The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1900-01-16
SOWING AND RRAPING.

many, especially among the young, TO
make light OF youthful sins and exces
ses, which are excused, as it we're, I'm
der the term of Sowing ones wild
oats" The idea seems to be that it ia
altogether a natural and proper thing
to do; that we are bora into the world
with just so muc devlJry IN US, and
hat in the sins and excasses of youth
we work that eff as it we're, and thus
prepare for a virGuous manhood in the
later years D ubCless you have ofren
heard the expression, Give the young
man his fling, he will come out all
right in the end" In fact, vice in
y5uthh has come to be almost regarded as
a virtue, or, at any rate, as preparing
the way for virtue; and 80 we are Of
ten reminded that the wayward youth
turns out not infrequently a most ex-
emplary man
But this is not the way God regards
this matter. He has declared through
MS Word that He that soweth mi.
guilty shall reap vanity" or, a. the RI,
vised Version puts it, calamity. -"
Are these vices of youth, which are go
CURLY supposed to prepare the way
for a virCuous manhood, so innocent
and harmless2 What a man he would
be who should first SOW his intended
wheat field with tares, or his garden
for foWers and vegetables with this
tlesl
Young men who break away from
parental control and dishonor the God
Of their fathers, who give themselves
up to pleasures that unsettle them for
honorable work and bring them into
d~emoralizing associations, who fire.
quent the liquor saloons, aud the
haunts of the strange woman whose
feet lead down to death, are mildly de
scribed as so wing their wild oats :"
But God gives it a far different char
a~cterization: They are sowing IN
EQUITY, and shall reap calamity" They
SHALL become the victims Of their sins.
They are sowing Il the wind and shall
reap the whirlwind. They shall be
ruined alike in body and in soul, in
t me and in eternity.
SOW an act and you reap a habit;
SOW a habit and you reap a character;
SOW a character and you reap a desti-
ny. There may be a measure of pleas
ure in sin, but it is pie tsure only for
2 brief season. When the reaping time
comes, or the harvesj sesson, that Will
not be found go pleasant. Mature"
says Lord Bacon, loves US many a
debt until we are old; but nature al
ways pays its debts" Justice, how
evar slow it may travel, always over
EaKes q man. HJwever we may make
a mock at sin, however lightly we
may esteem it and try to soften it down
under the head Of youthful errors and
indiscretions, it will be found everlast-
iDgly true that the way of the trans
gressor Is hard, and the wages of Gin
ls death. G -oss it over as we may,
sin ID sin, that n abominable thing
that God hates.
We say to young men especially,
hold IN to your integrity. Donot sut
fer yourselves to be led astray by the
temper. Say No with your whole soul
moss emphatical'y in it, to every In
ducement to violate conscience and
your sense Of duty. There are terri
ole possibilities involved in the first
sin; there is a weakening Of moral
foer, there is less resistance to the
next approach OF sin, often ending IN
helpless captivity to the destroyer.
| Even when conscience Is awakened,
and there is q desire to retrace ones
steps, i5 is difficult, because the nan
has surrounded himself with infu
ences ell set against his return to viz
tue.
Even those who by the grace of ODD
have been led to repentance fad their
eins of youth a sore trial in theiE ms
tuTer years. AS in the fable, when the
dragons teeth were sown there spTang
10 an armed and hostile host, so from
egsry wild oat sown in his youth thsre
oas sprung up an armed fee obstineteiy
contesting the Cnristian's approach to
virtue and peace aud heaven. Taere
are conssq lences of sin which even
the forgiveness of God does not take
away. When God forgives he torgess
our sins are blotted out-shey are as
though they had never been, to God.
But not to Us. We cannot forget the
sins OF our youth. Their memory fo;-
loWsu US to the CHARACTERIZATION Work.