The Penn's Grove record., 1896-10-30
DR. TALMlGE,
The Eminent Diviue's Sunday
Discourse.
Subject: "Gospel Farming"
Text. MY Father is the husbandman."-

TEXT; MY Father Is the husbandman.'-
John XIV, J..
This last summer, having gone in different
directions over bel ween five and six thousand
miles Of harvest fields, | can hardly open my
Bible without smelling TIE breath OF new
mown hay and seeing the golfen Hight oEthe
wheat field. And when I open my Bible to
take my text, the Scripture leaf rusties ike
the tassels OF the corn.
We were nearly all Of u born In the eodn.
nv. We dropped corn in the hill, and went
on Saturday to the mill. tying the gtist In
the centre OF the sack so that the contents on
either side the horse balanced each other;
and drove the cattle a1eld, our bare feet wet
with the dew, and rode the horses with the
halter 10 the brook until We fell of, and
hunted the NOV for nests until the festhered
occupants went cackling away. Wa vera
nearly all OF u born in the country, aud all
would nave stayed there had not some ad.
venturous lad on his vacation come back
with better clothes and softer hands and set
the whole village on fire with ambition Tor
city life. Sc We all understand rustic alius-
ions. The Bible is full Of them. In Christs
Sermon on the Noun. you could see the full
blown lilies aud the glossy back ofths crows
wings as 1t flies over Mount Oiivat. David
and John, Paul and Isaiah find in country
life q source of frequent illustration, while
Christ in the text takes the responsibility Of
calling God a farmer, declaring: my Father
is the hushandman."
Moab was the first farmer. We say nothing
about Cain, the tlller OF the soil. Adam was
a gardener on u large scale, but to Noah was
given all the ncres of the earth. Elisha was
an agriculturist, not euittvating u ten-acre
lot, for we find him blowing with twelve
yoke OF oxen. In Bible times the land was
so plenty and the inhabitants 80 few that
Noah was right when he gave to every in-
habit INT a certain portion Of land, that land
II cultivated ever after to be his W posses
sion.
They were not small crops raised In those
times, for though the arts were III lie. the
plow turned up very rich soil, an barley
and cotton and tax and all KINDS of grain
came up at the cal ofthe harvesters. Pliny
tells OF one st Tx OF grain that had on it be-
tween three and four hundred ears. The
rivers and the brooks, through artificial
channels, were brought down to the roots OF.
the corn, and to this habit of turning a river
wherever it was wanted, Solomon refers
when he says; "The Kings heart is in the
hand of the Lord. and He turReth it as the
rivers OF water are turned, whither=oever IL
will"
The will beasts were caught, and then a
hook was put into their nose, and then they
were led over the field, and to that God re-
fers when He says TO wicked Sennacherib:
"a will put a hook In thy nose and l will
bring thee back by the way which thou
| camest." And God has a hook in every bad
mans nose, whether 1t be Nebuchadnezzar or
| Ahab or Herod. He may think himself very
independent, but some time IN his life, or in
the hour Of bis death, he will find that the
Lori Almighty has u hook III his nose.
This was the rule In regard to the culture
ofthe ground: "Ihou shalt not pillow with
an ~ aud m nee touaIha-h ~ IIuafrafinO tha
folly Of ever putting Intelligent and useful
and pliable men In association with the
stubborn and unmanageatle. The vast ma
jority Of troubles IL the churRhea and in re-
Observation-Disclosures comes from the disce-
gard Of this command Of the Lord, ''rhou
shalt not pillow with an OK and an ass to-
gether."
There were large amounts OF property in.
sested in cattle. The Mosbites paid 100, 900
sheep as an annual tax. job had 1000 sheep,
5000 camels, 500 yoke of oxen. The time of
vintage was usherel in with mirth and
music. Fine clusters 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
saturated with the wine and had become the
emblems of slaughter. Christ Himself,
wounded until covered with the blood OF
crueifxion, making use of this allugion when
the question was asked; "Whersfore art
Thou red In Thine apparel and Thy garments
like one who treadeth the wine yatg" He re-
spondedi III have len the wine press
Alone
In all ages there has been great honor paid
70 agriculture. Seven-eights of the people
in every country are disciples of the pillow
A government Is strong IN proportion as it Is
supported by an athletic and in iustrious
y%eomanry. So long ago as before the fall of
| Carthage, Strabo wrote twenty-eight books
on agriculturet Hesiod wrote a poem on he
same subject--''Ihe Weeks and Days" Cato
was prouder OF his work on husbandry than
of all his military conquests. But l must
not he tempted into a discussion of agricul.
| tural ~conquesis. Standinga midthe harvests
and orchards and vineyards Of the Bible, and
standing amid the haryests and orchards and
vineyards of our own country-larger har-
vests than have ever before been gathBred-I
want to run out the analogy between the
] production OF crops and the growth OF grace
In the soul-all these sacred writer's making.
uss OF that analogy.
In the first place, / remark, in grace as In
the fields, there must be a pillow. That WHICH
theologians call conviction Is only the plow-
share turning up the sins that have been
rooted and matted in the soul. A farmer
said to his indolent son; ''rhere are a
hundred dollars buried deep in that field. "
The son went to work and pIowed the field
from fence to fence. and he plowed it very
deep, and then complained that he had moi
found the money; but when the crop had
been gathered and sold for a hundred dollars
more than any previous year, then the young
man took the hint as to what his father
meant when he said there were a hundred
dollars buried down in that field. Deep
blowing for a crop Deep blowing for II
soul. He who makes light OF sin will never
amount to anything In the church or in the
world. II a mai speaks OF sin as though it
were an inGccuracy or a mistake, instead Of
the loathsome, abominRble. consuming and
dsmning thing that God hates, thar nan
will never yield a harvest OF usefulness.
When Twas q boy / plowed a field with
q team Of spirited horses. / plowed 1t very
quickly. Once in a while I passed over
soms Of the sod without turning it, but did
not jerk back the plow with its rafting de-
vices. l thought 1t made no difference.
After awhile my father came along and said,
"Why, this Will never do; this isn't plowed
deep enough; there you have missed this
and you have missed that Ana he plowed
II over again. The difficulty with u great
many people 10 that they are only scratched
with conviction when the subsoil plow of
Gods truth ought to be put in up to the
oeam.
NY word Is to all Sabbath-school teachers,
10 all parents, to all Christian workers.
Plow deep! Plow deep!
But what means all this crooked blowing,
these crooked burrows, the repentance that
amounts 10 notbing2 Men groan over their
Gins but get no better. They weep, but their
tears are not counted. They get convicted,
but not converted What Is the reason?
remember that on the farm we set a stand
ard with q red flag at the other end Of the
field. We kept our eye on that, We aimed
at thai, We plowed up to that, Losing
sight Of that ws made Il crooked furrow.
Keeping our eye on that We made a straight
furrow, Now In this matter OF conviction
we must have Some standard to guide US. II
is a red standard that God has set nj the
other end OF the field, 1t 10 the Cross.
Keeping your eye on that you viii make a
straight furrow, Losing sight OF IL you
will make q crooked furrow. Plow up to
the Cross. Aim not at either end Of the
horizontal piece OF the Cross but at the up
right piece, at The centre OF it, the heart OF
the Son Of God who bore your sins and
made satisfaction. Crying and weeping viii
not triug you through. "Aim hath GOD
exalted to be a Prince and a Saviour to give
rspentsnce.s oh, pillow upto the Cross
Again, I remark, in grace as in the fed,
there must be q SOWING IL the ouiumna
weather you ind the farmer gciug across
kha aa11 ~ n akrgda At about fvyaut y-tlrPa