The Pearl | Page 6

worthy wight;?"True always is His high mandate;?He doth no evil, day nor night.?Hear Matthew in the mass narrate,?In the Gospel of the God of might,?His parable portrays the state?Of the Kingdom of Heaven, clear as light:?'My servants,' saith He, 'I requite?As a lord who will his vineyard prune;?The season of the year is right,?And labourers must be hired soon.'"
"Right soon the hirelings all may see?How the master with the dawn arose;?To hire his labourers forth went he,?And workmen stout and strong he chose.?For a penny a day they all agree,?Even as the master doth propose,?They toil and travail lustily,?Prune, bind, and with a ditch enclose.?Then to the market-place he goes,?And finds men idle at high noon:?'How can a man stand here who knows?The vineyards should be tilled so soon?'"
"'Soon as day dawned we hither won,?And no man hath our labour sought;?We have been standing since rose the sun?And no one bids us to do aught.'?'Enter my vineyard every one,'?The master answered quick as thought:?'The work that each by night has done?I will truly pay, withholding naught.'?Among the vines they went and wrought,?While morning, noon and afternoon,?More labourers the master brought,?Until the night must gather soon."
"Soon fell the time of evensong.?An hour before the sun was set,?He saw more idlers, young and strong;?His voice was sober with regret:?'Why stand ye idle all day long?'?'No man,' they said, 'hath hired us yet.'?'Go to my vineyard, fear no wrong;?Each man an honest wage shall get.'?The day grew dark and darker yet,?"Before the rising of the moon;?The master who would pay his debt,?Bade summon all the hirelings soon."
X
"The lord soon called his steward: 'Go?Bring in the men quick as ye may;?Give them the wages that I owe,?And, lest they aught against me say,?Range them along here in a row,?To each alike his penny pay;?Start with the last who standeth low,?And to the first proceed straightway,'?And then the first began to pray,?Complaining they had travailed sore:?'These wrought but one hour of the day,?We think we should receive the more.'"
"'More have we served,' they muttered low,?'Who have endured the long day's heat,?Than these who not two hours toiled so;?Why should their claim with ours compete?'?Said the master: 'I pay all I owe;?Friend, no injustice shalt thou meet;?Take that which is thine own and go.?For a penny we settled in the street;?Why dost thou now for more entreat??Thou wast well satisfied before.?Once made, a bargain is complete;?Why shouldst thou, threatening, ask for more?"
"'What can be more within my gift?Than what I will with mine to do??Let not thine eyes to evil shift,?Because I trusty am, and true.'?'Thus I,' said Christ, 'all men shall sift.?The last shall be the first of you;?And the first last, however swift,?For many are called, but chosen, few.'?And thus poor men may have their due,?That late and little burden bore;?Their work may vanish like the dew,?The mercy of God is much the more."
"More gladness have I, herewithin,?Of flower of life, and noble name,?Than all men in the world might win,?Who thought their righteous deeds to name.?Nathless even now did I begin;?To the vineyard as night fell I came,?But my Lord would not account it sin;?He paid my wages without blame.?Yet others did not fare the same,?Who toiled and travailed there before,?And of their hire might nothing claim,?Perchance shall not for a year more."
Then more, and openly, I spake:?"From thy tale no reason can I wring;?God's righteousness doth ever wake,?Else Holy Writ is a fabled thing.?From the Psalter one verse let us take,?That may to a point this teaching bring:?'Thou requitest each for his deed's sake,?Thou high and all-foreknowing King.'?If one man to his work did cling?All day, and thou wert paid before,?Most wage falls to least labouring,?And ever the less receives the more."
XI
"Of more or less where God doth reign,?There is no chance," she gently said,?"For, whether large or small his gain,?Here every man alike is paid.?No niggard churl our High Chieftain,?But lavishly His gifts are made,?Like streams from a moat that flow amain,?Or rushing waves that rise unstayed.?Free were his pardon whoever prayed?Him who to save man's soul did vow,?Unstinted his bliss, and undelayed,?For the grace of God is great enow."
"But now thou wouldst my wit checkmate,?Making my wage as wrong appear;?Thou say'st that I am come too late,?Of so large hire to be worthy here;?Yet sawest thou ever small or great,?Living in prayer and holy fear,?Who did not forfeit at some date?The meed of heaven to merit clear??Nay much the rather, year by year,?All bend from right and to evil bow;?Mercy and grace their way must steer,?For the grace of God is great enow."
"But enow of grace have the innocent?New-born, before the sacred shrine,?They are sealed with water in sacrament,?And thus are brought into the vine.?Anon the day with darkness blent,?Death by its might makes to decline;?Who wrought no wrong ere