_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.
40 Nathaniel said, Is it not well that all men should refrain from
taking on themselves the marriage vow?
41 And Jesus said, Men are not pure because they are unmarried men.
The man who lusts is an adulterer if he has wife or not.
42 And then he said to all, Some things men know by being told, while
other things they know not till the gate of consciousness shall open
up for them.
43 I speak a mystery that now you cannot understand; but you shall
some day understand.
44 A eunuch is a man who does not lust; some men are eunuchs born,
some men are eunuchs by the power of men, and some are eunuchs by the
Holy Breath, who makes them free in God through Christ.
45 He who is able to receive the truth I speak, let him receive.