“Sämann und Teufel” (Sower and Devil)
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There is probably no more eloquent commentary on this parable than John Newton’s hymn lyrics — remember the great John Newton, who also composed “Amazing Grace,” drawn from his own dramatic autobiography? — which were set to the wonderful music of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s “Bei Männern welche Liebe fühlen” (from Die Zauberflöte) and which once (but no longer) appeared in the Latter-day Saint hymnal:
1 Though in the earthly church below
The wheat and tares together grow;
Jesus ere long will weed the crop,
And pluck the tares, in anger up.
2 Will it relieve their horrors there,
To recollect their stations here?
How much they heard, how much they knew,
How long among the wheat they grew!
3 Oh! this will aggravate their case!
They perish under means of grace;
To them the word of life and faith,
Became an instrument of death.
4 We seem alike when thus we meet,
Strangers might think we all were wheat;
But to the Lord’s all-searching eyes,
Each heart appears without disguise.
5 The tares are spared for various ends,
Some, for the sake of praying friends;
Others, the Lord, against their will,
Employs his counsel to fulfill.
6 But though they grow so tall and strong,
His plan will not require them long;
In harvest when he saves his own,
The tares shall into hell be thrown.
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