Plowing & Soil Preparation

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0><tr> <td valign="top" colspan=2 height=90 BGCOLOR="#CC9966" TEXT="#080000" bgproperties="fixed" background="04600640dkesoe.jpg"> <div> <FONT SIZE="5" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" ><B>Medical Missionary Press</B></FONT><FONT SIZE="1" COLOR="#006633" FACE="Arial" > </FONT><FONT SIZE="1" COLOR="#FF3300" FACE="Arial" > </FONT><FONT SIZE="1" COLOR="#CC0033" FACE="Arial" > </FONT><B> |     </B><A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Medical Missionary Press"><B>home</B></A></div> <div>                                                   </div> <div> </div> </td> </tr><tr> <td valign="top" width=190 BGCOLOR="#CC9966" TEXT="#080000"> <bR> </td> <td valign="top" height=390 width="100%" BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000"> <div> Plowing & Soil Preparation</div> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div>    <FONT SIZE="6" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" ><B>PLOWING AND SOIL PREPARATION</B></FONT></div> <div> Information gathered from the EGW CDRom</div> <bR> <bR> <div> <B>Plowing is an honorable activity</B></div> <div> <B>ChS 60 </B></div> <div> <B>Adapt the Instruction </B></div> <div> How many useful and honored workers in God's cause have received a training amid the humble duties of the most lowly positions in life! Moses was the prospective ruler of Egypt, but God could not take him from the king's court to do the work appointed him. Only when he had been for forty years a faithful shepherd was he sent to be the deliverer of his people. Gideon was taken from the threshing floor to be the instrument in the hands of God for delivering the armies of Israel. <U>Elisha was called to leave the plow and do the bidding of God.</U> Amos was a husbandman, a tiller of the soil, when God gave him a message to proclaim. All who become coworkers with Christ will have a great deal of hard, uncongenial labor to perform, and their lessons of instruction should be wisely chosen, and adapted to their peculiarities of character, and the work which they are to pursue. <I>Gospel Workers</I>, pp. 332, 333.</div> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <B>God will give special wisdom to the one who plows</B></div> <div> <B>FCE 326 </B></div> <div> <U>He who taught Adam and Eve in Eden how to tend the garden, would instruct men to-day. There is wisdom for him who holds the plow, and plants and sows the seed. The earth has its concealed treasures, and the Lord would have thousands and tens of thousands working upon the soil who are crowded into the cities to watch for a chance to earn a trifle</U>; in many cases that trifle is not turned into bread, but is put into the till of the publican, to obtain that which destroys the reason of man formed in the image of God. Those who will take their families into the country, place them where they have fewer temptations. The children who are with parents that love and fear God, are in every way much better situated to learn of the Great Teacher, who is the source and fountain of wisdom. They have a much more favorable opportunity to gain a fitness for the kingdom of heaven. Send the children to schools located in the city, where every phase of temptation is waiting to attract and demoralize them, and the work of character building is <I>tenfold harder</I> for both parents and children.</div> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <B>There is a science in plowing properly and at the right times</B></div> <div> <B>CG 356</B></div> <div> Farming has been pronounced unprofitable. People say that the soil does not pay for the labor expended upon it, and they bemoan the hard fate of those who till the soil. . . . <U>But should persons of proper ability take hold of this line of employment, and make a study of the soil, and learn how to plant, to cultivate, and to gather in the harvest, more encouraging results might be seen</U>. Many say, "We have tried agriculture and know what its results are," and yet these very ones need to know how to cultivate the soil and to bring science into their work. <U>Their plowshares should cut deeper, broader furrows, and they need to learn that in tilling the soil they need not become common and coarse in their natures. . . . Let them learn to put in the seed in its season, to give attention to vegetation, and to follow the plan that God has devised.</U></div> <bR> <div> <B>TDG 276</B></div> <div>      <U>Personal efforts must be put forth in agriculture. There is the plowing and replowing. Implements must be brought in and human skill must use them. The seed must be sown in its season. The laws which control seedtime and harvest must be observed, else there will be no harvest</U>. . . .</div> <bR> <div> <B>IHP 157</B></div> <div> God has given man land to be cultivated. But in order that the harvest may be reaped, there must be harmonious action between divine and human agencies. <U>The plow and other implements of labor must be used at the right time. The seed must be sown in its season</U>. Man is not to fail of doing his part. If he is careless and negligent, his unfaithfulness testifies against him. The harvest is proportionate to the energy he has expended.</div> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <B>Plowing must go deep</B></div> <div> <B>COL 88 </B></div> <div> The soil will not produce its riches when worked by impulse. It needs thoughtful, daily attention. <U>It must be plowed often and deep, with a view to keeping out the weeds that take nourishment from the good seed planted.</U> Thus those who plow and sow prepare for the harvest. None need stand in the field amid the sad wreck of their hopes.</div> <bR> <div> <B>6T 192</B></div> <div> We have seen the giant trees felled and uprooted; <U>we have seen the plowshare pressed into the earth, turning deep furrows for the planting of trees and the sowing of seed. The students are learning what plowing means and that the hoe and the shovel, the rake and the harrow, are all implements of honorable and profitable industry.</U> Mistakes will often be made, but every error lies close beside the truth. Wisdom will be learned by failures, and the energy that will make a beginning gives hope of success in the end. Hesitation will keep things back, precipitancy will alike retard; but all will serve as lessons if the human agent will have it so.</div> <bR> <div> <B>8MR 253</B></div> <div> The school orchard is doing excellently well. <U>If the land is worked it will yield its treasures, but weeds will grow and those who own land will not exercise ambition to take these weeds out by the roots and give them no quarter. Deep plowing must be done</U>. They let a few orange trees grow in the sod, also the lemons. We get the choicest, best oranges for three pence and two pence ha' penny per dozen --six cents American money, and four and five cents per dozen for large, beautiful, sweet oranges.</div> <bR> <div> <B>4BIO 154</B></div> <div> <U>In the dream you have heard me relate, words were spoken of land which I was looking at, and after deep plowing and thorough cultivating, it brought forth a bountiful harvest</U>. Having had this matter presented to me at different times, I am more than ever convinced that this is the right location for the school. Since I have been here for a few days and have had opportunity to investigate, I feel more sure than at my first visit that this is the right place. I think any [of the] land which I have seen would produce some kind of crop. <I>Letter</I> 14, 1894.</div> <bR> <div> <B>16MR 153</B></div> <div>      Before I visited Cooranbong, the Lord gave me a dream. In my dream I was taken to the land that was for sale in Cooranbong. Several of our brethren had been solicited to visit the land, and I dreamed that I was walking upon the ground. I came to a neat-cut furrow that had been plowed <U>one quarter of a yard deep</U> and two yards in length. Two of the brethren who had been acquainted with the rich soil of Iowa were standing before this furrow and saying, "This is not good land; the soil is not favorable." But One who has often spoken in counsel was present also, and He said, "False witness has been borne of this land." Then He described the properties of the different layers of earth. He explained the science of the soil, and said that this land was adapted to the growth of fruit and vegetables, and that if well worked it would produce its treasures for the benefit of man. This dream I related to Brother and Sister Starr and my family.</div> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <B>Results of failure to plow deep</B></div> <div> FCE 368</div> <div> I have written largely in reference to students spending an unreasonably long time in gaining an education; but I hope I shall not be misunderstood in regard to what is essential education. I do not mean that a superficial work should be done as is illustrated by the way in which some portions of the land are worked in Australia. <U>The plow was only put in the depth of a few inches, the ground was not prepared for the seed, and the harvest was meager, corresponding to the superficial preparation that was given to the land</U>.</div> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <B>Men are needed who will educate others how to plow.</B></div> <div> FCE 324</div> <div>      God would be glorified if men from other countries who have acquired an intelligent knowledge of agriculture, would come to this land, and by precept and example teach the people how to cultivate the soil, that it may yield rich treasures. <U>Men are wanted to educate others how to plow, and how to use the implements of agriculture. Who will be missionaries to do this work, to teach proper methods to the youth, and to all who feel willing and humble enough to learn?</U> If any do not want you to give them improved ideas, let the lessons be given silently, showing what can be done in setting out orchards and planting corn; let the harvest be eloquent in favor of right methods of labor. Drop a word to your neighbors when you can, keep up the culture of your own land, and that will educate.</div> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <B>Learn as far as possible to live from the products of the soil</B></div> <div> FCE 325-326</div> <div> Farmers need far more intelligence in their work. In most cases it is their own fault if they do not see the land yielding its harvest. They should be constantly learning how to secure a variety of treasures from the earth. <U>The people should learn as far as possible to depend upon the products that they can obtain from the soil</U>. In every phase of this kind of labor they can be educating the mind to work for the saving of souls for whom Christ has died. "Ye are God's husbandry; ye are God's building." Let the teachers in our schools take their students with them into the gardens and fields, and teach them how to work the soil in the very best manner. It would be well if ministers who labor in word or doctrine could enter the fields and spend some portion of the day in physical exercise with the students. They could do as Christ did in giving lessons from nature to illustrate Bible truth. Both teachers and students would have much more healthful experience in spiritual things, and much stronger minds and purer hearts to interpret eternal mysteries, than they can have while studying books so constantly, and working the brain without taxing the muscles. God has given men and women reasoning powers, and He would have men employ their reason in regard to the use of their physical machinery. The question may be asked, How can he get wisdom that holdeth the plow, and driveth oxen? "by seeking her as silver, and searching for her as for hid treasures." "For his God doth instruct him to discretion, and doth teach him." "This also cometh forth from the Lord of hosts, which is wonderful in counsel, and excellent in working."</div> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <B>Plowing is an illustration of spiritual lessons</B></div> <div> AH 144</div> <div> Christ has linked His teaching, not only with the day of rest, but with the week of toil. . . . <U>In the plowing and sowing, the tilling and reaping, He teaches us to see an illustration of His work of grace in the heart</U>. So in every line of useful labor and every association of life, He desires us to find a lesson of divine truth. Then our daily toil will no longer absorb our attention and lead us to forget God; it will continually remind us of our Creator and Redeemer. The thought of God will run like a thread of gold through all our homely cares and occupations. For us the glory of His face will again rest upon the face of nature. We shall ever be learning new lessons of heavenly truth and growing into the image of His purity.</div> <bR> <div> <B>Ev 80</B></div> <div>      While we should ever be ready to follow the opening providence of God, we should lay no larger plans in places where our work is represented, nor occupy more ground than there is help and means to bind off the work well. <U>Surface plowing means a limited, scattered harvest</U>. Keep up and increase the interest already started, until the cloud moves, then follow it. While there are broader plans and fields constantly opening for the laborers, our ideas and views must broaden in regard to the workers who are to labor in new fields in the Lord's vineyard to bring souls into the truth. <I>Letter</I> 14, 1886.</div> <bR> <div> <B>RH 1-24-1893</B></div> <div>      To keep your soul in the love of God you must place yourselves in the channel of light, and breathe in a holy atmosphere; for through neglect of any means of grace which God has ordained to impart spiritual strength and grace, you bring blindness upon your souls, and hardness into your hearts, and Satan will lead you to look at things in a perverted light. If you have no respect for the messages which God sends you by his chosen servants, what power has he in reserve that will reach your case and correct your errors, so that you shall not be led into false paths? <U>The garden of your heart must be cultivated. The poisonous, Satanic plants must be uprooted, the soil must be prepared, thoroughly plowed by the word of God, and the precious seeds of truth must be sown and tended by a wise, skillful gardener</U>.</div> <bR> <div> <B>12MR 6</B></div> <div> I have no liberty to withhold any longer the matters that I have written. There is much that must be brought out. And yet I say unto you, as I have said many times before, I have an intense desire that you shall show by your words of confession and by your actions that you will now make thorough work for repentance. <U>Let the plowshare of truth go deep and thorough into your heart. Do not surface work; for God will not accept superficial promises</U>. The Lord Jesus reaches out His hand once more to you, and He will not be trifled with. You have a work to do. Cease your underhand work, which shows that you would spoil the work of God. If you will repent, and be converted, the Lord will have mercy upon you. <I>Letter</I> 319, 1905, pp. 1,2. (To Dr. J. H. Kellogg, June 2, 1905.)</div> <bR> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>