The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1918-02-15

| in it, but of one that is but thin
| overiay of soil above the rock.
| Encroaching upon the field and
wayside are the thorns. thick and
| rank.
Notwithstanding these handicaps,
| there good soil p1enty-and that
| is the point of the lesson, The sower
goes forth to sow, not primarily on
the wayside or on the stony soil or
| amid the thorns, but in the produc-
| tive soil that brings forth fruit many
fold.
Assuming equality of weather con-
ditions the product is all matter O.
soil. There is no fault in the seed:
bring forth after it's kind. Give the
| word of God a chance and it will pro-
duce the results which have followed
| it thruout history.
| The Meaning Explained.
Asked for a meaning of this story
| is the word The sower is anybody
who spreads abroad the word-you, L,
! the man in Africa, the teacher in the
village school, the preacher in his pull
| pit, the chaplain in the troops. 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 traffic
of everyday affairs, they have no
| spiritual receptiveneSs. They stand
! for q class of people, smaller, perhaps
than we commonly believe, who 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 depth. Like
| the Athenians of old, they are quick
! to take hold of any new thing, and
| just as quick to let it go. They are
the faddists, who run after every new
leader and every new doctrine, and
follow all the changing fashions in
religion as in hats. They hold MOTH
ing fast which it may cost to hold
Ease of life and prosperity are more
TO them than the sacred claims OF
/ truth.
Even a better picture of the world
today is that of the~third kind of soil.
which was crowded with thorns-
"And the cares of the world, and the
deceitfu ness of riches. and the lusts
of other things entering in choke the
word and it becometh unfruitful.
There you have the life of multi
tude of our contemporaries, who, be-
cause they are busy running to and
| fro about many petty engagements,
and who have no time to go apart for
meditation and no leisure for prayer,
! able servants. We have gained little
by the changing idea of the gospel
ministry which makes the modern,
successful minister man of affairs,
with a telephone at his elbow and a
| filirg cabinet at his hand and a CAL
endar of many engagements ever. be-
fore his eye. Your modern city min
! lister can attend half a dozen commit
tee meetings a day, dine out in the
/ evening, and take luncheon with a
| group of civic workers. and make par
| ish calls into the bargain, and master
| the latest piece of literature as well.
\ and pride himself upon being thoroly
\ up to date and efficient. But how is a
1 mans soul to grow amid such haste
and tupult and crowding cares? Give
US the preachers of an earlier day
\ who had time to think and to be
alone. open-sou1ed, with God. where
! they learned how to comfort the peo-
| PIE.
! An Optimistic Conclusion.
We perhaps dwell too much on the
| frs. three divisions of this parable.
After all. most of the seed fell on
good ground and brought forth richly.
The story is one for the person who
thinks that the world is going the
devils 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 thirtyfold, in others
six:yfold, and in not a few-may we
be among the number-it Yields a
! hundredfold
The point of the parable is an init
nation that the sower and the seed
are honored most by the hundredfold
| harvest The lesson is not well conned
unless the student is fired with ambi-
tlon to be among those who bear fruit
a "a EuDdradfo - N-~