1. References in the Gospels. — With the above Ijreliminaries, the issue may now be considered in relation to the four Gospels. And first, the less careful student must be warned that the quotation which records the pathetic plea of the disciples to their Lord, ' Increase our faith,' * stands out as an exception. The translation [AV and RV] may serve, but it is doubtful whether ' our ' is admis- sible. Despite the verb, it is questionable whether the disciples then asked for a growth of that spirit of which they were consciously possessed. Were they not rather asking for some gift new and strange to their experience ? In any case growth of the physical order is not in place here ; for this we must look, as has been shown, almost ex- clusively to tlie verb aii6.voi. This verb is of frequent occurrence in the Gospels, although only once employed by the Fourth Evangelist,t when tlie Baptist's language is rendered as expressing the growing authority of the new Teacher, and the increasing number of His adherents. It is interesting to observe that with regard to all other instances of the occurrence of this word, theyeither apply, as here, to the Lord Himself, or else form a part of His own utterances ; nor is the interest of the point largely aH'ected by the admission that our Lord would normally use Aramaic. The Evan- gelists doubtless discovered in the verb ai^avu what they wished to convey about His childhood, and what they understood Him to teach in lessons drawn from the natural world.
In his unique account of our Lord's childhood the Second Evangelist declares of Him (Lk 2*) that which he had in precisely the same terms declared of the Baptist (1*"), that ' the child grew and waxed strong, filled with wisdom ' [of the
' in spirit '] ; that is, the development of Christ, both spiritually and physically, was normal and equable in its character. The phraseology of St. Luke suggests a contrast with the Apocryphal Gospels, whose account of Christ's infancy makes Him ap- pear a wonder-working prodigy, a phenomenal child, anxious for the display of supernatural powers. St. Luke will have none of this. He is not content with a single protest, for later (2=^) he solemnly declares that as the child Jesus advanced in years so He developed in wisdom and in favour with God and men. Here, however, the ' growth ' is not explicitly stated, the rare verb (irpoiKovTfv) used marking rather advancement, or progress triumphing over difficulties in the way.
The remaining instances of the verb av^dvoi ap- pear for the most part in our Lord's parabolic discourses. Thus it is seen to be the characteristic feature of the seed sown.? There is a process of secret assimilation between it and the good ground ; and growth, not sterility or a rash prematurity, is the consequence.§ In the immortal contrast (Mt 6=«, cf. Lk 12-'') between the lilies of the field and the garish splendour of Solomon's court dress, it is less upon the beauty of the flowers that Christ lays stress than upon their growth, gradual and all unconscious, spontaneous, effortless. In the parable of the Tares ami Wheat this character- istic verb appears in the permission, at once gener- ous and awful, of the master to his servants to let both gTow together until the harvest (Mt 13^"). In the same parabolic discourse it is the growth of the mustard-seed, the development of the surpris- ingly little, which furnishes an analogue of the
» Lk 175 t/j«V9k iu?. T.o-T,.. t Jn 330 opposed to ix«TT<.S<r««i.
t Mk 48, cf. V.27 where srowth is expressed by pi.^xmTxi. §The lessons as to hindrances to growth taught in the Par- able of the Sower would need a separate study.
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spread of the Church universal (Mt 13''). Lastly, although we have not here the verb av^ivw, we find the mysterious condemnation passed upon the barren fig-tree (Mt 21''), a condemnation of that which is purely physical, sterility in fruit, which fruit in the world of men as in the life of plants and trees is tlie consequence of all true growth
2. The underlying idea. — It seems somewhat strange, since tlie OT is
1 full of religious teaching drawn from physical growth, that only in the one instance, quotetl above, of our Lord's childhood is a spiritual application of the idea directly made in the Gospel narrative. Christ, we may reverently say it, was content to lay the conception which was ever before Him, in garden, harvest field, and orchard, also before His own. If they had eyes to see these things, and ears to hear them, — if they would only 'consider' (Lk 12"-^) them, — heart and conscience would do the rest. Tlien they, as we, would perceive this natural law in the spiritual world — a grooving within, secret, beautiful, fer- tile, in men, and yet not of man, yielding the increase and harvest of the Spirit, His fruit rather than their works.
3. Application of the idea. — But if it is thought even by devout and careful students that such ideas are more than may be gathered from our Lord's actual utterances, those who treasured His sayings in the Apostolic age did not think so. St. Peter and St. Paul no longer use the idea of grow- ing as a metaphor. It is a gracious fact Itoth for the Church and the individual believer. Thus the Apostle of the Gentiles uses the conception of inward Christian growth (Eph 4'^), and so as to form a shrine wherein the Divine presence may be manifest (2-') ; his prayer for his Colossian con- verts is that they may grow in further knowledge of God (Col 1'") ; his promise to them if they ' hold the Head ' (2"), is that they shall gi-ow with a Divine increase. Twice he assures the Corinthians (1 Co 3') that this growth, although in them, has a Divine origin. St. Peter ( 1 P 2^, cf . [2 P 3'«]) shows that the Holy Scriptures have their own function in the growth of grace. It is enough ; the concep- tion is carried through from one Testament to the other, and its teaching is consecrated, its consola- tion is secured in and through Him whom the great Evangelical prophet (Is 11') prefigured as the very symbol of giowing : ' There shall come forth a shoot out of the stock of Jesse, and a branch out of his roots shall bear fruit.' That fruit is still seen in every plant planted by the Divine Husbandman (Mt 15").