Rensselaer Republican, Volume 20, Number 38, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 May 1888 — GLEANING. [ARTICLE]

GLEANING.

Straws in the Christian Harvest Field Waiting to be Gleaned, How Small Thins* Orow Is to Momentoua Proportion*—Dr. Talmage** Setmon. Bev. Dr. Talmage preached in the Brooklyn Tabernacle last Sunday. Text Ruth ii., 3. “And she wept and came and gleaned in the field after the reapers; and her nap was to light on a part of the field belonging unto Boas, who was of the kindred of Elimelech.” Ruth ii., 3. The time that Ruth and 'Naomi arrived at Bethlehem 1* harvest-time. It was the coatom- whan * sheaf fell from a load in the harvest-field for the reapers to refuse to gather it np, th a*, was to be left for the poor who might happen to come along that way. If there were handfuls of grain scattered across the field after the main harvest bad been reaped instead of raking it, as farmers do now. it a as. by the custom of the land left io its place so that the poor, coming along that way, might glean it»nd get their bread. But you say: “Wnatis the u« of all tbesa harvest fields to Ruth and Naomi? Naomi is too old and feeble to go out and toil in the sun, and can you expect that Ruth, the yoong and the beautiful, should tan her checks and blitter her hands in the harvest field?” Boas owns a large farm, and he goes out to see the reapers gatber in the grain. Coming there, right behind the swarthy, sun-browned reapers, he be* bolds a beautiful woman gleaning—a woman more fit to bend to a harp or sit upon a throne than to stoop among tne sheaves. Ah! that was an eventful day I It was love at first sight! Boas forms an attachment for the womanly gleaner—an attachment full of undying interest <o tbe Church of God in all ages; while Ruth, with an epbah, or nearly a bushel of barley, goes home to Naomi to tell her tbe successes and adventures of the day. That Ruth, who left her native land of Moab in darkness, and traveled through an undying affection for her mother-in-law, iu tbe harvestfield of B iaz, is affianced to one of tne best fa nilies in Judah, and becomes in aftertime the ancestress of Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory. Out of so dark a night did there ever dawn so bright a morning? I learn, in the first place, from this aunject how trouble developes character. It was bereavement, poverty and exile that developed,illustrated and announced to all ages the sublimity of Ruth’s character. That is a very unfortunate man who has no trouble; It was sorrow that made John Bunyan the better poet, and 0 Connell the better orator, and Bishop Hall the better preacher, and Havelock the better soldier, and Kitto the better encyclopedist and Ru th the better daugher-in-law. Trouble is a great educator. You see sometimes a musician sit, don n to an instrument, and bis 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 an instrument, and you discover the pathos in the first sweep of the keys. Misfc rtnne and trials are great educators. 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, ana rough in the feeling of the pulse, and rough in his answer to the mother’s anxious question: but years roll on, and there has been one dead in bis own honse; and now he comes into the sickroom, and with teaiful 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 its touch in the grandest painting; I hear its tremor in the sweetest song; I feel its power in the mightiest argument.

Grecian mvthology said that the fountain of Hippocrene was struck out by the foot of the winged horse Pegasus. I have often noticed in life that the briguest and most beautifalfouutaina of Christian comfort *nd spiritual life have been struck out bv thefeon shod hoof of disaster and calamity. I see Daniel’s courage best by the flash of Nebuchadnewar’s furnace. I see Paul's prowess best when I find him on the foundering ship under the vlare of the lightning in the breakers of Melita. God crowns his children amid the howling of wild beasts and the splashing of bloodsplashed guillotine and the crackling fires of martyrdom. It took the prosecutions of Marcus Aurelius to develop Polycarp and to develop Martin Luther. It took all the hostilities against the Se-tch Covenants and the fury of Lord Claverhonse to develop James Renwick. and Andrew Mellville, the glorious martyrs of Scotch history. It took the stormy sea, and the December blast, and the drsoiate New England Coast, and the war-whoop of savages to show forth the prowess of the Pilgrim Fathers. It took all our past National distress to lift up our Nation on that high career where it will march along after the foreign aristocracies have mocked and the tyrannies have jeered shall be swept down under the omnipotent wrath of God, whd hates despotism, and who by the strength of his own red right arm, will make all men free. And so it is indivually, and in the family and in the Church, and ,in the world, that through darkness and storm and trouble, men, women, churches, nations are developed. 2. Again, I see in my text the beauty of unfaltering friendship. I suppose there were plenty of friends for Naomi wbi'e she was in prosperity; but of all her acquaintances how many were wiling to trudge off with her toward Judah when she bad to make that lonely journey? One—the heroine of my text One —absolutely one. I suppose when Naou i’e husband was living, and they had plenty of money, and all things went well, they had a grea. many callerr, but I suppose that after her husband died and her property went, and she got old and poor, sbe was not troubled very much with callers. All the birds that sung in the bowev while the sun shon«> have gone to their nests, now the night has fallen. Oh! three beautiful sunflowers that spread out their color in the morning hour, bat are always asleep when the sun is going down! Job had plenty of nds when he was the richest man in triair came, then there were none an mu h that pestered him as Etiohaa, the Tertian ite, and Bildab, the Shuhite, and Zophar. the Namathite.

Life often seems to be a mere g*me, wbere the successful player pulls down all the other msn into his own Jap. Let suspicions arise about a man’s character and be becomes like a bank in a panic, and all the imputations rush on him and break down in a day that character which in due time would have streneth to defend itself. There are reputations that have been half a century in building, which go down under same moral exposure, as a Vast teni'ple is consumed by the touch of a sulphurous match. A hog can uproot a century plant. 3. Again: I learn ,Irdm this subject that paths Which open in hardship and darkness often come out in places of joy. .When Ruth started from Mcab toward Jerusalem, to go along with her mother-in-law, I suppose the people said: “Oh! what a foolish creature to go off with a poor old woman toWSrd the land of Judah! They won’t live to get across the desert They will be drowned in the sea, or the jackals of the wilderness will desroy them.” It was a very dark morning when Ruth started off with Naomi; but behold her in my text in the harvest-field of Boaz, to be affianceato one of the lords of the land, and become one of the grandmothers of Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory. And so it often is that a pith which starts very dark ends very brightly. When yon started out for heaven, oh! how dark was the hour of conviction; how Sinai thundered, and devils tormented, and the darknesi thickened! All the sins of ydur life pounced upon you, and it was the darkest hour you evex saw when you first found out your sins. After awhile you went into tbe harvest field of God’s mercy: you began to glean in tbe fields of divine promise, and yon had more sheaves than you could carry, as the voice of God addressed yon, saying: “Blessed is the man whose transgressions are forgiven, and whose sins are covered. A very dark starting in conviction, a very bright ending in the pardon and the hope and triumph of the Go»p?l! So, very often in our worldly business or in our spiritual career, we start off on a very dark path. We must go. The flesh mav shrink back, but there is a voice within, or a voice from above saying: “You must go;” and we have to carry the cross, and we have to traverse the desert, and we are pounded and Haled of misrepresentation and abuse, and we have to urge our way through ten thousand obstacles that must ne sla : n by our own right arm. We have to ford tbe river, we have to climb the mountain, we have to storm the castle; but, blessed be God, the day-of rett and reward will come. On the tip top of the captured battlements we will shout the victory, if not iu this world, then in the world where there is no gall to drink, no burdens to carry, no battles to fight. How do I knowit? Know it! I know it because God says so. It was very hard for Noah to endure the scoffing of the people in his day while ne was trying to build the ark, and was every morning quizzed about his old boat that would never be of any practical use, but when the deluge came, and the tops of the mountains disappeared like the backs of sea monsters, and tbe elements, lashed up in fury, clapped their hands over a drowned world, then Noah in tbe ark rejoiced in his own safety and in the safety of his family, and looked out on the wre:k of a ruined earth. - -- ?

Christ, hounded of persecutors, denied a pillow, worse maltreated than the thieves on either side of the cross, human bate smacking its lips in satisfaction after it had been draining His last drop of blood, the sheeted dead bursting from the sepulchers at His crucifiction. Tell me, 0 Gethsemane and Golgotha! were there ever daiker times than those? Like the booming of the midnight sea against the rock, the surges of Christ’s anguish beat against the gates of eternity, to be echoed back by ah the thrones oi heaven, all the dungeons of hell. But the day of reward comes for Chris’;all the pomp and dominion of this world are to be sung on Bin throne, uncrowned heads are to bow before Him on whose head are many crowns, and all the celestial woiship is to some up at His feet, like the humming of the forest, like the rushing of the waters, like the thundering of the seas, while all -hCTVFn.rs'iny ontheir throne s, bear time with their scepters. 4. Again, I learn from my subject that events which seem to be most insignificant may be momentous. Can you imagine anything more unimi ortant than the coming of a poor woman fromMoab to Judah? Can you imagine anything more trivial than the fact that this Ruth just happened to alight—as they sayjust happened to ahght on that field of Boas? Yet all ages and generations have an interest in the fact that, she was to become an ancestor of the lord Jesus Christ, and all nations and kingdoms must look at that one little incident with a thrill of unspeakable and eternal satisfaciion. So it is in your history , and in mine; events that you thought of no importance at all have been of great moment. Toat casual conversation, that accidental meeting—you did not think of it again for a long while, but how it changed all the phase of your life! It seemed to be a matter of no importance that Luther found a Bible in a monastery; but as he opened that Bible and the brass bound lids fell back, they jarred everything from the Vatican to the furthest convent in Germany, and the rustling of the wormed leaves was the sound of the wings of the angel of the reformation. It seemed to be a matter of no importance that a woman, whose name has been forgotten, dropped a tract in the way of a very bad man of the name of Richard Baxter. He picked up the tract and read it, and it was the means of his salvation, f The fact that you came up that street or this street seemed to be a matter of no importance to you, and the fact that yon went inside of some church may seem to be a matter of yery great insignificance to you, but you will find it the turning point in your history. ■ 5. Again: I see in my subject an illnstrrtiorrofAhebeauty of female industry. Behold Ruth toiling in the harvest field under the hot sun, or at noon taking plain bread with the reapers, or eating the parched corn which Boaz handed to her. The customs of society, of court e. have changed, and w ithout the hardships and exposure to which Rath was subjected every intelligent woman will find something to do. 6. Once more: I learn from my subject the value of gleaning. Ruth going into that “Tt ereis a straw and mere s a straw, but what is a straw? I can’t get any barley for my srif or my mother-in-law out of these separate straws.** Not so

said beautiful Ruth. She gathered two straws, and she pin them together, and more straws; until she get enough to make a sheaf. Putting that down, she went ana gathered mors straws, until she had another sheaf, and another, and another, and another, and then she brought them all ’ together, and she threshed them ont. and she had an epbah of barley, nigh a bushel. Oh, that we all might be gleaners! Elihu Burritt learned many things while toiling in a blacksmith’s shop. Abercrombie, tbe worla-renowned philosopher, was a philosopher in Scotland, and he got his philosophy, or the chief part of it, while as a physician be was waiting for tbe door of the sick room to open. Yet how many there are in this day who say they are so busy they have no time for mental or spiritual improvement: the great duties of life crews the field like strong reapers and carry off all tbe hours, and there is only here and there a fragment left that is not worth gleaning. Ab, my friends, you conld go into the busitst day of the busiest week of your lives and find golden opportunities, which, gathered, might at least make a while sheaf for the Lord’s garner. It is the stray opportunities and the stray privileges, which, taken up and bound together and bea'enout, will at last fill you with abounding joy. There are a few moments left worth the gleaning. Now, Roth, to the field! May each one have a measure full and running over! Ob, yon gleaners, go to tbe field! And if there be in your household an aged one or a sick relative that is not strong enough to come forth and toil in this field, then let Ruth take home to feeble Naomi this sheaf of gleaning: “He that goeth forth and weepctb, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing bis sheaves with him.” May the Lord God of Ruth and Naomi be our portion forever!