grapes of Sodom and the clusters of Gomorrah." Into which rugged waste and overgrown thicket comes the Son of Man, our great sower, to sow seed; yet not until he hath prepared it for a long time by the labours of the prophets which went before him. "The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a high-way for our God. Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low: and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain." And of his seed a part falleth by the way-side-that is, upon the exposed and common parts, where the traffic of the world proceeds-but the birds of the air, or the emissaries of Satan, who are ever busy

trafficking there, pluck it up: another part falleth upon a thin soil; and the sun, which is ordained for its nourishment, doth turn to its destruction, and scorch it up: another part falleth amongst thorns, and is choked by their springing up along with it: and a fourth part falls upon good soil, which alone bringeth forth fruit unto perfection. This assureth me that there are in the field of human nature, upon which the seed of the Gospel is sown, these four kinds,-one kind obnoxious to the invasion of Satan; a second kind unable to bear the sun, which should bless it; a third kind, rank and overgrown with weeds, and thorns, and other incumbrances; and a fourth kind, good soil, fit to bring forth, and which hath in all ages brought forth the fruit of the kingdom.

Thus much have we to say upon the general principle of teaching by parables or emblems:

and now, with respect to the reason which moved our Lord to use it so much more frequently than the other teachers sent from God, we have to observe, that this very parable of the Sower, though essentially meant for teaching to his disciples, and especially to his apostles, the true doctrine concerning the preaching of the Gospel, containeth also, in the 10th verse, the reason why our Lord used so much the method of parables, which we do not find any of his Apostles to have employed. This reason we find given at greater length in the corresponding passage of Matthew: "He answered and said unto them, Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given." (Matt. xiii. 11). It is also written to the same effect in the Gospel by Mark (iv. 11, 12). From which united testimonies we may surely gather, that it was not by choice, nor for the better expression of his doctrines, that our Lord used this method of discourse, but in judgment upon those who had been of old sentenced to deafness and blindness, "Lest they should understand and I should heal them;" and likewise in accommodation to the stupidity and carnality of the mind of those disciples to whom he spoke: not as I have oft heard our rhetorical and tasteful interpreters of Scripture declaim, out of accommodation to the Eastern style of speech, or to prove what a master he was in the allegorical as well as the plain method of discourse; but because the people could not understand the plain and simple truth, and were too hardened to receive it if they had understood it. Because they had suffered themselves to abide amongst

the sensible forms of the ceremonial law, and would not be led forth into that ante-chamber of the Gospel, which the Lord had prepared in the Psalms and the Prophets, they did bring upon themselves this punishment, that they should be spoken to in parables, instead of being spoken to plainly.

For you are to understand, brethren, it is no part of the Divine essence or wisdom to cover himself with clouds and darkness; seeing God is light, and with him is no darkness at all. These clouds are in our vision, the dimness of our sight, the veils of sin, the darkening scales of vice; but not in him who dwelleth in light that is unapproachable and full of glory. And the end of all revelation-wherefore it is called revelation—is to remove the blindness from our eyes, that we may see; and to unstop the deafness of our ears, that we may hear; to destroy the carnality of our mind, that we may understand; and to awake the sensibility of our spirit, that we may hold communion with the Father of spirits, and live. This, I say, is the very end of revelation,-to make all things naked and open which by nature are dark and mysterious, and to deliver the soul out of all captivities of sense and worldliness, of error and ignorance, into the enjoyment of Divine liberty and light. Accordingly we find that the Lord began the dispensation to the Patriarchs, by simple means manifesting himself to their eye in his glory, or conversing with them by simple language in dreams, walking with them and talking with them, and making them to know his good and gracious purposes in a clear and manifest manner. Nor was it until the children of Israel had

grown besotted

in their spirits by the idolatries and sensualities of Egypt, that he covered his truth with a ceremonial attire, and wrote his law outwardly and fearfully in tables of stone, and governed his people by a miraculous providence: which was all an accommodation to the infirmity of their faith, and done in great mercy to their unworthiness of a higher revelation. Therefore it is written, that "the Law was added because of transgression." I say not but that, like all the works of God, it was perfect in its kind, and is of great value even to us-who, alas! have too much need of the same beggarly elements to help us to the understanding of our spiritual dispensation ;-but it was only a temporary expedient, to keep the church in life during the ages of violence, barbarity, and idolatry, which were to come upon all the earth. And the Lord continually raised up Prophets, to lead the truth forth from the prison-house which he had been fain to construct around it: and if the people would have heard the Prophets, whom they continually rejected, and commonly put to death, doubt there can be none that Jesus would have come without any parable, to speak plainly unto the people, and open the gate without violence to admit the Gentiles into the inward court of the temple. But the people, giving ear to the sense rather than to the Spirit-even as we Gentiles also have donedid take up with the formality rather than enter into the spirituality of the former dispensation, and could receive no communication from the wisdom of Christ unless it also should take a form: wherefore, the pure wisdom had to take the forms of sight, and embody itself in these

parables; which are the last efforts of the Spirit of Prophecy to teach that sensual, formal people, who continue till this day in the same sensuality and formality to which the Lord was forced to abandon them.

The particular parable to which our attention is this night called, was spoken to a great multitude, which had gathered to him out of all the cities in which he had been preaching separately, accompanied by his twelve Apostles, and maintained the while at the charges of certain pious women mentioned in the context. This multitude, which had been gathered together by the power of his preaching, he undertaketh to instruct in the proper power of preaching, and to set them on their guard against the various means by which the evil one would seek to destroy its efficacy upon their souls. For, no doubt, like all first disciples, they would be ready enough to hang upon their teacher, as if he could lead them into all truth; which is not otherwise to be done but by the power of the Holy Ghost working in every one a fervent application of his own mind, and diligent keeping of his own soul. That he might turn their souls inward upon themselves, and accustom them to spiritual watchfulness, in the exercise of which the work of the Holy Spirit to convince, convert, instruct, and build up, doth proceed, he took the similitude of the sower, knowing well that many of them would not understand it. But why then, do you ask, take any similitude at all? why tempt the people with a vessel full of meat, but unto which they could have no admission? I answer, The interpretation would have been more dark than the pa