than one of them is certainly not original, being easily traced up to earlier sources. A very interesting one will be found in the note below.* Those which are entitled parables in the writings of St. Bernard,† which, whether they be his or no, have much of beauty and instruction in them, are rather allegories than parables, and so do not claim here to be considered. But if parables, which are professedly such, are not of frequent occurrence in the works of the early Church writers, the parabolical element is, notwithstanding, very predominant in their teaching. This was only to be expected, especially in their homilies, which are popular in the truest and best sense of the word. What boundless stores, for instance, of happy illustration, which might with the greatest ease be thrown into the forms of parables, are laid up in the writings of St. Augustine. One is only perplexed amid the endless variety what instances to select: but we may take this one as an example. He is speaking of the Son of God and the sinner in the same world, and appearing under the same conditions of humanity; "But," he proceeds, * Urbem quandam magnam exstitisse accepi, in qua cives hoc in more et instituto positum habebant, ut peregrinum quendam et ignotum virum, ac legum consuetudinum civitatis omninò rudem et ignarum acciperent, eumque sibi ipsis regem constituerent, penes quem per unius anni curriculum rerum omnium potestas esset, quique liberè et sine ullo impedimento quicquid vellet, faceret. Post autem, dum ille omni prorsus curâ vacuus degeret, atque in luxu et deliciis sine ullo metu versaretur, perpetuumque sibi regnum fore existimaret, repente adversus eum insurgentes, regiamque ipsi vestem detrahentes, ac nudum per totam urbem tanquam in triumphum agentes, in magnam quandam et longè remotam insulam eum relegabant, in quâ nec victu nec indumentis suppetentibus, fame ac nuditate miserrimè premebatur, voluptate scilicet atque animi hilaritate, quæ præter spem ipsi concessa fuerat, in mærorem rursus præter spem omnem et expectationem commutata. Contigit ergo ut pro antiquo civium illorum more atque instituto vir quidam magno ingenii acumine præditus ad regnum ascisceretur. Qui statim subità ea felicitate, quæ ipsi obtigerat, haudquaquam præceps abreptus, nec eorum qui ante se regiam dignitatem obtinuerant, miserèque ejecti fuerant, incuriam imitatus, animo anxio et solicito id agitabat, quonam pacto rebus suis optimè consuleret. Dum ergo crebrâ meditatione hæc secum versaret, per sapientissimum quendam consiliarium de civium consuetudine ac perpetui exilii loco certior factus est: quonam pacto sine ullo errore ipse sibi cavere deberet, intellexit. Cùm igitur hoc cognovisset, futurumque propediem, ut ad illam insulam ablegaretur, atque adventitium illud et alienum regnum aliis relinqueret, patefactis thesauris suis, quorum tunc promptum ac liberum usum habebat, aurique atque argenti ac preciosorum lapidum ingenti mole famulis quibusdam quos fidissimos habebat, traditâ, ad eam insulam, ad quam abducendus erat, præmisit. Vertente autem anno cives commota seditione nudum eum quemadmodùm superiores reges, in exilium miserunt. Ac cæteri quidem amentes, et brevis temporis reges, gravissima fame laborabant: ille contra qui opes suas præmiserat, in perpetuâ rerum copiâ vitam ducens, atque infinita voluptate fruens, perfidorum ac sceleratorum civium metu prorsus abjecto, sapientissimi consilii sui nomine beatum se prædicabat. Compare 1 Tim. vi. 19. In the Benedictine edition, v. 1, p. 1251, seq. "how great a difference there is between the prisoner in his dungeon and the visitor that has come to see him. They are both within the walls of the dungeon: one who did not know might suppose them under equal restraint, but one is the compassionate visitor who can use his freedom when he will, the other is fast bound there for his offences. So great is the difference between Christ, the compassionate visitor of man, and man himself, the criminal in bondage for his offences." Or rebuking them that dare in their ignorance to find fault with the arrangements of Providence: If you entered the workshop of a blacksmith, you would not dare to find fault with his bellows, anvils, hammers. If you hadnot the skill of a workman, but the consideration of a man, what would you say? It is not without cause the bellows are placed here; the artificer knew, though I do not know, the reason.' You would not venture to find fault with the blacksmith in his shop, and do you dare to find fault with God in the world?"-Chrysostom, too, is very rich in such similitudes, which need nothing to be parables, except that they should be presented for such; as for instance, when speaking of the exaltation of outward nature, the redemption of the creature, which shall accompany the manifestation of the sons of God, he says, "To what is the creation like? It is like a nurse that has brought up a royal child, and when he ascends his paternal throne, she too rejoices with him, and is partaker of the benefit." But the field here opening before us is too wide to enter on. It is of parables strictly so called, and not all of these, but of such only as are found in the New Testament, that *In Ep. 1 Joh., Tract. 2. † Enarr. in Ps. cxlviii. He has something perhaps more nearly approaching in its form to a parable than either of these, Enarr. in Ps. ciii. 26. Hom. in Rom. viii. 19. I will not, however, deny myself the pleasure of transcribing the following parable from H. de Sto. Victore (De Sacram., 1. 2, pars 14, c. 8): Pater quidam contumacem filium quasi cum magno furore expulit, ut ita afflictus humiliari disceret. Sed illo in contumacia sua persistente, quâdam secretâ dispensatione consilii à patre mater mittitur, ut non quasi à patre missa, sed quasi maternâ per se pietate ducta veniens muliebri lenitate obstinatum demulceat, contumacem ad humilitatem flectat, vehementer patrem iratum nuntiet, se tamen interventuram spondeat, consilium salutis suggerat, . . . non nisi magnis precibus patrem placari posse dicat; causam tamen rei se suscepturam asserat, et ad bonam finem rem omnem se perducturam promittat. The mother here he presently explains as divine Grace.-Readers that have at hand POIRET's remarkable work, Economi Divina, may find a parable (v. 2, p. 554), l. 5, c. 9, 26, which is too long to quote, but is worthy a reference; and another in SALMERON's Serm. in Parab. Evang., p. 300. || One Persian, however, I will quote for its deep significance. I take it from DESLONGCHAMPS' Fables Indiennes, p. 64. The Persian moralist is speaking of the manner in which frivolous and sensual pleasures cause men to forget all the deeper it is my wish to speak: and these I would now proceed severally and in order to consider. interests of their spiritual being: On ne peut mieux assimiler le genre humain qu'à un homme qui, fuyant un éléphant furieux, est descendu dans un puits, il s'est accroché à deux rameaux qui en couvrent l'orifice; et ses pieds se sont posés sur quelque chose qui forme une saillie dans l'interieur du même puits: ce sont quatre serpens qui sortent leurs têtes hors de leur repaires; il apperçoit au fond du puits, un dragon qui gueule ouverte n'attend que l'instant de sa chûte pour le devorer. Ses regards se portent vers les deux rameaux auquels il est suspendu, et il voit à leur naissance deux rats, l'un noir, l'autre blanc, qui ne cessent de les ronger. Un autre objet cependant se presente à sa vue: c'est une ruche remplie de mouches à miel, il se met à manger de leur miel, et le plaisir qu'il y trouve lui fait oublier les serpens sur lesquels reposent ses pieds, les rats qui rongent les rameaux auxquels il est suspendu, et le danger dont il est menacé à chaque instant, de devenir la proie du dragon qui guette le moment de sa chûte pour le dévorer. Son étourderie et son illusion ne cessent qu'avec son existence. Ce puits c'est le monde rempli de dangers et de misères; les quatre serpens ce sont les quatres humeurs dont le melange forme notre corps, mais qui, lorsque leur équilibre est rompu, deviennent autant de poisons mortels; ces deux rats, l'un noir, l'autre blanc, ce sont le jour et la nuit, dont la succession consume la durée de notre vie; le dragon c'est le terme inévitable qui nous attend tous; le miel, enfin, ce sont les plaisirs des ses dont la fausse douceur, nous seduit et nous détourne du chemin où nous devons marcher. This is again, with some slight alterations, to be found among the specimens of the great mystical poet of Persia, Dschelaleddin, given by Von Hammer (Gesch. d. schön. Redek. Pers., p. 183), in Barlaam and Josaphat, c. 12, and elsewhere. In S. DE SACY'S Chrest. Arabe (v. 2, p. 364) there is a parable by an Arabian author which bears some resemblance, particularly at its opening, to that of the talents; and in THOLUCK's Blüthensammlung aus d. Morgenl. Myst., there are several parables from the mystical poets of Persia, for instance, a beautiful one, p. 105. PARABLES. I. THE SOWER. MATT. xiii. 3-8, and 18-23; MARK iv. 4-8, and 14-21; Ir is evidently the purpose of St. Matthew to present to his readers the parables recorded in the thirteenth chapter of his Gospel as the first which the Lord spoke; with this of the Sower he commenced a manner of teaching which he had not hitherto used. This is sufficiently indicated by the question which the disciples asked, "Why speakest thou unto them in parables?" (ver. 10), and the answer which our Lord gave (ver. 11-17), in which he justifies his use of this method of teaching, and declares the purpose which he had in adopting it; and no less so, when he seems to consider this parable as the fundamental one, on the right understanding of which, would depend their comprehension of all which were to follow—“Know ye not this parable? and how then will ye know all parables?" (Mark iv. 13.) And as this was the first occasion on which he brought forth these things new out of his treasure (see ver. 22), so was it the occasion on which he brought them forth with the largest hand. We have not any where else in the Gospels so rich a group of parables assembled together, so many and so costly pearls strung upon a single thread. The only passage that will bear comparison is chapters xv. and xvi. of St. Luke, where there are recorded five parables that were all apparently spoken on the same occasion. The seven that are here recorded divide themselves into two smaller groups,-the first four being spoken to the multitude while he taught them out of the ship,the three last, as it would seem, on the same day, in the narrower circle of his disciples at his own home. Before proceeding to consider the parables themselves, let us seek to realize to ourselves, and to picture vividly to our minds the aspect which the outward nature wore, and what the scenery was with which our blessed Lord and the listening multitudes were surrounded. St. Matthew tells us that "Jesus went out from the house," probably at Capernaum, which was the city where he commonly dwelt after his open ministry began (Matt. iv. 13), "his own city" (Matt. ix. 1), and which was close by the sea-shore, and going out he "sat down by the sea-side,” that is, by the lake of Genesareth, the scene of so many incidents in his ministry. This lake (now Bahr Tabaria) goes by many names in the Gospels. It is often called simply "the sea" (Mark iv. 1), or “the Sea of Galilee" (Matt. xv. 29, John vi. 1), or, "the sea of Tiberias" (John xxi. 1), though indeed it was an inland lake of no very great extent, being but about sixteen miles in length, and no more than six in breadth. But it might well claim regard for its beauty, if not for its extent the Jewish writers would have it that it was beloved of God above all the waters of Canaan, and indeed almost all ancient authors that have mentioned it, as well as modern travellers, speak in glowing terms of the beauty and rich fertility of its banks. Hence sometimes. its name Genesareth has been derived, which some interpret "the garden of riches," though the derivation, I believe, is insecure. And even now, when the land is crushed under the rod of Turkish misrule, many traces of its former beauty remain, many evidences of the fertility which its shores will again assume in the day which assuredly cannot be very far off, when that rod shall be lightened from them. It is true that the olive-gardens and vineyards, which once crowned the high and romantic. hills with which it is bounded on the east and the west, have disappeared; but the citron, the orange, and the date-tree, are still found in rich abundance; and in the higher regions, the products of a more temperate zone meet together with these ;-while lower down, its banks are still covered with aromatic shrubs, and its waters are still, as of old, sweet and wholesome to drink, and always cool, clear, and transparent to the very bottom, and as gently breaking on the fine white sand with which its shores are strewn as they did of old, when the feet of the Son of God trod those sands, or walked upon those waters. On the edge of * Thy #apadaλaooíav, probably so called to distinguish it from another Capernaum on the brook Kishon. † Jerome (De Nomin. Heb.) makes Gennesar-hortus principium. Josephus (Bell. Jud., 3. 10, 7) rises into high poetical animation while he is describing its attractions; and in ROHR's Palestina (termed by Göethe, a glorious book), p. 67, there is a singularly beautiful description of this lake and the neighboring country. See also LIGHTFOOT's Chorograph. Century, c. 70, 79, and MEUSCHEN, Nov. Test. ex Talm. illust., p. 151. Yet Robinson (Bibl. Researches, v. 3, |