Peninsula enterprise. [volume] (Accomac, Va.) 1881-1965, 1897-05-01
DARKNESS AND DAWN
REV. DR.. TALMAGE's SERMON is FULL
OF THE BREATH OF THE FIELDS.

REV. DR.. TALMAGE'S SERMON is FULL
OF THE BREATH OF THE FIELDS.
Ho Points n Moral From the Bible Story
of tho Attachment of Doaz For Ruth.
Tho Usos of Trouble-yalue of Field
Cleaning.
WASHINGTON, April 25.-The sermon
of Dr.. Talmago which we send out to-
day could not have been prepared by
any one not born in tho country. 1t is
full Of tho breath of the fields. Tho text
is Ruth ii, s. "And sho went and came
and CLEANED in the field after tho reap
ers, and her hap was to light on part
of the field belonging unto Boaz, who
was Of the kindred of Elimelech. %
Tho time that Ruth and Naomi ar
rive ut Bethlehem is harvest time. 1t
was the custom when sheaf fell from
load in tho harvest field for tho
roapers to refuse to gather it up. That
was to be left for the poor who might
happen to como along that way. If
there were handfuls of grain scattered
! across the field after the main harvest
had boon roaped. instead of raliing it, as
farmers do now, it was, by the custom
of the land, left in its place so that the
poor, coming along that way, might
CLEAN it and get their bread. But, you
say, "Whnt is tho uso of all these har-
vest fields to Ruth and Naomi? Naomi
is too old and feeble to 60 out and toll
in the sun, and can you expect that
i Ruth, tho young and the beautiful,
should tan her checks and blister her
hands in tho harvest fleld?''
Boaz owns II large farm, and he goes
out to sec the reapers gather in the
grain. Coming there, right behind the
swarthy, sun Drowned roapers, no be-
holds beautiful woman glcaning-a
woman more fit to bend to harp or sit
upon throne than to stoop among the
shenves All, that was an eventful day!
It was love at first sight. Boaz forms
an attachment for the womanly CLEANER
AN attachment full of undying inter
est to the church of God in all ages,
while Ruth, with an ephah, or nearly a
buShel of barley, goes homo to Naomi
to tell her the successes and adventures
of the day. That Ruth, who left her ma
tive land of Moab in darkness, and trav-
eled 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 tho ancestress of Jesus Christ,
tho Lord of glory Out of so dark a
night did there ever dawn so bright a
morning?
Two Great Educators.
1 learn in the first place from this
subject how trouble develops character.
1t was bereavement, poverty and exile
that developed, illustrated and an
nounced to all ages the sublimity Of
Ruth's character. That Is very unfor-
tunate man who has no trouble. 1t was
sorrow that mado John Bunym the bet
ter dreamer, and DR.. Young the better
poet, and O'Connell the better orator,
and Bishop Hall the better preacher,
and Havelock the better soldier, and
Kitto tho better encyclopedias, and
Ruth the better daughter-in-law.
1 once asked an aged man in regard
to his pastor, who was very brilliant
man, "Why is it that your pastor, SO
very brilliant, seems to have so little
heart and tenderness in his sermons?'
"Well, " 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 that pastor S
house, and though the preacher was
Just as brilliant as he was before, oh,
the warmth, tho tenderness Of his dis
coursesl Tho fact is that trouble is q
great educator. You gee sometimes a
musician sit down at an instrument
and his execution is cold and formal
and unfolding. The reason is that all
his life he has been prospered. But let
misfortune or bereavement como to that
man, and he sits down at the instru-
ment, and you discover the pathos in
the first sweep of the keys.
Misfortune and trials are great edu-
Gators. A young doctor comes into a
sickroom where there is dying child.
Perhaps no is very rough in his prescrip-
ton and very rough in his manner and
rough in tho feeling of the pulse and
rough in his answer to the mothers
anxious question. But years roll on,
and there has been one dead IN his own
house, and how he comes into the sick
room, and with fearful eyes he looks at
the dying child, and he says, "Oh, how
this reminds me of my Charliel" Trou-
BILE, the great educator Sorrow see
its touch in the grandest painting, l
hear its tremor in the sweetest song, l
foel its power in the mightiest argu-
mont.
Grecian mythology said that the foun-
tain Of Hippocrene was struck out by
the foot Of the winged horse Pegasus. l
have often noticed in life that the
brightest and most beautiful fountains
of Christian comfort and spiritual life
have been struck cut by the iron shod
hoof Of disaster and calamity. L SCI
Daniels courage best by the flash OF
ACKNOWLEDGMENT furnace. sec Paul.
prowess best when 1 find him on the
laundering ship under the glare of the
lightning in the breakers of Melita'
God crowns his children amid the howl
ing of wild beasts and the chopping Of
blood splashed guillotine and the crack
ling fires of martyrdom. 1t took the per-
secutions of Marcus Aurelius to develop
Polycarp and Justin Martyr. 1t took all
the hostilities against the Scotch Cove
nanters and the fury Of Lord Claver-
house to develop James Renwick and
Andrew Melville and Hugh McKail, the
glorious martyrs of Scotch history 1t
took the stormy sea and the December