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the running brooks, sermons in stones, and good in every- 

 thing." 



THE HELATIONS OF AGRICULTURE TO MORALS AND RELIGION. 



The last topic to which I can briefly refer, is the relation of 

 agriculture to man's religious character and spiritual nature. 

 When God made man he breathed into him a living soul, and 

 placed him in a garden to dress it ; and there the voice of God 

 addressed them, in the cool of the day. There was nature in 

 its innocence and simplicity; and there was God in his majesty; 

 they were the father and the child, and nothing intervened. 

 Where else has this been ? Where else can it be ? We do 

 not forget the theory that God is everywhere and controls all 

 events ; but to some His is an invisible presence. The market 

 house, the factory, the caucus room, the dust of the busy streets, 

 aye, the meeting house itself, often stand between God and 

 man, shutting out the light of heaven, and by their noisy bustle 

 and numerous dissipations drowning the divine voice. In the 

 town fashion holds sway, and the masses follow the rich and 

 the great, while Christ walks the street as much a stranger 

 to-day as he was 1800 years ago in the streets of Jerusalem, 

 and in the Temple where the money changers and those that 

 sold and bought had made God's house a house of merchan- 

 dise. Innocence, truth and sincerity disappear ; integrity is 

 governed by statute, law and custom ; simplicity is the ridicule 

 of fools ; passion is dammed up to the public eye, and let loose 

 with violent impetuosity in private. There is no room for 

 thought, and scarcely an avenue through which an aspiration can 

 go heavenward. So artificial and spiritually depressing is the 

 city that even the Savior of the world went away to pray — he 

 ascended to the mountains, stole away to the fields, or sat by 

 the sea side in solitude, when he would have intercourse with 

 the Father. So all great religious reformers and teachers since 

 him — whether of the Christian faith or any other — as those 

 before him, have left the tumult of the town, the hurry of busy 

 life, and the giddy circles of amusement, when they would 

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