dom presented in the
first four, and the more inward and experimental matters which, in the
last three, were subsequently communicated to a more private circle; but
the distinction, though real and perceptible, does not appear to me so
fundamental and so deeply marked as to justify those who make it the
turning-point of their exposition.

There is a parallel which the thoughtful reader of the Scriptures will
not fail to observe, although a prudent expositor will beware of
attempting to trace it too minutely, between the seven parables of this
chapter and the epistles to the Seven Churches of Asia, in the beginning
of the Apocalypse. The two groups agree in this, that both represent by
a series of examples various features of the kingdom, and various
obstacles with which it must contend: they differ in that, while the
examples given in the Gospels are pictures drawn by the imagination, the
examples given in the Apocalypse are facts taken from history. But as
all the characteristics and vicissitudes of his Church were present to
the Head from the beginning, it was as easy for him to exhibit an image
of its condition through the ministry of Matthew, as to record examples
after they emerged in fact, through the ministry of John. In both
cases--alike in the pictures presented to the Galilean crowd and the
registered events sent to the Asiatic Churches--the Master's design is
to exhibit the kingdom on all its sides, that the observer's view,
whether of beauties or of blemishes, may be correct and full.

I subjoin for the reader's information the view of those who see in this
series of parables the subsequent historical development of the Church,
as it is briefly and clearly expressed by Lange: "We ... trace in the
parable of the sower a picture of the apostolic age; in the parable of
the tares, the ancient Catholic Church springing up in the midst of
heresies; in the parable of the mustard-bush resorted to by birds of
the air as if it had been a tree, and loaded with their nests, a
representation of the outward Church as established under Constantine
the Great; in the leaven that is mixed among the three measures of meal,
the pervading and transforming influence of Christianity in the mediaeval
Church among the barbarous races of Europe; in the parable of the
treasure in the field, the period of the Reformation; in the parable of
the pearl, the contrast between Christianity and the acquisitions of
modern culture and seculari