the same condemnation. At first no distinction is made
between class and class of unbelievers; of all, and of all alike it is
recorded, "they would not come." But when the offer became more pressing
and more searching, a difference began to appear, not as yet the
difference between the believing and the unbelieving, but a difference
in the manner of refusing, and in the degrees of courage or of cowardice
that accompanied the act. The greater number treated the message
lightly, and preferred their own business to the life eternal which was
offered to them in Christ; while a portion, not content with spurning
away the offer, persecuted to the death the ambassadors who bore it. The
fault of those who are first mentioned takes the form of indolent,
frivolous neglect, rather than of active opposition. They were occupied
with many other things, and therefore could not attend to this one; they
were bent on prosecuting their own gains, and therefore set no value on
God's favour.[45]

[45] A melancholy interest adheres to the contrast between man's
heedlessness of God as expressed in this parable, [Greek:
amelesantes], made light of it, did not care for it; and God's
regard for men as expressed in 1 Peter v. 7, [Greek: auto melei peri
humon], he careth for you.

These two, ungodliness and worldliness, are always found in company; but
it is sometimes difficult to determine which of the two goes first, and
draws the other after it. You seldom meet a man who neglects this great
salvation, and neglects also the gains and the pleasures of life. Those
who forget God follow hard after another lord, although they may be
unable to detect or unwilling to confess their own idolatry. No man can
serve two masters; but every man practically serves one. It may not,
however, be easy in any given case to discover whether a man pursues
some particular pleasure because he is determined to abide far from
Christ, or is kept far from Christ because his heart is pre-engaged to
some worldly lust. In the case which the parable exhibits, this point
has not been expressly determined. When the second and more urgent
message arrived, demanding their immediate attendance on the king at the
marriage of his son, those men departed in an opposite direction, each
to his own business; but it remains an open question whether their
hearts were first so glued to the farm and the merchandise, that they
could not be persuaded to take from these engrossing p