Christ's fame had continuously increased, because of the authority with which He spoke and of the many mighty works He did. His popularity had become such that whenever He moved abroad great multitudes followed Him. One effect of the people's eagerness, which led them to press and crowd around Him, was to render difficult if not impossible at times the effective delivery of any discourse. His usual place for open-air teaching while He tarried in the vicinity of the sea, or lake, of Galilee was the shore; and thither flocked the crowds to hear Him.

At His request, the disciples had provided a "small ship," which was kept in readiness on the beach. It was usual with Him to sit in the boat a short distance off shore, and preach to the people. On one such occasion He employed a means of instruction, which, prior to that time, had not been characteristic of His teaching. This consisted in the use of parables to illustrate His doctrines. Some of these we shall here consider briefly, in the order most advantageous for treatment, and as best we know, in what may have been the sequence in which they were given. "A SOWER WENT FORTH TO SOW."

This new way of teaching, this departure from the Master's earlier method of doctrinal exposition, caused even the most devoted of the disciples to marvel. The Twelve and a few others came to Jesus when He was apart from the multitude, and asked why He had spoken to the people in this manner, and what was the meaning of this particular parable.

Our Lord's reply to the first part of the inquiry we shall consider presently; concerning the second, He asked "Know ye not the parable? and how then will ye know all parables?" Thus did He indicate the simplicity of this the first of His parables, together with its typical and fundamental character, and at the same time intimate that other parables would follow in the course of His teaching. Then He gave the interpretation: "Hear ye therefore theParable of the sower. When anyone heareth the word of the kingdom, and understandeth it not, then cometh the wicked one, and catcheth away that which was sown in his heart"

The seed was the same whether it fell on good ground or bad, on mellow mold or among stones and thistles. The primitive method of sowing still followed in many countries, consists in the sower throwing the grain by handfuls against the wind. Running through the Galilean fields, were pathways, hard trodden by feet of men and beasts.

Though seed should fall on such tracts, it could not grow. birds would pick up the living kernels lying unrooted and uncovered and some of the grains would be crushed and trodden down. So with the seed of truth falling upon the hardened heart; ordinarily it cannot take root, and Satan, as a marauding crow, steals it away.

Grain sown where thorns and thistles abound is soon killed out by their smothering growth. Even so with a human heart set on riches and the allurements of pleasure it will produce no harvest of good grain, but instead, a rank tangle of noxious weeds. The seed that falls in good deep soil, free from weeds and prepared for the sowing, strikes root and grows. The sun's heat scorches it not, but gives it thrift; it matures and yields to the harvester according to the richness of the soil. Some fields producing thirty, others sixty, and a few even a hundred times as much grain as was sown.

The story could be expressively designated as the Parable of the Four Kinds of Soil. It is the ground upon which the seed is cast, to which the story most strongly directs our attention. Observe the grades of soil, given in the increasing order of their fertility. The clean rich mold receptive and fertile. The weed-encumbered field, capable of producing a rich crop but for the jungle of thistles and thorns.

Some Bible expositors have professed to find in this splendid parable evidence of decisive fatalism in the lives of individuals. Those whose spiritual state is comparable to the hardened pathway or wayside ground, to the shallow soil on stony floor, or to the neglected, thorn-ridden tract, are hopelessly and irredeemably bad. Yet even soils classed as good are of varying degrees of productiveness, yielding an increase of thirty, sixty, or even a hundred fold, with many inter-gradations. Let it not be forgotten that a parable is but a sketch, not a picture finished in detail; and that the expressed or implied similitude in parabolic teaching cannot logically and consistently be carried beyond

In the parable we are considering, the Teacher depicted the varied grades of spiritual receptivity existing among men. He neither said nor intimated that the hard-baked soil of the wayside might be plowed, harrowed, fertilized, and so be rendered productive. A strong metaphor, a striking simile, or any other expressive figure of speech is of service only when rationally applied. If carried beyond the bounds of reasonable intent, the best of such may become meaningless or even absurd. The parable is to be studied in the spirit of its purpose; and strained inferences or extensions are unwarranted.

Another parable, somewhat closely related to the foregoing as to the actual story, dealing again with seed and sowing. Like the first, accompanied by an interpretation, was delivered by the Master as follows: "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"

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." "He that soweth the good seed is the Son of man; the field is the world," Jesus said. "The tares are the children of the wicked one," he said, "and the enemy that sowed them is the devil"

The seed as here represented is not, as in the last parable, the gospel itself, but the children of men. The good seed typifying the honest in heart, righteous-minded children of the kingdom. While the tares are those souls who have given themselves up to evil. Those who were ordained to carry on the ministry after Him are by direct implication also sowers.

Inspired by zeal for their Master's profit, the servants would have forcibly rooted up the tares, but were restrained, for their unwise though well-intended course would have endangered the wheat while yet tender. One cardinal lesson of the parable, apart from the representation of actual conditions present and future, is that of patience, long-suffering, and toleration. The tares mentioned in the story may be considered as any kind of noxious weed, particularly such as in early growth resembles the wholesome grain. Over-sowing with the seed of weeds in a field already sown with grain is a species of malignant outrage not unknown even in the present day.

The certainty of a time of separation, when the wheat shall be garnered in the store-house of the Lord, and the tares be burned, is placed beyond question by the Lord's own exposition. So important is the lesson embodied in this parable, and so assured is the literal fulfilment of its contained predictions, that the Lord has given a further explication through revelation in the current dispensation. In 1832, Jesus Christ said: "But behold, in the last days, even now while the Lord is beginning to bring forth the word,  and the blade is springing up and is yet tender"

Matthew records the Parable of the Tares as immediately following that of the Sower. Mark places in the same position of sequence a parable found in his writings alone. It is presented in outline form, and by critical expositors would be classed rather as a simple analogy than a typical parable.

"So is the kingdom of God, as if a man should cast seed into the ground," says Jesus. The secret processes of its growth be a mystery to all save God alone. A man having planted seed must needs leave it alone, he says. The growth itself is dependent upon conditions and forces beyond his power to ultimately control.

Though it were Paul who planted and Apollos who watered, none but God could insure the increase. When the grain is ripe the man gladly harvests his crop. The sower in this story is the authorized preacher of the word of God. He implants the seed of the gospel in the hearts of men, knowing not what the issue shall be. Passing on to similar or other ministry elsewhere, attending to his appointed duties in other fields, he, with faith and hope, leaves with God the result of his planting. In the harvest of souls converted through his labor, he is enriched and made to rejoice.

This parable was probably directed more particularly to the apostles and the most devoted of the other disciples. The lesson is one for teachers, for workers in the Lord's fields, for the chosen sowers and reapers. Let the seed be sown, even though the sower be straightway called to other fields or other duties; in the gladsome harvest he shall find his recompense.

This little story, addressed to the assembled multitude, must have set many thinking, because of the simplicity of the incident related and the thoroughly un-Jewish application made of it. To the mind taught by teachers of the time the kingdom was to be great and glorious from its beginning. Yet this new Teacher spoke of it as having so small a beginning as to be comparable to a mustard seed. To make the illustration more effective He specified that the seed spoken of was "the least of all seeds" This superlative expression was made in a relative sense; for there were and are smaller seeds than the mustard, even among garden plants, among which rue and poppy have been named. Each of these plants is very small in maturity,

"If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed... nothing shall be impossible unto you" The mustard plant attains in Palestine a larger growth than in more northerly climes. The lesson of the parable is easy to read. The seed is a living entity. When rightly planted it absorbs and assimilates the nutritive matters of soil and atmosphere, grows, and in time is capable of affording lodgment and food to the birds. So the seed of truth is vital, living, and capable of such development as to furnish spiritual food and shelter to all who come seeking. In both conceptions, the plant at maturity produces seed in abundance, and so from a single grain a whole field may be covered.

The mustard seed typifies the effect of vital growth in gathering the substance of value from without. The leaven or yeast disseminates and diffuses outward its influence throughout the mass of otherwise dense and sodden dough. Yeast is no less truly a living organism than a mustard seed. As the microscopic yeast plant develops and multiplies within the dough, its myriad living cells permeate the lump. Every bit of the leavened mass is capable of affecting likewise another batch of properly prepared meal. Each of these processes represents a means whereby the Spirit of Truth is made effective.

The process of leavening, or causing dough "to rise," by the fermentation of the yeast placed in the mass, is a slow one. This and the two parables following are recorded by Matthew only. The place assigned them in his narrative indicates that they were spoken to the disciples alone, in the house, after the multitude had departed. Instances of finding buried valuables were not uncommon in the time of which we speak, since the practise of so concealing treasure was usual with people exposed to bandit incursions and hostile invasion.

A Jewish man finds a hidden treasure in a field and sells all that he has to buy it. He concealed the fact of his discovery from the owner of the field, to whom the treasure, they say, rightly belonged. The act was not illegal, since there was an express provision in Jewish law that the purchaser of land became the legal owner of everything the ground contained.

Jesus commended no dishonest course; and had not the story been in every detail probable, its effect as a parable would have been lost. Pearls have always held high place among gems, and long before, as indeed ever since the time of Christ, pearl-merchants have been active and diligent in seeking the largest and richest to be had. Unlike the man in the last parable, who found a hidden treasure with little or no search, the merchant in this story devoted his whole energy to the quest for goodly pearls, to find and secure which was his business.

When at last he beheld the pearl that excelled all others, though it was, as of right it ought to have been, held at high cost, he gladly sold all his other gems. Observe that in this parable as in that of the hidden treasure, the price of possession is one's all. Men who by search and research discover the truths of the kingdom of heaven may have to abandon many of their cherished traditions, and even their theories of imperfect philosophy and "science falsely so called," if they would possess themselves of the pearl of great price.

No man can become a citizen of the kingdom by partial surrender of his earlier allegiances. He must renounce everything foreign to the kingdom or he can never be numbered therein. The cost of the hidden treasure, and of the pearl, is not a fixed amount, alike for all; it is all one has. Even the poorest may come into enduring possession; his all is a sufficient purchase price.

The good, however, die to usefulness, the bad to utter waste. Unwise efforts to carry the application of the parable beyond the Author's intent have suggested the criticism that whether the fish be good or bad they die. Though all men die, they die not alike; some pass to rest, and shall come forth in the resurrection of the just; others go to a state of sorrow and disquiet there to anxiously and with dread await the Resurrection of the wicked.

Similarity of application in the present parable as in that of the tares is apparent in the emphasis given to the decreed separation of the just from the unjust. A further parallelism is noticed in the postponement of the judgment until the "end of the world," by which expression we may understand the consummation of the Redeemer's work.

The Twelve and other disciples were surprized at the Lord's innovation of parabolic instruction. The use of parables was common among Jewish teachers. In adopting this mode of instruction Jesus was really following a custom of the time. Between the parables He spake and those of the scholars there is possible no comparison except that of most pronounced contrast.

To the chosen and devoted followers who came asking the Master why He had changed from direct exposition to parables, He explained that while it was their privilege to receive and understand the deeper truths of the gospel, with people in general, such fulness of understanding was impossible. "Therefore," said He, "speak I to them in parables: because they seeing see not; and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand"

That the state of spiritual darkness then existing among the Jews had been foreseen was instanced by a citation of Isaiah's words. The ancient prophet had told of the people becoming blind, deaf, and hard of heart respecting the things of God. There is plainly shown an element of mercy in the parabolic mode of instruction adopted by our Lord under the conditions prevailing at the time. Had He always taught in explicit declaration, such as required no interpretation, many among His hearers would have come under condemnation, inasmuch as they were too weak in faith and unprepared to break the bonds of traditionalism and the prejudice engendered by sin, so as to accept and obey the saving word.

Their inability to comprehend the requirements of the gospel would in righteous measure give Mercy some claim upon them, while had they rejected the truth with full understanding, stern Justice would surely demand their condemnation. That the lesson of the parables was comprehensible through study, prayer and search was intimated in the Teacher's admonishment: "Who hath ears to hear, let him hear"

The incidents of an impressive though simple story will live, even in minds which for the time being are incapable of comprehending any meaning beyond that of the common-place story itself. Another example of the merciful adaptation of the word of truth to the varied capacities of the people who heard the parables is found in the psychological fact, that the one has heard to his eternal profit, the other to his everlasting condemnation.

Many a peasant who had heard the little incident of the sower and the four kinds of soil, of the tares sown by an enemy at night, would be reminded by the recurring circumstances of his daily work. And then, when time and experience, including suffering perhaps, had prepared them for deeper thought, they would find the living kernel of gospel truth within the husk of the simple tale.

The essential feature of a parable is that of comparison or similitude, by which some ordinary, well-understood incident is used to illustrate a fact or principle not directly expressed in the story. The narrative or incident upon which aParable is constructed may be an actual occurrence or fiction; but, if fictitious, the story must be consistent and probable, with no admixture of the unusual or miraculous. There is no fiction in the parables we have thus far studied; the fundamental stories are true to life and the given circumstances are facts of experience.

In this respect the parable differs from the fable, the latter being imaginative, exaggerated and improbable as to fact. The parable may embody a narrative as in the instances of the sower and the tares, or merely an isolated incident, as in those of the mustard seed and the leaven. Stories of trees, animals and inanimate things talking together are wholly fanciful; they are fables or apologues whether the outcome be depicted as good or bad.

Allegories are distinguished from parables by greater length and detail of the story. Proverbs and parables are closely related, and in the Bible the terms are sometimes used interchangeably. The Old Testament contains two parables, a few fables and allegories, and numerous proverbs.

Many Bible scholars hold that the seven parables recorded in the thirteenth chapter of Matthew were spoken at different times and to different people. The writer of the first Gospel grouped them for convenience in recording and with prime consideration of their subjective interest. The parables of the New Testament, spoken by the Teacher of teachers, are of such beauty, simplicity, and effectiveness, as to stand unparalleled in literature.

Some color is found for this claim in Luke's mention of some of these parables in different relations of both time and place. It is probable that Jesus repeated some of His parables, as He certainly did other teachings, and thus presented the same lesson on more occasions than one. As a matter of fact each parable is a lesson in itself, and holds its high intrinsic value whether considered as an isolated story or in connection with related teachings. Let us give heed to the lesson of each whatever opinions men may promulgate as to the circumstances of its first delivery.

R. C. Trench, in his excellent work Notes on the Parables of our Lord, quotes Dean Stanley's description of existing conditions in the place where the Parable of the Sower was given by Jesus. "A slight recess in the hillside close upon the plain disclosed at once in detail, and with a conjunction which I remember nowhere else in Palestine, every feature of the great parable"

This term occurs nowhere within the Bible except in this instance of the parable. Plainly any kind of weed, particularly a poisonous sort, such as would seriously depreciate the garnered crop, would serve the Master's purpose in the illustration. The traditional belief commonly held is that the plant referred to in theParable is the darnel weed, known to botanists as Lolium temulenium, a species of bearded rye-grass.

This plant closely resembles wheat in the early period of growth, and exists as a pest to the farmers in Palestine to-day. It is called by the Arabians "Zowan" or "Zawan" which name, says Arnot, citing Thompson, "bears some resemblance to the original word in the Greek text" Smith's Dictionary says: "Critics and expositors are agreed that the Greek plural zizania, A.V. 'tares,' of the parable (Matt 13:25) denotes the weed called 'bearded darnel' ( Lolium temulentum ), a widely-distributed grass"

This darnel is easily distinguishable from the wheat and barley when headed out, but when both are less developed, 'the closest scrutiny will often fail to detect it' Even the farmers, who in this country generally weed their fields, do not attempt to separate the one from the other. The taste is bitter, and, when eaten separately, or even when diffused in ordinary bread, it causes dizziness, and often acts as a violent emetic.

Trench thus meets the criticism ( Notes on the Parables , pp. 72, 73): "Our Lord did not imagine here a form of malice without example, but adduced one which may have been familiar enough to His hearers" In Roman law the possibility of this form of injury is contemplated. A modern writer, illustrating Scripture from the manners and habits of the East, affirms the same to be now practised in India. In Ireland I have known an outgoing tenant, in spite at his eviction, to sow wild oats in the fields which he was leaving.

These, like the tares in the parable, ripening and seeding themselves before the crops in which they were mingled, it became next to impossible to extirpate. "; The Parable of the Seed Growing Secretly. —This parable has given rise to much discussion among expositors, the question being as to who is meant by the man who cast seed into the ground. Some ask, how can it be said "that the seed should spring and grow up, he knoweth not how," when all things are known unto Him? If on the other hand the planter represents the authorized teacher or preacher of the gospel, howCan It be said that at the harvest time "

Whether the seed be planted by the Lord Himself, as when He taught in Person, or by any one of His authorized servants, the seed is alive and will grow. Time is required; the blade appears first and is followed by the ear, and the ear ripens in season, without the constant attention which a shaping of the several parts by hand would require. The lesson imparted is the vitality of the seed as a living thing, endowed by its Creator with the capacity to both grow and develop. Those who heard the parable evidently understood the contrast between size of seed and that of the fully developed plant.

Arnot, ( The Parables , p. 102), aptly says: "This plant obviously was chosen by the Lord, not on account of its absolute magnitude, but because it was, and was recognized to be, a striking instance of increase from very small to very great" Edersheim (i, p. 593) states that the diminutive size of the mustard seed was commonly used in comparison by the rabbis, "to indicate the smallest amount such as the least drop of blood, the least defilement, etc."

The same author continues, in speaking of the grown plant: "Indeed, it looks no longer like a large garden-herb or shrub, but 'becomes' or rather appears like 'a tree' — as St. Luke puts it, 'a great tree' " In the parable, the kingdom of heaven is likened unto leaven. In other scriptures, leaven is figuratively mentioned as representing evil, thus, "the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees" (Matt. 4:12, 14, 21, 22)

In the incident of the woman using leaven in the ordinary process of bread-making, the spreading, penetrating vital effect of truth is symbolized by the leaven. The same thing in different aspects may very properly be used to represent good in one instance and evil in another. If a man had found a treasure in loose coins among the corn it would certainly be his if he bought the corn.

If he had found it on the ground, or in the soil, it would equally certainly belong to him if he could claim ownership of the soil. The law went so far as to adjudge to the purchaser of fruits anything found among these fruits. This will suffice to vindicate a question of detail, which, in any case, should not be too closely pressed in a parabolic history.

This distinction will be found to hold true, even in instances where there seems the closest parallelism between a Rabbinic and an Evangelic parable. Geikie tersely says: "Others have uttered parables, but Jesus so far transcends them, that He may justly be called the creator of this mode of instruction" (ii, p. 145). 10. The parable is also clearly distinguishable from the proverb, though it is true that, in a certain degree, the words are used interchangeably in the New Testament.

'Physician, heal thyself' (Luke 4:23) is termed a parable, being more strictly a proverb. 'If the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch' (Matt. 15:14, 15); and Luke 5:36 is a proverb or proverbial expression. So, upon the other hand, those are called 'proverbs' in St. John, which if not strictly parables, yet claim much closer affinity to the parable than to the proverb, being in fact allegories. It is easy to account for this interchange of words. Partly it arose from one word in Hebrew signifying both parable and proverb.

A fable or moral tale, especially one in which animals or inanimate things speak or act, and by which a useful lesson is suggested or taught. Allegory. — The setting forth of a subject under the guise of some other subject or aptly suggestive likeness. Myth. — A fictitious or conjectural narrative presented as historical, but without any basis of fact. Proverb. —A brief narrative or descriptive allegory founded on real scenes or events such as occur in nature and human life, and usually with a moral or religious application.

Of parables in the strictest sense the Old Testament contains only two. Other stories, such as that of the trees assembled to elect a king, are more strictly fables. The small number of parabolic narratives must not, however, be taken as an indication of indifference toward this literary form as suitable for moral instruction. In reality, similitudes, which, though not explicitly couched in the terms of fictitious narrative, suggest and furnish the materials for such narrative, are abundant.

By applying the term "parable" in its broadest sense, to include all ordinary forms of analogy, we may list the following as the most impressive parables of the Old Testament. Trees electing a king (Judges 9:7-); the poor man's ewe lamb (2 Sam. 12:1-); story of the escaped captive (1 Kings 20:35-) The vineyard and its wild grapes (Isa. 5:1) and the eagles and the vine (Ezek. 17:3-)

Note 5 , end of chapter. 1 Cor. 3:6. Read the Lord's early promise of souls as the hire of the appointed harvesters: John 4:35-38; see also Matt. 9:37, 38; Luke 10:2. Matt. 13:31, 32; compare Mark 4:30-32; Luke 13:18, 19.

Read again Matt. 7:24-27; Luke 6:46-49. Note 10 , end of chapter. 2 Sam. 12:1-7, 13. Isa. 5: 1-7. Note 11 , start of chapter; note 12, end of book.