seeing the multitudes, passed to the shore, and entering a boat, inaugurated a new method in His public teaching. This was the speaking in parables. Similitude, metaphor, always entered into the teaching of Jesus (cf Mt 7:24–27), and parable has once been met with (Lk 7:41, 42); now parable is systematically employed as a means of imparting and illustrating important truths, while yet veiling them from those whose minds were hostile and unreceptive (Mk 4:10–12; Lk 8:9, 10). The parable thus at once