I word is no sooner sown, but the effect is lost: when any one hears the word of the kingdom, and understands it not, then Satan, that wicked one, comes immediately and catches away the word that was sown in his heart, lest they who have heard should believe and be saved. This say is he that received the seed by the way-side.-And in like manner, these are they who received the seed in stony soil or on a rock; who having heard the word, the message of the gospel, immediately receive it with joy; but have no root in themselves, and so believe and endure but for a while; and afterwards in a time of trial, when oppression or persecution arises, on account of the word, they are presently offended, and apostatise. And these are they that received seed among thorns; even such as hear the word, but as soon as they have heard it, go out of the assembly, and the cares of this world, and the delusion of riches, or the pleasures of this life, or the desires of other things, enter into their minds, and choke the word, and sait becomes unfruitful: yea, they themselves are choked as it were, with those incumbrances, and bring no fruit to perfection.-And these are they who were said to have received the seed into good ground; even such as hear the word, and understand, and receive it, and retain it in an honest and good heart, bringing forth fruit with patience, some thirty, some sixty, and some an hundred fold. And he said further to them, Is a lamp brought to be put under a bushel, or under a bed, and not to be set on a stand? No man of common sense, having lighted a lamp, covers it with a vessel, or puts it under a couch; but sets it upon a stand, that all they who enter in may see the light. Be not then backward to communicate to others what you receive from me; for nothing is secret which shall not be revealed, nor hid which shall not be made known and published. If any man hath ears to hear, let him hear. And he said also to them, Take heed therefore what and how you hear. The measure with which you meté to others, shall be used to you; and to you that attentively hear, more shall be given; for (as was before said) to him that hath shall be given, and from him that hath not shall be taken away even that which he hath, or seemeth to have. REFLECTIONS. Let us apply to ourselves this charge of our blessed Redeemer, and take heed how we hear. Especially let us be very careful that we despise not him that now speaks to us from heaven; and remember the authority which his exaltation there gives to the words which he spake in the days of his flesh. Let us attentively hear the parable of the sower, and its interpretation. Still is Christ, by his word and his ministers, sowing among us the good seed. Still is the great enemy of souls labouring to snatch it away. Let us endeavour to understand, that we may retain it; and to retain, that we may practise it. Still do the cares of this world press us; still do its pleasures solicit us; still do our lusts war in our members; and all unite their efforts to prevent our fruitfulness in good works: but let us remember, that with having our fruit unto holiness, everlasting life is connected as the end; and that in due season we shall reap if we faint not. Let us therefore be concerned that the seed may take deep root in our minds, that we may not rest in any superficial impression on the passions; but, feeling the energy of that living principle, may flourish under the circumstances which wither others, and may in due time be gathered as God's wheat into his garner. Nor let us repine if we now go forth weeping, bearing this precious seed, while we have such a hope of coming again rejoicing, bringing our sheaves with us. SECTION LXVII. The parable of the Tares in the field, explained to the disciples. MATT. xiii. 24-30. 36-43. 24 W proposed another parable to them, saying: The kingdom HEN our Lord was teaching the multitude from the ship, he of heaven or the success of the gospel dispensation, may be compared to that which happened to a man who had sown good seed in 25 his ground: but while the men slept, his enemy came and sowed 26 tares* among the wheat, and went away. But when the blade was sprung up and produced fruit, then the tares also appeared. 27 And the servants of the proprietor of the estate came and said to him, Sir, didst thou not sow good seed in thy field? whence then 28 hath it tares? And he said unto them, Some malicious person has done this. And the servants said to him, Wilt thou then have 29 us go and gather them up? But he said, No; lest while you gàther up the tares, you should root up the wheat also with them. 30 Permit both to grow together till the harvest; and in the time of the harvest, I will say to the reapers, Gather ye together first the tares, and bind them in bundles, that they may be burnt; but gather ye the wheat into my barn. 36 Then Jesus (after he had spoken some other parables) having dismissed the multitude, went into an house; and his disciples came to him saying, Explain to us the parable of the tares in the 37 field. And he answered and said unto them, He that sowed the 38 good seed is the Son of Man: The field is the world: The good seed are the children of the kingdom; my true disciples: The 39 tares are wicked men, the children of the wicked one: The enemy that sowed them is the devil: The harvest is the end of the world; 40 and the reapers are the angels. As therefore the tares are gath ered together and burnt in the fire, so shall it be at the end of this 41 world. The Son of man shall then send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things which have been 42 an offence to others, even all those that practise iniquity; and shall cast them into the furnace of fire: there shall be lamentation and 43 gnashing of teeth, in the height of anguish, rage, and despair. Then shall the righteous shine forth like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Every one who hath ears to hear, let him hear. *ava imports something different from what we call tares.[Doubtless some noxious weed.] REFLECTIONS. Oh that these important instructions might, as it were, be ever sounding in our ears! It is matter of great thankfulness that this earth, which might have been abandoned by God as a barren wilderness, is cultivated as his field, and that any good seed is to be found in it; but grievous to think how many tares are intermingled, so as almost to over-run the ground, and hide the wheat from being seen. Let not a forward zeal prompt us, like these over-officious servants, to think of rooting them out by violence; but let us wait our master's time, and be patient till the day of the Lord. The separation will at length be made; nor shall one precious grain perish. Awful, important time! when the angels shall perform their great office with a sagacity too sharp to be cluded, and a power too strong to be resisted! Gather not our souls, O Lord, with sinners! but may they be bound up in the bundle of life! that when the day cometh which shall burn as an oven, and when the wicked like chaff shall be thrown in to be consumed, we may survey the execution of the divine judgment with awful triumph; being owned by God as his while he is making up his jewels, and spared by him as his obedient children. Then shall we not only be spared, but honoured and adorned, and shine forth like the sun in our Father's kingdom; for these vile bodies shall be fashioned like to the glorious body of our Redeemer, and our purified and perfected spirits shall be clothed with proportionable lustre, and reflect the complete image of his holiness. Amen. SECTION LXVIII. Other parables relating to the speedy progress of the gospel, and its important blessings. MARK iv. 26-34. MATT. xiii. 31-35. 44-53. AND Jesus further said to the multitude, So is the kingdom of God, as if a man should throw seed upon the earth, and should sleep by night, and rise by day, and without his thought or care, the seed should spring and increase he knows not how. For the earth spontaneously produces first the blade, then the ear, afterwards the full grain in the ear. But as soon as the fruit is ripe, he immediately puts in the sickle, because the harvest is come. By such insensible degrees shall the gospel gain ground in the world, and ripen to a harvest of glory. And then, making a pause, he said, Whereunto else shall we compare the kingdom of God? or with what parable shall we further illustrate it? He then proposed another parable to them, saying, The kingdom of heaven is like a grain of mustard seed, which a man took and sowed in his field: which indeed, when it is first sown, is one of the least of all the seeds* that are cast in the ground. But when it is some time sown, it grows up and becomes greater than all other herbs: yea it becomes a tree, and shoots out great branches, so that the birds of * Therefore used proverbially for a little thing. We have accounts of its increase in that country, far beyond what is known in ours. the air may come and lodge in its branches, and harbour under its shadow. So the gospel, small as its beginnings were, shall spread itself through the world. He also spake another parable to them, to the same purpose. The kingdom of heaven is like leaven, which a woman took and covered up in three measures of meal, till the whole was leavened. All these things Jesus spake to the multitude in parables; and with many other such parables spake he the word unto them as they were able to hear it; and without a parable spake he not to them: that so it might be fulfilled, which was spoken by the prophet Asaph (Ps. lxxviii. 2.) " I will open my mouth in parables, I will give vent to dark sayings of old, even things hid from the foundation of the world." And he expounded all these things to his disciples when they were alone with him. [He then delivered to them the following, recorded only by MATTHEW, xiii. 44-53.] 44 Again, the kingdom of heaven is like treasure hid in a field, which when a man has found, he hides, and for joy of it goes and 45 sells all that he has and buys that field.-Again, the kingdom of 46 heaven is like a merchant seeking beautiful pearls; who finding one pearl of an exceeding great value, went away, and sold all that 47 he had, and bought it.-Again, the kingdom of heaven, in the world, is like a net thrown into the sea, which gathered in fishes 48 of all sorts; which, when it was full, they dragged to the shore, and sitting down, gathered the good into vessels, but threw away 49 the bad (the dead and putrid*): So will it be at the end of the world when the angels shall come forth, and separate the wick50 ed from among the just; and shall cast them into a furnace of fire. There shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth. 51 Then Jesus saith unto them, Have ye understood all these 52 things? They say unto him, Yes, Lord. And he said to them, See therefore that you make a good use of them for every scribe who is disciplined to the kingdom of heaven, is like a housekeeper who 53 brings forth out of his store, things new and old.-And it came to pass, that when Jesus had finished these parables, he departed thence, that evening. use. REFLECTIONS. Let us be concerned to gather up these fragments that nothing may be lost; and to lay them up in our memories and our hearts, that according to our respective stations in life, we may have them ready for Let us remember that sometimes the growth of piety in the heart is like that of vegetables in the earth. The seed of the word may for a while seem lost; or when the fruit appears, it may advance and ripen but slowly. Let not ministers therefore too confidently conclude they have laboured in vain, and spent their strength for nought, because the fields are not immediately white to the harvest; but with * So the word carga generally signifies, and seems to allude to the drawing up some dead fish with the living. believing hope and humble patience let them recommend the seed that they have sown to Him who, by the secret energy of his continued influences, can give at length a sure and plentiful increase. When Jesus took to himself his great power and reigned, the gospel, which had gained so little ground under his personal ministration, ran, and was greatly glorified, in the hands of the apostles. The grain of mustard-seed shot up and branched forth into a spreading tree, and birds of every wing took shelter there; (oh that there had been none of the ravenous and the obscene kind!) Thus when the Lord shall please to hasten it in his time, a little one shall become a thousand, and a small one a strong nation.-Let us pray that the triumphant progress of his kingdom may comc. In the mean time let it be our desire that the prin, ciples of the gospel may, like a sacred kind of leaven, diffuse themselves through our whole souls; that all our powers and faculties, that all our thoughts and passions, may be, as it were, impregnated and elevated by them. Let us remember the value of the blessings it proposes; and regarding Christ as the pearl of great price, and heaven as that immense treasure in which alone we can be for ever rich and happy, let us be willing to part with all to secure it, if we are called to such a trial. It is not enough that we are nominal Christians, or possessed of the common privileges of the church: the day of final separation will come, and the angels employed in the work will not overlook us, but conduct us to the abodes of the righteous or the wicked. Oh that we may not then be cast with abhorrence into the furnace of fire! but now seriously realizing to ourselves this awful day, of which our Lord has given such repeated prospects, may we so judge ourselves that we may not then be condemned of him! SECTION LXIX. Our Lord's remarkable answer to some disposed to follow him. He stills a mighty tempest. MATT. viii. 18-27. MARK iv. 35, &c. LUKE viii. 22-25. ix. 57, &c. N TOW in the evening of the same day, when Jesus saw great multitudes about him, he went into a ship with his disciples, and said unto them, Let us go over unto the other side of the lake. And when they had dismissed the multitude, they took him, just as he was, in the ship. But the following occurences previously happened. And first, it came to pass that, as they went in the way, a certain scribe cam eand said unto him, Lord,* I will follow thee whithersoever thou goest. And Jesus, instead of flattering his expectation of any tem poral advantage, saith to him, The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests, yet the Son of man has not a place [of his own] where he may lay his head. And to another of his disciples, who had for some time attended his discourses, he said, Follow me statedly. But he said unto him, Lord, first permit me to go and bury my father. But LUKE has it, "Master." |