of reviving and reviewing some of the thoughts and associations of a long life: but not without a hope and prayer that the reader may derive some benefit from the perusal. JOHN M. HIFFERNAN. ST. JOHN'S RECTORY, NEWPORT, TIP., LIMERICK, August, 1877. CONTENTS. V. THE LABOURERS in the VINEYARD (continued)61 VI. THE LABOurers in the VINEYARD (continued)76 VII. THE LABourers in the VINEYARD (continued)89 VIII. CONNECTION OF HOLINESS AND HAPPINESS 104 XI. THE WICKED HUSBANDMEN (continued) XII. THE WICKED HUSBANDMEN (continued) XIII. THE WICKED HUSBANDMEN (continued) THOUGHTS ON THE PARABLES. CHAPTER I. OUR LORD'S USE OF PARABLES. It is the characteristic of a great mind to think not only profoundly, but clearly; and therefore to express itself with simplicity, as well as force. It ever pours out its unfathomable depths in a calm, a copious, and a transparent stream. But it is the exclusive prerogative of Him to whom all God's works are known from the foundation of the world, and who spake as never man spake, perfectly to unite these widely separated extremes, by wedding abstract essential truth to lucid simplicity. He can clothe those profound movements of the Divine mind which embrace truths eternal in their existence, immutable in their nature, and universal in the range of their application, with the most familiar language of time and B earth. He can, and does, speak in language intelligible to all whose eyes are not wilfully closed against the light of heaven; whose ears are not wilfully stopped against all spiritual truth; and who do not obstinately "refuse to hear the voice of the charmer, charm he never so wisely." In a word, it is the exclusive prerogative of that God who is truth, the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever, to clothe these eternal, immutable, universal secrets of heaven, with language in which a docile child may be profitably instructed, and which he who runs may read. Were proof of this necessary, I might adduce our Lord's Sermon on the Mount, at once sublime and simple, profound and practical. But "why speakest thou unto them in parables ?" Our Lord's awful and mysterious reply to this question, "that seeing they may not see, and hearing they may not understand," may well serve to repress all bold presumption and idle curiosity. It may teach us to be far more earnest in endeavouring to ascertain the meaning than the motive of our Lord's instructions. But still, the Divine mind is the true, indeed the only, field of the Christian's labours and contemplations. Even Scripture is but the mirror which reflects this; his own experience but the proof which illustrates it. The Divine mind is the alone fountain from which the Christian can drink those |