The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1902-06-22

man who has been converted at the
eleventh hour hobbling along upon his
cane through the harvests of corruption
which surround him everywhere. He
stumbles through the harvests which
which have come from the seeds of his
own planting.
inexorabIe Laws of the Fields.
The seeds of the flesh by the inexora-
BILE laws of the fields are expected to
produce more of a harvest than the orig
inal seeds which have been sown. 1t
would be folly for the farmer to sow 500
kernels of corn If he could only receive
in return half a dozen ears of corn; to
plant twenty or thirty peas If he could
gather in return but a few pods, or to
| labor at all II for every planted seed
there would come up only one kernel In
return. But when the farmer has
small bag of wheat seed he says to him
self: Now, II I properly pillow and har-
row the ground and plant those seed
right I will be able to gather 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 reproductive power, the
prolifcness of vegetable life, is simply
inconceivable and without limit. We all
remember Daniel De Foes story Of the
shipwrecked sailor. He found half
dozen small wheat seeds. From those
wheat he wanted. both for himself and
his negro servant.
1t would be a happy solution to the
sinner II when he sowed one evil seed
he should get back only one evil result.
But that Is not the way the harvests Of
the flesh grow. One evil seed will be-
come the parent of many evil seeds. the
grandparent of a host of evil seeds and
the great-grandparent of lifetime of evil
harvests. A sower unto the flesh always
reaps more corruption than he expects
to gather.
A notorious pirate was hanged in New
York City about a century ago. Just be-
fore his execution he testified that the
first time he murdered a man his hor-
ror and remorse were so great that he
could not sleep for weeks. But after
this monster lad continued to wet his
! lips with human blood he declared that
| he could drive his sword into the heart
OF a woman or a little child with no
moro conjunction than he would bury
his teeth in piece Of bread. He would
sleep as peacefully after numbering a
ships crew as when babe he closed
his eyes in his mothers arms The first
lie is the difficult lie to tell, not the tenth.
not the twentieth, not the fiftieth. 1t Is
the first glass of whisky which Is the
hardest to drink. not the one which the
drunkard takes Just before he enters the
Teptlle lnnaDlteO dungeons OF Qenrlum
tremens. It Is the first seed of sin which
is hard to sow. not the fiftieth nor the
one hundredth. And each one of the
tares sown Is able to reproduce Itself
In evil habits a milionfold. A sower al
ways expects to reap more than he
plants.
And II the evil results of tare planting
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 talk
ed 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 see1s and
bade her go 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. go and gather
those nettle seeds up again. oh"
said the woman. II cannot" Neither"
answered the priest. can you ever undo
the wrongs which you have done against
your neghbors." Awful must be the re-
morse when a converted man realizes
that by his sinful sowing he has devel-
oped a harvest of corruption In the
hearts of his neighbors. If he has plant
e.. there the evil seeds. some of them
will come up. The natural and spiritual
laws are the same.
Harvest Comes Sooner or Later.
The seeds of the flesh do not necessa-
rily produce the harvests of the flesh in
stanter. A long time may intervene be-