Democratic Northwest and Henry County news. [volume] (Napoleon, O. [Ohio]) 1894-1905, 1896-02-20
THE TRUMPET BLAST
REV. Or. TALMAeE ON "sRINeINe
IN THE sHEAvEs."

REV. on. TALMAeE ON "eRINelNe
IN THE sHEAvEs."
He shows How Some Mighty sickIes May
Be Used For the Gospel Harvest-A Pow
erfaI Sermon TO an Immense Throng.
WASHINGTON, Feb. 16.-A change has
taken place. DR.. Talmage when first COM
ing to Washington preached. only Sunday
evenings, but so great has been the de-
mand for his services that he now breaches
Sunday morning and eveiAng and takes
charge of the Thursday evening meeting.
The throngs are immense. The subject Of
his sermon for today was Bringing In
the Sheaves," the text being Joel iii, 13,
"Put ye in the sickle, for the harvest is
ripe"
The sword has been poetized, and the
world has celebrated the sword of Bolivar,
the sword Of Cortes and the sword OF La
fayette. The pen has been properly eulo-
gized, 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 oele-
brated the pencil of Murillo, the pencil of
Rubens and the pencil of Bierstadt. The
sculptor's chisel has come In for high
enoomium, and the world has celebrated
Chantrey's chisel, and Crawfords chisel,
and Greenough' chisel. But there is one
instrument about which sing the first
oanto 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 gilt
tering, this reaping hook, no longer than
your arm, has furnished the bread for
thousands of years. Its success has pro-
duced the wealth Of nations. 1t has had
more to do with the worlds progress than
sword and pen and pencil and chisel all
put together. Christ puts the sickle into
exquisite sermonic simile, and you see
that instrument flash 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"
Estimate OF Values.
Last November there was great rejoicing
all over the land. With trumpet and cor
net and organ and thousand voiced psalm
we praised the Lord for the temporal har-
vests. We praised God for the wheat, the
rye, the oats, the cotton, the rice, all the
fruits of the orchard and all the grains of
the field, and the nation never does bot
ter thing than when in the autumn 1t
gathers to festivity and thanks God for
the greatness of the harvest. But come
today to speak to you Of richer haryests,
even the spiritual. How shall we estimate
the value Of manP We say he Is worth
SO many dollars, or he has achieved such
and such position, but we know very
well there are some men at the top Of the
ladder who ought to be at the bottom and
some at the bottom who ought to be at
the top, and the only way to estimate a
man Is by his soul We all know that we
Other crafts may be drawn into the whirl-
pool or shivered on the rocks, but this life
within us will weather all storms and
drop no anchor and 100000 years after
death will shake out signals on the high
seas Of eternity. You put the mendicant
off your doorstep and say he is only beg
gar, but he Is worth all the gold of the
mountains, worth oil the pearls of the sea,
worth the solid earth, worth sun and moon
and stars, worth the entire material uni
verse. Take all tho paper that ever came
from the paper mills and put 1t side by
side and sheet by sheet and let men with
fieetest pens make figures on that paper
for 10, 900 years, and they 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 departed
this life? How much of Philadelphia does
Stephen Girard own today2 How much
of Boston property does Abbott Lawrence
own today2 The man who today hath q
dollar in his pocket hath more worldly es
tate than the millionaire who died last
year. How do you suppose feel, stand
| ing hero surrounded by a multitude o.
| souls, each one worth more than the ma
| terial universal Oh, was I not right II
| saying this spiritual harvest is richer thar
| the temporal harvest? must tighten th,
| girdle. must sharpen the sickle. linus
| be careful how swing the instrument fol
| gathering the grain lest one stalk be lost
| One of the most powerful siokles fo
rcaping this spiritual harvest Is the preach
ing Of the gospel. If the sickle have
| rosewood handle, and it be adorned will
| precious stones, and yet it cannot bring
| down the grain, 1t is not much of sickle
and preaching amounts to nothing unles
| it harvests souls for God. Shall we preacl
philQsophve The Ralph Waldo Emerson
i could beat us at that. Shall we preac
scieneep The Agassizes beat us at that
The minister Of Jesus Christ with weakes
arm going forth in earnest prayer an
II welding this sickle Of the gospel shall fin
il the .s.:aervest oil around him waiting 70
the angel sheaf binders. Oh, this harves
of soulsl I notice in the fields that th
farmer did not stand upright when
gathered the grain. I noticed he had t
stoop to his work, and I noticed in orde
to bind tho sheaves the better he had t
put his knee upon them. And as we g
forth in this work for God we cannot stan
upright In our rhetoric and our metaphys
les and our erudition. We have to stoo
to our work. Aye, we have to put on
knee to ii, or we will never gather sheaye
for the Lords garner. Peter swung tha
/ sickle on the day cof Penteeost, and 80
sheayes caine In. Richard Baxter swun
that sickle at Kidderminster, and Ms
Cheyne al Dundee, and vast .nuiVlpuu'
caiiie into the kingdom OF our eoo,
The Mighty Gosl. si'
/ oh, this is a mighty gospel lpsss5pOure
not only John, the lamb, but Paul, On
Lion. Men. may gnash their teeth at it an
clinch their fists, but it is the power {
God and the wisdom Of God unto saliva
tion. But, alas, if 1t Is only preached i
pulpits and on Sabbath days! We must 9
forth into our stores, our shops, our bank
ing houses, our factories, and the streets
and everywhere preach Christ. We stan
in our pulpits for 2 hours on the Sal
bath and commend Christ to the people
but there are 1853 hours in the week, an
what are tho 2 hours on the Sabbat
against the 1866? Oh, there comes dow
the ordination of God this day upon a
| II. -. E1ii ixxystI nv,