Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1891-08-08
REV. DIR. 9ALMAGE.
The Eminent Brooklyn Divins's Sun.
day Sermon.
Subject: "GIeaners in Life's Field"
preached at GIenwcod COLI

to refuse to gather it up: that was to be
left for the poor who might happen to
come that way. II there were haudfuIs OF
grain scattered across the field after the
main harvest had been reaped, instead OF
rakipg it, as farmers do now. IL 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 saw,
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 ths
beautiful. should tan her cheeks and blister
her hands in the harvest fields'
Boaz owns large farm, and he goes out
TO see the reapers gather in the grain. Com
ing there, right behind the swarthy. sun
Drowned reapers, he beholds beautiful wo
man gleaning-a woman more fit to bend to
harp or sit upon throne than to stoop
among the sheaves All, that was an event
full day
1t was love at first sight. Boaz forms an
attachment for the womanly gleaner-an
attachment full of undying interest to the
Church of God in all ages: while Ruth
with an epaah, or nearly bushel of bar
ley, 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 journeyed through an I'M
dying affection tor her mother-n law, is in
of the best families in Judah, and becomes
in after time the ancestress of Jesus Christ,
the Lord of Glory Out of so dark night
did there ever dawn SO bright a morning.
learn N the first place from this subject
how trouble develops character. 1t was be-
reavement, poverty and exile that dew eloped,
illustrated and announced to all ages the sub
Unity of Ruth's character. That is a very
unfortunate man who has no trouble. It
was sorrow that made John Bunyan the
better dreamer, and DR.. Young the better
poet, and OConnell the bstter orator, AMI
Bishop Hall the better preacher, and Have
lock the better soldier, and Kitto the better
encyclopedia, and Ruth the better daughter
in-iaw.
! once asked an aged man in regard to his
pastor, who was a very brilliant man: 'Why
is it that your pastor, so very brilliant,
seems to have so little tenderness in his ser-
mons% 'Well,n he replied, 1.-THE reason is
our pastor has never had 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 just as brilliant as he was
before, oh, the warmth, the tender
ness of his discourSes! The fact is
that trouble is great eiu-
Gator. You see sometimes a musician sit
down at an instrument and his execution
is cold and formal and unfeeling. The rea-
son Is that all his life he has been prospered.
But let misfortune or bereavement come to
that man, and he sits down at the instru-
ment, and you discover 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 a dying child. Perhaps he
is very rough in his prescription, and very
rough in his manner, and rough in the feel
ing of the pulse, and rough in his answer
to the mothers anxious question, hut
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, "Oh,
how this reminds me Of my Charlie~
Trouble, the great educator! Sorrow
see its touch in the grandest painting;
hear Its trenor in the sweetest song, | 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 conl-
fort and spiritual life have been struck out
by the iron shod hoof of disaster and ca
lamity. | see Daniels courage best by the
fash of Nehuchadnezzar's furnace. | see
Paurs prowess best when | find MIN on the
laundering shipunder the glare of the light
ming in the breakers of Meiita. God crowns
His children amid the bowling of wild beasts
and the chopping of blood splashed guillotine
and the cracking fires of martyrdom.
1t took all our past national distresseS,
and it takes all our present national sor-
rows, to lift up our nation on that high
career where it will march along after the
foreign despotisms that have Knocked and
the tyrannies that have ieered shall be
swept down under the omnipotent wrath
of God, who hates oppression, and who, by
the strength of His own red right arm, will
oil ind ldfI1
and in the family, and in the church. and in
the world. that through darkness and storm
ana trouble men, women, churches, nations
are deyeloned
Again, see in my text the beauty of nh.
faiterlng friendsh .. | suppose there were
plenty of friends for Naomi while She was
IN prosperity. But of all her acauaint
ances, how many were willing to trudge
Off with her toward Judea, when she had
to make that lonely journey? One-the
heroine of my text. One-absolutely ona
! suppose when Naomi's husband was liv-
ing, and they had plenty of money. and all
things went well, they had great many
callers, But suppose that after her hus-
oano died, and her property went, and she
got Old ana 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 TINS world, so full of heartlessness anil
hypocrisy, how thrilling it is to find some
friend as faithful in days of adversity as in
days of prosperity! David had such a
friend in Hushai: the Jews had such
friend in Mordecai, who never forgot their
cause Paul had such 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 one in Ruth.
who cried out "Entreat me not to leave
thee, or to return from following after thee
Tor whittier thou goest, will go: and where
thou lodgest will lodge; thy people shall be
my people, and thy God my God; where thou
dlest will die, and there will | be buried
the Lord do so to me and more also. if augbt
but death part thee and me-
Again, | learn from this subject that paths
which open i'll hardship and darkness often
come out in places of joy. When Ruth started
from Moab toward Jerusalem, to go along
with her mother-iu law. | suppose the people
said: oh, what Abolish creature to go away
from her fathers hor Sc, to go off with poor
Old woman toward the land of Judeal They
won't live to get across the desert. They will
be drowned in the sea, or the jackals of the
wilderness will destroy them" 1t was
very dark morning when Ruth started off
with Naomi; but behold her in nv text in
the harvest field of Boaz, to be affisnced to
one of the lords of the land, and become one
of the grandmothers of Jesus Christ, the
Lord of glory. And so it often is that a
path which starts very darby ends very
brightly
It was very hard FOR Noah to endure the
scofffng of the people in his day, while he
was trying to build the ark, and was every
morning quizzed about his old boat that
would never be of any practical use But
when the deluge came, aud the tops OF the
mountains disappeared like the backs of sea
monsters, and the elements. dashed up in
fury. clapped their hands over a drowned
world, then Noah in the ark re1oiced in his
own safety and in the safety of his family,
and looked out on the wreck of ruined
earth.
Christ, bounded OF prosecutors, denied a
pillow, worse maltreatei than the thieves
on either side of the cross, human hate
smaclking its lips in satisfaction after it bad
been draining His last drop of blood, the
sheeted deal bursting from the sepulchers
at His crucifxion. Tell me, o Gethssmane
and Golgothal were there ever darker times
than those? Like the booming of the mid
night sea against tie rock, the surges of
Christ's anguish beat against the gates OF
eternity, to be echoed back by all the thrones
OF heaven and all the dungeons of hell.
But the day Of reward comes from Christ:
all the pomp and dominion of this world are
TO be hung on His throne, uncrowned heads
are TO bow before Him on whose head there
are many crowns. and all the Celestial wor-
ship is TO come up at His feet like the hum
ming OF the forest like the rushing OF the
waters, like the laundering of the seas,
while all heaven, rising on their thrones,
beat time with their scepters: ''Hallalujah,
for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth."
Again, learn from my subject that events
which seen to be most Insignificant may be
a-s.,N- TtlTa1