The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1901-07-25
OBSERVING THE WIND
Value of Prompt Action in Any
thing ndertaken Is Shown.
DR.. Talmage Draws a Lesson from q
Scriptural Passage Generally
UnObserved-Bewa of
Overprudence.


scriptural Passage Generally
Unobserved-Beware of
Overprudence.
copyright. 1901, by Louis Klopsch N. VI
Washington,
From passage of Scripture unob-
served by most readers, DR.. Talmage
in this discourse shows the impor-
tance of prompt action in anything
we have to do for ourselves or 9th
ers; 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. 1t is seed
time. His fields have been plowed
and narrowed. The wheat is in the
barn in sacks, ready to be taken
| afield and scattered. Now is the time
to sow. But the wind is not favor
able. 1t may blow up 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-
ton, and for a whole week and for
month. Did you ever see such 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
text: He that observeth the wind
shall not SOW"
AS much in our time as in Solomon
ic times there is abroad fatal hesi-
fancy, 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
literally to asylums, to hospitals, to
reform organizations, to schools, tc
: churches, to communities desolated
with food or devastated with fires
But that good man, like many gooc
l man, is mercurial in his temperament
| 80 hv crh orif
) changes. He is always victimized by
l the east wind. For this or that rea
l son you postpone the charitable so
' licitation. Meanwhile the suffering
< that you wish to alleviate does it:
\ awful work, and the opportunity fol
= relief is past. If the wind had beer
from the west or northwest, yo,
Y would have entered the philanthro
pist's counting-room and sought tn
. gift, but the wind was blowing from
y the east or northeast, and you di'
g not make the attempt, and you thor
{. oughly illustrated my text: "He tha
d observeth the wind shall not SOW"
t.. There comes dark Sabbath morn
d ing. The pastor looks out of tn
|
d and then discharge their burdens Q
n rain. Instead of full church it wi
q be handful of people with wet fee
and the dripping umbrella at tn
doorway or in the end of the pew
L. The pastor has prepared one of hi
IS best sermons. 1t has cost him grea
e research, and he has been much
}. prayer while preparing it. He put
10 the sermon aside for a clear day an
II talks platitudes and goes home quit
" depressed, but at the same time fee
s. ing that he has done his duty. q
le did not realize that in that small al
IL dience there were at least two person
a. who ought to have had better trea
a. ment. One of those hearers was
IL man in crisis of struggle with ev
le appetite. A carefully prepared di
o. course under. the Divine blessir
'r would have been to him complete vi
le tory. The fires of sin would ha,
III been extinguished, and his keen ar
Ok brilliant mind would have been CO
secrated to the Gospel ministry, al
he would have been mighty evange
III and tens of thousands of souls wou
1g have, under the spell of his Christie
IS. eloquence, given up sin and start'
a new life, and throughout all Il
:" Heavens there would have been CO
to graduation and hosanna, and aft
or many ages of eternity had pass
to there would be celebration amor
- the ransomed of what was accol
plished one stormy Sunday in
church on earth under mighty &C
pei sermon delivered to Is or 20 pc
" pie. But the crisis 1 speak of was n
:" properly met. The man in struge
ay with evil habit heard that stormy d
er' no word that moved him. He we
as out in the rain unlimited and U
ne helped back to his evil way and do,
I'm to his overthrow. Had it been a su
shiny Sabbath he would have hea
something worth hearing. But t
I've wind blew from a stormy directi
RS that Sabbath day. That Gospel h1
bandman noticed it and acted up
,rd its suggestion, and may discover sol