Not only
have we permission to do this: we are bound positively to do it. The
parable excludes us indeed from further knowledge or power, after the
word is made known, but it excludes as the farmer is excluded from his
sown seed. We know the nature and extent of that exclusion. While the
lesson relieves us from the responsibility of that which is beyond our
power, it lays upon us the responsibility of that which is within our
power.

You may have seen a sown field in spring immediately after a great
rain-fall; and you may have observed that a large portion of it, on its
lower side, was smooth, and run together and caked, bearing all the
marks of having been for some days under water. On the higher portions
the wheat was springing, but on this portion, sown at the same time, the
ground was bare. You examine the matter more minutely and discover that
the drains that had been made for carrying off the surplus moisture, had
been choked in the operations of the seed-time, and not cleared out
again; and that consequently when rain fell heavily, it accumulated on
the lower ground; and having soaked and soured it for several days, had
killed the germinating seed beneath the ground. You go to the farmer and
ask why he had allowed a large portion of his crop to be lost. Suppose
he should say, My work was done, as soon as the seed fell from my hand
into the soil; I can neither make it grow, nor understand how it grows;
it was not in my province that the failure took place, and therefore the
failure could not be my fault. No such specimen of hypocrisy is found in
the kingdom of nature: no man could hold up his face before his fellow
and cover his indolence by such an impudent plea.

We must see to it, that we be not guilty of the same inconsistency in
matters of greater moment. A parent or minister or teacher has committed
the good seed of the word to the hearts of his young people, with all
due solemnity and care; and thereafter permits them to be steeped in a
flood of folly, which he could easily have drained away. The good seed
is drowned in that deluge; but it is the sower's fault. It is true he
cannot make it grow by his care; but he can make it not grow by his
carelessness. We cannot do the saving; but we can do the destroying.
Many pains and many prayers are competent to the sower, although he
cannot directly control the growth of the seed. When it grows, it grows
independently of him; but when it fails, the failure may in