Connecticut western news., 1890-08-20
A SERMON TO FARMERS.
DIR. TALMAGE BREACHES AT THE
 ENCAMPMENT.

Farmers of Christ's Time-He Likens
 tho Christian Religion to the Struggle
 of the Filler of the Soil.
 LEBANON, Pa, Aug. 17.-The Amer ican Farmers encampment at Mount Gretna, near this city, today listened attentively to remarkable discourse by the great Brooklyn preacher, Rev. T. De Witt Talmage, who arrived here yesterday from Piedmont, Chautauqua, Ga., where he spoke on Wednesday last. The subject was one peculiarly suited to the vast audience, being on Farming Gospel Type" I Kings xix, 19 Elisha, the son of Shaphat, who was blowing with twelve yoke of oxen before him, and he with the twelfth
 Representatives of the great farmers associations from all parts of the coup try are at the encampment, prepara- tions for which have been going on for months in advance. The surrounding densely populated counties of Pennsyl vania are also fully represented. To days services were held in the open air. An immense choir from the churches of Lebanon led the music.
 Rev. Dr. Talmage spoke as follows:
 Farmers of America! Accept my salutation. Our text puts us down into the plow's furrow, where many of us have been before. My boyhood passed on farm, and my father a farmer, your style of life is familiar to me. One of my earliest recollections is that of my father coming in from the hot harvesoo field exhausted, the perspira- ton streaming from his forehead and chin, and fainting on the doorsill, and my mother resuscitating him, until seeing the alarm of the household he said: Don't be frightened. I got 8 little tired, and the sun was hot, but I am all right now" And remember mother seated at the table often say ing, "Wen, I am too tired to eat" The fact is that do not think the old folks got thoroughly rested until they lay down in the graveyard back of Somerville to take the last sleep.
 THE FARMERS TRIALS.
 Office seekers go through the land and they stand on political platforms, and they tell the farmers the story about the independent life of farmer, giving aattery where they ought to give sympathy. Independent of what9 No class of people in this country have it harder than farmers Independent of what2 Of the curculio that stings of i,, 1,> wheat2 of the long rain with the rye down2 Independent of the grasshop- perl of the locust? of the army worma of the potato buzz Independent of the drought that burns up the harvestl Independent of the COW with the hol- low hornq or the sheep with the foot rol1 or the pet horse with a nail in his hoof2 Independent ot 1 the cold that freezes out the winter grain? Independent of the ! snowbank out of which he must shovel 1 himself2 Independent of the cold l weather when he stands threshing his numbed fingers around his body to keep them from being frosted2 Inde- pendent of the frozen ears and the frozen feet9 Independent of what 2 l Fancy farmers who have made their fortunes in the city and go out in the country to build houses with all the modern Improvements, and make farm ing luxury, may not need any solace; but the yeomanry who get their living out of the soil, and who that way have 1 to clothe their familie., and educate their children and pay their taxes and meet the interest on mortgaged farms such men find terrific struggle And my hope is that this great Ma l tional Farmers encamplnent may do something toward lifting the bur dens of the agriculturists. 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 center of the sack l so that the contents on either side the horse balanced each other; and drove the cattle afleld, our bare feet wet with the dew, and rode the horses with the halter to the brook until we fell of, and hunted the now for nests until the feathered occupants went cacklng away So we all understand rustic al- lusions The Bible is full of them. In Christ's Sermon on the Mount you see the full blown lilies and the glossy back of the crows wing as it flies over Mount Olivet. David and John, Paul and Isaiah find in country life source ] of frequent illustration, while Christ takes the responsibility of calling God farmer, declaring, My Father is the husbandman."
 NOAH THE FIRST FARMER.
 Noah was the first farmer. We say nothing about Cain, the tiller of the soil. Adam was a gardener on a large scale, but to Noah was given all the acres of the earth. Elisha was an az
 riculturist, not culturing ten acre lot for in my text you find him blowing
 with twelve yoke of oxen before him, and he with the twelfth. In Bible times
 the land was so plenty and the inhabi-
 tants so few that Noah was right when
 he gave to every inhabitant certain portion of land; that land, If cultured,
 ever after to be his own possession.
 They wsle not small crops raised in
 those times, for though the arts were rude Lhe blow turned up very rich soil, l and barley and cotton and flax and all
 kins:s Of grain came up at the call o1
 the tar,-estcrs Pliny tells of one stalk of gr.aic that had on it between three
 ana four hundred ears. The rivers and
 the brooks through artificial channels,
 wear brought down to the roots of the
 corn, and to this habit of turning {
 river wherever it was wanted Solomon 1 r<,fors uhan ho saua. t.r,ha kinu,s hear