The Red Cloud chief., 1891-08-14
LESSONS FROM RUTH.
d.. Taimage Discourses on thu
value OF Misfortunea
trouble ~ . Developer Of Maa's Nature.
Blessings of Frisadship Dari.SAav,r.
sity-The saviour's Experiences
cleaning For the Harvest.

Rev. 7. Dewitt Talmaee. during If.
western rfiT-fccehtiy preached at
Glenwood Springs, Col, to an immense
audience. His text was from Ruth ii. 3:
. she went and came and CLEANED
40 field after the reapers; and her
hap Vas to light o a part of the field
belonging unto Boaz who was of the
kindred of Elimelech." The preacher
said:
Within a few weeks I have been In
North Carolina, Virginia, Pennsylvania,
New York, Ohio, Michigan, Canada,
Indiana, Illinois, Kentucky. Missouri,
and they are m great harvest field,
and no season can be more enchanting
in any country than the season of har-
vest
The time that Ruth and Naomi ar.
rived at Bethlehem is harvest time. It
was the custom when a shcaf fell from
a load in the field for the reapcrs to re-
fuse to gather it up; that was to be left
for the poor who might come hat way.
If there were handfuls of grain scat
tered across the field after the main
harvest had been reaped, instead Of
raking il, as farmers do now, il 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 harvest fields to Ruth and
Naomi? Naomi is too old and feeble to
go out and toll in the sun: and can you
expect that Ruth, the young and beau
tiful, should tan her checks and blister
her hands in the harvest fieldT" BoaZ
owns a large farm, and he goes out TO
see the reapers gather in the grain.
Coming there, right behind the swartby,
sun-browned reapers, he beholds a
beautiful m gleaning-a woman
more fit To bend To n harp or sit upon a
throne than TO stOop among the sheaves.
All, that was an cventful day! 1t wa
love at first sight Boaz forms an at
tachment for the womanly ~gleaner-an
attachment full of undying 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 i'm darkness, and
%journeyed through an undying affection
for her mother-in-law, is in the harvest
field of Boaz. is aflianced TO m of the
best families in Judah, and becomes in
aftertime the ancestrcss Of Jesus Christ,
the Lord Of glory! Out of SO dark a
night did there ever dawn so bright a
morning?
learn. in the first place, from this
subject how tror BILE develops char
acter. II was bereavement poverty
and exile that developed, illus
trated and announced to all ages the
sublimity of Ruth's character. That is
a very unfortunate man who has nc
trouble. IL was sorrow hat made
John I!unyan the better dreamer, and
DIR. 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-
cyclopedist, and Ruth the better daugh-
ter-in-iaw.
once asked an aged man in regard
TO his pastor, who was a very brilliant
man: 'Why is il 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 a while the Lord
took a child Of that pastors house, and
though the preacher was just as bril-
liant as he was before, o, the warmth,
the tenderness of discourses! The fac,
is that trouble is a great educator. You
see sometimes a musician sit down a,
an instrument, and his execution is cold
and formal and unfeeling. The reason
is that all his life he has been prosper
Gus. But let misfortune or bercavc'
ment come to that man, and he sits
down at the instrument, and you dis.
cover the pathos in the first sweep OF
the keys Misfortune and trials are
great educators.
A young doctor ONES into a sick
where there is a dying child.
Perha"s he is very rough in his pre-.
scription, and very rough in his man.
ner, and rough in the feeling of the
pulse, and rough in his answer to the
mothers anxious question:; but the
years roll IN, and there has been one
dead in his w house; an. now he
comes into the sick room, and with
fearful eye he looks at the dying child,
and he says: 80. how this remindd
of my Charlie." Trouble, the 2
educator! Sorrow see its touc
the grandest painting; I hear its tire
in the sweetest song; l feel its DO
in the mightiest argument Gree
mythology said hat the fountain
~Hippocrene was struck out by the
OF the winged horse, Pegasus. 1 h
often noticed in life that the brigh}
and most beautiful fountains of Oh
tian comfort and spiritual life hi
been struck ont by the iron shod h
of disaster and calamity.
see Daniels courage best by
flash of Nebuchadnezzar's furnace
see faurs prowess best when l
him on the foundering ship under
glare of the lightning in the break
of Melita. God crowns His child
amid the bowling of wild beasts
the chopping of blood splashed gu
tine and the cracking fires of mar
dom.
1t took the prosecutions of Mar
Aurelius to develop Polycarp and JuJ
Martyr. II took the pope's bull
the cardinals curse and the woy
anathema to develop Martin Luther
took all the hostilities against
Scotch C~ovenanters and the fury
LORI Claverhonse to develop Jan
kenwick and Andrew Melville :
Hull Nc Kali, the glorious martyrs
scotch history. 1t took the stormy
and the December blast and the de
ate New England coast and the W
ships of savages to show forth
prowess of the pilgrim fathers
when amid the storms they sang.
And tie stars heard, and the sea.
Ana the sounding aisles Of the dim m
Rang 10 the anthennS of H.