St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1889-10-07
LIKE SEEDS.
Words Are Planted and Blossom
for Good or Evil.

II. NJ. Simmons, at the First Unita-
rian church, in his sermon drew para
bic from seed. After speaking of the
wondrous ways in which seeds are made
and kept and grown. he SAID:
In thought and feeling as well as in
the field, all life leaves seeds, in some
form. Take for instance their form in
words, which are so often compared to
them. Winged words" the old poet
called them. and truly on wings, airier
than thistledOwn, a spoken word flies
through the air Swifter than wind, not
in one direction. but in all. and is
planted in a hundred ears at the same
time; while written word sails
over the seas and down the eentu-
ries, and is soon in places with
out number. Wise words also have
wav of working themselves into the
human mind deeper than those curious
| seeds into the soil. And though SEEM
ing dead, they grow again. The spoken
word of some friend, long ago forgotten,
suddenly springs up in your thought
and grows into deeds and gives direc-
ton to the whole day. And written
words live much longer. The Beati-
tudes are more wonderful seeds than
botany knows, and, though Sown SO
many centuries, are more vital to-day
than ever before; and if Christian and
Jewish churches should all pass away,
| Jesus words of love would still grow in
| human hearts and blossom more beauti-
fully than the lilies He praised, and
Isaiah's thrilling calls to justice would
bear fruit as $500 years ago. The
stories of wheat kernels found in
old Egyptian mummy cases and
fn-nQU
and cannot be trusted; but the
good words written in those old heather
tOmbs are still alive and stir us all the
more because so ancient. Indeed wise
words cannot die. They may be lost
and never found, but if found they are
always alive. So much better is a
word than a seed, living longer, carried
further, and having power to be planted
in a thousand places at once and mill
ion times over, and still be as full of
life as at first. And words are but one
of many forms of spiritual seed. Deeds
are another, and are sure to grow on in
some way. Even the Utmost thought
and feeling and spirit are prOpagated
mysterlOusly. In innumerable ways
| the truth is SOwn as by the winds. 1t
is spread even by its opponents, like
| the grains that cling to animals, spread
! sumed il, as berry seeds are
| by birds; and often in history a truth
has owed more to its foes than to its
its friends. For it grows by opposition
and not only survives the fires of mar
tyrdOm as seeds do the prairie fires, but
strengthens by them. In the field of
thought the truth is sure to win, and
| and COpernicuS cOnQuers all ChriSten-
dom. In the moral field the right is
sure to win, and Gar risOn cOnquers the
whole country. In the religious field
the best is sure to win, and the char
! liable principles which were prosecuted
by the church itself three centuries ago
are preached in all the pulpits to-day.
| Our business is to sow the best we can
find, from whatsoever source, and till
it with care. And so shall the re-
ligious fields be improved, blooming
with sweeter sentiments and brighter
hopes, bearing fruit in deeper justice
and broader charity and enriching life
with growing faith in that God who is
ever and everywhere working this
miracle of the seed and following every
fall OF leaves with the resurrection of a
larger life.