“The wind that blows can never kill
The tree God plants;
It bloweth east, it bloweth west;
The tender leaves have little rest.
But any wind that blows is best.
The tree God plants
Strikes deeper roots, grows higher still,
Spreads wider boughs, for God’s good will
In on of our Lord’s parables he depicts different lives as different kinds of ground, or rather ground in different conditions. One kind he describes under the figure of thin soil, too thin to bring anything to ripeness or perfection. The soil may be rich enough in its quality, – perhaps the very best in the field, – but there is too little of it. It consists of only a thin layer, and then under it lies a hard rock. The seeds are cast into the soil, which receives them eagerly, and nourishes them into quick life– “straightway they sprang up,” all the more quickly “because they had no deepness of earth.” For a little time they gave splendid promise of growth, but “when the sun was risen they were scorched; and because they had no root, they withered away.”
We understand the illustration so far as the literal meaning is concerned. There are patches of soil like this in many a farmer’s field. The wheat shown there is the first of all to spring up, laughing at the slower coming up of the seed in other parts of the field. But the first hot day it withers, and that is the end of it.
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