Jesus Explains the Seed Is the Word of GodBible World
8:11Luke 8:11
Now the parable is this: The seed is the word of God.
The seed is the word of God, the gospel of His grace and truth that gives life and the bread of life to those who receive it. The seed and the sower are the same in every case, so the different harvests come from the different soils, which are the hearts and lives of the hearers. The seed has no power in itself to grow, but God alone gives it life and brings the increase, while men must do their faithful part in prepared soil. When it is received into an honest and good heart, kept and practiced in daily life, it springs up through its stages to bear fruit with patience unto eternal life. Therefore believers are to sow that living word everywhere opportunity is found, trusting God for the harvest and laboring with self-denial and care.
Setting and Parable Picture
The teaching was given by the Sea of Galilee to an eager, expectant throng that included sick people lying on mats waiting to present their cases. There Jesus exercised His God-given right to heal the woes of a sinful race, rebuking disease and diffusing life and health and peace around Him. As the crowd kept increasing and pressed close about Him until there was no room to receive them, He stepped into a waiting fishing boat that was to take Him across the lake, had His disciples push it off a little from the land, and spoke to the multitude upon the shore.
The picture set before them was of a sower scattering seed across rows of furrows on a cultivated hillside. That seed is the word of God.
The parable shows the different tendencies of human hearts and the kinds of people Christ taught, showing the gospel of the Son of God being spread and received in different ways. These differences explain why His ministry had limited immediate results. People were free to accept or reject Him, for belief and obedience were not forced, and He taught them to join their own efforts with divine power to overcome sin.
What the Seed Is
The seed is the word of God, which is the gospel, the heavenly truth of God's grace, truth itself, and the bread of life. The parable itself sows these truths to bring people back to loyalty to God. When that seed of truth is shared gently and courteously, the Holy Spirit can make it productive in the heart that receives it. Jesus worked earnestly to sow the world with this gospel seed, and those living at the very close of probation must labor untiringly to give that bread of life to perishing souls, curing terrible coldness and indifference and humbling themselves for having done much less than they might have done to sow the seeds of truth. When hearts are prepared to receive it, the word takes root, and personal, Christlike care for people can soften even hard hearts; believers must be taught the foundations of Christian life so the word is not choked by worldly attractions or lost through shallow commitment, and following Christ in self-denial, trusting His love, and serving others help clear away the heart's thorns and allow the truth to take root.
The Word is the living, infallible message given through the Holy Spirit, including the law, the prophets, and the gospel. It carries God's authority and does not depend on human arguments or speculation for support. When the seed is accepted, its fruit still depends on the heart and its response, for grafted onto a wild olive tree it produces only wild olives. God's word is seed carrying inside itself the gift God promises, just as surely as the oak is inside the acorn, so whatever God promises is already present in the promise and the one who receives the promise has the gift. Every promise has conditions, and willingness to do God's will brings all His strength. Exercising faith is receiving and appropriating God's word, and faith itself that receives God's gifts is a gift given in some measure to every human being, growing as it is used to take hold of God's word, so to strengthen faith it must often be brought into contact with the word.
The word is the impartation of God's life, which gives life to the seed. By eating the grain people become partakers of that life, and even in receiving daily bread they can recognize God's agency and be brought into closer fellowship with Him. The word is truth that, when cherished and received into the heart, can lead to eternal life. It may instead be lost when people fail to heed it.
Life and Growth from God
In spiritual sowing, as in natural growth, the seed cannot produce life by itself, for God alone supplies the power that makes it grow, calls forth life, and produces the increase. Sowers therefore work by faith, trusting God to bring a harvest from the word they sow. Parents and teachers are to labor with that same expectation, sowing the word of truth with care and self-denial while entrusting its growth to God, for it may lie dormant until His grace convicts the heart, awakens it to life, and brings forth fruit to His glory.
As in the natural world unseen agencies work and the harvest depends on the seed sown, so after faithful preparing and planting God must work constantly to cause the seed to germinate, and unless Christ constantly works the soil of the heart there will be no harvest. People must do their appointed work diligently in prepared soil, while God gives life and vitality. The harvest is souls and a life of righteousness, which is not of man's creating and not from the arm of flesh, but the righteousness of Christ cherished and nourished in the heart by the dews and showers of His grace.
After the Word of the living God is carefully received in mind and heart, the human agent must give it diligent care through the successive stages of its growth by cherishing it and practicing it in daily life, so that it springs up and bears fruit, putting forth first the blade, then the ear, and then the full corn in the ear. The heart must be prepared for it as soil is prepared for natural seed, with repentance breaking up the soil and evil tendencies that choke the good growth uprooted through earnest effort in Christ's name and strength. The sowing also teaches Christ's death, and the blade springing up teaches the resurrection.
Revelation is truth made known, so the Word of God becomes revelation to those who are taught, as when Christ stood in the temple or sat in a fisherman's boat to make known its teachings. The heart of Christ responds to every soul whose mind is open to receive truth, unveiling immortal truths to the understanding to lead to acceptance of the sacrifice offered for sin and personal application of the remedy for spiritual disease. Christ has made it possible for every soul to appropriate His saving grace, and the truths of the living Word accepted by faith remedy all the evil sin has caused.
Hearts That Receive
The seed is the same in every case and the sower is the same, so the difference in result lies in the soil, which is the heart and life. When the word of God fails to accomplish its work in heart and life the reason is in the hearer, yet the outcome is not beyond control, for though no one can change himself the power of choice remains and determines what each will become, so that no wayside, stony-ground, or thorny-ground hearer need remain such. The Spirit of God constantly seeks to break the spell of infatuation for the world and to awaken desire for imperishable treasure, and it is by resisting the Spirit that people become inattentive to and neglectful of the word and become responsible both for hardness of heart that keeps the good seed from taking root and for evil growths that check its development. The garden of the heart must therefore be cultivated by deep repentance for sin, by uprooting poisonous satanic plants, and by diligent labor and earnest effort in the name and strength of Jesus, since soil overgrown with thorns is reclaimed only by hard work. God bids people break up fallow ground and sow not among thorns and sow in righteousness to reap in mercy, and He desires to accomplish this work for them if they will cooperate with Him.
Its effect depends on the heart that hears it. Those by the wayside hear, and then the devil takes the word out of their hearts, lest they should believe and be saved. Those on the rock hear and receive the word with joy yet have no root, believing for a while and falling away in time of temptation. That which fell among thorns are they who hear and go forth and are choked with cares and riches and pleasures of this life, the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches choking the word so that they become unfruitful and bring no fruit to perfection. Those engrossed with earthly cares have no time for cultivation of piety and do not put true religion first, and if unchristlike traits of character and unsanctified inclinations and desires are not overcome, uprooted and cut away, the thorns grow and strengthen and kill the precious graces of the Spirit, for good and evil cannot grow in the heart at the same time. That on the good ground are they who in an honest and good heart hear the word, keep it, and bring forth fruit with patience, springing up and bearing fruit an hundredfold, so hearers must take heed how they hear, for whoever has shall be given and whoever has not shall lose even what he seems to have.
Three classes lose the good seed of pointed and convincing present truth scattered by those who preach it, even as all classes are affected by it as they were by Christ's own sowing. Wayside hearers are affected yet have not cultivated moral powers, have followed inclination rather than duty, and have hardened hearts like a beaten road through evil habits, and though professing belief they have no sense of its sacredness, keep friendship with lovers of pleasure, place themselves where tempted like an unfenced field, invite the enemy, and lose the regard they once had when the seed fell. Stony-ground hearers readily receive anything new and exciting with joy, ardor, zeal and talk of faith and hope, even reproving those of long experience, but having no depth and stability, with principle not reaching the springs of action and the heart not renewed by the Spirit, their zeal dies under the heat of trial and temptation and God's pruning to bring fruit to perfection. They exalt truth in word but do not do it because the seed has not rooted below the surface, and when plain, pointed, close truth bears on the heart and reveals deformity of character, when working and sacrifice are called for and persecution comes, they are offended, close their eyes to imperfection, refuse to be sanctified, yield truth for an easier way to heaven, and fall away. Thorny-ground hearers are convinced and accept truth without seeing heart sinfulness while love of the world holds their affections, loving the best bargain, prevaricating and gaining means by deception and fraud, making temporal matters primary through anxiety, care, fear of loss, deceitfulness of riches, love of earthly pleasures and honors, and neglecting meetings that would strengthen them, so they do not nourish the seed until increasing riches turn the heart fully from loved truth and choke the good seed so that Christian character is never perfected.
Received sincerely, the word is heard and understood, and in a receptive hearer it bears fruit in words that glorify God and a life of good works. The fruitful hearer believes in Jesus, and fruitfulness is connected with faith that works through love and purifies the soul. Even when the seed is accepted its fruit still depends on the heart and its response, for grafted onto a wild olive tree it produces only wild olives. The word takes root when hearts are prepared to receive it as soil is prepared for natural seed. Repentance breaks up the soil, and evil tendencies that choke the good growth must be uprooted through earnest effort in Christ's name and strength. A heart hardened like a beaten path may not receive truth at first, but Christlike personal ministry and personal, Christlike care for people can soften even hard hearts so that truth takes root. Believers must therefore be taught the foundations of Christian life and follow Christ in self-denial, trusting His love and serving others, to help clear away the heart's thorns so the word is not choked by worldly attractions or lost through shallow commitment.
That word is the foundation of true education: setting it aside leaves young people vulnerable to doubt and temptation, without a sure guide or safeguard, and leads them away from God and everlasting life. Rejecting its power to restrain the heart's evil passions contributes to wrongdoing. Feeding the mind instead on uninspired writings weakens and narrows its understanding, whereas contact with the deep principles of eternal truth strengthens the mind. Books that mingle Scripture with fanciful interpretations can produce skepticism and infidelity. The heart is the soil in which the word is sown and should be prepared to receive the good seed, and the mind is like soil in which Bible truth should be sown and carefully cultivated, while the enemy sows tares that can grow and bear evil fruit. Early life is the time to sow the good seed upon good soil because the mind in childhood is impressible, so early education and formation of children's minds and habits are part of that preparation, and truth planted in children's minds through Jesus' teaching and seed sown then can later spring up and bear fruit unto eternal life.
Sowing the Word
The true believer is to sow the Word of the living God as seeds of truth in every place where opportunity is found, with daily humbling of the heart to be prepared for the Lord's work and the Holy Spirit abiding with the sower. That sowing means planting holiness from the Word into the human mind in order to take hold of souls so they accept the hope of eternal life. Doing this requires living a holy life unto God now without waiting, entering covenant with God by sacrifice to serve the living true God, putting away lightness and trifling, and uniting in the work under the Holy Spirit. The Word so sown is revelation, for revelation is truth made known, and it becomes revelation to those who are taught, as when Christ stood in the temple or sat in a fisherman's boat to make known its teachings. His heart responds to every soul whose mind is open to receive truth, unveiling immortal truths to lead to acceptance of the sacrifice offered for sin and personal application of the remedy for spiritual disease, for He has made it possible for every soul to appropriate saving grace, and the truths of the living Word accepted by faith remedy all the evil sin has caused.
Scattering seeds of truth means using speech to carry that word so its light can shine into many minds. The truth learned from Scripture is to be sown in people's hearts so that God may reap a harvest, and those who know God's will are to do it heartily and make it known to others. Spiritual truth is seed to be dropped into the soil of honest hearts to spring up and bear precious fruit. The work of ministers at camp-meeting is to do this sowing by speaking words of cheer and courage as teachers and leaders, and by teaching people how to come to the Lord and how to lead others to Him, with methods and plans that uplift the standard and purify from iniquity through adherence to pure and holy principles. To sow the seed well ministers must be freed from mechanical labor, not wearied out, but refreshed and in a cheerful frame of mind.
The seed of truth can take root in hearts when it is shared gently and courteously, for then the Holy Spirit can make it productive in that heart. Prayer meetings build confidence, weaken prejudice, and prepare people to receive it. The seed is the gospel, the bread of life, the truth, which Jesus worked earnestly to sow in the world. Those living at the very close of probation must labor untiringly to give that bread of life to perishing souls, curing terrible coldness and indifference and humbling themselves for having done much less than they might have done to sow the seeds of truth.
Written words of reproof and counsel from God are seed that will bear fruit and are not lost even when written in pain and great suffering. God directs the sowing, bringing a letter to be taken from the mail and read before a church and before students when it would otherwise lie unnoticed with others. Once sown, the seed is striking and powerful, takes hold of those in a backslidden state, moves them to carry it home to share with family members who could not hear it, and does good. A word is a seed dropped now and then that can leave an influence, and the state of the mind is easily read as revealed in little actions and in a word dropped now and then, making manifest whether one is on the side of order and obedience to rules and regulations.
The seed is the word of God, the gospel of His grace and truth that gives life and the bread of life to those who receive it. The seed and the sower are the same in every case, so the different harvests come from the different soils, which are the hearts and lives of the hearers. The seed has no power in itself to grow, but God alone gives it life and brings the increase, while men must do their faithful part in prepared soil. When it is received into an honest and good heart, kept and practiced in daily life, it springs up through its stages to bear fruit with patience unto eternal life. Therefore believers are to sow that living word everywhere opportunity is found, trusting God for the harvest and laboring with self-denial and care.
Setting and Parable Picture
The teaching was given by the Sea of Galilee to an eager, expectant throng that included sick people lying on mats waiting to present their cases. There Jesus exercised His God-given right to heal the woes of a sinful race, rebuking disease and diffusing life and health and peace around Him. As the crowd kept increasing and pressed close about Him until there was no room to receive them, He stepped into a waiting fishing boat that was to take Him across the lake, had His disciples push it off a little from the land, and spoke to the multitude upon the shore.
The picture set before them was of a sower scattering seed across rows of furrows on a cultivated hillside. That seed is the word of God.
The parable shows the different tendencies of human hearts and the kinds of people Christ taught, showing the gospel of the Son of God being spread and received in different ways. These differences explain why His ministry had limited immediate results. People were free to accept or reject Him, for belief and obedience were not forced, and He taught them to join their own efforts with divine power to overcome sin.
What the Seed Is
The seed is the word of God, which is the gospel, the heavenly truth of God's grace, truth itself, and the bread of life. The parable itself sows these truths to bring people back to loyalty to God. When that seed of truth is shared gently and courteously, the Holy Spirit can make it productive in the heart that receives it. Jesus worked earnestly to sow the world with this gospel seed, and those living at the very close of probation must labor untiringly to give that bread of life to perishing souls, curing terrible coldness and indifference and humbling themselves for having done much less than they might have done to sow the seeds of truth. When hearts are prepared to receive it, the word takes root, and personal, Christlike care for people can soften even hard hearts; believers must be taught the foundations of Christian life so the word is not choked by worldly attractions or lost through shallow commitment, and following Christ in self-denial, trusting His love, and serving others help clear away the heart's thorns and allow the truth to take root.
The Word is the living, infallible message given through the Holy Spirit, including the law, the prophets, and the gospel. It carries God's authority and does not depend on human arguments or speculation for support. When the seed is accepted, its fruit still depends on the heart and its response, for grafted onto a wild olive tree it produces only wild olives. God's word is seed carrying inside itself the gift God promises, just as surely as the oak is inside the acorn, so whatever God promises is already present in the promise and the one who receives the promise has the gift. Every promise has conditions, and willingness to do God's will brings all His strength. Exercising faith is receiving and appropriating God's word, and faith itself that receives God's gifts is a gift given in some measure to every human being, growing as it is used to take hold of God's word, so to strengthen faith it must often be brought into contact with the word.
The word is the impartation of God's life, which gives life to the seed. By eating the grain people become partakers of that life, and even in receiving daily bread they can recognize God's agency and be brought into closer fellowship with Him. The word is truth that, when cherished and received into the heart, can lead to eternal life. It may instead be lost when people fail to heed it.
Life and Growth from God
In spiritual sowing, as in natural growth, the seed cannot produce life by itself, for God alone supplies the power that makes it grow, calls forth life, and produces the increase. Sowers therefore work by faith, trusting God to bring a harvest from the word they sow. Parents and teachers are to labor with that same expectation, sowing the word of truth with care and self-denial while entrusting its growth to God, for it may lie dormant until His grace convicts the heart, awakens it to life, and brings forth fruit to His glory.
As in the natural world unseen agencies work and the harvest depends on the seed sown, so after faithful preparing and planting God must work constantly to cause the seed to germinate, and unless Christ constantly works the soil of the heart there will be no harvest. People must do their appointed work diligently in prepared soil, while God gives life and vitality. The harvest is souls and a life of righteousness, which is not of man's creating and not from the arm of flesh, but the righteousness of Christ cherished and nourished in the heart by the dews and showers of His grace.
After the Word of the living God is carefully received in mind and heart, the human agent must give it diligent care through the successive stages of its growth by cherishing it and practicing it in daily life, so that it springs up and bears fruit, putting forth first the blade, then the ear, and then the full corn in the ear. The heart must be prepared for it as soil is prepared for natural seed, with repentance breaking up the soil and evil tendencies that choke the good growth uprooted through earnest effort in Christ's name and strength. The sowing also teaches Christ's death, and the blade springing up teaches the resurrection.
Revelation is truth made known, so the Word of God becomes revelation to those who are taught, as when Christ stood in the temple or sat in a fisherman's boat to make known its teachings. The heart of Christ responds to every soul whose mind is open to receive truth, unveiling immortal truths to the understanding to lead to acceptance of the sacrifice offered for sin and personal application of the remedy for spiritual disease. Christ has made it possible for every soul to appropriate His saving grace, and the truths of the living Word accepted by faith remedy all the evil sin has caused.
Hearts That Receive
The seed is the same in every case and the sower is the same, so the difference in result lies in the soil, which is the heart and life. When the word of God fails to accomplish its work in heart and life the reason is in the hearer, yet the outcome is not beyond control, for though no one can change himself the power of choice remains and determines what each will become, so that no wayside, stony-ground, or thorny-ground hearer need remain such. The Spirit of God constantly seeks to break the spell of infatuation for the world and to awaken desire for imperishable treasure, and it is by resisting the Spirit that people become inattentive to and neglectful of the word and become responsible both for hardness of heart that keeps the good seed from taking root and for evil growths that check its development. The garden of the heart must therefore be cultivated by deep repentance for sin, by uprooting poisonous satanic plants, and by diligent labor and earnest effort in the name and strength of Jesus, since soil overgrown with thorns is reclaimed only by hard work. God bids people break up fallow ground and sow not among thorns and sow in righteousness to reap in mercy, and He desires to accomplish this work for them if they will cooperate with Him.
Its effect depends on the heart that hears it. Those by the wayside hear, and then the devil takes the word out of their hearts, lest they should believe and be saved. Those on the rock hear and receive the word with joy yet have no root, believing for a while and falling away in time of temptation. That which fell among thorns are they who hear and go forth and are choked with cares and riches and pleasures of this life, the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches choking the word so that they become unfruitful and bring no fruit to perfection. Those engrossed with earthly cares have no time for cultivation of piety and do not put true religion first, and if unchristlike traits of character and unsanctified inclinations and desires are not overcome, uprooted and cut away, the thorns grow and strengthen and kill the precious graces of the Spirit, for good and evil cannot grow in the heart at the same time. That on the good ground are they who in an honest and good heart hear the word, keep it, and bring forth fruit with patience, springing up and bearing fruit an hundredfold, so hearers must take heed how they hear, for whoever has shall be given and whoever has not shall lose even what he seems to have.
Three classes lose the good seed of pointed and convincing present truth scattered by those who preach it, even as all classes are affected by it as they were by Christ's own sowing. Wayside hearers are affected yet have not cultivated moral powers, have followed inclination rather than duty, and have hardened hearts like a beaten road through evil habits, and though professing belief they have no sense of its sacredness, keep friendship with lovers of pleasure, place themselves where tempted like an unfenced field, invite the enemy, and lose the regard they once had when the seed fell. Stony-ground hearers readily receive anything new and exciting with joy, ardor, zeal and talk of faith and hope, even reproving those of long experience, but having no depth and stability, with principle not reaching the springs of action and the heart not renewed by the Spirit, their zeal dies under the heat of trial and temptation and God's pruning to bring fruit to perfection. They exalt truth in word but do not do it because the seed has not rooted below the surface, and when plain, pointed, close truth bears on the heart and reveals deformity of character, when working and sacrifice are called for and persecution comes, they are offended, close their eyes to imperfection, refuse to be sanctified, yield truth for an easier way to heaven, and fall away. Thorny-ground hearers are convinced and accept truth without seeing heart sinfulness while love of the world holds their affections, loving the best bargain, prevaricating and gaining means by deception and fraud, making temporal matters primary through anxiety, care, fear of loss, deceitfulness of riches, love of earthly pleasures and honors, and neglecting meetings that would strengthen them, so they do not nourish the seed until increasing riches turn the heart fully from loved truth and choke the good seed so that Christian character is never perfected.
Received sincerely, the word is heard and understood, and in a receptive hearer it bears fruit in words that glorify God and a life of good works. The fruitful hearer believes in Jesus, and fruitfulness is connected with faith that works through love and purifies the soul. Even when the seed is accepted its fruit still depends on the heart and its response, for grafted onto a wild olive tree it produces only wild olives. The word takes root when hearts are prepared to receive it as soil is prepared for natural seed. Repentance breaks up the soil, and evil tendencies that choke the good growth must be uprooted through earnest effort in Christ's name and strength. A heart hardened like a beaten path may not receive truth at first, but Christlike personal ministry and personal, Christlike care for people can soften even hard hearts so that truth takes root. Believers must therefore be taught the foundations of Christian life and follow Christ in self-denial, trusting His love and serving others, to help clear away the heart's thorns so the word is not choked by worldly attractions or lost through shallow commitment.
That word is the foundation of true education: setting it aside leaves young people vulnerable to doubt and temptation, without a sure guide or safeguard, and leads them away from God and everlasting life. Rejecting its power to restrain the heart's evil passions contributes to wrongdoing. Feeding the mind instead on uninspired writings weakens and narrows its understanding, whereas contact with the deep principles of eternal truth strengthens the mind. Books that mingle Scripture with fanciful interpretations can produce skepticism and infidelity. The heart is the soil in which the word is sown and should be prepared to receive the good seed, and the mind is like soil in which Bible truth should be sown and carefully cultivated, while the enemy sows tares that can grow and bear evil fruit. Early life is the time to sow the good seed upon good soil because the mind in childhood is impressible, so early education and formation of children's minds and habits are part of that preparation, and truth planted in children's minds through Jesus' teaching and seed sown then can later spring up and bear fruit unto eternal life.
Sowing the Word
The true believer is to sow the Word of the living God as seeds of truth in every place where opportunity is found, with daily humbling of the heart to be prepared for the Lord's work and the Holy Spirit abiding with the sower. That sowing means planting holiness from the Word into the human mind in order to take hold of souls so they accept the hope of eternal life. Doing this requires living a holy life unto God now without waiting, entering covenant with God by sacrifice to serve the living true God, putting away lightness and trifling, and uniting in the work under the Holy Spirit. The Word so sown is revelation, for revelation is truth made known, and it becomes revelation to those who are taught, as when Christ stood in the temple or sat in a fisherman's boat to make known its teachings. His heart responds to every soul whose mind is open to receive truth, unveiling immortal truths to lead to acceptance of the sacrifice offered for sin and personal application of the remedy for spiritual disease, for He has made it possible for every soul to appropriate saving grace, and the truths of the living Word accepted by faith remedy all the evil sin has caused.
Scattering seeds of truth means using speech to carry that word so its light can shine into many minds. The truth learned from Scripture is to be sown in people's hearts so that God may reap a harvest, and those who know God's will are to do it heartily and make it known to others. Spiritual truth is seed to be dropped into the soil of honest hearts to spring up and bear precious fruit. The work of ministers at camp-meeting is to do this sowing by speaking words of cheer and courage as teachers and leaders, and by teaching people how to come to the Lord and how to lead others to Him, with methods and plans that uplift the standard and purify from iniquity through adherence to pure and holy principles. To sow the seed well ministers must be freed from mechanical labor, not wearied out, but refreshed and in a cheerful frame of mind.
The seed of truth can take root in hearts when it is shared gently and courteously, for then the Holy Spirit can make it productive in that heart. Prayer meetings build confidence, weaken prejudice, and prepare people to receive it. The seed is the gospel, the bread of life, the truth, which Jesus worked earnestly to sow in the world. Those living at the very close of probation must labor untiringly to give that bread of life to perishing souls, curing terrible coldness and indifference and humbling themselves for having done much less than they might have done to sow the seeds of truth.
Written words of reproof and counsel from God are seed that will bear fruit and are not lost even when written in pain and great suffering. God directs the sowing, bringing a letter to be taken from the mail and read before a church and before students when it would otherwise lie unnoticed with others. Once sown, the seed is striking and powerful, takes hold of those in a backslidden state, moves them to carry it home to share with family members who could not hear it, and does good. A word is a seed dropped now and then that can leave an influence, and the state of the mind is easily read as revealed in little actions and in a word dropped now and then, making manifest whether one is on the side of order and obedience to rules and regulations.