Pyramids.
Egyptian Mummies.
Now, there is another interesting feature of these seeds to which I want to call your attention. And that is that the life in the seed may continue for a very long time, even hundreds of years. Over in Egypt, centuries ago, they built large pyramids, and when a king died, instead of burying his body in the ground, they embalmed it with spices and dried it, so that it would not decay. Then they wrapped it up in cloths, and with these cloths and bandages they sometimes wrapped wheat or some other kind of grain. Some of these mummies, for so they are called, which have been buried possibly twenty-five hundred years, have been found; and when the wheat has been taken out of the hands of these mummies and planted in the ground, under favorable conditions, it has grown just the same as the wheat which was harvested from the fields only last summer. The life which was in the seed had not been destroyed by the many hundreds of years which have passed since it was placed in the hand of the mummy.
Some years ago there was a very interesting case of this kind in England. At Dorchester they were digging down some thirty feet below the surface, and at that depth they came upon the remains of the body of a man, with which there had been buried some coins. By the date upon the coins, they knew that this body had been buried at least seventeen hundred years. In the stomach was found quite a large quantity of raspberry seeds. The man had doubtless eaten a large number of raspberries, and then might have been accidentally killed very soon afterward, so that the seeds were not injured by the gastric juices of the stomach. These seeds were taken to the Horticultural Garden, and there they were planted. What do you think! After seventeen hundred years and more, these seeds grew, and in a short time there was an abundant fruitage of raspberries, just the same as though the seeds had been gathered from raspberries which grew only the year before. Although hidden and seemingly dead, yet these seeds retained their life for seventeen hundred years or more.
In this same way there is a deathless power in the words which we speak, even though they are spoken hastily and without thought upon our part. Our words have in them the element of a life which is well-nigh endless. You may yourself remember some unkind words which were spoken to you months and months ago. The boy or girl who spoke them may have forgotten all about them, but you still remember them, and they cause you pain every time you think of them. Or it may be that some kind person has spoken tenderly and affectionately to you. The person himself may have been so accustomed to speaking kindly that he forgot entirely what he had said, but his kind words still live in your memory. There is a beautiful hymn written some years ago, which begins: "Kind words can never die."
About fifty years ago there were some boys in a school yard playing marbles. Two other boys were playing tag. One of the boys who were playing tag chanced to run across the ring in which the boys were playing marbles. One of these boys was accustomed to speaking ugly words and doing very hasty and cruel things. He sprang to his feet and kicked the boy who had run across the ring, wounding him in the right knee. The injury was of such a nature that the bones of that leg below the knee never grew any more, and as a result, for over forty years that boy has had to walk on crutches. You see how permanent the result of this injury has been; and the results of unkind words may be just as injurious and no less permanent than the unreasonable and wicked thing which this boy did in his anger.
You may sometimes be discouraged because the kind words which you speak and the kind deeds which you do seem to fail of a good result. But you can be assured that even though you grow to old age and your body were to be laid away in the grave, yet sometime, in the lives of those who come after you, the good you have done will surely bear its fruitage of blessing.
Questions.—Are there many different kinds of seeds? Do apple trees ever grow from peach seeds? Do good thoughts grow from bad words, or bad thoughts from good words? Do seeds have a principle of life in them? Do words and thoughts have a principle of life? How many centuries have seeds been known to retain their life? Have the teachings of the Bible retained their life for many hundreds of years? Into what do good thoughts turn? (Acts). Into what do good acts turn? (Character). Can any boy or girl afford to use their time in reading worthless books or papers? Do words and deeds have the element of unending life in them? Is it a dangerous thing to get angry? What did one of the boys who were playing marbles do to the boy who ran across the ring? As the result, how many years has the injured boy walked with crutches? Will the good that we do be as permanent as the evil that we might do?