The times. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1890-1903, 1901-02-10
THE SOwEl; AND THE WORD.

"a Sower went out to SOW his seed, ana
as he sowed. some fell by the wayside;
and it was trodden down, and the fowls
of the air deVoured it. And some Tell
upon a rock, and as soon as it sprung up
it withered away, because it lacked mois-
ture. And some fell among thorns. and
the thorns sprung up with it and choked
it. And other fell on good ground and
sprang up and bear fruit an hundred
Told. Luke. viii: J-S.
This parable Of the sower. given to US
by our Lord and cxpounded by Himself,
contains a solemn warning 10 two classes
Of people-tlose who preach and those
who hear the word of God.
Wherever the word of God is preached
and the people assembled to hear it, the
sayings OF Christ in this parable are
found to be true.
For the work Of a preacher resembles
tilat of the sower. Like the sower, he must
SOW good seed if he desires a harvest. He
must SOW the pure word of God, or he
Will labor in vain. lie may so TO and
fro and seem to say much and to work
much in his weekly round of ministerial
duty But there VIII be no harvest of
souls For heaven 10 living results, no
conversions.
Like the sower, the preacher must be
dligent He must spare TO pains. He must
use every possible means to make his
work prosper. He must not entirely de-
pend upon his labor or diligence, but with
out tilem success will seldom be obtained.
Like the sower, the preacher cannot give
life. he can scatter the seed committed
H. -
to grow. He may offer the word Of truth
to many, but he cannot make them re-
ceive it. To give life is Gods sovereign
Trerogative. 1T is the spirit that quick
eneth'' God, ami Cod alone can give the
Increase
1t is no light task to re Q real minister
of Gods word. To be an idle. formal work
man may be an easy business; to be
faithful "sower' requires all the best
energies. We Should pray for them to the
Lord Of the harvest, that He may bless
their efforts and fulfil His own promise
My word shall not return to me void
Our Lord further tells US that the hearts
of scmc hearers are barren like the way
side The gospel has no attraction for
them. 1t does not make the least impress
sion on their minds, nor sink into the
heart. Careless, thoughtless, unconcecned
they can hear OF Christ, His love and His
sufferinGs with utter Indifference. Fast
as the words fall on the ears the fowls
of the air Cor DeviD plucks them away,
and it is as if they had never heard it.
Alas. there are many such hearers,
Again, there are some hearts like a
'trock.'
The seed of the Lord springs up imme-
diately as soon as heard, and bears a crop
of joyful impressions, pleasurable emo
tons. But they are only on the sur
face. At the first cold blast Of opposition
or temptation the poor little bit of relig-
ion, which they seemed to have had
withers and parishes away.
Or again, the heart may be like the
.thorny und,-choked with a rank crop
of cares pleasures and worldly plans.
They really like the gospel and wish to
obey it, yet give it no chance to bear
fruit They allow the things of earth to
get such hold upon them that they leave
no room for the word OF God to do its
work a weekly process OF truth sitting
goes on within, and they bring no fruit
TO perfection.
They know the truth well. They hope
one day to be decided Christians. But they
never come to the point OF giving up all
for Christ's sake.
These are points he should weigh we'll
1t is not enough that We come to hear.
We may come and be careless. Its not
enough that we are not careless hearers.
Our impressions may. be only temporary
and resdy to perish. 1t is NOT. enough that
our impressions are not merely temporary,
But they may yield no result IN conse-
quence to our obstinate cleaving to the
world. Three ways to hear-only one to