as
sure. As smoke is driven before the wind, so shall the Redeemer in the
day of his power drive away all those adversaries, whether within his
people or without, that now impiously say, "We will not have this man to
reign over us." Christ's disciples are on the winning side, whatever may
be the present aspect of the world. "He that believeth shall not make
haste."

The two parables which now claim our attention, although closely allied,
are not in meaning and application precisely identical. Both show the
progress of the kingdom from a small beginning to a glorious
consummation; and both indicate that this growth, as to cause, is due to
its own inherent unquenchable life, and as to manner, is silent, secret,
unobserved. Thus far these two are in the main coincident; but besides
teaching the same lesson in different forms, they teach also different
lessons. The parable of the mustard-seed exhibits the kingdom in its own
independent existence, inherent life, and irresistible power; the
parable of the leaven exhibits the kingdom in contact with the world,
gradually overcoming and assimilating and absorbing that world into
itself. Both alike show that the kingdom increases from small to great;
the first points to the essential, and the second to the instrumental
cause of that increase: in the mustard-seed we see it growing great
because of its own omnipotent vitality; in the leaven we see it growing
great because it uses up all its adversaries as the material of its own
enlargement.

III.

THE MUSTARD-SEED.

"Another parable put he forth unto them, saying, The kingdom of heaven
is like to a grain of mustard-seed, which a man took, and sowed in
his field: which indeed is the least of all seeds: but when it is
grown, it is the greatest among herbs, and becometh a tree, so that
the birds of the air come and lodge in the branches thereof."--MATT.
xiii. 31, 32.

We are familiar with the mustard-plant both in a wild and in a
cultivated state in our own country. Although not the smallest, it is by
no means the largest of our herbs. On this point it is necessary to
recall and keep in mind the fact that when a given plant is indigenous
in a southern climate, the corresponding species or variety that may be
found in more northerly latitudes is generally of a comparatively
diminutive size. I have seen a mahogany-plant cultivated in a
flower-pot, the best representative that could be obtained here of