PATIENCE OF THE FARMER

Press, Volume LXXI, Issue 21437, 1 April 1935, Page 10

PATIENCE OF THE FARMER

❖ A VIRTUE MISUNDERSTOOD SIS KM ON BY UEV. J. LAW SON ROBINSON ''lf there is one calling that depends more than another for its success on industry, that calling is farming," declared the Rev. J. Lawson Robinson in a sermon on the patience of the farmer at a harvest thanksgiving service at St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church yesterday morning. "I know you often meet the townsman who feels that if he could only get into the country and farm the land he would be content. For some reason or other, which is not easily to be understood, the idea has 'laid hold of some minds that farming is a very comfortable occupation. A few weeks' hard work in the spring when the land is prepared for the seed, and a few more weeks in the autumn when the harvest is reaped and garnered, and the rest of the year makes no heavy demands on the farmer. A Curious Idea "It is curious that such an idea should have come about, for it is about as far from the truth as anything can well be. But it is a common experience of many of us to imagine that we could do better in some other calling than the one we have chosen, and if the townsman thinks he would make a better farmer than he does a clerk or artisan, the farm: r is equally assured he would be nu:rh happier in the town. "Yet there is no calling that depends more for success on industry than farming. When the author of the Book of Proverbs wanted to show how idleness brings disaster he pointed to a lazy farmer—for the results of slothfulness are seen more clearly at an idle man's farm than in anything else. "There are many things in our lives which if not done to-day may be done to-morrow, and no great harm ensue. .There are some callings where slothfulness will not be quickly found out, but farming is not one of them. And if the farmer must have patience, it must be an active patience. He rises with the sun, and works until the daylight is gone. Fences have to be repaired, weeds destroyed—there are a thousand and one jobs to keep the farmer always busy.

A Hopeful Patience "The farmer's patience is a hopeful patience. Some will smile at that. We have often heard it said the farmer is ne.ver happy unless he is grumbling. Now it is the weather, now it is the prices, now it is tinkering with the clock in what we call daylight saving. "And yet, perhaps, our surprise should be that they grumble so little. They seem to go on hoping against hope. In spite of long periods of drought when some of their crops are languishing for want of rain; in spite of long spells of wet weather, when sunshine would mean everything to them; in spite of heavy storms that beat down the corn just as it has come to perfection; in spite of all this they go on hoping, and year after year give themselves to the same ventures, knowing well that the same anxieties are virtually certain to be awaiting them. Trust and Endurance "And besides being an active patience, and a hopeful patience, the farmer's patience is trustful. If we tried to think of a man v/ho best exemplified patience, it is probable we would choose one whose work took him years to accomplish—u sculptor, it may be, working for years on a masterpiece, or an ivory carver spending a good part of his life in turning out one elaborate specimen of his art. The difference between the patience of the sculptor and the farmer is that the sculptor relies solely on his own industry, while the farmer has to add to his industry trust in the goodness and mercy of God. "And last of all, the farmer's patience is enduring. It holds out and it holds on through all labours, experiences, disasters and delays until at last the harvest comes to reward his activity, to fulfil his hope, and to justify his trust."