The Camden journal. [volume] (Camden, S.C.) 1866-1891, 1890-09-11
FARMING A GOSPEL TYPE
DR.. Talmage's Sermon at the Dedlca-
tion at Mount Gretna, Penn.
Plough Deep, Aim for the Cross, Sow the
Right Seed and the Crop VIII be
Worth Reaping.

10fe h,m, ana nc WtH ue ttecuH H.-1 hLiSS,
xix, 10.
Farmers OF America! Accept my saluata-
tion. 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 lifc is familiar TO mo
One of my earliest recollecionS is that OF my
father coming in from tho hot harvest field
exhausted, the pcrspiration streaming from
his forehead and chin, and fainting on the
doorsiI, and my mother resusctating i'm,
until seeing the alarm Of the household he
said: Don't he frightened. l got little
tired and the sun was hot, but am all right
now." And l remember mother seated at
tho table, often saying, "Well, am too tirel
to catr' The fact is that do not think the
old folks got thoroughly rested until they lay
take the last sleep.
Office seekers 90 through the land and they
stand or political platforms and they tell tho
farnicrs the story about the Independent life
Of a farmer, giving lattery where they
ought 10 give sympathy. Independent of
what? No class Of people in this country have
it harder than farmers. Independent Of
what? OF the curculio that stings the peach
trees? of the rust in the wheat? of the long
rain with the rye down? Independent OF the
crasshoprer: OF the locust? of the army worm?
of the potato bug? Independent OF the
drought that burns up the harvest? Indepen-
dent of the COW with the hollow horn? Or the
sheep with the foot rot? or the pet horse with
q nail in lis hoof? independent of the cold
that freezes out the winters grain? indie
pendent of the snowbank out of which he
must shovel himself? Independent Of the
cold weather when he stands thresbing his
numbed fingers around his body to keep
them from being frosted? Independent Of
tIa md
pendent of what! Fancy farmers who have
made their fortunes i'll the city and go out
into the country 10 buill houses with all tho
modern improvements, and make farming
luxury, may not need any solace; but the
yeoulanry who get their living out Of the
soil, and who that way have 10 clothe their
families and educate their children and pay
their taxes and meet their interest on mort
gagged farms such men inda terrific Strug-
gle. And my hope is that this great Ma.
t;onal Farmers Encanpment may do some
thing toward lifting the burdens Of the as
riculturist Yes, we were nearly all of us
horn in the country. We dropped corn in
the hill. and went on Saturday to the mill,
tying the crist in the centre Of the sack so
that the contents on either side OF the horse
balanced each other, and drove the cattle
atield, our lrarcS feet wet with the dew, and
role the horses with thc halter to the brook
until we fell or, and hunteI the NOW for
nests until the feathered occupants went
cacbling away. SO We Ill understand rustic
allusionS The Bible is full of them. In
Chrsts sermon on tho mount you see the
full blown lilies aud The glossy back Of the
crows wing rs it flies over Mount Oliret.
David and John, Paul and Isaiah find il
country life source Of frequent illustration,
while Christ takes tho responsibility OF call
ing God farmer declaring, My Father Is
the husbandmaD"
Noah was the first farmer. We say moth.
ing about Cain, the tiller of the soil. Adam
was gardener on q large scale, but TO Noah
was given all the acres OF the earth. Elisha
was an aGriculturist, not culturing a ten
acee lot; for in my text you find Linn plow-
ing with twelve yoke of oxen before him, and
he with the twelfth. In Bible times the land
was so plenty and the inhabitants so few
that Noah was right when he gave to every
iphabtant certain portion of land; that
land, if cultured, ever after to be lis own
possession.
They were not small crops raised in those
times, for though the arts were rude the
ploN turned upN w rich soil, and barley,
und cotton, and fax and all kinds of grain
came up at the call oil the harvesters. Pliny
tells of one stalk Of grain that had on it be-
tween three and four hundred ears. The
rivers and the brooks, through artificial
channels were brought down to the roots oil
the corn, and 10 this habit Of turning river
wherever it was wanted Solomon refers when
he says: "rhe King heart is in the hand OF
the Lord, and He turneth it as the rivers OF
water are turned, whithersoever He will"
The wild beasts were caught, and then
hook was put into their nose, and then they
were led over the field, and to that Col re-
1ers when He says to wicked Senacherib
IL will put hook In thy nose and | will
bring thee back by the way which thou
camest And God has hook in every
mans nose, whether it be Ncbuchadnezzar
or Ahab or IIcrol. He may think himself
very independent hut some time i'll his
life or i'll the hour of bis death he will fiuil
that the Lord Almighty has q hook in his
nose.
This was thc rule in regard to the culture
OF the ground, Thou shalt not plow with an
OK and an ass together" illustrating the folly
Of ever putting Intelligent and useful aud
pliable men in association with the stubborn
and the uumanageable. The vast majority
of trouble in the churches and in reforma-
tory institutions comes from the disregard of
this command of the Lord, "Thou shalt not
plow with IN OK and an ass together"
There were large amounts of property in.
vested in cattle. The Moabites paid 1000
sheep rs an annual tax. job had 1000 sheep,
yoke OIL ONcll. 1nc plule Ol
vintage was 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 out the juice from the
grape until their garments were saturated
with the wine and had become the emblems
Of slaughter. Christ Himself wounded until
covered with the blood Of crucifxiop, made
Use Of this allusion when the question was
asked: Wherefore art Thou red i'll Thine APP
larel and Thy garments like one who tread
eth the wine vatr He responded: II have
tr0dden the wine press alone"
In oil ages there has been great honor paid
10 agriculture. Seven-cighths of the people
in every country are disciples Of the p!ow. a
government is strong in proportion rs it is
supported by an athletic and industrious
icomaury So long ago as before the foil Of
Carthage Strabo wrote twenty-eight books
on agriculture: Hcsiod wrote a poem OH the
same subject-"rhe Wcaks and Days" Cato
was rrouler of his work on huSbandry than
ofall his military conquests. But | must not
I've tempted into discussion of agricultural
conquestS. Standing amid the haCvestS and
orchards and vineyards of the Bible, anl
standing amid the harvests and orchards and
vineyards Of our own country-1 want 70 run
out the analogy between the pro luction of
crops and the growth of grace in the soul
all these sacred writers making use of that
analogy.
In the first place remark, in grace as in
the fields, there must be plow. That which
theolosians call conviction is only the plow &.
share turning mp the sins that have been
rooted and matted i'll the soil. y farmer
said to his indoent son, "lhere are hun-
dred dollars buried deep in that field" The
son went to wOrl; and plowel the field from
fence to fence, aud he plowed it very deep
and then complained that he had not found
the money, but when the crop had been
gathered and sold for 4 hundred dollars more
than any previous year, then tho young man
took the hint as to what his father meant
when lie said there were hundred dollars
I,ri rlr tl,ot Enll IL r..