Its
organisation, as it is called, or life, ends, and then--what? does
the stone lie for ever useless? No! And there is the great blessed
mystery of how God's Spirit is always bringing life out of death.
When the stone is decayed and crumbled down to dust and clay, it
makes SOIL--this very soil here, which you plough, is the decayed
ruins of ancient hills; the clay which you dig up in the fields was
once part of some slate or granite mountains, which were worn away
by weather and water, that they might become fruitful earth.
Wonderful! but any one who has studied these things can tell you
they are true. Any one who has ever lived in mountainous countries
ought to have seen the thing happen, ought to know that the land in
the mountain valleys is made at first, and kept rich year by year,
by the washings from the hills above; and this is the reason why
land left dry by rivers and by the sea is generally so rich. Then
what becomes of the soil? It begins a new life. The roots of the
plants take it up; the salts which they find in it--the staple, as
we call them--go to make leaves and seed; the very sand has its use,
it feeds the stalks of corn and grass, and makes them stiff. The
corn-stalks would never stand upright if they could not get sand
from the soil.
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