The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1897-06-03
RUTH AND BOAZ.
Rev. DR.. Talmage Draws Lessons
From the Biblioal Story.
Misfortunes and Trials as Educators and as
Tests of Friendship Persecution
Sometimes Brings Out the
Best There is In Us.

1 -
tion this week. 1t based on the text:
and she went, and came, and CLEANED in the
| field after the reapers and her hap to
| light on part of the field belonging unto BoaZ,
| who was of the kindred Of Elimelech.-R Ruth.
| H.. g.
The time that Ruth and Naomi ar
| rive at bethlehem is harvest time. 1t
was the custom when 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
We're 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, SO 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 checks and blister her
hands in the harvest tield?'
| BoaZ owns a large farm, and he goes
out to see the reapers gather in the
grain. Coming there, right behind the
swarthy, sun Drowned reapers, he be-
holds a beautiful woman gleaning-a
woman more fit to bend to harp or
sit upon a throne than to stoop among
the sheaves. All, that was an eventful
day.
1t was love at first sight. Boaz forms
an attachment for the womanly CLEAN
er-an attachment full of undying in
terest to the church of God in all ages;
while Ruth, with an ephah, or nearl y 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 attianced 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 night did there ever dawn SO
bright morning?
| learn, in the first place. from this
subject how trouble develops charac-
!
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 DR.. Young the
better poet, and O'Connell the better
orator, and Bishop Hall the better
preacher. and Havelocl the better SOL
dier, and Kitto the better encyclope-
dist, and Ruth the better daughter-in-
law.
Misfortune and trials are great edu-
Gators. A young doctor comes into a
sick room where there is a 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
pulse, and rough in his answer to the
mothers anxious question; but years
rolls 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-I see it's touch in the grand
est painting; hear its tremor in the
sweetest song; feel its power in the
mightiest argument.
1t took all our past national dis
tresses, and it takes all our present ma
tional SORROWS to lift up our nation on
that high career where it will march
long after the foreign aristocracies
that have Knocked and tyrannies tha,
have ieered, shall be swept down under
the omnipotent wrath of God, who
: hates despotism, and who, by the
strength of His own red right arm
will make all men free. And so it is
j individually, and in the family, and ir
the church, and in the world, that
: through darkness and storm and trou
BILE men, women, churches, nations are
developed.
: Again, see in my text the beauty
of unfaltering friendship. l suppose
there were plenty of friends for Naom
while she was in prosperity; but of al
,, her acquaintances, how many were
willing to trudge off with her toward
Judah when she had to make tina
lonely journey. One-the heroine o
my text. One-absolutely one. l sup
pose when Naomi's husband was liv
ing, and they had plenty of money
and all things went we'll, they had ;
great many callers; but suppose tha
after her husband died, and her prop
erty went, and she got old and poor
: she was not troubled very much witt
callers. All the birds that sung in tn
bower while the sun shone have gons
. to their nests now the night has fall
en-.
4 Oh, these beautiful sunfowers tha
spread out their color in the mornin
p hour. But they are always asleep whe
! the sun is going down. Job had plent
. of friends when he was the richest ma
in Uz: but when his property went an
the trials came, then there were non
/ SO much that pestered as Eliphaz tn
} Temanite. and Bildad, the Shuhite, an
J., Zophar, the Naams.hlte.
Life often seems to be Q mere gam,
where the spceesstn! player pulls dow