"But now, all was changed as if by a magic touch. In place of the sage brush and the broad wastes of baking earth, the man beheld here great orchards, with hundreds of fruit trees, laden with glistening apples, oranges and pears, and wide fields were covered with bounteous crops of grain. The once arid wilderness was now the fertile dwelling place of many happy families.
"What had wrought this great change? Nothing but the hand and mind of man, guided by the maker of the universe, who seems to have stored rich treasures everywhere for those who will reach out for them. It happened in this way:
"One day, a certain man beheld the snow-capped mountains—cold and forbidding—and then he turned his gaze to the earth—parched and dead. He knew that if he could only unite the waters of the snow-capped mountains with the dead earth below them, 'the desert would blossom as the rose.' Before this thing happened, two-thirds of the entire area of the United States was a desert waste. But the waters were brought down, and the great transformation followed. Gradually, the arid waste is disappearing and the forces of irrigation are expanding; and the vast western country is unfolding to the millions who are spreading over its newly-discovered areas of wealth.
"Let us turn quickly to the application. There are, in every community, many human deserts—men and women, boys and girls, whose unproductive lives need the waters of life to make them blossom and bring forth fruit in His kingdom. Perhaps they have beheld Him only as a cold, forbidding mountain peak, and if this is true, they should catch the spirit of the Psalmist who cried, 'My soul thirsteth for thee; my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land where no water is.'
"In the case of the desert, it is conversion, pure and simple. May the heavenly waters of His grace come to each one of us today, whether it be a first decision to be united with Him, or whether it be a decision to return to Him whom we have deserted.
"Our duty toward our fellow men conies before us happily in these words from the prophet Isaiah, 'If thou draw out thy soul to the hungry and afflicted soul, thou shalt be like a spring of water whose waters fail not.'"
REFLECTING AND BLESSING
—Helpfulness
—Testimony
Those Who Are "The Light of the World" Should be a Guide to Those Who Are in Darkness.