation. Here
He is speaking rather of each man's private sins. But He applies the
same parable to both. He gives the same warning to both. Not to go too
far on the wrong road, lest they come to a point where they cannot turn
back, but must go on to just punishment, if not to utter destruction.

That is what He warned the Jews all through the latter part of the 12th
chapter of Luke. He will come again, He says, at an hour they do not
think of, and then if their elders, the Scribes and Pharisees, are going
on as they are now, beating the man-servants and maid-servants, and
eating and drinking with the drunken, oppressing the people, and living
in luxury and profligacy, He will cut them asunder, and appoint them
their portion with the unbelievers.

In this, and in many other parables, He had been warning them that their
ruin was near; and, at last, turning to the whole crowd, He appeals to
them, to their common sense. "When ye see a cloud rise out of the west,
straightway ye say, There cometh a shower; and so it is. And when ye see
the south wind blow, ye say, There will be heat; and it cometh to pass.
Ye hypocrites, ye can discern the face of the sky and of the earth; but
how is it that ye do not discern this time?" If God can give you common
sense about one thing, why not about another? Why can you not open your
eyes and of yourselves judge what is right? "Agree with thine adversary
quickly, whiles thou art in the way with him; lest at any time the
adversary deliver thee to the judge, and the judge deliver thee to the
officer, and thou be cast into prison. Verily I say unto thee, Thou
shalt by no means come out thence, till thou hast paid the uttermost
farthing."

So He spoke; and they did not fully understand what He m