Fisherman & farmer. [volume] (Edenton, N.C.) 1887-19??, 1890-03-21


previous four decades. The best way to
atone for past Incidence or past trans gres-
SION Is by future assiduity. Yet you often
find Christian men who were not con-
verted until they were forty fifty,
as old age comes on. saying: wv ell.
my work is about done and il is time for me
to rest" They gave forty years of their life
to Satan ami the world little fragment of
their life TO God, and now they want To rest.
Whether that belongs TO comedy or tragedy
| say not. The man who gave one half OF his
earthly existence 10 the world and OF the
naming two-quarters one to Christian work
and the other 10 rest, would not, l sup
pose, get a very brilliant reception in
heaven. II taere are any dried leaves
in heaven they would be appro-
pirate for his garland: or if there is any
throne with broken steps il would be appro-
pirate for his coronation; or any harp with
relaxed string it would be appropriate for
his lingering Ny brother YOU give nine
tenths of your life to sin and Satan and then
get converted and then rest awhile in sancti-
fed lazlneSs and then 50 up to get your heav-
eniy reward, ana warrant it will not taze
the cashier or the royal banking house
a great while TO count out to you all
your dues. He will not ask you whether you
will have it in bills OF large denomination or
small. l would like 70 put one sentence OF
my sermon in italics, and have it under
scored, and three exclamation points at the
end OF the sentence and that sentence is
this: AS we cannot live our lives over again
the nearest we can come to atone for the pas,
is by redoubled holiness and industry in tn.
future
II this rail train of life has been detained
and switched off and is far behind the time
ia bic, the engineer for the rest OF the way
must put on more pressure Of steam and go
a mile minute in order to arrive at the
right time and place under the approval OF
conductor and directors.
AS supposed it would be, there are multi
$,1Aa go
on whom this subject has acted with the
force of a galvanic battery. Without my
saying word to them, they have solloquized,
saying: 'As one cannot live his life over
again, and / can make only one trip must
look out and make no mistakes; have but
one chance and I must make the most of it.''
My, young friends, 1 am glad you
made this application OF the SER
mon yourself. When min
lister toward the close of his sermon says:
people begin to look around for their hats
and get their arm through one sleeve of their
overcoats and the sermonic application is
failure. [ am g lad you have made your own
application and that you are resolved. like a
Quaker of whom l read years ago, who, In
substance, said: u shall be along
this path of life but once and so | must do
all the kindness | can and all the good can"
Ny hearers, the mistakes of youth can never
be corrected. Time gone is gone forever.
of second has by one leap reached the
other side of a great eternity. In the
autumn when the birds migrate you look up
and see the sky black with wings and the
f1ocks stretching out into many leagues OF
air, and so to-day I look up and see two
the wings of the flying year. That is fol-
lowed by flock Of three hundred and sixty
FIVE and they are the flying days. Each Of
the flying days is followed by twentyfour.
and they are the flying hours, and each of
these is followed by sixty. and these are the
flying minutes. Where did this great flock
start from? Eternity past. Where are they
bound? Eternity to come. You might
as we'll go a-gunning for the quails that
whistled last year in the meadows or
the sky as to try to fetch down and bag one
of the past opportunities of your life. Do
not say, Il will lounge now and make 1t up
afterward." Young men and boys, you can't
make it up. My observation is that those
who in youth sowed wild oats, to the end Of
their short life sowed wild oats, and that
those who start sowing Genesee wheat al
ways SOW Genesee wheat. And then the
reaping of the harvests is so different There
is grandfather now. He has lived to
old age because his habits have been
good His eyesight for this world has got
somewhat dim, but his eyesight for heaven is
radiant. His hearing is not so acute as 1t
once was, and he must bend clear over to
hear what his little grandchild says when she
asks him what he has brought for her. But
he easily catches the music raised from
pernal spheres. Men. passing in the streets
take off their hats in reverence, and women
say: What good old man he is" Seventy
or eighty years all for God and for making this
world happy. Splendid! Glorious! Mag
niicent! He will have hard work getting
into heaven because those whom he helped
to get there will fill up and crowd the gates
to tell him how glad they are at his coming
until he saws: please to stand back little
till pass through and cast my crown at the
feet of Him whom having not seen love"
do not know what you call that. call it
the harvest of Genesee wheat.
Out yOnder is a man very old at forty
years of age at a time when he ought to
be bouyant as the morning. He got bad
habits on him very early, and those habits
have become worse. He is man on
with all evil habits, ont with the world
and the world out with him. Down and
falling deeper. His swollen hands in his
threadbare pockets and his eyes fixed on
the ground, he passes through the street,
and the quick step of an innocent child or
the strong step of young man or the roll of
prosperous carriage 1naddens him, and he
curses society and he curses God. Fallen
sick, with no resources, he is carried to the
all day long waiting for dissolution or in the
night rises on his cot and fights apparitions
of what he might have been and of what he
will be. He started life with good a
prospect as any man on the Amerl-
can continent, but there he is a bloated car
cass waiting for the shovels of public charity
to put him five feet under. He has only
reaped what he sowed. Harvest Of wild
oats! There is way that seemeth right to
1JN%% TO- + lna& -