The Devils Lake world. (Devils Lake, N.D.) 1920-1982, 1920-11-17
Divine Lesson in
the Garnering Of
: the Golden Grain

The summer is over and the har-
vest is past. The sad skies, the bleak
Aelds, the bare trees. the raw winds
that whistle and groan and sob and
Sigh their dirges m%ournfully remind us
that the season of fruitage has gone
by and the time has come when We
can only turn away, each to himself,
and measure up our %garnerings.
Nature gives US q seed time and a
harvest time.
But these would be meaningless to
US did she not also send a season
when. at the warning touch Of winter
chill, we must measure our gains and
consider our losses.
But for the lessons Of this season
no man would labor; we would know
nauglt of temperance or thrift; we
would go through the bright spring
only singing. and idle away the sum
meT in dreams.
So it is part Of the divine plan that
each Of us should nov 20 apart and
carefully separate the wheat from the
Il tti' WV " ~ NCI'tS, Al
that which is good and sound and en-
during from all that perishes and
xaints. 1t is now that each must hon
eStly examine and weigh the product
of his WI works.
1t were useless now to try to de-
ceivc even ourselves.
Now. if at no other time, we see
The vast difference in value between
The picked fruit and the win1falls.
The one heap we proudly stora
away, knowing it will keep sweet and
whole to the winters depths, and the
other We cast aside. that it may not
contaminate as 1t rots.
1t is a sad, sweet 1ask-Sweet for
the counted gains, sad for the opror-
tunities lost and TO come no more.
And as we garner the gains we also
garner wisdom.
AS We separate the wheat from the
chaf and the sound fruit from the
windfalls, so, whether we will or not,
we must in the inner consciousness
separate the true from the false iI
principles of labor and living.
Nc man, eve Of three-scOre-aye
four-score and ten, has ever known
this law to fail in a single season. II
knows no variation in all the cycles of
time.
But grains and fruits are not all
fGnat we are garnering. Chaff and
weets are not all we ought to sepa.
rate and cast away. There are things
more important still. In the store
house of the heart and mind and soul
is it not well to seek, just as care
fully. though sometimes in vain, t
keep only the better, the brighter, tn
more enduring things?
When the bleak November Of If
comes we shall have need of them.
Dreary will be the winter to hin
whose g%ranaries are empty. Blu
-:drearier and TO- dcsolate still mus
abe the winter Of old age to the ma
'ior woman whose mind and heart an
soul have brought from the harves
only the joys. that are chaff and tn
virtues that are mere windfalls, al
,tained and adhered to only througl
}easy convenience.
y When that winter comes, as 1t mus
80 many Of u.s., we shall have only oul
selves to turn to, and we shall fin
only that which we have sown an
. harvested in the bright spring an
golden SUMMERTIME good grain, tn
sound fruit, the flowers, the high in
spulses, the sacrifices, the loves, ye
land the cheat, the chaff, the weeds, til
rwindfalls, the hates, the jealousie
the low passions-all these and nothip
more, to sustain us or to render I
desolate.
We may, If W. will, make each de
q cycle Of all the seasons. We so
each morning and reap each noon al
agarner each evening the fruits of o,
esliving in this little day. Day by da
If we strive on in right and hope a,
courage, must our knowledge and o
strength, and Jul store increase. D.
.by day, through many failings a.
16allings, do De come ear to t
true manhood and the true woms
hood.-Charles Grant Miller In t
christian Herald.