"Then Jesus sent the multitude away, and went into the house: and His disciples came unto Him, saying, Declare unto us the parable of the tares of the field. {147} "He answered and said unto them, He that soweth the good seed is the Son of Man: the field is the world; the good seed are the children of the kingdom; but the tares are the children of the wicked one; the enemy that sowed them is the devil; the harvest is the end of the world; and the reapers are the angels. "As therefore the tares are gathered and burned in the fire; so shall it be in the end of this world. The Son of Man shall send forth His angels, and they shall gather out of His kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity; and shall cast them into a furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth. Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Who hath ears to hear, let him hear." [Sidenote: The meaning of the parables.] Thus clearly did Jesus Himself see the condition of the world, and thus plainly did He teach it to His disciples. Now, for the purpose of this study, certain points appear. First, it is very evident that Jesus had in mind a distinct community life for those who followed Him. The kingdom of heaven, sometimes called the kingdom of God, is the organization in which dwells the righteous. Of course, all kinds of people gain access at times into the kingdom. In another parable, Jesus likens the kingdom to a net cast into the sea, which gathered of every kind of fish. When the net was drawn ashore, the fishermen placed the good fish in vessels, but the bad they cast away. Again, you see, the intent is that the followers of Jesus, or the righteous, are the children of the kingdom, and that the unrighteous have no place therein. The righteous in {148} their community--the believing community--shall shine forth as the sun. They constitute the kingdom of their Father. [Sidenote: The church and the kingdom.] You may object that this kingdom does not mean the organized Church, but the glorious kingdom embracing the whole world, over which Jesus is to reign as King. Perhaps you are right; but it makes no difference to the argument. For, in the first place, that kingdom must be organized. We are sure, then, that Jesus had in mind the assembling and organizing of His people. But, in the second place, that larger kingdom can never be accomplished without a smaller one from which it may grow. While the faithful number but a handful, they, too, must be organized and provision must be made for common worship, fellowship, and service. This smaller institution--included in the larger--is the Church. The wheat and the tares are even now growing side by side in the Church of Christ--in the kingdom of God--and will continue to do so until the day of the great harvest. [Sidenote: The testimony of Peter.]