Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1890-08-22

when the question Was aSk'u. W hN''
fore ART thou rcd in thine appafei ana
thy garments like one who trcadcth the
wine vat:" He respond"d: II have
trodden the wine press alone
In all ages there has been great hohoI
paid to agriculture. SrVcn-eiShlhs Oh
the people In every country are dlSclpirs
of the pillow. A government Is strong IN
proportion as it is supported by an a1h-
letic and Industrious yeomanry. 80 iohS
ago as before he fall of Carthage Strabo
wrote twenty-cight books Oh agriculture;
Hcsiod wrote poem on the same sub
jcct-"The Weeks and Days. Cato was
proudnr of his work on huS5andrN than
of all his military conqueStS liuo
must not bc tempted into discussion OF
agricultural conqurSts. Standing anna
the harvnsts and orchards and vineyards
of the Bible, and standing amid th" haF-
vests and orchards and vineyards OF our
own country-l want to run out the am
aiogv between the production OF crops
and the growth of grace in the soul-all
these sacred writers making use OF that
analogy.
In The iirS; place remark. in grace as
in the fields there must be a piow. That
which throlog!ans call conviction is only
have been rooted and matted in the soil.
A farmer said to hisindoent son, "'rhcrc
are a hundred dollars buried deep iii that
field" The son went to work and
pIowed the field from fence to fence, and
hc plowcd it very deep and then com
blamed that he had not found the money,
but when the crop had been gathered
and sold for hundred dollars more than
1,n
took the hint as to what his father
meant when he said there were a hun
drcd dollars buried down in that field.
Deep blowing for a crop. Deep blowing
for Il soul. He who makes light of sin
will never amount to anything in the
church or in the world. If man speaks
a mistake. instead of thc loathcsomc,
abominable, consuming and da'nning
thing that God hates. that man viii!
never WELD harvest of usefulness.
When ! was boy ! plowcd a field
it very quickly. Once in IA while passed
but did not jerk back the plow with
its rattling clcviscs. / thought il made
no difference After while my father
never do: this isn't plowcd deep enough:
there You have missed this and you have
missed that And he powcd it over
again. The difficulty with 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
| OH iSti
| worllcrs-plow deep. pillow deep.
And if i'm your own personal experience
you are apt TO take icnient view of the
sinful side of your nature put down into
your soul the ten commandments, which
sharp and glittcring coulter will turn up
your soul to the deepest depths. If a
man breaches to You that you are only Il
little out of order by reason of sin and
that you need only a little fixing up, he
deccivcs. You have suffered an appall
ing injury by reason of sin. There are
quick poisons and slow poisons, but III,
! druggist could give you one drop tina
would kill the body And sin is like tina
! drug: so villllcnt, so poisonous. so fata
that one drop is enough to kill the soul.
1 Deep piowing for a crop. Deep pillow
Ing for a soul Broken heart or norcligion
Broken soul or no harvest. Why was il
that David and the jalcr and the publ
can and Paul made such ado about thcil
sins? Had they lost their senses? No
The plowshair struck them. Conviction
turned up a great many things that wcr.
forgotten. AS farmer blowing some
times turns up the skeleton of IA man o.
| tire anatomy of Il monster long ag,
buried. so the plowsharc of conviction
turns up the CHASTITY skeletons of sin Ions
! ago intombcd. biologists never brough
up from the depths of the mountain
nigh'icr ichthyosaurus or megatherium
But what means all this crooked pillow
ing, these crooked burrows. the repent
ance that amounts to nothing, the re
pcntancc that ends in nothing? Me-
groan over their sins, but get no better
They weep. but their tears are no
counted. They get convicted. but no
converted What is the rcasono nc
member tina, Or the farm we set IA stand
ard with a rcd flag at the other end o
: the field. We kept our eye on that. w
aimed at That. We plowcd up to that
, Losing sight of that we made IL crooke
, furrow Keeping our eyes on that w
/ made Il straight fUrrow. Now in thi
matter Of conviction we must have som
t standard to guide us. 1t is a red stand
ard that God has set at the other end o
the field. II is the cross. Keeping you
/ eye on that you will make straight fun
, row. Losing sight of it you will make
crooked fnrrow. Pillow up to the cross
| Aim not IL either end of the horizonta
= piece oil the cross but at the upright piece
i al the center OF it, the heart of the SO
l of God. who bore Your sins and mad
. satisfaction. Crying and weeping wi
e not bring you through. 'liim hath Go
exalted 10 be a Prince and Saviour 1
Y give repentance" Oh, plow up to til
5 cross!
4 Again ! remark, in grace as in the ficl
i there must be IA sowing. In the autumn
!. weather you find the farmer going aero:
the field AT Il stride OF about twcnt,
n three inches. and at every stride he put
n his hand into the sack of grain and /
t sprnhlcs the seed corn over the field
=! looks silly to Il man who does not kno
e what he is doing. He is doing a very in
y pcrIant work. He is scattering the vii
Il ter grain, and though the snow may com
G the mex, year there will be great cro]
e Now. that is what we are doing when W
t are preaching the gospcl--we are sea
5 tering the seed. 1t is the foolishncss
y preaching. but ii is the winter grain: an
though the snow of worltllncSS may con