The Chanute times. [volume] (Chanute, Kan.) 1897-1913, 1897-04-30

left for the poor
who might happen to come along tnat
way. If there we're handfuls OF grain
scattered across the field after the main
harvest had been reaped, instead Oh
raking it, as farmers do now, IL was
by the custom of the land, lett III lts
place, so that the poor coming alons
that way might CLEAN it, and get their
bread. But. you say, what is the use
of all these harvest fields to Ruin anu
Naomi? Naomi is too old ana feeple
to go out and toll in the sun; ana can
you expect that Ruth, the young anu
the beautiful, should tan her cneeKs
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 Dehlna the
swarthy, sun-browned reapers, ne De-
holds a beautiful woman gleanlng-'a
woman more fit to bend to narp OF
sit upon a throne than to stoop among
the sheaves. All, that was an eVentiui
day!
It was love at first sight. Boaz
forms an attachment for the womanly
gleaner-an attachment full OF undy-
ing interest to the church OF Goa III all
ages: while Ruth, with an ephah, OF
nearly bushel Of barley, goes nome
to Naomi to tell her of the successes
and adventures of the day. That Ruth,
who left her native land OF MoaD Ill
darkness, and travelled through an I'M
dying affection for her mother-ln-law'
is in the harvest field of Boaz, is am
anced to one of the best families in
Judah, and becomes in after time the
ancestress of Jesus Christ, the Lord OF
glory Out of so dark a night dld
there ever dawn so bright morn
ing?
learn, in the first place, from this
subject, how trouble develops charact-
err 1t was bereavement, poverty and
exile that developed, illustrated, and
announced to all ages the sublimity OF
Ruth's character. That is a very I'M
fortunate man who has no trouble. 1t
was sorrow that made John Bunyan
the better dreamer and Doctor Young
the better poet, and O'Connell the bet
ter orator, and Bishop Hall the better
preacher, and Havelock the better SOL
der, and Kitto the better encyclopae-
dist, and Ruth the better daughter-in-
law.
l 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, 1.-The reason is, our
pastor has never had any trouble
When misfortune comes upon him his
style will be different" After a while
the Lord took child out of the pas
tors house; and though the preacher
was just as brilliant as he was before,
oh, the warmth, the tenderness of his
discourses! The fact is, that trouble
is great educator. You see sometimes
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
that man, and he sits down to the in
strument, and you discover the pathos
in the first sweep of the keys.
Misfortunes and trials are great ed
ucators. A young doctor comes into
a sick room where there is a dying
child. Perhaps he is very rough in
his prescription, and very rough in his
manner, and rough in the 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 now he
comes into the sick room, and with
fearful eye he looks at the dying child
and he says, "Oh, how this reminds
me of my Charlie!" Trouble, the great
educator. Sorrow see its touch in
the BTdHueSJ pdlLIih6, L near us lTSul-
or in the sweetest song; I feel its
power in the mightiest argument
Grecian mythology said that the
foundation of Hippocrene was struck
out by the foot of the winged horse
Pegasus. have often noticed in life
that the brightest and most beautiful
of Christian comfort and
spiritual life have been struck out by
the iron shod hoof of disaster and
calamity. l see Daniels courage best
by the flash of Nebuchadnezzar's fur
mace. l see Pauls prowess best when
| find him on the laundering ship
rnder the glare of the lightning in the
breakers of Melita. God crowns his
amid the bowling of wild
beasts and the chopping of blood
;plashed guillotine and the cracking
Tres of martyrdom. 1t took the per-
solutions of Marcus Aurelius to de-
7elop Polycarp and Justin Martyr. 1t
.ook all the hostilities against Scotch
Covenanters and the fury of Lord
to develop James Renwick
md Andrew Melville, and James Nc
Kali, the glorious martyrs of Scotch
history II took the stormy sea and