The Brookhaven leader. [volume] (Brookhaven, Miss.) 1883-1891, 1891-08-13

cant may be momentous- Can you
imagine anything more unimportant
than the coming of poor woman from
Moab to Judea2 Can you imagine any
thing more trivial than the fact that this
Ruth Just happened TO alight-as they
say Just happened to alight on that
field of Boaz2 Yet all ages, all genera
tons, have an interest in the fact
that she was TO become an
nncestress of the Lord Jesus Christ,
and all nations and kingdoms must
look at that one little incident with a
thrill of unspeakable and eternal salts
faction. So it is in your history and in
mine; events that you thought of no
Importance at all have been of verr
| great moment. That casual converse
ton, that accidental mcetipg-you did
not think of it for a long while; but
how it changed all the current of your
life.
| 1t seemed to be of no Importance that
Jubal invented rude instruments in mu-
sic, calling them harp and organ, but
they were the introduction of all the
worlds minstrelsy; and as you hear the
vibration of a stringed instrument, even
after the fingers have been taken away
from it, so all music nov of Lutte and
drum and coraet is only the long-con.
tinued strains of Jubal's harp and Ju,
balls organ. 1t seemed to be a matter
of very little Importance that Tubal
Cain learned the uses of copper and
iron, but that rude foundry of ancient
! days has its echo in the rattle of Bir-
mingham machinery, and the roar and
bang of factories on the Merrimac.
Again, see in my subject an illustra-
ton of the beauty of female industry.
Behold Ruth toiling in the harvest field
under the hot sun, or at noon taking
plain bread with the reapers, or eating
the parched corn which Boaz handed to
her. The customs of society, of course,
have changed, and without the hard
ships and exposure to which Ruth was
subjected, every intelligent woman will
find something to do. / know there is a
sickly sentimentality on this subject.
In some families there are persons OF
no practical service to the household
or community, and although there
are SO many woes all around about
them in the world, they spend their
time languishing over a new pattern,
e, or bursting int, tears at midnight over
the story of some lover who shot him
self. They would not deign to look at
Ruth carrying back the barley on her
way home to her mother-in law, Ma
omi. All this fastidiousness may seem
to do very we'll while they are under
the shelter of their fathers house; but
when the sharp winter of misfortune
comes, what of these butterflies? Per-
sons under indulgent parentage may
get upon themselves habits of indul-
gence; but when they come ont into
practical life their soul will recoil with
disgust and chagrin. They will feel in
their hearts what the poet so severely
Satirized when he said:
| Folks are 40 awkward things so impolte,
| They're elegantly panied from morn till
might.
Through that gate of Incidence how
many men and women have marched,
useless on earth to a destroyed eter-
nifty. Spinola said to Sir Horace We're:
"Of what did your brother die?' ''Of
having nothing to do" was the an
swer. 'Ah" said Spinola, that's
enough to kill any general of u.s." Oh!
can it he possible in this world, where
| there is SO much suffering to he alle-
| waited, SO much darkness to be enlight-
ened, and so many burdens to be light
ened, that there is any person who can
not find anything to do?
Nine. de Stael did a world of work in
her time; and one day, while she was
seated amid Instruments of music, all
of which she had mastered, and amid
manuscript books which she had writ
ten, some one said to her: ''IIow do you
find time to attend to all these things?"
ooh" she replied, ''these are not the
things am proud of. My chief boast
is in the fact that ! have seventeen
trades, by any of which could make
! livelihood if necessary" And If in
secular spheres there is so much to bs
done in spiritual work, how vast the
field! How many dying all around
about us without one word of comfort!
We want more Abigails, more Hannahs,
more Rebeccas, more Marys, more De.
borahs consecrated-body, mind, soul
to the Lord who bought them.
Once more l learn from my subject
the value of cleaning. Ruth going into
that harvest field might have said:
There is a straw, and there is straw;
but what is a straw? / can't get any
barley for myself or my mother-in-law
out of these separate straws." Not so
said beautiful Ruth. She gathered two
straws, and she put them together, and
more straws, until she got enough to
make sheaf Putting that down, she
went and ga.hercd more straws, until
she had another sheaf, and another and
another and another, and then she
brought them all together, and she
threshed them out, and she had an
ephan of barley, nigh bushel. Oh,
that we might all be cleaners.
Elihu Burritt learned many things
while toiling in a blacksmith's shop.
Abercrombie, the world-renowed phi
losopher was physician in Scotland,
and he got his philosophy, or the chief
part of it, while, as a physician, he was
waiting for the door of the sick room
to open. Yet how many there are in
this day who say they are so busy they
have no time for mental or spiritual inn
provement; the great duties of life
cross the field like strong reapers
and carry off all the hours
and there is only here and there frag.
ment left, that is not worth cleaning.
All, my friends, you could go into the
busiest day of the busiest week of youb
I L