The voice of freedom. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1839-1848, 1839-08-03
MISC ELL A N EOUS.
Christian Farmers Privile ges.

The Christian Farmer ought to regard himself
as peculiarly happy in having an employment SO
favorable to habits of devotion. Either in their
own nature, or in the circumstances in which they
must be pursued, some other occupations impede
if they do not prevent devotional feeling. Not so
of the Christian farmer.
"The calm retreat, the silent shade,
With prayer and praise agree
And seem by thy sweet bounty made,
For those that follow hee.'
This is truth as we'll as poetry, and it we'll de-
scribes the scene of agricultural life. The works
of God awoke the rapturous devotons, the sweet
est well the most exalted strains OF ancient
saints These works ought to be contemplated
with the same feelings, by the Christian Farmer.
If his heart pants to hold communion with his
Maker, he will see the divine image in every plant
and in every flower He dwells in the magnif-
cent temple of nature, where the sweet incense
of praise is continually ascending from thousand
affairs. Cold must be his heart, if he does not
catch the spirit of the scene, and exclam The
earth, 0 Lord, is full of thy goodness. All thy
works praise thee" The poet says, " An unde-
vout astronomer is mad.' He might, with equal
force have said the same of an undevout farmer.
How can he be insensible to
'sThe boundless store
OF charms which Nature to her votary yields
The warbng woodland, the resoundng shore.
The pomp of groves and garniture of fields;
All that the genial ray of morning gilds,
And all that echoes to the song of even
All that the mountains sheltering bosom shields,
And all the dread magnfcence Of heaven!'
Where, sooner than the daily resorts of the
farmer, shall we look for evidences of the wisdom
and goodness of God? Where shall we find proofs
of his faithfulness and lmmutabiliy if not in the
uniformity and constant laws of nature, on which
all the operations of the farmer depend for success?
From year to year he breaks up the soil, and casts
seed into the ground, and looks not in vain for the
return of harvest. Seasons come and 60 in their
appointed round. The same kind of crops spring
from the same kind of seed-the same sort of fruit
from the same trees-the same mode of cultiva-
ton produces similar effects, from year TO year.
But if God were not immutable, would the farmer
witness this regularity? The laws of nature are
only the fixed modes in which God operates. If
he were~to change in his power, the sun might
cease to send forth beams as bright and as genial
The clouds mightcease to pour down their watery
treasures in so copious abundance, upon the hirs-
ty fields. Were he to change in his plans, cult
walton which, last year, was followed by plent-
full crop, might next year, only favor barrenness.
The orchards which last year were loaded with
apples, might ndxt year bring forth only poison
GUS berries. The operations of husbandry pro-
claim, in tones not TO be Inexperienced, the i'm
mutabiiy of God.
The Bible aboundsn references to agricultural
scenes, and the Christian Farmer can have little
tact in drawing analogies, who, with the examples
Of the Bible before him, is not carried forward, and
raised upward to the scenes of the invisible world
by the objects which cluster around his daily path.
Poets and prophets, and apostles and even the
Son of God, he may almost fancy, have been in
his fields, and written on every tree and plant and
flower; some divine lesson. The Bible has con-
secrated the varied employments of the farmer TO
moral purposes-and made them mirrors; in
which, as he labors he can see images of things
which are eternal Conn. Observer.