<h2>The Story-teller by the Sea</h2><div class="chaptertitle">CHAPTER 34</div>
<div class='cap'>SOON AFTER his journey through southern Galilee,
Jesus began to teach in a new form, that of telling
stories to the people. Everybody likes to listen to a
story, and sometimes a story will go to the heart when the
plain truth will fail. Story-tellers have always been
very abundant in the East, where Jesus lived. Even
today may be found everywhere men who go from place
to place telling stories, and the people flock around them
and listen to their stories from morning until night.</div>
<p>But the stories that Jesus told were very different
from those of the Eastern story-tellers. His stories were
told to teach some great truth, and on that account were
called "parables." A parable is a story which is true
to life—that is, a story which might be true, not a fairy
story—and which also has in it some teaching of the
truth.</p>
<div class="figcenter"> <ANTIMG src="images/illus-220.jpg" width-obs="417" height-obs="600" alt="painting" /> <span class="caption">"Once a sower went out to sow his seed. Some seed fell on stony ground and some fell among briers and bushes."</span></div>
<p>One day Jesus went out of the city of Capernaum
and stood on the beach by the Sea of Galilee. A great
crowd of people gathered around him, for all the opposition
of the scribes and Pharisees could not keep the common
people away from Jesus. The throng was so great,
crowding around Jesus, that as before he stepped into a
boat and told his disciples to push it out a little from the
shore. Then he sat down in the boat, fronting the great
multitude that filled the sloping beach. He said to the
people:</p>
<p>"Listen! Once a sower went out to sow his seed.
And as he was scattering the seed, some of it fell on the
path, where the ground had been trodden hard. The<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[197]</SPAN></span>
seed lay there on the path until the birds lighted upon
it and picked up all the kernels, so that none of them grew.</p>
<p>"Some of the seed fell on places where there was a
thin covering of earth over stones. There the kernels
grew up quickly, just because the soil was thin. But
when the hot weather came, the sun scorched the tender
plants, and they all withered away, because they had no
moisture and no root in deep earth.</p>
<p>"Some other of the seeds fell among briers and bushes,
and there was no room for the grain to grow up. It
lived, but it did not bring forth heads of grain, because
it was crowded and choked by thorn bushes all around it.</p>
<p>"But there were some other of the seeds that fell into
ground that was soft and rich and good. There they
grew up and brought forth fruit abundantly. Some
kernels gave thirty times as many as were sown, some
sixty times and some a hundred times."</p>
<p>Jesus did not tell the people what the teaching of
the parable was. He only said, "Whoever has ears, let
him hear what I have spoken." He meant that they
should not only listen but think and find out for themselves
the meaning.</p>
<p>When Jesus was alone with his disciples, they said
to him:</p>
<p>"Why do you speak to the people in parables?
What do you mean to teach in this story about the man
sowing seed?"</p>
<p>Jesus said to them:</p>
<p>"To you who have followed me it is given to know
the deep things of the Kingdom of God, because you
seek to find them out. But to many these truths are
spoken in parables, for they hear the story, but do not
try to find out what it means. They have eyes, but they
do not see, and ears, but they do not hear. For they do
not wish to understand with the heart and turn to God<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[198]</SPAN></span>
to have their sins forgiven. But blessed are your eyes,
for they see, and your ears, for they hear. Listen now
to the meaning of the parable of the sower.</p>
<p>"The sower is the one who speaks the word of God,
and the seed is the word which he speaks.</p>
<p>"The seed on the roadside, the trodden path, means
those who hear, but do not take the truth into their
hearts. Then the Evil Spirit comes and, like the birds,
snatches away the truth, so that they forget it.</p>
<p>"The seeds on the rocky soil are those who hear the
word and seem to take it gladly into their hearts; but
they have no root in themselves; just as soon as they
meet with any discouragement or trouble, or find enemies
to the truth, they are turned away and their goodness
does not last.</p>
<p>"That which is sown among the thorns and briers
are those who listen to the word, but the worries of life,
and the desire for money, and the pleasures of the world,
crowd the word in their hearts, and the gospel does them
but little good.</p>
<p>"But the seed sown on the good ground are those
who listen to the gospel and understand it; who take the
word into honest and good hearts and keep it and bring
forth fruit in their lives."</p>
<hr class="chap" /><p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[199]</SPAN></span></p>
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