The Opelousas courier., 1890-10-04

and glittering coulter will turn up your
soul to the deepest depths. If a man
breaches to you that you are only q little
of order by reason Of sin and that you
need only a little fixing up, he deceivesl You
have suffered an appalling 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
Deep blowing for a crop. Deep blowing
for a soul. Broken heart or no religion.
Broken soul or no harvest. Why was it
that David and the jailer and the publican
and Paul made such ado about their sins?
Had they lost their senses? No. The plow-
share struck them. Conviction turned up o
great many things that were forgotten. As
a farmer blowing sometimes turns up the
skeleton of a man or the anatomy of a mon
ster long ago buried, so the plowshare of
conviction turns up the CHASTITY skeletons Of
brought upfrom the depths of the mountain
mightier ichthyosaurus or megatherium.
But what means all this crooked blowing,
these crooked burrows, the repentance that
amounts to nothing, the repentance that ends
in nothing? Men groan over their sins, but
get no better. They weep. but their tears
are not counted. They get convicted, but
not converted. Hdb Is JIG tSioouI
member that on the farm we set a standard
with a red flag at the other end of the field.
We kept our eye on b We aimed at that.
We plowed up to that. Losing sight of that
we made a crooked furrow. Keeping our
eyes on that we made a straight furrow.
Now in this matter of conviction we must
have some standard to guide US. 1t is o red
standard that God has set at the other end
of the field. 1t Is the cross. Keeping your
eye on that you will make a straight furrow.
Losing sight of it you will make a crooked
furrow. Plow up to the cross. Aim not at
either end of the horizontal piece of the cross
hut at the upright piece, at the centre of it,
the heart of the Son of God, who bore your
aud made satisfaction. Crying and
weeping will net bring you through. Him
hath God exalted TO be q Prince and a Saviour
to-, give repentance" Oh, pillow up to the
cross
Again l renark,, III grace as-in the field
there must be a sowing. III the autumn
weather you find the farmer going across
the field at a stride of about twenty-three
inches, aud at every stride he puts his hand
into the sack of grain and he %sprinkles the
seed corn over the field. 1t looks silly to a
man who does not know what he is doing.
He is doing a very important work. He Is
scattering the winter grain, and though the
snow may come, the next year there will be
a great crop. Now, that is what we are
doing when we are preaching the Gospel
we are scattering the seed. It is the foolish
ness of preaching, but it is the winter grain;
and though the SNOW Of worldline5s may
come upon it, it will yield after a while
glorious harvest. Let us be sure we SOW the
right kind of seed. Sow mullen stalk and
mullen stalk viii come up. Sow Canada
thistles and Canada thisties viii come up.
Sow wheat and wheat will come up. Let us
distinguish between truth and error. Let us
know the difference between wheat and he'll
lebore, cats and henbane.
The largest denomination in this country
is the denomination of Nothingarians: Their
religion is a system of negations. You say
to-one of them: "iFhat do you believer
"Well, / don't believe in infant baptism
What do you believer "Well, ! don't be
lieve in the perseverance of the saints"
"Well, now tell me what you do believer"
'W Well, I don't believe in the eternal punish
ment of the wicked" So their religion is o
row of cyphers. Believe something aL4
teach it: or, to resume the figure of my text,
scatter abroad the right kind o fseed.
A minister in New York preached a SER
mon calculated to set the denominations OF
Christians quarreiing. He was sowing net
ties. A minister i'm Boston advertised that
he would preach a sermon on the superiority
bl bIaIlSCSttuGH9GI AM vi SdniACk IA
t~ranscendental and unorganized forces.
What was he sowing? The Lord Jesus Christ
nineteen centuries ago planted the divine
seed of doctrine. 1t spraDg Up. On one side
of the stalk are all the churches of ChriSten-
dom. On the other side of the stalk are all
the free Governments of the earth, and on
the top there shall be a Towering lnillen-
mum after a while. Alifrom the Gospel seed
of doctrine. Every word that a parent, or
ahINaff-Snbno fnQahnrs or nfGv FnISSlOnRTv
or other Christian worker speaks for Christ
comes up. Yea, it comes up with compound
interest-you saving one soul, that one saw
ing ten, the ten a hundred, the hundred a
thousand, the thousand ten thousand, the ten
thousand one hundred tllousand-on, on for
ever.
Again I remark, in grace as in the farm
there must be q narrowing, l refer now not
to o harrow that goes over the field in order
to prepare the ground for the seed, but har-
row which goes over after the seed Is soWn,
lest the birds pick up the seed, sinking it down
into the earth so that it can TAX root. There
are new kinds of harrow, but the harrow as
[ remember it was made of bars OF wood
nailed across each other, and the under side
of each bar was furnished with sharp teeth,
and when the horses were hitched to tilt went
tearing and leaping across the field, driving
the seed down into the earth until 1t sprung
up in the harvest. bereavement, sorrow,
persecution are the Lords harrows to SINK
the Gospel truth into your heart. There were
truths that you heard thirty years ago that
have not affected you until recently. Some
great trouble carne over you. and the truth
was narrowed III, anu IT nts GUMS up " nas
did God mean in this country in 1857 For a
century there was the Gospel preached, Dut
a great deal of it produced no result. Then
God harnessed a wild panic to d harrow OF
commercial disaster, and that harrow went
down Wall street and up 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 a~wakeningin which there were 500, Coz
souls brought into the kingdom of our Lord
No harrow, no crop.
Again / remark, in grace as in the farm
there must be q reaping. Many Christians
speak of religion as though it were
matter of economies or insurance. They
| expect to reap in the next world. Oh, no
Now is the time to reap. Gather up t1e
ioy OF the Christian religion this morning
this afternoon, this night. Il you have not
| as much grace as. you would like to have
thank God for what you have. and pray
for more. You are no worse enslayed thar
Joseph. no worse troubled than was David
no worse sceurged than was Paul. Yet
amid the rafting OF letters, and annie
the gloom of dungeons, and amid tn
! horror oil shipwreck, they triumphed il
The grace Of God. The weakest maj
here has 500 acres of spiritual joy all ripe
Why do you not go and reapit? You hay
| been grooming over NJ inirmities 10
thirty years. Now give round shout owe
| your emancipation. You say you have it g
hard; you might have it worse. You Wonde
wi, s4.s s.st.1 cuiu crustne keeps ivsoIytns
through your soul, turning and turning, wit
a black hand n the crank. All, that treubI
| ,sts1e erindstone on which you are to sharper
yoiir sickle. II the fields! Wake up! Tax
otT your green s3a,,oacies Your blue specta