PREFACE. In this book I try to tell Senior Scholars as plainly as I can what they may find in the Parables. All the addresses in this volume, as in the other volumes of the series, were given at a monthly Sabbath service for the young. So far as I know, no writer has hitherto occupied this special field. I have been able to discover only two books on the Parables for the young, namely, " Conversations on the Parables," by Edward, Earl of Derby, and "The Parables of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ Explained to Country Children," by the Rev. S. C. Malan, M.A. Both, however, are in the conversational style, and for young children. The first embraces. only eleven of the Parables, and the second is out of print. As Christ's hearers were probably not superior to our scholars in intellect and knowledge, the standpoint of the teacher of the young is perhaps the most favourable for apprehending the exact meaning of the Parables. While chiefly occupied with its lessons for the young, his task requires him to unfold the whole scope of each Parable. |
