The united opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1881-1970, 1888-05-25
LOVE AT FIRST SIGHT.
REV. DR.. TALMAGe'S DISCOURSE At
THE BROOKLYN TABERNACLE.

Trouble Develops and Ennobles Charac
ter-The Beauty of Unfaltering Friend
ship-A Path which Starts Darkly
Often Ends brightly.
BROOKLYN, May 20.--The opening
hymn at the Tabernacle service today
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. L.
Dc 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 a part OF the field
belonging unto Boaz, who was of the
kindred of Elimelech." Ruth ii, g. He
preached from these words the following
sermon.
The time that Ruth and Naomi arrived
at Bethlehem is harvest time. 1t was the
custom when a sheaf fell from a load in
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 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?"
Boaz owns a 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 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 womanly CLEANER
AN attachment full of undying interest
to the Church of God in 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 darkness, and travelled through
an undying affection for her mother-in-
law, in the harvest field of Boaz, is aft
anced to one Of the best families in Ju-
dab, 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 so bright morning9
learn in the first place from this sub
ject 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 very unfortunate man
who has no 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
encyclopaedia, and Ruth the better
daughter in law.
once asked an aged man in regard to
his pastor, who was a very brilliant man:
'Wby is it that your pastor, so very bril-
liant, 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 misfortune
comes upon him his style will be differ
emit After a while the Lord took
child out of that pastors house; and
though the preacher was just as brilliant
as he was before, oh the warmth, the
tenderness of his discourses. The fact is
that trouble is great educator. You
see sometimes a 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 instru-
ment. and you discover the pathos in the
first sweep of the keys.
Misfortune and trials are great educa-
tors. A young doctor comes into sick
room where there is dying child. Per-
haps he is very rough in his prescription,
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 roll on, and there had
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 reminds
me of my Charliel" Trouble, the great
educator. Sorrow, see its touch in the
grand'st painting; hear its tremor in
thee test song; feel its power in the
mighl,cst argument.
Greclan mythology said that the foun-
tain 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 disas-
ter and calamity. see Daniels courage
best by the flash of Nebuchadnezzar's
furnace see Paul's proves best when
find him on the laundering ship under
the glare Of the lightning in the breakers
of Melita God crowns his children amid
the bowling of wild beasts and the chop
ping of blood splashed guillotine and the
cracking fires of martyrdom. 1t took
the prosecutions of Marcus Aurelius to
develop Polycarp and Justin Martyr. 1t
took the worlds anathema to develop
Martin Luther. 1t took all the hostilities
al o,,l tho