"Hear another parable: There was a certain householder, which planted a
vineyard, and hedged it round about, and digged a winepress in it,
and built a tower, and let it out to husbandmen, and went into a far
country: and when the time of the fruit drew near, he sent his
servants to the husbandmen, that they might receive the fruits of
it. And the husbandmen took his servants, and beat one, and killed
another, and stoned another. Again, he sent other servants more than
the first: and they did unto them likewise. But last of all he sent
unto them his son, saying, They will reverence my son. But when the
husbandmen saw the son, they said among themselves, This is the
heir: come, let us kill him, and let us seize on his inheritance.
And they caught him, and cast him out of the vineyard, and slew him.
When the lord therefore of the vineyard cometh, what will he do unto
those husbandmen? They say unto him, He will miserably destroy those
wicked men, and will let out his vineyard unto other husbandmen,
which shall render him the fruits in their seasons. Jesus saith unto
them, Did ye never read in the scriptures, The stone which the
builders rejected, the same is become the head of the corner: this
is the Lord's doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes? Therefore say
I unto you, The kingdom of God shall be taken from you, and given to
a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof. And whosoever shall fall
on this stone shall be broken: but on whomsoever it shall fall, it
will grind him to powder. And when the chief priests and Pharisees
had heard his parables, they perceived that he spake of them. But
when they sought to lay hands on him, they feared the multitude,
because they took him for a prophet."--MATT. xxi. 33-46.
When a proprietor has determined to appropriate as a vineyard a portion
of ground which had previously lain waste, or been employed for some
other purpose, his first care is to plant the vines. As some time must
necessarily elapse before the young plants begin to bear fruit, he may
prosecute the other departments of his undertaking at leisure. In due
time, accordingly, he constructs a fence around the field to keep out
depredators, whether men or beasts; digs a vat for receiving the juice,
and prepares an apparatus above it for squeezing the clusters quickly
in the hurry of the vintage; builds a tower as at once a shelter for the
keeper and an elevated stand-point for the watcher by night or day.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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