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THE SWISS FARMER AND THE LORD’S DAY

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THE SWISS FARMER AND THE LORD’S DAY

5 minuten leestijd Arcering uitzetten

“Them that honour Me, I will honour; and they that despise Me shall be lightly esteemed.” 1 Samuel 2:30.

In the fertile valley of Emmenthal, in Switzerland, lived a farmer, who cared for neither God nor man. One Lord’s Day afternoon, having a large quantity of uncut grain in the field, and observing the clouds gathering around the tops of the mountains, and the spring becoming full of water, he called his domestics, saying, “Let us go to the field, gather and bind, for towards evening we shall have a storm. If you house a thousand sheaves before it rains, you shall be rewarded for so doing.”

He was overheard by his grandmother, a good old lady of eighty years of age, who walked supported by two crutches. She approached with difficulty her grandson. “John, John, dost thou consider? As far as I can remember, in my whole life I have never seen an ear of corn housed on the Lord’s day, and yet we have always been loaded with blessings; we have never wanted for anything. Granting that it might be done if there was a famine, John, or a long continuance of bad weather; but thus far the year has been very dry, and if the grain gets a little wet, there is nothing in it alarming. Besides, God, Who gives the rain, gives the grain also, and we must take things as God sends them. John, do not violate the rest of this holy day, I earnestly beseech thee.”

At hearing these words of the grandmother, all the domestics gathered around her. The oldest understood the wisdom of her advice, but the young treated it with ridicule, and said to each other, “Old customs are out of date; prejudices are abolished; the world now is altered.”

“Grandmother,” said the farmer, “everything must have a beginning; but there is no evil in this. It is quite indifferent to our God whether we spend the day in sleeping or in labour, and He will be altogether as much pleased to see the grain in the corn-loft as to see it exposed to the rain. That which we get under shelter will nourish us, and nobody can tell what sort of weather it will be tomorrow.”

“John, John, within doors and out of doors all things are at the Lord’s disposal, and thou dost not know what may happen this evening; but thou knowest I am thy grandmother. I entreat thee for the love of God not to work to-day. I would rather eat no bread for a whole year.”

“Grandmother, doing a thing for one time is not a habit. Besides, it is not a wickedness to preserve one’s harvest, and to better one’s circumstances.”

“But, John, God’s commandments are always the same, and what will it profit thee to have the grain in thy barn if thou lose thy soul.”

“Ah! don’t be uneasy about that,” said John, “And now. boys, let us go to work; time and weather wait for no man.”

“John, John,” for the last time said the good old lady; but alas! it was in vain; and while she was weeping and praying, John was housing his sheaves. It might be said that they flew, men and beasts, so great was the dispatch.

A thousand sheaves were in the barn when the first drop of rain fell. John entered the house, followed by his people, and exclaimed with an air of triumph, “Now, grandmother, all is secure. Let the tempests roar, let the elements rage, it little concerns me; my harvest is under my roof.”

“Yet, John,” said the grandmother solemnly, “but above thy roof spreads the Lord’s roof.”

While she was thus speaking, the building was suddenly illuminated, and fear was imprinted on every countenance.

A tremendous clap of thunder made the house tremble to its foundations.

“Oh!” exclaimed the first who could speak, “the lightning has struck the barn!”

All hurried out of doors. The building was in flames, and they saw through the roof the sheaves burning which had just been housed.

The greatest consternation reigned among all the men, who but a moment before were so well pleased. Everyone was dejected and incapable of acting. The aged grandmother alone preserved her prescence of mind. She prayed, and incessantly repeated, “What shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world and lose his own soul? Oh, heavenly Father, let Thy will, and not ours, be done!”

The barn was entirely consumed; nothing was saved. The farmer had said, “I have put my harvest under my roof.” “But above thy roof is the Lord’s roof,” had said his grandmother.

This teaches us the lesson that all is in the hands of God, whether in the field or in the barn; and what we endeavour to preserve from the rain can be reached in any place by Him Who commands both the rain and thunder.

Submitted

“So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.”

“We spend our years as a tale that is told.”

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THE SWISS FARMER AND THE LORD’S DAY

Bekijk de hele uitgave van vrijdag 1 augustus 1952

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