CHAPTER XVI.
1. Exceptionally fine is that comparison made by our Lord Jesus Christ in the gospel, “So is the kingdom of God, as if a man should cast seed upon the earth; and should sleep and rise night and day, and the seed should spring up and grow, he knoweth not how. The earth beareth fruit of herself; first the blade, then the ear, then the full corn in the ear. But when the fruit is ripe, straightway he putteth forth the sickle, because the harvest is come ”(Mark iv. 26).
2. The Saviour here shows that it is God who operates in everything, and that nothing remains for man but to receive the seeds of instruction with a devout heart; the processes of growth and of ripening will then continue of themselves, unperceived by him. The duty of the teachers of the young, therefore, is none other than to skilfully scatter the seeds of instruction in their minds, and to carefully water God’s plants. Increase and growth will come from above.
3. Is there any who denies that sowing and planting need skill and experience? If an unpractised gardener plant an orchard with young trees, the greater number of them die, and the few that prosper do so rather through chance than through skill. But the trained gardener goes to work
