The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1896-03-04

Rubens and the pencil Of Bierstadt.
| The sculptor's chisel has come in for
| high encomium, and the world has
celebrated Chantrey's cbisel, 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 reaped
the harvest of many centuries. Sharp
and bent into a semicircle and glitter
ing, this reaping hook, no longer than
your arm, has furnished the bread for
thousands of years. It's success has
produced the wealth of nations. It
has had more to dowith the worlds
progress than sword and pen and pen
Gil and chisel all put together. Christ
puts the sickle into exquisite sermonic
smile, and you see that instrument
flash all up and down the Apocalypse
as St. John swings it., while through
Joel 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"
ESTIMATE OF VALUES.
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 the fruits of
the orchard and all the grains of the
| field, and the nation never does a bet
ter thing han 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 you of richer
harvests, even the spiritual. How
shall we estimate the value Of man ?
We say he is worth so many dollars,
or he has achieved such and such a
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 bottom 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 live forever. Death can
not kill us. Other crafts may lie
drawn into the whirlpool or shiver"d
on the rocks, but this life within us
will weather all storms and drop no
anchor and 10, 600, QUO years after
death will shake out signals on the
high seas of eternity. You put the
mendicant off your doorstep and say
he is only a beggar, but he is worth all
the gold of the mountains, worth all
the pearls of the sea, worth the solid
earth, worth sun and moon and stars,
worth the entire material universe.
Take all the paper that evercame from
the paper mills and put it side by side
and sheet by sheet and let men with
feetest pens make figures on that
paper for 10, 1000 years, and they will
only have begun to express the value
of the soul. Suppose I owned Colora-
do and Nevada aud Australia, Of how
much value would they be to me one
moment after 1 departed this life ?
How much of Philadelphia does Ste
phen Girard own to-day? How much
of Boston property does Abbott Law
renee 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 Ifeel, standing here surround
ed by a multitude Of souls, each one
worth more than the material uni
verse? Oh, was [ not right in saying
this spiritual harvest is richer than
the temporal harvest? Unjust tighten
the girdle. I must sharpen the sickle.
I must be careful how I swing the
instrument for gathering the grain
lest one stalk be lost.
One Of the most powerful sickles
for reaping this spiritual harvest is
the preaching of the gospel. If the
sickle have a rosewood handle, and it
be adorned with precious stones, and
yet it cannot bring down the grain, it
is not much of a sickle, and preach
ing amounts to nothing unless it
harvests souls for God. Shall Te
preach philosophy? The Ralph Wal
do Emersons could beat us at that.
Shall we preach science =? The Agas-
sizes 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 find the
harvest all around him waiting for the
angel sheaf binders. Oh, this harvest
of souls I notice in the fields that
the farmer did not stand upright when
he gathered the grain. | noticed he
had to stoop to his work, and noticed
in order to bind the sheaves the better
he had to put his knee upon them.
And as we go forth in this work for
God we cannot stand upright in our
rhetoric and our metaphysics and u
erudition. We have to stoop to our
work. Aye, we have to put u knee
to it, or we will never gather sheaves
for the Lords garner. Peter swung
that sickle on the day of Pentecosc,
and 5000 sheaves came in. Richard
Baxter swung that sickle at Kidder-
Minister, and McCheyne at Dundee,
and vast multitudes came into the
kingdom of our God.
THE MIGHTY GOSPEL.
Oh, this is a mighty gospel 1t
captured 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 the wisdom
of God unto salvation. But, alas, il
it is only preached in pulpits and on
Sabbath days! We must 60 forth
into our stores, our shops, u bank
ing houses, our factories, and the
streets. and everywhere preach Christ.
We stand in our pulpits for two hours
on the Sabbath and commend Christ
to the people, but there are l6S hours
in the week, and what are the two
hours on the Sabbath against the l66?
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
merchants, upon all mechanics, upon
all %toilers, aud God says to you as he
says to me: eco, teach all nations:
He that believcth and is baptized