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very ill with typhoid fever, at the res
idence of her son, Mr. R. Page. Mrs.
Spear, the widow of the late B. J
Spear. also sick with malaria! .
IS Very
fever.
Miss Annie Wilkerson has recently
returned from West Point and La¬
Grange where she has been on a visit
of two weeks.
What has become of our numerous
correspondents ? In looking over
the Journal for a month past I have
missed them. Come, Mountain Hill,
Mulberry ^rove, Don, Hargett and
others, wake up and walk bravely to
the front and let us hear from you.
PAYABLE OF THE SOWER.
CRITICAL NOTES BY REV. GEORGE
P. HAYS, D. D., LL. D.
Lesson X of the International Series for
Sunday, Dec. 4, 1887—Text of Les«on,
Matt, xiii, 1-5); Golden Text, Luke vlii,
11 .
This chapter of parables is quite as con¬
spicuous as tho chapters containing the Ser¬
mon on tho Mount. These parables may not
all have been spoken at one sitting, but are
here given in one group. The Saviour had
been traveling through Galilee and was now
back at his permanent residence at Caper¬
naum. Crowds gathered around. The ship
made a convenient pulpit, high enough above
the shore to bring the Saviour easily in sight
of the multitude of people.
It is to be noticed here that tho Saviour
d««Ti,.Uon ... of , this . does ,
gives no sower, nor
no muljonze the sower to pick the ground on
wm,-h ho is to sow Neither .s there any
description of the seed I he sower does not
innke the seed ho was to sow. It was g,ven
to him to sow, and he has no right to try to
mod,! V ,t or Change it “Go, preach the
preaching tout I bid thee” was God’s com
,nun,l to Jonah, as to all his other servants.
Neither does the sower understand the
nature o the growth of this seed. The. .seed
is sown m us, but we also are sown in too
world, and the result is not merely m the
ground mt also m the seed sown. The re
sensibility is not altogether on the sower or
on the see,1 which is the word of God, but
the ddleiyi.ee of results is in the hearer. ,
1V o vs.de hearers -The wayside was once
as sol, as any part of the held; it .snow
Lea ton hard by much treading The seed
exposed cm this hard ground s to the birds
a special opixirtunity and invitation, and so
they come and light in flocks, taking away .
every seed and al possibility of growth j
•1 hat ways.de,. it is ever to bring iorth
irui; must be plowed and harrowed. This
wdlbe bard work and require rough hand
lmg. u ithout t his plowing and breaking up
ut this hard ground, not only will the seed
not eider, but the rain will pass away with
out softening It. and the sunshine that ought
to have produced growth will only make
dust. There seems not much chance for any
good result from sowing seed iusucli a place.
But the sower is simply told to sow, and sow
everywhere.
Stony ground.—’The rain that falls on it is
eoon evaporated, and the soil becomes dry
and \ egeiation dies. This rocky ground,
however, may be cleared up and become
fruitful. This can onlv ai.d be done by blasting
the big, deep rocks gathering out toe
little stones one by one. This will take vigor
ous work and strong resolution and patient
labor on the 1 -art Of the farmer.
Thorny ground.—Thorns arc still a differ
ent kind of thing from either rocks or birds
or clods. Tlu* roots of the thorns are not
part of the ground as the rocks are. nor are
they the result of much treading as is the
hardness of the wayside. Like the wheat
they are themselves things of growth, and
the soil wherein, they will grow well would
also grow wheat well if the thorns were out
ol the way. In such soil it is » question of
competition which shall occupy the ground.
Iu the case of the soil supplied with th or us
but sowed with grain, one or the oth-»r will
be choked. “No mau can serve two masters.”
No ground can raise a good crop both of
thorns and of grain.
Good ground.—When the good ground is
described, it is said to belong to those who
have an honest and good heart. There is to
be no trifling .... with the impoitance of religion, .
These begin to cultivate it with care. The
crop will depend very much on the nature of
the soil and the exposure to the sun, and
other favorable circumstances. This growth
in the good ground is a steady progress, and
not a growth by fits and jerks. The amount
of fruit, however, will vary \ery much even
in good ground. It is sometimes asked
whether a hundred fold is not a very unreas
onable and extraordinary crop. It must be
remembered, however, that in wheat each
1,rii w s ioTt * m ? n y stalks, and eachstalk
a head; so a hundred fold is not very un¬
usual. I have myself, while preparing these
lesson notes, counted the p-ains on an ear of
corn, and not an especially large one. There
were on it 7U3 grains. Many a stalk of corn
has two or three ears on it. The estimate,
therefore, of the crop in an especially good
field is not unreasonable—thirty, sixty or a
hundred fold.
SUGGESTIVE APPLICATIONS.
BY THE REV. EDWIN W. RlCfc, D. D.
The wayside seed (see vs. 4 and 19). You
find a particularly inattentive scholar in
your class who is listless, has no desire nor in¬
terest for religious truth, and upon whose
heart it seems as difficult to make an im
pression as if you were working upon gran¬
ite or upon polished steel. Whatever good
truth drops there stays on the outside, and
the next wind or the next companion who
comes along brushes it aside; or some agents
of the evil one in other ways snatch it away.
This hearer is the most discouraging and the
most hopeless one in your class.
Seed upon rocky ground (see vs. 5, 20 and
23). There are hearers and scholars who are
mercurial, impulsive, governed more by pas¬
sion than by principle, who gladly receive an
earnest call to obey the truth; they comply
with it promptly and passionately; for a few
days . thero ,, seems no , bound , to ^ then . zeal; . they n .
are quite i ready to find fault with older
Chvi ian3 tor t h eir coldness, tor their lack of
J,. and th ( s6em at one bouod to hav0 |
f om wor d i illcss to the very height of
*
Ainciplo irltM , ecstnsy . But th havo no abicli
* £ of Christianity; it is simply a sur
mining impulse, which passes away
dew,
ScodK hirers too thorns (seo vs. 7 and 22).
and scholars, full of the
„ r th ; 3 wori<1 Bnd its pleasures, crowded
m / ambition* and worldly desires, ^
r vrfth tbe multitudo o£ oth
> take in some of the teachings of
d Thoy that they can C o
; themselves with God’s people
> b themselves with too
t u its deIi gbts , without a
» Christ or of their duty to God all
’ nav, ^ they can mingle in all toe
£rivoUties ol they «*, no harm in opera*
dancing or card playing or
6 chance, unless indeed that they
nnd extensive gam- I
=' ,hilo ^ pretending to reSeive
d h cboke Jt out und
spirituality to them and no vital
yorpo J 1 werin their assumed Christian pro- j
.
’
the ugo good ground (see vs. 8 and
’ difference in the fruit
J d b tho of tbe spjrit ual seed.
to u, a greater care in preparing tho
, ieal , , ., ,______ Nearer
aK t th
spirituality of . too ,, receiver £• These These give eive in m
'reused liunfulnessirn toe ant ’
l l we l , .
^5" t . T.L d/aSaftiTS ,
ris ics 1 ” to ‘
spiritual fields, se«l and : There is
no ?“ c0 *“ A^-e^Wfourt^ , ,
the f ””* Lf SLed
w “ tea - Only one-fourth of the seed brought brou-ht
ars y harvest, and that in different decrees cf
fruitfulness; some very high, some very
moderate, and some in a very low degree. As
a spiritual sower you need not be discour
aged if every effort of yours does not pro-
411100 an abundant harvest; indeed you may
bo highly encouraged if barely one-fourth of
the good seed which you sow from God’s
word produces any good result,
HINTS FOR PRIMARY CLASSES.
BY ALICE W. KNOX.
Golden text: “The seed is the word of j
God.”
It is God’s word we study, this seed we
sow. Teachers are laborers on the great
farm, or in the garden of the Lord. The
reaping will be according to the sowing.
How is it, fellow laborers, with us? Are we
sowing the good seed of the word, or are we
sowing our own thoughts, illustrations and
seeds of self making? Does every child in
our classes get one gospel seed verse im¬
planted in the young heart every Sunday, so
that the Spirit will find it there ready for his
influences? or are we so anxious to show our
ingenuity in manufacturing pictures and
original illustrations that there is no time to
plant the seed? Pictures are excellent when
they aptly illustrate the subject,Tbut they can
never take the place of the gospel seed verse
that should be well planted in the child’s
mind. Stories are good when they explain
the truth contained in the seed verse, but
they must always be helps and not the main
lesson.
Jesus Christ could talk in parables and
convey exactly the truth he wished to com¬
municate; but he spake as never man spake.
In trying to imitate him, the greatest care
should be taken not to mistake the story for
the truth. Hence let young children memo¬
rize the Scriptures. Better far to go back to
tli old system of a verse a day and take all
the Sunday school hour in hearing them re¬
cited individually, and have no time for ex¬
planations, pictures, illustrations, than to
give the hour to these explanations, pictures
and illustrations, with no memoriter exer¬
cises. The Bible words are God’s words; the
others are human. The Bible words are the
good seed, the others the tillage. First get
the seed into the heart soil which God has
already prepared for it, and then let the best
possible explanations be given. Appeal to
eye, to ear, to heart, to memory; then with
earnest prayer submit the case to God, plead¬
ing for the Sun of righteousness to shine on
it and the dews of the divine Spirit to fructify
it, when a glorious harvest may be confi¬
dently expected.
In China the scholars commit entire chap
ters and whole books to memory. In a few
i ns t ances the entire New Testament has been
correctly recited from beginning to end.
This may, of course, be a parrot like recita¬
tion, the pupil not understanding one verse
with its true meaning; but it should be
thoroughly understood that this is not what
is here recommended. The memorizing Of at
least one seed verse weekly is urged as indis
pensable to good gospel teaching; then add
the rest as time permits, but by no means
neglect the first. A concert recitation of the
verses is not sufficient. As all teachers know,
young children mistake and misunderstand
words, like the little boy who told his mother
the verse taught in Sunday school was,
“Hold a grater to Solomon’s ear” (for “Be
hold, a greater than Solomon is here”). How
much gospel did that child get that day?
Each child should recite the verse separately,
carefully, and then be questioned about it,
and receive explanations of words new to
it. When twenty, thirty, 100 or 1,000
young children are packed on crowded
seats, and all recite together, per
sonal care and instruction are sim¬
ply impossible. The school may be very at¬
tractive, the children may like to attend, but
the truth is that very few of them are much
benefited. The younger the children the
more personal instructions they need: Adults
may crowd together under one good teacher
and receive benefit, because they know how
to read, how to study, how to pay attention,
how to think. Little children know none of
tliese things. The very meaning andpronun
clatlon of the words they do not know,
Whattol)yto try to teach them enmassel
They may be amused, they may be iuter
ested, by a skillful teacher, but a book might
be written filled with toe mistaken ideas and
words they obtain. These views are the re
suit of long experience and close observation,
recommended to primary teachers
thcir serious consideration. In short, to
sow the good seed of the word of God is to
plaI , t lt in the memory, wherethe Spirit may
find it ready for hi& use. This is our first
work, and let no teacher feel discouraged
who finds time for little else,
Remember—“The seed is the word of
God.”—Sunday School World,
ut tne thirty-eight students matriculated
on All Smuts’ Day at the General Episcopal
seminary, two are of the colored race, one j
being a son of Bishop Holly, of Hayti. i
The school of industrial art in Philadelphia j
is to be benefited by the proceeds of a festival,
arranged to be held at Horticultural hall un¬
der the direction of Mrs. E. D. GillesDia
i
f
BARGAINS! BARGAINS!
GOODS MOST BE SOLD!
I will c.ffer for the next ibir ( y dnys, AT
COST, my entire stock of Men’s,
Boys’ and Children’s
j Clothing, Overcoats and Boots
At First Cost.
I Have too Many My House,
and tliey Must be Sold.
mwiMthina V O in the J J)ru Goods
reduction k in
pvtces, he* t hi Prints lilts at at e> cents., cents •
Checks, 7 A l - W OGl Jeans
^ cents ; 40c, Jenns at 33 i-3
cents ; oOc. Jeans at 40 cents;
jUveSS Goods marked way down.
hi fact, we Will sell anything in,
the house so low that you will he
astonished . JVo humbug about
this business Come in and get 4
my prices and you Will see tha\
I
WE
MEAN
BUSINESS.
Very Respectfully,
R. SPIVE1
Chipley, Ga.
m
jt
