The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1886-09-03
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
& Camp Meeting Discourse on the
Daughter-in-Law.
The Love of Ruth for Naomt-FIve Indis-
pensabies Which the Faithful Chris
tian Must Possess in Order to
Live and Die Right.

The Love of Ruth for Naomt-Five Indis-
pensabies Which the Faithful Chris
tian Must Possess in Order to
Live and Die Right
Rev. T. Dewitt Talmage, in a recent
visit to the historic old camp-meetng at
Grimsby, Ont, preached a sermon, taking
for his subject the beautiful story OF Ruth
and Naomi. His ext was:
Entreat me not to leave thee, or to return
from following after thee; for whittier thou
goest, will go; and where thou lodgest,
win lodge; thy people shall be my people
and thy God my God; whore thou diest will
[ die, and there will be buried; the Lord do
so TO me, and more also. if aughs but death
part thee aud me.~-Ruth t., II.
Following is DR.. Ta1mage's sermonf
Famine in Judah. Upon fields distin-
guished for fertility the light came, and
at the door of princely abodes want
Knocked. Turning his back upon lis
house and his lands Elimelech took his
wife Naomi and his two sons and started
for the land of Moab, in search of bread.
Getting into Moab his two sons married
idoIators-Ruth the name of one, Orpah
tie name of the other. Great calamities
came upon that household. Eiimelech
died and his two sons, leaving Naomi, the
wife, and the two daugh law. Poor
Naomi! In a strange land and her husband
and two sons dead. She must go back to
Judah. She can not stand it in a place
where everything reminded her Of her
sorrow, just as now, sometimes you S, e
persons moving from one house to anOth-
er, or from one city to anoth-
er, and you can NOT understand
it until you find cut that it is because
| there we're associations with a GER
| tain place that they could no longer bear.
| Naomi must start for the land of Judah;
| but how shall she get there? Between
Moab and the place where she would like
| to so, there are deserts; there are wild
| beasts ranging the wilderness; there are
| sava2es going up and down, and there is
! the awful Dead sea. Well, you say, she
| came over the road once, she can do so
again. All! when she came over the road
before she had the strong arms of her hus-
| band and her two sons to defend her.
| Now they are all gone.
| The hour of parting has come, and
! Naomi must be separated from her two
| daug ghters -in-law, Ruth and Orpah. They
were tenderIy attached, these three
| moWners. They had bent over the same
sick bed; they had moved in the same
! funeral procession; they had wept over
/ -
| stand talking. Naomi thinks of the time
! when she left Judah with prince for her
companion. Then they all think of the
marriage festivities, when Naomi's two
sons were united to these women, who
! have now exchanged the wreath OF the
bride for the veil of the mourner. Naomi
| starts for the land of Judah, an 1 Ruth and
Orpah resolve to go a little way along
with her. They have gone but a short dis
tancs when Naomi turns around and says
to her daughters-in-law:
"Go back. There may be days oil
brightness yet for you in your native
land. I can't bear to take you away from
your home aud tho homes of your kindred.
/ avn old and troubled. Go not along with
me. The Lord deal gently with you as We
have dealt with the dead and with me-"
But they persisted in going, and SO the
three Travelled on until after awhile Naomi
turns around again and begs them to so
! back. Orpah takes the suggestion, and
after sad parting goes away; but Ruth,
| grand and glorious Ruth, turns her back
upon her home. She says:
q can't bear to let that old mother go
alone. 1t is my duty to so with her"
And throwing her arms around weeping
Naomi she pours out her soul i'm the
tenderness, and pathos, aud Chris lian
| eioquence Of my text:
Entreat me not to leave thee, or to return
I from following after thee; for whittier thou
4 goest, Will go; and where thou Iodeest /
4 will lodge; thy people shalt be nay people,
. and thy God my God; where thou diest " II
die, and there will be buried; the Lord do
50 t. me, and more also, if aught but death
part thee and me.
Five choices Ruth made in that text,
and five choices must we all make If we
ever want to get to heaven.
1. In the first place, if we want to be-
come Christians we must, like Ruth in the
text, choose the CHRISTIANS God. Beauti
ful Ruth looked up into the wrnkled face
| OF Naomi. aud said:
Thy God shall be my God.
You see it was change Of Gods.
| Noami's God was jehovah; Ruth's god
was Chemosh, the divinity of the Moab
itee, whom she had worshipsd under the
| sylubol of a black star. Now sbo comes
| out from under that black starred divin-
! ity, and takes the Lord in whom thore is
| no darkness at all; the siIvcr-starred
divinity to whom the meteor pourc down
IN Bethlehem; tho sunshiny god Of whom
the Psalmist wrote:
The Lord God is a sun.
And so, my friends, If we want to be-
come Christians we must change gods
This world is the Chsmosh to IN 2st people
1t is a bIaclz-starred god. 1t can heal n
wounds. 1t can wipe away no sorrows.
1t can pay no debts. It can save no un-
dying soul. 1t is greater cheat, so many
thousand miles in diameter and so many
thousand miles in circumference. If !
should put this audience under oath, one
baIf of them would swear that this world
IS liar. 1t is bank which makes large
/ advertisements of whatit has in the vaul &
and of the dividends that it declares, and
tells Us that if we want happiness, ali we
have got to do is to come to that bank and
apply for it, In the hour of need we 20 TO
that bank to get happiness, and we find
that the vaults are empty, an 1 all relia-
Utilities have absconded and we are
swindled out of every thing. o thou black
starred Chemosh, how many are burning
incense at thy shrinel
Now Ruth turned away from this god
/ Chemosh and she took Naomi's God. Who
was that? The God that made the world
qnd put you in it. The God that fashioned
the Heaven and filed it with blissful in
/ habitants. The God whose life-tIrne study
Il has been to make you and all his crea-
cures happy. The God who watched us in
I th hildhood. and led Us through the caunt-
let of infantils dist-esses, feeding US when
we were hungry, pillowing It's when we
/ were somnolent, and sending His only son
l TO wash away orU pollution with the tears
| and blood of His own eve and heart, and
Offering to be our everlasting rest, comfort
| and ecstacy. d loving God. A sympa-
thetic God. A great-hearted God. An all
encompassing God. A God who filings
himself on this world in a very abandon
naent Of everlasting affection. The clouds,
the veil Of his face. The sea, the aquarium
of his palace. The stars, the dew
drops on His lawn. The God Of Hannah's
rsravar and Fefhqrge frurecratf0u and