Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1910-06-17

Returning from His third missionary
tour through Galilee Jesus found the
opposition Of the Pharisees and Scribes
so active that a great number of peo-
pie who had been following Him be-
fore had been turned against Inn dur
ing His absence by the reports which
they had circulated, and the influence
which they had brough, 10 bear. In
fact, il seemed that His words were
of no effect because of the work or
His enemies during His absence. He
had not lost all OF His influence, now
ever. He was still exceedingly pop
ular, although His popularity was be-
ginning to wane; but by a stroke He
won IT again to a certain extent.
He gained favor by casting out the
demon from the dumb demoniac. The
Pharisees tried TO counterfeit this
stroke by claiming 1t to be The work
of Beelzebub. We have considered His
answer to them. Under these circum-
stances He speaks the first group or
parallels, whose chief teachings con-
Germ the influence of evil In the king
dom of heaven. There are seven in all
OF these which are recorded. four or
them spoken to the crowd on the sea-
shore while Jesus was seated in the
boat The other three were spoken to
His disciples on the same afternoon
after He had .gone into the house. The
first four, the parable of the Sewer, the
Tares, the Mustard Seed, and the
Eleven, bear particularly on the out
ward aspect OF the kingdom OF heaven.
whereas we might we'll imagine the
last three, the Hidden Treasure, Pearl
and Net deal with the internal aspect
of the kingdom OF heaven.
THE SEED AND THE SOILS.
From the occasion which brought
forth the parallels, 1t is but natural
to expect that the first one would be
like the Sewer. He had labored for
two years among these people, preach
ing tho Word to them. but the evil
influences Of His enemies had prevent
ed all but few accepting HIS word.
This parable is quite familiar to us.
The sower goes forth to SOW and scat
tiers the seed in every direction. Some
falls by the wayside where the pass
ersby had trodden the ground hard: II
has no opportunity to take root. The
birds of the air come and eat it. or
course no fruit is borne. Others fell
on shallow ground where there was
bed rock with only a few inches OF sur
face soil. The very shallowness of II
made the seed warm. so that II rapidly
and readily terminated. but the very
shallowness of 1T prevented any depth
of root, so. that the first scorching sun
killed ii, and it bore no fruit. Others
fell amongst thorns, and while they
tried to take root and grow, the thorns
choked them out and killed them.
Whereas the rest fell in good ground
and brought forth according to the
richness of the soil and its adaptibility
TO the seed, some thirty, some sixty.
and some an hundred fold. The re-
markable thing is that at least three
fourths of the seed was unfruitful
Let us examine the reasons for 1t in the
light of the Interpretation which Jesus
Himself gave, for this is one o. the few
parallels that He interpreted, and this
only to His disciples.
The seed which fell by the wayside was
Just as good seed as that which bore
fruit The trouble was that the ground
had been packed hard by the constant
impact of the feet of those who passed
by So 1t is with some people today. The
gospel Of the kingdom is brought to
them; the good news of salvation through
Jesus Christ, but no impression is made
upon them whatever, because their
hearts are so hardened by constant sin
that the seed falls on bad soil and is de-
stroyed. The god of this world hath
blinded their eyes lest they should see