The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1890-10-23
DISCOURSE 70 FARMERS.
Rev. T. Dewitt Talmage Talks to
Pennsylvania Farmers.
The PIow on the Farm Typical of Divine
Grace in the Human Heart-BOth
Must Go Straight to Produce
Best Results.

cred by Rev. Z. Dewitt Talmage at the
American Farmers Encampment at
Mount Greina, Pa, from the text:
Elisha. the son of Shaphat, who was plow-
ing with twelve oxen before him, and he
with the twelfth.-I Kings, xviv, 10.
Farmers of America! Accept my salu-
tation. Our text puts US down into the
pillow furrow, where many of US have
been before. My boyhood passed on a
farm, and my father farmer, your
style of life is familiar to me. One Of
my earliest recollections is that of my
father coming in from the hot har-
vest-ield exhausted, the perspiration
streaming from his forehead and chin
and fainting on the door-sill, and my
mother resuscitating him until. see
ing the alarm of the household,
he said: Don't be frightened. l
got little tired, and the sun was hot,
but am ali right now" And l remem-
Der mother seated at the table, often
saying: "Well, an 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.
Ofice-seekers go through the land,
and they stand on political platforms
and they tell the farmers the story
about the independent life of a farmer,
giving fattery where they ought to
give sympathy. Independent of what?
No class of people in this country has
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 grasshop-
per? of the locust? of the army-worm?
of the potato-bug? Independent of the
drought that burns up the harvest? In
dependent of the COW with the hollow
horn? or the sheep with the foot-rot?
or the pet horse with nail in his hoof?
Independent of the cold that freezes
out the winter grain? Independent Of
the snow-bank out of which he must
shovel himself? Independent of the
cold weather when he stands thrashing
his numbed fingers around his body to
keep them from being frosted? In
dependent of the frozen ears and the
frozen feet? Independent of what?
Fancy farmers who have made their
fortunes in the city and go out in the
country to build houses with all the
modern improvemen and 10 AXE farm
ing luxury, may not need any solace;
but the yeomanry who get their living
out of the soil, and who that way have
to clothe their families, 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 National
Farmers Encampment may do some
thing toward lifting the burden of the
agriculturists. Yes; we were nearly all
OF US born in the country. We dropped
corn in the hill, and went on Saturday
70 the mill, tying the gristin the center
OF the sack, so that the contents on
either side of the horse balanced each
other and drove the cattle afeld, our
bare feet wet with the dew, and
rode the horses with the halter to the
brook until we fell off, and hunted the
NOW for nests until the feathered oc-
cupants went eackling away. So we all
understood rustic illusions 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 coun-
try life source of frequent illustra-
ton, while Christ takes the response
bility of calling God farmer declar-
ing: MY Father is the husbandman. :"
Noah was the first farmer. We saw
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 agri-
culturists, not culturing a 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 in
habitants so few, that Noah was rtgbt
when he gave to every inhabitant a
certain portion of land; that land, if
cultured, ever to be his own possession.
They were not small crops raised in
those times, for though the arts were
rude, the pillow turned up very rich soil.
and barley and cotton and flax and all
kinds of grain came up at the call of
harVesters. Pliny tells of one stalk of
grain that had on it between three hum
dred and four hundred ears The rivers
and the brooks, through artificial chan
nels, were brought down to the roots of
the corn, and to this habit of turning a
river wherever it was wanted, Solo
mon refers when he says: THE Kings
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 God refers when He saws
to wicked Sennacherib: 81 will nut
hook in thy nose, and l will bring
thee back by the way which thou
earnest" And God has hook in everv
mans nose, whether it be Nebuchad-
nezzar, or Ahab, or Herod. He NAV
think himself very independent, but
sometime in his life or in the hour of
his death, he will find that the Lord
Almighty has hook in his nose.
This was the rule in regard to the
culture of the ground-"Thou shall not
pillow with an OK and an ass together