iggardly fashion. He strides away across the field scattering the
seed broadcast, far beyond the border where he expects a crop, for he
knows that, though much shall be wasted, whatever seed may fall on good
ground will have miraculous increase. There may be prodigality of
waste, but there shall be prodigality of reproduction. If but one seed
in thirty takes root in good soil it may produce thirty or sixty or a
hundred fold.

Such is the prodigality of Providence. And it comes close to many
experiences, and {114} interprets many perplexities of life. A man
goes his way through life scattering his efforts, distributing his
energy, doing his work as broadly and generously as he can, and some
day he notices what a very large proportion of all that he does comes
to nothing. Much of the soil where he sows seems hard and barren, and
he might as well be trying to raise wheat on a stone pavement. It
seems to be simply effort thrown away. But then some other day this
man makes this other discovery,--that some very slight effort or
endeavor or sacrifice or word has been infinitely more fruitful than he
could have dreamed. It was an insignificant thing which he did, but it
happened to fall at the right time in the right place, and he is almost
startled at its productiveness.

And so he takes his lesson from the prodigality of Providence. Of
course it will happen that the great proportion of his efforts will
come to nothing. Of course he is to be misjudged and ineffective and
barren of results; but if only one word in a hundred falls in the right
soil, if only one effort in a hundred touches the right soul, the
hundred-fold fruitage brings with it ample {115} compensation. Thus he
strides cheerfully over the fields of life with the broad swing of an
unthrifty mind, expecting that much of his seed will fall among the
thorns and rocks, but with faith that the harvest--even if he is not
himself permitted to reap it--is yet made safe through his fidelity to
that prodigal Providence which miraculously multiplies the little he
can do, and makes it bear fruit, sometimes a hundredfold.

{116}

XLVI

THE HARD LIFE

_Matthew_ xiii. 1-9.

Let us look still further at this parable of the sower. There are
described in it various kinds of lives on which God's influences fall,
and fall in vain. The first of these is the hard life,--hard, like a
road, so that the seed lies there as if fallen on a pavement, and gets
no