The Sussex Countian and Laurel gazette., 1896-10-24

viii ''
In all ages there has been great
honor paid to agriculture. Seven
eights of the people in every country
are disciples of the plow A govern
ment is strong in proportion as it is
supported by an active and industrious
yeomanry. So long ago as before the
fall of Carthage, Strabc wrote 2S books
on agriculture; 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 | must not be tempted
into a discussion of agricultural con-
quests. Standing amid the harvests
and orchards and vineyards of the
Bible, and standing amid the harvests
and orchards and Vineyards of our own
country-larger harvests than have
ever before been gathered-I want to
run ont the analogy between the pro
iuc.ion of crops and the growth of
grace in the soul-all these sacred
writer's making use of that analogy.
In the frs. place / remark, in grace
us in the fields, there must be pillow.
That which theologians call convic-
lion 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 hundred
dollars 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 complained that
he had not found the money; but when
the crop had been gathered and sold
for hundred dollars more than any
previous year, then the young man
took the hint as to what his father
meant when he said there was hum
lred dollars buried down in that field.
Deep plowing for crop. Deep plowihg
for soul. He who makes light of sin
will never amount to anything in the
church or in the world. If man
speaks of sin as though it were an in
accuracy or mistake, instead of the
loathsome, abominab,e, consuming
and damning thing that God hates,
that man will never yield harvest OF
usefulness
When l was a boy plowed "a field
with team of spirited horses.
plowed it very quickly. Once in a
while l passed over some of the sod
without turning it, but did not jerk
back the plow with its rattling devices.
| thought it made no difference After
4 while my father came along and
said, "Why, this will never do; that
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 peo-
ole is that they are only scratched with
conviction when the subsoil plow 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 workers-Plow deepl Plow deepl
And IL in your own personal expert
ence you are apt to take a 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. Ifa man breaches to
you that you are only little out OF
order by reason of sin. and that you
need only little fixing up, he deceives.
You have suffered an appalling injury
by reason of sin. There are quick
poisous and SLOW. .poisons, but the drug
gist 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.