The Fallow Ground

Hosea 10 :12:- There is a great deal of fallow ground in our hearts and lives ; it has borne no crops of righteousness . Weeds have covered the unfruitful acres with their rank growth , and have scattered their thistledown into other lots . The rain has fallen and the sun has shone in vain . In some cases our daily business life , in other cases our social life , is a blank , so far as religious usefulness in concerned . God gets no revenue from from these barren fallow tracts . But the prophet bids us ascertain what they are , and break up the hard , caked surface by ploughshare and spade .  It is time to seek the Lord . The days are passing over us so rapidly , and we shall be at the end before we are well aware . " It is high time to awake out of sleep ;.....the night is far past and the day is at hand ." May not the time past suffice us to have been barren and unfruitful ; and shall we not make the best of the time that remains ?   "He will come and rain " - What a glorious promise " He will come and rain down righteousness . It is parallel to the words of the Psalm ;{85]Righteousness hath looked down from heaven ." It is certain that righteousness will never will never spring up in the furrows of our souls unless it has come down to us from the heart of God . In us are only the dark , bare , lifeless clods , lying open in their need ; in Him all that is pure , and holy , and righteous ,-- but God waits to rain it down in plentiful showers .

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