The Sussex Countian and Laurel gazette., 1896-10-24

ana the publican and Paul nra,ro sucn'
ado about their sins? Had they lost
their senses? No. The plowshare
struck them Conviction turned up a
great many things that were forgotten.
AS farmer plowing sometimes turns
up the skeleton of man or the
anatomy of monst>- long ago buried.
so the plowshare of conviction turns
up.the CHASTITY skeleton of sins long ago
.entombed. Biologists never brought
up from the depths of the mountain
,mightier ichthyosaurus or megather-
ium.
Again, remark, in grace as in tn,
field there must be sowing. In tho
autumnal weather you find the farmer
going across the field at stride O.
about 23 inches, and at every stride h,
puts his hand into the sack of grain
and he sprinkles the seed corn over the
field. 1t looks silly to man who does
not know what he is doing. He is do.
ing very important work. He is scat
iering the winter grain, and though
the snow may come, the next yeal
there will be great crop. Now, that
is what we are doing when we are
preaching the gospel-we are scatter
ting the seed. 1t is the foolishness OF
preaching, but it is the winter grainj
and though the SHOWS Of worldiness
fmay come down upon it, it will yield
after awhile glorious 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 Can
ada thistles will come up. Sow wheat
and wheat will come up. Let us dis
ltinguish 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
ingarians. Their religion is system
of negations. You say to one of them.
r'What do you believer" "Well, /
don't believe in infant baptism. I"
what do you believer" Well, DON t
believe in the perseverance of the
saints" well, now tell me what you
do belieye?' swell, ! don't believe in
the eternal punishment of the wicked. ="
SO their religion is a row of ciphers.
Believe something and teach it; or TO
resume the figure of my text, scatter
abroad the right kind of seed.
A minister the other day preached a
sermon calculated to set the denomi-
nations of Christians quarreling. He
was sowing nettles. A minister the
other day advertised that he would
preach sermon on the superiori-
ty of transeendentnl and organized
forces to untranscendental and IN.
organized forces. What was he
sowing? Weeds. The Lord ,le-
sus Christ nineteen centuries ago
planted the divine seed of doctrine. IL
sprang up. On one side of the stock
are all the free governments of the
earth and on top there shall be flow
ering millennium after awhile. All from
the gospel seed of doctrine. Every
word that parent, or Sunday-school
teacher, or city missionary, or other
Christian worker speaks for Christ,
comes up. Yea, it comes up with COM
pound interest--you saving one soul,
that one saving ten, the ten a hundred,
the hundred o thousand, the Thousand,
ten thousand, the ten thousand, one
hundred thousand-on, on forever.
hBnihf RNfhuA NJ BAdtS 10
farm there must be q narrowing. / re-
fer now not to harrow that goes over
the field in order to prepare the ground
for the seed, but harrow which goes
over after the seed is sown, lest the
birds pick up the seed, sinking IL
down into The earth so that it can take
root. You know harrow. 1t is made
of bars of wood nailed across euch
other. and the underside OF each bar is
furnished with sharp teeth, and when
the horses are hitched to ii, it goes
tearing and leaping across the field,
driving the seed down into the
earth until it springs up in the
harvest. Bereavement, sorrow, per
secution are the Lords harrows
TO sink the gospel truth into
yonr heart. These were truths that
you heard 30 years ago, they have not
affected you until recently. Some
CASToRrA.