Himself; and the following parables must necessarily agree with these.
The third and fourth are of the mustard seed and the measure of meal.
Though commonly interpreted to mean the world-wide development of the
Church and the permeating influence of the Gospel, in the light of the
interpretation of the previous parables they can mean only the mixture
of evil with that which began as small as a mustard seed and as pure as
meal. The fifth parable is of a treasure hid in a field, which pictures
the earthly people in the world; while their real relation to Christ is
covered until the accomplishment of that which is revealed in the sixth.
Here the same man, the Lord Jesus Christ, sells all that He hath to
purchase the Church, the pearl of great price, for He "loved the Church,
and gave Himself for it" (Eph. 5:25); the pearl, by its formation and
its power to reflect the light, being a wonderful type of the Church in
her present formation and future place in glory. Both the treasure and
the pearl are found in the world, but do not include all of the world.
The last parable but restates the truth that the mixture of the good and
the evil is to continue to the end of the age.

The highest ambition of the great missionary, Paul, was to be all things
to all men that he might save _some_, not _all_. He found that his
preaching was a savor of "death unto death" as well as of "life unto
life" (II Cor. 2:15, 16), and he clearly states in II Tim. 3:13, "And
evil men shall wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived."
Christ also predicted that the end of this age should be marked by such
sin as provoked the judgment of the flood: "But as the days of Noe were,
so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. For as in the days that
were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving
in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, and knew not
until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming
of the Son of man be" (Matt. 24:37-39).