The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1891-08-14
TALNAGE'S SERMON.
The Story of Ruth and It's Com
forting Lesson.
HOw Character 40 Developed by Trouble
and the Darkest Paths often End
An Bright PIaces-The value
OF Cleaning.

the following sermon at Green Noun
tain Falls, Col, taking for his text;
And she went and came and cleaned In the
held after the reapers; and her hap was 90
light on a part OF the field belonging unto
Boaz, who was OF the kindred OF Elimelech.
Ruth IT,. 4.
Within n 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-field, and no season can be
enchanting in any country than the
season Of harvest.
The time that Ruth and Naomi ar
rive at Bethlehem is harvest-time. IL
was the custom when a sheaf fell from
a load in the harvest-fcld for the reap
ers to refuse to gather it up; that was
10 be left for the poor who might hap
pen TO come that way. IL there were
handfuls Of grain scattered across the
field after the main harvest had been
reaPed, instead of raking il, as farm
erS 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-fields to Ruth and Noami2 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 checks and blister her
hands in the harvest-feld."
Boaz owns a large farm, and he goes
out To- see the reapers gather in the
grain. Coming there. right behind the
swarthy, sunbrowned reapers, he be-
holds a beautiful woman g~leaning-a
woman mote fit to bend to a harp or
sit upon a throne than to stoop among
the sheaves. All, that was an eventful
dayi
1t was love at lrst sight. Boaz forms
IN attachment for the womanly
glcaner-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 %iourncyed through an
undying affection for her mother-in-
law, is in the harvcst-field of Boaz, is
nfianced to one Of the best families in
Judah, and becomes in after-time the
snceStress of Jesus Christ the Lord of
glory! Out of SO dark a night did there
even dawn SO bright a morning2
] learn, in the first place, from this
subject how trouble develops char
aeter. IL was bereavement poverty
and exile hat developed. illustrated
and announced to all ages the sub
Unity of Ruth's character. That is a
very unfortunate man who has no
trouble. IL was sorrow hal made
John Bunyan the better dreamer. and
DR.. Young the better poet, and O'Con-
nell the better orator, and Bishop Hall
the better preacher, and Havelock the
better soldier, and Kitto the better en-
cyclopcdist, and Ruth the better
daughter-in-law.
I once asked an aged man in regard
to his pastor, who was a very brilliant
man: ''yVhy is it hat your pastor, so
Very brilliant, seems to have so little
tenderness i'm his sermons?' 'Well,"
he replied, 'thc reason is, our pastor
has never had any trouble. When mis-
fortune zones upon him, his style viii
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
courscsl The fact is that trouble is a
great educator. You see sometimes a
musician sit down Mt an instrument,
and his execution is cold aud formal
and ~unfeeling. The reason is that all
IL it, H. hnn hon- w-~rw~am~I "a
let misfortune or bereavement come to
Tint man, and he sits down at the in
Etrumcnt, and you discover the pathos
in the first sweep of the keys. Mis-
fortune and trials are great educators
a young doctor comes into a sick room
where there is n dying child. Perhaps
he is very rough in his prescription, and
very rough i'm 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 lead 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 CharlieI'
Trouble the great educatorl Sorrow
j see its touch in the ~grandest painting;
1 hear its tremor in the sweetest song;
i feel its power in the mightiest argu-
ment
Grecian mythology said that the foun-
tain of Hippocrene 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. / see
Daniels courage best by the fash of
Nebuchadnezzar's furnace. / see Paul's
prowess best when 1 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
blo~od-splashed guillotine and the crack
ling fires OF m~artyrdOm- 1t took the
prosecutions of Marcus Arelius to de-
velod Polycarp and Justin Martyr. II
took the pope's bull and the cardinals
curse, and the worlds anathema to de-
velop Martin Luther. IL 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. 1t
took the stormy sea, and the December
blast, and the desolate New England
coast. and the war-whoop of savages
70 show forth the proves Of the Pill
grim fathers
when amid the storms they sang, &