Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Huron News-Record, 1894-12-19, Page 2want to buy First Class Goods a surprisinglyl o w prices, if you WANT TO KEEP up with this progressive age, and by buying for Cash save worry and trou- ble about long accounts, get A LITTLE MONEY and come to 0. COOPED, & CO'S. Gro- cery. All kinds of Staple and Fancy Groceries. New Raisins, Currants, Figs, Dates, Nuts, Peels, etc., for the Xmas Trade. BUY OF the dealers who sell for Cash. s ai BolioM Prices. Just think of getting 44 PIECE FOR ONLY _J....45 a 75 a A0121ftsave--- [G VA LUE, LITTLE PRICE. a 1 97 PIECE i TII BEST XMAS GIFT Or addition to one's own Sideboard is a llkflSOV1E DINNER SET See our Decorated Set Eng- lish Ware, pretty pat- tern, consisting of 110 PIECES --FOR ONLY DINNER SET IliesSOIESVESIOININEk —FOR— $6.00. OR $6.00. NEVER WAIT To see a better line of Crockery, China, Glassware, etc., than can now be seen ----AT TILE -- CASH GROCERY. FANCY CHINA HIGH QUALITY, LOW PRICES and an assortment unequalled in variety tell almost the whole story. Prices Away Down. We ask you to come in and inspect our stock. LSE COOPER -THE CASH GROCERY. c • 9 WE ARE ALL GLEANERS. - DR. TALMAGE'S SERMON ON THE MEETING OF BOAZ AND RUTH.- Ag UTH. a' Discourse Especially Appropriate to the Thanksgiving Season—It Includes alb Exhortation to All Regarding the Duty of Lire. BROOKLYN, Dec. 2—A sermon redolent with the breath of the vast harvest fields of America, indicates that Dr. Talmage has found in the scones through which he has been traveling and in his present surroundings, sug- gestions of gospel lessons. His text is taken from Ruth ii, 3: "And she went and came and gleaned in the field after the reapers ; and her hap was to light on a part of the field belonging unto Boaz, who was of the kindred of Elimelech." The time that 13<uth and Naomi arrive at Bethlehem is harvest time. It was the old custom when a sheaf fell from the load in the harvest field for the reapers to refuse to gather it up ; that was to be left for the poor who might happen to come that way. If there were 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 glean it and get their bread. But yon 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 toil in the sun; and can , you expect that Ruth, the young and the beautiful, should tan her cheeks and blister her hands in the harvest field ?" Boaz owns a largo farm, and he goes out to see the reapers gather in the grain. Coming there, right behind the swarthy, sun browned reapers, he bo - holds a beautiful woman gleaning—a woman more fit to bend to harp or sit upon a throne than to stoop among the sheaves. Ah, that was an eventful day ! It was love at first sight. Boaz forms an attachment for the womanly gleaner —an attachment full of undying inter- est to the Church of God in all ages; while Ruth, with an ephah, or nearly a bushel of barley, goes home to Naomi to tell her the success and adventures of the day. That Ruth, who left her native land of darkness, and journeyed through an undying affection for her mother-in-law, is in the harvest field of Boaz, is affianced to one of the best families in Judah, and becomes in after time the andestress of Jesus Christ, the Lord of Glory i Out of so dark a night did there ever dawn so bright a morn- ingl I learn in the first place from this sub- ject how trouble Levelops character. It was bereavement, poverty and exile that developed, illustrated and announc- ed to all ages the sublimity of Ruth's character. That is a very unfortunate man who has no trouble. It was sor- row 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 Havelock the better soldier, and Kitto the better encyclopedist, andRuth the better daughter-in-law. I once asked an aged man in regard to his pastor, who was a very brilliant man, "Why is it that your pastor so very brilliant. seome. to have ea little tenaerness rn nig sermons r-' We11; lie replied, "the ason jl, our pastor has never had any ftioiible;�When, misfor- tune comes upon Minhie' style will be different." After awhile the Lord took a child out of- that pastor's house, and though the preacher was just as brilliant as he was before, oh, the warmth, the tenderness of his discourses ! The fact is that trouble is a great educator. You see sometimes a musician sit down at an instrument, and his 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 at the in- strument, and you discover the pathos in the first sweep of the keys. Misfor- tune and trials are great educators. A young doctor comes into a sick- room where there is a dying child. Per- haps he is very rough in his prescrip- tion, and very rough in bis manner and rough in the feeling of the pulse, and rough in his answer to the mother's anxious question, but the years roll on and there has been one dead in his own house, and now he comes into the sick- room, and with tearful 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 argu- ment. Grecian mythology said that the foun- tain of Hippocrene was struck out by the foot of the winged horse, Pegasus. I have often noticed in life that the brightest and most beautiful fountains of Christian comfort and spiritual life have been struck out by the iron shod hoof of disaster and calamity. I see Daniel's courage boat by the flash of Nebuchadnezzar's fur- nace. I see Paul's prowess best when I find him on the floundering ship' under the glare of the lightning- in the breakers of Melita. God crowns his children amid the howling of wild beasts and the chopping of blood splash- ed guillotine and the crackling fires of martyrdom. It took the persecutions of Marcus Aurelius to develop Polycarp and Jus- tin Martyr. It took the pope's bull,and the cardinal's curse, and the world's anathema to develop Martin Luther. It took all the hostilities against the Scotch Covenanters and the fury of Lord Claverhouse to develop James Renwick and Andrew Melville, and Hugh McKail, the glorious martyrs of Scotch history. It took the stormy sea, and the December blast and the desolate New England coast, and the warwhoop of savages to show forth the prowess of the Pilgrim fathers— When amid the storms they sang, And the stars heard, and the sea; And the Hounding aisles of the dim wood Rang to the anthem of the free. It took all our past national distresses, and it takes all our present national Bor- rows, to lift up our nation on that high career where it will march along after the foreign despotism that have mocked and the tyrannies that have jeered shall bo swept down under the omnipotent wrath of God, who hates oppression, and who, by the strength of his own red right arm, will make all men free. And so it is individually, 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. Again, I see in my text the beauty of unfaltering friendship. tI suppose there were plenty of friends for Naomi while she was in prosperity. But of all her acquaintances, how many were willing to trudge off with her toward Judea, when she had to make that lonely jour - hey 1 One—the heroine of my text. One—absolutely one. I suppose when Naomi's husband was living, and they had plenty of money. and all things went well, they had a great many call- ers. But I suppose that after her hus- band died, and her property went, and she got old and poor, she was not trou- bled very much with callers. All the birds that sang in the bower while the sun shone have gone to their nests, now the night has fallen. Oh. these beautiful sunflowers that spread out their color in the morning hour ! But they aro always asleep when the sun goes down ! Job had plenty of friends when he was the rich- est man in Uz ; but when his property went and the trials came, then there wore hone so much that pestered as Eli- phaz the Temanite, and Bildad the Schuhite and Zophar the Naamathite. Life often seems to be a more game, where the successful player pulls down all the other, men into his own lap. Let suspicions arise about a man's charac- ter, and he becomes like a bank in a panic, and all the imputations rush on him and break down in a day that char- acter which in due time would have had strength to defend itself. There are reputations that have been half a cen- tury in building which go down under some moral exposure, as a vast temple is consumed by the touch of a sulphur- ous match. A hog can uproot a century plant. In this world, so full of heartlessness and hypocrisy, how thrilling it is to find some friend as faithful in days of adver- sity as in days ofrospperity ! David had such a friend in Uushai ; the Jews had such a friend in Mordecai, who never forgot their cause ; Paul had such a friend in Onesiphorus, who visited him in jail • Christ had such in the Marys, who adhered to him on the cross ; Naomi had such a one in Ruth, who cried out, "Entreat me not to leave then, or to re- turn from following after thee ; for whither thou goest, I will go ; and where thou lodgest I will lodge ; thy people shall be my people, and thy God •my good ; where thou diest will I die, and there will I be buried ; the Lord do so to me andmore also, if aught but death part thee and me." Again, I learn from this subject that paths which open in hardship and dark- ness often comes out in places of joy. When Ruth started from Moab toward Jerusalem, to go along with her mother- in-law, I suppose the people said : "Oil, what a foolish creature to go away from her father's house too off with a poor old woman toward the land of Judea! They won't live to get across the desert. They will be drowned in the sea, or the jackals of the wilderness will destroy them." It was a very dark morning when Ruth started off with Naomi, but beheld her in my text in the harvest field of Boaz, to be affianced to ono 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 path which starts very darkly ends very brightly.' When you started out for heaven, oh ! bow dark was the hour of conviction— Sinai thundered and devils tormented and the darkness thickened! All the sins of your life pounced upon you, and it was the darkest hour you ever saw when you first found out your sins. Atter awnire you went into the narvusi field of God'smercy, you began to glean in the fields of divine promise, and you had more sheaves than you could carry as the voice of God addressed you, say- ing, "Blessed is the man whose trans- gressions are ° forgiven and whose sins are covered." A verg dark starting in conviction. a very bright ending in the pardon and the hope and the triumph of the Gospel ! So, very often in our worldly busi- ness or in our spiritual career we start off on a very dark path. We must go. The flesh may shrink back but there is a voice within, or a voice from above, saying, "You must go,"and we have to drink the gall, and we have to carry the cross, and we have to traverse the desert, and we aro pounded and flailed of misrepresentation and abuse, and we have to edge our way through ten thou- sand obstacles that have to be slain by our own right arm. We have to ford the river. we have to climb the moun- tain, we have to storm the castle, but, blessed be God the day of rest and re- ward will come. On the tip-top of the captured battlements we will shout the victory; if not in this world, then in that world where there is no gall to drink, no burdens to carry, no battles to fight. How do I know it ? Know it! I know it because God says so—"They, shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more, neither shall the sun light on them, nor any beat, for the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall lead them to living, fountains of water, and God shall wipe all tears from their eyes." It was very hard for Noah to endure the scoffing of the people in his day, while he 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 dis- appeared like the backs of sea monsters and the elements, lashed up inl fury, clapped their hands over a drowned world. then Noah in the ark rejoiced in his own safety and in the safety of his family and looked out on the wreck of a ruined earth. Christ, houndod•of persecutors,denied a pillow, worse maltreated than the thieves on either side of the cross, hu- man hate smacking its lips in satisfac- tion after it had been draining his last drop of blood, the sheeted dead bursting from the sepulchres at his crucifixion. Tell me, 0 Gethsemane and Golgotha ! were there ever darker times than those ? Like the booming of the mid- night sea against the rock, the surges of Christ's anguish beat against the gates of eternity, to be echoed back by all the thrones of heaven and all the dungeons of hell. But the day of reward comes for Christ; all the pomp and dominion of this world are to be hung on his throne, uncrowned heads are to bow before him on whose head are many crowns, and all the celestial worship is to come up at his feet like the hamming of the for- est, like the rushing of the waters, like the thundering of the seas, while all We -air -en, rising on their thrones, beat time with their sceptres : "Hallelujah for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth Hallelujah, the kingdoms of this world have become the kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ !" That song of love, now low and far, Ere long shall swell frem star to star; That light, the breaking day which tips h The golden-splred Apocalypse. Again, I learn from my' subject that events which seem to be most insignifi- cant may be momentous. Can you imagine anything more unimportant than the coming of a poor woman from Moab to Judea ? Can you imagine any- thing more trivial than the fact that this Ruth just happened to alight—as they say—just happened to alight on that field of Boaz? Yet all ages, all generations, have an interest in the fact that she was to become an ancestress of the Lord Jesus Christ, and all nations and kingdoms must look at that one little incident with a thrill of unspeak- able and eternal satisfaction. So it is in your history and in mine ; events that you thought of no importance at all have been of very great moment. That casual conversation, that accidental meeting—you did not think of it again for a long while ; but how it changed all the current of your life ! It seemed to be of no importance that Jubal invented rude instruments of music, calling them harp and organ, but they were the introduction of all the world's minstrelsy. And as you hear the vibration of a stringed instrument, even after the fingers have been taken away from it, so all music now of lute and drum and cornet is only the long continued strains of Jubal's harp and Juliet's organ. It seemed to be a matter of very little importance that Tubal Cain learned the uses of copper and iron, but that rude foundry of ancient days ha f is echo in the rattle of Bir- mingham machinery and the roar and bang of factories on the Merrimac. Again, I sec in my subject an illustra- tion of the beauty 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 course have changed, and without the hard- ships and exposure to which Ruth was subjected, every intelligent woman will find something to do. I know there is a sickly sentimentality on this subject. In some families there aro persons of no practical service to the household or community, and though there are so many woes all around them in the world they spend their time languish- ing over a new pattern or bursting into tears at midnight over the story of some lover who shot himself 1 They would not deign to look at Ruth carry- ing back the barley on her way home to her mother-in-law, Naomi. All this fastidiousness may seem to do very well while they are under the shel- ter of their fathers house ; but when the sharp winter of misfortune comes, what of these butterflies ? Persons under indulgent parentage may get upon themselves habits of indolence, but when they come out into practical lite their soul will recoil with disgust and chagrin. They will feel In their hearts what the poet so severely satir- ized when ho said : Folks aro so awkward, things so Impolite, They're elegantly pained from morn till night. Through that gate of indolence how many men and women have marched, useless on earth, to a destroyed eter- nity! Spinola said to Sir Horace Vero : "Of what did your brother die ?" "Of having nothing to do," was the answer. "Ah !" said Spinola "that's enough to kill any general of us." Oh, can it be possible fn this world, where there is se much suffering to be alleviated, so much darkness to be enlightened, and so many burdens to be carried, that there is any person who cannot find anything to do? Once more I learn from.= subiect the vacuo or gleaning, stutn going into that harvest field might have said : ''"There is a straw and there is a straw, but what is a straw? I can't get any barley for myself or my mother-intlaw out of these separate straws." Not so said beautiful Ruth. She gathered two straws and she put them together, and more straws until she got enough to make a sheaf. Putting that down she went and gathered more strawsuntil she had another sheaf,and another and another, and then she brought them all together and she threshed them out, and she had an ephah of barley, nigh a bushel. Oh, that we might all be gleaners! Elihu Burritt learned many things while toiling in a blacksmith's shop. Abercrombie, the world renowned phil- osopher, was a physician in Scotland, and he got his philosophy, or the chief part of it, while as a physician he was waiting for the 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 improve- ments; the great duties of life cross the field like strong reapers and carry off all the hours, and there is only here and there a fragment left that is not worth gleaning. Ah, my triends, you could go into the busiest 'lay and busiest week of your life and find golden opportunities, which gathered might at last make a whole sheaf for the Lord's garner. It is the stray opportunities and the stray privileges which taken up and bound together and beaten out will at last fill you with much joy. There are a few moments left worth the gleaning. Now, Ruth, to the field ! May each one have a measure full and running over ! Oh, you gleaners, to the field ! And if there be in your household an aged or a sick relative that is not strong'' enough to come forth and toil in this field, then lot 13 uth take home to feeble Naomi this sheaf of gleaning, "He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoic- ing, bringing his sheaves with him." May the Lord God of Ruth and Naomi be our portion forever ! A Remarkable City, New York is remarkable for its cos- mopolitan population. Of the 1,800,000 inhabitants reported by the last State census 377,000 are aliens. Nearly every one in five inhabitants is therefore not a citizen. But thousands of citizens are foreign born, and still retain their na- tive language and customs. The Am- erican born are, in fact, in a small minority, numbering only 335,000. Thero are more Germans and more Irish in New York than there are native born. The Russian colony (including Poles) numbers 80,000, and there are 54,000 Italians. Nearly every race, re- ligion and language are represented here. Certain sections of the city are as distinctly foreign in character and population as any foreign city cou be. This is one of the things that fake New York so interesting, and also so difficult to govern.' -New York Letter to Philadelphia Ledger. Ono of the Advantages. Mrs. Dimplcton—I would like hotel life, but I am so lonesome all day while my husband is at the office. Mrs. Cheltenham --Why don't—you keep house ? Then you can spend your spare time in thinking what you will have for breakfast.—Burlington (Ia.) Gazette.