And when the sun was up, they were scorched; and because they had no root, they withered away.
The verse describes seed fallen on thin soil over rock that shoots up at once but, having nowhere to deepen, is burned when the heat comes and dies for lack of moisture and root. It belongs to the parable of the sower, where the seed is the word of God sown broadly in hearts, and the different soils show the different ways it is received and whether it bears fruit. It pictures the hearer who welcomes truth with quick joy and zeal while the heart remains hard and unchanged, so principle never governs the life and the impression stays only on the surface. The rising heat is trial and opposition in all its forms — persecution, sacrifice, worldly cares, possessions and surrounding influences — which exposes shallow, feeling-based religion and causes it to take offense, fade and fall away. Endurance comes only when the heart as soil is broken up by repentance, cleared of selfishness and evil, and the truth is cherished until it takes deep root in union with God and brings forth a persevering life.
Parable Words and Setting
The verse pictures seed fallen on shallow, stony ground that springs up quickly but, having no deep root, is scorched when the sun rises and withers away. It depicts a hearer whose response to the word lacks deep roots and therefore cannot endure when tested, representing those who receive the gospel but do not become firmly rooted in it so they bear no lasting fruit. In the parable earthly seed-sowing illustrates the sowing of gospel seed, the truths of God's grace, and the same laws that govern natural seed-sowing govern the sowing of truth.
The verse belongs to the parable of the sower in Matthew 13:3-9 about seed falling on different soils with different results. That parable illustrates the kingdom of heaven and the work of Christ and His servants in sowing truth to bring people back to loyalty to God, with the seed representing the word of God, the Gospel, and principles sown in the heart whose growth represents development of character. The sowing is to be done broadly and publicly, as Christ made truth known publicly especially where people from many places could hear it and presented it clearly so they could understand it. As soil is prepared for natural seed, so the heart must be prepared for the seed of truth.
Jesus taught the parable amid fields, rocks, sunlight and laborers scattering seed, using familiar daily sights and facts of experience to illustrate immortal truth about His kingdom and how it would be established. He took something seen in daily surroundings and made it an interpreter of the unseen and spiritual, with something to interest every mind and appeal to every heart, turning daily task from mere toil into a brightened reminder of the spiritual and unseen. In nature He showed an expression of the love and wisdom of God, making all things seen and all events of life a means of divine teaching for children. The parable shows different tendencies of the human heart and classes of hearers, explaining why His ministry had meager immediate results: people were free to accept or reject Him and were not compelled to obey or forced to believe. It was given amid disappointment that He had not established a temporal kingdom, with followers' expectations and refusal to receive Him as Redeemer forming its setting.
The seed is the word of God, the gospel, the truths of grace, principles sown in the heart and mind, and heavenly grain gathered by receptive minds desiring light and knowledge as precious treasure. The same law governs material and spiritual seed-sowing, and earthly images in the parable represent spiritual truths, with things God created repeating Christ's lessons and speaking eternal truths. Christ's words are precious and need to be understood so they can be received and bring forth fruit, cultivated by His disciples, studied through daily work of sowing, cultivating and harvesting, and searched for as hidden treasure. Growth of seed and harvest teach that God works through nature and sustains human life and make truths of the kingdom plain, containing the greatest yet most simple lessons with the gospel as His instrument of redemption to reveal God. The tiny seed hidden in the earth contains the substance of the precious golden harvest, truth is hidden from those who do not take pains to seek and dig for it, every branch of knowledge is found by searching the Scriptures, and learning from Him who came from heaven not to be educated but to educate is higher education throwing reflection of heavenly light back on Christ rather than on human beings.
Stony-Ground Hearer Exposed
The stony-ground hearer takes hold of truth eagerly with quick joy and zeal, yet the word stays on the surface because the heart remains hard and unrenewed by the Spirit of God. Principle does not guide action, feelings carry the response, and when trial, temptation, sacrifice, persecution, unfavorable surroundings, worldly cares and earthly interests rise like the sun, first impressions fade into indifference and relapse and zeal withers away. Such hearers may profess belief without sensing its sacred character, keep company with corrupting influences, invite temptation, and finally lose all apparent regard for truth, while even harmful words can lodge in the mind as seed and later bear a harvest. When truth exposes defects and calls to sanctification they take offense, resist its sanctifying work, refuse to change, and abandon it rather than submit.
Trying to serve both self and Christ leaves the life half-hearted, weak in purpose and changeable in desire, with no depth or root to endure testing. Some of these shallow hearers were in the church, so premature action against them could provoke a crisis before the few who might yet become established in truth were strengthened.
The Pharisees, scribes and leaders show barren, hopeless and profitless soil where heavenly truth could not take root. A self-deluding sense of superiority claimed all their faith, honor and love, and instead of root they grew roots of bitterness by which many were defiled, becoming full of evil thoughts, suspecting even the purest, and crushing hope and courage out of the soul by strong hard words of reproof and condemnation, even making a man an offender for a word. They turned from the fountain of true knowledge and studied Scripture only to sustain tradition and enforce man-made observances, making it express sentiments never given, making indistinct by mystical construction what was made plain, disputing over technicalities and practically denying the most essential truths. Israel likewise, despite instruction and many advantages, rejected counsel, reproof and warning and yielded no good fruit, taking in what was received but returning nothing in service to God and blessing to others.
Many convinced by Luther's testimony at the diet were only temporarily impressed, like shallow-rooted seed scorched by the sun, and the heat of opposition caused their impressions to wither. Rome expected the same end for the truths Huss preached, that they would wither like scorched seed without root when his body was burned and his ashes with soil were cast into the Rhine to the ocean. Instead those ashes became as seed scattered in all countries of the earth, even in lands yet unknown, yielding abundant fruit in witnesses for truth through all coming ages, with his faith and constancy encouraging multitudes to stand firm under torture and death, so that enemies furthered the cause they sought to destroy.
The seed planted in Nicodemus showed little apparent fruit for three years as he watched and weighed the teaching without publicly acknowledging Him, underscoring growth without visible root, until the raising of Lazarus gave decisive evidence of Messiahship. By contrast, some who heard Jesus with initial reverence and awe did endure, and the gospel seed in their hearts later yielded an abundant harvest. This included hearers in the judgment hall, whose first feelings of reverence and awe developed into perfect faith in Him as Redeemer.
Testing Scorches Shallow Faith
The rising sun is trial and temptation, sacrifice and persecution, opposition and unfavorable surroundings, worldly cares and earthly interests and possessions. It is the heat that tests a shallow response to the word, so that seed falling on dry ground among preoccupying concerns has no chance to take root. Earthly interests in this way keep hearts unresponsive to the heavenly invitation, and the spirit of the world chokes the seed of truth so it does not spring up or bear fruit. A timely word of truth may thus be received by an indifferent or careless hearer, yet first impressions fade into indifference and relapse unless there is deeper spiritual root for lasting growth.
Religion without root is fair-weather religion, content with attending church, feeling happy, shedding tears, and believing Jesus is the Saviour, but without daily self-denial and conflict. Scorching trial exposes such Christianity as withered, for without deep connection with God and the presence of Jesus it is false hope and half-work ending in ruin. That shallow experience cannot bear the investigation of the judgment, where eternal interests are involved and every person is judged by deeds. To have root the fallow ground of the heart must be broken up, self must die, and the work must be made thorough and built sure, and then the life can be used and accepted for the salvation of others.
Truth received without a deep and lasting hold does not endure trial, for zeal fades when truth exposes defects and calls to sanctification. Hearers then take offense, resist its sanctifying work, refuse to change, abandon it, and fall away. Genuine reception produces perseverance and decision, expressed in willing work to advance the truth, and without that corresponding zeal the truth has not had its saving influence. Hearing plants good seed in those who listen, and whether it springs up to God's glory is revealed at the day of final reckoning, when actions finally show whether truth took root or thorns and brambles overcame it.
A life left to form itself through indifference, spiritual sloth, pleasure-seeking, and careless responsiveness to worldly influences lacks the depth needed to withstand spiritual peril. Such influence can draw others from God and leave them with superficial views of Christian character and low attainments. Souls without cultivation and firm discipline may therefore have only a cold and lifeless religion. In another application, sowers who use every opportunity to plant evil insinuations weakening confidence in ministers and message sow in minds that have no root, temptations coming are the sun being up, and being scorched and withering away is giving way and being worked upon to divert others from the truths to be borne to the world.
Preparing Heart for Root
The heart is garden and soil that must be worked upon, refined and disciplined before it can bear fruit to God's glory, for as uncultivated land will not produce a harvest so good seed does not spring up to bear fruit where the ground is not properly prepared. Neglect in preparing the soil brings failure and poor harvest, with seed failing for lack of root. Truth is of heavenly origin and opposed to the heart's natural disposition, so it lives and grows only by daily and hourly warfare to overcome besetments and by earnest and diligent toil that brings all the powers into subjection to the Spirit of Christ to perfect holiness in the fear of the Lord.
The soil of the heart is broken up by repentance, for the heart must be broken up before the gospel seed can find lodgment, and conviction of sin awakens people to their danger and their need of healing so they can receive the gospel. Fallow ground must be stirred and wrongs weeded out, with the heart worked by weeding and stirring, while errors rooted there must be pulled out so they do not eclipse the truth. Evil growths that choke the good seed must be uprooted, and evil tendencies can be overcome only through earnest effort in the name and strength of Christ. Truth expels selfishness and prepares the heart to receive the seed continually sown, and the mind must be kept free from selfishness and covetousness which is idolatry. Tender, contrite hearts are prepared to receive the seeds of truth and show a tendency to grow upward, while hard unworked hearts give the seed no depth so it dies instead of producing a harvest and cannot enter the kingdom unless softened by grace.
Thorough, skillful, painstaking tilling is needed where the ground has not been put under the plow and the harrow and hardened soil has not been broken up and subdued, for surface work and haphazard half-effort leave the gospel seed with no favorable soil and no root so it is scorched and withers and the failure is revealed in the harvest. All skill and discernment must be put into bringing the land into fit condition for planting, to bring out its varied properties favorable to the growth of seed and fruit. Tilling literal soil teaches how the Lord's soil should be worked, and learners need an education not in book knowledge only but in agricultural lines, learning these lessons continually while tilling the soil. There must be intelligent, harmonious cooperation of the divine and the human, both in students who are themselves God's husbandry and part of the Lord's farm, and in those who watch for souls laboring on hearts until the Word of God can produce a harvest that rewards the effort and supplies human need. Painstaking, thorough labor on hearts prepares favorable soil where the seed can take hold and yield a harvest that supplies human need.
From the beginning believers need to learn deep foundations to prevent the word from perishing through shallowness: to make Christ's life and character their own, bear burdens, deny natural inclination, follow Christ in self-denial, endure hardship, and trust Him with their cares. New believers must be carefully taught and established so their faith will endure. The soil of the heart must be prepared and the seed planted point by point through teaching and Bible readings, with questions asked and answered in the plainest manner until points and texts are fastened in the mind for eternal interest, since sermon after sermon alone leaves hearers retaining only a few points that lose force while other things come in to choke the seed. Truth must be received and cultivated in the mind to produce heavenly fruit, and where truth is not sown there is no such fruit. The seed of the kingdom, the truth sown, cannot become fruitful without the life-giving conditions it needs, and must receive sunshine and living water from the great Source of truth to grow. The human heart is God's farmed soil where seeds of truth are to be sown and cared for so the life bears the beautiful fruit of the Spirit, with God's impress molding the mind into graceful symmetry and crude physical and mental energies trained for the Master's service, a lesson those who till the soil can study in their daily work.
Shallow soil need not remain so, for the soil represents the hearer's heart and shallow faith cannot take root or develop, yet hearers are responsible for resisting the Spirit and allowing hardness to prevent the word from taking root. The different results of the seed depend on the soil, not on a difference in the sower or seed, and people may choose not to remain stony-ground hearers. The heart can be prepared through repentance and earnest effort in Jesus' strength. Christlike personal ministry can soften a hard heart so the seed of truth can take root. Truth sown in the heart can be taken away by determined opposition or wither when it is not nurtured, and continued ministry helps protect and sustain it. Truth must take root in hearts, and meetings prepare the way for this to happen, with regular, welcoming prayer meetings building confidence and weakening prejudice. Hearers are to hope that spoken words take root in receptive hearts.
In homes where professing Christians' example hardens young people's hearts, the good seed finds no place to take root and is caught away.
Faithful Sowing Despite Loss
Seed falls on different kinds of soil, and seed on poor soil yields no fruit unto eternal life, yet poor soil is no reason to stop sowing, for the truth is to be spread in every place and carried everywhere even into unpromising and unworked places, trusting God's plan and will, without discouragement when results are not seen at once and in faith and hope even when prospects look discouraging, because gospel laborers will meet varied responses and decisions to obey or refuse the truth. Good seed sown where the soil was not prepared does not spring up to bear fruit, and hearts are not moved by the proclamation of the gospel because Satan is linked with present religionists and evil angels in the form of men mingle with hearers, talking with those who know the truth and making suggestions and insinuations while criticizing, misapplying, misinterpreting and misconstruing the words of life so they lose their force, as angels in the form of men once mingled with Christ's hearers to criticize and misapply His words, and truth was then presented in parables as the only way to rebuke sin without causing personal offense, yet many hear and refuse to heed.
Seed of truth may lie dormant or hidden for a time without showing that it has taken root, then God's grace convicts the heart and awakens it to life, the Spirit waters it, and it springs up to bear fruit to the glory of God, sometimes after many days, after Christ's crucifixion and resurrection when hearers remembered His clear pointed words and repeated them for future generations to the close of time, through dim understanding, in cold worldly selfish hearts, or in those established in truth in contrast to withering without root under the sun. Sowing must therefore be done with the mind of Christ, with care, anxiety, self-denial and continual sacrifice for others' good as co-workers with Christ and heavenly angels, without becoming weary in well-doing, trusting God to quicken the seed into life and leaving the outcome with Him, laboring unselfishly, earnestly and perseveringly and rejoicing in fruit.
Work done in faith and hope on hard and unpromising missionary ground will not disappoint but will bring a harvest with spiritual and eternal results to reward the labor, for what is sown will be reaped again, as the garden of the soul must be cultivated with the same care given to ground where seed is put in and soil worked to make it fruitful and trees planted to yield fruit, and life and character must receive care to take root and produce precious fruit of its kind for others' benefit. Difficult soil may delay growth, yet faithful sowing can ultimately produce strong abundant fruit, as truth slowly received in Britain showed, and work whose results are not immediately apparent may bear fruit, as a pamphlet left during an apparently mistaken visit became seed that led twenty to conversion, and as sowing where the standard of truth is lifted produced a little company and deeply convicted souls all around Ulceby and precious souls in Kettering.
The former rain helped gospel seed at the beginning of the Christian age germinate and take good root so the church enjoyed the gifts of the Holy Spirit, and at the close of the age the latter rain is to ripen the harvest with the gifts revived in their fullness.
Christ sowed the world with seeds of truth wherever He was, traveling from place to place ministering to temporal and spiritual needs, grasping every opportunity to present truth, and the seeds He dropped into hearts sprang up and brought forth fruit, a pattern for workers sharing truth wherever they go. His word sown and watered with His blood became a harvest after His ascension revealing the power of His teaching, when hearers remembered His words at testimony of His resurrection and believed, and the Holy Spirit qualified the apostles to gather that harvest, including the conversions at Pentecost.
Seed sown in Jerusalem was not to be abandoned when it met hostility and rejection but was to be cultivated by the apostles until it produced an abundant harvest, for the heart is soil receiving heavenly seed that can bear a harvest for good, so those who teach need patience and care as they sow.
Sowing is the gospel ministry spreading present truth by preaching God's Word, witnessing wherever people are met as Christ sowed wherever He went, presenting truth together with Christ and His redeeming love so it springs up to lasting fruit, passing received Word on to sow good seed in other minds, and teaching people how to share so it takes root and bears lasting fruit. This work is not left to ministers alone but is to be done by men not called to the ministry according to ability, whose unreserved service gives experience for more successful work and whose influence that drew them to Christ helps draw others, so that one never called to public speaking is nonetheless a minister whose work testifies he is born of God, and the work is to spread across many localities rather than concentrating in one place.
Sowing means circulating books containing light and present truth for this time by placing them in homes of as many people as possible, including businessmen, isolated families and all seekers, with many believers uniting under divine guidance, looking to the Lord, attended by the Holy Spirit and accompanied by angels preparing the way, for seed so sown will spring up to bear fruit. Publications are a means of spreading truth and must be actively circulated rather than left unused, workers at large gatherings should teach methods for presenting books from which readers draw highest lessons, and sowing through books and other efforts means some seed may bear fruit even among isolated households.
Sowing includes the Southern field as sowing seeds of truth throughout the whole field among rich and poor calling for light, by men and women giving themselves to God to be made messengers of peace and hope, with two results of many hardening hearts against conviction and being lost and many hungering for bread receiving the message and then going forth themselves to sow. It includes unworked places within thirty miles of Cooranbong, including Newcastle and Maitland and towns along the line toward Queensland where nothing has been done and people know not the truth, as fields ready for seed through Bible readings, preaching and camp meetings, and it is the appointed work of all church members and not ministry alone by missionary visits, opening Scriptures with neighbors, wise literature distribution, and organized companies searching every district including the hedges, with persevering work bringing aptitude and salvation of souls and converts in turn teaching others so seed is sown still more widely.
Sowing includes true medical missionary work for restoration of God's image, carrying remedies for physical suffering in one hand and gospel for sin-burdened souls in the other, with health and temperance instruction opening the way for prayer, singing and talks on Bible subjects, and with simple parable truths creating opportunities for well-trained nurses to awaken interest in households and for evangelists and Bible workers in cities such as Boston and New Bedford, giving work for every energetic earnest worker. Truth is good seed sown in hearts made ready by restoration to health under judicious treatment, where gratitude gives confidence, prejudice is removed, and access is gained in new places otherwise closed, and in some the seed lodges, is nourished, springs up and bears fruit to God's glory, with one soul saved worth more than all means spent, while in others it fails from lack of moral courage to yield and sacrifice all for Christ when world and unbelieving relatives oppose, though some still become defenders and others become trials, and though Satan and his agents hinder, perplex and burden workers, opposition should not discourage nor stop effort.
Sowing includes gently introducing truth into hearts and planting it through personal visits and family conversation that can lead to rejoicing, through brief courteous conversation, through winning confidence by practical godliness and love before presenting truth in love in soil prepared to receive it, through practical kindness and hospitality such as food for inquirers, through softening hearts by personal acquaintance, publications and godly doctrinal discourse begun in dignified godlike manner, through presenting truth in the open air even to those not entering church where attentive hearers ready to obey contrast with scorched rootless seed, and through presenting words under the Spirit's work with joy in prepared hearts and divine influences upon sufferers giving physician and nurse opportunity to plant.
In city restaurant work sowing of seeds of truth must come before gathering large numbers, for numbers are no true evidence of success, and feeding a large company daily too cheaply with underpaid helpers while leading no souls to interest in present truth is weighed and found wanting, so helpers and patrons must be given well-defined spiritual help giving root and fortifying against temptation, or they become indifferent and wither and the business exerts stronger influence against truth than if unbelievers carried it on.
One who receives truth is converted and transformed, leaving tobacco, tea and meat, and goes forth to work for others so seed is sown through him even when trade fails and life changes, as loss of fishing and boat-building led to bush farming and neighbor meetings with several interested. Sowing also means maintaining every possible agency in the nation's capital for exalting Bible principles and light among men of influence, especially a sanitarium in Washington with physicians and helpers rightly representing truth to lawmakers, counselors and senators, that blind prejudice may be removed and acquaintance with other institutions such as those at Takoma Park may follow.
The parable guides study of seed growth and harvest showing God working through nature to sustain life and making kingdom truths plain, and truth sown through publications that has impressed many but is not yet fully understood or obeyed will lead honest hindered ones to take their stand for God when light becomes clear and the Spirit brings deep conviction. The spoken word is precious seed, and when hearers are distracted or fail to heed it does not take root and bear fruit, while attentive hearing allows needed words to keep them from straying.
Nurturing Children and Daily Life
The heart is a garden that must be prepared to receive the seed of truth just as soil is prepared for natural seed, for seed means principles sown in the heart and its springing up means development of character. The garden of the heart requires diligent persevering labor in preparing soil, sowing seed and culturing the crop, with the soil broken up by repentance and evil growths uprooted. As soil overgrown with thorns is reclaimed only by diligent labor, evil tendencies are overcome only by earnest effort in the name and strength of Christ. Children and youth are to learn this correspondence between planting and character growth practically by themselves preparing soil, sowing seed and watching the plant grow.
Parents are given the work of preparing the soil of children's hearts for the great Sower to scatter the good seed of truth so it takes root, grows and endures rather than withering without root when scorched. This means carefully forming minds and habits, educating for usefulness, bringing them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, making the Word of God the standard, and teaching cheerful obedience and submission. It means keeping them close at home until eight or ten years of age and teaching them themselves, with open air among flowers and birds for a schoolroom and nature for a textbook opened as fast as minds can comprehend, instead of trusting the molding of the infant mind to others by early schooling or wasting time and labor on fashion. Done bravely, cheerfully and without fainting or discouragement, this faithful work will in due time bring a harvest of children growing into Christian men and women, for early impressions planted in good soil bear lasting fruit. From earliest years truth is to be sown lovingly in children with the teaching that Christ is their personal Saviour and that giving heart and mind to Him makes them His disciples, a responsibility not to be neglected.
Children's Bible lessons are seeds of truth planted in the heart to be sown deeply and cultivated toward a harvest, and the work of spiritual instruction must be continued lest the good seed perish for lack of care to take root. Good fruit seen in children comes from seed planted in prepared soil, showing the lasting results of early instruction. Truth taught to little ones in earliest years makes them familiar with heavenly truth, is remembered wherever their lot is cast in the future, and bears a precious harvest. Observing how plants grow teaches the corresponding lessons about the soul, as soil is prepared for seed so the heart must be prepared to receive the seed of truth.
Teaching God's Word is sowing precious seeds of divine truth in minds and hearts of students after the order of Christ's teaching, with Christ as the standard Teacher. Teachers must have souls transformed by grace, minds absorbed in the glorious truths of His life, feed on the Word, follow Christ to the very letter, and hold up the high gospel standard of virtue and holiness in order to prepare students for transformation to a higher life. Without this transformation they cannot do this preparing work nor give students the training needed, and they must not sow their own ideas, plans, imaginings, schemes and ambitions, nor mold by personal likes and dislikes, nor exalt as essential what Christ never taught. Even when teaching appears to have little effect, some lessons linger in memory even of the most careless, and when the work is wrought in God the Holy Spirit waters the sown seed so it often springs up after many days and bears fruit to God's glory.
The untrained mind is like an uncultivated field whose soil must be cultivated with unceasing care and sown with the precious seed of Bible truth, for the mind needs proper daily cultivation lest ignorance and other evils grow. Unless watchful guard is kept the enemy sows tares in minds of children and youth that spring up to bear evil fruit, so sowing Bible truth there helps prevent evil growth. The soil is the mind and the seed is the Word with its heavenly thoughts of truth on eternal realities, which God seeks as prepared soil to leave His impress and plant the heavenly seeds of precious plants of truth. When thoughts are captivated and directed in a wrong channel by fictitious reading the field is preoccupied and the channel obstructed so He cannot plant His suggestions upon the intellect, leaving the mind unprepared for His impressions, and the more powerful the mental capabilities the greater the evil when thus perverted. Children must therefore be taught to reject trashy exciting tales and turn to sensible reading that leads the mind to Bible story, history and argument and quickens desire to study the Sacred Volume.
Teaching is seed sown in the heart that grows and bears fruit according to its kind, and cultivation of the soil bringing children and youth into direct contact with nature and nature's God sows seed that takes root and does not wither. This gives health and happiness especially to the nervous child wearied by abstract book lessons, because impressions joined to garden and field objects continually before the eyes do not fade out of the mind. By contrast, philosophical speculation and scientific research taught without God sow seeds of doubt in young hearts which Satan nourishes to growth and fruit, making thousands skeptics with a plentiful harvest of infidelity that attracts youth by appearance of independence. Likewise books of science and philosophy where thorns of skepticism are only partly hidden, vague fanciful stories, and books on Scripture subjects woven with human fancies sow seed growing into a plentiful harvest of infidelity seen in depravity.
Without root there is withering under heat, and root is being rooted and grounded in the faith and closely connected with God. Strong young men with that root can safely enter higher schools, learn the drill and theology taught there, meet prevailing errors without being influenced or swayed from the right, and all the while remain channels of light dropping seeds of truth into other minds. The instruction in Matthew 13 must be read as for life and taken as personal warning to take heed to self and ask who will stand acquitted without spot or stain before the judgment seat of Christ. Those who are saved must form characters without fault before a pure and holy God by doing God-given work in cooperation with Christ, wearing His yoke and learning His meekness and lowliness and receiving daily teaching in the divine beatitudes, since at the great day every man will be judged according to deeds done in this life.
The gospel calls for entire consecration in the work of sowing, with the sower going forth to sow and awaking to the spiritual character of the work professed. Fretting and contention disqualify for labor, with sluggish senses not discerning how feeble are efforts and how strong is unbelief, so faithfulness requires arising to responsibilities and privileges. This requires spending less on self-indulgence and needless adorning because money so spent is the Lord's and is needed for sacred work in His cause, and educating children to do missionary work and bring offerings to God. Worldly investments entangle God's people and worldliness extinguishes love of truth so seed withers, and the remedy is conversion in every home to understand money is the Lord's not to be spent gratifying pride or selfish indulgence but given to advance missionary work, especially to provide schoolhouses and simple houses of worship for colored people who have none and to prepare schools. The remedy is to cut loose from the world and become missionaries sowing seeds of truth, with every soul answerable to God and with ministers in leading trust never by word or influence holding the church back from responding to mission appeals.
The human heart is God's farmed soil where seeds of truth are to be sown and cared for so life bears the beautiful fruit of the Spirit. There God's impress molds the mind into graceful symmetry and crude physical and mental energies are trained for the Master's service. Those who till the soil can study this lesson in their daily work.
The verse describes seed fallen on thin soil over rock that shoots up at once but, having nowhere to deepen, is burned when the heat comes and dies for lack of moisture and root. It belongs to the parable of the sower, where the seed is the word of God sown broadly in hearts, and the different soils show the different ways it is received and whether it bears fruit. It pictures the hearer who welcomes truth with quick joy and zeal while the heart remains hard and unchanged, so principle never governs the life and the impression stays only on the surface. The rising heat is trial and opposition in all its forms — persecution, sacrifice, worldly cares, possessions and surrounding influences — which exposes shallow, feeling-based religion and causes it to take offense, fade and fall away. Endurance comes only when the heart as soil is broken up by repentance, cleared of selfishness and evil, and the truth is cherished until it takes deep root in union with God and brings forth a persevering life.
Parable Words and Setting
The verse pictures seed fallen on shallow, stony ground that springs up quickly but, having no deep root, is scorched when the sun rises and withers away. It depicts a hearer whose response to the word lacks deep roots and therefore cannot endure when tested, representing those who receive the gospel but do not become firmly rooted in it so they bear no lasting fruit. In the parable earthly seed-sowing illustrates the sowing of gospel seed, the truths of God's grace, and the same laws that govern natural seed-sowing govern the sowing of truth.
The verse belongs to the parable of the sower in Matthew 13:3-9 about seed falling on different soils with different results. That parable illustrates the kingdom of heaven and the work of Christ and His servants in sowing truth to bring people back to loyalty to God, with the seed representing the word of God, the Gospel, and principles sown in the heart whose growth represents development of character. The sowing is to be done broadly and publicly, as Christ made truth known publicly especially where people from many places could hear it and presented it clearly so they could understand it. As soil is prepared for natural seed, so the heart must be prepared for the seed of truth.
Jesus taught the parable amid fields, rocks, sunlight and laborers scattering seed, using familiar daily sights and facts of experience to illustrate immortal truth about His kingdom and how it would be established. He took something seen in daily surroundings and made it an interpreter of the unseen and spiritual, with something to interest every mind and appeal to every heart, turning daily task from mere toil into a brightened reminder of the spiritual and unseen. In nature He showed an expression of the love and wisdom of God, making all things seen and all events of life a means of divine teaching for children. The parable shows different tendencies of the human heart and classes of hearers, explaining why His ministry had meager immediate results: people were free to accept or reject Him and were not compelled to obey or forced to believe. It was given amid disappointment that He had not established a temporal kingdom, with followers' expectations and refusal to receive Him as Redeemer forming its setting.
The seed is the word of God, the gospel, the truths of grace, principles sown in the heart and mind, and heavenly grain gathered by receptive minds desiring light and knowledge as precious treasure. The same law governs material and spiritual seed-sowing, and earthly images in the parable represent spiritual truths, with things God created repeating Christ's lessons and speaking eternal truths. Christ's words are precious and need to be understood so they can be received and bring forth fruit, cultivated by His disciples, studied through daily work of sowing, cultivating and harvesting, and searched for as hidden treasure. Growth of seed and harvest teach that God works through nature and sustains human life and make truths of the kingdom plain, containing the greatest yet most simple lessons with the gospel as His instrument of redemption to reveal God. The tiny seed hidden in the earth contains the substance of the precious golden harvest, truth is hidden from those who do not take pains to seek and dig for it, every branch of knowledge is found by searching the Scriptures, and learning from Him who came from heaven not to be educated but to educate is higher education throwing reflection of heavenly light back on Christ rather than on human beings.
Stony-Ground Hearer Exposed
The stony-ground hearer takes hold of truth eagerly with quick joy and zeal, yet the word stays on the surface because the heart remains hard and unrenewed by the Spirit of God. Principle does not guide action, feelings carry the response, and when trial, temptation, sacrifice, persecution, unfavorable surroundings, worldly cares and earthly interests rise like the sun, first impressions fade into indifference and relapse and zeal withers away. Such hearers may profess belief without sensing its sacred character, keep company with corrupting influences, invite temptation, and finally lose all apparent regard for truth, while even harmful words can lodge in the mind as seed and later bear a harvest. When truth exposes defects and calls to sanctification they take offense, resist its sanctifying work, refuse to change, and abandon it rather than submit.
Trying to serve both self and Christ leaves the life half-hearted, weak in purpose and changeable in desire, with no depth or root to endure testing. Some of these shallow hearers were in the church, so premature action against them could provoke a crisis before the few who might yet become established in truth were strengthened.
The Pharisees, scribes and leaders show barren, hopeless and profitless soil where heavenly truth could not take root. A self-deluding sense of superiority claimed all their faith, honor and love, and instead of root they grew roots of bitterness by which many were defiled, becoming full of evil thoughts, suspecting even the purest, and crushing hope and courage out of the soul by strong hard words of reproof and condemnation, even making a man an offender for a word. They turned from the fountain of true knowledge and studied Scripture only to sustain tradition and enforce man-made observances, making it express sentiments never given, making indistinct by mystical construction what was made plain, disputing over technicalities and practically denying the most essential truths. Israel likewise, despite instruction and many advantages, rejected counsel, reproof and warning and yielded no good fruit, taking in what was received but returning nothing in service to God and blessing to others.
Many convinced by Luther's testimony at the diet were only temporarily impressed, like shallow-rooted seed scorched by the sun, and the heat of opposition caused their impressions to wither. Rome expected the same end for the truths Huss preached, that they would wither like scorched seed without root when his body was burned and his ashes with soil were cast into the Rhine to the ocean. Instead those ashes became as seed scattered in all countries of the earth, even in lands yet unknown, yielding abundant fruit in witnesses for truth through all coming ages, with his faith and constancy encouraging multitudes to stand firm under torture and death, so that enemies furthered the cause they sought to destroy.
The seed planted in Nicodemus showed little apparent fruit for three years as he watched and weighed the teaching without publicly acknowledging Him, underscoring growth without visible root, until the raising of Lazarus gave decisive evidence of Messiahship. By contrast, some who heard Jesus with initial reverence and awe did endure, and the gospel seed in their hearts later yielded an abundant harvest. This included hearers in the judgment hall, whose first feelings of reverence and awe developed into perfect faith in Him as Redeemer.
Testing Scorches Shallow Faith
The rising sun is trial and temptation, sacrifice and persecution, opposition and unfavorable surroundings, worldly cares and earthly interests and possessions. It is the heat that tests a shallow response to the word, so that seed falling on dry ground among preoccupying concerns has no chance to take root. Earthly interests in this way keep hearts unresponsive to the heavenly invitation, and the spirit of the world chokes the seed of truth so it does not spring up or bear fruit. A timely word of truth may thus be received by an indifferent or careless hearer, yet first impressions fade into indifference and relapse unless there is deeper spiritual root for lasting growth.
Religion without root is fair-weather religion, content with attending church, feeling happy, shedding tears, and believing Jesus is the Saviour, but without daily self-denial and conflict. Scorching trial exposes such Christianity as withered, for without deep connection with God and the presence of Jesus it is false hope and half-work ending in ruin. That shallow experience cannot bear the investigation of the judgment, where eternal interests are involved and every person is judged by deeds. To have root the fallow ground of the heart must be broken up, self must die, and the work must be made thorough and built sure, and then the life can be used and accepted for the salvation of others.
Truth received without a deep and lasting hold does not endure trial, for zeal fades when truth exposes defects and calls to sanctification. Hearers then take offense, resist its sanctifying work, refuse to change, abandon it, and fall away. Genuine reception produces perseverance and decision, expressed in willing work to advance the truth, and without that corresponding zeal the truth has not had its saving influence. Hearing plants good seed in those who listen, and whether it springs up to God's glory is revealed at the day of final reckoning, when actions finally show whether truth took root or thorns and brambles overcame it.
A life left to form itself through indifference, spiritual sloth, pleasure-seeking, and careless responsiveness to worldly influences lacks the depth needed to withstand spiritual peril. Such influence can draw others from God and leave them with superficial views of Christian character and low attainments. Souls without cultivation and firm discipline may therefore have only a cold and lifeless religion. In another application, sowers who use every opportunity to plant evil insinuations weakening confidence in ministers and message sow in minds that have no root, temptations coming are the sun being up, and being scorched and withering away is giving way and being worked upon to divert others from the truths to be borne to the world.
Preparing Heart for Root
The heart is garden and soil that must be worked upon, refined and disciplined before it can bear fruit to God's glory, for as uncultivated land will not produce a harvest so good seed does not spring up to bear fruit where the ground is not properly prepared. Neglect in preparing the soil brings failure and poor harvest, with seed failing for lack of root. Truth is of heavenly origin and opposed to the heart's natural disposition, so it lives and grows only by daily and hourly warfare to overcome besetments and by earnest and diligent toil that brings all the powers into subjection to the Spirit of Christ to perfect holiness in the fear of the Lord.
The soil of the heart is broken up by repentance, for the heart must be broken up before the gospel seed can find lodgment, and conviction of sin awakens people to their danger and their need of healing so they can receive the gospel. Fallow ground must be stirred and wrongs weeded out, with the heart worked by weeding and stirring, while errors rooted there must be pulled out so they do not eclipse the truth. Evil growths that choke the good seed must be uprooted, and evil tendencies can be overcome only through earnest effort in the name and strength of Christ. Truth expels selfishness and prepares the heart to receive the seed continually sown, and the mind must be kept free from selfishness and covetousness which is idolatry. Tender, contrite hearts are prepared to receive the seeds of truth and show a tendency to grow upward, while hard unworked hearts give the seed no depth so it dies instead of producing a harvest and cannot enter the kingdom unless softened by grace.
Thorough, skillful, painstaking tilling is needed where the ground has not been put under the plow and the harrow and hardened soil has not been broken up and subdued, for surface work and haphazard half-effort leave the gospel seed with no favorable soil and no root so it is scorched and withers and the failure is revealed in the harvest. All skill and discernment must be put into bringing the land into fit condition for planting, to bring out its varied properties favorable to the growth of seed and fruit. Tilling literal soil teaches how the Lord's soil should be worked, and learners need an education not in book knowledge only but in agricultural lines, learning these lessons continually while tilling the soil. There must be intelligent, harmonious cooperation of the divine and the human, both in students who are themselves God's husbandry and part of the Lord's farm, and in those who watch for souls laboring on hearts until the Word of God can produce a harvest that rewards the effort and supplies human need. Painstaking, thorough labor on hearts prepares favorable soil where the seed can take hold and yield a harvest that supplies human need.
From the beginning believers need to learn deep foundations to prevent the word from perishing through shallowness: to make Christ's life and character their own, bear burdens, deny natural inclination, follow Christ in self-denial, endure hardship, and trust Him with their cares. New believers must be carefully taught and established so their faith will endure. The soil of the heart must be prepared and the seed planted point by point through teaching and Bible readings, with questions asked and answered in the plainest manner until points and texts are fastened in the mind for eternal interest, since sermon after sermon alone leaves hearers retaining only a few points that lose force while other things come in to choke the seed. Truth must be received and cultivated in the mind to produce heavenly fruit, and where truth is not sown there is no such fruit. The seed of the kingdom, the truth sown, cannot become fruitful without the life-giving conditions it needs, and must receive sunshine and living water from the great Source of truth to grow. The human heart is God's farmed soil where seeds of truth are to be sown and cared for so the life bears the beautiful fruit of the Spirit, with God's impress molding the mind into graceful symmetry and crude physical and mental energies trained for the Master's service, a lesson those who till the soil can study in their daily work.
Shallow soil need not remain so, for the soil represents the hearer's heart and shallow faith cannot take root or develop, yet hearers are responsible for resisting the Spirit and allowing hardness to prevent the word from taking root. The different results of the seed depend on the soil, not on a difference in the sower or seed, and people may choose not to remain stony-ground hearers. The heart can be prepared through repentance and earnest effort in Jesus' strength. Christlike personal ministry can soften a hard heart so the seed of truth can take root. Truth sown in the heart can be taken away by determined opposition or wither when it is not nurtured, and continued ministry helps protect and sustain it. Truth must take root in hearts, and meetings prepare the way for this to happen, with regular, welcoming prayer meetings building confidence and weakening prejudice. Hearers are to hope that spoken words take root in receptive hearts.
In homes where professing Christians' example hardens young people's hearts, the good seed finds no place to take root and is caught away.
Faithful Sowing Despite Loss
Seed falls on different kinds of soil, and seed on poor soil yields no fruit unto eternal life, yet poor soil is no reason to stop sowing, for the truth is to be spread in every place and carried everywhere even into unpromising and unworked places, trusting God's plan and will, without discouragement when results are not seen at once and in faith and hope even when prospects look discouraging, because gospel laborers will meet varied responses and decisions to obey or refuse the truth. Good seed sown where the soil was not prepared does not spring up to bear fruit, and hearts are not moved by the proclamation of the gospel because Satan is linked with present religionists and evil angels in the form of men mingle with hearers, talking with those who know the truth and making suggestions and insinuations while criticizing, misapplying, misinterpreting and misconstruing the words of life so they lose their force, as angels in the form of men once mingled with Christ's hearers to criticize and misapply His words, and truth was then presented in parables as the only way to rebuke sin without causing personal offense, yet many hear and refuse to heed.
Seed of truth may lie dormant or hidden for a time without showing that it has taken root, then God's grace convicts the heart and awakens it to life, the Spirit waters it, and it springs up to bear fruit to the glory of God, sometimes after many days, after Christ's crucifixion and resurrection when hearers remembered His clear pointed words and repeated them for future generations to the close of time, through dim understanding, in cold worldly selfish hearts, or in those established in truth in contrast to withering without root under the sun. Sowing must therefore be done with the mind of Christ, with care, anxiety, self-denial and continual sacrifice for others' good as co-workers with Christ and heavenly angels, without becoming weary in well-doing, trusting God to quicken the seed into life and leaving the outcome with Him, laboring unselfishly, earnestly and perseveringly and rejoicing in fruit.
Work done in faith and hope on hard and unpromising missionary ground will not disappoint but will bring a harvest with spiritual and eternal results to reward the labor, for what is sown will be reaped again, as the garden of the soul must be cultivated with the same care given to ground where seed is put in and soil worked to make it fruitful and trees planted to yield fruit, and life and character must receive care to take root and produce precious fruit of its kind for others' benefit. Difficult soil may delay growth, yet faithful sowing can ultimately produce strong abundant fruit, as truth slowly received in Britain showed, and work whose results are not immediately apparent may bear fruit, as a pamphlet left during an apparently mistaken visit became seed that led twenty to conversion, and as sowing where the standard of truth is lifted produced a little company and deeply convicted souls all around Ulceby and precious souls in Kettering.
The former rain helped gospel seed at the beginning of the Christian age germinate and take good root so the church enjoyed the gifts of the Holy Spirit, and at the close of the age the latter rain is to ripen the harvest with the gifts revived in their fullness.
Christ sowed the world with seeds of truth wherever He was, traveling from place to place ministering to temporal and spiritual needs, grasping every opportunity to present truth, and the seeds He dropped into hearts sprang up and brought forth fruit, a pattern for workers sharing truth wherever they go. His word sown and watered with His blood became a harvest after His ascension revealing the power of His teaching, when hearers remembered His words at testimony of His resurrection and believed, and the Holy Spirit qualified the apostles to gather that harvest, including the conversions at Pentecost.
Seed sown in Jerusalem was not to be abandoned when it met hostility and rejection but was to be cultivated by the apostles until it produced an abundant harvest, for the heart is soil receiving heavenly seed that can bear a harvest for good, so those who teach need patience and care as they sow.
Sowing is the gospel ministry spreading present truth by preaching God's Word, witnessing wherever people are met as Christ sowed wherever He went, presenting truth together with Christ and His redeeming love so it springs up to lasting fruit, passing received Word on to sow good seed in other minds, and teaching people how to share so it takes root and bears lasting fruit. This work is not left to ministers alone but is to be done by men not called to the ministry according to ability, whose unreserved service gives experience for more successful work and whose influence that drew them to Christ helps draw others, so that one never called to public speaking is nonetheless a minister whose work testifies he is born of God, and the work is to spread across many localities rather than concentrating in one place.
Sowing means circulating books containing light and present truth for this time by placing them in homes of as many people as possible, including businessmen, isolated families and all seekers, with many believers uniting under divine guidance, looking to the Lord, attended by the Holy Spirit and accompanied by angels preparing the way, for seed so sown will spring up to bear fruit. Publications are a means of spreading truth and must be actively circulated rather than left unused, workers at large gatherings should teach methods for presenting books from which readers draw highest lessons, and sowing through books and other efforts means some seed may bear fruit even among isolated households.
Sowing includes the Southern field as sowing seeds of truth throughout the whole field among rich and poor calling for light, by men and women giving themselves to God to be made messengers of peace and hope, with two results of many hardening hearts against conviction and being lost and many hungering for bread receiving the message and then going forth themselves to sow. It includes unworked places within thirty miles of Cooranbong, including Newcastle and Maitland and towns along the line toward Queensland where nothing has been done and people know not the truth, as fields ready for seed through Bible readings, preaching and camp meetings, and it is the appointed work of all church members and not ministry alone by missionary visits, opening Scriptures with neighbors, wise literature distribution, and organized companies searching every district including the hedges, with persevering work bringing aptitude and salvation of souls and converts in turn teaching others so seed is sown still more widely.
Sowing includes true medical missionary work for restoration of God's image, carrying remedies for physical suffering in one hand and gospel for sin-burdened souls in the other, with health and temperance instruction opening the way for prayer, singing and talks on Bible subjects, and with simple parable truths creating opportunities for well-trained nurses to awaken interest in households and for evangelists and Bible workers in cities such as Boston and New Bedford, giving work for every energetic earnest worker. Truth is good seed sown in hearts made ready by restoration to health under judicious treatment, where gratitude gives confidence, prejudice is removed, and access is gained in new places otherwise closed, and in some the seed lodges, is nourished, springs up and bears fruit to God's glory, with one soul saved worth more than all means spent, while in others it fails from lack of moral courage to yield and sacrifice all for Christ when world and unbelieving relatives oppose, though some still become defenders and others become trials, and though Satan and his agents hinder, perplex and burden workers, opposition should not discourage nor stop effort.
Sowing includes gently introducing truth into hearts and planting it through personal visits and family conversation that can lead to rejoicing, through brief courteous conversation, through winning confidence by practical godliness and love before presenting truth in love in soil prepared to receive it, through practical kindness and hospitality such as food for inquirers, through softening hearts by personal acquaintance, publications and godly doctrinal discourse begun in dignified godlike manner, through presenting truth in the open air even to those not entering church where attentive hearers ready to obey contrast with scorched rootless seed, and through presenting words under the Spirit's work with joy in prepared hearts and divine influences upon sufferers giving physician and nurse opportunity to plant.
In city restaurant work sowing of seeds of truth must come before gathering large numbers, for numbers are no true evidence of success, and feeding a large company daily too cheaply with underpaid helpers while leading no souls to interest in present truth is weighed and found wanting, so helpers and patrons must be given well-defined spiritual help giving root and fortifying against temptation, or they become indifferent and wither and the business exerts stronger influence against truth than if unbelievers carried it on.
One who receives truth is converted and transformed, leaving tobacco, tea and meat, and goes forth to work for others so seed is sown through him even when trade fails and life changes, as loss of fishing and boat-building led to bush farming and neighbor meetings with several interested. Sowing also means maintaining every possible agency in the nation's capital for exalting Bible principles and light among men of influence, especially a sanitarium in Washington with physicians and helpers rightly representing truth to lawmakers, counselors and senators, that blind prejudice may be removed and acquaintance with other institutions such as those at Takoma Park may follow.
The parable guides study of seed growth and harvest showing God working through nature to sustain life and making kingdom truths plain, and truth sown through publications that has impressed many but is not yet fully understood or obeyed will lead honest hindered ones to take their stand for God when light becomes clear and the Spirit brings deep conviction. The spoken word is precious seed, and when hearers are distracted or fail to heed it does not take root and bear fruit, while attentive hearing allows needed words to keep them from straying.
Nurturing Children and Daily Life
The heart is a garden that must be prepared to receive the seed of truth just as soil is prepared for natural seed, for seed means principles sown in the heart and its springing up means development of character. The garden of the heart requires diligent persevering labor in preparing soil, sowing seed and culturing the crop, with the soil broken up by repentance and evil growths uprooted. As soil overgrown with thorns is reclaimed only by diligent labor, evil tendencies are overcome only by earnest effort in the name and strength of Christ. Children and youth are to learn this correspondence between planting and character growth practically by themselves preparing soil, sowing seed and watching the plant grow.
Parents are given the work of preparing the soil of children's hearts for the great Sower to scatter the good seed of truth so it takes root, grows and endures rather than withering without root when scorched. This means carefully forming minds and habits, educating for usefulness, bringing them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, making the Word of God the standard, and teaching cheerful obedience and submission. It means keeping them close at home until eight or ten years of age and teaching them themselves, with open air among flowers and birds for a schoolroom and nature for a textbook opened as fast as minds can comprehend, instead of trusting the molding of the infant mind to others by early schooling or wasting time and labor on fashion. Done bravely, cheerfully and without fainting or discouragement, this faithful work will in due time bring a harvest of children growing into Christian men and women, for early impressions planted in good soil bear lasting fruit. From earliest years truth is to be sown lovingly in children with the teaching that Christ is their personal Saviour and that giving heart and mind to Him makes them His disciples, a responsibility not to be neglected.
Children's Bible lessons are seeds of truth planted in the heart to be sown deeply and cultivated toward a harvest, and the work of spiritual instruction must be continued lest the good seed perish for lack of care to take root. Good fruit seen in children comes from seed planted in prepared soil, showing the lasting results of early instruction. Truth taught to little ones in earliest years makes them familiar with heavenly truth, is remembered wherever their lot is cast in the future, and bears a precious harvest. Observing how plants grow teaches the corresponding lessons about the soul, as soil is prepared for seed so the heart must be prepared to receive the seed of truth.
Teaching God's Word is sowing precious seeds of divine truth in minds and hearts of students after the order of Christ's teaching, with Christ as the standard Teacher. Teachers must have souls transformed by grace, minds absorbed in the glorious truths of His life, feed on the Word, follow Christ to the very letter, and hold up the high gospel standard of virtue and holiness in order to prepare students for transformation to a higher life. Without this transformation they cannot do this preparing work nor give students the training needed, and they must not sow their own ideas, plans, imaginings, schemes and ambitions, nor mold by personal likes and dislikes, nor exalt as essential what Christ never taught. Even when teaching appears to have little effect, some lessons linger in memory even of the most careless, and when the work is wrought in God the Holy Spirit waters the sown seed so it often springs up after many days and bears fruit to God's glory.
The untrained mind is like an uncultivated field whose soil must be cultivated with unceasing care and sown with the precious seed of Bible truth, for the mind needs proper daily cultivation lest ignorance and other evils grow. Unless watchful guard is kept the enemy sows tares in minds of children and youth that spring up to bear evil fruit, so sowing Bible truth there helps prevent evil growth. The soil is the mind and the seed is the Word with its heavenly thoughts of truth on eternal realities, which God seeks as prepared soil to leave His impress and plant the heavenly seeds of precious plants of truth. When thoughts are captivated and directed in a wrong channel by fictitious reading the field is preoccupied and the channel obstructed so He cannot plant His suggestions upon the intellect, leaving the mind unprepared for His impressions, and the more powerful the mental capabilities the greater the evil when thus perverted. Children must therefore be taught to reject trashy exciting tales and turn to sensible reading that leads the mind to Bible story, history and argument and quickens desire to study the Sacred Volume.
Teaching is seed sown in the heart that grows and bears fruit according to its kind, and cultivation of the soil bringing children and youth into direct contact with nature and nature's God sows seed that takes root and does not wither. This gives health and happiness especially to the nervous child wearied by abstract book lessons, because impressions joined to garden and field objects continually before the eyes do not fade out of the mind. By contrast, philosophical speculation and scientific research taught without God sow seeds of doubt in young hearts which Satan nourishes to growth and fruit, making thousands skeptics with a plentiful harvest of infidelity that attracts youth by appearance of independence. Likewise books of science and philosophy where thorns of skepticism are only partly hidden, vague fanciful stories, and books on Scripture subjects woven with human fancies sow seed growing into a plentiful harvest of infidelity seen in depravity.
Without root there is withering under heat, and root is being rooted and grounded in the faith and closely connected with God. Strong young men with that root can safely enter higher schools, learn the drill and theology taught there, meet prevailing errors without being influenced or swayed from the right, and all the while remain channels of light dropping seeds of truth into other minds. The instruction in Matthew 13 must be read as for life and taken as personal warning to take heed to self and ask who will stand acquitted without spot or stain before the judgment seat of Christ. Those who are saved must form characters without fault before a pure and holy God by doing God-given work in cooperation with Christ, wearing His yoke and learning His meekness and lowliness and receiving daily teaching in the divine beatitudes, since at the great day every man will be judged according to deeds done in this life.
The gospel calls for entire consecration in the work of sowing, with the sower going forth to sow and awaking to the spiritual character of the work professed. Fretting and contention disqualify for labor, with sluggish senses not discerning how feeble are efforts and how strong is unbelief, so faithfulness requires arising to responsibilities and privileges. This requires spending less on self-indulgence and needless adorning because money so spent is the Lord's and is needed for sacred work in His cause, and educating children to do missionary work and bring offerings to God. Worldly investments entangle God's people and worldliness extinguishes love of truth so seed withers, and the remedy is conversion in every home to understand money is the Lord's not to be spent gratifying pride or selfish indulgence but given to advance missionary work, especially to provide schoolhouses and simple houses of worship for colored people who have none and to prepare schools. The remedy is to cut loose from the world and become missionaries sowing seeds of truth, with every soul answerable to God and with ministers in leading trust never by word or influence holding the church back from responding to mission appeals.
The human heart is God's farmed soil where seeds of truth are to be sown and cared for so life bears the beautiful fruit of the Spirit. There God's impress molds the mind into graceful symmetry and crude physical and mental energies are trained for the Master's service. Those who till the soil can study this lesson in their daily work.