In the treatment of this sulycct, I have thought that some 

 benefit might be had from my own former hfe upon a farm, 

 and from that association with farmers in interest, taste and 

 sympathy, as well as by personal intercourse, which I have 

 never ceased to maintain. 



The topic, too, it might be observed, is not far removed from 

 the particular province of a preacher. There we are busied 

 with the culture of man. And though we do not take all of 

 that work as belonging directly to us, but only certain parts of 

 it, yet we have some acquaintance with the whole ground, or 

 ought to have. Our Master called some of the early preachers 

 to be " fishers of men." If they had been tilling their fields 

 when He spoke to them, He might probably have said " raisers 

 up," " growers" of men. And He did speak of a " harvest" 

 they were to gather in, of which the ears, the sheaves of grain, 

 were men. Thus we are concerned in our profession in what- 

 ever has to do with this rearing and direction of manhood, 

 which is, indeed, a matter of common interest with us all. 



The first use of a farm as to the farmer is to afford Mm a 

 living. The way in which it may be made to do this best 

 belongs to that inner department upon which I am not to enter. 

 But however it is done, the thing itself is fundamental. It is 

 very important, too, it should be at once admitted, that the 

 means of support drawn from the farm be abundant. Little 

 progress of any kind is apt to be made where communities, or 

 whole classes of men, are weighed down by utter poverty. 

 Thus the peasantry in many countries of Europe, and of the 

 East, are able, from one generation to another, to effect 

 scarcely anything more than a bare continuance in life. It but 

 seldom occurs with such a people, that there is any rising up 

 even of single individuals above the low general level. The 

 mass goes forward but slowly, if at all, and there is no shooting 

 beyond it of personal resolution or genius. We know how 

 different in this latter respect the condition of things is in our 

 own country. The child of a poor man is likely enough to be- 

 come rich, and the son of the most obscure farmer may have no 



