There is one thing in the provisions of that covenant to which I wish to call special attention.  It is all found in one compound word, and that word is

SEED-TIME.

It does not read seeding and harvest. Seeding means the act of sowing seed.  The Lord in his covenant does not say that this shall not cease; because the act of sowing seed or seeding depends upon man:  he only assures man that seedtime, or the time for sowing seed, shall not cease.  But notice the other part.  He does not say harvest-time; but he says that harvest shall not cease, because he makes the harvest.  He speaks positively here of results, as being able and forever willing to fulfill what he covenants to do.  In this covenant, man’s work is implied as well as God’s work.  Man’s part of the work is to sow the seed when the time is given.  God’s part is to bless the seed sown, by giving the harvest.  In all of man’s labor pertaining to providing for the support and comfort of his body, “we are coworkers with God.”

Our heavenly Father deals with us as children.  By natural things he instructs us in spiritual things.  Paul says; “First that which is natural; afterward that which is spiritual.”  This is God’s order.

REASON AND FAITH.

Some think that reason must yield to faith.  Others think that faith must yield to reason.  The opinions on both sides are wrong, because both imply a conflict between reason and faith, when in TRUTH no such conflict ever has existed, nor can it exist.  Reason is neither more nor less than the intelligent operations of the mind in seeking to know the truth; and faith is but a willing acceptance and acknowledgment of that truth when it is known.  In one way of looking at it, faith and knowledge are one; only faith is a loving acceptance, by the WILL, of what the UNDERSTANDING is assured of being true.  What the understanding doubts can never be received by the will as a thing of faith.

WISDOM is the union of faith and knowledge in man, and becomes more and more his guiding light in all intelligent action.  If man’s wisdom be merely that of earth, it is not genuine; but if it be heavenly, it is true wisdom, and leads more and more to God, and eternal life in him.  Wisdom says that there must be a sort of reciprocal correspondence between the seed and the ground on which it is sown.  This fact involves several principles based upon experience.  The sower must know what kind of seed he is sowing. “It may be of wheat or some other grain.” He should know what preparation the ground requires to make the hoped-for harvest.  He should know what fertilizers and stimulants are likely to do most good.  He should also know the right time for sowing his seed.

A mere knowledge of these principles, however, is not sufficient.  There must be a practical application of them, in the way of complying with the necessary conditions, or the sowing will prove a failure.  The seed that fell by the wayside was picked up by the birds.  That which fell on the rock perished.  That which fell among the thorns was soon overcome by their superior rankness of growth, and it made nothing.  Only that which fell into good ground made a remunerative return.