THE KING’S - BUSINESS
154
LESSON EXPOSITION
B y J. H. Hunter.
Lesson Connection-. In Mark’s Gospel this lesson follows closely on the last, but it seems clear that between them come the matters related in Luke 6:20-29 ; 7:1-50; 8:1-3; 11:14-36. The events are too many to take up in the class, and besides we are studying the Gospel of Mark, not the whole life of Christ; but the teacher would do well to read the passages noted. Get a picture of the scene clearly before your mind. The Master and one or two of His disciple's sitting in the little boat pushed out a bit from shore; the shore crowded with “a very great multitude” eager to hear the wonderful Teacher who “spake as never man spake.” It was an ’out-of-doors ser mon, and it was a sermon straight to the people who heard it. It fitted them and it fits us, for in nearly all our Adult Bible Clas'ses, who study this lesson, there are representatives of the four classes of hear ers designated by our Lord. In which class do you belong? Notice that there is but one kind of seed sown, “the Word of God.” Whatever the crop may turn out the seed is not at fault. This is important to remember—that spirit ual life comes through the Word (1 Peter 1 : 23 ). There are four varieties of soils men tioned, each representing a class of hear ers of the Word. The heart of every hearer of God’s Word is soil of some sort, of what sort, each man decides for himself; This is his responsibility. There is— I. The Im penetrable H earer, vv. 4-15. Like the 1 beaten pathway through the field on which the seed falls but into which it cannot penetrate, is that hearer who merely hears without any lasting impression being made. He is 'so constantly occupied with secular matters that his receptivity for higher concerns is destroyed. The Sunday newspaper is a splendid road-roller. Used regularly it will almost certainly produce a fine hard path, good for automobiling and
other forms of Sunday desecration, and that may be warranted “seed-proof.” A dying man confessed to his minister that for years his whole occupation in church during the sermon had been review ing his business of the previous ’week and laying plans for the week ahead, and that he was dying without hope. Refuse the world permission to trample on your seed plot until it becomes useless. See what happens to the seed sown “by the wayside;” the birds carried it off. In our earnestness to promote sociability in our classes and churches, do' we not some times act the part of the'se birds ? That fellow was touched by the lesson, it had fallen on his heart, but we talked baseball, or banquet, or something else to him until the impression, slight enough at first, was clean gone. The birds had carried away the seed. Or with that young lady we dis cussed Easter hats and spring costumes till the Word that had fallen was snatched away. Let us avoid lending the devil a helping hand in these matters. II. The Superficial H earer, vv. 5, 6-16, 17. Such are fittingly illustrated' by the thin layer of soil—good soil—which covers the rock beneath. The seed germinates quickly but there is no chance for the roots to go down, and draw up nourishment. Soon the patch that was greener than all the rest of the, field turns yellow and withers. It springs up quickly ; it dies away quickly. The rock is underneath it. Sometimes one whose heart is really as hard as adamant toward God is touched in their emotional nature by a songt or a sermon, a testimony or an appeal, and makes an apparently gen uine profession of faith in Christ. For a little season they are noted for their earn estness, even among the earnest, but soon they are missed. Some trifling cause is discovered to have upset them, and they are numbered among the (so-called) back-
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