49 And he stretched forth his hand toward his disciples, and said, Behold my mother and my brethren!

See John xv.

14. Gal. v. 6.

50 For whosoever shall do the will of my

& vi. 15. Col. Father which is in heaven, the same is my brother, and sister, and mother.

iii. 11. Heb.

ii. 11.

tom's) comment on this place is very remarkable, even though he may be, and we trust and believe is, mistaken in the motive which he attributes to the Blessed Virgin. It is this: "And this He said, not as being ashamed of His mother, nor denying her that bare Him: for if He had been ashamed of her, He would not have passed through that womb: but as declaring that she hath no advantage from this, unless she do all that is required to be done. For, in fact, that which she assayed to do was of superfluous vanity, in that she wanted to show the people that she hath power and authority over her Son; imagining not as yet anything great concerning Him: whence also her unreasonable approach." And much more in the same strain.

Now this place and similar places in the writings of this saint is, in one respect, of very great importance. If the Holy Virgin had had throughout the Eastern Church in Chrysostom's day anything approaching to the position now assigned to, her in the present Churches of the Roman Obedience, could St. Chrysostom have written thus? Impossible. It is inconceivable that he should have attributed vanity to one whom he held to have been conceived without sin, and to have lived absolutely sinlessly. And yet not only was Chrysostom Archbishop of the Imperial city, but is also a Saint in the Roman Calendar; his Festival being kept on January 27th, the collect on which day runs: "O Lord, we beseech Thee, let Thy heavenly grace enlarge Thy Church, which Thou hast vouchsafed to adorn with the glorious merits and doctrine of blessed John Chrysostom, thy Confessor and Bishop."

THE

CHAP. XIII.

a

HE same day went Jesus out of the house, and sat by the sea side.

b

a Mark iv. 1.

• Lake v. 3.

2 And great multitudes were gathered to- b Luke viii. 4. gether unto him, so that he went into a ship, and sat; and the whole multitude stood on the shore.

3 And he spake many things unto them in parables, saying, Behold, a sower went forth to sow;

d

2. "Ship; rather, "boat," as before in this Gospel.

3. "A sower;" or, "the sower."

d Luke viii. 5.

1. "The same day went Jesus out of the house." He had been teaching in a house, because it was just said of His mother and brethren that they stood without.

2. "He went into a ship, and sat; and the whole multitude stood," &c. He did this, no doubt, that He might be the less interrupted by His opposers and that a greater number might hear His doctrine.

3. "He spake many things unto them in parables." The somewhat narrow definition of a parable in order sharply to distinguish it from a fable, a myth, or a proverb or allegory, seems scarcely consistent with the use of the word in the Gospels. For instance, the similitudes of the wise man building his house on the rock, the new cloth on the old garment, the children in the marketplace, the “strong man armed," the unclean spirit cast out and returning, are all parables just as much as those of the sower, the leaven, the seed growing secretly are parables. A parable is assumed to be a story, the facts of which might have taken place in daily life, and which is used with an evangelical or spiritual meaning; but in this sense the Prodigal Son, the good Samaritan, and Dives and Lazarus are parables, and the "mustard seed," the "leaven," and "the net cast into the sea are not. Thus I cannot understand how, in his most excellent book on the Parables, Abp. Trench includes the "mustard seed," the "barren fig tree," and the

4 And when he sowed, some seeds fell by the way side, and the fowls came and devoured them

up:

5 Some fell upon stony places, where they had not much earth and forthwith they sprung up, because they had no deepness of earth:

:

6 And when the sun was up, they were scorched; and because they had no root, they withered away.

5. "Stony;" rather, "rocky;" petrosa. (Vulg.) See below.

"unprofitable servant," and excludes the "Vine and the Branches." The rule or principle which excludes this last from its place in such a book must be mischievous, because this parable, far beyond all others, sets forth the paramount mystery of the Kingdom of God, i.e., union with Christ.

3. " Behold, a sower went out to sow." The sower [ó orɛiρwv]. Who is the sower? Beyond all doubt, the Son of Man. Others, His Apostles and Evangelists, sow, but simply by His authority as His ambassadors or representatives. "Whence went He forth Who is present everywhere? Who fills all things? or how went He forth? Not in place but in condition, and dispensation to usward, coming nearer to us by His clothing Himself with flesh. . . . Wherefore came He forth? To destroy the ground teeming with thorns? to take vengeance on the husbandmen? By no means, but to till and tend it, and to sow the seed of godliness."

4. "By the way side." Not, of course, the great public road or king's highway, but some path through the field which would be hard from being trampled with the feet of men and cattle so that the seed would lie on the surface and be devoured by the birds, which there, as here, follow the path of the sower.

5. "Stony places." Not ground with stones on the surface, such stones being often beneficial to vegetation as retaining moisture under them, but a hard rock covered with a thin layer of earth, into which the roots could not penetrate, and from which they would derive no nourishment.

"Forthwith (i.e., immediately) they sprung up.... when the sun was up, they were scorched." The rock below retained both heat and moisture for a short time on the surface, so that the plant sprung up immediately, but when the sun became powerful none of

7 And some fell among thorns; and the thorns sprung up, and choked them:

e

8 But other fell into good ground, and brought forth fruit, some an hundredfold, some sixtyfold, some thirtyfold.

9 'Who hath ears to hear, let him hear.

10 And the disciples came, and said unto him, Why speakest thou unto them in parables?

12.

Gen. xxvi.

fch. xi. 15. Mark iv. 9.

7, 8. The reader of the Revised New Testament will notice that the article is inserted here before several words, as the stony places-the thorns-the good ground. The article is expressed in the Greek, but if rendered in the English it gives a false impression. Itimplies that it was the usual state of every field in which seed was sown to have these four sorts of ground-the beaten path, the rocky, the thorny, and the good ground-whereas it stands to reason that it must be an exceptional field which would contain all four.

9. "Who hath ears to hear." So C., D., E., F., G., K., M., other later Uncials, all Cursives and Versions; "to hear," omitted by N, B., L., some old Latin

its heat was absorbed, but continued on the surface, and so burnt up the plants.

7. "The thorns sprung up," because their roots had not been thoroughly cleared away by careful husbandry.

8. "An hundredfold" is no uncommon increase in Palestine. Mr. Gray, in his "Biblical Museum," has: "The wheat cultivated in Palestine is of a much better kind, such as that of Heshbon. The following comparison of average Heshbon wheat with average English wheat shows the relative value of each. Heshbon: weight of ear, 103 grains; length of straw, 5 feet 1 inch; number of grains in the ear, 84. English: weight, 42 grains; length of straw, 4 feet 2 inches; number of grains, 41."

9. "Who hath ears to hear, let him hear." A saying very frequently repeated by our Lord, calling attention not only to the importance of His words, but to the fact that they had a meaning below the surface, which it behoved men, if they valued their eternal welfare, to apprehend. It occurs not only in the Gospels, but in the Revelation, "He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches." (Rev. ii. 7.)

10. "Why speakest thou unto them in parables?" The teaching by parables (such, at least, as are contained in this chapter) was new. Hitherto, in all His previous discourses, especially in the Sermon on the Mount, our Lord had spoken with the greatest

N

11 He answered and said unto them, Because it is given 8 ch. xi. 25. & unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom iv. 11. 1 Cor. of heaven, but to them it is not given.

xvi. 17. Mark

ii. 10. 1 John

ii. 27.

h ch. xxv. 29. Mark iv. 25.

12 h For whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance: but whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away even that he hath.

Luke viii. 18. & xix. 26.

plainness; now He changed the manner of His teaching, and began to speak to the multitudes enigmatically. The reason for this change He proceeds to give.

11 and 12. "Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God, but to them [i.e., to the unbelieving multitudes] it is not given. For whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance: but whosoever hath not," &c. What had the disciples which the Scribes and Pharisees, and the unbelieving multitudes, had not? Evidently simple childlike faith. This, and this alone, is the receptivity for apprehending the mysteries of God. The Apostles and other disciples were simple, childlike, sincere, willing to learn; and accepting Jesus as truly the Son of God, they felt that they must receive all His words as the words of One especially sent from God, and submit to them, and not be offended if anything in them was above them, or contrary to their previous ideas. Not that they had this spirit perfectly-none, perhaps, have it perfectly; but they had it to a greater degree than any others of that generation; and this was the reason why He Who searches the hearts had chosen them. Because, then, they possessed this simple faith and teachableness, "to them it was given to know " the higher and deeper mysteries, but to others it was not given; therefore the Lord (verse 13) spake to them in parables.

Now was this withholding from them the mysteries of the kingdom, this speaking to them in parables, done by our Lord in judg. ment or in mercy? If in judgment, it was only what they deserved. Having rejected the Lord's first instruction, the instruction respecting "righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come "-respecting humility, meekness, peaceableness, mercy, purity-they had no right to the higher: indeed, the higher mysteries would be thrown away upon those who had rejected the first teaching. They had hardened themselves against the first truths, commended by so