d
dough. The leaven kept working until it affected all the dough and
made it rise and become light.

As the yeast or leaven goes through all the dough, so the gospel of
Jesus will go to all the nations in the world.

Each one who believes on Jesus enters the kingdom of God. The kingdom
of God is righteousness, peace, and joy, which we get when we become
Christians.

[Illustration]

Laborers in the Vineyard

Jesus told another parable, a story of the laborers in the vineyard.
You can turn in your Testament to Matthew 20:1-16, and read about the
man who hired laborers to work in his vineyard.

[Illustration]

He had agreed to pay the laborers a penny a day. The men who worked
all day thought they should receive more than those hired later in the
day, but the master paid them all alike. Just so those of us who have
been Christians only a short time will receive the same heavenly
reward as those who have lived a Christian life for years. Salvation
is just the same to all--it takes sin out of our hearts and fills them
with the love of God.

We must not put off getting saved; for Jesus said, "Watch, for ye know
not the hour when your Lord doth come." This means that we are liable
to die without a warning, and we should always be ready.

The Wicked Husbandmen

Another parable is about a man who had a vineyard and let it out to
husbandmen. When the time for gathering grapes came, he sent his
servants to the husbandmen that they might receive the fruit. But the
husbandmen took his servants and beat one and killed another. He sent
other servants, and they were treated in the same way.

Last of all he sent his son, thinking they would honor him, but they
caught him and killed him.

[Illustration]

Jesus spoke this parable to the wicked people about himself at that
time. Christ himself had been sent to the Jews, who had been the
people of God for ages past, but who had wandered into sin. From time
to time God had sent good prophets to warn the Jews, but often the
prophets were persecuted.

At last God sent Jesus, his only Son, and him they killed.

[Illustration]

The Wheat and the Tares

Christ told another parable. It was of a man who sowed good seed in
his field; but while the servants slept, an enemy came and sowed
tares, or weeds, and then went away so that the servants knew nothing
of it.

When the wheat grew, the tares also grew. When the servants noticed
the tares, they ask