he

fruit to perfection'.

`But that on the

`And these are

`But  he  that

good  ground  are

they  which  are

received seed into

they, which in an

on

the good ground is

ground;  such  as

honest  and  good

he that heareth the

heart, having heard

hear the word, and

the word, keep it,

receive it'.

and bring forth fruit

which also beareth

with patience'.

fruit, and bringeth

forth,  some  an

hundredfold, some

sixty, some thirty'.

Such is the divine interpretation. We are not called upon to speculate, but to believe. Those to whom these

words were first uttered knew the Scriptures of the Old Testament sufficiently well to follow the figurative

allusions far more clearly and with greater suggestiveness than we are able to. Moreover, they had no epistle of

church doctrine in their minds. We have, and because we will not discern between the things which differ, we

introduce confusion into God's Word by our traditional ideas. Let us keep church and kingdom separate; let us

not read into Matthew 13 that which was not revealed until years after, then we shall be able to understand

something of the `mysteries of the kingdom of the heavens'. The kingdom of God is wider in its scope than the

kingdom of the heavens. The latter expression has reference to that Millennial kingdom, when the kingdom of

this world shall be ruled by heaven's King, when Daniel 2:44 shall be fulfilled; but the term, `the kingdom of

God', though wider than the kingdom of heaven, is not used in the Gospels to refer to the church of the present

dispensation, for at that time the present dispensation was a secret hidden by God, whereas the secrets of

Matthew 13 are to some extent explained.

There is no need for us to repeat that which we have stated in pages 1 to 7, for the exclusively Jewish and

kingdom setting of Matthew 13 is evident to every candid reader (cf. Matt. 10:5,6; and Matt. 15:24, which are

on either side of Matt. 13).

The parable tells us of the secret course of the purpose relative to the kingdom. It depicts the apparent

failure of the early ministry, but shows in the fourth ground its fruitful consummation. All who are pictured

here under the imagery of the various sowings are those who hear and receive the word of God, particularly the

word of God relative to the kingdom (Matt. 13:19; Luke 8:11). This cannot refer to the heathen nations, at least

not until we reach the fourth ground; for during the ministry of Christ the word of the kingdom was confined to

the limits of the Land of Promise:

`Go not into the way of the Gentiles, and into any city of the Samaritans enter ye not: but go rather to the lost

sheep of the house of Israel. And as ye go, preach, saying, The kingdom of heaven is at hand' (Matt.

Perhaps we ought to note some things which the Lord does not say. He does not say, `The sower is the Son

of man'; it is merely `a sower' in the parable; and in the interpretation nothing is said of the sower other than the

fact that `the sower soweth the word'. We have two expositions before us, both of which emphasize that the

sower `was the Son of man'.

Again, it does not say, `the field is the world'. Luke tells us that the various sowings, in various kinds of

ground, had reference to the hearts of those who heard the word. When we come to examine the parable of the

Wheat and Tares, then we are distinctly told that the sower is the Son of man, and that the field is the world, but

if we introduce these into the parable of the Sower, we spoil the intended teaching.

The `seed of the kingdom of heaven' was sown by John the Baptist, the Lord Jesus Christ, and the apostles

during the Acts period; this ministry, as we know, was humanly speaking a failure, for although they proclaimed

the near approach of the kingdom of heaven, that kingdom is now in abeyance. The kingdom purposes,

however, cannot fail, hence prophecy clearly indicates a further preaching and sowing of this same gospel seed,

which will be fruitful as depicted in the fourth ground. This is one of the `secrets' or `mysteries' of the kingdom

of the heavens. Following hard upon the rejection of the Lord Himself (Matt. 12) comes the revelation of the