The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1888-05-24
LOVE AT FIRST SIGHT.

LUi l. AL FIkSI SIGHl.
REV. DR.. TALMAGE'S DISCOURSE AT
THE BROOKLYN TABERNACLE.
Trouble Develops and Ennobles Charac-
ter-The Beauty of Unfaltering Friends
ship-A Path Which Starts Darkly
Often Ends Brightly.
BROOKLYN, May 20.-The opening
hymn at the Tabernacle service today
begins with the words:
More love to thee, o Christ,
More love to thee.
After making running commentary
on some passages Of Scripture the Rev. T.
De Witt Talmage, D. D., took the text:
"And she went, and came, and CLEANED
in the field after the reapers: and her
hap was to light on part of the field
belonging unto Boaz, who was of the
kindred of Elimelech." Ruth Ii, 8. He
preached from these words the following
sermon:
The time that Ruth and Naomi arrived
at Bethlehem is harvest time. It was the
custom when sheaf fell from load in
harvest field 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 field2"
Boaz owns a 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 q
beautiful woman gisaning-a woman
more fit to bend to harp or sit upon
throne than to stoop among the sheaves.
All, that was an eventful day!
1t was love at first sight. Boaz forms
an attachment for the womanly cleaner
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 land Of
Moab in darkness, and travelled through
an undying affection for her mother-ip-
law, in the harvest field of Boaz, is afh-
aneed to one of the best families in Ju-
dah, and becomes in after time the an
cestress Of Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory.
Out of So dark q night did there ever
dawn; 50 bright morning3
learn in the first place from this sub
ject how. trouble develops character. It
was bereavement, poverty and exile that
developed, illustrated and announced to
all ages the sublimity of Ruth's charac-
ter That is very unfortunate man
who has no trouble. 1t was sorrow that
made John Bunyan the better dreamer,
and DIR. Young the better poet, and
O'Connell the better orator, and Bishop
Hall the better preacher, and Havelock
the better soldier, and Kitto the better
encyclopedias, and Ruth the better
daughter-in-law.
once asked an aged man In regard to
his pastor, who was very brilliant man
"Wby is it that your pastor, SO very bril-
liant, seems to have so little heart and
tenderness in his sermons?" 'Well," he
replied, 1.-The reason is our pastor has
never had any trouble. When misfortnne
comes upon him his style will be difIei-
ent.' After a while the Lord took q
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 trouble is Q great educator. You
see sometimes a musician sit down at a.
instrument, and his execution is cold and
formal and unfeeling. The reason is that
all his life he has been prospered. But
let misfortune or bereavement come t6
that man, and he sits down at an instru
ment, and you discover the pathos in the
first sweep Of the keys.
Misfortune and trials are great educa
tors. A young doctor comes into sici
room where there is dying child. Per
haps he is very rough in his prescription
and very rough in his manner, and rough
in the feeling OF the pulse, and rough il
bis answer to the mothers anxious CUES
ton; but years roll on, and there has
been one dead in his own house; and nov
he comes into the sick room, and with
fearful eye he looks at the dying child
and he says: ''Oh, how this reminds
me of my Charliel' Trouble, the grea
educator. Sorrow. see its touch in th'
grandest painting; ! hear its tremor il
the sweetest song; feel its power in hl
mightiest argument.
Grecian mythology said that the foun
tain Of Hippocrene was struck out by tn
foot of the winged horse Pegasus. / hav
often noticed in life that the brightes
and most beautiful fountains Of Christian
comfort and spiritual life haye beel
struck out by the iron shod hoof Of disaa
ter and calamity. see Daniels courag
best by the flash of Nebuchadnezzar'
| furnace. ! see Paul's prowess best whel
| find him on the foundering ship unde
the glare Of the lightning in the breaker
of Melita. God crowns his children ami
the bowling Of wild beasts and the choI
ping of blood splashed guillotine and tn
cracking fires Of martyrdom. 1t too
the prosecutions Of Marcus Aurelius
develop Polycarp and Justin Martyr.
took the worlds anathema to develo
Martin Luther. It took all the hostilitie
against the Scotch Covenanters and th
fury of Lord Claverhouse to develo
James Renwick, and Andrew Melville
and Hugh McKail, the glorious marty
of Scotch history. It took the storm
sea, and the December blast, and tn
desolate New England coast. and th
war whoop of savages to show forth th
prowess Of the Pilgrim Fathers.
When amid the storms they sang,
And the stars heard, and the sea;
And the sounding aisles Of the dim wood
Rang to the anthems of the free.
1t took all our past national distress
to lift up our nation on that high cares
where it will march along after ii
foreign aristocracies that have mocke
and the tyrannies that have jeered, sha
be swept down under the omnipotel
wrath of God. who hates despotism, an
who, by the strength of his own re
right arm, will make all men free. Ar
l - ., !,