were cast upon the hard and impenetrable surface of a soil beaten hard by the feet of ceaseless traffic, and become like the very stone as to any inherent productive power; so that the seed must either be crushed by the next footstep, or picked up by the incidental bird that settles on it, or washed away by the rains, the rivers, and the showers, that sweep over it. All hearers, it is plain, do not profit by what they hear, and this is one of the explanations why our Lord explains this, "When any one heareth the word of the kingdom, and understandeth it not," that is, does not receive it in his heart, "then cometh the wicked one, and catcheth away that which was sown." that which was sown." The hearer's understanding is not benefited. He receives in his soul from the lips of the minister no quickening and penetrating impression; he feels no interest or delight in what he hears; the seeds do not catch hold of his heart, nor does his heart open its pores to the entrance of the seed. He does not feel any greater interest in the truths, to which it is his privilege and responsibility to listen, than if those truths related to persons inhabitants of another world, in whose concerns, progress, and destiny he had no care. Why is this? He has made his heart a thoroughfare for all evil interests, for the world's profits, and losses, and passions, and prejudices, to walk up and down continually. Selfishness has hardened his heart, and evil passions have reduced it to adamant, and when the seeds of truth are scattered by the sowers appointed to sow them, they alight upon it, rebound, or are borne away as soon as they fall: for Satan, ever watching, and ever afraid lest a victim should be lost, either snatches up the seed himself, or lets loose upon the soul, on which it has been scattered, a herd of evil desires. and passions, which eat up the seed, and leave the heart bare or beat it harder than it was before. The heart becomes case-hardened by hearing a gospel which it does not

carry into life; the very repetition increases its insensibility. The god of this world blinds the eye, prejudices darken the mind, passions gain power, and the latter condition of such an one is worse than the first.

It

In the next place, some seed fell on stony places. means properly rocky places, not a soil mixed with stones, for seeds would germinate in the crevices between, but a thin soil spread upon the rock without mould enough to retain the moisture, and to allow the seeds to strike root downward, take hold, and grow upward permanently till the harvest. The seeds at first germinated, gave promise of progress; they were fed by the rains, and appeared strong and healthy; but having no deep root, no inward source of vegetable vitality, they perished in the drought as soon as the sun rose and shone in his meridian strength. This indicates a different state of heart from that which was described in the former case, which we have just disposed of. The hearer in this instance is charmed with the first accents of the gospel; its truths are to him full of music, its lessons overflow with beauty; he seizes its promises, hears its invitation, accepts its duties; he takes, however, what is bright, not what is otherwise. He builds, but counts not the cost; he will not hear the lesson, that through much tribulation we must enter into the kingdom of heaven; he rejects the obligation to carry the cross, and to deny ourselves. He is willing to listen to a preacher who finds his type in Ezekiel xxxiii. 30-32: “Also, thou son of man, the children of thy people still are talking against thee by the walls and in the doors of the houses, and speak one to another, every one to his brother, saying, Come, I pray you, and hear what is the word that cometh forth from the Lord. And they come unto thee as the people cometh, and they sit before thee as my people, and they hear thy words, but they will not do them: for with their mouth they show much

love, but their heart goeth after their covetousness. And, lo, thou art unto them as a very lovely song of one that hath a pleasant voice, and can play well on an instrument; for they hear thy words, but they do them not." He is the Herod of the Gospel, who heard John gladly as long as John did not touch the darling passion that he cherished. in his heart. Had the truth been well rooted it would have endured, but here it withers. The same sun, thus, that gives nutriment and progress to the seeds on one soil, withers and blasts the young plants that grow upon the other. Let us ask, have we inward root? The roots of a tree are not seen, except in the branches, the leaves, and the blossoms; so a Christian life is hid with Christ in God, as is the root of the tree in the living soil, but the evidence of its life is the whole course, career, and conduct. Peter had these deep roots and fibres of the inner life, struck into his heart, and therefore he bowed his branches to the hurricane, lost some of his verdure, his beauty, and his size, but was not rooted up and cast away. Demas had a faith destitute of vitality and of root, and therefore, when the sun of tribulation beat upon him, his Christianity withered, and he departed, having loved this present world. A man may look fair and green up to a certain point; after that affliction, tribulation, and persecution come, he is seen to endure only for a season. He had the appearance of Christianity, he was destitute of its life. Let us see, then, that we are rooted and grounded in the truth, and then, when days of persecution and of trial come, we and our principles shall live and illustrate each other.

We read, next, that some of the seeds fell among thorns. In other words, they fell in ground out of which the weeds and thistles were not utterly extirpated. There was plenty of soil, abundance of softening showers and genial sunbeams, but the weeds grew up faster than the corn, till

by their rank luxuriance and overshadowing branches they choked the good seed. Weeds are indigenous to every soil; corn is an exotic. This is not a soil hard and impenetrable, the corn grows, and does not wither at once, or even for a season; it retains its greenmess, but it is stunted in its progress, and deprived of its vital juices, by the presence of weeds that absorb them. These weeds are the cares of the world, and the pleasures of life-the two great aspects that this world presents, under the influence and the charm of which every Christian more or less is. Poverty, and hunger, and want absorb the life of the soul, and the anxieties they originate choke the tender plants of the truth. What shall we eat? and what shall we drink? and wherewithal shall we be clothed? are the questions that dilate into too great space in the poor man's heart, and destroy by their presence the living truths of Christianity. Rank, honour, worldly splendour, and flattery, the attractions of life, the glories of the outward world, feed upon the life-blood of the rich man. "I am rich and increased in goods, I have need of nothing." "They that be rich," says the apostle, "fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown many souls in destruction and perdition." We are not to be careful for many things; we are to labour, working with our hands, yet to labour less for the meat that perisheth, and more for that which endureth unto everlasting life.

We have then a picture of the honest and good soil. The good heart, according to Scripture, is good by reception of the truth. It does not receive the truth, because it is good. There is no regeneration of heart, except by the power of the Spirit of God, and generally through the instrumentality of the truth. These, we are told, have. the word. This is their first and distinguishing feature.

A windy day, a wet day, a want of a carriage, or, what is worse, having a carriage, does not prevent their appearance in the accustomed pew, or lessen or obstruct their desire to hear the word, and to open their hearts to the seed, the incorruptible seed of life. When they come to the sanctuary, they bring their minds as well as their bodies. Too many are physically present in the house of prayer, but mentally absent. When the church looks most crowded, it may be really most empty. A crowded church may be a crowded sheepfold; it may not be a company of anxious, inquiring, and interested minds. It is not where two or three bodies, but where two or three souls are met together in the name of Christ, that he is present in the midst of them. It is of no use to shut shops on Sunday, if we shut up our minds and hearts with them. It is of no use withdrawing the eye from the ledger, if it still be riveted on the transcript of it in your memory. "My son, give me thine heart," is the appropriate inscription for every house of God. I think the word used by our Lord, "hearing," is emphatic. Reading is enjoined in Scripture, but hearing still more so. The Bible is the storehouse of the living seed, but the spoken sermon, the oral utterance, is the wind that wafts the seeds, and scatters them abroad over the soil of many hearts. There is an emphasis in spoken truth, which is absent from read truth. The mind is more kindled by the sparks that enter through the listening ear, than those that penetrate by the arrested eye. Above all, hearing is expressly declared to be the ordinance of God.

"They understand," says our Lord. Light is the first created thing; salvation is a reasonable belief; the enlightened mind generally precedes the holy heart. The eyes of the understanding are enlightened, and we are turned from darkness unto light before we are first moved