“The Sower Went Forth to Sow”
15
“The sower soweth the word.” Christ came to sow the world with
truth. Ever since the fall of man, Satan has been sowing the seeds of
error. It was by a lie that he first gained control over men, and thus
he still works to overthrow God’s kingdom in the earth and to bring
men under his power. A sower from a higher world, Christ came to
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sow the seeds of truth. He who had stood in the councils of God, who
had dwelt in the innermost sanctuary of the Eternal, could bring to
men the pure principles of truth. Ever since the fall of man, Christ had
been the Revealer of truth to the world. By Him the incorruptible seed,
“the word of God, which liveth and abideth forever,” is communicated
to men.
1 Peter 1:23
. In that first promise spoken to our fallen race
in Eden, Christ was sowing the gospel seed. But it is to His personal
ministry among men and to the work which He thus established that
the parable of the sower especially applies.
The word of God is the seed. Every seed has in itself a germinating
principle. In it the life of the plant is enfolded. So there is life in
God’s word. Christ says, “The words that I speak unto you, they are
Spirit, and they are life.”
John 6:63
. “He that heareth My word, and
believeth on Him that sent Me, hath everlasting life.”
John 5:24
. In
every command and in every promise of the word of God is the power,
the very life of God, by which the command may be fulfilled and the
promise realized. He who by faith receives the word is receiving the
very life and character of God.
Every seed brings forth fruit after its kind. Sow the seed under
right conditions, and it will develop its own life in the plant. Receive
into the soul by faith the incorruptible seed of the word, and it will
bring forth a character and a life after the similitude of the character
and the life of God.
The teachers of Israel were not sowing the seed of the word of God.
Christ’s work as a teacher of truth was in marked contrast to that of the
rabbis of His time. They dwelt upon traditions, upon human theories
and speculations. Often that which man had taught and written about
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the word, they put in place of the word itself. Their teaching had
no power to quicken the soul. The subject of Christ’s teaching and
preaching was the word of God. He met questioners with a plain, “It is
written.” “What saith the Scriptures?” “How readest thou?” At every
opportunity, when an interest was awakened by either friend or foe,
He sowed the seed of the word. He who is the Way, the Truth, and the