Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1902-06-19
TALMAGE
SERMON
By Rev.
FRANK DE WITT TALMAGE, DID,,
Pastor of Jefferson Park Presby-
terrain Church, Chicago


suits Of wrongdoing are forcibly de-
scribed in the following sermon by
Rev. Frank De Witt Talmage from the
text Galatians vi, 6, "He that soweth to
his flesh shall of the flesh reap corrup-
ton"
Some familiar texts are like power
full tonics. They have a snap and
strength which we do not always find
in the water of life when it is held
in strange and peculiarly labeled bot
ties. They are like the lullabies with
which we were sung to sleep in child
hood They have been repeated over
and over again by the lips Of our de-
parted loved, ones, so that each word
is made sacred by holy associations.
Every time we speak them it seems as
though these words were the ushers
welcoming us into the vestibule of the
church in which the service was held
when we gave our hearts to God. Or
these texts are associated with the SER
mons Of some famous minister, which
we have either read or heard.
But though many great preachers
have spoken from this text and though
many holy associations gather around
its words yet would fain speak upon
it for two reasons: First, because l am
passionately fond OF the country.
Therefore any text which has in it the
| figure of the sower and the reaper, any
emile which is scented with the smell
of the new mown hay or Of the clover
tops, any figure which echoes the song
Of the wood robin or the call of the
nightingale, any text which is glinted
with the golden colors of the wheat
fields or Redeemed with the hectic flush
of the autumn leaf, has for me an in
tense and suggestive fascination. My
heart never beats more exultantly than
when it is keeping time to the music
Of the moving machine or to the swish
of the swinging scythe.
The second reason why I speak from
this text today is because the spring
time Of the year. when the American
sower went forth to sow, is only a few
weeks past. The plows only short
time ago had the rust of many months
rubbed off their sharp noses. The har-
rows teeth are yet white from chewing
and breaking the sods. And the sower,
with his bag Of seed hanging upon one
arm and his handful of seed swinging
at the end of the other arm, only Il
short time ago, with measured tread,
went across the fields. scattering the
dc 20 ha i~1f 70 1,o Of 10 "
God help us to teach the lessons Of a
sinners retribution in the language OF
the spring blowing.
The Seed and the Harvest.
The seeds of the flesh by the inexora-
BILE law Of the fields can only produce
the harvests of the flesh. This state
ment is an axiom, self evident fact.
So self evident Is the law that the
seeds which are planted only produce
harvests after their kind that United
States agricultural department has
been established. the chief purpose Of
which Is to introduce into the different
localities the right kind of seeds for the
best development Of the different kinds
Of crops. The official head of this de-
dents cabinet. Every year at public
expense thousands Of seed packages
are scattered over the country. Each
congressman has an allotment for gra-
tuitous distribution among his rural
constituents.
AS there is spiritual law in the
natural world so there Is natural law
in the spiritual world. And the sower
20 the flesh has no more right to expect
to reap the harvest Of the sower to the
spirit than farmer has a right to ex-
pect to gather crop of barley from
wheat seeds or crop Of oats from
corn seeds or crop of rye from cotton
seeds or crop of potatoes from musk.
melon seeds. Any sinner who is trying
to argue himself into different spirit
ual belief is not only hooking God, but
making himself ridiculous.
Elon Foster tells us that one day a
sinful Roman master told his Christian
} slave to go into a certain field and sow
crop Of barley. When the time of
harvest came, the master returned to
that field and found there a harvest of
oats ready to be garnered. In indigna-
ton he called his slave and asked:
did not command you to SOW here
n field Of barley? Why, then. have We
sown oats?" The Christian slave an
swered, Master, ! sowed oat seed in
the hope that they would grow up into
barley" His master grufiiy said:
"What foolishness is this? Has ever
any one heard that oat seeds will pro-
duce harvest of barley?" "Ah, mas
ter" replied the Christian slave, you
yourself are constantly sowing in the
world the seed of evil, and yet you ex-
pect to reap in the resurrection day the
fruits Of virtue. Therefore | thought
also that might get barley by sowing
oats" And the sinful master was
abashed and could not answer word.
"a Few Wild Oats"
Go where you will you will find that
t the sower to the flesh always reaps a
harvest of corruption. Sit with the
judge upon the bench. and he will tell
you that the young man standing be-
fore him for sentence did not think
that the seeds of sin which he planted
in secret would ever take root and be-
gin to sprout. lie did not think that
his sowing a few wild oats" would
ever cause his downfall. Yet God was
watching him SOW those seeds. His