The Sussex Countian and Laurel gazette., 1896-10-24
SOWING THE SEED.
DR.. Teimage Draws Some Lessons
From the Farm.
The Seed Must be Well Selected and the
piowing Must be Deep ~ We Would
Reap Plentiful Harvest Of
Good Grain

In his latest effort the popular Wash
ington divine tells his hearers why It
is necessary that God should harrow
their souls to prevent the precious
seed from being stolen out of their
hearts. His text was John 15: /: "My
father is the husbardman.
This last summer, having gone in diff
ferent directions over between 5000 and
5000 miles of harvest fields, | can
hardly open my Bible without smell
ing tho breath of new-mown hay and
seeing the golden light of the wheat
field. And when / open my Bib,e to
take my text, the scripture leaf rustles
like the tassels of the corn.
We were nearly all of us born in the
country. We dropped, corn in the hill,
and went on Saturday to the mill, tying
the grist in the center of the sack so
that the contents on either side the
horse balanced each other; and drove
the cattle, our bare feet wet with the
dew; and rode the horses with the
batter to the brook until we fell off,
and hunted the NOV for nests un-
till the feathered occupants went caclS-
ling away. We were nearly all of us
born in the country, and all would
have stayed there had not some adven-
turous lad on bis vacation came back
with better clothes and softer hands,
and set the whole village on fire with
ambition for city life. So we all un-
lerstand rustic illusions The Bible
is full of them, in Christ's sermon on
the Mount you could see the full-blown
lilies md the glossy back of the crows
wing us it flies over Mount Olivet.
David and John. Paul, and Isaiah find
country life source of frequent
illustration, while Christ in the text
takes the responsibility of calling God
u 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
, Gale, but to Noah was given all the
acres of the earth. Elisha was an ag-
aleu- turist, not 'cultivating ten-acre
lot, for we find him blowing with IL
yoke of oxen. In Bible times the land |
was so plenty and the inhabitants so |
few that Noah was right when he
gave to every inhabitant a certain por-
tion of land; that land, if cultivated, |
ever after to be his own possession.
Just as in Nebraska the United States |
government on payment of SIG 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 oecu-
pied with their own profession, al
though am told that sometimes min
listers do plunge SO deeply into world
liness that they remind one of what
Thomas Frazer said IN regard to a
man in his day who preached very
we'll, but lived very ill; "When he
IS out of the pulpit, it is a pity he
should ever go into it, and when he
is in the pulpit, it is pity he should
ever come out of it,"
They were not small crops raised in
those times, for though the arts were
rude, the plow turned up very rich
soil, and barley, and cotton, and Aax,
ind all kinds of grain came up at the
,all of the harvesters. Pliny tells of
one stalk of grain that had on it be.
-ween 800 and 400 ears. The rivers and
he brooks, through artificial channels,
we're brought down to the roots of the !
'orn, and to this habit of turning
liver wherever it was wanted Solo
non refers when he says: 1.-The kings
leart is in the hands OF the Lord, |
nd He turneth it as the rivers OF !
water are turned, whithersoever He :
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