Who Can Plant the Seeds?

By Paul Wharton

A man once stole a piece of food and was ordered by the king to be hanged. When asked if he had any last words, the thief replied, "Know, o king, that I kept some seeds which when planted in the ground will grow and become mature plants overnight. It is a secret that my grandfather gave me and I thought it would be a pity if it died with me."

A time was appointed the following day for planting the seeds. The thief dug a hole and said, "These seeds can only be planted by someone who has never stolen or taken anything which did not belong to him. But since I had stolen some food, I cannot, of course, do it."

The king asked his prime minister to plant the seeds, but he hesitated and said, "Your majesty, when I was young, I recall keeping an article that did not belong to me. I cannot plant the seeds."

The treasurer, when told to plant the seeds, begged the king's pardon, saying that he may have cheated someone out of some money. The king, in his turn, recalled that once he took and kept a precious object belonging to his father.

The thief turned to them and said, "You are all mighty and powerful persons. You are not in want of anything, yet you cannot plant the seeds. Yet I, who stole a little food to stay alive, am to be hanged."

The king, pleased with the wisdom, spared the man's life.

The Legend of the Candle

By Purnell Bailey

One evening a man took a small candle from a box and began to climb a long winding stairway.

"Where are we going?" asked the candle.

"We are going up higher than the house to show ships the way to the harbour."

"But no ship in the harbour could ever see my light," said the candle. "it is so very small."

"If your light is small," the man said, "just keep burning brightly and leave the rest to me."

When they reached the top of the long steps, they came to a larbe lamp. Then he took the little candle and lit the lamp. Soon the great polished reflectors behind the lamp sent beams of light out across miles of sea.

We are God's taper! Our job is to keep on shining, and our effectiveness is in His hands.

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The Lord your God will light your candle: He will enlighten your darkness. (Psalms 18:28)

The lamp of the body is the eye. Therefore when your eye is good, your whole body is also full of light; but when it is evil, your body also is full of darkness. Therefore see whether the light that is in you isn't darkness. If therefore your whole body is full of light, having no part dark, it will be wholly full of light, as when the bright shining of a candle do give you light. (Luke 11:34-36)

No Sudden Results

By Jacob Riis

When nothing seems to help, I go and look at a stonecutter hammering away at his rock, perhaps a hundred times without as much as a crack showing in it. Yet at a hundredth and first blow, it will split in two, and I know it was not that last blow that did it -- but all that had gone before.

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Rejoice in your hardships, knowing that hardship works perseverance; and perseverance, experience; and experience, hope. (Romans 5:4)

To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:

A time to be born, and a time to die;
A time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted;
A time to kill, and a time to heal;
A time to break down, and a time to build up;
A time to weep, and a time to laugh;
A time to mourn, and a time to dance;
A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together;
A time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;
A time to get, and a time to lose;
A time to keep, and a time to cast away;
A time to rend, and a time to sew;
A time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
A time to love, and a time to hate;
A time of war, and a time of peace.

[Ecclesiastes 3:1-8]

Notice that it is only in the last line that "of" is used instead of "to". It didn't say, "A time to war, and a time to make peace." Why so, and what does it imply?