The Forrest City times., 1891-08-07
THE STORY OF RUTH.
TOLD IN THE WESTERN HAIR.
 VEST FIELDS.
Dr.. Talmage Breaches I'm GlenwoOd, Col. to Large Congreg ation- OratOrical Thunder Resounds Through the Valley.

cCl lhCh iSeiOlCAb Wlll but DTcdUn OI Ln6 vast harvest-tields of the West indicates that Dr. Talmage has found in the seenes through which he has been travelling and in his present surround ings, suggestions of Gospel lessons His text is taken from Ruth 2:3: And she went and came and gleaned in the field after the reapers: and her hap was to light on part of the field belonging unto Boaz who was of the kindred of Elimelch."
 Within few weeks I have been in North Carolina, Virginia, Pennsyl- vania, New York, Ohio, Michigan, Canada, Indiana, Illinois, Kentucky, Missouri. and they are one great har- vest-ield, and nc season can be moro enchanting in any country than the season of harvest.
 The time that Ruth and Naomi ar rive at Bethlehem is harvest time.
 Boaz owns a large farm, and he goes cut to see the reapers gather in the grain. Coming there, right behind the swarthy, sun-browned reapers 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. An, that was an eventful day!
 It was love at first sight. Boaz forms an attachment for the womanly gleaner an attachment full of undying inter- est 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 ad- ventures of the day. That Ruth, who left her native land of Moab in dark ness, and journeyed through an undy ing affection for her mother in-law, is in the harvest-tield of Boaz, is affianced to one of the best families In Judah, and becomes In after-time the ancest- ress of Jesus Christ, the Lord of gloryl Out of so dark a night did there even dawn so bright a morning?
 1 learn in the first place, from this subject how trouble develops charac- ter. It was bereavement, poverty and exile that developed, illustrated and announced to all ages the sublimity of kuths character. That is very un- fortunate man who has no trouble It 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 sol dier,- and Kitte the better encyclope- dist, and Ruth the better daughter-in- law.
 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 fountains of Christian comfort and spiritual life have been struck out by the iron-shod hoof of disaster and calamity
 Again, l see in my text the beauty of unfaltering friendship. 1 suppose there were plenty of friends for Naomi while she was in prosperity; but of all her acquaintances- 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 one. l suppose when Naomi's husband was living, and they had plenty of money, and all things went well, they had a great many callers; but suppose that after her husband died, 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 bowe~ while the sun shone have gone to their nests, now the night has fallen.
 Life often seems to be a mere game where the successful player pulls down all the other men into his own lap. Let suspicious arise about a man S character, and he becomes like bank in a panic, and all the imputation. rush on him and break town in z day that character which in due time would have had strength to defend it. self. There are regulations that have been half century in building, which go down under some moral exposure, as vast temple is consumed by the touch of a sulphurous match. hog can uproot a century plant.
 Again, learn from this subject that paths which open in hardship and dark ness often come out in places of joy. When Ruth started from Moab toward Jerusalem, to go along with her mother-in-la law, l suppose the people said: "Oh, what a foolish creature, to go away from her fathers house, to go off with poor old woman toward the land of Judea, 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" It was a very dark morning when Ruth started off with Naomi; but behold her in my text in the harvest-tield of Boaz. to be affianced to one of the lords of the land, and be- come one of the grandmothers of Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory. And so it often is that path which starts very darkly ends very brightly.
 When you started out for heaven. oh, how dark was the hour of conviction how.Sinai .thundered, and devils tor mented, and the darkness thickened. All the sins of your life bounced upon you, and it was the darkest hour you ever saw when you first found out your sins. After awhile you went into the harvest-field of Gods mercy; you began to glean in the fields of divine promise, and you had more sheaves than you could carry, as the volcc of God addressed you, say , ing: "Blessed is the man whose trans- gressions are forgiven and whose sins are covered" A very dark starting in conviction, 2 very bright ending in the pardon and the hope and the triumph of the Gospel!
 It was very hard for Noah to endure the scoffling 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, and the tops of the mountains disappeared like the backs of sea-mon- sters, and the clements, lashed up in fury, clapped their hands over a drowned world, then Noah in the ark rejoiced in his own safety and in the safety of his family, and looked cut on the wreck of ruined earth.
 Christ. bounded of prosecutors, de- nied a pillow, worse maltreated than