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SOWING AND REAPING

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Seventh-Day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Thursday, February 26, 1880

FromThe Advent Review and Sabbath Herald, Vol. 55, No. 9

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SOWING AND REAPING.

By Ellen E. Chase

The farmer sat by the ingle, The work of the day was done; At her little wheel the good wife The silvery flax-threads spun.
The children had gone to dreamland, Molly, and Lu, and Chris; Wee baby Bess in the cradle Had cuddled down with a kiss.
But blustering winds went tramping O’er desolate wastes of snow, For the Ice king ruled relentless, That winter of long ago.
There had fallen through all the region, A blight upon grain that year; Yet the farmer said to the good wife, “There is nothing for us to fear.
“We’ve enough for bread and for planting,— Enough, but nothing to spare: ’Tis a year to be glad and thankful For food and the clothes we wear.”
“What is it I hear?” said the good wife, “That moaning beside the door.” But the good man answered, laughing, “’Tis the rough wind, nothing more.”
“Nay, nay,” said the good wife softly, “Some creature in pain, I wis; May the dear Lord pity the needy Such a terrible night as this!”
As she opened the door, the rude wind Rushed past her with jeers, but, lo! A man, at the very threshold, Lay stiff in the drifting snow.
Oh, deft were the hands and tender That won him to life again; And they knew in the gaunt wayfarer, A neighbor, far down the glen.
“It was never the chill,” he whispered, “Nor wind, with its pitiless roar: ’Twas the hunger-wolf that followed To slay me beside your door.”
Then he told of the wan wife, waiting, The famishing children’s cries: He had begged in vain for a little From the store of the worldly-wise.
  • *
When the first faint dawn from the hill-tops, Looked over the wastes of snow, From the farmer’s fire the neighbor, With blessings, had turned to go.
“May never the wild wolf, Hunger, Come near to your door,” he said; “May the dear Lord, out of his largess, Your table with bounty spread.”
And he bore to the wan wife, waiting, And the children that cried in vain, From the farmer and the good wife, A plenteous gift of grain.
  • *
Again had the farmer gathered His harvest, from hill and plain; And the song of the reaper followed The creaking of bending wain.
“I have never seen,” said the good man, “Such a wonderful yield as this;” And the good wife answered softly, “’Tis the blessing of God, I wis.”
—Ellen E. Chase, in Christian Weekly.