Sharp County record., 1890-09-04

men would get into the press and
trample out the juice from the grape
untl their garments were saturated
with the wine and had become the en-
blems of slaughter G4rist Himself
wounded until covered with the bood
of crucifxion, made use Of this 'dilu-
sion when the question was asked;
Wherefore art Thou red in Thine ap-
parel and Thy garments like one Wh9
treadeth the wine vat?" He responded:
Il have trodlen the wine press alone, -
In all ages there has been great honor
paid to agriculture. Seven-eighths OF tho
people in every country are disciples oil
the plow A governments is strong IN pro-
portion as it is supported by an athlet
ic and. industrious yoemanry. SO long
as before the fall of Carthage, Strabo
wrote twenty -eight books on agricult-
urc; Iesiod wrote poem ON the same
subject: "The Weeks and Days" cato
was prouder of his work on nus
bandry than all his military CEN
quests. But | must not be tempt
ed into a discussion of agricultural
conqucsts. Standing amid the harvcSts
and orchards and vineyards OF the Blbley
and standing amid the harVests and Or
chards and vineyards Of our own coun:.
try want to run out the analogy be-
tween the productions of crops and the
growth of grace in the soul-all these
sacred writers making use OF that an&'
ogy.
In the first place l remark, in grace
as in the fields there must be aploWI
That which theologians call conviction
is only the plow-share turning up the
sins that have been rooted and MATES
in the soul. A farmer said to his in
dolent son: There are one hundred
dollars buried deep in that felGd d., r@2,..l E3
son went to work and plOwdd tbo dsfu
from fence to fence and he ploWed 1t
very deep, and then complained
that he had not found the money,
but when the crop had been gath
cred and sold for 500 more than any
previous year, then the young man
took the hint as to what his father
meant when he said there were one hun
dred dollars buried down in the field.
Deep plowing for crop. Deep plowing
for soul. lie who makes light of sin
will never amount to any thing ip tho
church or in the world. It,e-1 man
speaks of sin as though it wG;o an in
accuracy or mistake, instead of the
loathsome, abominable, consuming and
damning thing that God hates, and
that will never yield harvest of use
fulness.
When l was a boy l plowed a field
with a team of spirited horses. plowed
it very quickly, Once in awhile l
passed over some of the sod without
turning it, but did not jerk back the
plow with its rattling clevises |
thought it made no difference. After
awhile my father came along and said:
"Why, this will never do; this isn't
plowed deep enough, there you have
missed this and you have missed that "
And he plowed it over again. The diff.
Guilty with great many people, is Thu
they are only scratched witH tonvithob,
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 Christian
workers-plow deep! And if in your
own personal experience you are apt to
take lenient view Of the sinful side
of your nature, put down into your soul
the ten commandments which reveal the
holiness Of Cod and that sharp and
glittering coulter will turn up your soul
to the deepest depths. If a man
breaches to you that you are only lit
tie out of order by reason of sin and
that you need only little fixing up he
deceives! You have suffered an APP
palling injury by reason of sin. There
are quick poisons and slow poisons, but
tho 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 plowing for crop. Deep plow-
ing for soul. Broken heart or no re-
ligion. Broken soul or no harvest, Why
was it that David and his jailer and the
publican and Paul made such ado about
their sins? Had they lost thoir senses?
No. The plow-sharo struck them. Con-
viction turned up u great many things
that wero forgotten. As % farmer plow-
ing sometimes turns up the skeleton OF
man or the anatomy Of monster long
ago buried, so the plow-shUro OF conyIc'
ton turns up tho CHASTITY skeletons OF
of sin long ago entombcd, Goologlsts
mover brought up from tho depths of the
mountain mightior ichthyosOurus OF
mogathcrium.
But what means all this crooked plow.
ing, thoso crooked furrows tho ropont-
Nnco that amounts to nothing, tho ro'
pcntanco that ends in nothing? Men
groon over their sins, but thoy get no
bottcr Thcy weep, but their tears are
not counted, They get convicted, but
not converted. What is tho reason? ]
remember that on tho farm we set u
standard with rod flag at tho other
end of tho field, We kept our oyo on
that We aimod ot that We plowcd
up to ,hot Losing sight of that we