Cultivating Soil and Soul
By Editor
Cultivating Soil and Soul
The cultivation of the soil is a means through which visible expression can be given in a most marked way to right principles in the cultivation of the soul. Man was created in very close touch with the earth. He was made of the dust of the earth, and he was organized under God to have dominion over the earth. To serve him the earth was to yield her strength. A part of the first sentence upon outbreaking sin was, “When thou tillest the ground, it shall not henceforth yield unto thee her strength.” Right principles of Christian education will make Luther and men wise in dealing with the earth, of his co-operating with God in his work of multiplying the loaves to feed earth’s multitudes, and in making the wilderness to blossom as the rose. A well-cultivated farm, or a beautiful park, or a fruitful garden, is in itself an object lesson in the principles of Christian education, even though it may not have been intended for that purpose. The processes employed in turning a sandy waste into an attractive park with its pleasant paths and its tasteful shrubbery are constantly setting forth the gospel principles of transformation of character, “the renewing of the mind,” and testifying to the possibility of marvelous development in diamonds in the rough. Our frontispiece teaches this lesson. It shows the result of intelligent effort directed toward changing a barren piece of ground into a thing of beauty and a joy forever. “Learn, O student, the true wisdom. See yon bush aflame with roses, like the burning bush of Moses. Listen, and thou shalt hear, if thy soul be not deaf, how from out it, soft and clear, speaks to thee the Lord Almighty.” The life of the Christian is the life of faith. Whatever he receives he receives by faith; whatever he gives he gives by faith. The life that he lives in the flesh he lives by the faith of the Son of God. The same Christ whom he receives by faith as his righteousness he also receives by faith as his wisdom. “Of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption.” But education by faith is not a newly discovered process by means of which an education may be obtained without hard study. God gives wisdom by giving him “in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge,” but the only way by which we can receive “the treasures” is by hard study,—literally digging for them. This is the Lord’s own instruction: “If thou criest after knowledge, and liftest up thy voice for understanding; if thou seekest her as silver, and searchest for her as for hid treasures; then shalt thou understand the fear of the Lord, and find the knowledge of God. For the Lord giveth wisdom: out of his mouth cometh knowledge and understanding.” It was when Luther was stretched out upon the floor of his cell, studying the epistle to the Romans, that the keynote of the Reformation was sounded in his ears,—“The just shall live by faith.” It was when Daniel and his companions were being taught “the learning and the tongue of the Chaldeans,” that “God gave them knowledge and skill in all learning and wisdom.” God can make a special revelation of that which could never be discovered even by study, but the best preparation for this extraordinary method of working is to make the best possible improvement of the ordinary method. The first condition of obtaining knowledge is to study; the second condition is to study; and the third condition is to study. It is also helpful to remember Luther’s motto: “To have prayed well is to have studied well.”