SPIRITUAL GROWTH, SOURCE OF

Some years ago, a study was done by an agricultural school in Iowa. It reported that production of a hundred bushels of corn from one acre of land required 4,000,000 lbs. of water, 6,800 lbs. of oxygen, 5,200 lbs. of carbon, 160 lbs. of nitrogen, 125 lbs. of potassium, 75 lbs. of yellow sulphur, and other elements too numerous to list. In addition to these ingredients are required rain and sunshine at the right times. Although many hours of the farmer’s labor are also needed, it was estimated that only 5 percent of the produce of a farm can be attributed to the efforts of man.

So it is in spiritual realms: God causes the growth (1 Cor. 3:6–7).1315

When James Garfield, later to become President of the United States, was principal of Hiram College in Ohio, one father asked him if the course of his studies could not be shortened so that his son might be able to complete his studies in less time. “Certainly,” Garfield replied. “But it all depends on what you want to make of your boy. When God wants to make an oak, he takes one hundred years. When he wants to make a squash, he requires only two months.”1316