Other Lessons from Seed-Sowing
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sive or showy manner. This encourages pride in them, and awakens
envy in the hearts of their companions.
The little ones should be educated in childlike simplicity. They
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should be trained to be content with the small, helpful duties and the
pleasures and experiences natural to their years. Childhood answers
to the blade in the parable, and the blade has a beauty peculiarly its
own. The children should not be forced into a precocious maturity but
should retain as long as possible the freshness and grace of their early
years.
The little children may be Christians, having an experience in
accordance with their years. This is all that God expects of them. They
need to be educated in spiritual things; and parents should give them
every advantage that they may form characters after the similitude of
the character of Christ.
* * * * *
In the laws of God in nature, effect follows cause with unerring
certainty. The reaping will testify as to what the sowing has been. The
slothful worker is condemned by his work. The harvest bears witness
against him. So in spiritual things: the faithfulness of every worker
is measured by the results of his work. The character of his work,
whether diligent or slothful, is revealed by the harvest. It is thus that
his destiny for eternity is decided.
Every seed sown produces a harvest of its kind. So it is in human
life. We all need to sow the seeds of compassion, sympathy, and love;
for we shall reap what we sow. Every characteristic of selfishness,
self-love, self-esteem, every act of self-indulgence, will bring forth a
like harvest. He who lives for self is sowing to the flesh, and of the
flesh he will reap corruption.
God destroys no man. Everyone who is destroyed will have de-
stroyed himself. Everyone who stifles the admonitions of conscience
is sowing the seeds of unbelief, and these will produce a sure harvest.
By rejecting the first warning from God, Pharaoh of old sowed the
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seeds of obstinacy, and he reaped obstinacy. God did not compel him
to disbelieve. The seed of unbelief which he sowed produced a harvest
of its kind. Thus his resistance continued, until he looked upon his
devastated land, upon the cold, dead form of his first-born, and the