Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1908-02-27

Vt kind OF seed We do not use tho
itual seed that will bring forth tho
itcst harvest. | am not asserting
e some OF us do not use good seed.
G we do not use the one great seed
ich will always insure us the great
returns for our spiritual sowing.
me Illustrate my thought by com
}nplacc comparisons.
When I was Il resident Of Chicago, l
ssed two or three summers among
y Michigan hills. While there | be.
ne quite Intimate with gentleman
20 owned an enormous peach or
ard. One day he told me the history
his life: 81 inherited this land from
: father. For years he was the
rgest producer Of wheat in this re-
IN. But after I grew up to be
IN I commenced 10 be IL diligent stu.
nj of the reports Of the agricultural
lpartment at Washington. The moro
studied the science Of agriculture
nd the formation of this sell the more
came to the conclusion that | could
nadrupie the value Of my land If
ould cease planting wheat and turn
!
lid settlers around hero laughed at me.
hoy said my father knew more in
N minutes than | knew in ten years.
hey said | would ruin myself inan-
tally. But went ahead. | believed
hose agricultural reports from Wash
ngton. aud though it took me many
ears TO develop a good orchard, yet
- bp | n
ycar five times the amount of money
my father made of the same land"
The wheat crop was all right in it's
LAY, but that mans father did not
plant the seed that brought the maxi
mum return from his farm. The son
I'd. and that is the whole story in
nutshell.
Now. ] am not here to state that
our life is useless life You are not
,ibCr.inc. Perhaps you give away
hundreds Of dollars annually to help
he poor and the sick But | ask YOU
10 consider whether you plant the best
seed 20 obtain the spiritual harvcsts.
Christian work means more than sim
ply giving bread to the hungTy, clothes
to the naked and medicine to the sick
Christian work cmphatcally means
, the seed planting Of Jesus Christ in
| the hearts OF your fellow men. If you
will only bring the divine personality
of Christ in touch with your fellow
men, he will lift men up out of their
sins and make men like unto himself.
Oh. friend. from now let the chief pur-
| pose of your life be to get the greatest
| spiritual harvest 10y seeking chiefly to
| plant the spirit Of Jesus Christ in tho
| hearts of your fellow men, "Consider
| your Ways. Ye have sown much but
! bring in little" viii you not ponder
well upon his promise? He tells us
/ what he can do if we only plant him
Alright. And ]. if be lifted up, will
draw all men unto me-
Barrenness OF Soil.
| But I am not more impressed with
! the poorness OF the seed which we 20
/ forth to plant in our spiritual fields
! than | am with the rockincss and bar
/ renncss of the soil in which VIC are
dropping this seed. | care not how
!
! barren there is no use in planting any
seed there. For instance, the soil lin
! ing the banks of the river Nile is the
! richest in the world. On it you can
crow two or three crops of wheat each
year. But If you turn your back upon
/ the river Nile and travel five. ten miles
| over the Sahara sands you can have
the land for nothing, for it is Il bar
| rem land. The water will run through
it as through Il sieve. Besides that. no
water can be drawn 50 far away from
the Nile TO irrigatc the desert, even
though the sands would hold The wa
ter.
\ soil for the farmer is worth Just
I in proportion to what it can produce,
no more and no less. \ few years ago
| was travelling over the Dakota pral-
ries, and stopped with the owner OF
large wheat ranch. The mans farm
extended for miles and miles away. If
that farmer had been dependent upon
the old fashioned ways of scattcrin g
the seed with his hand and rcapin%
with the sickle, he could not have
placed under cultivation onetcnth of
his farm. ! asked him: "iIow can You
1ertilze such all immense area OF agri-
cultural land: The winter SHOWS
come on so soon after harvest should
ihink YOU would not have the time"
Tho man laughed "Why," said he,
"we never fcrtiliZc the Dakota wheat
fields, This is practically virgin soil"
Then he led me 10 Il deep hole he was
digging. 1t was rich, black soil, able
to produce anything. "Whoncvcr we
feel" said he. that we are cXhausting
The land of its strength. all thai we
have 10 do is to drive III The ploV Il
little deeper. That soil Is Just like that
in richness sixty feet down" Now you
have some idna OF the necessity Of hav-
ing rich soil to produce a crop. \ soil
j. only valuable IN proportion rs i is
) productive. No sane farmer woUld try
TO turn an Arabian desert into a farm,
The sand dune is cheap merely because
it is unproductlye. Are You anl |, "a
spiritual seed planters. seeking the hest
soil for the coming spiritual harvcsts:
The Virgin Coil.
Where is the human soil for richest
spiritual results: 1t IS often in virgin
soil. David Livingstone opened the
map Of the world, and he saw it IL
Africa. DR.. Duff opened the map OF