"It is with the kingdom of God," he continued, "as if a man should have sown seed in the earth;

And when you sow the seed you are not sowing the body that it will become, but bare grain, of wheat perhaps, or some other grain.

The man who is sowing to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption; but he who is sowing to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap life eternal.

And like the sowing upon 'stony ground' are those who, whenever they hear the Word, at once receive it with joy,

It is like a mustard-seed, which, when sown in the soil, is the smallest seed in the world;

"A sower went out to sow his seed, and as he sowed some fell by the wayside, and was trodden under foot, and the wild birds ate it up.

Foolish man! The seed you sow does not come to life unless it dies.

and as he sowed, some seed fell by the roadside, and the birds came and ate it.

"This is the seed sown by the wayside. And the word, and at once receives it with joy.

"And the seed sown among thorns is he who hears the word, but the anxieties of the age and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful.

"But the seed sown in good soil is he who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit, and makes now an hundredfold, now sixty, now thirty."

He told them another parable. "The kingdom of heaven," he said, "is like a man who sowed good seed in his field;

"The slaves of the owner went to him and said: "'Was it not good seed, sir, that you sowed in your field? From whence then, do you get tares?'

and as he sowed, it happened that some seed fell on the road, and birds came and picked it up;

He who ever supplies seed to the sower, and bread for the food of man, will supply and make plentous your seed, and increase the harvest springing up from your almsgiving.

If I have sown for you the seeds of spiritual good, is it a great thing if I reap from you temporal goods?

For you have been born anew, not of perishable, but of imperishable seed, by the living, lasting word of God.

By faith even Sarah herself received power to conceive seed, although she was past the age for child-bearing, because she counted Him faithful who had promised;

Whoever is a child of God cannot go on sinning, because his seed is abiding in him; and he cannot go on sinning because he is a child of God.