The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1890-08-29

the field in order 10 pr@nMre the ground
\ for the seed, but harrow which goes
over after the seed is sowH, lest the
birds pick up the seeds, sinking it
down into the earth SO that it can take
root. There are new kinds of har-
row, but the harrow, as re-
member, it was made of bars of
wood nailed across each other,
and the underside of each bar was
furnished with sharp teeth, and when
the horses were hitched to it it went
tearing and leaping across the field,
driving the seed down into the earth
until it sprang w in the harvest Be-
reavement, sorrow persecution are the
Lords harrows to sink the Gospel truth
into your heart There were truths
thatyou heard thirty years ago that have
not troubled you until recehtly. Some
great trouble came over yea, and the
truth was narrowed in. and it has come
up. What did God mean IN this coun-
| try in 1857? For century there was
the Gospel preached, but great deal of
it produced no result. Then God
harnessed wild panic to a harrow of
commercial disaster, and that harrow
went down Wall street, down Third
street and up Third street, down State
street and up State street, until the
whole land was torn to pieces as it never
had been before. What followed the
harrow? A great awakening, in which
there were five hundred thousand souls
brought into the kingdom of our Lord.
No harrow, no crop.
Again, / remark, in grace as in the
farm there must be a reaping. Many
Christians speak of religion as though
1t were a matter of economies or insur-
ance. They expect to reap in the next
world. Oh, no! Now is the time to reap.
Gather up the Joy of the Christian re-
ligion this morning, this afternoon, this
night. If you have not as much grace
as you would like ta have, thank
God for what you have, and pray
for more. You are no worse en-
shaved than Joseph, no worse
troubled than was Ds yid, no worse
scourged than was Paul. Yet, amid the
rafting of tatters, and amid the gloom
of dungeons, and amid the horror of
shipwreck, they triumphed in the grace
of God. The weakest man here has five
hundred acres of spiritual Joy all ripe.
| Why do you not go and reap it? You
have been groaning over your infirmi-
ties for thirty years. Now give one
round shout over YOUR emancipa-
ton. You say you have it so
hard; you might have 1t worse. You
wonder why this great cold trouble
keeps revolving through your soul,
turning and turning, with black hand
on the crank. All, that trouble Is tho
grindstone on which you are to sharpen
| your sickle. TO the fieldsl Wake upi
Take up your green spectacles, your
blue spectacles, your black spectacles.
| Pull up the corners Of your mouth as
| you pull them down. TO the fieldsI
Reap! reap!
Again, remark, in grace as in farm
ing there is time for thrashing. l
tell you bluntly that is death. Just as
a farmer beats the wheat out of the
straw, so death beats tho soul out of
| body. Every sickness is a stroke of tho
| flax, and the sick-bed is the thrashing-
floor. What say you, is death to a
good man only taking the wheat out
of the straw? That is all. An
aged man has fallen asleep. Only yes
terday you saw him in the suEny porch
playing with his grandchildren. Calm
1
this world. He babe pleasant good.
bye to his old friends. The telegraph
carries the tidings, and on swift rail-
trains the kindred come, wanting once
more to look on the face of dear
old grandfather. Brush back the gray
hairs from his brow; it will mover
ache again. Put him away in the slum-
Der of the tomb. He will not be afraid
of that night. Grandfather was never
afraid of any thing. He will rise in
the morning of the resurrection.
Grandfather was always the first to
rise. His voice has already mingled in
the doxology of Heaven. Grandfather
always did sing in church. Any thing
| CHASTITY in that? No. The threshing
of the wheat out of the straw. That is
all.
Where is the garner2 Need 1 tell
you? Oh, no. So many have gone out
from your own circles-yea, from your
own family-that you have had your
eyes on that garner for many year.
What hard time some of them had!
| In Gethsemanes of suffering they sweat
great drops of blood. They took the
cup of trembling" and they put it to
their hot lips and they cried: ''If
it be possible, let this cup pass
from me-" With tongues of burn
ing agony they cried: 20 Lord,
deliver my soul!" But they got over
it. They all got over it. Garnered!
| Their tears wiped away; their battles
all ended; their burdens lifted. Gar
neredP The Lord of the harvest will
not allow those sheaves to perish in
the equinox. Garnered Some of us
remember, on the farm, that the
sheaves were put on the top of the
rack, which surmounted the wagon,
and these sheaves were piled higher
and higher, and after awhile the
horses stanted for the barn; and
these sheaves swayed to and fro
in the wind, and the old wagon
creaked, and the horses made
struggle, and pulled So hard the harness
came up in loops of leather on their
back, and when the front wheel strack
the elevated floor of the barn, it seemed
as if tho load would go 10 farther, until
the workmen gave great shout and
then with ono last tremendous strain,
the horses pulled sr the load; then they
were Embarrassed, aud forkfuI after
forkful of grain fell into the NOW. o,
my friends, our getting into Heaven
may be pull, hard pull, a very hard
pull; but these sheaves are bound to go'
in. The Lord of the Harvest has prom
ised it. / see the load at last coming in
the door of the heavenly garden. The
sheaves of the Christian soul sway to
and fro in the wind of death, and the