The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1897-10-22
THE CORN HARVEST
REV. DIR. TALMAGE DISCUSSES A
sEASONABLE TOPIC

REV. DIX. DISCUSSES n
sEAsONABLE TOPIC
His Graphic Word Pictures Of Rural Life In
Autumn-The Heavenly Harvest, "Com-
eth as a Shock OF Corn In His Season."
copyright, 1897. by the American Press
Association
This sermon by DIR. Talmage Is pecu-
liarly seasonable at the present time.
when the teeming h%arvests all over the
land are awaiting the husbandman. His
text is Job ", 26, LAS a shock Of corn
cometh in in his season."
Going at the ate of forty miles the
hour a few days ago, I caught this SER
mon. If you had recently been in the
fields Of Pennsylvania or New Jersey
or New York or New England or n
OF the country districts, you know hat
the corn is nearly all cut. The sharp
knife struck through the stalks and left
them all along the fields until a man
came with a bundle at straw and
twisted a few of these wisps of straw
into a band, and then, gathering up as
much Of the corn as he could compass
with his arms, he bound it with this
wisp Of straw and then stood it in the
field in what is called a shock.
It is estimated that there are now
several billion bushels Of corn standing
in the shock, waiting to be husked.
Some time during the latter part OF
next month the farmers will gather,
one day on one farm, another day on
another farm, and they will put on
their rough husking apron, and they
will take the husking peg, which Is q
piece of iron with a leather loop fast
ened to the hand, and with it unsheath
the corn from the husk and toss it into
the golden heap. Then the wagons will
come along and take 1t to the corncrib.
How wildly to all those of us who
were born in the country comes the re-
membrance Of husking time. We wait
ed for it as for a gala day of the year.
It was called a frOlic. The trees av-
ing fort the most part shed their foliage
the farmers waded through the fallen
leaves Inc came through h keen
morning air to the gleeful company.
The frosts, which had silvered every
thing during the night, began to melt
off of the top Of the corn shocks. While
the farmers were waiting for others
they stood blowing their breath through
fingers or thrashing their arms around
their bodies to keep warmth OF circu-
1ation.
THE CORNFIELD.
Roaring mirth greeted the late farm
err as he crawled over the fence. Joke
and -repartee and rustic salutation
abounded. All ready now! The men
take hold the shock Of corn and hurl it
PROSTATE, while the moles and mice
which have secreted themselves there
for warmth attempt escape. The withe
Of straw is unwound from the corn
shock, and the stalks. heavy with
wealth Of grain, are rolled into two
bundles, between which the husker sits
down.. The husking peg is thrust in
until it strikes the corn, n then the
fingers rip off the sheathing of the ear,
and there is g. crack as the root of the
corn Is snapped off from the husk, and
the grain, disimprisoned, is hurlded up
into the sunlight.
The air is so tonic, the work Is 80
very exhilarating, the company is SO
blithe, that some laugh and some shout
and some sing and some banter and
some tease a. neighbor for a romantic
ride along the edge of the woods in an
eventide In a carriage that holds but
two n some prophesy as to the num-
Der of bushels to the field, and others go
into competition as to which shall rifle
the most cornshocks before shutdown.
After awhile the dinner horn sounds
from the farmhouse, and h table is
surrounded by q grOup Of jolly and
hungry men. From all the pantries
and the cellars and the perches Of fowl
on the place the richest dainttes come.
and there are carnival and neighbOr-
hood reunion and a scene which fills our
memory, part with smiles, but more
with tears as we remember that the
farm belongs now to other owners, and
other hands gather in the fields, n
many of those who mingled in that
merry husking scene ave themselves
been reaped like as a shock of corn
cometh in in his season."
There is a difference Of opinion as to
whether the %orientals knew anything
about the corn as it stands in our fields,
but recent discoveries have found out
that the Hebrew knew all about Indian
maize, for there have been grains of the
corn picked up out of ancient crypts
and exhumed from hiding places where
they were put low many centuries
ago, as they have been planted in our
time and have come up just such Indi-
an maize as we raise in New York n
Ohio, so I am right When I say that my
text may refer to a shock Of corn just
as you and I bound 1t, just as you and
I threw 1t, just as you and I husked it.
There may come some practical and
useful and comforting lessons to all our
souls while we think Of coming in at
last like a shock Of corn coming in in
his season"
It is high time that the king OF ter
rors were thrown out of the Christian
vocabulary. A vast multitude of peo-
pie talk Of death as though it were the
disaster Of disasters instead Of being
to a good man the blessing Of blessings.
It is moving out of a cold vestibule
into q warm temple. It is migrating
into groves Of redOlence n perpetual
fruitage. It is a change from bleak
March to roseate June. 1t is a change
Of manacles for garlands. 1t is the