004:001 Once more He began to teach by the side of the Lake, and a vast multitude of people came together to listen to Him. He therefore went on board the boat and sat there, a little way from the land; and all the people were on the shore close to the water. 004:002 Then He proceeded to teach them many lessons in figurative language; and in His teaching He said, 004:003 "Listen: the sower goes out to sow. 004:004 As he sows, some of the seed falls by the way-side, and the birds come and peck it up. 004:005 Some falls on the rocky ground where it finds but little earth, and it shoots up quickly because it has no depth of soil; 004:006 but when the sun is risen, it is scorched, and through having no root it withers away. 004:007 Some, again, falls among the thorns; and the thorns spring up and stifle it, so that it yields no crop. 004:008 But some of the seed falls into good ground, and gives a return: it comes up and increases, and yields thirty, sixty, or a hundred-fold." 004:009 "Listen," He added, "every one who has ears to listen with!" 004:010 When He was alone, the Twelve and the others who were about Him requested Him to explain His figurative language. 004:011 "To you," He replied, "has been entrusted the secret truth concerning the Kingdom of God; but to those others outside your number all this is spoken in figurative language; 004:012 that "'They may look and look but not see, and listen and listen but not understand, lest perchance they should return and be pardoned.'" 004:013 "Do you all miss the meaning of this parable?" He added; "how then will you understand the rest of my parables?" 004:014 "What the sower sows is the Message. 004:015 Those who receive the seed by the way-side are those in whom the Message is sown, but, when they have heard it, Satan comes at once and carries away the Message sown in them. 004:016 In the same way those who receive the seed on the rocky places are those who, when they have heard the Message, at once accept it joyfully, 004:017 but they have no root within them. They last for a time; then, when suffering or persecution comes because of the Message, they are immediately overthrown. 004:018 Others there are who receive the seed among the thorns: these are they who have heard the Message, 004:019 but worldly cares and the deceitfulness of wealth and the excessive pursuit of other objects come in and stifle the Message, and it becomes unfruitful. 004:020 Those, on the other hand, who have received the seed on the good ground, are all who hear the Message and welcome it, and yield a return of thirty, sixty, or a hundred fold."