the kingdom of heaven, therefore, of all the features
which the parable contains, "the field" must specifically represent that
kingdom, in the face of the express testimony of Scripture that the
field represents a totally different thing. The parable of the
mustard-seed concerns the kingdom too, but does the "field" in that
parable therefore mean the Church? No. The mustard-seed that grew in the
field means the Church, and the field means the world in which the
Church is planted. So in this parable the only thing that represents the
Church, or aggregate of individual believers, is the mass of the wheat
stalks that sprang from the good seed: the good seed are the children of
the kingdom, and the field is the world in which these children live and
labour. Looking minutely to the phraseology employed, we find that the
kingdom of heaven is not said to be likened unto a field, but unto a man
that sowed seed; pointing to the Lord himself as the head, and the good
seed as his members, and the wide world as their place of sojourn, till
he take them to himself.

Dr. Trench remarks further on this point, that the use of the term
"world" need not perplex us in the least; and perhaps he was led to make
that assertion because the use of the term did perplex him much. His
solution of the difficulty is this: "It _was_ the world, and therefore
was rightly called so, till this seed was sown in it; but thenceforth
was the world no longer." If it has any meaning at all, this sentence
must mean that what was the world yesterday becomes the Church to-day,
when some seed is sown, when some children of the kingdom are in it.
Does the whole world become the Church when one country is
christianized? or is it only the portion christianized that becomes the
Church? If so, how many Christians must be in a given portion of the
world, to constitute that portion the Church? If there were three of the
true seed in Sodom, was Sodom the Church? or did not the three
constitute the Church in Lot's house, while the world raged around it
like the troubled sea?

Some of Stier's remarks are good: "The parable moves in quite a
different sphere from that of the question concerning Church
discipline." "The householder forbids and will not allow what the
servants wish. These would have all the tares removed entirely from
their place among the wheat, from the kingdom of Christ (ver. 41). But
because the field is the world, that were equivalent to removing the bad