Matthew 13:17

Matthew 13:17

I. The words of the text have often struck the ears of us all, and few of us, perhaps, have stopped to ask ourselves how far we really could agree with them. Many prophets and righteous men have desired to see the things which Christ's disciples saw and have not seen them. It seems all very natural that they should have desired it. But can we honestly say that we should have desired the same thing if we had been in their places? There is a very easy and plain way of finding out how we should have felt then, by observing what we feel now. We may guess how much we should have longed for a thing before we had got it, by seeing how much we value it now that we have got it. If we find that we do not care about it when it is put in our way, we may be very sure that we should never have missed it before we had it, and that we should never have gone out of our way to obtain it.

II. The means of grace to the soul are like the means of health and strength to the body, and at such a rate would a true Christian value them. We are ever taking thought about what we shall eat and what we shall drink and wherewithal we shall be clothed. But the wants of the soul do not so easily win our attention; the love of our spiritual life, the love of life eternal, is not half so strong within us as the love of our natural life. Our souls are, by nature, far weaker and more sickly than our bodies, and therefore they require much greater care. Therefore every means of grace that we have we should make the most of; and not the best man alive is furnished with one more than is needful for him. But though the best of us cannot afford to spare any of the means which God has given us, yet the worst of us will find that they have enough, if they will but carefully improve them. Every one of us has the means of grace put within his reach sufficient to save his soul if he will. He can learn the way of salvation; he can know those things which many prophets and kings desired to know, and never had their desire fulfilled.

T. Arnold, Sermons,vol. i., p. 37.

References: Matthew 13:21. F. W. Farrar, In the Days of Thy Youth,p. 80. Matthew 13:25. T. M. Herbert, Sketches of Sermons,p. 127; E. R. Conder, Expositor,3rd series, vol. iii., p. 428.