understand these things? In St. Paul's charge to the elders of Ephesus, he twice presses upon their attention how he 'taught from house to house,' and 'ceased not for the space of three years to warn every one, night and day, with tears.' And in writing to the Corinthians, he appeals to their knowledge of his personal sympathy with the feelings of every private Christian among them, notwithstanding the multiplicity of his ordinary duties Who is weak, and I am not weak-who is offended, and I burn not "."

7 Acts, xx. 20, 31. 2 Cor. xi. 29.

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CHAPTER X.

On the Effects of Christ's Ministry.

WHEN

HEN our Saviour was asked by one of the multitude-Lord, are there few that be saved ' -he did not judge it expedient to answer the question otherwise than by advising his follower to make a serious use of the inquiry for the promotion of his own individual salvation.

Strive

for

to enter in at the strait gate,' he replied, many will seek to enter in, and shall not be able.'

Yet though our Lord was pleased on this occasion to repress the idle curiosity of his hearer, he has not left us altogether without the means of forming some conclusions respecting the awful subject of his inquiry. He has taught us, both plainly and figuratively, that his Father's flock is a little one. The inadequate

effect produced by the Gospel on those to whom it was first preached, compared with the sensation excited by the appearance of its authorthe small number of disciples obtained by our Lord during his personal ministry-were presages which have been but too surely fulfilled in all succeeding times, that there are obstacles prevailing in the hearts of many, which oppose an effectual barrier against the reception of the doctrines of Christianity. In particular, the parable of the sower bears witness to the afflicting truth, that even when he that soweth the good seed is the Son of Man, three fourths of it are lost through the barrenness of the soil by the wayside, or on stony places, or among thorns.

But although it was thus intimated by our Lord himself, that the immediate harvest should not make a return corresponding with the pains bestowed by the husbandman, yet it had been promised of old, that the word which went forth out of his mouth should not all return unto him void, or fail to prosper in that whereunto it was

sent. There should be at least an handful of

corn in the earth on the top of the mountains,' which, by the special blessing of God should be increased at last into that

great multitude'

seen in the heavenly vision, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindred, and peoples, and tongues. Other seed, therefore, says the Evangelist, fell in good ground, and brought forth fruit, some an hundred fold, some sixty fold, some thirty fold. Thus we see that nothing springs spontaneously even on the good ground, and the sower sowed there also, because the earth, even where best, can bring forth nothing without culture. All pretensions at variance with this truth must be silenced, and the universal want of that adoption into the family of God which enables us to cry, Abba, Father,' must be acknowledged, before those true spiritual fruits can be produced, which testify that our hopes are rooted and established in faith on Christ.

.

1 Is. lv. 11.

2 Rev. vii. 9.

I. If, in tracing the effects of Christ's ministry, the metaphorical language of this parable be kept in view, there will be no difficulty in accounting, on right principles, for that measure of success which actually attended it, or in ascribing the rejection of the Gospel by so large a portion of its hearers to the proper

cause.

That ground which, though it needed sowing, brought forth fruit under the culture of the heavenly husbandman, was good ground; and herein lies the distinction between it, and all the other soils mentioned in the parable. There was a fitness for the reception of the seed. There was depth enough to retain it, and strength enough to nourish it, and warmth enough to invigorate the plant in its gradual progress towards maturity. These are very different properties from any which the ground by the wayside, or on the rock, or among the thorns, possessed. And there is quite as much distinction between the mental qualifications of those hearers of the word who are thus figura