The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1891-08-12
SERMON IN TIE WEST.
TALMAeE DlscOURsEs FROMA CHAP
TERM RUTH.

TER IN RUTH.
Sorrow and Suffering Developes Charac-
ter-Unfaul:erin. Fri. ndship Glorious
-Virtue-The Beauty of Female Industry.
GREEN MOUNTAIN FALLS, Col,
Aug. 2.-Dr Talmage preached here TO-
day TO an immense audience. His West
ern tour has been one continued ovation.
Never before has he been so enthusiast
cally received Or have the people come
10 hear him in such vast numbers. He
arrived here from Pueblo, which city be
left on Wednesday last in car provi l..
ed by the railroad company exclusively
for the use oi DR.. Talmage and his Sec
retary. In this car he will visit cities
IN Colorado, Minnesota, Wisconsin,
Kansas and Utah. 1t Is side-tracked at
places where DR.. Talnage has arranged
to stay to preach or 10 lecture. His
sermon re3olent with the breath of the
great harvest field otthe West. indicates
that the popular preache: has read in
his surrounding suggestions OF Gospel
lessons. His text is taken from Ruth
ii; 3: And she went and came and
CLEANED in the field after the reapers;
and her hap was TO light on Il part Of
the field belonging uuto Boaz who was
Of the kindred OF Elmelech."
Withia few weeks | have been in
North Carolina, Virginia, Pennsy Ivan
ia, New York, Ohio, Michigan, Canada.
Indiana, Illinois, Kentucky, Missouri.
and they are one great harvest field, and
no season can be more enchanting in any
county than the season Of harvest.
The time that Ruth and Naomi arrive
at Bethlehem is harvest time. 1t was
the custom when a asheaf fell from load
in the harvest field for the reapers to re-
1use TO gather it up; that was 10 be left
ior the loor who might happen to come
that way. If there were handfuls Of
grain scattered across the field after the
main harvest bad been reaped, instead
Of raking it, as farmers 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 harvest fields 10 Ruth an''
Naomi? Naomi is 100 old and feeble TO
60 out and toll in the sun; and can YOU
expect that Ruth, the young and the
beautiful, should tan her cheeks and
blister her hands il the harvest feld?n
BcaZ owns large tarnl, and he goes
out 10 see the reapers gather in the
grain. Coming there, right behind the
swarthy, sun-browned reapers, he be-
holds beautiful woman gleaning-a
woman more fit 10 bend TO harp or sit
upon throne than to stoop among the
sheaves. All, that was an eventful day!
1t was love at first sight. Boax forms
an attachment tor the womanly cleaner
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 in darkness, an6 journeyed
through an undying affection for her
mo,her-in-law, is iu the harvest-6eld of
Boaz, is afhanced to one of the best fam
lilies in Judah, and becomes in after-time
the ancestress of Jesus Christ the Lord
of glory! Out of so dark a night did
there ever dawn so bright morning.
learn, in the hrst place, from this
subject how trouble developes charac-
ter. 1t was bereavement, poverty and
exile that developed. illustrated and an
nounced to all ages the sublimity OF
Ruth's character. That is a very un-
fortunate man who has no trouble. 1t
was sorrow that made John Bunyan the
better dreamer, and Doctor Young the
better poet, and O'Connell the better
orator, and Bishop Hall the better
preacher, and Havelock the better SOL
der, and Kitto the better eI cyclopedist,
and Ruth the etter daughter-:n-law.
once asked an aged man in regard to
his pastor, who was very brilliant
mai: why is it that your pastor, so
very brilliant, seems to have so little
tenderness in bis sermuns?" WELL" he
replied, 1.-THE reason is, our pastor has
never had any uouble. When missor-
tune comes upon him. his style will be
different" After awhile the Lord took
a child out of that PASTORS house; and
though the preacher was just as bril-
liant as he was before, oh, the warmth,
the tenderness OF bis discourses! The
TACT is that trouble is a great educator.
You see sometimes musician sit down
at an instrument, and his execution is
cold and formal and un ceiling. The
reason is that all his life he has been
prospered. But let misfortune or be-
reavement come 10 that man, and he
sits down at the instrument. and YOU
discover the pathos in the first sweep OF
the keys. Misfortune and trials are
great educators. A young doctor comes
lnto a sick room where there is dying
chil3. Perhaps he is very rough III his
prescription, and very rough in his mall
uer, and rough in the feeling Gt the
pulse, and rough in his answer to the
mothers anxious question; but the
years roll on. and there has been one
dead in his own house; and now ne comes
into the sick room. and with fearful eye
he looks at tie dying child, and he says:
.'Oh, how this reminds me Of my Char
liev' Trouble, the great educator!
Sorrow see its torch in the grandest
painting; hear It's tremor in the sweet
est song; feel its power in the might
est argument.
Grecian mythology said that the toun-
tain OF Hippocrene was struck out BY
the foot of the winged horse, Pegasus.
/ have often noticed in lie that TIE
brightest and most beautiful fountains
OF Christian contolt and spiritual life
have been struck cut by the iron-shod
hoof of disaster ano calamity. l see
Daniels courage test by the flash Of
Nebuchadnezzar' furnace. lsee PUBS
prowess best when I find him on the
laundering ship under the glare OF the
lightning N the breakers OF No tia. God