the same thing is true with regard to the grain that grows in the
field. No one ever saw potatoes grow without being planted and
cultivated. Rye and oats and wheat do not grow wild. Weeds will grow
without being sown or planted, but grain and vegetables not only have to
be planted, but have to be taken care of. Possibly you might think that
my statement was not wholly correct, because we go out into the orchard
and gather apples and pears and peaches, and other kinds of fruit which
have no hard shells on them, and which do not have to be planted in the
spring of the year. But do you know that we could not gather this kind
of rich fruit from the trees unless trees of these kinds had been
cultivated for long centuries, grafted and developed so as to produce
the rich fruit which is now placed upon our tables? So you see that even
this has cost labor, and if we were to neglect the trees in the orchard,
it would only be a few years until they would produce only a very small
variety of fruit, and even that would be sour and have an unpleasant
taste.

But God means to teach us this lesson also in another way. Man has found
it very necessary to use the different kinds of metals, iron and copper,
silver and gold. God has not laid these metals on top of the ground, but
has made it necessary that we should dig down into the earth and secure
these metals at the cost of a great deal of labor. The same is also true
with regard to the coal and the oil, and all the rich mineral products
which God has blessed us. None of them can be secured without labor.

[Illustration: Apple Tree.]

We are all naturally lazy. I have oftentimes thought that we are all
born lazy. Some learn to be industrious with less effort, but all have
to be taught to work. God means that we should work. Have you ever
thought that God could feed us without our labor if He chose to do so?
He could rain down our food from heaven, just the same as He gave manna
to the Children of Israel, while they were journeying to the promised
land. He could not only feed us, but He could also clothe us from
heaven. I am sure that if God gave us our clothing from heaven, He would
not make such foolish fashions as wicked people over in Paris invent,
and which all the rest of the world seem to think they have to imitate.
Not only our food and clothing, but God could also have made it
necessary that there should be no preachers. Instead of giving us His
Word in the Bible, and then as