from the enemy, purified, and restored
to the service of the temple, I know not.

In the general history of the world, the most interesting parable of
this class that occurs to my memory is one attributed to a North
American Indian in conversation with a Christian missionary. The red
man had previously been well instructed in the Scriptures, understood
the way of salvation, and enjoyed peace with God. Desiring to explain to
his teacher the turning point of his spiritual experience, he had
recourse, in accordance, perhaps, with the instincts and habits of his
tribe, to the language of dramatic symbols rather than to the language
of articulate words. Having gathered a quantity of dry withered tree
leaves, he spread them in a thin layer, and in a circular form on the
level ground. He then gently laid a living worm in the centre, and set
fire to the circumference on every side. The missionary and the Indian
then stood still and silent, watching the motions of the imprisoned
reptile. It crawled hastily and in alarm towards one side, till it met
the advancing girdle of fire, and then crawled back as hastily to the
other. After making several ineffectual efforts to escape, the creature
retired to the centre, and coiled itself up to await its fate. At this
crisis, and just before the flames reached their helpless victim, the
Indian stept gravely forward, lifted the worm from its fiery prison, and
deposited it in a place of safety. "Thus," this simple preacher of the
cross indicated to the missionary,--"Thus helpless and hopeless I lay,
while the wrath due to my sin advanced on every side to devour me; and
thus sovereignly, mightily, lovingly did Christ deliver my soul from
death."

III.--THE PARABLES OF THE LORD.

Metaphorical language, as we have seen, is deeply rooted in the
fundamental analogy which subsists between the several departments of
our Creator's work; and the parable is a species of figure which, for
all practical purposes, is sufficiently distinguished from others,
although it is scarcely possible to isolate it by a complete logical
definition. Nor is it enough to say that those specimens which are found
in the record of Christ's ministry belong to the species; they may be
said to constitute a species by themselves. The parables which are known
to literature beyond the pale of the evangelic histories are either very
diverse in kind, or very few in number. The practical result is, that
while we treat the par