There is a remarkable fact connected with the germination of wheat which lends great force to our Lord’s illustration ... A grain or corn of wheat, when properly buried in the ground, like all other seeds sends forth roots which grow downwards, and a stalk which ascends. But when the stalk emerges from the earth, its first knot or joint is made, and from this a leaf springs, and here a very peculiar feature may be noticed. As soon as the weather will allow, a second set of lateral roots are thrown out from this knot, which act as the real feeders of the plant; while the stalk and roots that are beneath speedily perish. This must occur in the case of all healthy wheat that is to bear “much fruit.” The growth of these lateral roots, and the decay of all below them, is only found wanting where the grain has been too superficially sown, that is, has been allowed to fall on but not “into the ground,” and under these circumstances it can never flourish. It is, therefore, literally true, in a remarkable manner in which it is not true of other seeds, that “a corn of wheat,” in order to its proper and abundant increase, must actually die.
Revelation James Neil.
“It was the custom of the Assyrians to carry away in triumph the images of the gods of the conquered nations, which were placed on poles, and borne in procession upon men’s shoulders.”