554 APPENDIX, At the commencement of His ministry, our Lord made no use of parables. The Sermon on the Mount may be taken as the type of the ‘‘ words of grace and truth ” . | which He spake. For some months, He taught in the synagogue, and on the geo. shore of Galilee, as He had before taught in Jerusalem ; and as yet without a para- ble. But then there comes a change. The direct teaching of Christ was met with ‘scorn, unbelief, hardness ; and He seems for a time to abandon it for that which took the form of parables. The question of the disciples (Matt. xiii. 10) implies that they were astonished. Their Master was speaking to the multitude in the parables and dark sayings which the rabbis reserved for their chosen disciples. ‘* The key to the explanation He gave, that He had chosen this form of teaching,” is found in Matt. xii. 18, and in Mark iv. 12. ‘‘Therefore speak I to them in parables: because they, seeing, see not; and, hearing, they hear not; neither do they understand.’”’ ‘ That. seeing, they may see, and not perceive ; and, hearing, they may hear, and not understand ; lest at any time they should be converted, and their sins should be forgiven them.’’ Two interpretations have been given of these words: (1) Spiritual truths, it has been said, are in themselves hard and unin- viting. Men needed to be won to them by that which was more attractive, (2) Others, again, have seen in this use of parables something of a penal character. To the inner circle of the chosen it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God: to those who are without, all these things are done in parables. Neither view is wholly satisfactory. Hach contains a partial truth. The worth of parables as instruments lies in their being at once a test of character, and in their presenting each form of character with that which, as a penalty or blessing, is adapted to it. They withdraw the light from those who love darkness. They protect the truth, which they enshiine from the mockery of the scoffer. They leave something even with the careless, which may be interpreted and understood afterwards. They reveal, on the other hand, the seekers after truth. These ask the meaning of the parable, and will not rest till the teacher has explained it. In this way, the parable did its work, — found out the fit hearers, and led them on. And it is to be remem- bered, that, even after this self-imposed law of reserve and reticence, the teaching of Christ presented a marvellous contrast to the narrow exclusiveness of the seribes.’’ The parables, says Lisco, serve at the same time to reveal and to conceal spirit- ual truth. In the case of genuine inquirers, they reveal the truth to the eye of faith; while they ‘conceal it from the carnal, the sensual, and the ungodly. The great mass of the people addressed by Christ were extremely rude and unpolished, blunted through fleshly inclination, indifferent to the highest interests of man, and consequently so much the less capable of relishing a discourse devoid of imagery. The small number of those who were better inclined, especially his own disciples, were in like manner held fast in Jewish prejudices, in false views of the kingdom of God about to be erected, unskilled in spiritually apprehending the spiritual, and much too weak to look upon all the truths of the gospel if presented in naked sim plicity.