d ground,
fills better and ripens sooner where the sky is cloudless and the sun is
fierce.

That deep-seated stony hardness of heart which defies all the efforts of
human cultivators is often broken small by the hand of God. It appears
that Lydia, through natural temperament or association with Christians,
or both together, had attained some measure of spiritual susceptibility,
for she confessed the truth and attended the prayer-meeting by the river
side; but the seed of the word which had sprung on the surface of her
life had not yet struck its root so deep as to withstand persecution if
it should arise. She is described as a woman who sold purple and
worshipped God: she had an honest business and a true religion, and were
not these enough? No; the next fact of her history was the cardinal
point of her life,--"whose heart the Lord opened that she attended to
the things that were spoken of Paul." The seed from that skilful sower's
hand went in and took possession, but it entered at an opening made by
the power of God. Whether the rock was rent by the dew of the Spirit
dropping silently, or by some stroke of Providence falling on her person
or her material interests, we know not. If ordinary providential
methods were employed, we know not, of the many instruments that lie
close to the Ruler's hand, which he was pleased to use in that
particular case. Perhaps the child of this honest and religious woman
died, and her bosom, bereft of its treasure, rent with aching. Perhaps,
on the day that Paul was there, she came to the meeting for the first
time in widow's weeds, and the stroke that tore her other self away had
left a wide avenue open into her heart. Perhaps,--for small instruments
do great execution when they are wielded by an almighty arm,--an adverse
turn of trade had left the hitherto affluent matron dependent on a
neighbour's bounty for daily bread. Were other dealers, less
scrupulously honourable than herself, underselling her in the market?
Was her foreman unsteady? for, being a woman, she must needs depend much
on hired helpers. Or did a living husband grieve her more than a dead
one could? By some such instrument, or by another diverse from them all,
or without any visible agent, the Lord opened Lydia's heart, and the
word of life entered in power. Henceforth she was not her own; Christ
dwelt in her heart by faith, and her life was devoted to the Lord her
Redeemer. Deep in that broken heart the seed is rooted,