Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1896-02-21
THE BIBLES SICKLE.
ITS HARVEST FAR GREATER THAN
THE TEMPORAL GARNERlNG.

DIR. TalmaCe breaches Moving Sermon
on "BrInglng In the sheaves"- Pow
or OF Christian song-A Cure In One
Drop of the Divine Elixir.
WASHINGTON, Feb 16. A change
has taken place. DR.. Talmage when
first coming to Washington preached on
ly Sunday evenings, but so great has
been the demand for his services that he
now breaches Sunday morning and even
ing and takes charge Of the Thursday
evening meeting. The throngs are i'm
mense. The subject Of his sermon for
today was, bringing In the Sheayes,
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 Boil
var, the sword Of Cortes and the sword
of Lafayette. The pen has been properly
euloeized, 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 celebrated the pencil Of Murillo, the
pencil Of Rubens and the pencil Of Bier
stadt, The sculptor S chisel has come in
for high encomium, and the world has
celebrated Chantrey's chisel and Craw-
ford's chisel and Greenoughs chisel.
But there is one instrument about which
sing the first canto 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 a
semicircle and glittering, This reaping
hook. no longer than your arm, has
furnished the bread for thousands OF
wears. Its success has produced 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 e1-
ouisite sermonic simile, and you see that
instrument fash 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. "
Richer Harvests.
Last November there was great re-
ioicing all over the land. With trumpet
and cornet and organ and thousand
voiced psalm we praised the Lord for
the temporal harvests. We praised God
for the wheat, the rye, the oats, the cot
ton. the rice, all the fruits Of the Or
chard and all the grains Of the field
and the nation never does better thing
than when in the autumn it gathers to
festiyity and thanks God for the great
ness of the harvest. But come today
to speak to you Of richer hSrvests, even
the spiritual. How shall we estimate
the value Of a man? We say he is worth
40 many dollars, or he has achieved such
and such a position, but we know very
wall there are some men at the top OF
the ladder who ought to be at the bot
tom and some at the bottom who ought
to be at the top, and the only way tC
estimate o man is by his soul. We al
know that we shall live forever. Deatf
cannot kill us. Other crafts may b'
drawn into the whirlpool or shivered oil
the rocks. but this life within Us VII
weather all storms and drop no anchor
and 10000, 900 years after death VII
shake out signals ON the high seas o.
eternity. You put the mendicant OF
YOUR doorstep and say he is only beg
gar. but he is worth all the gold OF thu
mountains, worth all the pearls of th'
sea, worth the solid earth, worth SUI
and moon and stars, worth the entir'
material universe. Take all the pape
that ever came from the paper mills an'
nut It side by side and sheet by sheet
and let men with fleetest pens make fig
ures on that paper for 10000 years, an'
they will only have begun to expires
the value Of the soul. Suppose l owne'
Colorado and Nevada and Australia, o
hew much value would they be to m
one moment after / departed this life
How much Of Philadelphia does stephel
0irard own todayl How much of Bos
ton property does Abbott Lawrence owl
today? The man who today hath dol
lar in his pocket hath more worldly es
tato than the. millionaire who died las
year. How do you suppose l feel, stand
ing here surrounded by multitude Q
ssuls. each ono worth more than tn
material universe9
A Powerful Sickle.
Oh, was l not tight in saying thi
spiritual harvest is richer than the ten
poral harvesti l must tighten the gii
die, 1 must sharpen the sickle, l mus
be careful how l swing the instrumen
for gathering the grain, lest one stai
} be lost. One OF the most powerful 81.
klsa for reaping this spiritual harvest