LACKING DEPTH
‘And some fell on stony ground, where it had not much earth; and immediately it sprang up, because it had no depth of earth.’
Mark 4:5
I. The beautiful exterior.—How many are there in the world of the class represented in the text! There is much about them, like the earth, which is good; much that appears to bear the stamp of Divine grace. We see an amiable temper, a sweet, natural disposition, a love of good things. This is the earth. Beneath the gilding, so lovely and attractive, there is concealed the stone. This is the true character of the heart, not the beautiful exterior. It is the ‘stony heart’ still—the old heart under a new covering.
II. The hidden stone.—And what is another phase of the stony heart? The seed falls and springs up quickly, but cannot take root, because of the hidden stone that hinders it. So it is with many. The seed falls, but what hinders it from taking root? Some stone of secret sin lodged in the heart. There is the secret lust the heart cannot renounce, some grasping covetousness it cannot give up, some carnal affection it cannot mortify, or some inveterate habit it is unwilling to overcome. These are the stones in many a heart. Man may not see them, but God does.
III. God requires depth in our religion.—It should grow where man sees it not. It should be casting its roots within the veil. On what depends the strength, the beauty, and the fruit of the tree? On its hidden roots. So with the Christian. What he is outwardly will depend on his hidden life before God. This is what we want now.
—Rev. F. Whitfield.
Illustrations
(1) ‘See that noble ship riding on the waves. Her yards are right, her canvas is spread, and there is a favourable breeze. Why sails she not out of the harbour? Why heaves she so restlessly on the waters? Down deep in the water, and concealed from every eye, is the anchor. This holds her fast. What avail favouring tides and breezes? Nothing whatever. Cut off the anchor, and then, with God’s breath helping her, she may move on. So it is with many a soul. There they are from year to year, and never move one step heavenward. The same in youth, the same in manhood, the same in hoar hairs. Why are they not in the race? Why still lagging behind in the world of sin and death? Ah, down deep in the muddy streams of the deceitful heart there lies the anchor of secret sin, holding fast the noble vessel that should be freighted with God’s glory and on its way to Canaan.’
(2) ‘The age we live in is a very superficial one. We live in a day when men can be Christians one day, and anything the next; when men can talk of the deep things of God in one breath, and the things of the world in the next; when the great aim of the many is just to save their character; to go with the worldling or the infidel up to that point. To advance beyond would stake their Christian reputation, otherwise they would soon do even that. It is an easy, indulgent, self-loving, half-hearted Christianity that surrounds us. The religion of the many is in the head and on the tongue, far more than in the heart.’

THE THORNS OF PROSPERITY
‘And some fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up, and choked it, and it yielded no fruit.’
Mark 4:7
Here we have an illustration of what may be the distressing effect of worldly prosperity upon the spiritual life.
I. ‘No time.’—One of the chief dangers of a state of general prosperity, especially when that prosperity is in a growing state, is the constant tendency to the entire occupation of time with merely secular duties, which rightfully should be devoted to the care and cultivation of religion.
II. Increase of pride.—Worldly prosperity invariably leads to an increase of pride, and thus the growth of the Christian virtue of humility is choked.
III. The love of luxury.—This generally follows increased wealth, and self-denial, which is demanded of the follower of Christ, finds no room for development.
IV. A worldly life.—Men become more and more ‘of the world’ as their fortunes increase.
Beware, then, of the thorns of prosperity.
Illustration
‘These Easter lily bulbs were the gift of a dear friend. I planted them in two rows, seventeen in all, to form a background for the other varieties. Two years after I saw one in the row nearest the fence falling short. I gave it a little extra care, dug about it, and enriched it a little more. Still it pined. At last its leaves grew sallow, and then they fell off altogether. It was indeed time to investigate the cause. So I dug carefully down, searching for grubs, for mole-tracks, for all-thought-of enemies. None of these were there. At last I found the bulb, sound, but shrunken, held fast captive in the meshes of another life. A wild clematis had sprung up at an adjacent post, and I had allowed it to remain that it might trail its dark-green leaves and wealth of bloom along the somewhat unsightly fence. But, though not shading the lily, or apparently crowding it above, the roots below had crept along instinctively to the richer soil around it, and at last encircled the bulb. There were the multitudinous golden fibres, each only a slender thread, but counting as they must have done by thousands, and all of them closing round and round the struggling bulb, until at last it was choked.’

GOOD SOIL YIELDS GOOD FRUIT
‘And other fell on good ground, and did yield fruit.’
Mark 4:8
Here the seed falls in deep, well-prepared soil, and at harvest ‘the valleys stand thick with corn.’ When gathered in it is found to yield thirty, sixty, even a hundredfold, and the farmer rejoices.
Who are these? Those who have an ‘ honest and good heart,’ made so by Him from Whom comes ‘the preparations of the heart in man’ ( Proverbs 16:1), open to receive good; sincere, like Nathanael and Lydia. Proof of this shown by:—
I. Receiving the Word.—‘Thy Word have I hid in mine heart.’
II. Understanding the Word.—With heart and mind.
III. Keeping the Word, not letting it go, when world tries to draw away.
IV. Bringing forth fruit with patience.—Corn has many dangers to pass through, and a Christian has many trials and difficulties, but he who has an ‘honest heart’ perseveres and produces fruit, not all alike—different measures; some more, some less, but all should strive to bring forth more, remembering John 15:8. This fruitfulness is the proof of having the ‘honest heart.’
Rev. R. R. Resker.
Illustration
‘There will always be some persons in this state of soul where the Gospel is faithfully preached. Their numbers may very likely be few, compared to the worldly around them. Their experience and degree of spiritual attainment may differ widely, some bringing forth thirty, some sixty, and some a hundredfold. But the fruit of the seed falling into good ground will always be of the same kind. There will always be visible repentance, visible faith in Christ, and visible holiness of life. Without these things there is no saving religion.’

ALONE WITH CHRIST
‘And when they were alone, He expounded all things to His disciples.’
Mark 4:34
There is nothing like the direct teaching of Christ. It makes everything so very plain, so individual, so precious. And the ordinance of the pulpit will be to very little good if it do not send you into the privacy of your own room, there to have it all over again from Him to your separate and salient heart.
I. The disciple’s privilege.—Let us take care that we lay its proper and comforting stress on that one full word: ‘When they were alone, He expounded all things to His disciples.’ Whenever you come to complicated things which you cannot untie, within you or about you—an involved truth, a baffling Providence, an unintelligible condition of your own soul—take it to that great Expositor. And this is one great privilege of being a disciple: all things shall be made clear to you. The world has its messages, but ‘He manifests Himself to you as He does not unto the world.’ Others may have the words of Christ, but you shall have His mind.
II. ‘Alone with Christ.’—To be alone with Christ there must be—
( a) A calm, quiet mind; it must not be pre-occupied; the inner life must not be a crowd of thought; but stillness, with room, free room enough for Christ. I am not ‘alone’ with a person, if a thousand other presences, as real as his, are there. It must be, to have Christ, a perfectly vacant place.
( b) A realisation that Christ is there with you. Why should you hesitate to accept it? He has said that He will be there; and His being, and therefore His presence, is spiritual, and consequently invisible. Therefore, simply believe it: ‘Christ is here; He takes a personal interest in me; because He takes the interest in me, He is now here to speak to me. I will shut my ears to all other things, that I may hear Him. I will close my eyes and see Him only. Now, my own loving Saviour and I are by ourselves.’
( c) Confidential communications. Tell Him confidentially all you have in your mind, and expect Him to tell you confidentially all He has in His mind for you. Whatever be the difficulty, the trouble, the fear, the question, the sin, name it, spread it, and whatever answer comes in return—and it will come, silently but consciously—take it as whispered to you and intended for you only. For you must meet Christ as your own personal friend, or you will not meet Him at all.
III. With Christ everywhere.—You will have been ‘alone’ with Christ in your room to very small purpose, if you have not learnt there the happy art of so carrying Him with you everywhere, that you can often be as ‘alone’ with Him in the crowd as you were in your privacy. Practise yourself to get apart from the busy scene about you, and to go down into the sanctuary of your own soul, and try to find and meet Christ only. No one can say how it elevates, and refines, and sanctifies, and sweetens the day. It is the thing which makes it heaven to live, to have learnt the secret how to be ‘alone’ with the Lord Jesus Christ anywhere.
Rev. James Vaughan.
Illustration
‘Our Lord justifies the parabolic form of teaching, which often served to veil the truth, on the ground that immediate revelation is not always desirable. Many things are concealed, both in nature and by art, though the concealment is by no means designed to be permanent. What striking illustrations of the principle are furnished in geology! Look at the almost measureless bed of coal, hidden for ages in the bowels of the earth, but designed by Providence to be revealed when necessity should arise. The precise time for the unveiling is not always easy to decide, because man’s knowledge is finite, but we rest assured that it will coincide with the need for its use. It is a principle worth bearing in mind when human efforts fail; for it is encouraging to know that such a result may be due simply to the fact that we have tried unconsciously to anticipate the pre-appointed time.’

THE SECRET OF A QUIET MIND
‘And He arose, and rebuked the wind, and said unto the sea, Peace, be still. And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm.’
Mark 4:39
No words can exaggerate the value and importance of a calm mind. It is the basis of almost everything which is good. Well-ordered reflections, meditation, influence, wise speech, right action, a safe youth, a life to purpose, a peaceful end, a holy, happy death—all embosom themselves in a calm mind.
I. How is a calm mind to be attained?—Is there a stilling influence anywhere which can hush the risings, and the changings, and the swellings of my soul? I believe, and am sure, that the one answer to the question is Christ. He, and nothing else but He, can really and effectually say, ‘Peace, be still.’
II. Consider Jesus as the stiller of the heart.—He was most eminently a still character. The greatest force of energy and the largest activity of mind and body are not only compatible with stillness, but they go to make it. The persons of the largest power and the most telling action are generally the quietest. They may owe it to discipline and drill—and perhaps Christ Himself did—but they show themselves reined in and well-ordered. But we cannot think of Christ, the Man who should not ‘strive’ or ‘cry,’ so unruffled in scenes the most exasperating; so mildly answering the most angry words, without the deepest impression of the steady balance of that adjusted mind. And to Whom, therefore, in a beautiful exercise of retributive justice, it belongs to create the stillnesses of the human heart.
III. The want of religious peace lies at the root of all that is trouble to the mind. A man at peace with God will necessarily be at peace with his own conscience. And if a man is at once at peace with himself, he will never have his feelings greatly moved and aggravated by any external things whatsoever. For if all is right with God, what does it much matter about all the rest?
IV. A man’s relation to the world.—The believer’s relation to God’s mind is peace and love; and, therefore, it will be peace and love to his fellow-creatures. And it is a very subduing and humble thing to feel pardon and love. There is nothing in the world so humbling as to be loved. And what are all tossings of the mind?—pride; and what is quietness?—humility.
V. It is the office and prerogative of Christ to give quietness.—And if He gives this, who then can make trouble! You may have a desperate conflict with some passion, but there is a greater with you than all that is against you—greater than that poor, weak heart of yours.