The Long Furrow

have you ever felt cool damp earth fresh turn beneath your bare feet ever tagged along behind the plow man as he steered his plow share through the waiting fields on a bright spring morning and tuned your ear to the lil to the Meadowlark tossed heavenward in a world full of promise it's a grand world for a lad but for the Dirt Farmer who fights his Flynn t44 livelihood well sometimes the lilt of Meadowlark is lost in thoughts of how to make ends meet and the furrow of earth stretches on forever this was the world of Fred Ross my father yeah be excused now did you finish Dini yes I finished bad manners Danny to have your elbows on the table hello is this turnips better eat them up boy lots of energy and vitamins in turnips why the Pioneers grew up on turnips well they're delicious because strong Henry and Lucy and William are they've eaten thousands of them enjoyed every mouthful too isn't that right well I'll eat them anyway they're good for you did you get the dry beans for school - I get Danny not yet mother there's man Chang I'm supposed to bring drive thanks booth now have you got any dry beans we've got plenty of them but whatever do you want with beans in school I don't know spare me nugget yes this was the world of Fred Ross my father long hours of work cornmeal mush breakfasts bread without butter turnips and six hungry mouths to feed not counting his and my mother's it was a world of made-over hand-me-downs of counting pennies and waste not want not but there was no scrimping when it came to paying tithe and tuition other things we might do without but my parents knew the instruction of the Lord regarding Christian education they had already seen its principles at work moulding character in their older children they were determined to provide all of us with this same strong foundation for living one thing though everyone lent a hand on cold winter evenings we gathered around the big kitchen table and picked nut meats which brought ten cents a pound the local cannery provided a source of revenue in season not only from the vegetables we sold to it but also from whatever the older children could earn by working there and of course there were endless farm chores with which we all helped the chickens were Henry's responsibilities we were never too sure the chickens were really an asset or a liability in our financial structure but anyway there were chickens if many hands make light work work should have been light indeed at our house but somehow it was always there at least for mother and dad for us there was church school a happy wonderful world of exploration and comradeship our school was small to be sure and certainly not elegantly appointed but the teachers here was the secret here were men and women scholars who had sat at the feet of the master teacher these are such lovely spring days that I thought you might like to sing to open school this morning he lived number 74 in our song [Music] Edna would you like to lead us in prayer this morning Father in Heaven we thank thee for this beautiful day and for bringing us safely back to school help us to be good and to study our lesson so that we can grow up and be missionaries and ethical or China bless our school our teachers our mothers and fathers sisters and brothers and please give our days good crop this year in Jesus name Amen you'll remember that yesterday we read how david livingstone learn to be a doctor and left his Helmand England to become a missionary in South Africa he founded a mission station at kuramon in virtue AnnaLynne today we shall go with him on a safari to discover the Zambezi River Livingstone knew that a long trust May before him but he had chosen his route carefully morning worship this was the part of school we children loved most at least I did Bible stories mission stories stories of great adventure for God sitting there in that little schoolhouse we could imagine ourselves in all the strange far-off places of Earth Livingstone and Africa had a special fascination for me Danny Danny I asked whether you brought the dried beans we talked about yesterday yes was born here right here in my pocket oh good well when you bring them up here and let's see how many you have can you count before it one two three four five stick eight nine ten twelve thirteen Danny do you have something in your mouth 14 well I'll have a head start on the others one good Sylvia would you like to come up and divide the beans into three equal parts they don't come out a but how many do you have left over to counting the weapons all right now Danny you may take the two extra beans and put them in the waste basket now we'll take two more glasses and we'll put four of the beans into each of these glasses along with this wet flower and we'll watch and see what happens as the warmth and moisture penetrates the germ or heart of the bean will see one of God's miracles happening before our eyes all right children at recess time you may lay outside to work but let's all remember to come back in promptly at the close of reason even though it is such a lovely day five free would you like to get your volleyball you're dismissed hey Danny how about a game of catch if you guys roll it right I woulda caught it I threw it plate you did that alone you'd know I'm a good can't hear oh just a minute fellas there's no reason to argue about this after all this is supposed to be a game not a battlefield now we all know the Ted's one of our best catchers and Jack's a first-class pitcher but no one can catch all the balls all the time and neither can a pitcher pitch to the spotty shoot every time but the important thing is that each one does is best at whatever he undertakes and let me add that games are for fun so come on let's have some [Music] I don't know maybe they'll let him go I don't go uh-uh well what are you gonna do anything maybe I can put him in my lunch bed Feeny what's what are you doing a new thing I started praying mantis thing what's all this about Danny here's a book what the praying mantis he's perfectly harmless Silvia bring him up in the front daddy so we can all see he found a bug that's right and for that reason he's very helpful to him does anyone know why he's called a praying mantis Edna he is called a praying mantis because he holds his front legs together that's right it looks as if he's praying doesn't it but he really isn't he spends most of his time like this waiting patiently for other insects to come within reach and when one does quick as a flash he thrusts out his front leg grabs the insect and eats it funny isn't really nice as good as they look no you might say he's a little like a hypocrite do you know what a hypocrite in a hypocrite if someone who pretends to be something he is that's right a hypocrite often looks like a Christian and acts like one even praying but inwardly he isn't he just hurts and destroys others with his criticism and fault-finding and other sin we can learn many things from these little creatures God has made Danny would you and some of the other boys make a place for him to stay where we can watch him [Music] my youthful impulses did not always turn out so well sometimes a boyish prank spelled trouble I'll never forget one day when I was asked to remain after school the time dragged on the schoolroom was so quiet even the ticking of the clock seemed to say you're bad you're bad you're bad [Music] well Danny have you had time enough to think about how a boy should behave in school yes miss mine you're a good boy Danny and you have many fine qualities but sometimes you're a little thoughtless you do things without thinking about what might happen as a result there was not a boy like you once long ago a grown-up boy named Peter remember Peter Jesus disciple he often did things without thinking on the impulse of the moment but Peter loved Jesus I'm sure you enough Jesus too don't you Peter became a great man a great apostle and preacher for Jesus after he learned to think before he asked it a spoke now you too will be a worker for Jesus someday but right now let's try to do a little more thinking shall we alright I'm not going to send a note home with you today cuz I think you've learned your lesson won't you show me that you have yes who's mine you can count on it good and I kept my promise to the long silent hour and those few quiet kind words at the end worked wonders oh I had occasional lapses but I really did try after that by the time I was 12 I was an avid reader the little library at school was a favorite spot I literally devoured the books there the history of the Crimean War and the life of Napoleon held a strong appeal for me I was beginning to think of what I would be when I grew up there were times when my ambition to be a missionary wavered perhaps I would be a great general like Napoleon [Music] like Napoleon how could mr. Brown know he had just been saluted by Napoleon home and school nights were always favourites for us it was then that we scholars got to show what we could do and some of the projects we had been working on I remember how proud I was of the model of the tabernacle we had made in connection with our eighth grade Bible class we learned a lot more than Bible while we were constructing that amazing how all the important things in life tie in so closely with the Bible using the Egyptian cubit we figure the tabernacle to be about 51 feet 7 inches long by 17 feet 2 inches wide it was as high as it was why strange they'd use a tent with a flat roof what happened with the water or the grain well some of us wondered about that too mr. Braun had us look up facts about Palestine and its climate its architecture at that time and so forth flat roofs were the custom there and the wilderness where the Israelites were wandering was very dry it still is today hot desert like country so they didn't have much of a problem with what to do with the water I guess they were glad and ever they could find anything and over here on my left some of the students are working on a demonstration of the chemical reaction of hydrochloric acid [Music] our church school teachers often visited in the homes of their pupils and if we have been on good behavior at school it was a high occasion sometimes the teachers talked about the days they had spent in college or boarding Academy and we children could scarcely wait for the time to come when we would be old enough to go away to college we knew it would mean lots of hard work for wherever would the money come from but mr. and mrs. Braun told what fun it was really working to help meet expenses at school they told us two of classmates who were now in mission fields and somehow the little general in the three-cornered hat grew smaller and smaller his bugle call barely audible it was not strange then during week of prayer in school that I was one of the very first to respond to an invitation to be baptized and now the question comes to you and me what will we do with Jesus how will we live our lives so dearly bought on Calvary each one must make the decision for himself what is your response where were you stand I stand with Jesus sir god bless you Danny are there others ah Herald good carry fine will not the summer I was sixteen was one to go down in the history of our town four of us boys from the Academy formed a quartet [Music] now that's a real song what do you say we do it again oh let's try another one what about this one on page 24 say you know what we ought to do something with our quartet what do you mean do something we are I mean really do something the other day I read in the review and Herald about some boys that got together and held some public meetings up in Maine I think it was public meeting you mean preaching and everything well why not we've got a good quartet people might come out to hear us and it would be just unusual enough to have boy preachers that they might come out for that too No maybe so but when Hoover Salou the preaching I nominate you all right I'll do some of the preaching if you'll do some to our Bible classes have given us plenty sermon material and pastor Thompson would probably help us now if you want to place the hold meaning we managed to survive the first few weeks when stage fright was a rather common ailment among us our teachers and pastor Thompson were really the ones who made those sermons hang together the meetings lasted for five or six months with attendance ranging from 80 to 120 what a thrill it was to see people take their stand for Christ I knew now that I wanted to spend my life carrying the gospel to distant lands I could scarcely wait to get to college college somehow there was something very familiar about this must I forever be tied to the plough even at college would my feet be forever heavy with the soil of the furrow was a Christian education worth all this sweat and back-breaking labor maybe I wouldn't be a missionary after all it would be simpler just to join the army or maybe the Air Force ah there was adventure with thoughts like this thundering in my head I could hardly be expected to get much out of Bible doctrines class but somehow a little of the Thunder faded under professor Benton's quiet discussion as he spoke of the Passover the shed blood of Christ the subject became a very personal one he made me feel that the blood was being applied to the doorposts of my own heart some of the tempest still raging within must have been evident in my letters home my parents sense the need of a lad grown weary of much work knowing no other way to help me they laid the matter before our Heavenly Father I think the thunder of plains faded completely not long after that as Professor Benton related his mission experiences in Tanganyika at a meeting of the foreign mission band with him I tasted the joy of seeing ignorance and superstition erased by the knowledge of salvation now I knew what was mud and aching muscles and pre-dawn risings and endless hours of study compared to the prize of this high calling my thoughts weren't always on lessons I've been trying to get to see all week well if you have any other plans for Saturday night I'd like very much to take you to the program I hear it's gonna be good oh that's the college band oh yes I'd love to hear it great uh man i coffee around 7:30 that'll be fine where you headed for now the Science Building oh no I I have a free period now I have to get over to the library oh well fine what will you that was the beginning of some wonderful days I began to include Doris in my dreams of the future it wasn't all easy dreaming though I could never quite be sure of what Doris had in her future plans I guess I made the usual number of graceless blunders and these seemed to pull us farther apart instead of our growing closer together as I'd hoped until one day toward the close of school in desperation I took the plunge Doris for almost ever since I can remember I've dreamed of being a missionary wait it started way back in church school when the teachers used to read to us in our morning worship about missionaries and well at first it was the adventure of the thing that appealed to me okay I I guess it still does but well I've grown up a little bit here at collagen and professor Benton and professor blue while they've given me a real vision and um more than anything else I want to be a minister and God willing take this precious message to the lands where with the name of Jesus so little known Danny I think that's wonderful I had no idea you had such serious thoughts well I'm not through yet Doris when I go to Africa or wherever they may call me I want you with me I want you with me always one week after graduation Doris and I were married in my pocket besides the marriage license was something else very precious of called a mission service later back at the old homestead Doris and I prepared to set out on our great adventure for God Oh Danny we're going to all miss you so no mother haven't you become used to my being away from home after all I've been away at school for a good many years yes but you'll be way over there across the ocean come now mother we wouldn't have it any other way wouldn't we no and Doris here will take just as good care of it as you did yes I expect she will Oh Doris you want to be sure to feed Danny cornmeal mush for breakfast cook him a good big dish of turnips now there oh I will I will lots of turnips you can when Danny was a little boy he just mmm sauces of Wilbur is getting impatient well thank you very much to both of you for everything and God bless you I know you'll be watching over you always good bye mother good bye dad [Music] I think I'll go down to the bar for a bit mother don't be too long I might need some help with the dishes tonight [Music] it's been a long / Oh God thank you for helping us to plow it straight [Music]