The Camden chronicle. (Camden, Tenn.) 1890-current, 1896-02-28
REV. DIR. TALMAGE.
Subject Infringing In the shsavos."

world has celebrated the sword 81 Bolivar,
the sword Of Cortes and the sword Of LHfav-
cite. The pen has been properly euI0g.zed,
and the world has celebrated the pen 81 ADJ
olson, the pen Of southey aud the pen Of
Irving. The painters pencil has been hone
oredl and the world has celebrated the pen-
oil Of Murlllo. the pencil of Rubans aud the
pencil Of Blentadt. The sculptor's chisol
has come IN for high ene0mium, and the
world has celebrated Chantroy's chisel aud
CraWford'a chisel and Greeuougha ohlsel but
there is one instrument about which / sing
the first cauto that was ever aung-the sickle.
the sickle Of the Bible, tho sickle that has
reaped the harvest of many centuries. Sharp
aud bent into semieirele and slitteung, this
reaplng hook, no longer than your arm. has
furnished the bread for thousands OF year,.
It's success has produced the wealth OF Ma
tlons. II has bad more 20 do with the worlds
progress than sword aud pen aud pencil and
ohisel all put together. Christ putsthe sickle
into exquisite ssrmonle simile and you sea
that instrument flash ali up and down the
apocalypse as ST. John swings e. while
through Joel In my text God commands the
people, as through His servants now He COM
mands them, Put ye in the sickle, for the
harvest Is ripe"
Last November there was great rejoicing
all over the land With trumpet and cornet
and organ and thousand voiced psalm we
praised .he Lord for the temporal harvests.
/ We praised God Tor the wheat. the rye. the
oats. the cotton. the rice, all the fruits OF
the orchard and all the grains OF the field,
/ aud the Nation never does a better thing
/ than when IN the autumn 1t gathers 10 fes-
4 tlvlty and thanks God for the greatness Of
4 the harvest. But / come to-day 10 speak 10
| you Of richer harvests, even the spiritual
| How shall we estimate the value Of a man2
/ We say he is worth so many dollars or no
/ has achieved such and such a position, but
4 we know very we'll there are somo 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 esti-
mate man Is by his soul. We all know that
we shall live forever. Death cannot kill us.
| Other crafts may be drawn into the whirl-
pool or shivered on the rocks, but the life
within US will weather all storms and drop no
anchor and 10000 900 years after death win
shake out signals on the high seas Of eterni-
| ty. You put the mendicant of your door
step and say he is only beggar, but he Is
worth all the gold of the mountains, worth
ell the pearls Of the sea, worth the solid
earth. worth sun and moon and stars, worth
the entire material universe. Take all the
paper that ever came from the paper mills
and put 1t side by side and sheet by sheet,
and let men with tleetest pens make figures
on that paper for 10000 years, and they will
only hagebegun to express the value of the
soul. Suppose I owned Colorado and Ne
vada and Australia, of how much value
would they be to me one moment after de-
parted this life2 How much of Philadelphia
does Stephen Girard own today How
much Of Boston property does Abbott Law
renee own today The man who to-day
hath dollar in bis pocket hath more world
~ estate than the millionaire who died last
year. How do you suppose / feel, standing
here surrounded by multitude Of souls
each one worth more than the material uni
verse?
Oh, was I not right In saying this spiritual
harvest is richer than the temporal harvest7
/ must tighten the glrdle, must sharpen the
sickle, | must be careful how I swing the
instrument for gathering the grain, lest one
stalk be lost. One Of the most powerful
sickles for reaping this spiritual harvest is
the preaching OF the gospel If the sickle
have rosewood handle, and II be adorned
with precious stones, and yet 1t cannot bring
down the grain, it is not much of sickle,
and preaching amounts to nothing unless II
harvests souls for God. Shall we preach phil.
osophyl The Ralph Waldo Emersons could
beat us at that. Shall we preach sciencet
Nhe Agassizes could beat US at that. The
minister of Jesus Christ with weakest arm
going forth in earnest prayer, and welding
this sickle of the gospel shall find the har.
vest all around him waiting for the angel
sheaf binders. Oh this harvest OF souls! ]
notice in the fields that the farmer did moi
stand upright when he gathered the grain
noticed he had to stoop to his work, and !
noticed in order TO bind the sheaves the bet
ter he had to put his knee upon them. And
as we go forth in this work for God we can
not stand upright in our rhetoric and Oul
metaphysics and our erudition. We have L
stoop to our work. Aye, we have to put oui
, knee toit or we will never gather sheaves fol
the Lords garner. Peter swung that sickle
on the day of Pentecost, and 5000 sheave
came in. Richard Baxter swung that sickle
at Kidderminster. and MeCheyne at Dundee
and vast multitudes came into the kingdom
of our God.
! Oh, this is a mighty gospel! 1t captured
not only John the lamb. but Paul the lion
7 Men may gnash their teeth at it, and clinch
their fists, but il is the power of God and tn,
wisdom OF God unto salvation. But, alas
> II 1t Is only preached in pulpits and on Sab
bath days! We must 90 forth into our stores
our shops, our banking houses, our faetorie
! and the streets. and everywhere preae
Christ. We stand in our pulpits for tw,
: hours on the Sabbath aad commend Christ t
the people, but there are 1863 hours in tn
week. and what are the two hours on tn
t Sabbath against the 1853? On, there come
down the ordination OF God this day upo
all the people, men VINO toll with mead an
{ hand aud foot tine ordination comes upo
all merchants. upon all mechanics, upon a
y toilers, and God says to you as He says I
| me; "Go, teach all Nations. He that bt
: lieveth and is baptized shall be saved, an
Il he that believeth not shall be damned
Mighty gospel, let the whole earth hear
The story of Christ is to regenerate ii
d Nations, it is to eradicate all wrong, it is I
turn the earth into paradise An old arti
g painted the "Lord's Supper" and he wante
n the chief attention directed to the face
Christ. When he invited his friends in
o criticise the picture, they admired Il
y chalices more than they did the face, al
= the old artist said, "Thls pictures failure
lie aud he dashed out the picture of the erp
and saidi II shall have nothing to detra
% from the face OF the Lord. Christ is the
). of this picture"
Another powerful sickle for the reaping
10 this harvest is Christian song. / know
II many churches the whole work is delegate
to a few people standing in the organ 10
TX But, my friends, as others cannot repent (
us and others cannot die for us, we cam
~ delegate to others the work OF singing {