Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1890-08-18
Their religion is a system of nsgstions.
You say to one of them


"Well, don't believe in infant bap-
tism. - "what do you believer"
"Well, I don't believe in the perse-
yerance of the saints 'Well, now
tell me what you do believe?'' "Well,
l don t believe in the eternal punish
ment of the wicked. - SO their religion
is q row OF ciphers. Believe something
and teach it; or, to resume the figure of
my text, scatter abroad the right kind
| of seed
| minister In New York preached
sermon calculated to set the denomina-
lions of Christians quarreling. He was
sowing nettles. A minister In Boston
advertised that he would preach SER
mon on the superiority of transcendental
! and organized forces TO untranscen-
dental and unorganized forces. What
was he sowing?
The Lord Jesus Christ nineteen centu-
rIes ago planted the divine seed OF doc
trine. 1t sprang up. On one side OF the
stalk are all the churches of Christen-
| dom. On the other side of the stalk are
| all the free governments of the earth,
and on the top there shall be Towering
millennium after awhile. All from the
| Gospel seed of doctrine. Every word
| that parent or Sabbath-schooi teacher
worker speaks for Christ comes up. Yea,
it comes up with compound interest
you saving one soul, that one saving
ten, the ten 100, Ehe 100 1000, the 1000
10 900, the 10, 900 100, 000-on, on for
ever.
Again, 1 remark, in grace as in the
farm there must be narrowing. re-
fer now not to harrow that goes over
the field in order to
PREPARE THE GROUND
for the seed, but harrow which goes
over after the seed is sown, lest the
birds pick up the seeds, sinking it down
into the earth so that it can take root.
There are new kinds of harrow, but the
harrow as l remember it was made of
bars of wood nailed across each other
aud the under side of each bar was
furnished with sharp teeth, and when
the horses were hitched TO It, it went
tearing and leapiug across the field,
driving the seed down into the earth I'M
til it sprung up in the harvest. Be-
reavement, sorrow, persecution are the
Lord IS harrows to sink the Gospel truth
into your heart. There were truths tina
you heard thirty years ago that have not
affected you until recently. Some
great trouble came over you, and the
up. What did God mean IN this coun-
try in 1857? For a century there was the
Gospel preached. but a great deal of it
produced no result. Then God harnessed
u wild panic to harrow of commercial
disaster, and that harrow went down
Wall street and up Wall street, down
Third street and up Third street, down
State street and up State street until the
whole lane was torn to pieces as it had
never been before. What followed the
harrow? A great awakening in which
there were 500 900 souls brought IN to the
kingdom of our Lord. No harrow, no crop
Again, remark, in grace as in the farm
there must be reaping. Many Chris
tiaus speak of religion as though it were
q matter of economics OF insurance.
They expect to reap in the next world.
Oh, mol
NOW IS THE TINE TO REAP.
Gather up the JOY of the Christian relig-
ion this morning, this afternoon, this
night. If you have not as much grace
as you would like to have, thank God
for what you have, and pray for more.
You are no worse enslaved than Joseph,
no worse trou led than was David, no
worse scourged than was Paul. Yet,
amid the rafting of letters, and amid
Luo hHu dluUl tue
horror of shipwreck, they triumphed in
the grace of God. The weakest man
here has 500 acres of spiritual joy all
ripe. Why do you not go and
reap it? You have been groan-
ing over your lnfirmities tor thirty
years. Now give one round shout over
your emancipation. You say you have
it SO hard; you might have it worse.
You wonder why this great cold trouble
keeps revolving through your soul, turn
ing and turning, with a black hand on
the crank. All, that trouble is the
griDdstone on which you are to sharpen
your sickle. TO the feldsl Wake upl
Take off your green spectacles, your blue
spectacles, your black spectacles. Pull
up the corners of your mouth as far as
you pull them down. To the fields
Reapl Reap!
Again, remark, in grace as in farm
ing there is time for threshing. tell
you bluntly that is death. Just as a
farmer beats the wheat out OF the straw,
so death beats the soul out of the body.
Every sickness is a stroke of the fail,
and the sickbed is the thres hing floor.
What, say you, is death to a good man
only taking the wheat out of the straw
That is all. An aged man has fallen to
eieep. OuIy Yesterday you saw MIN III
the sunny porch playing with his grand
children. Calmly he received the mes
sage to leave this world. He babe
pleasant goodby to his old friends. The
telegraph carries the tidings, and on
swift railtrains the kindred come, want
ing once more to look on the face OF dear
old grandfather. Brush back the gray
hairs from his brow.
WIFI ACHE
Put him away in the slumber of the
tomb. He will not be afraid of that
night. Grandfather was never afraid of
anything. He will rise in the morning
Of the resurrection. Grandfather was
always the first to rise. His voice has
already mingled in the doxology of
heaven. Grandfather always did sing
in church. Anything CHASTITY in that?
No. Threshing of the wheat out of the
straw. That is all.
The Savior folds lamb in His bosom.
The little child filled all the house with
her music, and her toys are scattered all
up and down the stairs just as she left
them. What If the hand that plucked
four-o CLOCKS out of the meadow Is still?
1t will wave the eternal triumph. What
If the voice that made music in the homo
is still? 1t will sing the eternal hosauna,