Owingsville outlook. [volume] (Owingsville, Ky.) 1879-192?, 1896-10-22
GODS PLUNyME EN-.
Nho Must Harrow and Thrash and
Run Their burrows
Up to the Cross Men OF Holy Lives Who
Lived M Acriculturists- Ncttl-s MiN-
eel Win Grain Suwn for IA Harvest
OF SouIs-Tslmage's Sermon.

eel WIN Grain Suwn for IA Harvest
OF ouIs-Tslmage's sermon.
DIR Talmage = text Sunday was John
Nv, /: My father is the hushandman.'
This summer, having gone in differ
rnt directions over between 1000 and
1000 miles of harvest fields, can
hardly open my Bible without smelling
he breath of ncw-mown hay and see.
ng the golden light of the wheat field,
And when open my Bible to take my
text, the Scripture leaf rustlcs like the
taNs"ls of the corn.
We were nearly all of us born in the
country. We dropped corn in the hill,
md went on saturday To the MILL tying
he gr,st in the middle of the sack so
/ that the contents ON either side the
| norac balanced each other, and drove
The cattle EEcld, our bare feet wet
! with the dew. and rode the horses
with the halter TO the brook until
we fell of, and hunted the NOV for
nests until the feathered occupants
went cackling away. We were nearly
all of MS born in the country, and all
would have stayed there had not some
! adventurous lad ON his vacation come
| back with better clothes and softer
hands and set the whole village ON fire
with ambition for city life. 80 we all
understand rustic illusions. The Bible
| is full OF them. In Christ'S sermon on
the mount you could see the full blown
| lilies and the glossy back of the crow S
wing as il flies over Mt. Olivct. David
/ Ah III -,
country life source of frequent illus
tration, while Christ in the text takes
the responsibility of calling God n
farmer, declaring: My Father is the
| husbandman."
Noah WAS the first farmer We say
nothing about Cain, the tiller of the
soil. Adam was a gardener ON large
scale, but to Noah was given all the
acres of the earth. Elisha was an agri-
culturist, not cultivating n-acre lot.
for We find him blowing with L. yoke
of oxen. In Bible times the land was
so plenty and the inhabitants 50 few
that Noah was right when he gave to
| every inhabitant a certain portion of
| land: that land, if cultivated, ever
ter to bc his own possession. Just
rs in Nebraska the United States gov
eminent, on payment of SIC, years ago
gave presumption right to 100 acres to
any man who would settle there and
cultivate the soil.
All classes of people were expected
To cultivate ground except ministers of
religion. 1t was supposed that they
would have their time entirely occu-
| pied with their own profession, al
though | am told that sometimes min
listers do plunge so deeply into worldIi-
ness that they remind one of what
| Thomas Fraser said in regard to n man
in his day who preached very WELL but
| lived very i'll: when he is out of the
pulpit, it is pity he should ever go IN
to it, and when he is in the pulpit, it is
a pity he should ever come out of it."
They were not small crops raised in
those times, for though the arts were
rude, the pillow turned up very rich soil,
and barley, and cotton, and flax, and
all kinds of grain came up at the call
of the harvesters. Pliny tells of one
stalk of grain that had on il between
| 800 and 400 ears. The rivers and the
brooks, through artificial channels,
were brought down to the roots of the
corn, and to this habit of turning n
river wherever it is wanted, solomon
refers when he says: THE kings
heart is in the hand of the Lord, and
lie turneth it "a the rivers of water
are turned, whithersoever lie will
The wild beasts were caught, and
then hook was put into their nose
and then they were ed over the field,
and TO that God refers when He says to
wicked Sennacherib: Il will put a
hook in thy nose and will bring thee
back by the way which thou earnest"
And God has a hook in every bad mans
nose, whether it be Nebuchadnezzar or
Ahad or lIerod. lie may think himself
very independent. but sometime in his
life, or in the hour of death, he will
find that the Lord Almighty has hook
in his nose.
This was the rule in regard to the
culture of the ground. Thou shall
not plow with an OK and an ass to-
gether,' illustrating the folly of ever
putting intelligent and useful and pill
able men in association with the stub
born and the unmanageable. The
vast majority of troubles in the
churches and in reformatory institu-
tions comes from the disregard of this
command of the Lord, Thou shalt
not pillow with an OK and an ass to-
gether."
There were large amounts of proper
ty invested in cattle. The Moabites
paid 100, 900 sheep as an annual tax.
job had 1000 sheep, 1900 camels, 800
yoke of oxen. The time of vintage
was ushered in with mirth and music
The clusters of the vine were put into
the wine press, and then five men
would go into the press and trample
out the juice from the grape until their
garments were saturated with the
wine and had become the emblems of
slaughter. Christ himself, wounded
until covered with the blood of cruel
fixion, making use of this allusion
when the question was asked: Where
fore art thou red in thine apparel and
thy garments like one who treadeth
the wine vat?" lie responded: Il have
trodden the wine press alone"
In all ages there has been great
nOnOr pIlu 10 agriculture. seven
eighths of the people in every country
are disciples of the pillow. A govern
ment is strong in proportion as it is
supported by an athletic and indus
trious yeomanry. SO long ago as be-
fore the fall of Carthage, Strabo wrote
IS 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 discussion of ag-
ricultural conquests. Standing amid
the harvests and orchards and vine
yards of the Bible, and standing amid
the harvests and orchards and vine
yards of our own country-larger har-
vests than have ever before been gath
ered-I want to run out the analogy
between the production of crops and
the growth of grace in the soul, all
these sacred writers making use of
that analogy.
In the first place, | remark, in grace
as in the fields, there must be pillow.