The weekly Union times. [volume] (Union C.H., South Carolina) 1871-1894, 1890-08-29
lieye? "Well I don,t bclieyc I'm tho nrc.


lieve? "Well L don't believe I'm tho pre-
severance of the saints" "Weli, now
tell me what you do believe ?" '''Well,
L don't believe in the eternal punish
ment OF the wicked" Their religion Is a
row of cyphers. Believe something aud
teach it; or, to resume the figure of my
text, scatter abroad the right kind of
seed.
A minister in New York preached a
sermon calculated to set the denomina-
tions of Christians quarreliug. He was
sowing nettles. A minister in Boston
advertised that he would preach SER
mon on the superiority of ftranscendental
and organized forces to Ountranscendental
and unorganized forces. What was he
sowlngp The Lord Jesns Christ nine
teen centuries ago planted the divine
seed of doctrine. 1t sprang up. On one
side of the stalk are all the churches of
Christendom. On the other side of the
stalk are all the free governments of the
earth, and on the top there shall be a
Towering millennium after awhile. All
from the Gospel seed ofdoctrine. Every
word that parent, or Sabbath-school
teacher, or city missionary, or other
Christian worker speaks for ChrlstEomes
up. Yea, 1t comes up with compound
intcrest-yOu saving one soul, that one
saving ten, the ten hundred, the hun
dred a thousand. the thousand ten thous-
and, the ten thousand one hundred
thOusand-on, on forever.
Again, remark, in grace as in the
farm there must be narrowing. 1 re-
for now not N Z, horrnyu fhot rypoo Dy,.
the field in order to prepare the ground
for the seed, but a harrow which goes
owes after the seed is sown, lest the birds
pick up the seeds, sinking it down into
the earth SO that 1t can take root. There
are new kinds of harrow, but the harrow
as l remember it was made of bars of
wood nailed across each other, and the
underside of each bar was furnished with
sharp teeth, and when the horses were
hitched to it it went tearing and leaping
across the field. driving the seed down
into the earth until it sprung up III the
harvest. Bereavement, sorrow, perse-
cutlon are the Lords harrows to sink
the Gospel truth into your heart. There
were truths that you heard thirty years
Gently. Some great trouble came over
you. and the truth was narrowed in, and
it has come up. What did God mean in
this country in 1857? For a century
there was the Gospel preached, but a
great deal of it produced no result. Then
God harnessed wild panic to-a harrow
of commercial disaster, and that harrow
went down Wall street and up Wan
street, down Third street and up Third
street, until the whole land was torn to
RjsGss jf iihdh RanS@g "HxS'i < great :; ats awaken.
ing in which there were 100000 souls
brought into the kingdom of our Lord.
No harrow, no crop.
Again, l remark, in grace as in the
farm there must be a reaping. Many
Christians speak of religion as tn )uyh it
were matter ofeconOmics or insurance.
They expect to reap in the next world.
Oh, no! Now is the time to reap.
Gather up the JOY of the Christrian re-
ligion this morning, this afternoon, this
night. If you have not as mach grace
as you would like to have, thank God
for what you have, and pray tor more.
You are no worse cnslaved than Joseph,
no worse troubled than was Dayid. no
worse scourged than was Paul. Yet,
amid the rattling offetters, and amid the
gloom OF dungeons, and amid the horror
OF shipwreck. they triumphed in the
grace of God. The weakest man here
has 500 acres of spiritual Joy all ripe.
Why do you not go and reap itP You
ho~o boon Sroaning ovor your infirn,itioe
for thirty years. Now give one round
shout over your emancipation. You say
you have it so hard; you might have il
worse. You wonder why this great
cold trouble keeps revolving through
your soul, turning and turning, with
black hand on the crank. All, that
trouble is the grindstonc on which you
are to sharpen your sickle. To the
fields! Wake up! Take off your green
spectacles, your blue spectacles, your
black spectacles. Pull up the corners of
your mouth as far as you pull them
down. To the fields! Reap! reap!
Again, remark, in grace as in farm
ing, there is n time for threshing. l tell
you bluntly that is death. Just as
farmer beats the wheat out of the straw,
so death beats the soul out of the body.
Every sickness is stroke of the fail, and
the sickbed is the threshing floor. What.
say you, is death to good man, only
taking the wheat out of the straw. That
is all. An aged man has fallen asleep.
Only -ye.ter<iuy Jou ouw -frir,i tn esso !
ny porch, playing with his grand-child-
rem. Calmly he received the message
to leave this world. He bade a pleas
ant good-by to his old friends. The tel
egraph carries the tidings, and on swift
the kindred come, wanting
once more to look on the face of dear
old grandfather. Brush back the gray
hairs from his brow; 1t will never ache
again. Put him away in the slumber of
the tomb. He will not be afraid of that
night. Grandfather was never afraid Of
He will rise in the morning
of the resurrection. Grandfather was
always the first to rise. His voice has
already mingled in the doXology of heav.
en-. Grandfather always did sing in
church. Anything CHASTITY in that? No.
The threshlng of wheat out of the straw.
That is all.
The Saviour folds q lamb in His bosom.
The little child filled all the house with
her music, and her toys are scattered all