WEDNESDAY.
The Mustard Seed.
I. " The kingdom of heaven is like to a grain of mustard seed." (Matt. xiii. 31.) A mustard seed is small and not remarkable either for its smell or outward appearance, but it contains within itself great natural heat, and manifests, it, particularly when it its bruised. Thus, Christ in outward appearance was " a worm and no man, the reproach of men and the outcast of the people." (Ps. xxi. 7.) Nevertheless He is possessed of all " the treasures of wisdom and knowledge." (Col. ii. 3.) When He was bruised and buffeted, and suspended on His cross, He expressed and manifested the most unparalleled charity for mankind. Do you on your part suffer yourself to be inflamed with emanations of love, from this divine source.
II. In this world the just bear a resemblance to the mustard seed. They are simple and contemptible in the eyes of the world, but they are high in the estimation o£ God and His angels. Of them, the wicked will say at the day of judgment: "We fools esteemed their life madness, and their end without honor. Behold, how they are numbered among the children of God." (Wis, v. 4.) Observe also that good men display their virtue most, when they are under the pressure of afflictions. Hence the Apostle writes, " When I am weak, I am powerful." (2 Cor. xii. 10.)
III. When the mustard seed is sown, it grows into a large tree, " so that the birds of the air come and dwell in the branches thereof." Thus, Christ was perfectly mortified and dead on the cross, and in His branches.
