The Birmingham age-herald., 1904-03-07
THE MYSTERIES
 OF THE KINGDOM
pr. Dickinson Breaches an h.
 teresting Sermon.
TALKS ON THE PARALLELS
Tells of Jesus Return from Tour Throughout Gallilee and Finding Scribes and Pharsees Plot
 ting Against Him.

At the First Baptist church, the Rev. Dr. A. J. Dickinson, pastor. preached al the morning service on The Mysteries of the Kingdom as Told by Parables."
 His text and sermon follows:
 Unto you Is given the mysteries of the kingdom of God; but unto them that are without all things are done In para bles." Mark All.
 It was now in the autumn of A. D. 2S at the time of seed sowing. Jesus had finished his second great preaching tour throughout Galilee and returned home to Copernaum. There He found the scribes and pharisees who for six months had been plotting to destroy Him. They must give some rational explanation of His great power to heal and especially to cast out demons. They determined to charge him with casting out demons by the power of Bezebub, the prince Of demons. Thus He would be discounted as a moral and religious teacher before the mutitudes. The demonized were re- BdTtu lDtn Ilutu dS we u0 crazy ptbBe today. and so they charged that He was beside himself. Our Lord refuted this charge in the sermon in His house on the sin against the Holy Ghost, i. e. the charging of manifest work of God to satanic agencies. He shows how If satan cast out his own agents, the de- mons, his house would be warning against itself and would come to naught, and that if casting out demons made one a demonine, the Pharisees who also exer- clsed demons would de demoniacs. So He turned their smartness against them. But as He cast out the demons by the finger of God it proved that In Him God s Kingdom had come nigh. When they were thus refuted they asked for a mira cle as a sign, but He refused to work a miracle to satisfy the curious and in- credulous, but said the only signs He would give such an evil and adulterous generation was that of His preaching, the sign Jonah gave the Ninevites, and the wisdom of 1t, which exceeded that of Solomon. who drew to him by his wis dom the queen of the south.
 Sign of Reality.
 The preaching of the truth, 1. e., the gospel itself, is our Lords greatest sign of the reality of his being the Messiah of God. That miracle we have fresh be- fore us today. If Jesus was not sent Of God how Is 1t He gave the world the gospel its greatest blessing and asset It Is sign enough to the fair-mindeo seeker after the truth. The gospel IS a fact and 1t can be accounted for only bv the explanation that Jesus, it's author was sent of God to institute 1t in human society.
 So leaving his house he went out to his favorite preaching place by the sea- and sitting In a little boat for his pulpit preached the parable sermon to the crowds which came to hear. He spoke the parables of the sower, the tares, the drag net, the leaven, the mustard seed' the pearl of great price, the treasure hld in the field, the blade, ear, and full corn in the ear. They half concealed and half revealed great truths of the Kingdom. They made those truths like mysteries, 1. e. only revealed to the initiated. man had to be a disciple to see the truths they conveyed, just as one had to be member of the secret order to understand the mysteries of that order. They are ln- telligable to those within, but unenlight- ening to those who are without. Why should he thus speak to the multitudes2 his apostles inquired, and our text Is the answer.
 He now draws the line between those within the Kingdom and those that are without The parabolic style Is adopted because by it those within "seeing may see and understand, hearing may hear and perceive" whereas those without "seeIng may see and not perceive, hear ing may hear and not understand
 Mysteries to be Given.
 There are now mysteries which are to be given to those within, but which the parable will veil to those without, who now being his enemies are unable to un- derstand so as to make out a charge against him. The parable is a device by which he instructs the receptive and thwarts the hostile purpose of the un- receptive These mysteries are potent to the eyes and ears of all, but only appre- clated in their true purport by those with in Yet those who did see them were blessed beyond prophet and saints of old who had desired to see and hear what was there manifest in the eyes of all.
 l. They heard his great teachings. The sermon on the mount is a mystery of teaching for which prophets had longed It Is the greatest piece of ethical teach ing the world ever heard. Yet how often by those without is 1t heard to no profit That kingdom of God and His righteous ness Is the climax of all great expres- sions of wholesome ethical teaching and the people marveled at its authority. Blessed were the ears that heard 1t; blessed are our ears who hear 1t today if hearing we hear and perceive. But if hearing we hear and do not perceive of what more profit is it to us than the crowd that heard 1t on Galllee's hill. That depends on your attitude towards It. If you are willing his will to do you shall know the doctrine. Iris good for the well-disposed. But If you read it for other purposes you will miss it's blessing.
 Saw His Gracious Works.
 2. They saw Ills gracious works The sem sational incident to His miracles Jesus al- ways tried to suppress and asked the beneficiary not to tell it. He hated noto- riety. He never worked a miracle for mo-