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Reached my 72nd year this week and got my 6 weekly injection in my good eye which seems to be in good health with the pressure good and vision continuing to hold up well. My diabetic A1C is continuing to be at an acceptable level and my blood pressure is good as is my cholesterol levels and I actually lost 4lbs in weight. I've been suffering from a runny nose this past couple of years but that also seems to be much better going into 2023. Haven't had Covid or the flu so that's also good. I have taken the 2 Covid shots and also the 2 booster shots and also the flu shot. So overall health wise looks like I'm doing ok. (fingers crossed)
I note that Quebec is saying if you have had the 2 Covid shots then you don't need any others but guess I'll wait to see what Ontario has to say on that.
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I am still looking to get a decent pork pie and cooked Ox Tongue in Canada. I wish I could just order some pork pies from Tesco as they were always very good but unless they put them in a tin Canada won't allow them in. I have found a supplier in Canada for pork sausages of the Irish style much like the Richmond Irish sausages I used to buy in Scotland. I would also like to get a supplier for Scotch eggs but so far I just make my own.
Considering that 15% of Canadians claim Scottish descent I'm still puzzled as to why these products aren't available here.
Scottish News from this weeks newspapers
I am partly doing this to build an archive of modern news from and about Scotland and world news stories that can affect Scotland and as all the newsletters are archived and also indexed on Google and other search engines it becomes a good resource. I might also add that in a number of newspapers you will find many comments which can be just as interesting as the news story itself and of course you can also add your own comments if you wish which I do myself from time to time.
The Secret Bard
A celebration of the life and songs of Carolina Oliphant, a contemporary of Robbie Burns, who kept her songwriting success a secret all her life.
Read more at:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001hfm1
The return of the spirit horse to Canada
The commonly accepted story of horses in North America is that colonisers introduced them to the continent. But there was a surviving native breed of horse when the Spanish arrived.
Read more at:
https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/2...orse-to-canada
The hidden museum tucked away in Edinburgh dedicated to Robert Burns
Even those who live in Edinburgh may not be aware that it is home to a museum dedicated to the lives and work of three of the country's most iconic writers including Robert Burns.
Read more at:
https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/scotla...burgh-29036234
Minimum alcohol pricing impact on drinks sector minimal
A report commissioned by Public Health Scotland, however, found no significant economic harm to businesses.
Read more at:
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-64457024
10 Scottish childhood games you will remember if you grew up here
If you grew up in Scotland, there are no doubt countless games you remember playing in your childhood here is a roundup of five that you no doubt partook in at some point.
Read more at:
https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/scotla...s-you-29096321
Scotland’s fossils: The secret of life? It’s 37 miles from Aberdeen and around six feet under the sheep
It is here that scientists discovered and have been studying the 407-million-year-old plant fossils that might hold the secret to life on earth.
Read more at:
https://www.sundaypost.com/fp/scotla...y-to-humankind
Shetland's Up Helly Aa Viking fire festival
Shetland's famous Up Helly Aa fire festival - with women and girls in the torchlit procession for the first time - has witnessed the burning of a replica Viking galley light up the Lerwick sky.
Read more at:
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-64464271
Banning guns won't reduce crime, but making bullets traceable will
While it is practically impossible to control the distribution of guns, it is possible to control the sale and movement of ammunition
Read more at:
https://nationalpost.com/opinion/con...traceable-will
Formal bid made for Flow Country Unesco status
Unesco has been formally asked to consider awarding World Heritage Site status to 469,500 acres (190,000ha) of Scotland's Flow Country.
Read more at:
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland...lands-64497032
Nicola Sturgeon has been accused of twisting Covid figures to favour Scotland
The First Minister has been reported to the UK Statistics Authority by the Scottish Liberal Democrats over her use of numbers at Holyrood yesterday.
Read more at:
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...r-England.html
A quarter of Canadian grocery stores won’t accept cash in five years, report suggests
The convenience of going cashless at the grocery store comes with a privacy cost, according to a new study from Dalhousie University's Agri-Food Analytics Lab
Read more at:
https://nationalpost.com/news/canada...grocery-stores
Electric Canadian
Great Lodges Of The Canadian Rockies
Added this YouTube video to the foot of our Tourism page which in my opinion is a must see. I hope you'll agree.
You can view this at the foot of the page at:
http://www.electriccanadian.com/transport/tourism.htm
Garrett VanDusen
Chatham native’s route to film success had many detours
You can read this article at:
http://www.electriccanadian.com/make...t-VanDusen.htm
Memoir of Brother George Kmoch
Missionary in Labrador (pdf)
You can read this wee book at:
http://www.electriccanadian.com/hist...orge-kmoch.pdf
Thoughts on a Sunday Morning - the 29th day of January 2023
By the Rev. Nola Crewe
You can watch this at:
http://www.electricscotland.org/foru...f-january-2023
Nick and Maëla
Couple buy 100 acres of land and build their new life in Canada. Added this YouTube video to the foot of our Pioneering page.
You can watch this at the foot of the page at:
http://www.electriccanadian.com/pioneering/index.htm
Reminiscences of Early Settlers and other Records
Being the fourth publication of the Elgin Historical and Scientific Institute (1911) (pdf)
You can read this book at:
http://www.electriccanadian.com/pion...s_and_Othe.pdf
Electric Scotland
Beth's Video Talks
February 1st, 2023 - Delicious Scottish Fare No. 1 of 2
You can view this at:
https://electricscotland.com/bnft/index.htm
Good Words 1863 edition
This contains the first edition of "Reminiscences of a Highland Parish" but much more good reading which is well worth your perusal.
I also scanned in the Parables which is an article from this issue and the story for this week. You can read the entire book at:
https://electricscotland.com/history...00macluoft.pdf
Cutty Sark & The Great Clippers / Nautical Engineering Documentary
Added this YouTube video to our Shipbuilders of Aberdeen page around half way down the page and just below the article on the Clippers by Stan Bruce at:
https://electricscotland.com/history...ipbuilding.htm
COSCA Newsletter, The Claymore
Got in a copy of their January 2023 newsletter which you can read at:
https://electricscotland.com/familyt...osca/index.htm
Journal of a Voyage to the Northern Whale-Fishery
Including researches and discoveries on the Eastern Coast of West Greenland made in the Summer of 1822, in the ship Baffin of Liverpool by William Scoresby Junior, F.R.S.E., M.W.S. &c, &c, Commander (1823) (pdf)
You can read this book at:
https://electricscotland.com/history...nd-whaling.pdf
Exploring Loch Leven National Nature Reserve in Kinross, Fife, Scotland
Added a great video to our page on Perth & Kinross which you can watch at:
https://electricscotland.com/travel/perth/index.htm
Rambles in Skye
With sketch of a trip to St. Kilda by Malcolm Ferguson (1885) (pdf)
You can read this book at:
https://electricscotland.com/history...wit00ferg1.pdf
Story
THE PARABLES
READ IN THE LIGHT OF THE PRESENT DAY.
BY THOMAS GUTHRIE, D.D.
INTRODUCTORY
I once saw Moffat, the South African missionary, address a thousand children—the most formidable congregation, in one sense, before which any speaker could appear. The difficulty, after having aroused their attention, of keeping it awake, was increased on that occasion by two things. His address extended beyond an hour, and the time was evening, when sleep is so apt to fall on young eyes; yet there was not a sleeper in the whole house. The sea of young faces was all turned radiant on the orator; he was the centre for two thousand eager glancing eyes; and for more than the time usually occupied by a sermon he held his audience by the ears. It was a great achievement: and how accomplished? In a very simple way. Suiting the action to the word, and drawing on his own observation and experience, he told them stories, illustrative of the labours and purposes, of the difficulties and dangers of a missionary’s life. In giving this form to an address which was not childish, though suited to children, he dexterously availed himself of one of the strongest and earliest developed principles of our nature. How often, have I seen a restless boy, whom neither threats nor bribes could quiet, sit spell bound by a nursery tale! We can all recollect the time when we sat listening to a mother’s or nurse’s stories for long hours around the winter hearth. So passes the time with the soldier by his watch-fire; with the sailor on the lonely deep; and so, when the day’s journey is done, and tents are pitched, and they have had their evening meal, the Bedouin, seated beneath a starry sky, on the sands of the silent desert, will spend half the night.
Now, parables are just stories; they are told for instruction through means of entertainment; and when Moffat, by anecdotes, analogies, and illustrations, sought to win the attention of his hearers, and convey truth into their hearts, as the arrow, by help of its feathers, goes right to the mark, he was only copying his Master. No addresses recorded in history, common or sacred, have so much of the parable character as our Lord’s. Not dry bones, nor, though skilfully put together, mere naked skeletons, they are clothed with flesh and instinct with life. Man has a threefold character; he is a being possessed of reason, of affection, and of imagination; he has a head, a heart, and a fancy. And now proving, and now painting, and now persuading, our Lord’s discourses, unlike dry and heavy sermons, along with the strongest arguments, the most pointed and powerful appeals, are full of stories, illustrations, and comparisons; and by this circumstance, as well as by the divinity of his matter, and the blended mildness and majesty of his manner, we explain the fact that Jesus was the prince of preachers, — one whom the common people heard gladly, and who, in the judgment even of his enemies, spake as never man spake. The suitableness of this style of preaching a gospel, intended as well for the unlearned as the learned, for converting the unlettered poor, whose souls are as precious in God’s sight as those of philosophers or kings, is obvious; and was well expressed by a humble woman. Comprehending best, and most interested and edified by those passages of Scripture which present abstract truth under concrete forms, and of which we have examples in such comparisons of our Lord’s, as these—the kingdom of heaven is like unto a grain of mustard seed, unto a treasure, unto a merchant, unto a householder, unto a king, she said, “I like best the likes of Scripture.” These are all parables, a form of speech which our Lord used, indeed so often, and to such an extent, that the evangelists say, “ Without a parable spake he not unto them.” Occasionally used to conceal for a time the full meaning of the speaker, the chief and common object of a parable is by the story to win attention and maintain it; to give plainness and point, and therefore power, to truth. By awakening and gratifying the imagination, the truth finds its way more readily to the heart, and makes a deeper impression on the memory. The story, like a float, keeps it from sinking; like a nail, fastens it in the mind; like the feathers of an arrow, makes it strike, and, like the barb, makes it stick.
While Parables differ from fables, also a very ancient form of speech and instruction, in this, among other things, that fables use the fanciful machinery of beasts and birds and trees, they are allied to proverbs and allegories. They are stories of events that may or may not have happened, but told for the purpose of conveying important truths in a lively and striking manner. They need not be in words ; they may be acted; and sometimes men inspired of God, have, instead of telling, acted them with dramatic power. Go, said the Lord to Jeremiah, and get a potter’s earthen bottle, and take of the ancients of the people, and of the ancients of the priests; and go forth unto the valley of the son of Hinnom, and proclaim there the words that I shall tell thee. To his summons they assemble, and the preacher appears—nor book, nor speech in hand, but an earthen vessel. He addresses them. Pointing across the valley to Jerusalem, with busy thousands in its streets, its massive towers and noble temple glorious and beautiful beneath a southern sky, he says, speaking as an ambassador of God, I will make this city desolate and an hissing: every one that passeth thereby shall be astonished and hiss: I will cause them to eat the flesh of their sons and the flesh of their daughters, in the siege and straitness wherewith their enemies and they that seek their lives shall straiten them. He pauses—raises his arm—holds up the potter’s vessel—dashes it on the ground; and planting his foot on its shivered fragments, he adds, Thus saith the Lord of hosts, Even so will I break this people, and this city, as one breaketh a potter’s vessel. The scene, the aspect of the man, the beautiful but fragile vase, the crash, the shivered fragments, these, all-important aids to the speaker, were calculated to make an impression through the senses and the fancy, much deeper than the mere message could have done.
After the same manner, we find another acting his parable, charged also with a burden of coming sorrows. To the amazement of the people, setting them all a wondering what he could mean, Ezekiel appears one day before them with fire, a pair of scales, a knife, and a barber’s razor. These were the heads, and doom was the burden of his sermon. Sweeping off, what an Eastern considers it a shame to lose, his beard, and the hair also from his head, this bald and beardless man divides them into three parts; weighing them in the balance. One third he burns in the fire; one third he smites with the knife; and the remaining third he tosses in the air, scattering it on the winds of heaven. Thus — he himself representing the Jewish nation; his hair the people; the razor the Chaldeans; the cutting off of the hair impending national disgrace; the balances, God’s righteous judgment; the part burnt, these destroyed in the city; the part smitten with the knife, those slain when attempting to escape; and the remaining part scattered to the winds, the dispersion of the survivors, — by this acted parable, and in a way most likely to imprint the truth on their memories and impress it on their hearts, he foretells the desolations that were impending over them.
The Parable may assume a variety of forms, but the rule of interpretation is the same in all cases. The nearer we can make everything in the parable apply, and stand out as the medium of an important truth, so much the better. But while there may be a meaning in many of the circumstances, the clothing, as you might say, of the story—and it is our business to find that out — any attempt to regard everything as charged with a distinct meaning, to find a spiritual truth in each minute circumstance, would often land us in the regions of fancy; and sometimes in those of error. Take, for example, the parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus. Our Lord represents Abraham and Lives as talking to each other across the gulf which yawns, unbridged, between heaven and hell. But are we to infer from this that the intercourse of this world is maintained in the other, and that sights or sounds of misery disturb the blessed rest of the saints of God? Certainly not. It would be as contrary also to all that we believe, to infer from the rich man expressing a desire for the welfare of the brothers he had left behind him, that virtues grow amid these fires which grew not in the more genial clime of earth. The lost are not certainly improved by their association with devils. If the longer in prison the greater criminal, the longer in perdition the greater sinner! The dead fruit grows more rotten, and the dead body more loathsome in its change to dust; even so they that are filthy shall not only be filthy, but shall be filthier still.
Take another example in the parable of the Ten Virgins. I read that as a solemn warning. It calls us to be up and doing; to hold ourselves ready for the Lord’s coming, since we know neither the day nor the hour the Bridegroom may come; to work while it is called to-day, seeing how the night cometh when no man can work — when shops are shut, and there is no oil to buy. But if, allowing nothing for what might be called the drapery of the story, we are to find divine truth sit forth not only in the main but in the minor circumstances, in every particular of the parable, see where this leads us! There were five wise and five foolish; five taken in, and five shut out, to whose applications for admission, and earnest, long, loud knocking no answer came but, The door is shut. The first five represent the saved, and the second the lost. But are we to infer, since the number of the wise and the foolish virgins was equal, that the lost are as numerous as the saved? This would be a dreadful, and, I venture to say, a very rash conclusion. Nowhere has God revealed such solemn secrets. Our Lord rebuked the curiosity that asked. Are there few that be saved? — replying, Strive to enter in at the strait gate, for many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in, and shall not be able. To force such an utterance from the parable, to conclude because there was an equal number of wise and foolish virgins, that the lost are as numerous as the saved, has no warrant in the Word of God, and is contrary to the ideas we fondly cherish of Christ’s final, glorious, and most triumphant conquest. If, at the close of the war, Satan retains half his kingdom, his head is not crushed, nor, if he carries off half his forces from the battle-field, is he defeated, as I would hope he shall be. We cling to the hope that equal numbers will not stand on the right and on the left hand of the Judge, and that the wail of misery, piercing as it is, shall be drowned and lost in the louder burst of praise. It were a sad account of any government were half its subjects immured in prison; and I would not believe without the strongest evidence that under the reign of a benign and merciful God, and notwithstanding the blood poured out on Calvary, that half the inhabitants of a world are lost upon which the Saviour descended on wings of love, while his angel escort sang, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill toward men.
In explaining a parable, what we are therefore to seek is its great central truth, the one, two, or three grand lessons which the story was told to teach — setting aside such parts as are no more than colour, clothing, drapery thrown around it, to impart life and interest.
END
Reading the entire volume you'll be able to read more of these Parables and lots more besides.
Weekend is almost here and hope it's a good one for you.
Alastair
Reached my 72nd year this week and got my 6 weekly injection in my good eye which seems to be in good health with the pressure good and vision continuing to hold up well. My diabetic A1C is continuing to be at an acceptable level and my blood pressure is good as is my cholesterol levels and I actually lost 4lbs in weight. I've been suffering from a runny nose this past couple of years but that also seems to be much better going into 2023. Haven't had Covid or the flu so that's also good. I have taken the 2 Covid shots and also the 2 booster shots and also the flu shot. So overall health wise looks like I'm doing ok. (fingers crossed)
I note that Quebec is saying if you have had the 2 Covid shots then you don't need any others but guess I'll wait to see what Ontario has to say on that.
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I am still looking to get a decent pork pie and cooked Ox Tongue in Canada. I wish I could just order some pork pies from Tesco as they were always very good but unless they put them in a tin Canada won't allow them in. I have found a supplier in Canada for pork sausages of the Irish style much like the Richmond Irish sausages I used to buy in Scotland. I would also like to get a supplier for Scotch eggs but so far I just make my own.
Considering that 15% of Canadians claim Scottish descent I'm still puzzled as to why these products aren't available here.
Scottish News from this weeks newspapers
I am partly doing this to build an archive of modern news from and about Scotland and world news stories that can affect Scotland and as all the newsletters are archived and also indexed on Google and other search engines it becomes a good resource. I might also add that in a number of newspapers you will find many comments which can be just as interesting as the news story itself and of course you can also add your own comments if you wish which I do myself from time to time.
The Secret Bard
A celebration of the life and songs of Carolina Oliphant, a contemporary of Robbie Burns, who kept her songwriting success a secret all her life.
Read more at:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001hfm1
The return of the spirit horse to Canada
The commonly accepted story of horses in North America is that colonisers introduced them to the continent. But there was a surviving native breed of horse when the Spanish arrived.
Read more at:
https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/2...orse-to-canada
The hidden museum tucked away in Edinburgh dedicated to Robert Burns
Even those who live in Edinburgh may not be aware that it is home to a museum dedicated to the lives and work of three of the country's most iconic writers including Robert Burns.
Read more at:
https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/scotla...burgh-29036234
Minimum alcohol pricing impact on drinks sector minimal
A report commissioned by Public Health Scotland, however, found no significant economic harm to businesses.
Read more at:
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-64457024
10 Scottish childhood games you will remember if you grew up here
If you grew up in Scotland, there are no doubt countless games you remember playing in your childhood here is a roundup of five that you no doubt partook in at some point.
Read more at:
https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/scotla...s-you-29096321
Scotland’s fossils: The secret of life? It’s 37 miles from Aberdeen and around six feet under the sheep
It is here that scientists discovered and have been studying the 407-million-year-old plant fossils that might hold the secret to life on earth.
Read more at:
https://www.sundaypost.com/fp/scotla...y-to-humankind
Shetland's Up Helly Aa Viking fire festival
Shetland's famous Up Helly Aa fire festival - with women and girls in the torchlit procession for the first time - has witnessed the burning of a replica Viking galley light up the Lerwick sky.
Read more at:
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-64464271
Banning guns won't reduce crime, but making bullets traceable will
While it is practically impossible to control the distribution of guns, it is possible to control the sale and movement of ammunition
Read more at:
https://nationalpost.com/opinion/con...traceable-will
Formal bid made for Flow Country Unesco status
Unesco has been formally asked to consider awarding World Heritage Site status to 469,500 acres (190,000ha) of Scotland's Flow Country.
Read more at:
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland...lands-64497032
Nicola Sturgeon has been accused of twisting Covid figures to favour Scotland
The First Minister has been reported to the UK Statistics Authority by the Scottish Liberal Democrats over her use of numbers at Holyrood yesterday.
Read more at:
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...r-England.html
A quarter of Canadian grocery stores won’t accept cash in five years, report suggests
The convenience of going cashless at the grocery store comes with a privacy cost, according to a new study from Dalhousie University's Agri-Food Analytics Lab
Read more at:
https://nationalpost.com/news/canada...grocery-stores
Electric Canadian
Great Lodges Of The Canadian Rockies
Added this YouTube video to the foot of our Tourism page which in my opinion is a must see. I hope you'll agree.
You can view this at the foot of the page at:
http://www.electriccanadian.com/transport/tourism.htm
Garrett VanDusen
Chatham native’s route to film success had many detours
You can read this article at:
http://www.electriccanadian.com/make...t-VanDusen.htm
Memoir of Brother George Kmoch
Missionary in Labrador (pdf)
You can read this wee book at:
http://www.electriccanadian.com/hist...orge-kmoch.pdf
Thoughts on a Sunday Morning - the 29th day of January 2023
By the Rev. Nola Crewe
You can watch this at:
http://www.electricscotland.org/foru...f-january-2023
Nick and Maëla
Couple buy 100 acres of land and build their new life in Canada. Added this YouTube video to the foot of our Pioneering page.
You can watch this at the foot of the page at:
http://www.electriccanadian.com/pioneering/index.htm
Reminiscences of Early Settlers and other Records
Being the fourth publication of the Elgin Historical and Scientific Institute (1911) (pdf)
You can read this book at:
http://www.electriccanadian.com/pion...s_and_Othe.pdf
Electric Scotland
Beth's Video Talks
February 1st, 2023 - Delicious Scottish Fare No. 1 of 2
You can view this at:
https://electricscotland.com/bnft/index.htm
Good Words 1863 edition
This contains the first edition of "Reminiscences of a Highland Parish" but much more good reading which is well worth your perusal.
I also scanned in the Parables which is an article from this issue and the story for this week. You can read the entire book at:
https://electricscotland.com/history...00macluoft.pdf
Cutty Sark & The Great Clippers / Nautical Engineering Documentary
Added this YouTube video to our Shipbuilders of Aberdeen page around half way down the page and just below the article on the Clippers by Stan Bruce at:
https://electricscotland.com/history...ipbuilding.htm
COSCA Newsletter, The Claymore
Got in a copy of their January 2023 newsletter which you can read at:
https://electricscotland.com/familyt...osca/index.htm
Journal of a Voyage to the Northern Whale-Fishery
Including researches and discoveries on the Eastern Coast of West Greenland made in the Summer of 1822, in the ship Baffin of Liverpool by William Scoresby Junior, F.R.S.E., M.W.S. &c, &c, Commander (1823) (pdf)
You can read this book at:
https://electricscotland.com/history...nd-whaling.pdf
Exploring Loch Leven National Nature Reserve in Kinross, Fife, Scotland
Added a great video to our page on Perth & Kinross which you can watch at:
https://electricscotland.com/travel/perth/index.htm
Rambles in Skye
With sketch of a trip to St. Kilda by Malcolm Ferguson (1885) (pdf)
You can read this book at:
https://electricscotland.com/history...wit00ferg1.pdf
Story
THE PARABLES
READ IN THE LIGHT OF THE PRESENT DAY.
BY THOMAS GUTHRIE, D.D.
INTRODUCTORY
I once saw Moffat, the South African missionary, address a thousand children—the most formidable congregation, in one sense, before which any speaker could appear. The difficulty, after having aroused their attention, of keeping it awake, was increased on that occasion by two things. His address extended beyond an hour, and the time was evening, when sleep is so apt to fall on young eyes; yet there was not a sleeper in the whole house. The sea of young faces was all turned radiant on the orator; he was the centre for two thousand eager glancing eyes; and for more than the time usually occupied by a sermon he held his audience by the ears. It was a great achievement: and how accomplished? In a very simple way. Suiting the action to the word, and drawing on his own observation and experience, he told them stories, illustrative of the labours and purposes, of the difficulties and dangers of a missionary’s life. In giving this form to an address which was not childish, though suited to children, he dexterously availed himself of one of the strongest and earliest developed principles of our nature. How often, have I seen a restless boy, whom neither threats nor bribes could quiet, sit spell bound by a nursery tale! We can all recollect the time when we sat listening to a mother’s or nurse’s stories for long hours around the winter hearth. So passes the time with the soldier by his watch-fire; with the sailor on the lonely deep; and so, when the day’s journey is done, and tents are pitched, and they have had their evening meal, the Bedouin, seated beneath a starry sky, on the sands of the silent desert, will spend half the night.
Now, parables are just stories; they are told for instruction through means of entertainment; and when Moffat, by anecdotes, analogies, and illustrations, sought to win the attention of his hearers, and convey truth into their hearts, as the arrow, by help of its feathers, goes right to the mark, he was only copying his Master. No addresses recorded in history, common or sacred, have so much of the parable character as our Lord’s. Not dry bones, nor, though skilfully put together, mere naked skeletons, they are clothed with flesh and instinct with life. Man has a threefold character; he is a being possessed of reason, of affection, and of imagination; he has a head, a heart, and a fancy. And now proving, and now painting, and now persuading, our Lord’s discourses, unlike dry and heavy sermons, along with the strongest arguments, the most pointed and powerful appeals, are full of stories, illustrations, and comparisons; and by this circumstance, as well as by the divinity of his matter, and the blended mildness and majesty of his manner, we explain the fact that Jesus was the prince of preachers, — one whom the common people heard gladly, and who, in the judgment even of his enemies, spake as never man spake. The suitableness of this style of preaching a gospel, intended as well for the unlearned as the learned, for converting the unlettered poor, whose souls are as precious in God’s sight as those of philosophers or kings, is obvious; and was well expressed by a humble woman. Comprehending best, and most interested and edified by those passages of Scripture which present abstract truth under concrete forms, and of which we have examples in such comparisons of our Lord’s, as these—the kingdom of heaven is like unto a grain of mustard seed, unto a treasure, unto a merchant, unto a householder, unto a king, she said, “I like best the likes of Scripture.” These are all parables, a form of speech which our Lord used, indeed so often, and to such an extent, that the evangelists say, “ Without a parable spake he not unto them.” Occasionally used to conceal for a time the full meaning of the speaker, the chief and common object of a parable is by the story to win attention and maintain it; to give plainness and point, and therefore power, to truth. By awakening and gratifying the imagination, the truth finds its way more readily to the heart, and makes a deeper impression on the memory. The story, like a float, keeps it from sinking; like a nail, fastens it in the mind; like the feathers of an arrow, makes it strike, and, like the barb, makes it stick.
While Parables differ from fables, also a very ancient form of speech and instruction, in this, among other things, that fables use the fanciful machinery of beasts and birds and trees, they are allied to proverbs and allegories. They are stories of events that may or may not have happened, but told for the purpose of conveying important truths in a lively and striking manner. They need not be in words ; they may be acted; and sometimes men inspired of God, have, instead of telling, acted them with dramatic power. Go, said the Lord to Jeremiah, and get a potter’s earthen bottle, and take of the ancients of the people, and of the ancients of the priests; and go forth unto the valley of the son of Hinnom, and proclaim there the words that I shall tell thee. To his summons they assemble, and the preacher appears—nor book, nor speech in hand, but an earthen vessel. He addresses them. Pointing across the valley to Jerusalem, with busy thousands in its streets, its massive towers and noble temple glorious and beautiful beneath a southern sky, he says, speaking as an ambassador of God, I will make this city desolate and an hissing: every one that passeth thereby shall be astonished and hiss: I will cause them to eat the flesh of their sons and the flesh of their daughters, in the siege and straitness wherewith their enemies and they that seek their lives shall straiten them. He pauses—raises his arm—holds up the potter’s vessel—dashes it on the ground; and planting his foot on its shivered fragments, he adds, Thus saith the Lord of hosts, Even so will I break this people, and this city, as one breaketh a potter’s vessel. The scene, the aspect of the man, the beautiful but fragile vase, the crash, the shivered fragments, these, all-important aids to the speaker, were calculated to make an impression through the senses and the fancy, much deeper than the mere message could have done.
After the same manner, we find another acting his parable, charged also with a burden of coming sorrows. To the amazement of the people, setting them all a wondering what he could mean, Ezekiel appears one day before them with fire, a pair of scales, a knife, and a barber’s razor. These were the heads, and doom was the burden of his sermon. Sweeping off, what an Eastern considers it a shame to lose, his beard, and the hair also from his head, this bald and beardless man divides them into three parts; weighing them in the balance. One third he burns in the fire; one third he smites with the knife; and the remaining third he tosses in the air, scattering it on the winds of heaven. Thus — he himself representing the Jewish nation; his hair the people; the razor the Chaldeans; the cutting off of the hair impending national disgrace; the balances, God’s righteous judgment; the part burnt, these destroyed in the city; the part smitten with the knife, those slain when attempting to escape; and the remaining part scattered to the winds, the dispersion of the survivors, — by this acted parable, and in a way most likely to imprint the truth on their memories and impress it on their hearts, he foretells the desolations that were impending over them.
The Parable may assume a variety of forms, but the rule of interpretation is the same in all cases. The nearer we can make everything in the parable apply, and stand out as the medium of an important truth, so much the better. But while there may be a meaning in many of the circumstances, the clothing, as you might say, of the story—and it is our business to find that out — any attempt to regard everything as charged with a distinct meaning, to find a spiritual truth in each minute circumstance, would often land us in the regions of fancy; and sometimes in those of error. Take, for example, the parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus. Our Lord represents Abraham and Lives as talking to each other across the gulf which yawns, unbridged, between heaven and hell. But are we to infer from this that the intercourse of this world is maintained in the other, and that sights or sounds of misery disturb the blessed rest of the saints of God? Certainly not. It would be as contrary also to all that we believe, to infer from the rich man expressing a desire for the welfare of the brothers he had left behind him, that virtues grow amid these fires which grew not in the more genial clime of earth. The lost are not certainly improved by their association with devils. If the longer in prison the greater criminal, the longer in perdition the greater sinner! The dead fruit grows more rotten, and the dead body more loathsome in its change to dust; even so they that are filthy shall not only be filthy, but shall be filthier still.
Take another example in the parable of the Ten Virgins. I read that as a solemn warning. It calls us to be up and doing; to hold ourselves ready for the Lord’s coming, since we know neither the day nor the hour the Bridegroom may come; to work while it is called to-day, seeing how the night cometh when no man can work — when shops are shut, and there is no oil to buy. But if, allowing nothing for what might be called the drapery of the story, we are to find divine truth sit forth not only in the main but in the minor circumstances, in every particular of the parable, see where this leads us! There were five wise and five foolish; five taken in, and five shut out, to whose applications for admission, and earnest, long, loud knocking no answer came but, The door is shut. The first five represent the saved, and the second the lost. But are we to infer, since the number of the wise and the foolish virgins was equal, that the lost are as numerous as the saved? This would be a dreadful, and, I venture to say, a very rash conclusion. Nowhere has God revealed such solemn secrets. Our Lord rebuked the curiosity that asked. Are there few that be saved? — replying, Strive to enter in at the strait gate, for many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in, and shall not be able. To force such an utterance from the parable, to conclude because there was an equal number of wise and foolish virgins, that the lost are as numerous as the saved, has no warrant in the Word of God, and is contrary to the ideas we fondly cherish of Christ’s final, glorious, and most triumphant conquest. If, at the close of the war, Satan retains half his kingdom, his head is not crushed, nor, if he carries off half his forces from the battle-field, is he defeated, as I would hope he shall be. We cling to the hope that equal numbers will not stand on the right and on the left hand of the Judge, and that the wail of misery, piercing as it is, shall be drowned and lost in the louder burst of praise. It were a sad account of any government were half its subjects immured in prison; and I would not believe without the strongest evidence that under the reign of a benign and merciful God, and notwithstanding the blood poured out on Calvary, that half the inhabitants of a world are lost upon which the Saviour descended on wings of love, while his angel escort sang, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill toward men.
In explaining a parable, what we are therefore to seek is its great central truth, the one, two, or three grand lessons which the story was told to teach — setting aside such parts as are no more than colour, clothing, drapery thrown around it, to impart life and interest.
END
Reading the entire volume you'll be able to read more of these Parables and lots more besides.
Weekend is almost here and hope it's a good one for you.
Alastair
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