The Seed Upon Stony Ground

A SERMON DELIVERED ON LORD'S-DAY MORNING, SEPTEMBER 14, 1873,

BY C. H. SPURGEON,

AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

"And some fell on stony ground, where it had not much earth, and
immediately it sprang up, because it had no depth of earth: but when
the sun was up, it was scorched; and because it had no root, it
withered away." Mark 4:5, 6.

THE Gospel seed, according to the parable, falls upon all kinds of
soil. Some of its precious grains drop upon the hard pathway, some upon
the rock, some among the thorns and only a portion, perhaps a smaller
proportion than one in four, falls upon good ground in which it finds a
congenial abiding place. The preacher, therefore, will not meet with
unmixed success in all directions. He may look for a full recompense
from his work as a whole, but he must not fondly suppose that
everywhere the good Word will become effectual, for in many it will be
a savor of death unto death and not of life unto life. Even when Jesus
preached, only few received Him, and of Paul's ministry it is recorded
that "some believed the things which were spoken, and some believed
not." It is for the beginner in holy service to go forward with
reasonable expectations, lest he should, before long, weary of the work
and leave it because of his bitter disappointments.

Mark, with care that the sower in the parable is not blamed for having
scattered his seed upon soil which proved to be unproductive. Not a
word of censure is recorded against him on that account, from which it
is fair to infer that he did no more and no less than his duty, and
that the minister of Christ is to scatter the seed of the Gospel
broadcast among all mankind. It is God's work to direct the saving Word
into the chosen hearts which He has prepared to receive it. But as for
us, we are to preach the Gospel to every creature–and going out into
the streets and lanes of the city–as many as we find we are to bid to
the supper. Many are called but few are chosen! It was never intended
that the external call should be as narrow as the election, yet there
are some ministers whose preaching consists far more of an analysis of
soils than of a sowing of seed.

Leaving the analyzing of the soil to God, I take my commission from His
hands and desire to fulfill it. Stony-ground Hearer, there is a handful
of seed for you. You who are hard like the trodden road, there is a
handful for you. And even among the thorns, which are plentiful enough
in this age, shall the good seed fall like a heavenly shower. And if
God shall graciously direct it to His own chosen, and they, like the
good ground, shall receive it, it will be His doing! It will never be
effected by any skill of mine. It is mine to sow beside all waters and
His to give the increase. The best shot that was ever made with bow and
arrow was taken at a venture as Ahab the king was pierced between the
joints of his harness. So also, while drawing my bow to preach the
Gospel to every creature, my faith feels confident that the Lord will
direct the arrow and effect His purposes of Divine Grace.

I feel that I have very solemn work on hand. I have always pleasure in
preaching upon encouraging topics, but this morning my themes are for
sifting and testing. We have to deal with certain apparently good
people and to show that they are not what they seem. We have to put
corn from the barn floor into the sieve and it may be there will be
much chaff to be blown away. This is an operation not pleasant to the
flesh and one which needs much of the Spirit of God that we may perform
it aright lest the weak ones be sorely troubled, which is far from what
we desire. Solemn discourse should have a solemn heart to utter it–and
solemn hearts to hear it. May God grant it may be so at this time, that
the sermon may be greatly profitable to every one of us, whether
professors of the Gospel or not.

First, we shall read the history of stony-ground hearers. Secondly, we
shall mark the radical defect of their character. And, thirdly, we
shall try to learn a lesson from the whole.

I. First, we have here A BRIEF BIOGRAPHY OF CERTAIN PROFESSORS OF
RELIGION. Let us read it carefully. It is said of them, first, that
they heard the Word. "These are they which are sown on stony ground;
who, when they have heard the Word, immediately receive it with
gladness." They enjoyed the great privilege of hearing God's

Word. They heard the real Gospel–they did not attend upon ritualistic
falsehoods, or philosophic speculations–it was the Word of God which
they heard. The sower did not sow tares, but he sowed good corn. How
happy are those who sit under a downright Gospel ministry! May God be
pleased to multiply such ministries everywhere–and the lovers of them!

How can we expect salvation to come to us if we do not hear the
soul-saving Gospel? If we are listening merely to opinions and notions
and philosophies and superstitions–and not to the very Word of God–we
cannot expect to find salvation. The Holy Spirit does not save men by
means of lies. But if we hear the Truth as it is in Jesus, we may hope
that He will make it effectual to our conversion. Remember, next, that
hearing is not enough. "Hearers only" will not enter Heaven–there must
be a doing of the Word as well as a hearing of it. These people were
good hearers, capital hearers, for they went further than hearing–they
received the Word–not in the Divine power or supernatural efficacy of
it, but they nevertheless received it. That is to say, they never
quibbled at it. They assented to it as they heard it and recognized it
as God's Truth. Receiving it, it produced an effect upon them. They
were, in a measure, impressed by it.

If the sermon spoke of the wrath of God on account of sin, they were
alarmed. If it told them of the love of God in Christ Jesus, they were
encouraged. They did not always hear with dry eyes. They were not
always like the seats they sat upon–unmoved and stolid. But they
received the Word of God. It stirred their affections and their
emotions, they felt its moving effects and were thus led to many
changes of life. They went home and swept the chambers which had been
full of filthiness. They cleansed, at any rate, the outside of their
cups and platters, and took care that the sepulcher, if not cleansed of
the dead men's bones, should be decently whitewashed so as to shock no
passersby. They were improved and reformed externally by what they
heard, and so far they received it.

And there is this said about them, in the third place, that they
received it immediately. In them it excited no questions, doubts, or
conflicts. The preacher said, "This is the Word of God," and they were
content to believe him, though they knew not why. While other minds
were asking for the Authority of the message and then, having
recognized the authority, were battling hard with a thousand
difficulties, these persons saved themselves a world of trouble by
never thinking at all. It was their father's religion and their
mother's religion, therefore they believed it, they swallowed the pill
with their eyes shut, caring nothing whether it was God's Truth or
Satan's lie. Anything like spiritual mastication of the doctrine they
did not attempt. They endorsed, wholesale, whatever they were taught.
Priests, themselves, could not desire more plastic material!

These hearers had no hard struggles to get at the Savior, no sense of
sin to hold them back, no horrors of conscience to make them afraid, no
alarms lest they should not be the Lord's own people. They had no tests
and sifting to see whether they possessed real repentance and
acceptable faith. They sprang into religion as a man may leap into a
bath, head over heels! They said, "Surely this is the right thing and
we will have it." And after a certain sort they did have it– not with
any depth of consideration or weight of judgment–but they immediately
received the Word. It is added they received it with gladness. The
immediate effect of receiving the Word of God was to make them very
happy. And there are not a few who suppose that to be made very happy
is a sure sign of being converted. But believe me, it is a very dubious
sign, indeed!

No doubt, one grand effect of the reception of the Gospel into the
heart is to bring joy and peace through believing, but there are many
kinds of joy and many sorts of peace. There is a joy which is not the
fruit of Grace, but the growth of Nature. And there is a peace which
comes from delusion and not from the Spirit of God. We must take care
we do not conclude that we are safe because we are "so happy." The rich
man who went to Hell was happy when he fared sumptuously everyday! The
farmer, who said he would pull down his barns and build greater, was
happy when he surveyed his grain! And so was the prodigal son happy
while he was spending his living riotously–but theirs was a very
different kind of joy from that which is the fruit of the Spirit!

The characters in our text looked exclusively at the happy side of
religion. "There," said the stony-ground hearer, "there is my mother!
What a happy Christian she is! I have seen her in deep trial borne up
by the Spirit of God. I have marked her when we have had deaths in the
house and seen how peaceful and quiet she has been. I will lay hold on
Christ, for then I shall be as happy as she is." These stony-ground
hearers think what a happy thing it must be to be forgiven and so,
indeed, it is, but they dwelt upon that alone. To be pardoned, to be a
child of God, to be accepted in the Beloved, what precious things these
must be! And what a delightful thing to be numbered with God's saints,
to go to the

Communion Table and to be thought much of in the Church! Are not all
these ways of pleasantness? And to go to Heaven at last, to die
triumphantly, to be taken up to dwell where Jesus is amidst the
Glory–what joyful things! Who doubts it?

But these people dwelt only upon this view of the matter and did not
remember that between this and Heaven there are temptations to be
combated and to be overcome. There are trials to be endured, stern
trials, too, through which we can only be brought by Divine help. Right
arms must be cut off and right eyes must be plucked out. There are
costs to be counted and reckonings to be made as to whether the future
will repay for the labors of the present. Young Hopefuls vow that they
will have the brave country of Canaan, but they do not remember the
roughness of the road there. Like Pliable, they set out for the
Celestial City but they have not reckoned upon the Slough of Despond.
And therefore after the first mouthful of mud they are ready to turn
back and let those have the brave country who care for it–as for them,
if they can keep whole bones in their body–they will be well content
to let the future go as it may.

These people, then, immediately received the Word with joy. How hopeful
all this must have looked to the sower! Do you not see how easily
ministers may be deceived? When you have only to preach and men are
willing to hear–only to preach and men are willing to receive–to
receive the Gospel at once, without causing you any difficulty in
arguing with them! When they receive it with gladness and you have not
the trouble to cheer them up, and to meet their doubts and anxieties
with a thousand promises selected out of the Word of God–is not this
splendid work which will richly repay the sower? Alas, we must not
reckon our fruit by the buds! All is not gold that glitters and it is
not every egg that will be hatched.

We read further that these characters made rapid progress–they sprang
up because they had no depth of earth. Because of their shallow soil
they were very rapid in their growth. These people heard the Gospel one
day, received it, and felt sure that they were saved. At once they were
full of joy and transport, and hastened to make a profession! They did
not require time to sit down and see whether they could bear out that
profession, or seek Grace that they might not run before they were
called. No, away they went, just as if a spark had been dropped into so
much powder. They made a profession and the next week they were
teaching in the Sunday school! They were so sure they were on the right
road that they were very vexed with other pilgrims who did not travel
so rapidly. When they heard of Christians being anxious as to their
condition, they said, "What nonsense! What reason is there for it?" If
they saw a deep-taught Christian tremblingly examining himself, they
said, "Oh, you must not look at all at yourself! Never consider what is
going on within."

They had received a one-sided Gospel, only, and that quite contented
them. And as to anything like the work of the Spirit of God in the soul
and the holy jealousy which is one of the best fruits of vital
godliness, these they quite dispensed with. They were going to drag the
Church behind them and drive the world before them–and very soon they
would distance even the ministry which had been the means, as they
said, of their conversion! They grew from hyssops on the wall to cedars
of Lebanon in about a week! They were THE men, and wisdom would die
with them! Grand work to have to deal with these men, is it not? We
shall see, by-and-by, and shall have to learn that not every stem that
puts forth leaves is a fruit-bearing branch. In due time, according to
the parable, came the trial.

The seed was up and soon the sun was up, too, and began to scorch it.
None will get to Heaven without being tried on the road. Ask,
concerning those who stand in their white robes before the Throne of
God, who are those, and from where did they come? And the answer will
be, "These are they that came out of great tribulation and have washed
their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb." There is not
a fragment of gold in all God's temple but what has passed through the
fire. Untried faith is no faith. Untried Grace is no Grace. God will
try His people and discern between the precious and the vile. According
to the Savior's explanation of the text, the trial came in the form of
persecution. Ah, how many there are who have received the Word with
gladness, who, if there were a stake in Smithfield, would very soon
drop the profession of Christianity, for it would be too hot for them!
Or if there were a prison ready for them in which they must lie till
the moss grew on their eyelids, they would soon forsake the Truth of
God and turn aside to error.

We need not be much afraid of the revival of such tests, but there are
other forms of persecution which mere professors are equally unable to
bear. A sneer in society. A remark against Christianity from a person
whom you are accustomed to respect. A look from someone who is above
you in wealth, as he despises you for professing to be a follower of
Christ. Unkind remarks from a father. Opposition from a husband. The
desertion of some young companion with whom you hoped your life would
be linked. Such matters–nothing like the stake or the prison–are yet
quite

sufficient to overcome flimsy professors so that they are offended and
turn their backs upon the religion which they once so quickly espoused!

In many instances, to follow principle would involve a great loss in
business. They could not afford to incur such a loss. If Christ could
be had at a cheaper rate, they would have Him, but to lose all the
treasures in Egypt! No, they could not do that–and so they renounce,
again, that Christ whom they once called their All-in-All. With others
it has not been such a trial as that, but Providential affliction. I
painfully remember a man and his wife who were members of this Church
for some time. And it was certainly true, as they affirmed that from
the very hour they made profession of religion they began to be in
trouble. And therefore they renounced the consolation because of the
affliction, for they drew the conclusion that surely they could not be
the people of God, or else God would not have so tried them–a
conclusion which is the reverse of the teachings of Scripture!

Many will have Christ if He will pat them on the cheek, but not if He
flogs them with the rod! They will follow the Lord while He is on the
giving hand, but they cannot believe in a God who takes away. They can
bless Him while He enriches them, but they know nothing of that
Job-like faith which exclaims, "The Lord gave and the Lord has taken
away; blessed be the name of the Lord." Or, perhaps, it may be that
when they first made a profession of religion they did not know much
about the temptations of life. But now they have moved from home. They
have obtained a situation where there are young men who tell them of
haunts of pleasurable vice. Or they have left the circle of godly
people in which they once moved and are cast among ungodly ones and,
alas, their mouths are watering for the sweets of the world–the
serpent of sinful pleasure has cast a spell over them–and now Christ
may go for Belial, true religion for worldliness and following God for
the indulgence of the flesh.

Ah, how often is this the case! Or, perhaps, another shining of the sun
has come upon them. They thought they believed the Gospel, but they
have fallen among debaters. They are surrounded by a skeptical circle
where they have heard arguments they never heard before and never
having weighed anything, or considered the reasons why they believed in
God and in Christ, they are quite staggered. They have no depth of
earth, no root-hold of the Truth of God by conviction and solemn
judgment of it. And so as soon as they meet with an atheist or a deist,
or a skeptic of any form, they are like thistledown before the wind.
Having no ballast in their vessel, the first breeze oversets them and
they are lost. What a grand thing it is to be established in the faith,
rooted, grounded, settled! I remember reading of one who said, "When I
read the arguments brought by infidels against the Gospel, I laugh them
to scorn because they are nothing like the deep, cunning arguments
which my own heart has brought against the Lord in years gone by–which
having answered and overcome–I feel myself more than a match for the
puny oppositions of ungodly men."

It is a grand thing not to be moved in these skeptical times, but to
know the Lord by secret communion with Him, to know His Truth by inner
consciousness and by a devout reading of His Word with eyes opened from
above. Alas, many hearers and receivers of the word have been destroyed
by carping infidels! They knew nothing thoroughly and so were readily
deceived. It is said of the stony-ground people that immediately they
were offended. They were just as soon out of love with the Gospel as
they were in with it. "Immediately they were offended." They did not,
at first, stop to enquire why they should be Christians and now they do
not stop to argue why they should renounce their profession. They took
their religion hot from the oven and dropped it before it was cool
enough to feed on. Somebody said, "Believe, believe, believe!" And they
were excited. And now another speaker says, "Do not believe! Do not
believe!" And they are excited the other way. They went in with a crowd
of others all of a sudden during a revival–and now they are going out
with the crowd during a season of lukewarmness.

The minister took them in at the front door and now he has to let them
out at the back door. They have disappointed him. They have brought
scandal upon the Church and double responsibility upon themselves. And
now they are just as earnest to give up religion as they were to
profess it. Unhappy souls, volatile in everything, frivolous about the
solemnities of eternity, ready to be right if rightly led and as ready
to be wrong if wrongly driven. Having no mind of their own, they are
molluscous creatures–without a backbone, mere jellyfish–nothing solid
or consistent can be found in them. Their sand-built houses are no
sooner up than they are washed down by the tide. They have no rocky
foundations, no strong grips of the Truth of God, no principles. Their
motive powers are submission to persuasion, admiration of eloquence and
desire of approbation. Unhappy! Unhappy! Unhappy! God grant that we may
not belong to such a class!

II. I shall show THEIR RADICAL DEFECT. Their radical defect, in the
first place, lays in an unbroken heart. The parable does not refer to
ground with stones in it, such as we commonly call stony ground, for
that will grow corn well enough–but to soil where there was a hard
rock underneath–and only a very thin covering of earth. A hard pan of
iron rock was at the bottom and it was barely hidden by a little mold
created by the lichens and mosses–enough to catch the seed and make it
germinate–but not enough to feed its roots for any length of time.

In these people their hearts have never been broken. "Is not My Word
like a hammer, says the Lord?" They do not know, for it never hammered
them. They got their joy and peace without a blow. What is to be done
with a piece of ground which has the rock so close to the surface?
Nothing can be done with it by man. The only thing that can be done is
for God to come in–and when God, in His infinite mercy changes the
rock into good soil–then the wheat will grow, but not till then. "A
new heart also will I give you, and a right spirit will I put within
you. I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will
give you an heart of flesh." There must be a work of the Holy Spirit by
which the natural rock of Nature shall be turned into the good soil of
Grace, or else all the sowing in the world will never produce a
harvest!

These people skipped over that and, in fact, they did not like to hear
of it. They liked preachers who always preached simple faith in the
work of Jesus but never mentioned the work of the Holy Spirit–lopsided
preachers, messengers whose legs are not equal, who deliver half God's
message and no more–and under such teaching they found peace without
soul-trouble and comfort without the new birth. As for repentance, that
old-fashioned Grace, they despised it! Weeping before God on account of
sin? Terror under a sense of God's wrath? Or fear lest the sentence of
His Law should be executed? They never knew. They passed into the land
of Hope without going round by Weeping Cross–and every day I grow more
and more suspicious of a man's religion if he has not gone round by
that road. A man who was healed before he was wounded, clothed before
he was stripped, filled before he was empty, made alive before he was
slain, has good reason to suspect whether Sovereign Grace has ever laid
its hand upon him!

These people with the unbroken heart had gladsome hopes and joyful
confidences, but they all came to an end, as they will do in your case
and mine if we are strangers to contrition. Always be it remembered
that true as it is that whoever believes in Jesus Christ shall be
saved, it is equally true, "You must be born again." "Except you are
converted and become as little children, you shall in no wise enter the
kingdom of Heaven." "That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that
which is born of the Spirit is spirit." And "flesh and blood cannot
inherit the kingdom of God." It is only the birth of the spirit, the
spiritual nature, that can enter into spiritual matters and become a
possessor of truly spiritual joys. An unbroken heart is a fatal defect!

This led to a second fault, namely, lack of depth. The stony-ground
hearer was all surface. Everything about him was superficial. The rock,
never having been broken, provided no depth of earth to plow. So in
many men who profess to be converted, there has been no real estimate
of sin. "Yes, we are sinners," they say. "Oh yes, yes, of course we are
all sinners." But to feel what it is to be a sinner is quite another
thing. To be crushed down to the earth under a sense of having violated
the thrice holy Law of God–many have never felt this. And Jesus
Christ–yes, He is a Savior, and they will say they take Him for a
Savior–but what it is to be saved, why it was He suffered, why He
needed to suffer–what was the tremendous guilt that compelled such a
Sacrifice they have never considered. In fact, they have never thought
at all and they do not mean to think.

Bees descend into the flowers and suck out the honey, but butterflies
alight on the lilies for a moment and are away again–true emblems of
flippant pretenders to Grace. Many persons who profess to be Christians
seem to have no acquaintance with the plague of their own hearts. They
believe that there is something amiss within, but they do not know that
their heart is "deceitful above all things and desperately wicked."
Consequently, though they admit they need Divine Grace, they do not
know how much they need it. They would subscribe to the Truth, "Without
Me you can do nothing," but they do not know it experimentally. They
are strangers to those failures and inward disappointments which lead a
man to feel his nothingness. It is surface work–nothing is deep about
them. When they became professors of the religion of Christ they never
weighed the Truth, or searched the Scriptures to see whether these
things are indeed, so.

They were Calvinists because the preacher was a Calvinist. They would
have been Arminians quite as readily if the preacher had been Arminian.
In fact, they would have been anything they were taught to be–they
never judged, weighed

and considered for themselves. In espousing the Truth as it is in Jesus
they never calculated the difficulties of a religious life. It did not
strike them that they would have to fight with sin without and sin
within. They never looked at that mighty trinity–the world, the flesh
and the devil–with which they would have to wage a life-long combat.
They took the sweets and thought not of the bitter herbs. They were
volatile and are still volatile. They cannot think, neither can you
persuade them to attempt it. This is a fault, indeed.

And then there was a third defect–the secret part of their religion
was a failure. The seed on the stony ground did not fail in the
sprouting, nor in the blade which appeared above–it had no root. If
you were to trace some professors home, you would find no secret
prayer. Let that word go through this congregation if there are any of
you living in the neglect of secret prayer! No secret prayer, no secret
reading of the Word of God, no chewing of it to get the essence and the
juice out of it, no vital contact with Christ in private, no communion
of the soul in secret with the living God? This is a deadly sign! They
were at the public meeting. They were fussy enough about committees.
They could be first and foremost if there were any singing to be done,
or if there were any preaching required! But oh, the secret prayer, the
secret living with God, the soul-searching, the trying of the reins to
see whether they were right or wrong–they had given this all up!
Taking it for granted that they must be right because they have a sort
of faith, they look upon every question as to their safety as so much
unbelief and the work of Satan. And so they wrap themselves up in their
delusions. They think they must be the people of God because they
profess themselves to be such, but they have never looked for the fruit
which must be borne by every branch of the true vine.

And fourthly, there was another thing–which I do not think you will
find in Mark–but you will see it in one of the other Evangelists–they
lacked moisture. Now, a plant must have moisture. Dew, rain, or some
sort of watering must come to it. On that little soil with a hard rock
at the bottom there was plenty of heat when the sun shone and so the
little moisture it had made the seed sprout at once. But it had no
further moisture and therefore became parched. So certain hearers get a
little moisture, as it were, by contact with an earnest preacher. They
come under that Word which drops as the dew and distils as the
rain–but they have not the vitalizing Holy Spirit at their root to be
the perpetual source of life. They have their lamps, but they have no
oil in their vessels to keep them trimmed. They lack the moisture of
the Holy Spirit! He it is that comes to His own people secretly, at the
roots of their life, so that from Him they suck up the life of God and
so they live!

But the mere stony-ground convert has not the Holy Spirit. And oh,
permit me to say most solemnly to everyone here, if we have no more
than Nature gave us under its best conceivable circumstances, we have
no more than the Pharisees–and that landed them in Hell! We must have
the Spirit of God–and from first to last the religion of our hearts
must be worked of the Spirit, sustained by the Spirit–and if it is
not, the sooner we are rid of such a religion the better, for it will
only deceive us! I feel the necessity of preaching such a sermon as
this because I perceive Church members going aside into open sin and
others turning aside to one or another of the new delusions of the
present age. There seems to be a new one every month. Some foolish
people stand with their mouths open ready for any novelty to fly down
their throats. They are as dry straw, only wanting for some impostor to
apply the spark to them–and yet they call themselves Christians!

There are so many, nowadays, who do not know what they believe and so
become the prey of Romanists, Ritualists, Atheists, or some other
deceivers. There is a little plant in the garden and a thief comes
along and takes away root and all–he will not do so with a well-rooted
oak, I guarantee you–and if we were well-rooted like the oak, we would
believe what we believe and know what we know, and would have principle
to keep us steady. The old Nonconformists might have been dragged to
prison or to the stake without difficulty–but to get them to yield
their nonconformity, or put aside their principles was not possible!
Alas for the degenerate sons of such sturdy fathers! If what you
believe is not true, fling it away! But if it is true, let your faces
be like flints and your natures like iron against all the temptations
of this wicked, ever-changing age which flies this way and that, but
always away from its God! Oh, when shall it be that those who know the
Lord shall stand fast and having done all, shall still stand?

III. Thirdly, I must close by trying to teach THE LESSON OF THE TEXT.
That lesson is four-fold. It says to each one of us, be deeply in
earnest. Do not play at religion. Do not think of a religious
profession as a garb which you can put on and take off. Pray God to
make sure work in your soul, sure work for eternity. You have to die.
You have to face the

Judgment Seat–have a religion that will bear those ordeals. Pray to
have such a work of the Spirit in your soul that neither death nor
judgment can alarm you.

Cry to God that repentance may be cut deep into you, making lasting
marks in you. Pray that your faith may be no sham faith, but a giving
up of your soul entirely into the hands of Christ. That your love to
Christ may be no rhapsody, but a matter of real heart-affection. That
your religious walk may not be for other people to see, but a walk
before God. Pray that all your actions may be the result of principle
and that you may not be swayed by company, but rather may sway company
and may have a vital force within yourself of God's implanting that
will bear you on in the straight road, whichever way others may take. I
say again, be awfully in earnest about everything that concerns
religion and pray God to forgive you if in any measure you have been
flippant concerning it.

Secondly, watch the effect of your own daily trials. See how they
affect you. If a boat is ready to sink in the Thames, it ought never to
be trusted at sea. If your religion already begins to fail you, what
will it do, by-and-by? You were laughed at and you were half inclined
to give it all up–what would you do if you were more sternly
persecuted? You have already been willing to go back, your heart has
faltered–what will you do if fiercer temptations assail you? You have
already been terribly put to it by the arguments of a fool–what would
you do if some of the deep thinkers were to argue with you? "If you
have run with the footmen and they have wearied you, how will you
contend with horsemen? And if, in the land of peace wherein you have
trusted, they have wearied you, what will you do in the swellings of

Jordan?"

I do not object to your growing slowly if you grow surely. If my house
takes a long time in building, I would rather give the builder his time
than tell him to run it up in a week or two and make it so frail that
the first wind would blow it away like cardboard. You have to live in
this house eternally, pray God to build it surely. As to building fast,
that little matters. O you that can hardly go a step towards Heaven
without question and dispute, I do not so much tremble concerning you
as about some who never have any questions or doubts, because they have
never any thought at all, but pass it all by with a heedless
carelessness, taking things for granted. See, then, how you stand in
your present trials. You have grown richer–do you love the Lord as
much as you did? You transact more business–can you still keep the
world out of your heart? You have received more praise of late–can you
still cling to Christ as you used to do when you had but few friends?
You have been in health lately–have you lived as near to God as when
you were ill?

Or you have come down in the world and are numbered with the poor? Do
you love the Lord as much as you did when He enriched you? You have
lately heard the remarks of a cunning hater of the Gospel–were you
able to feel that though you could not answer him in words, yet your
heart answered him and threw off his falsehood as the roof throws off
the rain? If not, look to it! If your vessel is ready to go down in
smooth water, what will she do in a storm? If you cannot keep the water
out of her, now, what will you do when the hurricane overtakes her? It
will be all over with you then, I fear.

Another lesson is constantly examine yourself. A great many persons get
into the Bankruptcy Court, but as far as I remember never one came
there through too much attendance to his business. I never heard of a
farmer losing his crop through being too diligent in husbandry and of
all the souls that are lost not one has perished through being too much
in earnest as to self-examination. Dear Brothers and Sisters, choose a
faithful, testing ministry. Do not look after a smoothtongued preacher
who will always cry, "Comfort You, comfort You, my people." You need
comfort and should have it, but you need searching as well, and you
must have it. Pray that you may be faithfully dealt with, that there
may be no glazing over matters, no filming of wounds, but that there
may be honest dealings between you and the minister, and between you
and your God. God grant that we may be willing to be searched, for when
we are unwilling to be searched we may reckon it quite certain that
there is something amiss with us. When we say, "I am afraid I am a
hypocrite," there is very little fear of it–but presumption is fatal.

Now, lastly, let all this show us how necessary it is that we cast all
the stress and burden of our salvation entirely upon the Lord Jesus
Christ, because whenever a man does that, there is honest and good
ground in his soul and the seed has sprung up aright. Whenever a man
can truly say–

"I rest alone in Jesus, Nothing in my hand I bring: Simply to Your
Cross I cling,"

that is the great secret of a true hope. Jesus lived and died for
us–and if we do entirely depend upon Him, alone, it is well with our
souls. It is well to live continually at the foot of the Cross, looking
up to Jesus, finding all our hope in Him and none in ourselves.
Beloved, it is the work of the Spirit of God to bring us there and keep
us there! If we search ourselves in the light of the Cross we shall be
willing to judge ourselves that we be not judged. In the presence of
those dear wounds from where distils the atoning blood, we shall cry,
"Try my reins and my heart."

But if any man says, "I believe in Jesus, therefore I will not search.
I trust in Jesus, therefore I will live as I like," that man's religion
is vain! He has profaned the Cross by his reckless reasoning! Let him
take heed how God shall judge him, for of all judgments, surely that
will be the heaviest which shall come upon the man who dared to take
the doctrine of the Cross as a reason for careless living and made the
mercy and the cleansing power of the Redeemer, Himself, an excuse for
walking heedlessly before God, and continuing in vain presumption.

God grant us Grace to receive the seed into good ground, for Jesus'
sake.

PORTION OF SCRIPTURE READ BEFORE SERMON–Mark 4:1-34.
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A Fatal Deficiency