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Testimonies for the Church Volume 3
present truth and scatter the good seed will realize the same results
as the gospel sower. All classes will be affected more or less by the
presentation of pointed and convincing truth. Some will be wayside
hearers. They will be affected by the truths spoken; but they have not
cultivated the moral powers, they have followed inclination rather than
duty, and evil habits have hardened their hearts until they have become
like the hard, beaten road. These may profess to believe the truth; but
they will have no just sense of its sacred, elevated character. They do
not separate from the friendship of the lovers of pleasure and corrupt
society; but they place themselves where they are constantly tempted,
and may well be represented by the unfenced field. They invite the
temptations of the enemy and finally lose the regard they seemed to
have for the truth when the good seed was dropped into their hearts.
Some are stony-ground hearers. They readily receive anything
new and exciting. The word of truth they receive with joy. They talk
earnestly, with ardor and zeal, in reference to their faith and hope,
and may even administer reproof to those of long experience for some
apparent deficiency or for their lack of enthusiasm. But when they are
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tested and proved by the heat of trial and temptation, when the pruning
knife of God is applied, that they may bring forth fruit unto perfection,
their zeal dies, their voices are silent. No longer do they boast in the
strength and power of truth.
This class are controlled by feeling. They have not depth and
stability of character. Principle does not reach down deep, underlying
the springs of action. They have in word exalted the truth, but are
not doers of it. The seed of truth has not rooted down below the
surface. The heart has not been renewed by the transforming influence
of the Spirit of God. And when the truth calls for working men and
women, when sacrifices have to be made for the truth’s sake, they are
somewhere else; and when trials and persecution come, they fall away
because they have no depth of earth. The truth, plain, pointed, and
close, is brought to bear upon the heart and reveals the deformity of
character. Some will not bear this test, but frequently close their eyes
to their imperfections; although their consciences tell them that the
words spoken by the messengers of God, which bear so closely upon
their Christian characters, are truth, yet they will not listen to the voice.
They are offended because of the word and yield the truth rather than