The Pickens sentinel. (Pickens, S.C.) 1911-2016, 1918-02-14
IMPROVED UNIFORM INTERNATIONAL
SUNDAYSC[lO0L
LESSON
By II. o. SELLERS, Acting Director or
the Sunday School Course Of the Moody
Bible Institute, Chicago.)
s,Sopyright. 1917. Western Newspaper UnionJ
LESSON FOR FEBRUARY II
JESUS TEACHING FIVE PARALLELS
-FOUR KINDS OF GROUND.
LESSON TEXT-Mark 4:1-2O.

PRIMARY TOPIC-JcSls telling Il story
hhout sowing seed
PRIMARY MEMORY VERSE-Be We
arefS Of the word.-James 1:22
Jesus tells us plainly why he taught
$" much hy means of parallels { Matt.
i":lo- l"). The truth had to be taught
hence the parable, that those to whom
II was given to know the messages of
Tie kingdom, those who sought it,
might know and understand, and that
10 IN" others it might be hidden Mark
All. l2). Like all his parallels Jesus
draws his pictures from the common
experiences Of life--thc field, the home.
etc. Paul draws his illustrations chief
~ from the city, the army, the market.
In studying this lesson we must turn
10 the parallel account as given by
Luke and Matthew to get the full and
complete picture.
What is the seed? Luke saws that
Jesus told his disciples that ,hr seed
was the Word of God Nuke 1S:1D.
W" get the same thought in verse four
teen Of the lesson. a great deal is be-
ing made today of seed selection. Some
wonderful results have been obtained.
How much more important for those of
us who deal with immortal souls that
we select the lest seed, i. e., the Word
of God.
The second consideration is the
sower ". ~. Notice he went forth not
to soar" not is it recorded that he
was sore because the people did not
all receive the seed alike. He did not
have a crouch; he did not enter into
his work that he might receive the
adulation OF men (N1ntt. 6:2). 1t is,
however, the "soil' that seems to be
most emphasized in both the direct
teaching and also the explanation of
the parable. There are four kinds of
soil. The manner by which the seed
came into contact with each kind of
soil is significant. Some fell "by" the
waySide; the path was we'll troddcn;
the ground was prcoccupied; q. e., 1T
was used for other purposes than to
yield a harvest; it was hard TO be
broken, and hence it was an easy mat
ter for the birds Of the air (v. 15) to
come and pluck it away. We need to
remember that if men receive with
meckncss the implanted word, there
will of course, be no such opportunity
for the evil one. The trouble in this
case was that the Word was not i'm
planted Thus 1t is that one-fourth of
the seed is lost. The result is dcplor-
able one as we see from Heb. 2:1-4.
Is the soil Of our life so hard that God
must drive the plowshare clean
through ii ere there is Il chance for the
seed to take root? ops. 1293
The next fell "On' the rocky ground
The first is Il picture Of the hardened,
and this is a picture of the superficial
hearer. For time they did run we'll
They even received the Word with
gladncss (v. 1G), but they had no sta
bility because they had no root They
were superficial. There was no chance
for the seed to get real grip on their
lives. The earth yields its increase
though we do not understand. SO God
will add his 95 per cent to our S per
cent. The oak tree comes from small
seed.
In the third place Jesus speaks Of
the seed that fell "among" the thorns
Here is the worldly soil. 1t is not SO
'iih>h thS >h"lhNtSl VI Vic sui, IL JS
the character Of that which already oc-
cupicd the soil ere the sowcr sowed
the seed. The cares Of this world, the
dccritfulness Of riches and "othcr
things had so entered in that the
good seed never had chance in the
soil of the human heart. 1t was chokcd
and yielded no fruit. There was no
real grip of the will, no wholc-heartcd
The cares of life that keep
the housewife or the business man;
the dcccitfulness of riches that snare
men and choke the word which at one
time gave such promise in their lives;
the lusts and other things which the
evil one knows so we'll how to use keen
us from the Word, for Satan knows
that by 1T we are to be saved Nuke
1912. Are we impusivc? DO we
make VOWS soon forgotten, ties that
soon fade away or fall beneath the
temptations fer lack of root? May
God blast and turn up the subsoil Of
our hearts by strong convictions of sin,
ana so occupy the soil that there is nc
opportunity for other things.
We have thus seen thrcc-fourths of
the seed lost. or the remaining
fourth, that which fell '1nto" OR. W
the good soil, not all yielded the same
return. 1t all brought forth ". y; it
all yielded; 1t all sprang up, but not all
in the same ratio.
There are three distinguishing fca-
lures of this last kind of hearers: D
They hear the Word. These are the
ones who appreciate it's value and give
good heed to its prccepts. (2) They ac-
cept 1t e. &. they understand It's teach
ings. They take it into good and hon.
est hearts. (3) They hold 1t fast
Nukc 8:15 II. w These are tho