The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1896-10-23

my text the scripture leaf rustles like
the tassels of the corn.
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 of the
horse balanced each other; and drove
the cattle afield, our bare feet wet
with 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
awav. We were nearly all of US born
in the country, and all would have
s'ayrd there had not some ad-
venturous lad on his vacation come
back with better clothes and softer
hands, and set the whole village on
fire with ambition for city life. So we
all understand rustic illusions The
Bible is full of them. In Christ's SER
mon on the mount you could 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 source of
frequent illustration. while Christ in
the text takes the responsibility of
calling God farmer, declaring: My
Father is the husbandmaD."
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
agriculturist, not cultivating a ten
acre lot, for we find him blowing with
~ yoke of oxen. In Bible times the
land was so plenty and the inha bitants
so few that Noah was right when he
gave to every inhabitant a certain por-
ton of Land; that land, if cnltiva ted.
ever after 70 he his own possession.
Just as in Nebraska the United States
government on payment of $40 years
ago gave pre-emptiun right to 100 acres
to any man who would settle there
and cultivate the soil.
All classes.of people were expected
to cultivate ground except ministers of
religion. 1t was supposed that they
would have their time entirely occupied
with their OVID profession, although !
am told that sometimes ministers do
plunge so deeply into worldliness that
they remind one of what Thomas
Fraser said in regard to man in his
day who preached very well but lived
very i'll: when he is out of the pulpit,
it is a pity he should ever go into it,
and when he is in the pulpit, it is a pity
he should ever come out of it"
Al, l. Al
culture of the ground: Thou shalt
not pillow with an OK and an ass to-
gether." illustrating the folly of ever
putting intelligent and useful and pill
able men in association with the stub
born and unmanageable. The vast
majority of troubles in the churches
and in reformatory institutions comes
from the disregard of this copmand of
the Lord, Thou shalt not plow with
an OK and an ass together" In all
ages there has been greater honor paid
TO agriculture. Seven-eights of the
people in every country are dis
ciples of the pillow. A govern
ment is strong in proportion as
it is supported by an athletic and
Industrious yeomanry. So long ago as
before the fall of Carthage, Strait |
wrote % books on agriculture; Hesiod |
wrote a poem on the same subject
1.-The Weeks and Days" Cato was
prouder of his work on husbandry |
than of all his military conquests. But |
l must not be tempted into discussion |
of agricultural conquests. Standing |
amid the harvests and orchards and |
vineyards of the Bible, and standing |
amid the harvests and orchards and |
of our own country-larger |
harvests than have ever before been |
want to run out the |
analogy between the production of |
crops and the growth of grace in the |
soul-all these sacred writers making |
use of that analogy.
In the first place, remark. in grace
as in fields there must be pillow. That
which theologians call conviction is
only the plowshare turning up the sins
that have been rooted and matted in
the soul. A farmer said to his indolent |
son: There are 500 buried deep in
that field" The son went to work and
plowed the field from fence to fence,
and he plowed it very deep, and then
that he had not found
the money; but when the crop
1ad been gathered and sold for
800 more than any previous
year, then the young man took the
hint as to what his father meant when
ne said there were 500 buried down
n the field. Deep blowing for crop.
Deep blowing for a soul. He who
makes light of sin will never amount
% anything in the church or in the
world. If a man speaks OF sin as
hough it were an inaccuracy or mis-
axe, instead of the loathesome. abomi-
Ia Bile, consuming and damning things
hat God hates, that man will never
Yield harvest of usefulness.
My word is to all Sabbath school
eachers, to all parents, to all Christian
deepI Plow deep!
deep blowing for a crop Deep plow-
ng for a soul. Broken heart or no re-