32 SKETCHES OP RURAL AFFAIRS. 



Sowing is one of the most important duties of the 

 year, and is also a very interesting sight, especially 

 when performed in the primitive manner, without the 

 aid of machinery. As we watch the careful labourer 

 treading the field with measured steps, and casting far 

 and wide the destined grain, we are strongly reminded 

 of our dependence and feebleness. We can prepare the 

 ground j we can scatter the bare wheat and other grain ; 

 and what further can we do 1 Nothing ; but simply 

 leave it in the hands of the God of seasons, trusting 

 that He will prosper the work, and give to every seed a 

 new and living body. For we sow " not that body that 

 shall be, but bare grain, it may chance of wheat, or of 

 some other grain. But God giveth it a body as it hath 

 pleased him, and to every seed his [its] own body." (1 

 Cor. xv. 37, 38.) 



A farmer's life, perhaps more than any other, is cal- 

 culated to call into exercise the patient trust and hope 

 which become Christians, and it is painful when we 

 hear complaints and repinings at the dispensations of 

 the Almighty, from those who have such repeated op- 

 portunities of witnessing his power and goodness, and 

 who know how frequently he brings good out of appa- 

 rent evil, and causes a year which began with darkened 

 prospects, to be at length " crowned" with his goodness, 

 so that " the clouds drop fatness." 



To make a diligent use of the present, and to look 

 forward with cheerful hope to the future, is the duty 

 of those who till the soil, as well as of those who fol- 

 low the other various occupations of life. But to the 

 farmer it is a matter of absolute necessity to be con- 

 stantly looking forward. 



" Beyond bleak winter's rage, beyond the spring 

 That rolling Earth's unvarying course will bring, 

 Who tills the ground looks on with mental eye, 

 And sees next summer's sheaves and cloudless sky ; 

 And even now, whilst Nature's beauty dies. 

 Deposits SEED, and bids new harvests rise." * 



