through the roof of the verandah, which was easily removed and replaced.

2. Herodians (iii. 6). A political party in the time of our Lord. The Herodians, as their name signifies, were partizans of the Herodian dynasty, and they united with the Pharisees and Sadducees for our Lord's destruction. They are mentioned by name in three places only in the New Testament, viz., Matt. xxii. 16, and Mark iii. 6, xii. 13.

3. Idumæa (iii. 8). The Idumæa of the New Testament must be distinguished from the Old Testament Edom or Idumæa, east of Arabia. The Idumæa of the New Testament was the southern portion of Judæa (the land of the tribe of Simeon and a part of Judah), which was peopled by the Edomites or Idumæans when the Jews were captives in Babylon. In our Lord's time they formed part of the Jewish nation, having been conquered B.C. 130 and brought over to Judaism.

LESSON IV.

PARABLES-STILLING OF THE TEMPEST-THE GADARENE

DEMONIAC-THE DAUGHTER OF JAIRUS. (iv. and v.)

WE

E have already seen Jesus ministering to the people by the Sea of Galilee (iii. 7), and now "He began again" to teach them, speaking to them in parables as He sat in a boat by the water's edge while a great multitude stood along the shore listening to Him (iv. 1). The same thing is told us by St. Matthew (Matt. xiii. 1-9) and St. Luke (Luke viii. 4-6). The same parables are often recorded by all three Evangelists. We have an instance of this in the parable of the sower, and in each account we read of the seed falling on the wayside, on the stony ground, among thorns, and on good ground. Jesus constantly referred to the things around Him to illustrate and to make plain the truths He taught; the lilies—the trees -the flowers-the birds of the air-the fishermen or the husbandmen-are each made by turn to serve this purpose; and probably familiar things close at hand suggested to our Lord's mind the parable of the sower.

A recent traveller noticed on the shore of the Sea of Galilee just such scenery and just such objects as Jesus

may have had around Him on this occasion. "There," he says, "was the undulating corn-field descending to the water's edge. There was the trodden pathway running through the midst of it, with no fence or hedge to prevent the seed from falling here and there on either side of it, or upon it; itself hard with the constant tramp of horse and mule and human feet. There was the 'good' rich soil, which distinguishes the whole of that plain" (the plain of Gennesaret) "and its neighbourhood from the bare hills descending elsewhere into the lake, and which, where there is no interruption, produces one vast mass of corn. ground of the hill-side, protruding here and there There was the rocky through the corn-fields, as elsewhere through the grassy slopes. There were the large bushes of thorn .. springing upon the very midst of the waving wheat." And if we picture to ourselves the blue lake—the boat resting upon it, in which sat Jesus and His disciplesthe white sandy beach-the multitude of listening people eagerly pressing one another to the water's edge, we have the whole scene before us. Jesus Himself explains the parable of the sower (iv. 14-20). The four places on which the seed falls-the wayside, the stony ground, the thorns, the good ground-represent four states of the human heart; they are so many pictures portraying to us the hard heart, into which the word cannot penetrate; the shallow heart, without depth and without reality; the worldly heart, the heart divided between God and mammon, between God and "the lusts of other things ;" and lastly, the heart prepared by God's grace-the "good ground," where the seed "sprang up and increased" and brought forth

I Dean STANLEY'S Sinai and Palestine.

The expression

thirty, sixty, or one hundred fold. "sprang up and increased," given only by St. Mark, taken together with the parable of "the seed growing secretly" (likewise found only in St. Mark's Gospel), shews possibly "that the growth of the spiritual life may have been a doctrine much prized by St. Mark, and possibly also a doctrine thus prized by him because holding a forward place in the teaching of St. Peter."

In the beautiful parable of the seed growing secretly we have portrayed the gradual growth of the spiritual life-first the blade, then the ear, then the full corn in the ear; and as it is the only one peculiar to St. Mark it will be well to give it a brief consideration.

"So is the kingdom of God as if a man should cast seed into the ground, and should sleep, and rise night and day, and the seed should spring and grow up, he knoweth not how."

This parable shews, then, that the spiritual life in the heart of man has a gradual and orderly growth, like the plants and trees of the natural world; and that just as "the earth bringeth forth fruit of herself," the Divine seed will grow of itself and bear fruit, if we only receive it into “an honest and good heart”—a heart prepared by Divine grace—and choke it not nor hinder it by worldliness, sinfulness and neglect.

But this is not all: the growth and progress of the universal Church is also shadowed forth in this parable.

At His first coming the Lord planted His universal Church in the world, and then left it without His visible interference. The Divine seed is to grow and increase and come to perfection, and then, when the

harvest of the earth is ripe, will the Lord return with

His reapers.

The mustard seed (like the draw-net of St. Matthew) shews that not only the increase of the Church but that its unity was part of the intention of its Divine Founder. “The mustard-tree, however many branches it may have, is one tree developed out of one seed. The draw-net, however many meshes it may have, is but one net."I

Jesus warned His disciples to take heed what they heard (iv. 24). It is as if He had said, "With what measure ye mete-or measure-out your own hearing, with the same measure shall fresh instruction be measured out to you." In proportion to your faithfulness in receiving My teaching shall more truth be intrusted to you."

66

The stilling of the tempest recorded by St. Mark (iv. 35-41) is the same miracle as that related by St. Matthew (Matt. viii. 23-27) and St. Luke (Luke viii. 22-25); but St. Mark's account is the fullest. It was the evening of the day on which our Lord had spoken so many parables that He crossed over with His disciples to the other side of the lake, that is to the eastern shore opposite to Capernaum, where He had been teaching; and "they took Him even as He was -without refreshment. And so when the storm came upon them it was no wonder that Jesus (Whose human body was subject to fatigue like our own) should be found "in the hinder part of the ship, asleep on a pillow," as St. Mark tells us; and from him alone we learn the very words of the Lord's rebuke to the winds and waves-"Peace, be still ;" and also that "they feared exceedingly" when they saw the power of their Divine

I Dean GOULBURN.