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Education
the blade in the parable, and the blade has a beauty peculiarly its own.
Children should not be forced into a precocious maturity, but as long
as possible should retain the freshness and grace of their early years.
The more quiet and simple the life of the child—the more free from
artificial excitement and the more in harmony with nature—the more
favorable it is to physical and mental vigor and to spiritual strength.
In the Saviour’s miracle of feeding the five thousand is illustrated
the working of God’s power in the production of the harvest. Jesus
draws aside the veil from the world of nature and reveals the creative
energy that is constantly exercised for our good. In multiplying the
seed cast into the ground, He who multiplied the loaves is working a
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miracle every day. It is by miracle that He constantly feeds millions
from earth’s harvest fields. Men are called upon to co-operate with
Him in the care of the grain and the preparation of the loaf, and because
of this they lose sight of the divine agency. The working of His power
is ascribed to natural causes or to human instrumentality, and too often
His gifts are perverted to selfish uses and made a curse instead of a
blessing. God is seeking to change all this. He desires that our dull
senses shall be quickened to discern His merciful kindness, that His
gifts may be to us the blessing that He intended.
It is the word of God, the impartation of His life, that gives life to
the seed; and of that life, we, in eating the grain, become partakers.
This, God desires us to discern; He desires that even in receiving our
daily bread we may recognize His agency and may be brought into
closer fellowship with Him.
By the laws of God in nature, effect follows cause with unvarying
certainty. The reaping testifies to the sowing. Here no pretense is
tolerated. Men may deceive their fellow men and may receive praise
and compensation for service which they have not rendered. But in
nature there can be no deception. On the unfaithful husbandman the
harvest passes sentence of condemnation. And in the highest sense this
is true also in the spiritual realm. It is in appearance, not in reality, that
evil succeeds. The child who plays truant from school, the youth who
is slothful in his studies, the clerk or apprentice who fails of serving
the interests of his employer, the man in any business or profession
who is untrue to his highest responsibilities, may flatter himself that,
so long as the wrong is concealed, he is gaining an advantage. But not
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