Peninsula enterprise. [volume] (Accomac, Va.) 1881-1965, 1896-10-24
LESSONS IN FARMING.
REV. DIR. TALMAGE SEES A SERMON
IN RURAL LIFE.

Planting, Rcaping, furnishing anu UiAr-
ncrIng-An Eloquent and Hortatory Per-
orntion-Thc Harvest Home.
WASHINGTON, Oct. 19.-This sermon,
at this season, after most people have
had good, long breath Of the country,
if they do not actually live there, will
revive many pleasant memories, while
it deals with great religious truths. DIR.
Talmago's text was John XIV, l. MY
Father is the husbandman.
This last summer, having gone In
different directions over between 8, 600
and {, 200 miles Of harvest fields, / can
hardly open my Bible without smelling
the breath of new mown hay and seeing
the golden light of tho wheattield. And
when 1 open my Bible to take my text,
the Scripture leaf rustles like the tassels
of tho corn.
! Wo were nearly all Of us born in the
country. We dropped corn in the hill,
and went on Saturday to tho mill, tying
, the grist in the center of the sack so
that the contents on either side the horse
balanced zach other, and drove the cat
tie afield, our baro feet wet with the
dew, and rode the horses with the halter
TO the brook until we fell Off, and hunted
the NOW for nests until the feathered &C.
cupants went cackling away. We were
nearly all of us born in the country, and
all would have staid there had not
some adventurous lad on his vacation
come back with better clothes and softer
hands, and set tho whole village on fire
with ambition for city life. So we all
understand rustic illusions. The Bible
is full of them. In Christ's sermon on
tho mount you could sec the full blown
lilies and the glossy back of tho crow
wing as it flies over Mount Olivot.
David and John, Paul and Isaiah, find
in country life source of frequent IL
lustration, while Christ in the text takes
the responsibility of calling God a
farmer, declaring, my Father is the
husbandman. "
Noah was tho first farmer. We say
nothing about Cain, the tiller Of the
soil. Adam was q gardener on large
scale, but to Noah was given all the
acres of the earth. Elisha was an agrl-
culturist, not cultivating 10 acre lot,
for we find him blowing with ~ yoke
of oxen. In Bible times tho land was so
plenty and the inhabitants so few that
Noah was right when he gave to every
inhabitant certain portion of land,
that land, if cultivated, ever after to be
his own possession-just rs i'll Nebraska
the United States government on pay
mcnt of SIG years ago gave presumption
right to 1G0 acres to any man who
would settle there and cultivate the soil.
In tho Fields.
All classes of people were expected to
cultivate ground except ministers of re-
ligion. 1t was supposed that they would
have their time entirely occupied with
their own profession, although l am
told that sometimes ministers dc. plunge
so deeply into worldliness that they re-
mind one of what Thomas Fraser said
in regard to man in his day who
preached very well, but lived very i'll,
"When he is out of the pulpit, it is a
pity he should ever go into it, and when
he is in the pulpit it is pity he should
ever come out of it. y
They were not small crops raised In
those times, for though the arts were
rude, the pillow turned up very rich soil,
and barley, and cotton, and flax, and
all kinds of grain came upat the call OF
the harvesters. Pliny tells of one stalk
of grain that had on it between 800 and
400 ears. The rivers and the brooks,
through artificial channels, were brought
down to tho roots of the corn, and to
this habit of turning u river wherever
it was wanted Solomon refers when he
says, 1.-THE kings heart is in the hand
Of the Lord, and he turneth it as the
rivers of water are turned, whitherso-
ever he will. -
The wild beasts were caught, and
then hook was put into their nose, and
then they were led over the field, and to
that God refers when he says to wicked
Sennacherib, II will put hook in thy
nose and 1 will bring thee back by the
way which thou earnest" And God has
a hook in every bad mans nose, whether
it be Nebuchadnezzar or Ahab or Herod.
He may think himself very independent,
but some time in his life, or in the hour
of his death, he will find that the Lord
Almighty has hook in his nose.
This was the rule i'll regard to the
culture of the ground, 'Thou shalt not
pillow with an OK and an ass together, -
illustrating the folly of ever putting in
telligent and useful and pliable men in
association with the stubborn and the
unmanageable. Tho vast majority OF
troubles in the churches and in reforma-
tory institutions comes from the disre-
gard of this command Of the Lord,
"Thou shalt not pillow with an OK and
an ass together. "
There were large amounts OF property
invested in cattle. The Moabites paid
100, 900 sheep as an annual tax job
had 1000 sheep, 5000 camels, 500 yoke
of oxen. The time of vintage was usher
ed in with mirth and music. The clus-
ters Of the vine were put into the wine
press, and then five men would get into
the press and trample out the juice from
the grape until their garments were sat-
urated with the wine and had become
the emblems of slaughter. Christ him.
self, wounded until covered with the
blood Of crucifxion, making use of this
allusion when the question was asked,
Wherefore art, thou red in thine appa-
rel and thy garments like one who
treadeth the wine vatf" he responded,
81 have trodden the wine press alone. .
In all ages there has been great honor
paid to agriculture. Seven-eighths OF
the people in every country are disciples
of the pillow. A government is strong in
proportion as it is supported by an ath-