The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1901-07-10
DIR. TALMAGE'S SERMON
SUNDAYS DISCOURSE BY THE NOTED
DIVINE.
Subject: The Importance of p romptness
Lost Opportunlties-Victory Over OBJ
stacles-Benefits Of Having to Strug-
gle Hard For a Living.


stacles-Benefits of Having to struG-
gle Hard For Living.
Copyright 1901
WASHINGTON, D. C-From a passage
of Scripture unobserved by most readers
DR.. Talmage in this discourse shows the
Importance of prompt action in anything
we have to do for ourselves or others;
text, Eeclesiastics xi, 4, He that observ-
What. do you find in this packed SEN
tence of Solomon's monologue? I find in
it farmer at his front door examining
the weather. 1t is seedtime. His fields
have been plowed and narrowed. The
wheat is in the barn in sacks, ready to be
taken afeld and scattered. Now is the
time to SOW. But the wind is not favor
able. II may blow up a 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.
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 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 a whole
week, and for a month. Did you ever see
such a long spell of bad weather? THE
lethargic and overcautious and dilatory
agriculturist allows the season to pass
without sowing, and no sowing, of course
no harvest. That is what Solomon means
when he says in my text, HE that obser-
veth the wind shall not SOW"
: As much in our times as in Solomonic
times there is abroad fatal hesitancy-
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.
There is a good man who has large
means, and he is accustomed to give Eber-
ally to asylums, to hospitals, to reform
organizations, to schools, to churches, to
communities desolated with flood or de-
like many good man, is mereuEial in his
temperament. He is depressed by atmos-
pheric changes. He is always victimized
by the east wind. For this or that rea-
son you postpone the charitable solicita-
ton. Meanwhile the suffering that you
wish to alleviate does it's 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.
thropist's 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 a dark Sabbath morning.
The pastor looks out of the window and
sees the clouds gather and then discharge
their burdens of rain. Instead of full
oburob II r1yi11 he hpD Ddf,,1 of neon1e writ h
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 he has been much in prayer while
preparing it. He puts the sermon aside
for 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 have had better
treatment. One of those hearers was a
man in crisis Of struggle with evil appe-
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 a mighty evangel, and
tens of thousands of souls would have un-
der the spell of his Christian eloquence
given up sin and started new life, and
throughout all the heavens there would
have been congratulation and hosanna,
and after many ages of eternity had
passed there would be celebration among
the ransomed of what was accomplished
one stormy Sunday in a church on earth
under a mighty gospel sermon delivered
to fifteen or twenty people. But the cri.
sis I speak of was not properly met. The
stormy day no word that moved him. He
went out in the rain unlimited and un-
helped back to his evil way and won to
his overthrow. Had it been sunshiny
Sabbath he would have heard something
worth hearing. But the wind blew from a
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 q
sackful 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
a 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
extemporized nothingness. 1t was a
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 donles-
tic question which was to her sollcltude.
A good, strong sermon under the divine
blessing would have led her into the king.
dom of God and afterward her whole fam
ily 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 q 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 the 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 itself and keep on
doing as they had been doing No forma-
ton of thorough Christian character in
the lives of those growing up boys, and
girls. They will go ou, into the world to
meet its vicissitudes without any sublime
reinforcement of the gospel. What pity
it was that he did not put. down the man
uscript of his well prepared sermon on the
Bible if he preached from notes or pour
it out of his soul if he had lodged it there
through careful preparationE, No., He al
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
not worth sowing.