“Behold, a sower went forth to sow,”
HAS the young reader ever seen a farm-laborer in the act of sowing seed? In these days, and in this, country, most farmers employ a machine called a drill, and drawn by a horse, so that one does not often see a man sowing “broadcast,” as it is termed. But in the land where that precious book, the Bible, was written, they still sow the seed with the hand, as they used to do in the days when our blessed Lord Jesus Christ spoke that parable, which you can read in the thirteenth chapter of Matthew, and which commences with the words, “Behold, a sower went forth to sow.”
The Lord himself was the great Sower, and the seed he sowed was the word of God. The world was the field in which he stood to sow, and the hearers were the furrows where the seed fell. But Christ came not to be the “Sower” only, but the Sacrifice also; and, “when he had by himself purged our sins, he sat down at the right hand of God.” And now every servant of his who goes forth in the power of the Spirit to preach the word, is a sower. The importance which our Lord attaches to this subject is marked in that word “Behold.” Well does he know the eternal consequences which hang upon this work; for the true sower is a “savor of life unto life, or of death unto death,” and both are everlasting.
“Behold a sower!” He shall be a witness for or against the living furrows in the last day. O young reader, your years cannot be many, yet your responsibilities may already be too numerous to count. Perhaps the very frequency with which you have “beheld” the sower, has taken away all sense of the importance of the opportunity; for you well know how little we value things that are common. When first a “sower goes forth to sow” in some far-off heathen land, where such sowers have never been seen before, the poor ignorant heathen are all attention; and even though too many may oppose, and perhaps persecute him, their very opposition proves that they are not indifferent. But in this favored land, thousands “behold” the sower, in the utter stagnation of habitual indifference — an indifference so complete, that they are even unconscious of it! Is this your case? The writer does not now address the “little ones” merely, but those who are some years older; old enough to give attention to what they hear, and to understand. Have you, when sitting by your parents in the congregation week after week, “beheld” the sower, while, as he scattered with unsparing hand the good seed of the word (God’s word, remember, and not man’s), idle thoughts, and wandering fancies, have flitted through your mind, until the very sound of the word became a dull monotony, that almost lulled you off to sleep? When next you sit death that sound, recall the words of the Lord Jesus Christ, “Behold a sower.” Remember who he is that uttered them, and that “God hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness” by HIM, “whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead.” How solemn to be judged, instead of being saved, by him! And to be judged, too, for despising that precious blood, which he “shed for the remission of sins”! For the seed which the sower sows, contains the germ of eternal life, life through death; the death of Christ the Lamb of God, the Saviour of the world. And he who knows all the everlasting consequences belonging to the sowing of the seed, and involved in the receiving, or rejecting of it, said, “Behold a sower!” He said it in love, for he loves sinners. He said it in warning, for he knows our hearts. He says it with emphasis on that word “behold,” for he would rouse your attention.
Think of these things when you again sit down to listen where some servant of Christ has come forth to sow the never-dying seed of the word of God. Let these words of the Lord. Jesus Christ sound in your ears when next you hear the preaching of the Gospel of his grace, “BEHOLD A SOWER.”