The enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 188?-1899, 1896-02-19
THE HARVEST Is RIPE.
Tho Grain is Ready for the Roap-
ing Hook.
How Many SOUS Have You Gathered for
God?-Brlng in the Sheaves and Gar
ner Them in Els Great Store
house-Let None be Lost.


house-Let None be Lost.
The theme of the latest Washington
discourse OF the popular divine, Rev.
DR.. Talmage, was bringing in the
Sheaves," and he, eloquently urged his
immense audience to swing the mighty
sickle of prayer while they had oppor-
tunity to work in the harvest of the
Lord His text was Joel S:18: ''Put
ye in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe" {"
The sword has been poetized, and the
world has celebrated the sword of
Bolivar, the sword of Cortez, and the
sword of Lafayette. The pen has been
properly eulogized, and the world has
celebrated the pen of Addison, the pen
OF Southey, and the pen of Irving. The
painters pencil has been honoreG, and
the world has celebrated the pencil of
Murillo, the pencil of Rubens, and
the pencil of Bierstadt. The sculptors
chisel has come in for high encomium,
and the world has celebrated Chantrey's
chisel, and Crawford's chisel, and
Greenough's chisel But there is one
instrument about which l sing the first
canto that was ever .sung-the sickle,
the sickle of the Bible, the sickle that
has reaped the harvest of many cen
turies. Sharp and bent into semi
circle, and glittering, this reaping hook,
no longer than your arm, has furnished
the bread for thousands of years. Its
success has produced the wealth Of ma
tions. 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 exquisite
sermonic simile, and you see that in
strument flash 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"
Last November there was great re-
joicing all over the land. With trumpet
and cornet and organ and thousand
voiced psalm we praised the Lord for
the temporal harvests. We praise God
for the wheat, the rye, the oats, the
cotton, the rice, all the fruits of the
orchard and all the grains of the field;
and the nation never does better
thing than when in the autumn it gath
ers to festivity and thanks God for
the greatness of the harvest But l
come to-day to speak to you of richer
harvest, even the spiritual. How shall
we estimate the value of man? We
say he is worth so many dollars, or he
has achieved such and such position;
but we know very well there are some
men at the top of the la oder who ought
to be at the bottom, and some at the
bottom who ought to be at the top, and
the only way to estimate a man is by
his soul. We all know that we shall
live forever. Death cannot kill us.
Other crafts may be drawn into the
whirlpool or shivered ON the rocks
but this life within us will weather
all storms and drop no anchor, and
ten million years after death will shake
out signals on the high seas OF eter-
nifty. You put the mendicant off your
doorstep and say he is only beggar;
but he is worth all the gold of the
mountains, worth all 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 it side by side and sheet by
sheet, and let men with heetest pens
make figures on that paper for OOOC
years, and they will only have begun
to express the value of the soul sup
pose | owned Colorado and Nevada
and Australia, of how much value
would they be to me one moment after
/ departed this life? How much of
Philadelphia does Stephen Girard own
to-day? How much of Boston property
does Abbott Lawrence own to-day?
The man who to-day hath dollar in
in his pocket hath more worldly estate
than the millionaire who died last
year. How do you suppose / feel
standing here surrounded by multi
OuuC VI oOulos CuSu OllC NOIIll InOIN
than the material universe?
Oh, was not right in saying, this
spiritual harvest is richer than the ma
terial harvest? l must tighten the Cir
die, / must sharpen the sickle, must
be careful how l swing the instrument
for gathering the grain, lest one stalk
be lost. One of the most powerful
siclzles for reaping this spiritual har
vest is the preaching of the gospel. i
the sickle have rosewood handle, ant
it be adorned with precious stones, ant
yet it cannot bring down the grain, il
is not much of u sickle, and preaching
amounts to nothing unless it harvestt
souls for God. Shall we preach phil
osophy? The Ralph Waldo Emersons
could beat us at that Shall we preach
science? The Agassizes could beat us
at that. The minister of Jesus Christ
with weakest arm going forth in earn
est prayer, and welding this sickle Of
the Gospel, shall find the harvest al
around him waiting for the angel sheaf
bearers. Oh, this harvest of soulsl
notice in the fields that the farmer
did not stand upright when he gath.
cred the grain. ! noticed he had to
stoop to his work, and noticed in or
der to bind the sheaves the better he
had to put his knee upon them. And as
we 90 forth in this work for God we
cannot stand upright in our rhetoric
and metaphysics and our erudition
We have to stoop to our work. Ay, We
have to put our knee to it or we will
never gather sheaves for the Lords
garner. Peter swung that sickle or
the day of Pentecost, and three thou
sand shenyes came in. Richard Baxtel