The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1892-12-09
TALMAGE's SERMON.
The corn-Husking Season and the
~ Lessons It Teaches.
The Ear and the Husk Typical of the Soul
and Body of Man, and the Great
Harvester May at Any Time
Demand the Ear.

80 shock OF corn cometh II In bis season.
Jcbv., 20.
THIS is the time of the year for husk-
ing corn. If you have recently been in
the fields of Pennsylvania, or New Jer-
sey, or New York, or Kew England, or
in any of the country districts, you
know that the corn is all cut. The
sharp knife stuck through the stalks
and left them all along the fields until
man came with a bundle of straw and
twisted few of these wisps of straw
into a band, and then, gathering up as
much of the corn as he could compass
with his arms, he bound Il with this
wisp of straw, and then stood it in the
field in what is called a shock There
are now at least two billion bushels of
corn either standing in the shock or
having been already huslSed The farm
ers gather, one day on one farm, and
they put on their rough husking apron,
and they take the husking peg, which
IS piece of iron with leathern loop
fastened to the hand, and with It un-
sheath the corn from the husk and toss
.itipto golden heap Then the wagons
come along and take it to the corn
crib EA
About corn as an important cereal or
corn as a metaphor the Bible is con-
stantly speaking. You know about the
people in famine coming to buy corn of
Joseph, and the foxes on fire running
into the standing corn" and about the
oxen treading out the corn, and about
the seven thin ears of corn that in
Pharaoh's dream devoured the seven
4 49, a
handed to beautiful Ruth by the har-
vesters of bethlehem, and Abigails
five measures of ''parched corn" with
which she hoped to appease the enc
mles of her drunken husband, and Da-
vid's description of the valleys Gov
cred over with corn" and ''the hand
full of corn in the earth, and ''the full
corn in the ear" and Christ's Sabbath
morning walk through corn fields, and
the disciples ''pluclxing ears of corn"
and so / am not surprised to find corn
huslxing time referred to in my text:
''As a shock of corn cometh in in his
seasons
How wildly to all those of us who
were born in the country comes the re-
membrance of husking time. We
waited for it as for gala day of the
year. 1t was called frolic. The
trees for the most, part having shed
their foliage, tRe farmers waded
through the fallen leaves and came
through the keen morning air to the
gleeful company. The frosts which
had silvered everything during the
night began to melt off the top of the
,orn-shocks. While the farmers were
waiting for others, they stood blowing
their breath through their fingers, or
thrasing their arms around their body
to keep up warmth of circulation.
Roaring mirth greeted the late farmer
as he crawled over the fence. Joke
and repartee and rustic salutation
abounded. All ready, nowl The men
tRlOe-hold of the shock Of corn and hurl
it prostra te, while the moles and mice
which have secreted themselves there
for warmth, attempt to escape. The
withe of straw is unwound from the
,orn-shock, and the stalks, heavy with
the wealth of grain, are rolled into
two bundles, between which the husler
sits down. The huslxing-peg is thrust
inf until it strikes the corn, and then
the fingers rip off the sheathing of the
ear, and there is crack as the root of
the corn is snapped off from the husk,
and the grain disimprisoned is hurled
up into the sunlight. The air is so
tonic, the work is SO very exhilarating,
the company is so blithe, that some
laugh, and some shout, and some sing,
and some banter, and, some tease a
neighbor for a romantic ride along the
edge of the woods in an eventide. in a
carriage that holds but two, and some
prophesy as to the number of bushels
| to the field, and others go into competi-
ton as to which shall rifle the most
| sorn-shocks before shutdown. After a
while the dinner-horn sounds from the
farmhouse. and the ia BILE is surrounded
by a group of jolly and hungry men.
From all the pantries and cellars and
the perches of fowl on the place the
richest dainties come, and there is
carnival and neighborhood reunion,
and a scene which fills our memory,
part with smiles, but more with tears,
as we remember that the farm belongs
now to other owners, and other hands
gather in the fields, and many of those
who mingled in that merry husking
scene have themselves been reaped,
''like as a shock of corn cometh in in
his season"
+ There is n difference of opinion as to
whether the Orientals knew ANYTHING
about the corn as it now stands in our
fields: bnt recent discoveries have
found out that the Hebrews knew all
about Indian maize, for there have
been grains of corn picked up out of
ancient crypts and exhumed from hid
ing places where they were put down
many centuries ago, and they have been
planted in our time and have come up
just such Indian maize as we raise in
New. York and Ohio; SOL am right
when / say that my text may refer to a
shock of-corn just as you and bound
~, inst as you and l threw il, just as
you and / hnskGd- There may come
some practical and useful and comfort
ing lessons to all of our souls, while we
think of coming in at last like
shock sf corn coming in in his season"
=. 1t Is hig h time that the king of ter
rors were thrown out of the Christian
vocabulary. A vast multitude of people
talk of death as though it were the dis
aster of disasters, instead of being to
a good man the blessing of blessings
It-is moving out of cold vestibule into
a warm temple--sIt is migrating into
groves of redolence and perpetual fruit
age 1t is a change from bleak March
to roseate June. 1t is change of man
acles for garlands. 1t is the transmit
ing ofsthe iron handouts of earthly in
generation into the diamonded wrist