The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1890-08-18

In the first place, | remark, in grace. as
In tue fields, there must be pillow. hat
which theologIans call conviction Is only
the plowshare turning 10 the sins that have
been rooted aud matted In the soul A
farmer said TO his lndOlent son: There are
a hundred dollars buried desp in the field"
| The son went TO work aud plDwed the field
from fence to fence, aud he plowed IL very
deep, and then complained that he had not
| found the money; but when the crop had
| been gathered and sJld for a hundred
I dollars more than any previous year. then
| the young man took the hint as to what his
| flther meant when he said there were a
| hundred dollars buried down in that field.
| Deep blowing for d crop. Deep plowing for
| a soul He who makes light of sin will
never amount TO anything in the church or
| in the world If u man speaks of sin rs
/ though it were an inaccuracy or mistake,
instead of the loathsome. abominable, con-
suming, and damuing thing that God hates,
that man Will never yield u harvest of use
/ fulness.
When was boy plowed a field with
| a team of spirited horses. pl0wed 1t very
| quickly. Once in awhile passed over some
| OF the sod without turning it, but l did not
| Jerk back the pow with its rafting clevises.
| | thought it made no difference. After
awhile my father came along and said:
"Why, this will never do; this isn't plowed
| deep enough; there you have missed this
and you have missed that" And he plowed
| it over again. The difficulty with great
many people is tbat they are only scratched
with conviction when the subsol plow of
| Gods truth ough to be put in up
to the beam. My word is to all Sabbath
school teachers, to all parents,
to all Christian workers-plow deep
And if in your own personal experience
| you are apt to take lenient view of the
sinful side Of your nature, put down into
| your soul the ten Commandments, which
| reveal the holiness of God, and that sharp
and glitUering coulter will turn up your
soul to the deepest depths. If a man
| breaches to you that you are only little
out of order by reason of sin, and that you
/ need only little fixing up, he deceivesi
| You have suffered an appalling injury by
reason of sin. There are quick poisons and
| slow posons, but the druggist could give
| you one drop that would kill the body. And
sin is like that drug; so virulent, so poison
Gus, so fatal that one drop is enough to kill
the soul
Deep blowing for a crop Deep blowing
for soul. Broken heart or no religion.
Broken soul or no harvest. Why was it
that David and the jailer, and the publican
and Paul made such ado about their sins?
Had they lost their sensesl No. The plow-
share struck them. Conviction turned up
gre at many things that we're forgotten.
AS farmer blowing sometimes turns up
the skeleton of a man or the anatomy of a
monster long ago buried, so the plowshare
of conviction turns up the ghastlv skeletons
OF sins long ago entC mbed. Biologists
never brought up from the depths Of the
mountain migEtier ichthyosaurus or me-
gatherium.
But what means all this crooked blowing,
these crooked burrows, the repentance that
amounts to nothing. the repentance that
ends III nothing? Men groan over their
sins. but get no better. They weep, but
their tears are not counted. They get con-
victed, but not converted. What is the
reasons | remember that on the farm we
set a standard with a red flag at the other
end of the field We kept our eve on that
We aimed at that. We plowed up to that
Losing sight of that we made a crooked
furrow. Keeping our eyes on that we made
a straight furrow. Now, in this matter of
conviction we must have some standard to
guide us. 1t is n red standard that God has
set at the other end of the field 1t is the
cross Keeping your eye on that you will
make straight furrow. Losing sight of it
you will make u crooked fur-ow. Plow
up to the cross. Aim not at either end of
the horizontal piece of the cross, but at the
upright piece, at the center Of it. the heart
Of the Son of God who bore your sins and
made satisfaction. Crying and weeping
will not bring you through. Him hath
God exalted to be Prince and a Savior to
give repentance" Oh, plow up to the
cross
Again, l remark, in grace as in the field
there must b. a sowing. In the autumnal
weather you find the farmer going across
the field at a stride of about twenty three
inches, and at every stride he puts his hand
into the sack of grain and he sprnkleS the
seed corn over the field. 1t looks silly to a
man who does not know what he is doing
de Is doing a very important work. He is
scattering the winter grain, and though
the snow may come, the Lext year
Mere tS %itl is DO hat great Gro crop;
when we are preaching the gospel-we are,
scattering the seed. Its the toolishuess OF
preaching, but it is the winter grain; and
! though the snow of worldhness may come
down upon it, 1t will Yell after a while
| glorious harvest. Let Us be sure we SOW the
right kind of seed. Sow mullen stalk and
mullen stalk will come up Sow Canada
thlstles and Canada thistles will coms up.
| Sow wheat and wheat will come up Let
us distinguish between truth and error. Let
us know the difference between wheat and
| hellebore, oats and henbane.
The largest denomination in this country
is the denomination Of Nuthingarlans
Their religion is a system of negations.
! You say to one of them, "What do you be-
lever "Well, l doa't believe in infant
baptism. "What do you believer "Wel,
| don't believe III the perseverance of the
saints" well, now tell me what you do
believe" "Well, l don't believe in the
eternal punishment of the wicked" So
their religion is row of cyphers. Believe
something and teach it; or, to resume the
figure of my text, scatter abroad the right
kind of seed.
A minister in New York preached SER
mOn calculated to set the denominations of
christians quarreling. He was sowing
nettles. A minister In Boston advertised
that he would preach sermon on the pc
riority of transcendental and organized
forces to untranscendental and unorganized
forces. What was he sowing9 The Lord
Jesus Christ nineteen centuries ago planted
the divine seed of doctrine. 1t sprang up.
On one side of the stalk are all the churches
of christendom. On the other side of the
stalk are all the free governments Of the
earth, and on the top there shall be a flow
ering millennium after awhile. All from
the gospel seed of doctrine. Every word
that a parent. or Sabbath-school teacher
or city missionary, or other christian
worker speaks for Christ comes up. Yea
it comes up with compound interest-you
saving one soul, that one saving ten, the
ten hund ed, the hundred thousand, the
thousand ten tn usand, the ten thousand
one hundred thousa nd-on, on forever.
Again, | remark, in grace as in the farm
there must be narrowing. | refer now moi