FREEDOM FROM SIN.
Dr. Talmage Depicts Struggle of
Man Who Desires Liberation.
rakes Text from Proverb* mill Show*
the Good Angel anil the Had
Alltel Striving for Vlotory
Over the Soul.
(Copyright, 1901, by Louis Klopsch, N. Y.]
Washington, Nov. 10.
In this discourse Dr. Talmage de
picts the struggle of a man tv'ho de
1 sires liberation from the enthrall
ment of evil and shows how he may
be set free; text, Proverbs 23:35:
“When shall I awake? I will seek it
yet again.”
With an insight into human nature
such as no other man ever had Sol
omon in these words is sketching the
mental processes of a man who has
6tepped aside from the path of rec
titude and would like to return.
Wishing for something better, he
says: “When shall I awake? WThen
shall I get over this horrible night
mare of iniquity?” But, seized upon
by an uneradicated appetite and
pushed down hill by his passions, he
cries out: “I will seek it yet again.
I will try it once more!”
About a mile from Princeton, N.
J., there is a skating pond. One win
ter day, when the ice was very thin,
a farmer living near by warned the
young men of the danger of skating
at that thne. They all took the
warning except one young man. He
in the spirit of bravado, said:
“Boys, one round more.” He struck
out on his skates, the ice broke, and
his lifeless body was brought up. And
in all matters of temptation and al
lurement it is not a prolongation
that is proposed, but only just one
more indulgence, just one more sin.
i|l Then comes the fatality. Alas, for
the one round more! “I will seek it
yet again.
ft: Our libraries are adorned with ele
gant literature addressed to young
|;“ men pointing out to them all the dan
| gers and perils of life—complete
maps of the voyage of life—the
shoals, the rocks, the quicksands.
But suppose a young man is already
shipwrecked, suppose he is already
I; off the track, suppose he has already
gone astray, how can he get back?
That is a question that remains un
it: answered, and amid all the books of
Jj| the libraries I find not one word on
that subject.
You compare what you are now
with what you were three or four
years ago, and you are greatly dis
heartened. You are ready with every
passion of your soul to listen to a
discussion like this. Be of good
cheer! Your best days are yet to
come. I offer you the hand of wel
come and rescue. I put the silver
trumpet of the gospel to my lips and
blow one long, loud blast, saying:
' “Whosoever will, let him come, and
let him come now.” The church of
God is ready to spread a banquet
upon your return, and all the
hierarchs of Heaven fall into line of
bannered procession over your re
demption.
So far as God may help me I pro
pose to show what are the obstacles
to your return and how you are to
surmount those obstacles.* The first
difficulty in the way of your return
is the force of moral gravitation.
Just as there is a natural law which
brings down to earth anything you
throw into the air, so there is a cor
responding moral gravitation. I
never shall forget a prayer I heard a
young man make in the Young Men’s
Christian association of New York.
With trembling voice and streaming
eyes he said: “O God Thou knowest
how easy it is for me to do wrong
*nd how hard it is for me to do
right! God help me!” That man
knows not his own heart who has
never felt the power of moral grav
itation.
In your boyhood you had good asso
ciates and bad associates. Which most
impressed you? During the last few
years you have heard pure anecdotes
afid impure anecdotes. Which the
easiest stuck in your memory? You
have had good habits and bad habits.
To which did your soul more easily
.yield? But that moral gravitation may
be resisted. Just as you may pick up
anything from the earth and hold it
in your hand toward heaven, just so,
by the power of God’s grace, a fallen
Boul may be lifted toward peace, to
ward pardon, toward salvation. The
iorce of moral gravitation is in every
one of u®, but also power in God’s grace
to overcome that force.
The next thing in the way of your
return is the power of evil habit. I
know there are those who say it is
very easy for them to give up evil hab
its. I cannot believe them. Here is a
man given to intoxication, who knows
it is disgracing his family, destroying
his property and ruining him—body,
mind and soul. If that man, an intel
ligent man and loving his family, could
give up that habit, would he not do
BO? The fact that he does not give
it Up proves that it is hard to give it
up.; It is a very easy thing to sail down
stream, the tide carrying you with
great force; but suppose you turn the
boat up stream, is it so easy then to
row it? As long as we yield to the
«vil inclinations in our heart and to
our bad habits we are sailing down
stream, but the moment we try to
turn we put our boat in the rapids
just above Niagara and try to row up :
stream.
A physician tells his patient that he j
must quit the use of tobacco, as it is i
destroying his health. The man re- j
plies: “I can stop that habit easy
enough." fie (piits the use of the weed.
He goes around not knowing what to
do with himself. lie cannot add up a
column of figures; he cannot sleep
nights. It seems as if the world had
turned upside down. He feels his busi
ness is going to ruin. Where he was
kind and obliging he is scolding and
fretful. The composure that charac
terized him has given way to a fret
ful restlessness, and he has become a
complete fidget. What power is it
that has rolled a wave of woe over
the earth and shaken a portent in the
heavens? He has quit tobacco. After
awhile he says: “I am going to do as
I please. The doctor does not under
stand my case. I am going back to my
old habits.” And he returns. Every
thing assumes its usual composure.
His business seems to brighten. The
world becomes an attractive place to
live in. His children, seeing the dif
ference, hail the return of their fa
ther’s genial disposition. What wave
of color has dashed blue into the sky,
and greenness into the mountain foli
age, and the glow of sapphire into the
sunset? What enchantment has lift
ed a world of beauty and joy on his
soul? He has resumed tobacco.
The fact is, we all know in our own
experience that habit is a taskmaster.
As long as we obey it it does not chas
tise us; but let us resist, and we find
that we are lashed with scorpion whips
and bound with ship cable and thrown
into the track of bone-breaking Jug
gernauts.
suppose a man of hve or ten or
twenty years of evildoing resolves to
do right, why are all the forces of dark
ness allied against him? He gets down
on his knees in the midnight and cries1:
“God help me!” He bites his lip. He
grinds his teeth. He clinches his fist
in a determination to keep to his pur
pose. He dare not look at the bottles
in the window of a wine store. It is
one long, bitter, exhaustive, hand-to
hand fight with inflamed, tantalizing,
merciless habit. When he thinks' he is
entirely free, the old inclination
pounces upon him like a pack of
hounds, all their muzzles tearing away
at the flanks of one poor reindeer.
In Paris there is a sculptured rep
resentation of Bacchus, the god of
revelry. He is riding on a panther
at full leap. Oh, how suggestive!
Let every one who is speeding on
bad ways understand he is not rid
ing a docile and well-broken steed,
but that he is riding a monster wild
and bloodthirsty and going at a
death leap.
I have also to say if a man wants
to return from evil practices society
repulses him. The prodigal, wishing
to return, tries to take some profes
sor of religion by the hand. The
professor of religion looks at him,
looks at the faded apparel and the
marks of dissipation, and instead of
giving him a firm grip of the hand
offers him the tip end of the longer
fingers of the left hand, which is
equal to striking- a man in the face.
Oh. how few Christian people under
stand how much gospel there is in a
good, honest handshaking! Some
times when you have felt the need
of encouragement and some Chris
tian man has taken von heartily by
the hand, have you not felt thrilling
through every fiber of your body,
mind and soul an encouragement
that was just what you needed?
The prodigal, wishing to get into
good society, enters a prayer meet
ing. Some good man without much
sense g-reets him by saying: “Why,
are you here? You are about the
last person that I expected to see in
a prayer meeting. Well, the dying
thief was saved, and there is hope
for you.” You do not know anything
about this unless you have learned
that when a man tries to return
from evil courses of conduct he runs
against repulsions innumerable.
I think, also, that men are often
hindered from returning by the fact
that churches are anxious about
their membership, too anxious about
their denomination, and they rush
out when they see a man about to
give up sin and return to God and
ask him how he is going to be bap
tized—whether by sprinkling or im
mersion—-and what kind of a church
he is going to join. It is a poor time
to talk about Presbyterian catechism
and Episcopal liturgies and Metho
dist love feasts and Baptist immer
sions when a man is about to come
out of the darkness of sin into the
glorious light of the Gospel.
Now, I have shown you these ob
stacles because I want you to under
stand 1 know all the difficulties in the
way. But I am now going to tell you
how Hannibal may scale the Alps and
how the shackles may be unriveted
and how the paths of virtue forsaken
may be regained. First of all, throw
yourself on God. Go to Him frankly
and earnestly and tellHimthesehabits
you have and ask Him, if there is any
help in all the resources of omnipo
tent love, to give it to you. Do not
go on with a long rigmarole, which
some people call prayer, made up of
ohs and ahs and forever and forever
amens! Go to God and cry for help.
I remember that in the civil war 1
was at Antietam, with other members
of the Christian commission, to look
after the wounded. I went into the
hospital after the battle, and I said
to a man: “Where are you hurt?’’ He
made no answer, hut held up his arm,
swollen and splintered. 1 saw where
he was hurt. The simple fact is, when
a man has a wounded soul all he has to
do is to hold it up before a sympathetic
Lord and get it healed. It does not
take any long prayer. Just hold up
the wound. It is no small thing when
a man is nervous and weak and ex
hausted, coming from his evil ways,
to feel that God puts two omnipotent
arms about him and says:
“Young man, I will stand by you.
The mountains may depart and the
hills be removed, but I will never fail
you.” And then, as the soul thinks the
news is too good to be true and cannot
believe it and looks up in God’s face,
God lifts1 His right hand and takes
an affidavit, makes an oath, saying:
“As I live,” saith the Lord, “I have no
pleasure in the death of the wicked.”
Blessed be God for such Gospel as this!
“Cut the slices' thin,” says the wife
to the husband, “for there will not
be enough to go around for all the
children. Cut the slices thin.” Blessed
be God, there is a full loaf for every
one that w-ants it.
I remember that while living in Phil
adelphia, at the time I spoke of a min
ute ago, the Master Street hospital
was opened, and a telegram was re
ceived, saying: “There will be 300
wounded men to-night. Please take
care of them.” From my church there
went out 20 or 30 men and women. As
the poor, wounded men were brought
in no one asked them from what state
they came or what was their parent
age. There was a wounded soldier,
and the only question was how to take
off the rags most gently and put oh
the cool bandage and administer the
cordial. And when a soul comes to
God He does not ask where you came
from or what your ancestry was. Heal
ing balm for all your wounds; pardon
for all your guilt; comfort for all your
troubles!
Then, also, I counsel you, if you
want to get back, quit all your bad
associates. One unholy intimacy will
fill your soul with moral distemper.
In all the ages of the church there
has not been an instance where a man
kept one evil associate and was re
formed—among the 1,600.(100,000 of the
race, not one instance. Give up your
bad companions or give up heaven. It
is not ten bad companions that destroy
a man nor five bad companions nor
three, but one.
What chance is there for the young
man I saw along the street, four or
five young men with him, in front of
a grog-shop, urging him to go in, he
resisting vehemently, resisting, until,
after awhile they forced him to go
in? It was a summer, night, and the
door was left open, and I saw the
process. They held him fast, and they
put the cup to his lips, and they forced
down the strong drink. What chance
is there for such a young man?
I counsel you also to seek Christian
advice. Every Christian man is bound
to help you. If he declines to help you,
he is not a Christian. Now gather up
all your energies of body, mind
and soul, and, appealing to God
for success, declare this day ever
lasting war against all evil in
fluences. A half work will amount
to nothing; it must be a Waterloo.
Shrink back now and you are lost.
Push on and you are saved. A Spar
tan general fell at the very moment
of victory, but he dipped his finger in
his own blood and wrote on a rock
near which he was dying: “Sparta has
conquered.” Though your struggle to
get rid of sin may seem to be almost a
death struggle, you can dip your finger
in your own blood and write on the
Rock of Ages: “Victory through our
Lord Jesus Christ.”
Oh, despise not parental anxiety!
The time will come when you will
have neither father nor mother, and
you will go around the place where
they used to watch you and find them
gone from the house and gone from
the field and gone from the neighbor
hood. Cry as loud for forgiveness as
you may over the mound in the
churchyard, they cannot answer.
Dead! Dead! And then you wdll
take out the white lock of hair that
was cut from your mother's brow
just before they buried her, and you
will take the cane with which your
father used to walk, and you will
think and think and wish that you
had done just as they wanted you
and would give the world if you had
never thrust a pang through their
dear old hearts.
God pity the young man who has
brought disgrace on his father’s
name! God pity the young man who
has broken his mother’s heart! Bet
ter that he had never been born. Bet
ter if in the first hour of his life, in
stead of being laid against the warm
bosom of maternal tenderness, he
had been coffined and sepulchered.
There is no balm powerful enough to
heal the heart of one who has
brought parents to a sorrowful grave
and who wanders about through the
dismal cemetery crying: “Mother,
mother!” Oh, that to-day, by all the
memories of the past and by all the
hopes of the future, you would yield
your heart to God! May your
father’s God and your mother’s God
be your God foreverl
FARMER and PLANTER.
LEGUME SOiL IMPROVERS.
Tlie Former Wlio Habitually Crain
Li'KiiiniiioiiH Crops Will Sot
Have a Hun-Down Farm
In all countries and on all lands
where the principal croo is grain. hay
or fiber, which is sold away from the
farm, the land, after a few years, or
maybe a generation, fails to produce
ns good crops as formerly. Eventually
it becomes unprofitable to grow
these crops. The fai'mers become im
poverished. Country homes lack com
fort and all the miseries of a decay
ing industry are felt. In regions
where the growth of the soil is fed
on the farm to dairy or other ani
mals, the wealth and average comfort
of the farmer is greater than in
grain or fiber growing districts, be
cause where animals and their prod
ucts alone are sold off the farm
comparatively little soil fertility is
taken away, and this is, as a rule,
mere than made good by the food
stuffs bought for feeding.
The fertility of even the strongest
soil is not inexhaustible. It is similar
to a bank account, and, like that,
sooner or later exhausted, when the
account shows all outgo ar.d no in
come.
The essential elements of plant food
are only' three—nitrogen, phosphoric
acid and potash. The first is the one
of most importance, the most expen
sive to buy and most difficult to hold.
No soils contain more than a very lit
tle of this substance. It is usually
the first clement of plant food to be
come exhausted. Yet every acre of
land upon the earth’s surface has
resting upon it no less than 3S.000
tons of nitrogen. Four-fifths of the
air we breathe is nitrogen. Unfortu
nately no agricultural plant or ani
mal is able to feed directly upon the
store of nitrogen in the air. Legu
minous plants are able to feed upon at
mospheric nitrogen indirectly Ihrough
microscopic bacteria, which grow up
on and eat the roots of this class of
plants. These bacteria do not grow
upon the roots oi non-legummous
plants. For example, one ton of liin
othy hay takes from the soil the fol
lowing; plant food. Nitrogen 25.2
pounds, phosphoric acid 10.6 pounds,
potash 18 pounds. One ton, or 33
bushels of wheat (grain) takes from
the soil: Nitrogen 56.2 pounds, phos
phoric acid 14 pounds, potash 12.2
pounds. One 1on of red clover hay
takes from the air: Nitrogen 41.4
pounds, and from the soil, phosphoric
acid 7.6 pounds, potash 44 pounds. One
ton of cowpea hay takes from the air:
Nitrogen 39 pounds, and from the soil,
prosphoric acid 10.4 pounds, potash
29.4 pounds. If we grow timothy hay
and feed it to Etock on the farm and
carefully return the manure to the
meadow, we return from one-half to
four-fifths of the plant food taken
up in the crop; but if the crop is sold
away, the nitrogen in the soil is soon
exhausted and timothy dies out. If
we grow clover instead of timothy,
we take only phosphoric acid and
potash from the soil. If we feed the
clover and return the manure, we im
prove the soil instead of impoverish
ing it. This is why legumines are
called soil improvers. But without a
yearly dressing of phosphate and pot
ash,our clover itself will in the course
of a few' years run out, in spite of
the stable manure W'e give it. Ugly
and worthless w'eeds of the dock and
pigweed kinds come in. This presence
of these weeds shows that the soil
contains plenty of nitrogen, but lacks
phosphoric acid and potash. Stable
manure contains very little of these
latter substances. Its value depends
almost wholly upon its nitrogen and
the vegetable matter which, by de
cay in the soil, forms humus.
Idie farmer W'ho grows only legu
mines—that is, peas, beans, eowpeas,
clovers, vetch, alfalfa., etc.—can grow
these crops indefinitely and sell them,
or feed them, as he finds it most
profitable to do, will never exhaust his
farm, provided he returns each year
potash and phosphoric acid equal to
that sent away in the crop. These
substances are cheap, costing
about four cents per pound in form
of muriate of potash and superphos
phate. Nitrogen costs about sixteen
cents per pound in nitrate of soda.
At the present prices of staple crops,
no farmer can afford to buy nitrogen
at any price so long as he can draw
it from the air by setting leguminous
plants and their microbes as traps.
Harness the nitrogen collecting mi
crobe to your plow', and as Poor Rich
ard says:
“Plow deep while sluggards sleep
And you will have corn to sell and
keep.”
—Gerald McCarthy, in Farm and
Ranch.
REVOLUTIONS AND REFORMS.
Tlie Importance of tlie Innovator In
Working Revolution In Agrl.
cultural Affairs.
In all ages of the world it has been
the leaders of men who have wrought
revolutions and reforms. Men are by
nature and habit conservative, and if
they are getting on as well as their
fathers, are content to let well
enough alone. One discontented inno
vator, who believes in better things
than prevail, and has energy an ft-n
terprise to put his thoughts in mo
tion, has often proven of more real
value to a community than a hun
dred of the other sort would ever
prove to be. We have known more
than one instance where a single
farmer has gone into a staid com
munity of conservatives and aroused
them all, and in a few years made a
flower garden of a comparative wil
derness. Men are like a flock of sheep
1nat will browse on the commons and
contentedly lie down and wait for the
wolf, unless the buck with the bell
on starts for the fold, when the rest
will all follow. A very few men have
done great things for agriculture.
Probably Sir John, or Gilbert, Lawes,
have done more for the worldly wel
fare of farmers than could have been
done by ten thousand men operating
only in the fields and flocks. In our
own country such men as Howard,
Hoard, Shaw, Henry, Coburn, Munson
and many others have put our farm
ers and fruit growers to thinking, and
are chiefly responsible for the recent
advances in agriculture, horticulture
and animal husbandry. We are truly
glad that such men are becoming
more numerous, as a result of the
examples that, have preceded them,
and the advantages that have come
within reach of every one who has
ambition to excel. Our agricultural
colleges are affording agricultural ad
vantages that ought to place compe
tent leaders with object, lessons dis
played in every rural community in
the land, and as a result we con
fldentlj expect to see still greater ad
vances made in the near future than
have occurred in the past. A demand
will be made upon the soil within the
life-time of those now living for
double the present yields per acre,
and the demand will be met. But will
progress stop at that? if emergencies
arise men will be equal to them, so
never fear.—Texas Farm and Ranch.
Experimental Feeding; of Poultry,
Having read about your experi
mental feeding, 1 will tell you mine.
I have about 130 hens, and get on an
average of 95 eggs a day, from mixed
breed. I feed now, and have been
feeding sometime, a compound of
bran chop (corn and oats ground),
thinned or mixed with potato parings
and cooked potatoes with otherscraps
from kitchen, all heated well and
mixed while hot. Then I put in about
every other or third morning three
large handfuls of oyster shells, also
dry all my egg shells used and break
fine, and mix with this also. When
weather is cold I cut five or six red
peppers with the feed, and put in a
gallon of sweet milk. This, with oats
scattered around in yards and plenty
of water, with a few drops of car
bolic acid in once or twice a week,
and cabbage is all they get until
night, when we feed corn, and some
times a little oats. Perhaps you may
think this woidd make the hens lazy,
but they are not. We don’t have any
success feeding a lot of soft feed at
night to lay in crop, which is often
does. I don’t use an incubator, but
hens. Then I try to set several at
the same time, so when hatched, one
lien can brood them. I set the ofh
re hens over, and feed setting hens
nothing hut g-rit, corn and clear wa
ter. If your poultry editor wishes
to make any comments on this, I
would be pleased to have him do so,
for I am expecting to g-o into the
poutry business more extensively
next year.—Emma M. Richards, in
Epitomist.
HERE AND THERE.
—It requires good feed, uniformly
given, to mal<e good wool. A period
of plethora, followed by one of semi
starvation, injures the staple, and
wool experts are not slow to detect
this.
—The mutton sheep is short in legs,
deep in body, long and square on
shoulders, with a good straight back,
full hams and a heavy brisket. Wool
don’t count for mutton.
—Millet is not a safe feed for
horses. It has been fully shown that
millet seed affect the kidneys of
horses, and will eventually kill them
if such feed is long continued. Fed
with other hay, the effects are not
serious, but it is as a full feed that
it is dangerous.
—The Iloswell (New Mexico) Rec
ord says the approaching winter has
no terrors for the Pecos valley farm
er, and intimates that he has more
grain and apples, and cattle feed than
he know's what to do with; all of
which is attributed to irrigation.
—A man at Beeville, Tex., is said to
have invented a machine for fighting
the boll weevil, by picking up the fal
len debris, that contains the eggs for
the ensuing crop of the pestiferous
creatures, and depositing it in a re
ceptacle from which it may be dumped
and burned.
—When men don’t do their plain
duty, they always suffer the legiti
mate consequences. It is the duty of
every farmer to make his land yield
as much as he can maae it yield. If
he makes no effort to do this, he :s
delinquent, and should not. complain
when poverty presses.