We may well pause here for a moment to think about the meaning of these words. Our Blessed Lord was preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom. And when He began to describe the Kingdom which He came to found, He told His disciples at once that it would be very far from being a perfect state, such as some might dream of. They must expect to see evil growing wild in it, like weeds in a field of corn. There would be bad subjects as well as good; and there would be no means of separating them. And as long as this world should last, the outward appearance of "The Kingdom of Heaven" would be like a field of wheat and tares growing together. At the same time He encouraged His disciples with the prospect of boundless success. In the next Parable--"The Grain of Mustard Seed"--He described, prophetically, the outward spread of His Kingdom from very small beginnings, until the nations of the world should find shelter within it. For though nothing could be less promising of success than the first beginnings of "The Kingdom of Heaven," yet, as a spreading tree may rise from the smallest seed, even so should His Kingdom extend its branches through the world (S. Matt. xiii. 31, 32). And this was not their only ground for encouragement and hope. For this description of the outward extension of the Kingdom, taken by itself, gives a very imperfect idea of its character. He taught them that "The Kingdom of Heaven" would exert a spiritual power over the hearts of men. It would be like leaven working in the meal. It would change the hearts of its subjects. The effect would be such as was afterwards described by the Apostle S. Paul, "If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature" (2 Cor. v. 17). And as leaven goes on working until the whole mass of the meal in which it is hid is leavened, even so He would lead us to understand that one heart truly leavened with the Gospel of the Kingdom will affect others; and that, silently and unnoticed, it will extend until it works a moral change in the state of the whole world (S. Matt. xiii. 33)[7].