m, as they never felt before. It is
plain and certain that the country people could understand Christ's
parables, when the Scribes and Pharisees could not. The Scribes and
Pharisees, in spite of all their learning, were those who were
without (as our Lord said); who had eyes and could not see, and ears
and could not hear, for their hearts were grown fat and gross. With
all their learning, they were not wise enough to understand the
message which God sends in every flower and every sunbeam; the
message which Christ preached to the poor, and the poor heard him
gladly; the message which he confirmed to them by his miracles. For
what were his miracles like? Did he call down lightning to strike
sinners dead, or call up earthquakes, to swallow them? No; he went
about healing the sick, cleansing the leper, feeding the hungry in
the wilderness; that therefore they might see by his example, the
glory of their Father in heaven, and understand that God is a God of
Love, of mercy, a deliverer, a Saviour, and not, as the Scribes and
Pharisees made him out, a hard taskmaster, keeping his anger for
ever, and extreme to mark what was done amiss.

Ah that, be sure, was what made the Scribes and Pharisees more mad
than anything else against Christ, that he spoke to the poor
ignorant people of their Father in heaven. It made them envious
enough to see the poor people listening to Christ, when they would
not listen to them; but when he told these poor folk, whom they
called 'accursed and lost sinners,' that God in heaven was their
Father, then no name was too bad for our Lord; and they called him
the worst name which they could think of--a friend of publicans and
sinners. That was the worst name, in their eyes: and yet, in
reality, it was the highest honour. But they never forgave him.
How could they? They felt that if he was doing God's work, they
were doing the devil's, that either he or they must be utterly
wrong: and they never rested till they crucified him, and stopped
him for ever, as they fancied, from telling poor ignorant people
laden with sins to consider the flowers of the field how they grow,
and learn from them that they have a Father in heaven who knoweth
what they have need of before they ask him.

But they did not stop Christ: and, what is more, they will never
stop him. He has said it, and it remains true for ever; for he is
saying it over and over again, in a thousand ways, to his sheep,
when they are wa