t,
they knew well what seed they ought to carry, and were ever ready to
cast it in where they saw an opening. One of them, and he the greatest,
formed and expressed a determination to know nothing among the people
save Jesus Christ, and him crucified. Twice in one chapter (Acts viii.),
we learn incidentally, but with great precision, what kind of seed
Philip the Evangelist carried always in his vessel, and cast into every
furrow as he passed along. When a large congregation assembled in the
city of Samaria to hear him, "he preached Christ unto them;" and when,
on a subsequent occasion, he was called to deal with an anxious inquirer
alone in the desert, "he opened his mouth and began at the same
scripture"--He was led as a lamb to the slaughter--"and preached unto
him Jesus." This is the seed sent down from heaven to be the life of the
world.

The SOWERS, although they have become a great company in these latter
days, are still, like the reapers, "few" in relation to the vastness of
the field. The Lord's message to Ananias of Damascus concerning Saul,
immediately after his conversion, graphically defines the office of a
minister as a sower of the seed: "He is a chosen vessel unto me, to bear
my name before the Gentiles, and kings, and the children of Israel"
(Acts ix. 15). A vessel for holding Christ and dropping that precious
seed into human hearts wherever an opening should appear--this is the
true idea of a minister of the Gospel. Nor is the work confined to those
who, being trained to it, and freed from other cares, may thereby be
capable of conducting it on a larger scale. As every leaf of the forest
and every ripple on the lake, which itself receives a sunbeam on its
breast, may throw the sunbeam off again, and so spread the light around;
in like manner, every one, old or young, who receives Christ into his
heart may and will publish with his life and lips that blessed name. In
the spirit of the Lord's own precept regarding the harvest, we may all
be encouraged to adopt and press the prayer that our Father, the
husbandman, would send forth sowers into his field.

We turn now to the GROUND, and the various _obstacles_ which there
successively meet the seed and mar its fruitfulness.

I. THE WAY SIDE.--"When any one heareth the word of the kingdom, and
understandeth it not, then cometh the wicked one, and catcheth away that
which was sown in his heart. This is he which received seed by the way
side." A path beate