Article August 13, 1927 Issue

"It shall accomplish"

EMMIE GRACE SMITH

How pleasant a thing it is to stroll through the fields and lanes after a day of rain! The sun, again brightening the landscape, adds to the joy expressed on all sides by the refreshed and gladdened earth. Each blade of grass seems to call our attention to its vigor and freshness, while overhead the leaves of the trees nod and bow to us in a shimmer of satin green. Here and there a bird twitters and chirps, or pours forth its heartfelt and joyous song, a song that seems unusually glad. And why not? Has not its favorite bathing place been washed clean and replenished? And is not the earth renewed?

It was on such an occasion of renewal that the writer one morning realized, more than ever before, the beauty and truth of those loved verses from the fifty-fifth chapter of Isaiah: "For as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater: so shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it." "It shall accomplish"!

At the time these verses were recalled, much indeed had been accomplished to the human sense. For many weeks there had been little or no rain, and the grass on the lawns and in the fields was withered and dry. The trees, too, were drooping, and the gardens were demanding extra care. At last there came a night of rain, but after a few hours of heat and sunshine things seemed just as before. Then brief showers followed off and on for almost a week, but with apparently little change for the better in growing things, until there came three or four days of much rain. The transformation was wonderful—inspiring! Lawns and fields were now an emerald green; the trees and gardens rejoiced; and along the roadside the nodding raspberry stalks offered their bright red beads of fruit. "So shall my word be: ... it shall accomplish."

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