WINTER by J. Clarke

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jan 28, 1862

WINTER

By J. Clarke

Is a very unpleasant season to those who are unprepared for its severe storms and frosts; but for those who are ready, it is rendered quite tolerable, and often pleasant.

Those farmers who house carefully their stock, can sit down comfortably at night by the blazing fire, and read, or sing, or talk, or meditate, or pray. They can sleep quietly upon their beds, and no sharp twinges of conscience to disturb their slumbers on account of their cruelty to the poor dumb brutes who are not able to state their wrongs to the grand jury. But those farmers whose good oxen and cows (that have served them so truly and uncomplainingly) are now shivering in the fence-corners, while old Boreas drives the sleet and snow into every corner, leaving them no place for repose; I say such farmers dread the winter, for it brings with it a troubled conscience.

"The merciful man is merciful to his beast," and his conscience must indeed be hardened who can view unmoved the shivering beasts, who look to their owner as the last resource for redress, and as such unfortunate brutes as find no protection in their owner from wintry weather, yield to disease, and lie down never to rise, I should think the losing party would think of something else but his loss.

The Lord loved king Josiah because his heart was tender, and no doubt if mankind were tender-hearted, their brutes would feel it too, and God, who cares for the sparrows, notices the sufferings of larger animals. Better sell one-third of your stock to house the two-thirds, than to let them go unhoused this cold weather, even on account of profit and loss in your own pocket.

But there is a more serious light in which to view this matter. God is displeased with all unnecessary neglect of what is entrusted to our care. If we are not faithful over the unrighteous mammon, how can we expected to be entrusted with the true riches?

A. is not able to build a barn to shelter his small stock, so he sets some posts in the ground, and nails up second quality of boards on the sides, and throws poles across the top, and then covers the top with prairie hay, or refuse straw, or the like, and thus his cattle are comfortably and cheaply housed.

We need not plead poverty. He who is able to keep a cow, or a horse, or a yoke of oxen, or more, is ordinarily able to house them in some way or other from the inclemency of winter. What is wanting, is the will to do so. People think because cattle can survive the winter, they must still continue to do so; but I ask if a man were tested as to what he could possibly endure, and should be compelled to pass the same trials always, would not this be hard?

A man well fed is able to endure cold that would congeal the blood of an ox or horse. Is this a sufficient reason for compelling him to do so against his will? Consider what men endure who visit the frozen north. They endure it voluntarily, but who would dare compel man to do this? But the poor brutes must stand out in freezing rains, and chilling winds, because they can possibly live through it. O, I am glad that we are at the mercy of God and not in the hands of man. God is very pitiful and of tender mercy. J. CLARKE.