r
cover of night, and with much labour scatters something broadcast over
its surface. He is secretly sowing tares, with the malicious design of
damaging or destroying the wheat. As soon as the deed of darkness is
done, he creeps stealthily back to his own bed, and in the morning, when
he meets his fellow-villagers, does his best to put on the air of an
innocent man.

Weeks pass; showers fall; the seed springs and covers all the ground
with beautiful green. The owner visited his field from time to time in
spring, and thought it promised well. But at that period of the summer,
still a good while before harvest, when the ears of the grain begin to
appear, some of the farmer's servants, looking narrowly into the quality
of the crop, discovered that a large proportion of it was darnel.
Forthwith they reported the sad intelligence to their master, and
requested permission to pluck out the intruders. It was agreed among
them that good seed had been sown, and the darnel or false wheat was by
common consent and without hesitation set down as the work of an enemy.
As to the treatment of the disaster now that it had occurred, the
master's judgment was clear, and his order explicit: to pull out the
darnel at this stage, as the servants proposed, would hurt the wheat
more than help it; both must be permitted to grow together till the
harvest; they may be safely and effectually separated then.

Some interesting questions connected with the natural objects claim our
regard in the first instance, before we proceed to investigate the
spiritual significance of the parable.

What are the tares? The original term does not elsewhere occur in
Scripture, and in the total absence of examples for comparison, it is
somewhat difficult to ascertain its precise signification. The word and
the thing which it signifies have exercised the learning and ingenuity
of expositors both in ancient and in modern times. On such a subject as
this it is on the line of natural history rather than philology that the
investigation should mainly proceed; there, from the nature of the case,
surer results may be obtained. Through the increased facility of making
local inquiries which has of late years been enjoyed, it is now known,
and apparently with one consent acknowledged by intelligent inquirers,
that the seed which the malicious neighbour sowed in order to injure the
produce of the field was _Lolium temulentum_, or darnel, a kind of false
wheat to which the A