for every handful of grain that the farmer had
scattered, or, as we thought, thrown away, in the spring, when he was
sowing, he had gained forty or fifty handfuls when he reaped in his
harvest. Then we should have understood what Solomon meant when he
said, "There is that scattereth, and yet increaseth." And we should
have here a good illustration of our Saviour's lesson of liberality,
when he said, "Give, and it shall be given unto you;" and of the
Bible truth we are now studying, that "giving is God's rule for
getting."

Yonder is the great ocean; it is one of the grandest of nature's
works. And the ocean gives us a good illustration of the lesson of
liberality which our Saviour taught. The waters of the ocean are
spread out for thousands of miles. As the sun shines on the surface
of the ocean, it makes the water warm, and turns it into vapor, like
the steam that comes from the boiling kettle. This vapor rises into
the air, and helps to form the clouds that are floating there. These
clouds sail over the land, and pour out the water that is in them, in
refreshing and fertilizing showers of rain. This rain makes the rills
start from the sides of the mountains. The rills run down into the
rivers, and the rivers flow back into the sea again. In this way the
ocean is a great giver. It has been giving away its water for
hundreds and thousands of years, ever since the day when God made it.

Now, let us suppose that the ocean could think, or speak; and that it
had power to control its own motions. And suppose that the ocean
should say:--"Well, I think I have been giving away water long
enough. I am going to turn over a new leaf. The sun may shine as much
as it pleases. I won't let another drop of water go out from my
surface. I am tired of giving, and I mean to stop doing it, any
longer." Let us pause for a moment here, and see what the effect of
this would be upon the ocean itself.

We know that all the water in the ocean is salt water. But when the
sun takes water from the ocean, in the form of vapor, it is always
taken out as fresh water. It leaves the salt behind it. Then the
water on the surface of the ocean, from which this vapor has been
taken, has more salt in it than the water underneath it. This makes
it heavier than the other water. The consequence of this, is that
this heavier water, on the top of the ocean, sinks to the bottom; and
at the same time the lighter water at the bottom rises to the top.
And so a c