Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1893-06-17
REV. DR.. 7ALMAGH.
The Eminent Brooklyn Divine's Sun.
day Sermon.
Subject. 9Th. rhr..hinx Machine.

W.R mrdshfng instrument neither is q cart
,oaeel turned about upon the curnrain, but The
riches are beaten out nth staff and he cum
min tcih rod. Bread corn Is bruised be-
cd'sse he tctu not eeer be Hfdshittg IT,
Isaiah xviii, q, 2s.
There are three kinds OF seed mentioned
htehes, ctmmin and corn. OF the last we
al know. But it may be well to state that
the ftches and the cummin were small seeds
like the carraway or the chickpea. When
these grains or herbs were to be thrashed,
tney were thrown on the floor, and the work
men would come around with staff or rod or
nail and beat them until the seed woiild be
separated. but when the corn was 10 be
thrashed that was thrown on the floor. and
the men would fasteh horses Or oxen I'd a
caft with iron denied wheels. That cart
would be drawn around the thrashing floor,
ana SO the work would be accomplished.
Dinerent kinds of thrashing for different
products. THE ftches are not thrashed
with thrashing instrument. neither is cart
wheel turned about upon the cummin but the
ntches are beaten out with a star and the
cummin with rod Bread corn is bruised
because he will not ever be thrashing it,
The great Thought that the text presses
upon our souls is that we all 90 through some
Kind OF thfashihg process. The fact that you
may be devoting your life TO honorable and
noble purposes will not win you any escape
Wilberforce, the Christian emancipator, was
IN II. his day derisively called "Dr. Cantwell.
Thomas Babinton Macaulay. the advocate Of
all that was good long before he became the
most conspicuous historian Of his day, was
carlcatdfed in one Of the quarterly reviews
as "Babbletongde Macauay" Norman
Mcleod, the great friend of the Scotch poor.
was industriously maligned in all quarters,
although on the day when he was carried out
TO his burial workman stood and looked at
the funeral procession and said IF he had
done nothing for anybody more than he has
| m hag /, u II
ever and ever" All the small wits Of Lon
don had their fling at John Wesley, the father
of Methedism.
If such men could not escape the malign-
ing OF the world, neither can you expect to
get rid OF the sharp, keen stroke Of the trib-
uium. All who will live godly in Christ Jesus
must suffer persecution. Besides that there
are the sicknesses, and the bankruptcies and
the 1rr1tations, and the disappointment
which are ever putting d cup of aloes to your
lip. Those wrinkles on your face are hiero-
glyphics which, If deciphered, would make
out a thrilling story of trouble. The footstep
of the rabbit is seen the next morning Oh the
snow, and on the white hairs of the aged are
footprints showing where swift trouble alight-
ed.
Even amid the joys and hilarities of life
| trouble will sometimes break in. As when
the people were assembled in the Charles
town theatre during the Revolutionary war
and while they were witnessing a farce and
| the audience was in great graduation the
guns of an advancing army were heard and
the audience broke up in wild panic and ran
Tor theft lives, 50 ofttimes while YOU are
Seated amid the joys and festivities of this
world you hear the cannonade of some great
disaster. All the fitches, and the cummin,
and the corn must come down on the thrash
| ing floor and be pounded
My subject; in the first place; teaches us
that it is ne compliment to us if we escape
tyrao rot Tha oh 4 4 49,
the thrashing floor might look over to the
corn on another thrashing floor and say
Look at that poor, miserable, bruised corn.
We have only been little pounded, but that
has been almost destroyed" Well. the corn,
If it had lips, would answer and say: "Do
you know the reason you have not been as
much pounded as have? 1t is because you
are not so much worth as am. Ifyou were,
you would be as severely run over"
Yet there men who suppose they are the
Lords favortes simply because their barns
are full, and their bank account is flush, and
there are no funerals in the house. 1t may be
because they are fitches and cummin; while
/ down at the end Of the lane the poor widow
may be the Lords corn. You are but little
pounded be,ause you are but little worth,
and she brui.ed and gfodhd because she is
the best part of the harvest.
! The heft of the thrashing machine is ac-
cording to the value of the grain. Ii you
have not been much .hrashed in life, perhaps
there is not much to thrash. II you have
not been much shaken of trouble; perhaps
| there is going to be very small yield. When
there are plenty Of blackbe1ries the gatherers
go out with large baskets. but when the
drought has almost consumed the fruit then
quart measure will do as well. 1t took the
venomous snake on Pauls hand and the
/ pounding of him with stones until he was
taken up for dead, and the jamming against
! him of prison gates, and the Ephesan yocif-
I inn md ha nj ariyi Of fha N,fp
full stocks, and the laundering of the Alex
andrian corn ship, and the beheading stroke
of the Roman sheriff to bring Paul to his
proper development.
1t was not because Robert Moffat and Lady
Rachel Russell and Frederick 0berlin were
worse than other people that they had to
suffer it was because they were better and
/ God wanted TO make them best. By the
carefhlness of the thrashing you may al
| ways conclude the vaite of the grain.
Next my text teaches us that Col proper
/ tions our trials to what we can bear the
/ stan for the iitches, the rod for the cummin,
the iron wheel for the corn. Sometimes
people in great trouble say, "Oh. | can't
| bear itY' But you did bear it. God would
| not have sent it upon you if He did not know
( that you could bear it. You trembled, and
I you swooned, but you got through. God
/ will not take from your eyes one tear too
many, nor from your lungs one sigh too
deep, nor from your temples one throb too
/ sharp. The perplexities of your earthly
! business have not in them one tangle too in
tricate.
/ You sometimes feel as if our world were
/ full OF bludgeons flying haphazard. Oh, no;
/ they are thrashing instruments that God just
suits TO your ease. There Is not dollar of
/ bad debts on your ledger, or disappoint-
ment about goods that you expected TO go
up, but that have gone down, or swindle
/ OF your business partner, or trick on the
] of those WIN the kind of
business that You are, but God intended to
override for your immortal help. "Oh,
/ you say, there is no need talking that way
I to me. | don't like to be cheated and out
ragged" Neither does the corn like the corn
| thrasher, but after it has been thrashed and
winnowed it has great deal better opinion
/ OF winnowing mills and corn thrashers
'Well you say, ''if l could choose my
troubles would be willing to be troubled"
All, my brother, then it would not be trouble.
! You would choose something that would not
hurt, and unless it hurts it does not get sane
titled. Your trial perhaps may be childless-
ness. You are fond of children. You say
/ "Why does God send children to that other
/ household, where they ara unwelcome and
/ are beaten and banged about, when l would
4 have taken them in the arms OF my afec-
tions?" You say, ANY other trial but this"
| Your trial perhaps may be disdg-
ured countenanee or face that is
I easily caricatured, and you say, "0h,
! | could endure anything if only l
/ was good looking" And your trial perhaps
is violent temper, and you have to drive it
! like six unbroken horses amid the gunpow-
der explosions of a great holiday, and ever
and anon it runs away with you. Your trial
4 is the asthma. You say, "Oh, ii it were
| rheumatism or neuralgia or erysipelas, but
| it is this asthma, and it is such an exhaust
ing thing to breathe" Your trouble is a hus
| band. short, sharp, snappy and cross about
1 the house and raising a small riot because
/ button is of How could you know the but
ton is OFF,
/ Your trial is wife ever in contest WITH the
/ servants and She is q soven. Though she
/ was very careful about her appearance in
| your presence once. now she is careless be-
! cause she said her fortune is made. Your
/ trial is hard school lesson YOU cannot
! learn, and you have bitten your finger nails
! until they are sight 10 behold. Everybody
has some vexation or annoyance or trial.
! and he or she thinks it is the one least
| adapted Anything but this" all say
Anything but this"
| oh, my nearer, are you not ashamed to be
/ complaining all this time against God? Who
| manages the affairs OF this world ANYHOW?
4 Is it an infinite Modoc. or a Sitting Bull saw
1 age. or an omnipotent Mana Sahib No it
/ is the most merciful and glorious and wise
! Being in all the universe. You cannot teach
! Omnipotence anything. You have fretted
! and worried almost enough. Do you not
/ think So? Some OF Won are making your
! selves ridiculous in the sight of the angels.