people that He was not a true teacher, and this pleased the Pharisees.
They saw that He did wonderful things that no man could do, but they
said that He did it by the power of the spirit of evil, and they asked
Him to show them a sign that he was from God.

The Lord spoke words to the Pharisees that must have burned like coals
of fire, for it showed how false and wicked their hearts were while
their outward life seemed to be very religious.

He told them that no sign should be given them except that of Jonah; as
he was three days and three nights in the great fish, so should the Son
of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth, and
though the men of Nineveh were wicked, yet they repented at the
preaching of Jonah, but the men of Jerusalem did not repent, though a
greater than Jonah was among them.

Mary and her sons had come from Nazareth hoping to take Jesus away from
the crowds, perhaps, for a rest among the hills, for the summer heat
was great down by the lake and along the Jordan. Some one sent word to
Jesus, as He sat teaching within the court of a house, that His mother
and brothers were outside, and wished to speak with Him. The crowd was
too great for them to enter. Before Jesus rose to go out to his
mother, He paused a moment to teach the great lesson He had come to
bring to the world. Looking at His disciples He said,

"My mother and my brethren are these which hear the Word of God and do
it."

CHAPTER XX.

STORIES TOLD BY THE LAKE.

Jesus was glad to go among the fishermen and teach the people by the
Lake, for their hearts were like the good ground into which the farmer
loves to drop his seed, while the hearts of the rich, proud Pharisees
were like the rock on which seed cannot grow. Perhaps he was thinking
of this as He walked out one morning from Peter's house along the
pebbly shore and sat down to talk with the people. The crowd always
grew large around him there, and He had to again enter a fishing boat
and sit a little out from the shore that the people might see and hear
Him more easily. He taught them as no man had ever done before. He
told them short stories, often taking the subject from something the
people could see. Perhaps this morning as He looked over the lovely
plain of Gennesaret, He saw a sower casting seed into a brown and
furrowed field, for it was the time of the year for sowing the winter
wheat. This is the story of "The Sower:"

"A sower we