unremitting cry obtained her desire
from the judge, God's own redeemed children will obtain from their
Father in heaven all that they need, if they ask it eagerly,
persistently, unwearyingly.

When we rightly comprehend the design of the parable, the difficulty
connected with the bad character of the judge at once disappears. It was
necessary to go to a corrupt tribunal in order to find a suitable case;
a pure judgment seat supplies no such example. In certain circumstances
you might gather from a dunghill a medicinal herb which cleaner ground
would never bear. The grain which becomes our bread grows best when its
roots are spread in unseen corruption; and so perfect is the chemistry
of nature, that the yellow ears of harvest retain absolutely no taint of
the putrescence whence they sprung. Thus easily and perfectly the Lord
brings lessons of holiness from examples of sin. He pauses not to
apologize or explain: majestically the instruction advances, like the
processes of nature, until the unrighteousness of man defines and
illustrates the mercy of God.

It is not by accident,--it is by choice that this seed of the word is
sown on filthy ground: it is sown there, because it will grow best
there. The experience of a righteous human tribunal does not supply the
material of this lesson. Where the presiding judge is just, a poor
injured widow will obtain redress at once, and her perseverance will
never be put to the test. The characteristic feature of the case which
the Lord needed, was a persistent, unyielding perseverance in the cry
for redress; for such a case he must go to a court where law does not
regulate the judge, but where the judge for his own ease or interest
makes his own law. The feature of Christ's teaching which most arrested
intelligent listeners in his own day, was its inherent, self-evidencing
majesty. Instead of seeking props, it stood forth alone, obviously
divine. He taught with authority, and not as the scribes. Here is an
example of that simple supremeness that is at once a witness to itself.
He compares explicitly and broadly the method of God's dealing, as the
hearer of prayer, with the practice of a judge who is manifestly vile
and venal. Nor is a word of explanation or apology interposed. He who
thus simply brings sweet food from noisome carrion, has all power in
heaven and in earth; His ways are not as our ways, nor his thoughts as
our thoughts.

As he needed for his purpose an example of judi