Parable of the Sower
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of his listeners. He employs the scenery about him to illustrate his
doctrine, so that in the future, whenever these objects are presented to
their eyes, their thoughts will revert to the lessons of truth drawn from
them by Jesus. They will be daily reminders of the precious instruction
which they had received from him.
Sitting thus, and looking upon the animated scene before him,
Jesus uttered the parable that has been handed down to us through the
ages, as pure and beautiful today in its unadorned simplicity as when
it was given that morning on the Sea of Galilee more than eighteen
hundred years ago:—
“Hearken; behold, there went out a sower to sow. And it came to
pass, as he sowed, some fell by the wayside, and the fowls of the air
came and devoured it up. And some fell on stony ground, where it had
not much earth; and immediately it sprang up, because it had no depth
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of earth; but when the sun was up, it was scorched; and because it had
no root, it withered away. And some fell among thorns, and the thorns
grew up, and choked it, and it yielded no fruit. And other fell on good
ground, and did yield fruit that sprang up and increased, and brought
forth, some thirty, and some sixty, and some an hundred. And he said
unto them, He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.”
This striking illustration of the spreading abroad of the gospel of the
Son of God engaged the earnest attention of the people. The speaker
carried with him the minds of his hearers. Their souls were stirred, and
many a heart throbbed with the animation of a new purpose. They were
charmed with a doctrine so ennobling in its principles, yet so easily
understood. The high spiritual attainments which Jesus taught seemed
then very desirable. But how soon the impressions there received were
to pass from the minds of many, when they again mingled with the
world. The sins that had seemed so heinous under the holy light of
the Master’s presence, would be clasped again to their erring hearts.
Unfavorable surroundings, and worldly cares and temptations would
cause them to relapse again into indifference.
But others who listened commenced from that moment a holier
life, carrying out daily the principles of Christ’s teachings. The subject
matter of his discourse, illustrated by the scene before them, would
never be effaced from their minds. The varied ground, some producing
only thistles and noxious weeds, the ledges of rock covered with a
surface of earth, the sowers with their seed, all being before their eyes,
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