The peanut has a lesson somewhat similar to the eel grass. It belongs to the pea family, grows in warm climates, and is about one or two feet Long. The short flower-stalks start close to the ground; and as soon as the seeds are fertilized, the stems bend down, still growing, and thrust the young peanuts into the ground to ripen out of sight in the darkness.

Fruit in the believer is for God, the Husbandman, and must develop and ripen here in a scene of death, unseen by man. Although there should be, and will be, outward evidence of it, still, the real work of the Spirit of God in the soul will be unseen by the eye of man, involving exercise, sorrow, trial, disappointment; and cultivation at the hands of the Husbandman, and under His eye alone. All this goes on in a world that grows more and more worthless and distasteful as the years go by. The beauty, the bright flowers, and the fragrance of the spring-time of our spiritual life, give place to the heat, drought, storms, and cultivation of summer, that fruit may be brought to perfection. Sober work this! The petals of the flowers drop off, the beauty is gone, and the peanut must be thrust into the place of death, to develop and ripen before it is fit to eat.

If the work of the Holy Spirit is not hindered in the soul, there will be some fruit in which the Husbandman can delight and find a sweet savor of Christ.

How appropriate that the peanut should be a very wholesome and nutritious food, rich in oil, type of the Spirit, and the fruit of the Spirit! And also, how suggestive that the roasting of the peanut should bring out and improve the flavor! Fire is suggestive of trial and testing (i Pet. 1:7; 2 Cor. 8:2; Heb. 11:36; i Pet. 4:12; Rev. 1:14). Thus the line of thought naturally suggested by the peanut is somewhat different from that of eel grass.

We are in a natural world where the varieties and differences are countless and amazing. If each of these has its special lesson, then I can understand why there are so many-because the spiritual truths and principles contained in the word of God are rich and complex beyond description, and it will require eternity to enjoy it all. Every scrap of His Word and His work that we can gather up here will be just that much of the richest food to be enjoyed with the Lord in the glory throughout eternity; but we must gather it here. T. M.

Newark, N. J., 1906