Matthew 13:27, commentary and pictures

In the parable of the wheat and tares the servants discover weeds where only good grain was planted and ask how they came to be there. The answer is that a hostile enemy sowed them in secret while men slept, and that enemy is Satan, not God, who sows only good seed. The tares are counterfeit Christians mingled with true disciples, and also the seeds of error and evil principles mingled with truth. They must be left to grow together with the wheat until the harvest at the end of the world, because their roots are entwined and only Christ and His angels can judge hearts without mistake. Until then no human is appointed to root out the supposed tares, but all are to be patient and forbearing, watchful against evil, and careful to sow only good seed in life and speech.

Parable Setting and Imagery

Matthew 13:27 belongs to Jesus' parable of the wheat and tares, where the householder has sown good seed yet tares appear growing with it, and the servants notice them and ask how they came to be there when only good seed was sown. Their question leads to the answer that an enemy secretly and covertly sowed them among the wheat, introducing evil among those who belong to Christ. In the parable's harvest setting the good seed is connected with the gospel and with people born of God's word and truth, while the tares embody error and false principles sown not by God or His angels but by Satan, and the lessons reveal two working forces in opposition whose work continues until the great harvest when the righteous and wicked are separated.

The tares are harmful weeds, cockle and darnel, that closely resemble the grain while the blades are green and young, so that laborers could fear uprooting good plants if they pulled them roughly, since rough removal could disturb the wheat's roots and destroy its young shoots. They may look like wheat for a long time and deceive observers, and men cannot reliably distinguish them or read the heart by outward likeness, though their fruits declare their character. When the field is white to harvest the difference is plain and the worthless weeds bear no likeness to wheat bowed under full ripe heads, for the tares are rejected and removed and destroyed while the wheat is gathered for Christ without error by angels who never mistake characters.

The field and its sowing and harvesting were a familiar sight used to teach all kinds of people from many walks of life, chosen to make divine truth memorable to hearers who would later see these everyday things. The field represents Christ's church in the world where people grow and ripen for God's harvest as part of His work of salvation, and also the world itself where good and evil are sown in the same field at the same time and their opposing work continues until the great harvest. In the church and its institutions the good seed is pure truth and members, while workers everywhere sow either good seed or evil seed, those receiving truth revealing Christ and preparing for His second coming.

The servants are surprised and disappointed to find tares where only pure good seed and pure wheat were sown, recognizing that the tares did not come from the householder's sowing and that the field was not sown with bad seed. Their question expresses recognition that faults and counterfeit Christians found in every church, and worldly elements brought in through association with the world and placed in trust as teachers, guides and officials, came from another source. Even in application to children the same holds, that tares did not come from the householder's planting of good seed, so parents must not assume goodness will naturally prevail but must cultivate good traits and correct evil ones, and in the church heretical unbelief spread by those misusing responsibility shows the tares were not sown by the householder.

Their question is answered that an enemy hath done this, the devil, who sowed the tares to injure the householder by secretly planting evil and error in the human mind and in unsanctified hearts. The sowing is covert and secret, done while men slept and through times of negligence that give opportunity and create receptive soil. The tares therefore represent the children of the wicked one among the children of the kingdom, and their presence does not mean the good sower planted bad seed, but good and evil remain together until the harvest when they are separated.

Sowers of Good and Evil

The good seed is people born of God's word and truth, the gospel sown in the heart, pure truth and its members, God's living Word that sanctifies those who receive it, leads them to partake of the divine nature, and, by fruitful witness, hastens the ripening harvest. The field where this seed is sown is Christ's church and its institutions and also the world itself, where good and evil are sown at the same time and their opposing work continues until the great harvest. Those who receive the truth reveal Christ and prepare for His coming, while those who reject it spread error and darken understanding. The Holy Spirit impresses minds that seek a clear perception of this, keeping the kingdom free from the sinful practices of the world even while tares grow with the wheat in the church militant.

God and Christ sowed only good seed and never planted seeds of death, disease, or error in the human system or in the earth. Creation was made ready to do His pleasure with nothing useless in it, with cloud and rain, dew and sunshine, wind and storm, grass and fruit obeying God and developing in proper season from blade to ear to full corn. The tares in nature — every noxious herb and poisonous plant, brier and thorn, thistle and tare — are no part of that creation but were sown by the enemy through the curse after Adam and Eve sinned. In the Lord's great garden no noxious plant was placed, but after disobedience at the tree of knowledge poisonous herbs sprang up, and by ingenious methods of amalgamation the earth was corrupted with tares. That blighting, marring evil in nature raises the perplexing question of whence it came, which can be read aright only in the light shining from Calvary, showing through Bethlehem and the cross how good is to conquer evil and how every blessing is a gift of redemption.

Satan, not God or His angels, is the enemy who sowed the tares. He secretly plants evil and error in human minds and hearts while Christ sows good seed in the heart, then guards his sowing so that it grows. Those seeds of error can grow abundantly, crowd out and destroy what is good, spread sin to others, and if left unchecked spoil the wheat by rank growth. He brings into the church people who bear Christ's name while denying His character, then makes the resulting harm appear to come from Christ, dishonoring God, misrepresenting salvation, and putting souls in danger.

The sowing is done while men sleep, while the household is unaware. That sleep is spiritual sleeping, when spiritual life is not constantly fed by the Spirit of God, when people rely on themselves and human wisdom instead of living faith, earnest prayer, and watchfulness, and may unknowingly serve the prince of darkness. It is seen when church members refuse to shine and enlighten the world, becoming mere spectators, idle and selfish and self-centered, leaving undone the work God has given everyone to do and leaving cities unworked while corruption is planted during the neglect. Satan never slumbers but watches for such unwatchfulness, exulting when he can persuade men to take his arm and become his agents to advance his plans and increase woe and misery, working to take God's standard from the hands of God's people without their discerning it and to bar the way so that Christ's kingdom may not come and God's will may not be done on earth. Because of this it is high time to awake out of sleep, to cast off his arm, break connection with him and link with Christ, calling upon God who never slumbers nor sleeps, putting on the whole armor of righteousness and standing steadfastly for principle.

The servants' question thus reveals two working forces in decided opposition and vital conflict, divine and satanic agencies striving together in the world. Good and evil are sown at the same time and strive against each other until the harvest at the close of this earth's history. The time has come when everything that can be shaken will be shaken that what cannot be shaken may remain, and God tests and proves His people while long bearing with men who provoke Him by stubborn self-indulgence. That tares are found in the church during probationary time does not mean God's good work has failed, for the church militant is not yet the church triumphant.

Who the Tares Are

The tares are counterfeit Christians and false brethren mingled for a time with true disciples and followers of Christ. They are unconverted and faulty, lukewarm, half-hearted and worldly professors, hypocrites and inconsistent members, found in every church and in every age, whose real character becomes known in time by fruit, words, works and character. They may be closely joined to the faithful so that their difference is not yet clear, and hasty separation would endanger wheat that would otherwise remain faithful. The church on earth in which they grow is militant and imperfect, not yet triumphant, and wheat and tares must remain together until the harvest.

Among them are spots in feasts of charity and wolves among sheep, ready to bite, tear and devour, who do much harm to God's cause through the history of the third angel's message. They delight to bear false witness, create lies, cruelly injure reputations and destroy the standing of God's servants and fellow men, and at God's appointed judgment they will be revealed as hypocrites while their own lips clear those they accused. They include unworthy members and false brethren connected even with institutions, bringing often severe trials on those earnestly doing God's will by striving to bring in wrong principles, giving advice and counsel contrary to God's Word, separating friends by unkind criticism, and acting with sharp cruelty under Satan's control. Some are bound by secret societies and secret vows while thinking themselves pure grain, not seeing their danger and need to separate from the world to stand as God's children. Others keep their names on church books while withholding tithes and offerings.

Sinners making pretension of piety mingle for a time with true followers, and the semblance of Christianity is calculated to deceive many. While the blades are green the tares closely resemble wheat and can deceive even laborers, but when the field is white to harvest the worthless weeds bear no likeness to wheat bowed under full ripe heads. At the harvest of the world there will be no likeness between good and evil, and those who joined the church but never joined Christ will be manifest and trouble the righteous no more. Those once regarded as wheat may thus manifest as tares without cause for crushing disappointment, since this life proves every soul until character is purified and fitness for the Lord's family is decided.

Being in the church and having a profession of faith do not prove one a Christian nor determine destiny. Names may stand on church books while hearts are not joined to Christ, not transformed into His likeness, not abiding in Him and not subjects of His kingdom, and even self-denial and good deeds do not make such professors Christians when under temptation they reveal another spirit and misrepresent Him. Christ judges each person by words, works and character, and judgment is committed to Him alone because He lived humanity and understands weakness and striving for perfection. The lesson is therefore humility and distrust of self rather than measuring fellow men or condemning others. Their counsels and cooperation are not waited for and their resistance will not long hinder God's work, which is done not by human strength but by His wisdom and grace.

Their presence brings reproach on Christianity and causes the world to doubt Christ's truths and blame the sower, as observers condemn the good field because of the weeds. Their sin in part frustrates Christ's work of saving people from Satan and making hearts fruitful in good works, dishonors God, misrepresents salvation and puts souls in danger. Yet their presence does not mean God has no church on earth, does not disprove Christianity, and does not prove that truth has failed or that God's good work has failed. Christ bears with false brethren as He bore with Judas, the true Watcher never mistakes characters, and the sins of professed Christians excuse no soul nor justify blaming Christ and His ministers.

Tares as False Error

The tares are also seeds of error, evil doctrine, false principles and corrupting influences that the enemy secretly mingles with precious truth, for Christ sows only good seed of truth in the heart while Satan plants evil in the human mind to grow abundantly, crowd out and destroy the good and spread to others. Guarded by him so it will grow, that sowing strengthens until it eclipses truth, diminishes the wheat crop, weakens faith and makes right and wrong harder to distinguish. Truth must therefore be presented clearly in contrast with deceptive falsehood, exposing it so that those who receive and cherish truth discard error and uproot it from the heart. In the fiercer conflict Satan even takes the field to personate Christ and deceive if possible the very elect by misinterpreting, misapplying and perverting truth, so that entire families once rejoicing in truth open their hearts, the tares spring up and flourish for a season with false zeal, precious truth loses power through calamities and falsehoods about loved associates, and hearts harden against advocates of truth as the Jews hardened against Christ. Church leaders are thus to sow sound teaching diligently and to strengthen the wheat so the tares do not gain supremacy, lest falsehoods take root among those who received truth.

In education the tares are specious errors, fables and infidel ideas mingled with teaching, including through books used in schools and lesson books in publishing houses. To sow tares is to mingle sentiments of infidel authors with education and to voice ideas that should never be placed before young or old, making the teacher a co-worker with Satan, for all teaching is seed sowing whose harvest must be garnered and for which teachers are accountable. Putting infidel authors condemned by God into students' hands as lesson books sows the wrong seed from which tares must come, corrupting minds of teachers as well as students, producing distaste for the word of God which gives eternal life, leading inexperienced youth into channels of thought fatal to piety and reaping a sure harvest of infidelity. The servants' surprise at weeds where good seed was sown warns against allowing those taught by the enemy of truth to educate the young, against honoring such teachers, against overloading minds with useless study, against novels and fictitious literature and false theories, against sending students to places like Ann Arbor, where minds are opened to be corrupted, demoralized and led to infidelity.

In children and youth the tares are evil growths sown in the heart-field when parents neglect early training in purity and godliness, for a child's heart is a field to be sown early with what is good and pure lest Satan preoccupy it. Where good seed is not planted Satan sows instead stubbornness, selfishness, love of pleasure, pride, sinfulness, bad habits and waywardness, which take root faster than good, crowd it out and may mark life and take many years to uproot. The enemy sows in minds as in an uncultivated field, and unless parents keep watchful guard the tares spring up to bear evil fruit, so the soil of the mind needs unceasing care in cultivation and sowing with the precious seed of Bible truth. It is easier and safer to sow clean good seed from the beginning and from babyhood than to remove weeds later, teaching according to the Bible, persisting toward salvation, rejecting trashy exciting tales and turning to sensible reading that interests the mind in Bible story, history and argument, throws light upon the Sacred Volume and quickens desire to study it.

In speech and influence the tares are suspicions without foundation, tale-bearing, faultfinding, jealousy, dissension, strife, envy, evil-speaking, betraying confidence, skeptical words, angry glances, infidel suggestions, objections to the testimonies such as picking at I, we and us, and seeds of doubt and unbelief sown by words, actions and letters. The good seed is pure wheat that nourishes souls, but unguarded words and actions and labor that thinks no one else can help the people sow impure seed, while close guarding of words and actions with more study of the Word gives nourishing food instead. Skeptical words, an angry glance and infidel suggestions lodged in another mind can be acted upon and produce tares, bringing unhappy reflection to a sensitive soul, confusing judgment and weakening faith, and past influence once gone forth is unchangeable and repeats itself in the future. Such criticism disrupting the faith of God's people is not to be entertained, and drawing apart from ministering brethren unless things appear right to human judgment dishonors God and sows seed that grows great from a spirit of judgment and words of criticism resembling wheat for a time. Those in responsible positions who criticize laborers together with God, reject their messages and counteract God's appointed work through human agencies sow doubt under guidance of evil angels, working openly and secretly with defective perverted eyesight and satanic-inspired imagination seeing many things in false light, and unless they repent will find no place for repentance though sought carefully with tears, like Esau. Safety is to take heed how false theories from human lips pressed in by specious argument are received, to let God's Word abide within, to make Christ's words food and drink, to pray with childlike simplicity, to do humbly the duties at hand and to walk in the light as Christ is in the light even when the end cannot be seen. Converting grace makes clean thoughts and pure words, and influence from a converted soul dependent on God bears right fruit, while minds given up to unity of purpose with other parts of the work do away with this tare-producing criticism.

In churches, institutions, cities and mission fields the tares are worldly elements brought in through association with the world and placed in trust as teachers, guides and officials, worked upon by the spirit of darkness until institutions become unsubstantial and unreliable and the distinction between him that serves God and him that serves Him not is erased. The field is the church and its institutions, the good seed pure truth and members, and the servants' disappointed question exposes corruption whose cause is an enemy working while men slept. Through untransformed people admitted to the church Satan sows jealousy, dishonesty, criticism and accusation among members, with harshness and kingly authority, objectionable conduct, theatrical preaching and perverted principles that block progress. Harmful influences can also spread through and choke the gospel medical missionary work, so wrong teachings and practices must be corrected rather than allowed to remain. Youth in school are hurt by wrong associations contaminating spiritual and physical health away from parents and guardians, the wheat being students to be preserved and the tare-sowers those who corrupt them, whom faithful teachers and responsible guardians watching for souls as those that must give account must set in order, watching, praying, reproving, rebuking and correcting with wholesome words in precept and practice and refusing to allow tares to be sown. Satan has already sown tares in hearts of young men and women employed as helpers and nurses at the large sanitarium through wealthy worldly patrons whose display, favor and strong inducements to enter their employ, with dress, entertainments and employment, tempt youth to leave faithful service.

History shows the pattern, for after Paul left Corinth the enemy's tares appeared among the wheat and bore evil fruit as converts returned to heathen sins, bringing severe trial through carelessness. Priests tried to undo the truth Tyndale had sown, ravaging work begun by faithful preaching. Solomon's heathen alliances mingled idolatry with Israel's religion, human maxims entered the Jewish system, and error already confronted the Gospel in a corrupted world. Satan had been sowing tares among the colored people in the South for years, and long neglect of missionary work made the field harder to cultivate, requiring entry without further delay.

The tares include fanaticism that Satan intrudes and mingles with God's work, sowing falsehood among what is good, so discerning the genuine from the spurious requires living close to Jesus.

Why Both Must Remain

The question why evil is present where only good was sown is answered that an enemy has done this, for the deceiver sowed tares among the wheat. When he sinned in heaven even loyal angels did not fully discern his character, so he was not destroyed at once. At-once destruction would have left holy angels unable to perceive the justice and love of God, and doubt of God's goodness would itself have become evil seed yielding bitter fruit of sin and woe. The author of evil was therefore spared to fully develop his character, and through long ages God has borne the anguish of beholding the work of evil and gave the infinite gift of Calvary rather than let any be deceived by misrepresentation. The tares could not be plucked up without danger of uprooting the precious wheat, and this requires the same forbearance toward fellow men as the Lord of heaven shows, with humility and distrust of self instead of condemnation and judgment of others.

Wheat and tares must grow together until the harvest because their roots are entwined, so ruthlessly tearing up the tares would disturb the wheat also. The tares are harmful weeds that closely resemble the grain while growing, and pulling them out roughly could disturb the roots and destroy young shoots. Counterfeit believers are found among true disciples, yet Christ does not entrust their removal to human hands, because people might uproot the wheat along with them. Hasty action may damage the wheat, may cause those who would have remained faithful to stumble, may extinguish a last hope, or may mistake those Christ is drawing. The Lord alone in pity and compassion can separate the wheat from the tares, and He will do it at the appointed time.

The work of condemning members and purifying the church is not committed to human agents, because humans would make terrible mistakes in judgment. Men cannot reliably read hearts or distinguish wise from foolish and wheat from tare by outward likeness, though true character will be revealed by words, works and fruit. The householder is the true Watcher who never mistakes characters and alone knows who are His, and the church militant on earth composed of wheat and tares is not yet the church triumphant. All judgment is committed to the Son, who in humanity lived the law of God and understands the strength of temptation, human weakness and human striving to attain perfection that comes to every child of His. Angels who never err will do the separating, giving each a true position, with the obedient marked out by obedience and gathered to eternal life while the disobedient are separated from God.

Both good and harmful elements now coexisting in church and world remain together until the harvest, which is the end of the world and the end of probationary time. Then good and evil can be distinguished and separated, when the gospel work is complete and each destiny is fixed forever with no probation after judgment. The tares do not all become wheat but remain tares, are gathered out and burned and destroyed in the fire, while the wheat is gathered into God's storehouse. Their presence does not mean God has no church on earth nor that all the wicked will eventually turn to God. Human judgment may mistake wheat for tares and damage the church by trying to remove the erring hastily, so Christ is patient with them until angels separate them at the appointed harvest.

Harvest and Final Separation

At the harvest the righteous and the wicked are separated and revealed, for good and evil remain together until the end of the world and the end of probationary time, when the gospel work is complete and judgment fixes each destiny forever with no probation afterward. The tares do not all become wheat but remain tares, and they are gathered out and burned in fire and destroyed while the wheat is gathered into God's storehouse and heavenly garner for eternal life. While the plants are young the tares resemble wheat and can deceive the laborers and make them fear uprooting good plants, but at harvest their difference is plain, and false professors of piety who mingle for a time with true followers will trouble them no more. The Lord knows each character, whether there is obedience and love for His commandments and ripening for God by obedience, though righteous and wicked remain mixed in the work of life where people may not see the difference, and human hands must not try to remove the tares lest the wheat be uprooted.

That separating is the work of the third angel, selecting and sealing the precious wheat and binding it for the heavenly harvest and heavenly garner, while the vile are separated from them and left. The wheat-and-tares imagery of servants finding weeds among good seed and asking how they came there is the pattern for this binding and sealing of wheat for the heavenly garner. When the separation is complete each destiny is fixed forever.

Near the end there is a sifting and revealing of true character, with divisions coming so that two parties develop and grow up together to the very close while the last message of mercy is sounded to a fallen world and those who labor together with God contend earnestly for the faith once delivered to the saints. Trials and testing separate the untrue from the true and reveal whether those among God's people are converted and sanctified or remain with the world, and those who leave show they were not truly of the faithful community. Those once regarded as wheat may manifest themselves as tares, and this should not cause crushing disappointment or great disappointment, for exposure comes in this life where every soul is proved and tried until character is purified and it is decided whether each will be worthy to be counted among the members of the Lord's family in the mansions above. The unjust will be found among the just, and those who reject received light will face corresponding darkness, for the tares are already being bound in bundles to burn and God will sift His people so the chaff is separated from the wheat. They are those who do not have truth in the heart and are not sanctified through the truth, but have only tacked truth onto carnal, unsanctified, unholy characters without bringing it into life and weaving it into character, until circumstances reveal thoughts and actions in unholy works, in contrast to living by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God and to God's people by beholding becoming changed into the likeness of Christ and becoming one with Christ as He is one with the Father.

Reaping follows sowing, for sowing tares produces only tares and never wheat, and evil seed sown brings forth tares as its expected growth, so the reaping time will be as the sowing time has been. The Master sent His servants to sow His field with pure wheat only and not with mingled seed, yet tares are sown as mere suppositions, spurious ideas, fallacious theories and vagaries of the human brain conjured up as something original and passed along as food and as life-and-death truth, depriving souls of the light and experience they might have had from gathering golden threads of sanctifying truth from the Word. Sowing tares means pursuing a wrong course and harming the flock of God by precept or example and perverting the true moral standard of the gospel, bringing decided danger to the soul, while sowing wheat means living closely to the example given in the life of Christ in greatest humility and humbleness of mind, where in the deepest sense of ruin sincere love for Christ and proper gratitude to Him who gave His life are learned. As character is at death so it remains until the morning of the resurrection, with no conversion or transformation of character then, and even when sowers see their folly, repent, and are forgiven for teaching what was never committed to them, their tears and repentance do not change their tares into wheat, so that when the harvest is gathered the chaff is still found in the wheat to their condemnation. The judgment books will reveal the spirit that led people to sow wrongdoing that harms God's cause, yet the Lord can overrule for good if repentance is carried out and each acts his part in the fear of God and for love of souls, standing firmly on the platform of eternal truth and living the truth before the world and avoiding divided parties and internal warfare that dishonors God and retards His work.

Human Duty and Application

The servants' surprised question whether to go and gather up the tares means the work of condemning members and purifying the church has not been committed to human agents, for both must grow together until the harvest because human judgment would make terrible mistakes. All judgment has been committed to the Son alone, who lived humanity under law and understands the strength of temptation, human weakness and striving for perfection. Trying to uproot supposed evildoers by civil power with imprisonment, torture and death is not Christ's way but Satan's way and misrepresents God, and those who oppose or despise truth, however objectionable they appear, are to be left to God's judgment rather than judged, punished or violently rooted out. Their presence in every church gives no one the right to measure fellow character and must not keep anyone from being a Christian.

No person is appointed to decide who is tare and who is wheat, since the Lord alone knows who are His and angels who never err will do the separating at harvest. The church militant on earth therefore contains both faithful and unfaithful and is not yet the church triumphant, and the mistaken expectation of only pure and perfect people is no reason for disappointment, for violently denouncing or excommunicating those judged in error, for breaking up the church, for tearing apart or abandoning efforts to reach and save those who may believe and join the work, or for setting up new contrivances. Christ bore with Judas even to foot-washing and sacrament, false brethren will remain until the end, and evils among Sabbathkeepers give no reason to disparage the church, separate from it, or refuse Christianity on account of others.

What is required instead is the same forbearance toward fellow men that the Lord of heaven shows toward Satan, with humility and distrust of self rather than condemnation, judgment, criticism and accusation, looking to Christ the perfect pattern and feeding on Him rather than feeding on real or supposed faults lest fault-seers themselves be ranked as tares. Ministers and churches need patience, care and self-control before taking steps to correct or separate, because premature removal may damage wheat that might still grow strong, extinguish last hope, create division and opposition, and mistake those Christ is drawing. Personal house-to-house labor should therefore build up, restore and strengthen ransomed souls rather than tear down.

Watchfulness remains nonetheless, for leaders should work for purification so the church shines as a bright light and becomes evident in transformation, strengthen the wheat so tares do not gain supremacy, and investigate impurity rather than let it remain, since silence about checkable evils shares guilt. Wrong teachings and practices that would spread through and choke gospel medical missionary work, institutions and ministry must be corrected rather than allowed to remain, yet hasty removal without careful thought and earnest prayer creates division. The presence of tares sown by the enemy in negligence and unsanctified hearts calls for prayerful discrimination between acting too soon and failing to act at all.

Life itself is sowing time, pictured by the question about tares among good seed, in which choices, work, talents, conduct, thoughts, words, letters, spirit in daily duties and personal influence sow seed producing wheat or tares for eternity and the future judgment according to deeds. All should therefore sow wheat by patience, kindness, right conduct, faithful living and sharing knowledge of God, so as not to lead others away or cause stumbling, and students who encourage evil or discourage teachers sow tares helping Satan. This requires guarding the mind's soil with Bible truth and sensible reading, keeping one's own garden by purifying thoughts and words, appropriating high and holy influences lest low worldly ones imperceptibly form character toward worldliness and sin, and keeping vigilance so error sown by the enemy does not take root among truth already sown.

The perplexity of evil seen even in nature, from whence came tares when only good seed was sown, with brier and thorn, thistle and tare blighting and marring, needs an interpreter and can be read aright only in the light shining from Calvary. Through Bethlehem and the cross is shown how good is to conquer evil, how every blessing is a gift of redemption, and how nature still speaks of God's goodness. Daily sowing and reaping, where growth depends on God's power working with human skill and labor, reveals God at work in nature and makes heaven's kingdom plain, while cultivation of soil cursed after transgression gave Satan opportunity mirrors God's continual warfare in man to defeat Satan upon the soul.

When other means fail God may allow heresies to come in to wake a sleeping people and separate chaff from wheat, calling all who believe to awake out of sleep, study Scripture diligently, examine positions most critically, and take heed how theories are received. Precious light of Bible truth showing perils at hand must lead to such searching, with not even a seed of falsehood entertained, the yoke of misleading sentiments broken, and a firm stand on the Lord's side under His lifted standard. The same warning applies to inattentive hearers during preaching, whose distraction and spiritual heedlessness let Satan sow while men sleep and keep the word from rooting and bearing fruit, and to workers in medical missionary work and ministry who look much like the genuine.