The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1900-05-26


Jesus as to a Teacher and Master, and
have learned Of him, have had his
kingdom OF righteousness set up with
in-these have become the wheat with
which the Lord has sown the earth.
They may not be perfectly good-ahso-
lutely holy; there may be some adm!x-
ture OF evil; but there is preponder-
ance Of good and dilIgent roofing out
of the evil. And spite OF all discourage
ing signs. the wheat Increases moro in
the Individual, and more and more in
the world at large. $40. The Master
distinctly affirms this world to be His
field. He has never relInquIshed 1t. He
has triple claim to It, It is his hy
creation, preservation, and redemption,
and he is steadily reclaIming 1t from
the power and thralldom OF the evil one.
49,. The tares are the children
of the wicked one. So moral evil finds
its root in the human soul; there It gel
inmates, thrives, and bears Its fruit.
But as In the case OF the saint, we DO
not need to assert perfect gooGness;
so In the case Of the sin
ner we do not need to as
sert absolute and entire avll-only q
dominance of evil which, If persistent,
must Of necessity become entire. As
the saint gravltates towards the heav-
enlinass and heaven, so the sinner
trends towards hcllishness and hell.
As we look out into this
world Of ours, and see thousand mill
ion human souls growing together as
wheat and taras in this vast tleld-this
age-long antagonism of virtue and
wickedress this dread and poisonous
admixture Of evil-we are ready to ex-
claim. in the language Of the servants
of the householder: Sir. dId'st thou
not SOW good seed IN the Aeld from
whence then hath It tnres?" That is
the age-long question. But 1t is spccu-
lative and theoretical Jesus dlsrnisses
1t with the sad declaration, An enemy
hath done this After a thousand vol
umes nra written on the origin Of evil,
we shall Just know as much Of It as
Christ has told US here, An enemy hath
done 1t, (Clarke.) That answer re-
moves the origin Of evil from God; but
further 1t answers nothing, and we
should rest satisfied. (Sticr.) He who
In any way so speculates as 10 trace
back to God the occasion and ordina-
ton of sin. be 1t in phrase ever so cum
ningly concealed, has against him Gods
clear and pure word in the Scripture,
as also in the conscience. He makes
Christ liar who, not merely In his
Word, but in his whole person and
manifestation, in his entire new sowing
Of the good seed. is the living actual
protestatIon Of God against oil fellow
ship Of his holiness with what is evil.
tstIer) 49,. Even a heather poet
could discern this, and say
mo evil can from Thee proceed;
It's only suffered. not decrecd:
As darkness IL not from the SUE,
Nor mount the shades TIL he Is gone .
1t matters precious little whether you
believe In the personality OF the devil
and the direction OF his Satanic Intlu-
ence upon the human heart, or
whether you believe that 1t is a figure
Of speech to describe a purely subjec-
tive and personal choice of the evil
propensity which rises naturally with
in. That is purely speculative,
transcendental matter. Sin is here. Its
terrible effects are exempliaed on every
hand. How can sin be eradIcated Is
the practical living question.
Shall we go and gather up the tares?"
ask the servants In the parable It Is
unphiIosophlcal in the last degree to
demand perfection of the church as a
whole. or the individual Christian. Je-
sus curbs and lnstructs the zeal for the
publication of the church In the words:
NAY. let both grow until the harvest"
We have seen those who have offended,
and have turned their backs upon the
church because Of this admiXture Of
good and evil. The servants OF tho
household were not so affected. They
did not desert their master because his
field thus contained wheat and tares..'
: LET both grow What rivers Of
blood would have remained unshed had
the church always been guided by the
teaching of this parable! a Roman
Catholic has said. Zeal for the extlr-
patton of heretlcs, not regulated by
these words, allows no time for one to
grow strong in goodness or the other
to forsake evil courses" THE
evil OF attempting to uproot tares Is IL
Illustrated by the history Of all religious
prosecutions. The preached lesson is,
Re patIent toward all men," Nyman
AbhotO. 80 Bastard wheat may be-
come good wheat The destruction Of
the probationary sinners would be the
destruction OF the probationary system.
The enemy can put into the wheat the
tendency to become tares, Daube).
Those who are tares to-day may be
wheat tomorrow. (Augustine). But
TINT which man ls incompetent to per-
form. omnlscience can and does effect.
There is q progressive, continuous sep
aration. When individuals have ful-
filed their destiny; when sinners have
stubbornly resisted the grace which
would have converted them from tares
TO wheat: when the probation Is fully
rounded out they are removed by an
uncrrlng hand, So, on. the other hand
when the Christian has resisted the
temptations arising out OF the mixed
condition of the world from the prox-
unity Of the tares; after he has pro-
Won the Intelligence and persistence OF
his choice, he too shall be gathered as
wbent into the barn. 'The general
Judgment is the Official announcement
in the court Of heaven and to the In
,cIIIrence OF tho universe NJ III" 'cq-
tInv each soul has made for Itself In
Its probationary st1tc. Then shall the
-, tno,,. eIIpe forth ls II they had