St. Tammany farmer., 1901-08-03
HARVEST TINE HERE

HARVEST IlME HERE
| A Sermon of congratulation for
Christian Endeavorers.
DR.. Ta1mage Finds . Mighty sugges-
tivehess in His Text-The Growth
and Perfection of Chris
tianity.
fcopyright, 1901. by Louis Klopsch. N. ~
Washington,
Although DR.. Talmage was hindered
from attending the great annual meet
| ing of the Christian Endeavor society
| at Cincinnati, his sermon shows him to
be in sympathy with the great move
ment: text, Amos 9:13: "Behold the
days come, saith the Lord, that the
! plowman shall overtake the reaper.
Unable because of other important
duties to accept the invitation to take
part in the great convention OF Chris
tian Endeavorers at Cincinnati, begun
last week, l preach sermon OF con
graduation for all the members OF that
| magnificent association, whether now
| gathered in vast assemblage OF busy IN
their places of usefulness, transatlan-
tic and cisatlantic, and as it is now har-
vest time in the fields and sickles are
flashing in the gathering OF great
crop, 1 find mighty suggestiveness IN
my text.
It is picture of tropical clime'
with a season so prosperous that the
| harvest reaches clear over to the plant
ing time, and the swarthy husband
man, busy cutting the grain, almost
feels the breath of the horses on his
shoulders, the horses hitched to the
plow, preparing for new crop. BE
hold the days come, saith the Lord
that the plowman shall overtake the
reaper" When is that? That is now.
That is this day, when hardly have you
done reaping one harvest OF religious
result than the plowman is getting
ready for another.
In phraseology charged with all ven
ON and abuse and caricature l know
that infidels and agnostics have de-
clared that Christianity has collapsed;
that the Bible is an obsolete book; that
the Christian church is on the retreat.
shall answer that wholesale charge
to-day.
Between 10000 and 100000 En-.
deavorers sworn before high Heaven
that they will do all they can to take
America for God, Europe for God, Asia
and Africa for God-are not the signs
most cheering? Or, to return to the
agricultural figure Of my text, more
than a million reapers are overtaken
by more than million plowmen. Be-
sides this, there are more people who
believe in the Bible than at any time
in the worlds existence. An Arat
guide was leading a French infde
across the desert, and ever and amor
the Arab guide would get down In the
sand and pray to the Lord. 1t disgust
ed the French infdel, and after awhile
as the Arab got up from one of his
prayers, the infdel said: "How dc
you know there is any God?" And the
Arab guide said: Chow do know that
man and camel passed by our tent
last night? know it by the footprint
in the sand. And you want to know
how know whether there is any God /
Look at the sunset. Is that the foot
step of a man?" And by the same
process you and have come to under
stand that this book is the footsteI
of God.
/ ia ,1,o<h fho h00
IS last years almanac. Let us see
whether the church of God is a Bull
Runt retreat, muskets, canteens ant
haversacks strewing all the way. The
great English historian Sharon Tur
ner, man of vast learning and greal
accuracy, not clergyman, but an at
torney as well as historian, gives thi:
overwhelming statistic in regard te
Christianity and in regard to the mum
Der of Christians in the different cen
turtles: In the first century 500,00(
Christians, in the second century 1000,
600 Christians, in the third centur,
5000, 900 Christians, in the fourth cen
tury 10000, 900 Christians, in the fiftl
century 15,OO0,o 900 Christians, in th'
sixth century 20,oo0,0oO Christians, il
the seventh century 24,000,0o0 Chris
tians, in the eighth century 30,oo0,00'
Christians, in the ninth century 40, 900,
900 Christians, in the tenth century 50,
O00, 900 Christians, in the eleventh cen
tury 70, 900 600 Christians, in the twelfth
century s0,O00,0O0 Christians, in thu
thirteenth century 75,00o,0oo Chris
tians, in the fourteenth century $4,000,
900 Christians, in the fifteenth centur.
100, 100000 Christians, in the sixteenth
century 125,o00,00o Christians, in tn
seventeenh century 155,0oc,o00 Chris
tians, in the eighteenth century 200,
00o, 900 Christians-a decadence, as yo,
observe, in only one century and NOR
than made up in the following cen
turies, while It is the usual computa
ton that there were at the close of thu
nineteenth century 47o,0o0,0oo Chris
tians, making us to believe that befor'
this century is closed the milleniun
will have started its boom and lifte'
its hosanna.
Poor Christianity! What . pity i
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