a certain kind of
servants, who though they may seem busy, and may get from ignorant
persons some credit for being so, are nevertheless merely running on
their own errands, and doing their own work, so that they are no
better than idle in respect to the work which they ought to be doing
for their householder or master.

But when they become true Christians they are no longer like those
idle fellows who are always sauntering about with their arms folded,
in the market-place, pretending that they are in want of employment,
no man having as yet hired them: they may now be compared to a set of
laborers in the vineyard or garden, who, whenever you look at them,
are sure to be seen either digging, or planting, or watering, or
doing, in short, whatever is most wanting in the place where they are
working; and they have always an eye, moreover, to the honor and
interests of the great Householder their Master.

The householder is said to _go out at different hours of the day_ to
hire these servants. This signifies that the light of revelation was
sent at different periods of the world to the different people in it,
and in particular to the Jews at one period, and the Gentile nations
at another. The Jews had been much offended at seeing Christ address
himself to the Gentiles, who, as they thought, not having been called
into the church or vineyard of God at an early period of the world,
ought not to be received at a later hour. Our Saviour, therefore,
makes use of this parable, or story, as a convenient means of showing
how unreasonable these Jewish prejudices were.

I mean here, however, to accommodate the parable to the purpose of
showing in what manner the gospel often addresses itself _to men in
different periods of life_, calling one at an early age, and one much
later, into the same vineyard of Christ. We are in no danger of
erring exactly as the Jews did, by raising objections to Christ's
calling the great body of the Gentile nations into his church. We may
be in great danger, however, of acting much in the same spirit with
the Jews, and if we do so, that spirit is most likely to show itself
in our objecting to extend the privileges of the gospel to some poor
outcasts or aged sinners among ourselves.

First, then, I will put the case of one who is brought to obey the
gospel _in the morning of life_, and is one of the youngest of the
laborers in our Lord's vineyard. He sets out well, as I will suppose,
and goes on well