Peninsula enterprise. [volume] (Accomac, Va.) 1881-1965, 1896-02-22
THE BIBLES SICKLE.
ITS HARVEST FAR GREATER THAN
THE TEMPORAL GARNERlN0.


DR.. Talmnee breaches o Moving Sermon
on bringing In tho sheaves"-The Pow
or of Christian Song-A Cure In One
Drop OF the Divine Elixir.
WASHINGTON, Feb. 16. "A change
has taken place. DR.. Talmage when
first coming to Washington preached on
ly Sunday evenings, but 30 great has
been the demand for his services that he
now breaches Sunday morning and even
ing and takes charge of the Thursday
evening meeting. The throngs are i'm
mense. The subject Of his sermon for
today was, Bringing In the Sheaves. .
the text being Joel iii, IS, "Put ye IN
the sickle, for the harvest is ripe. "
The sword has been poetized, and the
world has celebrated the sword of Boil
var, the sword Of Cortes and the sword
of Lafayette. The pen has been properly
eulogized, and the world has celebrated
the pen of Addison, the pen of Southey
and the pen of Irving. The painters
pencil has been honored, and the world
has celebrated the pencil of Murillo, the
pencil of Rubens and the pencil of Bier
stadt. The sculptor's chisel has col in
for high encomium, and the worl has
celebrated Chantreys chisel and c. aw-
ford's chisel and Greenough's chisel.
Bat there is one instrument about which
I sing the first canto that was ever sung
the sickle, the sickle of the Bible, the
sickle that has reaped the harvest OF
many centuries. Sharp and bent into
semicircle and glittering, this reaping
hook, no longer than your arm, has
furnished the bread for thousands OF
years. Its success has produced the
wealth of nations. 1t has had more to dc
with the worlds progress than sword
and pen and pencil and chisel all put
together. Christ puts the sickle into ex-
ouisite sermonic simiie, and you see that
instrument fash all up and down the
Apocalypse as St. John swings it. while
through Joel in my text God commands
the people, as through his servants now
he commands them, Put ye in the
sickle, for the harvest is ripe. "
Richer Hsrvests.
Last November there was great re-
joicing all over the land. With trumpet
and cornet and organ and thousand
voiced psalm we praised the Lord for
the temporal harvests. We praised God
for the wheat, the rye, the oats, the cot
ton, the rice, all the fruits of the or
chard and all the grains of the field,
aud the nation never does better thing
than when in the autumn it gathers to
festivity and thanks God for the great
ness of the harvest. But l come today
to speak to you of richer harvests, even
the spiritual. How shall we estimate
the value of q man? We say he is worth
SO many dollars, or he has achieved such
and such position, but we know very
we'll there are some men at the top OF
the ladder who ought to be at the bot
tom and some at the bottom who ought
to be at the top, and the only way to
estimate man is by his soul. We al
know that we shall live.forever. Death
cannot kill US. Other crafts may be
drawn into the whirlpool or shivered on
tho rocks, but this life within US will
weather. all storms and drop no anchor,
and 10000 900 years after death will
shake out signals on the high seas OF
eternity. You put the mendicant of
your doorstep and say be is only beg
gar, but he is worth all the gold of the
mountains, worth all the pearls Of the
sea, worth the solid earth, worth sun
and moon and stars, worth the entire
material universe. Take all the paper
that ever came from the paper mills and
put it side by side and sheet by sheet,
and let men with heetest pens make fig
ures on that paper for 10000 years, and
thoy will only have begun to express
the value of the soul. Suppose I owned
Colorado and Nevada and Australia, OF
how much value would they be to me
one moment after I departed this life
How much of Philadelphia does Stephen
Girard own today? How much of Bos
ton property does Abbott Lawrence OWL
today? The man who today hath dol.
lar in his pocket hath more worldly es'
tate than the millionaire who died last
year. How do you suppose feel, stand.
ing here surrounded by multitude OF
souls, each one worth more than the
material universe?
A Powerful Sickle.
Oh, was 1 not right in saying this
spiritual harvest is richer than the tenn
poral harvest? 7 must tighten the CIR
+ die, 1 must sharpen the sickle, must
be careful how 1 swing the instrument
for gathering the grain, lest one STALL
be lost. One of the most powerful sic
kles for reaping this spiritual harvest is
the preaching of the gospel. If the sic
kle have a rosewood handle, and it be
adorned with precious stones, and yet ii
cannot bring down the grain, it is not
much of sickle, and preaching amounts
to nothing unless it harvests souls 7ol
God. Shall we preach philosophy? The
Ralph Waldo Emersons could beat u'
at that. Shall we preach science? The
Agassizes could beat US at that. The
minister of Jesus Christ with weakest
arm going forth in earnest prayer, and
welding this sickle of the gospel, shal
find the harvest all around him waiting
! for the angel sheaf binders. Oh, this
harvest Of souls ] notice in the field:
| that the farmer did not stand upright
when he gathered the grain. noticed
he had to stoop to his work, and no
ticed in order to bind the sheaves the
, better he had to put his knee upon them.
/ And as we 60 forth in this work fol
! God we cannot stand upright in oul
\ rhetoric and our metaphysics and oul
erudition. We have to stoop to ou1
work. Aye, we have to put our knee tc
it or we will never gather sheaves fol
the Lords garner. Peter swung thai