The weekly intelligencer. [volume] (Lexington, Mo.) 1891-1901, 1896-02-22
BRING IN THE A
DR.. Talmage Discourses on the
Spiritual Harvest.
Many Fields Now Ready for the Gospel
Reapers-Work to Be Done by Chris
tians-The Power of Prayer
In the Great Work.

In the Great Work.
The subject of n late sermon at
Washington by Rev. Il. De Witt Tai
mage was bringing in the ~Sheaves,'
the text being from Joel iii:13, Put We
in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe"
DIR. Talmage said:
The sword has been poetized and the
world has celebrated the sword of Boil
var, the sword of Cortez, and the SWORD
of Lafayette. The pen has been prop
erly eulogized, and the world has cele-
brated the pen of Addison, the pen OF
Southey, 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 cele brated Chantrey's
chisel, and Crawford's chisel, and
Greenough's chisel. But there is one in
strument about which 1 sing the first
eanto that was ever sung-the sickle,
the sickle of the Bible, the sickle that
has reaped the harvest of many CEN
turtles Sharp, and bent into a semi
circle, and glittering, this reaping
hook, no longer than your arm, has
furnished the bread for thousands of
years. Its success produced the wealth
of nations. 1t has had more TO do with
the worlds progress than sword, pen,
and pencil, and chisel, all put together.
Christ puts the sickle into exquisite
sermonic simile, and you see that ins
strument fash up and down the Apoc-
alypse as st. John swings it, while
through Joe in my text God commands
the people, as through his servants now
he commands them-"Put We 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 Thousand
voiced psalm we praised the Lord for
the temporal harvests. We praised
God for the wheat, the rye the oats,
the cotton, the rice, all b 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
I come to-day to speak to o Of
richer harvests, ever the spiritual.
| How shall we estimate the value of a
man3 We say he is worth 30 many
dollars, or he has achieved such and
such a positions; but we know very
we'll 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 q man Is by his soul.
| We all know that we shall live forever.
Death cannot kill us. Other crafts
may be driven into the whirlpool OF
shivered on the rocks, but this life
within us will weather all storms and
drop no anchor, and 10, 600, 900 years
after death we shall shake out signals
on the high sea of eternity. You put
the mendicant off your doorstep and
say he is only a beRgar; but he Is
worth all the gold of the mountains,
worth all the pearls of h sea, worth
the solid earth, worth sun and moo
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 heetest pens make figures on that
paper for 20, 600 years, n they will
only have begun to express the value
of the soul. Suppose l own Colorado
and Nevada, and Australia, OF how
much value would they be to me one
moment after I departed this life9
How much of Philadelphia does
Stephen Girard own to-day? How
much of Boston property does Abbott
Lawrence own to-day? The man who
to-day hath-a dollar in his pocket hath
more worldly estate than the million
aire who died last year. How do you
suppose I feel, standing here surround
ed by a multitude OF souls, each one
--A-NL MONA than thu nnfarial mil
verse? Oh, was l not ris 1t In saying this
spiritual harvest is richer than the
temporary harvest? I must tighten
the girdle, I must sharpen the sickle, I
must be careful how 1 swing the in
strument for gathering the grain, lest
one stalk be lost.
One of the most powerful sickles for
reaping his spiritual harves is the
preaching of the gospel. II the SICKLE
have a rosewood handle, and it be
adorned with precious stones, and yet
II cannot bring down the grain, 1t is
not much Of q SICKLE, and preaching
amounts to nothing unless 1t harvest
souls for God. Shall we preach philos-
ophy? The Ralph Waldo Emersons
could peal us at that. Shall we preach
~scienceP The Agassizes could beat us
at that. The minister of Jesus Christ
with weakest arms going forth in ear
usst prayer and welding this sickle OF
the gospel, shall find the harvest all
around him waiting for the angel sheaf-
binders. oh, this harvest of soulsi ]
notice in the fields hat the farmer did
not stand upright when he gathered
the grain. 1 noticed he had to
stoop to his work, and l noticed in or
der to bind tbs eheaves the better he
had to put his knee upon them. And
as we GO forth in this york of God we
CANNOT stand upright in our rhetoric
and our metaphysics and u erudition.
We have to stonp to U work.
Oh, this is o mighty gospel 1t cap
tured not only John the lamb, but
Paul the lion. Men may gnash their
teeth at it, and clinch their fists,
but it is the power OF God and
th1 wisdom of God unto salvation.
But alas, IL it is only preached in
pulpits and on Sabbath daysl We must
go forth into our stores, our shops, oRr
banking houses, our factories. and b
streets, and everywhere preach Christ.
We stand in oHr pulpits for two hour
on the Sabbath and commend Christ to
the people; bpt there are 16s hours IL
the week, and what are the two hours
on the Sabbath against the 1856? Oh,
there comes down the ordination OF
God this day upon all the people. men
who toll with head and hand and foot
the ordination comes upon all mer-
chants, upon all mechanics, upon all
t~oilers, and God says to you, as he says
to me-. "Go, teach all nations. He
that belieyeth and is baptized shall be
sayed, and be that belieyeth npt ahall
be damned" Mighty gospel, let the
whole earth hear i'll The story Of
Christ is to regenerate the nations, it
is to eradicate all wrong, it is to turn
the earth into a paradise. An old
artist painted the Lords supper. and
he wanted the chief attention directed
10 the face of Christ. When he invited
his friends 10 t9 criticise the picture
they admired tho chalices aora than
they did the face, and the old artist
said: This picture is a failure" and
hs dashed out the picture of the cups
and said; NJ shall have nothing to de-
tract from the face of ths Lord Christ
Is the all of this picture.N
Another powerful sickle for the