The west Tennessee star. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1888, 1888-06-01
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
The Educational Influences of Sor-
row and Misfortune.
The Beautiful Story of Ruth and Boar
Woven Into Sermon on the Chas-
tening Influences of God
Sent Affections.

lyn Tabernacle the story of Ruth and
Boaz, drawing therefrom a 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 10
light on q part of the field belonging unto
Boaz, who of the kindred of Eiimelech-
Ruth IL. g.
The time that Ruth and Naomi arrived
at Bethlehem it was harvest time. 1t was
the custom when a sheaf fell from 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. If 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:
'FWhat 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 large farm, and no goes out
to see the reapers gather in the grain.
Coming there, right behind the swarthy,
u@UEOWu0u I6dpSIS4 n6 uSIlO1O% "a UCdu-
tiful woman gleaning-a 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 womanIy cleaner
an attachment full of undying interest to
the Church of God in all ages; while Ruth,
with an ephah, or nearly bushel, of bar
ley, goes home to Naomi to tell her the
o1x Of haf
Ruth, who left her native land of Moab in
darkness, and toiled, through an undy-
ing affection, for her law, in the
harvest field of Boaz, is af1auced 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
mOTningP
learn, in the first place, from this
subject, how trouble develops character.
1t was bereavement, poverty and exile
| that developed, illustrated and announced
| to all ages the sublimity of Ruth's charac-
| ter That is a very unfortunate man who
has 10 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 encyclopedias and
/
! once asked an aged man in regard to
his pastor, who was a very brilliant man;
"Why is it that your pastor, so very
brilliant, seems to have so little heart and
tenderness in his sermons?"
"Well, " he replied, ''the reason is our
pastor has never had any trouble. When
misfortunes comes upon him, his style viii
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 ot
| his discourses. The fact is that trouble is
| q great educator. You see sometimes 6
musician sit down at an instrument, and
his execution is cold and formal and un-
| feeling. The reason is that all his life he
has been prospered. But let misfortune
or bereavement come to that man, and
| he sits down to an instrument, and you
| discover the pathos in the first sweep OF
| the keys.
Misfortune and trials are great educa-
| tors. A young doctor comes into a sick
room where there is a dying child. Per-
haps he is very rough in his pres escription
and very rough in his manner, and rough
in the feeling of the pulse; and rough in
his answer to the mothers anxious ques.
ton; but years rolI on and there has beer
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:
t'Oh, how this reminds me of my Char
liel" Trouble, the great educator. Sor
row, 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 tht
foot of the winged horse Pegasus. hav,
often noticed in life that the brightest anC
most beautiful fountains of Christian
comfort and spiritual life have been strucl
out by the iron-shod hoof Of disaster anC
calamity. I see Daniels courage best b!
the fash of Nebuchadnezzar's furnace.
see PauPs prowess best when 1 find hin
on the laundering ship under the glare o
the lightning in the breakers of EdeIita
| God crowns His children amid the howl
| ing of wild beasts and the ChOpping o
bloodIsplashed guillotine and the crack
| ling fires of martyrdom. It took the per
secutions of Marcus Aurelius to develoI
Polycarp and Justin Martyr. It took tn
worlds anathema to develop Martil
Luther 1t took all the hostilities agains
the Scotch Covenanters and the fury 0
Lord Claverhouse to develop James Rem
wick, and Andrew Melville, and Hug
McKail, the glorious martyrs of ScOtc
history. 1t took the stormy sea, and tn
December blast, and the desolate NeV
England coast, and the wRr-whOop o
savages, to show forth the prowess Of tn
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 distresse
to lift up our Nation on that high caree
where it will march along after the for
, 4 eign aristocracies that have Knocked an
the tyrannies that have jeered, shall b
swept down under the omnipOtent wrat
Of God, who hates despodsm, 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 tn
{ | church, and in the world, that thrOug
darkness and storm and trouble mel
| women, churches, nations are developed
Again, 1 see in my text the beauty
| unfaltering friendship. I suppose the1
2 ! were plenty Of friends for Naomi Will
! she was in prosperity, but Of all be
3 | aequaintances how many were willing
) ! trudge of with her toward Judea, whe
] she had TO make that lonely journey? On
' the heroine of my text. One, absolutel
one. I suppose when Eaomi's husbau
was living, and they had plenty Of none,
and all things went WELL they had grei
many callers, but I suppose that after hs
I AusDol4u uIouf anu hSi property "eHty al
she got old and poor, she was not trouble
very much with callers. All the bird
that sung in the bower while the sun shor
have gone to their nests now the night hs
fallen.
Oh, these beautiful sunhowers thl
spread out their colors in the mornin
but are always asleep when the sun is z,
ing down. Job had plenty Of friends whe
: he was the richest man in Uz; but whe
1 his property went and the trials cam
then there were none that pes tered him
J much as EIiphaz, the Temanife, az
Bildad the Shnhite, and Zophar u
: | SaamFthite,