and understandeth it, which also beareth fruit, and bringeth forth fruit, some an hundred fold, some sixty, some thirty. This means those few, those happy few, who with honest and good hearts take a pleasure in hearing the word of God, in listening to the doctrines of their Saviour, who have learned to have faith in him, and who, under God's Holy Spirit, endeavour to walk in all his commandments. The word preached to them sinks deep into their hearts. They feel a desire to do all which is taught to them by the Holy Bible. They try always to do their duty in whatever state they are placed, and are anxious to please God, and to live as always in his presence. They love their Saviour, they trust in him; they pray day by day that their souls may be made like to him. They pray for God's Holy Spirit: and trusting to that Spirit, they walk through this life, as people, who have their thoughts in Heaven, and are working their way there, through sorrow or through joy, through

sickness or through health, through poverty or through plenty, through life and through death.

I hope and trust that you now know the meaning of the word parable, and that you understand our Saviour's parable of the sower. You must try to be amongst those, who receive the word in an honest and good heart: not like the beaten high road, bearing nothing: not like stony places, having little earth for the seed to take root in, which of course soon withers: not like thorny land, which chokes the seed with its weeds: but like good and well-prepared land, which receives the seed in such a soil, that the corn springs up, and bears fruit, with some an hundred fold, with some sixty, and with some thirty but with all of them, in such a manner, that it springs up into an everlasting life of happiness and glory.

And now to God, &c.

LECTURE XXXII.

ST. MATTHEW xiii. 24, 25.

Another parable put he forth unto them, saying: The kingdom of Heaven is likened unto a man, which sowed good seed in his field: But while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat and went his way.

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IN last Lecture I told you the meaning of the word parable. I told you, as I hope you remember, that it was an account of something supposed to have happened, and that it was made use of in order to shew us something which we ought to know, or something which we ought to do, or something, which we ought not to do. Thus, if I was to tell you, that, when you

are for instance digging any sort of provisions, potatoes, for example, and that you took care of the sound ones, and threw the rotten ones away, and should tell you, that God will, in the end, of the world, deal with good and bad people in some such way, I should tell you a parable. And the meaning would be, that a difference will be made in the next world between the good man and the wicked, that God will keep the good, and throw away the wicked to perish. I told you also in my last Lecture, all that our Saviour meant by the parable of the sower, I now go on to tell you his parable of the tares.

Our Saviour says: The kingdom of Heaven, that is, our Saviour himself, the great preacher of the Holy Gospel or the Christian religion, is like unto a man, who sowed (or planted) good seed in his field. But while men slept, that is, the watchmen slept, his enemy came and sowed tares, (a kind of weed having its seeds also) among

the wheat, from which flour is made, and went his way. But when the blade was sprung up, as you see take place with corn, and brought forth fruit (or the corn) then appeared the tares also. So the servants of the householder, or man who owned the field, came and said unto him: Sir, didst not thou sow good seed in thy field: from whence then hath it tares? thou didst not plant them. He said unto them, an enemy hath done this. The servants said unto him: Wilt thou then that we go and gather up these tares or weeds, which look so ugly, and may be so hurtful? But he said, nay: lest while ye gather up the tares, ye root up also the wheat with them, let both grow together until the harvest, when I shall reap my wheat, and in the time of harvest I will say unto the reapers: Gather ye together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them but gather the wheat into my barn, or store-room.