JESUS taught a great deal in parables, and among those which are best known and best loved stands the parable of the sower who, with such varying results, cast generously his seed upon the ground. The sower performed his task, and the seed was perfect in quality and plentiful. But the soil in one place was so trodden down by passing feet that the seed was carried off by predatory birds before it even took root. In another spot, the soil over the rocks was so thin that, although the seed struck root, the roots were weak for lack of nourishment, and the heat of the sun soon destroyed the feeble plants. In a third region, where there was depth of earth there was also a tangle of briers which prevented the ground beneath from being cultivated, so that the seed which fell there, after becoming a plant, struggled a little while for existence and then was choked by the thorns. The remainder of the soil, plowed and prepared, received the seed and brought forth fruit, some thirtyfold and some sixty, and some an hundredfold.
To anyone who has worked a farm this parable comes with full meaning. It is easily imagined that every landowner would like to have his field produce one hundred fold, and that if he found a ledge of rock running across it he would resolve that the ledge must come out, even if inch by inch. If he saw that invaders had tracked a hard path across his land, he would proceed to set a guard at the entrance to keep them out. If the edges of his lot were cumbered with undergrowth, he would know that the briers must be cut back to his boundary line, in order to get his plow to work there. And still, unless he carried these resolves into effect, the ledge would remain, the passers-by would still tread down his ground, and the briers not only would hold their own, but would encroach into his arable ground. Finally, warned by the falling off of his harvest, the farmer would rouse himself, pick out the rock, dig out the briers, and set strict watch, that no intruder should pass over his newly plowed field. In his strengthened vigilance and energy he would then plow wide and deep; and the perfect seed, now falling upon carefully prepared soil, would at last bring forth the full one hundred fold.
Jesus explained the parable of the sower by telling his disciples of differing states of consciousness: first, the unspiritual thought which, though he ears heard the Word of God, was not impressed with it; secondly, the thought which listened gladly, but was too shallow to let the Word become a living plant; thirdly, the thought so cumbered with earthly cares and pleasures that as the seed grew it was choked by materiality; and, finally, the "honest and good heart," the thought in which the Word of God took root and grew till it brought forth fruit one hundred fold.
