News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1890-08-21


yoke of oxen. The time of vintage was
ushered in with mirth and music The
clusters of the vine were put into the
winepress, and then five men would
get into the press and trample out the
juice from the grape until their gar
ments were saturated with the wine
and had become the emblems of
slaughter Christ himself wounded
until covered with the blood of the
crucifixion, made use of this allusion
when the question was asked, "Where-
fore art thou red in thine apparel and
thy garments like one who treadeth the
wine vat?' He responded, II have
trodden the wine press alone"
DISCIPLES OF THE PLOw
In all ages there has been great honor
paid to agriculture. Seven-eighths of
the people in every country are dis
ciples of the plow. A government is
strong in proportion as it is supported
by an athletic and industrious yeo-
manry. So long ago as before the fall
of Carthage Strabo wrote twenty-eight
books on agriculture. Hesiod wrote a
poem on the same subject - 1.-THE
Weeks and Days" Cato was prouder
of his work on husbandry than of his
military conquests But | must not be
tempted into a discussion of agricult-
ural conquests. Standing amid the
harvests and orchards and vineyards of
the Bible, and standing amid the har-
vests 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 in 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 a plOw
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 indo-
lent son, There are a hundred dollars
buried deep in that field" The son went
to work and plowed the field from fence
to fence, and he plowed it very deep,
and then complained that he had not
found the money; but when the crop
had been gathered and sold for q hun
dred dollars more than any previous
year then the young man took the hint
as to what his father meant when he
said there were hundred dollars
buried down in that field. Deep plow-
ing for a crop. Deep blowing for a
soul. He who makes light of sin will
never amount to anything in the church
or in the world If a man speaks of
sin as though it were an inaccuracy
or a mistake, instead of the 1oathe-
some, abominable, consuming and
damning thing that God hates, that
man will never yield a harvest of use
fulneSS.
When l was a boy l plowed a field
with team of spirited horses. Iplowed
it very quickly. Once in a while l
passed over some of the sod without
turning it, but l did not jerk back the
pillow with its rattling clevises. l
thought it made no difference. After
a while my father came along and said:
"Why, this will never do. This isn't
plowed deep enough. There you have
And he plowed it over again. The
difficulty with a great many people is
that they are only scratched with con-
viction when the subsoil plow of Gods
truth ought to be put in up to the
beam.
My word is to all Sabbath school
teachers, to all parents, to all Chris
tan workers: Plow deep! Plow deep!
THE FATAL DRUG OF SIN.
And if in your own personal expert
ence you are apt to take a lenient view
of the sinful side of your nature put
down into your soul the ten command
ments, which reveal the holiness of
God, and that sharp and glittering
coulter will turn up your soul to the
deepest depths If man breaches to
you that you are only little out OF
order by reason of sin, and that you
need only little fixing up he deceives! |!
You have suffered an appalling injury
by reason of sin. There are quick poi
sons 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 fatal
that one drop is enough to kill the
soul.
Deep blowing for n crop. Deep plow-
ing for soul. Broken heart or no re-
ligion Broken soul or no harvest.
Why was it that David, and the jailer,
and the publican and Paul made such
ado about their sins7 Had they lost
their senses? No. The plowshare
struck them. Conviction turned up a
great many things that were forgotten.
As a farmer plowing sometimes turns
up the skeleton of a man or the anat-
omy of monster long ago buried, so
the plowshare of conviction turns up
the ghastly skeletons of sin long ago in
tombed. Geologists never brought up
from the depths of the mountain might
ier ichthyosaurus or megatherium.
But what means all this crooked
blowing, these crooked burrows, the re-
pentance that amounts to nothing, the
repentance that ends in nothing9 Men
groan over their sins, but get no better.
They weep, but their tears are not
counted. They get convicted, but not
converted. What is the reason? re-
member that on the farm we set a
standard with red flag at the other
end of the field We kept our eye on
that. 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 fur
row. Now in this matter of conviction
we must have some standard to guide
us. 1t is 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 straight furrow. Los
ing 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, but at the upright
piece, at the center of it, the heart OF
the Son of God, who bore your sins
and made satisfaction. Crying and
weeping will not bring you through
sHim hath God exalted to be a Prince
and Saviour to give repentance. oh,
plow up to the crossl'
SCATTERING THE SEEDS OF THE Cos
| PEI.
Again l remark, in grace as in the
field there must be sowing. In the
autumnal weather you find the farmer
going across the field at a stride o