SERMON XII.

SEXAGESIMA SUNDAY.

ST. LUKE, viii. 15.

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.

Not many serious Christians can be found to whom it has not been, at some time or other, a subject of sorrow and surprise to behold the different manner in which different persons are affected by the same opportunities of knowledge, the same outward calls to repentance and faith and holiness. We may see two men attending the same place of worship; hearing the same preacher; with the same examples before their eyes; and the same blessed promise of God's grace afforded to both of them; whose lives are, nevertheless, and whose ends will be, as different from each other, as light from darkness,-good from evil,-Heaven from hell and it is with the preaching of the Gospel, during every generation of mankind, as it was with the judgements of God which befell

the Jewish nation as foretold by our Saviour,— of those who dwell and work together, no two have the same good or evil fortune and of those who are in the same bed, and of those who grind in the mill together, still one is taken, and the other is left behind.

Reflections of this kind should seem to have arisen in the soul of our blessed Saviour, when, beholding the multitudes who came forth to hear His doctrine, He spake to them the parable of the Sower. He likens, there, the world to a large field of different soils, some worse, some better suited to receive and multiply the seed which was scattered over it; through all of which alike, whether good or bad, the husbandman was to pass in his daily labour. A foot path crosses one part of the field; and the corn, which fell there, is trodden under foot of men, and picked up by the fowls of the air. Another part is a stoney and gravelly soil; whose warmth soon sends up the crop, but whose dryness makes

it

poor and unfruitful. Another part is richer ground, but foul and choked with thorns and weeds, which grew up with, and soon overtopped the corn;- and choked the hope of harvest. But, mingled with all these barren plots, are many others of good and fertile mould, whose plentiful increase abundantly makes up for the other disappointments of the husbandman. This parable our Lord explained to his disci

ples

They on the rock

-to signify that strange and aweful difference, which I have already noticed, between the lives of different Christians, and the degrees of attention which they severally pay to God's word, and of improvement which they severally draw from it. "Those by the way side are they that hear; then cometh the devil, and taketh away the word out of their hearts, lest they should believe and be saved. are they which, when they hear, receive the word with joy; and these have no root, which for a while believe, and in time of temptation fall away. And that which fell among thorns are they, which, when they have heard, go forth, and are choked with cares and riches and pleasures of this life, and bring no fruit to perfection. But 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."

Having thus explained the parable, the Son of God concludes with the following words, expressive at once of His love for mankind, and of His gracious desire to convert and save them, and of the aweful danger, to which those persons exposed themselves, who were neglectful of such opportunities and means of grace, as the mercy of Heaven afforded them :-"No man, when he hath lighted a candle, covereth it with a vessel, or putteth it under a bed; but setteth it on a candlestick, that they, which enter in, may see the

light. For nothing is secret, that shall not be made manifest; neither any thing hid, that shall not be known and come abroad. Take heed, therefore, how ye hear; for whosoever hath, to him shall be given; and whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away even that which he seemeth to have." As if He had said;

"The intention of my parables is not, as some men may fancy, to keep the world in darkness; they are obscure, indeed, to those who will not enter in; who will not become members of my Church; and who will not seek for instruction where it may be found, by knocking at my door in prayer, and entreating farther light from My Spirit to understand the mysteries of my kingdom. But to those, who truly and heartily desire to know My will, that will and that truth shall never remain unknown; nor is there any secret in My dealings with mankind, which shall not, hereafter, be rendered plain to the angels of God, and to the souls of just men made perfect." Take heed then how ye hear; for whosoever hath,-whosoever, that is, shall be found hereafter to have profited duly by the measure of grace and of light afforded to him,-" to him shall be given;" he shall receive more abundant knowledge and holiness from the sanctifying Spirit of God; while whosoever hath not, shall be stripped, at length, of all his outward shew of godliness and wisdom; and shall be exposed to

the inhabitants of either world in his natural blindness and misery::-"From him shall be taken away even that which he seemeth to have."

As it is, therefore, the declared intention of Christ, that we should draw from all His words everlasting comfort and advantage; and as so grievous a penalty is threatened against those who refuse them due attention, I shall proceed to explain, as simply as I can, the particular dangers which He may seem to have described to us, in the parable of the sower and his field, and the means whereby those dangers may best be avoided or conquered.

The first kind of men, to whom the Gospel of Christ is preached in vain, are they, from whose hearts, while they hear the word, the devil takes away the knowledge and feeling of those truths which might else have moved their souls to faith and repentance, and might have brought forth, in their conduct, the fruits of holiness and life without end. This is what Satan is ready to attempt with all men; and he is generally most successful with those whom our Lord compares to the public and beaten path; who pass their lives entirely in the world; whose hearts are hardened with that sort of experience which a continued round of company and conversation produces; and where, consequently, the furrows of a good education, even where such has been afforded