NOXIOUS PLANTS | AdventAI

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Mar 12, 1902

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 28, No. 11.

NOXIOUS PLANTS.

The Lord never planted a tare. “An enemy hath done this.” In the beginning God made everything good. He has not made any new thing since then. He made man good. All the men, of every grade, or race, or color, have sprung from that one man. The evil that is in them is the result of sin and consequent degeneracy. God never made a bad man, nor a bad anything else. Nor is He in a bad man, or a bad anything else. “What concord hath Christ with Belial?” He is in believers by His Spirit, and in them only. He “worketh in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure” (Phil. 2:13); but if that purpose be rejected, He will not remain.

In the beginning God made good plants and trees, but the curse came upon the earth and everything in it because of sin. So just as man became corrupt and degenerated, so did the plants. God said to Adam, “Cursed is the ground for thy sake.” He withdrew His blessing, and that weakened the fruitfulness of the earth, its power to produce good; then it naturally produced evil plants. Not that God made it do so; for He simply took away in great measure its power to produce good. Man would have to labor and cultivate the earth, and battle with the noxious plants, in order to produce good fruits. Of the earth the Lord said, “Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee.” He did not say, I will make it bring forth thorns and thistles. He simply told Adam that it would do so. And this is what we see everywhere; the thorns and thistles do not have to be planted and cultivated. In the seasons of drought, when the wheat and barley and oats die, various kinds of weeds will grow luxuriantly. And often it will be a new species of weed unknown in that field before.

There were no new animals created after the fall, but the animal creation degenerated. Some became wild and vicious, and by unnatural intermingling there were produced mongrels of ungainly form and repugnant disposition. Other creatures degenerated into loathsome and poisonous reptiles. So also the earth brought forth the thorns and briers, the poisonous plants and noxious weeds. These also mix and cross, producing new species and varieties of troublesome and harmful plants. True, the earth brings forth good classes of fruit in a wild state, but these are improved by cultivation, and the best cultivated fruits deteriorate when cultivation is neglected.

Another thing to be noted is, that the edible grains and fruits never get a hold in the earth and grow luxuriantly and produce bountifully by accident. But the weeds come altogether spontaneously: seldom, if ever, by the design of man, excepting it be intentionally for mischief, as figuratively implied in the parable of the wheat and tares. The migration of weeds is accomplished in various ways,—by winds and waves, by beasts and birds, and by various vehicles. An article in Ainslee’s Magazine illustrates the spread and persistent growth of these results of the curse as follows:—

Railways are highways no less for the progressive weed than for man. Seeds drop from cars and from the clothes of passengers all along the line. The most prolific weeds, particularly the Russian thistle, have been introduced at widely separated points throughout the United States almost simultaneously by this means. They come in straw used for packing, and in grain not perfectly cleaned. The country towns that receive the freight are breeding places, and the men who handle it are carriers. The weeds get everywhere, because the seeds survive long, and are equipped to cling and travel. By centuries of struggle they have acquired the ability to adapt themselves to almost any quality of soil or to any kind of atmosphere. They earn their right to live by the most hardy efforts. No plant of culture could ever endure the knocks which they receive and survive. Heat, cold, drought, frost, soggy rains, unnatural soils, all afflict the traveling seed by turns. Yet it will face the situation, dig deep, reach high, even change its diet and its very nature before it will give up the struggle.

This also illustrates the origin and growth of the weeds of error in the “vineyard of the Lord.” God never planted them. They are simply perversions of truth sown by the enemy of souls, sown to destroy the precious fruit of the Spirit. If allowed to remain, they will grow without special cultivation. If there be merely a neglect to cultivate the ground about the seeds of truth which have been sown there, the noxious weeds of temptation and false doctrine will soon master the situation and take possession of the field. There is need not only for a continual sowing of good seed—morning and evening—but there is need of continual watering and cultivating, and watchfulness against the enemy. “The sluggard will not plow by reason of the cold; therefore shall he beg in harvest, and have nothing.”