THE WICKED HUSBANDMEN.


One day when the priests and elders of the Temple were asking
questions of Jesus, He told them this parable.

There was a certain man who had a vineyard which was hedged or walled
round, and had a tower. But he was going away into a country far off,
so he let the vineyard to a number of husbandmen, or labourers, who
were to give him part of the fruit of the vines. When the time had
come that the fruit was ripe, he sent his servants to the husbandmen
that he might receive his share. But the wicked husbandmen took his
servants, and slew one, and beat another, and stoned the third. Then
he sent other servants, more than before, but the husbandmen served
them as they had done the others. Last of all he sent his own son,
saying, "They will reverence my son." But when those wicked men saw
him coming, they said among themselves, "This is the heir to all the
vineyard; come, let us kill him and seize on his inheritance." So they
caught him, and cast him out of the vineyard, and slew him.

Then Jesus said to the priests and elders, "When the Lord of the
vineyard cometh, what will he do unto these husbandmen?" And they
answered, "He will miserably destroy those wicked men, and will let
out his vineyard to others, who shall render him the fruits in their
season."

In this parable the owner of the vineyard means God; the vineyard
Canaan, and the husbandmen are the Jews, who had promised to obey Him,
but had not done so. He had sent His prophets among them, to warn