Iuka reporter. (Iuka, Miss.) 1888-1894, 1888-06-07
REV. DR.. TALMAGE.
THE BROOKLYN DIvINE'S SUNDAY
SERMON.
Subject :-.'A Case of Love at First
Sight"

belonging unto Bo1z, ,oho tcas of the kindred
of Etimetech Ruth, H., 8.
The time that Ruth and Noami arrive at
Bethlehem is harvest time. 1t was the Gus
tom when sheaf fell from a load in the har-
yest-field for the reapers to refuse TO gather it
up: that was to be lett for the poor who might
happen to come along that way. Ii there were
handfuls of grain scattered across tho 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 10 Ruth and Naomil
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
field"
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
harp or sit upon a 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
adventures of the day. That Ruth, who
left her native land of Moab in darkness,
and travelled, through an undying affection
Tor her mother-in-la law, in the harvest field of
Boaz, is atfianced to one of the best families
IN Judah, and becomes in after-t time the an
cestress Of Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory.
Out of so dark a night did there ever dawn
SO bright morning9
j 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 Ruth's character. That
is very unfortunate man who has no trou-
ble 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 encyclopedias, and Ruth the better
daughter-in law.
l once asked an aged man in regard to his
pastor, who was very brilliant man: "Why
is 1T that your pastor, so very brilliant,
seems to have so little heart and tender
ness in his sermcn!' well" he replied
1.-THE reason is our pastor has never ~
any trouble. When misfortune comes flls II
hims his style will be different" After a ilso'
the Lord took a child out of that paSN-ls
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 great educator. You see
sometimes musician sit down at an instru-
ment and his execution is cold and formal
and unfeellng. 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 dis
cover the pathos in the first sweep of the
keys.
Misfortune and trials are great educators
young doctor comes into a sick room
where there is a dying child. Perhaps ne is
O1rrt in, bic or.,v,
rough in his manner, and rough in the feel
ing of the pulse, and rough in his answer to
the mothers anxious question: but wears 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
minds me of my Charlien Trouble, the
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 ironshod hoof of disaster and
calamity. l see Daniels courage best by the
flash of Nebuchadnezzars furnace. l see
Paui's proves best when l 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
guillotine 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 1t took all the hos
Utilities against the Scotch Covenanters and
the fury of Lord Claverhouse to de-
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 the war-whoop OF
savages to show forth the proves of the
Pilgrim Fathers
"When amid the storms they sang,
And the stars heard, and the sea;
And the sounding asles of the dim wood rang
TO the anthems of the Free"
1t took all our past national Histresses to
lift up our nation on that high career where
it will march along after the foreign aristoc
racies 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 individually, and in the
family, and in the Church, and in the world,
that through darkness and storm and trouble
men, women, churches, nations, are devel.
oped.
III. Again. I 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 acquaintance, how
many were willing to trudge Off with her
toward Judah, when she had to make that
lonely journey! One-the heroine of my
text. One-absolutely one l suppose when
| Naomis husband was living. and they had
plenty of money and all things' went well
they had great many callers; but suppose
| that after her hus. and died, and her property
went, and she got old and poor, she was not
troubled very much with callers All the
birds that sung in the bower while the sur
shone have gone to their nests, now the night
| has fallen.
Oh, these beautiful sunfiowers that spread
out their color in the morning hour but are
always asleep when the sun is going down
Job had plenty of friends when he was the
richest man in Uz; but when his property
went and the trials came then there were
none SO much that pestered as Eliphaz the
Temanite, and Bildad the Shuttle, and
| Zophar the Naamathite
| Life often seems to be a mere game, where
the successful player pulls down all the other
men into his own lap. Let suspicious arise
about a mans character, and he becomes
like bank in panic, and all the
down in day that character which in due
| time would have had strength to defend
itself. There are regulations that have beer
half a century in building, which 60 dowr
| under some moral exposure as O vast temple