LIV.
The First Great Group of Parables.
(Beside the Sea of Galilee.)
Subdivision C.
Parable of the Seed Growing Itself.
B Mark IV. 26–29.
b 26 And he said, So is the kingdom of God, as if a man
should cast seed upon the earth; 27 and should sleep and rise
night and day, and the seed should spring up and grow, he knoweth not how.
[In the kingdom of grace, as well as in the kingdom of nature, we are laborers
together with God. As preachers, teachers, or friends we sow the seed of the
kingdom and God brings it to perfection (I. Cor.
iii. 6–9). The seed here spoken of, being wheat or barley,
needed no cultivation, and hence the planter let it alone, and did not know how
it grew, whether fast or slow, or even whether it grew at all.] 28 The earth
beareth fruit of herself; first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in
the ear. 29 But when the fruit is ripe, straightway he putteth
forth the sickle, because the harvest is come. [Truth, spoken, lies hidden
in the human breast, and we do not see its earliest stages of its development,
but as it proceeds toward perfection, it becomes step by step more visible. In
both fields the sower has little to do with the field between the time of
sowing and reaping. In the spiritual field, however, it is well to keep sowing
until the grain shows signs of sprouting.]
This book has been accessed more than 142627 times since June 1, 2005.
