From the work of seed sowing and the growth of the plant from the seed, precious lessons may be taught in the family and the school. Let the children and youth learn to recognize in natural things the working of divine agencies, and they will be enabled to grasp by faith unseen benefits. As they come to understand the wonderful work of God in supplying the wants of His great family, and how we are to co-operate with Him, they will have more faith in God, and will realize more of His power in their own daily life.
(COL 80.1)
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God created the seed, as He created the earth, by His word. By His word He gave it power to grow and multiply. He said, “Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth; and it was so ... and God saw that it was good.”Genesis 1:11, 12. It is that word which still causes the seed to grow. Every seed that sends up its green blade to the sunlight declares the wonder-working power of that word uttered by Him who “spake, and it was”; who “commanded, and it stood fast.”Psalm 33:9.
(COL 80.2)
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Christ taught His disciples to pray “Give us this day our daily bread.”Matthew 6:11. And pointing to the flowers He gave them the assurance, “If God so clothe the grass of the field, ... shall He not much more clothe you?”Matthew 6:30. Christ is constantly working to answer this prayer, and to make good this assurance. There is an invisible power constantly at work as man’s servant to feed and to clothe him. Many agencies our Lord employs to make the seed, apparently thrown away, a living plant. And He supplies in due proportion all that is required to perfect the harvest. In the beautiful words of the psalmist:
(COL 81.1)
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“Thou visitest the earth, and waterest it; Thou greatly enrichest it; The river of God is full of water; Thou providest them corn when Thou hast so prepared the earth. Thou waterest her furrows abundantly; Thou settlest the ridges thereof; Thou makest it soft with showers; Thou blessest the springing thereof. Thou crownest the year with Thy goodness; And Thy paths drop fatness.”
(COL 81.2)
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The material world is under God’s control. The laws of nature are obeyed by nature. Everything speaks and acts the will of the Creator. Cloud and sunshine, dew and rain, wind and storm, all are under the supervision of God, and yield implicit obedience to His command. It is in obedience to the law of God that the spire of grain bursts through the ground, “first the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear.”Mark 4:28. These the Lord develops in their proper season because they do not resist His working. And can it be that man, made in the image of God, endowed with reason and speech, shall alone be unappreciative of His gifts and disobedient to His will? Shall rational beings alone cause confusion in our world?
(COL 81.3)
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VC