Article November 21, 1970 Issue

Signs of the Times

G. E. Tiley

The Reverend G. E. Tiley
Sapperton Rectory Gloucestershire, England
in a letter to his parishioners

Seedtime and Harvest is not just a part of nature. It runs through every phase of life, physical, mental and spiritual. And so the great promise of God that "while the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest shall not cease" is one of the basic laws of all life. By studying what happens in the world of nature we can see how it works. The seed and the fruit are the beginning and the end of the one process. For every kind of harvest there must be a seed. The same kind of seed always produces the same kind of harvest. Providing the laws are obeyed, nature never makes a mistake. Thus when Jesus said no one gathers fruit from thorns or figs from thistles, or good fruit from a bad tree, this is what He meant. In other words, the picture on the seed packet of what to expect from sowing is a sure guide. "As a man soweth, so he reapeth" runs right up through all life.

The note of thanksgiving, or joy in Harvest, is more than saying thank you to God for once again giving us of His bounty and supply. This we should think of every day when we have enough of the material things of life. . . . Deeper even than this, though, is the gratitude of men for God's unfailing, unalterable laws. These we can trust, these we can depend on, and it gives great security to life to know that there is a cause and effect, a seed and harvest, for everything. By this we learn, and can grow through our mistakes. Life is not haphazard or just fate or coincidence. . . . Every single bit of life obeys the seed and harvest law and never varies.

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