22. THE PARABLE OF THE TARES

IN the second Parable there is also a Sower of good seed; but he is followed by a malignant enemy, who

¹ Col. i. 23.

THE PARABLE OF THE TARES.

comes while men are sleeping, scatters tares upon the wheat, and then steals away unperceived. The tares used for this evil purpose are still too well known in Palestine, and so nearly resemble good wheat in their growth, that it is almost impossible to distinguish them from it until the ear begins to ripen, when their fruit becomes black instead of yellow. In due time this proof of the admixture appears, and the servants of the lord of the field inform him of it, and ask if they shall go and pull up the noxious weeds. But he, after explaining that an enemy has done the mischief, tells them that the crops are now so inextricably mingled that they must be left to grow together until the harvest, when the reapers shall separate them, and shall bind the tares in bundles to burn them, and gather the wheat into the garner.

This Parable is also interpreted by the Lord Himself. The field is the world, and the enemy the Devil: but the meaning of the seed is not the same as in the first Parable; for it no longer signifies doctrines, but persons. "The good seed are the children of the Kingdom; and the tares are the children of the Wicked One." The latter are those hypocrites who are found to be suitable instruments for developing the deep and treacherous designs of Satan; who, though they know not Christ, will foist themselves among Christians, and make it the business of their lives to spread corruption, either in doctrine or behaviour.

Many such men crept into the Church even in apostolic times; but it is the history of the second and third centuries which affords the most terrible proof of the Lord's foreknowledge. During that period multitudes of grievous wolves entered stealthily into the fold, not sparing the flock; and many arose speaking perverse things to draw away the disciples after them. Then heresies began to spring up on all sides, heresies of every imaginable form and hue, and resulting in sects which in manifold ways weakened or altogether destroyed the power of the word of God, and provided an attractive but useless religion for every kind of intellect and disposition. The universal Church became corrupt, and has never thrown off the taints of this epoch: to the present day every Christian sect bears traces of them upon its tenets or ritual.

Only those who are acquainted with the literature of the second and third centuries can form any adequate conception of the multitude of tares which during that time were manifesting themselves by their black fruit: but the study of two works, which have come down to us, will give some idea of the principal errors with which Satan was then bewildering the Church. One of these, put forth in the last quarter of the second century, is a volume "Against Heresies," from the pen of Irenæus of Lyons, a disciple of Polycarp who had himself listened to the apostle John. The other is "A Refutation of all Heresies," written by Hippolytus of Portus, a pupil of Irenæus, in the first half of the third century.

From these books we learn that, at their early dates, the seed of nearly all subsequent errors had been imperceptibly sown in the churches, with a resulting crop of heresies, sects, and schools, so numerous that it would be tedious even to mention their names. And these heresies were of all degrees, beginning with a slight admixture of evil, and going on to such a pitch of madness that some even declared the accursed

THE PARABLE OF THE TARES.

serpent, the beguiler of Eve, to be the true Messiah, and actually styled themselves Ophites, or Serpent-worshippers. Another sect held that the Scriptures did not emanate from the Supreme God, but from a lower and malignant deity, whom they called the Demiurge, and who, as they affirmed, had caused the sacred history to be distorted, so that the righteous in it—such as Cain, Esau, the men of Sodom, and Korah—were made to appear wicked, and the wicked righteous. Hence they regarded Cain as the first saint mentioned in the Bible, and from him named themselves Cainites.

During the whole period included by this Parable violent persecutions were occurring at intervals, and in the other continuous prophecy of the Church we shall find them specially noticed. Here, however, there is nothing more than a very obvious allusion. The Lord feared lest His Church should take a lesson from their oppressors, and, if at any time they had the power, put to death obstinate heretics. Hence the servants are ordered not to root up the tares out of the field—a commandment which may be easily understood if we remember that “the tares are the children of the Wicked One,” and that “the field is the world.”

In regard to the harvest, a difficulty has arisen in the minds of many, because the command, “Gather ye together first the tares,” seems to imply that Christ will execute judgment upon the wicked before He deals with His Church. It is, however, impossible that such a sequence of events could be intended, or this passage would stand alone, and oppose itself to the general testimony of Scripture.

As an example of that testimony, we may quote the fourteenth chapter of the Apocalypse, in which three classes of men affected by the Lord's return are represented as Firstfruits, Harvest, and Vintage. And, in accordance with the order of nature, the Firstfruits, as we may see by the context, are those who will be "redeemed from the earth" before the Tribulation; the Harvest follows at its close; and still later comes the Vintage, the grapes of which answer to the tares of the Parable.

And again, in the nineteenth chapter, it is after the Marriage Supper that John sees heaven opened and the Lord appearing, with the whole Church in His train, to destroy them which corrupt the earth.

Indeed, if we turn to the last of this very series of Parables, we shall find the apparent order of the second reversed: for the good fish are first picked out of the net and placed in vessels, and then the bad are cast away.

Now a right understanding of Scripture quickly dispels all supposed inconsistencies: how, then, can we explain this seeming discrepancy in parables of the same series? Probably by the following considerations.

In the original of the command to the reapers there is no word—such as "then," or, "afterwards"—to mark the apodosis to "Gather first." We must, therefore, supply one, and may do so in the next clause. For the "but" (δέ) which follows is often used adversatively, and may merely indicate an antithesis or contrast of destiny, without any reference to order of time. Thus the command will read;—"First collect the tares, and then bind them in bundles to burn them: but as to the wheat, gather that into My barn."¹

¹ The reason why the Lord, in His description of the harvest, speaks first of the tares is sufficiently obvious: since they are the subject of the Parable.

THE PARABLE OF THE TARES.

We may, perhaps, add that a farmer would not be likely to trouble himself about the tares, provided they were carefully picked out of the wheat, until he had safely conveyed the latter to its receptacle.

Again; we must remember that the two Parables are elementary and general: they are by no means intended to furnish details of the end, but only to lay down the broad principle that Christ will thoroughly purge His floor. The inevitable mingling of evil and good in the present age, and the certainty of ultimate judgment and separation, are the great lessons which they teach.

A peculiar Greek word, signifying "to gather by picking out," is used of *the tares* in one Parable and of *the good fish* in the other; so that the meaning may be clear from both sides. Satan must sow his tares, and they will grow up with the wheat, and become inextricably entangled with it until the harvest. But before the Lord gathers in His own, He will not fail to pick out from their midst all the children of the Evil One. And again; while the Gospel net is lying in the sea of the nations, the nominal Church must needs include multitudes of merely intellectual, of sentimental, and of hypocritical members, as well as real believers. But as soon as the net is drawn to shore, just as fishermen carefully select the good fish to put into their vessels and then cast the rest away, so the Lord will take every soul of His own out of the great masses of spurious worshippers before He consigns the latter to their doom.

In passing on to interpret the remaining Parables, we must keep one point clearly in mind. We have just seen that wheat and tares are to grow together until the end; and, accordingly, in the seventh and last Parable we shall find good and bad fish mingled in the same net. It is manifest, therefore, that all the intervening Parables must also represent the Church in conditions more or less corrupt.

V.