66.

Then Jesus sent the multitude away, and went into his house: and his disciples came unto him, saying, Declare unto us the parable of the tares of the field. He answered and said unto them, He that soweth the good seed, is the Son of man: the field is the world: the good seed are the children of the kingdom: but the tares are the children of the wicked one: the enemy that sowed them, is the devil: the harvest is the end of the world: and the reapers are the angels. As therefore the tares are gathered and burnt in the fire; so shall it be in the end of this world. The Son of man shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things which offend, and them which do iniquity; and shall cast them into a furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth. Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Who hath ears to hear, let him hear."

WE must try and think of the picture which Jesus gives us here. In these parables we find him taking the things which we are all accustomed to see around us, that He may teach us about the things of His kingdom.

A field and a man sowing seed-how often have we looked upon that. This sower is sowing good seed-wheat-for he wants a harvest of good grain. The field is his own, and you never heard of a farmer sowing weeds in his own field, did you? The person to whom the

field belongs, and who has taken much trouble and been at a great expense with it, sows it with good seed, hoping to have a valuable harvest as the reward of his toil. But we can fancy him having an ill-natured neighbour, who owes him a grudge, and who, out of hatred and ill-will, comes and sows poisonous weeds to choke the grain. Great will be the disappointment and sorrow of the farmer, when his servants come to tell him, that evil weeds are coming up where he has sown only wheat, and to ask in surprise how this could come about. He soon guesses who has done it, it could only be his ill-natured enemy. Let us think of the feelings with which he looks upon his field that morning, and sees his labour so destroyed, and his hopes so disappointed.

This is the beginning of the story, and now let us hear our Lord's explanation of it. "The field is the world," this world in which you and I are living, so we have a good deal of interest in this parable. "He that soweth the good seed is the Son of man." The good seed-now, every little grain of wheat that is sown, if it grows up, grows up a stalk of wheat, "first the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear." You never heard of a grain of wheat growing up anything but wheat, it could not grow up a weed or a thorn. Well, this sower

has sown His good seed; we find in verse 19th of this chapter that the word of the kingdom is that which the Son of man sows, and we might hope that this field would, in due season, yield a glorious harvest; but, by and by comes another sower, he comes secretly and in darkness, when men are not aware, when they are sleeping and careless, he comes with his bad seed, which can only bring forth bad fruit. If we sow the seed of a poisonous plant, it will certainly bring forth a poisonous plant, this you know. He does his work in darkness, but it soon shews itself when the evil fruits appear.

The first sower comes openly, comes telling us of His love, and what He has done for us, telling us God's message of reconciliation and peace, telling us His truth, and permitting us to be baptized into Him, that we may be branches of the living vine, and bring forth fruit to God's glory. He brings us the gospel, or glad tidings of His kingdom; and if we receive His word into our hearts, and permit Him to rule as our king there now, then shall we grow up as the children of His kingdom, and be found ready when He comes in His glory to enter into the joy of our Lord.

The other sower comes in darkness, comes when we are sleeping, not watching. He does not tell us that he is the Devil, that he is the

father of lies, that he is our cruel enemy, that he hates us and seeks to destroy us; but he puts his hateful lies, and wicked imaginations into us; and when we let them grow up, and bring forth fruit in our hearts, then we prepare ourselves to be the children of his kingdom of darkness and misery, then we learn to hate God, and to flee from Him, and at last these terrible words will be true of us, "They are the children of the wicked one."

Let us remember that these two sowers are busy now, the good and the evil seed are being sown now. In the same house, in the same family may be those who are preparing, one to be a child of the heavenly kingdom, another to be a child of the wicked one. We do not see these two sowers, but their work is still going on busily. The good seed and the choking tares are still sowing side by side. The Son of man, by His word, especially by His ministers and by His sacraments, and by the godly life and conversation of every one of His faithful children, is scattering His good seed.

The enemy by every means of temptation, especially by the words and lives of wicked men, is scattering his evil seed. Did you ever see a thistle filled with thistle-down, each bearing its little seed as the wind scatters them over the fields, to produce a future crop of thistles to the

torment and injury of the farmer. Did it strike you that that thistle was just like a wicked man, who is ever spreading wickedness?

Let this solemn thought abide with us, that we are not only receiving either the good seed, or the seed of the evil one into our hearts daily; not only that, but we are scattering around us either the good seed, or the bad, every day of our lives. We are sowing for a harvest, what will that harvest be?

And, oh, let us remember, and especially let such as are mothers remember, neither tares nor wheat grow up all at once. They do not show their full good or evil all at once. First there is a little little blade, a small thing that you can easily trample under foot, and yet that little thing, if it be from an evil seed, and you let it alone, will grow up a poisonous plant, and bring forth seed that may be scattered into the ground and bring forth many poisonous plants. So will it be with your children, the seed of the wicked one will come up first as a very little thing. You don't think much about it. Your little boy told you a lie, but you gave him a box in the ear for it, and perhaps think you have done enough, or think no more about it. Do you think that box in the ear, or that angry word, would take the bad seed out of his heart?

It is a small thing

you think-you don't know what it may come