“I think so.”

“That is enough for the present.  It is mercy, blessedness, and justice. . . .  Consider, it was night He chose in order to unveil the Kingdom of Heaven.  For it is not visible to the outward eye, but to the inward eye.  Man, if you possess the Kingdom of Heaven, you possess it in your soul.  If it is not there, you seek it elsewhere in vain.”

“But,” someone ventured to say hesitatingly, “it must also be somewhere else.  The Master Himself says:  ‘Father who art in heaven.’”

John answered him:  “The Kingdom of Heaven is wherever you are, wherever you come with your faith and with your love.  Only do not think that you are obliged to understand such mysteries with your reason.”

And the man asked no more.

Then an old man tottered up and ventured to ask Jesus what he should do.  He was a worldly man, had never lived save for earth, and he was told it was now too late to change.  “How shall I reach the Kingdom of Heaven?”

Then Jesus spoke as follows: 

“There was once a man who employed labourers for his vineyard.  He engaged one in the morning, another at noon, and the last towards evening when the day’s work was almost over.  And when the pay-hour came round, he gave each good wages.  Then those who had been hired in the morning and at noon complained that they had worked much longer in the toil and heat of the day, and ought therefore to receive more wages than he who only began towards evening, and had scarcely laboured for an hour.  Then said the master of the vineyard; ’I told you beforehand the wages I should give you, and you were content.  What is it to you how much I give the other?  Let him come to me late, or let him come to me as soon as it is morning.  The chief thing is that he comes to me.’”

Then the old man began to weep for joy that although he came so late to the vineyard of Jesus, he would still be employed.

Since the Master was so ready to speak, others came to Him at this time, and entreated Him to clear up some matters which they did not understand.  Once he related a story of a king who, when the guests he had invited to his wedding-feast refused to come, invited the people out of the highways.  They came, but one had not a wedding garment on, and the king ordered him to be cast into the outer darkness.  The Master intended it as a parable, but they could not understand it.  The king was too severe, they argued; he must have known that people from off the highways would not be wearing wedding garments.

Jesus was silent, but James observed:  “Why, guests must know that it is not seemly to go to a king’s wedding in torn and dirty clothes.  All are freely invited, but he who comes unwashed and presumptuous will be cast out into the darkness.  No one is admitted who is unprepared.”

Another of His parables concerning the Kingdom of Heaven disturbed them.  It was that of the unjust steward whom his master praised because he had prudently used the money entrusted to him in order to provide for himself.  The steward knew that he would be dismissed, and secretly remitted to his master’s debtors a part of their debts, so that he might stand well with them.  And he did right!  “But, can we purchase the Kingdom of Heaven with goods that are not ours?”