The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1912-07-13
5 = 6! a i

live in villages and not amid their
fields. There are no fences, but beaten
paths, or ''waysides,'' as they are call
ed in the story between the fields.
Underneath the soil of Palestine lies
the great sub-stratum of rock which
so often outcrops. The language of the
/ parable does not convey a meaning of
a field with occasional stones in it, but
| of one that is but thin overlap of
soil above the rock
Encroaching upon the field and way
side are the thorns, thick and rank.
! Notwithstanding these handicaps,
there is good soil a plenty-and that
/ is the point of the lesson. The sowcr
goes forth to SOW, not primarily on
| the waySide or on the stony soil or
amid the thorns, but in the productive
soil that brings forth fruit many folo.
Assuming equality of weather con-
] ditions, the product is all a matter OF
soil. There is no fault in the seed.
The story assumes that the seed will
bring forth after it's kind. Give the
word of God a chance and it will pro-
| clear tendency to foppishness and fri
volity, needs to think less of appear
ance and more of reality. Character
duce the results which have followed
it throughout history.
The Meaning Explained.
Asked for a meaning of this story
CT the Sewer, Jesus said that the
seed is the word" The sower is any
body who spreads abroad the word
you 1, the man in Africa, the teacher
in the village school, the preacher II
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 waysiGe hearts are the most
pitiable. Beaten by the trivial trafnc
of everyday affairs, they have no splr-
itual receptiveness. They stand for
class of people, smaller, perhaps, thar
we commonly believe, who really nave
no interest in things spiritual Truth
takes no root in their natures.
Our own evanescent, changeaole
times are nairrored in the second-class
of hearers, those without depth. Like
the Athenians of old, they are quick
to take hold of any new thing, ana
Just as quick to let go. They are the
faddists who run after every new Ieao-
er and every new doctrine, and follow
all the changing fashions in religion
as in hats. They hold nothing IasI
which it may cost to hold. Ease OF me
and prosperity are more to them tndA
the sacred claims of truth
Even a better picture of the wor!d
today is that of the third kind of soil,
which was crowded with thCrns-'And
the cares of the world, and the deceit
fuIneSs of riches, and the luStS OF other
things entering in choke the word anu
it becometh unfruitful." There you
contemporaries, who, because they are
busy running to and fro about many
petty fragments, and who nave no
time to go apart for meditation ana no
leisure for prayer, think that they are
busy and profitable servants. We have
gained little by the changing idea Of
the gospel ministry which makes the
modern. successful minister man or
affairs. with a telephone at his elbow
and a filing cabinet at his hand ana
ant ha-
fore his eye. Your modern city min |
lister can attend half a dozen commit
tee meetings day, dine out IN the
evening, and take luncheon with |
group of civic workers, and make par I
ish calls into the bargain, and master /
the latest piece of literature as well, |
and pride himself upon being thorough |
~ up to date and efficient But how IS |
a mans soul to grow amid Such haste
and tumult and crowding cares? Give
us the preachers OF an elder day VINO
had time to think and to be alone,
open-souled, with God, where they
learned how to comfort the people.
An Optimistic Conclusion.
We perhaps dwell too much on the
first three divisions of this parable.
After all, most of the seed fell on gooo
ground and brought forth richly. The
story is one for the person who thinks
that the world is going to the deViPs
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 a few-may we be among
the number!-it yields hundred-fold
The point of the parable is an init I
nation that the sower and the seed are
hcnored most by the hundred-fold har-
vest The lesson is not well conned I'M
less the student is fired with ambition
to be among those who bear fruit "a
fold