The Moral Vision
Bearing Fruit
~ 61 ~
BEARING FRUIT
The business of planting an orchard does not begin
with the holding of an orchard conference. No,
indeed. It begins by obtaining seedlings and
providing every single one with such favourable
conditions as will enable it to develop its potential
and grow into a fully developed tree. When one has
done this with innumerable seedlings, one can then
expect to have an orchard.
In this respect, a nation is somewhat like an
orchard. Build the individual and you build the
nation. If hidden potential is to be developed, it
takes education, encouragement, and the provision
of a proper environment at an individual level very
early on in the whole process, just as a sapling must
be put into well prepared ground and given the
right type and quantity of nutrients, water, sunlight,
etc. If people are properly instructed, while they are
still young and receptive and by people who adopt
a caring, positive attitude, they develop a healthy
awareness of what their commitments to society
should be and what it means to be part of a nation.
If callow youths are to be turned into real men, they
