Democratic Northwest. [volume] (Napoleon, Ohio) 1869-1894, 1891-08-13
WE ARE ALL CLEANERS.
DR.. TALMAeE's SERMON ON THE
MEETING OF eoAz AND RUTH.

discourse Especially Appropriate 20 the
Season Of the Harvest Time-It Includes
an EIhortAtIon to All Regarding the
Duty of Life.
GLENwoob, Colo, Aug. "A sermon,
redolent with the breath of the vast har-
vest fields OF the west, indicates that DR.
Talmage has found in the scenes through
which he has been travelling and In his
present surroundings, suggestions Of Cos
pei lessons His text is taken from Ruth
IL, 3; And she went and came and CLEANED
in the field after the reapers; and her hap
was to light on'a part of the field belong
ing unto Boaz who was Of the kindred of
Elimelech."
Within a few weeks have been in North
Carolina, Virginia, Pennsylvania 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 country than
the season Of harvest.
The time that Ruth and Naomi arrive
at Bethlehem is harvest time. It was the
old custom when a sheaf fell from a
load in the harvest field for the reapers
! to refuse to gather it up; that was to be
left for the poor who might happen to
come that way. II there were handfuls of
grain scattered across the field after the
main harvest had been reaped, instead of
raking it, as farmers do now, it was, by
the custom of the land, left in it's 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 Naomii Naomi
is too old and feeble to go out and toll in
he onN = hak Dt,kl,
the young and the beautiful, should tan
her cheeks and blister her hands in the
harvest field~
Boaz owns large farm, and he goes out
to see the reapers gather in the grain.
Coming there, right behind the swarthy,
sun Drowned reapers, he beholds beauti-
full woman gleaning-a woman more fit to
bend to a harp or sit upon a throne than to
stoop among the sheaves. Ah that was
an eventful dayI
LOVE AT FIRST SIGHT.
1t was love at first sight. Boaz forms an
attachment 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 bushel of bar
ley, 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 un-
dying affection for her mother-in-law, is in
the harvest field Of Boaz, is affianced to
one of the best families in Judah, and be-
comes in after time the ancestress Of Jesus
Christ, the Lord Of Glory Out of so dark
q night did there ever dawn SO bright a
rnorhingH
learn IL the first place from this sub
ject how trouble develops character. It
was bereavement, poverty and exile that
developed, illustrated and announced to
all ages the sublimity of Ruth's character.
That is very unfortunate man who has
no trouble. 1t was sorrow that made John
Bunyan the better dreamer, and DR.. Young
the better poet, and O'Connell the better
orator, and Bishop Hall the better preach
er, and Havelock the better soldier, and
Kitto the better encyclopaedia, and Ruth
the better daughter-in-law.
THE VALUE OF TROUBLE.
once asked an aged man in regard to
his pastor, who was very brilliant man,
"Why is it that your pastor, so very bril-
liant, seems to have so little tenderness in
his sermonsS" WELL" he replied, "the
reason is our pastor has never had any
trouble. When misfortune 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 brilliant as he was before, oh, the
warmth, the tenderness of his discourses
The fact is that trouble is great edu-
Gator. You see sometimes a musician sit
down at an instrument, and his execution
Is cold and formal and unfeeling The
reason is that all his life he has been pros.
pered. But let misfortune or bereavement
come to 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 into a sickroom
where there is dying child. Perhaps he
is very rough in his prescription, and very
rough in his manner, and rough in the
feeling of the pulse, and rough in his an
swer to the mothers anxious question, but
the years roll on and there has been one
dead in his own house. and now he come:
into the sickroom, and with fearful eye ht
looks at the dying child and he says, "Oh
how this reminds me of my Charlier
Trouble, the great educatorl Sorrow
see it's touch in the grandest painting;
hear its tremor'in the sweetest song; fee
its power in the mightiest argument.
Grecian mythology said that the foun
tain of Hippocrene was struck out by thu
foot of the winged horse, Pegasus. hav'
often noticed in life that the brightest ant
most beautiful fountains of Christian com
fort and spiritual life have been struck ou
by the iron shod hoof of disaster and ca
lamity. see Daniels courage best by tn
flash of ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS furnace. I se
Paul's prowess best when l find him or
the foundering ship under the glare of TIN
lightning in the breakers of Melita. Coz
crowns his children amid the bowling o
wild beasts and the chopping of bloot
splashed guillotine and the cracking fire
of martyrdom
II took the prosecutions of Marcus Azure
Illus to develop Polycarp and Justin Mar
tyr. 1t took the pope's bull, and the cardi
nails curse, and the worlds anathema t
develop Martin Luther. 1t took all tn
hostilities against the Scotch Covenanter
and the fury Of Lord Claverhouse to de
velop James Renwick, and Andrew Me
vile, and Hugh McKail, the glorious mai
tyrs of Scotch history. It took the storm
sea, and the December blast, and the desc
late New England coast, and the wal
whoop of savages to show forth the proves
of the Pilgrim fathers
When amid the storms they sang,
And the stars heard, and the sea;
And the sounding aisles of the dim wood
Doner IN fhaa thapnc nf hat fraa