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in nature are prophetic outlines of Divine operations, God not merely speaking parables, but doing them." Not only in processes of reasoning, but in the finer and more important processes by which the imagination is quickened and the affections reached, we are constantly drawn up from what is material and temporal to what is spiritual and eternal. Works like those of Dante and Milton borrow their marvellous power from this fact. Bunyan's "Pilgrim's Progress," and Baxter's "Saint's Rest," delight the heart, and feed the religious sentiments of generation after generation through the mysterious but vital connections which bind what is seen to what is unseen. This alone makes it possible to weave, from scenes and incidents addressed to the eye, a narrative which shall bring us into connection with a higher order of beings and events. The language which has most deeply moved the heart of the world, and especially that which acts most powerfully on the masses, and at the same time on the purest religious minds, partakes largely of this character. The world is, not only a school-room, in which visible objects serve as diagrams by which to prove the reality of spiritual things; but on every side are pictures addressing themselves to the eye, through the eye to the imagination, and through the imagination to the heart, awakening our spiritual sensibilities, and educating our whole natures to a higher life. We can hardly overestimate the influence in the religious training of the world, which has been exercised in this way by the pictures from nature, or from common life, which have been used by Jesus to represent spiritual ideas, excite religious emotions, or help us on in our religious experience.

The parables belong to this department of religious instruction. The value of a parable is not to be estimated by the single truth which it is employed to set forth, however great that truth may be. Its accompaniments, its indirect and subtle influences, through the imagination, the new meaning which it thus gives to nature or to life, the atmos

phere of spiritual beauty, joy, or reverence, in which it enfolds the mind of the child, and by which it ministers to its spiritual and immortal life, are to be taken into account as adjuncts, apart from which the truth would be left comparatively without interest and without power. The parable of The Sower who went forth to sow, of the Wheat and the Tares, of the Ten Virgins, the Rich Man and Lazarus, The Good Samaritan, and the Prodigal Son, are among the most impressive and influential agencies in our religious education.

As to the rules of interpretation, too much stress must not be laid on the details in judging of their relation to the main truth. Their office is rather, by completing the picture, to act on the imagination, to touch the feelings, and subdue the mind to the tone which is needed in order that it may receive the truth. This is a most important office. In the Prodigal Son, for instance, the little details which go to fill out the picture of want and wretchedness are what give its affecting pathos to the story. And the fact that they perform this essential office should put us on our guard against trying to force all the minute particulars into our interpretation. A parable is not an allegory.

1-9, 18–23. THE PARABLE OF THE Sower.

It is not improbable that as Jesus, from the boat in which he sat, looked up along the sweep of the hills that converged downward to the lake, he may have seen a sower actually going forth to sow, and pointing to him, or directing the eyes of the multitude towards him for a moment, he may have drawn his instruction from what was actually passing before them. It is also possible that the opening words, "Behold, a sower went forth to sow," were made more touchingly impressive to the devout Jews by calling to mind the affecting language of Psalm cxxvi.: "They that sow in tears shall reap in joy. He that goeth forth and weepeth,

bearing precious seed, shall, doubtless, come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him." It may also, there by the waters of the lake, have connected itself with the promise in Isaiah xxxii. 20: “Blessed are ye that sow beside all waters." Stanley, in his Sinai and Palestine, pp. 42–48, speaks of a field in the plain of Genesareth, where all the conditions involved in this parable were fulfilled; the cornfield running down to the lake, the trodden pathway through it, the rich soil, the rocky ground protruding into it here and there, large bushes of thorns springing up in it, and countless birds of all kinds.

The object of the parable is to show the different states of mind, on account of which different persons hear the same truth with such widely different results. There is the hardened mind, which, hearing the word but not understanding it, does not take it in at all, but leaves it on the surface to be carried away at once by the slightest temptation, the first suggestion of the wicked one. There is the shallow mind, quick and transient in its emotions, receiving it with a momentary warmth of joy which causes it quickly to spring up, but the plant having no depth of character in which to take root, in the first heats of opposition or persecution wilts away. There is the rich, strong mind, already preoccupied by other things, which receives it with them. But they, the cares of the world, the deceitful allurements of riches, the pleasures of life, and, as Mark says, the sionate desires for other things, strangle it, and though it struggles along with them, it brings no fruit to perfection. Then there are the good and honest minds which, in proportion to their strength, bring forth fruit, a hundred, sixty, or thirty fold.

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10-23.-TEACHING IN PARABLES.

This conversation, see Mark iv. 10, took place privately afterwards, and is introduced here parenthetically by the

writer as in the proper place for the explanations which it gives. After Jesus had withdrawn from the multitudes, and the disciples seeing that he had not been understood, asked him why he spoke to the multitudes in parables? "Because," he replied, "while to you [whose spiritual perceptions are awakened] the hitherto undeclared mysteries of the kingdom of heaven are revealed, yet (Mark iv. 11) to them who are without,” i. e. who are not my disciples, "all things are in parables,” i. e. are not plain, but veiled and hidden. It made no difference, therefore, to them whether he spoke in parables or not. They would not in any case understand him. But if, in the plainest terms, he should declare the truths which were embodied in these parables, they would misapprehend entirely the nature of his kingdom, and some of them would violently oppose him, while others with equal violence, as in John vi. 15, would endeavor to force him to become their king. In order to avoid this, and at the same time to impart encouragement and instruction to those who in lowliness and simplicity of heart were waiting for his kingdom, he adopted a method of teaching, which, while it taught nothing to those whose views and characters were all wrong, gave the needed help to those who were ready to receive it. Under this kind of instruction, it was peculiarly true, 12, that to him who had, i. e. who had the teachable spirit, it was given, i. e. was given to understand the words of Christ, and from him who had not this spirit was taken away even that which he had, viz. the sort of understanding which he might have had, if plain instructions had been given. Thus it was strictly true that Jesus spoke to them in parables, "because they did not," or, as in Mark iv. 12, and Luke viii. 10, “in order that they might not,” understand, while they saw and heard him. If they had caught the only meaning respecting his kingdom which they were capable of receiving from the plainest instructions, it would probably have led to violence and the premature close of his ministry. The parables were as letters in cipher, intel

ligible to his friends, but without meaning to those who did not belong to him.

24-30.—THE TARES AND THE WHEAT.

The parable of the sower speaks of the different results produced by the same seed according to the different states of mind in those who receive it. This parable of the tares and wheat is to illustrate the different effects produced by different sorts of seed. If we interpret the parable and its explanation, 38, 39, literally, we find that good men proceed from seed sown by the Son of Man, and bad men from seed sown by the Devil. But the words are not to be construed so strictly. As, in the parable of the sower, the seed was identified with the man in whom it grew up, so here the man is identified with the seed which essentially modified his whole nature. The tares are a bastard sort of wheat, or a mischievous plant, not easily distinguished from good wheat in the early stages of its growth. Both therefore for a time must be permitted to grow up together, since the bad cannot be rooted up without injury to the good. But when they have reached their maturity, and their entirely different characters are manifest, a separation is made. The good wheat is preserved, the bad consumed.

The doctrine of the existence of moral evil and the delay in its punishment is here compressed into a single sentence. The most labored and profound investigations of philosophy have not been able to go farther, or to throw even a clouded ray of additional light on this dark and terrible problem. Those who are interested to know how far this problem may be solved without the aid of Christianity by a very able, thoughtful, and devout man, would do well to read, in Plutarch's Morals, his fine essay "Concerning those whom God is slow to punish." Among other less weighty considerations which he illustrates with

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