The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1896-10-30

the crop had been gathered and sold
for 500 more than any previous year
then the young man took the hint as
to what his father meant when he said
there were 500 buried down in that
field. Deep blowing for crop. Deep
blowing for soul. He who makes
light of sin will never amount to any
thing in the church or in the world.
If man speaks of sin as though it
were an inaccuracy or a mistake, in.
stead of the loathsome, abominable,
consuming and damning thing that
God hates, that man will never yield a
harvest of usefulness.
When l was a boy l plowed field
with a team of spirited horses. /
plowed it very quickly. Once in awhile
l passed over some of the sod with
out turning it, but did not jerk back
the blow with its rafting devices. 1
thought it made no difference. After
awhile my father came along and said:
why, this will never do; this isn't
plowed deep enough; there you have
missed this and you have missed that "
And he plowed it over again. The
difficulty with great many people is
that they are only scratched with con-
victioR when the subsoil plow of Gods
truth ought to be put in up to the
beam.
My word is to all Sabbath-school
teachers, to all parents, to all Chris
tian ~orkers-Plow deep! Plow deep!
And if in your own personal expert
ence you are apt to take lenient view
of tho sinful side of your nature, put
down into your soul the ten command
ments which reveal the holiness of
God, and that sharp and glittering
coulter will turn up your soul to the
deepest depths. If man breaches to
you that you are only a little out of
order by reason of sin and that you
need only little fixing up, he deceives!
You have suffered an appalling injury
by reason of sin. There are quick
poisons and slow poisons, but the drug
gist could give you one drop that could
kill the body. And sin is like that
drug; so virulent, so poisonous, so IA
tai that one drop is enough to kill the
soul.
Deep blowing for a crop. Deep
blowing for a soul. Broken heart or
no religion. Broken soil or no har-
vest. Why was it that David and the
jailer and the publican and Paul made
such ado about their sins? Had they
lost their senses? No. The plowshare
struck them. Conviction turned up a
great many things that were forgot
ten. AS a farmer blowing sometimes
turns up the skeleton of man or the
anatomy of monster long ago buried,
SO the plowshare of conviction turns
up the ghasely skeletons of sins long
ago entombed. Biologists never
brought up from the depths of the
mountain mightier ichthy Osaurus or
megatherium.
But what means all this crooked
blowing, these crooked burrows, the
that amounts to nothing,
the repentance that ends in nothing?
Men grOan over their sins, but get no
better. They weep, but their tears are
not counted. They get convicted, but
not converted. What is the reason? l
remember that on the farm we set
standard with red flag at the other
end of the field. We kept our eye ON
that. We aimed at that. We plowed
up to that. Losing sight of that, we
made crooked furrow. Keeping our
eye on that, we made a straight fur
row. Now in this matter of conviction
we must have some standard to guide
us. 1t is Il red standard that God has
set at the other end of the field 1t is
the cross Keeping your eye on that,
you will make a straight furrow.
Losing sight of it, you will make
crooked furrow. Plow up to the cross.
Aim not at either end of the horizontal
piece of the cross, but at the upright
piece, at the center of it, the heart of
the Son of God, who bore your sins and
made satisfaction. Crying and weep
ing will not bring you through. Him
hath God exalted to be a Prince and
Saviour to give repentance" Oh, pillow
up to the cross!
Again, l remark, in grace as in the |
field there mast be a sowing. In the |
autumnal weather you find the farmer |
going across the field at a stride of |
about twenty-three inches, and at |
every stride he puts his hand into the |
sack of grain and he sprinkles the |
seed-corn over the field. IL looks silly |
to a man who does not know what he |
Is doing. He is doing a very important |
work. He is scattering the winter
grain, and though the snow may come,
the next year there will be great |
crop. Now, that is what we
are doing when we are preaching the
are scattering the seed
1t is the foolishness of preaching, but |
It is the winter grain; and though the |
SHOWS of worldliness may come down
"A ,f@ Il L.
ous harvest. Let us be sure we sow |
the right kind of seed. Sow mullen
stalk and mullen stalk will come up.
Sow Canada thistles and Canada this
Ties will come up. Let us distinguish /
between truth and error. Let us !
know the difference between wheat
and hellebore. oats and henbane.
The largest denomination in this
country is the denomination of Moth
ngarians. Their religion is system
Of negations. You say to one of them.
What do you believer" Well, don't
believe in infant baptism. What do
you believer" well, l don't believe
n the perseverance of the saints"
well, now tell me what you do be-
ieve.'' well, don't believe in the
eternal punishment of the wicked
SO their religion in a row of ciphers.
Believe something and teach it; or to
the figure Of my text. scatter
broad the right kind of seed.
Again, remark, in grace as in the
farm there must be narrowing re-
Ter now not to a harrow that goes I
over the field in order to prepare the
ground for the seed, but a harrow
70 bicb or0ae over after the seed is sOvvp