Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1891-08-07

have an interest IN tlc ldct NhaN SiAo
was to become an ancestress OF lne Lofo
Jesus Christ, and all nations ana KING
doms must look at that one little lncl-
dent with Il thrill of unspeakable ana
eternal satisfaction. So 1t is III your
history and in mine: events that you
thought of no Importance at all nave
been of very great moment. Ihat
casual conversation, that accidental meet
ing-you did not link OF it again Tor a
long while: but how charged all the
current of Your ! fc!
1t seemed to be OF no importance that
Jubal invented rude Instruments OF
music, calling them har ano. DrHan, but
they were the introduC ton Of Ill the
worlds minstrelsy. Ard as you hear
the vibration Of striaged instrument
even after the fingers have been taken
away from it., so all music now OF lutte
aud drum and cornet is only the long
continued strains of JubafS harp and
Jnbal's organ. 1t seemed to be a matter
of very little Importance that Iubal
Cain learned the uses OF copper and iron,
but that rude foundry OF ancient days
has its echo in the rattle of Birmingham
machinery and the roar and bang OF
factories on the Mcrrimac.
Again, see in my subject an Illus
tration 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 rcapers or eating
the parched corn which Boaz banded 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 q
sickly sentimcntality on this subject.
In some families here are persons of no
practical service to household or com.
munity; and though there are so many
woes all around about them in the world
they spend their time languishing over
a new pattern or bursting into tears at
midnight over the story of some lover
who shot himself! They would not
deign to look at Ruth carrying back the
barley on her way home to her mother
in-law, Naomi.
All this faStidioCSneSS may seem to do
very we'll while they are under the shell
ter of their fathers house; but when the
sharp winter of misfortune comes, what
OF these buttertlies2 Persons under in
dulgent parentage may get upon them
selves habits of incidence; but when they
come out 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 SO awkward. things SO impolite,
They're elegantly panied from morn till night.
Through that gate of Incidence how
many men and women have marched,
useless on earth, to destroyed eternity!
Spinola said to Sir Horace We're, "Of
what did your brother die?" ''Of having
nothing to do was the answer. "Ah, :"
said Spinola. 'that's enough to kill any
general of u.s." Oh, can it be possible in
this world, where there is so much suf-
ferins to be alleviated, so much darkness
to be enlightened, and so many burdens
to be carried, that there is any person
who cannot find anything to do?
Madame de Stacl 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 man u
script books which she had written, some
one said to her, GLOW do you find time
to attend to all these things?' 'sOh," she
replied, ''these are not the things am
proud of. My chief boast is tho fact
that have seventeen trades, by any one
Of which 1 could make q livelihood if
necessary" And if in secular spheres
there is so much 10 be done, in spiritual
work how vast the fed! How many dy.
ing all around about us without one word
of comfort! We want more Abigails,
more Hannahs, more Rebeccas, more
Marys, more Deborahs consecrated-
body, mind, soul-to the Lord who
bought them
Once more learn from my subject the
vol ,,no Of ola D,,%1 Al L
harvest field might have said: s'There
is straw, and there is a straw, but what
is straw? l can't get any barley for
myself or my mother-in-law out of these
separate straws." Not so SAID the beau
tiful Ruth. She gathered two straws
and she put them together, and more
straws, until She got enough to make a
sheaf. Putting that down she went and
gathered more straws, until she had an
other sheaf, and another, and another,
and another, and then she brought them
all together, and she threshed them out,
and She had an ephah of barley, nigh a
bushel. Oh, that we might all be
cleaners!
Elihu Burritt learned many things
while toiling in q backsmith's shop
Abercrombie, the world renowned phil.
oooplACA, y" ds q puySlCldu III SCOUl1nQ,
aud he got his philosophy, or the chief
part OF it, while, as a physician, he was
waiting for the sickroom to open. Yet
how many there are in this day who say
they are SO busy they have no time for
mental or spiritual Improvement; the
great duties of life cross the field like
strong reapers and carry off all the
hours, and there is only here and there a
fragment left that is not worth cleaning.
All, Uhy friends, you could go into the
busiest day and busiest week of your life
and find golden opportunities, which
gathered might at last make whole
sheaf for the Lords garner. 1t is the
stray opportunities and the stray priv.
ileges which, taken up and bound to-
gether and beaten out, will at last fill
you with much joy.
There are a. few moments left worth
tho cleaning. Now, Ruth, to the field,
May each one have measure full and
running over! Oh, you cleaners, to the
field! And if there be in your household
an aged one or sick relation that is nu
strong enough to come forth and toll il
the field, then let Ruth take home te
feeble Naomi this sheaf of cleaning.