Page:Swedenborgs Maximus Homo.pdf/90

 necessity of internal righteousness, are clearly taught in Scripture. The Lord says to the Scribes and Pharisees:—

"Ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but within are full of dead men's bones and all uncleanness. Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity." (Matt. xxiii, 27, 28.) Again it is written: "The Lord seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart." (1 Sam. xvi, 7.)

And the difficulty of separating the good from the evil in this world, and the danger of attempting it if their externals are alike, is plainly taught in the parable of the tares and the wheat. When the servants of the Lord, eager to root up the tares before the harvest-time, came and said: "Wilt thou that we go and gather them up?" the answer of Divine Wisdom was, and forever is: "Nay; lest while ye gather up the tares, ye root up also the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest."

Now the wheat mentioned in the parable "are the children of the kingdom; but the tares are the children of the wicked one." In other words, the wheat denotes those who are, and the tares those who are not, of the Lord's true church. And the harvest, when used with reference to