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The parables of our Lord. By Hesba Stretton
The parables of our Lord By Hesba Stretton Author:Sarah Smith Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: Matt xiii. 31, 32; Luke xiii. 18, 19 ' Another parable put he forth unto them, saying, The kingdom of heaven is like to a grain of mustard seed, which a man t... more »ook, and sowed in his field: Which indeed is the least of all seeds : but when it is grown, it is the greatest among herbs, and becometh a tree, so that the birds of the air come and lodge in the branches thereof.'— Matt. xiii. 31, 32. The Mustard Seed WE come now to a few short parables which do not contain any sort of story, as so many of the others do, though in each of them there is a hidden meaning, which teaches us what the kingdom of God is like. Where a king reigns he makes laws for his kingdom; and these short parables contain some of God's laws for His kingdom, both in the world and in our own hearts. The Parable of the Mustard Seed we find in Matt. xiii. 31, 32, placed there as if our Lord spoke it immediately after the Parable of the Tares. But in Luke xiii. 18, 19, it seems as if He had spoken it in one of the synagogues on a Sabbath day, after He had healed a poor woman, who for eighteen years had been bowed together, and could in no wise lift up herself. The ruler of the synagogue was filled with indignation, and reproached the people for coming to be healed on the Sabbath day; whereupon our Lord rebuked him so sharply that he and all the other adversaries were ashamed; and the people rejoiced for all the glorious things that were done by Jesus Christ. It is quite likely that our Lord uttered many of His parables more than once, when different people were listening to His teaching; but both in Matthew and Luke this Parable of the Mustard Seed, and the next Parable of the Leaven, seem to be spoken more to His foes than to His friends. They are a prophecy of how great the kingdom of God would becom...« less