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THE SLUGGARD'S FARM, 1

THE BROKEN FENCE, 24

FROST AND THAW, 39

THE CORN OF WHEAT DYING TO BRING FORTH FRUIT, 56

THE PLOUGHMAN, 71

PLOUGHING THE ROCK, 88

THE PARABLE OF THE SOWER, 103

THE PRINCIPAL WHEAT, 118

SPRING IN THE HEART, 132

FARM LABORERS, 149

WHAT THE FARM LABORERS CAN DO, AND WHAT THEY CANNOT DO, 164

THE SHEEP BEFORE THE SHEARERS, 181

IN THE HAY-FIELD, 196

THE JOY OF HARVEST, 211

SPIRITUAL GLEANING, 226

MEAL-TIME IN THE CORNFIELDS, 241

THE LOADED WAGON, 258

THRESHING, 275

WHEAT IN THE BARN, 290

TALKS TO FARMERS.

THE SLUGGARD'S FARM.

"I went by the field of the slothful, and by the vineyard of the man void of understanding; And, lo, it was all grown over with thorns, and nettles had covered the face thereof, and the stone wall thereof was broken down. Then I saw, and considered it well: I looked upon it, and received instruction."--PROVERBS 24:30-32.

No doubt Solomon was sometimes glad to lay aside the robes of state, escape from the forms of court, and go through the country unknown. On one occasion, when he was doing so, he looked over the broken wall of a little estate which belonged to a farmer of his country. This estate consisted of a piece of ploughed land and a vineyard. One glance showed him that it was owned by a sluggard, who neglected it, for the weeds had grown right plentifully and covered all the face of the ground. From this Solomon gathered instruction. Men generally learn wisdom if they have wisdom. The artist's eye sees the beauty of the landscape because he has beauty in his mind. "To him that hath shall be given," and he shall have abundance, for he shall reap a harvest even from the field that is covered with thorns and nettles. There is a great difference between one man and another in the use of the mind's eye. I have a book entitled, "The Harvest of a Quiet Eye," and a good book it is: the harvest of a quiet eye can be gathered from a sluggard's land as well as from a well-managed farm. When we were boys we were taught a little poem, called, "Eyes and no Eyes," and there was much of truth in it, for some people have eyes and see not, which is much the same as having no eyes; while others have quick eyes for spying out instruction. Some look only at the surface, while others see not only the outside shell but the living kernel of truth which is hidden in all outward things.

First, think of SOLOMON'S DESCRIPTION OF A SLOTHFUL MAN. Solomon was a man whom none of us would contradict, for he knew as much as all of us put together; and besides that, he was under divine inspiration when he wrote this Book of Proverbs. Solomon says, a sluggard is "a man void of understanding." The slothful does not think so; he puts his hands in his pockets, and you would think from his important air that he had all the Bank of England at his disposal. You can see that he is a very wise man in his own esteem, for he gives himself airs which are meant to impress you with a sense of his superior abilities. How he has come by his wisdom it would be hard to say. He has never taken the trouble to think, and yet I dare not say that he jumps at his conclusions, because he never does such a thing as jump, he lies down and rolls into a conclusion. Yet he knows everything, and has settled all points: meditation is too hard work for him, and learning he never could endure; but to be clever by nature is his delight. He does not want to know more than he knows, for he knows enough already, and yet he knows nothing. The proverb is not complimentary to him, but I am certain that Solomon was right when he called him "a man void of understanding." Solomon was rather rude according to the dainty manners of the present times, because this gentleman had a field and a vineyard, and as Poor Richard saith, "When I have a horse and a cow every man biddeth me good morrow." How can a man be void of understanding who has a field and a vineyard? Is it not generally understood that you must measure a man's understanding by the amount of his ready cash? At all events you shall soon be flattered for your attainments if you have attained unto wealth. Such is the way of the world, but such is not the way of Scripture. Whether he has a field and a vineyard or not, says Solomon, if he is a sluggard he is a fool, or if you would like to see his name written out a little larger, he is a man empty of understanding. Not only does he not understand anything, but he has no understanding to understand with. He is empty-headed if he is a sluggard. He may be called a gentleman, he may be a landed proprietor, he may have a vineyard and a field; but he is none the better for what he has: nay, he is so much the worse, because he is a man void of understanding, and is therefore unable to make use of his property.

I am glad to be told by Solomon so plainly that a slothful man is void of understanding, for it is useful information. I have met with persons who thought they perfectly understood the doctrines of grace, who could accurately set forth the election of the saints, the predestination of God, the firmness of the divine decree, the necessity of the Spirit's work, and all the glorious doctrines of grace which build up the fabric of our faith; but these gentlemen have inferred from these doctrines that they have to do nothing, and thus they have become sluggards. Do-nothingism is their creed. They will not even urge other people to labor for the Lord, because, say they, "God will do his own work. Salvation is all of grace!" The notion of these sluggards is that a man is to wait, and do nothing; he is to sit still, and let the grass grow up to his ankles in the hope of heavenly help. To arouse himself would be an interference with the eternal purpose, which he regards as altogether unwarrantable. I have known him look sour, shake his aged head, and say hard things against earnest people who were trying to win souls. I have known him run down young people, and like a great steam ram, sink them to the bottom, by calling them unsound and ignorant. How shall we survive the censures of this dogmatic person? How shall we escape from this very knowing and very captious sluggard? Solomon hastens to the rescue and extinguishes this gentleman by informing us that he is void of understanding. Why, he is the standard of orthodoxy, and he judges everybody! Yet Solomon applies another standard to him, and says he is void of understanding. He may know the doctrine, but he does not understand it; or else he would know that the doctrines of grace lead us to seek the grace of the doctrines; and that when we see God at work we learn that he worketh in us, not to make us go to sleep, but to will and to do of his own good pleasure. God's predestination of a people is his ordaining them unto good works that they may show forth his praise. So, if you or I shall from any doctrines, however true, draw the inference that we are warranted in being idle and indifferent about the things of God, we are void of understanding; we are acting like fools; we are misusing the gospel; we are taking what was meant for meat and turning it into poison. The sluggard, whether he is sluggish about his business or about his soul, is a man void of understanding.

As a rule we may measure a man's understanding by his useful activities; this is what the wise man very plainly tells us. Certain persons call themselves "cultured," and yet they cultivate nothing. Modern thought, as far as I have seen anything of its actual working, is a bottle of smoke, out of which comes nothing solid; yet we know men who can distinguish and divide, debate and discuss, refine and refute, and all the while the hemlock is growing in the furrow, and the plough is rusting. Friend, if your knowledge, if your culture, if your education does not lead you practically to serve God in your day and generation, you have not learned what Solomon calls wisdom, and you are not like the Blessed One, whoit a little some good may result, quite apart from the matter of religious belief.

Some Chinese and Japanese methods of dividing the day and night are indicated in Fig. 1. The old Japanese method divides the day into six hours and the night also into six, each hour averaging twice as long as ours. In some cases they did this by changing the rate of the clock, and in others by letting the clock run uniformly and changing the hour marks on the dial, but this will come later when we reach Japanese clocks.

It is remarkable that at the present time in England the "saving daylight" agitation is virtually an attempt to go back to this discarded system. "John Bull," for a long period the time-keeper of the world with headquarters at Greenwich, and during that time the most pretentious clock-maker, now proposes to move his clocks backward and forward several times a year so as to "fool" his workmen out of their beds in the mornings! Why not commence work a few minutes earlier each fortnight while days are lengthening and the reverse when they are shortening?

This reminds me of a habit which was common in Scotland,--"keeping the clock half an hour forward." In those days work commenced at six o'clock, so the husband left his house at six and after a good walk arrived at the factory at six! Don't you see that if his clock had been set right he would have found it necessary to leave at half past five? But, you say he was simply deceiving himself and acting in an unreasonable manner. Certainly, but the average man is not a reasonable being, and "John Bull" knows this and is trying to fool the average Englishman.

Now, as to the methods of measuring time, we must use circumstantial evidence for the pre-historic period. The rising and the going down of the sun--the lengthening shadows, etc., must come first, and we are on safe ground here, for savages still use primitive methods like setting up a stick and marking its shadow so that a party trailing behind can estimate the distance the leaders are ahead by the changed position of the shadow. Men notice their shortening and lengthening shadows to this day. When the shadow of a man shortens more and more slowly till it appears to be fixed, the observer knows it is noon, and when it shows the least observable lengthening then it is just past noon. Now, it is a remarkable fact that this crude method of determining noon is just the same as "taking the sun" to determine noon at sea. Noon is the time at which the sun reaches his highest point on any given day. At sea this is determined generally by a sextant, which simply measures the angle between the horizon and the sun. The instrument is applied a little before noon and the observer sees the sun creeping upward slower and slower till a little tremor or hesitation appears indicating that the sun has reached his height,--noon. Oh! you wish to know if the observer is likely to make a mistake? Yes, and when accurate local time is important, several officers on a large ship will take the meridian passage at the same time and average their readings, so as to reduce the "personal error." All of which is merely a greater degree of accuracy than that of the man who observes his shadow.

In a restored flower garden, within one of the large houses in the ruins of Pompeii, may be seen a sundial of the Armillary type, presumably in its original position. I could not get close to it, as the restored garden is railed in, but it looks as if the plane of the equator and the position of the earth's axis must have been known to the maker.

Both these dials were in use about the beginning of our era and were covered by the great eruption of Vesuvius in 79 A.D., which destroyed Pompeii and Herculaneum.

Modern sundials differ only in being more accurately made and a few "curiosity" dials added. The necessity for time during the night, as man's life became a little more complicated, necessitated the invention of time machines. The "clepsydra," or water clock, was probably the first. A French writer has dug up some old records putting it back to Hoang-ti 2679 B.C., but it appears to have been certainly in use in China in 1100 B.C., so we will be satisfied with that date. In presenting a subject to the young student it is sometimes advisable to use round numbers to give a simple comprehension and then leave him to find the overlapping of dates and methods as he advances. Keeping this in mind, the following table may be used to give an elementary hint of the three great steps in time measuring:

Shadow time, 2000 to 1000 B. C.

Dials and Water Clocks, 1000 B. C. to 1000 A. D.

Clocks and watches, 1000 to 2000 A. D.

I have pushed the gear wheel clocks and watches forward to 2000 A.D., as they may last to that time, but I have no doubt we will supersede them. At the present time science is just about ready to say that a time measurer consisting of wheels and pinions--a driving power and a regulator in the form of a pendulum or balance, is a clumsy contrivance and that we ought to do better very soon; but more on this hoped-for, fourth method when we reach the consideration of the motion on which we base all our time keeping.

It is remarkable how few are aware that the simplest form of sundial is the best, and that, as a regulator of our present clocks, it is good within one or two minutes. No one need be without a "noon-mark" sundial; that is, every one may have the best of all dials. Take a post or any straight object standing "plumb," or best of all the corner of a building as in Fig. 3. In the case of the post, or tree trunk, a stone may be set in the ground; but for the building a line may often be cut across a flagstone of the footpath. Many methods may be employed to get this noon mark, which is simply a north and south line. Viewing the pole star, using a compass or the old method of finding the time at which the shadow of a pole is shortest. But the best practical way in this day is to use a watch set to local time and make the mark at 12 o'clock.

On four days of the year the sun is right and your mark may be set at 12 on these days, but you may use an almanac and look in the column marked "mean time at noon" or "sun on meridian." For example, suppose on the bright day when you are ready to place your noon mark you read in this column 11:50, then when your watch shows 11:50 make your noon mark to the shadow and it will be right for all time to come. Owing to the fact that there are not an even number of days in a year, it follows that on any given yearly date at noon the earth is not at the same place in its elliptical orbit and the correction of this by the leap years causes the equation table to vary in periods of four years. The centennial leap years cause another variation of 400 years, etc., but these variations are less than the error in reading a dial.

The reason that the table given here is convenient for setting clocks to mean time is that a minute is as close as a dial can be read, but if you wish for greater accuracy, then the almanac, which gives the "equation of time" to a second for each day, will be better. The reason that these noon-mark dials are better than ordinary commercial dials is that they are larger, and still further, noon is the only time that any dial is accurate to sun time. This is because the sun's rays are "refracted" in a variable manner by our atmosphere, but at noon this refraction takes place on a north and south line, and as that is our noon-mark line the dial reads correctly. So, for setting clocks, the corner of your house is far ahead of the most pretentious and expensive dial. In Fig. 4 is shown a modern horizontal dial without the usual confusing "ornamentation," and in Fig. 5 it is shown set up on the latitude of New York City for which it is calculated. This shows clearly why the edge FG of the style which casts the shadow must be parallel to the earth's axis and why a horizontal dial must be made for the latitude of the place where it is set up. Figure 6 is the same dial only the lines are laid out on a square dial plate, and it will give your young scientific readers a hint of how to set up a dial in the garden. In setting up a horizontal dial, consider only noon and set the style, or 12 o'clock line, north and south as described above for noon-mark dials.

A whole issue of Popular Mechanics could be filled on the subject of dials and even then only give a general outline. Astronomy, geography, geometry, mathematics, mechanics, as well as architecture and art, come in to make "dialing" a most charming scientific and intellectual avocation.

During the night and also in cloudy weather the sundial was useless and we read that the priests of the temples and monks of more modern times "went out to observe the stars" to make a guess at the time of night. The most prominent type after the shadow devices was the "water clock" or "clepsydra," but many other methods were used, such as candles, oil lamps and in comparatively late times, the sand glass. The fundamental principle of all water clocks is the escape of water from a vessel through a small hole. It is evident that such a vessel would empty itself each time it is filled in very nearly the same time. The reverse of this has been used as shown in Fig. 7, which represents the "time-boy" of India. He sits in front of a large vessel of water and floats a bronze cup having a small hole in its bottom in this large vessel, and the leakage gradually lowers this cup till it sinks, after which he fishes it up and strikes one or more blows on it as a gong. This he continues and a rude division of time is obtained,--while he keeps awake!

In the "Tower of the Winds" at Athens, Greece , we have a later "weather bureau" station. It is attributed to the astronomer Andronicos, and was built about 50 B. C. It is octagonal in plan and although 27 ft. in diameter and 44 ft. high, it looks like a sentry box when seen from one of the hills of Athens. It had a bronze weather vane and in later times sundials on its eight sides, but all these are gone and the tower itself is only a dilapidated ruin. In making the drawing for this cut, from a photograph of the tower, I have sharpened the weathered and chipped corners of the stones so as to give a view nearly like the structure as originally built; but nothing is added. Under the eaves it has eight allegorical sculptures, representing wind and weather. Artists state that these sculptures are inferior as compared with Grecian art of an older period. But the most interesting part is inside, and here we find curious passages cut in solid stone, and sockets which look as if they had contained metal bearings for moving machinery. Circumstantial evidence is strong that it contained a complicated water clock which could have been kept running with tolerable accuracy by setting it daily to the dials on the outside. Probably during a few days of cloudy weather the clock would "get off quite a little," but business was not pressing in those days. Besides, the timekeeper would swear by his little water wheel, anyway, and feel safe, as there was no higher authority wearing an American watch.

Some very interesting engravings of Japanese clocks and a general explanation of them, as well as a presentation of the Japanese mental attitude towards "hours" and their strange method of numbering them may be expected in the next chapter.

JAPANESE CLOCKS

Chinese and Japanese divisions of the day. -- Hours of varying length. -- Setting clocks to length of daylight. -- Curved line dials. -- Numbering hours backwards and strange reasons for same. -- Daily names for sixty day period. -- Japanese clock movements practically Dutch. -- Japanese astronomical clock. -- Decimal numbers very old Chinese. -- Original vertical dials founded on "bamboo stick" of Chinese clepsydra. -- Mathematics and superstition. -- Mysterious disappearance of hours 1, 2, 3. -- Eastern mental attitude towards time. -- Japanese methods of striking hours and half hours.

In Fig. 13 they are set for short days and long nights. The narrow plates shown in solid black are the half-hour marks. In this type the hand is stationary and always points straight upward. The dial rotates, as per arrow, once in a full day. This style of dial is shown on complete clocks, Fig. 14 being a weight clock and Fig. 15 a spring clock with chain and fusee. The hours are 9 to 4 and the dials rotate to make them read backwards. The six hours of daylight are 6, 5, 4, 9, 8, 7, 6 and the same for night, so these hours average twice as long as ours. Note that nine is mid-day and mid-night, and as these do not change by long and short days they are stationary on the dial, as you can easily see by comparing Figs. 12 and 13, which are the same dial set for different seasons. Between these extremes the dial hours are set as often as the owner wishes; so if he happens to correspond with our "time crank" he will set them often and dispute with his neighbors about the time. Figure 16 shows a clock with the hour numerals on a vertical series of movable plates and it is set for uniform hours when day and night are equal at the equinox. The ornamental pointer is fastened to the weight through the vertical slit, plainly visible in illustration, and indicates the time as it descends. This clock is wound up at sunset, so the six on the top of the dial is sunset the same as the six on the bottom. Figure 17 shows how this type of dial is set for long and short days and explains itself, but will become plainer as we proceed. This dial is virtually a continuation of the old method of marking time by the downward motion of the water in the clepsydras and will be noticed later.

Figure 18 represents a clock which is a work of art and shows great refinement of design in providing for the varying lengths of days. The bar lying across the dial is fastened to the weight through the two slits running the whole length of the dial. On this cross bar is a small pointer, which is movable by the fingers, and may be set to any one of the thirteen vertical lines. The numerous characters on the top space of dial indicate the dates on which the pointer is to be set. This clock is wound up at sunset, and it is easy to see that as the little pointer is set towards the right, the night hours at the top of the dial become shorter and the day hours longer on the lower part. The left edge of the dial gives the hours, reading downwards, and as the pointer touches any one of the curved lines the hour is read at the left-hand end. The curved lines formed of dots are the half-hours. The right-hand edge of the dial has the "twelve horary characters" which will be explained later. For dividing the varying days into six hours' sunshine it would be difficult to think of a more artistic and beautiful invention than this. It is a fine example of great ingenuity and constant trouble to operate a system which is fundamentally wrong according to our method of uniform hours at all seasons. Clocks having these curved lines for the varying lengths of days--and we shall find them on circular dials as we go on--must be made for a certain latitude, since the days vary more and more as you go farther from the equator. This will become plain when you are reminded that a Japanese clock at the equator would not need any adjustment of hour numerals, because the days and nights are equal there all the year. So after such infinite pains in forming these curved lines the clock is only good in the latitude for which it was made and must not be carried north or south! Our clocks are correct from pole to pole, but all clocks must be set to local time if they are carried east or west. As this is a rather fascinating phase of the subject it might be worth pointing out that if you go north till you have the sun up for a month in the middle of summer--and there are people living as far up as that--the Japanese system would become absurd and break down; so there is no danger of any of our polar expeditions carrying Japanese clocks.

Later the hour numerals were made movable on the "bamboo stick." This is virtually a vertical dial with movable hour plates, so their idea of time measuring at that date, was of something moving up or down. This was put on the first clocks by the Japanese; so that the dial of Fig. 16 is substantially the float of the Chinese clepsydra. Further, in this "bamboo stick" of 100 parts, we have our present system of decimal numbers, so we can afford to be a little modest here too. Before leaving Fig. 22 note the band, or annulus, of stars which moves with the month circle. I cannot make these stars match our twelve signs of the Zodiac, but as I have copied them carefully the reader can try and make order out of them. The extreme outer edge of the dial is divided into 360 parts, the tens being emphasized, as in our decimal scales.

Here the large figures are the hours and the small ones the half-hours. Only one bell is used, because there being no one and two among the hours, the half-hours cannot be mistaken. This is not all, for you can tell what half hour it is within two hours. For example, suppose you know approximately that it is somewhere between 9 and 7 and you hear the clock strike 2, then you know it is half past 8. See the large and small figures above. This is far superior to our method of one at each half-hour.

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