example. A person discovered that a coal or other mineral substance of
great value lay in the ground. Without revealing, perhaps not knowing to
the full extent the value of his discovery, he forthwith concluded, not
precisely a purchase, but a long lease of the ground for mining
purposes. When his bargain was securely made, he began to bring up the
precious substance. As a raw material for the manufacture of gas and
oil, it was found precious beyond all precedent. The original proprietor
then raised an action for the dissolution of the lease. The action has
been several times renewed in various forms, and its fame has resounded
through all Europe. Meantime the prudent discoverer of the treasure and
purchaser of the field is reaping a rich harvest from his transaction.

In North America, both in the States and in Canada, similar facts have
often of late years emerged, especially in connection with oil springs
and copper mines. Some men have obtained enormous wealth by purchasing
for a small price a piece of ground in which a seam of copper lay, and
selling it again when the fact was verified.

A question has been raised and discussed at greater length, I think,
than its importance warrants, regarding the conduct of the man who found
the treasure and hid it again till he had secured the field--whether the
act was fair or unfair. The parables of the Lord are allowed to flow
like a mountain stream in its natural channel. In those at least that
are metaphorical, the narrative does not undertake to prescribe what
should be, but to represent what is probable in human history. The fact
as narrated may or may not be an example worthy of imitation.[21] The
moral lesson is found, not by looking directly at the story, but by
looking at the shadow which the material case projects on the spiritual
sphere. The conduct of the person in the picture may be good, bad, or
indifferent; the spiritual lesson is not affected by the moral character
of the act which is employed as a leaden type to make it visible. As the
lesson on a printed page is not affected by the baseness or the pureness
of the metal which constituted the type, provided always that the form
of the type were appropriate; so the doctrine left for us after the
parabolic picture has passed is not dependent for its purity on the
material of which the type was formed. The shifty dishonest factor, and
the indolent unrighteous judge of subsequent parables, occur as
conspicuous exa