but incoherent and tantalizing
enigmas. For the right comprehension of the parables in particular, as
of revealed truth in general, a receptive heart is a qualification even
more peremptorily and essentially necessary than a penetrating
understanding. "If any man is willing to do his will, he shall know of
the doctrine, whether it be of God" (John vii. 17).

Each of the parables contained some characteristic, or presented some
aspect of Christ's kingdom. His kingdom was not of this world, and
therefore it was intensely distasteful to the carnal Jews of that day.
The idea did not readily enter their mind; and when it did in some
measure penetrate, it kindled in their corrupt hearts a flame of
persecuting rage. It was necessary that the Lord should, during the
period of his personal ministry, fully develop and deposit the seed of
the kingdom; but it was necessary also that he should remain on earth
until the set time when his ministry as prophet should terminate in his
offering as priest. Now, if he had at any period displayed all the
characteristics of his kingdom in terms which the mob and their rulers
were able to comprehend, the persecution that ultimately crucified him,
would have burst prematurely forth, and so deranged the plan of the
Omniscient. It was necessary, for example, in order to provide
consolation for his own disciples in subsequent temptations, that the
Lord should predict his own death and resurrection; but this
prediction, when uttered in public, was veiled from hostile eyes under
the symbol, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up"
(John ii. 19). More generally, it was necessary that such features of
the kingdom as its spiritual character and its expansive power should be
made known to true disciples for their instruction and encouragement,
but hidden for a time from persecutors in order to restrain their
enmity. Parables served the twofold purpose. Tender, teachable spirits
caught the meaning at once; or, if they failed, they asked and obtained
an explanation from the Master in private; while those who had not the
single eye, were for the time left in darkness. It was their own
hardness that kept out the light; their own hardness was employed as the
instrument whereby judgment was inflicted upon themselves.[7]

[7] In Matthew (xiii. 13) he speaks in parables, "because ([Greek:
hoti]), they seeing, see not:" and in Mark (iv. 12), and Luke
(viii. 10), "that ([Greek: hina]) s