A Farmer Holding Ripe Wheat in Good SoilBible World
13:8Matthew 13:8
But other fell into good ground, and brought forth fruit, some an hundredfold, some sixtyfold, some thirtyfold.
The verse pictures seed falling into good ground and yielding a harvest in different amounts, some a hundredfold, some sixtyfold, and some thirtyfold. The seed is the word of God sown to bring people back to loyalty to Him, and the good ground is the receptive heart and mind that understands it, retains it, and puts it into practice in daily life. Fruit is certain in every such case, yet not identical, the return varying from thirtyfold to sixtyfold to a hundredfold according to the response. That fruit is Christ's character reproduced and the Spirit's graces matured in heart, speech, and conduct unto eternal life. No untilled soil yields such a crop at once, so the heart must be broken up by repentance and softened by love and personal ministry, while the seed is to be sown everywhere in hope even where results are not yet seen.
Parable Setting and Imagery
Other seed fell into good ground and produced a fruitful crop, yet not in the same amount in every case, but some a hundredfold, some sixtyfold, and some thirtyfold. The seed is gospel truth sown by Christ and His servants to bring people back to loyalty to God, the good ground is its fruitful reception, and the sowing illustrates both Christ's work and the ministry of His servants, who are to sow broadly in cities and among all peoples without discouragement if results are not immediately seen, since hearers respond differently and every laborer's experience includes varied results.
The verse belongs to the parable of the sower, spoken to an eager company gathered to hear Jesus by the Sea of Galilee, where He used the sowers, fields, harvest, cultivated land, and waving grain visible around Him to illustrate the teaching He came to give. He likened His own work to that of a sower and used familiar scenes from nature and familiar farm work to make divine truth plain and memorable, teaching earthly things to represent spiritual realities and to speak eternal truths about spiritual sowing. The things of nature repeat His lessons, so that what was heard could return to mind when those scenes were seen again, and He later explained the different classes represented in the parable.
The parable presents the kingdom of God as prevailing through a new principle planted in people's hearts, with a harvest gathered after patient toil and through losses and disappointments, and the laws governing earthly seed-sowing also govern the sowing of truth. It shows how different human hearts receive Christ's teaching and why His ministry had limited immediate results, presenting differing responses as tendencies of the heart in which results depend on people freely receiving or rejecting Him rather than on force. Those who receive are to unite their efforts with His divine power to overcome sin and develop Christian character. Christ presented truth in parables as the way to rebuke sin without causing personal offense, for the gospel is good seed sown in the hearts of hearers and bearing fruit depends on the soil being prepared, while where hearts are not moved the soil was not prepared and the seed does not spring up, because Satan is linked with religionists and evil angels in the form of men mingle with hearers to make suggestions and insinuations, to criticize, misapply, misinterpret and misconstrue the truth, so that the words of life lose their force.
In some presentations the parable explains the wayside, stony-ground, and thorny-ground hearers but does not explain the good-ground hearers or the different amounts of their harvest. The sowing illustration also applies to people of every class and to each opportunity to present Christ, where some hearers may choose to obey the truth while others reject it, and it stands as Christ's commission to sow the seeds of truth with varied fruitfulness following.
The teaching is instruction that believers are to study and bring into their ministry, for Christ's words when received in good ground bear fruit, His words are precious and needed, and people should be ready to understand them. The instruction in Matthew 13 must be read as for life and heeded as a warning, calling for prayerful self-examination over who will stand acquitted without spot or stain of character before the judgment seat of Christ. Christ looks to the future destiny of those for whom He gave His life, showing that those who are saved must form characters without fault in the sight of a pure and holy God, and God has given every person his work, with Christ cooperating with everyone who cooperates with Him by wearing His yoke and learning His meekness and lowliness, loved and ministered to by angels and taught daily by Christ in the meaning of the divine beatitudes, because at the great day of judgment every person will be judged according to deeds done in this life.
Seed and Soil Meaning
The seed is the word of God, the gospel truth of His word, Christ's words and doctrines and kingdom truths scattered as heavenly grain to bring people back to loyalty to God. It is sown by Christ Himself and by His servants, Christ sowing truth in the world through His own work continued in theirs. It is to be sown everywhere, even where the soil is poor, without stopping because some falls on unfruitful ground or because results are not immediately seen. Scattered by the divine Sower, it is not seen as a complete system until a skilled laborer guided by the Holy Spirit gathers and presents its truths together.
The good ground is a receptive heart and mind that receives truth, understands it, retains it, keeps it and holds it fast, and puts its principles into practice in a holier daily life. Unlike impressions that fade amid worldly surroundings, cares and temptations, the good-ground hearer listens daily with purpose to admit the living oracles, welcomes truth into the life, and patiently bears fruit in action. As a garden's soil must be prepared for natural seed, so the heart must be prepared for the seed of truth, whose growth is the development of character through principles sown within. The harvest comes through patient work and may follow losses and disappointments, yielding in differing amounts, some a hundredfold, some sixtyfold and some thirtyfold.
The laws governing earthly seed-sowing also govern the sowing of truth, one law applying to material and spiritual sowing. Nature repeats Christ's lessons and illustrates the spiritual kingdom, for human life in all its bearings is similar to nature and by natural things the things of the kingdom of God are illustrated. Growth and harvest depend on God's power working with human care and skill, and studying sowing and harvesting teaches that God is at work in nature and makes the truths of heaven plain for the needs of the soul. Christ pointed to nature in the sower and the seed so that the lesson for spiritual things would flash into the mind, with light given by Christ who came from heaven not to be educated but to educate in a higher education that throws the reflection of heavenly light back not upon human beings but upon Christ, giving glory to the One who enlightens every man that comes into the world. The sowing of seed in nature carries the mind to spiritual seed-sowing, full of the love of God, pointing from nature to nature's God and reflecting the light that floods the threshold of heaven to lead men and women to obey His word. Rightly understood it teaches simple, holy truths that cleanse the mind and bring it into close touch with God, and to the heart softened by grace and reconciled to Him it speaks words of heavenly wisdom bearing testimony to the eternal truth of God's word, so that as Christ tells its meaning the science of true religion flashes forth explaining the relation of the law of God to the natural and the spiritual world. The seed hidden in the earth yet containing the substance of the precious golden harvest means truth is hidden from those who will not take pains to seek and dig for it as for hidden treasure, so every branch of knowledge is found by searching the Scriptures, while human reasoning can never find out the science of education and deserves little confidence.
The same word bears fruit only where the soil is favorable, for the same seed produces different amounts of fruit on good ground, and the different results depend on the hearer's response. People are responsible for resisting the influences that keep the word from taking root and growing, responsible for the hardness, carelessness and harmful growths that hinder it, since the heart's condition is not beyond a person's influence and by resisting God's Spirit people become careless of the word. In contrast to fruitful response, hearts made unresponsive like a beaten highway and crowded by the cares of life give heavenly things no place, and a preoccupied heart is like dry ground where seed cannot take root, with competing concerns pictured as tares leaving no room for the wheat to grow. Yet even a heart overgrown with thorns can be reclaimed and made fruitful through deep repentance, diligent effort in Jesus' strength and cooperation with God, and truth sown in receptive hearts springs up and bears fruit to the glory of God.
Christ's words and example were seed to be cultivated by His disciples, heavenly grain to be gathered as precious treasure by minds and hearts that desired light and knowledge. Meaning often lies beneath the surface, so Bible study must not rest satisfied with surface truths and a thimbleful of truth while passing by precious gems whose value is not discerned, but must put the mind to work, and the knowledge thus received is like heavenly seeds planted by the divine Sower that bring forth fruit.
Varying Harvest Measures
Good ground always bears real fruit, yet never in identical measure, for the yield may be thirtyfold, sixtyfold, or a hundredfold according to the hearer's reception. The same seed produces these differing amounts where the heart listens to the word, understands it, keeps it, holds it fast, and patiently brings it forth in life. This variation belongs also to every gospel laborer's experience, whose work shows differing results even from faithful sowing. The heart that yields this harvest must be worked upon by the Spirit of God, refined and disciplined until it can bear fruit to God's glory. Such ground is the transformed person with a new heart, new purposes, and new impulses, receiving Christ's word as spirit and life and showing fruit in heart, speech, and character.
The differing measures mean that advancement in the heavenly school and reward in the immortal life are given exactly in proportion as a person in this life strove to obtain knowledge of God and His righteousness and to restore His lost image. The sower from a higher world sowed grand, elevating, uplifting, and ennobling Scriptural truths with a simplicity beyond human origin, and cherishing them alone prepares learners for that higher school where Christ and God teach throughout eternity how to magnify God's name. The harvest is proportionate to the seed sown, so earnest, active, zealous doers of thoughtful kindness, obedience, and self-denial gather richly as co-workers with God, and one soul saved for Jesus may save other souls onward for time and eternity. Cheerful, encouraging words likewise yield fruitful influence in proportion to what is sown. Thus a hundredfold yield illustrates far-reaching increase, as one Frenchman soundly converted could influence many others, and as one converted soul becomes a gain that through faithful work brings many more gains.
The hundredfold harvest marks especially abundant results when effort and means are rightly directed where God is providentially opening the way, producing far more than the same resources elsewhere. Means devoted to gospel ministry, used to carry truth and serve spiritual bread to needy people, establish truth in many places with abundant return. Time given to prayerful study of the Word brings a hundredfold return when the living seed sown in the mind is cherished and practiced daily through its successive stages of blade, then ear, then full corn. God's money used in God's true order to establish sanitariums in every newly opened field brings forth a hundredfold more by making new plants in different localities, and therefore is not to be diverted into uncertain channels.
Against this fruitful intent stands Israel's failure, for the fruit represents the righteous works God meant them to produce through given advantages and instruction. They instead used those benefits for self-glorification, rejected correction, and became like soil that takes in everything yet yields nothing.
Receptive Heart Described
The good-ground hearer listens every day to the living oracles with purpose to give them entrance, gathering precious treasure instead of gathering chaff and passing truth by. Such a hearer understands the word, keeps it and holds it fast, welcomes truth into the life, and brings forth fruit in action appropriate to each opportunity of life as a witness by sound speech seasoned with grace. The seed is the living Word heard from God, and the good ground is the receptive heart and mind not barricaded against light, including hearers who listen with great attention and become about ready to obey though they would not enter a church. Received and held fast, the word bears fruit in differing measure, thirtyfold, sixtyfold, or a hundredfold, according to the hearer's response. That fruit is the character of Christ reproduced and the graces of the Spirit matured through growth, patience, and trials in those who yield to the word's control.
Good ground is the transformed new person with a new heart, new purposes, and new impulses, changed by the grace of Christ from what hereditary tendencies, nationality, education, and circumstances had made. The change comes by receiving the word of Christ, which is spirit and life, eating the flesh and drinking the blood of the Son of God. That reception produces fruit in the heart, fruit in the lips, and fruit in the character, in differing measures of thirty, sixty, and a hundredfold. The human heart like soil must be worked upon by the Spirit, refined and disciplined, before it can bear such fruit to God's glory, and a heart made receptive by accepting truth becomes soil where seed can be continually sown for a harvest, with selfishness removed to prepare for fruitful growth. When living seed is cast into living soil, new ideas flash into the soul, the heart is regenerated, and fruit increases more and more, active, penetrative, and aggressive in seeking others and communicating knowledge of truth and grace.
Good ground is a humble and receptive heart, tender and contrite, in which truth takes root and grows upward. It is kept free from every species of selfishness and covetousness, which is idolatry, so that grace rules in the soul temple in contemplating God and working the works of God. An honest heart acknowledges sin when light reveals it, and God's appeals to conscience are no longer dismissed, whereas partial, reluctant reception leaves room for thorns to choke the seed.
In contrast, Pharisaical hearts are profitless and hopeless ground where heavenly truth cannot take root and produce fruit. They are filled with self-exaltation and self-superiority, suspicion of the pure, evil thoughts, bitterness against the goodness of true Christians, and harsh reproof and condemnation that crushes hope and courage. By making a man an offender for a word they discourage others instead of showing fruitful goodness.
Receptive hearts often show little effect at first yet later bear abundant fruit. Clear and pointed words spoken in the temple on the last day there cut hearers to the heart though the effect was not seen at once, and after crucifixion and resurrection the lessons were revived in many attentive listeners who repeated what they heard for future generations to the close of time, saving many souls to God's glory. So also words heard in confrontations with enemies and in Jerusalem and Galilee remained in hearts only dimly understood at first, then sprang up and bore blessed fruit. Hearers at the trial likewise had reverence and awe stirred by what they heard, which developed into perfect faith in Him as the world's Redeemer and yielded an abundant harvest. The seed scattered in Jerusalem was to be cultivated by the apostles until it sprang up and produced a plentiful harvest even where the message had first met opposition and rejection.
Nicodemus shows such delayed fruit, for for three years he did not publicly acknowledge Jesus but carefully weighed His teachings and watched His works, with little apparent result, until the raising of Lazarus became unmistakable evidence to him of Messiahship. John's message likewise fell as good seed into receptive hearts, softening them and reviving hope. It called people away from outward forms and self-righteousness to receive Christ individually as Saviour, and repentant faith in Him brings peace and His righteousness, while living, active faith sanctifies and transforms into His image.
The apostles' Spirit-empowered witness after the ascension gathered in the harvest of truth Christ had sown during His life and watered with His blood, revealing the power of His teaching. When the disciples testified of the resurrection, listeners remembered Christ's words, believed the gospel, and joined those who accepted it, and the conversions at Pentecost were fruit of that sowing, with those gathering the harvest entering into the labor of others. The seed scattered in Jerusalem was cultivated by the apostles until it sprang up abundantly, and the message planted through missionary work and publications springs up and bears fruit when the Spirit brings deep conviction so truth becomes clear. Those honestly receiving it then understand, obey, and take their stand for the Lord despite opposition and family or church ties.
The word scattered by faithful messengers takes root in receptive hearts and produces a harvest of souls, not identical in every case but in differing measure. Seed scattered by Waldensian missionaries found glad reception in homes and hearts, churches arose along their path, and faithful labor gathered souls for the day of God. The truth Huss preached, like seed on good ground, bore abundant fruit, for his death and the scattering of his ashes led to witnesses for truth in many lands, as his example of faith and steadfastness encouraged others to stand firm despite torture and death, so that persecution meant to destroy truth instead advanced its cause.
Preparing Soil for Seed
No untilled field gives a harvest at once, for the heart as soil must be broken up by repentance, plowed and harrowed, with thorns and evil growths uprooted before the seed can take root and bear fruit. Hardened hearts are like unplowed ground needing much labor to be subdued, and bringing them into fit condition calls for skill, discernment, and painstaking intelligent work that draws out what favors growth, rewards diligent effort with a harvest, and exposes surface work and haphazard half-effort. Evil tendencies of the heart are overcome only by earnest effort in the name and strength of Christ, yet the condition of the heart is not beyond personal influence, for by resisting the Spirit people become careless of the word and responsible for the hardness and harmful growths that hinder it, while through deep repentance and cooperation with God even a thorn-overgrown heart can be reclaimed and made fruitful. Before the gospel seed finds lodgment, conviction of sin must awaken the sense of danger and need of healing, and the rebuke that humbles is followed by tender care for the penitent.
Believers themselves are God's husbandry on the Lord's farm, and fruit comes through harmonious cooperation of the divine and the human. Tilling literal soil with plowing, harrowing, and all skill to fit land for planting teaches how the Lord's soil is to be worked, and tilling the soil teaches how truth grows in the heart until the life bears the beautiful fruit of the Spirit. The fallow ground of the heart must be stirred up and wrongs weeded out so seeds of truth may find access, while God's impress molds the mind into graceful symmetry with crude energies trained for service. Hearts that seem hard can be softened by personal Christlike ministry so the seed takes root, and teaching believers the foundations of Christian life keeps it from being choked by thorns or lost in shallow soil. The heart must first be won through love, practical godliness, and points of agreement, then truth can be sown in love, with courteous conversation opening the way.
Prayer meetings, mutual confidence, and the weakening of prejudice prepare the way for truth to take root in some hearts. When those restored to health grow grateful and trust those who helped them, they become more receptive, and in some the truth is nourished to produce fruit to God's glory, for true medical missionaries carry remedies for physical suffering in one hand and the gospel for sin-burdened souls in the other for restoration of God's image. Public preaching sows precious seed upon hearts as soil, and faithful speaking may place that seed where it takes root and bears fruit to God's glory. That sowing must be followed by house-to-house and personal labor that cultivates the soil, for the heart as soil must be softened and subdued by the Spirit through personal contact. This means watching for the interested, speaking after services, adding private words that often do more good than the whole discourse, asking how subjects appear and whether matters are clear, showing by kindness and courtesy a real interest and care for souls, and appealing to come to Christ, which sweeps away prejudice and leads to conversion.
Children's hearts are good ground to be prepared by parents themselves at home, with God's Word made the standard and with patient teaching from infancy in obedience, self-denial, self-control, and resistance to temptation. Habits are to be kept simple, nature used as textbook, and children not sent too early to other schools, so they grow into Christian men and women with minds impressible in early years and planting of what is good bearing fruit unto eternal life. As a garden must be prepared for natural seed, the garden of the heart must be cultivated, and both good and bad seed can be sown there, so children should themselves prepare soil and sow seed and then trace the correspondence between natural and spiritual sowing as the plant grows. Even little children can be Christians with an experience according to their years, which is all that is required of them, and with every advantage for spiritual education they form characters after a lovely similitude, while patient early planting of instruction bears lasting fruit reflected in others. Home teaching about God that makes youth vigorous in body and mind, quick to perceive and strong to act, with hearts ready for the precious seed and minds trained to see God in revelation and nature, is exemplified in Moses in Goshen, Samuel with Hannah, David at Bethlehem, Daniel before the captivity, Christ at Nazareth, and Timothy taught by Eunice and Lois.
The mind as soil must be guarded and cultivated with unceasing care, sown with the precious seed of Bible truth to bring forth good and rich fruit unto eternal life, with vanity weeded out and every circumstance of life ordered so heaven is not shut from view. Good ground means minds of children and youth kept by watchful guard so the enemy cannot sow tares to bear evil fruit, for an uncultivated field and an untrained mind alike bear evil, while neglect lets ignorance and evil grow. Such guarding turns away from trashy exciting tales to sensible reading leading to interest in Bible story, history, and argument and quickening desire to study Scripture, and avoids skeptical science, fictitious reading, and fanciful mixtures with Scripture. Ideas planted in young hearts grow to a harvest, for seeds of doubt grow to produce infidelity, and evil insinuations sown in youth drawn together that weaken confidence in ministers and message work upon minds when temptation comes to divert others from truths to be borne to the world. Truth as seed must be planted point by point so it springs up and bears fruit, with points and texts fastened in memory by teaching after the same pattern, by Bible readings, and by questions answered in the plainest manner, rather than by sermon after sermon where hearers retain only a few points that lose force, while plain instruction explored with those experienced in the truth is seed sown in good ground.
Fruit Borne to Glory
The fruit is Christ's character reproduced and the graces of the Spirit matured in those who yield to the control of the word, shown in heart, speech, lips and character unto eternal life. Receiving the word, which is spirit and life, transforms the natural person shaped by heredity, nationality, education and circumstance into a new person with a new heart, new purposes and new impulses. As a tender plant needing sunshine and shower, summer and winter, dew, frost and wind, so truth sown in good and honest hearts grows through patience and trial, and those who faint not will reap Christian character formed by grace. Tilling the soil teaches this growth, for believers are God's husbandry whose minds under God's impress are molded into graceful symmetry with crude powers trained for service.
Understanding reception of truth produces perseverance, decision and labor to advance its cause, and where such corresponding zeal is absent truth has not exerted its saving, sanctifying influence. The harvest must be pure and not mixed with thistles and thorns that make it unfit for use. It consists of the righteous works intended by God, Christian character formed by grace, and every act of thoughtful kindness, obedience and self-denial that prepares the way for others to be influenced for good. Israel's failure stands in contrast, for with great advantages and instruction they used benefits for self-glorification, rejected correction, and became as soil taking in everything yet yielding nothing.
Seed sown in the heart may lie dormant and buried for years beneath worldly rubbish and pleasing fables, yet it is not lost. After a time sorrow or affliction softens the heart, grace convicts and quickens it, and what was hidden springs up and bears fruit to the glory of God. This holds whether the seed came by preaching, reading, personal contact, or papers and tracts read when a living preacher would not be heard, for reading makes an impression not readily forgotten. Growth depends on God, the Spirit working upon the heart to bring fruit, so workers cannot know which efforts will prosper and must do their work with care, self-denial and perseverance and leave results with Him.
Fruit-bearing multiplies, for those who receive and are faithfully taught nurture faith by serving and saving others. Those saved teach others, go forth among neighbors and into highways and byways as messengers of peace and hope, and by active witness the sowing reaches thousands who never heard and continues for time and eternity. One soul saved may save other souls onward, with heaven cooperating with human agencies, and the harvest is proportionate to seed sown. In school life likewise the influence sown by a godly life and witness for Christ can yield precious grain by directing others to a better life and to Jesus.
Enterprises and institutions must be measured by this fruit of souls saved and interest awakened in present truth, not by money consumed, numbers fed or patrons gathered. What is put into good ground must bring forth fruit and return, and schemes that absorb means without producing fail that standard. Several smaller restaurants working by well-defined methods for the salvation of patrons and helpers, fortifying them against temptation, are more in divine order than one large restaurant gathering crowds daily at too low prices for food and labor without spiritual help, for without such fruit the business hinders truth and might better be run by unbelievers.
A few in the church may have been nourished, strengthened and settled in truth as good ground able to bear fruit. Premature separation and faction endanger such growth, so discipline to remove the unworthy must act cautiously lest it harm those who could flourish. Cheerful, encouraging words are seed yielding fruitful influence in proportion to what is sown. The sanctified gift of speech rightly used sows truth in many hearts, and acts of hospitality and practical kindness such as generous entertainment and meals for inquiring visitors plant truth in their hearts with return so the giver is no loser.
Sowing Work and Harvest
The gospel seed is the truth of God's word, and it is to be sown everywhere, among people and places of every kind, even where the soil looks poor and unpromising. Workers must not stop because some falls on unfruitful ground or because results are not immediately visible, but are to sow broadly in hope through toil, tears, and sacrifice, trusting God for the outcome. The good-ground harvest of thirty, sixty, and a hundredfold shows varied results will attend such broad sowing, and seed in hearts needs continued care lest opposition snatch it away or neglect leave it to wither for lack of moisture.
Humble men who do not trust in their gifts but work in simplicity trusting always in God go forth to warn people in the highways and byways and sow even in the rough places of the earth. Under the ministration of angels and by the power of the Holy Spirit moving upon hearts, their persevering prayers and self-sacrificing efforts bring souls to the cross. Men and women are thus gathered into church fellowship, meetinghouses are built and institutions of learning established, and as trees of the Lord's planting these workers bear fruit equal to that borne by the apostles. They receive a reward in this life and a glorious reward in the future life.
Humble people, including the uneducated and children, are moved by the Holy Spirit to carry the message to people in darkness, and those who respond and give themselves to the work are to be allowed and encouraged to proclaim it even in difficult places. Sowing the seeds of truth and bringing forth fruit is not the work of ministers alone but the duty of every believer according to his several ability. One who gives himself unreservedly gains an experience that makes his labor more and more successful, and the same influence that drew him to Christ enables him to draw others, so that even where public speaking is never laid upon him he is nonetheless a minister for God whose fruitful work testifies he is born of God. Living as missionaries continually sowing seeds of truth is the call taught to disciples.
Christ sowed seeds of truth wherever He went, traveling continually from place to place ministering to temporal and spiritual needs, grasping every opportunity to present truth so that seeds dropped into hearts sprang up and brought forth fruit. Truth can be sown through ordinary courteous conversation even while walking or resting by the way, and through personal contact many may come to rejoice in knowledge of the truth. His followers continue that work by fireside labor sharing the gospel with people in their homes, where witness can help truth take root and produce fruit in differing amounts.
Sowing is circulating books containing light broadcast throughout the world by placing them in the homes of as many people as possible, with large numbers of believers uniting in this circulation under divine guidance. The Holy Spirit attends the workers and angels accompany them to prepare the way, while freely sharing tracts about present truth may eventually bring a hundredfold return. Books spread the seeds of truth and must be actively distributed so the work can bear fruit and support further publications, and sowing truth wherever there is opportunity belongs to missionary effort. At large gatherings workers should teach people how to sow, meaning more than selling periodicals, including thorough instruction in handling books such as Christ's Object Lessons and Ministry of Healing from which the reader draws lessons of highest value, and where that selling is taken hold of in earnest it does good and well repays the efforts of those engaged.
True medical missionaries sow seeds of truth in many hearts, carrying in one hand remedies for relief of physical suffering and in the other the gospel for relief of sin-burdened souls, for restoration of the image of God in man. When people restored to health grow grateful and trust those who helped them, they may be more receptive, and in some the truth will be nourished and produce fruit to God's glory. Principles of health reform when practiced relieve the sick and open fields of work where planted truth bears fruit, and teaching about health and wholesome food provides occasions to plant seeds of the kingdom. When a suffering person is softened and open to divine influence, a Christian physician or nurse can gently sow precious seeds there, and well-trained nurses going among families with evangelists and Bible workers laboring in cities such as Boston and New Bedford find work for every energetic, thorough, earnest worker, for the simple truths taught in parables are as much needed now as when Christ was in the world in person.
Truth sown in the heart may lie dormant for a time, even hidden in a cold, worldly heart, then be quickened by God's grace, spring up, and bear fruit to His glory. Sowing calls for care, self-denial, perseverance, and faithful doing while leaving results with God, since workers cannot know which efforts will prosper and fruitfulness may not be immediately evident. Growth and harvest depend on God's power working with human care and skill, and studying sowing and harvesting teaches that God is at work in nature and makes kingdom truths plain. The Holy Spirit waters sown lessons of divine truth, works upon the heart to make the word effective to convert, and often after many days lessons remaining in memory even of careless students spring up to bear fruit, so workers can follow up through the Spirit's power, ripen the work, and gather the harvest.
Sowing at the beginning of the Christian age took root and was accompanied by gifts of the Spirit, and at the close the latter rain will ripen the harvest with those gifts again fully manifested. The message has already been planted through missionary work and publications, and when the Spirit brings deep conviction and truth becomes clear, those honestly receiving it understand, obey, and take their stand for the Lord despite opposition and family or church ties.
Good-ground hearers who hunger for the bread of life are found in the Southern field among rich and poor in the highways and byways, and while many harden their hearts, these receive the message and bring forth fruit by going forth themselves to sow as messengers of peace and hope. The call includes working earnestly among neglected peoples, reaching places where light has never shone, as by a boat used as a home and place to receive the interested where novelty and curiosity bring many to see and hear, some first seeing light there with angels present. A word spoken to one indifferent to spiritual matters may fall as on good soil and bear fruit, and willing service in words as seeds can lead to many saved. Growth may be slow in difficult soil yet become strong and fruitful, as Britain's hard soil is expected to be stirred to abundant fruit through the word, divine love, and the latter rain, and unworked places near Cooranbong such as Newcastle, Maitland, and towns toward Queensland, distant settlements eager to learn, Washington's men of influence reached through the sanitarium, and many localities rather than means centered in one or two places are fields for such sowing.
Even fields that seem hard, unpromising, and inferior can give abundant yield when seed is sown in faith and hope with expectation, for what is sown is reaped in its kind and one soul is worth more than the cost of land. A mistaken visit with a left pamphlet brought twenty Sabbathkeepers, and a pamphlet left unexpectedly with a family became seed from which twenty were converted, showing work appearing accidental can produce abundant harvest. Crowded congregations listening with deepest interest may be good soil where seed falls to bring forth fruit, and attentive listeners with two close to deciding give reason to hope seed fell on good ground.
Truth heard by many is good seed sown to spring up and bear fruit, with full results of that day's sowing to be revealed in the day of final reckoning. A meeting's results are fruit reaching into eternity, and minds of learners are good ground where men rooted in faith as channels of light drop seeds producing impressions never effaced but enduring as eternity in developments and tendencies of character borne through eternity. Teaching children, singing hymns, and sharing books are thus hoped to leave good impression and bring spiritual fruit.
The Christian sower is to go forth and sow the gospel in entire consecration, while fretting, contention, sluggishness, and unbelief hinder effective labor.
The verse pictures seed falling into good ground and yielding a harvest in different amounts, some a hundredfold, some sixtyfold, and some thirtyfold. The seed is the word of God sown to bring people back to loyalty to Him, and the good ground is the receptive heart and mind that understands it, retains it, and puts it into practice in daily life. Fruit is certain in every such case, yet not identical, the return varying from thirtyfold to sixtyfold to a hundredfold according to the response. That fruit is Christ's character reproduced and the Spirit's graces matured in heart, speech, and conduct unto eternal life. No untilled soil yields such a crop at once, so the heart must be broken up by repentance and softened by love and personal ministry, while the seed is to be sown everywhere in hope even where results are not yet seen.
Parable Setting and Imagery
Other seed fell into good ground and produced a fruitful crop, yet not in the same amount in every case, but some a hundredfold, some sixtyfold, and some thirtyfold. The seed is gospel truth sown by Christ and His servants to bring people back to loyalty to God, the good ground is its fruitful reception, and the sowing illustrates both Christ's work and the ministry of His servants, who are to sow broadly in cities and among all peoples without discouragement if results are not immediately seen, since hearers respond differently and every laborer's experience includes varied results.
The verse belongs to the parable of the sower, spoken to an eager company gathered to hear Jesus by the Sea of Galilee, where He used the sowers, fields, harvest, cultivated land, and waving grain visible around Him to illustrate the teaching He came to give. He likened His own work to that of a sower and used familiar scenes from nature and familiar farm work to make divine truth plain and memorable, teaching earthly things to represent spiritual realities and to speak eternal truths about spiritual sowing. The things of nature repeat His lessons, so that what was heard could return to mind when those scenes were seen again, and He later explained the different classes represented in the parable.
The parable presents the kingdom of God as prevailing through a new principle planted in people's hearts, with a harvest gathered after patient toil and through losses and disappointments, and the laws governing earthly seed-sowing also govern the sowing of truth. It shows how different human hearts receive Christ's teaching and why His ministry had limited immediate results, presenting differing responses as tendencies of the heart in which results depend on people freely receiving or rejecting Him rather than on force. Those who receive are to unite their efforts with His divine power to overcome sin and develop Christian character. Christ presented truth in parables as the way to rebuke sin without causing personal offense, for the gospel is good seed sown in the hearts of hearers and bearing fruit depends on the soil being prepared, while where hearts are not moved the soil was not prepared and the seed does not spring up, because Satan is linked with religionists and evil angels in the form of men mingle with hearers to make suggestions and insinuations, to criticize, misapply, misinterpret and misconstrue the truth, so that the words of life lose their force.
In some presentations the parable explains the wayside, stony-ground, and thorny-ground hearers but does not explain the good-ground hearers or the different amounts of their harvest. The sowing illustration also applies to people of every class and to each opportunity to present Christ, where some hearers may choose to obey the truth while others reject it, and it stands as Christ's commission to sow the seeds of truth with varied fruitfulness following.
The teaching is instruction that believers are to study and bring into their ministry, for Christ's words when received in good ground bear fruit, His words are precious and needed, and people should be ready to understand them. The instruction in Matthew 13 must be read as for life and heeded as a warning, calling for prayerful self-examination over who will stand acquitted without spot or stain of character before the judgment seat of Christ. Christ looks to the future destiny of those for whom He gave His life, showing that those who are saved must form characters without fault in the sight of a pure and holy God, and God has given every person his work, with Christ cooperating with everyone who cooperates with Him by wearing His yoke and learning His meekness and lowliness, loved and ministered to by angels and taught daily by Christ in the meaning of the divine beatitudes, because at the great day of judgment every person will be judged according to deeds done in this life.
Seed and Soil Meaning
The seed is the word of God, the gospel truth of His word, Christ's words and doctrines and kingdom truths scattered as heavenly grain to bring people back to loyalty to God. It is sown by Christ Himself and by His servants, Christ sowing truth in the world through His own work continued in theirs. It is to be sown everywhere, even where the soil is poor, without stopping because some falls on unfruitful ground or because results are not immediately seen. Scattered by the divine Sower, it is not seen as a complete system until a skilled laborer guided by the Holy Spirit gathers and presents its truths together.
The good ground is a receptive heart and mind that receives truth, understands it, retains it, keeps it and holds it fast, and puts its principles into practice in a holier daily life. Unlike impressions that fade amid worldly surroundings, cares and temptations, the good-ground hearer listens daily with purpose to admit the living oracles, welcomes truth into the life, and patiently bears fruit in action. As a garden's soil must be prepared for natural seed, so the heart must be prepared for the seed of truth, whose growth is the development of character through principles sown within. The harvest comes through patient work and may follow losses and disappointments, yielding in differing amounts, some a hundredfold, some sixtyfold and some thirtyfold.
The laws governing earthly seed-sowing also govern the sowing of truth, one law applying to material and spiritual sowing. Nature repeats Christ's lessons and illustrates the spiritual kingdom, for human life in all its bearings is similar to nature and by natural things the things of the kingdom of God are illustrated. Growth and harvest depend on God's power working with human care and skill, and studying sowing and harvesting teaches that God is at work in nature and makes the truths of heaven plain for the needs of the soul. Christ pointed to nature in the sower and the seed so that the lesson for spiritual things would flash into the mind, with light given by Christ who came from heaven not to be educated but to educate in a higher education that throws the reflection of heavenly light back not upon human beings but upon Christ, giving glory to the One who enlightens every man that comes into the world. The sowing of seed in nature carries the mind to spiritual seed-sowing, full of the love of God, pointing from nature to nature's God and reflecting the light that floods the threshold of heaven to lead men and women to obey His word. Rightly understood it teaches simple, holy truths that cleanse the mind and bring it into close touch with God, and to the heart softened by grace and reconciled to Him it speaks words of heavenly wisdom bearing testimony to the eternal truth of God's word, so that as Christ tells its meaning the science of true religion flashes forth explaining the relation of the law of God to the natural and the spiritual world. The seed hidden in the earth yet containing the substance of the precious golden harvest means truth is hidden from those who will not take pains to seek and dig for it as for hidden treasure, so every branch of knowledge is found by searching the Scriptures, while human reasoning can never find out the science of education and deserves little confidence.
The same word bears fruit only where the soil is favorable, for the same seed produces different amounts of fruit on good ground, and the different results depend on the hearer's response. People are responsible for resisting the influences that keep the word from taking root and growing, responsible for the hardness, carelessness and harmful growths that hinder it, since the heart's condition is not beyond a person's influence and by resisting God's Spirit people become careless of the word. In contrast to fruitful response, hearts made unresponsive like a beaten highway and crowded by the cares of life give heavenly things no place, and a preoccupied heart is like dry ground where seed cannot take root, with competing concerns pictured as tares leaving no room for the wheat to grow. Yet even a heart overgrown with thorns can be reclaimed and made fruitful through deep repentance, diligent effort in Jesus' strength and cooperation with God, and truth sown in receptive hearts springs up and bears fruit to the glory of God.
Christ's words and example were seed to be cultivated by His disciples, heavenly grain to be gathered as precious treasure by minds and hearts that desired light and knowledge. Meaning often lies beneath the surface, so Bible study must not rest satisfied with surface truths and a thimbleful of truth while passing by precious gems whose value is not discerned, but must put the mind to work, and the knowledge thus received is like heavenly seeds planted by the divine Sower that bring forth fruit.
Varying Harvest Measures
Good ground always bears real fruit, yet never in identical measure, for the yield may be thirtyfold, sixtyfold, or a hundredfold according to the hearer's reception. The same seed produces these differing amounts where the heart listens to the word, understands it, keeps it, holds it fast, and patiently brings it forth in life. This variation belongs also to every gospel laborer's experience, whose work shows differing results even from faithful sowing. The heart that yields this harvest must be worked upon by the Spirit of God, refined and disciplined until it can bear fruit to God's glory. Such ground is the transformed person with a new heart, new purposes, and new impulses, receiving Christ's word as spirit and life and showing fruit in heart, speech, and character.
The differing measures mean that advancement in the heavenly school and reward in the immortal life are given exactly in proportion as a person in this life strove to obtain knowledge of God and His righteousness and to restore His lost image. The sower from a higher world sowed grand, elevating, uplifting, and ennobling Scriptural truths with a simplicity beyond human origin, and cherishing them alone prepares learners for that higher school where Christ and God teach throughout eternity how to magnify God's name. The harvest is proportionate to the seed sown, so earnest, active, zealous doers of thoughtful kindness, obedience, and self-denial gather richly as co-workers with God, and one soul saved for Jesus may save other souls onward for time and eternity. Cheerful, encouraging words likewise yield fruitful influence in proportion to what is sown. Thus a hundredfold yield illustrates far-reaching increase, as one Frenchman soundly converted could influence many others, and as one converted soul becomes a gain that through faithful work brings many more gains.
The hundredfold harvest marks especially abundant results when effort and means are rightly directed where God is providentially opening the way, producing far more than the same resources elsewhere. Means devoted to gospel ministry, used to carry truth and serve spiritual bread to needy people, establish truth in many places with abundant return. Time given to prayerful study of the Word brings a hundredfold return when the living seed sown in the mind is cherished and practiced daily through its successive stages of blade, then ear, then full corn. God's money used in God's true order to establish sanitariums in every newly opened field brings forth a hundredfold more by making new plants in different localities, and therefore is not to be diverted into uncertain channels.
Against this fruitful intent stands Israel's failure, for the fruit represents the righteous works God meant them to produce through given advantages and instruction. They instead used those benefits for self-glorification, rejected correction, and became like soil that takes in everything yet yields nothing.
Receptive Heart Described
The good-ground hearer listens every day to the living oracles with purpose to give them entrance, gathering precious treasure instead of gathering chaff and passing truth by. Such a hearer understands the word, keeps it and holds it fast, welcomes truth into the life, and brings forth fruit in action appropriate to each opportunity of life as a witness by sound speech seasoned with grace. The seed is the living Word heard from God, and the good ground is the receptive heart and mind not barricaded against light, including hearers who listen with great attention and become about ready to obey though they would not enter a church. Received and held fast, the word bears fruit in differing measure, thirtyfold, sixtyfold, or a hundredfold, according to the hearer's response. That fruit is the character of Christ reproduced and the graces of the Spirit matured through growth, patience, and trials in those who yield to the word's control.
Good ground is the transformed new person with a new heart, new purposes, and new impulses, changed by the grace of Christ from what hereditary tendencies, nationality, education, and circumstances had made. The change comes by receiving the word of Christ, which is spirit and life, eating the flesh and drinking the blood of the Son of God. That reception produces fruit in the heart, fruit in the lips, and fruit in the character, in differing measures of thirty, sixty, and a hundredfold. The human heart like soil must be worked upon by the Spirit, refined and disciplined, before it can bear such fruit to God's glory, and a heart made receptive by accepting truth becomes soil where seed can be continually sown for a harvest, with selfishness removed to prepare for fruitful growth. When living seed is cast into living soil, new ideas flash into the soul, the heart is regenerated, and fruit increases more and more, active, penetrative, and aggressive in seeking others and communicating knowledge of truth and grace.
Good ground is a humble and receptive heart, tender and contrite, in which truth takes root and grows upward. It is kept free from every species of selfishness and covetousness, which is idolatry, so that grace rules in the soul temple in contemplating God and working the works of God. An honest heart acknowledges sin when light reveals it, and God's appeals to conscience are no longer dismissed, whereas partial, reluctant reception leaves room for thorns to choke the seed.
In contrast, Pharisaical hearts are profitless and hopeless ground where heavenly truth cannot take root and produce fruit. They are filled with self-exaltation and self-superiority, suspicion of the pure, evil thoughts, bitterness against the goodness of true Christians, and harsh reproof and condemnation that crushes hope and courage. By making a man an offender for a word they discourage others instead of showing fruitful goodness.
Receptive hearts often show little effect at first yet later bear abundant fruit. Clear and pointed words spoken in the temple on the last day there cut hearers to the heart though the effect was not seen at once, and after crucifixion and resurrection the lessons were revived in many attentive listeners who repeated what they heard for future generations to the close of time, saving many souls to God's glory. So also words heard in confrontations with enemies and in Jerusalem and Galilee remained in hearts only dimly understood at first, then sprang up and bore blessed fruit. Hearers at the trial likewise had reverence and awe stirred by what they heard, which developed into perfect faith in Him as the world's Redeemer and yielded an abundant harvest. The seed scattered in Jerusalem was to be cultivated by the apostles until it sprang up and produced a plentiful harvest even where the message had first met opposition and rejection.
Nicodemus shows such delayed fruit, for for three years he did not publicly acknowledge Jesus but carefully weighed His teachings and watched His works, with little apparent result, until the raising of Lazarus became unmistakable evidence to him of Messiahship. John's message likewise fell as good seed into receptive hearts, softening them and reviving hope. It called people away from outward forms and self-righteousness to receive Christ individually as Saviour, and repentant faith in Him brings peace and His righteousness, while living, active faith sanctifies and transforms into His image.
The apostles' Spirit-empowered witness after the ascension gathered in the harvest of truth Christ had sown during His life and watered with His blood, revealing the power of His teaching. When the disciples testified of the resurrection, listeners remembered Christ's words, believed the gospel, and joined those who accepted it, and the conversions at Pentecost were fruit of that sowing, with those gathering the harvest entering into the labor of others. The seed scattered in Jerusalem was cultivated by the apostles until it sprang up abundantly, and the message planted through missionary work and publications springs up and bears fruit when the Spirit brings deep conviction so truth becomes clear. Those honestly receiving it then understand, obey, and take their stand for the Lord despite opposition and family or church ties.
The word scattered by faithful messengers takes root in receptive hearts and produces a harvest of souls, not identical in every case but in differing measure. Seed scattered by Waldensian missionaries found glad reception in homes and hearts, churches arose along their path, and faithful labor gathered souls for the day of God. The truth Huss preached, like seed on good ground, bore abundant fruit, for his death and the scattering of his ashes led to witnesses for truth in many lands, as his example of faith and steadfastness encouraged others to stand firm despite torture and death, so that persecution meant to destroy truth instead advanced its cause.
Preparing Soil for Seed
No untilled field gives a harvest at once, for the heart as soil must be broken up by repentance, plowed and harrowed, with thorns and evil growths uprooted before the seed can take root and bear fruit. Hardened hearts are like unplowed ground needing much labor to be subdued, and bringing them into fit condition calls for skill, discernment, and painstaking intelligent work that draws out what favors growth, rewards diligent effort with a harvest, and exposes surface work and haphazard half-effort. Evil tendencies of the heart are overcome only by earnest effort in the name and strength of Christ, yet the condition of the heart is not beyond personal influence, for by resisting the Spirit people become careless of the word and responsible for the hardness and harmful growths that hinder it, while through deep repentance and cooperation with God even a thorn-overgrown heart can be reclaimed and made fruitful. Before the gospel seed finds lodgment, conviction of sin must awaken the sense of danger and need of healing, and the rebuke that humbles is followed by tender care for the penitent.
Believers themselves are God's husbandry on the Lord's farm, and fruit comes through harmonious cooperation of the divine and the human. Tilling literal soil with plowing, harrowing, and all skill to fit land for planting teaches how the Lord's soil is to be worked, and tilling the soil teaches how truth grows in the heart until the life bears the beautiful fruit of the Spirit. The fallow ground of the heart must be stirred up and wrongs weeded out so seeds of truth may find access, while God's impress molds the mind into graceful symmetry with crude energies trained for service. Hearts that seem hard can be softened by personal Christlike ministry so the seed takes root, and teaching believers the foundations of Christian life keeps it from being choked by thorns or lost in shallow soil. The heart must first be won through love, practical godliness, and points of agreement, then truth can be sown in love, with courteous conversation opening the way.
Prayer meetings, mutual confidence, and the weakening of prejudice prepare the way for truth to take root in some hearts. When those restored to health grow grateful and trust those who helped them, they become more receptive, and in some the truth is nourished to produce fruit to God's glory, for true medical missionaries carry remedies for physical suffering in one hand and the gospel for sin-burdened souls in the other for restoration of God's image. Public preaching sows precious seed upon hearts as soil, and faithful speaking may place that seed where it takes root and bears fruit to God's glory. That sowing must be followed by house-to-house and personal labor that cultivates the soil, for the heart as soil must be softened and subdued by the Spirit through personal contact. This means watching for the interested, speaking after services, adding private words that often do more good than the whole discourse, asking how subjects appear and whether matters are clear, showing by kindness and courtesy a real interest and care for souls, and appealing to come to Christ, which sweeps away prejudice and leads to conversion.
Children's hearts are good ground to be prepared by parents themselves at home, with God's Word made the standard and with patient teaching from infancy in obedience, self-denial, self-control, and resistance to temptation. Habits are to be kept simple, nature used as textbook, and children not sent too early to other schools, so they grow into Christian men and women with minds impressible in early years and planting of what is good bearing fruit unto eternal life. As a garden must be prepared for natural seed, the garden of the heart must be cultivated, and both good and bad seed can be sown there, so children should themselves prepare soil and sow seed and then trace the correspondence between natural and spiritual sowing as the plant grows. Even little children can be Christians with an experience according to their years, which is all that is required of them, and with every advantage for spiritual education they form characters after a lovely similitude, while patient early planting of instruction bears lasting fruit reflected in others. Home teaching about God that makes youth vigorous in body and mind, quick to perceive and strong to act, with hearts ready for the precious seed and minds trained to see God in revelation and nature, is exemplified in Moses in Goshen, Samuel with Hannah, David at Bethlehem, Daniel before the captivity, Christ at Nazareth, and Timothy taught by Eunice and Lois.
The mind as soil must be guarded and cultivated with unceasing care, sown with the precious seed of Bible truth to bring forth good and rich fruit unto eternal life, with vanity weeded out and every circumstance of life ordered so heaven is not shut from view. Good ground means minds of children and youth kept by watchful guard so the enemy cannot sow tares to bear evil fruit, for an uncultivated field and an untrained mind alike bear evil, while neglect lets ignorance and evil grow. Such guarding turns away from trashy exciting tales to sensible reading leading to interest in Bible story, history, and argument and quickening desire to study Scripture, and avoids skeptical science, fictitious reading, and fanciful mixtures with Scripture. Ideas planted in young hearts grow to a harvest, for seeds of doubt grow to produce infidelity, and evil insinuations sown in youth drawn together that weaken confidence in ministers and message work upon minds when temptation comes to divert others from truths to be borne to the world. Truth as seed must be planted point by point so it springs up and bears fruit, with points and texts fastened in memory by teaching after the same pattern, by Bible readings, and by questions answered in the plainest manner, rather than by sermon after sermon where hearers retain only a few points that lose force, while plain instruction explored with those experienced in the truth is seed sown in good ground.
Fruit Borne to Glory
The fruit is Christ's character reproduced and the graces of the Spirit matured in those who yield to the control of the word, shown in heart, speech, lips and character unto eternal life. Receiving the word, which is spirit and life, transforms the natural person shaped by heredity, nationality, education and circumstance into a new person with a new heart, new purposes and new impulses. As a tender plant needing sunshine and shower, summer and winter, dew, frost and wind, so truth sown in good and honest hearts grows through patience and trial, and those who faint not will reap Christian character formed by grace. Tilling the soil teaches this growth, for believers are God's husbandry whose minds under God's impress are molded into graceful symmetry with crude powers trained for service.
Understanding reception of truth produces perseverance, decision and labor to advance its cause, and where such corresponding zeal is absent truth has not exerted its saving, sanctifying influence. The harvest must be pure and not mixed with thistles and thorns that make it unfit for use. It consists of the righteous works intended by God, Christian character formed by grace, and every act of thoughtful kindness, obedience and self-denial that prepares the way for others to be influenced for good. Israel's failure stands in contrast, for with great advantages and instruction they used benefits for self-glorification, rejected correction, and became as soil taking in everything yet yielding nothing.
Seed sown in the heart may lie dormant and buried for years beneath worldly rubbish and pleasing fables, yet it is not lost. After a time sorrow or affliction softens the heart, grace convicts and quickens it, and what was hidden springs up and bears fruit to the glory of God. This holds whether the seed came by preaching, reading, personal contact, or papers and tracts read when a living preacher would not be heard, for reading makes an impression not readily forgotten. Growth depends on God, the Spirit working upon the heart to bring fruit, so workers cannot know which efforts will prosper and must do their work with care, self-denial and perseverance and leave results with Him.
Fruit-bearing multiplies, for those who receive and are faithfully taught nurture faith by serving and saving others. Those saved teach others, go forth among neighbors and into highways and byways as messengers of peace and hope, and by active witness the sowing reaches thousands who never heard and continues for time and eternity. One soul saved may save other souls onward, with heaven cooperating with human agencies, and the harvest is proportionate to seed sown. In school life likewise the influence sown by a godly life and witness for Christ can yield precious grain by directing others to a better life and to Jesus.
Enterprises and institutions must be measured by this fruit of souls saved and interest awakened in present truth, not by money consumed, numbers fed or patrons gathered. What is put into good ground must bring forth fruit and return, and schemes that absorb means without producing fail that standard. Several smaller restaurants working by well-defined methods for the salvation of patrons and helpers, fortifying them against temptation, are more in divine order than one large restaurant gathering crowds daily at too low prices for food and labor without spiritual help, for without such fruit the business hinders truth and might better be run by unbelievers.
A few in the church may have been nourished, strengthened and settled in truth as good ground able to bear fruit. Premature separation and faction endanger such growth, so discipline to remove the unworthy must act cautiously lest it harm those who could flourish. Cheerful, encouraging words are seed yielding fruitful influence in proportion to what is sown. The sanctified gift of speech rightly used sows truth in many hearts, and acts of hospitality and practical kindness such as generous entertainment and meals for inquiring visitors plant truth in their hearts with return so the giver is no loser.
Sowing Work and Harvest
The gospel seed is the truth of God's word, and it is to be sown everywhere, among people and places of every kind, even where the soil looks poor and unpromising. Workers must not stop because some falls on unfruitful ground or because results are not immediately visible, but are to sow broadly in hope through toil, tears, and sacrifice, trusting God for the outcome. The good-ground harvest of thirty, sixty, and a hundredfold shows varied results will attend such broad sowing, and seed in hearts needs continued care lest opposition snatch it away or neglect leave it to wither for lack of moisture.
Humble men who do not trust in their gifts but work in simplicity trusting always in God go forth to warn people in the highways and byways and sow even in the rough places of the earth. Under the ministration of angels and by the power of the Holy Spirit moving upon hearts, their persevering prayers and self-sacrificing efforts bring souls to the cross. Men and women are thus gathered into church fellowship, meetinghouses are built and institutions of learning established, and as trees of the Lord's planting these workers bear fruit equal to that borne by the apostles. They receive a reward in this life and a glorious reward in the future life.
Humble people, including the uneducated and children, are moved by the Holy Spirit to carry the message to people in darkness, and those who respond and give themselves to the work are to be allowed and encouraged to proclaim it even in difficult places. Sowing the seeds of truth and bringing forth fruit is not the work of ministers alone but the duty of every believer according to his several ability. One who gives himself unreservedly gains an experience that makes his labor more and more successful, and the same influence that drew him to Christ enables him to draw others, so that even where public speaking is never laid upon him he is nonetheless a minister for God whose fruitful work testifies he is born of God. Living as missionaries continually sowing seeds of truth is the call taught to disciples.
Christ sowed seeds of truth wherever He went, traveling continually from place to place ministering to temporal and spiritual needs, grasping every opportunity to present truth so that seeds dropped into hearts sprang up and brought forth fruit. Truth can be sown through ordinary courteous conversation even while walking or resting by the way, and through personal contact many may come to rejoice in knowledge of the truth. His followers continue that work by fireside labor sharing the gospel with people in their homes, where witness can help truth take root and produce fruit in differing amounts.
Sowing is circulating books containing light broadcast throughout the world by placing them in the homes of as many people as possible, with large numbers of believers uniting in this circulation under divine guidance. The Holy Spirit attends the workers and angels accompany them to prepare the way, while freely sharing tracts about present truth may eventually bring a hundredfold return. Books spread the seeds of truth and must be actively distributed so the work can bear fruit and support further publications, and sowing truth wherever there is opportunity belongs to missionary effort. At large gatherings workers should teach people how to sow, meaning more than selling periodicals, including thorough instruction in handling books such as Christ's Object Lessons and Ministry of Healing from which the reader draws lessons of highest value, and where that selling is taken hold of in earnest it does good and well repays the efforts of those engaged.
True medical missionaries sow seeds of truth in many hearts, carrying in one hand remedies for relief of physical suffering and in the other the gospel for relief of sin-burdened souls, for restoration of the image of God in man. When people restored to health grow grateful and trust those who helped them, they may be more receptive, and in some the truth will be nourished and produce fruit to God's glory. Principles of health reform when practiced relieve the sick and open fields of work where planted truth bears fruit, and teaching about health and wholesome food provides occasions to plant seeds of the kingdom. When a suffering person is softened and open to divine influence, a Christian physician or nurse can gently sow precious seeds there, and well-trained nurses going among families with evangelists and Bible workers laboring in cities such as Boston and New Bedford find work for every energetic, thorough, earnest worker, for the simple truths taught in parables are as much needed now as when Christ was in the world in person.
Truth sown in the heart may lie dormant for a time, even hidden in a cold, worldly heart, then be quickened by God's grace, spring up, and bear fruit to His glory. Sowing calls for care, self-denial, perseverance, and faithful doing while leaving results with God, since workers cannot know which efforts will prosper and fruitfulness may not be immediately evident. Growth and harvest depend on God's power working with human care and skill, and studying sowing and harvesting teaches that God is at work in nature and makes kingdom truths plain. The Holy Spirit waters sown lessons of divine truth, works upon the heart to make the word effective to convert, and often after many days lessons remaining in memory even of careless students spring up to bear fruit, so workers can follow up through the Spirit's power, ripen the work, and gather the harvest.
Sowing at the beginning of the Christian age took root and was accompanied by gifts of the Spirit, and at the close the latter rain will ripen the harvest with those gifts again fully manifested. The message has already been planted through missionary work and publications, and when the Spirit brings deep conviction and truth becomes clear, those honestly receiving it understand, obey, and take their stand for the Lord despite opposition and family or church ties.
Good-ground hearers who hunger for the bread of life are found in the Southern field among rich and poor in the highways and byways, and while many harden their hearts, these receive the message and bring forth fruit by going forth themselves to sow as messengers of peace and hope. The call includes working earnestly among neglected peoples, reaching places where light has never shone, as by a boat used as a home and place to receive the interested where novelty and curiosity bring many to see and hear, some first seeing light there with angels present. A word spoken to one indifferent to spiritual matters may fall as on good soil and bear fruit, and willing service in words as seeds can lead to many saved. Growth may be slow in difficult soil yet become strong and fruitful, as Britain's hard soil is expected to be stirred to abundant fruit through the word, divine love, and the latter rain, and unworked places near Cooranbong such as Newcastle, Maitland, and towns toward Queensland, distant settlements eager to learn, Washington's men of influence reached through the sanitarium, and many localities rather than means centered in one or two places are fields for such sowing.
Even fields that seem hard, unpromising, and inferior can give abundant yield when seed is sown in faith and hope with expectation, for what is sown is reaped in its kind and one soul is worth more than the cost of land. A mistaken visit with a left pamphlet brought twenty Sabbathkeepers, and a pamphlet left unexpectedly with a family became seed from which twenty were converted, showing work appearing accidental can produce abundant harvest. Crowded congregations listening with deepest interest may be good soil where seed falls to bring forth fruit, and attentive listeners with two close to deciding give reason to hope seed fell on good ground.
Truth heard by many is good seed sown to spring up and bear fruit, with full results of that day's sowing to be revealed in the day of final reckoning. A meeting's results are fruit reaching into eternity, and minds of learners are good ground where men rooted in faith as channels of light drop seeds producing impressions never effaced but enduring as eternity in developments and tendencies of character borne through eternity. Teaching children, singing hymns, and sharing books are thus hoped to leave good impression and bring spiritual fruit.
The Christian sower is to go forth and sow the gospel in entire consecration, while fretting, contention, sluggishness, and unbelief hinder effective labor.