The Russellville Democrat. [volume] (Russellville, Ark.) 1875-1898, 1888-05-31
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
The Educational Influences of Sor-
row and Misfortune.
The Beautiful Story of Ruth ssd Boaz
Woven Into sermon ON the Chas-
tcning Influences of God
Sent Affections.


His text was:
And she went, and came md 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 Elimclech.-
! Ruth H.. g.
The time that Ruth and Naomi arrived
/ at Bethlehem it was harvest time. 1T was
the custom when a sheaf fell from load
in the harvest field for the reapers to re-
fuse to gather 1t up; that was to be left
for the poor who might happen to come
| along that way. II there were handfuls
/ of grain scattered across the field after
the main harvest had been reaped, in
! stead 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
| folds 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 har-
vest field?"
! Boaz owns a large farm, and he goes out
] to see the reapers gather in the grain.
/ Coming there, right behind the swarthy,
Drowned reapers, he beholds a beau
| tiful woman gleaning-a woman more fit
| to bend to a harp or sit upon throne
/ than to stoop among the sheaves. All, that
| was an eyentful 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 ephab, or nearly bushel, Of bar
| ley, 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 toiled, through an indy
ing 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 ancestress of Jesus
Christ, the Lord of glory. Out Of so dark
q night did there ever dawn so bright a
! morning.
learn, in the first place, from this
subject, how trouble develops character.
1t 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 DR..
Young the better poet and O'Connell the
better orator, and Bishop Hall the better
preacher, and Hayelock the better soldier,
an Kitto the better encyclopaedia and
Ruth the better daughter Law.
once asked an aged man in regard to
his pastor, who was q very brilliant man
"Why is it that your pastor, so very
brilliant, seems to have so little heart and
tenderness in his sermons?"
"Well," he replied, "the reason is our
pastor has never had any trouble. When
misfortunes comes upon 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 discorrses. The fact is that trouble is
a great educator You see sometimes a
musician sit down at an instrument and
his execution is cold and formal and I'M
feeling. The reason is that all his life he
has been prospered. But let misfortune
or bereavement come to that man, and
he sits down to an instrument, and you
discover the pathos in the first sweep of
the keys.
Misfortune and trials are great educa-
tors. A young doctor comes into sick
room where there is a 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 in
his answer to the mothers anxious dues-
ton; but years roll on and there has been
one dead in his own house; and now he
comes into the sick-room, and with tear
full eye he looks at the dying child, and
says
''Oh, how this reminds me of my Char
liein Trouble, the great educator. Sor-
row, see its touch in the grandest paint
ing; hear its tremor in the sweetest
song; feel its power in the mightiest ar
gument
Grecian mythology said that the fount-
ain of Hipprocrene was struck out by TIE
foot of the winged horse Pegasus. | have
often noticed in life that the brightest and
most beautiful fountains of Christian
comfort and spirituallife have been struck
out by the iron -shod hoof of disaster and
calamity. / see Daniels courage best by
the fash of ACKNOWLEDGMENT furnace.
see Pauls prowess best when find him
on the laundering ship under the glare of
the lightning in the breakers OF Melita.
God crowns His children amid the howl
ing Of wild beasts and the chopping of
blood-splashed guillotine and the crack
ling fires of martyrdom. 1t took the per-
secutions of Marcus Aurelius to develop
Polycarp and Justin Martyr. 1t took the
worlds anathema TO develop Martin
Luther. II took all the hostilities against
the Scotch Covenanters and the fury of
Lord Claverhouse to develop James Rem
wick, and Andrew Melville, 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 the war-whoop of
savages, 10 show forth the 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 20 the anthems OF the free
1t took all our past National, distresses
to lift up our Nation on that high career
,here it will march along after the for
tgn aristocracies that have Knocked and
the tyrannies 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 men free. And so it is in
dividually, and in the family, and in the
church, and in the world, that through
darkness and storm and trouble men,
women, churches, nations are developed.
Again, / see in my text the beauty of
unfaltering friendship. suppose there
were plenty of friends for Naomi while
she was in prosperity, but of all her
acquaintances how many were willing TO
tIudge of with her toward Judea, when
she had TO make that lonely journey One
the heroine of my text. One, absolutely
one. | suppose when Naomi's husband
was living, and they had plenty of money,
and all things went well, they had great
many callers, but suppose that after her
husband died and her property went, and
she got old and poor, she was not troubled
veyJ much with callers. All the birds
that sung in the bower while the sun shone
have gone TO their nests now the night has
fallen.
Oh these beautiful sunhowers that
spread out their colors in the morning
but are always asleep when the sun is GO
ing down! Job had plenty of friends when
he was the richest man in Uz; but when
his property went and the trials came,