Highland recorder. (Monterey, Highland County, Va.) 1877-1972, 1893-06-23
REV. DIR. TALMAGE.
The Eminent Brooklyn Divine'S Sun.
day Sermon.
Subject: "The Thrashing Machine"

TEXT: "FOr the .ftcheS are moi hrdshed
NTH Hrdshing instrument, neithe, is cart
,rheel turned about upon the cumnin. but The
titches are beaten out NTH a staff and the cum
min ,cih a rod. Bread corn is bruised be-
cause he 'ciU not erer be hrashing H.
Isaiah xviii, 27, %.
There are three kinds OF seed mentioned
ftches, cummin end corn. OF the last we
all know. But II may be we'll to state that
the fitches and the cummin were small seeds
like the carrawav or the chickpea. When
these grains or herbs were to be thrashed,
they were thrown on the floor, and the work.
men would come around with staff or rod or
fail and beat them until the seed would be
separated. but when the corn was 10 be
thrashed that was thrown on the floor and
the men would fasten horses or oxen to a
cart with iron denied wheels. That cart
would be drawn around the thrashing floor,
and so the work would be accomplished.
Different kinds of thrashing for different
products. "The f1tches are not thrashed
with thrashing instrument, neither is O cart
wheel turned about upon the cummin, but the
fitches are beaten out with staff and the
cummin with rod. Bread corn is bruised
| because he will not ever be thrashng it,"
| The great thought that the text presses
upon our souls is that we all 90 through some
kind OF thrashing process. The fact that you
may be devoting your life to honorable and
| noble purposes will not win you any escape.
Wilberforce. the Christian emancipation. was
in his day derisively called CDR. Cantwen."
Thomas Babinton Macaulay. the advocate of
all that was good long before he became the
most conspicuous historian of his day, was
caricatured in one of the quarterly reviews
as 'Babbletongue Macaulay." 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
done for me, he should shine as the stars for
ever and ever" All the small wits of Lon
don had their fling at John Wesley, the father
| of Methodism.
II 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-
ulum. All who will live godly in Christ Jesus
must suffer persecution. Besides that there
are the sicknesses, and the bankruptcies, and
the irritations, and the disappointments
which are ever putting cup of aloes to your
| lip. Those wrinkles on your face are hero
glyphics which, if deciphered, would make
out thrilling story OF trouble. The footstep
of the rabbit is seen the next morning on 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 breakin. 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
for their lives. so ofttimes while you are
seated amid the joys and festivities of this
world you hear the cannOnade OF some great
disaster. All the fltches, 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 no compliment to us if we escape
great trial. The ftches and the cummin on
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 a little pounded, but that
has been almost destroyed" Well, the corn,
if il 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 severely run over.
Yet there men who suppose they are the
Lords favorites 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 fltches and cummin, while
down at the end OF the lane the poor widow
may be the Lords corn. You are but little
pounded because you are but little worth,
and she bruised and ground because she is
the best part of the harvest.
The heft of the thrashing machine is ac-
cording to the value of the grain. If you
have not been much thrashed 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 blackberries the gatherers
90 out with large baskets. but when the
drought has almost consumed the fruit then
a quart measure will do as well. 1t took the
yenomous snake on Paurs hand and the
rounding of him with stones until he was
taken up for dead. and the tanning against
him of prison gates, and the Ephesian voc1f-
Grafton, and the skinned ankles OF the pain
full stocks, and the laundering OF the Alex
andrian corn ship, and the beheading stroke
of the Roman sheriff to bring Paul to MS
proper development.
1t was not because Robert Moffat and Lady
Rachel Russell and Frederick Oberlin 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
carefulness OF the thrashing you may al
ways conclude the value of the grain.
Next nv text teaches us that God proper
tions our trials to what we can bear. the
staff for the fitches, the rod for the cummin,
the iron wheel for the corn. Sometimes
people in great trouble say, "Oh, can't
bear it?' 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
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. On, no !;
they are thrashing instruments that God just
suits to your case. 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
part of those who are in the same kind OF
business that you are, but God intended 10
override for your immortal help. ION.
YOU say. "there is no need talking that way
to me. / don't like to be cheated and out
ragged" Neither does the corn like the corn
shrasher. but after it has been thrashed and
winnowed il has a great deal better opinion
of wjnnowing mills and corn thrashers.
"Wen, you say, ''if l could choose my
troubles I would be willing to be troubled. !"
All. nv 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 are unwelcome and
are beaten and banged about, when would