Matthew 13:3

And he spake many things to them in parables.

Of which only samples are preserved, even by Matthew, and still fewer in the other Gospels, showing that the writer's aim was not to furnish an exhaustive history, but to illustrate by examples the ministry of Christ.-- J. A. Alexander.

By parables.

Up to this time Christ's preaching had been chiefly confined to. simple proclamation. "The kingdom of heaven is at hand" (Matthew 4:17; Matthew 10:7). The Sermon on the Mount afforded some interpretation of the principles of that kingdom, but primarily to his own disciples, and chiefly in contrast with the Mosaic law and the Pharisaic system. In these parables Christ discloses those features respecting his kingdom which were surest to encounter prejudice and opposition. The parable differs from the proverb in being. narrative, from the fable in being true to nature, from the myth in being undeceptive, from the allegory in that it veils the spiritual truth.--Abbott. By the parable our Lord could give to his disciples in this method the deepest secrets of his kingdom for ages, while the caviler, who would have abused the truth, heard without understanding. But the truth thus embodied in narrative was, as it were, materialized, and made fit for perpetuation. It had. form and body to it, by which it could be preserved in tangible shape for future ages.-- Whedon.

Behold,. sower went forth to sow.

It is the sower in the original. The Savior casts upon the canvas of the imagination. particular individual.-- Morison. "Behold,. sower went out. " The expression implies that the sower, in the days of our Savior, lived, in. hamlet, or village, as all these farmers now do, to guard against robbers; that he did not sow near his own house, or in. garden fenced or walled, for such. field does not furnish all the basis of the parable. There are neither roads, nor thorns, nor stony places in such lots. They go forth into the open country, where the path passes through the cultivated land, where there are no fences, where thorns grow in clumps all around, where the rocks peep out in places through the scanty soil, and hard by are patches extremely fertile.-- Thomson.