What shall be said of _your_ heart, my young friend? Is it like the
wayside? the rocky place? the thorny ground? or like a good field that
has been well prepared for the seed?

[Illustration: SOWING THE SEED.]




THE ENEMY SOWING TARES.


A certain man sowed good seed in his field, but in the night, whilst
men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went
his way. When the wheat-blade had sprung up and showed the ear, then
appeared the tares also. So the servants of the householder came to
him and said, "Sir, didst not thou sow good seed in thy field? Whence
then come these tares?"

He said unto them, "An enemy hath done this." Then the servants asked,
"Shall we go, then, and gather them up?" But he said, "Nay, lest
whilst you gather up the tares, you root up the wheat with them. Let
both grow together until the harvest, and in that time I will say to
the reapers, 'Gather ye together first the tares and bind them into
bundles to burn them, but gather the wheat into my barn.'"

Jesus' disciples asked Him to explain this parable to them, and He
said: "The field represents the world, and He that sowed the good seed
is Christ Himself. The good seed is the Word He preached; the wheat