THE promise of the Lord standeth sure, that, " so 

 long as the earth remains, seed time and harvest, cold 

 and heat, summer and winter shall not cease." There 

 are, indeed, years of comparative scarcity, when the 

 earth does not yield her full increase, but there are 

 also years of great abundance and plenty, when the 

 ground brings forth " some thirty, some sixty, some an 

 hundred-fold." 



It is man's business to sow the seed : it is God's pre- 

 rogative to give the increase : " In the morning sow thy 

 seed, and iii the evening withhold not thine hand : for 

 thou knowest not whether shall prosper, either this or 

 that." (Eccles. xi. 6.) 



