slothful is taken, by a just retribution, even what he has, or seems to have. By the Kingdom of Heaven or the Kingdom of God in these prophetic parables is signified the Church of Christ, that Kingdom which Christ our Lord came down from heaven to set up in the earth, that which comes from heaven and shall return thither. By "them that are without," a phrase familiar to the Jews, and by which they understood the Gentiles, are meant those who will not enter into the Gospel covenant, or, having professedly entered it, are strangers to its spirit. 3 CCX. THE SAME SUBJECT-continued. St. Matthew xiii. 13-17. Therefore speak I to them in parables: because they seeing see not; and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand. And in them is fulfilled the prophecy of Esaias, which saith, By hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and shall not perceive: for this people's heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them. But blessed are your eyes, for they see: and your ears, for they hear. For verily I say unto you, That many prophets and righteous men have desired to see those things which ye see, and have not seen them; and to hear those things which ye hear, and have not heard them. Our Lord proceeds to expand his reason, so far as we with our present faculties can understand it, why He speaks to such in parables. They will not make use of the faculties God has given them, eyes and ears. These they have shut, 1 St. Luke viii. 18. 2 St. Mark iv. 11. 31 Cor. v. 12; Rev. xxii. 15. even as Isaiah foretold they would. "Their eyes have they closed," and so there came upon them judicial blindness; even as Pharaoh first hardened his heart, and then it was hardened. It is a gradual, moral deterioration. Theirs is a downward course. They wax worse and worse. Parables are a moral touchstone, which try and prove men, what manner of spirit they are of; whether they will be at the pains, as these Disciples, of inquiring further into their meaning and laying it to heart; or whether they will go away with, "This is an hard saying, who can hear it?" 1 "A parable, like the pillar of cloud and fire, turns a dark side towards Egyptians, which confounds them; but a light side towards Israelites, which comforts them . . . A parable is a shell that keeps good fruit for the diligent, but keeps it from the slothful."2 Some fasten on the hard parts and are offended, and some, beginning humbly with that which is plain, go on unto perfection. "Mysteries are revealed to the meek." Such were these inquirers, and to them the Lord now turns with words of blessing; protesting to them that they enjoy privileges which prophets like him who had just been cited, and saints of old whom they revered, had longed for in vain. Let them not make light of what these vehemently desired.3 CCXI. PARABLE OF THE SOWER AS INTERPRETED St. Matthew xiii, 18-23. Hear ye therefore the parable of the sower. When any one heareth the word of the kingdom, and understandeth it not, then cometh the wicked one, and catcheth away that which was This is he which received seed by the way sown in his heart. 1 St. John vi. 60, 61, 66. 2 Henry. 3 44 These verses occur again in a different connexion, and with the form of expression slightly varied. It was a saying likely to be repeated." -Alford. St. Luke x. 23, 24. side. But he that received the seed into stony places, the same is he that heareth the word, and anon with joy receiveth it; yet hath he not root in himself, but dureth for a while: for when tribulation or persecution ariseth because of the word, by and by he is offended. He also that received seed among the thorns is he that heareth the word; and the care of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, choke the word, and he becometh unfruitful. But he that received seed into the good ground is he that heareth the word, and understandeth it; which also beareth fruit, and bringeth forth, some an hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. To those who meditated on the Word, the Lord proceeds to interpret it. The Disciples and some others desired to know its meaning; "therefore" He revealed it to them. They had already heard it; but this call to hear is a call to understand. But first He gently upbraids them for their slowness of heart.3 As in that question which St. Mark records, "Know ye not this parable? And how then will ye know all parables?" "The Sower," of whom He speaks, is first of all Christ Himself, and after Him those who have authority to speak in His name; to whom He says "he that heareth you, heareth me.' "The seed," as St. Luke says, "is the Word of God," called here "the Word of the Kingdom." It means all Christian doctrine. "The wicked one," Satan, the devil,' like a host of rapacious birds, seizes upon the seed as soon as sown, will not let it lodge long in the heart, lest it should germinate. The shallowness of " 4 this second class of hearers has this result, they are "offended." Tribulation,' which is meant to separate the wheat from the chaff in men, persecution, which soon came to try the first confessors of Christianity, temptation or testing, affliction 3 generally, was a thing they were unprepared for. They had not made up their mind for this. It is as an unexpected stone, at which they first stumble, and eventually fall away." To the things which choke the Word, and prevent the seed from coming to perfection," St. Luke adds "the pleasures of this life," and St. Mark generally "the lusts of other things entering in." The Word cannot abide in a divided heart. In contradistinction to this is the "honest and good heart," simple, sincere, straightforward, which hears and understands, hears to receive, hears and keeps. It is a gradual growth." "With patience," as St. Luke says; unlike the precocious growth of a shallow soil.10 Theirs is no mere sensational religion, a religion of the feelings and emotions, needing constant excitement, which will not stand the test of pleasure or of pain; but a principle rooted in the heart; producing indeed varying degrees of fruit; from comparatively little to much." But He who marks a manifold increase does not despise the day of small things, provided only it be a real growth. 7 See an interesting Essay on this word in Abp. Trench on The Study of Words, p. 8. 2 St. Luke viii. 13. 3 St. Mark iv. 17. 4 St. Luke viii. 14. The man is identified with the seed; v. 19, "this is he." "It is observable that a1 the Evangelists use the masculine gender here, i.e. they consiler the person as sown."-Bp. 8 CCXII. THE PARABLE OF THE TARES OF THE FIELD. St. Matthew xiii. 24-30. Another parable put he forth unto them, saying, The kingdom of heaven is likened unto a man which sowed good seed in his field: but while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went his way. But when the blade was sprung up, and brought forth fruit, then appeared the tares also. So the servants of the householder came and said unto him, Sir, didst not thou sow good seed in thy field? from whence then hath it tares? He said unto them, An enemy hath done this. The servants said unto him, Wilt thou then that we go and gather them up? But he said, Nay; lest while ye gather up the tares, ye root up also the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest: and in the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather ye together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them: but gather the wheat into my barn. 2 This parable of "The Tares of the field"1 also we have. interpreted to us by the Lord Himself. It is enough therefore to note at present that by the Kingdom of Heaven is signified the Church of Christ; that Kingdom which Christ came down from Heaven to set up on earth; whose condition while in this world is represented under this figure of a field in which are found both wheat and tares; for "in the visible Church the evil be ever mingled with the good." The piece of spite referred to in the parable is a not uncommon mode of revenge in the East for real or imaginary wrongs; and unhappily it is not confined to the East. Like all deeds of former parish of his own, where an out-going tenant was guilty of such a malicious act towards a person who had bought the farm with a view to manage it himself. It is sad to think that heathen and Jewish malice should have its counterpart even now in Christian countries. The Disciples further on (v. 36) furnish us with its title. 2 Ant. xxvi. 3 Abp. Trench and Dean Alford each note instances occurring both in England and in Ireland within their own experience. The writer can add a bad case in a parish adjacent to a 3 |