The Opelousas courier., 1890-10-04
DR.. TALMAGE
THE BROOKLYN DIVINE's SUN
DAY SERMON.

XIX Ii,
Farmers Of Americai Accept my aluata.
Eon. Our text puts US dow into the plow's
1urroW, where many of us nave been before.
My boyhood passed on a farm and my father
q farmer, your style of life is familiar to me.
One of my earliest recollections is that Of my
father coming in from the hot harvest field
exhausted, the perspiration streaming from
Dis forehead and chin, and fainting on the
doorsiu, and my mother resuscitating him,
until seeing the alarm of the household he
said: "Don'tbe frightened. l got a little
tired and the sun was hot, but I am all right
now" And I remember mother seated at
to eatP' The fact is that I do not think the
old folks got thoroughly rested until they lay
down in the graveyard back Of Someryille to
take the last sleep.
Office seekers go through the land and they
stand on political platforms, and they tell the
farmers the story about the independent life
Of a farmer, giving fattery where they
ought to give sympathy. Independent of
what9 No class of people in this country have
it harder than farmers. Independent of
whatf or the curculio that stings the peach
trees? of the rust in the wheat? of the long
rain with the rye DOWN Independent of the
arasshopper? of the locust? of the army wormf
Of the potato bug2 Independent of the
drought that burns up the harvest? Indepen-
dSAU u 1IS CIV Will Lu6 HOLLOW norm OF the
sheep with the foot rot? or the pet horse with
a nail in his hoofs Independent of the cold
That freezes out the winters grain? indie
pendent Of the snowbank out of which he
must shovel himself2. Independent Of the
cold weather when he stalds t~hreshing his
numbed fingers around his body to keep
them from being frosted? independent OF
the frozen ears and the frozen feet2 hide
pendent of what? Fancy farmers who have
made their fortunes in the city and go out
into the country to build houses with all the
modern improvements, and make farming
luxury, may not need any solace; but the
yeomanry who get their living out Of the
soil, and who hat way have to clothe their
families and educate their children and paw
their taxes and meet their interest on mort
gagged farms such men find terrific strug-
gle. And my hope is that this great Ma
tional Farmers Encampment may do some-
thing toward lifting the burdens of the ag-
riculturist. Yes, we were nearly all of us
born in the country. We dropped corn in
the hill, and went on Saturday to the mill,
tying the grist in the centre of the sack so
that the contents on either side of the horse
balanced each other, and drove the cattle
afield, our bare feet wet with the dew, and
rode the horses with the halter to the brook
until we fell oil, and hunted the NOW for
nests until the feathered occupants went
cackling away. So we all understand rustic
illusions. The Bible is full of them. In
Christs sermon on the mount you see the
full blown lilies and the glossy back of the
rows wing as it flies over Mount Oiivet.
David and John, Paul and Isaiah find in
country life a source of frequent Illustration,
while Christ takes the responsibility of call
ing God a farmer, declaring, my Father is
the husbandman."
Noah was the first farmer. We say moth
ing about Cain, the tiller Of the soil. Adam
xzoc @ roT5n1ar on a Iorra scala Int 70 Noah
was given all the acres of the earth. Elisha
was an agrieulturist, not culturing a ten
acre lot; for in my text you find him plow-
ing with twelve yoke of oxen before him, and
he with the twelfth. In Bible times thslIand
was so plenty and the inhabitants SO few
that Noah was right when he ave to every
inllabitant a certain portion of land; that
land, if cultured, ever after to be his own
possession.
They were not small crops raised in those
times, for though the arts were rude the
piow turned up very rich soil, and barley,
and cotton, and flax, aud oil kinds Of grain
came up at the call of the haryesters. Pliny
tells Of one stalk of grain that had on it be-
tween three and four hundred cars. The
rivers and the brooks, through artificial
channels, were brought down to the roots of
the corn, and to this habit of turning a river
wherever it was wanted Solomon refers when
he says: stThe Kings heart is in the hand of
the Lord, and He turneth it as the rivers Of
water are turned, whithersoeEer He will"
The wild beasts We're caught, and then a
look was put into their nose, and then they
were led over the field, and to that Go1 re-
fers when He says to wicked Senaclerib,
Al will put a hook in thy nose and / will
bring thee back by the way which thou
earnest y Aud God has a hook in every
mans nose, whether it be Nebuchadnezzar
or Ahabor Herol. He may think himself
very independent, but some time Ia ms
life or in the hour of his death he will mud
that the Lord Almighty has a hook in his
nose.
This was the rule in regard to tue culture
| of the ground, .'Thou shalt not piow with an
OK and an ass together illustrating the folly
of ever putting intelligent and useful and
| pliable men in association with the STUBBORN
and the unmanageabie. The vast majority
of trouble in the churches and in feforma.
| tory institutions comes from the disregard OF
This command OF tie LORD, '.Thou shalt mes
plow with IN OK and an ass together
lnere were large amounts-o OF property in
vested in cattle. The Moabites paid 100, 600
sheep as 81 annual tax. Job ba.l7G80 sheep,
5000 cameis, 500 yoke of oxen. The time of
vintage Yves ushered in with mirth and music.
The clusters of the vine were put into the
wine press, and then five men would get into
The press and trample ont the juice from the
L RIdpS ultbii ltlIil Sut AftElIIo SattsSatGNA
with the vim aud had become The emblems
OF slaughter. Christ Himself, wounded until
covered with the blood Of c~rucifixion, made
use Of this ~allusion when the question was
asked Wherefore art Thou red in Thine APP
parel and Thy garments like one who tread
eth the wine vatf' He responded: II have
trodden the wine press alone"
In all ages there has been great honor paid
10 agriculture. Seven-eighths of the people
in every country are disciples Of the plow. a
government is strong in proportion as it is
supported by an athletic and industrious
yeonanry. So long ago as before the fall OF
Carthage Strabo wrote twenty-eight books
on agriculture: Hesiod wrote a nosGm on the
same subiect-'The Weeks and Days Cato
was prouder of his work on ~husoandry than
ofall his military ~eonquests. Butt must moi
be tempted into a discussion of agricultural
~conquests. Standing amid the harvests and
orchards and vineyards OF the Bible, and
standingau the harvests and orchards and
vineyards of orr W coHntry-I want TO run
out the analogy between the productions Of
crops and the growth of grace in the soul
all these sacred writer's making use of thai
analogy.
In the first place / remark, in grace as in
the fields, there must be q plow. That which
t~heologians call conviction is only the pillow
share turning up the sins that have beef
rooted and matted in the soil. A farmer
said to his INDECENT son, There are a huft-
dred dollars buried deep in that feid.a Tht
son went to work and ploWed the field from
fence to fence, and he plowed it very deer
and then complained that he had not found
the money, but when the crop had been
gathered and sold fora hundred dollars mort
Than any previous year, then the young mar
took the hint as to what his father meant
when he said there were a hundred dollars
buried down in that field. Deep psowing fol-
a crop. Deep blowing for a soul. He wht
makes light of sin will never amount to
thing in tha church or in the world. If
man sreaks Of sin as fl1nI1ph il were an inac