Of course, we should have expected that the grain thus thrown away, or scattered over the ground, would all be lost.  But, if we could have come back to visit that farmer when he was gathering in his harvest, how surprised we should have been!  Then we should have learned that for every handful of grain that the farmer had scattered, or, as we thought, thrown away, in the spring, when he was sowing, he had gained forty or fifty handfuls when he reaped in his harvest.  Then we should have understood what Solomon meant when he said, “There is that scattereth, and yet increaseth.”  And we should have here a good illustration of our Saviour’s lesson of liberality, when he said, “Give, and it shall be given unto you;” and of the Bible truth we are now studying, that “giving is God’s rule for getting.”

Yonder is the great ocean; it is one of the grandest of nature’s works.  And the ocean gives us a good illustration of the lesson of liberality which our Saviour taught.  The waters of the ocean are spread out for thousands of miles.  As the sun shines on the surface of the ocean, it makes the water warm, and turns it into vapor, like the steam that comes from the boiling kettle.  This vapor rises into the air, and helps to form the clouds that are floating there.  These clouds sail over the land, and pour out the water that is in them, in refreshing and fertilizing showers of rain.  This rain makes the rills start from the sides of the mountains.  The rills run down into the rivers, and the rivers flow back into the sea again.  In this way the ocean is a great giver.  It has been giving away its water for hundreds and thousands of years, ever since the day when God made it.

Now, let us suppose that the ocean could think, or speak; and that it had power to control its own motions.  And suppose that the ocean should say:—­“Well, I think I have been giving away water long enough.  I am going to turn over a new leaf.  The sun may shine as much as it pleases.  I won’t let another drop of water go out from my surface.  I am tired of giving, and I mean to stop doing it, any longer.”  Let us pause for a moment here, and see what the effect of this would be upon the ocean itself.

We know that all the water in the ocean is salt water.  But when the sun takes water from the ocean, in the form of vapor, it is always taken out as fresh water.  It leaves the salt behind it.  Then the water on the surface of the ocean, from which this vapor has been taken, has more salt in it than the water underneath it.  This makes it heavier than the other water.  The consequence of this, is that this heavier water, on the top of the ocean, sinks to the bottom; and at the same time the lighter water at the bottom rises to the top.  And so a constant change is taking place all over the ocean.  The water from the top is sinking to the bottom, and the water from the bottom is rising to the top.  And this is one of the means which God employs to keep