E. Why that Jesus taught in parables so that people might not understand him; lest, comprehending the breadth and fulness of our Heavenly Father's forgiving love, they should be converted and turn to Him in penitence, and be saved.

A. And if such were indeed the conduct and intention of Jesus, it presents a stumbling-block to your mind.

E. Precisely. Nothing could be more unfair and ungenerous. For a teacher to use such a style of address as would absolutely prevent his being understood, is altogether unworthy of an honest and truth-speaking man; I must confess, therefore, that these words present the most serious obstacle to one's viewing the character of Christ with cordial approval. In fact, they reveal what is most untrustworthy and unkind.

A. You speak strongly; but I do not blame you. Honest doubts are none the worse for being put into plain words; but let us look at the passage more closely. It is possible that the translators of our Bible may have hardly given the rendering which most closely represents the original; and, if they have, a careful examination of the context may present the passage in a new light. I always follow two rules in examining a difficult passage: first, I give the closest grammatical attention to every word; and, secondly, I try to find out its scope and meaning by studying it in its connection. May I now read it you from the original Greek?

the kingdom of God: but unto them who are without, all things come in parables: so that seeing they see, yet do not perceive; and hearing they hear, yet do not understand; lest they should perhaps be converted, and their sins be forgiven." Do you see any important difference between my rendering and that with which you are

familiar?

E. Yes, our Bibles read as if Christ adopted parabolic teaching lest men should understand; while as you put it, his meaning was that as a simple result of the method he pursued, men failed to perceive the hidden truths couched in the story.

A. You are right; and this is, I think, all that we are to understand. He taught them in parables, and such was their ignorance and darkness that they utterly failed to perceive the heavenly meaning of the earthly similitude.

E. But will the original bear this rendering, for there seems an important difference between "these things are done that they may not perceive," and 66 so that seeing they see, yet do not perceive.

A. Well, I admit that the proper force of iva is in order that, and that scholars who, with Dean Alford, think that we must understand i'va here in its strictly telic meaning, have much weight on their side. Still I can, if I do not weary you, give you very valid reasons for rendering it here" that."

E. Kindly give them me.

A. With pleasure. Iva has two distinct senses. It sometimes indicates the final end or purpose, when it means, as I stated before, "to the end that," or "in order that. But in the New Testament it is frequently used in the sense of "so that," or

that."

66 So as

It then indicates a simple result. Thus, (John vi. 7,) "Two hundred pennyworth of bread is not sufficient so that every one of them may take a little;" or, (John ix. 2,) "Who did sin, this man or his parents, that (a-as a result of which) he was born blind." As, therefore, it is open to us to choose which of the senses we

will adopt in the passage before us, I prefer that which is in harmony with the rest of the Bible. I thus understand the passage to mean, "Unto you it is given to know heavenly mysteries, while those that are without receive only the parable in which these mysteries lie hidden, as a result of which they see," &c.

E. But a second grammatical difficulty remains: "Lest they should be converted, and their sins be forgiven them." Does not this clearly mean that Christ adopted parabolic teaching lest men should be converted and have their sins forgiven them.

66

A. Not as I read it. I connect 'lest they should be converted" with their not perceiving and understanding. Their inconsiderateness was their sin. They would not inquire into the meaning of the great Teacher's instructions and why? Because they did not wish to give up their sins. Many men still refuse to examine the gospel lest they should be converted, for they hate the very idea of abandoning their loved sins.

E. I see much force in what you say, although I cannot promise to adopt your view without further consideration. Pray is it your own?

A. No; I owe it to Professor J. H. Godwin, whose notes on Mark (originally published in the Pulpit Analyst) are very excellent. Allow me, however, to say, that if the original Greek absolutely necessitated the translation of our Bibles, I should not feel all the difficulty that you do.

E. Will you give me your reasons? A. Certainly. I should admit that I could not understand the verse, yet should not allow these few inexplicable words to prejudice me against Jesus, whose amiable character is so amply pourtrayed in a hundred other passages.

E. Will you explain yourself more fully.

A. Certainly. Jesus is never represented as wantonly mystifying or confusing his hearers. On the contrary, he employed the very best means of conveying his meaning to them. Parabolic instruction was of all me

thods the most likely to interest, arouse, and impress an ignorant, carnal, and wilfully incredulous audience; and sometimes even the Jews could not evade the force of his instructions.

E. You mean that you would not allow the apparent testimony of one difficult verse to shake your confidence in the plain testimony of a great number of easy ones.

A. Precisely so. I might further say, however, that an examination of the verse in its connection puts it in a very much less repulsive light.

E. Will you tell me how?

A. With pleasure. You will remember that some who had heard the Lord's parable of the sower came to Him, in company with the twelve apostles, and asked for an explanation. Jesus consented, and our verse consists of His opening remarks to these inquirers, prefatory to his exposition. Now let us read the eleventh verse, and endeavour to ascertain its meaning: "Unto you it is given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God." Is not this, in effect, an affirmative reply to their request. "Ex

plain the parable," they asked. "Yes," in effect he replied, "I will-for unto you it is given to know the mystery that others know nothing about." Let me ask you to whom this privilege was given.

E. To those who asked for it.

A. Just so. All who felt sufficient interest in the words of Jesus to want to hear more from His lips were kindly received, and fully instructed. This accords with His own promise, "Ask, and ye shall receive." Now who were those to whom our verse refers ?

E. "Those that are without."

A. Yes; or, in other words, those that heard the parable of the sower, but turned away from Jesus, and did not care to know anything further. Did not such people deserve to have sharp and bitter things said about them?

E. Unquestionably; but why did not Jesus address them in language so plain that there was no possibility of misunderstanding it. If I wished to save a man who was in great

A. For many reasons. First, Jesus, when He began to preach, used the plainest language. His open sermons were calls to repentance, as were those of His great forerunner, John the Baptist. (Mark i. 14, 15.) So that the people had heard of their danger in the plainest terms. Then, secondly, the incident we are considering happened after Christ has upbraided Capernaum and Corazin, which were neighbouring places, and from which, doubtless, the majority of the multitude came. Read Matt. xi. 20-24, and you will see how these people had closed their eyes to the testimony of John the Baptist, and then to the evidence of Christ's miracles. They were therefore most guilty, most stubborn, and most unwilling to admit the force of the plainest appeals. Now no sin is greater than wilfully closing one's heart to the truth. They that will not see are justly left in darkness, and they deserved that any further sermons to which they listened should be unintelligible, save to those who cared to seek an explanation from Jesus. It was a fitting mark of God's displeasure that things which had been once forced upon their attention should be now hid from their eyes. From these considerations I judge that even if the text before us is to be understood in the sense that our translation necessitates, it by no means sets the character of Christ in the unlovely aspect that you appear to suppose.

E. I certainly begin to regard it very differently, and thank you for what you have said. I have one further question; some of the books I consulted on the verse stated that the inability of the persons referred to, to perceive and understand was the result of judicial blindness, that is, I suppose an inability to see and feel the force.

of the truth, which had been sent to punish them for obstinate unbelief. Do you believe this?

A. To some extent I do. I hold that the right of selecting the method of punishment belongs to Him on whom the obligation rests to inflict it. God had therefore a right to choose this way of expressing His wrath, and I must own that there seems much propriety in His so doing. Even a heathen said, Quos deus vult perdere primum dementat, Those whom God intends to destroy He first drives mad; and nothing seems so solemnly fitting as that those who will not receive the truth should be given over to the delusion of error. I do not, however, receive all that theologians have written about judicial blindness. Some, at least, seem to think that God exerts a direct-if not a supernatural—influence upon sinner's minds as a punitive judgment. Now I do not believe that God ever directly stultifies the mind or hardens the conscience. THIS IS THE EFFECT OF SIN. Sin blinds, sin deadens, sin enervates the moral nature. "O Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself," is a prophetical utterance referring to the very people before us. Truth, from its nature, cannot darken the mind; but he that steels his heart against the truth, becomes, by his own act, impervious to its influence. If, therefore, we speak of God in connection with this state of mind, we must understand that God allows the man to go on; suffers his guilt to produce its natural reaction, and withholds influences which might have a counteracting tendency. God may permit what He does not produce. So I judge with the blindness of sinners whom He gives over to error. He permits them to grow morally blind, perhaps till their blindness culminates in the wildest and most wicked delusions; but He does not produce the condition of mind to which they are reduced. This is the result of their own act and deed.

E. Thank you. These considerations will, I think, prove most helpful, and shall have my prayerful attention. May I ask you, finally, why you think

these mysterious words were uttered at all ?

A. Yes; I judge the clue to this to be in the word "GIVEN." How came it that some came to Jesus for instruction, while so many remained without in wilful ignorance? Sovereign Goodness was the cause of this, as of every other gracious distinction. I judge, therefore, that our Lord designed to impress this solemn fact upon His hearers, before He gave them further instruction. Their very solicitude to be taught they owed to God-to Him who hath mercy on whom He will, while He suffers others to remain in the natural hardness of their impenitent hearts.

BIBLE NOTES:

FROM VARIOUS COMMENTATORS.

2 COR. X. 1.-"The meekness and gentleness of Christ is a wonderful expression. Remembering that He is our model, it behoves us at all times to study His example. These attributes, therefore, ought to constitute a prime element of our character. The utter absence of these virtues renders questionable the truth of a man's profession. If that which was most prominent in the Lord Himself be not at all observable in His professed people, there is reason to fear either that they deceive themselves, or that they are departing from the living God.

1 TIM. IV. 6.—It is no small part of the pastor's work to keep alive in the hearts of the flock the old truth. Spiritual hunger, the fruit of healthful piety, so far from complaining of this, will highly prize it, and profit from it. For the Christian teacher ever and anon to strive after novelty, is to neglect truth, and keep back the food by which alone the Lord nourishes the souls of His people. The carnal portions of congregations, nauseating spirituality, prefer speculation, portraiture, and eloquence; the children of the kingdom delight to hear of the blood and righteousness of its Head and Lord.

1 PETER III. 19, 20.-Christ had gone by His Spirit, inspiring His servant Noah to denounce the approaching deluge, and preach repentance to that incorrigible generation who perished in their sins, and were in the prison of hell when the apostle wrote; being confined there until the judgment of the great day. For they had been disobedient and unbelieving even during the hundred and twenty years of God's long-suffering after the deluge was predicted, but before it was sent. During that time, Noah was occupied in preparing the ark, showing his faith by his works, and calling them to repent and seek mercy from God. But they unanimously and obstinately rejected his message, and thus they were destroyed by the flood; whilst only eight persons had their lives preserved in the ark, being delivered from the waters and carried above them. So that the floods which drowned all others without exception, concurred in their deliverance.

PSALM LXXXVI. 11.-We are here reminded of the necessity of divine teaching, in order to divine walking; the heart, moreover, is like a broken vessel, and it must be united again, cemented, and strengthened, in order that it may fear the Lord, be filled with His love, and promote His glory. The heart is divided, and an inward strife maintained to the deep affliction of the believer, who cries out, "Oh, wretched man that I am!" and at all

times prays, "Unite my heart," liable to distraction, so prone to division between God and the world, "to fear thy name."

SONG V. 1.-My Sister, my Spouse. The church may be called Christ's sister because of His incarnation, in virtue of which He is not ashamed to call His people His brethren, and so His sisters. (Heb. ii. 11.) Also on account of their adoption, in which respect He that is Christ's Father is theirs, which is evidenced in regeneration, when they through grace do the will of His Father, and so are His brother, and sister, and mother. (Matt. xii. 50.) He possesses our

nature as the Son of Man, and makes us partakers of the divine nature as the children of God.

The church is the spouse, the bride of Christ; there was a secret espousal of all the elect to Christ upon the Father's grant of them to Him in eternity, and there is an open espousal of them to Him personally at their conversion. The marriage of the perfected church to Christ is set forth in Rev. xix. This shall be when the general assembly and church of the first-born shall, in its entirety and completeness, surround the throne of God and the Lamb.

2 COR. VI. 14. This unequal yoking abounds on every hand, and is attended with all its original and lamentable consequences. The principle goes beyond matrimony, and comprehends all needless friendships and close intimacies with ungodly men, which are fraught with danger to the righteous. On behalf of these forbidden marriages and friendships, it has, however, been often urged by the erring party, that they hoped to benefit the unbelieving; but very rarely indeed has such a hope been realized. Apart from this fact, however, Christians may not do evil that good may come. When God has spoken, there is an end to all discussion as to the possible benefits of transgression. The commandment is absolute, "only in the Lord;" in everything else believers may consult their feelings, taste, and judgment. Let all Christians, then, ponder the precept, that they may learn both their duty and their danger.

PURITAN NOTIONS. COLLECTED BY THOMAS STRATTON.

To see infinite holiness, purity, and righteousness, with infinite love, goodness, grace, and mercy, all equally glorified in and towards the same things and persons, one glimpse whereof is not to be attained in the world out of Christ, is that beauty of God which attracts the love of a believing

soul, and fills it with a holy admiration of Him.

I am sure my Well-beloved is God. And when I say Christ is God, and my Christ is God, I have said all things, I can say no more; I would I could build as much on this my Christ is God-as it would bear.

By the death of Christ we are greatly stirred up, both to a caution against, and a detestation of sin; for that must needs be deadly which could be healed by no other way than by the death of Christ. Who, therefore, seriously considering that his sins could be no other way expiated than by the death of the Son of God himself, would not tremble to tread as it were this most precious blood under foot by daily sinning!

A real inclination of soul to seek after the precepts of God, to do and walk after them, is an infallible sign of a child of God.

Live not so much upon the comforts of God, as upon the God of comforts.

God is faithful who hath made himself a debtor to us, not by receiving anything at our hands, but by promising all things to us.

In the name of Jesus the whole gospel lies hid: this name is the light, food, and medicine of the soul.

From all past ages, before time began to flow, God decreed to confer the grace of salvation by Christ upon

us.

Repentance is the greatest honour next to innocence.

He who prays as he ought, will endeavour to live as he prays. A truly gracious, praying frame, is utterly inconsistent with the love of or reserve for any sin.

Let all seen enjoyments lead you to the unseen Fountain whence they flow.

If once we are sure God hath done a thing, there is no room left to dispute its equity.

Men are out of their right minds