I

once more the adoption by S. Matthew of the Septuagint word that describes our Lord's mother, "the Virgin," that "shall conceive," determines the sense of a celebrated verse in Isaiah.

When the Author of Revelation left the rugged depth of the Hebrew for the intellectual precision of the Greek, a language adapted to convey the most precious truths to all mankind, He in no degree broke the continuity of an historical religion. All history, whatever is found from Genesis to Malachi, in some way foreshadowed the Gospel. The creation was at once history, prophecy, and the adumbration of spiritual mysteries. Adam was a type of Christ; the Flood prefigured a Christian sacrament; the ark symbolized the Church.3 The Deluge and the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, and in particular the end of the Holy City, foretold by Moses as well as by Christ, were divine prophecies of the universal Judgment to come. Circumcision suggested the work of the Holy Ghost upon the heart."

It is a commonplace to expound the symbols of the Evangelists to indicate that S. Matthew was to show how all prophecies were fulfilled in Christ; S. Mark, how He was the Lion of the tribe of Judah; S. Luke, how His merciful mission was to go forth beyond the limits of the chosen people, in blessings to all mankind; while S. John revealed the deep mysteries of heavenly truth, disclosed only to the heart aflame with love. The first 31 S. Peter, iii. 21.

1n ñαplévos, S. Matt. i. 23, from the LXX's version of Isa. vii. 14. This version we are to remember was made by Jews and read in their synagogues. Tertullian, Apol., 18. But two Jewish proselytes, Theodotion and Aquila, perverted the meaning and changed the rendering to "Young woman," as we are told by Justin Martyr (Dial. cum Tr., § 67), Irenæus, III., 21; Eusebius, V., 8. · τύπος τοῦ μέλλοντος, Rom. v. 14.

martyr, S. Stephen, was slain for declaring that the Jewish temple was destined to pass away. His blood, spilled upon the ground, proved the seed of a glorious harvest, amid which shine the manifold labors of the great Apostle to the Gentiles. S. Paul wrote three epistles to the Romans, to the Galatians, and to the Hebrews-to define the relations of Gentiles and Jews to each other and to the Church of Christ. The Epistle to the Romans gives an outline of God's dealings with mankind, the degradation of the heathen, the calling of the Hebrews, Abraham's exaltation as "Father of the faithful" and "Friend of God," but his true seed is found among Gentiles as well as Jews, and then the faith, the love, the unselfish life which are the only sure signs of election and justification. To the Galatians the Apostle recounts his own conversion, and struggles against Judaism even among his brethren, including S. Peter; then describes the preparatory character of the Law in reference to the Gospel, and shows how the liberty of Christians leads not to license, but to true godliness. It has been noted also that an outline of our Lord's life, such as is preserved in the Gospels, from the Birth to the Ascension, could be distinctly made out from S. Paul's Epistles, or from four of them, say those to the Romans, Corinthians, and Galatians. In the Epistle to the Hebrews we may have (as in the First Gospel) a Greek translation of a Hebrew text. It shows at once the superiority of the Christian to the Jewish dispensation, because its Author is superior not only to the angels, but to Moses and to the Aaronic high-priest. Even humanity is exalted in the Incarnate Son above the angels, who minister to the heirs of salvation. The legislation of Moses, the servant, is perfected by the Divine Son, the true builder and master, in his own house. The typical sacrifice of the high-priest gives place to the real sacrifice of the One True Priest. The

1 Acts, vii. 48, 49, 58, 59. Cf. xxii. 20,

2 See H. Footman's Reasonable Apprehensions and Reassuring Hints, Pp. 127-132. N. Y., 1885.

communion of man with God is no longer indirect, but through the direct union of God and man in Christ, present in His body the Church, in her worship, on her altars,' while the world shall last.

The Lord Himself, the substance and embodiment of both dispensations, gives all possible honor to the first, by declaring that He came "not to destroy the Law, but to fulfil it," by affirming that "the Scripture cannot be broken," by expounding to the last "in the Law, the Prophets, and the Psalms," "the things concerning Himself." He makes His Apostles twelve in number, after the Twelve Tribes of Israel, whose number is still mystically complete at the consummation of all things. His own teaching might have been introduced by the words of the Psalmist of old: "Hear my law, O my people: incline your ears unto the words of my mouth. I will open my mouth in a parable: I will declare hard sentences of old: which we have heard and known, and such as our fathers have told us." Like His forerunner the Baptist, His first preaching was the plain announcement, "The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand; " the worldembracing kingdom, no longer confined to Jews; a kingdom of souls, placing the cleansing and regeneration of the immortal spirit above perishable wealth and dominion, and therefore first proclaiming, "Repent." When the Lord had made this announcement, and had laid down the fundamental laws of His kingdom in the Sermon on the Mount, in words which though plain have a fulness of meaning not yet exhausted by the wisdom. and experience of men, He proceeded to teach by parable the outlines and the elements of the heavenly polity, as willing hearts and minds were prepared to receive it. A parable is a spiritual enigma, conveying no lesson except to souls alive with interest and searching for its meaning.

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· ἔχομεν θυσιαστήςιον, Heb. xiii. 10. In Heb. vii. S. Paul reveals the evangelical scope of the account of Melchisedek in Gen. xiv.

S. Matt. v. 17; S. John, x. 35; S. Luke, xxiv. 44.

3

Psalm lxxviii. 1−3.

In seven parables,' four to the multitude and three to His disciples alone, the lowly King, the Incarnate Word, put forth the nature of His kingdom, with more or less of explanation as they were able to bear it. These parables are at once prophecy, history, and legislation. In the first of the four the Sower scatters seed—that is, God's Word-over the different kinds of soil, that is, the varieties of human souls. One yields the seed to Satan, another entertains it briefly, a third chokes it with worldly cares, but the honest and good bring from it in due time their respective harvests. The second parable, that of the tares of the field, forewarns how the Enemy of souls will imitate the true Husbandman, and that the mischief of his sowing cannot be remedied by force or human means, nor until the harvest. The third parable, by the similitude of a great tree that grows most quickly from the smallest seed, predicts the rapid extension from humble beginnings of the Divine Kingdom, and the power of its branches to protect and shelter. The fourth exhibits the hidden but real and pervasive power of the new organization among men. When the Lord has thus instructed the mass of His hearers, He opens in private to His selected disciples three aspects of His kingdom to encourage and strengthen them in their deeper consecration to its service. It is the one treasure which gives its value to the world's field. It is the goodly pearl for which every other jewel may be exchanged. It is, finally, a net which draws from the troubled sea of time both bad and good; but the separation, though delayed, is made at length upon the shore of eternal life.

It is difficult to decide which is more wonderful, the calm comprehensiveness with which the lowly Teacher by the Galilean lake thus outlines the kingdom that is to embrace the world, and prepares His humble instruments for the mighty task, or the divine pity and mercy which shine in that other parable; recorded by S. Luke

'S. Matt. xiii.

alone, the story of the Prodigal Son, with its resistless appeal to every child of God, Gentile and Jew alikethe parable that has been called "a Gospel within the Gospel." When He made membership of His kingdom the beginning of a new life, and continuance therein the condition of that life, and love to God and man the substance of its law, and personal purity and unselfish labor the only evidence and ground of its faith and hope and love, He framed a legislature in germ, for a polity more comprehensive and more enduring, though not less real, than any yet known among mortal men; He gave to it in the Golden Rule a guide of conduct practical for communities and for individuals; and in His own prayer a form of devotion, brief, simple, yet deep enough to attune the heart of every age, sex, or capacity found on earth, with the worship of saints and angels in heaven.

It does not lessen but rather heightens the wonder to find fragments, chords as it were of the heavenly music, of the Beatitudes, the Golden Rule, the Lord's Prayer, amid the books of the Jewish Scriptures; nor, on the other hand, should we fail to note how in the books of the New Covenant are recognitions of all the aspects of wisdom, the earnest search, the pathetic and moving presentation, which make the Grecian philosophy, as some of the early Christian Fathers held it to be, a real preparation for Christianity. The New Testament expressly tells us that God "left not Himself without a witness, but that in every nation he that feareth God and worketh righteousness is accepted of Him." "The Word and the Sacraments are the characteristic of the elect people of God; but all men have had more or less the guidance of tradition in addition to those internal notices of right and wrong which the Spirit has put into the heart of each individual. This vague and unconnected family of religious truths, originally from God, but sojourning without the sanction of miracle or a definite home as pilgrims up and down the world, and discernible