We shall commence this paper with the sentence which closed our last, " the sower soweth the word." It is indeed a sentence of singular weight and power, demanding the attention of all who go forth to preach. The word should ever form the great staple of our preaching. Illustrations drawn from nature or from the scenes of real life may occasionally be introduced. The great Sower Himself used them with marvelous power; and all preachers and teachers will find them most helpful in conveying truth to the hearts and minds of their hearers. Very often a simple illustration will do more than the most elaborate and powerful argument, in bringing home a truth to the understanding. Indeed it may be safely asserted that for one that could understand the argument, you may find a hundred who could most thoroughly seize the illustration.
Still, the word of God must ever be the great agent, if the preaching is to be divinely effective. A profusion of illustration or anecdote weakens the preaching and lowers its tone. However useful, as an occasional auxiliary—and it is most useful—yet if it predominate it really displaces the word instead of illustrating and enforcing it. We should seek to preach with a more profound faith in the word itself—its divine power, fullness and sufficiency. It needs no addition or adornment from us. A single clause of holy scripture, in the hands of the Holy Spirit, is quite enough to reach the very depths of the soul and there become the germ of eternal life. It is more than questionable whether our lack of faith in the power of the word is not the secret of the lack of fruit in our preaching. We all need a more thorough persuasion that " The gospel is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth."
Yes; the gospel itself, in its own intrinsic excellence and divine fullness, apart from all that man may have to say about it—the precious gospel, flowing full from the very heart of God—the blessed tidings of accomplished redemption, coming home to the soul in the power of the Holy Ghost—the record of God's free love, of Christ's finished work, on the authority of the inspired word—this is the power of God unto salvation to every soul that believeth, be he Jew or Gentile.
It is not that we would overlook or undervalue a deep toned earnestness or whole-hearted zeal and energy in the preacher. Far be the thought! Would to God we had more of these things, for, most assuredly, they are sadly needed amongst us, in this day of so much official preaching, heartless machinery and dead routine. We do long for more 01 heavenly fire in our preaching—more fervent outgoings of the heart after precious souls—a more intense longing to snatch our perishing fellow-sinners from everlasting burnings—a bolder grasp and an ever present sense of the horrors of an eternal hell and the unutterable joys 01 heaven. We want all these things to give character and tone, depth and power, earnestness and solemnity to our preaching; but let us never lose sight oi the weighty fact that " The sower soweth the word."
III. We shall now briefly glance at the third great subject of our parable, namely, the soil.
We have already sought to guard the reader against the false idea that there is any essential difference in the hearts of men with regard to the word of God. Scripture teaches us, with all possible clearness, and unanswerable force, that "There is no difference." Men may not like this; but that, in no wise, affects the truth of God. Looked at from a divine stand-point—measured by a divine standard—weighed in a divine balance, there is no difference. Looked at from man's point of view, measured by a human standard, weighed in an earthly balance—viewed morally and socially, there are shades and grades and conditions which must never be overlooked. But when it is a question of "the glory of God"—and this is the one grand and all-important question—the Holy Ghost declares "there is no difference" inasmuch as "all have come short" of that one great standard from which there is and can be no appeal.
But does not our Lord, in this parable of the sower, speak of "good ground"? He does. Well, then, do we not learn from this that there is a difference? Is there not a material difference between good and bad? No doubt; but our Lord does not tell us what it is that makes the ground good. This is not His object or design in this parable. All scripture proves, beyond question, that " there is none good;" and therefore it follows, of absolute necessity, that the good ground, referred to in our parable, is rendered good by divine operation. There is not so much as the breadth of a hair of good ground in all the realms of fallen nature—in the entire extent of the old creation—not a single spot in which good fruit can grow save where the dew of heaven falls, and the hand of the divine Husbandman displays its gracious operations.
But we repeat our statement, and call the reader's special attention to it; it is not the object of the parable of the sower to set forth the truth as to the inherent nature of the soil, or the absolute necessity of divine grace in every instance in which good fruit is produced. It has been well remarked by an able writer, that a parable is like a globe touching a flat surface. It touches in one point, and if you try to make it touch in more, you smash the globe. It is important to bear this in mind in expounding the parables.
We shall now proceed to consider the various kinds of soil. "Behold there went out a sower to sow. And it came to pass, as he sowed, some fell by the wayside, and the fowls of the air came and devoured it up." In our Lord's explanation given in private to His disciples, He says, " These are they by the wayside, where the word is sown; but when they have heard Satan cometh immediately, and taketh away the word that was sown in their hearts." Mark 4
This is deeply solemn for all who sit under the sound of the gospel, or, in any way, come in contact with the word of God. The devil is ever on the alert. He is in earnest, at all events. He knows something of what is at stake, how careless soever men may be. And oh! how careless men are as to their immortal souls! As hard as the wayside. " The word that is sown in their hearts" sets forth, in terms plain and impressive, their real condition in the sight of God, their guilt, their danger, their utter ruin, their awful responsibility. It tells them of judgment to come, of the deathless worm, the fire unquenchable. It holds up before the vision of their souls the ineffable blessedness and glory of that heaven which surely awaits all who simply and truly believe in Jesus.
But all in vain. These poor wayside hearers remain unmoved—hard as the beaten highway on which they tread, or as the benches on which they sit. The Lord's messengers plead with them earnestly and tenderly; they entreat, beseech and warn; they weep over them; their very hearts bleed for them; but all to no purpose; they remain careless and impenitent; and Satan, ever on the watch, ever active, never ceasing, speedily snatches away the word which is sown in their hearts, and thus retains them in his grasp, blind, hardened and impenitent.
How sad to think of these precious souls! How amazing to think that any one can be careless about his eternal salvation—careless as to the momentous question of his eternal destiny—careless as to where he is to spend those endless ages which lie before him! If any one were assured that he had a hundred years to live in this world, and that just one hour were allotted to him during which to make provision for the hundred years; but for the space of that hour, the Bank of England were flung open to him, and full permission given to help himself to as much gold as ever he could carry away, with what eagerness and earnestness would he address himself to the important business! How diligently would he provide bags and fill them with the precious treasure so that he might have enough for the hundred years.
But what should we say or think of such an one, if during that momentous hour, we found him indolently lounging on the steps of the Bank, or engrossed with a puppet show or a band of music in the street? Assuredly we should pronounce him a fool or a madman. Ah! reader, if thou art careless about the salvation of thy immortal soul, thou art incomparably more mad than he. For just in so far as eternity exceed the short span of a hundred years; and so far as the interests of the never-dying soul exceed in importance the wants of the body, in so far do thy folly and madness exceed those of the man whose case we have attempted to portray.
There is no one so mad as the man who neglects his soul's salvation. And yet what countless millions display this madness, from day to day, week to week and year to year! On they go, like people blind-fold to the brink of that precipice which overhangs the lake that burneth with fire and brimstone. They heed no warnings; they regard no entreaties; they turn a deaf ear to every argument and every appeal; they will not listen to the voice of the charmer. They are, with blind fatuity and obstinate purpose, bent on their eternal destruction. They will not have Christ and heaven; they will have the world and Satan and an everlasting hell.
It is of no use for any one to say he cannot help being a wayside hearer—he cannot make himself good ground—he cannot prevent Satan snatching away the word out of his heart—he would retain it if he could. This will not stand, for a moment, in the day of judgment: indeed such a line of argument or character of objection will not be attempted by any one in the light of that great day. Even now, it is utterly baseless and worthless. There is not a single soul, this day, beneath the canopy of God's heaven, who has the slightest desire for the word of God, or for the salvation which that word reveals who may not have it note, in all its fullness, all its freeness, all its divine and eternal preciousness. Nay, more, there is not a single soul on the face of this earth who has ever heard the glad tidings of God's salvation, or who has within his reach a copy of the New Testament, who is not solemnly responsible to believe and be saved; and who, if he perish, will not have himself and no one else to blame. His blood shall be upon his own head throughout the everlasting ages of a black eternity.
We feel it imperative upon us to press this upon all who attempt to shelter themselves behind the plea of their not being responsible. They may rest assured it is a refuge of lies. Yes, a refuge of lies though deriving a shadow of support from a one-sided theology. The way-side hearer is responsible, and guilty of rejecting the good word of God. Who or what made him a way-side hearer? The plain fact, as to all such, is simply this, they do not want—do not desire—do not feel their need of salvation, of Christ—of heaven; and they weave a flimsy cobweb of excuses which, so far from averting, will only deepen and aggravate their eternal condemnation.
We constantly find, in scripture, that the very excuses which men bring forward are made the ground of their condemnation. Adam said," The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree and I did eat." Mark what follows. " And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life/é &c. So also, in the case of the wicked and slothful servant, in Luke 19 He says, "Lord, behold, here is thy pound, which I have kept laid up in a napkin. For I feared thee, because thou art an austere man: thou takest up that thou layedst not down, and reapest that thou didst not sow." Does this preposterous plea avail him? Assuredly not. " And he said unto him, out of thine own mouth will I judge thee, thou wicked servant/' &c. His very excuse becomes the plain and palpable, just and equitable ground of his condemnation.
Thus it will be in every case. Every mouth will be stopped. Each one, when challenged before the judgment seat of Christ, will stand speechless; and we are persuaded that, if any one shall feel more confounded than another, it will be that man who denies his responsibility to believe the gospel, and dares to charge the living God with being the author of his unbelief and hardness of heart.
Oh! then, awake! awake! careless sinners—wayside hearers—gospel neglecters! Rouse yourselves to a sense of your tremendous responsibility! Suffer not the birds of the air—Satan and his co-workers, to snatch away from your hearts the precious seed of the word of God. Be in earnest, we beseech you, about your souls' salvation. God is in earnest; Christ is in earnest; the Holy Ghost is in earnest; and, we may add, Satan, your great adversary, is in earnest. Will you alone be indolent and careless? Let it not be so, we earnestly beseech you. Oh! do come, now, just now. Come to Jesus. Believe in Him and be saved. (To be continued if the Lord will.)