But, after the time of which we have spoken, Jesus used parables freely.  We are told that—­“without a parable spake he not unto the people.”  St. Mark xiii:  34.  He used parables among his disciples for two reasons:  these were to help them to understand, and to remember what he taught them.

We have a great many of the parables of Jesus in the gospels.  A full list of them will contain not less than fifty.  It would be easy enough to make a sermon on each of these parables.  But that would make a larger work than this whole LIFE OF CHRIST, on which we are now engaged.  It is impossible therefore to speak of all the parables.  We can only make selections, or take some specimens of them.  We may speak of five different lessons as illustrated by some of the parables of Christ.  These are—­The value of religion:  Christ’s love of sinners:  The duty of forgiveness:  The duty of kindness:  and the effect of good example.

Well then, we may begin by considering what Jesus taught us of—­THE VALUE OF RELIGION—­in his parables.

The parable of The Treasure Hid in the Field teaches us this truth.  We find this parable in St. Matt. xiii:  44.  Here Jesus says, “The kingdom of heaven is like unto treasure hid in a field; the which when a man hath found, he hideth, and for joy thereof goeth and selleth all that he hath, and buyeth that field.”  The words “kingdom of heaven” are used by our Saviour in different senses.  Sometimes, as here, they mean the grace of God, or true religion.  And what Jesus teaches us by this parable is that true religion is more valuable than anything else in the world.

The next parable, in the forty-fifth and forty-sixth verses of the same chapter, is about The Pearl of Great Price.  This teaches the same lesson.  It reads thus:—­“The kingdom of heaven is like unto a merchantman seeking goodly pearls:  who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had and bought it.”  By this “pearl of great price” Jesus meant true religion, as he did by the treasure hid in the field in the former parable.  And the truth he teaches in both these parables is that religion is more important to us than anything else in the world.  Let us look at some incidents that may help to illustrate for us the value of religion.

“Jesus Makes Everything Right.”  A poor lame boy became a Christian, and in telling what effect this change had upon him, these are the words he used to a person who was visiting him:  “Once every thing went wrong at our house; father was wrong, mother was wrong, sister was wrong, and I was wrong; but now, since I have learned to know and love Jesus it is all right.  I know why everything went wrong before:—­it was because I was wrong myself.”  And this is true.  The first thing that religion does for us is to make us be right ourselves, and then to do right to others.

“Be.”  A young lady had been trying to do something very good, but had not succeeded.  Her mother said, “Marian, my child, God gives us many things to do, but we must not forget that he gives us some things to be; and we must learn to be what God would have us be, before we can do what God would have us do.”