The star. (Reynoldsville, Pa.) 1892-1946, 1893-06-21
GODS THRESHING
oR.TALMAaB ON HUMAN TRIALS,
An Eloquent Sermon in Which the
Winnowine of Grain Ia Used as an
Illustration of the Good That
Is Brought Out of Evil.

min uih rod Bread corn is bruised be
cause he ,eiH not euer be mrashing a.
Isaiah xviii. 27, 90.
There are three kinds OF seed mentioned
htches, cummin and corn. OF the last W,
all know. But II may be we'll TO state that
me htches and the cummin were small seeds
ike the carraway or the chickpea. Wher
these grains or herbs were TO be threshed
they were thrown on the floor. and the work
men would come around with etaff or rod o,
Hail and beat them until the seed would be
separated but when the corn was TO be
tnrashed that was thrown on the floor and
the men would fasten horses or oxen TO a
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 fitches are not thrashed
with thrashing instrument, neither Is cart
wheel turned about upon the cummin but the
htches are beaten out with n staff and the
eummin with a rod. Bread corn is bruised
because he will not ever be thrashing it,"
The great thought that the text presses
npon our souls is that we all go 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 emancipator was
IN his day derlsively called "Dr Cahtwell. "
Ihomas Babinton Macaulay, the advocate of
all that was good long before he be,ame tho
caricatured In one Of the quarterly reviews
as "Babbletongue 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 n workman stood and looked Mt
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 bad their fling at John Wesley, the father
OF Methodism.
II such men could not escape the malien-
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 lrritations, and the disappointments
which are ever putting a cup of aloes 10 your
up. Those wrinkles on your face are hero-
glyphics which, IL 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 hilarties Of life
trouble will sometimes break I'm. As when
the people were assembled IN the Charles
town theatre during the Revolutionary war
ana while they were witnessing a farce and
the audience was in great graduation the
guns OF an advancing army were heard md
the audience broke up in wild panic and ran
Tor 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 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 1t is no compliment to us II we escape
great trial. The htches and the cummin on
the thrashing floor might look over TO the
corn on another thrashing floor and say
Look Mt that poor, miserable bruised corn.
We have only been q little pounded, but that
has been almost destroyed" Well, the corn,
II 1t had lips, would answer and say; "Do
you know the reason you have not been rs
much pounded as have? 1t is because you
% are not so much worth as am. Ifyou were.
Hou 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 is flush, and
there are no funerals in the house. II 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 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. II you have
not bs :, much shaken OF trouble. perhaps
there Is going to be very small yield. When
there are plenty o; blackberries 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 Paurs hand and the
pounding OF him with stones until he was
taken up for dead, and the jsmming against
him OF prison gates, and the Ephesian vocif-
eration and the skinned ankles OF the pain
full stocks, and the laundering OF the Alex
andrian corn ship, and the beheadng stroke
ofthe 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 1t 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 my text teaches us that God proper
lions our trials to what We can bear, the
stan 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 1t, God would
not have sent 1t upon you II 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 perplexlties OF your earthly
business have not in them one tangle too in
tricate.
You sometimes feel as II 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 q 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
overruie for your immortal help. "Oh,"
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
thrasher, but after it has been thrashed and
winnowed 1t has great deal better opinion
Of winnowing mills and corn thrashers.
'Well," you say, "if 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 1t hurts II 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
haat "A X