LESSON X.--DECEMBER 4.

PARABLE OF THE SOWER.--MATT. 13:1-9.

      GOLDEN TEXT.--The seed is the word of God.--LUKE 8:11.
      TIME.--A. D. 28.
      PLACE.--On the sea-shore of Galilee; probably not far from Capernaum.
      HELPFUL READINGS.--Matt. 12:14-50; Mark 4:1-20; Luke 8:4-18; Matt. 13:10-23.

      LESSON ANALYSIS.--1. The Great Sower; 2. The Sowing; 3. Good Seed in Good Soil.

INTRODUCTION.

      He privately retired to the margin of the lake, desiring probably to "rest awhile;" but no sooner had he taken his seat beside the cool, still water, than he was again surrounded by the anxious crowd. At once, to escape the pressure and to command the audience better when he should again begin to speak, he stepped into one of the fishing-boats that floated at ease close by the beach, on the margin of that tideless inland sea. From the water's edge, stretching away upward on the natural gallery formed by the sloping bank, the great congregation, with every face fixed in an attitude of eager expectancy, presented to the Preacher's eye the appearance of a plowed field ready to receive the seed. As he opened his lips and cast the word of life freely abroad among them, he saw, he felt, the parallel between the sowing of Nature and the sowing of Grace. Into that word accordingly he threw the lesson of saving truth.--W. Arnot.

      I. THE GREAT SOWER.--1. The same day Jesus went out of the house. Probably, but not certainly, the same day on which the events related in the preceding chapter occurred. What house is meant is not stated. It may have been the one in which the Lord made his home in Capernaum; where, too, his mother and brethren sought him (Matt. 12:46). The sea-shore is that of the Sea of Galilee, probably near Capernaum, at the northwest corner of the lake.

      2. And there were gathered unto him great multitudes. Literally, "greatest." There is every reason to believe that this was the greatest. It was the turning-point in his public teaching, since the parabolic instruction now begins.--Schaff. The great Rabbi, according to the universal custom of the rabbis, sat as he taught. He sat "in the sea." The boat in which he fiat was afloat [329] in the sea.--Morison. The boat was small; and his position was near the surface of the water, the audience being slightly elevated above him. This is the best way of arranging an audience, but the world seems to have discovered it quicker than the church.--Schaff. At the north end of the lake of Gennesaret, there are small creeks or inlets, where the ship could ride in safety only a few feet from the shore, and where the multitudes seated on both sides and before the boat could listen without distraction or fatigue. As if on purpose to furnish seats, the shores on both sides of these narrow inlets are piled up with smooth bundles of basalt.--Thomson.

      3. And he spake many things to them in parables. Of which only samples are preserved, even by Matthew, and still fewer in the other Gospels, showing that the writer's aim was not to furnish an exhaustive history, but to illustrate by examples the ministry of Christ.--J. A. Alexander. By parables. Up to this time Christ's preaching had been chiefly confined to a simple proclamation. "The kingdom of heaven is at hand" (Matt. 4:17; 10:7). The Sermon on the Mount afforded some interpretation of the principles of that kingdom, but primarily to his own disciples, and chiefly in contrast with the Mosaic law and the Pharisaic system. In these parables Christ discloses those features respecting his kingdom which were surest to encounter prejudice and opposition. The parable differs from the proverb in being a narrative, from the fable in being true to nature, from the myth in being undeceptive, from the allegory in that it veils the spiritual truth.--Abbott. By the parable our Lord could give to his disciples in this method the deepest secrets of his kingdom for ages, while the caviler, who would have abused the truth, heard without understanding. But the truth thus embodied in narrative was, as it were, materialized, and made fit for perpetuation. It had a form and body to it, by which it could be preserved in tangible shape for future ages.--Whedon. Behold, a sower went forth to sow. It is the sower in the original. The Savior casts upon the canvas of the imagination a particular individual.--Morison. "Behold, a sower went out." The expression implies that the sower, in the days of our Savior, lived, in a hamlet, or village, as all these farmers now do, to guard against robbers; that he did not sow near his own house, or in a garden fenced or walled, for such a field does not furnish all the basis of the parable. There are neither roads, nor thorns, nor stony places in such lots. They go forth into the open country, where the path passes through the cultivated land, where there are no fences, where thorns grow in clumps all around, where the rocks peep out in places through the scanty soil, and hard by are patches extremely fertile.--Thomson.

      II. THE SOWING.--4. And when he sowed. The seed-time in Palestine is [330] usually in October, about the time when this parable was spoken. Sowing is always done by hand; the ground is first scratched with a plow, which runs about four inches deep; the seed is sometimes covered with a harrow, sometimes trodden in by the feet of animals. Stanley (Sinai and Palestine, chap. 13, p. 418) gives a graphic description of Gennesaret as he saw it, the probable scene of this parable: "There was the undulating corn-field descending to the water's edge. There was the trodden pathway running through the midst of it, with no fence or hedge to prevent the seed from falling here and there on either side of it, or upon it, itself hard with constant tramp of horse, mule, and human feet. There was the 'good,' rich soil, which

THE SOWER.

distinguishes the whole of that plain and its neighborhood from the bare hills, elsewhere descending into the lake, and which, where there is no interruption, produces one vast mass of corn. There was the rocky ground of the hill-side protruding here and there through the corn-fields, as elsewhere through the grassy slopes. There were the large bushes of thorn--the 'nabak,' that kind of which tradition says the Crown of Thorns was woven, springing up, like the fruit trees of the more inland parts, in the very midst of the waving wheat." Fell by the wayside. Where the field and the road join,--the edge of the field which the plough had not turned up; or, rather, along the narrow trodden foot-path through the fields, which has no hedge or fence to [331] separate it from the sown fields. Fowls. Small birds. Our horses are actually trampling down some seeds which have fallen by this wayside, and larks and sparrows are busy picking them up.--Land and Book.

      5. Some fell upon stony places. Where the rocks that jut out of the hills into the plain had a very thin covering of earth, rendering it wholly impossible that the roots should penetrate beyond a certain depth, or draw up any supplies of nourishment from beneath. It is not expected by the farmer that anything sown upon it will come to full maturity. But the place comes within his sweep, as he sows the grain, and so some seeds fall upon it.--Morison. Forthwith they sprung up. It sprang up sooner than the rest because the dry underlying rock drew the beat of the sun, and warmed the seed into earlier life.--P.. And, while the rock below hindered it from striking deeply downward, it put forth its energies the more luxuriantly in the stalk.--Trench.

      6. And when the sun was up they were scorched. When the hot suns and dry weather came it would wither away. It was not rooted in that deep, moist soil which would have enabled it to resist the scorching heat of the sun; and, being smitten by that, it withered and died.

THORNS.

      7. And some fell among thorns. More literally, into the thorns. He was thinking of some clump of thorny plants which had been burnt down according to Oriental custom, but not eradicated, before seed-growing time. In among these roots some seeds fell. Thorns grew up . . choked them. Or, as Wycliffe renders it, The thorns sprang up and strangled it. The thorns suffocated the growing plant, compressing it together, and thus preventing it from getting the free air and sunshine of heaven, and a sufficiency of the nourishment of the soil.--Morison. The thorns overtopped the good seed, and thus they pined and dwindled in the shade. Here there was no lack of soil; it might be good soil, but what was deficient was a careful husbandry (light and air).--Trench. [332]

      III. GOOD SEED IN GOOD SOIL.--8. But other fell in good ground. The goodness of this last soil consists in its qualities being precisely the reverse of the other three soils: from its softness and tenderness, receiving and cherishing the seed; from its depth, allowing it to take firm root, and not quickly losing its moisture; and from its cleanness, giving its whole vigor and sap to the plant.--J. F. and B. Some thirty, some sixty, some a hundred. Thirty-fold is now really a first-rate crop, even for such plains as Esdraelon, just below Nazareth. But in the time of Christ there might be realized, in favorable circumstances, a hundred-fold. Intelligent gentlemen (in the plain of Esdraelon) maintain that they have themselves reaped more than an hundred-fold. Moreover, the different kinds of fertility may be ascribed to different kinds of grain: barley yields more than wheat; and white maize, sown in the neighborhood, often yields several hundred-fold. An extraordinary number of stalks do actually spring from a single root. Here, on this plain of Sidon, I have seen more than a hundred, and each with a head bowing gracefully beneath the load of well-formed grains. The yield was more than a thousand-fold.--Land and Book. Observe the four kinds of seed: the first did not spring up at all; the second sprang up, but soon withered away; the third sprang up and grew, but yielded no fruit; the fourth sprang up, grew, and brought forth fruit: and as there are three causes of unfaithfulness, so there are three degrees of fruitfulness, but only one cause of fruitfulness.--Maclear.

      9. He that hath ears to hear. This usually follows an important statement, intimating that he who has the discernment to understand will find the deeper meaning.--Schaff. Christ assumes that all without exception have been divinely provided with fitting organs of hearing; and he draws attention to the fact of the provision in a way that is calculated to lead each individual to reflect on his individual responsibility. It is quite a common phenomena among men, to misuse the ears, so as not to hear the still, small voices that speak the most important truth.--Morison.

      EXPLANATION.--In order to understand the parable we must go with the other disciples and listen to the explanation given by Christ in verses 18-23. Christ is the great Sower, and all whom he sends forth to preach are sowers under him. The seed sown is his Word, the Gospel of the Kingdom. The soil where the seed is cast is human hearts. Four kinds of human hearts are described: 1. The wayside hearer; the light, flippant, indifferent hearer upon whom no impression is produced. 2. The stony hearer; the heart that exhibits an evanescent feeling at the appeal of the gospel, but upon whom no permanent impression is made. 3. The thorny soil; the heart that takes in the Word, but is so full of worldly cares that these presently gain the mastery. This describes the world-serving bearer. 4. The good soil: [333] The good and honest heart; the heart that receives and retains the truth. In such a heart the seed will grow and the new life will be manifest. Three things, then, are needful: 1. A Sower. 2. Good Seed; the pure word of God. 3. A good and honest heart. A dishonest man cannot be converted until he casts out his dishonesty. He who cavils at and deceitfully entreats the word of God will not be profited.

PRACTICAL AND SUGGESTIVE.

      The soul is the natural soil for the Word of God: one is adapted to the other.

      It is our duty to sow the good seed everywhere, even if some fails of a good result.

      The seed the Christian should sow is not his own fancies, but the pure Word of God.

      It is not the fault of the truth, but of our hard hearts, if we do not bring forth fruit.

      BY THE SEA- SIDE.--Observe that we have the highest authority for street and field preaching. Observe, too, how utterly incongruous such an informal service with the idea that any kind of ritualism is an essential accompaniment of religious instruction.--Abbott. Not that he declined the temple or the synagogue when he had the opportunity, but in the want of them Christ thought a house, a mountain, a ship, no unmeet place to preach in. It is not the place that sanctifies the ordinance, but the ordinance that sanctifies the people.--Burkitt.

      THE SEED.--Dry and dead as it seems, let a seed be planted with a stone--flashing diamond, or burning ruby; and while that in the richest soil remains a stone, this awakes, and, bursting its husky shell, rises from the ground to adorn the earth with beauty, perfume the air with fragrance, or enrich men with its fruit. Such life there is in all, but especially in Gospel, truth. It lives when we die; as the old martyr exclaimed when he stood bound to the fiery stake, "Me you may kill, the truth you cannot!"--Guthrie.

      SCRIPTURE EXAMPLES.--We have several Scripture examples of the four characters. Pharaoh and Festus may be named as " wayside" hearers. King Saul, Herod Antipas, the Galatians (Gal. 5:7), some of the disciples in Galilee (John 6:66), proved to be like the "stony ground;" Balaam, Judas and Ananias, like the "thorny ground." The young ruler, Simon Magus, and Demas, combine some of the features of the two latter classes; Felix combines those of the first and second. Peter was in danger of being one of the second class; Lot and Martha, of belonging to the third. Of the good soil, Nathanael and Lydia are striking instances.--Eugene Stock.

POINTS FOR TEACHERS.

      1. Bring out the scenery. Christ in the boat near the sea-shore; the multitude on the shore; the season, seed-time; possibly a sower in sight on the rich plain. 2. Point out the nature of the grain-fields; hard-beaten paths through it; stony places with little soil; thorny spots; good, rich, deep soil. 3: Note the four kinds of soil on which the seed fell, the results [334] of the sowing on each and the reasons for it. 4. Note the application: (1) the sowers; (2) the seed sown; (3) the wayside soil; (4) the stony soil; (5) the thorny soil; (6) the good ground. Show what kind of hearts each represents. 5. Then look forward to when the harvest shall be gathered; the wheat into the garner; the tares or chaff, or weeds, or all that is barren to be burned.

Source: Barton Warren Johnson. The Christian International Lesson Commentary for 1887. Des Moines, IA: