ON THE MUSTARD PLANT OF THE GOSPELS. 431 
that religion which he was to estabhsh in the earth. Aris- 
ing from the obscure country of Judea, in the course of 
four centuries it was to triumph over the inveterate and 
deep-rooted superstitions of the times, and be professed and 
supported by the most enlightened and civilized nations of 
Asia, Africa, and Europe. 
The symbol referred to being a mustard plant, we are 
not to suppose he was to enter into a minute and circum- 
stantial detail of that plant. We may be certain that he 
used popular, and not philosophical language, when he men- 
tioned it ; that is, language familiar to ordinary men, and 
not that spoken by men of science. 
When, for instance, he invites his audience to consider 
the parable of the mustard seed, he says, that it was the 
least of all seeds ; that is, it was the least with which the 
people of J udea were acquainted, or to which they attend- 
ed ; not the least in a mathematical sense, or the least from 
which a vegetable ever grew. All that he meant, and all 
that his hearers understood, was, that it was very little 
among seeds, or a very little seed. 
A grain of mustard seed was a common measure for a 
small quantity of any thing. Thus our Lord says. Matt, 
xii. 20, " If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye 
shall say unto this mountain, Kemove hence to yonder place, 
and it shall remove.'' Again, Luke xvii. 6, " If ye had 
faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye might say to this syca- 
more tree, Be thou plucked up by the roots, and be thou 
planted in the sea, and it should obey thee." 
In both passages, that faith is meant which theologians 
call the faith of miracles ; a faith which the apostles and 
more eminent first Christians alone could exercise, and if of 
a right quality when so exercised, was followed by a mira- 
cle, though it might exist in a small degree, or be as little 
as a grain of mustard seed. 
