Editorial January 1, 1955 Issue

THE MARKET PLACE OR THE VINEYARD

Robert Ellis Key

In the twentieth chapter of Matthew it is recorded that the Master. Christ Jesus, related a parable about a householder who owned a vineyard. Early in the morning the householder went out to hire laborers for the work. Having agreed with them for one penny, he sent them into his vineyard. During the day more help was required; so at the third, sixth, ninth, and even at the eleventh hour, he visited the market place and hired others, also promising them a fair and just recompense for their work.

At the close of the day all the hired men came for their wages, and each received a similar reward. This equality of recompense did not seem just to those who had worked many hours in the heat of the day. The Gospel records, "And when they had received it. they murmured against the good-man of the house, saying. These last have wrought but one hour, and thou hast made them equal unto us, which have borne the burden and heat of the day." Judged from a human standpoint this seems sound reasoning, but from a spiritual standpoint it was not so.

The vineyard of our Lord includes the true vine, the Christ, for did not the Master say (John 15: 1), "I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman"? The Christ-consciousness expresses the "kingdom of heaven," which Mary Baker Eddy defines in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 590) as. "The reign of harmony in divine Science: the realm of unerring, eternal, and omnipotent Mind; the atmosphere of Spirit, where Soul is supreme."

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