The Bossier banner., 1891-10-08
THE STORY OF Ruth.
Tho Consolation We Can Draw
from It's Lessons.
1t Shows that the Darkest Paths Often
End in the Brightest PIaces-How
Character is Developed by Trouble
-Unfaltering Friendship.

Green Mountain Falls, Col, from the
following text:
And she went and came md cleaned In the
neld after the rcapers; and her hap was to
Ilght on part Of the field belonging unto
Boaz, who was of the kindred of Elimelech.
-Ruth H., ?.
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-feld, and no season can be more
enchanting in any country than the
season of harvest
The time that Ruth and Naomi ar
rive at Bethlehem is harvest-time. It
was the custom when sheaf fell from
load in the harvest-field for the reap
ers to refuse to gather it up; that was
to be left for the poor who might hap
pen to come that way. If there were
handfuls of grain scattered across the
Held after the main harvest had been
reaped, instead of raking it, as farm
crs 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-t1elds to Ruth and Noami? Naomi
is too old and feeble to go out and toll
N the sun; and can you expect that
Ruth, the young and the beautiful,
should tan her cheeks and blister her
hands in the harvest-feld.
Boaz owns 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 beautiful woman gleaning-a
woman more fit to bend to a harp or
sit upon throne than to stoop among
the sheayes. All, that was an eventful
day!
1t was love at first sight. ,Boaz forms
an attachment for the womanlv
gleaner-an attachment full of undy-
ing interest 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
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
attianced 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
even dawn so bright morning?
l learn, in the first place, from this
subject how trouble develops char
acter. 1t was bereavement, poverty
and exile that developed, illustrated
and announced to all ages the sub
Unity of Ruth's character That is a
very unfortunate man who has no
trouble. 1t was sorrow that made
John Bunyan the better dreamer, and
DIR. Young the better poet, and OCon-
nell the better orator, and Bishop Hall
the better preacher, and Havelock the
better soldier, and Kitto the better en-
cyclopedist, and Ruth the better
daughter-in-law.
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 sermons?" well"
he replied, "the reason is, our pastor
has never had any trouble. When mis-
fortune comes upon him, his STYLE will
be different" After awhile the Lord
took child out of that pastors house:
and though the preacher was lust as
brilliant as he was before, oh. the
warmth, the tenderness of his dis
courses! The fact is that trouble is a |
great educator. You see sometimes a |
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 bereavement come to
that man, and he sits down at the in
strument, and you discover the pathos
in the first sweep of the KEYS. Mis-
fortune and trials are great educators.
A young doctor comes into sick room
where there is dying child Perhaps
ne is very rough in his prescription. and
Tery rough in his manner, and rough in
'he feeling of the pulse, and rough in
lis answer to the anxious mothers
question; but the years roll on, and
A~~ AANNS DNSh OAAO NtttiO III Ills own |
house; and now he comes into the sick
Dom, and with fearful eye he looks at
he dying child, and he says: ''Oh how
his reminds me of my Charlier'
Trouble the great educator! Sorrow
see its touch in the grandest painting.
hear its tremor in the sweetest SONG.
feel its power in the mightiest argu- I
nent.
Grecian mythology said that the foun-
ain of Hippocrene was struck out bv {
he foot of the winged horse, Pegasus. {
have often noticed in life that The
and most beautiful fountains I
I Christian comfort and spiritual life !
ave been struck out by the iron-shod '
oof of disaster and calamity. 1 see {
'aniel's courage best by the flash of '
.eouchadnezzar's furnace. sre PauI's t
rowess best when l find him on the {
ship under the glare of the f
ghtning in the breakers of Melita. /
cd crowns His children amid.the howl S
lg of wild beasts and the choppinp of a
lood-splashed guillotine and the crack Q
ng fires of martyrdom. 1t took the V
of Marcus Arelius to de- S
slod Polycarp and Justin MARTYR. II v