Be not afraid : $b Stories from the New TestamentShaw, Catharine
Religion
Be not afraid : $b Stories from the New Testament
Shaw, Catharine
Bible stories, English -- New Testament -- Juvenile literature
By and by the seeds began to grow, and the little blades came up green
all over the field. Then the servants of the master of the field,
looking closely at the crop, saw that some of the blades were of good
wheat, but some looked like tares, which were of no use to anyone and
only injured the wheat. So they hastened to the owner of the field, and
they said, "Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field; how have the
tares got there?"
And the owner said, "An enemy has done this."
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.
And He answered, "An enemy has done this."
Satan is our enemy. It is true we cannot see him, but he is near us all
the same.
Like the enemy in the Parable, he creeps out when men are asleep—when
you are off your guard—when you have forgotten to watch and to pray;
and it is he who whispers to you that:
"No one will see."
"That it is such a little thing."
"That it is so hard to obey!"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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