October 12

31 "Another parable put he forth unto them, saying, The kingdom of heaven is like to a grain of mustard seed, which a man took, and sowed in his field:

32 Which indeed is the least of all seeds; but when it is grown, it is the greatest among herbs, and bet: methi a tree, so that the birds of the air come and lodge in the branches thereof

33 "Another parable spake he unto them; The kingdom of heaven is like unto leaven,

which a woman took, and hid in three measures of meal, till the whole was leavened.

34 All these things spake Jesus unto the multitude in parables; and without a parable spake he not unto them.

35 That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying, I will open my mouth in parables; I will utter things which have been kept secret from the foundation of the world.

In these parables of the mustard-seed and the leaven we have a lesson taught that is too often overlooked—namely, that the Christian life is small in its beginning.

"When a man begins to be a Christian he is like a seed that has just come up with two small, tender leaves. If you plant the seed of an apple, it does not come up a tree covered with fruit. You never saw an orchard, each tree of which, when it first came up, did not consist of two baby leaves. From these small beginnings came in after years the orchard. A Christian does not come up a full-grown Christian. He comes up with but two leaves at most, and sometimes with only one. The kingdom of God in man at first is so small that it is like a grain of mustard-seed, the smallest of all seeds. But the moment a man has had the first feelings consequent upon conversion, the moment he has begun to say, 'I accept God's will as the rule of my life, and I intend to live according to the counsels of Christ,' that moment he is a Christian. But he has only begun. A new birth is not a new life, but only the beginning of it."—H. W. Beecher

Closet Promise.—Christ is all, and in all.—Col. iii. 11.

We feel we are nothing,—for all is Thou and in Thee; We feel we are something,—that also has come from Thee;

We know we are nothing,—but Thou wilt help us to be. Alfred Tennyson.

And now we ask, Has Jesus been outgrown? In these eighteen centuries has he been left behind, in any one particular, by the advancing race of man? Is He not still our leader, chief, and friend—the best friend we have—our brother, teacher, and master? Without Him and His religion, what satisfaction is there in life, what hope in death, what comfort in sorrow, what strength in our weakness, what light in our darkness?—James Freeman Clarke.