He teaches from a ship. Now the ship-by which those who are within it are carried safely over the waves which destroy all besides-has been the type of CHRIST's Church ever since those days in which Noah preached in vain to a heedless world, and, under the LORD's direction, constructed his ship for the salvation of all who would enter it, and remain in it, or, having gone forth, return to it. "There is reason," says S. Hilary, "why the LORD should sit in the ship, and the multitude stand on the sea shore; for He was about to speak in parables, and by this action He signifies that they who were without the Church could have no understanding of the Divine Word. The ship offers a type of the Church, within which the Word of Life is placed, and is preached to those who are without, and who, being barren sand, cannot understand it."

Men cannot be too frequently warned of the danger of taking Scriptural doctrines singly, and of the very great increase of danger when that doctrine is conveyed in an allegorical form. The danger arises from ourselves, and not from our Teacher. CHRIST Himself never taught by single and detached precepts, but by incidents before the eyes of His hearers, and by comments on those incidents. If we read His own declarations, in His own language, and from His own book, without the explanations and qualifications with which He has surrounded them, the things which should have been for our wealth are to us an occasion of falling. And very properly so. We are as much accountable for the misuse of our judgment, as we are for the misuse of any other gift of God. We cannot suppose the question at the last day will be, "Was the meaning which has misled you into heresy a fair grammatical interpretation of the particular passage of Scripture on which you base your justification ?" It

must be, "Did you, before adopting it, make use of every means which GOD placed before you, in order to enable you fully to understand His will ?" If you, a perfectly uninstructed heathen, had discovered the Bible for the first time, it is very likely that you would have honestly, conscientiously, nay very excusably, founded upon it all sorts of heresies and all sorts of false doctrines. But you are not an uninstructed heathen, neither did your LORD ever give the Bible to you or to any one else under such very trying circumstances. He knew what was in man, and He never would have done so. Before He gave the world any Scriptures at all, He provided for them a Church. To confirm and fix unalterably, and place beyond the power of human forgetfulness or human misinterpretation, He provided for that Church His written Word.

And what He has done for the Church at large, He has done for you individually. You were instructed first by those whose faith, taught them originally by others, had been confirmed upon His Word. You then approached His Word yourself with an instructed mind, and your faith was confirmed also. This is the Chris

Have you learnt

tian's way of learning his LORD's will. it in this way? You see that it lies open to you. If you have not,-if, with all these means before you, you have chosen to lay hold of the ark of GOD rashly and unpreparedly, and without authority, why should you complain that you have perished thereby, when you have the example of Uzzah, the son of Abinadab, before your eyes, written in that very Bible, for your warning on that very subject.

This is a most necessary caution whenever we study the serial teaching of our LORD; not only because men are liable to fall into error from taking partial views of a

connected series, but because they have done so already— because there actually are false doctrines prevalent in the world, and these false doctrines have arisen from a misapprehension of our LORD's true teaching. The danger is not an imaginary, but a real one.

The series of parables which we are speaking about are intended to open a new subject; they are to proclaim the foundation, by the LORD Himself, of a society of men in the world, but not of the world; and this implies of necessity a choice, a selection, a preference,—a body with which the LORD is, as distinguished from another body in which the LORD is not; a difference between those who are in the ship, and those who are not in the ship.

Things new and old are now brought forth out of the LORD's treasures, which had been laid up for this very purpose; and we are plainly told that there is to be a class of men capable of realizing both, and a class utterly incompetent to do so,—an outer and an inner school. This is the revelation made in these parables, and from a rash application of them have arisen two very dangerous errors, which the explanation of S. Hilary would tend to encourage. It is perfectly true, as he says, that the LORD, in speaking from the ship to those who are on the shore, would have us to understand that the Church from which He speaks is the position from which His Word conveys life; that they who are without the Church, by the fact of being without are separate from Him, and "being barren sand, cannot understand Him." S. Hilary has not misapprehended His words. They surprised the disciples, certainly; for they asked Him why He spoke to the multitude whom He was teaching, in parables which they could not understand; and our LORD answered distinctly, “Because to you it is given to understand the mysteries of the kingdom of GOD, but to them it is not

given,"-making this a decided distinction. There can be no manner of doubt on this point; and yet it is equally a heresy to say that some men are created to eternal condemnation, as it is to say that the mysteries of God's Holy Word are the property of all alike.

The solution of these two apparently irreconcileable difficulties is simply this. It is quite true, those who are without, "seeing, see not, and hearing, hear not, neither do they understand." It is morally impossible that they should; and besides, it is decreed, predestinated, certain that they will not. To such as these the Bible, if by chance it was given them, would be like any other book; or rather, it would be like a book in a foreign language, with which the reader was imperfectly acquainted. He might read it, and have an idea of its meaning; but could neither understand it, nor profit by it.

But why do they remain without? who prevents them from coming in? why do they stand on the shore when the ship is open to them? why are they content with listening to the LORD from a distance, when they might be with the LORD in the Ark of His Church? There is no eternal decree against them here. And this our LORD takes very good care to show, if we would only examine His words with the attention which a message from our LORD and Master absolutely demands. He told the disciples in so many words, that to them it was given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven.

And who are the disciples? Here lies the popular mistake the source of all this misapprehension. We picture to ourselves the disciples as a definite chosen body-such as the Apostles were afterwards; whereas the word "disciples" means all those who are willing to be taught by CHRIST. You have heard, no doubt, of

CHRIST advising people to count the cost before they thought of following Him; but where do you hear of His sending any away who were willing to come?

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TO ALL those therefore who were willing to be taught, were to be "revealed the mysteries of GOD." They should have and in more abundance :" but "whosoever hath not"—that is, hath not this desire of being taught, from him shall be taken away even that which he hath— that is, the power of drawing ordinary inferences and making fair deductions, which could not fail to strike unprejudiced men. In other words, obstinacy and pride and hardness of heart would prevent him from seeing, not only what was here promised to be revealed to humble and trustful inquirers by the special grace of GoD, but those more obvious things also which before he was perfectly capable of appreciating.

S. Chrysostom, who was almost a cotemporary of S. Hilary, explains this very clearly; and, in truth, the sentiments of these two fathers ought to be read together, as elucidating these opposite yet perfectly irreconcileable views of the passage, and together correctly explaining it. You have heard what S. Hilary says; these are the words of S. Chrysostom: "In saying this the LORD does not imply any necessity or fate, but shows at once that they to whom it is not given are the cause of their own miseries, and yet that the knowledge of the divine mysteries is a gift of GOD, and a grace given from above. Yet this does not destroy free will, as is manifest from what follows; for, to prevent that either these should despair, or those be remiss when they hear that 'to you it is given,' He shows that the beginning of all lies with ourselves; and then adds, 'for whoso hath to him shall be given, and he shall abound; and whoso hath not from him shall be