Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1890-08-18
Before the American Farmers
Encampment at Mt. Gretna, Pa.
He Introduces Himself and His Sermon
By Reference to His BOyhOod
Days on the Farm.
Representatives From Farmers Associations
From All Parts of the Country Greet
the Famous Divine.



,can farmers encampment at Mount
Gretna, near this city, to-day listened
attentively to a remarkable discourse
by the great Brooklyn preacher, Rev.
It. Dewitt Talmage, who arrived here
Yesterday from the Chautauqua at Pied
mont. Ga, where he spoke Wednesday
last. The subject was one peculiarly
suited to the vast audience, being on
',Farmiug Gospel Type l. Kings
xix, 10" Elisha the son of Shaphat,
who was blowing with twelve oxen be-
fore him, and he with the twelfth. -
Representatives of the great farmers
association from all parts OF the country
rre at the encampment, preparation for
which have been going on for months in
advance. The surrounding densely
populated counties of Pennsylvania are
also fully represented. To-day's SER
vices were held IN the open air. An i'm
meuse choir, from the churches of Leb-
anon, led the music. Rev. DR.. Talmage
spoke as follows:
Farmers OF America:
Accept my salutation. Our text puts
lis down into the plow's furrow, where
many of us have been before. My boy
hood passed on a farm, and my father
farmer, your style of life is familiar TO
me. One of my earliest recollections ia
that of my father coming in from the
hot harvestfield exhausted, the persDira-
ton streaming from his forehead aud
chin, and fainting on the door-sill, and
nv mother reshscitating him, until see
Ing the alarm of the household, he said,
Gtnou5t friubtaOa6 q ljttla
tired, and the sun was hot, but am all
right now. - And l remember mother
seated at the table, often saying, "Well,
! am too tired TO eat!'' The fact is,
that I do not think the old folks got
thoroughly rested until they lay down in
the graveyard back of Somerville to
take the last sleep.
Office 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 tattery where they ought to give
sympathy. Independent of what? No
class OF people in this country have it
harder than farmers. Independent of
what? OF the ourculio that stings the
peach trees? of the rust in the wheat? of
the long rain with the rye down? Inde-
pendent of the grasshopper? of the To-
Gust? of the army worm! of the potato
bug? Independent of the drouth that
burns up the harvest? Independent of
the COW with the hollow horn? or the
sheep with the foot rot? or the pet horse
with nail in his hoor? Independent of
the cold that freezes out the winter
grain2 Independent of the snow bank
out of which be must shovel himself?
Independent of the cold weather when
he stands threshing his numbed fingers
around his body to keep them from be-
ing frozen? Independent of the frozen
ears and frozen feet? Independent of
what? Fancy farmers who have
made their fortunes in the city and
60 out in the country to build
houses with all the modern i'm
provements, and make farming
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 a terrific struggle. And my
hope is that this great National farmers
encampment may do something toward
lifting the burdens of the agriculturists.
Yes, we we were nearly all OF US born III
the country. We dropped corn in the
hill, and went on Saturday to the mill,
tying the grist IN the center of the sack
70 that the contents on either side the
horse balanced each other; and drove
the cattle afield, our bare feet wet with
the dew, and rode the horses with the
halter TO the brock until we fell off, and
hunted the NOW for nests until the
feathered occupants went cackling away.
So we all understand 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
crow g wing as it flies over Mount Olivet.
David and John, Paul and Isaiah find in
country life a source of frequent illustra-
ton, while Christ takes the responsibility
of calling Christ q farmer, declaring:
my FATHER Is THE HUsBANDMAN.
Noah was the first farmer. We say
nothing about Cain, the tiller of the
soil. Adam was gardener on large
scale, but to Noah was given all the
acres of the earth. Elisha was an ag-
riculturalist, not culturing q 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 plentiful and the iuhabl-
tauts so few, that Noah was right when
he gave 10 every inhabitant a certain
portion of land; that land, if cultured,
ever after 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 fax, and
all kinds of grain came up at the call of
harvest5rs. Pliuy tells OF one stock of
grain that had on ii between 800 and 400
ears. The rivers and the brooks,
through artificial channels, were brought
down 10 the roots of the corn, and TO this
habit of turning a river wherever it was
wanted, Solomon refers when he says:
The king 5 heart is in the hand of the
Lord, and He turneth it as the rivers of
water are turned, whithersoever He
will. 8"
The Will beasts were caught, and then
d nook was put into their nose, and then
they were led over the field, and 10 that |
Hou refers when He says TO wicked Sem
hAcherlb: 81 will put hook in thy nose
anu will bring thee back by the way
which thou earnest. - And God has q
nook in every man s nose, whether it be
NeDuchadnezzar or Ahab or Herod. He
may think himself very independent, but |
some time in his life or in the hour of his |