"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.

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;

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

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?

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;

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

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.

"Because of your little faith," he answered. "In solemn truth I tell you that if you have faith the size of a mustard-seed, you can say to this mountain, 'Move from this place to that!' and it will move; and nothing will be impossible to you.

He set forth to them another parable, saying. "The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard-seed which a man took and planted in his field.

"The sower of the seed," he answered, "is the Son of man;

"the field is the world; the good seed is the sons of the kingdom; the weeds, the sons of the Evil One.

some other seed fell on stony soil, where it had not much earth; and it sprang up quickly because it had no depth of soil,

Other seed fell among the thorns, and the thorns sprang up and choked it, so that it yielded no crop.

But some seed fell into good soil and yielded a crop that sprang up and increased, yielding thirty, sixty, or a hundredfold.

night and day he sleeps and wakes while the seed is sprouting and growing tall, he knows not how.

"Some other seed dropped on the rock, as soon as it grew it withered away, because it had no moisture.

"This is the meaning of the parable. The seed is the word of God.

"It is like a grain of mustard seed, which a man took and cast into his own garden. It grew and became a tree, and the wild birds nested in its branches."

"If your faith," answered Jesus, "were like a grain of mustard-seed, you would say to this tree, 'Tear yourself up and be planted in the sea,' and it would obey you.