'A GRAIN OF WHEAT.'

Evening Star, Issue 14037, 19 April 1909, Page 8

'A GRAIN OF WHEAT.'

After an absence of five years the Rev. P. W. Fairclough resumed his pastorate in Trinity Church, Stuart street, yesterday. He was greeted by large congregations, and expressed his great pleasure at being in Dunedin again. The church was tastefujly de--corated for Harvest Festival, and in the evening Mr Fairclough took as his ' text John xii., 24, "A. Grain of Wheat" (R.V.). He said:— j I dreamed a dream; it was of a time of disaster and eclipse. The moonbeams were baleful, and these fell to the earth as if from her e\ il star or deadly bacillus or fungus that preyed u'ppn the wheat in held and storehouse. The pest multiplied as the dust;'it'flew on every wind; it penetrated into every crack and cranny. The price of bread rose with a leap, doubling daily till kings fasted. Riots and revolutions swept round the world/ but in vain were barns broken—the j pest had been there. ■ The harvest ! perished utterly, and when the plague j itself died of starvation it was known ; that wheat was no more. Then set in j the endless processions of death— t death, death—million upon million, until the fountains of tears were dry and the sympathetic heart, overstrained, could ache no more. Many laughed instead:—wild, hollow laughter of despair. Philosophers speculated sadly oil the fall of wheat civilisation and the reign of the rice ci\ ilisation. Meantime armies of men pulled down every mill and barn and storehese and sifted the very earth on which they stood for a grain of wheat from which the earth might be planted again with hope. But the pest seemed to have been as all-pervading as darkness or air. Yet, on one thrilling and evermemorable day, the papers of the world announced in naming capitals that one precious corn of wheat had been found in an ant's nest! Then strangers clutched hands and uttered hot, eager words as men do when their nation has won a Waterloo. Nothing was thought about, spoken about, written about, dreamed about, but this one golden grain. ' But, oh ! h»d the ant, as science feared, cunningly sterilised this one and only seed? The fear was agony—a nightmare of the world. Not all the spoils of battle, nor the treasures of kings, nor the wealth and credit of nations counted for aught beside this precious gem. No heir of an ancient royal line, no monarch who had reigned long and well was ever prayed for as was this heir of the royal house of wheat. It was entrusted to an international commission, which resolved to carry it from zone to zone and grow it twice in the year. Hermetrically sealed, packed in a buoyant package, borne upon an unsinkable ship, and guarded by Dreadnoughts, it took its voyage. It was planted, and guarded more carefully than the Crown jewels. A day" of thanksgiving was appointed when it was announced that the tender sprout had appeared above the ground. Daily bulletins reported on it till the harvest of, 100 grains was gathered in. Now arose! international complications. Treaties were proposed, great loans guaranteed, and "mailed fists" were shaken for a few of the precious seed§. A second harvest yielded 10,000 grains, and a third 1,000,000 grains, and a fourth a hundred millions. Then they .began to speak of wheat by ounces and pounds. As seasons passed the price fell to 1,000 guineas an ounce. Then there flew abroad an awful rumor that swelled like the clamor of the sea. At a banquet of multi-millionaires every man had eaten a cake of wheat! No such exhibition of greed, no such sin against mankind, no such appalling sacrilege, had ever been known before. The people rose in their wrath and slew—Septembered—the guilty. They razed that mansion 'to the ground, and built on the site a monument to the thrifty ant. Soon the time came when there was more' than enough ;;eed for a full harvest next season. -Then by solemn enactment was it ordained that the sick might have bread, and others a little j once a month! Then came the Year of Bread—the gladdest time since Paradise was lost. With the boom of the guns and the clamor of shouting that greeted it I awoke. A sweet musical rustling filled all the air—it was the fields of golden wheat waving : n tiie wind Then I thanked God that the nightmare was over—that it, was only a dream—that His precious-boon, all too lightly esteemed, is with us still. The preacher then dwelt upon the miracle of life, the gulf that parted a grain of wheat from a ..pebble, then upon the common elementsr~ ; in plant and animal and their interdependence. Plants must not abide alone or thev will be weeds. Aninials modify plants, plants modify animals. In the case of man, he almost creates plants anew. He gives to them part of himself—his skill and thought and labor. The plant rewards him in return. The original wild wheat plant has recently 'been identified in Palestine, a poor, shortlived grass on the stonv ground of the hillsides. Man had given much to the wheat to make it what it is; wheat had given much in return. No man must live for himself; there is a mutual benefit in all service. The animals that sacrifice most to their offspring are the loblest of God's creatures. The gigantic dragons of the prince were of the fish order. Thev cast their spawn upon the waters • they nursed no young. These selfish monsters have perished. There is a life by death, as m the case of seed Nelson's death did more for the British Navy than his life. Genuine selfsacrince has a great attraction for the heart of man Christ's sufferings and death were the secret of His power. I He who nas suffered casts a SD eIl on! his fellow-man How the throngs hanoon the lips of Lieutenant Shackletonl He has suffered and dared, and served others in his hunger and weariness, finally, Christ is the Sower of the great world harvest, which is a time of separation and sifting.