KT. HON. SIR R. TKMPLE, BART., ON THE UNITY OF TKUTH. 27 



Lord's attention was drawn by her to the outline of the 

 mountain. How can you have a better testimony than that 

 of the verbal accuracy of the Gospel narrative? I contend 

 that if you pursue this mode of inquiry with proper learning 

 and diligence, not only by reading books, but by going to 

 the spot and understanding for yourself, as a surveyor or 

 scientific man Avould do, you would find ample confirmation 

 of every word of Holy Writ. (Applause.) 



Now I will give you three examples of the same kind in 

 regard to the parables. 1 beg to make the general assertion 

 that, every detail of the parables was taken from objects 

 immediately before the eyes of our Lord and His disciples 

 and those who heard the parables. I cannot stop now to go 

 through every parable ; but I roundly assert that I can show 

 that in every one of them ; and I will give you three 

 striking instances. 



Take the case, of the parable of the silver. Now the 

 accuracy of that parable depends on whether or not women 

 Avere in the habit of constantly wearing their silver round 

 their necks, or on their wrists or their arms or about their 

 breasts. Was it so ? Yes, undoubtedly it was. And how 

 do we know it? Because there are hundreds of women 

 there now who do the very thing, and when you see them 

 you can realize the force of that parable. I will give you 

 another single case — take the parable of the sower and 

 the seed. You know that was the subject which the last 

 great English painter whom 1 may call the immortal Edwin 

 Long ever painted — the great imaginative painter of our 

 generation. The point of the parable is this. The seed is 

 sown on four or five different kinds of land, each kind being 

 specifically described and very different from the other. 

 There is the thorny ground, the stony ground or inferior 

 ground, and the good ground that yields seed a hundred- 

 fold. There is no doubt, from the words of Scripture, where 

 that parable was delivered. It was certainly delivered on 

 a certain part of the shore of the lake of Galilee. Was there 

 any ground of that kind just about there ? What made our 

 Lord choose a parable from this particular phenomenon of 

 nature ? Was there any such ground there ? Yes, there 

 was, and there are very fcAv other places where you see that 

 particular ground in that part of Palestine, ond it is there 

 to-day. You may see it yourself. That parable Avas un- 

 doubtedly deli\^erecl at that very place. That giA'-es a Avon- 

 derful notion of the verbal accuracy of the Holy Narrative. 



