News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1888-06-07
SUNDAYS SERMON.
ONE OF REV. DIR. TALMAGE'S
STERLING DISCOURSES.
Subject: "a Case of Love at First
Sight"

her hap 1UdS to light on q part of the tfeLd
belonging unto Bo1z, tUhO tUaS of the kindred
of ETimeJech. Ruth, IL, 8.
The time that Ruth and Noami arrive at
bethlehem is harveSt-time 1t was the Gus
tom when sheaf fell from a load in the har.
Vest-tield 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 scattered across the field
after the main harvest had been reaped,
instead 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: What 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 harvest
field!n
Boaz owns large farm, and he goes out to
see the reapers gather in the grain. Coming
there, right behind the swarthy, sun.
Drowned reapers, he beholds a beautiful
woman gleanlng-a woman more fit to bend
a harp or sit upon a throne than to stoop
among the sheaves. All, that was an event
ful dayi
1t was love at first sight. Boaz forms an
sttlchnent Tor the womanly gleaner-an
attachment 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 to Naomi to tell her the successes and
adventures OF the day. That Ruth, who
left her native and of Moab in darkness,
and Travelled, through an undying affection
Tor her mother in law, in the harvest field of
| BoaZ, IS attianced 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 night did there ever dawn
| so bright a morning?
learn IN the first place from this subject
how trouble develops character. 1t was be-
TeaVement, poverty and exile that de-
/ ofl61 1rNJn,
! the subllmlty of Ruth's character That
Is very unfortunate man who has no trou.
pie. 1t was sorrow that made John Bunyan
the better dreamer, and Doctor Young the
Detter poet and OConnell the better orator
and Bishop Hall the better preacher. and
HaVelock the better soldier, and Kitto the
| Detter encyclopaedia, and Ruth the better
daughter-in- law
once asked an aged man in regard to his
pastor, who was very brilliant man: s'Why
Is IL that your pastor, very brilliant.
seems to have so little heart and tender,
ness In his sermong Well he replied
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 the preacher was lust as
brilliant as he was before, oh, the warmth, the
| tenderness of his discourses. The fact is that
| troub is a great educator. You see
sometimes musician sit down at an instru
ment and his execution is cold and formal
ana unIeeIlng- L ne 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 dis
cover the pathoS in the first sweep of the
keys.
Misfortune and trials are great educators
A young doctor comes into a sick room
where there is dying child. Perhaps he is
very rough in his prescription, and yery
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
on, and there has been one dead in his
/ own house; and now he comes into the sick
room, and with fearful eye he looks at the
! dying child, and he says ''Oh, how this re-
minds me of my Charlie' Trouble, the
| great educator. Sorrow, 1 see its touch in
the grandest painting; hear its tremor in
| the sweetest song; l feel its power in the
| mightiest argument
| Grecian mythology said that the fountain
| of Hippocrene was struck out by the foot of
| the winged horse Pegasus. l have often
noticed in life that the brightest and most
beautiful fountain of Christian comfort and
spiritual life have been struck out by
the iron-shod hoof of disaster and
calamity. | see Daniels courage best by the
flash of Nebuchadnezzar's furnace. see
Paul's proWesS best when | find him on the
laundering ship under the glare of the light
ming in the breakers of Melita. God crowns
his children amid the bowling of wild
beasts and the chopping of blood splashed
guillotne and the cracking fires of martyr
DOM 1t took the prosecutions or Marcus
Aurelius to develope Polycarp and justin
Martyr 1t took the worlds anathema TO
develop Martin Luther 1t took all the hos
tilities against the Scotch Covenanters and
the fury of Lord Claverhouse to de-
velOp James Renwick, and Andrew Mel
vile, and Hugh McKail, the glorious martyrs
of Scotch history. 1t took the stormy sea,
and the December blast, and the desolate
New England coast and the war-Whoop OF
savages 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 aises OF the dim "ooo rang
To the anthems of the tree
1t took all our past national dlstresseS TO |
lift up our nation on that high career Wnere |
it will march along after the foreign arlsCoc-
racies that have Knocked ana 1he 6yranhles
that have jeered, shall be sWepG do"h
under the omnipotent wrath of God who
hates despotism, and who, by the strength
of His own red right arm, will make all men
free And so it is individually, and IN the
family, and in the Church, and III the world,
that through darkness and storm ana trouole
men, women, churches, nations, are deveI'
oped.
IL Again. see in my text the beauty OF
unfatering friendship. L suppose there were
plenty of friends for Naomi while she was IN
prosperity; but of all her acqualntances how
many were willing to trudge off with her
toward Judah, when she had to make that
lonely Journey? One-the heroine of my
text. One-absolutely one. l suppose when
Naomi's husband was living, and they had
plenty of money and all things went well,
they had great many callers; but 1 suppose
that after her hus an 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 their nests, now the night
has fallen.
Oh, these beautiful sunfiowers 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 Uz; but when his property
went and the trials came, then there were
none so much that pestered as Eliphaz the
Iemanite, and Bildad the Shuhite, and
Zophar the Naamathte.
Life often seems to be mere game, where
the successful player pulls down all the other
men into his own lap. Let suspicious arise
about mans character, and he becomes
ike q bank IN panic. and all the
down in day that character which in due
time would have had strength to defend
itself. There are regulations that have been
half century in building, which go down
under some moral exposure, as a vast temple |
is consumed by the touch of a sulphurous
match. hog can uprOot century plant.
In this world, so full of helrtlessneSs and
hypocrisy, how thrilling it is to find some
friend as faithful in DAYS of adversity as in |
lays of prosperity! David had such friend
IN HuShai; the Jews had such friend in I
Mordecai, who never forgot their cause; Paul
had such friend in OnesiphOrus who visited {
lim in jail; Christ had such in the I
Marys, who adhered to Him on the cross; |
Naomi had such a one in Ruth, who cried
1ut: "Entreat me not to leave thee, or to re-
urn from following after thee; for whittier l
hou goest, will go; and where thou lodgest,
will lodge; thy people shall be my people, }
md thy God, my God; where thou diest will
die and there will be buried; the Lord do
70 to me- and more also, if aught but death ,
'art thee and me-"
III. Again: learn from this subject that
oaths which open in hardship and darkness :
'ften come out in places of jov. When Ruth y
taI ted from Moab towards Jerusalem, to go
llOng with her mother-in-l law. I suppose t
he people said "Oh, what a foolish a
,reature to go away from her fathers house, o
o go Off with poor old woman toward the {
and of Judahl They won't live to get O
Icross the desert. They will be drowned in Il
he sea, or the jackals of the wilderness will il
estrOy them" 1t was a very dark morning V
er in my text in the harvest field of Boaz to be |
ffianced to one of the lords of the land, and t
ecome one of the grandmothers of Jesus
;hrist, the Lord of glory. And so it often t
5 that path which starts very darkly ends
cry brightly.
When you started out for heaven, oh, S
Ow dark was the hour of conviction b
low Sinai thundered and devils tor o
nented, and the darkness thickened! b
All the sins of your life pounced upon you, a
nd it was the darkest hour you ever saw u
ghen you first found out your sins. After t