have not been dealt with according to their sins, nor re- warded according to their iniquities.
We should learn to be more thankful for God's mercy. We have probably little idea of the extent of our obli- gations to it, and of the number of gracious messages which the Lord of the vineyard is constantly sending to our souls. The last day will unfold to our wondering eyes a long list of unacknowledged kindnesses, of which while we lived we took no notice. Mercy we shall find was indeed God's darling attribute. "He delighteth in mercy." (Micah vii. 18.) Mercies before conversion, mercies after conversion, mercies at every step of their journey on earth, will be revealed to the minds of saved saints, and make them ashamed of their own thanklessness. Sparing mercies, providential mercies, mercies in the way of warn- ings, mercies in the way of sudden visitations, will all be set forth in order before the minds of lost sinners, and confound them by the exhibition of their own hardness and unbelief. We shall all find that God was often speaking to us when we did not hear, and sending us messages which we did not regard. Few texts will be brought out so prominently at the last day as that of St. Peter : "The Lord is long-suflfering to us ward, not willing that any should perish." (2 Peter iii. 9.)
In the last place, this parable shows us the severity of GoiT 8 judgments when they fall on obstinate sinners. The punishment of the wicked husbandmen is a vivid re- presentation of God's final dealiags with such as go on still in wickedness. — ^At the time when our Lord spoke this parable, it was a prophetical picture of the approach- ing ruin of the Jewish church and nation. The vineyard