t may be obtained; but
we ought absolutely to abandon all attempts to find there an authority
for any doctrine or any duty. I think when the Lord has explained a
part of one of his own parables, the portion of it which he has left
unexplained is in a different position from a parable which he has not
explained at all. When he gives any interpretation, his silence has a
meaning as well as his words. If he had meant to determine by a
particular feature of this parable any important doctrine or duty, we
may rest assured, when he did undertake to give an explanation, he would
not have left that part altogether unexplained. On the whole, I think
the earlier portion of the parable is debatable ground; it is left in
the shade; there is room for difference of opinion in regard to it. In
some aspects it may suggest useful reflections as a picture of the good
and evil mingled in the Church; in other aspects it may suggest solemn
thoughts as a picture of successive generations being gradually drawn
from life's moving sea to eternity's stable unknown shore. I believe
that profitable lessons may be obtained from it in both of these, and
perhaps in other aspects; I believe that the disciples do not sin, and
the Master is not displeased, when to one inquirer it suggests this
lesson, and to another it suggests that, as long as all is done in
charity, and according to the analogy of the faith. I have suggested a
line of thought, which I believe to be relevant and profitable; but I
would not dare to plant my foot on this exposition as the ground of any
doctrine or any duty. It is because others, both in ancient and modern
times, have pretended to find on the unillumined side of this parable a
light to guide Christians authoritatively in points that vitally affect
the kingdom of Christ, that I have entered at so great length into the
inquiry.

I confess frankly that I count it a good and necessary work to wrench
this scripture from the hands of those who, whether in ignorance or
conscious partiality, use it as an instrument practically to blot out
the line which the Lord has elsewhere drawn between the Church and the
world.

It is not necessary now to refute formally the fond, feeble notion, that
this parable proves the sinfulness of dissenting from the Church of
England, established by the State and prelatic in its government. Even
although we should concede that the visible Church and the character of
its constituents are the subjects