notwithstanding this, they offered life through His death to the world ! — In all this the mind of man can perceive nothing but weakness and feebleness. Truly the emblem of a grain of mustard seed was verified and fulfilled to the very letter. To the eyes of man the beginning of the visible church was contemptible, insignificant, pow- erless, and small.
We learn, in the second place, that, like the mustard seed, the visible church, once planted, ivas to grow and greatly increase.
" The grain of mustard seed," says our Lord, " when it is sown, groweth up and becometh greater than all herbs." These words may sound startling to an English ear. We are not accustomed to such a growth in our cold northern climate. But to those who know eastern countries, there is nothing surprising in it. The testimony of well-informed and experienced travellers is distinct, that such an increase is both possible and probable.*
No figure could be chosen more strikingly applicable to the growth and increase of Christ's visible church in the world. It began to grow from the day of Pentecost, and grew with a rapidity, which nothing can account for
* To show the size to which the mustard plant will grow in east- ern countries, Lightfoot quotes the following passage from Eabbini- cal writers. " There was a stalk of mustard in Sichim, from which sprang out three boughs, one of which was broken off, and covered the tent of a potter, and produced three cabs of mustard." Eabbi Simeon Ben Chalapta said, " a stalk of mustard seed was in my field, into which I was wont to climb, as men are wont to climb into a fig-tree."
The enormous size to which the rhododendron, the heath, and the fern will grow, in some climates which suit them better than ours, should be remembered by an English reader of this parable.