Democratic Northwest. [volume] (Napoleon, Ohio) 1869-1894, 1890-08-21

with the wine and had become the en-
blems Of slaughter. Christ himself,
wounded until covered with the blood Of
crucifixion, made use Of this allusion
when the question was asked: where
fore art thou red In thine apparel and
thy garments like one who treadeth the
wine vat?" He responded: ''I have
trodden the wine press alone"
In all ages there has been great honor
paid to agriculture. Seven-eighths Of
the people In every country are disciples
Of the plow. A government is strong in
proportion as it is supported by an ath-
letic and industrious yeomanry. So long
ago as before the fall of Carthage Strabo
wrote t~enty-eight books on agriculture;
Hes!od wrote poem. on the same sub
ject-s'The Weeks and Days" Cato was
prouder Of his work on busbandry than
Of all his military conquests- But /
must not be tempted into discussion OF
agricultural conquests. Standing amid
the harvests and orchards and vineyards
Of the Bible, and standing amid the har-
vests and orchards and vineyards Of our
own country-I want to run out the An
alogy between the production Of crops
and the growth Of grace in the soul-Tall
these sacred writers making use Of that
analogy.
In the first place l remark, in grace as
in the fields there must be plow. That
which theologians call conviction is only
the plowshare turning up the sins mat
have been rooted and matted in the soil.
A farmer said to his indolent son, ''There
are hundred dollars buried deep in that
field" The son went to work and
plowed the field from fence 10 fence, and
he plowed 1t very deep and then COM
planned that he had not found the money,
but when the crop had been gathered
and sold for hundred dollars more than
any previous year, then the young man
took the hint as to what his father
meant when be said there were hun
dred dollars buried down In that field.
Deep plowing for crop. Deep plowing
for soul. He who makes light Of sin
will never amount to anything In the
church or in the world. II man speaks
of sin as though 1t were an inaccuracy or
a mistake, instead Of the loathesome,
abominable, consuming and damning
thing that God hates, that man will
never yield harvest Of usefulness.
When was boy plowed field
with team of spirited horses. plowed
it very quickly. Once in a while passed
over some of the sod without turning it,
butI did not jerk back the plow with
its rattling clevises. / thought 1t made
no difference. After a while my father
came along and said: ssWby, this will
never do; this isn't plowed deep-enough;
there you have missed this and you have
again. The difficulty with great many
people is that they are only scratched
with conviction when the subsoil plow Of
Gods truth ought to be put in up to the
beam.
My word is to all Sabbath school
teachers, to all parents, to oil Christian
workers-plow deep! plow deep!
And if in your own personal experience
ynu 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 glittering coulter will turn up
your soul to the deepest depths. II a
man breaches to you that you are only a
little out of order by reason of sin and
that you need only little fixing up, be
deceives! You have suffered an appall.
ing injury by reason of sin. There are
quick poisons and slow poisons, but the
druggist could give you one drop that
would kill the body. And sin is like that
drug; so virulent. so poisonous, so fatal
that one drop is enough to kill the soul.
Deep blowing fora crop. Deep plow-
ing for soul. Broken heart or no religion.
Broken soul or no harvest. Why was il
that David and the jailer and the publi-
can and Paul made such ado about their
sins? Had they lost their senses? No.
The plowshare struck them. Conviction
turned up great many things that were
forgotten. As farmer plowing some.
times turns up the skeleton of b man OF
the anatomy of monster long age
buried, so the plowshare. of conviction
turns up the CHASTITY skeletons of sin long
ago intended. Biologists never brought
up from the depths of the mountain
mightier ichthyosaurus or megatherium
But what means all this crooked pl0w.
ing, these crooked furrows, the repent
ance that amounts to nothing, the re-
pentance that ends in nothing? Mer
groan over their sins, but get no better
They weep, but their tears are moi
counted. They get convicted, but moi
converted. What is the reason? re
member chat ON the farm we set o stand
ard with a red flag at the other end oi
the field. We kept our eye ON that. W.
aimed at that. We plowed up to that
Losing sight of that we made a crooked
furrow. Keeping our eyes ON that VIC
made straight furrow. Now in thil
matter of conviction we must have somt
standard to guide us. 1t is red stand
ard that God has set at the other end d
the field. 1t is the cross. Keeping you
eye on that you will make straight fur
row. Losing sight of it you will make ;
crooked furrow. Plow up to the cross
Aim not at either end of the horizonta
piece of the cross but at the upright piece
at the center of it, the heart of the Soi
of God, who bore your sins and mad
satisfaction. Crying and weeping will
not bring you through. Him hath Go,
| exalted to be Prince and Saviour Il
give repentance" Oh, plow up 10 th
cross!
Again remark, in grace as in the fiel,
] there must be o sowing. In the autumn
| weather you find the farmer going acros
| the field at stride Of about twenty
three inches, and at every stride he put
his hand into the sack of grain and b
sprinkles the seed corn over the field.
looks silly to a man who does not knol
what he is doing. He is doing very i'm
portant work. He is scattering the win
ter grain, and though the snow may come
the next year there viii be a great croI
Now, that is what we are doing when W
are preaching the gospel--we are scat