Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1902-06-19

Genius though he might have been, was
not able to destroy the harvest Of his
secret sin. How, then, can the ordinary
young man who has sown the evil
seeds hope to be declared guiltless
when Charles Stewart Parnell had to
reap from the flesh harvest Of cor
ruption?
The physician in the sickroom will
teach you that the sower Of the flesh
always reaps the corruption Of the
flesh. Upon the bed Of suffering lies an
invalid. He may pray, he may groan,
lie may promise to do right IN the fu-
ture, but the physician says: mo, my
friend; good intentions do not eradicate
the physical wrongs Of the past. You
must reap the seeds of gluttony, the
seeds. which once sparkled In the wine
cup, the seeds Of late hours, the seeds
Of the defiance Of moral laws. Dying
man, you must reap the harvest Of the
sins Of the flesh which you have sown."
Stand with the minister in his pulpit,
and he will teach you the same lesson.
He will tell you that though a man
may repent of his sins he must up to
the graves edge suffer from his past
misdeeds. God may forgive the sinner
and all the results Of the past evil may
cease when the sinner robes himself in
the white garments Of the redeemed,
but all through the remainder Of the
sinners earthly career he must suffer
for the evil which he has done. The
minister will tell you that one Of the
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see an old man who has been converted
at the eleventh hour hobbling along
upon his cane through the harvcsts Of
corruption which surround him every
where. He stumbles through the har-
vests which have come from the seeds
Of his own planting.
Inexornble Laws OF the Fields.
The seeds Of the flesh by the inexora-
BILE laws Of the fields are expected to
produce more of harvest than the
original seeds which have been sown.
1t would be folly for the farmer to SOW
500 kernels Of corn if he could only re-
ceive in return half a dozen ears Of
corn; to plant twenty or thirty peas if
he could gather In return but few
pods, or to labor at all If for every
planted seed there would come up only
one kernel in return. But when the
farmer has a small bag of wheat seed
he says to himself: "Now, IL properly
plow and harrow the ground and plant
those seeds right I will be able to gath
or a whole field Of golden grain. One
of my seeds will be able to reproduce
itself many, many times" Benjamin
Franklin once said that the reproduc-
tive power, the prolificness of vegeta-
bic life, is simply inconceivable and
without limit. We all remember Daniel
De Foes story of the shipwrecked sail
or He found half dozen small wheat
seeds. From those few seeds he was
able to develop all the wheat he want
ed. both for himself and his negro serv-
ant.
1t would be happy solution to the
sinner if when he sowcd one evil seed
he should get back only one evil re-
suit. But that is not the way the har-
vests of the flesh grow. One evil seed
will become the parent Of many evil
seeds, the grandparent Of host of evil
seeds and the great-grandparent of a
lifetime of evil harvests. A sower unto
the flesh always reaps more corruption
than he expected to gather.
! A notorious pirate was hanged in
| New York city about a century ago.
! Just before his execution he testified
| that the first time he murdered man
his horror and remorse were so great
that he could not sleep for weeks. But
after this monster had continued to
wet his lips with human blood he de-
clared that he could drive his sword
into the heart Of woman or little
child with no more compunction than
| he would bury his teeth in a piece of
bread. He would sleep as peacefully
after numbering a ships crew as when
babe he closed his eyes in his moth
er's arms. The first lie Is the difficult
| lie to tell, not the tenth, not the TWEEN
tieth, not the fiftieth. 1t is the first
glass of whisky which is the hardest
to drink. not the one which the drunk
ard takes just before he enters the rep
tile inhabited dungeons Of delrium ire
mems. 1t is the first seed of sin which
| is nara TO SOW, NOL the HItletn HOT inc
one hundredth. And each one of the
tares sown in able to reproduce itself
in evil habits a millionfold. A sower
always expects to reap more than he
plants.
And if the evil results Of tare plant
ing are so awful in reference to our
own lives how much more awful must
be the results when we plant those
tares in the lives Of others. A woman
who had talked unjustly against her
neighbors once went to a priest for
confession. After she told the priest
the evil she had done her neighbors she
asked him what she should do to undo
the wrong. The priest gave her hand
full Of nettle seeds and bade her 90 and
scatter those nettle seeds over a field
and then come back to him. After the
woman had done as she was told she
came back to the priest. "Now," said
the priest, Ego and gather those nettle
seeds up again" "Oh," said the wo-
man, 81 cannot" Neither" answered
the priest, "can you ever undo the
wrongs which you have done against
your neighbors." Awful must be the
remorse when converted man realizes
that by his sinful sowing he has de-
yeloped harvest of corruption in the
hearts of his neighbors. II he has
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