The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1898-03-12
Sunday School Lesson for March 49,
The Wheat and the TareS.
Matt. XIII; 24-3O 36-43.
BY J. e. GILBERT, D. D., IL. D.,
Secretary of American Society of Religious Education.

PRELIMINARY.-W have now come
to "the great parable chapter" as Lu-
ther calls it, The word, parable, literally
signifies, to put one thing before or be-
side another This mode of teaching was
held in high favor among the ancients, be-
cause 1t was form of illustration that
excited thought, awakened pleasurable
emotion, and helped the memory. 1t was
alike agreeable and profitable to the
learned and the unlearned. There rs
harmony between the natural and the
spiritual worlds, the former being wit
ness to the latter. AL lovers of truth
readily recognize these harmonies and the
force of arguments derived therefrom. To
them the things on earth are copies of
things in heaven. Christ moved In the
midst of what to many seemed worm
out world, but He made it tell out the Sc
crets of mans being. lie made 1t an
swer with strange and marvellous CORE
spondences to another and invisible
world, to hstp to the birth great thoughts
of the heart, long struggling to be born.
The parallels of Jesus display His ac-
quaintance with the sensuous and the
supersensuous realm and enable men to
pass more readily from one to the other.
SOWING.-In His first parable oversees
to 28, Jesus made His teaching turn
upon the character of the soil. A man
had gone forth with good seed, but the
product varied in the harvest according
to the ground upon which 1t fell In the
parable before us He presents the same
man faithfully depositing good seed, pre-
sumably in good soil His work was well
done and he repaired to his home to rest
expecting that in due course of time he
would reap Cverse 2D. But when the
night came on, while he slumbered, his
enemy came stealthily into the field.
Having sown tareS in the same ground
/ ,t.l,, t1,, xrslp lu1 hpp aGt 1,a u 81
away (verse 25). The act was wholly un-
known. 1t was done out of pure mischief.
There could be no benefit or pleasure to
him who did it, except the pleasure de-
rived from the reflection that an injury
had been done. 1t is a strange condition
of human nature when man takes de-
| light in annoying another. The spirit Is
| devilish i'm the extreme.
GROWING.-Both the wheat and the
tareS terminated. being influenced by the
same moisture and the same sunlight and
| nurtured in the same soil (verse 26). For
| Il considerable time no one could have dis
| tinguished the one from the other. Even
the practiced eye of the farmer was de-
| ceved. Locking over the field he must
| have thought the grain was unusually
| thick, thrifty and promising, and he may
| have congratulated himself on the abund-
ant yield. But after awhile, when the
| grain heads out, the tares are known.
| Hateful and noXious weeds they were.
Voney, writing of the darnel, which prob
| ably our Saviour had in mind says he
| experienced i'll effects from eatinS its
! seeds (Trav. ii, 3O6). The Inmates of the
! Sheffield workhouse We're attacked some
/ years ago with serious symptoms sup
! posed to be produced by their oatmeal
! having been adulterated with lolium," !"
| which is very much the same as the
! darnel of Arabia Eng. CycD. 1t was
therefore a very great disappointment to
| the owner of the field to discover this
weed among his grain, and his servants
expressed their surprise, knowing that
! good seed had been cast into the ground
! (verse 2O.
| PROPOSlNG.-The explanation was not
far to seek. The quantity and extent of