The record-union., 1897-01-31

| nave I.ldOe arrangements with the autnOl
| for their exclusive publication.)
| A subsoil ploW a harrow, a roller anC
a cultivator are all good things in then
proper place and time, but there are
soils in which the deeper you go the
more you impoverish your farm, AND
| there are stages in plant growth when
the use of either roller or any other
| implement is agricultural suicide. Be
| cause these are facts maintainable
against all argument, and because Sc
| many hundreds of thousands of my
| readers are farmers, l wish to make
these out-of-door truths the starting
point for another Rambling Thought .
Humanity has from time immemorial
been lik6ned to field, vineyard, etc
wherein laborers are needed to pillow
and TO harrow, to reap and to garner
And the call to thrust-in as the field is
white unto harvest has always found
| Increasing response since the moment
when man first began to understand
that the claims of his neighbor are ur-
gent upon him the moment his own alb
solute needs have been attended to.
But enthusiasm in relation to good
work has to be combined with common
it, or we shall find ourselves embarked
in another fateful Children's Crusade
like that of the middle ages. Enthusi-
asm alone will sink US into helplessness
just as with the rearing and the strain
ing Of a mired horse. To make amply
clear my meaning l will go a little fur
ther. There is hardly a community in
which you will fam to find men and
women working for the benefit of their
race from the purast motives at the
outset. But in almost as many commu-
mites you will find lines of effort cross
ing and recrossing one another. SO
eager becomes the straining after sta
tlstical pre-eminence-So many gar
ments made, SO many hungry fed SO
many souls saved, etc.-that the real
object of the hunanizing work, the
reaching of human hearts, is almost
lost to sight in the rush. Then, here
and there, some extra enthusiastic one,
instead of trying or pretending to try TO
water where others have planted. starts
row right over the growing crops and
standing sheaves of others. excusing
himself by asserting that their methods
have been wrong. Thus he not only un-
does the work of others but he wastes
his own strength by doing at an i'm
proper time a thing essentially proper
in its own time and place
SO, while our voices should undoubt-
Sd1y be raised in strength these closing
years of the century for freedom for
all to work as they will wisdom being
justified Of her children, there is equal
need for securing a certain unity of ef-
fort, so as to economize the moral
strength of a neighborhood Eagerness
to work is not alone sufficient. else we
we would praise the child that pulls up
corn to see it grow or that tears open a
drum to see where the sound comes
from. The human race. looking back
ward can truly say, When 1 was a
child, L thought as a
child" but it is not yet able to say,
w hen L became a man, / put away
childish things" If it could. we should
see less pettiness, indirectness and stu
pidity among those who claim to be
children of Light and yet grope in the
selfish, marrow stages Of human devel-
opment.
What, then. shall be said to your
heart this week? You need in deep
humility to acknowledge to yourself
that the stone age has passed. when
every mans enemy was the very next
man he happened to meet; that the
iron age is passing, when men learn
the power of combination but use it
Tor oppression; that the golden aga is
coming, when the co-opera ton of those
who love, for the benefit of those who
su1er must be the rule. If it be true
that as man thinks in his heart 50
is he. then you will promptly be found
ready to sink individual gain and fame.
ready to forego the praise of men. ready
to seek the greatest good for the great
est nurober even if your own personal
ity becomes merged in the common
effort.
would 1t not be of advantage to form
IN your town-what shall | name it?-
Get Together society. It's member
snip TO be made up of those who in
divers ways are working for the upift
of the race. It's function 10 be a sort
OF clearing house Of ideas, where those
who work give to others the benefits
oil their experience, thus economizing
the strength that is now wasted and
the damage that is done by those who
laoorlousiy work out plans for them
serves that others have already effect
ually learned. You will say perhaps
that this is not feasible, because each
worker VIII be on the watch agains.
giving advantage to anyone else. You
may be right, but If you are you are
Voicing the deepest protest that fallen
humanity can raise against the work
ers for good. The poor object Of their
solicitous attention is pulled one way
and then the other until he cries our
L would rather go one way wrong
than travel twenty different ways 10
be right" If the ability to combine
which has been such a notable dscov-
cry among men--a discovery tha. has
lea MN upward from caves in the earth
TO our present highly organized civiii-
zation-if, | say this ability is to stop
short when it comes to moral effort, II
were almost better that it had remained
undiscovered.
But am persuaded better things
1t is not for nothing that we are pass
ing through our little day on earth
All nature IS vocal of the value Of COM
oination, and of growth by combina-
ton; all history proclaims it; and al
nights or moral power and accomplish
ment are possible by means of it. The
continuity of life in nature assures us
in no uncertain way of the continuity
of effort-ours-yo Then, human