Page 475 - Bible History

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448 CHRIST'S TEACHINGS, MIRA ES AND CHURCH
For three years Jesus preached to the people. Hardly a day passed but that the crowds would gather around Him and He would speak to them of the King­ dom of Heaven. They would listen to Him most at­ tentively. They knew that His doctrine was true and in their hearts they felt a great desire to follow Him. But in the end, very few of them put their desires into practice.
Perhaps the apostles often wondered about this and talked of it among themselves. In order to explain this strange riddle, Jesus spoke the following parable to the people.
It was the day that He preached to them from Peter's boat. On the hillside not far away they could see a farmer sowing seed in his eld. He carried the seed in a bag which hung from his shoulders. He would reach into the bag and bring out a handful of seed, and scatter it on the ground as he walked along. Pointing to him, the Savior said to the people, "Be­ hold, the sower went forth to sow. And whilst he
was sowing, some of the seed fell by the wayside and the birds of the air came and ate it up; and other some fell upon stony ground, where it had not much earth, and it shot up immediately because it had no depth, and when the sun was risen it was scorched and, hav­ ing no root, it withered away. Some fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it and it yielded
no fruit. And some fell upon good ground and brought forth fruit that grew up and increased and yielded a hundredfold.'' Then said He, ''He that hath ears to hear, let him hear."