The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1896-10-30
RURAL LIFE.
From the Days of Noah Farming Has Been
KnightIy OccupatiOn-Th= Farm
er Is EL=E of the Earth and
Lord OF the Soil

4
This last summer having gone in
different directions over between
Q, 900 and G, 600 miles of harvest fields,
/ can hardly open my Bible without
smelling the breath of new mown hay
and seeing the golden light of the
wheat field. And when l open my
Bible to take my text, the Scripture
leaf rustles like the tassels of the corn.
We were nearly all of us born in the
country. We dropped corn in the hill,
and went on Saturday to the mill, ty-
ing the grist In the center of the sack
so that the contents on either side the
horse balanced each other; and drove
the cattle a6eld, our bare feet wet
with the dew; and rode the horses
with the halter to the brook until we
fell off; and hunted the NOW for nests
the feathered occupants went cack-
ling away. We were nearly all of us
born in the country, and all would
have stayed there had not some ad-
venturous lad on his vacation come
back with better clothes and softer
hands, and set the whole village on
fire with ambition for city life. So we
all UNDERSTOOD rustic illusions. The
Bible is full of them In Christ's SER
mon on the mount you could see the
full-blown lilies and the glossy black
of the crows wing as it flies over
Mount Olivet. David and John, Paul
and Isaiah, find in country life a
source of frequent illustration, While
Christ in the text takes the response
bility of calling God a farmer, declar-
ing: my Father is the husbandman. :"
Noah was the first farmer. We say
nothing about Cain, the tiller OF the
soil. Adam was gardener on a large
scale, but to Noah was given all the
acres of the earth. Elisha was an ag-
riculturalist, not cultivating a ten
acre lot, for we find him blowing with
10 yoke of oxen. In Bible times the
land was so plenty and the inhabitants
SO few that Noah was right when he
gave to every inhabitant a certain por-
ton of land; that land, if cultivated,
ever after to be his own possession.
Just as in Nebraska the United States
government on payment of S16 years
ago gave presumption right to 160 acres
to any man who would settle there
and cultivate the soil
All classes of people were expected
to cultivate ground except ministers
of religion. 1t was supposed that they
would have their time entirely occu-
pied with their own profession, al
though / am told that some times min
listers DO plunge so deeply into world
illness that they remind one of what
Thomas Fraser said in regard to a
man in his day who preached very
we'll, but lived very i'll: when he is
out of the pulpit, it is pity he shOnld
ever go into it; and when he is in the
pulpit, it is a pity he should ever come
out of it."
They were not small crops raised in
those times, for though the arts were
rude, the plow turned up very rich
soil, and barley, and cotton, and fax,
and all kinds of grain, came up at the
call of the harvesters. Pliny tells of
one stalk of grain that had on it be-
tween 800 and 400 ears. The rivers and
the brooks, through artificial chan
nels, were brought down to the roots
of the corn, and to this habit Of turn
ing a river wherever it was wanted
Solomon refers when he says: THE
kings uheart is in the hand of the
Lord, and he turneth it as the rivers of
water are turned, whithersoever He
will"
The wild beasts were caught, and |
then a hook was put into their rose. |
and then they were led over the field,
and to that God refers when He says |
wicked Sennacherib: Il will put a |
hook in thy nose and will bring thee
back by the way which thou earnest"
And God has hook in every bad mans |
nose, whether it be NebuchadneEzar
or Ahab or Herod. He may think him
self very independent, but some time
in his life, or in the hour of his death,
he will find that the Lord Almighty |
has hook in his nose.
This was the rule in regard to the |
culture of the ground: Thou shalt
not pillow with an OK and an ass to-
gether," illustrating the folly OF ever
putting intelligent and useful and pill |
able men in association with the stub
born and the unmanageable. The vast
maiority of troubles in the churches
and in reformatory institutions comes |
from the disregard of this, command of
the Lord, Thou shalt not pillow with |
an OK and an ass together"
There were large amounts of prop |
erty invested in cattle. The Moabites |
paid 100, 900 sheep as an annual tax.
Job had 1000 sheep, 5000 camels, 500 |
yoke of oxen. The time of village was |
ushered in with mirth and music. The |
clusters of the vine were put into the |
wine press, and then five men would |
get into the press and trample out the |
Juice from the grape until their gar
ments were saturated with the wine |
and had become the emblems of slaugh- |
ter. Christ himself, wounded until |
covered with the blood of crucifxion,
making use of this allusion when the
question was asked, Wherefore art |
Thou red in Thine apparel and Thy |
garments like one who treadeth the |
wine vatP'' He responded, Il have |
trodden the wine press alone"
In all ages there has been great
honor paid to agriculture. Seven
eighths of the people in every country
are disciples of the pillow. A govern
ment is strong in proportion as it is
supported by an athletic and indus
trious yeomanry. So long ago as be-
fore the fall OF Carthage, Strabo wrote
rs books on agriculture; Hesiod wrote
a poem on the same subject-''The /
Weeks and Days" Cato was prouder
of his work on husbandry than of all |
his military conqueste- But l must |
not be tempted into a discussion of
agricultural conquests. Standing
amid the harvests and orchards and |
vineyards of the Bible, and standing /
a mid the harvests and orchards and
of our own country-larger