2 Timothy 2:6

The husbandman that laboureth This third illustration is well known from St Paul's use, 1 Corinthians 3:6-9, where the substantive corresponding to -farmer" or -husbandman" occurs. -Ye are God's husbandry"; lit., -God's farmed, tilled, land." The stress of meaning lies on the participle -that laboureth" and we must give the old full sense to the English word; as the Vulgate putting the participle in the emphatic first place in the sentence -laborantem agricolam oportet primum de fructibus percipere." See the bearing of the same word, 1 Timothy 4:10, and especially 1 Timothy 5:17 where see note. It is true, as the Wise man says, -the profit of the earth is for all," Ecclesiastes 5:9, and the laziest vagabond can claim from the Poor-law his -right to live." But the husbandman who has -toiled with honest sweat," putting sinews, brains, and conscience into his work, must be the first to partake of the fruits, as the R.V. rightly renders, more clearly shewing the point. If the Christian knight wishes for any prize worth having, the farmer's, as well as the athlete's and the soldier's life, will say -no pains no gains":

-For more of wisdom, health, or wealth,

We'll trust and labour on;

They come to neither life by stealth,

No cross no crown."