Fisherman & farmer. [volume] (Edenton, N.C.) 1887-19??, 1893-06-23
REV. DIR. TALMAGE.
THE BROOKLYN DIVINE'S SUM-
DAY SERMON.
Subject: ssThe Thrashing Machine"

TEXT: 'FOr he ftches are not Hr0shed
trih a hrdshirlg instrument. neither IS q cart
srheei turned about upon he cur1nlira, bit the
fttches are beaten ont 1cith staff and the cum
min nth rod. Bread corn as bruised be-
cause he ariH not erer be hrdshing IT,
Isaiah xviii, 81. %.
There are three kinds of seed mentioned
ftches. cummin and corn. OF the last we
all know. But it may be we'll to state that
the f1tches and the cumminwere small seeds
like the carraway 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 to 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. 1.-THE f1tches are not thrashed
with thrashing instrument, neither is cart
wheel turned about upon the cummin, but the
ftches are beaten out with q staff and the
cummin with a 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 gothrough 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 'Dr. Cantwell."
Thomas Babinton Macaulay. the advocate Of
all that was good long before he became the
most conspicuous historian of his day, was
carlcatured in one of the quarterly reviews
"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 a workman stood and looked at
the funeral procession and said, ''If he had
done nothing for anybody more than he has
Il i - 10.
ever and ever" All the small wits of Lon
don had their fling at John Wesley, the father
Of Methodism.
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-
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 a cup of aloes to your
lip. Those wrinkles on your face are hero
glyph1cs which, if deciphered, would make
out a 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 break in. AS when
the people were assembled in the Charles
town theatre during the Revolutionary war
and while they were witnessing farce and
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 f1tches, 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 titches and the cumm.n 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 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 rs I have? It is because you
are not so much worth as I am. Ifyou were,
you would be az 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. It may be
because they are titches 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
cOrding to the value of the grain. If you
have not been much thraShed in life. perhaps
there is not much to thrash. If 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
&c out with large baskets. but when the
drought has almost consumed the fruit then
a quart measure Will do as WELL 1t took the
venOmCus snake on PauIS 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 Ephesian vOcif-
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 his
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
carefuIness Of the thrashing you may al
ways conclude the value of the grain.
Next my text teaches us that God proper
tons our trials to what we can bear. the
staff for the f1tches, the rod for the cummisl
the iron wheel for the corn. Sometimes
people in great trouble say. sob, l can't
bear it?" But you did bear it. God would
not have sent it upon you if He did not know
chat 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- Oh, no
they are thrashing instruments that God just
suits TO your case. There is not dollar of
bad debts on your ledger, or a disappoint-
ment about goods that you expected to go
up. but that have gone down, or a swindle
OF your business partner, trick on tne
mart of those who are in the Same Kind of