Milford chronicle., 1896-02-21


exquisite sernonio smile, and you sec
that Instrument flash all up aud down the
Apocalypse ms st. John swings it, while
through joel in my text God commands
the people, as through his servants now
he commands them, "Putyo in tho sickle,
for the harvest is ripe"
Estimate Of Values.
Last November there was great rejoicing
all over tho Land. With trumpet and cor
net and organ and thousand voiced psalm
wo praised he Lord for the temporal har-
vests We praised God for the wheat the
rye, the OATS the cotton, the rice, all the
fruits OF tho orchard and all the grains Of
the field, and the iution never docs a bot
ter thing than when In the autumn il
gathers to festiyity and thanks God for
/ the greatness of The harvest. But l como
today To speak to you Of richer harvests,
| even the spiritual How shall we estimate
/ the value Of man? We say he is worth
/ so many dollars, or no has achieved such
and such position, but we know very
I wei there nre some mon at the top Of the
I ladder who ought to be ut the bottom and
some at the bottom who ought 10 BIO Rt
I the top, and the only way to estimate
man is by his soul We ell know that we
shall live forever. Death cannot kill as.
I Other crafts may be drawn into the whirl-
pool or slivered on tho rocks, but this life
within Us viii weather all storms and
drop no anchor and TO- GOO, coo years after
death viii shake cut signals on the high
seas Of eternity You put the mendicant
of your doorstep and say NE is only beg
gar, but lie is worth all the gold Of the
mountains, worth all tho pearls Of the sea
worth tho solid earth, worth sunand moon
and stars, worth tho entr0 material uni
verse Take all the paper that ever came
from the paper mills and put it side by
side and sheet by sheet and let men with
deotest pens make figures on that paper
for 10, 900 years, and they will only have
begun TO express the value Of tho soul.
Suppose I oN-ad Colorado and Nevada
aud Australia, Of how much value would
they be to me ono mouenbHfter I departed
this life? How much Of Philadelphia does
stephen Girard own today How much
of Boston property does AbBOtt Lawrence
own today? The man who today hath q
dollar in his pocket hath moro worldly es
tate chan tho millionaire who died last
year. How do you suppose feel, stand
ing here surrounded By multitadG Gf
souls, cnch one worth moro than the ma
terial uniyorsog Oh, was / not right in
saying this spiritual harvest Is richer than
tho temporal harvest? 1 must tighten tho
girdle, l must sharpen the sickle. 1 must
be careful how 1 swing the instrument for
gathering the grain lest one stalk be lost.
One Of the most powerful siGkles for
roaping this spiritual harvest is the preach
ing of the gospel. If tho sickle have q
rosewood handle, and it be adorned with
precious stones, and yet it cannot bring
down the grain. Ii is not much of q sickle
and preaching amounts to nothing unless
it harvests souls for God, Shall we preach
philosophy? The Ralph Waldo Emersons
could beat us at that Shall we preach
soionoa9 Tho Agassizes beat us at that.
The minister of Jesus Christ with weakest
arm going forth in earnest prayer ana
welding this sickle Of the gospel shall find
the harvest all around him waiting for
the angel sheaf binders. oh, this harvest
Of soulsl notice in the fields that the
farmer did not stand upright when he
gathered The grain. I noticed he had to
stoop to his work, and l noticed in order
Co bind tho sheaves the better no had to
pat his knee upon thcn. And rs we go
forth in this work for God We cannot stand /
upright In our rhetoric and our metaphys
jos and our erudition. We have to stoop
to our work. Aye, we have to put our
knee to it, OF we viii never gather shoayes I
for the Lords garner. Peior swung that
sickle on Ch0 Gay Of PentecOst and 3, 1000 .
shcavos came in. Richard Baxter swung I
that sickle at Kiddorminster, and Nc |
Chcyno at Dundee, and vast multitpdes
came into tho kingdom OF our God
THE Mighty Gospel,
Oh, this is q mighty gospel Itcaptured