Scriptural Sanctification - Media Sabda Org

God. Sons are born into his family having still the taint of depravity lurking in their blood, to be
purged away by the cathartic of a mighty faith in the all-cleansing blood of 'the Lamb of God which
taketh away the sin of the world.'"
Are we not clearly taught this lesson in the parable of the sower? The work which God has
provided for -- the sowing of good seed -- is the same with all four kinds of soil or classes of hearers.
But, because of the differences between the various soils -- representing the differences between the
several classes of bearers there is perfect fruit produced by only one soil -- only one class bring forth
fruit to perfection. And the sole reason given for such result is the difference between the condition
and work of these several classes -- the purely human conditions of salvation. Take the class
represented by the "thorny ground." Here was a mixed state of experience, represented by the which
sprang up in the soil, and the "cares and riches and pleasures of this life," which spring up in the
heart. Here is a mixture of, and a struggle between, the new life of faith, which comes from the seed
of truth, and the desires and tendencies of the old life, still in the heart -- the "old man" that is not
thoroughly crucified, eradicated, or dominated by the new life or "new man."
It is bare assumption to say that the hearers of this class were not regenerated. The record
indicates the contrary" he becometh unfruitful," ceases to bear fruit. He must certainly then once
have borne it. And the plant of faith did spring up, but it was and unfavorable and hurtful
surroundings. There must as really have been spiritual life in this case as there was in the one the
different stages of whose development is represented by the "blade," the "ear," the "full corn in the
ear." Is there no life till the "full corn in the ear ripens? If one should die during the time of this
struggle, before the "choking" process is complete, would he not as certainly be saved as would the
one who dies before his "blade" of faith is developed into the "ear, or the "full corn" of faithfulness?
Then he must have been regenerated.
Nor was this condition of conflict in the heart the result of backsliding; for the good and evil
plants "sprang up together," not the evil after the good. Nor was it caused by the pressure on the will
of innocent desires or appetites, constituting simply a condition of temptation in a thoroughly
renewed heart, as Dr. Boland suggests. Else the "good-ground" hearers would have had the same
experience.
These evils in the heart were not only human in their origin not part of "perfect" work but, with
proper human effort, before, at, or after conversion, they might have been prevented or removed.
Hence our Lord's exhortation -- the lesson or moral of the parable -- to "take heed how we hear" the
gospel, lest we fall into or remain in one of the unfruitful classes. They evidently resulted from a lack
of proper instruction, knowledge of their condition, intelligent consecration, or of faith before or at
the time of hearing. Possibly the force of bad habits of thought and action constituted a part of the
unfavorable human conditions which prevented a perfect work. Regeneration, then, may be perfect
on the divine side, but defective on the human.
May we not get away from our preconceived views long enough to look about us and see that the
teaching of this parable and the theory based on it find illustration in the facts of nearly or quite every
revival and its results? Do we not know that hardly one in a hundred of the converts of ordinary
revivals fails, after the subsidence of his emotional fullness, to give signs of remaining carnality in