a difficulty that threatens on the opposite side.
Because in other portions of Scripture they find leaven employed as an
emblem of evil, they think themselves obliged to take it as a
representative of evil here. But the difficulty which is presented by
the use of a type to denote good, which is elsewhere employed to denote
evil, must be fairly met and explained: to escape an imaginary
difficulty we must not plunge into a real mistake. I am convinced that
here, as in many similar cases, that which at first sight and on the
surface wears the appearance of harshness, will be found, on fuller
consideration, to contain a new beauty, and impart additional power.

It is obvious, in the first place, from the references made to it both
by the Lord and his apostles, and especially from the iteration of the
same maxim by Paul in two distinct epistles, that the similitude was
current and familiar among the people as a proverb. It is conceded, that
apart from this parable, wherever its application is expressly
indicated, it is employed to designate the progress of evil; but it
ought to be borne in mind that Paul has twice, in the same words,
enunciated the universal proposition, "A little leaven leaveneth the
whole lump" (1 Cor. v. 6; Gal. v. 9). By expressly mentioning the leaven
of malice and wickedness in connection with this proposition, he leaves
room for the supposition that there may be also a leaven of truth and
holiness. In like manner, the Lord in another place warns his followers
to beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy; but he
nowhere says that leaven is hypocrisy. Leaven does, indeed, illustrate
the method in which falsehood spreads; but it may, for aught that is
said in the Scriptures, illustrate also the manner in which truth
advances, when it has gotten a footing in the world or in a man. If
truth and error, though opposite in their nature, are like each other in
their tendency to advance, as if by contagion; and if error is in this
respect like leaven, then truth must be in this respect like leaven too.
When two things are in a certain aspect like each other, and one of them
is in the same aspect like a third thing, the other must also be like
that third thing, provided the point of view remain unchanged. Leaven
represents evil not in its nature, but only in the manner of its
progress; and in this respect the symbol is equally applicable to the
opposite good.

This argument, indeed, may be carri