142 THE GOSPEL AND THE PLOW 



men and women on this earth must spend their time in 

 caring for the oft-recurring needs of men. A farmer 

 cannot plow so that it will last for ten years. He cannot 

 sow in one year enough wheat to last for a decade. The 

 world is seldom ahead on its food supply more than three 

 months. There are these daily and seasonal tasks that 

 must be done in their appointed time. Most of them we 

 call "secular," and there is in some theological quarters 

 a tendency to look down upon those who do them as doing 

 something of a lower order. I do not forget that once 

 the heavens opened and the voice of God said of the 

 village carpenter of Nazareth, "This is my beloved Son 

 in whom I am well pleased." Jesus had no public min- 

 istry to His credit at that time, but it was as a carpenter 

 that He had won this commendation from Him who rates 

 all things at their true worth. Surely unless some 

 farmer had saved seed and prepared his ground, sown 

 the seed at the right time, cultivated and protected the 

 growing crop, harvested and stored the ripened grain, 

 which the miller took and ground and the baker took and 

 baked into bread, the philosopher would not have his 

 leisure to philosophize. His time for thought and study 

 is purchased by somebody else's foresight and timely, 

 unremitting toil. So everyone who is doing any helpful 

 work in the world and doing it unto God, as an expres- 

 sion of his faith in Him who doeth all things well, who 

 does it in faith as his share of the common task to sustain 

 and maintain human life, need not fear in that day when 

 all men shall be judged for what they have done. God 

 made His world a good world, a world that gives man a 

 chance for the fullest self-realization as he diligently 

 obeys the commands of God with reverent spirit and 



