uestion by friend or foe, suggests the
similitude. In almost every case we are able to trace the natural
history, as it were, of the parable,--to determine what feature of the
events or discourses preceding called up the image and gave it shape.
Here the relation between the parable and the antecedent instruction is
closer still: in this case there is not merely a connection, but an
absolute union. The direct and the metaphorical are here successively
employed to enforce one continuous lesson. The lesson is one: the first
portion of it is delivered in simple didactic language, and the second
in parabolic figure. Some instruments are made of two different kinds of
metal, not mixed in the crucible, but each occupying its own separate
place: one part consists of steel, and another of brass, soldered
together, so as to constitute one rod. The nature of the work is such
that steel suits best for one extremity of the tool, and brass for the
other. It is in a similar way that two different forms of speech are
employed here to impart one lesson: the discourse begins with literal
expressions, and ends with a similitude.

The passage 1-10 as a whole, teaches the double truth, That God requires
of men a complete obedience, and that even though a complete obedience
were rendered, the master would not be laid under any obligation--the
servants would have no claim to praise or reward. While the rule towards
the close is made universal, in the beginning the demand is particular
and specific--to bear meekly and forgive generously the injuries which
neighbours may inflict in the multifarious intercourse of life. Besides
the point which constitutes the main scope of the discourse, several
matters of the very highest importance are incidentally involved, and
must be noticed, each in its proper place.

First of all, in order to prepare his disciples for meeting the trials
that lay before them, he warned them that offences will come, and
pronounced a solemn woe on those who should cast them in their
neighbour's way. Looking to his own--alike those who were then in his
sight, and those who should believe on him down to the end of the
world--he calls them, tenderly, little ones, and intimates that it would
go ill with all who should dare to hurt them. This, however, appears to
be laid down as a basis for the lesson which he intended at that time to
teach, rather than the lesson itself. Speaking expressly for the benefit
of his own followers,