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Education
be brought forth for the kingdom of God. In accordance with the law
of the vegetable kingdom, life is the result of His death.
So with all who bring forth fruit as workers together with Christ:
self-love, self-interest, must perish; the life must be cast into the furrow
of the world’s need. But the law of self-sacrifice is the law of self-
preservation. The husbandman preserves his grain by casting it away.
So the life that will be preserved is the life that is freely given in service
to God and man.
The seed dies, to spring forth into new life. In this we are taught
the lesson of the resurrection. Of the human body laid away to molder
in the grave, God has said: “It is sown in corruption; it is raised in
incorruption: it is sown in dishonor; it is raised in glory: it is sown in
weakness; it is raised in power.”
1 Corinthians 15:42, 43
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As parents and teachers try to teach these lessons, the work should
be made practical. Let the children themselves prepare the soil and
sow the seed. As they work, the parent or teacher can explain the
garden of the heart, with the good or bad seed sown there, and that
as the garden must be prepared for the natural seed, so the heart must
be prepared for the seed of truth. As the seed is cast into the ground,
they can teach the lesson of Christ’s death; and as the blade springs up,
the truth of the resurrection. As the plant grows, the correspondence
between the natural and the spiritual sowing may be continued.
The youth should be instructed in a similar way. From the tilling of
the soil, lessons may constantly be learned. No one settles upon a raw
piece of land with the expectation that it will at once yield a harvest.
Diligent, persevering labor must be put forth in the preparation of the
soil, the sowing of the seed, and the culture of the crop. So it must
be in the spiritual sowing. The garden of the heart must be cultivated.
The soil must be broken up by repentance. The evil growths that choke
the good grain must be uprooted. As soil once overgrown with thorns
can be reclaimed only by diligent labor, so the evil tendencies of the
heart can be overcome only by earnest effort in the name and strength
of Christ.
In the cultivation of the soil the thoughtful worker will find that
treasures little dreamed of are opening up before him. No one can suc-
ceed in agriculture or gardening without attention to the laws involved.
The special needs of every variety of plant must be studied. Different
varieties require different soil and cultivation, and compliance with
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