06 - First Class of Hearers
FIRST CLASS OF HEARERS.
’’ And when he sowed, some fell by the wayside, and the fowls came and devoured them up.” (Hebrews 2:1; Acts 26:28; Matthew 22:5; Isaiah 53:1.)
Christ’s disciples were too familiar with the scene immediately around them to have any difficulty in understanding the letter of the parable, but they seek to know its deeper meaning. And the words, ’’zuho hath ears to hear, let hi7n hear,’’ with which He closed the parable, must have challenged the attention of the most thoughtless, while it was a direct summons to all in that crowd who understood Him, to look for a meaning deeper and richer than the mere picture with which they were all familiar. The letter of the parable is easily understood, but what is the spiritual truth it holds for us? As we study this ’’ word of the kingdom,” let us try to catch its full meaning, and by applying Its lessons to our own lives, give the “seed” fullest opportunity to grow even to an hundred fold in good and honest hearts. The whole field was sown, but in Palestine, as In the far west of our own land, there are few fences, and the feet of many travelers have worn a hard path across the ploughed and harrowed surface. The Master’s explanation of this part of the parable is, ’* When anyone heareth the word of the kingdom, and understandeth it not, then cometh the wicked one, and catcheth away that which was sown in the heart.”
We cannot justly make our ignorance a reason for not believing, yet if we cannot easily understand the teachings of Christ we are very apt to feel ourselves under no obligation to give them any further attention. Nor have we any right to make the obscurity of the word and the difficulty of our surroundings the excuses for our continued neglect of duty. Christ shows here the fallacy of all such pleas by the expression which in the text is translated “ understandeth it not.” Literally, it is *’ inattention,” neglecting to bring together in the mind for careful consideration the truths we hear. No one can be blamed for not understanding a subject which by actual, careful investigation he has proved to be beyond his capacity; but he is deserving of censure if he fails to understand a matter which is vital to him simply because he will not bring his mind to attend to it.
“ Then!’ and not till then, ’’ coineth the wicked one!’ “ Satan,” St. Luke says, ’’ and catcheth away that which was sown in the hearth Originally the soil was all alike. The whole field was well ploughed and harrowed, and the soil of the path is now as fertile as any other part of the field. A fertile heart may become like a hard path under a long procession of evil thoughts, ungodly wishes and sinful deeds.
Satan cannot steal away seed that is covered in the heart, and it is our fault if the ground is so hard that the seed can find no place to take root. It is our fault that we give no attention, that we do not carefully examine the truths of life, but without thought push them aside. It is our fault that, while hearing with the ear, we give no attention with the heart. Satan catches away only that which is left exposed upon the surface.
If Christ be true, these teachings of His are of infinite worth, affecting our life here, and our fate for all eternity. Is it the part of wisdom, of even ordinary good sense, to push them aside without careful examination? Yet many have no other reason than ignorance for their rejection of Christ. Rejecting the deepest truths and noblest gifts of life without any personal examination as to the validity of testimony or credibility of witnesses.
What a picture this is of many hearers in all our churches! They come with the multitude to keep holy-day, but the seed falls upon inattentive hearts, as rain falls upon the paved street. Their church-going is often a sort of weekly opiate, with which to quiet the conscience, or a mask to deceive the world, and sometimes themselves, and yet with an unexpressed hope that God will count their churchgoing as a favorable item in their final account.
St. Luke 12:13 tells of such a hearer. Christ had been preaching to the people an earnest sermon against all forms of hypocrisy, and showing them the great value of a soul, at the same time promising the Holy Spirit to help them in all trials and sufferings while preaching the truth. “And one of the company said unto him. Master, speak to my brother that he divide the inheritance with me.” Evidently the man had given no real attention to the sermon, and he deserved the severe rebuke he received. So it was with Agrippa, when Paul sowed the truth so faithfully, the seed bounded off from a hard and careless heart.
Occasionally we hear people say they have no aptitude for religion. What will such people do in heaven, where everything is religion? Others say they have no interest in “ church-work,” in other words, they do not have any interest in the work which the church has undertaken at the command of Christ. Will such people have any place in heaven, where the whole life is a special service under the command of Christ? These people, and they are many, are simply hardening the soil, and allowing the seed to die without fruit. Yet the Master has said, ** Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit, so shall ye be my disciples.”
Sometimes the very habits of what is called our religious life become a mere “crust of formality,” hard paths across the heart. Attendance upon the ordinances of the church ought to lead us nearer to God, yet how often while the body is obedient to the form of worship the mind is far away. This half-listening, this not attending to the word, is fatal to any true reception of the truth, and only increases the difficulty in the way of growth. More and more becoming incapable of true repentance, such people have neither care nor fear. Their condition does not disturb them, for sin has no deep meaning to them. They know in a general way that they ought to prepare to meet their God, but their hearts are not stirred with the thought of that great certainty, and they are apt soon to grow indifferent to all things spiritual. A man gets into this hardened condition, so that the Gospel message has no helpful meaning to him, only because he has exposed his heart as a common road to evil influences. He listens to the gospel without objection, it may be, but it arouses no personal interest, for it has fallen on a hardened surface. However he may apply it to others, to himself it is only a social or intellectual culture, or a listening out of curiosity, or for appearance sake. The Bible does not take hold of his thoughts as his ledger does. Sin and righteousness are not nearly so vital to him as the daily stock report, the condition of his bank, the prospect of harvest, or his physical health or comfort. The good soil may be there, but it is hard.
While gracious influences rain upon it, they run off as from a hardened path, and the first hour’s march of the old intruders will make it as hard and barren as ever. The truth may be scattered by loving hands thickly upon it, but winged daydreams and wicked thoughts steal many a holy seed, and the heavy tread of evil passions and sinful habits soon crushes the others to their death. The farmer does not blame the birds of the air for following the instincts of their nature in stealing his grain so much as he does the trespassers who have worn the path across his rich and well-ploughed fields. Too often the soil in which the word of God should have been received, and where it would have taken root, is allowed to become the highway of the soul’s greatest enemies. To such a hearer the command is: submit yourself to the deep ploughing of the Spirit and the law and when the heart is thus broken up, scatter in it the seeds of truth. P’or if the Holy Spirit has deeply furrowed the heart, we know that the divine Sower has scattered there seeds of vast spiritual endowments, and He who sowed the seed gives the sunshine and the rain, the dew and the shade of night, all in proper measure for a full and perfect harvest. But it is ours to keep away all evil birds, and to see that the soil is not tramped so hard that the seed can find no place to grow. This first part of the parable ought to touch keenly every hearer of the word. Is your heart’s soil thoroughly prepared to receive the falling seed, or is there across it a well tramped path of inattention, careless listening, irreverence, any evil habit of mind or body? Remember, there is one watching to steal away the seed that falls upon any spot that is not prepared for its reception. When you hear and yet neglect the word, you practically throw it to Satan. When we think of this, and remember how little of the word we carry away from God’s house and from our daily study of His book, is it any wonder that so many who hear the life-giving word bring forth no fruit? Do not blame surrounding circumstances, household cares, and strong temptations, for stealing away the seed; but put the truth so deeply into your life that none will be left upon the surface for these hungry birds to feed upon.
We all constantly experience a fading of good impressions because we leave them upon a hardened surface where they cannot grow, instead of covering them with prayer, and cultivating them by an active pursuit of the duties they inculcate. To seize and use every good thing, whether it be impression, thought, or opportunity to bless others, is the only sure way of getting for ourselves its harvest of blessing. Sometimes amid the darkness of a midnight storm, the vivid lightning gives an instant view of all the surrounding landscape, and shows the path from which we have wandered. So there occasionally flashes across the mind a vivid view of truth that quickens faith, awakens high aspirations, rouses the will to overthrow some habit of sin, stimulates to renewed consecration of life, and shows the path of duty. Why does this so quickly vanish? Because we give it no hearty invitation to remain, no home to live in, no duty to perform. We receive it without attention. And yet it is possible for us so to receive these occasional flashes of good as to have them increase to a frequency that will make our whole life a bright day of light and blessing.
Strong graces, like strong powers of mind and body, require constant exercise.
Inaction is certain death to them. As intellectual idleness means mental famine, so idle Christian is synonymous with dying Christian. All graces have their infancy, a seed time, when life is just beginning, and their way to full growth and fruitfulness is through exercise and constant watchfulness.
Yet how many are never strong Christians because they are ever waiting and wishing for strong graces, instead of cultivating what they have to their fullest growth and greatest strength. Every true Christian has within him the growing seed of a perfect life. If the full harvest does not come, it is not the fault of the perfect seed or the divine Sower. How many turn from the sanctuary every Sabbath day without profit from the service, because they hear without attention. They receive an impression which they know should be immediately put into practice, yet it is neglected until even the memory of it is gone. There are others so thoroughly selfish and vain as to have no spot in the heart where seed can grow. It falls upon them as upon others, but bounds off as from a hard sidewalk. If they ever forget themselves long enough to think of the truth, it is to blame the birds for stealing away the seed. They forget that if Satan had not taken away the truth from them, the incessant tramp of their own vain conceits and selfish gratifications would soon have crushed it to death.
Too many people live with the heart unfenced. It is a public common, standing open with loud invitation to all travelers to walk across, or even camp within.
It has no sacred place, no holy of holies, where only the great High Priest may enter. Instead of jealously guarding every impression, the life is left open to all the vile seeds that float in the social atmosphere. Seeds whose fruits are envy, anger, suspicion, sensuality, and all manner of uncharitableness. Thus, instead of carefully loosening the soil whenever it has become hardened by the long-continued tramp of a bad habit, they allow seed to fall upon a surface entirely unprepared, only to die or be stolen by the enemy.
How often we should be ashamed and self-condemned if we could gather up the truths we have lost by inattention, and see them in their origin, their present meaning, the fruits they would have produced, their influence upon all our future life, their fitness to prepare us for the reception of other truths, and then contrast them with the things to which we did give our attention. Truth driven away by some selfish thought. God-given beauty refused for ashes of earth. A growing seed of priceless worth rejected for seed of thorns and weeds.
It may be that some good seeds have fallen on your heart in childhood before the hard path was worn, that would spring towards the sun if you would but break the hard crust that covers them. A visitor to a prison saw there a woman charged with the murder of her child.
Every effort was made to arouse her to a sense of her guilt, but nothing pierced her hardness. The visitor was frequently at the prison, and his ministry was received by all save this one. Passing one day by a nursery, he saw in the hot-house some common garden flowers. He knew that the childhood of this woman had been passed in the country, and trusted that her girl nature had known a love for flowers. He purchased a bouquet and took it to the prison. Going into the cell, he placed the flowers and a copy of the gospel of St. John on the little iron table, and went out into the hall where he could see and not be seen. The prisoner soon came to examine what had been given her. Through the grated door the visitor saw her look at the book and drop it on the floor. The flowers she touched and smelled. Memory began to do its work, and her face was soon buried among the flowers. The tears came, and there upon her knees, with her head and hands upon the table, she went back again to her innocent childhood in her country home. The snow and cold outside were changed to summer sunshine. The hard, sin-burnt heart was aglow with love for the mother watching from the home window. The little fingers were busy plucking flowers in the old home garden. The hard crust was broken, and the seeds that fell on the child’s heart so long ago are now blossoming and bearing fruit In the reformed, regenerated woman’s life. Many a one whom we call hardened might become a fruitful Christian if once the crust were broken. The Spirit can plough, and loving hands can sow the seed. Let the seed be ever falling, for we know not when the Spirit is at work in another’s heart, and some seed may find a loosened, fertile spot in which to grow.