The seed meant the Word of God; the sower, a servant of God who had to teach the Word. The seed that fell by the wayside meant that the words had not been cared for by those who heard them, and the Wicked Spirit then made them forget all they had heard. That which fell on stony places and had no depth of earth, meant those who at first are glad to hear of God's love, and seem as if they would be His children; but their goodness has "no root," and so a little trouble makes them give up trying. We must all ask God to keep us Christ's children. The seed that fell among thorns meant that sometimes when men have been taught about God, they let the love of money and the cares of life and its pleasures fill their minds so that they have no time or thought to give to God, or to read and pray. Those seeds that fell on good ground meant the children or men who listen to God's Word, and read it, and pray to Him for help, and try to obey it. These grow better and better, and God will love and help them.
THE SOWER.
Our Lord was often very tired when He had been making sick people well and teaching them by these lovely stories; and then He would go up a mountain alone and pray to His Father in Heaven, or cross the sea to some other place, for He had hardly time to eat or sleep. One day He was very tired and the sun had set, so He said to His disciples, "Let us cross to the other side." Then they sent away the crowd of people and took Jesus in the ship, and put out to sea, and there were with them many other little ships.
And there arose a great wind; the waves were high and beat into the boat, so that it was full of water and going to sink; but Our Lord was fast asleep, with his head on a pillow, in the stern of the ship. The disciples were much afraid, and they woke him, saying, "Lord, do you not care that we perish?" Then Jesus rose and stood up and spoke to the wind and waves, and said, "Peace"—that is, Hush!—"be still." And the wind stopped blowing, and the waves grew still, and there was a great calm. Then the disciples said to each other, "What kind of man is this, that even the wind and the sea obey Him?" They ought to have known, for they had seen Him raise the dead. You know, do you not? He was the Son of God.
CHRIST STILLING THE TEMPEST.
Our Lord chose twelve of the men who followed Him to be his apostles, and He sent seventy of His disciples out to teach, and gave them power to make sick people well. The apostles also, were sent, but after a time they came back to Our Lord, and told Him all that they had done and taught. And He said to them, "Come ye apart into a desert place and rest awhile," for there were many coming and going, and they had not even time to eat. And they went by ship with Him to a desert place near a city called Bethsaida. But when the people found out where He had gone, they came in crowds after Him. Our Lord was very kind to them. He went to this desert place to rest, but He did not care for rest or food, if He could do good, so He did not say, "Why did you come here?" but He went up on a mount and told them about God, and made all the sick ones well. And when the day began to wear away, the twelve apostles came to Him, and said, "Send this great crowd away that they may go to the towns near and get food, for this is a desert place." Then Jesus said to Philip, "Where shall we get bread that these may eat?" And this He said to try him, for He Himself knew what He would do. And Philip said, "A great deal of bread would not be enough to give each of them a little piece." Then Andrew said, "There is a lad here who has five barley loaves and two small fishes, but what are they among so many?" And Jesus said, "Make the men sit down." And they sat down on the grass, fifty in one place, and there were five thousand men there. Then Jesus took the loaves, and when He had given thanks He broke them, and gave the pieces to His disciples, and they gave them to the people; and He gave them of the fishes as much as they would, and they all ate and left many pieces. Then Our Lord told the Apostles to gather the pieces up so that nothing might be lost; for Jesus does not like people to waste things, and they picked up enough pieces to fill twelve baskets with the bread that was left. Was not this a very great miracle? The people who saw it said at once, that Our Lord was the Christ that was to come, and they wanted to make Him a King; and when He would not be one, they thought they would take Him by force and crown Him; but Jesus sent His disciples away and went into a mountain all by Himself and prayed to His Father. This miracle made the people believe in our Lord more than any other. They thought that He Who could feed them when they were hungry, must be the promised Saviour; and they had been taught by the priests that when Christ came He would be a king, that He would free them from the Romans and make them rich and great. That was a great mistake. The Christ was coming to set them free from their sins, and bring them to His Heavenly Kingdom, not only to do them good on earth.