The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1904-05-25
CUTTING DOWN WEEDS
In the Vegetable Garden and In the
Human Heart

Human Heart.
The following from the pen Of Rev.
c. c. Brown, d. D., pastor OF the
Baptist Church at Sumter, is SO true
and beautiful that We want every
reader OF this paper to read it, hence
we take it from the Baptist Courier
and reproduce it here. The doctor
says:
l am just in from my garden. II
one should see me now be would be
apt to conclude that 1 am an honest
man, making my bread out of the
sweat of my noble brow, which just
at this junctura is beeded with the
drops Of bumid eXudation, common
ly looked upon as drops tnat are
honest and to be approved Of. l have
had nothing to do with garden fol
twenty years until now. J. turned
that j"b over to my wife, who duly
committed it to man we have, known
as our maid Of all work He gar
dened in a deletante sort Of way, Go.
ing himself but little harm. and not
seeming to cherish much wrath
against the grass and weeds.
But l am gardening this year. ]
just could not help it. My study
looks down upon plot Of ground
which ought TO be rich in possibilities,
and so I have been going. out morn.
ing by morning, while the lazy ano
luxurious were asleep, to meet the
sun upon the upland lawn and brush
the dews from the hills away" except
that we have no hills down here.
Please conceive Of the picture with
the hills removed.
A sister good and faithful, who now
sits upon the throne where her saint
ed mother once sat in consumm tt
grace, sent me a dozen fig bushes this
morning, and I've been out in my
garden to plant them. Having com
pleted this task, I turned to my musk
melon bed, which [ had hoed over but
two days ago, and out OF that bee
grew this sad story. The weeds cut
down two days ago have sproutec
again. I must do my work over. But
musk mellon plant, which I chancec
to cut down, has not come back to its
place. How much easier it is to Kill
a musk melon plant than it is to xii
weed! To get another melon vine
shall have to SOW another seed, to gel
another weed need do nothing at all
It will come back Of itself.
l chopped vigorously at the misera
bic weeds for stroke or two, unit
the honest drops began to fall, anl
then l found myself here at my type
writer. I have been chopping weeds
all my life in the garden Of my heart
and / can't see where I've succeeded
in eradicating many Of them. vii
the task never end? AM I to spend
all my days digging at weeds? Don'1
you suppose III grow weary by ant
by and give it all up as an unsatisfac
tory undertaking? Is there no wa!
of cutting them down to stay fol
good and for alla think I can cal
up some better deeds and ways l once
had, which 1 have by mistake or mis-
fortune chopped down, and they d.
not now come back any more. How
like my garden is my heart! May bt
time will come when I shall sigh fol
sunset and the evening horn that CALI
one in from labor. But then may be
also was put here to till this garder
and to chop these weeds out Of my
life from season to season, and it wa:
never promised me that they should
not come back. II can be assured Of
this my sole duty is to keep chopping
I wish I knew If others have this
same trouble Do you have to choI
day by day? Do you sometimes be.
come weak and disheartened? have
you ever turned aside from your task
for a time and then found that youl
little garden was over grown with
weeds, and the. better fruits were al
covered up and dying? Is this the
experience Of everybody? or am I just
poor laborer upon whom a peculiar
burden has been put that sends me
staggering along the way Of life? ]
wonder if my Master ever sees the
sweat upon my brow?
Does be know I am chopping? Does
he care: II sometimes he would come
to the garden gate and look upon me
and say, well done!" how much
more carefully could chop the weeds
Alas, poor souls that we are! Chop
chop! This is all, and yet l dare not
stop! II sometime you do net find me
when you call, may be III be out ir
my garden choppiug weeds. Chop
chop! chop. Just chopping weeds
weeds that grow in the garden OF my
heart!