es: "When
the Son of man shall sit on the throne of his glory, ye also shall
sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel."
Now, that he used this figure to convey an impersonal moral
meaning, and that his profound thought underwent a materializing
degradation in the minds of his hearers and reporters, appears
clearly from the incident related immediately afterward. The wife
of Zebedee asked that her two sons might sit, the one on his right
hand, and the other on the left, in his kingdom. And Jesus said,
"Ye shall drink indeed of my cup, and be baptized with the baptism
that I am baptized with: but to sit on my right hand, and on my
left, is not mine to give." The imagery meant that the missionary
assistants, in forwarding and spreading the kingdom of truth and
love he came to establish, would be represented in common with
himself in the power it would acquire and sway over the world.
When his hearers interpreted the imagery in a physical sense, as
indicating that he was hereafter to be a visible king, and that
his favorites might expect to share in his authority, honor, and
glory, he solemnly repudiated it.

There is yet another and a wholly different style of imagery
employed by Jesus to convey his instructions as to the judgment
which is to separate the justified from the condemned. The
consideration of this species of imagery would afford an
independent proof, of a cogent character, that they strangely
misapprehend the mind of Jesus who interpret the moral meaning of
his parable in an outward and dramatic sense. The metaphors to
which we now refer are of a domestic and convivial nature, based
on some of the most impressive social customs of the Oriental
nations. It was the habit of kings, governors, and other rich and
powerful men, to give, on certain occasions, great banquets, to
which the guests were invited by special favor. These feasts were
celebrated with the utmost pomp and splendor, by night, in
brilliantly illuminated apartments. The contrast of the blazing
lights, the richly costumed guests, the music and talk, the honor
and luxury within, set against the darkness, the silence, the
envious poverty and misery without, must have deeply struck all
who saw it, and would naturally secure rhetorical reflections in
speech and literature. The Jews illustrated their idea of the
Kingdom of God by the symbol of a table at which Abraham and Isaac
and Jacob were banqueting, and would be joined by all