Charles Spurgeon Commentary Mark 4:16-17

"And these in like manner are they that are sown upon the rocky [places], who, when they have heard the word, straightway receive it with joy; and they have no root in themselves, but endure for a while; then, when tribulation or persecution ariseth because of the word, straightway they stumble." — Mark 4:16-17 (ASV)

These are the people who trouble and grieve the hearts of earnest ministers; and there are some revivalists who never go to a place without getting many people to come forward and say that they are converted. Why, I know a town where, according to the accounts circulated by certain preachers, there were so many professed converts every night that all the people in the town must have been converted, and many more from the surrounding villages; but nobody can find them now. Were they converted, then? I think not; but that is the style in which much has been done by some whom I could name.

Yet there is some good even in their work. The sower in the parable is not blamed because his work was so fleeting; how could he prevent it? As the soil was so shallow, the apparent result was very quick, and the disappointment was equally quick. I do trust, dear friends, that you will never be satisfied with temporary godliness, with slight impressions, soon received and soon lost. Beware of what is not the work of the Holy Ghost. There must be a breaking up of the iron pan of the heart, there must be a tearing out of the rocks that underlie the soil; or else there will be no harvest for God.