Newport weekly independent., 1901-06-28
OBSERVING THE WIND
Value of Prompt Action in Any
 thing Under taken Is Shown.
pr. TalmaGe Draws a Lesson from a Scriptural Passage Generally
 UnObserved--Beware of Oyerprudence.

tance of prompt action in anything we have to do for ourselves or oth- CTS; text, Ecclesiastes 11:4: He that observeth the wind shall not sow."
 What do you find in this packed sentence of Solomon's monologue? I find in it a farmer at his front door examining the weather. It is seed time. His fields have been plowed and narrowed. The wheat is in the barn in sacks, ready to be taken afeld and scattered. Now is the time to sow. But the wind is not favor able. It may blow up a storm before night, and he may get wet if he starts out for the sowing; or it may be long storm, that will wash out the seed from the soil; or there may have been long drought, and the wind may continue to blow dry weather. The parched fields may not take in the grain, and the birds may pick it up, and the labor as well as the seed may be wasted. So he gives up the work for that day and goes into the house and waits to see what it will be on the morrow. On the morrow the wind is still in the wrong direc- tion, and for a whole week and for a month. Did you ever see such a long spell of bad weather? The lethargic and overcautious and dilatory agri- culturist allows the season to pass without sowing, and no sowing, of course, no harvest. That is what Solomon means when he says in his fpXt hsHa tbot nlcnr,-ath shall not sow"
 As much in our time as in Solomon tc times there is abroad a fatal hesi- tancy, a disposition to let little things stop us, a ruinous adjourn ment. We all want to do some good in the world, but how easily we are halted in our endeavors. Perhaps we are solicitors for some great charity. There is a good man who has large means, and he is accustomed to give iberally to asylums, to hospitals, to reform organizations, to schools, to churches, to communities desolated with flood or devastated with fires. But that good man, like many a good man, is mercurial in his temperament. He is depressed by atmospheric changes. He is always victimized by the east wind. For this or that req son you postpone the charitable so- Hcitation. Meanwhile the suffering that you wish to alleviate does it's awful work, and the opportunity for relief is past. If the wind had been from the west or northwest, you would have entered the philanthro- pist's countin9-room and sought the gift but the wind was blowing from the east or northeast, and you did not make the attempt, and you thor oughly illustrated my text: "He that observeth the wind shall not sow"
 There comes dark Sabbath morn ing. The pastor looks out of the window and sees the clouds gather and then discharge their burdens of rain. Instead of a full church it will be a handful of people with wet feet and the dripping umbrella at the doorway or in the end of the pew. The pastor has prepared one of his best sermons. It has cost him great research, and he has been much in prayer while preparing it. He puts the sermon aside for a clear day and talks platitudes and goes home quite depressed, but at the same time feel ing that he has done his duty. He did not realize that in that small au- dience there were at least two persons who ought to have had better treat ment. One of those hearers was a man in crisis of struggle with evil appetite. carefully prepared dis course under the Divine blessing would have been to him complete vic tory. The fires of sin would have been extinguished, and his keen and brilliant mind would have been con- secrated to the Gospel ministry, and he would have been mighty evangel, and tens of thousands of souls would have, under the spell of his Christian eloquence, given up sin and started & new life, and throughout all the Heavens there would have been con- graduation and hosanna, and after many ages of eternity had passed there would be celebration among the ransomed of what WAS accom- plished one stormy Sunday in a church on earth under a mighty Cos pei sermon delivered to 15 or 20 peo- pie. But the crisis speak of was not properly met. The man in struggle with evil habit heard that stormy day no word that moved him. He went out in the rain uninvited and un- helped back to his evil way and down to his overthrow. Had it been a sun- shiny Sabbath he would have heard something worth hearing. But the wind blew from stormy direction ]. Inr liInnt (Nnc1no1 h,Ic