The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1888-05-30
TROUBLE AN EDUCATOR.
DIR. r. DE WITT TALMAGE breaches
ON LIES vIClSSITUDEs.

DIR. r. DE WITT TALMAGE PREACHEs
ON LIES yIClSSITUDEs.
Ruth Among the Reapers Gathering
Straw-Rer Accidental Meeting With
Boaz-Greatest fesults Often Springtns
from InconseQuential Incidents.
DR.. Talmage's sermon at the Brook
lyn Tabernacle Sunday morning was
upon the developing influence on human
character OF sorrow and adversely. Ruth
among the respers and her first meeting
with Boaz was the text Of the discourse.
4 part of what the Doctor said follows:
'sThe time that Ruth and Naomi sr-
rive at Bethlehem is harvest time. 1t
was the custom when sheaf fell from a
load in the 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 msin harvest had been reaped,
instead of raking it, SIS farmers do now,
it was, by the custom OF the land, left IN
its place so that the poor coming along the
way might CLEAN it and get their bread:
But, yoD 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 feld?'
"Bosz owns large farm, and he goes
out to see the respers gather In the
grain. Coming there, night behind the
swarthy, sun-browned reapers, he be-
holds a beautiful woman gleaning-a wo-
man more fit to bend to harp or slt
upon throne thsn to stoop among the
sheaHes. All, thst vas an eventful day!
cit was love at first sight. Boaz forms
an attachment for the womanly cleaner
An attachment full of undying inter
est to the Church of GOD in all ages,
while Ruth, with 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-ln-
kT, in the harvest field OF Boaz, Is
afianced 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 night did there
ever dawn SO bright morning?
s.I learn in the first place from this
subject how trouble develops character.
It was bereavement, poverty and e1ii,
that developed, illustrated and an
nounced to al ages the sublimity OF
Ruth's character. That is q very un-
fortunate man who has no trouble. It
was sorrow that made John Bunyan the
better dreamer, and Dr.. Young the bet
ter poet, and o 'Conneu the better orator,
and Bishop Hall the better preacher,
and Havelock the better soldier, and
Kitto the better encyclopedias, and Ruth
the better dsughter-in-lsw.
misfortune and trials are grest edu-
Gators. A young doctor comes into
sick room where there is dying child.
Perhaps he is very rough in his pre-
scription, and very rough IN his manner,
and rough in the feeling 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 looks at the
dying child and he says: 'Oh, how this
reminds me OF my Charlie? Trouble,
the great educator. Sorrow see its
touch in the grsndest paintings, I hear
its tremor in the sweetest song, I feel
its power in the mightiest argument.
ssGrecian mythology said that the
fountain of Bippocrene was struck out
by the foot OF the winged horse Pegasus.
7 have often noticed IN life thst the
brightest and most beautiful fountains
of Christian comfort and spiritual life
have been struck out by the ron-shod
hoof OF disaster and calamity. l see
Daniels courage best by the fash OF
Nebuchadnezzs's furnace. see Paal's
proves best when I find him on the
laundering ship under the glare Of the
lightning in the breakers OF Mehta.
God crowns His children amid the
bowling of wild beasts and; the chopping
OF Elood.splashed guillotine and the
cracking fires Of martyrdom. It took
the prosecutions of Marcus Aureius to
develop Polycarp and Justin Martyr. It
took the worlds ansthems to develop
Martin Luther. It took all the hostili-
ties against the Scotch Covenanters and
the fury of Lord Claverhouse to develop
James Renwick, and Andrew Melville,
and Hugh McKail, the glorious martyrs
of Scotch history. It took the stormy
ses, and the December blast, and the
desolate New England coast, and the war
yhoop of savsges to show forth the
proves Of the Pilgrim Fathers.
ssWhen you started out for Heaven,
oh. how dark was the hour Of conviction
how Sinai thundered, and devils tor
mented, and the darkness thickened!
AN the sins of your life pounced upon
you. After while you went into the
harvest field Of Gods mercy; you began
to CLEAN in the fields of divine promise,
and you had more shesves than you
could cary as the voice Of God addressed
Won, saying: Blessed is the man whose
trarsgressions are forgiven and whose
sins are covered A very dark starting
in conviction, s very bright ending in
the pardon and the hope and the triumph
: OF the gospel!
$50 very often in our worldly bust.
ness or in our spiritual career We start
- M