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DIVINITY SCHOOL
TROWBRIDGE LIBRARY

GIFT OF
The Reverend Fraak R. Luokey

SOME PARABLES
OF NATURE

In the Light of To-day
By
J. B. THOMAS, D. D., LL. D.,
Professor in Newton Theological Institution

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JENNINGS AND GRAHAM
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EATON AND MAINS

Copyright, 1911,
By Jennings and Graham

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTORY NOTE,

flart I
PRELIMINARY CONSIDERATIONS,
1. Significance of the Parable.
2. Distinction of Parable and Miracle.
8. Distinction of Parable and Proverb.
i. The Parable's Perennial Message.
6. Basis of Interpretation.

JJartll
PARABLES OF THE KINGDOM, 31
I. The Problem of Environment, 37
1. Making of Environment.
2. Illusion of Continuity.
S. Specious Uniformity.
4. Seeming Self-Sufficiency of Nature.
5. The Mystery of Waste.
II. The Problem of Organic Origins, 55
1. Spontaneous Generation.
2. Transmutation of Species.
8. Protective Resemblance.
4. An Unseen World of Miro-Organisms.

CONTENTS
III. The Problem of a Vital Force, 63
1. Automatism.
2. Increase by Assimilation.
8. Creative Activity.
4. Selective Efficiency.
IV. The Problem of Destructive Agencies, 74
1. Shrinking from Light.
2. Parasitism.
8. Toxic Stimulus.
4. Subordination of Evil to Good.
V. The Problem of Parabolic Purpose, 81
1. Indolent Content with Superficial Truths.
2. Earnest Quest for Truth.
VI. The Concluding Disclosure, 91
1. The Realm of Conspicuous Freedom.
2. The Realm of Hidden Law.

INTRODUCTION

This little gem of New Testament
study is taken from the Methodist Re
view, with the kind permission of the
Editor of that superior journal, be
cause of its exceptional value and the
earnest desire of the Publishers that
for purely spiritual ends it might be
diligently read by all disciples of the
Lord Jesus, the Master Teacher.
The standard works of Trench and
Bruce on the Parables are familiar to
all students of the Holy Gospels and
are not surpassed by any similar works
in any language; but in the whole
range of literature on these marvelous
5

INTRODUCTION
teachings of our Lord I know of no
work that contains so much in so little
as does this little book by Professor
Thomas of Newton Theological Insti
tution, which is here offered to the
reader. Beautiful and exact in literary
form and expression, penetrating in
thought, yet clear as a mountain stream,
illuminating in exegetical skill, sug
gestive and spiritual, it can not fail to
quicken interest in the method and con
tent of our Lord's teaching in Parables
and to show how to study with thor
oughness the riches of the Word of
God.
R. J. Cooke, Booh Editor.

Part I
PRELIMINARY CONSIDER
ATIONS

PRELIMINARY CONSIDER
ATIONS
Matthew's record gives us, in a special
sense, the gospel of "the Kingdom."
He alone uses the phrase "Kingdom of
heaven." It is superseded thenceforth
by "Kingdom of God." This change
may be of no particular importance.
But it recalls suggestively Bernard's
plausible theory as to the "Progress
of Doctrine in the New Testament."
There is in the Gospels, he argues,
a steady advance of emphasis from
Kingdom to King. John, accordingly,
mentions the Kingdom in only a single
instance — that of the conversation with
Nicodemus. His similitudes cluster
9

SOME PARABLES OF NATURE
invariably about the person of Christ.
He is the "Good Shepherd," the "True
Bread," the "True Vine," etc. For light
upon the earthward and circumstantial
aspects of the coming Kingdom we
are thus practically turned back to
Matthew. In his narrative alone we
find the laws of the Kingdom given in
full and connectedly, in the Sermon
on the Mount. There also the seven
"parables of the Kingdom" appear,
symmetrically grouped, in his thirteenth
chapter. Only three of these discon
nectedly reappear in Luke, two are
given in Mark, and none of them else
where. 1. Significance of the Parable.
The deep significance of these para
bles is seen in our Lord's accompany
ing comment. He intimates that the
10

PRELIMINARY CONSIDERATIONS
"scribe," who has "understood" them,
has been made a "disciple to the King
dom of heaven." He has thus be
come "like unto a man that is a house
holder, who bringeth forth out of his
treasure things new and old." Evi
dently these are among those "keys of
the Kingdom," promised His disciples,
which open the way to its hid treas
ures. As such they ought to be prized
by those who long for a clue to the
labyrinthian paths of its coming devel
opment. The high rank here assigned to para
bolic teaching seems the more remark
able because the parable itself so early
dwarfs in emphasis and so soon wholly
disappears. Beyond the Synoptic Gos
pels there are no parables, properly
speaking. Nor is the parable ever
11

SOME PARABLES OF NATURE
again even mentioned in the New Tes
tament. Was it then a rudimentary
and ephemeral form of instruction
only, destined to give way to riper
methods as the intelligence of the lis
teners advanced? Something like this
seems implied in the statement that our
Lord taught in parables "as they were
able to bear it." But accompanying
qualifications indicate that the unreadi
ness referred to was moral rather than
intellectual. Jesus uses language show
ing His purpose mercifully to veil the
deeper truth from the carnal multi
tude, lest its prematurely full disclos
ure should provoke instinctive revulsion
and so do harm. Notice the striking il
lustration of this peril in Peter's case.
He was not strong enough to listen pa
tiently to the announcement of his Mas-
12

PRELIMINARY CONSIDERATIONS
ter's coming humiliation. It set him
aflame, and he "spake unadvisedly with
his lips." This brought upon him sting
ing but needful rebuke.
The parables need not be shallow be
cause they seem childishly simple. The
attainment of perfect simplicity is the
highest achievement of art. The depths
of the transparent sea appear to lie
close to the eye, while the murky waters
of the pond remain unfathomed by it.
It is more likely that the parable owed
the brevity of its ministry to its pro
fundity and breadth of scope than to
its superficiality. It dealt so centrally
and comprehensively with its theme that
its mission was quickly accomplished.
There has been but one incarnation, but
it embodied "the Truth," once and for
ever. In like manner the parable,
13

SOME PARABLES OF NATURE
doubtless, in the words of Lange, "in
terpreted eternity in the forms of
time." It thus keeps always abreast of
the world's thought and solicits succes
sively new interpretations. As Dean
Trench has said of the germinal say
ings of Christ at large, it may be said
with unique emphasis of His parables,
"You never get to the end of them."
2. Distinction of Parable and
Mibacle. The miracle has sometimes
been defined as an "acted parable."
But the two are, in fact, widely sepa
rated by characteristic differences.
They had certain features in common,
unquestionably. Both startled the peo
ple by their unusualness, and their sug
gestion of outreach beyond the human.
But the occasion of surprise in the two
cases was wholly distinct. Hearing the
14

PRELIMINARY CONSIDERATIONS
parable, the cry broke forth, "Whence
hath this man this wisdom?" Behold
ing the miracle, they "glorified God
who had given such power to men."
Both carried spiritual lessons, for the
miracle was also a symbol (semeion) .
But the idea conveyed by each was
unique. The one was a work ; the other
was a word. The one was evidential in
function, aiming at present sense im
pression; the other was provocative
rather, appealing to the rational under
standing. The one was primarily re
demptive, hinting of the normal order
only by pointing to its brokenness,
which it came to mend; the other was
wholly revelatory, uncovering the work
ing actualities of the ongoing world.
The one had an ephemeral function.
It manifested the temporary presence
15

SOME PARABLES OF NATURE
of the incarnate God, tangibly and im
mediately. That function being ended,
it is gone ; the other, turning nature into
an "Interpreter's House" which abides,
itself abides also as interpreter.
3. Distinction of Parable and
Proverb. There are no parables in the
Gospel of John, as has already been
said. He never uses the word parabole,
but paroimia only. This latter term
means, properly, a wayside saying or
proverb, and is so translated by the re
visers in all except a single oarelessly
treated case. In this latter case (John
10:1-16) it is evident that the writer
regards himself as uttering no parable.
There is no continuity of narrative, but
a string of metaphors only. The meta
phor differs from the parable as the
hieroglyph differs from the symmetri-
16

PRELIMINARY CONSIDERATIONS
cal statue or picture. In the one case
attention is fixed upon the object illus
trated. In the other case it is concen
trated upon the illustrating object.
The eye being fixed upon Christ as
the "Good Shepherd," isolated features
from the shepherd life and its sur
roundings may fitly be adduced, one by
one, to illuminate His mission. There
is thus no incongruity in speaking of
Him as metaphorically the "Door"
and the "Shepherd" at once; for it
reminds us that He is both the me
dium and the agent in our salvation.
The features assigned to the Son of
man, in the first chapter of Revela
tion, become grotesquely intolerable if
taken as furnishing a complete picture
and not as disconnected; but rightly
understood, as hieroglyphs, they are
2 17

SOME PARABLES OF NATURE
full of meaning. On the other hand,
when Matthew fixes our attention upon
"the sower" that "went forth to sow,"
by a preliminary "Behold," we expect
a continuous narrative of sequences
that are, or normally may be, true.
The introduction of falsity or incoher
ence at any point would be fatal to the
narrator's purpose. The parable is a
picture, and as such must have unity,
fidelity, and just proportion in por
trayal. 4. The Parable's Perennial Mes
sage. The prophetic announcement,
"I will open My mouth in parables;
I will utter things which have been
kept secret from the foundation of the
world," is expressly claimed by Mat
thew to have been fulfilled in Christ's
parabolic teaching. He suggestively,
18

PRELIMINARY CONSIDERATIONS
in making this claim, puts together the
words katabole and parabole, as if in
antithesis. The one literally means a
thrusting down or under; the other, a
thrusting forth or near. As if it were
meant to say that the secrets of na
ture, buried from the beginning under
outward phenomena, were now uncov
ered to view. It may be fanciful to
suggest such antithesis as intended.
But it remains true, at any rate, that
there is assigned to the parable some
fundamental significance as interpret
ing nature. The charge that Christ
and Christianity have been unfriendly
to physical research, or to intellectual
advance in any direction, could never
have been originated except out of hu
man obtuseness or perversity. The ex
act coincidence of the boundaries of the
19

SOME PARABLES OF NATURE
realm of scientific progress with those
of Christendom, is a conclusive refuta
tion of the charge. It was Satan that
had blinded men, deafened them, and
clogged their forward footsteps by pa
ralysis. Christ condemned and reversed
all this. And having restored men's
powers, He earnestly besought those to
whom they had been given back, as well
as those who had never lost them, to
use faithfully these heavenly gifts.
His characteristic words were such as
these: "Behold the fowls of the air;"
"He that hath ears to hear, let him
hear;" "Arise, and take up thy bed,
and walk." His characteristic com
plaint was that men "loved darkness
rather than light;" that "seeing," they
did not "perceive;" that they were slow
to "ask" and to "seek." He piqued the
20

PRELIMINARY CONSIDERATIONS
curiosity of His disciples by hinting
that the most familiar objects had every
one an intrusted thought of God for
them. Sir John Lubbock, on his knees
before an ant-hill, was literally obeying
the Solomonic injunction, "Consider
her ways." To precisely the same ef
fect, our Lord bade His followers,
"Consider the lily." The word used
(katamanthano) is picturesquely sug
gestive. It means to get down to, and
become a disciple of, the lily. The
breadth of range which Christ's allu
sion to natural phenomena takes is sur
prising. But even more impressive is
the precision with which He seizes the
central point of interest and mystery in
every case. It is the feeding of the
birds to which He points as worthy
of notice and study in that domain.
21

SOME PARABLES OF NATURE
When one has learned the relatively
enormous number of the birds, the end
less variety of food required, and the
marvelous ingenuity and diversity of
the devices necessary to secure it, he
will surely agree that the bird problem
culminates at the "feeding" point. It
is the "singleness" of the human eye
that is chosen for suggestive contem
plation. It is this "singleness" that
constitutes the chief unanswered prob
lem of the oculist to-day. It is not too
much to say that, under the stimulus of
Christ's incessant questioning and enig
matic hint, the whole world became
studded with interrogation points.
"Know ye not this parable? and how
then will ye know all parables?" The
question seems a fore-echo of Paul's
saying, "The invisible things of Him
22

PRELIMINARY CONSIDERATIONS
since the creation of the world are
clearly seen, being perceived through
the things that are made." Milton re
echoes it in his vision of earth as
But the shadow of heaven, and the things
therein
Each to other like more than on earth is
thought.
The notion of such a gigantic parallel
ism of things visible and invisible is em
bodied in the often cited passage from
Ecclesiasticus : "All things are double,
one over against another, and He hath
made nothing in vain."
5. Basis of- Interpretation. The
assumption of such a parallelism as is
above suggested, accepted as under
lying the teaching of the parables, gives
them a peculiarly modern look. For
23

SOME PARABLES OF NATURE
in that case the likeness between the
thing illustrated and the thing illustrat
ing it is not artificial nor fanciful, but
real. The parable becomes, thereupon,
in order of thought, the counterpart of
the so-called "scientific" method of to
day, which seeks by inductive processes
to reach out from the known to the un
known. Both set out to "interrogate
nature," after Lord Bacon's precept,
on the hypothesis that law prevails in
the supernatural realm as well as in the
natural, and that its operations are, in
some respects, alike in both. In some
respects only, let us remember, for
analogy must not be hastily taken for
identity. The growth of the Kingdom
of heaven is "like" that of a grain
of mustard seed, but not its counterpart
throughout. The growth of the peri-
24

PRELIMINARY CONSIDERATIONS
osteum in man is like that of the bark
of a tree. But no physiologist seeks
for full information about the former
from the latter. The lower tells us
something about the higher, which it
resembles, but not everything. The
expert interpreter of nature untiringly
seeks for a solid basis of fact from
which to theorize intelligently. He
critically observes the phenomena, not
ing minutiae of identity and difference,
and tracing relations of interaction and
of sequence. Out of the data, so pains
takingly secured, he attempts to sift
such uniformities of action as may help
him to formulate what he calls "laws."
Only from such a carefully and com
pactly built abutment does he venture
to spring his cantalever truss of specu
lative inference. The interpreter of the
25

SOME PARABLES OF NATURE
parables of Christ ought logically to
follow the same method. For they pre
sent groups of co-ordinated facts, hint
ing the significant features of agree
ment or disagreement, and bringing us
face to face with a resulting problem.
It would seem imperative here also first
to master the features of the concrete
picture, in detail, before attempting to
draw abstract inferences from it. "Not
first that which is spiritual," says the
apostle, "but that which is natural, and
afterward that which is spiritual." It
will instruct us little to be told that the
Kingdom of heaven is "like" this or
that, until we have carefully acquainted
ourselves with the characteristics of that
which it is said to resemble. To invert
this order is to hang the cantalever from
midair. 26

PRELIMINARY CONSIDERATIONS
No part of the Scripture has been
subjected to more fantastic caprice, and
none has yielded more contradictoriness
of result in interpretation, than these
parables. Precipitate spiritualization
has thus identified the "Kingdom" with
the Church, and forbade Church disci
pline on the authority of the parable
of the tares. It has insisted on making
"leaven" here mean, exceptionally, a be
neficent agency. It has made the "hid
treasure" and the "pearl" practically
identical in significance. It has found
in the parable of the "net" justifica
tion of Calvinistic "irresistible grace"
on the one hand, and of baptismal re
generation on the other. It is not the
purpose of this inquiry to revise these
theoretic conclusions in the spiritual
sphere, or to attempt new ones in the
2T

SOME PARABLES OF NATURE
same sphere. It essays a much humbler,
but by no means less important task —
the preliminary study of the facts
themselves, as furnishing the only trust
worthy basis of theoretic inference.

28

Part II
PARABLES OF THE KINGDOM

PARABLES OF THE KINGDOM
The parables in question begin with
the word "Behold." The Greek term
chosen is significant. It is eidein, im
mediately afterward (in verse 14) con
trasted with the inferior blepein. The
former means to perceive, or see into,
while the latter is only to see. It aims
not simply at an arrest of the wander
ing eye and a hasty glance at the pic
ture to be unfolded. A protracted and
penetrating study is solicited. The par
able is not simply to be heard but pa
tiently "understood." For it avowedly
offers an enigma to be resolved, and this
implies painstaking consideration of
31

SOME PARABLES OF NATURE
details. The facts appealed to are
taken from the familiar world about us.
They are so chosen and collated as to
narrow our attention to certain enig
matic phases of nature's ongoing, which
are commended to our careful examina
tion. Not until we have observed and
pondered upon nature's methods in the
particular case delineated, can we catch
her secret, and divine in what respects
the Kingdom of heaven is "like" the
earthly phenomenon taken as its coun
terpart. It is essential, therefore, first
of all, to note carefully the physical
facts selected, their correspondences
and differences, their order of sequence,
and such other details as may help to
single out the exact problem and reach
the exact law intended. The value of
such study, as illustrative of spiritual
32

PARABLES OF THE KINGDOM
things, will, of course, depend on the
fidelity of the parabolic report of na
ture's doings. "If I told you earthly
things and ye believe not, how shall ye
believe if I tell you heavenly things?"
But why should we believe the heavenly,
if the earthly be not truly portrayed?
Whether they are here so portrayed,
and whether they fairly suggest the
queries and inferences here suggested,
is open to inquiry now as then.
The page of Scripture and that of
nature ought to correspond if both are
from the same Divine Author. And
both are still in plain sight and legible.
Nineteen centuries of observation and
reflection have given us broader and
deeper insight into nature and its laws.
But nature itself remains unchanged,
and so do Christ's words describing it.
3 33

SOME PARABLES OF NATURE
In comparing the twp it is immaterial
to inquire whether any striking coinci
dence be due to supernatural insight,
or foresight on His part. Our inquiry
is not as to His inner thought, which
is matter of inference only, but as to
His language, which is unmistakable.
That His language, naturally under
stood, does reveal a curious gravitation
of emphasis toward the precise subjects
of modern research and the very prob
lems now under study will be found,
however, equally unmistakable.
It will be convenient to isolate the
first four parables, as is done in the nar
rative. They are there given to the
multitude, while the remaining three are
reserved for the disciples only. These
four fall naturally into a separate and
cognate group. The phenomena no-
34

PARABLES OF THE KINGDOM
ticed belong exclusively to the vital
realm, as distinguished from the psychi
cal above and the mechanical below it,
and in that realm to the vegetable world
only. This sagacious narrowing of the
field of vision is a striking anticipation
of modernism. The transfer of inquiry
from the broadly cosmical to the bio
logical has been the characteristic fea
ture of nineteenth century study. To
this Comte long ago attributed the
progress of current inquiry, as com
pared with Greek ultimate stagnancy.
And the narrowing of observation,
again, to the lower forms of Hfe, is a
notable anticipation of current method.
For it greatly simplifies the problem by
excluding those eccentric factors insep
arable from the life of animals and
men — sensation, reason, will, con-
35

SOME PARABLES OF NATURE
science, and the like. The problem of
vital action is thus presented to us re
duced to its lowest terms. The first
parable confronts us with:

36

I. THE PROBLEM OF ENVIRON
MENT
The sower, the seed, the sowing, the
sunshine, and the rain are assumed as
impartially the same throughout, but
the diversity in result is startling.
Three of the six segments of the sow
ing bring no final fruitage, and only
one comes to its best. How to account
for this? All other possibilities having
been exhausted, there remains but a
single clue to the puzzle — the diversity
of environment. The story is so told
as to emphasize this diversity and sug
gest its mastery. The devouring of the
seed that falls on the wayside is ob
viously due to the fact that it has no
37

SOME PARABLES OF NATURE
surrounding soil to protect it or en
courage germination. That which falls
upon "rocky places" soon "withers
away" because it has no fit "deepness
of earth." That which falls "upon the
thorns" is "choked" by its preoccupying
and stronger rivals, and so fails in the
struggle for life. The bringing forth
of "some a hundred-fold, some sixty,
some thirty" is not distinctly accounted
for. But analogic instinct at once sug
gests that, as before, diminishing fruit-
fulness is due to diminishing friendli
ness of environing conditions. The
question raised is thus one and inevi
table throughout. It would be super
fluous to emphasize the pre-eminence
given in modern research to the class
of facts thus outlined, and to the ex
planation it suggests. Environment
38

PARABLES OF THE KINGDOM
has been found so potent that it has
been reckoned well-nigh omnipotent.
Its power to limit and to modify is now
seen to be so real and so tremendous
that it has been credited with power also
to create. Being so clearly the cause of
much, it has been claimed to be the ulti
mate — or, at least, the ultimate ascer
tainable — cause of all. But the prob
lem is not so easily disposed of. The
explanation arouses as many questions
as it answers. It needs to be explained
itself. That many other factors require
to be taken into account the narrative
clearly implies.
Notice (1) the making of the en
vironment. The present environment
is a result and not a primal cause. The
particular instances here selected make
this fact conspicuous. Behind the hard-
39

SOME PARABLES OF NATURE
ness of the wayside are the footsteps of
man and beasts; and behind these the
endless maze of human interests and
impulses that have led to its traversing.
Behind the shallow plaster of soil upon
the rock lie the convulsions that tore
rock fragments from their parent bed,
and the various later agencies that
crushed and pulverized them into fertile
form. Behind the aggressive thorns
stretches out a long and intricate his
tory of advance, and eccentric degener
ation, for thorns are but aborted leaves.
Even the good, better, and best soil of
the parable is not primeval. If we may
trust the patiently reached conclusion
of Mr. Darwin, they owe their relative
fecundity to no "resident forces." All
our vegetable mold, he assures us, has
been ground into fertility by the earth-
40

PARABLES OF THE KINGDOM
worm. Although, with self-effacing
modesty, he keeps himself usually
buried out of sight, he is, in truth, the
head gardener of the universe. Be
sides this, later investigations uncover
the ministry of countless micro-organ
isms that mediate perpetually between
the plant and the soil, helping the
one to assimilate the needful ele
ments locked up in the other. In these
shrewdly selected instances, therefore,
there is brought to our notice the end
less reach of interacting agencies, whose
efficiency we can not ignore, but whose
nature and work we can not gauge. All
of these antecede and underlie environ
mental mastery. It is still true that
"there are more tilings in heaven and
earth . . . than are dreamt of in
your philosophy." 41

SOME PARABLES OF NATURE
(2) The illusion of continuity.
There is a notably complete line of ad
vance from the stagnancy of the way
side seed, through clearly marked up
ward steps, to the acme of fruitfulness
in the hundred-fold crop. Does not
such serial continuity imply also like
causal continuity? If "in yesterday
already walks to-morrow," must we not
find the successively higher to be always
a new "mode" of the next lower? Was
there any large or more real gap be
tween the almost-reached fruitage of
the seed in thorny soil, and that which
brought a thirty-fold return, than be
tween the latter and the sixty-fold crop
next above it? May we not say that
the actuality of the latter is a materiali
zation of the "potency" of the former,
to borrow a phrase familiar among
42

PARABLES OF THE KINGDOM
physicists? The facts out of which the
modern notion of universal continuity
of development has been conjured are
here given a plausible statement, but
the notion itself finds no recognition.
There are degrees of goodness and of
badness respectively, but no genetic re
lation between them. There is an ab
rupt division of the series into two
groups — and between crop and no crop
there is absolute antithesis. Failure,
complete or partial, is not the birth
throe of success. Evil is not "good in
the making." The devil, who is "the
father of lies," is not, therefore, the
grandfather of truth.
(3) Specious uniformity. The pre
cision of parabolic language, even in
allusion to minor details, is observable
in the explanation given of what befell
43

SOME PARABLES OF NATURE
the seed falling upon rocky ground. It
"sprang up quickly because it had no
deepness of earth." The fact of such
rapid springing up was obvious to any
observer, but its correct explanation
was then not so. We now know that
the rocky substratum, catching and re
flecting the sun rays, cradled the young
growth in peculiar warmth, and so has
tened its advance. The further remark
that it was when the "sun was risen"
that the feebly rooted plants "withered
away" is equally accurate and full of
suggestiveness. The "rising" so re
ferred to must needs be its seasonal
climb toward the summer solstice, for
the rooting could not occur in a single
day. When the sun rides high in sum
mer its thermal ray overmatches the lu
minous, as that had already displaced
44

PARABLES OF THE KINGDOM
the actinic ray of spring. James, in his
Epistle refers to this as bringing "burn
ing heat." By this marvelous change
in mode of energy displayed, the sun
adjusts itself continuously to the ad
vancing needs of plant life; but the
change from the mild actinic ray, which
nurtures all life in its incipient stages,
to the fiercer thermal ray, which also
brings healthful ripening to the plant
in good soil, ministers death to the ten
ant of the shallow, rock-bottomed tract.
This subtle change in the apparently
uniform emission of solar force may
well remind us of the illogical nature
of the processes by which we may bring
ourselves to speak of the "uniformity
of nature," and build ponderous and
fallacious theories thereon.
(4) Seeming self-sufficiency of na-
45

SOME PARABLES OF NATURE
ture. Lucretius persuaded himself, a
long time ago, that "nature can do all
things, without the help of the gods."
"Natural selection" has been sometimes
theoretically endowed with like semi-
divine independence of efficiency. But
in this parable we are reminded that
the soil which fosters the seed does not
create it, and that the seed, being cre
ated, can normally reach the soil only
by being sown. Observe that, instead
of using the familiar and direct desig
nation of the seed (siton or sperma),
our Lord, in His explanation of the
parable, resorts to a periphrastic form
of expression — "that which is sown."
This might be dismissed as acciden
tal, but for the uniform abstention
throughout the parable, from the ordi
nary term, and the unusual character
46

PARABLES OF THE KINGDOM
of the roundabout phrase substituted.
This is the more suggestive because of
the fact that the cereals are in a pecul
iar sense "that which is sown." Grass
grows by the root, and is self -protecting
and self -propagating. But the cereal
is uniquely dependent on the ministry
of man. The geologic record shows it
to have been twin-born with him, and
that it came into existence full- formed,
without traceable antecedents. It has
never been found wild, as Decandolle
assures us, and when left to itself it
does not degenerate as other plants do,
but disappears. It is also peculiarly
perishable when gathered. MacMillan
says, "It is not probable that there was
ever a year and a half's supply of bread
at one time in the world," and "The
human race comes every year within a
47

SOME PARABLES OF NATURE
month of starvation." Cereal life is
also singularly helpless and unhelped
except by man. It is not self -fertiliz
ing. It is not aided at this point by
birds or insects, as many other organ
isms are. Its delicate pollen must be
scattered indiscriminately by the wind,
and is always in danger of being de
stroyed by violent blasts or drenching
rains. It is the victim of myriads of
insects, as well as of rust and mildew.
It is plain, then, that the cereal is
neither a product nor a favorite of
"natural selection." It never origi
nates, and can not survive, apart from
man. His prescient care must prepare
the soil and scatter it, and his hand must
gather and preserve it for future sow
ing, or it would perish outright. It il
lustrates in unimpeachable fashion the
48

PARABLES OF THE KINGDOM
incapacity of nature alone mechanically
to meet all the needs of vital organisms.
(5) The mystery of waste. Of the
six tracts here described as sown only
one made full return. Of the remain
der two were partially and three wholly
unresponsive. Was the bulk of the
seed therefore wasted? Here we come
upon a perennial stumbling-block of
cosmic theorists. Nature seems to de
stroy as ruthlessly as it creates lavishly.
Yet the word "waste" is, in fact, a mal
leable and delusive one. The highway
was infertile, yet it was indispensable.
The rock was good to build upon, al
though unfit to sow upon. Even the
thorns might be wrought into a service
able hedge. The objectionable and ob
structive, from one point of view, may
be usable and even necessary from an-
4 49

SOME PARABLES OF NATURE
other. No one but the general, who has
the whole field of battle in view, can
decide on the wisdom of .a single com
pany movement. The "sower" who
here "went forth to sow" furnishes
light thereby on the problem. The
wheat he holds in his hand is essential
to his life. If it be wholly lost, no wit
of man can replace it by manipulation
of the grasses; no chemist can find a
substitute for it as a vehicle of life.
Of it he may justly say, "Teneo et
teneor," for he holds it in life by sow
ing, and it, in turn, holds him in life
by the harvest it returns. But being a
creature of appetite, and knowing that
it is good for food, why does he not eat
it as the horse would? Being an ob
serving creature, and seeing that the
seed in the furrow will dissolve and dis-
50

PARABLES OF THE KINGDOM
appear, why does he commit it to such
a fate? Or if, being also "a creature
of large discourse, looking before and
after," he perceives that seeming disso
lution is not real, but the way to a new
and increased life, he must also see that
there are formidable difficulties in the
way. Beyond his hand, it is beyond
his reach. It must be left to the mercy
of mechanical and incalculable forces,
with grave uncertainty as to result.
Why, then, should he exchange the se
cure for the problematic? Or, again,
he knows that the seed must have fit
soil, for he "goes forth" to find it. He
knows that in sowing some must be
scattered on the wayside, some o# rocky
ground, and some among thorns.
Why, then, does he not drop it pa
tiently, seed by seed, in fruitful fur-
51

SOME PARABLES OF NATURE
rows, rather than entail foreseen and
reckless waste by sowing broadcast?
The future crop may be uncertain if the
seed be trusted to wind and weather,
but it is impossible else. The waste of
time in planting, seed by seed, would
far outweigh the waste of seed in scat
tering. And, from the bird's point of
view, the wayside seed would not be
wasted. "There is that scattereth and
yet increaseth." The "sower" still de
liberately goes forth to sow, and the
judgment of the ages is that he com
mits no waste.

52

The question of environment proposed
in the parable of the sower is broadly
cosmic. In the parable of the tares,
which follows, a narrower field of in
quiry is chosen.

II. THE PROBLEM OF ORGANIC
ORIGINS
Our attention is now diverted from
the behavior of the soil to that of the
seed. It is no longer the hindrance of
normal growth that occasions surprise,
but the intrusion of the apparently ab
normal. Admitting that diversity of
soil may occasion increase or diminu
tion of fruitage even where the soil is
all good, how are we to account for en
tire change of fruitage where soil and
seed are both alike good? "Didst
thou not sow good seed in thy field?
Whence then hath it tares?" There is
surmise as well as surprise in the ques
tion. One of two possible explanations
55

SOME PARABLES OF NATURE
seems always to have promptly oc
curred to men. They are:
1. Spontaneous Generation. The
notion that nature, which "can do all
things, without the help of the gods,"
can make the forces it has generated
blaze of themselves into life at last, has
seemed plausible enough from the time
when men began to guess at the riddle
of the universe. If motion becomes
heat, why may not heat become hfe?
Sanguine experimenters are still dream
ing of brewing life out of a gallipot;
They are still falling in love with work
of their hands as Pygmalion did, and
trying to extort the gift of breath for
it. But success grows less and less
likely. The man who thinks he has
reached the desired goal only reveals his
own carelessness or incompetency as an
56

PARABLES OF THE KINGDOM
observer; if we may trust one who was
himself so competent an observer as
Professor Huxley. It is a finally ac
cepted axiom that "there is no egg ex
cept from an egg." This interpreta
tion of the mystery failing, there re
mains the alternative and equally self-
commending one, of
2. Transmutation of Species. Grant
ing that the relatively simple and in
flexible wheels of nature may not grind
out a tiling so complex and flexible
as life, may not the larger endow
ment of life itself account for the new
phenomenon? The traditional theory
that wheat may capriciously turn into
"chess" or "cheat" still lingers among
sense-taught rustics. The Darwinian
canon, that morphologic likeness infal
libly reveals genealogic relationship of
57

SOME PARABLES OF NATURE
affinity or descent, grows out of a simi
lar conception. For the fact that na
ture often indulges in "sports," true to
type in general but variant in detail,
manifestly made it possible to believe
that the novel yet nearly resembling
"cheat" might have sprung from the
familiar wheat. But to accept mere re
semblance of form as universally the
index of alliance, through "descent
with modification," leads to gross ab
surdity. We must then believe that the
rose leaf is the progenitor of the rose-
leaf bug, which copies it slavishly, even
to discoloration and spots of decay.
We must even suspect some genetic af
finity between these two and the curi
ously patterned frost leaf on the pane.
It is at least worth observing that, as
before noted, no form of vegetable life
58

PARABLES OF THE KINGDOM
better fitted to refute the notion in
question could have been chosen than
the cereal ; for it has, in a unique sense,
resisted the attempt to discover ances
tral relations for it or to find any
tendency to variation or reversion to a
cruder form. The enigma, therefore,
is not to be thus solved. Meantime the
mimicry of the wheat by the tares, em
phasized in the parable, demands a
passing notice. It brings into view the
much-debated theory of
3. Protective Resemblance. It has
been argued plausibly that certain in
ferior forms of life have survived be
cause they have acquired or retained
marked imitative peculiarities. These
resemblances were thus somehow orig
inated, it was thought, out of the ne
cessities of the weak and were defensive
59

SOME PARABLES OF NATURE
in character. But the tares in the pres
ent case, although "protected" from
uprooting by their resemblance to the
wheat, were themselves the aggressors
upon their better, though weaker, rival.
And this exposes the fallacy of the the
ory in question; for nature, in fact,
equips her combatants for their life
struggle with unimpeachable impar
tiality. The tawny striped hide of the
tiger conceals him, in the jungle, from
the humble creature he seeks to pounce
upon as completely as any of its pe
culiarities protects it from him. It is
a curious inversion of logic, in any case,
for those who attribute the production
of every idiosyncrasy to the mechanical
operation of unintelligent causes to
seize upon a single one as in itself be
traying intelligent originating purpose.
60

PARABLES OF THE KINGDOM
That the tares bear an uncanny likeness
to the wheat does not prove that they
are born of the wheat they help to de
stroy, nor that the likeness was intended
to preserve them while doing their un
friendly work. We must look beyond
any of the causes assigned for the ex
planation of the new phenomenon.
The true and only cause is found in the
discovery of
4. An Unseen World of Micro
organisms. The microscope has now
uncovered a hitherto unsuspected realm
of life. Earth, water, and air are
found to swarm with millions of infini
tesimal spores, largely inimical to life
in its higher ranges. These look vigi
lantly for a lodgment, and, having
found it, multiply with amazing speed.
From this hidden realm come the in-
61

SOME PARABLES OF NATURE
truders whose origin once seemed so ob
scure. They are not the aberrant out
growth of familiar things, nor are they
seedless in origin. They bear seed
"after their kind," and are born of seed,
as rigorously as any plant or tree. And
this nineteenth century account of the
matter is substantially identical with
that given in this parable. It is not
the soil nor the wheat that has produced
the tares; "an enemy hath done this."
It was secret work, for it was done
"while men slept." It was actual and
alien seed, for it was "sowed." The
"kingdom of darkness" constantly re
ferred to in Scripture has its counter
part at least in that occult region from
whence come these insidious foes. It
is the hiding place and arsenal of the
"enemy." 62

III. THE PROBLEM OF A VITAL
FORCE
The parable of the mustard seed nar
rows and deepens the field of vision. It
passes from soils, and seeds, and the ab
normal processes of hindrance or intru
sion from without, to the behavior of a
single seed working normally from
within. It fastens attention on the in
herent mystery of germination and
growth. The companion parable, given
by Mark, puts it pithily. It notes the
wonder of him who has "cast seed upon
the earth," that it should "spring up
and grow, he knoweth not how." The
theorist is apt to imagine the restate-
63

SOME PARABLES OF NATURE
ment of the problem as equivalent to
its solution. "I never was born, but
just growed," said Topsy. Growth is
so familiar a phenomenon that we are
content to call it "natural" and assume
that it is therefore simple. The high
evolutionist echoes Topsy's simple ex
planation of the existing order of
things, but substitutes a new name:
"The universe never was created but
just evolved" (that is "growed," as he
takes pains to explain) . But the word
"grow" (to say nothing of "evolve")
is highly cabalistic. It masks much
more than it reveals. It notes visible
advance, through shoot and trunk, to
full-formed tree, but it tells nothing of
the hidden agency that masters com
plex processes, and guides them wit
tingly to a definite result. The word
64

PARABLES OF THE KINGDOM
"grow," moreover, is well fitted to be
tray us through its elasticity of appli
cation. It readily takes on a meta
phorical sense, which then is assumed
to be literal. Witness the familiar
trope, "the more the marble wastes the
more the statue grows." It is precisely
this figurative use of the word which,
illusively treated as literal, gives color
to the Darwinian explanation of the
"origin of species." The evolutionary
"growth" there appealed to is mechan
ical erosion; it is not "natural" but ar
tificial. The phenomena of growth
here hinted at remind us of its still un
solved mysteries involved. It must be
said of them, now as then, "he knoweth
not how."
1. Automatism. Until "sowed" the
seed is as helpless a victim of mechan-
5 65

SOME PARABLES OF NATURE
ical force as the clod. But, unlike the
clod, it hides in itself an intangible
somewhat which the experimentalist
can not discover, and for which he has
no better name than the obviously un
scientific one, a "potency." By help of
this it "springs up," mastering hence
forth the force of gravity that has been
thus far its master. Thoreau thought
he saw a master key of the enigmas of
growth in the image of an inverted tree
carved out by the rainfall on the side
of a railroad embankment. But the
key does not reach the deepest wards of
the lock. The water is drawn irresist
ibly down along a channel mechanic
ally shaped by visibly controlling stone
or nodule; but the tree springs up and
there are no discoverable molds into
which it runs. 66

PARABLES OF THE KINGDOM
2. Increase by Assimilation. The
"smallest of all seeds" becomes "greater
than the herbs." We are told that some
seeds not a hundredth part of the size
of a pin's head grow in a single night
to the size of a great gourd. They
multiply cells at the rate of nearly a
hundred million in a minute. They
grow as much in a night as our chil
dren do in ten years. And this growth
in bulk is not the result of aggregation
only, as in case of the mineral. That
accumulates mechanically, under math-
ematic regimen, and remains homoge
neous throughout. But the seed lays
hold of the soil into which it has been
cast only to spring from it. It bor
rows material from it only to trans
mute and incorporate it into itself. It
gathers, digests, differentiates, and or-
67

SOME PARABLES OF NATURE
ganizes it into a symmetrical whole. It
shapes and reshapes its own organs at
need. In all this it parts widely from
the non-living realm.
3. Creative Activity. "It becom-
eth a tree." The old quarrel between
the evolutionist and the epigenesist
turned on the question whether the tree
was simply an enlarged phase of its
own miniature self, existing in the seed,
or whether it had come to be as a new
thing. The latter doctrine has pre
vailed, although by a curious freak of
inversion it has taken on its old rival's
name. It is now commonly agreed that
the process by which the great branch
ing tree is elaborated from the tiny
round seed is one involving a strictly
creative element. The germinal proto
plasm is absolutely structureless to the
68

PARABLES OF THE KINGDOM
sharpest microscopic vision. More than
that, it literally dies; that is to say, it
disintegrates and disappears. The
causative source of the unfolding tree
is that mysterious somewhat within the
seed beyond the longest reach of scalpel
or microscope, which has been already
alluded to as a "potency." So that the
"things that are seen were not made of
the things that do appear." The "po
tency" thus revealed is not a resultant
of slowly advancing processes from
below. "The change is instantaneous,"
says Beale; "the life flashes, as it were,
into the particles, and they live." And
it is itself as new and as diverse in ac
tion as are the things it brings into be
ing. Chemical compounds are homoge
neous and symmetric. All crystalliza
tion is in straight lines. But "in germs
69

SOME PARABLES OF NATURE
the want of symmetry is the first hint
of formative purpose." "Vital move
ments differ from all others in being
unsymmetrical and in all directions and
forms; without rhythm." Asserting
its freedom from the mechanical, at
first, in this spasmodic and erratic way,
hfe settles anon into a new form of
symmetry, revealing itself in the curved
grace and beauty of leaf, and flower,
and fruit. It is an unmistakably new
agency that, through counterpoised
heredity and variation, brings into be
ing things perennially new.
4. Selective Efficiency. The brain
less, wingless seed, cast upon the way
side, can neither see nor escape the
more richly endowed bird. But, quick
ened, it has wit enough to build a struc
ture so elaborate and attractive that
70

PARABLES OF THE KINGDOM
"the birds of heaven come and lodge
in the branches thereof." By what
strange power is it helped to solve prob
lems that the birds can not? For there
are here prodigies of achievement in the
solution of problems chemical, mechan
ical, architectural, and artistic. And
they are solved without help of crucible,
pattern, or tool of any kind. The
earthworm, which seems but a random
scratch at the bottom of nature's page,
is able, as Mr. Darwin satisfied himself
by repeated experiments, to solve the
problem of least resistance as accu
rately as the most acute mathematician.
For he seizes the stone or paper left
near his hiding place at exactly the
right point to drag it most easily over
his door. The hermit of Walden Pond
was curious to learn how much pump-
71

SOME PARABLES OF NATURE
kin there might be in his back yard.
He did not turn to the Academy of
Sciences for information, knowing it
would be a vain quest, but he put a
diplomaless pumpkin seed into the soil
and set it upon the task of answering.
It ferreted out forty pounds of pump
kin and hung its answer on the garden
fence. A perishing vine has been
known, impelled by that "scent of wa
ter" of which Job speaks, to climb an
intervening wall that it may thrust its
thirsty roots into a well on the farther
side. The mystery of life thus outlined
suggestively in the first century re
mains as attractive and as impenetrable
in the twentieth. The challenge "Have
ye understood all these things?" re
mains still unmet. We have resolved
life into a "potency," but have thereby
72

PARABLES OF THE KINGDOM
confessed its secret to be beyond the
reach of microscope or crucible. It lin
gers, inaccessible, "behind the veil."
The antithesis between the good and
bad soils finds expression in a single
parable, that of the sower. The same
is true as to the good and bad seed.
But it requires two parables, that of the
mustard seed and that of the leaven, to
bring out the contrast between growth
and counter-growth. The latter par
able, accordingly, propounds a serious
problem.

73

IV. THE PROBLEM OF DE
STRUCTIVE AGENCIES
The most intricate and baffling of
the phenomena that confront the biolo
gist are those connected with fermenta
tion. "We have, as yet, no certain idea
of the action of organic ferments." So
wrote Schutzenberg in 1876. Johnson,
in his "Chemistry of Common Life,"
pronounced it "physiologically and
chemically inexplicable." Subsequent
research has left the riddle only incom
pletely solved. The parable of the
leaven fixes our inquiring gaze upon
this uniquely perplexing process, seiz
ing with wonderful accuracy upon its
most eccentric features. 74

PARABLES OF THE KINGDOM
1. Shrinking from Light. The leaven
is not said to have been "sown" as
were the seed in the preceding para
bles. It was "hid" in the receiving me
dium. For the yeast plant belongs to
that singular section of the plant world,
the fungoid, which reverses the ordi
nary and essential habit of the vegeta
ble kingdom; it "loves darkness rather
than light." It still further divorces
itself from its kindred, and allies itself
with the animal kingdom. For, like the
animal, and unlike any other vegetable,
it absorbs oxygen and gives off carbon
dioxide. It thus takes on often a flesh
like texture and odor, even becoming
fetid and attracting carrion flies. Its
behavior at this point has seemed so
paradoxical to some biologists that they
have assigned it a separate place, as in-
75

SOME PARABLES OF NATURE
termediate between plants and animals.
These peculiarities, together with its in
tolerance of light, explain the necessity
of its being "hid" rather than sown.
2. Parasitism. All plants which
shun the light, thereby rob themselves
of power to decompose the inorganic
elements of the soil and assimilate the
product. They thus become necessarily
parasitic ; they must feed on that which
lives or has lived. The leaven must
needs have been hid in meal, therefore,
for that had been vitalized. In the soil
it would quickly perish. Finding a
congenial place, it would begin at once
to disintegrate the highly complex tis
sues of the meal, degrading them to
their original inorganic state. It would
thus wantonly and quicldy unmake
what the living plant had so deftly and
76

PARABLES OF THE KINGDOM
patiently made. The discovery of the
wide prevalence of such apparently
maleficent agencies in the organization
of the universe has been an occasion of
endless surprise and bewilderment. It
is the more astonishing because of the
marked indulgence given them. There
are said to be over three thousand spe
cies of vegetable parasites alone. They
multiply in numbers and develop in size
with a speed that is startling. MacMil-
lan tells of fungi that throw off thirty
thousand cells a minute and grow three
inches in twenty-five minutes. Why
should these malign destroyers be given
so great advantage in the struggle for
life over the nobler forms on which they
prey? We here reach the edge of the
broader and age-long question which
lurks behind all such inquiries: how to
77

SOME PARABLES OF NATURE
explain the permitted origin of phys
ical evil in any form.
3. Toxic Stimulus. The most mys
terious element of the process in ques
tion remains still to be remarked upon.
The leaven having been hid in the meal,
the "whole was leavened." No report
is made as to what befell the leaven it
self. The meal was not incorporated
into its Hfe, but leavened, that is, modi
fied by its diffused influence. But
how? Here is the crux of the problem.
Fermentation was formerly attributed
to independent chemical agency. On
the discovery of the yeast plant it was
at once credited to its vital working;
but later investigation shows the newly
found organism to be the occasion
only, not the direct originator, of the
process. Fermentation is a process of
78

PARABLES OF THE KINGDOM
dissolution which, left to itself, ends in
putrefaction and destruction. The
growing leaven can not of itself di
rectly accomplish this, but it has the
extraordinary power to subsidize inno
cent chemic forces to its nefarious pur
pose. The dough, stirred by the chemic
gases thus generated, rises and grows
as if ahve. But it is a counterfeit of
life only. It is incipient death. It
thus appears that the three kingdoms
are insidiously laid under tribute by the
leaven to inaugurate a process which,
permitted to go on to completion,
would infect the wholesome meal into
which it is admitted and make it poison
ous. For, being a plant, it has taken
on animal features and functions from
above, and laid hold of and compelled
the help of chemic forces from below,
79

SOME PARABLES OF NATURE
to accomplish its unfriendly work.
The mystery grows deep. But a hint
of relief is given in the suggested
4. Subordination of Evil to Good.
The leaven was not hid in the meal
unintelhgently, nor without purpose.
The "woman" who hid it was certain to
keep her eye on it, and at the right time
thrust the loaf into the oven. The
leaven was suffered to proceed only so far
as could be healthfully appropriated.
Joseph's brethren "meant it for evil"
when they sent him forward through
the pit to slavery, but God "meant it
for good," and brought good through
it. The leaven still may "mean it for
evil" when it breeds incipient toxin in
the meal, but the shrewd house-mother
also still "means it for good," and con
tinues wisely to hide it in the meal.
80

V. THE PROBLEM OF PARA
BOLIC PURPOSE
All seven parables reveal a carefully
marked line of demarcation and con
trast. They set the evil over against
the good, the false over against the
true. They reiterate, also, an earnest
warning against deception through
failure to discriminate the really true
from that which is only illusively so.
As in the case of the mustard and the
leaven, so in that of the hid treasure
and the pearl, two parables are set over
against each other to bring out the an
tithesis. These two parables are not
ably alike in some particulars. Some
6 81

SOME PARABLES OF NATURE
interpreters have even inclined to treat
them as substantially identical in pur
port because of this. In each a man be
comes aware Of a treasure, in each he
becomes its owner, and in each it costs
his all to secure it. Were this all that
is meant, it is inconceivable that two
parables should have been given where
one would have sufficed. The real sig
nificance of the teaching must lie in the
differences noted. These seem to cen
ter in the mental attitude of the two
men. The finding was in the one case
an accident and surprise; in the other
it was the outcome of intelligent and
patient search, ending only with the
finding of the particular "pearl of
great price." In the one case the treas
ure was hid again, its nature even not
being disclosed; in the other it was
82

PARABLES OF THE KINGDOM
plainly utilized. In the one case the
field, with its still hidden prize, was
bought ; in the other it was not the cas
ket containing the pearl, nor the gulf
from which it had come, and where
others might lie hid, but the pearl it
self that was secured. This contrast
touches the marrow of purpose in par
abolic teaching.
1. Indolent Content with Super
ficial Truths. The parable has been
defined as the "husk which keeps the
kernel from the indifferent and for
the earnest." In this sense it was said
to have been given to the careless mul
titude, "that seeing they might not see,
and hearing they might not under
stand." And this concealing function
is as true of the "all parables" nature
gives her children as of those given by
83

SOME PARABLES OF NATURE
Christ. Balearic mothers used to place
their younglings' breakfeast on an
overhanging limb that they might learn
to bring it down with a bow. The earth
brings forth fruit of itself, and holds
it out to the hungry, that they may
learn to improve it. It invitingly be
trays the hiding place of coal and the
precious metals that they may be dug
for and wrought. It sets us simple les
sons in swimming and flight in the
equipment of fishes and birds that we
may build ships and aeroplanes. It
furnishes a primer of artistic form and
color in the flowers that Phidias and
Raphael may be taught thereby. But
he who dismisses flower, bird, coal, and
wheat as exhausted of all possible, if
not all real, meaning for us by chemical,
and histological, and mechanical analy-
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PARABLES OF THE KINGDOM
sis, has "stuck in the bark." It is not
true that nothing is true except what
we can "experimentally verify." He
who thinks so contents himself with
half-truths instead of the truth. He
willingly carnalizes the vision and
buries the proffered treasure in the
earth. In his case, surely, if "knowl
edge comes," it is true that "wisdom
lingers." 2. Earnest Quest for Final Truth.
Before the ever-sharpening eye of
the explorer, reaching higher into the
heavens, piercing deeper into the heart
of the material world beside us, dif
ferences of material constitution tend
to disappear, forces resolve themselves
into modes of a single force, laws
unify themselves as law. This con
vergence in the world of sense awakens
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reasonable expectation of like conver
gence in the equally real, although far
more occult, world of sensation and
mentality. Beyond the solid and easily
accessible earth lies the restless un
fathomable sea. Out of its mysterious
depths comes the pearl. It is unique
among gems. No other requires half
the courageous venture or entails half
the peril in obtaining. The pearl diver,
armed with a knife to contend against
sharks, and with ears and nostrils arti
ficially protected against the enormous
pressure below, plunges into the deadly
depths. Life is often the cost of the
venture. The pearl alone, unlike the
diamond or any other gem, will endure
no touch of human hand. Like the
altar of old, the "workman must not
lift up any tool upon it." It alone,
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also, is the product of vital processes.
It is the response of a wounded life
covering with loving beauty the un
friendly grain that has wounded it.
The process is mysterious but the
fact unquestioned. Complete in itself,
the product of suffering and bought
through suffering, at the peril of
life, it seems to betray the deepest se
cret of the universe. One can but re
member that while the foundations of
the heavenly city are varied, its every
gate is of a single pearl. And we also
are reminded that Jesus said, "I am the
door." The Jews were proud of their
exclusive title to the Scriptures. They
"thought" that "in them they had eter
nal life." But they were content with
the husk; they did not faithfully
"search" for the life therein. He only
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who goes below the surface phenomena
of the terrestrial can find in the depths
of the spiritual "the truth" — the "pearl
of great price."

The last three parables are addressed
to the disciples alone. It may be as
sumed that they require keener vision,
to reach their greater depth of signifi
cance, than do the others. They lay
less exclusive emphasis on the inde
pendent ongoing of the lower world,
passing on to consider the motives and
conduct of men as influenced by or in
fluencing nature. Human nature is a
part of nature at large, and as such it
is subject to generic laws, but the edi
fice of creation enlarges as it rises. Its
higher stories successively overhang the
lower. Physiology is harder to under
stand than physics, and psychology
harder than either, and the ascending
hierarchy of laws grows steadily more
voluminous and subtly intricate. These
parables may, therefore, be dismissed
with briefer and less confident com
ment, for the "well is deep."

VI. THE CONCLUDING DIS
CLOSURE
The Orientals call the sea the "night
of the depths." The earth itself
sprang out of it. All life is still born
of water. It is the home of unsolved
mysteries. The things that fall into it
"suffer a sea change into something
rich and strange." Strange forms of
hfe play in its waters, and the waters
themselves thrill with strange forces.
It fitly sums up the dominant features
of the present unexplained order.
1. The Realm of Conspicuous Free
dom. It is the "uncharted sea." It
tolerates no fences nor proprietary
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lines. It bears up impartially and parts
easily to the touch of all its varied ten
ants. It gives ungrudging room to the
grasping octopus and the savage shark,
as well as to the innocent small fry and
the beneficent food fishes. Its fluent
tides are released from the unchanging
rigidity of the earth. In this primary
impression, of unobstructed play of in
dependent forms and forces, it fairly
symbolizes the world at large. The fly
ing clouds, the tangled copse, the wan
dering winds, the variegated landscape,
the flitting bird, the springing forest
tenantry, as well as the dancing wave,
testify of movement of all at "their
own sweet will." Of this free agency
man is supremely conscious. It makes
his conduct so capricious and unpredict
able that a technically accurate science
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of history has been pronounced im
practicable. Of all the mysteries of
this present world none is more pro
found than the sudden explosion of
those wanton extravagances of popu
lar passion that led Bishop Butler to
question whether communities might
not, like individuals, become instantly
insane. 2. The Realm of Hidden Law. Be
hind the veil in the old tabernacle, in
the depths of the sacred ark, reposed
the tables of the law. In nature, in
like manner, deeper research brings us
always in sight of hidden law. The
sweep-net of the parable curbs no pres
ent freedom ; it sends forward no warn
ing shadow; it does not obtrude nor in
any way plainly report its presence.
But it moves on, "unhasting, unrest-
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ing," impartial, irresistible, inevitable.
When its work is done the freedom and
concealment of the sea have given place
to utter helplessness of exposure in the
open day upon the naked shore. So
the ashes of Vesuvius suddenly ar
rested, transfixed, and permanently ex
posed to the gaze of succeeding ages
the hidden immoralities of Pompeii.
So the ripened harvest of the world has
been more than once reaped by some
convulsion of nature, as the harvest
of the sea is here represented to be.
Unif ormitarianism is no longer tenable
as fully explanatory of the history of
the universe. The culmination of the
ripening year, the culmination of every
life history, the culmination of the age
long movements of mankind all point
on to
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One far off divine event
To which the whole creation moves.
The round of parables thus com
pletes itself. Beginning with the
planted seed, it ends in the final "thrust
ing in the sickle, for the harvest of the
earth is ripe." "Nothing is hid that
shall not be made manifest" in that day,
and in its manifestations will be re
vealed the "righteous judgment of
God" embodied in the present provi
dential order.

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