The commonwealth. (Greenwood, Miss.) 1896-1923, 1897-05-06
RUTH AND BOAZ.
Rev. d.. Talmage Draws Lessons
From the Biblical Story.


The following sermon by Rev. 7. De
Witt Talmage is given out for publica-
ton this week. 1t based on the text:
And she went, and came. and CLEANED In thu
neld after the reapers: and her hap was ID
light on q part Of the field belonging unto Boaz
who was Of the kindred OF Elimeleeh.-Ruth
ia
The time that Ruth and Naomi ar
rive at Bethlehem is harvest time. II
was the custom when a sheaf fell from
a load in the harvest field for the reap
ers to refuse to gather it up; that was
to be left for the poor who might hap
pen to come along that way. If there
were handfuls of grain scattered across
the field after the main harvest had
been reaped, instead of raking it, as
farmers do now, it was, by the custom
of the land, left in its place, SC that
the poor, coming along that way, might
CLEAN it and get their bread. But, you
say: what is the use of all these har-
vest fields to Ruth and Naomi! Naomi
is too old and feeble to go out and toll
in the sun; and can you expect that
Ruth, the young and the beautiful,
should tan her cheeks and blister her
hands in the harvest, field?"
Boaz owns a large farm, and he goes
out to see the reapers gather in the
grain. Coming there, right behind the
ksgarthy, un-browned reapcrs, he be-
holds a beautiful woman gleaning-a
woman more fit to bend to a harp or
sit upon a throne than to stoop among
the sheaves. All, that was an cventful
day!
1t vas love at first sight. Boaz forms
an attachment for the womanly CLEAN
cram attachment full of undying in
tercst to the church of God in all ages;
while Ruth, with an cphah, or nearly a
bushel of barley, goes home to Naomi
to tell her the successes and adventures
of the day. That Ruth, who left her
native land of Moab in darkness, and
travelled through an undying affection
for her mother-in-law, is in the harvest
field of Boaz, is affianced TO one of the
best families in Judah, and becomes in
after-time the ancestress of Jesus
Christ, the Lord of glory! OFT of SO
dark a night did there ever dawn SO
bright a morning?
l learn, in the first place, from this
subject how trouble develops charac-
ter. 1t was bereavement. poverty and
exile that developed, illustrated and
announced to all ages the sublimity of
Ruth's character. That is a very un-
fortunate mar who has no trouble. 1t
a sorrow that made John Bunyan
the better dreamer, and DIR. Young the
better poet, and OConneH the better
orator, and Bishop Hall the better
preacher, and Havelock the better sol
dier, and Kitto the better encyclope-
dist, and Ruth the better daughter-in-
law.
l once asked an old man in regard to
his pastor, who was a very brilliant
man: ''Nhy is it that your pastor, SO
very brilliant, seems to have SO little
heart and tenderness in his sermons?"
SWELL" he replied, "the reason Is, our
pastor has never had any trouble.
When misfortune comes upon him, his
style will be different" After awhile
the Lord took a child out OF the pas
tors house, and thuogh the preacher
was just MS brilliant as he was before,
oh! the warmth, the tenderness of his
discusses. The fact Is that trouble is a
great educator. You see, sometimes a
musician sit down at an instrument,
and his execution is cold and formal
and unfeeling. The reason is that all
his life he has been prospered. But let
misfortune Or bereavement come to
man, and he sits at the instru-
ment, and you discover the pathos in
the first sweep of the keys.
Misfortune and trials are great edu-
A young doctor comes into a
sick room where there lisa dying child.
Perhaps he is very rough in his pre-
scription, and very rough in his man
ncr, and rough in the feeling of the
and rough in his answer TO the
mothers anxious question; but years
rolls on, and there has been one dead
III ulS OWL IlOISts anu HOW uc COUlco
into the sick room, and with fearful
eye he looks at the dying child, and he
says: ''Oh, how this reminds me Of my
.harlier' Trouble, the great educator.
Sorrow--I see its touch in the grand
est painting; l hear its tremor in the
sweetest song; l feel its power in the
mightiest argument.
Grecian mythology said that the
fountain of Hippocrene was struck out
by the foot OF the winged horse Pcgas-
rs. l have often noticed in life that
the brightest and most beautiful foun-
of Christian comfort and spiritual
life have been struck out by the IRON
,hod hoof Of disaster and calamity. /
zee Daniels courage best by the flash
If Nebuchadnezzar's furnace. / see
Paul's proves best when l find him on
he laundering ship under the glare Of
he lightning in the breakers of Nell
"a. God crowns His children amid the
of wild beasts and the chop
:. tEg ..''.' s.,o. r~A;-, orJ I
n. G.. Peteet.