The Good Ground

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Nov 4, 1930

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 57, No. 43.

ONE of the Great Teacher’s greatest parables has a point for preachers that is not given in the Scriptures.

“Behold, a sower went forth to sow.”

And the ministers came and said, “Master, explain to us the parable.”

And he said: “The sower is the minister, and the seed is the word, and the field is the congregation. The wayside is the closed mind, the complacency of the self-satisfied. They listen to the word, but it does not sink in, if it is not in accord with their preconceived ideas. The rocky ground is the lifelong habits of the aged. They may receive the word gladly, but it cannot root itself. The thorns are the cares and interests of busy men and women in life’s fevered

middle years. They give ear to the word, but there is not room enough in their minds to grow. And the good ground is the open, fertile soil of childhood.”

There is no lack of evidence that the impressions of youth are the abiding ones. A few years ago a friend of mine, who had fallen away from the church, lost his wife. He related soon afterwards a little of his religious experiences. Up to the time that he was twelve he had been taken to a conservative church and Sunday school, where very definite doctrine was taught. Then his home was broken up, and he went to live in another town where he was sent to a church that boasted of its “liberality” and lack of theological creed. Later he went to a technical school, and took up a scientific career. When sorrow fell, a sorrow that shook the very foundations of his life, he cast about for help and support. As he searched his mind for light, he discovered that the only religious ideas that had remained were those gained while he was in the earlier church, ideas from which he thought he had been emancipated. The hand that planted that early seed was the hand that now had given him food to eat. . . . We preach to childhood and youth because this is the seedtime of life.—Christian Advocate.