National Republican., 1888-05-21
Love At FIRST SIGHT.
REV. DE WITT TALMAGE'S SER
MON SUNDAY MORNING.
The Story of Ruth and Naomi-How
Trouble Develops Character Mis-
fortunes and Trials Are Great Edu-
cntors-The Beauty of Friendship.

BrooRtyS, May 2O,-Thc opening hymn at
the Tabernacle service today begins with the
words:
More love to Thee, o. Christ,
More love tO Thee
After making q running commentary on
some passages Of Scripture, the Rev. n. De
Witt TamGgC, u. ~, took the text; and she
went and came, aud CLEANED in the field after
the reapcrs; aud her hap was to light on
part of the field belonging unto Boaz, who
was of the kindred of Elimclech" Ruth II, D..
lie preached from these words the following
sermon:
The time that Ruth and Naomi arrive at
bethlehem Is harvest time. II was the Gus.
tom when a sheaf fell from q load in the har.
vest field for the rCapcrs TO refuse tu gather 1t
up; that was to be LETT for the poor who might
happen, To come along way If there Were
after the main harvest had been reaped, in.
stead Of rakmg II, as farmers do now, II was
by the custom of the land left In It's place, 50
glCln II 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 fee.
bic To go out and toll In the sun, and can you
expect that Ruth, the youuga and the beautiful,
should tan her cheeks and blister her hands in
the harvest iCldgn
Boaz owns large farm, and he goes out to
see the reapers gather IN the grain. Coming
there, right behind the Swarthy, drowned
aIers, hc bcholds beautiful woman CLEAN.
ing-a woman more fit TO bend TO o harp or sit
upon throne than to stoop among the
sheaves. Ah that was an evcntiul day
IL was love AT first sight. Boaz forms an at.
tachment for the womanly .glcuner-an at
taChment full of undying interest to the
church of God IN all ages, while Ruth, with an
ephah or nearly a bushel of barley, goes home
10 Naomi TO tell her the successes and adven'
lures Of the day. That Ruth, who left her
native land of Moab in darkness, and tray.
eled through an undying affection for her
mother.in.law, in the harvest field of Boaz, is
afanced to one of the best families in Judah,
and becomes in aftertime 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 II was be.
reayement, poverty, and exile that developed.
Illustrated, and announced to all ages the
sublimity of Ruth's character. That Is q very
unfortunate man, who has no trouble. u was
sorrow that made John Bunyan the better
dreamer, and DR.. Young the better poet and
OConnell the better orator, and Bishop Hall
the better preacher, and llavelock the better
soldier, and Kitto the better encyclopaedia,
and Ruth the better daughtcr.ln.law.
once asked an aged man In regard 70 his
pastor, who was a very brilliant mani Why,
Is il that your pastor, so very brilliant, seems
to have 50 little heart and tenderness In his
scrmons;' We'll" lie replied "the reason is
our pastor has never had any trouble. When
misfortune comes upon him, his style will be
different" After awhile the Lord took a
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
dlscourscs. The fact is that trouble Is u great
educator. You see sometimes musician sit
down at an instrument, ana his execution Is
cold and formal and unfceling. The reason
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.
young doctor comes into sick room where
there Is a dying child Perhaps he is very
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
eye he looks at the dying child, and he says:
'm'Oh, how this reminds me of my Charlie :"
Trouble, the great educator. Sorrow, see
rs touch N the grandest painting; ! hear its
tremor In the sweetest song; feel its power
In the mghtiest argument.
Grecian mythology said that the fountain of
winged horse Pegasus Ihaye 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
courage best by the fash of fNebuchadnezzar' 5
furnace. i see. Paul's ,prowess best when !
find him on the laundering ship under the
Malta. God crowns his children amid the
howlng of wild beasts and the chopping of
blood'spashed guillotine and the cracking
Of Marcus Aurelius to develop, I'olycarp and
Justin Martyr. II took the worlds anathema
TO develop Martin Luther. 1t took all the hos
tilities against the Scotch covenanters and the
furry of Lord Claverhouse to develop James
Renwick,. and Andrew Melville, and Hugh
McKail, the glorious martyrs OF Scotch his
tory. II took the stormy. sea, and the De.
cernber blast, and the desolate New England
coast, and the war.whoop of sayages 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 aisles of the dim wood
Rang to the anthems of the free"
II took all our past national distresSes to
lift up our nation on that high career where II
will march along after the, foreign aristocra.
have jeered shall have been swept down un-
der the omnipotent wrath Of God, who hates
despofism, and who, by the strength OF His
own red right arm, will make all men free.
And SO II 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 developed:
faltoring friendship. I suppose there were
plenty Of friends for Naomi while she was in
prosperity; but of all her acquaintance, how
many We're willing to trudgeloffi with her, to.
ward Judah, when she had to make that
lonely Journey one-the heroine of my text.
One-absolutely one suppose when Naomis
husband was living, and they had plenty of
money and all things went well, they had a
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 shone have gone to tlieir nests, now
the night has fallen.
oh, these beautiful sunnowers 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 "; but when lbs property
went and the trials came, then there were
none 50 much that pestered as Eliphaz the
Temanite, and Bidad the Shuhite, and Zoplal
the Naamathite.
the successful player pulls down all the other
men into his own lap. Let suspicious arise
about, mans character, and he becomes like
bank in, panic, and all tue imputations
rush on him and break down in u day that
character which in due time would have had
strength TO defend itself. There are. reputa'
tions that have been half century in build
ing, which go down under some moral en-
posure, as II vast temple is consumed by the
touch of sulphurous match \ hog can up
root century plant,
In this world, so tull OF hoartlessness ana
hypocrisy, how thrilling i Is to lind some
friend as faithful in days Of adverslty as In
days of prosperity David had such a friend
~ llushai; the Jews had such friend in Nor
decai, who never forgot their cause; Paul had
such friend in Onesiphorous, who visited
him In Jail; Christ had such IN the Marys, who
adhered to Him on the cross; Naomi had such
u one in Ruth, who cried out; "Entreat mt
not TO leave thee or to return from following
after thee, for whittier thou goeSt I will go
and where thou lodgest Will lodge; thy peo'
pie shall be my people, and thy God my God
where thou diest will | die, and there will
be buried: the Lord do so to me. and more
also, II aught but death part thee and me-
III. Again | learn from this subject that
paths which open In hardship and darkness
often come out in places of Joy, When Ruth
started from Moab toward, Jerusalem, to &C
people said: "Oh, what II foolish creature tC
go away from her fathers house, TO go OF
with poor old woman toward the land OF
Judah!' They won't live to get across the
desert. They will be drowned in the sea, OF
the iaCkals of the wilderness will destroy
them II wasa very dark morning when
In my text in the harvest field of BoaZ, to be
afiianced to one Of the lords of the land, and