THINGS NEW AND OLD
‘Things new and old.’
The first thing which we notice in these verses (51, 52) is the striking question with which our Lord winds up the seven wonderful parables of this chapter. He said, ‘Have ye understood all these things?’ Personal application has been called the ‘soul’ of preaching. Our Lord tells us that the instructed scribe is he who has mastered these parables. The disciples, understanding and living upon the truth, were in the position of owners of treasure. By why of things new and old?
I. All truth is of necessity old as well as new. The truths Christ taught were only new truths, because men from sin and neglect had overlooked them.
II. As things new are in reality old, so things old—the things of the Spirit of God—never become obsolete, take new life, and are seen in new developments day by day.
III. Every man’s experience is a treasure-house of old and new things, by which it is allowed him to profit. The past is a precious possession of every one of us. Our help is in the truth which does not roll round in earth’s diurnal course, and is unaffected by earthly change.
—Canon Ainger.