'Tis always a mighty
dangerous thing to try to see through another man's eyes, but here are
mine." He pointed below.
"Down there I see religion--Christianity--what you will, but religion;
living, growing, ever-changing, through the season-ages; lying dormant
sometimes, it may be, but always there; yielding to each season the
things that belong to that season; depending for its strength and power
upon the Great Source of all strength and power; depending as truly upon
man's efforts, upon his cultivation and care. There is variety, harmony,
law, freedom. There is God! Something for all--potatoes, peas, turnips,
cabbage. If you do not care for lettuce, perhaps radishes will satisfy.
And there, boy, in the midst of his church, ministering to the needs of
his congregation, and thus ministering to men--is my minister: crippled,
patient Denny, who gives his frail strength to keep the garden growing.
"And look you, boy, at the great rock in the very center of the field!
How often Denny has wished it out of his way! I caught the poor lad
digging, one time, to find, if he could, how deep it is in the earth,
and how big. For three days I watched him. Then he gave it up. It is
beyond his strength and he wisely turned to devote his energies to the
productive soil around it.
"There is a rock in every garden, Dan. Religion grows always about the
unknowable. But Denny's ministry has naught to do with the rock, it has
to do with the growing things about it.
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