September 1st 1965
The parable of the sower that went forth to sow. And you remember also what the Master said, "The harvest is plentiful but the labourers are few”. And that in nature there is a time for sowing and a time for reaping.
And the man of experience, the man who understands his land, and who understands the different techniques that are absolutely necessary, and the knowledge which is necessary of all things appertaining to agriculture, this same one knows exactly the right time to sow and the right time to reap.
But we who try to help and to guide you, because we have been drawn to you through your way of life, through your thinking, and through your prayers, find that we cannot enlighten any person upon the Earth concerning the exact place and the exact time to scatter the seeds of Spirit thought. And yet, we do our very best to bring into your presence, those who are ready to receive, even as the ground receives the seed, ready to receive in their mind those things which you have to offer, which will bring at least a start of illumination.
But we can promise you this. That of all the sowers of seed, of all those who would bring beauty and light and love into this world, the one who sows in the great field of humanity, the one who is willing to put forth around his neck the sack that holds the box, that holds the seeds of love, this is the greatest of all. And when one has waited through the long winter months of life, and who has undergone and seen and experienced the bitter winds, the cruel frosts, and the adverse elements which are absolutely necessary, before one can take on this work, then we know that that soul is able and ready to start to sow the seed.
Even as the farmer of Earth must wait through the long winter, before he can possibly begin to till and plough his land, so must the sower of spiritual seed undergo these terrific experiences and tribulations. No-one, who has not been through this winter of experience, who has not been torn from time to time with the bitter winds of fate, who has not felt the treachery of false people all around them, who has not witnessed and felt man's inhumanity to man, who have not known bitter personal disappointments, who has had the cause to shed many bitter tears, who has not stood, as it were, on the highest mountain in the worst of weather, only these can fulfil this sacred mission of sowing the spiritual seed. And even then, over then, some seed must fall by the wayside and be devoured by the so-called birds of the air. These flighty, airy-fairy people, who do not want to be serious about anything, who are what you call extroverts, who pick up this seed here and this seed there, turn it over, and then, without thought, swallow it., and go on their way looking for more and looking for others. of the remiss.
Some there be, who, the seeds fall into their mind, even as the seed fell on the stony ground, whereon a little bit of soil lay, and just sent forth it's tiny green shoots. But the noonday sun came and dried it up to nothing. And these are they who seem, as you sow your seeds, to have this very same experience, who seem to partake, and you feel, 'this has fallen on fertile ground and now, here I shall see results. But you have been disappointed because it settled there for a little while and began to mature, but other things around in the material world, relatives, friends, pleasure, ignorance, prejudice, all these things set as the sun upon the seed whose roots have not gone deep enough, whose fundamental ground is hard and stony.
But, here and there some of the deed has definitely fallen on rich, dark, soil. And albeit you must wait a long, long, time, as you know time, before it is the time of harvest, and before the reaping can take place.
But we would bring you this great comfort. You cannot, and you would not have been entrusted with these precious seeds, if we and you and your Creator had not recognised the capabilities, and our faith is absolute and yours must be, that the time was ready and that you were capable, of walking along and over these fields, these ploughed fields of humanity. And the ground was the minds of all men and women with whom you came and come into contact.
In the parable the seeds fall some here, some there, and some on fertile ground. Albeit, because your sight and your vision in this dense vibration is limited, you see more of the results of the seed which fell on the stony, and by the highway, than you see of those who have taken in the seed, because it is only just here and there that the real root takes place in its proper place. But we have wider vision. We stand, as it were, at the vantage point, and we see far and wide. And this, this harvest never does appear in great abundance in one place. It is the very precious, the very rare, but sowers there must be, ready and willing after the long winter of experience, to take on this work.
There are they who stand in the various high places, who wear this garb or that, who have the signs upon their person of being so-called men of God. Who preach and give forth of their knowledge, and yet they are not really ready to sow the seed of reality. The seed of the need of reality. The seed of real, immortal, everlasting life and love. But, as you say, and you are quite right, they do so much good and in these barren places, they bring up, and bring into being the tiny flowers that bring colour and a certain amount of beauty here and there.
But the food, the nourishment of the spirit, the true wheat, can only come from those whose minds are absolutely ready, and can only be given the true seed by the true sower of the spirit.
All these things make for a much pleasanter existence in your world, and you have absolutely the right idea. Keep on in faith. Keep on in prayer. And in the not too distant future, we can give no specific time, you will be able to witness the very reaping of the harvest which you, and those you have learned to love, have sown.
The Spirit world need helpers to sow the seed of a continued existence, yet there aren’t enough sowers. One point perhaps worth pondering is that this message also says that not even they can advice when to plant the seed. They liken the understanding needed to a farmer who knows the land and the conditions, and make the point that only someone who has already been through their own long "winter" — real suffering, disappointment, and loneliness — is truly ready to plant this kind of seed in others: the seed of real, immortal, everlasting life and love.