Volume 2

Jes us Among the Harvesters
277
for his kingdom was of this world, and he sought to increase
in earthly goods. But in Jesus' Kingdom, he should
have nothing. The owner of the field should take a lesson
from his neighbor in the art of enriching himself, and
should strive to acquire possessions in the Kingdom of
God. Jesus drew a similitude from a river which wore
away the land on one side and deposited the debris on the
other. The whole discourse was something like that upon
the unjust steward, in which worldly artifice and earthly
greed after enrichnlent should furnish an example for
one's manner of acting in spiritual affairs. Earthly riches
were contrasted with heavenly treasures. Some points of
the instruction seemed a little obscure to me, though to
the Jews, on account of their notions, their religion, and
the standpoint from which they viewed things, all was
quite plain and intelligible. To them all was symbolical.
The field in which lay Joseph's Well was in this neighborhood'
and Jesus took occasion from the circumstance
just related to refer to a somewhat similar struggle
recorded in the Old Testament. Abraham had given far
more land to Lot than the latter had demanded. After relating
the fact, Jesus asked what had become of Lot's
posterity, and whether Abraham had not recovered full
propriety. Ought we not to imitate Abraham? Was not the
kingdom promised to him, and did he not obtain it? This
earthly kingdom, however, was merely a symbol of the
Kingdom of God, and Lot's struggle against Abraham was
typical of the struggle of man with man. But, like
Abraham, man should aim at acquiring the Kingdom of
God. Jesus quoted the text of Holy Scripture in which the
strife alluded to is recorded, I and continued to talk of it
and of the Kingdom before all the harvest laborers.
The unjust husbandman likewise was present with his
followers. He listened in silence and at a distance. He had
engaged his friends to interrupt Jesus from time to time
with all kinds of captious questions. One of them asked