07 - Second Class of Hearers
SECOND CLASS OF HEARERS.
“ The Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart, and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit.”Psalms 34:18.
“ We have the heavenly assurance that the path of the just is to shine more and more unto the perfect day. But this blessed truth involves its opposite, that the path of the wicked must grow darker and darker unto the total night, unless he give heed to the voice which calls him out of this darkness, and turn to the light which is ever striving to illumine it.”
Guesses at Truth.
SECOND CLASS OF HEARERS.
’’Some fell upon stony places, where they had not much earth; and forthwith they sprang tip, because they had no deepness of earth; and when the sun was up, they were scorched, and because they had no root they withered away.” St. Matthew 13:5-6.
“They on the rock are they, which, when they hear, receive the word with joy; and these have no root, which for a time believe, and in time of temptation fall away.” St. Luke 8:13. By a comparison between St. Matthew and St. Luke we discover what is meant by “stony places” and ’’rock.” Not a spot in the field where stones lie thickly upon the surface, but where a large rock lies beneath a shallow covering of earth. The field appeared to be all alike until the path was worn. Rocks could not be seen. The seed is scattered over the whole field and, save upon the path, takes root and grows. The summer sun gets higher in the heavens every day, and sends his hot rays down upon the grain. The path is bare and hard, but elsewhere over all the field the grain has taken root and is growing vigorously. What a prospect for the Autumn! The soil is fertile. It contains every element necessary to produce a full and abundant harvest. Lying about the roots of the grain are stores of life to paint the leaves, strengthen the stalk, and fill its treasury with golden grain. The sun in the heavens pumps these elements of life from the earth through the roots to every part of leaf and stalk. The higher the plant grows, the higher into the heavens the sun climbs, that he may send increasing force to do this all-important work of developing the whole life of the field to its utmost capability. But as the weeks go by we notice here and there a fading of the rich hue of health. The green turns to yellow. The leaves curl downwards as if striving to avoid the gaze of the sun, and in a little while these spots are dead. Why? The grain grew, sending roots downward and stalks upward. The roots collected the life from the soil, and the sun pumped that life up through the plant. After a time the roots had drawn all the life out of the soil, and were creeping along the hard surface of the rock, vainly striving by every crevice to get through to the moist earth below. Inexorably the sun kept on at his work. His office was not the preparation of the soil, but the drawing from the soil of nourishment for the plant that must bear the grain. The roots are doing their best to supply all that the growing life of the plant calls for, but they cannot feed on the rock. The sun keeps on pumping from plant to fruit, from roots to plant. So the roots must now surrender their life to feed the plant. Nor does the sun stop there. Higher and higher he climbs. He has the same work to do for all the myriad forms of earthly life. If he should stop, they would die. Hence, when the life is all drawn out of the soil, the roots must give up their life, and then the plant itself must give forth its strength and die. How close the analogy between this law of plant life and the law of human life?
Whatever is superficial is apt to be transitory. Shallowness quickly puts forth all its energy and dies. Not having much root, it exhibits all its growth and strength upon the surface. Those who have little knowledge are usually forward and noisy; they have little of the joy of the true student, whose greatest pleasure is in the silent companionship with knowledge, the deeply-rooted life that cannot be seen by others. How little of the deep and abiding joy of a symmetrical Christian does that soul know whose life is in what he does and says before the world, more than in what he is before God.
There seems to be an improvement, however, in the condition of this class over the first class. There is here some life. In the first class, the seed did not even take root. Here it takes root, grows quickly, as with special fertility of soil, and promises a large harvest. But we soon discover that this improvement is but specious, and that the rapid growth upward is from lack of room to grow downward. There it was hardened soil above, here it is rock below. That had been made hard lately, and is upon the surface where you may see it; this is far enough below to deceive you. Yet there is a real advance, for there the seed had no life; here it has been received and is growing. You may break up the path only to find a rock beneath and the seed all blown away or stolen, and the Spirit can break up the stony heart as easily as the hard one.
Failure in life is not among wayside hearers only; but many who hear “ gladly,” fail to bring forth the real harvest of life, yea, fail to live until harvest time comes. They are inconsiderate and impulsive, as the members of the preceding class were inattentive and careless. The “ joy of the Holy Ghost “ is unknown to them because they have ’’no root in themselves.” There may be here and there a stalk that Is able to get a single root over the edge of the rock, and thus live a sickly life even to the time of ingathering; but its harvest is puny, the grains are all shriveled through lack of life’s vigor, and when at last it falls before the reaper, no golden seeds roll out into the earth to grow to another harvest. Our Saviour interprets the meaning of this class as ’’ he that heareth the word and anon with joy receiveth it, yet hath he not root in himself, but dureth for awhile; for when tribulation or persecution ariseth because of the word, by and by he is offended.” The seed here is the same as in the former case, the ’’word of the kingdom.”
Those upon whom it falls are attentive; they are interested; they receive the seed and cover it into their hearts, where it takes root and grows rapidly. In times of special interest, when many are receiving the word and accepting it openly, this part of the parable is apt to be too frequently illustrated. Excitable natures are easily stirred, and receive the seed without due preparation of heart. They accept the gospel with joy, and go forth valiantly, but they have not counted the cost. The warfare is a long one, with an enemy rich in resources and of skill unequalled. Their earnestness is volatile, quickly noticed, and soon loses its strength. They are seeking their own happiness rather than a change of character. They run swiftly while the street is smoothly paved and many are near to applaud; but “by and by” the way is rough, the special interest is over, and the crowds have gone to other excitements.
Tribulation and persecution, which ought to strengthen Christian character, prove to this class a stumbling block over which they fall. They have put on the robes of disciples and easily use their speech, but in character there is no change. The old heart is still there under a new covering.
They receive the word with joy, but their joy is thoughtless, a stirring of the emotions, not the peace of a changed nature. Their heart has been touched only upon the surface, not smitten with that blow of Jehovah that makes a stream of living water flow as from the cleft rock, full of life-giving power to the end of life’s journey. For a time they ’’did run well,” but after awhile they are missed occasionally from the prayer-meeting, they are less active in the Sunday School. For a time they rejoiced to be able to testify to the world that they were Christ’s. After the time of special interest, when persecution arose because of the word, the sneer and laugh blowing like a hot, withering wind upon them, they drooped and died. For a while Sabbaths were sacred times, and the services of God’s house a pleasure and a profit. But temptation came, and the time of worship was neglected more and more for the opportunity it gave to attend to some little matter forgotten during the week. Soon the duties of the week that with a little stretch of conscience might be called not sinful, are postponed until the leisure of Sunday.
Other desecrations of God’s chosen holy day follow, and the surface religion is soon rubbed off. Thus the soul is once more put under obligation to sin. Such Christian character is shallow. The roots have come to the rock, and the soil is nearly all exhausted of life. Yet they are the people who are the quickest to resent any hint that they are in danger. They are only not narrow-minded; they are liberal.
They are not narrow Christians, only shallow ones. They will soon be as bare of all Christian beauty and fruitfulness as the withered spot in yonder field of grain.
"By and by they are offended.” Yes, they are easily offended. While the sense of the parable is ’’by and by they sin,” yet in a commoner sense they are offended.
They complain more than any other class within the church. The church is not managed properly, the singing does not suit them, the preacher is too pointed, the ushers are too slow, they do not believe in missions. They are offended because some of the Bible doctrines stand unchangeably before them with stern judgment upon their lives. All these complaints are mere excuses for their own superficial lives. Their religion is a matter of feeling, not of character. Feeling is transient; character is permanent. When that which aroused the feeling is gone, it subsides until moved by some new influence. Such religion is to true discipleship what a review, or a formal salute, is to a battle. Such hearing of the truth is playing with a divine gift, a mere wasting of heavenly, life-giving seed. The members of this class are guided more by the judgments of others than by their own consciences. Their religion is a possession, not a being. They have ’’got religion” more than they have become religious. Having no root of life in themselves, but only in their surroundings, they are necessarily temporary Christians, so that when a change comes in their surrounding circumstances it changes their whole life. Not only do excitable ones belong to this class who receive the seed and so quickly let it die, but many a calm and quiet one, listening thoughtfully Sunday after Sunday to divine truth, receives it only so far as to produce a fair external life. There is no change of heart. His character remains the same. In one class of these shallow hearers, feeling is the only soil into which the seed is received; while in this class, the intellect is all that is converted. One is heat without light, the heart’s feelings running swiftly in a new road without the guidance of the head; the other is the head-light pointing in the right direction and lighting the way, but not advancing. In both there is soil enough to receive the seed, but not enough to sustain the full and continued growth.
Under strong temptation they will fall away.
Even then the one will strive to retain his pleasure in christian things, and the other will try to hold on to his outward christian life long after the roots are dead.
Satan stole the seed of life from the wayside hearer without any trouble, but in this class he has to make some effort to destroy it. He witnesses the rapid growth, and tests it to see whether it be deeply rooted. He sends temptations, doubts, and causes of offense. The heat increases. A parley is held with the tempter. The soul sins, and christian character begins to wither. The more intensely the sun pours his heat upon a plant deeply rooted in good soil, the more rapid and fruitful the growth. The tropics receive the most direct rays of the sun, but are ever the richest in flower and fruit. Temptations are blessings if you endure them, and the true Christian is always strengthened by conflict. Even when he falls before any particular temptation he is humbled, and thus lifted up. (1 Kings 21:29; 1 Peter 5:6; James 4:10.) When successfully resisted, temptations and persecutions strengthen and develop the christian life by competing it to strike Its roots ever deeper and deeper Into the soil.
If the whole heart be changed, and thoroughly prepared for the growth of christian character, the hot sun of opposition will only compel It to grow more rapidly. But If the roots have but little soil, and the heart’s centre be a rock, the growth will be rapid enough, but death will come to one after another of the fruits till all are dead before ripened. The same persecution that sent the true Christians to the stake, sent the shallow ones to reinforce the enemies of Christ.
Many a man who has been a pronounced Christian and Is now as avowed In his Infidelity, Is an Illustration of this part of the parable. He boldly affirms that he has tried Christianity, was sincere In his practice of It, and It Is a failure. If he would study his case more closely and logically, he would see that he Is proclaiming his own shallowness. He failed to prepare the soil properly for the new seed of life, and the rock beneath the surface prevented the permanent growth of a christian character. The rapid growth of so divine a plant soon exhausted all the real strength of so shallow a soil, and naught was left it but to die. The seed was God-given and perfect. He, not the seed, was the failure.
There are many who come to Christ as the young man who had kept all the commandments from his youth, but had in his heart a solid rock of avarice which he would not break up even for eternal life. The ’’rock” of selfishness which is in nearly every human heart is a great obstacle to the growth of Christ’s kingdom.
You offer all to Christ. Do you mean it? Has the Spirit thoroughly ploughed your heart? Not merely made tender your feelings, and won the consent of your mind; but has he thoroughly sub-soiled your heart, so that there is no rock left? Are you ready to let your christian character -grow everywhere, even if its roots crush out every pet sin and doubtful pleasure?
Foolish vanity stands like a great stone at the door of many hearts, otherwise good and honest. They are proud of what they appear to be; they boast of what they can do. If the seed takes root in them, it quickly strikes the rock of self, and then through lack of soil their religious life dies. The sun does not kill the plant. It dies only because the roots cannot find nourishment. Temptation and persecution and tribulation do not kill the christian life; they are only the occasion, not the cause of death. Death comes to a christian life only because there is no soil for its roots, no food for its sustenance — it is starved to death.
Notice that the members of this class are all professing Christians, either in the church or out of it. The first class did not even start. This class started joyfully, ran well during the time of excitement, then withdrew and died. Their weakness was radical — a root weakness. The heart, the very core of life, instead of being full of divine seed, was entirely hard. The old selfishness had never been properly ploughed up, hence their sorrow for sin was more a matter of pride than of repentance. They were sorry for the evil of their lives because of the unpleasant consequences they feared, and their humility was a temporary subjugation of the feelings, not a heart’s lowly sense of unworthiness. The great mistake of multitudes within the church, and a larger number of judges without it, lies in their considering Christianity a mere matter of sentiment or feeling. The plain teaching of every part of this parable, the unmistakable declaration of Christ, is that the christian life comes from a divine birth within the soul, which must transform, by gradual but complete renewal, the whole nature of a man. It is not a possession, or an opinion, or even a belief, but a living, growing character.