West Virginia Democrat. [volume] (Charles Town, W. Va.) 1885-1890, 1888-06-08

BROOKLYN, May 20.-The opening
hymn at the Tabernacle service to-
day begins with the words:
More love to thee, o Christ, lE
More love to thee.
After making a running common
tary On some passages of Scripture
the Rev. L. 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 ofthe field belong
inc unto Boaz, WHO was Of the kim
dred of EIimelech." Ruth ii. 3. He
preached from these words the FOL
lowing sermon:
The time that Ruth and Naomi
arrived at Bethlehem is harvest
time. 1t was the custom when a
sheai fell from load IN harvest
field for the reapers to refuse to
gather it up; that was left for the
poor who might happen to come
along that way. If there were hand
fuls 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 Gus
tom 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'S the
use of all these harvest fields to
Ruth and Naomi? Naomi is too
old and feeble to go cut and toll in
the sun; and can you expect that
Ruth, the young and the beautiful,
should tan her cheeks apd blister
her hands in the harvest iield?"
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 wo
man cleaning woman more lit to
bend to a harp or sit upon throne
than to stoop among the sheaves.
All. that was an eventual day!
It was love at first sight. Boaz
forms an attachment for the woman
" 0leaner-an attachment full of
undviug interest to the Church of
God in all ages; while Ruth, with
an ephah, or nearly hushel of bar
lev. goes home to Naomi to tell her
the successes and adventures of the
day. That Ruth, who left her ma,
tive land OF Moab in darkness, and
travelled through an undyingaffection
for her mother-in-law, in the harvest
field of Boaz, is affianced to one of
the best families Of judah, and be-
comes in after time the ancestress of
Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory. Out
of so dark night did there ever
dawn so bright morning.
/ learn in the first place from this
subject how trouble develops char
acter. 1t was bereavement. poverty
and exile that developed, illustrated
and announced to all ages the sub
Unity of Ruth's character. 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
Havelock the better soldier, and Kit
TO the better encyclopaedia, and
Ruth the better daughter-inlaw.
| once asked an aged man in re-
gard to his pastor. who was 4 very
brilliant man: Why is it that your
pastor, very brilliant, seems to have
so little heat and tenderness in his
sermons?" We'll" he replied, 1.-The
reason is our pastor has never had
any trouble. When misfortune
comes upon him his style will be
different" After while the Lord
took child out of that pastors
house: and though the preacher was
lust as brilliant as he was before,
oh the warmth, the tenderness of his
discourses. The fact is that trouble
is a great educator. You see some
times a musician sit down at an in
strument. and his execution is cold
and formal and unfeeling. The rea
SON is that all his life he has been
prospered. But let misfortune or
bereavement come to that man, and
he sits down at an instrument, and
you discover 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 a
dying chill Perhaps he i very
rough in his prescription, and
rough in his manner and rough in
the feeling of the pulse, and rough
in his answer to the mothers anx-
ious question; butyears rollgop, and
there had 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 reminds me of my
Charlier' Trouble, the great edpca-
tor. Sorrow, l see its touch in the
grandest painting; | hear its tremor