UNTO THIS LAST
“Unto This Last” is a parable in the
Bible about payment of wages to the workers by a trader who engaged them in his
vineyard.
All
the workers did not start working at the same time. Some came late and the last
one did much less work than others.
However, the trader did not follow the
common theory of each one according to the quantum of his work. He acted on a different concept of the phrase “unto this
last”, according to which the “last will
be first and the first will be last.” He brushed aside the objection of the
workmen who had worked from the beginning to the ending of the working day. He justified
his approach by telling them that no injustice had been done to them because they
had been paid their full wages as was agreed.
According
to some commentators “ this parable highlights that God’s grace and reward are
not always measured by outward effort or merit but can be bestowed on those who
might be considered less deserving.”
The English writer and polymath John Ruskin (1819-1900) wrote a book on the
above-mentioned parable. The title of his book is “Unto This Last”. It was published chapterwise
between August and December 1860.
Ruskin
regards personal gain as secondary to
the disinterested service of one’s fellows . He recommends that the wages of
the workers should be sufficient enough to fulfil their basic needs.
Mahatma
Gandhi (1869-1948) admired John Ruskin’s economic and philosophical ideas. He considered
“Unto This Last” a great book and used its ideas in his own philosophy of
Sarvodaya, which pleads for the “well-being of all”.
As
a critic puts it: Ruskin’s writings highlighted the value of manual labour and
the life of the tiller and handicraftsman, an idea that resonated with Gandhiji’s
philosophy.
To
conclude, here is a famous quote by John Ruskin: It’s unwise to pay too much,
but it’s worse to pay too little. When you pay too much, you lose a little money
– that’s all.
**********
G. R.Kanwal
7th June 2025
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