Mark 4

Mark 4:5

Mark 4:5. “And immediately it sprang up, because it had no depth of earth.” The weakest minds, and persons of the last solidity, soonest receive a thing that is new and externally plausible, and at first receive it with most lively emotions of their spirits, being guided by fancy only; but the more solid and substantial mind is more slow and deliberate, and weighs matters in an even balance, and comes to it by degrees; but when once it is fixed, it is lasting and immovable, and grows stronger and stronger, and brings forth substantial fruit.

Mark 4:25

Mark 4:25

Mark 4:25. “For he that hath, to him shall be given; and he that hath not, from him shall be taken away even that which he hath.” Spiritual and heavenly gifts are not given merely in proportion to a person’s improvement of what he has, in such a manner that he that has but little, if he improves it as well in proportion to what he has, shall receive as great a reward as he that has a great deal; for then the additional talent should with equal reason be given to him who at first received the two talents, as to him who received five; Matthew 25:28; but it was not; and the reason is given in the 29th verse, “For to every one that hath shall be given, and he shall have abundance; but from him that hath not, shall be taken away even that which he hath.” It is so with respect to advantages and privileges: he that improves great advantages well shall receive a greater reward than he that improves small ones; otherwise they could be no advantages; therefore glory, honour, and peace is given to every man that worketh good, but “to the Jew first,” Romans 2:10.

Mark 4:26-28

Mark 4:26-28

Mark 4:26, 27, 28. “And he said, So is the kingdom of God, as if a man should cast seed into the ground; and should sleep, and rise night and day, and the seed should spring and grow up, he knoweth not how. For the earth bringeth forth fruit of herself, first the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear.” So the kingdom of God comes without observation, without noise and tumult, but goes silently and calmly, but irresistibly, on. So it increased gradually from Christ’s disciples, till, in about three hundred years, it filled the world, and yet grew nobody knew how, being promoted by an invisible hand, without war, noise, and clamour; by operating on men’s understandings and wills. So the kingdom of God often in the same manner grows in men’s hearts, being at first only as an invisible seed, but afterwards as the blade, then the ear, then the full corn.

Mark 6:7