One other point ought to be more particularly noticed before we close the consideration of this chapter. The harvest of the good is gathered in by the Lord Himself, that of the wicked by His angel. The same lesson appears to be read in the parables of the tares and of the drawnet. In the former (although allusions in each parable may seem to imply that angels take part in both acts) it is said that "at the end of the world the Son of man shall send forth His angels, and they shall gather out of His kingdom all things that cause stumbling, and them that do iniquity."[415] In the latter we read, "So shall it be in the end of the world: the angels shall come forth, and sever the wicked from among the righteous, and shall cast them into the furnace of fire."[416] In like manner here. The Son of man Himself gathers His own to their eternal rest. It is an angel, though commissioned by Him, who gathers the wicked to their fate. "And is there not a beauty and tenderness in this contrast? It is as though that Son of man and Son of God who is the Judge of quick and dead, the Judge alike of the righteous and of the wicked, loved one half of His office, and loved not the other. It is as though He cherished as His own prerogative the harvest of the earth, and were glad to delegate to other hands the vintage. It is as though the ministry of mercy were His chosen office, and the ministry of wrath His stern necessity. One like unto the Son of man puts forth the sickle of the ingathering; one of created, though it be of angelic, nature is employed to send forth the sickle of destruction."[417] FOOTNOTES: [375] John xii. 36-38. [376] Vers. 42, 50. [377] Ps. cxxxiii. 3. [378] Ps. ix. 11. [379] Ps. lxxviii. 68. [380] Ps. xiv. 7. [381] Ps. ii. 6, 7. [382] Isa. xxxv. 10. [383] Heb. xii. 22-24. [384] Ps. xlviii. 2. [385] Comp. Lee in _Speaker's Commentary in loc._ The distinction between the two references is there wrongly given. [386] 2 Cor. xi. 2. [387] 1 John v. 20, 21. [388] John xxi. 22. [389] Chaps. xxi. 27; xxii. 15. [390] Heb. ix. 14; 1 Pet. i. 19. [391] Rom. xi. 16; xvi. 5; 1 Cor. xv. 20; xvi. 15. [392] James i. 18. [393] Rom. viii. 21. [394] Isa. lv. 12. [395] Ps. xcvi. 13. [396] Chaps. xvii. 1; xviii. 7. [397] Comp. chaps. xi. 9; xiii. 7. [398] Comp. James ii. 19. [399] Chaps. viii., xv. [400] They are so rendered in the margin of the Revised Version. [401] Jude 7 (margin of R.V.). [402] Rom. vii. [403] Comp. p. 108. [404] Matt. ix. 37, 38; xiii. 29, 30. [405] John xiv. 3. [406] John v. 19. [407] Mark xiii. 32. [408] Comp. the "dried up" of the margin of the Revised Version. [409] John v. 30. [410] Joel iii. 12, 13. [411] Isa. lxiii. 2-4. [412] Ver. 15. [413] Zech. xiv. 20. [414] Comp. 1 Cor. ix. 24. [415] Matt. xiii. 41. [416] Matt. xiii. 49, 50. [417] Vaughan, _u. s._, p. 378. CHAPTER XII. _THE SEVEN BOWLS._