CHAPTER 116.
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Levi
The Christines are in Philip’s home. Jesus interprets the parable of the wheat and tares. He explains the unfoldment of the kingdom by parables: the good seed; the growth of the tree; the leaven; the hidden treasure. He goes to a mountain to pray.
The Christines were in Philip’s home and Peter said to Jesus, Lord, will you explain to us the meaning of the parables you spoke today? The one about the wheat and tares, especially?
2 And Jesus said, God’s kingdom is a dualty; it has an outer and an inner form.
3 As seen by man it is composed of men, of those who make confession of the name of Christ.
4 For various reasons various people crowd this outer kingdom of our God.
5 The inner kingdom is the kingdom of the soul, the kingdom of the pure in heart.
6 The outer kingdom I may well explain in parables. Behold, for I have seen you cast a great net out into the sea,
7 And when you hauled it in, lo, it was full of every kind of fish, some good, some bad, some great, some small; and I have seen you save the good and throw the bad away.
8 This outer kingdom is the net, and every kind of man is caught; but in the sorting day the bad will all be cast away, the good reserved.
9 Hear, then, the meaning of the parable of wheat and tares:
10 The sower is the son of man; the field, the world; the good seed are the children of the light; the tares, the children of the dark; the enemy, the carnal self; the harvest day, the closing of the age; the reapers are the messengers of God.
11 The reckoning day will come to every man; then will the tares be gathered up, and cast into the fire and be burned.
12 Then will the good shine forth as suns in the kingdom of the soul.
13 And Philip said, Must men and women suffer in the flames because they have not found the way of life?
14 And Jesus said, The fire purifies. The chemist throws into the fire the ores that hold all kinds of dross.
15 The useless metal seems to be consumed; but not a grain of gold is lost.
16 There is no man that has not in him gold that cannot be destroyed. The evil things of men are all consumed in fire; the gold survives.
17 The inner kingdom of the soul I may explain in parables:
18 The son of man goes forth and scatters seeds of truth; God waters well the soil; the seeds show life and grow; first comes the blade, and then the stalk, and then the ear, and then the full wheat in the ear.
19 The harvest comes and, lo, the reapers bear the ripened sheaves into the garner of the Lord.
20 Again, this kingdom of the soul is like a little seed that men may plant in fertile soil.
21 (A thousand of these seeds would scarcely be a shekel’s weight.)
22 The tiny seed begins to grow; it pushes through the earth, and after years of growth it is a mighty tree and birds rest in its leafy bowers and men find refuge ’neath its sheltering boughs from sun and storm.
23 Again, the truth, the spirit of the kingdom of the soul, is like a ball of leaven that a woman hid in measures, three, of flour and in a little time the whole was leavened.
24 Again, the kingdom of the soul is like a treasure hidden in a field which one has found, and straitway goes his way and sells all that he has and buys the field.
25 When Jesus had thus said he went alone into a mountain pass near by to pray.