w there is cause to be alarmed, and yet
they are not alarmed. They neither grieve for sin nor love the Saviour;
yet perhaps a dark cloud-like thought sometimes sweeps across their
brightest sky--We have not yet gone in by the open door of mercy, and
while we are delaying it may be suddenly shut.

The case might be understood well enough by those whom it concerns, if
the same amount of attention were bestowed upon it that is ordinarily
devoted to other branches of business. See the hard dry road that runs
along the edge of a corn field: you are not surprised to find it barren
in a harvest day; you know that grain, although sown there, would not
grow, and you know the reason. The reason why the Gospel does you no
good may be as clearly, as surely seen. Cares, vanities, passions, tread
in constant succession over your heart, and harden it, so that the word
of Christ, though it sound on the surface, never goes in, and never gets
hold. Think not that the saints are by nature of another kind: they were
once what you are, and you may yet become what they are, and more.
"Break up your fallow ground." Look into your own heart's sin until you
begin to grieve over it; look unto Jesus bearing sin until you begin to
love him for his love. Tell God frankly in prayer that your heart is
hard, and plead for the Holy Spirit to make it tender. The saints
already in rest, and disciples in the body still, were once a trodden
way side like yourself, as hard and as barren. Place your heart, as they
did, without reserve in the Redeemer's hands; bid him take the hardness
out and make it new. Invite the Word himself to take up his abode within
you; throw the doors widely open that the King of Glory may come in.
When Christ shall dwell in your heart by faith, a godly sorrow
underneath will soften every faculty of your nature, and over all the
surface fruits of righteousness will grow.

II. THE STONY GROUND.--A human heart, the soil on which the sower casts
his seed, is in itself and from the first hard both above and below; but
by a little easy culture, such as most people in this land may enjoy,
some measure of softness is produced on the surface. Among the
affections, when they are warm and newly stirred, the seed speedily
springs. Many young hearts, subjected to the religious appliances which
abound in our time, take hold of Christ and let him go again. This, on
the one hand, as we learn by the result, was never a true conversion;
but neith