Page:SermonsFromTheLatins.djvu/168

 hearing" their  Lord's  call:  "Go  ye,  also,  into  My vineyard  "  refused  to  comply;  and  some  such  there doubtless  were,  but  an  insignificant  number — nothing  to  speak  of.  The  sense,  therefore,  is  that God  invites  all  to  labor  in  His  service;  some  refuse and  are  lost;  the  multitude  accept  and  are  saved; many  of  these  are  called  to  the  state  of  highest sanctity,  which,  however,  is  attained  only  by  the chosen  few.  This  interpretation  is  borne  out  by  the latter  parable  which  follows  and  explains  the  former. The  wedding-feast  signifies  heaven;  the  guests,  the elect.  Now  comparatively  few  refused  the  invitation;  but  the  number  of  those  who  accepted  was  so great  that  we  are  told  "  the  wedding  was  filled  with guests." Now  in  all  that  multitude  the  king  found just  one — only  one  guest  who  had  not  on  a  wedding garment— one  man  unworthy  of  heaven  whom  he ordered  to  be  cast  into  exterior  darkness.

Brethren, it  must  be  confessed  that  the  human race, past,  present  and  to  come,  is  well  typified  in the  parable  of  the  cockle  and  good  wheat,  but  I believe  that  the  wheat,  to  flourish  at  all,  must  ever be in  the  ascendency. If we  divide  the  human  race into unbelievers  and  believers,  we  are,  at  first  sight, appalled by  the  infidel  throng,  the  Mohammedans and idolaters  of  the  East  and  the  Indians  of  the Western world. But yet  we  are  assured  by  Christ Himself that  "  Many  shall  come  from  the  East  and the  West  and  shall  sit  down  in  the  kingdom  of heaven." When the  idolater  and  fetish  worshipper lives virtuously,  and  dies  in  the  belief  and  practice  of