The Maryville times. (Maryville, Tenn.) 1884-1944, 1891-08-19
THE HARVEST.
Ruth Leaving Her Home In Moab
In the Darkness
To Become the WOmanly Cleaner and q
SaviOur's Ancestress-SermOn by
Rev. T. Dewitt Tai
mage, ID. ID.

DR.. Talmage preached in Green
| Mountain Falls, Col, Sunday. His
| text is taken from Ruth IL, 8: "And
she went and came and CLEANED in the
field after the reapers; and her hap was
to light ON apart of the field belonging
unto Boaz, who was of the kindred OF
Elimelech.
Within few weeks I have been
in North Carolina, Virginia, Pepnsyl-
vania, New York. Ohio, Michigan, Can
ada, Indiana, Illinois, Kentucky, Mis-
souri, and they are one great harvest
field, and no season can be more en-
chanting in any country than the season
of harvest.
The time that Ruth and Naomi arrive
at Bethlehem is harvest time. 1t was
the custom when sheaf fell from
load in the harvest field for the reapers
to refuse to gather it up; that was to be
left for the poor who might happen to
come that way. If there were hand
fuls 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 it's 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 60 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 large farm, and he goes
out to see the reapers gather in the
grain. Coming there, right behind the
swarthy, sun Drowned reapers, he be-
holds beautiful woman gleaning-a
woman more fit to bend to harp or
sit upon throne than to stoop among
the sheaves. All, that was an eventful
day. -e
It was love at first sight. Boaz forms
an attachment for the womanly CLEAN
er-an attachment full of undying in
terest 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
journeyed through an undying affection
for her mother in-law, is in the harvest
field of Boaz, is atfianced to one 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 morning?
learn in the first place, from this
subject how trouble develops character
1t was bereavement, poverty and exile
that developed, illustrated and an
nounced to all ages the sublimity OF
Ruths character. That is a very unfor-
tunate man who has no trouble. 1t was
sorrow that made John Bunyan the
better dreamer, and Doctor Young the
better poet, and O'Connell the better
orator, and Bishop Hall the better
preacher, and Havelock the better sol
dier, and Kitto the better encycloped-
list, and Ruth the better daughter-in-
law.
once asked an aged man in regard
TO his pastor, who was very brilliant
man: s ,ss.s,..
"Why is that your pastor, SO very
brilliant, seems to have so little tender
ness 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 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 ten.
derness 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 be-
reavement come to that man, and he
sits down at the instrument, and you
discover the pathos in the first sweep
of the keys. Misfortune and trials are
great educators.
young doctor comes into sick
room where there is dying child. Per
haps he is very rough in his prescrip
ton, and very rough in his manner, and
rough in the feeling of the pulse, and
rough in his answer to the mothers
anxious question; but the years roll on
and there has been one dead in his owr
house; and now he comes into the sick
room, and with fearful eye he looks a
the dying child, and he says, ''Oh, how
this reminds me of my Charlie!" Trou
BILE, the great educator! Sorrow Sc,
its touch in the grandest painting;
hear its tremor in the sweetest song
I feel its power in the mighticst argu
ment.
Grecian mythology said that thu
fountain of Hippocrene was struck on
by the foot of the winged horse
Pegasus. have often noticed in lif,
that the brightest and most beautiful
fountains of Christian comfort anC
spiritual life have been struck out b,
the iron-shod hoof of disaster an,
calamity.
l see Daniels courage best by tn,
flash of Northumberland furnace.
see Paurs prowess best when fin.
him on the laundering ship under the
glare of the lightning in the breaker
of Melita. God crowns his children
amid the bowling of wild beasts an
the chopping of blood-splashed guillo
tine and the cracking fires of martyr
dom. 1t took the prosecutions of Mar
Gus Aurelius to develop Polycarp an
Justin Martyr. 1t took the pope's bull
and the cardinals curse. and tn
worlds anathema to develop Martil