WITH the recurring seasons we have naturally come to associate the springtime with seedtime,—the preparation of the soil and the sowing of the seed, that in due course the harvest may be gathered in. It brings to thought, too, the Master's parable of the sower who "went forth to sow," with its manifold lessons. It was the time for sowing, and like the great apostle, it was his task to scatter the seed; its future growth and the harvest were in the hands of God.
"Seedtime and harvest," Mrs. Eddy tells us, "will continue unto the end,—until the final spiritualization of all things" (Science and Health, p. 96). To the Christian Scientist every day is seedtime,—an opportunity not to be neglected of bringing to the attention of some needy one, some hopeless sufferer, the truth that has made him free. Consciously or unconsciously, like the sower in the parable, he goes forth each day to sow. If his thought is pure, if he is constantly reflecting the love that is divine, the world of materiality, of sordid business and wasted endeavor, will be the better for his coming, he will have lightened by that much the weight of error.
The farmer has learned that he must improve the golden hours of springtime; that when the hard clods of earth have felt the touch of the sun's warm rays and the gentle rain, they are ready for the plow and the harrow, ready for a liberal sowing of the good seed, that it may take deep root and fortify itself against the midsummer heat and drought that may seek to blight its fair promise, and the insidious tares that would choke its growth. So, too, when the soil is ready, when sin and its twin yokefellows, sorrow and disease, have plowed and harrowed human consciousness,—then is the time when the good seed is needed. Hearts softened by sorrow and suffering are fertile soil for the seed of Truth, and watered by the tears of repentance, give promise of an abundant harvest.
