The Penn's Grove record., 1891-08-14
REV. DR.. TALMAGES SERMON.
The Brooklyn Divine's Sunday
Sermon.
Subject: "Gieaners On Life's Field"
preached at Gientoood, Cot.)

NcT HuD WuS ~ ttJVt Oh q Duft " ht Hett
belonging unto Boas, tOho soas of the kin
Of Eimeleeh. Ruth H., 3.
Within a few weeks 1 nave been in North
Carolina, Virginia, Pennsylvania, New
York, Ohio, Michigan, Canada, Indiana,
Illinois Kentucky, Missouri, and they are
one great harvest field, n no season can be
more enchanting in any country than the
season of harvest.
The time that Ruth and Naomi arrive
Bethlehem Is harvest time 1t was the
old custom when a sheaf fell from a
load in the harvest field for the rea 3ers
to refuse TO gather it up; that was to be
left fer the poor who might happen to
come that way. II there were handouts Of
scattered across the field after the
main harvest had been reaped, instead of
II, 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
nWhat is the use of all these harvest fields
to Ruth and Naomi2 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 fieldf'
Boaz owns a large farm, n he goes out
to see the reapers gather in the grain. Com
ing there, right behind the swarthy, sun
Drowned reapers. he beholds a beautiful wo-
III "oAA' 1870 w eSs'A ~
4 harp or sit upon a throne than to stoop
among the sheaves. All, that was an event
full dayi
IL was love at first sight. Boaz forms an
for the womanly gleaper-an
full Of undying interest to the
Church of God in all ages; while Ruth,
with an ephah, or nearly a bushel of bar
and adventures of the day. That
Ruth, rho left her native land of Moab in
darkness, and ~journeyed through an un-
diving affection for her mother-in, law, is in
the harvest field Of Boaz, is afisnced to one
the best families in Judah, and becomes
In after time the ancestress Of Jesus Christ,
the Lord Of Gloryi Out of SO dark a night
did there ever dawn SO bright a morning?
: I learn in the first place from this subject
how trouble develops character. 1t was be-
poverty and exile that developed,
and announced to all ages the sub
Of Ruth's character. That is q very
man who has no trouble. 1t
was sorrow that made John Buuyan the
dreamer, and DR.. Young the better
poet, and OConnell the better orator, and
Hall the better preacher, and Have
encyclopaedia, and Ruth the better daughter
1 once asked an aged man in regard to his
pastor, who was a very brilliant man: 'fWhy
e it that your pastor, SO very brilliant,
seems to nave so little tenderness In his SER
swell" he replied, ''the reason is
our pastor has never had any trouble. When
comes upon him his style will be
different" After awhile the Lord o a
child out of that pastors house, and though
the preacher was just as brilliant as he was
before, oh, the warmth, the tender
ness Of his discoursesl The fact is
that trouble Is a great edu-
Gator. You see sometimes q musician sit
down at an instrument, and his execution
Is cold and formal and unfeeling. The res
son 10 that all his life he has been p~rospered.
But let misfortune or bereavement come to
that man, and he sits down at the instru-
msnt, and you discover the pathosi in the first
sweep of the keys. Misfortune and trials are
great educators.
A young doctor comes into a sick room
where there il a dying child. Perhaps he
ID very rough In hts prescription, and very
rough In his manner, and rough In the feel
Of the pulse, and rough in his answer
to the mothers anxious question, tut
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, stOh,
this reminds me of my CHARLIE"
Trouble, the great educatori Sorrow-I
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 founda-
ton 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 fountains of Christian com
and spiritual life have been struck out
the iron shod hoof Of disaster and c
/ see Daniels courage best by the
fash Of ACCOMPLISHMENTS furnace. / see
~ -A -L-- a-A Asn -. thn
ship under the glare of the light
in the breakers of Melita. God crowns
His children amid the bowling of wild beasts
and the choppipg ofblood splashed g%uiliotine
aud the cracking fires Of martyrdom.
1t took all our past national distressest
and it takes all our present national sor-
rows, to lift up our nation on that high
career where ii will march along after the
foreign despotisms that have Knocked and
the ~tyrannies thai have jeered shall be
swept down under the omnipotent wrath
Of God, who hates oppression, n who. by
the strength of His own red right arm, will
all men free. And so it Is individually,
and In the family, n in the church, n in
the world, that through arkness and storm
n trouble men, women, churcAe frkioas
are developed.
Again, ! see in my text the beauty of I'M
faltering friendship. | suppose there were
"a S4 ~ 4NdSlul W0l6 INA W4e
In prosperity. But Of all her acquaint-
ancee, how many were willing to drudge
with her toward Judea, when she had
70 make that lonely journey One-the
heroine Of my text. One-absolutely ons,
l suppose when Naomi's husband was liv.
ing, and they had plenty of money, and all
things went well, they had a great many
callers. But suppose that after her hus-
band dled, and her property went, and she
got old and poor, she was not troubled very
much with callers. All the birds that sang
In the bower while the sun shone have gone
to their nests, now the night has fallen.
In this world, SO full of heartlassness and
hypocrisy, how thrilling it is to find some
friend as faithful in days of adversely as in
days of prosperity David had such a
friend In Hushai; the Jews had such a
friend in Mordecai. who never forgot their
cause; Paul had such a friend in Onrsiph-
orus, who visited him in Jail; Christ had
such in the Marys, who adhered to Him on
the cross; Naomi had such a one in Ruth.
who cried out, '.Entreat me not to leave
thee, or to return from following after thee;
for whittier thou goest, I will go; and where
bhou lodgest l VIII lodge; thy people shah be
iiest will die. and there will / be buried;
the Lord do 50 to me and more also, il aught
but death part thee and me-"
Again, l learn from this subject that paths
open in hardship and darkness often
out in places of joy. When Ruth started
Moab toward Jerusalem. to 90 along
with her mother-in- law, 1 suppose the people
aid: ''oh, what Abolish creature to 90 away
rom her fathers house, to 90 off with a poor
I'D woman toward the land Of Judeai They
won't live 10 get across the desert. They will
drowned In the sea, or the jackals Of the
will destroy them" 1t was a
very dark morning when Ruth started off
with Naomi; but behold her In my text in
he harvest field of Boaz, to be affianced TO
me OF the lords of the land, aud become one
If the grandmothers Of Jesus Christ, the
Lord Of glory And SO 1t often is that .
path which starts very darkly ends very
1t was very hard for Noah to endure the
of the people in his day, while he
,sas trying to build the ark, and was every
corning QuiZzed about his old boat that
would never be Of any practical use. But
when the deluge came. N the tops OF the
disappeared like the backs Of sea
monsters, and the elements, dashed up in
hry, clapped their hands over q drowned
world, then Noah in the ark rejoiced In his
safety and In the safety Of his family,
md looked out on the wreck OF a ruined
Iarth-
CHRIST houpdsd Of p~srsecutors, denied a
,1low, worse maitreatsd than the thieves