The Camden chronicle. (Camden, Tenn.) 1890-current, 1896-11-13
REV. DIR. TALMAGE.
rHH NOTED DIvINEs SUNDAY
DISCOURSE.
Subject "Oospel Farming"


miles Of harvest felds I can hardly open my
Bible without smelling the breath OF new
mown hay aud seeing the golden Light of tho
whoat field. And when ! open my Bible %
lake my text, the Scripture leaf rusllos like
the tassels of the corn
We were nearly an Of us born ln tho com
try, We dropped corn Ia the hIl and went
on Saturday to the mill. tying the grist In
the centre Of the sack 80 that the contents on
either side the horse balanced each othor;
aud drove the cattle hneld, our bare feet wet
with tho dew, and rode the horses With the
halter 20 the brook until wo ioll on. and
hunted the NOW Tor nests until the feathered
occupants went cackling away We were
nearly all OF us born 20 the country. aud an
would have stayed th6ro had not some nd
ventur0us Lad on his vacation come back
with better clothes aud softer hands and SET
the whole village On lre with ambition for
city lile 50 we all understand rustic allus-
ions. The Bible Is full OF them. In Chust's
Sermon on the Mount you could see the FULL
blown lilies andthe glossy back oithe crows
wings as Il lios over Mount O,lvet. David
and John. Paul and Isaiah lnd On country
life a source Of frequent illustration, while
Christ In the text takes the responsibility Of
calling God a farmer, declarlng' Only Father
IS the husbaudman."
Noah was the first farmer We say nothing
about Cain, the uller OF the soil. Adam was
a gardener on a large scale, but 10 Noah was
given all the acres OF the earth. Elisha was
"a agriculturst not cultivating n ten-acre
lot, for wo find him blowing with twelve
yoke Of oxen. In Bible times the land was
so plenty aud the inhabitants 50 few that
Noah was right when he gave 10 every i1-
habI,ant a certain portion OF land, that land
~ cultivated ever after 10 be his own possess
6ou.
They were not small crops raised In those
times, Tor though the arts Wer5 rude. the
pillow turned up very rich soil. and barley
and cotton and fax and all KINDS Of grain
came up at the call ofthe harvesters. Plny
tells OF one stalk OF grain that had on It be-
tween three and four hundred ears. The
rivers and the brooks, through artificial
channels, were brought down 10 the roots Of
the corn, and tothis habit Of turning a river
wherever il was wanted, Solomon refers
when he says: 1.-THE kings heart Is Ia the
hand Of the Lord. and He turneth II as the
rivers OF water are turned, whithersoever He
viii"
The Wild beasts were caught, and then a
hook was put into their nose. and then they
were led over the field, and to that God re-
iers when He says to wicked Sennacherib:
81 will put a hook in thy nose and viii
bring thee back by the way which thou
Gamest" And God has a hook IN every bad
mans nose. whether II be Nebuchadnezzar or
Ahab or Herod. He may think himself very
independent, but some time In his life, OF ia
the hour Of his death, he will End that the
Lord Almighty has O hook IN his nose.
This was the rule In regard 70 the culture
oithe ground: "Thou shalt not pillow with
an OK and an ass together" illustrating the
folly Of ever putting intelligent and useful
and pliable men in association with the
stubborn and unmanageable. The vast ma
jority OF troubles In the churches and in re-
fOrmMory institutions comes from the disre-
gard Of this command Of the Lord, "Thou
shalt not plow with an OK and an ass to-
gether'
TEtre were large amounts Of property in
vested in cattle. The MOabites paid 100, 900
sheep as an annual tag, Job had 1000 sheep,
5000 camels, 800 yoke OF oxen. The time oil
vintage was usherei in with mirth and
music. The clusters Of the vine were put
into the wine press, and then five men would
get into the press and trample out the Juice
from the grape until their garments were
saturated with the wine and bad become the
emblems Of slaughter. Christ Himself.
wounded until covered with the blood OF
crucihxion, making use OF this allusion when
the question was asked: Wherefore art
Thou red in Thine apparel and Thy garments
like one who treadeth the wine vat2n He re-
| sponded ~ haze trod len the wine press
alone"
In all ages there has been great honor paid
| to agriculture. Seven-eights Of the people
| in every country are disciples OF the pillow
A government IS strong 10 proportion as 1t Is
| supported by an athletic and industrious
| yeomanry. So long ago as before the fall OF
| Carthage, Strabo wrote twenty-eight books
on agriculture; Hesiod wrote a poem on the
same subiect-"Ihe Weeks and Days" Cato
| was prouder Of his work on husbandry than
| of al his military conquests. But l must
| not he tempted into discussion of agricul.
| tural conquests. Standinga mid the harvests
| and orchards and vineyards ofthe Bible, and
standing amid the haryests and orchards and
| vineyards Of our own cOuntry--larger har-
| vests than have ever before been gathBred-I
want to run out the analogy between the
| production of crops and thegrowth OF grace
| In the soul-all these sacred writers making
use Of that analogy.
In the first place, remark, in grace rs in
the fields, there must be pillow. That which
! theologians call conviction IS only the plow.
share turning up the sins that have been
| rooted and matted In the soul. A farmer
said to his indoent son: "There are
hundred dollars buried deep in that field. ,
The son went to work and ploWed the fleli
| from Ience 10 fence, and he plowed II yer
deep. and then complained that he had no
found the money: but when the crop hac
been gathered and sold for hundred dollar.
more than any previousyear, then the young
man took the hint as to what his father
meant when he said there were hundred
dollars, buried down In that field. Deer
blowing for crop. Deep blowing for /
soui. He who makes light Of sin will never
amount to anything in the church or in the
world. II a man speaks OF sin as though il
were an inaccuracy or a mistake instead O
the loathsome, abominable. consuming anC
damning thing that God hates, thar man
will never yield harvest Of usefulness.
When / was a boy plowed field will
a team OF spirited horses Iplowed 1t yer,
quickly. Once in while l passed owe
some OF the sod without turning it, but l dix
not jerk back the plow with its rafting de
vices. j thought II made no difference
Alter awhile my father came along and said
'WhY, this will never do; this isn't plowe,
deep enough; there you have missed thi
and you have missed that" Ana he plowe,
it over again. The difficulty with L grea
many people is that they.ave only scratche,
with conviction when the subsoil pillow o
Gods truth ought to be put in up to tn,
| baam