The Mustard Seed: A Sermon for the Sabbath-School Teacher

The Mustard Seed: A Sermon for the Sabbath-School Teacher

A Sermon

(No. 2110)

Delivered on Lord's-day Morning, October 20th, 1889, by

C. H. SPURGEON,

At [9]the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington

"Then said he, Unto what is the kingdom of God like? and whereunto
shall I resemble it? It is like a grain of mustard seed, which a man
took, and cast into his garden; and it grew, and waxed a great tree;
and the fowls of the air lodged in the branches of it."'Luke 13:18-19.

I SHALL not attempt fully to explain this great little parable. A full
exposition may be left for another occasion. The parable may be
understood to relate to our Lord Himself, who is the living seed. You
know also how His church is the tree that springs from Him, and how
greatly it grows and spreads its branches until it covers the earth.
From the one man Christ Jesus, despised and rejected of men, slain and
buried, and so hidden away from among men'from Him, I say, there arises
a multitude which no one can number. These spread themselves, like some
tree which grows by the rivers of waters, and they yielded both
gracious shelter and spiritual food. I called it a great little
parable, and so it is: it has a world of teaching within the smallest
compass. The parable is itself like a grain of mustard seed, but its
meanings are as a great tree.

At this time of the year, Sabbath-school teachers come together
especially to pray for a blessing on their work, and pastors are
invited to say a word to cheer them in their self-denying service. This
request I would cheerfully fulfill, and therefore my discourse will not
be a full explanation of the parable, but an adaptation of it to the
cheering of those who are engaged in the admirable work of teaching the
young the fear of the Lord. Never service more important; to overlook
it would be a grave fault. We rejoice to encourage our friends in their
labor of love.

In this parable light is thrown upon the work of those who teach the
Gospel. First, notice a very simple work: "a grain of mustard seed,
which a man took, and cast into his garden." Secondly, observe what
came of it: "it grew, and waxed a great tree; and the fowls of the air
lodged in the branches of it."

First, NOTICE A VERY SIMPLE WORK. The work of teaching the gospel is as
the casting of a grain of mustard seed into a garden.

Note, first, what the nameless man did. "It is like a grain of mustard
seed, which a man took." He took it; that is to say, picked it out from
the bulk. It was only one grain, and a grain of a very insignificant
seed; but he did not let it lie on the shelf; he took it in his hand to
put it to its proper use. A grain of mustard seed is too small a thing
for public exhibition; the man who takes it in his hand is almost the
only one who spies it out. It was only a grain of mustard seed, but the
man set it before his own mind as a distinct object to be dealt with.
He was not sowing mustard over broad acres, but he was sowing "a grain
of mustard seed" in his garden. It is well for the teacher to know what
he is going to teach, to have that truth distinctly in his mind's eye,
as the man had the grain of mustard seed between his fingers. Depend
upon it, unless a truth is clearly seen and distinctly recognized by
the teacher, little will come of it to the taught. It may be a very
simple truth, but if a someone takes it, understands it, grasps it, and
loves it, he will do something with it. Beloved, first and foremost let
us ourselves take the Gospel, let us believe it, let us appreciate it,
let us prize it beyond all things; for truth lives as it is loved, and
no hand is so fit for its sowing as the hand which grasps it well.

Further, in this little parable we notice that this man had a garden:
"Like a grain of mustard seed, which a man took, and cast into his
garden." Some Christian people have no garden'no personal sphere of
service. They belong to the whole clan of Christians, and they pine to
see the entire band go out to cultivate the whole world, but they do
not come to personal particulars. It is delightful to be warmed up by
missionary addresses, and to feel a zeal for the salvation of all the
nations; but, after all, the net result of a general theoretic
earnestness for all the world does not amount to much. As we should
have no horticulture if people had no gardens, so we shall have no
missionary work done unless each person has a mission. It is the duty
of every believer in Christ, like the first man, Adam, to have a garden
to dress and to till. Children are in the Sunday-schools by millions:
thank God for that! But have you a class of your own? All the church at
work for Christ! Glorious theory! Are you up and doing for your Lord?
It will be a grand time when every believer has his allotment, and is
sowing it with the seed of truth. The wilderness and the solitary place
will blossom as the rose when each Christian cultivates his own plot of
roses. Where should this unnamed man sow his mustard seed but in his
own garden? It was near him, and dear to him, and to it he went. Teach
your own children, speak to your neighbors, seek the conversion of
those whom God has especially entrusted to you.

Having a garden, and having this seed, the man sowed it, and simple as
this is, it is the hinge of the instruction. You have a number of seeds
in a pill-box. There they are: look at them! Take that box down this
day a year from now, and the seeds will be just the same. Lay them by
in that dry box for seven years, and nothing will happen. Truth is not
to be kept to ourselves; it is to be published and advocated. There is
an old proverb, "Truth is mighty, and will prevail." The proverb is
true in a sense, but it needs to be taken with a grain of salt. If you
put truth away and leave it without a voice, it won't prevail; it will
not even contend. When have great truths prevailed? Why, when brave men
have persisted in declaring them. Daring spirits have taken up a cause
which has been at the first unpopular, and they have spoken about it so
earnestly and so often that at length the cause has commanded
attention; they have pressed on and on until the cause has triumphed
altogether. Truth has been mighty, and has prevailed, but yet not
without the people who gave it life and tongue. Not even the Gospel
itself, if it is not taught, will prevail. If revealed truth is laid on
one side and kept in silence, it will not grow. Mark how through the
dark ages the Gospel lay asleep in old books in the libraries of
monasteries until Luther and his fellow reformers fetched it out and
sowed it in the minds of men.

This man simply cast it into his garden. He did not wrap it around with
gold leaf, or otherwise adorn it, but he put it into the ground. The
naked seed came into contact with the naked soil. O teachers, do not
try to make the Gospel look fine; do not overlay it with your fine
words or elaborate explanations. The Gospel seed is to be put into the
young heart just as it is. Get the truth concerning the Lord Jesus into
the children's minds. Make them know, not what you can say about the
truth, but what the truth itself says. It is wicked to take the Gospel
and make a peg of it to hang our old clothes upon. The Gos el is not a
boat to be freighted with human thoughts, fine speculations, scraps of
poetry, and pretty tales. No, no. The Gospel is the thought of God; in
and of itself it is the message which the soul needs. It is the Gospel
itself which will grow. Take a truth, especially that great doctrine,
that humanity is lost and that Christ is the only Saviour, and see to
it that you place it in the mind. Teach plainly the great truth that
whosoever believes in Him has everlasting life, and that the Lord Jesus
bare our sins in His own body on the tree and suffered for us, the just
for the unjust'I say take these truths and set them forth to the mind,
and see what will come of it. Sow the very truth; not your reflections
on the truth, not your embellishments of the truth, but the truth
itself. This is to be brought into contact with the mind, for the truth
is the seed, and the human mind is the soil for it to grow in.

These remarks of mine are very plain and trite; and yet everything
depends upon the simple operation described. Nearly everything has been
tried in preaching of late, except the plain and clear statement of the
glad tidings and of the atoning sacrifice. People have talked about
what the church can do, and what the Gospel can do; we have been
informed as to the proofs of the Gospel, or the doubts about it, and so
forth; but when will they give us the Gospel itself? Friends, we must
come to the point and teach the Gospel, for this is the living and
incorruptible seed which abides forever. It is an easy thing to deliver
an address upon mustard seed, to give the children a taste of the
pungency of mustard, to tell them how mustard seed would grow, what
kind of a tree it would produce, and how the birds would sing among its
branches. But this is not sowing mustard seed. It is all very fine to
talk about the influence of the Gospel, the ethics of Christianity, the
elevating power of the love of Christ, and so on; but what we want is
the Gospel itself, which exercises that influence. Sow the seed: tell
the children the doctrine of the Cross, the fact that with the stripes
of Jesus we are healed, and that by faith in Him we are justified. What
is wanted is not talk about the Gospel, but the Gospel itself. We must
continually bring the living Word of the living God into contact with
the hearts of men. Oh, for the aid of the Holy Spirit in this! He will
help us, for He delights to glorify Jesus.

That which is described in the parable was an insignificant business:
the man took the tiny seed and put it into his garden. It is a very
commonplace affair to sit down with a dozen children around you and
open your Bible and tell them the well-worn tale of how Jesus Christ
came into the world to save sinners. No Pharisee is likely to stand and
blow a trumpet when he is going to teach children; he is more likely to
point to the children in the temple and sneeringly say, "Hearest thou
what these say?" It is a lowly business altogether, but yet, to the
mustard seed, and to the man with a garden, the sowing is the
all-important matter. The mustard seed will never grow unless put into
the soil; the owner of the garden will never have a crop of mustard
unless he sows the seed. Dear Sunday-school teacher, do not become
weary of your humble work, for none can measure its importance. Tell
the boys and girls of the Son of God, who lived and loved and died that
the ungodly might be saved. Urge them to immediate faith in the mighty
Saviour that they may be saved at once. Tell of the new birth, and how
the souls of human beings are renewed by the Holy Spirit, without whose
divine working none can enter the kingdom of heaven. Cast in mustard
seed, and nothing else but mustard seed, if you want to grow mustard.
Teach the Gospel of grace, and nothing but the Gospel of grace, if you
would see grace growing in the hearts of your young people.

Secondly, let us consider what it was that the man sowed. We have seen
that he sowed; what did he sow? It was one single seed, and that seed a
very small one; so very, very small that the Jews were accustomed to
say, "As small as mustard seed." Hence the Saviour speaks of it as the
smallest among seeds, which it may not have been absolutely, but which
it was according to common parlance; our Lord was not teaching botany,
but speaking a popular parable. Yes, the Gospel seems a very simple
thing: Believe and live! Look to Jesus lying in the sinner's stead!
Look to Jesus crucified, even as Israel looked to the brazen serpent
lifted up upon a pole. It is simplicity itself; in fact, the Gospel is
so plain a matter that our superior people are weary of it and look out
for something more difficult of comprehension. People nowadays are like
the person who liked to hear the Scriptures "properly confounded"; or
like the other who said, "You should hear our minister dispense with
the truth." Sowing seed is work too ordinary for the moderns; they
demand new methods. But, beloved, we must not run after vain
inventions; our one business is to sow the Word of God in the minds of
children. It is yours and mine to teach everybody the simple truth that
Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners, and that whosoever
believes in Him shall not perish, but have everlasting life. We know
nothing else among adults or among children. This one seed, apparently
so little, so insignificant, we continue to sow. They sneeringly say,
"What can be the moral result of preaching such a Gospel? Surely it
would be better to discourse upon morals, social economics, and the
sciences?" Ah, friends! if you can do any good in those ways, we will
not hinder you, but our belief is that a hundred times more can be done
with the Gospel, for it is the power of God to salvation to everyone
that believes. The Gospel is not the enemy of any good thing; say,
rather, it is the force by which good things are to be carried out.
Whatsoever things are pure and honest and of good repute are all
nurtured by that spirit which is begotten by the simple Gospel of
Christ. Yet conversions do not come by essays upon morals but by the
teaching of salvation by Christ. The cleansing and raising of our race
will not be effected by politics or science, but by the Word of the
Lord, which lives and abides forever. To bring the greatest blessings
upon our rising youth we must labor to implant in their minds faith in
the Lord Jesus. Oh, for divine power in this work!

But the seed, though very small, was a living thing. There is a great
difference between a mustard seed and a piece of wax of the same size.
Life slumbers in that seed. What life is we cannot tell. Even if you
take a microscope you cannot spy it out. It is a mystery, but it is
essential to a seed. The Gospel has a something in it not readily
discoverable by the philosophical inquirer, if, indeed, he can perceive
it at all. Take a maxim of Socrates or of Plato, and inquire whether a
nation or a tribe has ever been transformed by it from barbarism to
culture. A maxim of a philosopher may have measurably influenced a
person in some right direction, but who has ever heard of a someone's
whole character being transformed by any observation of Confucius or
Socrates? I confess I never have. Human teachings are barren. But
within the Gospel, with all its triteness and simplicity, there is a
divine life and that life makes all the difference. The human can never
rival the divine, for it lacks the life-fire. It is better to preach
five words of God's Word than five million words of human wisdom. Human
words may seem to be the wiser and the more attractive, but there is no
heavenly life in them. Within God's Word, however simple it may be,
there dwells an omnipotence like that of God from whose lips it came.

Truth to tell, a seed is a very comprehensive thing. Within the mustard
seed what is to be found? Why, there is all in it that ever comes out
of it. It must be so. Every branch and every leaf and every flower and
every seed that is to be is, in its essence, all within the seed. It
needs to be developed, but it is all there. And so, within the simple
Gospel, how much lies concentrated? Look at it! Within that truth lie
regeneration, repentance, faith, holiness, zeal, consecration,
perfection. Heaven hides itself away within the Gospel. Like a young
bird in its nest, glory dwells in grace. We may not at first see all
its results, nor, indeed, shall we see them at all until we sow the
seed and it grows; yet it is all there. Do you believe it, young
teacher? Have you realized what you have in your hold when you grasp
the Gospel of the grace of God? It is the most wonderful thing beneath
the skies. Do you believe in the Gospel which you have to teach? Do you
discern that within its apparently narrow lines the Eternal, the
Infinite, the Perfect, and the Divine are all enclosed? As in the babe
of Bethlehem there was the Eternal God, so within the simple teaching
of "Believe and live" there are all the elements of eternal blessedness
for people, and boundless glory for God. It is a very comprehensive
thing, that little seed, that Gospel of God.

And for this reason it is so wonderful: it is a divine creation. Summon
your chemists, bring them together with all their vessels and their
fires. Select a jury of the greatest chemists now alive, analytical or
otherwise, as you will. Learned sirs, will you kindly make us a mustard
seed? You may take a mustard seed, and pound it and analyze it, and you
may thus ascertain all its ingredients. So far so good. Is not your
work well begun? Now make a single mustard seed. We will give you a
week. It is a very small affair. You have all the elements of mustard
in yonder mortar. Make us one living grain; we do not ask for a ton
weight. One grain of mustard seed will suffice us. Great chemists, have
you not made so small a thing? A month has gone by. Only one grain of
mustard seed we asked of you, and where is it? Have you not made one in
a month? What are you at? Shall we allow you seven years? Yes, with all
the laboratories in the kingdom at your service and all known
substances for your material and all the world's coal beds for your
fuel, get to your work. The air is black with your smoke and the
streams run foul with your waste products; but where is the mustard
seed? This baffles the wise; they cannot make a living seed. No; and
nobody can make a Gospel, or even a new Gospel text. The thinkers of
the age could not even concoct another life of Christ to match with the
four Gospels which we have already. I go further: they could not create
a new incident which would be congruous with the facts we already know.
Plenty of novel writers nowadays can beat out imaginary histories upon
their anvils: let them write a fifth Gospel'say the Gospel according to
Peter, or Andrew. Let us have it! They will not even commence the task.
Who will write a new psalm, or even a new promise? Clever chemists
prove their wisdom by saying at once, "No, we cannot make a mustard
seed"; and wise thinkers will equally confess that they cannot make
another Gospel. My learned brethren are trying very hard to make a new
Gospel for this nineteenth century, but you teachers had better go on
with the old one. The advanced men cannot put life into their theory.
This living Word is the finger of God. That simple grain of mustard
seed must be made by God, or not at all; He must put life into the
Gospel, or it will not have power in the heart. The Gospel of
Sunday-school teachers, that Gospel of "Believe and live," however
people may despise it, has Godgiven life in it. You cannot make another
which can supplant it, for you cannot put life into your invention. Go
on and use the one living truth with your children, for nothing else
has God's life in it.

I want you to see what a little affair the sowing seemed, as we answer
the question, What was it to him? It was a very natural act; he sowed a
seed. It is a most natural thing that we should teach others what we
believe ourselves. I cannot make out how some professors can call
themselves Christians and yet never communicate the faith to others.
That the young people of our churches should gather other young people
around them and tell them of Jesus, whom you love, is as natural as for
a gardener to put seeds into his prepared ground.

To sow a mustard seed is a very inexpensive act. Only one grain of
mustard: nobody can find me a coin small enough to express its value. I
do not know how much mustard seed the man had; certainly it is not a
rare thing, but he only took one grain of it and cast it into his
garden. He emptied no exchequer by that expenditure; this is one of the
excellencies of Sabbath-school work, that it neither exhausts the
church of people nor of money. However much of it is done, it does not
lessen the resources of our Zion; it is done freely, quietly, without
excitement, without sacrifice of life, and yet what a fountain of
blessing it is!

Still, it was an act of faith. It is always an act of faith to sow
seed, because you have, for the time, to give it up and receive nothing
in return. The farmer takes his choice seed corn and throws it into the
soil of his field. He might have made many a loaf of bread with it, but
he casts it away. Only his faith saves him from being judged a maniac:
he expects it to return to him fiftyfold. If you had never seen a
harvest, you would think that someone burying good wheat under the
clods had gone mad; if you had never seen conversions, it might seem an
absurd thing to be constantly teaching to boys and girls the story of
the Man who was nailed to the tree. We preach and teach as a work of
faith, and remember, it is only as an act of faith that it will answer
its purpose. The rule of the harvest is, "According to thy faith, be it
unto thee." Believe, dear teacher, believe in the Gospel. Believe in
what you are doing when you tell it. Believe that great results from
slender causes spring. Go on sowing your mustard seed of salvation by
faith, expecting and believing that fruit will come thereof.

It was an act which brought the sower no honor. The Saviour has
chronicled the fact that the man took a grain of mustard seed and sowed
it, but thousands of people had gone on sowing mustard seed for half a
lifetime without a word. Nobody has ever spoken in your honor, my
friend, though you have taught the truth. Dear teacher, go on sowing,
though nobody should observe your diligence or praise your
faithfulness. Sow the seed of precious truth in the garden of the
child's mind, for much more will come of it than you have dared to
hope.

It seems to me that our Lord selected the mustard seed in this parable,
not because its results are the greatest possible from a seed'for an
oak or a cedar are much greater growths than a mustard tree'but He
selected it because it is the greatest result as compared with the size
of the seed. Follow out the analogy. Come to yonder school, and see!
That earnest young man is teaching a boy, one of those wild creatures
of the street; they swarm in every quarter. A dozen young Turks are
before him, or say young Arabs of the street; he is teaching them the
Gospel. Small affair, is it not? Yes, very; but what may come of it?
Think of how joyfully much may grow out of this little! What is that
young man teaching? Only one elementary truth. Do not sneer; it is
truth, but it is the mere alphabet of it. He touches upon nothing deep
in theology; he only says, "Christ Jesus came into the world to save
sinners. Dear boy, believe in the Lord Jesus and live." That is all he
says. Can any good thing come out of Nazareth? The teacher himself is
teaching the one truth in a very poor way; at least, he thinks so. Ask
him, when he has done, what he thinks of his own teaching, and he
replies, "I do not feel fit to teach." Yes, that young man's teaching
is sighed over, and in his own judgment it is poor and weak, but there
is life in the truth he imparts and eternal results will follow'results
of which I have now to speak in the second part of my sermon. May the
good Spirit help me so to speak as to encourage my beloved friends, who
have given themselves up to the Christlike work of teaching the little
ones!

Secondly, let us enquire, WHAT CAME OF IT?

First, "it grew." That was what the sower hoped would come of it: he
placed the seed in the ground hoping that it would grow. It is not
reasonable to suppose that he would have sown it if he had not hoped
that it would spring up. Dear teacher, do you always sow in hope, do
you trust that the Word will live and grow? If you do not, I do not
think your success is very probable. Expect the truth to take root and
expand and grow up. Teach divine truth with earnestness and expect that
the life within it will unveil its wonders.

But though the sewer expected growth, he could not himself have made it
grow. After he had placed the seed in the ground he could water it, he
could pray God to make the sun shine on it, but he could not directly
produce growth. Only He that made the seed could cause it to grow.
Growth is a continuance of that almighty act by which life is at first
given. The putting of life into the seed is God's work, and the
bringing forth of the life from the seed is God's work too. This is a
matter within your hope, but far beyond your power.

A very wonderful thing it is that the seed should grow. If we did not
see it every day, we should be more astonished at the growth of seed
than at all the wonders of magicians. A growing seed is God's abiding
miracle. You see a piece of ground near London covered with a market
garden, and after a few months you go by the place and you see streets
and a public square and a church and a great population. You say to
yourself, "It is remarkable that all these houses should have sprung up
in a few months." Yet that is not at all so wonderful as for a plowed
field to become covered four feet high with corn, and all without the
use of wagons to bring the material, or tools to work it up into a
harvest. Without noise of hammer, or the ringing of trowels; without
handiwork of man, the whole has been done. Wonder at the growth of
grace. See how it increases, deepens, strengthens! Growth in grace is a
marvel of divine love. That a person should repent through the Gospel,
that he should believe in Jesus, that he should be totally changed,
that he should have a hope of heaven, that he should receive power to
become a child of God'these are all marvelous things; yet they are
going on under our eyes and we fail to admire them as we should. The
growth of holiness in such fallen creatures as we are is the admiration
of angels, the delight of all intelligent beings.

To the sower this growth was very pleasing. How pleasant it is to see
the seed of grace grow in children! Do you not remember when you first
sowed mustard-and-cress as a child, how the very next morning you went
and turned the ground up to see how much it had grown? How pleased you
were when you saw the little yellow shoot, and afterward a green leaf
or two! So is it with the true teacher: he or she is anxious to see
growth and makes eager inquiry for it. What was expected is taking
place and it is most delightful to that teacher, whatever it may be to
others. An unsympathetic person cries, "Oh, I do not think anything of
that child's emotions. It is merely a passing impression: he will soon
forget it." The teacher does not think so. The cold critic says, "I
don't think much of a child's weeping. Children's tears lie very near
the surface." But the teacher is full of hope that in these tears is a
real sorrow for sin, and an earnest seeking after the Lord. The
questioner says, "It is nothing for a child to say that he gives his
heart to Jesus. Youngsters soon think that they believe. They are so
easily led." People talk thus because they do not love children and
live with the desire to save them. If you sympathize with children, you
are pleased with every hopeful token and are on the watch for every
mark of divine life within them. If you are a florist, you will see
more of the progress of your plants than if you are no gardener and
have no interest in such things. Think, then, of what my text says: "It
grew." Oh, for a prayer just now from all of you this morning, "Lord,
make the Gospel grow wherever it falls! Whether the preacher scatters
it, or the teacher sows it; whether it falls among the aged people, or
the young; Lord, make the Gospel grow!" Pray hard for it, friends! You
cannot make it grow, but you can prevail with God to bless it to His
honor and praise.

Next, having started growing, it became a tree. Luke says, "It waxed a
great tree." It was great in itself, but the greatness was seen mainly
in comparison with the size of the seed. The growth was great. Here is
the wonder, not that it became a tree, but that being a mustard seed,
it should become "a great tree." Do you see the point of the parable? I
have already brought it before you. Listen! It was only a word
spoken'"Dear boy, look to Jesus." Only such a word, and a soul was
saved, its sin was forgiven, its whole being was changed, a new heir of
heaven was born. Do you see the growth? A word produces salvation! A
grain of mustard seed becomes a great tree! A little teaching brings
eternal life. That is not all: the teacher, with many prayers and
tears, took her girl home, and pleaded with her for Christ, and the
girl was led to yield her heart to the dominion of Christ Jesus'a holy,
heavenly life came out of that pleading. See! she becomes a thoughtful
girl, a loving wife, a gracious mother, a matron in Israel, such a one
as Dorcas among the poor, or Hannah with her Samuel. What a great
result from a little cause! The teacher's words were tearfully spoken;
they could not have been printed, for they were far too broken and
childlike; but they were, in God's hands, the means of fashioning a
life most sweet, most chaste, most beautiful.

A boy was about as wild as any roamer of our streets; a teacher knelt
by his side with his arm about the lad's neck. He pleaded with God for
the boy, and with the boy for God. That boy was converted, and as a
youth in business he was an example to the workroom; as a father he was
a guide to his household; as a man of God he was a light to all around;
as a preacher of righteousness he adorned the doctrine of God his
Saviour in all things. There is much more which I might easily picture,
but you can work it out as well as I can. All that is to be desired may
spring out of the simple talk of a humble Christian with a youth. A
mustard seed becomes a great tree; a few words of holy admonition may
produce a noble life.

But is that all? Beloved, our teaching may preserve souls from the deep
darkness of the abode of the lost. A soul left to itself might hurry
down from folly to vice, from vice to obduracy, from obduracy to fixed
resolve to perish; but by the means of loving teaching all this is
changed. Rescued from the power of sin, like a lamb snatched from
between the jaws of the lion, the youth is now no longer the victim of
vice, but seeks holy and heavenly things. Hell has lost its prey, and
see up yonder, heaven's wide gate has received a precious soul.
"Sweeping through the gates of the New Jerusalem" many have come who
were led there from the Sunday-school. They who once were foul are now
white-robed, washed in the blood of the Lamb. Hark to their songs of
praise! You may keep on listening, for those songs will never come to
an end. All this was brought about through a brief address of a
trembling brother who stood up one Sunday afternoon to close the school
and talk a little about the Cross of Jesus. Or all this came of a
gentle sister who could never have spoken in public, yet was enabled to
warn a young girl who was growing giddy and seemed likely to go sadly
astray. Wonderful that a soul's taking the road to heaven or to hell
should be made, in the purpose of God, to hinge upon the humble
endeavors of a weak but faithful teacher! You see how the mustard seed
grew until it waxed a great tree.

This great tree became a shelter: "the fowls of the air lodged in the
branches of it." Mustard in the East does grow very large indeed. The
commonest kind of it may be found eight or ten feet high, but there is
a kind which will grow almost like a forest tree, and there probably
were some of these latter trees in the sheltered region wherein our
Lord was speaking. A mustard which grew here and there in Palestine was
of sur prising dimensions. When the tree grew, the birds came to it.
Here we have unexpected influences. Think of it. That man took a
mustard seed which you could hardly see if I held it up. When he took
the mustard seed, when he put it into his garden, had he any thought of
bringing birds to that spot? Not he. You do not know all you are doing
when you are teaching a child the way of salvation by Jesus Christ.
When you are trying to bring a soul to Christ, your action has ten
thousand hooks to it, and these may seize on innumerable things. Holy
teaching is the opening of a well, and no one knows all the effect
which the waters will produce on that spot. There seems no link between
sowing a grain of mustard seed and birds of the air, but the winged
wanderers soon made a happy connection. There may seem no connection
between teaching that boy and the reclaiming of cannibals in New
Guinea, but I can see a very possible connection. Tribes in Central
Africa may have their destiny shaped by your instruction of a tiny
child. When John Pounds bribed an urchin with a hot potato to come and
learn to read the Bible, I am sure John Pounds had no idea of all the
Ragged schools in London, but there is a clear line of cause and effect
in the whole matter. A hot potato might be the coat of arms of the
Ragged school Union. When Nasmyth went about from house to house
visiting in the slums of London, I do not suppose that he saw in his
act the founding of the London City Mission and all the Country Town
Missions. No one can tell the end of his beginnings, the growth of his
sowings. Go on doing good in little ways and you shall one day wonder
at the great results. Do the next thing that lies before you. Do it
well. Do it unto the Lord. Leave results with His unbounded liberality
of love, but hope to reap at least a hundredfold.

How many fowls came and roosted under that one mustard tree I do not
know. How many birds in a day, how many birds in the year, came and
found a resting place, and picked the seeds they loved so well, I
cannot tell. When one person is converted, how many may receive a
blessing out of him none can tell. Now is the day for romances: our
literature is drenched with tales religious or irreligious. What
stories might be written concerning benefits bestowed, directly and
indirectly, by a single godly man or woman! When you have written a
thrilling story upon the subject, I can assure you I can match it with
something better still. One single individual can scatter benedictions
across a continent, and belt the world with blessing.

But what is that I hear? I see this mustard tree'it is a very wonderful
tree; but I not only see, I hear! Music! music! The birds! the birds!
It is early morning, the sun is scarcely up'what torrents of song! Is
that the way to produce music? Shall I sow mustard seed, and reap
songs? I thought we must buy an organ or purchase a violin, or by some
wind or stringed instrument come at music, but here is a new plan
altogether. Nebuchadnezzar had his flute, harp, sackbut, psaltery,
dulcimer, and all kinds of music, but all that mingled sound could not
rival the melody of birds. I shall sow mustard seed now, and get music
in God's own way. Friends, when you teach your children the Gospel of
the Lord Jesus, you are sowing the music of heaven. Every time you tell
the tidings of pardon bought with blood, you are filling the choirs of
glory with sweet voices which, to the Eternal Name, shall day and night
trill out songs of devout gratitude. Go on, then, if this is to be the
result. If even heaven's high harmonies depend upon the simple teaching
of a Ragged school, let us never cease from our hallowed service.

Having said so much, I now close with these three practical
observations. Are we not highly honored to be entrusted with such a
marvelous thing as the Gospel? If it is a seed comprehending so much
within it which will come to so much if it be properly used, blessed
and happy are we to have such good news to proclaim! I thought this
morning, when I awoke into the damp and rain, and felt my bones
complaining, I shall be glad when four more Sundays shall have gone,
and I shall be free to take a little rest in a sunnier clime. Jaded in
mind, and weary in spirit, I braced myself with this reflection'what
blessed work I have to do! What a glorious Gospel have I to preach! I
ought to be a very happy man to have such glad tidings to bear to my
fellows. I said to myself, "So I am." Well now, beloved teacher, next
Sunday, when you leave your bed, and say, "I have had a hard week's
work, and I could half wish that I had not to go to my class," answer
yourself thus: "But I am a happy person to have to talk to children
about Christ Jesus. If I had to teach them arithmetic or carpentering,
I might get tired of it, but to talk about Jesus, whom I love, why, it
is a joy forever.

Let us be encouraged to sow the good seed in evil times. If we do not
see the Gospel prospering elsewhere, let us not despair; if there were
no more mustard seed in the world, and I had only one grain of it, I
should be all the more anxious to sow it. You can produce any quantity
if only one seed will grow. So now today there is not very much Gospel
about, the church has given it up, a great many preachers preach
everything but the living truth. This is sad, but it is a strong reason
why you and I should teach more Gospel than ever. I have often thought
to myself'Other men may teach socialism, deliver lectures, or collect a
band of fiddlers that they may gather a congregation, but I will preach
the Gospel. I will preach more Gospel than ever if I can; I will stick
more to the one cardinal point. The others can attend to the odds and
ends, but I will keep to Christ crucified. To those of vast ability who
are looking to the events of the day I would say, "Allow one poor fool
to keep to preaching the Gospel." Beloved teachers, be fools for
Christ, and keep to the Gospel. Don't you be afraid. It has life in it,
and it will grow; only you bring it out, and let it grow. I am
sometimes afraid that we may prepare our sermons and addresses too
much, so as to make ourselves shine. If so, we are like the man who
tried to grow potatoes'he never grew any, and he wondered much, "for,"
said he, "I very carefully boiled them for hours." So, it is very
possible to extract all the life out of the Gospel, and put so much of
yourself into it that Christ will not bless it.

And, lastly, we are bound to do it. If so much will come out of so
little, we are bound to go in for it. Nowadays people want ten percent
for their money. Hosts of fools are readily caught by any scheme or
speculation or limited liability company that promises to give them
immense dividends! I would like to make you wise by inviting you to an
investment which is sure. Sow a mustard seed, and grow a tree. Talk of
Christ, and save a soul; that soul saved will be a blessing for ages,
and a joy to God throughout eternity. Was there ever such an investment
as this? Let us go on with it. If on our simple word eternity is hung,
let us speak with all our heart. Life, death, and hell, and worlds
unknown, hang on the lips of the earnest teacher of the Gospel of
Jesus. Let us never cease speaking while we have breath in our body.
The Lord bless you! Amen, and Amen.

PORTION OF SCRIPTURE READ BEFORE SERMON'Matthew 13:1-23.

HYMNS FROM "OUR OWN HYMN BOOK"'916, 643, 30.