Plowed Under by T. E. BOWEN

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Washington, D. C. · Jul 13, 1905

Plowed Under

By T. E. BOWEN

T. E. BOWEN

Christ often drew from the common experiences of every-day life of the common people lessons of deep spiritual meaning. One day as he was teaching, he drew this lesson from the sowing of grain: “Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.”

That the dying process is so hard for us, and so many are unwilling to pass through it, might be given as the cause for the small yield of fruit. The grain left unsown, abides alone. There can be no increase without an actual burial out of sight of the individual kernel of the grain, in the cold, unfeeling earth. It must die.

And thus it is in the Christian life. Christ died. That seed thus planted has yielded an abundant harvest. But the dying on that one day was not all there is to the dying of Christ. His was a constant yielding of himself, a continual self-sacrifice, a daily burial out of sight in the world's great need. He put himself under the furrow.

“With this truth Christ connects the lesson of self-sacrifice that all should learn. ‘He that loveth his life shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal.’ All who would bring forth fruit as workers together with Christ, must first fall into the ground and die. The life must be cast into the furrow of the world's

great need. Self-love, self-interest, must perish. And the law of self-sacrifice is the law of self-preservation. The husbandman preserves his grain by casting it away. So is human life. To give is to live. . . . The life spent on self is like the grain that is eaten. It disappears, but there is no increase. A man may gather all he can for self; he may live and think and plan for self; but his life passes away, and he has nothing.”—“Desire of Ages,” page 623.

God knows those who are his. They may be buried in the furrow of the world's need somewhere, out of sight, toiling for him, but his eye is upon them. They may even fall asleep under the furrow, at home or in far-off heathen lands, yet it will not be in vain. The harvest will be abundant. In that day of gathering just ahead, not only these, but the fruit resulting from their self-sacrificing lives will be gathered. “And they shall be mine, saith the Lord of hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels.”

Rome, N. Y.