Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1918-02-15

spot all four of the conditions in
dicated in the parable. The farm
ers in the Holy Land live in villages
and not amid their fields. There are
no fences. but beaten paths. or
'waysides," as they are called in the
story, between the fields.
Underneath the soil of Palestine
lies the great sub-stratum of rock
| which so often outcrops. The Ian
guage of the parable does not con-
Vey meaning of field with occa-
sional stones in it, but of one that is
but thin overlay of soil above the
rock. g
Encroaching upon the field and
wayside are the thorns. thick and
rank
Notwithstanding these handicaps,
there is good soil a plenty-and that
is the point of the lesson. The SOW
er goes forth to sow. not primarily
on the wayside or on the stony soil
or amid the thorns, but in the pro-
ductive soil that brings forth fruit
many fold
Assumir~ equality of weathr con-
ditions, the prcduct is all 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 produce the results which
have followed it throughout history.
The Meaning Explained
Asked for a meaning of this story
of the Sower. Jesus said that "the
seed 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
-, H.
in the troops. The soil is the hui
man heart, and the four kinds of
hearing that the word gets are il
lustrated by the four kinds of soil
in Palestine.
The wayside hearts are the most
pitiable. Beaten by the trivial traf-
fic of everyday affairs, they have no
spiritual receptiveness. They stand
for class of people, smaller, per-
haps, than we commonly believe, wh
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
cry new leader and every new doc
trine, and follow all the changing
fashions in religion as in hats. They
hold nothing 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
to-day is that of the third kind of
soil, which was crowded with thorns
And the cares of the world, and
the deceitfulness of riches, and the
lusts of other things entering in
choke the word and it becometh un-
fruitful" There you have the life
of a multitude of our contemporar-
les, who, because they are busy run
ming to and fro about many petty
engagements. and who have no time
to go apart for meditation and no
leisure for prayer, think that they
are busy and profitable servants.
We have gained little by the chang
ing idea of the gospel ministry
which makes the modern, successful
minister a man of affairs, with a
telephone at his elbow and a filing
cabinet at his hand and a calendar
of many engagements ever before
his eye. Your modern city minister
can attend half a dozen committee
meetings q day, dine out In the
evening, and take luncheon with a
group of civic workers, and make
parish calls into the bargain, and
master the latest piece of literature
as well, and pride himself upon be-
ing thoroughly up-to-date and eff
cient. But how is a mans soul to
grow amid such haste and tumult
and crowding cares? Give us the
preachers of an older day who had
time to think and to be alone, open
sculed, 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 par
able. 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 siXtyfold. and in
not a few-may we be among the
number-it yields a hundredfold.
The point of the parable is an in !
timation hat the sower and the !
seed are honored most by the hun
dredfold harvest. The lesson is not |
well conned unless the student is |
fired with ambition to be among
those who bear fruit hundred |
fold"