o give a root to
life. How strongly and serenely Newman writes of this:--

"Prune thou thy words, the thoughts control
That o'er thee swell and throng;
They will condense within thy soul
And turn to purpose strong.
But he who lets his feelings run
In soft luxurious flow,
Faints when hard service must be done,
And shrinks at every blow."

{120}

XLVIII

THE CROWDED LIFE

_Matthew_ xiii. 1-9.

In the parable of the sower the third kind of soil is one which is very
common in modern life. The first soil was too hard, and the second too
thin, and now the third is too full. It is overgrown and preoccupied.
Other things choke the seed. There is not room for the harvest. The
influences of God are simply crowded out. And of what is life thus so
full? Of two things, answers the parable. For some it is full of the
cares of this world, and for some it is full of the deceitfulness of
riches. Care is the weed that chokes plain people, and money is the
weed that chokes rich people. Sometimes a poor man wonders how a rich
man feels. Well, he feels about his money just as a poor man does
about his cares. His wealth preoccupies him. It is a great
responsibility. It takes a great deal of time. It crowds out many
things he would like to do. The poor man says that {121} money would
free him from care, but the rich man finds that money itself increases
care. Thus they are both choked by lack of leisure, one by the demands
of routine, and one by the burdens of responsibility. And this parable
says to both these types of life: "Keep room for God." It comes to the
scholar and says: "In this busy place reserve time to think and feel;
do not let your cares choke your soul." And then it goes out to the
great scrambling, money-getting world, and sees many a man hard at work
in what he calls his field, watching for things grow in his life, and
finding some day that he has been deceived in his crop. He thought it
was to come up grain and it turns out to be weeds. He sowed money and
expected a harvest of peace; and behold! he only reaps more money.
That is the deceitfulness of riches.

{122}

XLIX

THE PATIENCE OF NATURE

_Matthew_ xiii.; _Mark_ iv. 27.

The parable of the sower, which begins with its solemn warnings against
the hard life, the thin life, and the crowded life, ends with a note of
wholesome hope. Who are they who bring forth fruit in abundance? They
are, the parable