Hear therefore means give careful, reverent attention to the explanation of the parable of the sower. The seed sown is the word of God, the gospel of the kingdom, the words of life free from human tradition. The different soils are the different hearts that hear it — the hardened wayside from which the wicked one snatches it, the shallow stony ground that receives it with joy but falls away in trial, the thorn-choked ground made unfruitful by worldly cares and riches, and the good ground that understands, keeps, and bears fruit in differing measure. Though sower and seed are the same, the result turns on the condition of the heart, and no one need remain hard, shallow, or choked, for by repentance and cooperation with the Spirit the heart can be broken up, cleansed, and made ready to bear fruit. Therefore the sowing is to go on everywhere without discouragement, even where much seems lost, trusting God to quicken hidden seed that may spring up after many days.
Call and Setting
Hear therefore is a call to give careful attention to the parable of the sower and to its explanation. It was taught beside the Sea of Galilee, spoken from a boat to a gathered crowd. The sowers, fields, rocks, birds, varied ground, and workers scattering seed around them were used to make the lesson clear, familiar, and memorable, bringing it home to the different people addressed and showing that it applies to people generally.
The chapter reveals two opposing working forces and gives lessons from Christ as the great Medical Missionary. Its teachings were faithfully reported by believing disciples to give principles of true higher education. Those principles are to shape believers’ hearts and guide the ministry of the Word through the end of time.
The chapter is a warning to heed its instruction and not be deceived by human sophistry or mockery of sacred things. It looks to the judgment, when each person must stand before Christ and be judged by deeds done in this life. Each must ask whether he will stand before the judgment seat of Christ acquitted, without spot or stain, and those saved must form characters without fault in the sight of a pure and holy God. This comes through doing the God-given work in cooperation with Christ, wearing His yoke and learning His meekness and lowliness.
Seed and Soils
“Hear ye therefore the parable of the sower” opens Christ’s own explanation that the kingdom of God is pictured in sowing and that the seed is the word of God, the gospel, the words of life, His teachings sown in His words and example. That teaching is heavenly truth free from human tradition, to be gathered as precious treasure by those desiring light, intended to bring people back to loyalty to God. The parable itself is also a seed sowing truths of divine grace.
The wayside hearer hears the word of the kingdom without understanding it, and the wicked one catches away what was sown in the heart. This is a hardened heart like a beaten highway, unimpressible to heavenly appeals, until regard for truth is lost. Neglected moral duties and evil habits harden it, while remaining among corrupting influences, exposure to temptation, and lack of a proper sense of the truth’s sacred character complete the hardening.
The stony-ground hearer hears the word and at once receives it with joy, yet has no root in himself. The lack of root is that character has not been changed by God’s grace and natural and cultivated tendencies to wrong remain, with true Christian principles not constantly followed. He lasts only for a while, and when tribulation or persecution arises because of the word he is offended and falls away. He then continually loses the interest once felt, returns to sinful practices, and though he may keep a profession of Christianity he does not honor the truth nor go on from grace to grace, growing for a time neither cold nor hot, careless, worldly, inattentive, hearing but not receiving, until finally hardened to all good impressions.
The thorny-ground hearer hears the word, but the care of this world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word and make him unfruitful. Worldly pleasures, honors, possessions, business concerns, and earthly interests crowd out spiritual things and keep people from receiving Christ’s invitation and valuing eternal riches, so mature Christian character is not developed. Thorns of sin grow without cultivation while grace must be carefully cultivated, love of the world leaves no room for Christ, and divided hearts may profess to accept Him while refusing the cross.
The good-ground hearer hears the word and understands it and bears fruit in different measures, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. Receiving the good seed means receiving Christ’s words into the heart, and when received in faith the word takes root and bears fruit, welcomed and kept and borne with patience. An honest heart acknowledges when shown the light that sin is transgression of the law, heeds God’s appeals to conscience, and receiving truth uproots the tares within. A partial, reluctant reception leaves the heart vulnerable to Satan’s seed and to thorns that choke and destroy the truth.
The parable sets out the different tendencies of the human heart and the classes Christ taught, giving the reason for the condition of the churches. It explains His limited immediate results, that people could freely accept or reject Him because God did not force belief or obedience. Christ did not use miracles to compel belief, and people were to join human effort with divine power to overcome sin.
Hearers respond differently over time, for the first response may fade when they return to worldly cares, temptations, and unfavorable surroundings, while others begin a holier life and put the teaching into practice. Some eagerly hear but only dimly understand, yet seeds of life lodged in their hearts later spring up and bear blessed fruit. So some who heard Jesus in the judgment hall received His words with reverence and awe that grew into faith in Him as Redeemer, showing gospel seed taking root and later producing an abundant harvest. So also Jesus knowingly cast truth into Nicodemus as soil, and for three years there was little apparent fruit while he was not an enemy yet did not publicly acknowledge Him, but carefully weighed, watched His life, pondered His teaching, and considered His mighty works, until Lazarus’s resurrection gave undeniable evidence that Jesus was Messiah.
The Pharisees’ hearts are barren, hopeless, profitless soil in which seeds of heavenly truth cannot take root. Their feeling of superiority is self-deluding, with exalted self claiming all faith, honor, and love, supposing others at fault, suspecting even the purest, full of evil thoughts, making a man an offender for a word, and speaking hard reproof and condemnation that crushes hope and courage out of the soul. The goodness manifested in true Christians puts roots of bitterness in them by which many are defiled.
The kingdom of truth and righteousness is extended throughout the world by teaching the truth to defeat Satan. A teacher of sacred truth can impart only what he knows by experience, for Christ taught truth because He was the truth, with His own thought and character and life embodied in His teaching. So His servants must make the Word their own by personal experience, knowing Christ made unto them wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption, and must present it not as suppose-so or may-be but with certain eyewitness testimony.
Heart Responsibility and Preparation
Though the sower and the seed remain the same, the different results depend on the soil, and the soil is the hearers' hearts. When God's word fails to take root or grow, the fault lies with those who resist the Spirit and allow hardness or worldly concerns to hinder it.
No one need remain hardened, shallow, or thorn-choked, for by choice and with God's help the heart can be cultivated through repentance, evil tendencies uprooted, and the heart made ready to receive the word. As a garden must be prepared for natural seed, so the heart must be prepared for the seed of truth, and spiritual sowing calls for diligent, persevering labor in preparing the soil, sowing the seed, and cultivating the crop, with no immediate harvest expected from raw land. The garden of the heart is cultivated by breaking up the soil with repentance and uprooting the evil growths that choke the good grain. As soil overgrown with thorns is reclaimed only by diligent labor, so evil tendencies of the heart are overcome only by earnest effort in the name and strength of Christ. The heart must be broken up by conviction of sin before the gospel seed can take root, and must be worked upon by the Spirit of God, refined and disciplined, before it can bear fruit to God's glory. Accepted truth softens the heart so it is ready for the seed to be sown continually and to produce a harvest for God, and true faith works through love and purifies the soul. Casting the seed into the ground pictures Christ's death and the springing blade pictures the resurrection, and the correspondence between natural and spiritual sowing continues as the plant grows.
Hearing the living oracles of God requires deliberate purpose to let the words of God enter, and those who listen every day must choose what kind of hearers they will be. Surface-ground and stony-ground hearers fail by gathering up the chaff and passing by the precious treasures of truth as if of no consequence. Perverse talk and the tattling, wicked tongue sow evil seed in minds that will bear its harvest, while right hearing promotes the honor and glory of God by sound speech seasoned with grace and by doing what God requires in each opportunity of life.
Hearts are God's husbandry and soil on the Lord's farm, and the Word of God is gospel seed planted to produce a harvest. Hardened hearts that have not been under the plow or the harrow need much skillful, painstaking labor to break up and subdue the soil so the seed can find favorable ground and bear fruit. Surface work and haphazard half-effort will show itself in the harvest, while thorough effort to bring the soil into fit condition for planting and growth will be rewarded. The work requires intelligent, harmonious cooperation of the divine and the human. God works in nature, giving power to the soil and seed, while human skill and effort cooperate with that divine work, and the seed's growth and harvest through daily experience of sowing and reaping make the lesson plain, teaching about the kingdom of heaven and revealing God's goodness and continual care for people.
Sowing Work in Ministry
Christ as the divine Teacher sowed seeds of truth with care and anxiety and self-denial in a life of continued sacrifice for the good of others. He presented truth in parables as the way to rebuke sin without giving personal offense. Those who believe must follow His example and have His mind so they do not become weary in well-doing, sowing the seed of truth and trusting God to quicken it to life. The work calls for labor unselfishly and earnestly and perseveringly as co-workers with Christ and the heavenly angels in the salvation of others.
The same sowing of good seed and the same hindering by the enemy continue now with God's messengers. Hearts are unmoved because Satan is linked with religionists. Evil angels in the form of men mingle with hearers to make suggestions and insinuations, to criticize and misapply and misinterpret and misconstrue what is spoken, until the words lose their force.
The seed falls on different kinds of soil including poor soil, but the sower does not stop sowing because some falls there. The lesson is to proclaim God's word everywhere and preach broadly even when many hearers do not follow it, and not to be discouraged when results are not immediately visible. Those who accept it receive life, while those who reject its warning are condemned. Some receive and bear fruit in varying measure while others produce no fruit.
Good seed of truth sown by word and example may remain hidden for a time in a worldly selfish heart and may lie dormant until the grace of God convicts the heart. Then the sown seed is awakened to life and takes root and springs up and bears fruit to the glory of God. God's Spirit works on the heart to bring the seed to growth, and proclaiming truth with Christ and His redeeming love presented with it leads to fruit. Workers are to do their part and leave results to God.
Personal sympathetic ministry that reveals Christ's love and life can soften even a hard beaten-path heart so the seed of truth takes root. Believers need to be taught from the beginning to live by Christ's life and character, to bear burdens and deny natural inclinations and trust His love and work for the lost. Such service turns attention away from self and weakens the attraction of worldly pleasures and discouragement from worldly burdens. Truth breaks up hardened ground and removes the roots of what would choke its growth.
The seed must be nurtured by following up hearers, for opposition can snatch it away and without continued care it can wither. Without personal effort and the softening work of the Spirit much of what is preached is lost, since a discourse sows seed but hearers' hearts must be cultivated for it to take root. Patient considerate meetings and quiet welcoming influence build confidence and weaken prejudice so truth finds a place and becomes receptive. Different soils describe different responses, with wayside and stony-ground hearers and those choked by worldly growth who do not develop mature Christian character, yet some may be strengthened and established, so care is needed in dealing with people in the church because acting too soon to separate the unfaithful can harm those who might yet grow.
Preaching is sowing points and texts of eternal interest in the soil of the mind and heart. The soil must be prepared and the seed planted point by point by plain simple teaching and Bible readings and questions answered, with points fastened in the mind so the seed will spring up and bear fruit. When sermon after sermon is given at length hearers retain only a few points and other things come in to choke the seed of truth so it loses force on the mind.
Teaching God's Word is sowing seed in the minds and hearts of students. Even when teaching seems to have little effect, lessons of divine truth taught by one whose work is wrought in God will linger in memory even of the most careless. The Holy Spirit waters the sown seed and it will often spring up after many days and bear fruit. What is received can grow and bear fruit, but teaching that conceals skepticism or relies on fanciful interpretations can produce infidelity.
The soil of the heart must be softened and subdued by the teachings and love of Christ to receive the good seed of truth. This preparation is done by presenting truth from the first in a dignified godlike manner that gives character to its heavenly birth, by exercising great care and carrying minds along guardedly, and by dwelling upon practical godliness woven into doctrinal discourses. It is done by working to obtain acquaintance with people and so obtain their confidence, by keeping up the elevated character of the work, and by being humble and teachable in order to teach others and lead them in righteousness. Publications and papers and pamphlets are to work among the people without stinted effort and prepare the minds of the reading class for preaching, and work commenced wisely and prosecuted wisely in this way results in success.
Hearing the parable means learning how to sow seeds of truth. Sowing includes presenting truth-filled literature with thorough instruction in handling books containing precious truths of highest value, which is more than only selling periodicals. It urges active sowing in neglected fields and isolated places, sharing truth with others as seed-sowing that can lead souls to receive it. God has prepared receptive hearts in both home and foreign fields who welcome the message when presented, and a Christian physician or nurse can gently plant the seeds of truth in a suffering heart and direct the person to Jesus.
Clear pointed words Jesus spoke in the temple were seed of truth sown in minds that cut hearers to the heart, though the effect would not be seen at once. That seed was to spring up and bear fruit and save many souls. After the crucifixion and resurrection the lessons would be revived in many attentive listeners, who would repeat what they had heard for future generations to the close of time. His teaching in sowing the world with seeds of heavenly things could have restored God's moral image, but leaders turned from true knowledge and used Scripture to support human traditions and obscured its plain meaning.
Minds Children and Growth
The heart is a garden where both good seed and bad seed are sown, and as a garden must be prepared for natural seed so the heart must be prepared for the seed of truth, especially in early life when it is impressionable and able to receive good seed and bear fruit unto eternal life. That preparation belongs to the earliest years, so that the Sower can scatter the seed of God's truth in prepared soil. Spiritual sowing requires diligent, persevering labor in preparing the soil, sowing the seed, and cultivating the crop, with no immediate harvest expected from raw land. The garden of the heart must be cultivated by breaking up the soil with repentance and uprooting the evil growths that choke the good grain, for as soil overgrown with thorns is reclaimed only by diligent labor, so evil tendencies of the heart are overcome only by earnest effort in the name and strength of Christ. Casting the seed into the ground pictures Christ's death and the springing blade pictures the resurrection, and the correspondence between natural and spiritual sowing continues as the plant grows.
God has laid on parents the work of preparing that soil in their children by cultivating correct habits and the child's heart and mind and by educating them for usefulness and bringing them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord with the Word of God as the standard. They must not neglect this work under any consideration, trust it to other hands, send little ones away to school when young, or let the fashions of the world prevent duty, but take up the life duty bravely and cheerfully and with great pains. Mothers are to make the education of children the highest aim of life because their future happiness depends on the early years, keeping habits and dress simple to find time to make them happy and to lead them to cheerful willing submission and obedience with God's help. Done faithfully and well without discouragement and without fainting, this preparation brings a harvest in due time, with children growing up into Christian men and Christian women.
Labor with children means sowing the living seed deeply into their hearts with words chosen wisely, with a mother serving as God's appointed missionary and the light of her home. Seed planted in prepared soil represents good instruction taking root in the heart and producing good fruit. Early instruction can have lasting effects, and its good influence can reach others.
The mind, especially of children and youth, is like soil that must be cultivated and sown with the precious seed of Bible truth, and like a field where God wants to plant the heavenly seeds of truth to grow into precious plants, with the Word giving themes for thought and meditation on eternal realities that prepare that soil. An uncultivated field and an untrained mind are alike, and unless parents keep watchful guard with unceasing care, the enemy sows tares there that spring up to bear evil fruit. Children must therefore be taught to reject trashy, exciting tales and turn to sensible reading that leads the mind to interest in Bible story, history, and argument, and reading that throws light on Scripture and quickens desire to study it is beneficial, not dangerous.
The more powerful the capabilities of the mind, the greater the harm when it is perverted, because its thoughts become captivated and directed in a wrong channel and God cannot leave His own impress upon it. When He would leave the suggestions of heavenly thoughts upon the intellect, the field is preoccupied and the channel is obstructed, so He finds no soil prepared for His seed. A mind left open to have everything emptied into it from fictitious reading and storybooks is unprepared for the impressions God would make upon it. A mind and heart left dormant and neglected become overgrown with the weeds and briers of ignorance, superstition, and fancy. Mind and heart need daily care and exercise, and cultivated abilities should be used to glorify God.
Hear therefore means give careful, reverent attention to the explanation of the parable of the sower. The seed sown is the word of God, the gospel of the kingdom, the words of life free from human tradition. The different soils are the different hearts that hear it — the hardened wayside from which the wicked one snatches it, the shallow stony ground that receives it with joy but falls away in trial, the thorn-choked ground made unfruitful by worldly cares and riches, and the good ground that understands, keeps, and bears fruit in differing measure. Though sower and seed are the same, the result turns on the condition of the heart, and no one need remain hard, shallow, or choked, for by repentance and cooperation with the Spirit the heart can be broken up, cleansed, and made ready to bear fruit. Therefore the sowing is to go on everywhere without discouragement, even where much seems lost, trusting God to quicken hidden seed that may spring up after many days.
Call and Setting
Hear therefore is a call to give careful attention to the parable of the sower and to its explanation. It was taught beside the Sea of Galilee, spoken from a boat to a gathered crowd. The sowers, fields, rocks, birds, varied ground, and workers scattering seed around them were used to make the lesson clear, familiar, and memorable, bringing it home to the different people addressed and showing that it applies to people generally.
The chapter reveals two opposing working forces and gives lessons from Christ as the great Medical Missionary. Its teachings were faithfully reported by believing disciples to give principles of true higher education. Those principles are to shape believers’ hearts and guide the ministry of the Word through the end of time.
The chapter is a warning to heed its instruction and not be deceived by human sophistry or mockery of sacred things. It looks to the judgment, when each person must stand before Christ and be judged by deeds done in this life. Each must ask whether he will stand before the judgment seat of Christ acquitted, without spot or stain, and those saved must form characters without fault in the sight of a pure and holy God. This comes through doing the God-given work in cooperation with Christ, wearing His yoke and learning His meekness and lowliness.
Seed and Soils
“Hear ye therefore the parable of the sower” opens Christ’s own explanation that the kingdom of God is pictured in sowing and that the seed is the word of God, the gospel, the words of life, His teachings sown in His words and example. That teaching is heavenly truth free from human tradition, to be gathered as precious treasure by those desiring light, intended to bring people back to loyalty to God. The parable itself is also a seed sowing truths of divine grace.
The wayside hearer hears the word of the kingdom without understanding it, and the wicked one catches away what was sown in the heart. This is a hardened heart like a beaten highway, unimpressible to heavenly appeals, until regard for truth is lost. Neglected moral duties and evil habits harden it, while remaining among corrupting influences, exposure to temptation, and lack of a proper sense of the truth’s sacred character complete the hardening.
The stony-ground hearer hears the word and at once receives it with joy, yet has no root in himself. The lack of root is that character has not been changed by God’s grace and natural and cultivated tendencies to wrong remain, with true Christian principles not constantly followed. He lasts only for a while, and when tribulation or persecution arises because of the word he is offended and falls away. He then continually loses the interest once felt, returns to sinful practices, and though he may keep a profession of Christianity he does not honor the truth nor go on from grace to grace, growing for a time neither cold nor hot, careless, worldly, inattentive, hearing but not receiving, until finally hardened to all good impressions.
The thorny-ground hearer hears the word, but the care of this world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word and make him unfruitful. Worldly pleasures, honors, possessions, business concerns, and earthly interests crowd out spiritual things and keep people from receiving Christ’s invitation and valuing eternal riches, so mature Christian character is not developed. Thorns of sin grow without cultivation while grace must be carefully cultivated, love of the world leaves no room for Christ, and divided hearts may profess to accept Him while refusing the cross.
The good-ground hearer hears the word and understands it and bears fruit in different measures, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. Receiving the good seed means receiving Christ’s words into the heart, and when received in faith the word takes root and bears fruit, welcomed and kept and borne with patience. An honest heart acknowledges when shown the light that sin is transgression of the law, heeds God’s appeals to conscience, and receiving truth uproots the tares within. A partial, reluctant reception leaves the heart vulnerable to Satan’s seed and to thorns that choke and destroy the truth.
The parable sets out the different tendencies of the human heart and the classes Christ taught, giving the reason for the condition of the churches. It explains His limited immediate results, that people could freely accept or reject Him because God did not force belief or obedience. Christ did not use miracles to compel belief, and people were to join human effort with divine power to overcome sin.
Hearers respond differently over time, for the first response may fade when they return to worldly cares, temptations, and unfavorable surroundings, while others begin a holier life and put the teaching into practice. Some eagerly hear but only dimly understand, yet seeds of life lodged in their hearts later spring up and bear blessed fruit. So some who heard Jesus in the judgment hall received His words with reverence and awe that grew into faith in Him as Redeemer, showing gospel seed taking root and later producing an abundant harvest. So also Jesus knowingly cast truth into Nicodemus as soil, and for three years there was little apparent fruit while he was not an enemy yet did not publicly acknowledge Him, but carefully weighed, watched His life, pondered His teaching, and considered His mighty works, until Lazarus’s resurrection gave undeniable evidence that Jesus was Messiah.
The Pharisees’ hearts are barren, hopeless, profitless soil in which seeds of heavenly truth cannot take root. Their feeling of superiority is self-deluding, with exalted self claiming all faith, honor, and love, supposing others at fault, suspecting even the purest, full of evil thoughts, making a man an offender for a word, and speaking hard reproof and condemnation that crushes hope and courage out of the soul. The goodness manifested in true Christians puts roots of bitterness in them by which many are defiled.
The kingdom of truth and righteousness is extended throughout the world by teaching the truth to defeat Satan. A teacher of sacred truth can impart only what he knows by experience, for Christ taught truth because He was the truth, with His own thought and character and life embodied in His teaching. So His servants must make the Word their own by personal experience, knowing Christ made unto them wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption, and must present it not as suppose-so or may-be but with certain eyewitness testimony.
Heart Responsibility and Preparation
Though the sower and the seed remain the same, the different results depend on the soil, and the soil is the hearers' hearts. When God's word fails to take root or grow, the fault lies with those who resist the Spirit and allow hardness or worldly concerns to hinder it.
No one need remain hardened, shallow, or thorn-choked, for by choice and with God's help the heart can be cultivated through repentance, evil tendencies uprooted, and the heart made ready to receive the word. As a garden must be prepared for natural seed, so the heart must be prepared for the seed of truth, and spiritual sowing calls for diligent, persevering labor in preparing the soil, sowing the seed, and cultivating the crop, with no immediate harvest expected from raw land. The garden of the heart is cultivated by breaking up the soil with repentance and uprooting the evil growths that choke the good grain. As soil overgrown with thorns is reclaimed only by diligent labor, so evil tendencies of the heart are overcome only by earnest effort in the name and strength of Christ. The heart must be broken up by conviction of sin before the gospel seed can take root, and must be worked upon by the Spirit of God, refined and disciplined, before it can bear fruit to God's glory. Accepted truth softens the heart so it is ready for the seed to be sown continually and to produce a harvest for God, and true faith works through love and purifies the soul. Casting the seed into the ground pictures Christ's death and the springing blade pictures the resurrection, and the correspondence between natural and spiritual sowing continues as the plant grows.
Hearing the living oracles of God requires deliberate purpose to let the words of God enter, and those who listen every day must choose what kind of hearers they will be. Surface-ground and stony-ground hearers fail by gathering up the chaff and passing by the precious treasures of truth as if of no consequence. Perverse talk and the tattling, wicked tongue sow evil seed in minds that will bear its harvest, while right hearing promotes the honor and glory of God by sound speech seasoned with grace and by doing what God requires in each opportunity of life.
Hearts are God's husbandry and soil on the Lord's farm, and the Word of God is gospel seed planted to produce a harvest. Hardened hearts that have not been under the plow or the harrow need much skillful, painstaking labor to break up and subdue the soil so the seed can find favorable ground and bear fruit. Surface work and haphazard half-effort will show itself in the harvest, while thorough effort to bring the soil into fit condition for planting and growth will be rewarded. The work requires intelligent, harmonious cooperation of the divine and the human. God works in nature, giving power to the soil and seed, while human skill and effort cooperate with that divine work, and the seed's growth and harvest through daily experience of sowing and reaping make the lesson plain, teaching about the kingdom of heaven and revealing God's goodness and continual care for people.
Sowing Work in Ministry
Christ as the divine Teacher sowed seeds of truth with care and anxiety and self-denial in a life of continued sacrifice for the good of others. He presented truth in parables as the way to rebuke sin without giving personal offense. Those who believe must follow His example and have His mind so they do not become weary in well-doing, sowing the seed of truth and trusting God to quicken it to life. The work calls for labor unselfishly and earnestly and perseveringly as co-workers with Christ and the heavenly angels in the salvation of others.
The same sowing of good seed and the same hindering by the enemy continue now with God's messengers. Hearts are unmoved because Satan is linked with religionists. Evil angels in the form of men mingle with hearers to make suggestions and insinuations, to criticize and misapply and misinterpret and misconstrue what is spoken, until the words lose their force.
The seed falls on different kinds of soil including poor soil, but the sower does not stop sowing because some falls there. The lesson is to proclaim God's word everywhere and preach broadly even when many hearers do not follow it, and not to be discouraged when results are not immediately visible. Those who accept it receive life, while those who reject its warning are condemned. Some receive and bear fruit in varying measure while others produce no fruit.
Good seed of truth sown by word and example may remain hidden for a time in a worldly selfish heart and may lie dormant until the grace of God convicts the heart. Then the sown seed is awakened to life and takes root and springs up and bears fruit to the glory of God. God's Spirit works on the heart to bring the seed to growth, and proclaiming truth with Christ and His redeeming love presented with it leads to fruit. Workers are to do their part and leave results to God.
Personal sympathetic ministry that reveals Christ's love and life can soften even a hard beaten-path heart so the seed of truth takes root. Believers need to be taught from the beginning to live by Christ's life and character, to bear burdens and deny natural inclinations and trust His love and work for the lost. Such service turns attention away from self and weakens the attraction of worldly pleasures and discouragement from worldly burdens. Truth breaks up hardened ground and removes the roots of what would choke its growth.
The seed must be nurtured by following up hearers, for opposition can snatch it away and without continued care it can wither. Without personal effort and the softening work of the Spirit much of what is preached is lost, since a discourse sows seed but hearers' hearts must be cultivated for it to take root. Patient considerate meetings and quiet welcoming influence build confidence and weaken prejudice so truth finds a place and becomes receptive. Different soils describe different responses, with wayside and stony-ground hearers and those choked by worldly growth who do not develop mature Christian character, yet some may be strengthened and established, so care is needed in dealing with people in the church because acting too soon to separate the unfaithful can harm those who might yet grow.
Preaching is sowing points and texts of eternal interest in the soil of the mind and heart. The soil must be prepared and the seed planted point by point by plain simple teaching and Bible readings and questions answered, with points fastened in the mind so the seed will spring up and bear fruit. When sermon after sermon is given at length hearers retain only a few points and other things come in to choke the seed of truth so it loses force on the mind.
Teaching God's Word is sowing seed in the minds and hearts of students. Even when teaching seems to have little effect, lessons of divine truth taught by one whose work is wrought in God will linger in memory even of the most careless. The Holy Spirit waters the sown seed and it will often spring up after many days and bear fruit. What is received can grow and bear fruit, but teaching that conceals skepticism or relies on fanciful interpretations can produce infidelity.
The soil of the heart must be softened and subdued by the teachings and love of Christ to receive the good seed of truth. This preparation is done by presenting truth from the first in a dignified godlike manner that gives character to its heavenly birth, by exercising great care and carrying minds along guardedly, and by dwelling upon practical godliness woven into doctrinal discourses. It is done by working to obtain acquaintance with people and so obtain their confidence, by keeping up the elevated character of the work, and by being humble and teachable in order to teach others and lead them in righteousness. Publications and papers and pamphlets are to work among the people without stinted effort and prepare the minds of the reading class for preaching, and work commenced wisely and prosecuted wisely in this way results in success.
Hearing the parable means learning how to sow seeds of truth. Sowing includes presenting truth-filled literature with thorough instruction in handling books containing precious truths of highest value, which is more than only selling periodicals. It urges active sowing in neglected fields and isolated places, sharing truth with others as seed-sowing that can lead souls to receive it. God has prepared receptive hearts in both home and foreign fields who welcome the message when presented, and a Christian physician or nurse can gently plant the seeds of truth in a suffering heart and direct the person to Jesus.
Clear pointed words Jesus spoke in the temple were seed of truth sown in minds that cut hearers to the heart, though the effect would not be seen at once. That seed was to spring up and bear fruit and save many souls. After the crucifixion and resurrection the lessons would be revived in many attentive listeners, who would repeat what they had heard for future generations to the close of time. His teaching in sowing the world with seeds of heavenly things could have restored God's moral image, but leaders turned from true knowledge and used Scripture to support human traditions and obscured its plain meaning.
Minds Children and Growth
The heart is a garden where both good seed and bad seed are sown, and as a garden must be prepared for natural seed so the heart must be prepared for the seed of truth, especially in early life when it is impressionable and able to receive good seed and bear fruit unto eternal life. That preparation belongs to the earliest years, so that the Sower can scatter the seed of God's truth in prepared soil. Spiritual sowing requires diligent, persevering labor in preparing the soil, sowing the seed, and cultivating the crop, with no immediate harvest expected from raw land. The garden of the heart must be cultivated by breaking up the soil with repentance and uprooting the evil growths that choke the good grain, for as soil overgrown with thorns is reclaimed only by diligent labor, so evil tendencies of the heart are overcome only by earnest effort in the name and strength of Christ. Casting the seed into the ground pictures Christ's death and the springing blade pictures the resurrection, and the correspondence between natural and spiritual sowing continues as the plant grows.
God has laid on parents the work of preparing that soil in their children by cultivating correct habits and the child's heart and mind and by educating them for usefulness and bringing them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord with the Word of God as the standard. They must not neglect this work under any consideration, trust it to other hands, send little ones away to school when young, or let the fashions of the world prevent duty, but take up the life duty bravely and cheerfully and with great pains. Mothers are to make the education of children the highest aim of life because their future happiness depends on the early years, keeping habits and dress simple to find time to make them happy and to lead them to cheerful willing submission and obedience with God's help. Done faithfully and well without discouragement and without fainting, this preparation brings a harvest in due time, with children growing up into Christian men and Christian women.
Labor with children means sowing the living seed deeply into their hearts with words chosen wisely, with a mother serving as God's appointed missionary and the light of her home. Seed planted in prepared soil represents good instruction taking root in the heart and producing good fruit. Early instruction can have lasting effects, and its good influence can reach others.
The mind, especially of children and youth, is like soil that must be cultivated and sown with the precious seed of Bible truth, and like a field where God wants to plant the heavenly seeds of truth to grow into precious plants, with the Word giving themes for thought and meditation on eternal realities that prepare that soil. An uncultivated field and an untrained mind are alike, and unless parents keep watchful guard with unceasing care, the enemy sows tares there that spring up to bear evil fruit. Children must therefore be taught to reject trashy, exciting tales and turn to sensible reading that leads the mind to interest in Bible story, history, and argument, and reading that throws light on Scripture and quickens desire to study it is beneficial, not dangerous.
The more powerful the capabilities of the mind, the greater the harm when it is perverted, because its thoughts become captivated and directed in a wrong channel and God cannot leave His own impress upon it. When He would leave the suggestions of heavenly thoughts upon the intellect, the field is preoccupied and the channel is obstructed, so He finds no soil prepared for His seed. A mind left open to have everything emptied into it from fictitious reading and storybooks is unprepared for the impressions God would make upon it. A mind and heart left dormant and neglected become overgrown with the weeds and briers of ignorance, superstition, and fancy. Mind and heart need daily care and exercise, and cultivated abilities should be used to glorify God.