Page:Meditations For Every Day In The Year.djvu/501

 Christ's own  exposition,  the  sower  in  this  parable  is  God; the field,  the  world;  the  good  seed,  the  just;  the  cockle, the wicked;  the  enemy,  the  world;  and  the  angels,  the reapers. God, on  His  part,  wishes  all  men  to  be  virtuous,  and,  with  this  good  intention,  gives  His  good  seed; tout whilst  men  are  asleep,  and  careless  in  the  affairs  of salvation,  the  devil  sows  cockle  among  the  good  grain; — thus some  men  become  wicked. The cockle  grows  up with  the  good  grain,  and  sometimes  is  hardly  distinguishable from  it;  during  this  life,  the  wicked  are  often scarcely known  from  the  good. Examine whether  you ibe wheat  or  cockle,  and  do  not  sleep  or  be  careless  in your  salvation,  for  fear  of  receiving  injury  from  your enemy.

II. The just  even  are  sometimes  indiscreet,  when  they wish the  wicked  to  be  destroyed  at  once. " Wilt  Thou that  we  go  and  gather  them  up." God, however,  acts in a  different  manner,  "  He  makes  the  sun  to  rise  upon the  good  and  the  bad." (Matt. v.  45.)  He  waits  with  patience for  the  conversion  of  the  wicked,  and  therefore does not  wish  them  immediately  to  be  gathered  up. Imitate God  in  this  patient  forbearance  in  regard  to your  brethren,  whose  conduct  displeases  or  disedifies you.

III. How differently  this  world  terminates  in  regard to the  good  and  the  wicked. " Gather  up  first  the  cockle, and  bind  it  into  bundles,  to  burn,  but  gather  the  wheat into  My  barn." Would you  wish  to  be  cockle  or  wheat? If you  prefer  to  be  wheat,  suffer  yourself  to  be  purified by afflictions  sent  from  God,  and,  by  voluntary  mortification, from  all  chaff,  and  separated  from  the  cockle,  for " nothing  defiled  can  enter  heaven." (Apoc. xxi.  27.)