Highland recorder. (Monterey, Highland County, Va.) 1877-1972, 1902-03-28
BENEFITS OF ADVERSELY
DR.. Talmage Says We Must Ill Go Through
Some Kind OF Thrashing Process
for Our Own Good.
Triumph Always Genes After Misfortune
Great Need Is Solace.

III.
about upon the cummin, but the, htches
are beaten out with a staff and the cum
min with a rod. Bread corn is bruised be-
cause he will not ever be thrashing 1t"
Misfortunes of various kinds come upon
various people, and in all times the great
need of ninety-nine people out OF hun
bred is solace. Look, then, to this neg
lected allegory of my text.
There are three kinds of seed men
tioned-ftches, cummin and corn. Or the
last we all know. But it may be well to
state that the fitches and the cummin were
small seeds, like the caraway or the chick
pea. When these grains or herbs were 10
be thrashed they were thrown on the
floor, and the workmen would come around
with staff or rod or fail and beat them UNI
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 cart with iron
denied wheels; that cart would be drawn
around the thrashing Hoor, and SO the
work would be accomplished. DlnerenV
kinds of thrashing for different products
"The ftches were not thrashed with
thrashing instrument, neither is q cart
wheel turned about upon the cummin, but
the fitches are beaten out with stah and
the cummin with rod. Bread corn Is
bruised because he will not ever be thrash
ing it"
The great thought that the text presses
upon our souls is that we all so through
some kind of thrashing process. The TACT
that you may be devoting your life to hon
orable and noble purposes will not win you
any escape. Wherefore, the Christian
emancipation, was in his day derisively
called doctor Cantwell." Thomas Bah
ington Macauley, the advocate of all that
was good long before he became the most
conspicuous historian of his day, was carl
catured in one of the quarterly reviews as
"Babbletongue Macaulay." Norman Nc
Leod. the great friend of the Scotch poor,
was industriously maligned in all quarters,
although on the day when he was carried
out to his burial a workman stood and
looked at the funeral procession and said,
IF 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 fling at
John Wesley, the father of Methodism.
| If such men could not escape the mahgn,
| ing of the world, neither can you expect
| to get rid of the sharp, keen stroke OF the
| tribulum. All who will live godly In Christ
| Jesus must suffer persecution. Besides
! that, there are the sicknesses and the
| bankruptcies and the irritations and the
| disappointments which are ever putting a
cup of aloes to your lips. Those wrinkles
| on your face are heiroglyphics which, II
| deciphered, would make out thrilling
| story of trouble. The footstep of the rab-
| bit is seen the next morning on the snow,
and on the white hairs of the aged are the
| footprints showing where swift trouble
alighted. 49,,
Even amid the joys and hilarities of life
| trouble will sometimes break IN. As when
| / b1oA in tho Cha rips-
town theatre during the Revolutionary
War, and while they were witnessing a
farce and the audience was in great gratu-
| lation the guns of an advancing army were
| heard and the audience broke up wild
| panic and ran for their lives, so oftentimes
| while you are seated amid the joys and
| festivities of this world you hear the can
| nonade of some great disaster. All the
| ftches and the cumrnin 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 II we es'
cape great trial. The ftches and the cum
min on one thrashing floor might look
over to the corn on another thrashlng floor
and say: Look at that poor, miserable
bruised corn. We have only been little
pounded, but that has been almost de-
stroyed." Well, the corn, if it had lips,
would answer and say: do you know tho
reaaon YOU have not been as much pounded
as | have! 1t is because you are not OF sc
much worth as | am. If you were, you
would be as severely run over" Yet there
are men who suppose they are the LORD
favorites simply because their barns arr
full and their bank account Is flush anc
there are no funerals in the house. 1t ma,
be because they are ftches and cummln
| .,,l;lo lou,,, NJ +ho op1 Of tho lane the moo
widow may be the Lords corn.
You are but little pounded because you
are but little worth and she bruised anC
ground because she is the best part of thu
nerves. The heft of the thrashing ma
chine is according to the value of thu
grain. If you have not been much thrasheC
in life, perhaps there is not much t.
thrash! If you have not been much shaker
of trouble, perhaps it is because there i
going to be very small yield.
When there are plenty of blackberrles
the gatherers go out with large baskets
but when the drought has almost consumed
the fruit, then quart measure Will do a
well. -.
It took the venomous snake on Paul
hand, and the pounding of him with stone
until he was taken up for dead, and tn
jammng against him of prison gates, ant
the Ephesian vociferation, and the ankle
skinned by the painful stocks, and tn
laundering of the AleXandrian corn ship
and the beheading stroke OF the Romal
sheriff to bring Paul to his proper develop
| ment.
1t was not because Robert Moffat AM
LADY Rachel Russell and Frederick Ober
lin were worse than other people that the.
had to suffer. 1t was because they wer
better, and God wanted to make then
best. By the carelessness of the thrashln
you may always conclude the value OF tn
grain.
portions our trials to what we can bear
the staff for the ftches, the rod for tn
cummin, the iron wheel for the corn
Sometimes people in great trouble say
ooh, | can't bear it," But you did bear it
| God would not have sent it upon you ]
He had not known that you could bear 1t
You trembled and you swooned, but yo
cot through. God will not take from you
ewes one tear too many nor from you
lungs one sigh too deep nor from your ten
. pies one throb too sharp. The perpiexl
ties Of your earthly business have not Il
them one tangle too intricate. You some
times feel as if our world were full G
bludpeons flying haphazard. Oh, no; the
are thrashing instruments that Goo, Jus
suits to your case. There is not dolla
of bad debts on your ledger OR disar
pontment about goods that you expecte
to 60 up, but that have gone down, or
swindle of your business partner or trio
on the part of those who are in the sam
kind of merchandise that you are, but Go
intended to overrule for your immorta
help. "Oh," you say, there is no nee
talking that way to me. / don't like to b
cheated and outraged" Neither does tn
corn like the corn thrasher, but after
has been thrashed and winnowed it has
great deal better opinion of winnowin
mills and corn thrashers.
''Well," you say, "if could choose m
| 4ronhlac / rronld be nillinn Ia lie trnuhled