GROWING OF A SOUL by Joaquin Miller

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Sep 10, 1894

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 20, No. 44.

GROWING OF A SOUL.

By Joaquin Miller

Hear ye this parable: A man Did plant a garden. Vine and tree Alike, in course of time, began To put forth fair and pleasantly. The rains of heaven, the persuading sun, Came down alike on each and every one.

Yet some trees willful grew, and some Strong vines grew gaily in the sun, With gaudy leaves, that ever come To naught. And yet each flaunting one Did flourish on and triumphantly grow Like sunset clouds in all their moving show.

But lo! the harvest found them not; The soul had perished from them. Mold And muck and leaf lay there to rot, And furnish nourishment untold To patient tree and lowly creeping vine That grew as grew the husbandman's design.

Hear then this lesson, hear and heed: I say that chaff shall perish; say Man's soul is like unto a seed, To grow into the judgment day. It grows and grows if he will have it grow; It perishes if he must have it so. —Joaquin Miller.