The Iola register., 1896-02-21
BRING IN THE SHEAVES.
DR.. Talmage DiscOurses on the
Spiritual Harvest.
Many Fields Now Ready for the Gospel
Reapers-Work to BE Done by Chris
t;ans-The Power of Prayer
IL the Great Work

The subject of a late sermon at
Washington by Rev. I. 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. !"
DR.. Talmage said:
The sword has been poetized and the
world has celebrated the sword of Boli-
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 celebrated Chantrey's
chisel, and Crawford's chisel, and
Greenough's chisel But there is one in
strument about which ! sing the first
canto that was ever sung-the sickle,
the sickle of the Bible. the sickle that
has reaped the harvest of many CEN
turies- 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 It 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 in
strument fash up and down the Apoc-
alvpse 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
Last Novemb Der 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 bet
ter thing than when in the autumn it
gathers to festivity and thanks God
for the greatness of the harvest But
l come to-day to speak to you of
richer harvests, even the spiritual.
How shall we estimate the value of a
man? We say he is worth so many
dollars, or he has achieved such and
such a position; 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 a 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 or
shivered on the rocks, but this life
within US will weather all storms and
drop no anchor. and 100000 years
after death we shall shake out signals
on the high seas of eternity. You put
the mendicant off your doorstep and
say he is only 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 ever came
from the paper mills and put it side by
side and sheet by sheet, and let men
with fleetest pens make figures on that
paper for 10000 years, and 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 1 departed this life?
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 feel, standing here surround
ed by a multitude of souls, each one
worth more than the material uni
verse? Oh, vas l not right in saying this
spiritual harvest is richer than the
temporary harvest? 1 must tighten
the pirdle, l must sharpen the sickle,
must be careful how l swing the in
strument 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 preaching
amounts to nothing unless it harvest
souls for God. Shall we preach philos-
ophy? The Ralph Waldo Emersons
could beat us at that. Shall we preach
science? The Agassizes could beat US
at that. The minister of Jesus Christ
with weakest arms going forth in ear
nest 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! l
notice in the fields that 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 the sheaves the better he
had to put his knee upon them And
as we 90 forth in this work of God we
cannot stand upright in our rhetoric
and our metaphysics and our erudition-
We have 10 stoop to our work.
Oh. this is a mighty gospel! 1t cap
tured not only John the lamb, but