01.06 The good soil
V. THE GOOD SOIL For this, says our Lord, is the good soil.
“That on the good ground are they which in an honest and good heart, having heard the word, keep it and bring forth fruit with patience.” “An honest and good heart.”
After all that we have said we are not surprised at the extreme simplicity of this description. To be really sincere towards God that is the great need. Honesty and goodness of heart given these conditions in the soil, the Spirit of God can rear His seeds. These were the conditions which Jesus sought in His first disciples. For the most part, they were simple, honest, openair men life the fishermen on our own coasts, who look at us with straight eyes and speak to us with straight words. He knew that in their frankness and simplicity He had the capacity for response. So He could do in them and through them whatsoever He wished. How often we have known gifted but complicated characters, who interested us, perhaps fascinated us, but who disappointed us because we saw in them no progress; and on the other hand, simple men with honest hearts, touched by the grace of God, who moved straight on in tranquil strength. “Honesty”: we are to be simply honest in the things of religion. It was Newman who said that the man who was wholly honest was already perfect. For if a man is really and truly surrendered to the Divine Will, so that his whole nature is expressed in the prayer, “Speak Lord for Thy servant heareth,” “Here am I, send me,” then the Spirit of God has free course within him. “Goodness”: we are to have a great ambition to be “good,” to hate and despise as by a strong instinct all meannesses, inconsistencies, jealousies; to be as self-less and absorbed in the quest of goodness as the child is in his play. For what is this honesty and goodness of heart but the spirit of the child? We are always brought back to that great condition of entry into the Kingdom of God “be converted and become as little children.” In proportion as we are thus open to the Spirit of God we shall grow grow gradually towards the likeness of Christ. It is for God to choose how full the growth shall be, how rich in the graces of character, in the power of influence “some an hundred fold, some sixty fold, some thirty fold.” It is enough that we oppose no obstacle to His spirit. He will bring forth the fruit in due season.
Lord, I am nothing in myself: my worth is only what Thou canst make me to be.
Make me to love what Thou lovest, will what Thou wiliest, desire what Thou desirest, serve where Thou sendest, be ready when Thou callest.
If such a prayer come from the heart, as the expression of real purpose and desire, the heart from which it comes is the good soil.
TAGS: [Parables]