The Londonderry sifter. (South Londonderry, Vt.) 1883-19??, 1888-06-07
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
The Weekly Discourse of the Great
Brooklyn Preacher
Subject, "a Case OF Love at
First SiSht.''


cleaned IN the field after the reapers; and
her hap tcas to light on part of the field
belonging unto Boaz, pho tcas of the kindred
Of Elimetech. Ruth, il, 8.
The time that Ruth and Noami arrive at
Bethlehem is harvest time. 1t was the Gus
tom when sheaf fell from load in the har-
vest for the reapers to refuse to gather it
up: that was to be left for the poor who might
happen to come along that way. If there were
handfuls OF grain scattered across the field
after the main harvest had been reaped,
instead of raking it, as farmers do
now, it was, by the custom of the land,
left in its place. so that the poor, coming
along that way, might CLEAN it and get their
bread. But, you say: What is the use of
all these harvest fields to Ruth and Naomi?
Naomi is too old and feeble to go out and toll
In the sun; and can you expect that Ruth,
the young and the beautiful should tan her
cheeks and blister her hands in the harvest
deld"
Boaz owns large farm, and he goes out to
see the reapers gather in the grain. Coming
there, right behind the swarthy, sun
Drowned reapers, he beholds beautiful
woman gleaning-a woman more fit to bend
a harp or sit upon throne than to stoop
among the sheaves All, that was an event.
full day
1t was love at first sight. Boaz forms an
attachment for the womanly gleaner-an
attachment full of undying interest to the
Church of God in all ages; while Ruth, with
an ephah, or nearly bushel of barley, goes
home to Naomi to tell her the successes and
adventures of the day. That Ruth, who
left her native and of Moab in darkness,
and Travelled, through an undying affection
for her mother in law, in the harvest field of
BoaZ, IS affianced to one of the best families
in Judah and becomes in after-time the an
nf VarY, lx,,,,N L. -
Out OF so dark night did there ever dawn
SO bright mornings
learn in the first place from this subject
how trouble develops character. 1t was be-
reavement, poverty and exile that de-
veloped, illustrated and announced to all ages
the sublimity of Ruths character. That
is a very unfortunate man who has no trou-
bic. 1t was sorrow that made John Bunyan
the better dreamer, and Doctor Young the
better poet, and OConnell the better orator,
and Bishop Hall the better preacher, and
Havelock the better soldier, and Kitto the
better encyclopaedia, and Ruth the better
daughter-in law.
once asked an aged man in regard to his
pastor, who was very brilliant man: "Why
is it that your pastor, so very brilliant,
seems to have so little heart and tender
ness in his sermcnp "Well" he replied,
"the reason is our pastor has never had
J
him. his style will be different" After awhile
the Lord took child out of that pastors
house; and though the preacher was just as
brilliant as he was before, oh, the warmth, the
tenderness of his discourses. The fact is that
troub g is a great educator. You see
sometimes musician sit down at an instru-
ment and his execution is cold and formal
and unfeelmg. The reason is that all his life
he has been prospered. But let misfortune
HPreAvamPnt IN r1ar md 1,al
sits down to an instrument, and you dis
cover the pathos in the first sweep of the
keys.
Misfortune and trials are great educators
A young doctor comes into a sick room
where there is dying child. Perhaps he ia
very. rough in his prescription, and very
rough in his manner, and rough in the feel
ing of the pulse, and rough in his answer to
the mothers anxious question; but years roll
on, and there has been one dead in his
own house; and now he comes into the sick
room, and with fearful eye he looks at the
dying child, and he says: "Oh, how this re-
minds me of my Charlien Trouble, tho
great educator. Sorrow, see its touch in
the grandest painting; hear its tremor in
the sweetest song; l feel its power in the
mightiest argument.
Grecian mythology said that the fountain
OF Hippocrene was struck out by the foot Of
the winged horse Pegasus l have often
noticed in life that the brightest and most
beautiful fountain of Christian comfort and
spiritual life have been struck out by
the iron-shod hoof of disaster and
calamity. see Daniels courage best by the
flash OF Nebuchadnezzar's furnace. I see
Pauls proves best when find him on the
laundering ship under the glare of the light
ming in the breakers of Melita God crowns
his children amid the bowling of wild
beasts and the chopping of blood -splashed
gulllotine and the cracking fires of martyr
dom. 1t took the prosecutions of Marcus
Aurelius to develope Polycarp and Justin
Martyr 1t took the worlds anathema to
develop Martin Luther lttook all the hos
tilities against the Scotch Covenanters and
the fury of Lord Claverhouse to dc.
velop James Renwick, and Andrew Mel
vile, and Hugh McKail the glorious martyrs
of Scotch history. 1t took the stormy sea
and the December blast, and the desolate
New England coast and tine war-whoop Of
eavages to show forth the prowess Of the
Pilgrim Fathers
"When amid the storms they sang,
And the stars heard, and the sea;
And the sounding aisle5 Of the dim wood ranf
To the anthems OF the Free"
1t took all our past national distresses tc
lift up our nation on that high career where
it will march along after the foreign arstoc
racies that have Knocked and the tyranne.
that have jeered. shall be swept down
under the omnipotent wrath Of God, who
hates despotism, and who, by the strength
OF His own red right arm, will make all mel
free. And SO it is individually, and in tn
family, and in the Church. and in the world
that through darkness and storm and troubl,
men, women, churches, nations, are devel
oped.
II. Again, see in my text the beauty o
inf IftrIy f-ta flolxt
plenty of friends for Naomi while she was ii
prosperity; but Of all her acquaintance, hov
many were willing to trudge off with he
toward Judah, when she had to make tha
lonely journey! One-the heroine of m,
text. One-absolutely one. suppose whel
Naomis husband was living, and they hat
plenty of money, and all things went well
they had great many callers; but suppos
that after her hus an died, and her propert,
went, and she got old and poor, she was no
troubled very much with callers. All tn
birds that sung in the bower while the sui
shone have gone to their nests, now the nigh
has fallen.
| Oh, these beautiful suniowers that spreat
out their color i'll the morning hour! but ar
always asleep when the sun is going down
| Job had plenty of friends when he was tn
richest man in UZ: but when his propert,
| went and the trials came, then there wer
none SO much that pestered as Eliphaz tn
| Temanite, and Bildad the Shuhite, an,
| Zoniar the Naamathite.
| often seems to be mere game, wher
tn a.tccessful player pulls down all the othe
men into his own lap. Let suspicious aris
about mans character, and he become
like bank in u panic. and all tn
IInpuuatIons rusn on MIN ana brea
down in day that character which in du
time would have had strength to defen
user. There are regulations that have bee
half century in building, which go dow
under some moral exposure as a vast tempt
Is consumed by the touch of sulphuro,
match. hog can uproot century plant
In this world, SO full of heartlessness an
hypocrisy. how thrilling it is to find som
TREND as faithful in days of adversity as
days OF prosperity! David had such a frien
in Hushai the Jews had such n friand !;
Mordecai, whonever forgot their cause. Par
had such friend in Onesiphorus. who vis;ta
MIN IN Jail; Christ had such in tn
Marys, who adhered to Him on the eros:
Naomi had such a one in Ruth, who erie
out: "Entreat me not to leave thee. or to ~
turn from following after thee; for whithe
thou goest, will go; and where thou lod0es,
| will lodge; thy people shall be INV peonl.
and thy God, my God; where thou diest wi
die, and there will be buried: the Lord 4
30 to me, and more also, if aught but deaf
part thee and me.n
Ill Again: learn from this subject tbs
paths which open in hardship and darkne
often come out in places of iov. When Rut
started from Noah towards Jerusalem, to .