March Thirty-first.
THE SOWER.
"Behold a sower went forth to sow."—Matt. xiii. 3.
THE parable of the Sower, notwithstanding the great simplicity of language with which it is clothed, is nevertheless full of the most profound wisdom; for as Jesus spake as never man spake, so all his words, being spirit and life, are divinely adapted to raise the mind above what is earthly, and to open the eyes to a perception of those realities that, are spiritual and eternal. The Christian philosopher knows that there is much more contained in Scripture than the world imagines, or than appears extant on its literal surface. The vineyard is not the hedge that surrounds it, but is enclosed within; the glory is within the clouds of the letter, the Divine Law is in the ark, and the ark covered by the vail. It is the same in earthly things: the most exquisite forms of beauty and use are concealed from outward view by their coats and coverings; for every one knows that in all the objects of nature there are more beauties than those which appear to the bodily eye, or can be recognised by the senses. Our unaided bodily sight alone would never have discovered that every leaf is a colony of living things—every drop of water is an ocean to others, who are sporting in it as in their mighty deep—and that millions of animalculæ are in the full enjoyment of all the pleasures of a happy existence, while dancing their mazy round in a sunbeam; yet all these things are. If then, such wonders exist in outward creation, what may we not to expect to
