questions: "O death, where is thy sting? O Grave, where is thy victory?" For death could say: Here is my sting, the sin against the Holy Ghost, that sin whose consequences endure to all eternity, whose consequences even the fullness of divine love and power can never atone for. I have, therefore, the victory over these miserable sinners and I will hold it while God himself shall last.

But under such circumstances death has not entirely been destroyed. The grave and gate of death has not been entirely swallowed up in victory. Then could sorrow and sighing and pain never cease. Nor could our God become, as S. Paul so emphatically tells us he will become, "the All in All." Then all things would not have become new nor would all the former things have passed away.

So with S. Paul to the Romans, 5:20, 21, we must conclude: "Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound; that as sin has reigned unto death, even so might grace reign, through righteousness, unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord."

So we are brought to a happy and scriptural conclusion. We can now say: God created no man to be miserable throughout endless ages. He has not been eternally frustrated in his divine will. He has created all men to glorify him and finally to enjoy him forever.

See also notes on S. Mark 3:29, 9:43, S. Luke 13; 6-9, 21.

12:36. "Every idle word which men will speak, they will give account of."

Every truth a man expresses by the lips and does not follow in the life, every teaching comprehended by the head but not accepted by the heart, must inevitably be accounted for.

12:37.

"By your words you will be justified. By your

words you will be condemned."

According to the teaching of our Lord himself, as he here tells us, we are justified by our words. In Romans 3:28, S. Paul tells us we are justified by faith. In the Epistle of S. James, that Apostle tells us we are justified by works.

The fact is, all three are alike elements of a man's character. Each one in its own way shows what a man is.

Faith implies trust, and therefore love. So it justifies as the root element of character. Words justify as the most spontaneous manifestation of character. Works justify as permanent results of character. Words and works are the tests by which a man should judge himself. A man's faith can be known only to his God. So it is by faith rather than by works a man is justified before God. And yet no faith is a true faith unless it molds the character of a man in such a way as to enable him to pass the other tests of words and works as well.

12:39-42. "A wicked and faithless generation," etc.

A triad of exactly similar stanzas brought out by Pharisaic persecution and bitterness.

These are followed by another to illustrate and enforce the thought they are meant to drive home.

12:44. "I will return to my house from which I came out."

We see here the condition of the man delivered from wild frenzy but left to the routine of common life and conventional morality. With no higher spiritual influence to protect and guide him, he becomes the prey to sevenfold worse influences and lands in a state of life by far worse than the first.

13:12. "Whoever has, to him will be given," etc.

That is to say, they who receive grace and do not improve it will lose the grace itself, while God will bring all his favors upon him who improves the gifts of grace he has received.

See also note on S. Mark 4: 24.

13:14.

"Is completely fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah." In this quotation from Isaiah we find one of the best illustrations of what is called reversed parallelism to be found anywhere in the Bible. The first line is parallel to the tenth, the second to the ninth, the third to the eighth, the fourth to the seventh, the fifth to the sixth.

In the next stanza the first is parallel to the fifth, the second to the sixth, the third to the fourth.

etc.

13:19. "When any one hears the word of the kingdom,"

The wayside hearer hears the word, but does not understand it, or to use the phrase expressing at once the literal and the figurative truth here taught, he does not "take it in." He is thoughtless. He is spiritually stupid. His intellect is bright enough. There is no fault in that regard. But the trouble is, the man is altogether too much preoccupied with other things. His mind has become with reference to heavenly things, like a footpath, beaten hard by the passage through it of the wishes of the flesh and the current thoughts concerning common earthly things.

13:20. "He who was sown on the rocky places."

The characteristic of the rocky ground hearer is inconsiderate impulsiveness. He receives the word with joy but without thought. He does not stop to consider the temptations that must necessarily beset his path. So

not having had thought enough to stop to count the cost of the step he takes in the beginning, he is altogether lacking in that mental constitution which insures deliberation in every critical period of life. His joy comes to him only through the effects of what he hears upon his imagination and his feelings. Coming without thought, therefore, it goes likewise without thought. So, of course, he endures but for a while.

See also note on S. Luke 8:13.

13:22. "He who was sown among the thorns."

The one receiving the seed among the thorns as here described reminds us of the double-minded man of whom James speaks.

This man is neither stupid like the wayside hearer nor a mere man of feeling like the stoný ground hearer. On the contrary he hears in the emphatic sense of that word. He hears with thought. He hears with feeling. He understands what he hears and realizes its solemn importance.

What then is the fault of the thorny ground hearer? The thoughts of his heart are impure thoughts. Other seeds are struggling for the mastery of the soil of his heart. He is of two minds. His will is divided. He is not decided for good. He is not ready to give himself entirely to evil. He serves God to-day, money to-morrow.

Such a man does not apostatize as a rule. He will keep up a profession of religion till he dies. His leaf will not wither. It will continue growing till it reaches the ear. But his ear will grow green when it should be ripe. So this thorny ground hearer becomes in this sense unfruitful. He brings forth fruit, but as S. Luke shows, he brings no fruit to perfection. He never attains to ripeness in his personal character.

See also note on S. Luke 8:14.

13:23. "He who was sown on the good ground." See note on S. Luke 8:15.

13:24. "He set another parable before them."

All the parables grouped together in this thirteenth chapter exhibit mutually complementary aspects of the kingdom of heaven in its general nature and in its progress and fortunes on the earth. The parables of the Sower, the Tares, and the Net, teach us that the Kingdom of God, as a phenomenon taking its place in the world's history, is destined to be in various respects and for various reasons an imperfect and disappointing thing coming far short of the ideal.

In the parable of the Sower the short coming takes the form of an unsatisfactory abortive reception of the word of the Kingdom by many individual hearers. This is due

to the moral condition of the hearers.

In the parable of the Tares, as well as that of the Net, on the other hand, this abortion takes the forms of a mixture of good and evil, not in the hearts of individuals, but in society as a whole, where some are found to be genuine citizens of the holy commonwealth while others are believers by profession only, and in reality counterfeits of the true.

In the parables of the Mustard Seed, and the Leaven, the history of the Kingdom is exhibited on its bright side. Here it is represented as a spiritual movement destined to advance, by a steady onward course of development, from a small beginning to a great ending, world-wide in its extent, thorough going in its intensive, pervasive effect.

In the parables of the Hid Treasure, and the Pearl, the Kingdom is exhibited in its own ideal nature as a thing of absolute, incomparable worth, as the highest possible good, as a good worthy to be received, loved, served, with