THE FAMILY ALTAR
August 11.
"Neither say they in their heart, Let us now fear the Lord,
our God, that giveth rain, both the former and the latter, in his
season; He reserveth unto us the appointed weeks of the harvest."
Jeremiah 5:24.
Our blessed America has become the granary of the world.
Millions of people in foreign lands look to us for their daily
supply of bread. We know nothing in our fertile country of dire
famine such as often ravages China and India and causes countless
thousands to die of hunger. Though the annual crops may fail
in one section of our land, they do not fail in other sections;
and so we always have bread enough and to spare. In His bound-
less goodness God has again sent us the former and the latter
rain, has blessed our fields, and the golden grain is again being
threshed and garnered by millions of bushels. 0 what happy,
grateful, and God-fearing people we ought to be in this favored
country of ours ! How the goodness of God which again provided
our land with such a bountiful harvest ought to lead us to repen-
tance, lead us humbly to acknowledge His undeserved and un-
failing kindness toward us and to glorify His great name ! But
what do we see ? Alas ! the great majority of our people forget
the grateful fear and obedience they owe to the Giver of every
good gift. They think it only natural that such rich harvests
come about in this country. They ascribe them to our superior
farming methods, and so on. And yet, man with all his industry
and ingenuity cannot make a single blade of corn grow if God
withholds His blessing. Because of this blindness of heart in so
many of our people, because of the wicked avarice, "profiteering,"
extravagance, and luxury to which so many give themselves, God
often withholds other good things from us, sends us drought,
devastating floods, devouring insects into our fields, and scourges
us with labor riots in our cities, with death-dealing epidemics
through the land. Oh, that we who claim to be His children
might be warned and intercede with Him day and night for our
beloved land ! May His Holy Spirit help us to receive our daily
bread with thanksgiving and to use His blessed gifts to the glo:
of His great name and the welfare of our neighbors!
He that planted the ear, shall He not hear?
