Portage sentinel. [volume] (Ravenna, Ohio) 1845-1854, 1854-01-18
Yhe Farmers Mission

Every human being, no matter how humble may
be his position in life, is endowed with capabiliS
ties, and may have opportunities to make the world
better for his having lived and labored in it. TO
so act that this object may be accomplished, is a
duty which he owes to his country, to his fellow
men and TO himself In this sense every man may
be said to have mission to perform, and he who
best performs it, establishes, in the highest degree,
his own happiness, receives the sincerest applause
of good men, and secures the approving smile OF
heaven.
To no class Of men is this mission more plain
ly indicated, than to the tiller of the soil-the
farmer. To him, politically, socially, morally,
every way, the course is very plain one, and in
proportion to its dstinctness and the comparative
case with which he can pursue it, is his accopnta-
bility in case Of failure. ~
The position occupied by the farmer, is one Of
exceedingly great Importance, and his mission in
wolves the gravest consequences to the whole
world He is no longer the piping shepherd of the
poet, nor plow- jogging lopt fit only to consort
With his scarcely less british fellow aborers tthe
plow, but he stands really at the head of the ma
terial interests of the world The trade and con2
merce of the world little else but instruments
for his accommodation, and to him must the SO
called great a%d proud look, as the almoner Of
earth's bounty. And this, in very extended sense
he is, and herein lies part of his mission. ... -
To contribute the greatest possible amount to
the aggregate of necessaries, comforts, and indeed
the luxuries of life; to cultivate, to the highest
point of excellence, the moral and intellectual
nature of himself and those under his control and
guidance; to make his home the abode of joy---of
peace, as well plenty; to contribute to the adj
vancement of his immediate neighborhood in all
that tends to the advancement of rural life; to be
sternly tenacious of the real glory of the country
which owns his allegiance, are some of the items
which go to make up the mission of the farmer,
| Nature abhors selfshness, as she does avacum.
No man, be he who or what he may, can fulfil his
legitimate mission, unless he possess a spirit of
comprehensive Iberality. Let the farmer add acre
to acre, field to field, and farm to farm, until his
possessions swell to the size of baronial manor,
and he is farther from the accomplishment OF his
proper mission than he who, upon his modest
homestead, has, by his intelligence and labor, sue
ceeded in that benifeent feat of causing two spears
of grass to shoot where butone grew before. Gnq
o. ibis world is a wide one, but, wide as it is, Il
has no room upon its surface for him who does not
realize that he has mission to perform, or who's
realizing the fact, does not accomplish it, far
as, by industry and good intentions, he can, nl
q A PERSON who wished to borrow small sum,
being asked by Dean Swift he proposed as se-
curity, Il have none to offer,' said the poor man,
excepting my' faith in my redeemer.' Swift ae-
cepted the security, made the entry in his book
accordingly with all formality, and declared that
1io4s Of his debtors were more punctual than this
man.