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3 And he spake many things unto them in parables, saying, Behold, a sower went forth to sow;

4 And when he sowed, some seeds fell by the way side, and the fowls came and devoured them up:

5 Some fell upon stony places, where they had not much earth: and forthwith they sprung up, because they had no deepness of earth:

6 And when the sun was up, they were scorched; and because they had no root, they withered away.

7 And some fell among thorns; and the thorns sprung up, and choked them:

8 But other fell into good ground, and brought forth fruit, some an hundredfold, some sixtyfold, some thirtyfold.

etc.

Teaching-"Now the 'seed' is the word of God,"

CHAPTER III.

EMPHASIS.

§ 1.—ITS PHILOSOPHY AND PRACTICAL

EXECUTION.

ERTAIN dynamic or creative acts of the mind

CERT

result in the vocal phenomena which we call “ emphasis." A new idea or fact, one now presented for the first time, constitutes the emphatic word or words. The dominant idea in a passage is the fact which requires prominence. These successive new facts (or ideas) form as it were a chain; each emphatic word or clause forms a "link" of different pattern or weight perhaps, but wrought into one connected and harmonious whole. As the missing or losing of one of its links would be fatal to the perfection of the chain, so the suppression of even one of the emphatic words or clauses in a sentence is most detrimental to its force and clearness. It follows from this that the "unemphatic clause" must be that which presents no new or dominant fact or thought; and although these unemphatic clauses occur very frequently, their features are so plainly marked as always to give us fair warning not to give them undue prominence; this latter being a fault which is the cause of apparent "weakness" in

many passages, that properly rendered would carry great weight with them.

The "characteristics" that mark the "unemphatic clause" are principally these-1. Repetition; 2. Anticipation; 3. Sequence; 4. Subordination; 5. Knowl edge beforehand.

Repetition of an idea that has already been presented is illustrated in the 1st, 2d, 3d, 4th, and 11th verses of the 5th chapter of Daniel.

1 Belshazzar the king made a great feast to a thousand of his lords, and drank wine before the thousand.

2 Belshazzar, while he tasted the wine, commanded to bring the golden and silver vessels which his father Nebuchadnezzar had taken out of the temple which was in Jerusalem; that the king and his princes, his wives and his concubines, might drink therein.

3 Then they brought the golden vessels that were taken out of the temple of the house of God which was at Jerusalem; and the king and his princes, his wives and his concubines, drank in them.

4 They drank wine, and praised the gods of gold, and of silver, of brass, of iron, of wood, and of stone.

"Belshazzar" is the first emphatic word; "the king" is a repetition of Belshazzar; it is therefore unemphatic; also, on pronouncing "Belshazzar" we anticipate that it is the king of that name of whom we are speaking, consequently "the king" is unemphatic through "anticipation" as well as "repetition"; "great feast" is the next new fact stated, and is consequently emphatic; "to a thousand of his lords" is a clause un

emphatic through both anticipation and sequence; for, if the king made a great feast, we anticipate that it was for a great number; it is unemphatic through sequence, for as a natural consequence of the preparation of a "great feast" many are expected to partake, and the exact number, whether 999 or a thousand, is not of the slightest importance; "drank wine" is the next new fact, and "before the thousand" is unemphatic through "repetition" of an idea that has already been presented.

The student will proceed in like manner when analyzing the succeeding verses. In the 2d verse the new facts are" Belshazzar" "commanded to bring the golden and silver vessels " "which his father" “had taken out of the temple"; and in the last part of the verse the various nouns "king," "princes," "wives," "concubines" merely represent the pronominal "they," -so that after emphasizing "king" the rest are unemphatic through repetition, anticipation, or sequence. "Therein" is the next emphatic word; "drank" being a repeated fact, the new idea being that the company should drink "from" these sacred vessels. "While he tasted the wine" is unemphatic through "repetition"; "Nebuchadnezzar," a repetition of "father"; "which was in Jerusalem," unemphatic through "sequence" and through "knowledge beforehand" (we know that the sacred vessels were in the temple there).

In the third verse the only new ideas are conveyed in the words "brought" and "drank," each telling of an accomplished fact; the remainder of the verse is plainly unemphatic through "repetition.'

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"And praised the gods of gold," is the only new fact stated in the fourth verse. After drinking from the sacred vessels (which we have heard they did), they commit idolatry; that fact is stated by emphasizing and praised the gods of gold," we anticipate that they did not confine themselves to one particular metal, and we conclude, as a natural consequence of their falling into idolatry, and praising the gods of gold, that they praised those of silver, etc., also.

A peculiarity which commands our attention in the fifth verse, is the concentration of the new fact in a single word:

5 In the same hour came forth fingers of a man's hand, and wrote over against the candlestick upon the plaster of the wall of the king's palace: and the king saw the part of the hand that wrote.

The ideas thus outlined are, first, the "time," by emphasizing "same" (this identical time); next, the object "fingers" (not fingers of this or that man or supernatural being); then the action "wrote," not the particular spot on which they wrote; we anticipate that they wrote somewhere within full view; the wonder being in supernatural writing, not in the particular angle of wall chosen to receive it. There is nothing new in the candlestick or wall, but only in the marvelous fact that strange fingers appeared writing mysterious words. Lastly, the king "saw”; emphasis on this word implies not only the king's actual perceiving what was done, but also the effect it had upon him; that of alarm, or interest, as the case

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