Leading Homily.

THE GROWTH OF THE TRUE.

"AND HE SAID, SO IS THE KINGDOM OF GOD, AS IF A MAN

SHOULD CAST SEED INTO THE GROUND: AND SHOULD SLEEP AND RISE NIGHT AND DAY, AND THE SEED SHOULD SPRING AND GROW UP HE KNOWETH NOT HOW. .FOR THE EARTH BRINGETH FORTH OF HERSELF: FIRST THE BLADE, THEN THE EAR, AFTER THAT THE FULL CORN IN THE EAR. BUT WHEN THE FRUIT IS BROUGHT FORTH-IMMEDIATELY HE PUTTETH IN THE SICKLE, BECAUSE THE HARVEST IS COME." Mark iv. 26-29.

ACH of the parables spoken by our Lord, to illustrate and explain the kingdom of God takes up a different aspect of that Divine Life. We cannot spare one of the parables. The Divine Life is so manifold in its nature and its manifestations that it needs "comparisons" to set it forth. complete idea of anything as you look at it in many ways. How complex and wondrous is the life and growth of the body. How will you understand that? You must study it from many points of view. You VOL. XLVIII. No. 1.

many parables parables and You can only get a

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must employ many figures and forms of expression to unfold and explain it. And even more complex and wondrous still, is the life of God in the spirit of a man: and it needs many parables to illustrate and bring forth its manifold aspects. There is the parable of the leaven. What does that teach? It teaches the silent diffusiveness of Spiritual Life. It spreads until the whole man is sanctified. There is the parable of the mustard seed. What does that teach? It teaches the power of growth and expansion in the Divine Life. It expands and enlarges itself until it becomes a great and glorious thing. And the parable with which I am now dealing has definite teachings of its own: teachings which you find in no other parable. It teaches the inherent energy and vitality of the kingdom of God. But at the outset there is one thing that must be borne in mind. It is a very important consideration. It is implied that a man be sincere, devout, earnest. He must keep himself in living oneness with God, and in a true condition for the growth of the inner life. Suppose a field is stony; full of rank weeds; marshy; the farmer may sow his seed there, but it will not grow; it will rot or be choked and overgrown. And if a man is like that field-full of stones and moral weeds: careless, undevout, worldly, there will be no growth of the seed of the kingdom in him. In that man it will not quietly and ceaselessly develope itself. It will wither and fade. A man must be like good ground. Let this be emphasised, because of what I am going to say. I would not encourage carelessness and false confidence. The kind of man to whom this parable relates, is the spiritual, prayerful, true-hearted man: no other. It is important to carry this consideration

along with us, and bear it in mind throughout our meditation. We come now to the teachings of this parable in relation to the kingdom of God.

I. The kingdom of God in the soul, in its VITALITY AND GROWTH IS MYSTERIOUS. "As if a man should cast seed into the ground, and should sleep and rise night and day, and the seed springs and grows up, HE KNOWETH NOT HOW." No one can tell how it is that seed cast into the soil, germinates and springs up, and unfolds itself into strength, and beauty, and fruitfulness. You can tell that light, and air, and warmth, and moisture are necessary to the life and productiveness of vegetation; but how is that?

How do the seeds thrive on

these outward elements? You do not know. It is a mystery. That is as true now as when Christ spoke the parable, so long ago. There is a hidden, selfunfolding power in the seed, but it is too subtle for us to discover. It eludes our closest scrutiny. The secret of the process is with the Creator. It is so with the Divine Life in man's soul. Its growth is mysterious; secret.

Often we may tell how and when the good seed was sown in our hearts. It may be that sickness, bereavement, bankruptcy came, and the man was left humbled, crushed, saddened. He saw what he had never realised before the transitoriness of earthly good; and in the wake of that stern forerunner-trial-the sower has come, sowing the seeds of truth and righteousness. It may be that the subtle working of personal influence—the sacred influence of father, mother, friend, brother, child-broke up the hard-trodden fallow ground, and scattered the seeds of Divine life. It may be that the penalty of past sin-a penalty hard, stern, keen as a

two-edged sword, piercing to the very centre of the soul-startled and awakened the soul into a new conviction of sin; and into the ground thus prepared the "word of the kingdom" has fallen. We may tell the time and circumstances of the sower going forth to sow, and even the hand that, under the guidance of God, planted the seed in our hearts. But the method of the after development, you do not know. The way in which faith, purity, self-sacrifice, love, grow within us, is all very subtle and mysterious. The way in which the Divine Spirit broods over us—fills our being-burns up the thorns and thistles with His unquenchable fire -nourishes and fosters that which is good-ripens and perfects us in all holiness-that is something too profound for our little philosophy. The secret is with God. It is His work, and He carries it on. should be comfort in this. . You cannot explain the process of spiritual growth! No! And it does not depend upon your analysing it. It is a Divine secret. Then trust in God. He knows all about it. He understands the strange and wondrous process. He has ordained that the kingdom of heaven should develope itself; and if in the soul there be sincerity, moral earnestness, it will do so. Trust, therefore, in God.

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II. The kingdom of God in the soul, in its vitality and growth, is CEASELESS. "As if a man should sleep and rise night and day, and the seed springs and grows up." When the mason leaves his work and goes home, as he left the work overnight, so he finds it in the morning. The building has made no progress while the builder has been at rest. There are features in the stone face he has been carving. Things are as they were when he threw his tools aside and

no new

strode home to his cottage and his evening meal. But the little plants in his garden keep on growing both when his hand is busy watering and weeding them, and when they are left alone. Go into the country on a Sabbath day. There are no toilers in yonder fields. There are no voices of peasants and labourers to break the peaceful stillness of nature. The tillers of the ground are at rest: and husbandry pauses awhile. But in those fields there is no rest or pause. Life and growth are going on rapidly there, night and day: one day and night as another. Unhasting, yet unresting, vegetation goes on expanding toward fulness and completeness. It is so with the Divine life in him who is of an honest and good heart. There is ceaseless development. There are times when we can readily understand that the good man must be growing in goodness: when he prays, when he reads his Bible, when he worships in the house of God, when he bends in devout meditation. In these seasons we can readily perceive that there will be progress in the soul's life. Yes! but that is not all. These are not the only times in which the good man is growing in grace. When he is in his daily toil, earning the bread which perisheth, he is growing. When he goes away for rest and change to the hill sides, and the sounding sea-shore, he is growing. Even when he is not thinking of religion he is growing. Day and night, in toil and in rest, in Christian ordinances and out of Christian ordinances, the spiritual man is steadily progressing in his inner Life. The good seed springs up and unfolds itself, because of the vital power which God imparts to it, and because of the gracious influences which He sheds from above. Only mark the condition: a man must