Then said I, Lo, I come. In the volume of the
book it is written of Me, that I should do the will of God.' And in
those days shall be fulfilled once more, the text which says,--'That
the people glorified God, saying, A great Prophet, even Christ the
Lord Himself, hath risen up among us, and God hath visited His
people.'
SERMON XVIII. THE WICKED SERVANT
ST. MATTHEW xviii. 23.
The kingdom of heaven is likened to a certain king, which would take
account of his servants.
This parable, which you heard in the Gospel for this day, you all
know. And I doubt not that all you who know it, understand it well
enough. It is so human and so humane; it is told with such
simplicity, and yet with such force and brilliancy that--if one dare
praise our Lord's words as we praise the words of men--all must see
its meaning at once, though it speaks of a state of society different
from anything which we have ever seen, or, thank God, ever shall see.
The Eastern despotic king who has no law but his own will; who puts
his servant--literally his slave--into a post of such trust and
honour, that the slave can misappropriate and make away with the
enormous sum of ten thousand talents; who commands, not only him, but
his wife and children to be sold to pay the debt; who then forgives
him all out of a sudden burst of pity, and again, when the wretched
man has shown himself base and cruel, unworthy of that pity, revokes
his pardon, and delivers him to the tormentors till he shall pay all-
-all this is a state of things impossible in a free country, though
it is possible enough still in many countries of the East, which are
governed in this very despotic fashion; and justice, and very often
injustice likewise, is done in this rough, uncertain way, by the will
of the king alone.
Pages:
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
180
181
182
183