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(3) The devil’s seed is the denial of the. Saviour. (4) Tares speak of the triumph of Sa tan. (5) There is a harvest for heaven and a harvest for hell, and the angels are the “harvest hands.” (6) The seed was small, the tree was tall, and bad birds built their nests in the branches. (7.) Look out for, and leave out, the leaven whose principle is always pernicious. (8) When the lump is leavened the church is corrupt, g m Subject Hlustratioif;-—-The people, the beasts, the' birds, and the insects of every realm of life seem to have an enemy, an opposing force.. If this enemy is not over- LESSON come it means de- ILLUSTRATTONS struction to the be- W. H. Pike ing. One may clear a little patch of ground twenty feet square in the middle of a vast forest many miles from other potato fields, but before the potato vines get three inches above the ground you will find a potato bug on them. If these bugs are not destroyed the vines will be. An article came out in a magazine a few years ago entitled, “A state in arms against -a caterpillar,” which shows at what immense cost Massachu setts is seeking to stamp out a plague which, if left alone, would ruin the agri culture of the United States. - A fact not to be overlooked is that the caterpillars were introduced by scientific men who were studying them. To their great re gret they escaped and the loss and cost is millions of dollars. “While Men Slept an Enemy.”— During the summer of .1670 there was a war in England and the soldiers were suffering very greatly. One evening after a long march, they were so tired that they lay down for a sleep when
(5) THE SURE PROPHECY. • The parable of the mustard seed re veals the tremendous power and de velopment of the Gospel, so manifested in the growth of the church. .The mus tard seed is seen in the 12Qgathered in the upper room when the church was born on the Day of Pentecost. The lit tle seed produced a tree, but, alas, the birds of the air—the fowls of v. 4 that devoured the seed—made their nests in its branches. vThe church has been a nesting place for these birds for ages. The leaven reveals its power when placed in three measures of meal, leav ening the whole lump. The woman, no doubt, represents the church. The meal represents the meal offering of the Old Testament and that was a type of Christ. The professing church puts leaven (al ways in Scripture an evil principle) in to the meal offering. The smallest por tion permitted in a meal offering was an omer, the tenth part of an ephah (Ex. 16:36). Three-tenths was the usual offering (see Numbers 15:9; 28: 12, 20, 28). The measure spoken of here was the third part of an ephah, and the three measures would be equal to an ephah. If the meal offering rep resents Christ as the food for His peo ple, the Bread of Life, and the doctrine of Christ is the fundamental doctrine of the church, and the church is here seen in the process of adulterating the doc trine, then this is in harmony with the other parables, and in harmony with every other Scripture concerning leaven (1 Cor. 5:6). “Your glorying is not good. Know ye not that a little leaven, leaveneth the whole lump?” (Gal. 5:9). “A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump.” PRACTICAL points (1) God's Word is a seed, and God’s worker is also a seed. (2) The devil is God’s enemy and sows in the dark.
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