Fort Worth weekly gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1890-08-21

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invested in cattle. The Moabites paid
| loo, 900 sheep as an annual tax. Jol
had 1000 sheep, 5000 camels, 500 yoke o
oxen. The time of vintage was usheret
IN with mirth ana music. The cluster,
OF the vine were put into the winepress
| and then FIVE men would get into the
| press and trampIe out the juice from tn,
| grape until their garments were satu-
rated with the wine and had become en-
| biems of slaughter. Christ Himself
wounded until covered with the blood OF
crucifxion, made use OF this allusiou
when the questsou was asked: "Where-
fore art Thou red in Thine apparel and
Thy garments like one who treadeth the
winevat5' He responded: ~ have
trodden the winepress 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. government is strong in
proportion as 1t is supported by an athle-
tic and industrious yeomanry. So long
as before the fall of Carthage. Strabo
wrote twenty-eight books on agriculture:
Hesiod wrote poem on the same sub-
Ject-" The Weeks and Days. Cato
was profounder of his work on busban-
dry than all of his military conuuests.
But must not be tempted into a discus
sion OF agricultural conquests. Stand
ing amid the harvests and orchards and
vineyards OF the Bible, and standing
amid the harvests and orchards and
VINEYARDS OF OUR OWN COUNTRY
want to run out the analogy between
the production of crops and the growth
OF grace in the soul-all these sacred
writers making use of that analogy.
III the first place | remark, in grace as
IN the fields there must be a pillow. That
which theologians call conviction is only
the plowshare turning up the sins that
have been rooted and matted in the soul.
A farmer said to his indolent son:
'There are 500 buried deep in that
held. The son went to work and
plowed the field from fence to 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 aud sold for 500
more than any previous year, then the
young man took the hint as to what his
father meant when he said there we're a
SIOO buried down in that field. Deem
blowing for crop. Deep blowing for a
soul. He who makes li,ht of sin will
never amount TO anything in the church
or IN the world. II man speaks of sin
as though it were an inaccuracy or O
instead OF the loathsome,
abominable, consuming, and damning
thing that God hates, that man will
never yield harvest of usefulness.
When was boy l plowed a field with
q team of spirited horses. l plowed il
very quickly. Once in while | passed
over some OF the sod without turning it,
but did not jerk back the pillow with its
rafting clevises. thought it made no
difference. After awhile my father came
along and said: "Why, this will never
90; this ism t plowed deep enough; there
you have missed this and you have missed
that. -
AND HE FLOWED IT OVER AGAIN.
The difficulty with great many peo-
PIE is that they are only scratched with
conviction when the subsoil pillow of
God truth ought to be put in up to the
beam.
My word lie to all Sabbath-school
teachers, TO all parents, to all Christian
workers. Pillow 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
IF God, and that sharp and gIittering
coulter will turn your soul to the deepest
iepths. If man breaches to you that |
you are only little out of order by rea-
on of sin and that you need only lit lie |
king up he deceives! You have suffered |
N appalling injury by reason of sin.
There are quick poisons and slow Doisons,
mt the druggist could give you one drop
hat would kill the body. And sin Is like
hat drug; so virulent, so poisonous, 90
atal that one drop is enough TO kill the
Oul.
Deep ploughing for a crop. Deep
,lOughing for soul. Broken heart or
10 religion. Broken soul or no harvest.
Why was 1t that David and the jailer
nd the publican and Paul made such
do about their sins? Had they lost
heir senses! No. The ploughshare
truck them. Conviction turned up
reat many things that were forgotten.
As farmer ploughing sometimes turns
p the skeleton or man or the anatomy
monster long ago buried, SO the
loughshare of conviction turns up the
hastily skeletons of sin long ago en-
Ombed. Biologists never brought up
rom the depths of the mountain mightIer
or megatherium.
But what means all this crooked
these crooked burrows, the
epentauce that amounts to nothing,
ne repentance that ends in nothing?
MEN GRoAN OVER THEIR SINS,
ut get no better. They weep but their
ears are not counted. They get con-
icted, but not converted. What is the
eason? 1 remember that on the farm
e set standard with red flag at the
Their end of the field. We kept our eve |
j that. We aimed at that. We
Laughed up TO that. Losing sight of
lat we made crooked furrow. Keep
q our eyes on that we made u straight
lrrow. Now in this ma tier of convio-
on we must have some standard TO
tide US. 1t is red standard that God
IS set at the other end of the field. 1t
the cross. Keeping your eye on that
III will make a straight furrow. Losing
Zht of it you Will make crooked fur
w. Plough ny to the cross. Aim not
either end of the horizontal piece of
e cross but at the upright piece, at the
inter- of il, the heart of the Son of God
ho bore your sins and made satisfac-
IN. Crying and weeping will not
ing you through. Him hath God
alted to BIZ o Prince and
Savior to give repent ;
Ice" Oh, plough up to the cross!
Again, remark, in grace as in the ,
ha In |