Fort Worth weekly gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1890-08-21
Before the American Farmers
Encampment at Mt. Gretna, Pa.
Ne Introduces Himself and His Sermon
By Reference to His BoyhOod
Days on the Farm.
Representatives From Farmers Associations
From AL Parts of the Country Greet
the Famous Divine.
special to the Gazette.

Gretna, near this city, to-day listened
attentYely TO q remarkable discourse
nv the great Brooklyn preacher, Rev.
T. Dewitt TalmRge, who arrived here
Yesterday from the Chautauqua at Pied
mont, Ca, where he spoke Wednesday
last. The subject was one peculiarly
suited TO the vast audience, being on
Farming a Gospel Type" /. Kings
xix, I9.-"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
are 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
rnense 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 q
farmer, your style of life is familiar to
me. one Of my earliest recollections is
that of my father coming in from the
hot harvestfeld exhausted, the perspira-
ton streaming from his forehead and
chin, and faiuting on the door-sill, and
nv mother resuscitating him, until see
ing tbs alarm Of the household, he said,
Don't be frightened. 1 got little
right now. And l remember mother
seated at the table, often saying, "WelI,
I am too tired to eat!' The feet is,
that l 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 flattery where they ought TO give
sympathy. Independent of what2 No
class of people in this country have it
harder than farmers. Independent of
what? or the curculio that stings the
peach trees? of the rust in the wheat? of
the long rain with the rye DOWN hide
pendent Of the grasshopper2 of the To-
cust2 of the army worm! of the potato
hug2 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 a nail in his hoof? Independent Of
the cold that freezes out the winter
grain! Independent of the snow bank
cut Of which he must shovel himself2
l.. i. - -,
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
20 out in the country to build
houses with all the modern i'm
prOvemeuts, and make farming a
the yeomaury who get their living out of
the soil, and who that way have to
cinthe their families and educate their
children, and pay their taxes and meet !
the interest on morteaged farms-such |
meu find terrific struggle. And my |
hope is that this great National farmers |
encampment may do something toward |
lifting the burdens of the agriculturists. |
the country. We dropped corn in the |
hill, and went on Saturday to the mill. |
tying the grist IN the center of the sack |
so that the contents on either side the
horse balanced each other; and drove |
the cattle aheld, 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
.eathered 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 s wing as it flies over Mount Olivet.
David aud ohm, Paul and Isaiah find in
country life n source of frequent illustra-
lion, while Christ takes the responsibility
u calling Christ a farmer, declaring:
''AIY FATHER is THE HUsBANDMAN. -
Noah was the first farmer. We say
nothing about Cain, the tiller of the
.ol. Adam was a gardener on q large
scale, but TO Noah was given all the
acres of the earth. Elisha was an ag-
'culturalist, not culturing a ten-acre
OF, for in my text you find him blowing
with twelve yoke of oxen before him,
md he with the twelfth. In Bible times
he land was so plentiful and the inhabI-
ants so few, that Noah was right when |
lie gave TO every inhabitaut a certain
portion Of land; that land, if cultured,
'ver after TO be his own possession.
They were not small crops raised in
hose times, for though the arts were
ude, the pillow turned up very rich soil,
nd barley, and cotton, and flax, and
III kinds of grain came up at the call of
arvesters. Pliny tells of one stock of
rain that had on il between 800 and 400
ars. The rivers and the brooks,
trough artificial channels, were brought
own 10 the roots OF the corn, and TO this
abit of turning a river wherever it was
7anted, Solomon refers when he says: {
The kings heart is in the hand of the
ord, and He turneth it Us the rivers of
alter are turned, whithersoever He I
ill -
The will beasts were caught, and then
hook was put into their nose, and then (
iey were led over the field, and TO that
cd refers when He says to wicked Sem (
acherlb: 81 will put hook in thy nose {
nd l will bring thee back by the way =
hch thou earnest. - And God has I
ook in every man g nose, whether it be !
ebuchadneZzar or Ahab or Herod. He '
Jay think himself very independent, but ,
me Nme in his life or in the hour OF his
cath, he will find that the Lord AL s
ighty has q hook in his nose. s