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Education
nothing. He must depend upon One who has connected the sowing
and the reaping by wonderful links of His own omnipotent power.
There is life in the seed, there is power in the soil; but unless
infinite power is exercised day and night, the seed will yield no return.
The showers of rain must refresh the thirsty fields; the sun must impart
warmth; electricity must be conveyed to the buried seed. The life
which the Creator has implanted, He alone can call forth. Every seed
grows, every plant develops, by the power of God.
“The seed is the word of God.” “As the earth bringeth forth her
bud, and as the garden causeth the things that are sown in it to spring
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forth; so the Lord God will cause righteousness and praise to spring
forth.”
Luke 8:11
;
Isaiah 61:11
. As in the natural, so in the spiritual
sowing; the power that alone can produce life is from God.
The work of the sower is a work of faith. The mystery of the
germination and growth of the seed he cannot understand; but he has
confidence in the agencies by which God causes vegetation to flourish.
He casts away the seed, expecting to gather it manyfold in an abundant
harvest. So parents and teachers are to labor, expecting a harvest from
the seed they sow.
For a time the good seed may lie unnoticed in the heart, giving
no evidence that it has taken root; but afterward, as the Spirit of God
breathes on the soul, the hidden seed springs up, and at last brings forth
fruit. In our lifework we know not which shall prosper, this or that.
This question it is not for us to settle. “In the morning sow thy seed,
and in the evening withhold not thine hand.”
Ecclesiastes 11:6
. God’s
great covenant declares that “while the earth remaineth, seedtime and
harvest ... shall not cease.”
Genesis 8:22
. In the confidence of this
promise the husbandman tills and sows. Not less confidently are we,
in the spiritual sowing, to labor, trusting His assurance: “So shall My
word be that goeth forth out of My mouth: it shall not return unto Me
void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in
the thing whereto I sent it.” “He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing
precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his
sheaves with him.”
Isaiah 55:11
;
Psalm 126:6
.
The germination of the seed represents the beginning of spiritual
life, and the development of the plant is a figure of the development of
character. There can be no life without growth. The plant must either
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grow or die. As its growth is silent and imperceptible, but continuous,