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The principle here stated, and applied by Christ to himself, is one ordained by the Creator of the moral universe. The only true enrich-merit is through giving, the only true gain is through loss, the only true victory is through suffering-and humiliation, the only true life is through death. The earth yields a harvest when the grain is entrusted to its keeping, even when the Egyptian husbandman casts his bread upon the waters. And the Son of God saw clearly that he must die and be buried, in order that he might become to mankind the source of spiritual and eternal life.

I. THE LIFE OF THE WORLD'S SPIRITUAL SEED. Imagination can see in an acorn all which may arise from it - an oak, a ship, a navy; for the acorn has a life-germ which is capable of increase and multiplication. Imagination can see in a handful of seed-corn carried to a distant isle, a nation's food. So in one Person, the speaker of these words, there lay - though only Omniscience could clearly foresee this - the spiritual hopes of a whole race. Jesus himself knew that this was so, and foresaw and foretold the results of his obedience unto death. In the coming of these Greeks he discerned the earnest of a glorious future; and the prospect of approaching suffering and of future victory stirred and troubled his soul with a mighty emotion. The explanation of this marvelous potency is to be found in the fact that Christ was Life - the Life of men. His Divine nature, his great vocation, his faultless character, his gracious ministry, his spiritual power, his unrivalled love, his incomparable sacrifice, are all signs of the possession by him of a wonderful life. Only a divinely commissioned and qualified Being could become the world's Life. Because he was the Son of God, it was possible for him to bring to this human race what none other could confer - spiritual vitality and fruitfulness. The claim which Jesus made may have seemed to an observer of his ministry incredible or even presumptuous. Yet as a tiny seed- may produce a majestic tree, because in the seed is a germ of life, so in the lowly Nazarene was the promise of a new and blessed life for this humanity. "I am come," said he, "that they may have life, and may have it abundantly." Such sayings, from his lips, were the simple, literal truth.

II. THE DISSOLUTION OF THE WORLD'S SPIRITUAL SEED. To one unacquainted with the mystery of growth, it must seem that the strangest use to which a seed could be put is to bury it in the ground. Death is the unlikeliest road to life. Yet experience teaches us that dissolution is necessary to reproduction. The substance of the grain dissolves, and nourishes and protects the living germ, which by means of warmth and moisture puts forth the signs of life, grows and develops into a corn-plant or a tree. Had not the seed been planted, it would have remained by itself alone and unfruitful. The law obtains in the moral realm. Our race gains its best of knowledge, experience, progress, happiness, virtue, not from the prosperous and the peaceful, but from those whose life is a life of toil, endurance, patience in suffering, and sacrifice. The world is infinitely indebted to its confessors, its martyrs, its much-enduring heroes. The highest exemplification of this law is to be found in the sacrifice of the world's Redeemer. His life of labor and weariness was closed by a death of shame and anguish. He gave up his body to the cross and to the tomb. His whole life was a death unto self, unto the world; and he did not shrink from that mortality which is the common lot of man. This death did not come upon him by accident; he several times distinctly foretold it - it was part of his plan. He is not to be numbered among the many who might have been spiritual forces for highest good, but who remained fruitless because they dared not die. The ignominious cross has ever been a stumbling-block to many; but to multitudes, spiritually enlightened, and touched in the heart by his Spirit, it has been the supreme revelation of God. The cross and the grave are to the unspiritual an offence; but to Christians they are a glory and a joy, the power of God and the wisdom of God. Via crucis, via lucia. Christ's body did not indeed see corruption; yet his life's close was an exact correspondence to the dissolution of the seed. A bystander might naturally have said, "Here is the end of the professions and the work of Jesus! But God's ways are not our ways.

III. THE FERTILITY OF THE WORLD'S SPIRITUAL SEED. One grain of wheat, if sown, and its produce resown, may in time produce a vast, all but incalculable crop. One grain seems thrown away, but millions are gathered and garnered. Much fruit rewards the faith of the husbandman. Our Lord teaches us that, in the spiritual realm, a similar result follows a similar process. He knew that he was about to die; but he knew also that his death should be rich in spiritual fruit. The immediate results verified his prediction. In a short space of time after our Lord's death, the number of his disciples was not merely increased, it was multiplied. The fruit borne upon the day of Pentecost was the firstfruit of a rich, abundant harvest. Not only in the Jewish world, but among the Gentiles also, it was speedily manifest that Jesus had not died in vain. Israel had conspired to kill him; but he became the Savior of the true Israel - the Israel of God. The Romans had put him to death; but in a few generations the Roman empire acknowledged his supremacy. The world had cast him out; but the world was saved by him. The history of Christendom is the story of one long harvest - a harvest yielded by the spiritual seed which was sown on Calvary. The future has yet to reveal the vastness of the work which Christ has wrought. He shall draw all men unto himself. "Many shall come from the East and from the West." A great multitude, whom no man can number, shall join in the grateful praise and reverent adoration of heaven.

PRACTICAL LESSONS.

1. Our indebtedness to Christ.

2. Our identification with Christ.

3. Our hope in Christ. - T.

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KJV: Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.

WEB: Most certainly I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains by itself alone. But if it dies, it bears much fruit.