640
T H E
K I N G ’ S
B U S I N E S S
October 1924
The word “ parable,” means a placing of one thing beside another for the purpose of comparison. There is a wonder ful analogy between the world of matter and the world of spirit. Things on earth are copies of things' in heaven. Parabolic teaching is an ancient and pop- IjiESSON ular method of instruction. It makes truth EXPOSITION more intelligible and memorable. These F. W. Farr beautiful stories never fade from our minds. Jesus taught by means of parables for a double reason, to reveal and to conceal the truth, to make truth clearer to the honest and inquiring mind, and to make it obscure to the slothful or the hostile mind. A parable is an earthly story with a heavenly meaning. It has a husk and a kernel, a body and a soul. For the spiritually minded it was an illumination. For the worldly minded it was an obscuration. Its effect was an illustration of the law that “ to him that hath shall be given, but from him that hath not, shall be taken away even that which he hath.” The first of the parables is usually called the “ Parable of the Sower.” It might also be called the “ Parable of the Soils.” The original Sower is the blessed Lord Himself. He describes in this parable the results of His own min istry. He stands also for every Christian worker. The sower works in faith and alone. The seed-time is nature at its sternest and dreariest. The skies are cloudy and grey. Harvest-time is a season of fellowship and joy. The sun is warm, the sky is blue and nature seems to laugh for joy. The work of the sower is painful. He goes forth weep ing, bearing his precious seed. His work is that of giving out and flinging away. Harvesting is receiving and gather ing in. ' 'The sower has many disappointments. “ Out of a thou sand seeds nature brings but one to bear.” The one that falls on good ground is compensation for the loss of others. There is striking correspondence between a seed that is sown and a word that is spoken. Each one has inherent reproductive power. A waving field of grain may come from the seed. Who can foretell the harvest of a word dropped into a human heart, especially when it is a word of God! “ The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are life.” Both si»ad and word must have congenial environment before the latent life can spring forth. The seed needs the good ground, and the word requires faith and obedience. The success of preaching depends as much on the hearer as the preacher. Demosthenes said that eloquence was as much a matter of the ear as of the lip. The wayside hearer has a crust of insensibility that keeps the word out of his heart. On the “ rocky-ground” hearer, the word has a temporary effect, and takes a superficial hold, but it does not last. There can be no fruit without root. The “ rocky-ground” hearer is a disappointment. His religion was nothing but sentiment and feeling. Its roots had not gone down into his mind and will, and therefore he could not stand the shock of trial and temptation. The “ thorny-ground” hearer is the one in whose heart the Gospel takes a disputed hold. It was mixed soil. Other things were in possession. Two crops were struggling for the mastery. There was not enough nourishment for wheat and weeds together. The soil has a limited capacity. It can bear one crop but not two. “ Ye can not serve God and Mammon.” No one can live the Christian life with a divided heart. Other loves beside the love of Christ make his religion a sickly, stunted growth.
pray. We know that prayer is talking to Jesus. Asking Him for what we want from the heart, and thanking Him for what He has done for us. What a wonderful time the disciples had with Jesus, and in our story Jesus is teaching them how to pray. Let us bow our heads and repeat softly: “ Our Father which art in heaven. Hallowed be Thy name.” We learn that God is pur Father if we believe in Jesus, and that God is holy. Then Jesus teaches them to pray that God’s will shall be done here on earth, as it is done in heaven. That means for us to pray for the coming back of Jesus to take away all the people that belong to Him, to live with Him for ever in the beautiful place He has gone to prepare for all that love Him. He also tells them to ask for their food. I wonder if we always thank Him for our food when we sit down to the table? Now here is a very important lesson for us all, I heard a little girl say the other day, she would not speak to another little girl who lived across the street, because they had quarreled. Now neither one of these girls could pray this part of the prayer, for it asks God to forgive us just as we forgive other people. God is always ready to forgive us, and we should always forgive each other. This prayer wili help us to remember to always forgive each other, and we can not pray so God can hear us if we do not forgive. Now, listen! We all know how Satan tries to get us to do wrong, and Jesus tells us we must pray to Him when ever we are tempted, and ask Him to help us. Our God is a powerful God and able to help us at all times. Prayer was very real to Jesus for He always prayed to God, His Father. I know a little boy who was left at home alone with a younger brother. After a time he missed the little brother, and could not find him. He knew it was dangerous out in the streets with street cars and automobiles. Before he went to hunt for him, he just prayed to God, and asked him to watph over the little brother and take care of him. Then he went out to look for him, and found him at his father’s store. God had heard his prayer and watched over him. Did you know boys and girls, there is one thing that will keep our prayers from being heard by God? Sin will stand between God and us, so He cannot hear. (Psa. 66:18). If we know something is wrong, and we just go on and do it, then we are sinning against God, and our prayers can not be answered. Now we want to know how to pray in the right way, and our memory verse is a prayer, so we will bow our heads and ask Jesus to teach us to pray. Do you pray to God every day, and thank Him for all He does for you, and ask Him to help you to love and serve Him? I.I'^¡4.,1 i i i THE PARABLE OF THE SOWER Golden Text: £ ‘i‘The sower soweth the word.” Mark 4:14. Lesson Text: Mark 4:1-20 (Read Matthew 13:1-23: Luke 8:4-15). Devotional Reading: Psalm 1. October 19, 1924 S OWER -—“ Let him that heareth say Come” OWING— “ Went everywhere preaching the word” OIL — “ He that receiveth the seed” EED — “ God’s word” Christ-like actions. “ Waiting lor the harvest and the time of reaping, Ye shall come rejoicing, bringing in the sheaves.”
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