The Bottineau pioneer. (Bottineau, N.D.) 1885-1895, 1888-05-31
eAIMAGE'S SERMON.
1rrowI Misfortunes, and Trials Are
Great Educators and Develop
rSM Character.
heSS Made John Bunyan the setter
Dreamer Ind Dr.. Young the
BETTER POet.
he opening hymn at he Tabernacle scrv.
Sunday began with the words:
More love to Thee, o Christ,
Nova 1ovo IN Thoo -t &%@t

AIuer making D running commentary Ou
me passages of scripture the Rev. T. De-
Fitt Talmage, d. D., took the text: "And
be went, and came, and cleaned in the
Held after the reapers; and her hap was too
blight on q part Of the field belonging unto
MBoaz, who was of the kindred Of Elimelech."
Ruth ii 3. He preached from these words
the following sermon:
The time that Ruth and Naomi arrive at
Bethlehem is harvest.time. It wa the Gus
tom when a sheaf fell fl ON a load in a har-
kvest-feld for the reapers to refuse to gather
&c up; that wa 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 the main harvest had been
reaped, instead Of raking it as farmers do
Snow, it was, by the custom Of the land, left
IA its place SO that the poor, coming along
That way, might CLEAN it aud &c their
Thread. But you say: "What - the use OF
all these harvest-ields to Ruth and Naomi?
1Naomi is too ole 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
haJvest-feld"
Boaz owns a large farm, and he goes out
to see the reapers gather in the grain. Com
i ing there, right behind the sWarthy, sun
drowned reapers. he beholds a beautiful
II to a harp or sit upon a throne than to stoop
among the sheaves. All, that was an event
full day. j.
It was love at first sight. Boaz forms an
attachment for the womanly CLEANER an at
tachment full Of undying interest to the
s. 80 ~ CNA s>o Z q a . vlyhi1o p,1fh yuifh
an epnah, or nearly a 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 on undying affection tor
her mother-in-law, in the harvest-feld OF
Boaz, is afianced to one Of the best families
in Judah, and becomes In after time the an
cestress Of Jesus Christ, the Lord of Glory.
Out Of SO dark a night did there ever dawn,
20 bright q morning?
Ilearn in the first page from this subject
how trouble developes character. 1t was
. bereavement, poverty, and exile that devel
oped, illustrated, and announced to all ages
the sublimity of Ruth's character. That is q
very unfortunate man who has no trouble.
It was sorrow that made John BunYan tho
poet, and OConnell the better orator, and
Bishop Hall the better preacher, and Have
lock the better solder, and Kitto the better
encyclopedia. and Ruth the better daughter
in-law.
I once asked an aged man in regard to his
pastor, who was q very brilliant man.: ''NVhy
Is it that your pastor, so very brilliant, seems
to have 81 little heart and tenderness in his
sermons?" SWELL" he replied, 1.-THE reason
Is our pastor has never had any trouble.
When misfortune m upon him his style
9 will be different" After a while the Lord
! though the preacher was just as brilliant as
= he was before, oh, the warmth, the tender
= ness of his discourses. The fact is that
trouble Is q great educator. You see some.
times q musician sit down at an instrument,
and his execution Is cold and formal and I'M
feeling. The reason is that all his life lie
has been prospered. But let misfortune or
bereavement come to that man, and he sits
down at al instrument, and you discover
the pathos in the first sweep of the keys.
Asyolng doctor comes into the sick-room
1 where there is a dying child. Perhaps he
IL very rough in his prescription, and very
rough In his manner. and rough in the feel
ing Of the pulse, and rough in his answer to
the mothers anxious question, but years roll
house; and now he comes INTO the sick room,
and with fearful eyes he looks at the dying
child, and he says: @Oh, how this reminds
me Of my Charliew Trouble, the great
educator. Sorrow, I see its touch in the
grande. It painting; I hear the tremor IN the
0WOSo SSAoS - S
lest argument.
Grecian mythology said that the founda-
ton Of Hippocrene was struck out by the
foot Of the winged horse, Pegasus. ] have
often Eoticed 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.
sec Daniels courage best by the flash OF
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS furnace. I see PauPs
proves best when l find him on the found
-f~-i-- - -. Il n klo 81 go. ~ kl,1 1s.~1,k,t,nce
in the breakers Of Meiita. God crowns his
children amid the bowling Of wild beasts,
and the chopping blood-splashed guillotine.
and the cracking fires OF martyrdom. Ii
took the prosecutions Of Marcus Aurelius to
develope Polycarp and Justin Martyr. II
tin Luther. 1t took all the hostilitiesa against
the Scotch coyenanters and the fury of Lord
Claverhouse to develope James RenwicR
and Andrew Melville and Hugh HcKail,
the glorious martyrs of Scotch history. II
took the stormy sea, and the December blast,
and the desolate New England coast, and
war-whoop of savages to show forth the
n 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.
It took all our past national distresses tx
lift up our nation on that high career where
1t will march along after the foreign aristoc
/. .racics that have Knocked and the tyrannie!
that have jeered shall be swept under the ON,
nipotent wrath of God, who hates despotism
and who by the strength Of his own red right
arm will make all men free. And to 1t /.
individually, and in the family, and in the
church, and in the world, that through dark
ness and storm and trouble men, women
churches, nations, are developed.
2. Again / see in my text the beauty o.
unfaltering~ friendship. l suppose there were
plenty Of friends for Naomi while she was III