IV. THE MYSTERIES OF THE KINGDOM.(Chap. 13:-20:28.)
I. The kingdom of an absent King:its prophetic history (chap. 13:1-52). The mysteries of the kingdom disclosed in these parables are " things which have been kept secret from the foundation of the world." A parable of the kingdom supposes Israel rejected (10:13-15), and a form of it which the Old Testament did not contemplate (10:34, 35). This we find accordingly. It is a kingdom not set up in power, but the fruit of the sowing of seed, the word of the kingdom (5:19), committed to the care of men (5:25), and characterized by patience and long-suffering, until closed by a day of divine interference and discriminating judgment by angels' hands (10:41-43), a day which is the " completion of the age " (10:40, 49, Gr.) before the coming and kingdom of the Son of Man, according to Daniel's prophecy (7:13, 14). These mysteries include the whole intervening time, therefore, of the Lord's absence.

These parables give the history of the kingdom up to this:a history of perfect failure on the part of man to whom its administration is intrusted, God's purposes of course not failing. The contrast here gives us the two sections of the chapter. The first part, to ver. 35, the external history, told in the presence of the multitude; the second, God's unfailing purposes, to the disciples in the house.

The first parable gives the sowing of the good seed by the Son of Man, and its various success amid the opposition of Satan (5:19), the flesh (10:20, 21), and the world (5:22). Here, only a fourth part produces real fruit; but the second parable goes further, and shows us a counter-sowing of the enemy, not of the Word, of course, and which produces tares among the wheat,- opposers of the truth, in a Christian garb:a work which (as to its results in the field of the world) cannot be undone till the day of the harvest.

These two parables give us what is individual, although the whole is of course affected. The next two give us what is general. The character of the whole sowing, as if it were one seed, in the third ; which recalls, and is intended to recall, Daniel 4:and Babylon. Out of the little gospel-seed, so unlikely to produce it, is developed an earthly (treelike) system, in which the powers of evil (the birds, -comp. 10:4, 19,) find secure lodgment. While the fourth parable exhibits the "woman," the professing church, corrupting the word of Christ (the meat-offering, Lev. 2:ii) with the leaven of false doctrine (chap. 16:12; Mark 8:15).

The picture is one of general and progressive deterioration, and which judgment ends; and it is what has indeed taken place, the evident, open thing which scarcely needs disciples' eyes to see. Now on the other hand, three parables give us the divine purpose working out under all this failure. First, however, the secret of the tare-field, and its judgment fully, which requires anointed eyes to see. Then, the history of Christendom being closed, the parables of the treasure, the pearl, and the drag-net, containing, I believe, God's thoughts with regard to the three parties of chap. xxiv, xxv,
and in the same order,-Israel, the Church of God, and the Gentiles.

Israel is God's "treasure" (Ex. 19:5; Ps. 135:4), " hidden " indeed as such, when the Lord came and for a moment disclosed it, hiding it again, however, and going to the cross, selling all He had to buy the field of the world, in which it was and where it is yet to be displayed.
The pearl is "one,"-one Church,-brought up out of the waters (always the figure of Gentile nations,) and possessed at the expense of the life that produced it; it is the fit figure of the glory of a grace abounding over sin, of which the Church is the chief vessel of display.* *Pearls "are caused by particles of sand or other foreign substances getting between the animal and its shell; the irritation causes a deposit of nacre generally more brilliant than the rest of the shell. The Chinese obtain them artificially, by introducing into the living muscle foreign substances, such as pieces of mother of pearl fixed to wires, which thus become coated with a more brilliant material." How beautiful a picture of grace investing a sinner with the beauty of Christ!*

The net seems to me to speak of the going forth of the "everlasting gospel" to the Gentiles, after the removal of the Church, the fruit of which is seen in the sheep found among them according to Matthew xxv, when the Lord appears.

This prophetic history is now followed by scenes which (while of course real occurrences,) are designed to give us typically various features of the kingdom in its mystery-form.

2. The path of disciples (chap. 13:53-14:). In the next chapter we have, I think, essentially a twofold picture:first, of the ministration of blessing, to which, in spite of rejection in a day of evil, those who know the power and grace of Christ are called; secondly, of the individual walk of faith, the Lord being absent.

Prefatory to these, and as characterizing the scene amid which the walk is, we have the Lord's rejection at Nazareth, where He had grown up, and then the death of His forerunner at the hands of Herod. The first of these is from the pride of men, the latter from their lusts. . The Lord takes His place as rejected in the desert, where the people coming out to Him are met and ministered to by His grace. He counts upon disciples' faith to use His power for this, and in fact in spite of their unbelief employs them in this ministry. This gives us still our privilege and responsibility. In the next picture He is gone up to take His place of intercession on high, and the disciples are on the sea alone, tossed with waves, and the wind contrary; as, with Satan " prince of the power of the air," it has ever been. The boat represents the human mean's by which, when faith has not Christ personally before it, we maintain ourselves upon the waters. These means are essentially Jewish, no doubt; and the disciples, when left on earth by the Lord, were in fact at first a Jewish remnant. From this boat Peter, recognizing the Lord upon the waters and drawing nigh, separates himself to be with the Lord (the true Church-position), and the Lord and Peter return together to the boat, the wind then ceasing. Those in the boat,-a remnant of Israel, who will be by grace prepared to receive the Lord when He comes again,-own Him as the Son of God (always the test, for Israel); and the boat coming to shore, His power in blessing is made known through all the country, as the world will know it after he comes again.

3.The way of blessing (chap. 15:-16:12).The next chapter shows us God's way of blessing in opposition to man's traditional teaching, by which conscience is perverted, and the heart is cured by washing the hands! For it is the heart, alas! out of which all evil comes, and only evil. Grace alone can reach and bless in this case; and in the coasts of Tyre and Sidon, a Canaanite, of a race under the curse, finds the blessing which she seeks, not as claim, but as grace-as a dog. If man even will give crumbs, what will God not do? The safe appeal is to His heart, and grace alone is the manifestation of what is there. The feeding of the multitude follows and is connected with this:seven loaves,-a perfect provision, inexhaustible by man; seven baskets left over and above when all are filled. The Lord's warning to the disciples about the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees is the supplement to this.

4. The principles of the kingdom in its mystery-form (chap. 16:13-17:21). And now we get what Peter speaks of in his second epistle as the principles of our calling (1:3). We are called "by glory and virtue [courage] ;" glory before us, courage needed for the difficulties of the way. The cross for the Master means the cross for the disciple. To save one's life is to lose it; for Christ's sake to lose it is to save it forever.

Once more we are brought face to face with the unbelief that rejects Christ; the best natural thoughts incompetent, the Father's revelation needed to declare to us the Son of the living God. Upon this Rock, the Lord declares He will build His Church, giving Peter at the same time a name which connects him with this building (comp. i Pet. 2:4, 5). But as this also, he receives the "keys of the kingdom of heaven," for the Church administers the kingdom (see chap. 18:18).

But the King is rejected, and the Lord announces His cross, and that as marking the principle of His kingdom in its present form. Disciples too must bear their cross, His way for them to the glory beyond. But the glory is not only at the end of the way; as now revealed, it shines already upon it. Of this, the transfiguration is the testimony to the disciples, in which "the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ" are made known to " eyewitnesses of His majesty " (2 Pet. 1:16-18).Moses and Elias, the ministers of a former dispensation, here make way for the Son of God, to whom the Father's voice testifies out of the " bright cloud " of the "excellent glory."

From the wonder of this vision they come down to meet the devil at the foot of the mount; and here is seen the failure of disciples (through lack of prayer and fasting-dependence and self-denial,) to use the power intrusted to them. There is still resource in the Lord as there ever is.

5. The responsibilities of grace (chap. 17:22-20:28). We now come to see in detail the responsibilities of the grace declared to us. Again at the outset we are bidden to remember the cross in its character as rejection at the hands of men (10:22, 23). Then, on the occasion of the temple-tribute, the Lord teaches Peter on the one hand the place of sons, and associates him with Himself as that, and on the other not to insist on the recognition of claim in a world which "knoweth us not, because it knew Him not." (i Jno. 3:1:)

Then a little child is made to illustrate conversion and true greatness in the kingdom. With such little ones the Lord identifies Himself:for them the Son of Man came, and the Father's will is their security.

But holiness must be maintained as well as grace, and among recipients of this. For this purpose the assembly-if it be practically but two or three gathered to His name,-is intrusted by the Lord with the administration of His kingdom. Himself is in the midst to supply their need and authenticate their acts. Moreover, grace has itself an imperative claim upon the recipients of it, a claim which will be maintained finally in the judgment of those who do not manifest the spirit of forgiveness when accepted as forgiven ones. It is here, of course, of what is governmentally administered on earth that the Lord is speaking, not as if there were a question of the final safety of those absolutely forgiven in divine grace. But then in these this grace will produce its fruits.

In the nineteenth chapter natural relationships are sanctioned fully in connection with the kingdom, and freed from that which Moses had to yield to the hardness of men's hearts. Grace maintains God's order in the first creation, as it enables men, if need be, for the kingdom of heaven's sake, to walk superior to the natural instincts. Little children too are received by Christ and blessed, as those who by grace belong also to His kingdom.

The doctrine of rewards is given in the closing section of this part of the gospel (19:16-20:28). But first, we see in the case of the rich young man that salvation itself is not a reward. No purchase can be made of this, no bargaining secure it. He who would do this finds the price still too high, and however sorrowful, must give it up. A rich man-and such only could expect to buy-"can hardly enter into the kingdom of heaven." But this is not a question of salvation, and when the disciples ask in astonishment, " Who then can be saved?" the Lord answers that salvation is in God's hands alone, and to Him all things are possible.

Peter then raises the question of rewards; and here, while every one who for Christ's sake forsakes aught shall receive an hundredfold and inherit everlasting life, yet the principle is," The last shall be first, and the first last." In the parable of the laborers in the vineyard, those who are simply debtors to grace for whatever they might receive get proportionately much more than those agreeing for so much. The first in their own account are last in God's.

The cross and the giving up of all is what is before the Lord's eyes, the right and left places beside the Lord in the kingdom before the eyes of the disciples. They will take even the cross, if it be as the pathway to personal exaltation; but not in this can self-seeking obtain its end. When the rest of the disciples are indignant at James and John, the Lord further warns them that places in His kingdom are not such as would satisfy ambition. His kingdom is not like the kingdoms of men. The highest there is He who came to serve in lowliest fashion; " for even the Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give His life a ransom for many."