They made to themselves images to represent God, and so idolatry soon took the place of true religion, for they worshipped these images and forgot the living God.* Satan had sown the tares. And when God had called Abraham to be his own servant and friend, and made from his children one people to be taught his word, and to keep it pure, among them also Satan sowed the tares. When God gave prophets filled by his Holy Spirit to deliver them his messages of love and warning, Satan filled false prophets with his lying spirit to deceive the people. And so has it ever been. When in after-times, religion was purified among the Jews,† and the servants of God were held in honour, then Satan planted the tares of hypocrisy, and almost destroyed religion by raising in men's hearts the pride of being thought religious. After Christ our Lord had finished his work, and left the world to return to his Father's throne, even while his apostles yet lived, among the good seed of Christianity, Satan planted tares, and they have been growing ever since, and they are growing now in all the false doctrines that disturb the peace of God's kingdom on earth. If we will observe, we shall see that wherever and whenever there is an awakening to any good, immediately there springs up beside it an answering evil, that seems somehow to belong to it, or rather to have sprung up with it, as if on very purpose to hinder its good. Truly "the field is the world," and in it Christ is

* The desire to represent the unseen God by an image made by man's hands, seems to have been the cause of the different idolatries that have filled, and still do fill the earth. Fear for the power of that great Being whose love they did not comprehend, filled men's minds, and from this cause the idols they have made are almost always hideous and terrible; and the worship they offer them full of cruelty and blood, sacrificing to them human victims and little children. Besides this, when men died who had been loved and honoured for their wisdom or for any great quality, it was common so to worship their memory, that out of this soon grew another sort of idolatry. This has been, and still is, a fruitful source of evil.

† After the return from the captivity in Babylon.

always sowing good seed, and Satan, his enemy, is alway sowing tares.

In the parable, it is written that when the servants saw that tares were springing up among the wheat, and had been told that an enemy had sown them there, they said unto their master, "Wilt thou then that we go and gather them up?" Even the servants of God are too apt to think that by force, or at least by using their power, they may root out the mischiefs that creep into the service of God. It seems natural to the heart of men to wish to oblige others to be of the same mind in religion as themselves; but God does not entrust men with such power, and therefore the master of the field to this proposal of his servants, answered, "Nay." This refusal is so clear, so express, and so plain, that we may feel sure, wherever we see a spirit that would persecute men for religion's sake, that it is not of God. The reason for the refusal is given, "Lest while ye gather up the tares, ye root up also the wheat with them." God only, who is the searcher of hearts, can certainly know who are his. He only can make no mistake.

There have been at all times so many opinions among men as to what was the true doctrine and what the false, which was the wheat, and which the tares, that if the servants, that is, those who had power, were, each party in their turn, to root out what they believed to be the tares, there would soon be no wheat left in the field. Where man has been allowed to persecute his fellow-man for the sake of religion, much cruelty and wrong have at all times been done, and many true servants of Christ have lost their lives, for while men thought they were gathering up the tares only, they were rooting up also the wheat with them.

It is not that the tares shall never be plucked up, but that this is not the time, and the servants are not to be the doers of this work. "Let both grow together until the harvest."

said the master of the field, and the Lord Jesus explains that "the harvest is the end of the world." From this we learn, that while the world lasts there must always be evil found in it, even in God's Church. Both the good seed, and the bad, are to grow, till they come to a head, till they are ripe, one for destruction, and the other for full salvation. And they are to grow together; the Church must have in it a mixture of good and bad till the end of time. Does not this seem to tell us, that men should not separate themselves from it because that tares are growing with the wheat. Let us remember, that even in the best men there is the same mixture of good and evil as there is outwardly in the Church, and that every attempt to set up a little Church of our own, in which we fondly hope there is nothing but wheat, is plainly going against the meaning of this parable of our blessed Lord, and is also encouraging the growth of the tares of spiritual pride and self-deceit in our own hearts, and in the hearts of those who are joined with us.

"In the time of harvest," said our Lord, when He explained the parable, "I will say to the reapers, Gather ye together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them: but gather the wheat into my barn."

Not till the end of the world shall the good be parted from the bad-and then the Lord of the field and of the harvest shall send forth his reapers, not his earthly ministering servants, but "his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity." The right meaning of the word which is put into English as offend, is rather entrap, so as to cause to fall, and all who have wilfully disturbed men's minds, and cause them to fall into error in religion, shall share the same fate as they who commit iniquity, that is, who live in known sin. What this fate is we are told in words which are both sad and solemn, and which may well fill us with fear: “ And (the angels) shall cast them into a furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth."

Oh, well may they wail-shut out from God-in pain of body-in anguish of mind-all hope lost for ever.

But when this is done, the wheat is gathered into the barn. Hark to the words of our Lord! "Then shall the righteous shine forth as the Sun in the kingdom of their Father." As fire fills the dark, cruel kingdom of hell, so light fills the pure heavenly kingdom.

Then when the darkness of sin, and ignorance, and error, which hindered God's children, in the time of their mortal life, is taken away, the light- the holy light of love and truth which all the time was struggling within them, shall shine forth in its full brightness. All shall see and know that they are the children of that God who is "the Father of lights," (James i. 17,) for they shall shine forth as the sun when the clouds are rolled away. Oh that we, that you and I, may be of that kingdom of light!*

Prayer.

O holy Saviour, we are full of darkness and of sin; kindle now within us, we beseech thee thy Divine light. Oh let thy Holy Spirit shine into our hearts, that, taught of thee, we may know which are the tares, and which the wheat, and so may be kept from falling into error. Give us wisdom and grace to watch over our hearts, for Satan, our enemy and thine, is ever at hand to destroy and hinder thy work. Have mercy now, blessed Lord, upon us and upon those who are dear to us, that at thy harvest-day, not one we love may be found among the tares, but that we may all, a joyful and a perfect band, not one left out, be received into the kingdom of our Father, through thy intercession, O holy and adored, and in thy light may we shine forth for ever as the sun, in the brightness of thy righteousness. Amen.

The sense of the whole of this number is taken from Trench on the Parable of the Tares. Wherever it has been possible, I have used his very words.

XXXVIII.

MATT. XIII. 31. MARK IV. 30. LUKE XIII. 18.

Still the Lord Jesus spoke from the little boat, and still the people listened from the shore.

MATTHEW Xiii. 31, 32. "Another parable put He forth unto them, saying, The kingdom of heaven is like to a grain of mustard-seed, which a man took and sowed in his field : Which indeed is the least of all seeds: but when it is grown, it is the greatest among herbs, and becometh a tree, so that the birds of the air come and lodge in the branches thereof." According to St. Luke, the Lord Jesus, before He spoke this parable, said, "Unto what is the kingdom of God like? and whereunto shall I resemble (or compare) it? It is like a grain of mustard-seed, &c." Now, if we attentively consider the parable, we shall soon see why He chose this comparison. "Small as a grain of mustard-seed," was a proverb among the Jews, when they meant to express the exceeding smallness of something of which they spoke; yet they knew well that this little seed, when planted, grew into the largest of their herbs, so large indeed that its branches had strength to bear the weight of flocks of birds, that crowded to it to eat the seed which they were fond of as food. The Jews knew this, and they often saw them lodging in the branches.

We must not think of the mustard that grows in our own gardens, though even that, left to grow to its full height, in a deep and rich soil, will become a much larger and stronger plant than we are used to see. In the hot countries of the east, there is a tree called the mustard-tree, which reaches such a size, that it is strong enough for a man to climb into its