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vatsky and Theosophy, or a host of other women with new-fangled “isms” and cults. (4) The Wealth of the Field. Here are two more parables which are to be compared and contrasted: (1) A treasure in a field, and a field pur chased at the sacrifice of everything. The treasure is no doubt Israel. The man who purchased the field is the Lord Jesus, and the purchase price was His own blood. Israel is hidden in the world field. (2) The church is the pearl of great price which our Lord bought with His own precious blood. Christ Himself is not the pearl, as is sometimes sung. We do not sell all and buy Him. He is the gift of God. We pay nothing. We would not be allowed to pay a farthing towards our salvation. He paid the whole price; He purchased us with His own blood. Satan snared Adam and Eve and be came the ruler of the earth. Our Lord will take it back in good season and have for Himself the pearl which is hone of His bone, and flesh of His flesh, and rule over the treasure—Israel. (5) The Winnowing Drag Net. The age closes with the picture of the drag net; fishes in the net, good and bad, but they are sorted out. You can see this process going on any time at the seashore. The good are preserved in vessels and the bad are cast away. The wicked are forever severed from the good. We have the tares, and the bad fish and the wicked people, but there is but one final destiny for them '—to burn in the fire. There is the gnashing of teeth; there is the eternal suffering. Who gives us the picture? The Lord Jesus. What truth is intend ed to be taught in these parables? The field is the world; the devil is the enemy of God and is the world ruler; the Lord Jesus, the Son of God, the good seed-sower; the Word of God and the believing children of God,—-the good seed; Satan, the enemy of God
spoken of throughout the whole world.” (Col. 1:23.) “If ye continue in the faith grounded and settled, and he not moved away from the hope of the gospel, which ye have heard, and which was preached to every creature which is under heav en; whereof I Paul am made a minis ter.” The birds-of the air come and lodge in this abnormal growth. Birds—fowls of the air—are Satan’s emissaries. They devour the seed, v. 4; they lodge in the tree; they are false prophets of which the Lord warns us in Matt. 7:15: “Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they .are ravening wolves.” In the parable of the leaven, we have a picture of a woman hiding leaven in meal. Why hiding? Who is the wom an? It cannot he the real church, but it could he the professed church. Leaven is always in Scripture an evil principle against which the Lord has warned us: “Beware of the leaven of the Phari sees”—ritualism, outward show, camou flaged religion. (Matt. 23:13-28). “Beware of the leaven of the Saddu- cees”—scepticism, denial of the super natural, false doctrines, Matt. 22:23-29. “Beware of the leaven of the Herodl- ans”-Klpolitical power (Roman Catholic and other ecclesiastical systems), Matt. 22:16-22. There is not a passage concerning leaven in the Scriptures that we know of which suggests leaven as a good prin ciple. Why should this passage be taken to mean that the Gospel is leaven and is leavening the whole lump of the world? Christendom and Christianity, the Church,—is a great tree, but the branches are full of Satanic, foul birds; and “the lump” (the professing church) has been leavened in spite of the Mas ter’s warning. The woman may well symbolize Mrs. Eddy and Christian Science; or the Fox sisters and Spiritism; or Madam Bla-
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