The Brookhaven leader. [volume] (Brookhaven, Miss.) 1883-1891, 1891-08-13
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
The Story of Ruth and It's Com
forting Lesson.
dow Character is Developed by Trouble
and the Darkest Paths Often End
In Bright Pisces-Tbs Value
of Cleaning.

Ana she went ana came ana gleaned IN the
field after the respers; and her hap was to
light on a part OF the field belonging unto
Buaz, who was of the kindred of Elimelech.
Ruth H., 3.
Within few weeks / have been in
North Carolina, Virginia, Pennsyl-
vania, New York, Ohio, Michigan,
Canada, Indiana, Illinois, Kentucky,
Missouri, and they are one great har-
vest-feld, and no season can be more
enchanting in any country than the
season of harvest
The time that Ruth and Naomi ar
rive at Bethlehem is harvest-time. 1t
was the custom when a sheaf fell from
load in the harvest-field for the reap
ers to refuse to gather it up; that was
to be left for the poor who might hap
pen to come that way. If there were
handfuls of grain scattered across the
field after the main harvest had been
reapcd, instead of ralSing it, as farm
eTS 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 har-
vest-felds to Ruth and Noami? 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 n large farm, and he goes
ont TO see the reapers gather in the
grain. Coming there, right behind the
swarthy, sunbrowned rcapers, he be-
holds beautiful woman gleaning-a
woman more fit to bend to harp or
sit upon a throne than to stoop among
the sheaves. All, that was an cventful
day!
1t was love at first sight. Boaz forms
an attachment for the womanly
gleancr-an attachment full of indy
ing 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 land of Moab in
darkness, and iourneyed through an
undying affection for her mother-in-
law, is in the harvest-feld of Boaz, is
aflianccd to one of the best families in
Judah, and becomes in after-time the
anccstrcss of Jesus Christ, the Lord of
glory. Out of so dark night did there
even dawn SO bright morning?
learn, in the first place, from this
subject how trouble develops char
actcr. 1t was bereavement, poverty
and exile that developed, illustrated
and announced to all ages the sub
Unity of Ruth'S character That is a
very unfortunate man who has no
trouble. 1t was sorrow that made
John Bunyan the better dreamer, and
Di. Young the better poet, and O'Con-
nell the better orator, and Bishop Had
the better preacher, and Havelock the
better soldier, and Kitto the better en-
cyclopedist, and Ruth the better
daughter-inlaw.
| once asked an aged man in regard
to his pastor who was a very brilliant
man: ''Why is it that your pastor, SO
Tery brilliant, seems to have so little
tenderness in his sermons?" WELL"
he replied tho reason is, our pastor
has never had any trouble. When mis-
fortune comes upon him, his style will
be different" After awhile the Lord
took a 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 dis
courses, The fact is that trouble is a
great educator. You see sometimes a
musician sit down at an instrument,
and his execution is cold and formal
and unfecling. 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 the in
strument, and you discover the pathos
in the first sweep of the keys. Mis-
fortune and trials are great educators.
A young doctor comes into sick room
where there is dying child. Perhaps
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 anxious mothers
question; but the 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: ooh how
this reminds me of my Charlie!"
Trouble the great educator! Sorrow
see its touch in the grandest painting;
hear it's tremor in the sweetest song;
feel it's power in the mightiest argu-
ment.
Grccian mythology said that the foun-
tain of llippocrene 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. l see
Daniels courage best by the flash of
Nebuchadnezzar' furnace. see Paul's
ppowess 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 howl
ing of wild beasts and the chopping of
blood-splashed guillotine and the crack
ling fires of martyrdom. 1t took the
prosecutions of Marcus Arelius to de-
velod Polycarp and Justin Martyr. 1t
took the pope's bull and the cardinals
curse, and the worlds anathema to de-
velop Martin Luther. 1t took all the
hostilities against the Scotch Covenan-
tiers and the fury of Lord Claverhouse
to develop James Renwick, and An
drew Melville, and Hugh McKail, the
glorious martys of Scotch history. II
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 Pill