CHAPTER 143.
Project Gutenberg EPUB edition
Levi
Righteousness in rewards. Jesus relates the parable of the husbandman and the laborers. Makes known the divine law of divorce. The mystery of marriage.
The Lord was standing by the sea; the multitudes were there and one stood forth and said,
2 Does God bestow rewards as men bestow rewards, for what is done?
3 And Jesus said, Men never know what other men have done, this life is such a seeming life.
4 One man may seem to do a mighty work, and be adjudged by men as worthy of a great reward.
5 Another man may seem to be a failure in the harvest fields of life, and be dishonored in the face of men.
6 Men do not know the hearts of men; God only knows the hearts of men, and when the day is done he may reward with life the man who fell beneath the burdens of the day, and turn away the man who was the idol of the hearts of men.
7 And then he spoke a parable; he said, The kingdom of the soul is like a man who had a vast estate,
8 And in the morning time he went down to the market place to search for men to gather in his grain.
9 He found three men, and he agreed to give to each a penny for his service for the day, and sent them to his field.
10 Again he went down to the market place the third hour of the day and found five men in waiting, and he said, Go down into my field and serve, and I will pay you what is right; and they went down and served.
11 He went again; it was the sixth hour of the day, and seven men were waiting at the stand; he sent them to the field to serve.
12 And at the eleventh hour he went again; twelve men stood there in seeming idleness; he said to them, Why stand you here in idleness all day?
13 They said, Because we have no work to do; no man has hired us.
14 And then he sent them to his field to serve.
15 Now, when the evening came the man said to his steward, Call the laborers from the field, and pay them for his services. And all were paid, and each received a penny for his hire.
16 Now, when the twelve, who served but from the eleventh hour, received each one a penny for his hire, the three were sore aggrieved; they said,
17 These twelve have served but one short hour, and now they have an equal share with us who have toiled through the scorching hours of day; should we not have at least two pennies for our hire?
18 The man replied, My friends, I do no wrong to you. Did we not have a fast agreement when you went to work? have I not paid in full?
19 What is it unto you if I should pay these men a smaller or a larger sum? Take that which is your own and go your way, for I will give unto the twelve what I will give unto the three, the five, the seven.
20 They did their best and you could do no more than do your best.
21 The hire of man is based upon the intent of the heart.
22 As Jesus taught, a Pharisee came up and said, Lord, is it lawful for a man to put away his wife?
23 And Jesus said, You ought to know; what says the law?
24 The Pharisee replied, The law provides that man may be divorced, may put away his wife.
25 And Jesus said, The hardness of the hearts of men induced the giver of the law to make provisions such as these; but from the first it was not so.
26 God made a woman for a man, and they were one; and afterwards he said, A man shall leave his father and his mother and shall cleave unto his wife; they are no more divided; they are one, one flesh.
27 What God has joined no man can part.
28 Now, when they went up to the house, a man made free to ask again about this matter of divorce.
29 And Jesus said again what to the Pharisee he said; and then he gave the higher law of marriage life:
30 Whoever puts away his wife, except she be a courtesan, and then shall take another wife commits adultery.
31 The woman who shall leave a man, unless he be a libertine and an adulterer, and then becomes the wife of any other man, commits adultery.
32 And Thomas asked, What is adultery?
33 And Jesus said, The man who harbors lustful thoughts, who covets any woman not his wife, is an adulterer.
34 The wife who harbors lustful thoughts, and covets any man who is not wed to her, is not her husband, is a courtesan.
35 Men cannot make a law to bind two hearts.
36 When two are bound in love they have no thought of lust. The woman cannot leave the man; the man has no desire to send his wife away.
37 When men and women harbor lustful thoughts, and covet any other flesh, they are not one, not joined by God.
38 And Philip said, Lord, are there few that God has joined in holy marriage bonds?
39 And Jesus said, God knows the pure in heart; the lustful men and women are but creatures of the lustful self; they cannot be at one; nor can they be at one with God.