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What was the request of the servants?

That their master would allow them to gather up the tares.

Did he suffer them to do so?

No.

What reason did he assign for this refusal ? Lest, while they gathered them up, they should root up the wheat with them.

Were the tares always to remain ?

No. At the time of harvest, the Master would command the reapers first to bind them in bundles to burn them, and then gather the ripe wheat into His barn.

Did the multitudes ask Christ to explain to them this parable?

No. Only His disciples.

Did Christ rebuke them for their ignorance?
No. He kindly instructed them.

Repeat a text to prove God's willingness to impart knowledge.

"If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him. But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering."-James i. 5, 6.

Now that you have heard this story, let us (like the disciples,) learn from God's own word the spiritual meaning of the parable. You said there were two qualities of seed sown in the field, tell me how many kinds of persons are found in the Church of Christ.

Two. The children of God, and the children of the devil.

Was this mixture always to be found in the world?

No. In the account of the creation, we read, "God created man in His own image ;" Gen. i. 27: that is "He made him upright;"—Eccl. vii. 29 but the devil the great enemy of God and man, came and put evil inclinations into his heart, and then, for the first time, we read of two kinds of seed.-Gen. iii. 15.

Since the fall (or the sin of our first parents), how can any one be called a child of the pure and Holy God?

By adoption and grace.

And

Can you repeat any passages to show this? "When the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth His Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons. because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father. Wherefore thou art no more a servant, but a son; and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ;"—Gal. iv. 4, 7 : having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein He hath made us accepted in the beloved."-Eph. i. 5, 6.

It was common among the ancients for persons to adopt children, either when they had none of their own, or when there was something particular to interest them for the children who were adopted. Eliezer of Damascus, probably had been a

dopted by Abraham before he had children of his own.-Gen. xv. 2. This is common even now among the Indians, particularly in North America. -Persons, both grown up and children, who have been taken prisoners in their wars with the white people, have been adopted by the Indian tribes, and lived many years among them. Jacob's adoption of Ephraim and Manasseh (Gen. xlviii. 5,) was something of this sort. It is still more fully shown in the case of Moses, who was adopted by Pharaoh's daughter, (Exod. ii. 10,) and of Esther, who was adopted by Mordecai. In cases like these, the adopted children were considered just the same as if they had been the real children of those who adopted them, and they became subject to their authority. The custom of adoption is preserved among the Mahometans to the present day. When a Turk thus adopts a child, it is passed through the shirt of its new father: this will remind you of Elijah adopting the prophet Elisha as his son in the faith, by throwing his mantle over him (1 Kings, xix. 19); and when Elijah was taken up into heaven, Elisha called after him, "My father, my father;" and having caught his mantle proceeded to fulfil the duties performed by his spiritual father (2 Kings, ii. 12), or to succeed to his office. Having now described the form of adoption I should wish you to quote a few passages from the New Testament (which evidently point to this practice) in which the apostle St. Paul speaks of believers in Christ having put on the new man.

"Put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make

not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof."-Rom. xiii. 14. "As many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ."Gal. iii. 27. "And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness."—Eph. iv. 24.

Having been regenerated, what kind of fruit do they bear?

Those of the Spirit, "love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance."-Gal. v. 22.

I said they must be regenerated, repeat a few texts to prove and explain this.

That

"Jesus said verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.”—John iii. 5, 6. "Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost; which he shed on us abundantly, through Jesus Christ our Saviour.”—Titus, iii. 5, 6. Do the children of God bear the image of their Father's goodness?

Yes. St. Paul says, "We all, with open face, beholding, as in a glass, the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord."-2 Cor.

iii. 18.

Having told me the character of the children of God, or, as in the parable, the good seed, now tell me whom the tares represent?

The children of the devil, or, in other words, all hypocrites or those who are only christians in

name.

That sounds very awful indeed; does our merciful Saviour say this?

Yes. "Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do.”—John viii. 44. And St. Paul says, "Ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience.-Eph. ii. 2.

As God ever watches over His children to guard them from harm, why does he allow them to remain among the wicked?

To prove them and ripen their virtues. "There must be also heresies among you, that they which are approved may be made manifest among you." -1 Cor. xi. 19.

Give an example in the early Church of Christ of this mixture of the good and bad.

Judas Iscariot.

The servants were forbidden to gather up the tares, and can you not bring me an example where Christ rebuked his disciples for hasty and intemperate zeal in His service?

Yes. "When James and John saw the Samaritans refusing to receive their Master, because His face was as though He would go to Jerusalem, they said, "Lord, wilt thou that we command fire to come down from heaven, and consume them, even as Elias did?" But he turned and rebuked them, and said, "Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of: for the Son of Man is not come

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