STORIES TOLD BY THE LAKE.
Jesus was glad to go among the fishermen and teach the people by the
Lake, for their hearts were like the good ground into which the farmer
loves to drop his seed, while the hearts of the rich, proud Pharisees
were like the rock on which seed cannot grow. Perhaps he was thinking
of this as He walked out one morning from Peter's house along the
pebbly shore and sat down to talk with the people. The crowd always
grew large around him there, and He had to again enter a fishing boat
and sit a little out from the shore that the people might see and hear
Him more easily. He taught them as no man had ever done before. He
told them short stories, often taking the subject from something the
people could see. Perhaps this morning as He looked over the lovely
plain of Gennesaret, He saw a sower casting seed into a brown and
furrowed field, for it was the time of the year for sowing the winter
wheat. This is the story of "The Sower:"
"A sower went out to sow his seed," said Jesus, "and as he sowed, some
fell by the wayside, and it was trodden down, and the fowls of the air
devoured it.
"And some fell upon a rock; and as soon as it was sprung up it withered
away, because it lacked moisture.
"And some fell among thorns, and the thorns sprang up with it and
choked it.
"And other fell on good ground, and sprang up and bore fruit an hundred
fold."
And then He said, "He that hath ears to hear let him hear," for He knew
that some could understand with the heart that He was talking of the
Word of God, but there were many who could not.
[Illustration: Jesus teaching by the sea]
His disciples asked Him to make the story plain to all, and so He said,
"The seed is the Word of God. Those by the wayside are they that hear;
then cometh the devil and taketh away the Word out of their hearts lest
they should believe and be saved.
"They on the rock are they which, when they hear, receive the Word with
joy, and these have no root, which for a while believe, and in time of
temptation fall away.
"And that which fell among thorns are they which, when they have heard,
go forth, and are choked with cares and riches and pleasures of this
life, and bring no fruit to perfection.
"But that on the good ground are they which in an honest and good
heart, having heard the Word, keep it, and bring forth fruit with
patience."
He also told them a story called "The Wheat and the Tares," of a man
who sowed good seed in a field, but when it sprung up and bore grain
there were weeds growing among it called tares, for an enemy had sowed
the seed at night and it had grown up with the wheat. The man's
servants wished to pull out the tares, but the master of the field said
both should grow together until the harvest, that the wheat might not
be uprooted with the tares. At the end of the harvest the tares would
be burned and the wheat gathered into the barn. In this way he taught
them why good and evil are allowed to grow together in this world.
He also taught them in the story of "The Mustard Seed," that the growth
of the Lord's Kingdom in the heart is like a mustard seed sowed in a
field--which is the least of seeds--but which becomes a great plant, so
large that birds light on its branches. He told them other stories
also that were to show them that the Kingdom of Heaven was life, and
not a written law, and that it grows in the hearts of people as a seed
grows in a field, one seed bearing many seeds, until the time when the
Lord's Kingdom shall fill the earth as the ripe wheat fills the field
in harvest.
One of the stories told that day was about "The Treasure." He told
them of a man who, when digging in a field, found a treasure, a mine of
gold, perhaps, and went and sold all that he had to get money enough to
buy that field. Another one was the story of "The Pearl," which a
pearl-hunter found. It was so large and beautiful that he sold all he
had to be able to buy it. Both these stories were to teach that heaven
in the heart is worth more to us, when once we find it, than all the
treasures or pleasures of this world.
He also told a story of a "Fishing Net," which caught fish of every
kind, but when it was drawn to shore the fishermen gathered the good
fish into baskets, but threw the bad away. This story was something
like that of the "Wheat and the Tares," showing how good and evil are
at last separated.
This was a wonderful day by the blue waters of the Lake of Galilee.
The people went home thinking much about the new Teacher and His
stories of the Kingdom of Heaven.
The great Sower of the Seed had been dropping it into their hearts, and
He alone knew which hearts were "good ground."