may come a time when the gentle in rank shall be gentle in very deed; when the rich shall recognise that they are trustees for God, and shall use their property for the purposes for which He has placed it in their hands; when allotment acts shall remedy the ruin which enclosure acts have wrought; when an enlightened self-love, arising out of the possession of something to love, shall render the demagogue and the inciter to outrage a foreigner to our land, and when our "common Father" shall find that "justice and righteousness" for which He looks.--_R. C. Parkman, B.A., Sermons_ (1843), No. X. WILD GRAPES. v. 8-23. _Woe unto them that join house to house, &c._ It is important to remember that this whole chapter constitutes one prophecy. Much of the power of its teaching will be lost, if this fact be overlooked. In verses 1-7, we have the astonishing declaration that in "the vineyard of the Lord of hosts" He has discovered, not the excellent fruit He had a right to expect, but "wild grapes." In verses 8-23, some of these "wild grapes" are specified and denounced. Surveying His vineyard the Husbandman beheld-- I. Not the gracious fruit of generosity, but the evil fruits of GREED and PRIDE. He saw men, not content with the possessions which Providence had conferred upon them, nor those which honest industry would enable them to secure, but coveting their neighbour's possessions, and hesitating at no means that would enable them to gratify their desires (Micah ii. 1, 2); beating down their equals, that they themselves might dwell in solitary grandeur (ver. 8). Note, 1. That the aggregation of landed property here denounced was directly contrary to the most explicit Divine ordinances (Num. xxxvi. 7; Lev. xxv. 23, 24).[1] 2. The conduct here denounced has its counterparts to-day--in the matter of land, great landowners buying up all the little farms adjoining their estates, and turning fruitful valleys into deer-runs; in trade, great capitalists subjecting their less wealthy rivals to ruinous competition, &c., &c.[2] 3. That it is not merely particular manifestations of the spirit of greed and pride, but the spirit itself, that provokes the indignation of the bountiful Giver of all good. Covetousness and arrogance are not confined to any particular class. The tenth commandment exists for the poor as well as for the rich. II. Not the excellent fruit of temperance, but the evil fruit of SENSUAL INDULGENCE (ver. 11, 12). He saw men living for mere pleasure, without any recognition of the "work" which He had wrought for them as a nation, without any acknowledgement of His goodness to them as individuals, without any remembrance of the purpose of their being.[3]