It is to be noticed that Jesus made his teachings graphic by means of parables. This also should be noticed, that makers of the doctrines which have divided Christendom viewed the parables as stories so well told they did not need to be commented upon. The parables therefore were not used as doctrinal basis for conflict and debate, and so have remained practical. Through acceptance of their meaning and inference multitudes have based good lives upon the teaching of Jesus thus given to the world. Can one reckon the number of fathers to whom the parable of the prodigal son has taught compassion? Can anyone record the number of wayward sons who have learned something of the fatherhood of God there from? History does not record any heresy trials nor any inquisitorial tortures as having been based on the teaching of that parable, nor have any religious wars found excuse from it.
The parable of the lost piece of money found again by persistent search has steadied the resolve of many a worker to continue in well doing, to continue caring for the inharmonious household until the thing lost is found, and happiness once more rules in the home. By the parable of the lost sheep, sought for and found, the honest and good workers in Christendom of all peoples and nations and tongues have been strengthened to continue in the shepherding of the weak, the fallen, the unrepentant, the mean and ungrateful, in the hope and expectation that they would yet rejoice over lost ones brought back into the fold. The story of the daily household task of making bread by leavening the meal, in its illustration of a woman's task, reveals meanings affecting the world. What is the chemistry of the leaven which will change the world's thinking?
Heading the chapter in our textbook entitled, "Science, Theology, Medicine," is the quotation, "The kingdom of heaven is like unto leaven, which a woman took, and hid in three measures of meal, till the whole was leavened." Later in the chapter, it is said that this parable of Jesus "impels the inference that the spiritual leaven signifies the Science of Christ and its spiritual interpretation,—an inference far above the merely ecclesiastical and formal applications of the illustration" (Science and Health by Mrs. Eddy, p. 118).
