Iuka reporter. (Iuka, Miss.) 1888-1894, 1888-06-07

know there is sickly sentimentality on
this subject. In some families there are per-
sons of no practical service to the household
or community; and though there are so many
woes all around about them in the world,
they spend their time languishing over
new pattern, or bursting into tears
at midnight over the story of some lover who
shot himself They would not deign to look
at Ruth carrying back the barley on her way
home to her mother-in-law, Naomi All this
fastidiousness may seem to do very
well while they are under the shelter
Of their fathers house; but when. the
sharp winter of misfortune comes, what of
these butterhes' Persons under indulgent
parentage may get upon themselves habits of
Incidence; but when they come out into
practical life their soul will recol with dis
gust and chagrin. They win feel in their
hearts what the poet SO severely satirized
when he said:
Folks are so awkward things so impolite,
They're elegantly panied from morning until
night
Through that gate of Incidence how many
men and women have marched, useless on
earth, to destroyed eternity! Spinola said
to Sir Horace We're: ''Of what did your
brother dieT "Of having nothing to do" was
the answer "Ah," said Spinola, that's
enough to kill any general of us OH can
it be possible in this world, where there is SO
much suffering to be alleviated, SO much
darkness to be enlightened, and SO many
burdens to be carried, that there is any per-
son who cannot find anything to doa
Madame de Stael did world of work in
her time; and one day, while she was seated
amid Instruments of music, all OF which she
had mastered, and amid manuscript books
which she had written, some one said to her:
these things ' .toh," she " replied, :these
are not the things which am proud
Of. My chief boast is in the
fqCt that I boua fra6ac nv
one OF which | could make livelihood if
| necessary" And if in secular spheres there
is SO much to be done, in spiritual work how
| vast field! We want more Abigails, more
| Deborahs consecrated-body, mind, soul
| to the Lord who bought them
VI Once more: l learn from my subject
| the value OF cleaning.
| Ruth going into that harvest field might
have said: There is straw and there is a
| straw but what is a straw [ can't get any
barley for myself or my mother in-law out
| of these separate strawsn Not so said
beautiful Ruth. She gathered two straws,
and she put them together, and more straws,
until she got enough to make a sheaf Put
ting that down she went and gathered more
straws, until she had another sheaf, and
another, and another, and another, and
then she brought them all together and she
threshed them out, and she had an ephah of
barley, nigh bushel. Oh, that we might all
| D0 SlcttiloIS!
Eihu Burritt learned many things while
| toiling in blacksmith's shop. Abercrombie,
the world-renowned philosopher, was a
! philosopher in Scotland, and he got his
| philosophy, or the chief part of it, while, as q
physician, he was waiting for the door of the
sick room to open. Yet how many there are
in this day who say they are so busy they
have no time for mental or spiritual improve
ment; the great duties of life cross the field
like strong reapers, and carry off all the
hours, and there is only here and
there fragment left that is not
worth cleaning All, my friends, you
could go into the busiest day and
busiest week of your life and find go den op-
portunities, which gathered might at least,
make a whole sheaf for the Lords garner.
1t is the stray opportunities and the stray
privileges which taken up and bound to-
gether and beaten out will at last fill you
with Astounding joy.
There are few moments left worth the
cleaning. Now. Ruth, to the field May each
one have measure full and running over!
| Oh! you cleaners to the field And if there
be in your household an aged one
or sick relative that is not strong
enough to come forth and toll in this
field, then let Ruth take home to feeble
Naomi this sheaf of cleaning: ''He that
goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious
seed, shall doubtless come again with reioic-
ing, bringing his sheaves with him." May
the Lord God of Ruth and Naomi be our
portion forever