Connecticut western news., 1902-03-27

"ASHiNGTON, MdFch zS. - FOh d process familiar to the farmer Dr. Tal- mage draws lessons of consolation and encouragement for people in sorrow and adversity. The text is Isaiah xviii, 27, 2S: For the fitches are not thrash ed with a thrashing instrument, nei- ther Is a cart wheel turned about upon the cummin, but the fitches are beaten out with a stan and the cummin with a rod. Bread corn is bruised because he will not ever be thrashing it."
 Misfortunes of various kinds come upon various people, and in all times the great need of ninety-nine people out of hundred is solace. Look, then, to this neglected allegory of my text.
 There are three kinds of seed men, tioned-fitches, cummin and corn. Of the last we all know. But it may be we'll to state that the fitches and the cummin were small seeds, like the car away or the chickpea. When these grains or herbs were to be thra shed, they were thrown on the floor, and the workmen would come around with stan or rod or fail and beat them un- til the seed would be separated, but when the corn was to be thrashed that was thrown on the floor, and the men would fasten horses or oxen to a cart with iron dented wheels; that cart would be drawn around the thras shing floor, and so the work would be ac- complished. Different kinds of thrash ing for different products. ''The f1tches are not thrashed with a thrashing in- strument, neither is a cart wheel turn ed about upon the cummin, but the fltches are beaten out with a staff and the cummin with a rod. Bread corn is bruised because he will not ever be thrashing it."
 The great thought that the text press es upon our souls Is that we all go through some kind of thrashing process. The fact that you may be devoting your life to honorable and noble pur- poses will not win you any escape. Wilberforce, the Christian emancipator, was In his day derisively called Doe tor Cantwell." Thomas Babington Ma caulay, the advocate of all that was good, long before he became the most conspicuous historian of his day was caricatured in one of the quarterly re- views as "Babbletongue Macaulay." Norman Mcleod, the great friend of the Scotch poor, was industriously ma ligned in all quarters, although on the day when he was carried out to his burial workman stood and looked at the funeral procession and said, 'If he had done nothing for anybody more Hhon hn fnr- hn xxyn111d 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 es- cape the maligning of the world, nei ther can you expect to get rid of the sharp, keen stroke of the tribdlum. All who will live godly in Christ Jesus must suffer persecution. Besides that, there are the sicknesses and the bank appointments which are ever putting a cup of aloes to your lip. Those wrin- kles on your face are hieroglyphics which, if deciphered, would make out thrilling story of trouble. The foot step 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.
 Troubles Come Unexpectedly. D
 Even amid the joys and hilarities of life trouble will sometimes break in. As when the people were assembled in the Charlestown theater during the Revolutionary war, and while they were witnessing a farce and the audi ence was in great graduation the guns of an advancing army were heard and the audience broke up in wild panic and ran for their lives, so oftentimes while you are seated amid the joys and festivities of this world you hear the cannonade of some great disaster. All the fitches and the cummin and the corn must come down on the thrashing floor and be pounded.
 ! My 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 one thrashing floor might look over to the corn on another thrash Ing floor and say: Look at that poor, miserable, bruised corn! We have only been little pounded, but that has been almost destroyed" Well, the corn, if 1t had lips, would answer and say: Do you know the reason you have not been as much pounded as l have? It is be- cause you are not of so much worth as I am. If you were, you would be as severely run over" Yet there are men who suppose they are the Lords favor ites 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 fitches and cummin, while down at the end of the lane the poor widow may be the Lords corn. You are but little pounded be cause you are but little worth and she bruised and ground because she Is the best part of the harvest. The heft oi the thrashing machine is according to the value of the grain. If you have not
 been much thrashed in life, perhaps there Is not much to thrash! If you
 have not been much shaken of trouble
 perhaps it is because there is going tC
 be a very small yield. When there ars plenty of blackberries, the gatherers gC
 put with large baskets, but when the
 drought has almost consumed the fruit
 then a quart measure will do as well
 1t took the venomous snake on Paupi hand, ana the pounding of him witt
 stones until he was taken up for dead
 and the jamming against him of prisor
 gates, and the Ephesian vociferation
 and the ankles skinned by the painful
 stocks, and the laundering of the Alex
 andrian corn ship, and the behe2dine
 stroke of the Roman sheriff to bring
 l Iul to his proper development. |
 was not because Robert Moffat ant
 Lady Rachel Russell and Fredericl
 Oberlin were worse than other people
 that they had to suffer. It was be
 cause they were better, and God want
 ed to make them best. By the careful
 ness of the thrashing you may alway.
 conclude the value of the grain.
 Helps Us Bear Burdens.
 Next, my text teaches us that GoC
 proportions our trials to what we cal
 bear-the staff for the fitches, the ro'
 for the cummin, the iron wheel for tn
 corn Sometimes DpODle in great iron