then, our Saviour's use of it in this parable is to be regarded as the single exception to the meaning given it in every other place where it occurs in Scripture, it must be taken to represent here the introduction and spread of these things in the Church.

It may be freely admitted that as there are good uses to which leaven in a literal sense may be applied, so it might very properly be used as signifying the transforming power of the Gospel in the hearts and lives of men, and in society and the world, according to the traditional interpretation of the parable, but this use of it would make the parable represent the gospel as doing what it has not done. The gospel has intrinsic power to leaven the whole mass of humanity, and transform it into its own character. But it has not done so. It has spread very partially in the world. Vast masses of heathenism are almost untouched by it, whereas Christendom has been deeply and widely corrupted.

The Church conquered the world up to a certain point with her own proper weapons, but the world afterwards entered into and conquered the Church. The fabric of the true faith was gradually built up under the Spirit's guidance in a marvellous manner, but the leaven of error and corruption was introduced very early, and spread apace, ever gaining on the truth. We see abundant traces of the beginnings of them in the Epistles, and we read there prophetic descriptions of their course and issues. They gained head steadily till the whole mass of professing Christianity may be said to have been pretty thoroughly corrupted. Her doctrine, her polity, her morals, were all wellnigh universally corrupted. The Western Church has been visited by the spirit of reform; and partial purification of doctrine and life has been the result. But the Reformed Churches have never been wholly free from the leaven of formalism, or error, or anything that leaven signifies. There have been times when dead and powerless orthodoxy has been widely prevalent, and there have been times when the Sadducean spirit has been predominant. Looking around on the Protestant Christendom of our own day generally, while making full allowance for all the hopeful signs, for all the true life, and all the fruitful thought and work that we see, few will deny that there are powerful forces and influences at work within her own border that threaten to sap or overlay her faith and corrupt her life, and that in somet

branches of Protestantism at least these forces seem in the meantime to be gaining much ground. It may be objected that the parable teaches that the whole mass of the meal is to be leavened, and that the whole mass of professing Christianity is not and never has been so corrupted. Neither has the whole world, nor even the whole area of professing Christianity, ever been thoroughly leavened with the gospel.

It may be said that the whole world will one day be thoroughly leavened by the gospel, and that the parable contemplates the ultimate effect of the introduction of the gospel into the world.

To this it may be answered that the parable predicts that one day the Church will be more deeply and widely corrupted than it ever has been. The parable of the Tares, which covers the whole of the present age, certainly precludes the idea of any absolutely universal and thorough leavening, either of the world or of the Church with the gospel within the period to which it refers. Certain it is that at one period in the past, general corruption of doctrine and life prevailed throughout Christendom. Certain it is that now Christendom, in the most comprehensive sense, is proportionately far more widely corrupted by many alien elements than the world in general is transformed by the power of the gospel. Certain it is that there is enough in the outlook to cause grave anxiety to the most hopeful. This is the state of matters after nearly nineteen centuries of Christian history. My contention is that Christ anticipated it, and it seems to me, in view of the course of things in the history of the Church, and the state of things in the world and the Church to-day, that having said so much as He did say on the subject of His kingdom in the other parables, it would have been a perplexing thing had He not given some clear intimation of the extent to which the kingdom which He founded in the world, in the form in which it was to be embodied in this age, would be corrupted and perverted.

It is unnecessary to dwell on the parable of the Draw-net, which covers the same ground and teaches the same truth as the parable of the Tares, nor on the parables of the Treasure Hid in the Field, and the Pearl of Great Price, which do not bear on my subject, unless they are-contrary to the traditional and generally accepted exposition-to be taken as representing Christ's self-renouncing love in seeking and saving those who

The Talents' and the Pounds.

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form His true body-the Church within Christendom-the Invisible Church of our traditional theology. This view of these two parables, which however we do not adopt, would give a completeness to this first group of seven contained in the thirteenth chapter of St. Matthew's Gospel, four of which were spoken to the multitudes on the sea-shore, and three of which were spoken to the disciples in the house. Were this view correct, there would be a fitness in the division,-the parables of the mixed state of matters that would exist in Christendom being spoken to the mixed audience, the parables of the finding of the true Church, with the summarised repetition in another form of the teaching of the Sower and the Tares, being spoken to the disciples alone.

The remaining parables which I proposed to consider-" The Talents," "The Pounds," "The Unjust Judge," and "The Ten Virgins," bring out distinctly the fact that the history of the kingdom of heaven, in its present form and manifestation, is to be brought to a close by the Saviour's own return, and show what the state of the Church or of Christendom will be at that time. The question whether the Talents and the Pounds are two separate parables, or different reports of the same parable, is quite immaterial for the purpose of this article, though, for myself, I have no doubt they are two distinct parables. In them, our Saviour taught His disciples that He would leave them, and that He would return. In the parable of the Pounds, which was suggested by the expectation that the kingdom of God should immediately appear, He taught that the purpose of His departure would be to receive a kingdom, and that when He had received it, He would return. His words are, "A certain nobleman went into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom, and to return, and it came to pass when he was returned, having received a kingdom."

A still future form of the kingdom of God, subsequent to the form treated of in this parable, is thus distinctly spoken of by the Saviour. I do not go deeper into the subject. It would be beside my present purpose. I only point out this fact in

passing.

Both the parable of the Talents and the Pounds teach that Christ would make suitable provision for the administration of the affairs of His kingdom in His absence, that He would have His servants live and act in expectation of His

return. They show that life in the Church is a life of service. They show that He anticipated failure in service on the part of some. The "Pounds" show that He anticipated rebellion on the part of others. He anticipated failure among the servants, rebellion among the citizens. These are points of interest and importance, but the points I would emphasise are: -first, the fact that He represents that the order of things which He would introduce on His departure, and which was really introduced at Pentecost,-that order under which we live-is to be terminated by His return; and further, secondly, the fact that He intimated in both parables, that His absence would be prolonged.

In the parable of the Talents we read, "After a long time the lord of those servants cometh and reckoneth with them." In the parable of the Pounds we read, "A certain nobleman went into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom, and to return."

The journey into a far country and the return naturally suggest a prolonged absence.

The other two parables-the Unjust Judge and the Ten Virgins-agree with the Pounds and the Talents in representing the coming of the Son of Man as the end of the Church's history. In the Unjust Judge we see the Church,—in this parable it would appear to be the inward, spiritual Churchthe Church of God's elect-oppressed and praying--but at last fainting in prayer, so that the Saviour says plainly, "When the Son of Man cometh, shall He find faith on the earth?" He anticipated the general decay, if not the utter extinction, of faith before His return.

The same anticipation finds expression in the parable of the Ten Virgins. In it we have the Church presented to us in her waiting attitude. She goes forth joyfully to meet the bridegroom-the whole Church in its mixed character, she did so at the outset of her history-but when the bridegroom tarries they all slumber and sleep. The liveliness of expectation at first cherished of the Lord's return subsides. It did so early in the Church's history. Only in the case of the wise virgins has this expectation such vital roots as enable them to recover their dormant faith, and go in to the marriage with the Bridegroom when He comes.

Neither in this parable nor in any other where there are two or more classes of persons introduced, are we to suppose that an exact numerical proportion is signified. It is plain on the surface of the matter that on such a principle our conclusions would be involved in contradiction and absurdity. The Talents and Pounds, for instance, are contemporaneous with the Virgins, and this principle would give us differing proportions of the wise and foolish, the faithful and unfaithful.

To sum up the whole matter, I gather from these parables, the importance of the place of which in Christ's teaching no believing reader or expositor of the gospel will be disposed to deny, the reference of which to the Church in the sense in which I have viewed it, all, whatever may be their opinion of the soundness of the interpretation given above, will admit,— to sum up the whole matter, I gather from these parables that Christ anticipated only partial success for the preaching of the gospel in this age; that He anticipated that His Church would be a mixed body during its whole course; that the spirit of intolerance and persecution would break out within it; that it would become a great power in the world; that it would be soon and deeply and extensively corrupted in life and doctrine; that during His absence, which would be prolonged, and in consequence of its prolongation, although there would always be a body of faithful, praying, waiting people, yet the expectation of His return would cease generally to be a practical, influential motive in the lives of His professing people, and that faith itself would become wellnigh extinct in the earth.

These are the conclusions which a natural, unforced interpretation of the parables leads to, and they seem to be verified by the course of the Church's history and the present state and prospects of Christendom. They anticipate what has come to pass. I have purposely refrained from going beyond the limits of the parables, and taking in a wider range of Scripture teaching on the topics touched upon, for whatever views we may entertain of the whole subject of the kingdom of heaven in its present outward form, of its history, state, and prospects, it is a matter of the first importance to ascertain what Christ's thoughts about it were, as given us in these forecasts of it which His parables contain.

JOHN KELLY.