The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1890-08-29

the plOW. a ROVornnenLlS strong IN pro-
Portion as it is supported by an athlet~
ic and industrious yoemapry. So long
as before the fall of Carthage, Strabo
wrote twenty-eight books on agricult-
ure; Hesiod wrote poem on the same
subject: 1.-The Weeks and Days" Cato
was prouder of his work on hus-
bandry than all his military con-
quests But / must not be tempt
ed into a discussion of agricultural
conqueses. Standing arpid the harvests
and orchards and vineyards of the Bible,
and standing amid the harvests and or
chards and vineyards of our own coun-
try want to run out the analogy be-
tween the productions of crops and the
growth of grace in the soul-an these
sacred writer's making use Of that anal
ogy.
In the first place l remark, in grace
as in the fields there must be a,plow.
That which theologiaps call conviction
is only the plow-share turning up the
sins that have been rooted and matted
in the soul. A farmer said to his in
dolent son: There are one hundred
dollars buried deep in that field" The
son went to work and plowed the field
from fence to fence, and he plowed it
very deep, and then complained
that he had not found the money;
but when the crop had been gath
cred and sold for 500 moro than any
previous year, then the young man
took the hint as to what his father
meant when he said there were one hun
dred dollars buried down in the field.
Deep blowing for crop. Deep blowing
for soul. He who makes light of sin
will never amount to any thing in the
church or in the world. If a man
speaks of sin as though it were an in
accuracy or mistake, instead of the
loathsome, abominable, consuming and
damning thing that God hates, and
that will never yield harvest of USE
fulness.
When was a boy I plowed a field
with team of spirited horses. / plowed
it very quickly. Once in awhile /
passed over some of the sod without
turning it, but l did not jerk back the
pillow with its rafting clevises. 1
thought it made no difference. After
awhile my father came along and said:
why tbis will never do; this isn't
plowed deep enough, there you have
missed this and you have missed that"
And he plowed it over again. The diff
Guilty with a great many people is that
they are only scratched with conviction
when the subsoil pillow of Gods truth
ought to be put in up to the beam.
My word is to all Sabbath-school
teachers, to all parents, to all Christian
workers-plow deep! And if in your
own personal experience you are apt to
take lenient view of the sinful side
of your nature, put down into your soul
the ten commandments which reveal the
holiness of God, and that sharp and
glittering coulter will turn up your soul
to the deepest depths. If a man
breaches to you that you are only a lit
tie out of order by reason of sin and
that you need only little fixing up, he
deceivesl You have suffered an APP
palling injury by reason of sin. There
are quick poisOns and slow poisons, but
the druggist could give you one drop
that would kill the body. And sin is
like that drug; so virulent, so poisonous,
so fatal that one drop is enough to kill
the soul.
Deep blowing for a crop. Deep plow
ing for a soul. Broken heart or no re-
ligion. Broken soul or no harvest. Why
was it that David and his jailer and the
publican and Paul made such ado about
their sins? Had they lost their senses?
No. The plow-share struck them. Con-
viction turned up great many things
that were forgotten. As farmer plow-
ing sometimes turns up the skeleton of
a man or the anatomy of a monster long
ago buried, so the plow-share of convic-
ton turns up the CHASTITY skeletons of
of sin long ago entombed. Biologists
never brought up from the depths of the
mountain mightier ichthyosaurus or
megatherium.
But what means all this crooked plow-
ing, these crooked burrows, the repent
ance that amounts to nothing, the re-
pentance that ends in nothing? Men
groan over their sins, but they get no
better. They weep, but their tears are
not counted. They get convicted, but
not converted What is the reason? /
remember that on the farm we set
standard with a red flag at the other
end of the field. We kept our eye on
that. We aimed at that We plowed
up to that Losing sight of that we
made a crooked furrow. Keeping our
eyes on that we made straight fur
row. Now in this matter of convic-
ton we must have some STANDARD to
guide us. 1t is red standard that God
has set at the other end of the field. 1t
is the cross. Keeping your eye on that,
you will make straight furrow. Losing
sight of it. you will make crooked
furrow. Plow up to the cross. Aim not
at either end of the horizontal piece of
the cross, but at the upright piece, at
the center OF it, the heart of the Son of
God, who bore your sins and made salts
faction. Crying and weeping will not
bring you through. Him hath God
exalted to be a Prince and Saviour to
give repentance" o, pillow up to the
cross!
Again, remark in the grace as in the
field there must be a sowing. In the
autumnal weather you find the farmer
going across the field at a stride of about
twenty-six inches, and at every stride
he puts his hand into the sack of grain,
and he sprinkles the seed-corn over the
field. 1t looks silly to man who does
not know what he is doing. He is doing
very important work. He is scat
tering tho winter grain, and though
the snow may come, the next
year there will be a great crop.
Now, that is what we are doing when
we are preaching the Gospel-we are
scattering the seed. it is the foolish
ness of preaching but it is the winter
grain, and though the snow of wOrldl-
ness may come down upon it. it will
yield after awhile glorious harvest