Mark 4:26–29

Verse 26. So it is with him who announces the gospel of the kingdom of God, as with the sower. For whether he sleep or rise, the seed will grow up while he knoweth not; and the well prepared soil will, by the blessing of God, be productive: so the word of God shed abroad in the heart of man, will increase and fructify independently of all the preacher’s solicitude, till he who has received it, being arrived at the measure of the age and fulness of Christ, shall be withdrawn by God from this world, and be called to himself. V.

Verse 29. When the fruit is brought forth: lit. when the fruit [1] hath produced. By the fruit is here meant the seed; that is when the seed by degrees hath produced the blade, then the ear, and lastly the corn, which is become ripe. Witham.—This is a secondary sense of the text, when the fruit hath come to maturity, and by no means a forced interpretation.