The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1896-10-29
1HLMaeE's SERMON.
"My father is the husbandman.' John

ulHefeHt directions over between 5000
and 5000 miles Of harvest fields. I
can hardly open my Bible without
smelling the breath Of new-mown hay
and seeing the golden light of the
wheat field. And when I open my
Biblt to take my text, the Scripture
leaf rustles like the tassels Of the
corn.
We We're nearly all Of us born in the
country. We dropped corn in the hill,
and went OH Saturday to the mill, tying
the grist in tue center of the sack
81 that the contents on either side of
the horse balanced the other; and
drove the cattle atield, our bare feet
wet with dew, and rode the horses
with the halter to the brook until we
fell off. and hunted the NOV for nests
until tile feathered occupants went
%cackling away. We were nearly all of
us born in the country, and all would
have stayed there had not some ad-
v%enturous lad on his vacation come
back with better clothes and softer
hands, and set the whole village on
fire with ambition for city life. So
we all understand rustic illusions. The
Bible is full Of them. In Christ's SER
mon on the mount you could see the
%fullblown lilies and the glossy back
OF the crows wing as it flies over
Mount Olivet. David and John, Paul
and Isaiah find in country life a source
of frequent illustration, while Christ in
the text takes the responsibility of call
ing God a farmer, declaring: "My
Father is the husbandman."
Noah was the first farmer. We say
nothing about Cain, the tiller OF the
soil. Adam was a gardener on a large
scale but to Noah was given all the
acres of the earth. Elisha was IN
agriculturist, not c%ultivating a ten-ac:e
lot, for we find him blowing with
twelve yoke of oXen. In Bible times
the land was so plenty and the inhabi-
tants so few that Noah was right when
he gave to every inhabitant a certain
portion of land; that land, if cultivated,
ever after to be his own possession.
government OH payment of SIG years
ago gave pre-emption right to 100 acres
to any maj who would settle there and
cultivate the soil.
All classes Of people were expected
to cultivate ground except ministers of
religion. It was supposed that they
would have their time entirely occupied
with their own profession, although +
am told that ministers do plunge so
deeply into Worldliness that they re-
mind on what Thomas Fraser said
in regard to a man in his day who
preached very we'll 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 a pity he
Should ever come out Of it,"
This was the rule in regard to tile
culture of the ground: "Ihou shalt
not plow with an OK and an ass to-
gether," illustrating the folly Of e
putting intelligent and useful and plia-
bic men in association with the stub
born and the unmana geable. The vast
ma.iorities of troubles in the churches
and in reformatOry institutions comes
from the disregard of this command Of
the Lord, "Thou shalt not plow with
an OK and an ass together"
In all ages there has been great
honor paid to agriculture. Seven
eighths of the people in every country
are disciples Of the plow. A govern
ment is strong in proportion as it is
supported by IN athletic and industri-
GUS yeomanry. So long ago as before
the fall of Carthage, Strabo wrote
t~wenty-eight books on agriculture;
Hesiod wrote a poem on the same
subject-''The Weeks and Days." Cato
was prOuder of his work on husbandry
than of all his military conquests. But
I must not be tempted into a discus
sion Of agricultural ~conquests. Stand
ing amid the harvests and orchards
and vineyards of the Bible, and stand
ing amid the harvests and orchards
and vineyarde of our own country
larger harvests than have ever before
analogy between the production of
crops and the growth of grace in the
soul-al these sacred writer's making
use of that analogy
In the first place, I remark, in grace
as in the fields there must be a plow.
That which theologians call conviction
is only the plowshare turning up the
sins that have been rooted and matted
in the soul. A farmer said to his indo-
lent son: There are a hundred dollars
buried deep in that field" The son
went to work and plowed the field
from fence to fence, and he plowed it
very deep, and then complained that
he had not 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 hum
dred dollars buried down in the field.
Deep blowing for a crop. Deep plow-
ing for a soul. He who makes light of
sin will never amount to anything in
the church or in the world. If a man
speaks of sin as though it were an in
accuracy or a mistake, instead of the
loathesome, abominable, consuming
and damning. thing that God hates,
that man will never yield a harvest of
usefulness.
My word is to- all Sabbath school
teachers, to all parents, to all Chris
tian workers-Plow deep! Pillow deep!
Deep blowing for a crop. Deep plow-
ing for a soul. Broken heart or no re-
ligion. Broken soul or no harvest.
Why was it that David and the taller
and the publican and Paul made such
ado about their sins? Had they lost
their senses? No. The plowshare had
struck them. Conviction turned up a
great many things that were forgotten.
AS a farmer in blowing sometimes
firms I'm tha SkalatOn Of a mon o,. tbo