Decorah public opinion. (Decorah, Winneshiek County [Iowa]) 1895-1928, 1896-10-27

is supported by an athletic and in
dustrious yeomanry. So long ago as
before the fall of Carthage. Strabo
wrote twenty-eight books on agricul-
ture; Hesiod wrote poem on the same
subject-"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 discus
sion of agricultural conquests. Stand
ing amid the harvests and orchards
and vineyards of the Bible, and stand
ing amid the harvests and orchards
and vineyards of our own country
larger harvests than have ever before
been gathered-I want to run out the
analogy between the production of
crops and the growth of grace in the
soul-all these sacred writer's making
use of that analogy.
In the first place, 1 remark, in grace
as in the fields. there must be pillow.
That which theologians call convic-
ton is only the plow-share turning
up the sins that have been rooted and
matted in the soul. A farmer said to
his indoient son: "There are hun
dred dollars buried deep in that field"
The son went to work and plowed the
field from fence to fence, and he plow-
ed 1t very deep, and then complained
that he had not found the money;
but when the crop had been ge.her-
ed and sold for a hundred dollars more
than any previous year, then the
\ fn1ly he M ~. IN what
his father meant when he said there
were a hundred dollars buried down
in that field. Deep blowing for a crop.
Deep blowing for a SOUL He who
MAKES light of sin will never amount
to anything In the church or In the
world. II man speaks of sin as
though it were an inaccuracy or a mis-
take, instead of the loathesome.
abominable, consuming. and damning
thing that God hates, that man will
never yield harvest of usefulness.
When l was a boy I plowed field
with team of spirited horses. l
plowed it very quickly. Once in a
while I passed over some of the sod
without turning it, but l did not jerk
back the plow with its rafting de-
vices. / thought it made no differ
ence. 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 difficulty with great
many people is that they are only
scratched with conviction when the
subsoil pillow 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 Chris
tian w0rkers-Plow deep! Plow deep!
And if in your own personal expert
ence you are apt to take lenient view
of the sinful side of your nature, put
down into your soul the ten command
ments which reveal the holiness of
God, and that sharp and glittering
coulter will turn up your soul to the
deepest depths. IL man breaches TO
you that you are only little out of
order by reason Of sin and that you
need only a little fixing-up, he de-
ceives! You have suffered an appalling
injury by reason of sin. There are
quick poisons and slow poisons, but the
druggist could give you one drop that
could 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 blowing for crop. Deep plow-
D..nl- han
religion. Broken soil or no harvest.
Why was 1t that David and the jailer
and the publican and Paul made such
ado about their sins? Had they lost
their senses? No. The plow-share
struck them. Conviction turned up a
great many things that were forgotten.
AS a farmer blowing sometimes turns
up the skeleton of man or the an
atomy of monster long ago buried,
so the plow-share of conviction turns
up the CHASTITY skeletons Of sins long
ago entombed. Biologists never
brought up from the depths of the
mountain mightier ichthyosaurus Or
megatherium.
But what means all this crooked
Moving. these crooked burrows the re-
pentance that amounts to nothing, the
repentance that ends in nothing? Men
groan over their sins, but get no bet
ter. They weep, but their tears are
not counted. They get convicted, but
not converted. What is the reason?
| remember that on the farm we set
standard with red flag at the
other end of the field. We kept our eye
on that. We aimed at that We plow-
ed ND to that Losing sight of that We
made a crooked furrow. Keeping our
eye on that we made straight fur
row. Now in this matter of conviction
we must have some standard to guide
US. 1t is red standard that God has
set at the other end of the field. 1t
other end Of the field. We kept our eye
that you will make straight furrow.
Losing sight of il you will make a
crooked furrow. Plow up TO the Cross.
Aim not at either end of the horizontal
piece of the Cross, but at the upright
piece, at the center of it, the heart of
the Son of God who bore your sins
and made satisfaction. Crying and
weeping will not bring you through.
Him hath God exalted to be Prince
and Saviour to give repentance" Oh,
rlow up to the Cross,