5. PARABLE OF THE SEED Mark 4:26-29 26 And he said, So is the kingdom of God, as if a man should cast seed upon the earth;--The main point is that although man must sow and reap, all that lies between these two extremes is not only independent of his power but beyond his observation. The growth and increase is with God. Such is the reign of Christ in its growth and development in the hearts of men. It is like the case of the seed planted in the ground. The seed, its germination and growth, is the prominent thing in the parable. The seed is the word of God, the gospel. The kingdom of God always begins in communities by the spiritual seed, the word of God, being sown in the hearts of individuals, as vegetable crops start by seed being planted in the soil. 27 and should sleep and rise night and day,--[Should sleep in the night, and rise by day. That is, live in his usual way while giving the seed time to germinate and come forth. The germinating and coming forth is God's part. Here man is helpless--he has no control over the seed germinating and the plant springing forth. The seed is left hid out of his sight, to the life God has given it, and to the forces of nature. Man cannot give the seed life nor make it grow. Here he must rest in hope both day and night.] and the seed should spring up and grow, he knoweth not how.--Here the wisdom of God is too deep for the mind of man. He cannot fathom it. Human wisdom cannot penetrate it. Here modern science, like all human wisdom, must pause. It has failed to find what the life in the seed is. Here science is forced to bow to the wisdom of God. After all the researches of philosophers, not one has been able to tell the way in which seed grows. They can observe one fact after another--they can see the changes--they can see the necessity of rain and sunshine, of care in the sowing, but beyond this they cannot go. 28 The earth beareth fruit of herself;--It is done while man sleeps by night and is engaged in other things by day. We are not to suppose that Jesus meant to say that the earth had any productive power of itself, but only that it yields its fruits, not by the power of man. God gives its yielding power. It, like man, has no power of its own. So the word of God in the heart is not by the power of man. It grows he cannot tell how. It is by the power of God. At the same time, as without labor man would have no vegetable harvest, so without active effort he would have no fruit of the Spirit. Both are connected with and enjoyed in his efforts--both are to be measured by his efforts. first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear.--There is an orderly development both in natural and spiritual growth. This growth is in harmony with law. We cannot hope to find the ripened Christian experience in the young convert, any more than the fully matured corn in the first appearance of the blade. He who expects the end at the beginning will be disappointed. The Christian's growth is like climbing Jacob's ladder with many steps, the face always looking up toward God. There are different stages in all life. In the animal, there is childhood, youth, and manhood. In the spiritual, there is conversion, the newborn babe in Christ, childhood, and the manhood stages. The young and tender Christian, like the tender plant, needs care, kindness and culture. A light frost, a cold wave, or a burning sun alike injures the tender blade. So tender piety in the heart of a newborn babe in Christ needs shelter from the frosts and storms of a cold unfeeling world. It needs the genial dews and mild sunshine of heaven. That is, it needs instruction, prayer, and counsel from parents, teachers and all experienced Christians, that it may grow and bring forth the full fruits of righteousness. 29 But when the fruit is ripe, straightway he putteth forth the sickle, because the harvest is come.--All the growth was toward this end for which the seed was planted. Man's agency now begins again, after having been suspended since sowing the wheat. Harvest time has come, therefore time again for man to work. One sows the word of God, he doesall he can in this particular, passes on to other duties, and in due course of time the seed germinates, grows, develops, and produces a harvest. It requires time to produce a harvest. It is not neglect in the man who sows wheat or other grain and sleeps during the night and is up during the day doing other things until the harvest; neither is it neglect to preach the gospel and await the time for its development in the hearts of the hearers. As the earth must receive the seed and do its part in producing a harvest, so all hearers must receive the word of God and by all processes necessary produce a harvest. The sower must do his duty in sowing and not withhold any of the seed--that is, any part of the word of God; the hearers must do their duty in bearing fruit. In this parable Christ was showing how the kingdom of God arose and bore fruit in this life. The word of God is received into the heart. It changes the feelings, the purposes, the thoughts, and bears fruit in the life. When the fruit is ripened, the sickle is put in and reaped for the garner of God.