The Montgomery advertiser., 1902-03-30
DR. TALMAGE'S SERMON.

Washington, March 23.-From a pro cess familiar to the farmer Dr. Talmage draws lessons of consolation and encour. agement for people in sorrow and ad- versity. The text is Isaiah xviii, 27-28 For the fitches are not thrashed with a thrashing instrument nslther is cart wheel turned about upon the cummin but the ftches are beaten out with q stan and the cummin with rod. Bread corn is bruised because he will not ever be thrashing 1t"
 Misfortunes of various kinds come upon various people, and in times the great dred is solace Look. then, to this neg lected allegory of my text.
 There are three kinds of seed mentton- ed-ftches, cummin and corn. Of the last state that the fitches and the cumm.n were small seeds. like the caraway or the chickpea When these grains or herbs are to be thrashed. they were would come around with staff or rod or fail and beat them until the seed would be separated, bat when the corn was , to be thrashed that was thrown on the floor. and the men would fasten horses or oxen to a cart ewith iron dented wheels; that cart would be drawn around the thrashing floor. and so the work would be accomplished. Different kinds of thrashing for different products; The fitches are not thrashed with a thrash ing instrument, neither Is cart wheel turned about upon the cummin, but the fitches are beaten out with stan and the cummin with roo; Bread corn is bruised because he will not ever be thrashing it"
 The great thought that the text presses upon our souls is that we all go through some kind of thrashing process The fact that you may De devoting your life to honorable and noble purposes Will not not win you and escape. Wilberforce. the Christian emancipator. was in ms gay Thomas Babington Macaulay. the advo. cate of all that was good. long before he became the most conspicuous histo. rian of his day, was caricatured Tn one ol Macaulay." Norman Mcleod. the grea, friend of the Scotch poor. was industri' ously maligned in all quarters. although on the day when he was carried out to hIs burial workman stood ana lookeo at the funeral procession and said, "Ii he had done nothing for anybody more than he has done for me. he would shine as the stars forever and ever" All the small wits of London had their flng at John Wesley, the father of Methodism If such men could not escape the ma ligning of the world. neither can you ex- pect to get rid of the sharp. keen stroke of tribulum. All who will live godiy Tn Christ Jesus must suffer persecution. Be- sides that. there are the sicknesses ana the bankruptcies and the ifritations and the disappontments which are ever put tln2 a cup or dlOeS tO your Ap DOoc wrinkles on your face are hieroglyphics which, if deciphered would make out thrilling story of trouble The footprint of the rs bbit s seen the next morning in the snow, and on the white hairs of the aged are the footprints showing where swift trouble aiighted.
 Troubles Come Unexpectedly.
 Even amid the joys and hilarities O! life trouble will sometimes break in. As when the people were assembled in the ,.l1 1.t~i irar hA l- tionary War. and while they were wit messing farce and the audience was in great graduation the guns of an ad- vancing army were heard and the audi- ence broke up in wild panic and ran Tor their lives so oftentimes while you are seated amid the joys and festivities oi this world you hear the cannonade oi some grea disaster. All the f1tches and , down on the thrashirg floor and be pounded.
 My subject, in the first place, teaches us that 1t is no compliment to us If we escape grea. trial. The ftches and the cummin on one thrashing floor might LOOK over to the corn on another thrashins floor and say: Look at that poor. mis- erabie. bruised corn. We have only beer a little pounded, but that has been al most destroyed" Well. the corn. If, ii had lips, would answer and say: Dc you know the reason yoi have not been as much pounded as I have? It is be
  I am. If you were, you would be as se- pereiy run over" Yet there are men who suppose they are the Lords favor ties simply because their barns are full and their bank account is flush and there are no funerals in the house. It may be because they are ftches and cummin, while down at the end of the lane the poor widow may be the Lords corn. You are but little pounded because you are but little worth and she bruised and ground because she Is tho best part Of the harvest. The heft of the thrashing machine is according to the value of the grain If you have not been mucn 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 to be very small Nield When there are plenty of black berries the gatherers go out with large baskets but when the drought has al- most consumed the fruit. then a quart measure will do as well. It took the Nenomous snake on Paul's hand, and the bounding of him with stones until he was taken up for dead. and the tanning against him of prison gates. and the Ephesian vociferation. and the ankles skinned by the painful stocks and the laundering of the AeXandrian corn ship and the beheading stroke of the Roman Sheriff to bring Paul to his proper de- velopment. It was not because Robert AIoffat and Lady Rachel Russell and Frederick Oberlin were worse than other people that they had to suffer. It was