The Russellville Democrat., 1890-08-28
DISCOURSE TO FARMERS.
Rev. T. Dewitt Talmage Talks to
 Pennsylvania Farmers.
The Flow on the Farm Typical of Divine Grace h the Human Heart : Both Must Go Straight to Product
 Best Results


 Must Go Straight to Product
 Best Results
 The following discourse was deliv- cred by Rev, T. Dewitt Talmage at the American Farmers Encampment at Mount Greina, Pa, from the text:
 Elisha. the son of shaphat. who was blow Ing with twelve oxen before him, and he with the tweifth.-I Kings, xylv., ls.
 Farmers of Americal Accept my salu- tation. Our text puts us down into the blow furrow, where many of us have been before. My boyhood passed on a farm, and my father a farmer, your style of life is familiar to me. One of my earliest recolleetions is that of my father coming in from the hot har- yest-feld exhausted, the precipitation streaming from his forehead and chin and fainting on the door-sill, and my mother resuscitating him until. sec ing the alarm of tho household, he said: Don't be frightened. got little tired, and the sun was hot. but am ali right now" And remom- Der mother seated at the table, often saying: ''Welb I am too tired to eatl" The fact is that do not think the old folks got thoroughly rested until they lay down in the grave yard back of Somerville to take the last sleep.
 Ohce-seekers go through the land, and they stand on political platforms and they tell the farmers the story about the Independent life of afarmer, giving fattery where they ought to give sympathy. Independent of what? No classs of people in this country has it harder than farmers. Independent of what2 Of the .curculio that stings the peach trees? Of the rust in the wheat? of the long rain with the rye down? Independent of the grasshop- per? of the locust? of the army-worm? of the potato-bug? Independent of the drought that burns up the haryestq In- depenaent of the#cow with the lol low horn? or the sheep with the foot-rot? or the pet horse with nail in his hoof? Independent of the cold that freezes out the winter grain9 Independent of tho snow bank out of which he must shovel himself? Independent of the cold weather when he stands thrashing his numbed fingers around his body to keep them from being frosted? In- dependent of the frozen ears and the frozen feet? Independent of what? Fancy farmers who have made their fortunes in the city and go out in the country to build houses with all the modern improvements, and ID ake farm ing a luxury, may not need any solace; but the yeomanry who get their living out of the soil, and who that way have to clothe their families, and educate their children, and pay their taxes, and meet the interest on mortgaged farms such men find terrific struggle. And my hope is that this great National Farmers Encampment may do some thing toward lifting the burden of the agriculturists. Yes; we were nearly all of us born in tho country. We dropped corn in the hill, -and~wentso Saturday to the mill, tying theggristin the center of the sack, so that tho content ts on either sidesof the horse balanced each other and drove the cattle aield, our bare feet wet with the dew, and rode the horses with the halter to the brook until we fell off, and hunted the mow for nests until the feathered oc- cupants went cackling away. So we all understood rustic allusions. 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 and John, Paul and Isaiah find in coun- try life source of frequent illustra- tion, while Christ takes the responsi- bility of calling God farmer, declar- ing: My Father is the hnsbandman." :"
 Noah was the first farmer. We say nothing about Cain, the tiller of the soil. Adam was gardener on large scale, but to Noah was given all the acres of the earth Elisha was an agri- culturists, not culturing ten-acre lot, for iu my text you find him blowing with twelve yoke of oxen before him, and he with the twelfth. In Bible times the land was so plenty and the in- habitants so few, that Noah was right when he gave to every inhabitant a certain portion of land; that land, if cultured, ever to be his own possession.
 They were not small crops raised in those times, for though the arts were rude, the blow turned up very rich soil, and barley and cotton and flax and all kinds of grain came up at the call of haryesters. Pliny tells of one stalk of grain that had on it between three hun dred and four hundred cars. The rivers and tho brooks, through artificial chan nels, were brought down to the roots of the corn, and to this habit of turning a river wherever it was wanted, Solo, mon refers when he says: ''The King s heart is in the hand of the Lord, and He turneth it as the rivers of water are turned, whithers oever He will. :"
 The wild beasts were caught, and then a hook was put into their nose, and then they were led over the field, and to that God refers when He says to wicked Sennacherib: II will put a hook in thy nose, and I will bring thee back by the way which thou camest" And God has a hook in every mans nose, whether it be Nebuchad- nezzar, or Ahab, or Herod. He may think himself very independent, but SOtueLllnb In ms llI6 or III tne HOuF or his death. he will find that the Lord Almighty has q hook in his nose.
 This was the rule in regard to the culture of the ground-"Thou shall not blow with an OK and an ass together" illustrating the folly of ever putting intelligent and useful and pliable men in association with the stubborn and unmanageable. The vast majority of troubles in tho churches and in reform atory institutions comes from the dis regard of this commands of the Lord "Thou shalt not blow with an OK and an ass together"
 There were large amounts of property invested in cattle. The Moabites paid one hundred thousand sheep as an an-- nual tax. Job had seven thousand sheep, three thousand camels. five hun dred yoke of oxen. The time of Yint- age was ushered in with mirth and music The clusters of the vine were put in the wine press, and then five men would get into the press and trample out the juice from tho grape