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SUBJECT: 31 LUK 13:18-19 The Mustard Seed: A Sermon
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The Mustard Seed: A Sermon for the Sunday-School Teacher
October 20, 1889
by
C. H. SPURGEON
(1834-1892)
"Then said he, Unto what is the kingdom of God
like? and whereunto shall I resemble it? It is
like a grain of mustard seed, which a man took,
and cast into his garden; and it grew, and waxed a
great tree; and the fowls of the air lodged in the
branches of it."-- Luk_13:18-19.
I shall not attempt fully to explain this great little
parable. A full exposition may be left for another
occasion. The parable may be understood to relate to
our Lord Himself, who is the living seed. You know also
how His church is the tree that springs from Him, and
how greatly it grows and spreads its branches until it
covers the earth. From the one man Christ Jesus,
despised and rejected of men, slain and buried, and so
hidden away from among men--from Him, I say, there
arises a multitude which no one can number. These
spread themselves, like some tree which grows by the
rivers of waters, and they yielded both gracious
shelter and spiritual food. I called it a great little
parable, and so it is: it has a world of teaching
within the smallest compass. The parable is itself like
a grain of mustard seed, but its meanings are as a
great tree.
At this time of the year, Sabbath-school teachers come
together especially to pray for a blessing on their
work, and pastors are invited to say a word to cheer
them in their self-denying service. This request I
would cheerfully fulfill, and therefore my discourse
will not be a full explanation of the parable, but an
adaptation of it to the cheering of those who are
engaged in the admirable work of teaching the young the
fear of the Lord. Never service more important; to
overlook it would be a grave fault. We rejoice to
encourage our friends in their labor of love.
In this parable light is thrown upon the work of those
who teach the Gospel. First, notice a very simple work:
"a grain of mustard seed, which a man took, and cast
into his garden." Secondly, observe what came of it:
"it grew, and waxed a great tree; and the fowls of the
air lodged in the branches of it."
First, NOTICE A VERY SIMPLE WORK. The work of teaching
the gospel is as the casting of a grain of mustard seed
into a garden.
Note, first, what the nameless man did. "It is like a
grain of mustard seed, which a man took." He took it;
that is to say, picked it out from the bulk. It was
only one grain, and a grain of a very insignificant
seed; but he did not let it lie on the shelf; he took
it in his hand to put it to its proper use. A grain of
mustard seed is too small a thing for public
exhibition; the man who takes it in his hand is almost
the only one who spies it out. It was only a grain of
mustard seed, but the man set it before his own mind as
a distinct object to be dealt with. He was not sowing
mustard over broad acres, but he was sowing "a grain of
mustard seed" in his garden. It is well for the teacher
to know what he is going to teach, to have that truth
distinctly in his mind's eye, as the man had the grain
of mustard seed between his fingers. Depend upon it,
unless a truth is clearly seen and distinctly
recognized by the teacher, little will come of it to
the taught. It may be a very simple truth, but if a
someone takes it, understands it, grasps it, and loves
it, he will do something with it. Beloved, first and
foremost let us ourselves take the Gospel, let us
believe it, let us appreciate it, let us prize it
beyond all things; for truth lives as it is loved, and
no hand is so fit for its sowing as the hand which
grasps it well.
Further, in this little parable we notice that this man
had a garden: "Like a grain of mustard seed, which a
man took, and cast into his garden." Some Christian
people have no garden--no personal sphere of service.
They belong to the whole clan of Christians, and they
pine to see the entire band go out to cultivate the
whole world, but they do not come to personal
particulars. It is delightful to be warmed up by
missionary addresses, and to feel a zeal for the
salvation of all the nations; but, after all, the net
result of a general theoretic earnestness for all the
world does not amount to much. As we should have no
horticulture if people had no gardens, so we shall have
no missionary work done unless each person has a
mission. It is the duty of every believer in Christ,
like the first man, Adam, to have a garden to dress and
to till. Children are in the Sunday-schools by
millions: thank God for that! But have you a class of
your own? All the church at work for Christ! Glorious
theory! Are you up and doing for your Lord? It will be
a grand time when every believer has his allotment, and
is sowing it with the seed of truth. The wilderness and
the solitary place will blossom as the rose when each
Christian cultivates his own plot of roses. Where
should this unnamed man sow his mustard seed but in his
own garden? It was near him, and dear to him, and to it
he went. Teach your own children, speak to your
neighbors, seek the conversion of those whom God has
especially entrusted to you.
Having a garden, and having this seed, the man sowed
it, and simple as this is, it is the hinge of the
instruction. You have a number of seeds in a pill-box.
There they are: look at them! Take that box down this
day a year from now, and the seeds will be just the
same. Lay them by in that dry box for seven years, and
nothing will happen. Truth is not to be kept to
ourselves; it is to be published and advocated. There
is an old proverb, "Truth is mighty, and will prevail."
The proverb is true in a sense, but it needs to be
taken with a grain of salt. If you put truth away and
leave it without a voice, it won't prevail; it will not
even contend. When have great truths prevailed? Why,
when brave men have persisted in declaring them. Daring
spirits have taken up a cause which has been at the
first unpopular, and they have spoken about it so
earnestly and so often that at length the cause has
commanded attention; they have pressed on and on until
the cause has triumphed altogether. Truth has been
mighty, and has prevailed, but yet not without the
people who gave it life and tongue. Not even the Gospel
itself, if it is not taught, will prevail. If revealed
truth is laid on one side and kept in silence, it will
not grow. Mark how through the dark ages the Gospel lay
asleep in old books in the libraries of monasteries
until Luther and his fellow reformers fetched it out
and sowed it in the minds of men.
This man simply cast it into his garden. He did not
wrap it around with gold leaf, or otherwise adorn it,
but he put it into the ground. The naked seed came into
contact with the naked soil. O teachers, do not try to
make the Gospel look fine; do not overlay it with your
fine words or elaborate explanations. The Gospel seed
is to be put into the young heart just as it is. Get
the truth concerning the Lord Jesus into the children's
minds. Make them know, not what you can say about the
truth, but what the truth itself says. It is wicked to
take the Gospel and make a peg of it to hang our old
clothes upon. The Gos el is not a boat to be freighted
with human thoughts, fine speculations, scraps of
poetry, and pretty tales. No, no. The Gospel is the
thought of God; in and of itself it is the message
which the soul needs. It is the Gospel itself which
will grow. Take a truth, especially that great
doctrine, that humanity is lost and that Christ is the
only Savior, and see to it that you place it in the
mind. Teach plainly the great truth that whosoever
believes in Him has everlasting life, and that the Lord
Jesus bare our sins in His own body on the tree and
suffered for us, the just for the unjust--I say take
these truths and set them forth to the mind, and see
what will come of it. Sow the very truth; not your
reflections on the truth, not your embellishments of
the truth, but the truth itself. This is to be brought
into contact with the mind, for the truth is the seed,
and the human mind is the soil for it to grow in.
These remarks of mine are very plain and trite; and yet
everything depends upon the simple operation described.
Nearly everything has been tried in preaching of late,
except the plain and clear statement of the glad
tidings and of the atoning sacrifice. People have
talked about what the church can do, and what the
Gospel can do; we have been informed as to the proofs
of the Gospel, or the doubts about it, and so forth;
but when will they give us the Gospel itself? Friends,
we must come to the point and teach the Gospel, for
this is the living and incorruptible seed which abides
forever. It is an easy thing to deliver an address upon
mustard seed, to give the children a taste of the
pungency of mustard, to tell them how mustard seed
would grow, what kind of a tree it would produce, and
how the birds would sing among its branches. But this
is not sowing mustard seed. It is all very fine to talk
about the influence of the Gospel, the ethics of
Christianity, the elevating power of the love of
Christ, and so on; but what we want is the Gospel
itself, which exercises that influence. Sow the seed:
tell the children the doctrine of the Cross, the fact
that with the stripes of Jesus we are healed, and that
by faith in Him we are justified. What is wanted is not
talk about the Gospel, but the Gospel itself. We must
continually bring the living Word of the living God
into contact with the hearts of men. Oh, for the aid of
the Holy Spirit in this! He will help us, for He
delights to glorify Jesus.
That which is described in the parable was an
insignificant business: the man took the tiny seed and
put it into his garden. It is a very commonplace affair
to sit down with a dozen children around you and open
your Bible and tell them the well-worn tale of how
Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners. No
Pharisee is likely to stand and blow a trumpet when he
is going to teach children; he is more likely to point
to the children in the temple and sneeringly say,
"Hearest thou what these say?" It is a lowly business
altogether, but yet, to the mustard seed, and to the
man with a garden, the sowing is the all-important
matter. The mustard seed will never grow unless put
into the soil; the owner of the garden will never have
a crop of mustard unless he sows the seed. Dear Sunday-
school teacher, do not become weary of your humble
work, for none can measure its importance. Tell the
boys and girls of the Son of God, who lived and loved
and died that the ungodly might be saved. Urge them to
immediate faith in the mighty Savior that they may be
saved at once. Tell of the new birth, and how the souls
of human beings are renewed by the Holy Spirit, without
whose divine working none can enter the kingdom of
heaven. Cast in mustard seed, and nothing else but
mustard seed, if you want to grow mustard. Teach the
Gospel of grace, and nothing but the Gospel of grace,
if you would see grace growing in the hearts of your
young people.
Secondly, let us consider what it was that the man
sowed. We have seen that he sowed; what did he sow? It
was one single seed, and that seed a very small one; so
very, very small that the Jews were accustomed to say,
"As small as mustard seed." Hence the Savior speaks of
it as the smallest among seeds, which it may not have
been absolutely, but which it was according to common
parlance; our Lord was not teaching botany, but
speaking a popular parable. Yes, the Gospel seems a
very simple thing: Believe and live! Look to Jesus
lying in the sinner's stead! Look to Jesus crucified,
even as Israel looked to the brazen serpent lifted up
upon a pole. It is simplicity itself; in fact, the
Gospel is so plain a matter that our superior people
are weary of it and look out for something more
difficult of comprehension. People nowadays are like
the person who liked to hear the Scriptures "properly
confounded"; or like the other who said, "You should
hear our minister dispense with the truth." Sowing seed
is work too ordinary for the moderns; they demand new
methods. But, beloved, we must not run after vain
inventions; our one business is to sow the Word of God
in the minds of children. It is yours and mine to teach
everybody the simple truth that Jesus Christ came into
the world to save sinners, and that whosoever believes
in Him shall not perish, but have everlasting life. We
know nothing else among adults or among children. This
one seed, apparently so little, so insignificant, we
continue to sow. They sneeringly say, "What can be the
moral result of preaching such a Gospel? Surely it
would be better to discourse upon morals, social
economics, and the sciences?" Ah, friends! if you can
do any good in those ways, we will not hinder you, but
our belief is that a hundred times more can be done
with the Gospel, for it is the power of God to
salvation to everyone that believes. The Gospel is not
the enemy of any good thing; say, rather, it is the
force by which good things are to be carried out.
Whatsoever things are pure and honest and of good
repute are all nurtured by that spirit which is
begotten by the simple Gospel of Christ. Yet
conversions do not come by essays upon morals but by
the teaching of salvation by Christ. The cleansing and
raising of our race will not be effected by politics or
science, but by the Word of the Lord, which lives and
abides forever. To bring the greatest blessings upon
our rising youth we must labor to implant in their
minds faith in the Lord Jesus. Oh, for divine power in
this work!
But the seed, though very small, was a living thing.
There is a great difference between a mustard seed and
a piece of wax of the same size. Life slumbers in that
seed. What life is we cannot tell. Even if you take a
microscope you cannot spy it out. It is a mystery, but
it is essential to a seed. The Gospel has a something
in it not readily discoverable by the philosophical
inquirer, if, indeed, he can perceive it at all. Take a
maxim of Socrates or of Plato, and inquire whether a
nation or a tribe has ever been transformed by it from
barbarism to culture. A maxim of a philosopher may have
measurably influenced a person in some right direction,
but who has ever heard of a someone's whole character
being transformed by any observation of Confucius or
Socrates? I confess I never have. Human teachings are
barren. But within the Gospel, with all its triteness
and simplicity, there is a divine life and that life
makes all the difference. The human can never rival the
divine, for it lacks the life-fire. It is better to
preach five words of God's Word than five million words
of human wisdom. Human words may seem to be the wiser
and the more attractive, but there is no heavenly life
in them. Within God's Word, however simple it may be,
there dwells an omnipotence like that of God from whose
lips it came.
Truth to tell, a seed is a very comprehensive thing.
Within the mustard seed what is to be found? Why, there
is all in it that ever comes out of it. It must be so.
Every branch and every leaf and every flower and every
seed that is to be is, in its essence, all within the
seed. It needs to be developed, but it is all there.
And so, within the simple Gospel, how much lies
concentrated? Look at it! Within that truth lie
regeneration, repentance, faith, holiness, zeal,
consecration, perfection. Heaven hides itself away
within the Gospel. Like a young bird in its nest, glory
dwells in grace. We may not at first see all its
results, nor, indeed, shall we see them at all until we
sow the seed and it grows; yet it is all there. Do you
believe it, young teacher? Have you realized what you
have in your hold when you grasp the Gospel of the
grace of God? It is the most wonderful thing beneath
the skies. Do you believe in the Gospel which you have
to teach? Do you discern that within its apparently
narrow lines the Eternal, the Infinite, the Perfect,
and the Divine are all enclosed? As in the babe of
Bethlehem there was the Eternal God, so within the
simple teaching of "Believe and live" there are all the
elements of eternal blessedness for people, and
boundless glory for God. It is a very comprehensive
thing, that little seed, that Gospel of God.
And for this reason it is so wonderful: it is a divine
creation. Summon your chemists, bring them together
with all their vessels and their fires. Select a jury
of the greatest chemists now alive, analytical or
otherwise, as you will. Learned sirs, will you kindly
make us a mustard seed? You may take a mustard seed,
and pound it and analyze it, and you may thus ascertain
all its ingredients. So far so good. Is not your work
well begun? Now make a single mustard seed. We will
give you a week. It is a very small affair. You have
all the elements of mustard in yonder mortar. Make us
one living grain; we do not ask for a ton weight. One
grain of mustard seed will suffice us. Great chemists,
have you not made so small a thing? A month has gone
by. Only one grain of mustard seed we asked of you, and
where is it? Have you not made one in a month? What are
you at? Shall we allow you seven years? Yes, with all
the laboratories in the kingdom at your service and all
known substances for your material and all the world's
coal beds for your fuel, get to your work. The air is
black with your smoke and the streams run foul with
your waste products; but where is the mustard seed?
This baffles the wise; they cannot make a living seed.
No; and nobody can make a Gospel, or even a new Gospel
text. The thinkers of the age could not even concoct
another life of Christ to match with the four Gospels
which we have already. I go further: they could not
create a new incident which would be congruous with the
facts we already know. Plenty of novel writers nowadays
can beat out imaginary histories upon their anvils: let
them write a fifth Gospel--say the Gospel according to
Peter, or Andrew. Let us have it! They will not even
commence the task. Who will write a new psalm, or even
a new promise? Clever chemists prove their wisdom by
saying at once, "No, we cannot make a mustard seed";
and wise thinkers will equally confess that they cannot
make another Gospel. My learned brethren are trying
very hard to make a new Gospel for this nineteenth
century, but you teachers had better go on with the old
one. The advanced men cannot put life into their
theory. This living Word is the finger of God. That
simple grain of mustard seed must be made by God, or
not at all; He must put life into the Gospel, or it
will not have power in the heart. The Gospel of Sunday-
school teachers, that Gospel of "Believe and live,"
however people may despise it, has Godgiven life in it.
You cannot make another which can supplant it, for you
cannot put life into your invention. Go on and use the
one living truth with your children, for nothing else
has God's life in it.
I want you to see what a little affair the sowing
seemed, as we answer the question, What was it to him?
It was a very natural act; he sowed a seed. It is a
most natural thing that we should teach others what we
believe ourselves. I cannot make out how some
professors can call themselves Christians and yet never
communicate the faith to others. That the young people
of our churches should gather other young people around
them and tell them of Jesus, whom you love, is as
natural as for a gardener to put seeds into his
prepared ground.
To sow a mustard seed is a very inexpensive act. Only
one grain of mustard: nobody can find me a coin small
enough to express its value. I do not know how much
mustard seed the man had; certainly it is not a rare
thing, but he only took one grain of it and cast it
into his garden. He emptied no exchequer by that
expenditure; this is one of the excellencies of Sabbath-
school work, that it neither exhausts the church of
people nor of money. However much of it is done, it
does not lessen the resources of our Zion; it is done
freely, quietly, without excitement, without sacrifice
of life, and yet what a fountain of blessing it is!
Still, it was an act of faith. It is always an act of
faith to sow seed, because you have, for the time, to
give it up and receive nothing in return. The farmer
takes his choice seed corn and throws it into the soil
of his field. He might have made many a loaf of bread
with it, but he casts it away. Only his faith saves him
from being judged a maniac: he expects it to return to
him fiftyfold. If you had never seen a harvest, you
would think that someone burying good wheat under the
clods had gone mad; if you had never seen conversions,
it might seem an absurd thing to be constantly teaching
to boys and girls the story of the Man who was nailed
to the tree. We preach and teach as a work of faith,
and remember, it is only as an act of faith that it
will answer its purpose. The rule of the harvest is,
"According to thy faith, be it unto thee." Believe,
dear teacher, believe in the Gospel. Believe in what
you are doing when you tell it. Believe that great
results from slender causes spring. Go on sowing your
mustard seed of salvation by faith, expecting and
believing that fruit will come thereof.
It was an act which brought the sower no honor. The
Savior has chronicled the fact that the man took a
grain of mustard seed and sowed it, but thousands of
people had gone on sowing mustard seed for half a
lifetime without a word. Nobody has ever spoken in your
honor, my friend, though you have taught the truth.
Dear teacher, go on sowing, though nobody should
observe your diligence or praise your faithfulness. Sow
the seed of precious truth in the garden of the child's
mind, for much more will come of it than you have dared
to hope.
It seems to me that our Lord selected the mustard seed
in this parable, not because its results are the
greatest possible from a seed--for an oak or a cedar
are much greater growths than a mustard tree--but He
selected it because it is the greatest result as
compared with the size of the seed. Follow out the
analogy. Come to yonder school, and see! That earnest
young man is teaching a boy, one of those wild
creatures of the street; they swarm in every quarter. A
dozen young Turks are before him, or say young Arabs of
the street; he is teaching them the Gospel. Small
affair, is it not? Yes, very; but what may come of it?
Think of how joyfully much may grow out of this little!
What is that young man teaching? Only one elementary
truth. Do not sneer; it is truth, but it is the mere
alphabet of it. He touches upon nothing deep in
theology; he only says, "Christ Jesus came into the
world to save sinners. Dear boy, believe in the Lord
Jesus and live." That is all he says. Can any good
thing come out of Nazareth? The teacher himself is
teaching the one truth in a very poor way; at least, he
thinks so. Ask him, when he has done, what he thinks of
his own teaching, and he replies, "I do not feel fit to
teach." Yes, that young man's teaching is sighed over,
and in his own judgment it is poor and weak, but there
is life in the truth he imparts and eternal results
will follow--results of which I have now to speak in
the second part of my sermon. May the good Spirit help
me so to speak as to encourage my beloved friends, who
have given themselves up to the Christlike work of
teaching the little ones!
Secondly, let us enquire, WHAT CAME OF IT?
First, "it grew." That was what the sower hoped would
come of it: he placed the seed in the ground hoping
that it would grow. It is not reasonable to suppose
that he would have sown it if he had not hoped that it
would spring up. Dear teacher, do you always sow in
hope, do you trust that the Word will live and grow? If
you do not, I do not think your success is very
probable. Expect the truth to take root and expand and
grow up. Teach divine truth with earnestness and expect
that the life within it will unveil its wonders.
But though the sewer expected growth, he could not
himself have made it grow. After he had placed the seed
in the ground he could water it, he could pray God to
make the sun shine on it, but he could not directly
produce growth. Only He that made the seed could cause
it to grow. Growth is a continuance of that almighty
act by which life is at first given. The putting of
life into the seed is God's work, and the bringing
forth of the life from the seed is God's work too. This
is a matter within your hope, but far beyond your
power.
A very wonderful thing it is that the seed should grow.
If we did not see it every day, we should be more
astonished at the growth of seed than at all the
wonders of magicians. A growing seed is God's abiding
miracle. You see a piece of ground near London covered
with a market garden, and after a few months you go by
the place and you see streets and a public square and a
church and a great population. You say to yourself, "It
is remarkable that all these houses should have sprung
up in a few months." Yet that is not at all so
wonderful as for a plowed field to become covered four
feet high with corn, and all without the use of wagons
to bring the material, or tools to work it up into a
harvest. Without noise of hammer, or the ringing of
trowels; without handiwork of man, the whole has been
done. Wonder at the growth of grace. See how it
increases, deepens, strengthens! Growth in grace is a
marvel of divine love. That a person should repent
through the Gospel, that he should believe in Jesus,
that he should be totally changed, that he should have
a hope of heaven, that he should receive power to
become a child of God--these are all marvelous things;
yet they are going on under our eyes and we fail to
admire them as we should. The growth of holiness in
such fallen creatures as we are is the admiration of
angels, the delight of all intelligent beings.
To the sower this growth was very pleasing. How
pleasant it is to see the seed of grace grow in
children! Do you not remember when you first sowed
mustard-and-cress as a child, how the very next morning
you went and turned the ground up to see how much it
had grown? How pleased you were when you saw the little
yellow shoot, and afterward a green leaf or two! So is
it with the true teacher: he or she is anxious to see
growth and makes eager inquiry for it. What was
expected is taking place and it is most delightful to
that teacher, whatever it may be to others. An
unsympathetic person cries, "Oh, I do not think
anything of that child's emotions. It is merely a
passing impression: he will soon forget it." The
teacher does not think so. The cold critic says, "I
don't think much of a child's weeping. Children's tears
lie very near the surface." But the teacher is full of
hope that in these tears is a real sorrow for sin, and
an earnest seeking after the Lord. The questioner says,
"It is nothing for a child to say that he gives his
heart to Jesus. Youngsters soon think that they
believe. They are so easily led." People talk thus
because they do not love children and live with the
desire to save them. If you sympathize with children,
you are pleased with every hopeful token and are on the
watch for every mark of divine life within them. If you
are a florist, you will see more of the progress of
your plants than if you are no gardener and have no
interest in such things. Think, then, of what my text
says: "It grew." Oh, for a prayer just now from all of
you this morning, "Lord, make the Gospel grow wherever
it falls! Whether the preacher scatters it, or the
teacher sows it; whether it falls among the aged
people, or the young; Lord, make the Gospel grow!" Pray
hard for it, friends! You cannot make it grow, but you
can prevail with God to bless it to His honor and
praise.
Next, having started growing, it became a tree. Luke
says, "It waxed a great tree." It was great in itself,
but the greatness was seen mainly in comparison with
the size of the seed. The growth was great. Here is the
wonder, not that it became a tree, but that being a
mustard seed, it should become "a great tree." Do you
see the point of the parable? I have already brought it
before you. Listen! It was only a word spoken--"Dear
boy, look to Jesus." Only such a word, and a soul was
saved, its sin was forgiven, its whole being was
changed, a new heir of heaven was born. Do you see the
growth? A word produces salvation! A grain of mustard
seed becomes a great tree! A little teaching brings
eternal life. That is not all: the teacher, with many
prayers and tears, took her girl home, and pleaded with
her for Christ, and the girl was led to yield her heart
to the dominion of Christ Jesus--a holy, heavenly life
came out of that pleading. See! she becomes a
thoughtful girl, a loving wife, a gracious mother, a
matron in Israel, such a one as Dorcas among the poor,
or Hannah with her Samuel. What a great result from a
little cause! The teacher's words were tearfully
spoken; they could not have been printed, for they were
far too broken and childlike; but they were, in God's
hands, the means of fashioning a life most sweet, most
chaste, most beautiful.
A boy was about as wild as any roamer of our streets; a
teacher knelt by his side with his arm about the lad's
neck. He pleaded with God for the boy, and with the boy
for God. That boy was converted, and as a youth in
business he was an example to the workroom; as a father
he was a guide to his household; as a man of God he was
a light to all around; as a preacher of righteousness
he adorned the doctrine of God his Savior in all
things. There is much more which I might easily
picture, but you can work it out as well as I can. All
that is to be desired may spring out of the simple talk
of a humble Christian with a youth. A mustard seed
becomes a great tree; a few words of holy admonition
may produce a noble life.
But is that all? Beloved, our teaching may preserve
souls from the deep darkness of the abode of the lost.
A soul left to itself might hurry down from folly to
vice, from vice to obduracy, from obduracy to fixed
resolve to perish; but by the means of loving teaching
all this is changed. Rescued from the power of sin,
like a lamb snatched from between the jaws of the lion,
the youth is now no longer the victim of vice, but
seeks holy and heavenly things. Hell has lost its prey,
and see up yonder, heaven's wide gate has received a
precious soul. "Sweeping through the gates of the New
Jerusalem" many have come who were led there from the
Sunday-school. They who once were foul are now white-
robed, washed in the blood of the Lamb. Hark to their
songs of praise! You may keep on listening, for those
songs will never come to an end. All this was brought
about through a brief address of a trembling brother
who stood up one Sunday afternoon to close the school
and talk a little about the Cross of Jesus. Or all this
came of a gentle sister who could never have spoken in
public, yet was enabled to warn a young girl who was
growing giddy and seemed likely to go sadly astray.
Wonderful that a soul's taking the road to heaven or to
hell should be made, in the purpose of God, to hinge
upon the humble endeavors of a weak but faithful
teacher! You see how the mustard seed grew until it
waxed a great tree.
This great tree became a shelter: "the fowls of the air
lodged in the branches of it." Mustard in the East does
grow very large indeed. The commonest kind of it may be
found eight or ten feet high, but there is a kind which
will grow almost like a forest tree, and there probably
were some of these latter trees in the sheltered region
wherein our Lord was speaking. A mustard which grew
here and there in Palestine was of sur prising
dimensions. When the tree grew, the birds came to it.
Here we have unexpected influences. Think of it. That
man took a mustard seed which you could hardly see if I
held it up. When he took the mustard seed, when he put
it into his garden, had he any thought of bringing
birds to that spot? Not he. You do not know all you are
doing when you are teaching a child the way of
salvation by Jesus Christ. When you are trying to bring
a soul to Christ, your action has ten thousand hooks to
it, and these may seize on innumerable things. Holy
teaching is the opening of a well, and no one knows all
the effect which the waters will produce on that spot.
There seems no link between sowing a grain of mustard
seed and birds of the air, but the winged wanderers
soon made a happy connection. There may seem no
connection between teaching that boy and the reclaiming
of cannibals in New Guinea, but I can see a very
possible connection. Tribes in Central Africa may have
their destiny shaped by your instruction of a tiny
child. When John Pounds bribed an urchin with a hot
potato to come and learn to read the Bible, I am sure
John Pounds had no idea of all the Ragged schools in
London, but there is a clear line of cause and effect
in the whole matter. A hot potato might be the coat of
arms of the Ragged school Union. When Nasmyth went
about from house to house visiting in the slums of
London, I do not suppose that he saw in his act the
founding of the London City Mission and all the Country
Town Missions. No one can tell the end of his
beginnings, the growth of his sowings. Go on doing good
in little ways and you shall one day wonder at the
great results. Do the next thing that lies before you.
Do it well. Do it unto the Lord. Leave results with His
unbounded liberality of love, but hope to reap at least
a hundredfold.
How many fowls came and roosted under that one mustard
tree I do not know. How many birds in a day, how many
birds in the year, came and found a resting place, and
picked the seeds they loved so well, I cannot tell.
When one person is converted, how many may receive a
blessing out of him none can tell. Now is the day for
romances: our literature is drenched with tales
religious or irreligious. What stories might be written
concerning benefits bestowed, directly and indirectly,
by a single godly man or woman! When you have written a
thrilling story upon the subject, I can assure you I
can match it with something better still. One single
individual can scatter benedictions across a continent,
and belt the world with blessing.
But what is that I hear? I see this mustard tree--it is
a very wonderful tree; but I not only see, I hear!
Music! music! The birds! the birds! It is early
morning, the sun is scarcely up--what torrents of song!
Is that the way to produce music? Shall I sow mustard
seed, and reap songs? I thought we must buy an organ or
purchase a violin, or by some wind or stringed
instrument come at music, but here is a new plan
altogether. Nebuchadnezzar had his flute, harp,
sackbut, psaltery, dulcimer, and all kinds of music,
but all that mingled sound could not rival the melody
of birds. I shall sow mustard seed now, and get music
in God's own way. Friends, when you teach your children
the Gospel of the Lord Jesus, you are sowing the music
of heaven. Every time you tell the tidings of pardon
bought with blood, you are filling the choirs of glory
with sweet voices which, to the Eternal Name, shall day
and night trill out songs of devout gratitude. Go on,
then, if this is to be the result. If even heaven's
high harmonies depend upon the simple teaching of a
Ragged school, let us never cease from our hallowed
service.
Having said so much, I now close with these three
practical observations. Are we not highly honored to be
entrusted with such a marvelous thing as the Gospel? If
it is a seed comprehending so much within it which will
come to so much if it be properly used, blessed and
happy are we to have such good news to proclaim! I
thought this morning, when I awoke into the damp and
rain, and felt my bones complaining, I shall be glad
when four more Sundays shall have gone, and I shall be
free to take a little rest in a sunnier clime. Jaded in
mind, and weary in spirit, I braced myself with this
reflection--what blessed work I have to do! What a
glorious Gospel have I to preach! I ought to be a very
happy man to have such glad tidings to bear to my
fellows. I said to myself, "So I am." Well now, beloved
teacher, next Sunday, when you leave your bed, and say,
"I have had a hard week's work, and I could half wish
that I had not to go to my class," answer yourself
thus: "But I am a happy person to have to talk to
children about Christ Jesus. If I had to teach them
arithmetic or carpentering, I might get tired of it,
but to talk about Jesus, whom I love, why, it is a joy
forever.
Let us be encouraged to sow the good seed in evil
times. If we do not see the Gospel prospering
elsewhere, let us not despair; if there were no more
mustard seed in the world, and I had only one grain of
it, I should be all the more anxious to sow it. You can
produce any quantity if only one seed will grow. So now
today there is not very much Gospel about, the church
has given it up, a great many preachers preach
everything but the living truth. This is sad, but it is
a strong reason why you and I should teach more Gospel
than ever. I have often thought to myself--Other men
may teach socialism, deliver lectures, or collect a
band of fiddlers that they may gather a congregation,
but I will preach the Gospel. I will preach more Gospel
than ever if I can; I will stick more to the one
cardinal point. The others can attend to the odds and
ends, but I will keep to Christ crucified. To those of
vast ability who are looking to the events of the day I
would say, "Allow one poor fool to keep to preaching
the Gospel." Beloved teachers, be fools for Christ, and
keep to the Gospel. Don't you be afraid. It has life in
it, and it will grow; only you bring it out, and let it
grow. I am sometimes afraid that we may prepare our
sermons and addresses too much, so as to make ourselves
shine. If so, we are like the man who tried to grow
potatoes--he never grew any, and he wondered much,
"for," said he, "I very carefully boiled them for
hours." So, it is very possible to extract all the life
out of the Gospel, and put so much of yourself into it
that Christ will not bless it.
And, lastly, we are bound to do it. If so much will
come out of so little, we are bound to go in for it.
Nowadays people want ten percent for their money. Hosts
of fools are readily caught by any scheme or
speculation or limited liability company that promises
to give them immense dividends! I would like to make
you wise by inviting you to an investment which is
sure. Sow a mustard seed, and grow a tree. Talk of
Christ, and save a soul; that soul saved will be a
blessing for ages, and a joy to God throughout
eternity. Was there ever such an investment as this?
Let us go on with it. If on our simple word eternity is
hung, let us speak with all our heart. Life, death, and
hell, and worlds unknown, hang on the lips of the
earnest teacher of the Gospel of Jesus. Let us never
cease speaking while we have breath in our body. The
Lord bless you! Amen, and Amen.
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