Seeds of every kind

At the beginning of creation, we are told, God made all things spiritual and then temporal. All things living were created in heaven before they were in the earth.

After the world was created God planted every herb yielding seed whose seed was in itself each reproducing after its own kind. This vast work of seeding every area of the Earths land mass must have required enormous efforts and resources, yet was given mention in the scriptures briefly in only a few verses without further explanation.

According to the foreknowledge of God the earth was to be divided into continents and islands and each situated in areas where they would have their own particular climatic differences which would permit the growth of different species of plants, fruits, vegetables, trees and vast amounts of other vegetation. The work of seeding the earth had to be done with great care and wisdom. This work was to support the successive human as well as animal populations of the world for thousands of years and yet the Lord declared to the Prophet Joseph Smith only a hundred and seventy-five years ago that: “…the earth is full, and there is enough and to spare; ” D&C 104 v 17

After the work of creation was finished the Lord God declared that it was “very good” and he rested on the seventh day from all his work and sanctified it.

After the work of creation Adam and Eve began their lives in the Garden of Eden and they were given a commandment by the Lord to tend the garden and keep it. This commandment falls also upon our shoulders as their progenitors.

Although the work of creation had been done and is complete, still the necessity of caring for the world is an ongoing necessity. If we only consume what is here without thought of replenishing it the world will soon be bare of its natural resources.

It becomes us to also reseed what is uprooted and consumed. This necessity is well understood in many areas of the world and national and international programmes exist in many countries to ensure that eg. timber that is harvested is replaced with new seedlings. On an individual level we all know that if we want to enjoy future opportunities to pick of the fruits and vegetables that grow we must take care to preserve the existing plants so that they can bring forth again and again.

But if we would be concerned only about the visible seeds and only about the physical life that there is in such great number we should be missing much that is also essential in the spiritual domain.

Just as there are physical seeds that have been planted there are also spiritual seeds that we plant everyday and these also need to be considered with as much care as those in our physical environment.

We often do not realise that everything we do is a planting of seeds and even things that we do not do are also seeds. Our every thought and act, our words and our deeds are a planting of seeds just as vital as those in the physical world in which we live.

There are seeds of love and kindness, of charity and compassion, seeds of patience and virtue, seeds of forgiveness and mercy. But there are also seeds of neglect, seeds of procrastination, seeds of laziness and seeds of intolerance. There are seeds which bring forth unity and seeds which bring forth discord, seeds of consideration and seeds of selfishness, seeds which bring forth peaceful coexistence and seeds which bring forth contention and strife. There are seeds of indifference, lust and greed just as there are also seeds of caring and giving without thought of reward or personal gain.

There is one reliable, universal law governing all seeds – they each bring forth after their own kind. This is also taught by the Lord as the Law of the Harvest – that, which we sow we shall also reap. During his mortal ministry, the Lord also taught much using comparisons with nature to elucidate his listeners with spiritual principles.

He taught the parable of the sower in which good seed was sown and some fell in stony places, some among thistles and thorns and some which fell on good ground.

He taught the parable likening the kingdom of heaven to a field in which was sown wheat and tares. He taught that even with faith as small as a mustard seed it is possible to move mountains. All of his teachings can be likened unto seeds which are planted in the hearts of those who receive them and endeavour to live by them.

The servants of God, those who lived before Christ as well as those who lived after and those who live now also have continued to plant seeds which if nurtured and nourished even now will bring forth much good. Alma, the Nephite prophet taught that faith in the words of Christ was like a seed which if acted upon would cause it to “swell within your breasts; and when you feel these swelling motions, ye will begin to say within yourselves – it must needs be that this is a good seed, or that the word is good, for it beginneth to enlarge my soul; yea, it beginneth to enlighten my understanding, yea, it beginneth to be delicious to me” Alma 32 v 28.

There are indeed seeds of every kind and for our part we get to choose everyday which ones we will plant. Even if we neglect to purposely sow good seeds we will find that our neglect will nevertheless bring forth after its own kind and we will one day reap the harvest of what we have sown.

Just as a farmer does not expect to reap apples when he has planted potatoes, or corn when he has planted grass, so we cannot expect to reap the benefits of faithful and diligent service if we have failed to plant the crop.

The Book of Mormon prophet Alma teaching his wayward son, Corianton, speaks of this also as the law of restitution or restoration.

He says: “Do not suppose, because it has been spoken concerning restoration, that ye shall be restored from sin to happiness”. Alma 41 v 10. He continues: “The meaning of the word restoration is to bring back again evil for evil, or carnal for carnal, or devilish for devilish – good for that which is good; righteous for that which is righteous; just for that which is just; merciful for that which is merciful.” “For that which ye do send out shall return unto you again, and be restored.” Alma 41 v 13, 15.

William Shakespeare is credited with writing somewhat on this subject when he wrote the play the Merchant of Venice. He wrote on the subject of mercy as follows:

“The quality of mercy is not strain'd,
It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven
Upon the place beneath: it is twice blest;
It blesseth him that gives and him that takes:

'Tis mightiest in the mightiest: it becomes
The throned monarch better than his crown;
His sceptre shows the force of temporal power,
The attribute to awe and majesty,
Wherein doth sit the dread and fear of kings;

But mercy is above this sceptred sway;
It is enthroned in the hearts of kings,
It is an attribute to God himself;

And earthly power doth then show likest God's
When mercy seasons justice. Therefore, Jew,
Though justice be thy plea, consider this,
That, in the course of justice, none of us
Should see salvation: we do pray for mercy;
And that same prayer doth teach us all to render
The deeds of mercy.

I have spoke thus much
To mitigate the justice of thy plea;
Which if thou follow, this strict court of Venice
Must needs give sentence 'gainst the merchant there.

We live in the age and time of the final harvest, the harvest of souls – even our own souls and it does become each one of us to question whether we are sowing seeds that will bring forth much happiness and joy or seeds that will bring forth much sorrow and regret