nom, where carcasses were cast out that from time to time were consumed with fire; here from that most fearful of all forms of punishment, one not indeed in use among the Jews, for we must look at David's act (2 Sam. xii. 31) as an excess of severity, but one with which they were not unacquainted, that is, death by fire. (Gen. xxxviii. 24.) It was in use among the Chaldeans (Jer. xxix. 22; Dan. iii. 6), and in the Jewish tradition, which is probably of great antiquity, Nimrod cast Abraham into a furnace of fire, for refusing to worship his false gods, and in modern times Chardin makes mention of furnaces with a like object in Persia.* That dreadful punishment by fire supplies the image here, and doing so, makes exceedingly improbable the explanation which some have given of the gnashing, which they rather understand as a chattering, of the teeth, -that it is the expression of the pain arising from excessive cold,† so that they imagine a kind of Dantean hell, with alternations of cold and heat, alike unendurable. But the wailing and gnashing of teeth are evidently no more than expressions of rage and impatience (Acts vii. 54), under the sense of intolerable pain and unutterable loss. But after it has been thus done with the wicked, “then shall the righteous shine forth‡ as the sun in the kingdom of their Father." As * Voy. en Perse, Langlè's ed., v. 6, p. 118. † See SUICER, S. v. Bpuyuós, which some make=τpioμós ódóvτwv, but it is simpler to say with Bernard: Fletus ex dolore, stridor dentium ex furore; for in Cyprian's words (Ad Demet.): Erit tunc sine fructu pœnitentiæ dolor, pœnæ inanis ploratio, et inefficax deprecatio. See AMBROSE, Exp. in Luc., 1. 7, c. 205, 206, and GERHARD, Loc. Theol., 1. 31, c. 6, § 46. ‡ 'Ekλáμ↓ovow, in which full force is to be given to the preposition. Schleusner indeed says,-Parùm differt à simplici λáμπw,-but Passow very differently,-Hervorstrahlen, sich plötzlich in aller Herrlichkeit hervorthun. There are two beautiful similitudes in the Shepherd of Hermas (1. 3, sim. 3 and 4), engaged in setting forth the same truth, though under a different image. The Seer is shown in the first a number of trees, all which, while it is winter, are alike without their leaves, and seeming therefore to him all alike dead; and he is told that as the dry and the green trees are not distinguishable from one another in the winter, while all alike are leafless and bare, so neither in the present age are the just from sinners. In the second, he is again shown the trees, but now some of them are putting forth leaves, while others are still remaining bare. Thus shall it be in the future age, which for the just shall be a summer, and they shall be declared openly, while their hidden life shall then manifest itself; but for the sinners it shall still be winter, and they, remaining without leaf or fruit, shall as dry wood be cut down for the burning. The resemblance between these visions and singularly beautiful passages in Augustine (Enarr. in Ps. xxxvi. 2, and in Ps. cxlviii. 13), where exactly the same image is used, is very remarkable; and again he says of the Christian as he is now (In Ep. Joh. Tract. 5), Gloria ejus occulta est; cùm venerit Dominus, tunc apparebit gloria. Viget enim, sed adhuc in hyeme; viget radix, sed quasi aridi sunt rami. Intus est medulla quæ viget, intus sunt folia arborum, intus fructus: sed æstatem expectant. Compare Minucius Felix (p. 329, ed. Ouzel.): Ita fire was the element of the dark and cruel kingdom of hell, so is light of the pure heavenly kingdom. Then, when the dark hindering element is removed, shall this element of light which was before struggling with and obstructed by it, come forth in its full brightness. (See Col. iii. 3; Rom. viii. 18; Prov. xxv. 4, 5.) A glory shall be revealed in the saints: it shall not merely be brought to them, and added from without; but rather a glory which they before had, but which did not before. evidently appear, shall burst forth and show itself openly, as did the Lord's hidden glory once in the days of his flesh, at the moment of his Transfiguration. That shall be the day of the manifestation of the sons of God; they shall shine forth as the sun when the clouds are rolled away (Dan. xii. 3); they shall evidently appear and be acknowledged by all as the children of light, of that God who is "the Father of Lights." (Jam. i. 17.) And then, but not till then, shall be accomplished those glorious prophecies which are so often repeated in the Old Testament," Henceforth there shall no more come into thee the uncircumcised and the unclean." (Isai. lii. 1.) "In that day there shall be no more the Canaanite in the house of the Lord of Hosts." (Zech. xiv. 21.) "Thy people also shall be all righteous." (Isai. lx. 21.) Compare Isai. xxxv. 8; Joel iii. 17; Ezek. xxxvii. 21-27; Zeph. iii. 13. corpus in seculo ut arbores in hiberno, occultant virorem ariditate mentità. Quid festinas ut crudâ adhuc hieme reviviscat et redeat? Expectandum nobis etiam corporis ver est. *It is exactly thus that in the Mahommedan Theology, the good angels are compact of light, and the evil ones of fire. + Calvin: Insignis consolatio, quod filii Dei qui nunc vel squalore obsiti jacent, vel latent nullo in pretio, vel etiam probris cooperti sunt, tunc quasi sereno cœlo, et discussis omnibus nebulis, verè et ad liquidum semel conspicui fulgebunt: suos in sublime attollet Filius Dei, et omnem fuliginem absterget, quâ nunc eorum fulgor obruitur.-It is the saying of a Jewish expositor of Ps. lxxii. : Quemadmodùm Sol et Luna illuminant hoc seculum, ita futurum est ut justi illuminent seculum futurum. III. THE MUSTARD SEED. MATT. xiii. 31, 32; MARK IV. 30-32; LUKE Xiii. 18. 19. THIS parable, and the one that follows, would seem, at first sight, merely repetitions of the same truth; but here, as in every other case, upon nearer inspection, essential differences reveal themselves. The other, of the Leaven, is concerning the kingdom of God, which "cometh not with observation;" this is concerning that same kingdom as it displays itself openly, and cannot be hid: that declares the intensive, this the extensive, development of the Gospel. That sets forth the power and action of the truth on the world brought in contact with it, this the power of the truth to develope itself from within itself,-how it is as the tree shut up within the seed, which will unfold itself according to the inward law of its own being. Both have this in common, that they describe the small and slight beginnings, the gradual progress, and the final marvellous increase of the Church,-how, to use another image, the stone cut out without hands, should become a great mountain, and fill the whole earth. (Dan. ii. 34, 35.)-Chrysostom✶ traces finely the connection between this parable and all that has gone before. In the parable of the Sower, the disciples had heard that three parts of the seed sown perished, and only a fourth part prospered; again, they had heard in that of the Tares, and of the further hinderances which beset even this part that remained: lest then they should be tempted quite to lose heart and to despair, the Lord spake these two parables for their encouragement. My kingdom, he would say, will survive these losses, and surmount these hinderances, until, small as its first beginnings may ap * So also Lyser, with more immediate reference to the question with which the parable is introduced in St. Mark (iv. 30): Cùm ea sit Evangelii sors, ut tam multa ejus fructum impediant, et eidem Satanas tot modis insidietur, ut vix fructus aliquis sperari possit, quid de illo dicemus ? poteritne in rerum naturâ aliquid inveniri, quod ejus exilitatem excusare, illudque contemptu vindicare queat? pear, it will, like a mighty tree, fill the earth with its branches,-like potent leaven, diffuse its influence through all the world. The comparison which he uses, likening the growth of his kingdom to that of a tree, was one with which many of his hearers may have been already familiar from the Scriptures of the Old Testament. The growth of a worldly kingdom had been set forth under this image (Dan. iv. 10-12; Ezek. xxxi. 3-9),* that also of the kingdom of God. (Ezek. x. vii. 22-24; Ps. lxxx. 8.)† But why, it may be asked, is a mustard tree‡ here chosen as that with which the comparison shall be made? Many nobler plants, as the vine, or taller trees, as the cedar, might have been named. But this is chosen, not with reference to its ultimate greatness, but with reference to the proportion between the smallness of the seed and the greatness of the plant which unfolds itself from thence. For this is the point to which the Lord calls especial attention, not its greatness in itself, but its greatness when compared with the seed from whence it springs; since what he desired to set before his disciples was -not merely that his kingdom should be glorious, but that it should be glorious despite its weak and slight and despised beginnings. Nor, indeed, was the mustard seed, though in appearance so trivial, altogether without its significance and acknowledged worth in antiquity. It ranked among the nobler Pythagorean symbols, it was esteemed to possess medicinal virtues against the bites of venomous creatures, and against poisons, and was used as a remedy in many diseases. Nor can I, with * See HAVERNICK, Comm. ab. Danicl, p. 139. || † In a striking poem, found in the Appendix to FELL'S Cyprian, the growth of the kingdom of God, under the figure of that of a tree, is beautifully set forth. The religious reverence with which all antiquity was accustomed to look upon trees (see CREUZER'S Symbolik, third edit. v. 4, p. 621,) should not here be left out of mind. The most accurate inquiries of naturalists would seem to point out as the mustard-tree of this parable, not that which goes by this name in Western Europe, but the Salvadora Persica, commonly called in Syria now, khardal. So Dr. Lindley in his Flora Judica; and see in the Athenæum of March 23, 1844, an interesting paper by Dr. Royle, read before the Asiatic Society. Captains Irby and Mangles, describing this khardal, say, "It has a pleasant, though a strongly aromatic taste, exactly resembling mustard, and if taken in any quantity, produces a similar irritability of the nose and eyes." There is on the other hand a learned discussion in the Gentleman's Magazine, June 1844, calling in question Dr. Royle's conclusions; but not seriously shaking them. PLIN., H. N., 1. 20, c. 87. || Pliny (Ibid.) Plautus applies to it a harder epithet, sinapis scelerata, because of its sharpness which draws tears from the eyes; and Columella's line is often quoted: Seque lacessenti fletum factura sinapis. Yet this too may be a part of its fitness here. For neither is the Gospel all sweets, but may be compared to the mustard seed, ἐπιδάκνουσαν ὠφελίμως τὴν ψυχήν. a modern interpreter, find any thing so very ridiculous in the supposition, that the Saviour chose this seed on account of further qualities which it possessed, that gave it a peculiar aptness to illustrate the truth. which he had in hand. Its heat, its fiery vigor, the fact that only through being bruised it gives out its best virtues, and all this under so insignificant an appearance, and in so small a compass, may well have moved him to select this image under which to set forth the destinies of the word of the kingdom,-of the doctrine of a crucified Redeemer, which, though to the Greeks foolishness, and to the Jews a stumblingblock, should prove to them that believed "the power of God unto salvation."* Yet is it not Christ's doctrine merely, nor yet even the Church which he planted upon earth, that is signified by this grain of mustard seed. He is himself the grain of mustard seed.† For the kingdom of heaven, or the Church, was originally inclosed in him, and from him unfolded itself, having as much oneness of life with him as the tree with the seed in which it was originally shut up, and out of which it grew. He is at once the sower and the seed sown: for by a free act of his own will, he gave (CLEM. ALEX., Strom., 1. 5.) The comparison is carried out to a greater length in the homily of an uncertain author: Sicut sinapis granum cùm sumimus, vultu contristamur, fronte contrahimur, ad lacrimas permovemur, et ipsam salubritatem corporis nostri cum quodam fletu austeritatis accipimus, ita ergo et cùm fidei Christianæ mandata percipimus, contristamur animo, affligimur corpore, ad lacrimas permovemur, et ipsam salutem nostram cum quodam fletu ac moerore consequimur. Moreover, that its active energy, which in these quotations is noted, will make it as apt an emblem of the good as the ill; and as such it was used, according to eastern tradition, by Alexander the Great; for when Darius sent him a barrel full of sesame, to acquaint him with the number of his soldiers, he sent a bag full of mustard seed in return, to indicate the active, fiery, biting courage of his. (D'HERBELOT, Biblioth. Orient., s. v. Escander.) *Thus the author of a Sermon which has been attributed to Augustine (Serm. 87, Appendix) and to Ambrose: Sicut enim granum sinapis prima fronte speciei suæ est parvum, vile, despectum, non saporem præstans, non odorem circumferens, non indicans suavitatem: at ubi teri cæperit, statim odorem suum fundit, acrimoniam exhibet, cibum flammei saporis exhalat, et tanto fervoris calore succenditur, ut mirum sit in tam frivolis [granis] tantum ignem fuisse conclusum, . . . ita ergo et fides Christiana primâ fronte videtur esse parva, vilis, et tenuis, non potentiam suam ostendens, non superbiam præferens, non gratiam subministrans. There is great fitness and beauty in the occasion upon which this sermon was preached, namely, the martyrdom of St. Laurentius, the manner of whose death is well known. There is much also that is instructive, with somewhat merely fanciful, in the remarks which Ambrose (Exp. in Luc. 1. 7, c. 176-186) makes on this parable. † See a fragment of Irenæus (p. 347, Bened. ed.,) who also notes how the mustard seed was selected for its fiery and austere qualities (τὸ πυῤῥακὲς καὶ αὐστηρὸν). So TERTULLIAN, Adv. Marc., 1. 4, c. 30. |