Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1893-06-16
REV. DIR. TALMAGE.
The Eminent Brooklyn Divins's Sum
day Sermon.
Subject: "Tho Thrashng Machine

ftches are beaten out NTH n stdf and me cum
min Nth rod. Bread corn is bruised BE-
cause he triH not euer be hardShing IT,
Isaiah xviii, a. %.
There are three kinds OF seed mentioned
ftches. cummin and corn. OF the last we
all know. But it may be well to state that
the ltches and the cummin were small seeds
like the carraway or the chickpea. When
these grains or herbs were 10 be thrashed
thew 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
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 ftches are not thrashed
with q thraShing instrument, neither is a cart
wheel turned about upon the cummin but the
fltches are beaten out with staff and the
| cummin with q 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 60 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
Wherefore, the Christian emancipation. was
/ W..
| 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
! rs "BabbletOngue Macauay" Norman
Mcleod. the great friend OF the Scotch poor,
was industriousiy 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, III 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 sicbnesses, 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
Glyphics 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 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 itchcs 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 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 as have? 1t is because you
are not so much worth as | am. IfyOu We're,
you would be as severely run over.
Yet there men who suppose they are the
Lords fayorites simply because their barns
are full, and their bank account is flush, and
there are no funerals in the house. II may DO
because they are htches and cummin, while
down at the end Of the lane the poor widow
may be the Lords corn. You are but little
and she bruised and ground because she IS
the best part Of the harvest.
The heft of the thrashing machine is ac-
coriing to the value of the grain. Ii you
have not been much thrashed in life. perhaps
there is not much 70 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
20 out with large baskets. but when the
oil, fla frrrff hon
a quart measure will do as well. 1t took the
venomous snake on PGurs 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.
II 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 tbrashing 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 fitches, the rod for the cummin,
the iron wheel for the corn Sometimes
people in great trouble say, "Oh, l 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. Oh, 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 a 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
override for your immortal help. oh !
you say, ''there is no need talking that way
10 me. l 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, "lf could choose my |
troubles l would be willing to be troubled.
All nv brother, then ii 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 cmldles5-
ness. You are fond OF children. You say
"Why does God send children to that other
household, whore they are unwelcome and |
are beaten and banged about, when would !
have taken them in the arms OF my affec- |
tions?" You say, ANY other trial but this"
Your trial perhaps may be a disag- |
ured countenance or face that is |
easily caricatured, AMI you say, "Oh, !
1 could endure anything II only l |
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 ever |
and anon ii runs away with you. Your trial |
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 |
the house and raising a small riot because a |
button is off How could you know the but
ton Is of2
Your triol IS q vile ever in contest with the |
servants and she is a sloven. Though she |
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