“THE chapter (Luke 8) begins with the “parable of the sower. Do you think you have ever found out the secret of that parable? It is to expose man. The seed was one and the same, but the dropping of the seed here and there was to expose the character of the soil. The seed makes manifest the soil. There is not a heart here that is not seen in one or other of these soils.
The first character is the highway, that is where the devil prevails.
The second is the rock, that is where nature prevails.
The third is the thorny ground, that is where the world prevails.
The fourth is the good ground, where the Holy Ghost prevails.
If you examine your heart day by day you will find that one of these has its pleasure with you. The business of the parable is to expose you to yourself, and to make manifest the four secret influences under the power of which we are all morally moving every hour.
Take the joy of the stony-ground hearer. It is well to rejoice but if when I listen to the claims of God my conscience is not reached, that is a bad symptom. It is the levity and sensibility of nature. How wretchedly we are treating God, if we do not deal with Him in conscience! If I have revolted from such a, One, am I to return to Him without conviction of conscience? It would be an insult to Him. Supposing I had insulted you, would it be well for me to come and talk to you about some light matter? We have all insulted God, and are we to come to Him with a little animal joy?
The thorny-ground hearers are a grave-hearted people that weigh everything in anxious balances. They carry the balances in their pocket, and try the importance of everything; but the mischief is that as they weigh they make the world as heavy as Christ. Are we not often conscious of that calculating spirit prevailing?
In contrast with the others we get the good ground. We are not told what has made it good; but supposing we have the devil, nature, and the world, what is the only remaining influence? There is nothing but the Holy Ghost. It is very needful nowadays to testify that the plough must come before the seed-basket. What makes the heart good? He that has gone forth to plow up the fallow ground and sow the seed. God never could get a blade of grass from our hearts if He did not work Himself. The heart never can have anything for God that has not gone through the process of the plow. Be it with the light measure of the eunuch, or the deeper strength of the jailer, the plow must go through the fallow ground. Those of the thorny ground must talk of their farm, their business, their merchandise. Those of the highway say, ‘Oh, let us think of it tomorrow.’ Then, too, the sensibility that can rejoice under a sermon. It is happy for me that my conscience has to do with God, for when my conscience has to do with Him, then everything has to do with Him.” J. G. B.