The Progress., 1896-10-31

ing the golden ligh
OF the wheat field. And when l oper
my Bible to take my text, the Scripture
leaf rustles like the tassels Of the corn
We were nearly all of us born in the
country. We dropped corn in the hill
and went on Saturday to the mill, ty,
ing the grist in the center of the sack
so that the contents on either side the
horse balanced each other; and drove
the cattle afield, our bare 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 occupants went cackling
| away. We were nearly all of us born
| IN the country, and all would have
stayed there had not some adventur-
GUS 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 un-
derstand rustic illusions. The Bible
is full of them. In Christ's sermon
on the Mount you could see the full
blown lilies and the glossy back of the
crows wing as 1t flies over Mount Oil
vet. David and John, Paul and Isaiah
find in country life source Of fire.
quent illustration, while Christ in the
text takes the responsibility of calling
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 gardener on a large
scale, but to Noah was given all the
acres of the earth. Elisha was an ag-
riculturist, not cultivating a ten-acre
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 cult
waited, ever after to be his own posses
sion. Just as in Nebraska the United
States Government on payment of SIG
years ago gave presumption right to
100 acres to any man who would settle
there and cultivate the soil.
All classes of people were expected to
cultivate ground except ministers of re-
ligion. 1t was supposed that they
would have their time entirely oceu-
pied with their own profession. al
though l am told that sometimes min
listers do plunge so deeply into world
illness that they remind one of what
Thomas Fraser said in regard to a
man in his day who preached very
well, but lived very i'll: when he is
out of the pulpit, it is pity he should
ever 60 into it, and when he is in the
pulpit it is pity he should ever come
out of it."
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 fax,
and all kinds of grain came up at the
call of the harvesters. Pliny tells of
one stalk of grain that had on it be-
tween three and four hundred ears
The rivers and the brooks, through ar
tifcial 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 turneth it as the rivers Of !
water are turned, whithersoever 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: Il will put
hook in thy nose and will bring thee
back by the way which thou earnest"
And God has 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,
be will find that the Lord Almighty
has hook in his nose.
This was the rule in regard to the
culture of the ground: Thou shalt
not pillow with an OK and an ass to-
gether," illustrating the folly of ever
putting intelligent and useful and pill
able men in association with the stub
,orn and the unmanageable. The vast
majority of troubles in the churches
Ind in reformatory institutions comes
rom the disregard of this command
If tie Lord, Thou shalt not pillow
With an OK and an ass together"
There were large amounts OF prop
'rty invested in cattle. The Moabites
laid 100000 sheep as an annual tax.
lob had 1000 sheep, 5000 camels, 500
,oka of oxen. The time of vintage
vas ushered in with mirth and music.
The clusters of the vine were put into
he wine press, and then five men
would get into the press and trample
ut the juice from the grape until their
!; fments were saturated vita the wine
ed had become the emblems of
daughter. Christ himself, wounded ,
Iniil covered with the blood of cruci-
,xion, making use of this allusion
then the question was asked: Where