When he was through I said, "How many did you g e t ?" " J u s t 350," said he. There were several squashes of like size upon the same vine, all com- ing from one seed. I took my pencil and made calculations. Allowing one squash for each seed, with a like num- ber of seeds, by one sowing I would get 122,500 squashes; by a second sow- ing 42,875,000, and by a third sowing, 15,006,250,000. Continuing this pro- cess ten times, I would have enough Hubbard squash to cover the entire earth ten feet deep. That is the way seed multiplies, and we are all sowing seed of some kind and must reap what we sow. " F o r whatsoever a man sow- eth, that shall he also reap." On the other hand, this thought should be of great comfort and encouragement to the Christian, who, like his Master, is sow- ing good seed. Eec. 11:6; Isa. 55:11: " I t will not return void." Tares. At the end of the age (not of the world) (Vs. 39), when the King shall return to establish His Kingdom, He will send His angels, the reapers, to gather out all the tares (Vs. 30, 41), and bind them into bundles to burn. The burning does not necessarily take place immediately (Vs. 40). "Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the Kingdom of their F a t h e r" (Vs. 43). By this interpretation, given by Jesus Him- self, it is clearly seen that this is King- dom truth, and has to do with Israel; for when the Church is caught away, as is described in the Epistles, which will doubtless occur several years be- fore the scene described in our lesson, Jesus will come Himself—He will not send His angels (1 Thess. 4:14-17; Jno. 14:3); the good will be caught away to Him in the air, the wicked will be left. Immediately following the catching away of the Chureh the tribulation scenes will take place, as described in the Bevelation, where Israel's apostaey is so clearly set forth. Elijah will re- turn (Mai. 4:5, 6), and with his asso- ciate (Bev. 11), proclaim the Gospel of the Kingdom again, just as it was for- merly preached by John the Baptist, and the faithful remnant will be gath- ered out, as at the beginning of this dispensation. There are the ones who will shine forth in the Kingdom as re- vealed in this parable. (5) Two Harvests—Wheat and
Man—his humanity (Vs. 37). The Ideal Man (Vs. 37). His severity and His long-suffering (Vs. 30). His final triumph over Satan (Vs. 41, 43). Sec- ond, the devil. He is malignant, de- ceitful, works in the dark while men are asleep. (3) Two Kinds of Seed—Wheat and Tares. The good seed are the children of the Kingdom; the bad seed are the chil- dren of the wicked one (Vs. 38). They resemble each other so closely that men cannot tell them apart, until the end, at the harvest time, when all will be clear and each shall go to his proper place. Beware of confusion here. Some teach that one reason why they are permitted to grow together is the pos- sibility of the tares being transformed into wheat by their contact with the wheat, teaching that leaven represents good and will eventually leaven the whole lump. Such an interpretation of leaven would destroy all the teaching of this group of parables and make one parable contradict all the rest, leaving the student in hopeless coniusion. We should not call that good which God has pronounced evil. We shall hope to see this truth more clearly in our next week's lesson. Each seed brings forth of its kind. If we are to have good fruit we must sow good seed. The good seed in this parable is not the Word, as in the par- able of the Sower, but that which that Word has produced-—children of the Kingdom. Christians seen in the Epis- tles occupy a new position (in Christ); they have been translated (Col. 1:13); they are not in the world, but have been saved out of the world and are in Christ; they have been planted in Him (Eom. 6:6). They are "Booted and built up in H i m" (Col. 2:7). "Th ey are filled with the fruits of righteous- ness, which are by Christ Jesus unto the glory and praise of God" (Phil. 1:11). (4) Two Crops—Wheat and Tares. With two sowers sowing two kinds of seed, surely there would be two crops. What a tremendous crop is be- ing matured for the burning by and by. Pew realize how seed multiplies. I, once sat by the side of a farmer who had cut open a Hubbard squash, and was sorting out the seed, placing them upon tin plates to dry. As he went along I noted that he kept a tally.
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