The Fulton County news. [volume] (McConnellsburg, Pa.) 1899-current, 1910-06-23
The
s cllOOl
INTERNATIONAL LESSON COM.
MENTS FOR JUNE 90.
Subject: The Parable of the Tares,
Matt. 13:2t-3O, 3B-i3--Com-
nit Verses 81, 3S.

uoiIDEN ibN As-- utl Sudil thS
righteous shine forth as the sun in
the kingdom of their Father" Matt.
I13:43.
TIME.-Autumn A. D. 2S.
PLACE.-By the Sea of Galilee,
near Capernaum.
EXPOSITION.-I.T Two Sewers, 81,
25. Here, as in the preceding lesson,
Jesus appears as a sower of good
seed; but in the preceding parable
'the seed is the Word of Cod" in
this parable 1.-The good seed are the
sons of the kingdom" ". 3S). But
the sons of the kingdom are them
selves the product of the Word of
God GAS. 1:1S; Pet. 1920; so that
there is a close connection between
the two parallels and the two SOW
ings. 1t is by sowing "the Word of
Cod that the Son of man sows sons
of the kingdom" There are in this
world sons of the kingdom" only
because Jesus had sown them. The
world is His field" He has pur-
chased It by His blood the devil has
forfeited 1t by his unfaithfulness.
But the devil does not like to relin-
quish the world of which he was once
the prince Ono. 12:3D. But the
world belongs to Christ, 1.-The sons of
the evil one" are sown in it, but they
don't belong in it. and when the har-
vest comes they will be gathered out
and sent to their own place. There is
deep significance in two words in
verse 25, "His enemy" The devil is
our enemy, but he is primarily
Christ's enemy. There is no one
whom he hates as he hates the Son of
God Christ receives what the devil
aspired to, the worship of the uni
verse (Heb. 16; Rev. 5:11-13; comp.
Matt. 4:9; Ez. 2S:16, ~. The
devil seeks to caricature and thwart
Christ's work at every step. Christ
sows good seed in His field, the devil
comes by stealth and sows tares. The
parable brings out very clearly the
personality of the devil, the certainty
of his existence, the malignity of his
heart, the activity of his movements,
the cunning of his operations, the
subtlety of his methods. If there is
not a personal devil, the enemy of
Christ, this parable is meaningless.
There Is absolutely no necessity in
the drapery of the parable to bring
him in. He is in the parable because
he exists in fact. The tares in the
world are his work. Christ sows
sons of the kingdom" by sowing
good seed "the Word of Cod" the
devil sows sons of the evil one" by
sowing bad seed, doubts and ques-
tions and error (Gen. 81, 4; Thess.
2:9, 10). The devil did his work
while men slept" He always acts
under cover and while men are off
guard. He does much of his work
to-day while Christians and ministers
are doing. He brings in the SUBJ
tletie3 of disguised infidelity ("higher
criticism" etc. and masked pantheism
while we are nodding, and some day
we wake up to find the "tares" spring
ing up everywhere among the wheat.
When the devil had done his work he
went away" He got out OF sight.
He always does. He even stirs up
some to argue that there isn't any
devil anyway"
III. Two Crops Growing Together,
2G-29. There are just two classes OF
mem Sons of the Kingdom" or
children of God" and sons of the
evil one" w. SO, r. W, or children
of the devil" Il John, 3:10). The
two classes are not always d,stin-
guishable or separable at the outset
Tvs. 29, 800, but they will be distin-
guished and separated when they are
ripe, the one for heaven and the other
for hell. But it will, fortunately, be
the angels and not men who do the
separating ". Az. History fur
nishes countless instances of the
devils sowing tares among Chrlst's
wheat &c. g., Jno. 1872; Acts 5:3;
20:29). Both history and the Word
of God warn us against deciding that
all that appears among the wheat"
must itself be wheat. While the
tares were not distlngulshable from
the wheat until they began to grow,
they were tares from the very first.
There were those who wished TO root
Up the tares at once, but the time was
not ripe, nor were they competent to
do the task. There are those who in
haste lonG to eXtirpate 1.-The sons of
the evil one" at once from the world,
but the Master says, "let them both
grow together until the harvest"
Premature separation, by religious
persecution, would mean injury to
wheat as well as destruction to tares.
This history has abundantly proven.
This parable does not forbid church
discipline. THE field is''-not the
church, but "the world" ". 38).
Church discipline is positively COM
manded in the Bible Il Cor. 5:3-5,
IL; Rom. 1917; 2 Thess, $50, 14).
In the delay in separating the chaff
from the wheat we have another illus
tration of Gods long-suffering (cf.
. Pet. 3:9).
III. Two Harvests, 80, 35, -30-i1.
Separation comes at last. It Is in
the end of the age" ". 80, r. v.
Marg.). The reapers are the
angels They are to be the minis
ters Of Gods boundless grace towards
"the sons of the kingdom" and the
executioners OF His wrath towards
"the sons OF the evil one" The tares
are to be gathered" and the wheat is
to be gathered" but the one for
burning in the furnace OF fire."
where there is inconsolable grief and
impotent rage ". 42), the other into
Gods storehouse, "the kingdom of
their Father" where they shall
shine forth as the sun" Is the fire
literal? 1t is in the Interpretation of
the parable as well as In the parable
itself. EVIL is not to gradually disap-
pear from the world. but to grow side
by side with the wheat until the
harvest"
More Than knowledge,