The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1901-06-25


ing 10 SOW and SOW the very best graia.
n we are going to raise an eternal har-
vest OF happiness. We like what you
there. and at the right time we win get
ready. But my Iungs are sound. my d.
gesticn 10 good, the examining physician
OF the life insurance company says my
heart beats just the right number Of
times a minute. and I am cautious bou
sitting in q draft, and / observe all the
laws Of hygiene, and M father and
mother lived to be very old, and I come
Of a long lived family. So we adjourn
and postpone until, like the farmer sug-
gested by my text, we allow the seed
time 10 pass, and sudden pneumonia or q
reckless bicycle or An ungoverned auto
mobile puts US but OF life with all its
magnificent opportunities OF deciding
Alright the question Of everlasting resi-
dsnce. A Spanish proverb says, The
road OF BY and By leads to the town Of
Never"
Christ's Fathomlsss Mercy.
Whether in your life it Is a south wind
or a north wind, q west wind or an east
wind, that is now blowing, do you not
feel like saying: This whole subject ]
o. decide. Lord God. through thy Son
Jesus Christ, my Saviour, I am thine for.
ever. I throw myself. reckless of every
thing else, into the fathomless ocean Of
thy mercy"
But" says some one in q frivolous
and rollicking way, II am not like the
farmer you find in your text. l do not
watch the wind. What do I care about
the weather vane? L am sowing now"
What are you sowing, my brother? Are
you sowing evil habits? Are you sowing
infdel and atheist!c beliefs? Are you
sowing hatreds, revenges, ~discontents, I'm.
clean thoughts or unclean actions? If so,
you will raise a big crop-a very big
crop. The farmer sometimes plants
things that do not come up. and he has
to plant them over again. But those evil
things that you have planted will take
root n come up in harvest Of dissp
pointment, in harvest Of pain, In harvest
Of despair, in harvest Of fire. Go right
through some of the unhappy homes OF
Washington and New York and all the
cities and through the hospitals and pen.
itentiaries, and o will find stacked up,
piled together, the sheaves Of such an
awful harvest. Hosea, one Of the first
Of all the writing prophets, although four
Of the other prophets are put before him
in the canon of Scripture, wrote an as.
founding metaphor that may be quoted
az descriptive of those who do evil.
'They have sown the wind, and they
shall reap the whirlwind." Some one
has said, children may be %strangled,
but deeds never"
There are other persons who truthfully
say: II am doing the best / can. The
clouds are thick and the wind blows the
wrong way, but / am sowing prayers
and sowing kindnesses and sowing help.
fitness and sowing hopes Of a better
world" Good for you, my brother, my
sister! What you plant will come up.
What you SOW will rise into a harvest
the wealth of which you will not know
until you go up higher. l hear the rus.
Ting Of your harvest in the bright fields
Of heaven. The soft gales of that land,
as they pass, bend the full headed grain
in curves Of beauty. 1t is golden in the
light of a sun that never sets. As you
pass in you will not have to grid on the
sickle for the reaping, and there will be
nothing to remind you Of weary hus-
bandmen toiling under hot summer sun
on earth and lying down under the shad.
ow of the tree at noontide, so tired were
they, so very tired. No. no; you har.
vest will be reaped without any toll OF
your hands, without any besweating OF
your brow. Christ in one of his sermons
told how your harvest will be gathered
when he said. THE reapers are the an.
gels"
copyright. 1901. Louis K!opsch. N. "