Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1886-05-21
RELIGIOUS FARMING.
Sam Jones on Powerful Conversions
and the Right Kind of Farming.
From tho Baltimore Sun Of I7th.l

ana the RlBht KIND OF FARMING.
From the Baltimore Sun Of Itch
Sam Jones preached at the Frank
lin Street Presbyterian church yes
terday morning. The church was
crowded. Mr.. Jones said:
~ heard n bishop say once that
the only business a Methodist min
lister had on earth was to 90 about
worrying people into Heaven
Don't let it be- necessary for you to
be so worried into Heaven. Don't
think you won't succeed. ! grant
you, some men have chosen the pro.
ieSsion of law, and have utterly
failed there were good reasons why
they didn't succeed. Just so in
preaching, in farming, in business.
But whilst there are thousands who
don't succeed there is no reason
why you shouldn't. You may feel
frightened at first. ] got skeered
thirteen years ago, and | never got
over that skeer, and want to keep
skeered aud never feel safe as long
as I'm outside the gates of Heaven.
Begin with fear and trembling, but
take courage and make mp your
mind, by the grace of God will
succeed
"There'S a great deal ofnonsense
and iOolishncss in the relation Of
Christian experience ; the way some
people do 1t. I've heard men say
when they related their experience
that the trees looked greener and
the little birds warbled sweeter
than before they were converted
Well, if all that's so, | guess I've
never been converted. The trees
don't look 70 me any greener now
than they did thirteen years ago,
and the little birds don't MARBLE
any swectcr. The BOOK don't say
anything abont trees and birds in
connection with powerful CONVEX
sions.' Don't be troubled because
you haven't had some great big ex-
perience like others. | don't ex-
pect to be saved by my experience {;
| amt depending on my experience,
but on my life Of obedience. Let's
do our duty down here and wait
till we get to Heaven before we cX-
pect the enjoyments.'
"Now, IN farming, it don't make
any difference how much you start
with, but how much you end up
with. Laughter. Many a mans
started with millions and wound
up in the poorhouse. Many a
mans got a one.acre lot Of religion,
and oh, my, how he works that
field to perfection. Amt his corn
high, aad, oh, how big those ears
OF corn are. But those ears never
get a chance at completion. The
children all eat 'em while they're
roasting ears, and he don't have a
single hard ear of corn left, and it's
buy, beg or steal with him till
next corn time. My friends, there's
a good deal Of religious farming
Some OF you people say: That
Jones has got too much provincial
ISM because use these compari.
sons. Why, bless you, 'talnt my
proyncialism, It's your ignorance.
Laughter. When talk about
farms you say I'm talking back
woods BackwOOds That's where
your father came from. Laughter.
An acquaintance once took me over
his farm and showed me all his
fields, nodding and blooming with
all the promise of bounteous har-
vest. lie wanted me to return home
through the woods, but | persisted
in going another way, and there
found back field full of humble
bee cotton so.called because
humble. bee can stand on the ground
and suck the blossoms. The stalks
never shoot, and if they did they
miss. We've got good deal of
that sort OF thing in religion.
"Religion isn't a sort of senti-
mental something to run a prayer
meeting with. If a man eats wise
~, drinks wisely, bathes wisely, |
dresses wisely he walked over |
to the other side Of the pulpit, and |
gazed long and fixedly at the array !
Of new bonncts and new dresses !
before him. After little silence he |
continued slowly, dropping his |
voice "Ah, dresses wisely Many |
. woman now rotting in her grave
would today have been well and
hearty If she had dressed wisely
If ever my wife and my daughters
were to dress as some women dress,
my wife could only come into my
house as some other mans wife,
and my daughters couldn't come
into my house at all. | wish the
whole of you had said Amen to
hat. But then, forgot; you're
Presbyterians you don't say
Amen; you don't speak out in
40 return, il a man eats wisely,
thinks wisely, batheS wisely, dress.
Is wisely, he's physically religious.
If he reads wisely he is intellectu.
lily religious. If he takes care Of
lis moral nature, obeys the ten
commandments, and lives up to
he principles and precepts of the
sermon on TIE Mount, he's morally
And there's no saliva
ion outside of that.
81 often hear men at the alter
Praying for more religion more
take care see first what
lind it is you We got now. Maybe
.ou've got enough now to damn
.ou, if 1t amt the right sort. Fits
he kind that permits theatres,
ards, and the like, you don't want
Ione of that sort. Say to Him,
Lord, give me pure religion You
ay you're liberal enough to allow
cuchre, That's dan =,
,erous kind of liberalism But if
ou'ye got the pure religion, and
our spiritual farm isn't big enough,
hen throw your fences out and !.
AXE in more ground, but don't take .
n more than you can till. And if
on find big, rugged rocks of hui >
IAN nature in some of those fields, ,
over them over with the ivy and =
'oodbine of christian virtues, shed
ing beauty and fragrance and love ,
yerywhere, forever and forever" !
DASvILLR, VA, May IA deS- |
crate fight occurred at Martins.