Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1893-06-23

I Z
cause he tciH not erer BE- hrashing a.
Isaiah xviii, q, %.
There are three kinds OF seed mentioned
ftches. cummin and corn. or the last We
| all know. But it may be well to state that
the ttches and the cummin were small seeds
like the carraway or the chickpea When
! these grains or herbs were 10 be thrashed
they were thrown on the floor, and the work
! men would come around with stan or rod or
! Hall 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 q
cart with iron dented 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 iitches are not thrashed
with thrashing instrument, neither Is cart
wheel turned about upon the cummin but the
htches are Deaten out with "a staff and the
cummin with rod. Bread corn Is bruised
because he will not ever be thrashing II.
The great thought that the text presses
| upon our souls Is that We all go through some
kind OF thrashing process. The fact that YOU
may be dovoting your life to honorable and
noble purposes will not win you any escape
! Wilberforce, the Christian emancpator. was
| In his day derisivey called "Dr. Cantyell 4"
Thomas Babinton Macaulay. the advocate Of
oil 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 al
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 malicn-
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 lrrtations and the disappointments
which are ever putting cup OF aloes to your
up, Those wrinkles on your face are hero
glyphics which, II 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 hilarlties 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
for their 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 titches, 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 II iS no gpmulinaut ~ ne xpa ..a,o,,
great trial. The tltches and the cummin on
| the thrashng 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
II IT had lips, would answer and say "Do
you know the reason you have not been as
much pounded rs have2 1t is because you
are not SO much worth as am. Ityou We're,
| you would be as severely run over"
Yet there men who suppose they are the
Lords favorites simply because their barns
are full, and their bank account Ii flush, and
| there are no funerals in the house. Ii NAV DO
because they are ftches 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. II you
| have not been much thrashed In life perhaps
| there Is not much to thrash. IL you have
not been much shaken Of trouble, perhaps
there is going to be "a very small yield. When
there are plenty of blackberries the gatherers
| go 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 Paul's 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
carefulness OF tho thrashing you may al
ways conclude the value OF the grain.
Next my text teaches US that God proper
tions our trials to what We can bear, the
staff for the ftches, the rod for the cummin,
the iron wheel for the corn. Sometimes
people in great trouble say, "Oh, can't
bear it2" But you did bear 1t, God would
not have sent 1t upon you II He did not know
that you could bear 1t. 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 II our world wero
full OF bludgeons flying haphazard. Oh, no
they are thrashing instruments that God Just
suits to your case There Is not a 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 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 to
oyerrule for your immortal help. "Oh,"
| you say, "there Is no need talking that way
to me- I don't like to be cheated and out
ragged" Neither does the corn like the corn
thrasher, but after 1t has been thrashed and
winnowed 1t has a great deal better opinion
OF wlnnowing mills and corn thrashers.
"Well," you say, 'if l could choose my
troubles would be willing to be troubled" ."
All, my brother, then 1t would not be trouble.
| You would choose something that would not
hurt, and unless 1t hurtsi 1t does not get sane
tilted. 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 l would
have taken them in the arms of my affec-
tions2" You say "Any other trial but this. "
Your trial perhaps may be dishg'
ured countenance or face that IL
easily caricatured, and you say, "oh,
l could endure anything II only
was good looking" And your trial perhaps
is violent temper, and you have to drive II
like six unbroken horses amid the gunpow'
der explosions Of great holiday, and evel
and anon 1t runs away with you. Your tria
is the asthma. You say, "oh, IL IL were
rheumatism or neuralgia or erysipelas, but
1t Ia this asthma, and II Is such an exhaust
ing thing to breathe" Your trouble is a hus
band, short, sharp, snappy and CROSS abou
the house and raising small riot because {
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