News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1890-08-21
A Sermon to Farmers.
REV. DIR. TALMAGE PREACHES TO THE
FARMERS AT THEIR ENCANIPMENT
IN PENNSYLVANIA

FARMERS AT THEIR ENCAIPMENT
IN PENNSYLVANIA.
LEBANON, Pa, Aug. LITTLE Amer
lean Farmers encampment at Mount
Gretna, near thig city, today listened
attentively to q remarkable discourse
by the great Brooklyn preacher, Rev.
T. De Witt Talmage, who arrived here
yesterday from Piedmont, Chautauqua,
Ga, where he spoke on Wednesday
last. The subject was one peculiarly
suited to the vast audience, being on
Farming Gospel Type" 1 Kings
xix, 10: Elisha, the son of Shaphat,
who was blowing with twelve yoke of
oxen before him, and he with the
twelfth
Representatives of the great farmers
associations from all parts of the coun-
try are at the encampment, prepara-
tions for which have been going on for
months in advance. The surrounding
densely populated counties of Pennsyl-
vania are also fully represented. To-
days services were held in the open air.
An immense choir from the churches of
Lebanon led the music.
Rev. DR.. Talmage spoke as follows;
Farmers of America! Accept my
salutation. Our text puts US down into
the plow's furrow, where many of us
| have been before. My boyhood passed
on a farm, and my father farmer,
your style OF life is familiar to me.
One of my earliest recollections is that
of my father coming in from the hot
harvest field exhausted, the perspira-
ton streaming from his forehead and
chin, and fainting On the doorsill, and
my mother resuscitating him, until
seeing the alarm of the household he
said: Don't be frightened. l got a
little tired, and the sun was hot but l
am all right now" And | remember
mother seated at the table often say
ing, 'Well, l am too tired to eatr'
The fact is that do not think the old
folks got thoroughly rested until they
lay down in the graveyard back of
Somerviile to take the last sleep.
THE FARMERS TRIALS.
Office seekers go through the land
and they stand on political platforms,
and they tell the farmers the story
about the independent life of farmer,
giving flattery where they ought to
give sympathy. Independent of what?
No class of people in this country have
it harder than farmers. Independent
of what? 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 harvest?
Independent of the COW with the hol-
low horn? or the sheep with the
foot rot? or the pet horse with a
nail in his hoof2 Independent of
the cold that freezes out the
winter grain? Independent of the
snowbank out of which he must shovel
himself? Independent of the cold
weather when he stands threshing his
numbed fingers around his body to
keep them from being frosted2 Inde-
pendent 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 make farm
ing 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 a terrific struggle.
And my hope is that this great Ma
tional Farmers encampment may do
something toward lifting the bur
dens of the agriculturists. Yes,
we were nearly all of us born in
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 afield, our bare feet wet with
| the dew, and rode the horses with the
halter to the brook until we fell off,
and hunted the NOW for nests until the
feathered occupants went cackling
away 50 we all understand rustic al
iusions 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 crows wing as it flies over
Mount Olivet David and John Paul
and Isaiah find in country life a source
of frequent illustration, while Christ
takes the responsibility of calling God
farmer, declaring, MY Father is the
husbandman.
NOAH THE FIRST FARMER
Noah was the first farmer. We say
nothing about Cain, the tiller of the
soil. Adam was a gardener on large
scale, but to Noah was given all the
acres of the earth. Elisha was an ag
riculturist, not culturing n ten acre lot
for in my text you find him plowing
with twelve yoke of oxen before him
and he with the twelfth. In Bible times
the land was so plenty and the inhabi
tants so few that Noah was right wher
he gave to every inhabitant a certain
portion of land; that land, if cultured
ever after to be his own possession.
They were not small crops raised il
those times, for though the arts were
rude the plow turned up very rich soil
and barley and cotton and flax and al
kinds of grain came up at the call O
the harve3ters. Pliny tells of one stall
of grain that had on it between three
| and four hun6rad ears The rivers anC
the brooks, through artificial channels
were brought down to the roots of th'
corn, and to this habit of turning q
river wherever it was wanted Solomon
refers when he says: ''The kings heart
is in the hand Of the Lord, and he
turneth it as the rivers of water are
turned, whithersoever he will"
The wild beasts were caught, anc
then hook was put into their nose
and then they were led over the field
and to that God refers when he says tt
wicked Sennacherib: 81 will put {
hook in thy nose and l will bring thee
back by the way which thou earnest.
And God has hook in every mans
nose, whether it be NebuchadnezZar O
Ahab or Herod. He may think him
self very independent, but some time il
his life or in the hour of his death h
will find that the Lord Almighty has ;
hook in his nose.
This was the rule in regard to tn
culture of the ground: '"Thou shalt no
| DlOw with an OK and an ass together