The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1896-02-28
THE HARVEST is RIPE.
Rev. DR.. Talmage Discourses Upon
Christs Smile,
Wherein He Likens the Redemption of
Mankind to the Gathering OF the
Harvest - The Gospel the
Most Potent Sickle.

5ect: bringing In the Sheaves," was
delivered bv Rev. T. Dewitt Talmage
before his Washington congregation.
The text was:
Put ye n The sickle, for the harvest is fibe.-
Joel ill.,. H.
The sword has been poetised and the
world has celebrated the sword of Boil
war, the sword Of Cortez, and the
sword of Lafayette. The pen has been
properly ctlogized, and the world has
celebrated the pen of Addison, the pen
of Southcy, and the pen of Irving. The
painters pencil has been honored, and
the world has celebrated the pencil of
MurillO, the pencil of Rubens, and the
pencil Of Bierstadt. The sculptor's
chisel has come in for high encomium,
and the world has celebrated Chan
trey's chisel, and Crawford's chisel.
and Greenough's chisel But there is
one instrument about which I sing
the first canto that was ever sung
the sickle, the sickle OF the Bible, the
sickle that has rcaped the harvest of
many centuries. Sharp, and bent into
a seIni-circle, and glittering, tiiis reap
ing-hOOk, no longer than your arm,
has furnished the bread for thousands
of years. It's success has produced the
wealth of nations. 1t has had more to
do with the worlds progress than
sword, and pen, and pencil, and chisel;
all put together. Christ puts tho
sickle into the exquisite sermonic
smile, and you see that instrument
fash up and down the Apocalypse as
st. John swings il, while through Joel
in my text God commands the people,
as through His servants now He COM
mands them-"Put we Ia the sickle,
for the harvest IL Ripe
Last November there was great rea
toicing all over the land. With trum-
pet and cornet and organ and thou
sandavoiced psalm we praised the Lord
for the temporal harvest. We praised
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 a bet
ter thing than when In the autumn it
gathers to festivity and thanks God
for the greatness of the harvest. But
/ come to-day to speak to YOU of
richer harvests, even the spiritual
How shall we estimate the value of
a 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 ladder who ought to
be at the bottom, and some at the bot
tom 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
80
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 10000
600 years after death will shake out
signals on the high seas of eternity.
You put the mendicant off your door
step atrr' say he is only baggar;
but he is worth all the gold of the
mountains worth all the pearls Of the
sea, worth the solid earth, worth sun
and mOOl and stars. worth the entire
material universe. Take all the paper
that ever came from the paper ihills,
and put it side by side and sheet by
sheet, and let men with fieetest pens
make figures on that paper for 10000
years, and they will only have begun
pose owned Colorado and Nevada
and Australia, of how much Value
would they DC &c me one moment af-
ter L departed this life? How much of
Philadelphia ooes Stephen Girard crah
to-day? Low much CT Boston property
Ices Ahhctt Lawrence own to-day?
TIE man who to-day hath a dollar in
his pocket hath more worldly estate
than the millionaire who died last
year. How do you suppose | feel,
standing here surrounded by multi
tude of souls, each one worth more
than the material universe? Oh; was
/ not right in saying, this spiritual
harvest is richer than the temporal
harvest? / must tighten the girdle,
must sharpen the sickle. i must be
careful how / swing the instrument
for gathering the grain, lest one stalk
be lost.
One of the most powerful siclzles for
reaping this spiritual harvest is the
preaching of the Gospel. If the sickle
have a rosewood handle, and it be
with precious stones, and vet
It can not bring down the grain, it is
not much of a sickle, and the preach
ing amounts to nothing Unless it har-
vests souls for God. Shall we preach
The Ralph Waldo Emer-
sons 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 earnest prayer, and welding
this sickle of the Gospel. shall !
ind the harvest all around him |
waiting for the angel sheaf bind
FRS. Oh, this harvest of soulsi / \
notice in the fields that the farmer did |
pot stand upright when he gathered |
he grain. 1 noticed he had TO stoop |
10 his work, and 1 noticed in order to |
bind the sheaves the better he had to |
put his knee upon them. And as we
20 forth in this work for God we can
not stand upright in our rhetoric. and /
cur metaphysics, and our erudition. !
We have TO stoop to our work. Az, we |
have TO put our knee on il or we will /
never gather sheaves for the Lords |
garner. Peter swung that sickle on 1
he day Of Pentecost, and 5000 sheaves
,ame in. Richard Baxter swung that
sickle at Kidderminster, and McCheyne
II Dundee, and vast multitudes came
nto the kingd ON of God.
oh, this is a mighty Gospel! 1t cap
ured not only John the lamb, but
Paul the lion. Men may gnash their
.eeth at it, and clinch their fists, but
il is the power of God and the wisdom
If God unto salvation. But, alas, IL IL