The Marlboro democrat. [volume] (Bennettsville, S.C.) 1882-1908, 1901-07-05
DIR. TALMAGE's DISCOURSE
On tho Importance OF Prompt Actor
In Anything We Have to Do.

From passage of Scripture unob-
served by most roadors DR.. Talmago in
this DISCOURSE shows tue Importance Of
prompt action in anything wo have to
do for ourselves or others; text, Coolest
astes XII, 4, "Ho that obscrveth tho
wind shall not SOW"
What do you find in this paokod SON.
tonce Of Solomon's monologue2 fad
in it fafmor at his front door oxamin-
ing the weathor. It is scodtimo. His
folds have boon plowed aud narrowed.
Tho wheat is in tho barn in sacks, ready
to be taken aGeld and scattorod Now
is tho time to SOW. But tho wind is
not favorable Itmay blow up storm
beforeehight, aud he may got wet if ho
starts out for tho sowing; or it may bo
long storm, that will wash out tho
seed from the soil; or thoro may have
beon long drought, and tho wind may
continue to blow dry weather. Tho
parohed folds may not take in the grain,
and the birds may pick it up, and the
labor as we'll as the seed may bewastcd.
So ho gives up tho work for that day and
gees !ntc. .hc house and traits tc see
,-What 1t will be on tho morrow On the
morrow tho wind is still in tho wong
direction, and for whole wook and for
a month. Did you cvor see
woathcr? The lethargc and over
cautious and dilatory agrioulturist al
lows tho season to pass without sowing,
and no sowing, Of course, no harvest.
That is what Solomon means when ho
says in his tcxt, ''Ho that obscrvoth
the wind shall not SOW"
AS much in our time as in Solomonio
times there is abroad fatal hesitanoy,
disposition to lot littlo things stop us,
ruinous adjournment. We all want
to do some good in tho world, but how
easily we arc halted in our endoayors.
Perhaps wo are solicitors for somo groat
charity. There is good man who has
large moans, and he is accustomed to
give liberally to asylums, to hospitals,
to reform organizations, to sch ,ols, to
churches, to communities dosolatod
with flood or devastated with fires
But that good man, like many good
man, is mercurial in his temperament.
He is depressed by atmoshperio
changes. He is always yiotimizad by
the cast wind. For this or that reason
you postpone tho charitable solioits-
tion. Meanwhile tho suffering that you
q wish to alleviate docs its awful work,
and the opportunity for roliof is past.
If the wind had been from the wost or
northwest, you would havo entered tho
philantbropist's counting room and
sought the gift, but tho wind was blow
ing from the cast or northeast, and you
did not make tho. attempt, and you
thoroughly illustrated my text, "Ho
that observeth the wind shall not SOW. I"
Thore comes dark Sabbath morning
The pastor looks out Of the window and
sees the clouds gathor and thon dis
charge their burdens Of rain. Instead
Of full church it will bo handful Of
people with wet feet and the dripping
umbrella at the doorway or in tho ond
Of pew. The pastor has prepared one
Of his best, sermons. 1t has cost him
groat research, and he has boon much
in prayer while preparing it. IIo puts
the sermon aside for clear day and
talks platitudes and goes homo quito
depressed, but 1t tho samo timo feeling
that he has q his duty. Ho did not
roalizo that J. that small audience
there we're at least two persons who
ought to have had bottor treatment.
Ono of those hearers was man in
crisis Of struggle with evil appetite. A
carefully prepared discourse under tho
divine blessing would have boon to him
complete victory. Tho fires Of Gin
would have boon extlnguishod, and his
keen and brilliant mind would have
been oonseorated to tho gospel ministry
and ho would have boon mighty ovan-
gel, and tens Of thousands of souls
would have, under the spell of his
Christian eloquonoe, given up sin and
started q now life, and throughout all
the heavens there would have boen
oongratulation and hosanna, and after
many ages Of otornity had passed thoro
would be celebration among the ran
somed of what was accomplished ono
stormy Sunday in church on oarth
under mighty gospel sermon delivered
to 10 or 70 pooplo. But tho crisis |
speak Of was not properly met Tho
man in struggle with evil habit hoard
that stormy day no word that moved
him. He wont out in tho rain unin.
vited and unholped back to his evil
way and down to his overthrow. Had
it been sunshiny Sabbath ho would
have heard something worth hoaring.
But the wind blew from stormy diroo-
tion that Sabbath day. That gospel
husbandman noticed it and acted upon
its suggestion and may discover some
day his groat mistake Ho had a sack
full Of tho finest Of tho whoat, but he
withhold it, and somo day ho will find,
whom the whole story iB told, that no
was vivid illustration Of tho truth Of
my text, 'Ho that obsorvoth tho wind
snail not SOW"
In all departments Of lifo thoIo arc
those hindorod by tho wind Of public
opinion. 1t has become an aphorism
in politics and in all great movements,
"Ho is waiting to geo which way tho
wind blows" And it is DO easy thing
to defy public opinion, to bo run upon
by newspapers, to bo oycrhauod in SC.
oial orioles, to bo mathematical by
those who heretofore we're your frionds
and admirers. 1t requires q hcroism
which few possess.
Yot no great roformatory or elevating
movement has evor boon accomplished
until somo one was willing to dony what
tho world should think or say or do.
But there have boon mon and women Of
that kind. Thoy stand all up and down
the corridors Of history, examples for
us to follow. Charles Summer in tho
Initial Statea eanato. Aloxandor TT