Rufus Jones (1863-1948), a Quaker, who founded the American
Friends Service Committee, initiated an aid program for England
after World War I to help the unemployed. He persuaded city
governments to divide uncultivated public land around the cities
into parcels and lend them to the unemployed to grow vegetables to
feed their own families and earn a modest income. One unemployed
man was daunted by the task, but worked hard all summer, clearing
the land from shrubs and thorns, fertilizing the soil, planting and
weeding, and earned a rich crop in the fall. Rufus Jones said to
him, "What a wonderful work you and God have done together!" The
man said, "Yes, but you should have seen it when God had it all to
himself." Unless we do good work, is not going to happen by
itself!
