After a time, when the harvest comes, the farmer enters the field and cuts down the wheat, and it is then taken to the barn or threshing floor. Years ago, when I was a boy, farmers used to spend a large portion of the winter in threshing grain. They would spread it out upon the floor of the barn and beat it with a heavy stick, which was tied so as to swing easily at the end of a long handle. This was called a flail. Machines for threshing grain were not then common, as they are to-day. When the farmer threshes his grain, he does not do it to destroy the wheat, but simply to separate it from the chaff. The Bible tells us that we must enter into the kingdom of God through much "tribulation." And do you know that the word "tribulation" comes from a Latin word, _tribulum_, which means a flail? So the teaching of this passage of Scripture is, that God places you and me under the flail, and smites again and again, in order that the noblest, best and most Christ-like in us may be separated by trials and tribulations from that which is worthless; and which needs to be cast off in order that just as the farmer gathers the wheat into his garner or granary here on earth, so God may gather us eventually into His garner above. Boys and girls oftentimes have tribulations in this world, just the same as older people do. Disappointments come to them, and because of ambitions which are not lawful or right, purposes which are not in harmony with God's word and with God's will; because of needed discipline, or for some good reason God is tribulating them by sorrows, disappointments and trials, and making them better by means of the experiences through which they are called upon to pass. [Illustration: Winnowing or Separating Wheat and Chaff.] If you have been with the farmer in his barn after he is through with the threshing, you have seen him take the fanning-mill, and perhaps you have turned the crank for him, while he has slowly shoveled the grain into the mill and the chaff was being blown away by the wind set in motion by the revolution of the large fanning wheel. In the olden times they did not have fanning-mills, but when the farmer desired to separate the chaff from the wheat, he did it with a fan. He poured the grain from one basket or box, or some other receptacle, into another while the wind was blowing, or else used a fan to create a draught of wind to blow the chaff, and thus separate it from the wheat. It is this ancient custom to which John the Baptist refers. He says, concerning Christ, "Whose fan is in His hand, and He will thoroughly purge His floor, and gather His wheat into the garner; but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire." (Matthew iii: 12.)