Milford chronicle., 1893-06-16
DEATH is A SUNRISE.
DR.. TALMAeE PICTURES THE FELlc-
lTlES OF FUTURE LIFE.


How Men Go Through Gods Thrashine
nfachine-The Fruits Of Trial and Tribu-
Iation Are Eternal JOY and Peace In the
BIissful Hereafter.
BRooKLYN, June 11.-Rev. Dr. Talmage
chose as the subject for his sermon today
1.-THE Thrashing Machine, the text being
from Isaiah xviii, %, 2s. For the ftches are
not thrashed with thrashing instrument,
neither is cart wheel turned about upon
the cummin. but the fitches are beaten out
with a staff and the cummin with rod.
Bread corn is bruised because he will not
ever be thrashing It."
There are three kinds Of seed mentioned
-fitches, cummin and corn. OF the last
we all know. But it may be well to state
that tho fitches and the cummin were 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 workmen would come around with
staff or rod or fail and beat them until the
seed would be separated, but when thecorn
was to be thrashed that was thrown on the
floor. and the men would fasten horses OF
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 htches are
not thrashed with a thrashing instrument,
neither is n cart wheel turned about upon
the cummin, but the fitches are beaten out
with staff and the cummin with rod
Bread corn Il. bruised because he will not
ever be thrashing it"
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 devoting your life to hon
orable and noble purposes will not win you
any escape. Wilberforce, the Christian
emancipator was in his day derisively
called "Dr. Cantwell" Thomas Babing
ton AIacaulay, the advocate Of all that was
good long before he became the most con
spicuous historian of his day, was carica-
tured in one of the quarterly reviews as
"Babbletongue Macaulay.n Norman Nc
Ieod, the great friend. of the Scotch poor,
was industriously maligned in all quar-.
ters, although on the day when he was car
ried 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 done for me, he should shine
as the stars forever and ever" All the
small wits of London 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 sicSnesses and the bank
ruptcies. and the irritations, and the disap-
pointments which are ever putting a cup OF
aloes to your lip. Those wrinkles on your
face are hieroglyphics which, if deciphered,
would make out a thrilling story of trou-
BILE. The footstep of the rabbit is seen the
next morning on the snow, and on the
white hairs of the aged are the footprints
showing where swift trouble alighted.
CLOUDS WITH SUNSHINE.
Even amid the Joys and hilarities of life
trouble will sometimes break in. As when
the people were assembled in the Charles.
town theater during the Revolutionary
war and while they were witnessing
farce and the audience was in great gratu-
lation 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 fes-
tivities of this world you hear the cannon
ade of some great disaster. All the fitches,
and the cummin, and the corn must come
down on the thrashing floor and be pounded.
NV subject, in the first place, teaches us
that it is no compliment to us if we escape
great trial The fitches 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
cornl We have only been a 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 as have? lis
because you are not of so much worth as
am. If you were, you would be as severely
run over"
Yet there are 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 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-
eording to the value Of the grain. If you
have not been much thrashed in life, per
hans there is not much to thrash If you
have not been much shaken of trouble, per
hans it is because there is going to be very
small Weld. 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. It took the ven
ornous snakeo on Paul's hand, and the pound
ing of him with stones until he was taken
mn for dead. and the jamming against him
of prison gates, and the Ephesian vocifer
alton. 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 Ober-
lin were worse than other people that they
had to suffer. It was because they were
better. and God wanted to make them best.
Bv the carefulness Of the thrashing you
may always conclude the value Of the
grain. 49,.
GOD TEAIPERs OUR TRIALS.
/ Next nv text teaches US that God pro
nortions our trials to what we can bear.
Hlbe staff for the fitches, The rod for the
cummin. The iron wheel for the corn.
Sometimes people in great trouble say,
"Oh. 1 can't bear itp' But you did bear it.
God would not have sent it upon you if 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 tan
gle too intricate.
You sometimes feel as If our world were
full of bludgeons flying haphazard. Oh,
moi They are thrashing instruments that
God Just suits to yo2r case. There Is not a
dollar of bad debts on your ledger, or a dis
appointment about goods that you expect
cd to 90 up, but that have gone down, or q
swindie Of your business partner, or trick
on the part of those who are in the same
lind of business that you are, but God In