CHOKED CHRISTIANS

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Dec 22, 1887

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 13, No. 49.

CHOKED CHRISTIANS.

IN the parable of the sower our Lord points out one class of hearers whom he likens to soil overgrown with thorns. It evidently represents rich and naturally productive soil. The seed sown in it was well received and sprang up, but brought forth no fruit to perfection. This is Luke's account; Matthew and Mark say that such hearers become "unfruitful," whether altogether, or in the sense of imperfect and shriveled, we are not careful to inquire; we suppose unfruitful in the sense that salt is not good if it has lost its "savor," and a light is of no service if it is set "under a bushel" or turned into darkness by an outward life that obscures it. At any rate, we have a picture here of a certain type of Christian life that is very sad to contemplate.

The trouble seems to be that the soil was not well prepared before the seed was sown. It was not cleared of thorns. Let us look at some of these thorns and see what they are that choke the good seed. Men and women have essayed to enter upon a Christian life without clearing their hearts and lives of the thorns that are indigenous to the flesh. They forget that God has commanded "the wicked to forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts," before returning unto him.

Forsaking and clearing them out of life does not mean that we are to bring about a complete moral renovation of our lives before we may return to the Lord and obtain mercy; but that we are to look at these things frankly, and choose between them and God, and in mind, purpose, and affection, forsake them; recognize them as things foreign to the character and thought of a child of God, and renounce them. The alien who comes to this country and becomes an American citizen, leaves his country, and then, after he comes here, he renounces his allegiance to the land and potentate of his birth; the sinner who accepts Christ and God has first to renounce his allegiance to his old life and master and then forsake them. If this renunciation of sins is not heartily attended to, the taking on of the Christian profession is much as the oath of allegiance taken by the anarchist, who seeks to engraft upon his new citizenship all the odious doctrines and practices which he failed to leave behind him when he came to this country. Such will never become good Americans. The thorns and briars which they have not forsaken will forever spring up and choke all ideas of true liberty and good citizenship.

It is in this way that so many professors of religion become unfruitful. All the good impulses and holy purposes with which they started out, perhaps in all good sincerity, to serve God have been choked by the growth of the thorns which they failed to forsake. The thorns spring up and choke them. In some cases a life that is well cleared of these upon beginning the Christian life has been choked by the after incoming of the thorns. Mark tells us, in his version of this parable, that the "cares of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the lusts of other things entering in, choke the word, and it becometh unfruitful." It would seem, then, that there is a double danger of being choked by these thorns: a danger that lies in wait as we enter in—that is, a disposition to enter upon the Christian profession without deliberately forsaking all wicked ways; and a danger that threatens us—the peril of these things entering in our lives after we have entered into the kingdom.

It is a dreadful thing to be choked. Those who have, either by accident or design, suffered partial strangulation, tell us that it is one of the most dreadful experiences. It

must, to the all-seeing eye of God, be a dreadful thing to behold so many of his children gasping for a breath of life, being choked by the evil weeds, thorns, and tares indigenous to the flesh or diligently planted there by the enemy of souls while they sleep.

Perhaps it will be well to suggest the things which do most choke these weedy professors. Our Lord gives a list of them: "The cares of this world," "the deceitfulness of riches," "the pleasures of this life," "and the lusts of other things." Look at this catalogued list of deadly thorns. "The cares of this world" have swallowed up many a thousand professors, who have forgotten that they were the children of God, and have given themselves to anxious care about what shall be eaten, and wherewithal shall the body be clothed; more who have "made haste to be rich," or have made riches their goal of life; while others have given themselves up to the pleasures of this life; and still others who, in general, allow the lusts of the flesh and of the eye to dictate to them in all their earthly life. Let us be warned by these very suggestive pictures and teachings of our Lord, and look to our lives and see if there be any of these evil thorns "springing up" or "entering in," to mar and hinder the work of God, and choke his good seed.—Independent.