The Parable of the Hearers

<p>‘Hearken; Behold, there went out a sower to sow:<br> ‘And it came to pass, as he sowed, some fell by the way side, and the fowls of the air came and devoured it up.<br> ‘And some fell on stony ground, where it had not much earth; and immediately it sprang up, because it had no depth of earth:<br> ‘But when the sun was up, it was scorched; and because it had no root, it withered away.<br> ‘And some fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up, and choked it, and it yielded no fruit.<br> ‘And other fell on good ground, and did yield fruit that sprang up and increased; and brought forth, some thirty, and some sixty, and some an hundred.’<br> <em>—Mark 4:3–8</em></p>