e cannot be separated by a
definition expressed in general terms, which shall be at once
universally applicable and universally understood.

[2] Christ made it his business to speak in parables; and, indeed,
one may say, the whole visible world is only a parable of the
invisible world. The parable is not only something intermediate
between history and doctrine; it is both history and doctrine--at
once historical doctrine and doctrinal history. Hence its
enchaining, ever fresher, and younger charm. Yes, parable is
nature's own language in the human heart; hence its universal
intelligibility, its, so to speak, permanent sweet scent, its
healing balsam, its mighty power to win one to come again and again
to hear. In short, the parable is the voice of the people, and hence
also the voice of God.--_Die Gleichniss-reden Jesu Christi, von
Fred. Arndt_, vol. i. 2.

Into all parables human motives and actions go as constituents, and in
most of them the processes of nature are also interwoven. The element of
human action is generally introduced in a historic form, as "a certain
man had two sons;" but some of the similitudes of Scripture, which by
general consent are reckoned parables, lack this feature, as for
example, the Lost Sheep.[3] "What man of you, having an hundred sheep?"
For my own part, while there are some that, on the one hand, I can with
confidence include, and some that, on the other, I must with equal
confidence keep out, I see not a few lying ambiguous on the border. My
judgment inclines to what seems a medium between two extremes,--between
the decision of some German philosophical expositors who are too
critical, and the decision of some English practical preachers who are
not critical enough. I would fain eschew, on the one hand, the laborious
trifling by which it is proved that the parable of the Sower is not a
parable; and, on the other hand, the unfortunate facility which admits
into the number almost all similitudes indiscriminately. I shall adopt
the list of Dr. Trench,[4] thirty in number, as being on the whole a
fair and convenient medium; although I could not undertake to
demonstrate that these only, and these all possess the qualities which
in his judgment go to constitute a parable. Some that are included can
scarcely be distinguished by logical definitions from some that are
excluded; but so far am I from considering this a defect, that I deem it
a necessary result of the im