The weekly Union times. [volume] (Union C.H., South Carolina) 1871-1894, 1890-08-29

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clusters of the VINE were put in TO the
wincpress. aud then five men Would "ct
into the press and tramplc out the Juice
from the grape until their garments were
saturated with the wine and had become
the emblcms of slaughter. Christ Him
self, wounded until covered with the
blood OF crucifiNion, made use Of this
allusion when the question was asked
''Whercfore art thou red in thine ap-
parcl and thy garments like one who
trcadcth the winc-vat!" He responded
Il have troddcn the wincprcss alone"
In all ages there has been great honor
paid to agriculture. Scvcnth-cighths oi
| the people in every country are disciples
of the plow. a government Is strong in
proportion as tits supported by an athlc-
tic and industrious ycomanry. SO long
as before the fall of Carthage, StrabO
wrote twcnty-cght books OH agriculture;
IIcsiOd wrote a poem on the same sub
ject-''Thc Weeks and Days" Cato
was proutlcr of his work on husbandry
than Of all his military conqucsts. But
l must not be tempted into Il discussion
of agricultural conQucsts. Standing
amid tho harvcsts and orchards and vinc-
yards of the Bible. aud standing amid
the harvcsts and orchards and vineyards
OF our own cOuntry--I want to run out
the analogy between the production of
crops and the growth of grace i'll the
sOul-all these sacred writer's making
use of that analogy.
In the first place | remark, in grace as
in the fields there must be plow. That
which thcolOgians call conviction is only
the plowsharc turning up the sins that
have been rooted and matted in the soul.
A farmer said to his indolcnt son :
.'There arc n hundred dollars buried
deep in that field" The son went to
work and plowcd the field from fence to
fence, and he plowcd it very deep, and
then complained that he had not found
the money; but when the crop had been
gathered and sold for a hundred dollars
more than any previous year, then the
Young man took the hint as to what his
hundred dollars buried down in that
field. Deep plowing for Il crop. Deep
plOwiny for a soul. lie who makes
light of sin will never amount TO any
thing in the church or i'll the world. If
a man speaks of sin as though it were
an inaccuracy or mistake, instead oil
the loathsomc, abominablc, consuming,
and damning thing that God hates, that
man will never yield 4 harvest of fusciul-
ness.
When / was boy plowcd field
with team of spirited horses. plowcd
ed over s5nie or tito sod' %itHbile ut.Hnfs,s
it, but did not jerk back the plow with
no G;%.s IGn;t..iHs clevises:~ athnG"m mj Iatn9f
came along and said: "Why, this will
never do; this isn't plowcd deep enough;
there you have missed this and you have
missed that" And he plowed it over
again. The difficulty with n great many
people is that they arc only scratched
with conviction when the subsoil plow
of Gods truth ought to be put in up to
the beam.
Ny word is to all Sabbath-school
teachers, TO all parents, to all Christian
workcrs-plow deep! And il in yonr
own personal experience you arc apt to
take lcnicnt 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
80 the deepest depths. fla man breaches
to- you that you are only little out of
order bv reason of sin and that you need
only little iiXing-up, he dcceivcs! You
Jbenn sni'nrod ON appalling injury by
and slow posons, but the druggist could
give you one drop that would kill the
body. And sin is like that drug; so
vrulcnt. so poisonous. so fatal that one
drop is enough to kill the soul.
Deep ploughing for a crop. Deep
ploughlng for Il soul. Broken heart or
no religion. Broken soul or no harvest.
Why was it that David aud the jailcr
and the publican and Paul made such
ado about their sins? Had they lost
their senses? No. The ploughsharc
struck them. Conviction turned up a
great many things that were forgotten.
AS farmer ploughng sometimes turns
up the skeleton of Il man or the anatomy
Of n monster long ago buried, so the
plOughsharc of conviction turns up the
CHASTITY skeletons of sin long ago en-
tombcd. biologists never brought up
from the depths of the mountain NIGH
tier ichthyosaurus or mcgathcrium.
But what means all this crooked
these crooked turrows, the
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 count
ed. They get convicted. but not con-
vcrtcd. What is the reason? | rcmem-
Der that on the farm we set standard
with red flag at the other end of the
field. We kept our eye on that. We
aimed ut that. We ploughcd up to that.
Losing sight of that VIC made crooked
turrow. Keeping our eyes on that we
made straight furrow. Now in this
matter of conviction VIC must have some
standard to guide us. 1t is red stand
ard that God has set at the other end Of
the field. 1t is the cross. Keeping your
eye OH that you will make Il straight
furrow. Losing sight Of it you will
make crooked furrow. Plough up TO
the cross. Aim not at either end of the
horizontal piece Of the cross but at the
upright piece. at the centre oft. the
heart of the Son Of God who bore your
sins and made satisfaction. Crying and
weeping will not bring you through.
"IIim hath God exalted to be Prince
and Saviour to give repentance" Oh!
plough up to the cross
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