00.3. Preface.

Preface. The Sacred Scriptures are the Word of God, written in a Divine way, and for a Divine purpose. The Divine Word contains messages from God, as a Spiritual Being, to men as spiritual beings. But, in order to bring down the truth to the apprehension of natural-minded men, spiritual truths must be presented in corresponding natural ideas, in natural imagery.

“I, Jehovah, thy God, have also spoken by the prophets, and have multiplied visions, and used similitudes, by the ministry of the prophets.” (Hosea 12:9-10.)

Hence the Bible has a spirit and a body, between which there is the relation of correspondence, as inward and outward counterparts. The word “parable” is used in three senses, 1, as an enigma, or obscure saying; 2, as any figurative discourse; and 3, as a fictitious, but possible, narrative, invented to convey and illustrate a truth. The parables of the New Testament are strictly within the third class. But, on the same exact basis, there are very few parables in the Old Testament. And so, for the treatment of the parables of the Old Testament, the second definition is adopted, which includes, also, fables and visions.

Every parable has at least three senses, 1 its narrative sense; 2, its figurative meaning, as applied to other natural persons and things; and 3, its spiritual meaning, illustrating principles operating in the mind. The system of interpretation here employed is that known as “The Science of Correspondences,” made known to the Church through Emanuel Swedenborg. As it seemed best to have each explanation of a parable complete in itself, some repetition was unavoidable.

E. C. M.

ST. PAUL, MINNESOTA, February 21, 1903.