Article June 1, 1912 Issue

THE SOWER

MIRIAM ORMONDE SMALLWOOD.

It will appear to the thoughtful Christian Scientist that the parable of the sower has a specific bearing upon his own condition; and the degree of understanding with which he receives the seeds of Truth determines in great measure his capacity for growth. That understanding, whether it be much or little, is the soil in which the seed fructifies or fails, will be readily seen when we consider the parable in its many phases as presented in the first three gospels. In Luke we read: "A sower went out to sow his seed: and as he sowed, some fell by the way side; and it was trodden down, and the fowls of the air devoured it."

This first instance appears to indicate that one is in the state of spiritual darkness wherein the light shineth and "the darkness comprehended it not." The words, "and it was trodden down," are especially significant, in that they convey the idea of the pearls of Truth being stamped under foot by such as despise its message. Thought long turned to error in every form of belief, calloused and irreceptive, becomes the beaten track of materiality. Like the seed that fell by the wayside and which the fowls of the air devoured, the truths of divine Science under the assault of mortal sense find no lodgment in fruitful soil, and hence there is no harvest. Literally, the truth cannot be devoured, but, as it is more discriminatingly expressed farther on in the parable, it can be seemingly caught away. The figure, however, is significant, in that fowls devour anything they see, regardless of value or consequence; and mortal sense may be fitly likened to such in its ruthless and unintelligent attack upon the evidences of Spirit.

In the next instance, Matthew tells us that "some fell upon stony places, where they had not much earth: and forthwith they sprung up, because they had no deepness of earth: and when the sun was up, they were scorched; and because they had no root, they withered away." To the thought not deeply aroused to the compelling power of Truth, but which receives it as one receives anything which pleases or interests for a time, the light of divine Science comes to no lasting purpose. The plowshare of understanding necessary to break up the fallow ground, the divine perception which alone can enrich and fertilize its soil, have either not yet been expressed or are so faintly manifested that when the great spiritual facts of Science appear, temptations overwhelm, as the scorching sun tries to its undoing the seed sprung up in stony places. Not ready to approach the crown by way of the cross, men fail to perceive that the path to the mount of transfiguration leads past Calvary. Not "girt about with truth," they give up the battle. Having "no root in themselves," they fall away.

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