duces bad fruit;
it is not a case in which a vine bears no fruit; it is not a case in
which a vine that might otherwise have been fruitful is trampled down by
wild beasts for want of a fence. It is a case in which, after the
vineyard has brought forth its fruit, the cultivators who have charge
refuse to render to the owner the portion of the produce which is his
due. The difference is important: it determines clearly the main line in
which the interpretation of the parable should proceed.

By the vineyard with all its privileges, I understand the ordinances of
Israel as appointed by God, and the people of Israel in as far as they
were necessarily passive in the hands of their priests and rulers. The
husbandmen manifestly represent the leaders, who at various periods had
usurped a lordship over God's heritage. Extraordinary ambassadors were
sent from time to time in the owner's name, to demand the stipulated
tribute,--prophets such as Elijah, Elisha, Isaiah, Jeremiah, and
Ezekiel, men not of the number, or in the confidence of the ordinary
rulers, but specially commissioned by the Supreme, to approach them with
reproof and instruction. The established authorities of the nation,
exercising their office for their own pleasure or profit, rejected the
counsel and assaulted the persons of the messengers. Some were
imprisoned, some driven into exile, and some put to death. Successive
embassies, sent in successive ages, met with similar treatment, until,
in the fulness of time, Christ the Son became the messenger of the
covenant. He came unto his own, and his own received him not. Already
those Jewish rulers who listened to this parable, were laying their
plans to cast this greatest prophet out of the city, and to crucify
him.

The owner of the vineyard said, "They will reverence my son." The
expression is natural and appropriate in the lips of a human proprietor;
but obviously when it represents the purpose of God, it means only that
such reverence was claimed, and such reverence was due. The omniscient
knew beforehand that the Jewish rulers would not yield even to this last
and tenderest appeal. The expectation of the husbandmen that when they
should have murdered the heir, the property should become their own,
does not point to any definite, well considered plan by which the wicked
expect to gain a permanent portion by rejecting the Gospel; it indicates
merely the blunt determination of the carnal mind to grasp and enjoy
G