April 29
Life's Golden LampEt shall not return unto me boid. — ISAIAH lv. 11.
Let both grow together until the harvest: and in the time of harvest I will say to the readers, Gather ye together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them: but gather the wheat into my barn. — MATT. xiii. 30.
IT is God's way to let "both grow together." Here are lessons of patience and of charity. If God can wait, his servants can. If the Master of the harvest can bear with the tares, the children need not be anxious about them. The wheat and the tares in their early growth are alike; the best farmer cannot distinguish them. God sees the difference; man cannot, but the "day will declare it." There is no tareless wheat-field, there is no pure Church on earth. The tares will not always be hidden, but when God's sickle is thrust in, they will be given to the fire. The wheat will all be gathered in due time, — not one of God's children will be lost. When we see the tares, let us be patient: we would have cast Judas out long before Jesus did. He may try the faith, the charity, and the patience of his people now, by leaving Judas in the Church as he did then.
Be charitable. What you think to be tares may be God's wheat. What if they walk not with us? they may be for us. Bear with human frailty and sin: you also are frail and sinful. It is safe to leave the results with God.
Thou canst not toil in vain; Cold, heat, and moist and dry Shall foster and mature the grain For garners in the sky.
J. MONTGOMERY.