The Fulton County news. [volume] (McConnellsburg, Pa.) 1899-current, 1901-06-27
PROMPTNESS.
Or. TaImage Talks About the Benefits
Of Having 10 Struggle Hard
for q Living.
Victory Over Obstaeies-."fie That Observetf
the Wind Shall Not Sow"



WASHINGTON, ID. C.--From a passage
OF Scripture unobservcd by most readers
LIT. Talmage in this discourse shows the
Importance OF prompt action in anything
we have to do for ourselves or others;
text, Eccleslasticss, XII, 4, He that observ-
eth the wind shall not SOW"
What. do you find in this packed SEN
tenee OF Solomon's monologuc? / find in
lt farmer at his front door examining
the weather. II is seedtime. His fields
have been plowed and narrowed. The
wheat IS IN the barn in sacks, ready to be
taken ahcld and scattered. Now is the
time to SOW. But the wind is not favor
able 1t may blow up a storm before
night, and he may get wet il he starts out
for the sowing. Or il 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 parchcd fields may not
take IN the grain, and the birds may pick
1T up, and the labor as well as the seed
may be wasted So he gives up the work
for that day and goes back into the house
and waits to see what it will be on the
morrow. On the morrow the wind is still
In the wrong direction, and for whole
week, and for month. Did you ever sec
such long spell of bad weather? The
lethargic and overcautous and dilatory
agricnlturist allows the season to pass
without sowing, and no sowing, of course
ny hai Ncst. Htt ID WUdJ solomon means
when he says in my text, "He that obser-
veth the wind shall not sow"
AS much in our times rs in Solononic
times there is abroad a fatal hestancy--.
disposition to let little things stop us-a
ruinous adjournment. 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.
Ihere is a good man who has large
means, and he Ia accustomed to give liber-
ally TO esylrms, to hospitals, to reform
organizations, to schools, to churches, to
communities desolated with flood or de-
vastated with fires. But that good man.
like many good man. is mercurial in his
temperament. lie is depressed by atmos-
pherlc changes. He is always victimized
by the east wind. For this or that rea-
son you postpone the charitable solicita-
tion. Meanwhile the suffering that you
wish to alleviate does its awful work. and
the opportunity for relief is past. If the
wind had been from the west or north
west, you would have entered the philan,
thropists counting room and sought the
gift, but the wind was blowing from the
east or northeast and you did not make
the attempt and you thoroughly illus
trated my text, He that observeth the
wind shall not SOW"
There comes dark Sabbath morning.
The pastor looks out OF the window and
wees the clouds gather and then discharge
their burdens OF rain Instead of full
church it will be 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 ser
mons: 1t has cost him great research.
and ne has been much in prayer while
preparing it,. He puts the sermon aside
Tor clear day and talks platitudes and
goes home quite depressed. but at the
same time feeling that he has done his
duty; He did not realize that in that
small audience there were at least two
persons who ought to nave had better
treatment. One of those hearers was a
man IN crisis of struggle with evil appe-
tite. A carefully prepared discourse un-
der the divine blessing would have been
to him complete victory. The fires OF
sin would have been extinguished, and his
keen and brilliant mind would have been
consecrated at the gospel ministry, and he
would have been mighty evangel, and
tens of thousands of sonls would have uu-
der the spell of his Christian eoquence
given up sin and started new life, and
throughout all the heavens there would
have been congratnlation and hosanna,
and after many ages OF eternity had
passed there would be celebration among
the ransomcd of what was accomplished
one stormy Sunday in a church on earth
under mighty gospel sermon delivered
TO htteen or twenty people. But the cri
L.
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 won to
his overthrow. Had it been q sunshiny
Sabbath lie would have heard something
worth hearing But the wind blew from
stormy direction that Sabbath day. That
gospel husbandman noticed it and acted
upon its suggestion and may discover
some day his great mistake. He had Il
sackiul OF the finest of the wheat, but he
withheld it, and some day he will find
when the whole story is told, that he was
vivid illustration OF the truth of my
text, He that observeth the wind shall
not SOW"
There was another person in that
stormy Sunday audience that deserved
something better from that pastor than
extemporized nothingness. 1t was
mother who was half awakened to a
sense OF responsibility. in regard TO her
household. She had begun to question
herself as TO whether it would not be bet
ter to introduce into her home a religion
that would decide Alright the destiny of
her sons and daughters. Her home had
so far been controlled only by worldly
principles. She had dared the riot of the
elements that morning and had found her
way to church, hoping to hear something
that would help her to decide the domes-
tic question which was TO her a solicitude.
A good, strong sermon under the divine
blessing would have led her into the king
dom of God and afterward her whole fam
lily, The children. whether they became
farmers or mechanics or merchants or art
lists or men of learned profession or wom-
en- at the head of households, would have
done their work in Christian way, and
after lives of usefulness on earth would
have taken thrones in heaven. 1t would
have been a whole family saved for time
and saved for eternity. But the pastor
had adjourned tho strong and effective
discourse TO a clear Sunday The mother
went home chilled in body, mind and soul
and concluded not to trouble herself or
her household about the future, and to let
tomorrow take care of itseif and keep on
doing as they had been doing. No forma.
tion OF thorough Christian character in
the lives OF those growing up boys and
girls. They will so out into the world to
meet its viclssitudes without any sublime
reinforcement OF the gospel. What pity
1t was that he did not put down the man
useript of his well prepared sermon on the
Bible il, he preached from notes or pour
it ont Of his soul il he had lodged it there
through careful preparationl No. He al
lowed that opportunity, which could never
return, to pass into eternity unimproved.
he observed by the way the rain dashed
against the windows of the parsonage and
the windows of the church that the wind
was from the east or the northeast, and
he did not sow or sowed that which was