NewThoughtLibrary.com / DivineLibrary.org

last if you are faithful and persistent. Think of Jacob who wrestled all through the night with God and in the morning won his blessing. Think of Job and his long-continued sorrows and trials, but by faith and patience he came into peace and prosperity. Bossuet says, "God does not always refuse when He delays. He loves perseverance and grants it everything."

And why? Because perseverance is a God attribute and by manifesting it we come into rapport with God, making the passage of his blessing clear and easy. God's perseverance is shown in the persistence of the Eternal Energy, which could not be eternal did it not persist. If you have relapses and setbacks in your progress toward health, do not be disheartened, for there is a rhythmic swing in growth which I will now explain to you.

Professor Bose of the University of Calcutta, in studying the law of growth in plants, invented an ingenious instrument by which he could measure their growth, a growth that was imperceptible to the natural eye. He discovered that plants grow upward for five seconds, then shrink downward for five seconds, then remain stationary for ten seconds, after which they start upward again and repeat the same round. In shrinking downward the motion is slower than in pushing upward, hence the five seconds of shrinkage do not carry the plant completely back to its starting point, so that, on the whole, it gains in stature. But note that the five seconds of shrinkage and the ten seconds of remaining