Credo

We are the farmers. We stand on the land—and from it we view and judge the world. The soil about our feet becomes a part of us. We were born on it, and almost, it seems to us, from it, for what it is enters into us.

Its steadiness, its dependability, enter into our souls and cause us to expect the same from the world. Its obedience to the laws of growth, moisture, sun, maturity, harvest—this also becomes a part of us. Its readiness to receive and to give, to deal fairly with those who till it—this is another gift of the good earth to us. 448 And these which we have learned from the soil, we expect from the world.

When the world we live in proves undependable; when it follows the laws of chance instead of growth; when it tricks us instead of giving us an honest return for our labor—then we are confused, suspicious, desperate. We trust our native soil and we tend to distrust all else. We—and you—will wreck our world in strife, or we will together rebuild it in fairer and more Christian forms. We are the farmers.