THE STARCH FAMILY by David Paulson; W. S. Sadler

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jun 26, 1900

THE STARCH FAMILY.

By David Paulson; W. S. Sadler

(Continued.)

GRAINS IN THE MILKY STAGE.

If kernels of wheat or corn are eaten when ripe and dry, they will be found to have the same taste as the flour from the barrel, but there was a time earlier in their history when, had we eaten them, we should have found them sweet and juicy. This condition is known as the “milky stage” of the grain. In this stage, instead of finding starch in the grain, we find sugar, just as in the sap of the maple tree or the juice of the sorghum plant. Nature carries the sap up through the green stalk, and, in the form of sugar, deposits it in the kernel of wheat. Later the sugar is changed into starch, so that it may be preserved, starch being one of the permanent forms of the carbohydrate family. Grains while in the milky stage are very easily digested. It was undoubtedly while the grain was ripening, and therefore in the milky stage, that Christ and his disciples, in going through the fields, rubbed it out and ate it. In the garden of Eden, no doubt, grain was ripening at all times of the year. We are given a suggestion of this in the fact that in the new earth the tree of life will bear its fruit every month.

The saliva has no effect whatever upon raw starch. And while it is possible for starch to be digested to a certain extent when it reaches the small intestine, certainly God never intended us to eat our carbohydrates in the form of either raw starch or cellulose; because they are both insoluble forms of the starch family. It is evident that we should take our carbohydrates in the form of dextrin, or sugar as found in fruit; and if we can not get them in this form, we ought to take pains to convert the starch into dextrin, as nearly as possible, by proper cooking.

LESSONS FROM THE MILKY STAGE OF GRAIN.

In the Bible we find the word of God in many different forms,—in doctrine, prophecy, precept, praise, and promise. There is one form of the Word which even the weakest of mankind seem to be able to digest, and that is “the sincere milk of the Word.” 1 Peter 2: 2. If we give the newborn Christian the word of God in the milky stage, as it were, it will usually be readily received into the heart, and quickly acted upon by the faith of Jesus. Some portions of the Word, like the starch of the ripe grain, must be prepared, as it were, in order to become easy of digestion for young Christians; while there are other portions of Scripture, like the grain in the milky stage, which are ready for immediate use by even the weakest. 1 Cor. 3: 1, 2; Heb. 5: 12–14; John 16: 12.

RIPE FRUIT.

In unripe grains we find sugar. As the grain ripens, the sugar is gradually changed into starch. In unripe fruits, on the contrary, we find raw starch; and during the process of ripening, the starch is changed into sugar. At first sight, nature here seems to have made a remarkable contrast. But a closer study will show that it is a most beautiful arrangement. In both grains and fruits, nature is making provision for the next generation. In fruits the most essential thing is the seeds, which are to sprout and form the plants of the next generation. The fruit substance surrounding the seed is intended by nature to decay, and thus help to fertilize the soil in which the fruit seed is to grow; while in the grains the thing essential to the following generation is the little germ which is carefully stowed away within every ripe kernel of wheat, corn, or oats. Along with each of these little germs, nature stores up sufficient starch in an insoluble form, to furnish the little germ, when it has sprouted the following spring, enough to live on until it can get its head above the earth, when it can begin, under the influence of the sunlight, to manufacture starch for itself. In this little lunch basket, nature has placed a small amount of digestive substance called “diastase;” and under the influence of the moisture and heat of the earth, its activity is stirred up, and it soon begins to change a little of the starch of the planted wheat kernel into sugar, and this is a suggestion to the little germ that the time has come to grow; and if it was not planted too deep, it will just about have used up all its inheritance of starch when it reaches the surface of the ground, and turns its face toward the sunlight. Now the little plant is ready to begin the manufacture of starch on its own responsibility.

Thus we see that the two traveling members of the carbohydrate family are sugar and dextrin; while the stay-at-home, or stationary, members, are cellulose and starch.

LESSONS FROM THE SPROUTING GRAIN.

God, by the plan of salvation, has placed within every soul a divine germ,—a spiritual diastase. And as soon as the man is ready to lie down and die; that is, as soon as he is ready to believe God and reckon himself to be “dead in trespasses and sins,” this diastase of the soul begins the mysterious process that results in the sprouting of a new life,—the death of the old man—the birth of the new man.

Just as the grain of wheat must abide alone, except it fall in the ground and die (John 12: 24); so man, until he is willing to yield up all to God,—confess his utter helplessness,—fails to come into the possession of the realities of the new life. Christ is the “true light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world.” John 1: 9. This “true light” is the divine germ which is placed within every soul; and when we begin to reckon ourselves “to be dead indeed unto sin,” then will the true light begin to act. And as there is enough starch in every grain of wheat to nourish the little sprout until it can get up into the sunlight, just so God has placed within every soul enough of the “true light” to lead that soul “out of darkness into his marvelous light.”

Every soul has enough of the true light within to enable it, if willing, to turn its face toward the Sun of righteousness. There is enough faith, enough of the desire to do right, in every man, if not smothered, to enable him to turn his face toward Jesus; and his continued growth and prosperity will depend upon the steadfastness with which he continues to look unto Jesus, the author and finisher of his faith. Just as the little wheat plant, when it once gets above the ground, into the sunlight, can begin to manufacture starch from the substances it finds in the surrounding air and soil; so the soul, when it has begun to look up to the Sun of righteousness, can begin to take of the elements in the spiritual atmosphere and soil where it exists, and transform them into spiritual character. And as the trees spread out their foliage, to be seen and admired by the world, so this soul, planted as a tree of righteousness by the rivers of water, will spread out its character to the glory of God and the good of man.

LESSON FROM THE GRAIN THAT WAS PLANTED TOO DEEP.

You have no doubt often heard of persons who were “buried in their business,” “buried with home cares,” etc., etc. God has put into the grain of wheat enough starch and life to enable the little sprout to get up into the sunlight, if it is not buried too deep. And so, in every soul, he has put enough of the “true light” to enable that soul to get up into the light of life, provided that soul does not persist in burying itself beneath those things that pertain to self and the world. But if, by deception or indifference, we allow the enemy to bury us deeply beneath the soil of selfishness and worldly pleasure, sooner or later we shall exhaust the supply of the “true light” that is within us, which was put there by God to enable us to get out of the darkness of sin into the light of liberty; and thus, like the grain that was planted too deep, the day of our opportunity will be past. “He also that received seed among the thorns is he that heareth the Word; and the care of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, choke the word, and he becometh unfruitful.” Matt. 13: 22.

LESSONS FROM THE SPROUT THAT RAISES A CLOD.

There is a great spiritual lesson in that wonderful phenomenon of a little sprout raising a clod of earth half a million times its own weight. No doubt many persons remember that when they were first converted, God did some wonderful things for them, which they have not since had repeated in their experience. Many of these wonderful experiences occur but once, and so, like David, these persons may long for the time when they had “songs in the night.” When the new life of the soul first peeps up through the clods of sin and selfishness, and gets its first glimpse of the sunlight of heaven,—of Christ’s saving grace,—an experience then comes to the soul that never again comes in just the same way. We may long for it, and mourn for it, but none of these things will bring it. The experience of lifting the first clods of sin and bondage is an experience that comes but once. The experience that afterward comes to the child of God is that of progressive and incessant growth, day by day absorbing the rays of light as they shine upon him from the Sun of righteousness.

The plant, after this remarkable feat of clod-lifting, must grow along quietly day by day without any ado. God works a miracle in the saving of the soul, as in the sprouting of the grain; in leading the soul out of darkness into the light, as in enabling the tender sprout to push the heavy clods aside; but after the first remarkable experience the soul, like the plant, must send its roots down deep, and thus prepare for the winds of temptation and the storms of adversity which the future will bring.

Again: there are those who are living conscientious lives, who are unable to look back to any special phenomenon or experience connected with their conversion, or their entrance into the service of God. Perhaps they were brought up Christians, and hardly know just how or when they were converted. The absence of an unusual experience should not be a source of discouragement to any one; for do not many plants find their way up into the sunlight without forcing aside great clods? Many souls have not been bound by evil habits, nor been subject to practices that have necessitated the working of a remarkable outward miracle, as it were, to free them from the bondage of habit or vice. Their experience was one of gradual growth. So let not those in whose lives these great experiences have failed to appear, become discouraged, and doubt their conversion or their acceptance with God. It was their blessed privilege to come up into the rays of the Sun of righteousness through a soil that had been well raked and harrowed,—a soil that was comparatively free from the clods and obstructions of hereditary and cultivated sinful tendencies.

“I AM THE VINE, YE ARE THE BRANCHES.”

Christ said: “I am the vine, ye are the branches.” John 15: 5. He is the connection between the divine roots and the human branches. Christ Jesus is both God and man. He is the channel through which things divine may be communicated to, and worked out in, human character. It is through Christ that we may take the sinless things of heaven, and, like the spreading foliage of the tree, live them out before the fallen world. Through Christ the riches of God deposited in the roots are so transformed that they can be utilized by the branches. The Lord intends that Christians shall be as the “cedars of Lebanon”—evergreens. He compares the believer to a tree whose leaves do not wither. He is to yield fruit of Christian character and conduct, all the time. The spiritual sap must be continually ascending in the tree of Christian experience. Day and night, in sunshine and darkness, this living connection and vital circulation between the vine, the branches, and the roots, must be maintained.

At any time when a soul in need shall come to the Christian, as the farmer does to the maple tree in the spring-time, to tap him, as it were, that hungry, thirsty soul must not be disappointed. He must be able to obtain the water of life, with which to feed and satisfy his soul. It is written of the Christian that “out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.” He should be like an overflowing well,—one that never ceases to give forth the water of life. Ps. 23: 5. Christ imparts to him the divine sweets,—the sap of heaven,—and in his character he is constantly to maintain its circulation, that all who come to him may “taste and see that the Lord is good.” Unless he has in him the sap that comes moment by moment from the roots deep down by the well of salvation on the inner side of the wall (Gen. 49: 22), it is of little use to try to help his fellow men or to endeavor to satisfy the hungry, thirsty souls of those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death.