harvest springs. Weeds will grow of themselves, but corn requires culture ; nor can any harvest be expected but in con- sequence of a patient and laborious attention to the duties of husbandry. Thus it is also with the Gospel. That is the seed from which alone any fruit will arise to God. Men will bring forth all manner of evil fruits without any instruction or advice. But never will they abound in fruits of righteousness unless the seed of divine truth be first sown in their hearts.]
The place whereon this seed is cast is like '' the tops of mountains " —
[Vallies are fruitful; but momitains, and especially the mountain-tops, are barren. They rarely have any soil ; nor, if they had, would they be proper situations for the sowing of corn. Were any corn to spring up upon them, the storms and tempests would destroy it long before it could arrive at maturity. Such is the world at large, and the heart of every individual in it, barren in itself, and exposed to storms of passion and floods of temptation. And most discom'aging is the prospect of that labourer who goes forth to sow his corn in such a soil.
Moreover the mountain-tops were the places where the idols of the heathen deities were worshipped^. Thus were they the seat of all superstition and idolatry. What a view does this give us of the place where the Gospel seed is sown ! Yet, alas! it is but too just a representation both of the world, and of the heart of man. Superstition and idolatry abound in every place and every heart. What seed then can be expected ever to flourish in so foul a soil?]
Nor is there more than a mere "handful" of corn sown there —
[If the seed were multiplied in proportion to the badness of the soil, there might still be some little hope of a harvest. But of what use is a mere handful of corn when cast on a surface of such vast extent ? What hope could there be that the whole world should be evangelized by twelve poor fisher- men? Even at this time, how wide the field, and how few the labourers ! Millions of our fellow-creatures never so much as hear the name of Christ ; and of those who do, there are, alas ! too many who never have the whole counsel of God declared unto them.]
But notwithstanding these discouragements we shall not despair of the success of the Gospel, if we consider,
^ In reference to this custom, the prophet Isaiah, foretelling the triumph of the Gospel over all false religions, says, " The mountain of the Lord's House shall be established on the top of the mountains."