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Christ’s Object Lessons
The garden of the heart must be cultivated. The soil must be
broken up by deep repentance for sin. Poisonous, Satanic plants must
be uprooted. The soil once overgrown by thorns can be reclaimed
only by diligent labor. So the evil tendencies of the natural heart
can be overcome only by earnest effort in the name and strength of
Jesus. The Lord bids us by His prophet, “Break up your fallow ground,
and sow not among thorns.” “Sow to yourselves in righteousness;
reap in mercy.”
Jeremiah 4:3
;
Hosea 10:12
. This work He desires to
accomplish for us, and He asks us to co-operate with Him.
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The sowers of the seed have a work to do in preparing hearts to
receive the gospel. In the ministry of the word there is too much
sermonizing, and too little of real heart-to-heart work. There is need
of personal labor for the souls of the lost. In Christlike sympathy
we should come close to men individually, and seek to awaken their
interest in the great things of eternal life. Their hearts may be as hard
as the beaten highway, and apparently it may be a useless effort to
present the Saviour to them; but while logic may fail to move, and
argument be powerless to convince, the love of Christ, revealed in
personal ministry, may soften the stony heart, so that the seed of truth
can take root.
So the sowers have something to do that the seed may not be
choked with thorns or perish because of shallowness of soil. At the
very outset of the Christian life every believer should be taught its
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foundation principles. He should be taught that he is not merely to be
saved by Christ’s sacrifice, but that he is to make the life of Christ his
life and the character of Christ his character. Let all be taught that they
are to bear burdens and to deny natural inclination. Let them learn the
blessedness of working for Christ, following Him in self-denial, and
enduring hardness as good soldiers. Let them learn to trust His love
and to cast on Him their cares. Let them taste the joy of winning souls
for Him. In their love and interest for the lost, they will lose sight of
self. The pleasures of the world will lose their power to attract and its
burdens to dishearten. The plowshare of truth will do its work. It will
break up the fallow ground. It will not merely cut off the tops of the
thorns, but will take them out by the roots.