The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1896-02-26
THE TRUMPET BLAST.
REV. DR.. .TALMAGE ON "6RiNGlNG IN
TRESHEAVES."

He Shows How Some Mighty sichieS may
Re Used For the Gospel Harvest--A Pow
s-,,, s,rmon to an Immense Throng.
WASHINGTON, Feb. 16.-A change
bas taken a place. DR.. Talmage when
tirst coming to Washington preached
onIy Sunday evenings, but SO great
has been the demand for his services
that he now breaches Sunday morning
and evening and takes charge Of the
Thursday evening meeting: The
throngs are immense. The subject OF
his sermon for today was Bringing
In the Sheaves," the text being Joel
iii, 13, '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 Cortes 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 hpnored,
snd the world has celebrated the
pencil of Murrills, the pencil OF
Rubens and the pencil of Bier
stadt. The scnlptor's chisel has come
in for high encominm. and the world
has celebrated Chantrey's CHS
eli and Crawdford's chisel. and
Greenought'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 sick
le that has reaped the harvest of many
centuries. Sharp and bent in;o SEM
icircle and glittering, this reaplng
hook, no lone er than your arm, has
furnished the bread for thousands Of
years. It's success has produced the
wealth of nations. II has had more to
do with the worlds progress than
sword and pen and pencil and chisel
all put together. Christ puts the sick
le into exquisite sermonic smile, and
you see that instrument 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 com
mands them, Put ye in the sickle,
for the harvest is ripe"
Last November there was great re-
joicing all over the land. With trum-
pet and cornet and organ and thous-
and voiced psalm we praise the Lord
for the temporal harvests. We prais.
ed 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
q better thing than when in the au-
tumn it gathers to festivity and thanks
God for the greatness of the harvest.
But come today to speak to you of
richer harvests, even the spiritual g..
How shall we estimate the value of
a man2 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 ladder who ought to be at the bot
tom and some at the bottom who
ought to be at the top, and the only
way to estimate man is by his soul.
We all know that we shall live forev-
er. Death cannot kill us. Other
crafts may be drawn into the whirl-
pool or shivered on the rocks, but this
life within us will weather all storms
and drop no anchor and 10000, 900
years after death will shake out sig
mails on the high seas of eternity. You
put the mendicant off your doorstep
and say he is only a beggar, but he is
worth all the gold of the mountains,
worth all the pearls of the sea, 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 feetest pens
make figures on that paper for 10000
years, and they will only have begun
to express the value of the soul. Sup
pose I owned Colorado and Nevada
and Australia, of how much value
T. would they be to me one moment after
T departed this life2 How much of
Philadelphia does Stephen Girard own
today2 How much of Boston proper
ty does Abbott Lawrence own today?
The man who today hath dollar in
his pocket hath more worldly estate
than the millionaire who died last
year. How do you suppose I feel,
standing here surrounded by a multi
tude of souls, each one worth more
than the material universe2 Oh, was
Inot right In saying this spiritual
harvest is richer than the temporal
harvest9 I must tighten the girdle.
I must sharpen the sickle. I 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 a rosewood handle, and it be
adorned with precious stones, and yet
it cannot bring down the grain, it is
not much of a sickle, and preaching
amounts to nothing unless it harvests
souls for God. Shall preach philoso,
ply? The Ralp Waldo Emersons could
beat us at that. Shall we preach SCI
ence2 The Agassizes 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 harvest all around
him waiting for the angel sheaf bind,
ers. Oh, this harvest of souls! Ino,
tice in the fields that the farmer did
not stand upright when he gathered
the grain. I noticed he had to stoop
to his work, and I noticed in order to
bind the Eheaves the better he had to
put his knee upon them. Aud as we
60 forth in this work for God we can,
not stand upright in our rhetoric and
our metaphysics and Our condition.