Croakers | AdventAI

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Sep 4, 1866

Croakers.

THERE is a moral for all faithless and complaining farmers, in the following anecdote, which it may be profitable for them to consider:

An eccentric lawyer, named Burgess, many years ago, lived in a New England village, and became quite famous for his “skeptical notions.” Attending a town-meeting, after its adjournment he lingered among the groups of substantial farmer deacons who composed it, and listened to the prevailing conversation. The bad weather, the fly, the rot, the drouth, and the wet, were duly discussed, when some one turned to Burgess and asked, “How comes on your garden?”

“I never plant anything,” replied Burgess, with a solemn face; “I am afraid even to put a potato in the ground.”

“It’s no wonder,” groaned one of the most eminently pious persons present, “It’s no wonder; for a man who does not believe in revealed religion, could not expect to have his labors blessed.”

“I am not afraid of failing in a reward for my work,” replied Burgess; “but I am afraid that agricultural labor would make me profane. If I planted a single potato, what would be the result? Why I should get up in the morning, look about and growl: ‘It’s going to rain, and it will ruin my potato!’ then I should in dry weather, say: ‘The drouth will kill my potato; then I should be unhappy because the ‘rot’ might destroy my potato; in fact, gentlemen,” concluded Burgess, in a solemn manner, “I should be afraid to do anything that would induce me constantly to distrust Providence.”

The reproof was keenly felt by many present; and for months afterward, the farmers, with a fear of Burgess before their eyes, talked of the blessings, rather than the evils attending their daily labors.