The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1888-06-21
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
The Educational Influences of Sor-
row and Misfortune.
The Beautiful Story of Ruth and Boar
Woven Into q Sermon on the Chas-
tening Influences of God
Sent Affections.

Rev. Z. Dewitt Talmage took for the
subject of a recent sermon in the Brook
lyn Tabernacle the story of Ruth and
Boaz, drawing therefrom lesson of the
influence of incidents on human lives.
His text was:
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 H.. a
The time that Ruth and Naomi arrived
at Bethlehem it was harvest time. It was
the custom when sheaf fell from a load
in the harvest field for the reapers to re-
fuse to gather it 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
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 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,
sun-browned reapers. he beholds BEAU
tlful woman cleaning woman more fit
to bend to a 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 a1lages; while Ruth,
with an ephah, or nearly a 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 affiauced 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 a
morning?
learn, In the first place, from this
subject, how trouble develops character
It was bereavement, poverty and exile
that developed, illustrated and announced
to all ages the snblimity of Ruth's charac-
ter. That is a 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 Kitto the better encyclopaedia, and
Ruth the better daughter in law.
Misfortune and trials are great educa-
tors. A young doctor comes into sick
room where there is dying child. Per-
haps he is very rough in his pres cription,
and very rough in his manner, and rough
in the feeling of the pulse, and rough in
his answer to the mothers anxious uues-
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
lie" Trouble, the great educator. Sor-
row, l 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 spiritual life have been struck
out by the iron -shOd hoof of disaster and
calamity. / see Daniels courage best bv
the flash of Northumberland furnace.
see Paul's 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 1t 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, to show forth the prowess 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 distresses
to lift up our Nation on that high career
where it will march along after the for.
eign aristocracies that have Knocked and
the tyrannies that have jeered, shall he
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. Isuppose 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 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
very much with callers. All the birds
that sung in the bower while the sun sbone
have gone to their nests now the night has
fallen.