“The Sower Went Forth to Sow”
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ever to be kept keen and sensitive to distinguish between right and
wrong, is in a great measure destroyed. They are not quick to recognize
the guiding voice of the Holy Spirit, or to discern the devices of Satan.
Too often in time of danger they fall under temptation, and are led
away from God. The end of their pleasure-loving life is ruin for this
world and for the world to come.
Cares, riches, pleasures, all are used by Satan in playing the game
of life for the human soul. The warning is given, “Love not the world,
neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the
love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of
the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the
Father, but is of the world.”
1 John 2:15, 16
. He who reads the hearts
of men as an open book says, “Take heed to yourselves, lest at any
time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting and drunkenness and
cares of this life.”
Luke 21:34
. And the apostle Paul by the Holy Spirit
writes, “They that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and
into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction
[56]
and perdition. For the love of money is the root of all evil; which,
while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced
themselves through with many sorrows.”
1 Timothy 6:9, 10
.
Preparation of the Soil
Throughout the parable of the sower, Christ represents the different
results of the sowing as depending upon the soil. In every case the
sower and the seed are the same. Thus He teaches that if the word
of God fails of accomplishing its work in our hearts and lives, the
reason is to be found in ourselves. But the result is not beyond our
control. True, we cannot change ourselves; but the power of choice
is ours, and it rests with us to determine what we will become. The
wayside, the stony-ground, the thorny-ground hearers need not remain
such. The Spirit of God is ever seeking to break the spell of infatuation
that holds men absorbed in worldly things, and to awaken a desire
for the imperishable treasure. It is by resisting the Spirit that men
become inattentive to or neglectful of God’s word. They are themselves
responsible for the hardness of heart that prevents the good seed from
taking root, and for the evil growths that check its development.