The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1888-05-21
SORROW HAS A MISSION.
1T DEVELOPS THE GOOD TRAITS
IN A MANS CHARACTER.


the Reaper, the Subject of q Sermon
The Iron-shod Hoof of Disaster and
Calamity Bring Out Beautiful Fount-
aims of Christian Comfort.
BROOKLYN, May 20--The opening hymn
at the Tabernacle service to-day begins
with the words
More love TO Thee, O Christ,
More love to Thee,
After making running commentary on
some passages of Scripture the Rev. T. De-
Witt Talmage, D. d., took the text: "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 Elime-
lech." Ruth H., 3. He preached from these
words the following sermon:
The time that Ruth and Naomi arrived at
Bethlehem is harvest time. 1t was the Gus
tom when a 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 scat
tered across the field after the main harvest
had been reaped, instead of raking it, as
farmers do now, it was, by the cusoom 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 Naomif Naomi is too old and feeble to
go out aud toll in the SUM- and can you ex-
pect that Ruth, the young and the b auti-
full, should tan her checks and blister her
hands in the harvest fleldp
Boaz owns IA large farm, and he goes out
TO see the reaperS gather in the grain. Com
ing there, right behind the swarthy, sun
Drowned reapers, no beholdS beautiful
woman gleanng-a woman more fit to
bend to harp or sit upon a throne than to
stoop among the sheaves. Alb, that was an
eventful day
1t was love at first sight Boaz forms an
attachment for the womanly gleaner-an
attachment full of undying interest to the
Church of God i'll all ages; while Ruth,
with an ephah, or 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 dark
ness, and Travelled through an undying af-
lection for her mother in-law, in the har-
vest field of Boaz is affianced 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 a night
did there ever dawn so bright morning!
how trouble develops character. 1t was
bereavement, poverty and exile that de-
Veloped, illustrated and announced to all
| ages the sublimity of Ruth's character.
That is very unfortunate man who has
no trouble 1t was sorrow that made John
| Bunyan the better dreamer, and Doctor
| Young the better poet, and O'Conneu the
better orator, and Bishop Hall the better
| preacher, and Havelock the better soldier,
or IF no hntf IL o,,l
| Ruth the better daughter-in-law.
once asked an aged man in regard to
his pastor, who was very brilliant man
Why is it that your pastor, so very bril-
liant, seems to have SO little heart and
tenderness in his sermonsp "Well, " he re-
| piled, "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 child out of
that pastors house; and though
tine preacher was Just as bril-
liant as he was before, Oh the
warmth, the tenderness of his discourses.
| The fact is that trouble is great educator.
| You see sometimes musician sit down at
| an instrument, and his execution is cold
and formal and unfeeling. 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 aud trials are great educators.
| A young doctor comes into a sick room
where there is a dying child. Perhaps he
| Is very rough in his prescription, aud 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 year
roll T., and there has been one dead in his
own house; aud now he comes into the sick
room, and with fearful eye he looks at the
| dying child, and he says: 'Oh, how this
reminds me of my Charlie!' Trouble, the
| great educa or Sorrow, | see its touch III
the grandesU painting; hear its tremor in
the sweetest song; feel its power III the
mightiest argument.
Grecian mythology said that the fountain
| of Hippocrene was struck out by the 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
i see Daniels courage bes5 by the flash OF
| Northumberland furnace. | see Paufs
prowess best when find him on the founder
| ing ship under the glare of the lightning in
| the breakers of Melita God crowns his
children amid the bowling of wild beasts
and the chopping of blood-splashed guillo
tine and the cracking fires of martyrdom
| IL took the prosecutions of Marcus Aurelius
to develop Polycarp and Justin Martyr. II
| took the worlds anathema to develop Mar
| tin Luther IL took all the hostilities against
the Scotch Covenanters and the fury OF
| Lord Claverhouse to develop James Rem
wick and Andrew Melville, and Hugh Nc
Kali, the glorious martyrs of Scotch his
| tory 1t took the stormy sea, and the De
cember blast, and the desolate New Eng
land coast, and the warwhoop Of savages
to show forth the proves of the Pilgrim
| Fathers
''When amid the storms they sang,
And the stars heard, and the sea;
And the sounding alses OF the dim wood
Rang TO the anthems Of the free"
1t took all our past national distresses Il
| lift up our nation on that high career where
it will march along after the foreign aristo
cracies that have Knocked and the tyrannie'
| that have jeered, shall be swept down under
| the omnipotent wrath Of God, who hate
| despotism, and who, by the strength of hi
| own red right arm, will make all men free
And so it IS individually, and in the family
and in the church, and in the world, tina
! through darkness and storm and trouble
men, women, churches, nations, are de
veloped.
| Again, see in my text the beauty Of
unfaltering friendship i suppose there
were plenty of friends for Naomi while sh'
was in prosperity; but Of all her acquaint
ances, how many were willing To trudge of
with her toward Judah, when she had Il
make that lonely Journeys One-th'
| heroine of my test. One-absolutely one
L., faf