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THE KING’S BUSINESS
abundance of blessing; all these are calcu lated to cause the mellowing of the fruit and the flowing of the wine of grace that “maketh glad the heart” of God, the good “householder.” (3) A tower. This was for the watch men, that they might overlook the vine yard, detect damage, notify the vinedressers and give the alarm. There were foxes (Song of Songs, 2:15) even “little foxes,” and wild boars (Ps. 80:13) and robbers (Obad. 5) that threatened damage. The order of prophets was such a tower (Eze. 3:17). The Word and its ministry, and the “hope” is such now, and everyone, of course, is to watch. II. T h e R en t . Its Nature. The rent of the vineyaro was “the fruits of it ” (v. 34). “Who plant- eth a vineyard and eateth not of the fruit thereof” (2 Cor. 9:7). We may wonder if the Lord does not sometimes go hungry and thirsty for the fruit of His vineyard. And what are its fruits? The fruits of holiness. (Rom. 6:22), of righteousness (Phil. 1:11), of our lips (Heb. 13:15), of souls (Rom. 1:13), of the Spirit which are love, joy, peace, long suffering, gentleness, goodness, meekness, temperance (Gal. 5: 22, 23). He must be a good Landlord who requires such rental from His vineyard 1 they must be “wicked husbandmen” who will not render it. Its great peculiarity is that the more rent one pays the more fruit one has left. The Absentee Landlord. Like the men in the parables of the pounds and tal ents the householder having rented his vineyard went into a far country. Our Lord is not an absentee God. The point of the parable demanded the idea, and it is apparently true. In fact, however, after Israel i was settled in the land the Cloud and the Angel of the Lord ceased to lead visibly; and when the Lord founded the Church He went away. This makes infi dels and infidelity.. When the Lord returns III. T h e R ent R equired . 1.
be no other land lord than H e). Isaiah S:7 and John IS :1 make that certain. He planted the vineyard (Isa. 80:15; Matt. 16: 18). God’s first act of providence was the planting of a garden into which he “put the man which he had formed.’’ We may see in this the original of the idea, \dam was ejected from the vineyard for want of the fruits of righteousness the condition of his tenancy (Gen. 2:8). 4. The Equipment. (1) A hedge. The hedge stands for separation and protection. Palestine was a secluded land though yet the center of the world and (when the hedge was broken down) “the bridge’ ana “battle field” of the nations. It was bounded by a coast without a port on the west, the Lebanon range on the north, the desert and gorge of Jordan on the east, and the fierce wilderness on the south. The land is a witness to the existence and wisdom of the' great Geologist and shows that He loved and chose Israel “from before the founda tion 'Of the world,” and purpose» that they and we should be “separate” from the world. The hedge about Israel is also the Law and the regulations that tended to dis tinguish and keep Israel from admixture with the gentile world; the hedge is now broken down (Eph. 2:14). Had they kept that hedge in repair, hedged about like Job (Job 1:10) Jehovah would have continued a “wall of fire” about them (Zee. 2:5). With what has God hedged us about? With the open confession of Christ, the sacraments, the assembling of ourselves to gether, the Lord’s day and that great pe culiarity love. These and the mercyseat (Heb. 4:16) with the double intercession (Rom. 8:26, 34), if kept in repair will pro tect the vineyard of the Church and the soul, and make us that we “shall be neither barren nor unfruitful in the work of the Lord.” (2) A wine press. This was necessary to express the wine, the essential fruit of the vineyard. There are temptations, con flicts, heavy crosses, treadings underfoot, weighty responsibilities, wrestlings in prayer; there are weights of glory and
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