s compelled immediately to add another class
called the mixed, as dogmatic-moral and dogmatic-historic, thereby
proving that his logical classification has failed.[5]

[5] In reference to Bauer's classification, Limbourg Brower (_de
parabol. Jesu._) observes that the distinction between parables that
are dogmatic and parables that are moral cannot successfully be
maintained, because of the intimate union maintained in the
discourses of Jesus between the revelation of truth and the
inculcation of duty. This remark, in connection with its ground, is
decisive not only against the particular division to which it is
applied, but to all divisions, in as far as they pretend to be
logically distinct and complete.

By abandoning, for the purposes of exposition, the order in which the
parables have been recorded, and adopting a classification on the basis
of contents or form, some incidental advantages are obtained; especially
some otherwise necessary repetitions are avoided, and some subordinate
relations are by the juxtaposition more easily observed; but the loss
is, I apprehend, much greater than the gain. The temptation to bend the
freely-growing branches of the parable, that they may take their places
in the scheme, is by this method greatly increased; while historical
sequences and logical relations, lying more or less concealed in the
record, are in a great measure thrown away. Accordingly, I prefer the
method of maintaining in the exposition the order which the evangelists
have adopted in the narrative. Besides the advantage of preserving in
all cases the historical circumstances whence the parable sprung, we
discover, as we follow this track, several groups associated together by
the Lord in his ministry, for the sake of their reciprocal relations,
and reverently preserved in their places by the evangelical historians.
The seven in Matt. xiii., and the three in Luke xv., constitute the
chief of those dogmatic groupings formed to our hand in the ministry of
the Lord. I refer to them here as examples, but defer the exposition of
their sequences and relations, until it can be presented with greater
advantage in connection with the examination of their contents.

A question, on some of its sides difficult, meets us here, regarding the
reason why the Lord employed parables in the prosecution of his
ministry. On the one hand, it is certainly true, as may be proved from
all history, that comparisons between