The word of God is the seed of the kingdom. The parable of the sower sets forth this truth as plainly as language can do so. “The sower soweth the word.” That parable sets forth the truth that the word of God is to the spiritual kingdom exactly what seed is to the vegetable kingdom. The word produces plants in the spiritual kingdom just as seed produces plants in the vegetable kingdom. If this be not so, then no one can tell what the Savior meant to teach by this parable. Life is in the word just as life is in any other seed. If the seed be not planted, life will not spring up. No matter how well the soil may be prepared, there will be no life there till the seed be planted. No matter how much the heart may be prepared by education, culture, sorrow, or whatever may come, there will be no spiritual life in the heart till the seed—the word of God—is planted there. Seed is able under suitable conditions to transform dead elements of the soil into life. In nature, this is the process of reproduction. Those who contend for a direct operation of the Spirit in regeneration base their contention on the fact that the sinner is dead. It is claimed that dead sinners must be made alive by this direct work of the Spirit before they can obey the Lord. This is the heart of their contention. Grant their premise, does their conclusion follow? Is the sinner’s heart any deader than the soil into which the farmer sows his seed? The farmer knows that the life inherent in the seed is able to transform dead soil into a living, growing plant. If the theologians were as wise as the most ignorant farmer, they would sow the seed, which is the word of God, knowing that the deadness of the soil—the sinner’s heart—is no barrier to an abundant harvest. PREACH THE WORD.