Then the servants asked if they might root up the tares at once.
I have read that when the little plants are young, the blades of
the wheat and the blades of the tares are so much alike that it is
difficult to tell them apart.
So the master of the field answered, "No; you had better not try to
pull up the tares, lest you should pull up the wheat with them. Let
them both grow together until the harvest; and in time of harvest I
will say to the reapers, 'Gather together the tares first, and bind
them in bundles to burn them; but gather the wheat into my barn.'"
* * * * *
This is a story, as I said, of "The Kingdom of Heaven." And it is
important to all of us, because we all live in that Kingdom. Our hearts
ought to be God's throne here, we ought to be growing up as His Good
Seed, to be gathered into His eternal Home when the Harvest comes!
You may not always live in England—you may go to Canada, or Australia,
or France, or Germany!
But in this Kingdom of Heaven you may always abide, till the
Harvest-day comes; and happy for you if you do!
God's Kingdom is a place where His Good Seed grows.
Perhaps your Mother or your Teacher tells you of Jesus our Saviour, and
of His love, and you long to be able to serve Him. You would like to be
kind and loving to those round you; you are sorry when you do wrong,
you are happy when you do right. That is the Good Seed taking root and
growing in your heart!
But at other times you feel differently.
You are not so happy; you do not wish to do good things so much; you
even find yourself wanting to do wrong things! You find it hard to be
loving; you want so much to do something you have been forbidden to
do; you are sure no one will see you if you do wrong, and you say to
yourself, "After all, it is such a little thing," or "It is only this
once!"
Ah! Those are the tares sown in your heart!
"How did they get there?" the servants asked the Master.