Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1912-07-11
In The Religious World;
(REv1Ew OF SUNDAY SCHOOL LEssoN)

of the Sewer, Jesus said that the
seed Is the word" The sower Is any.
body who spreads abroad the word
you, !, the man in Africa. the teacher
in the village school, the preacher
in his pulpit. The soil is the human
heart, and the four kinds OF hearing
that the word gets are illustrated by
the four kinds of soil in Palestine
The wayside hearts are the most
pitiable Beaten by the trivial trafflc
of everyday affairs, they have no
spiritual receptiveness. They stand
for a class of people, smaller, pre-
haps, than we commonly believe. VINO
really have no interest in things
spiritual. Truth takes no root In their
natures.
Our own evanescent, changeable
times are mirrored in the second
class Of hearers, those without deptn.
Like the Athenians of old, they are
quick to take hold of any new thing
and Just as quick to let CO. They
are the faddists, who run after every
new leader and every new doctrine,
and follow all the changing fashlons
in religion as In hats. Iney holo
nothing fast which 1t may cost 70
hold. Ease of life and prosper1ty,
are more to them than the sacred
claims of truth.
Even a. better picture Of the world
today is that Of the third klno OF
soil, which is crowded with thorns
-"And the cares of the world, ana
the deceitfulness of riches, ana Cne
lusts OF other things entering IN
choke the word and it becometh un'
fruitful" There you have the NE
of multitude Of our contemporaries,
who, because they are busy running
to and fro about many petty engage
ments. and who have no time TO go
apar. for meditation and no leisure
for prayer, think that they are pussy
and profitable servants. we nave
gained little by the changing IDEA Oh
the gospel ministry which makes ING
modern. successful minister man OF
affairs, with a telephone at MS Ell.
bow and a. filing cabinet at his nano
and a calendar of many engagements
ever before his eye. Your modern
city minister can attend half dozen
meetings in a day, dlne
out in the evening, and take luncneoa
with a group Of civic workers. ana
make parish calls into the bargain
and master the latest piece or ntera-
ture as we'll, and pride himself upon
being thoroughly up to date and e.
ficient. But how is mans soul TO
grow amid such haste and tumult and
crowding cares? Give us the preach
ers of an elder day who had time TO
think and to be alone, open-souled'
with God, where they learned how 10
comfort the people.
An Optimistic Conclusion.
We perhaps dwell too much on tne
first three divisions of this parable.
After all, most of the seed fell on good
ground and brought forth richly: The
story IL one for the person who THINKS
that the world is going the dev1fs
way, and that the kingdom has come
upon hard times. The truth Is that
Gods word is multiplying as never
before. In some hearts it is bearing
fruit thirty.fold, in others sixty-fold,
and in not few-may we be among
the number!-it yields hundred-fold.
The point of the parable Is an IN.
timation that the sower and the seed
are honored most by the hundred.
fold harvest. The lesson Is not we'll
conned unless the student is fired
with ambition to be among those VINO
bear fruit "a hundred-fold.