“And he said, Whereunto shall we liken the Kingdom of God? Or with what comparison shall we compare it? It is like a grain of mustard seed, which when it is sown in the earth, is less than all the seeds that be in the earth: But when it is sown, it growth up, and becometh greater than all herbs, and shooteth out great branches; so that the fowls of the air may lodge under the shadow of it.”-Mark 4:30-32; Matthew 13:31, 32; Luke 13:18, 19.

The different parables do not view the embryo kingdom from the same standpoint. It is because it may be viewed from such a variety of angles that so many parables are given us. Just so we might take various photographs of a building. One might show the eastern side, another the western, another the front elevation, another the floor plan, and another show it with its scaffolding. Or, if a concrete building, the frame work might be pictured, inside of which the concrete is cast.

The parable of the mustard seed appears to represent the kingdom from the viewpoint of the world-as the nominal church, developed from the original little seed of the true Gospel. From that little seed we have a great institution today with many denominational branches. Alas! Its thrifty development has invited into its branches the fowls of the air, which the Lord elsewhere describes as representing the wicked one and his angels-Satan and his representatives-who of course should have no place in the church; and they would have no place in it if the church were loyal and zealous enough to proclaim only the true Gospel and the narrow way of self-denial.

Indeed, it is the neglect to preach this Gospel of the “narrow way” that has brought such prosperity to nominal Christianity and made it a desirable place for the fowls of the air-Satan and his deluded ones-to lodge in its branches, to be the real life of ecclesiasticism. This seems to be the same picture which the same Great Teacher gives us in Revelation 18:2. There we read that the nominal systems are represented symbolically as Babylon; and there we read, “She hath become the hold of every foul spirit and the cage of every unclean and hateful bird.”

The word “cage” would seem to imply that these unclean birds are considered very desirable, and are held on to by nominal Christianity-probably because regarded as being amongst their best paying members and because of having the most attractions. R5049 (1912)