Custer chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, Black Hills, D.T. [S.D.]) 1880-1890, 1886-09-04

we ever want to get TO heaven.
|. In the first place, if we want to
become Christians, WE must. like Ruth
in the text, choose the Christians God.
Beautiful Ruth looked up into the
God shall be my Cod You see it vas
a change of gods. Naomi's God was
Jehovah; Ruth's God was Chemosh the
divinity of the Moabites, whom she had
worshipped under the symbol Of a black
star. Now she comes out from under
that black-starred divinity, and takes
THE LORD,
in whom there is no darkness at all:
the silver-starred divinity to whom the
meteor pointed down in Bethlehem; the
sunshiny God of whom the Psalmist
wrote: The Lord God is a sun" And
so. my friends, il We want to become
Christians we must change gods. This
world is the Chemosh to most people.
1t is a black-starred god. 1t can heal
no wounds. 1t can wipe away no sor-
rows. Ii can pay no debts. 1t can
save no updying soul. 1t is a great
cheat, so many thousand miles in di-
alIlSlti dlit 81 l1ibf bilot0'ibb iiiilND III
| circumference. If | should put this
audience under oath, one-half of them
would swear that this world is a liar
II is a bank which makes large adver-
tisement of what it has in the vaults
and of the dividends that it declares,
and tells us that if we want happiness,
all we have got to do Is to
come to that bank and apply for it. In
the hour OF need, we 90 TO that bank to
get happiness, and we find that the
vaults are empty, and 81! reliabilitics
have ~absconded and we are swindled
out Of everything. o thou black-starred
Chamosh, how many are burning in
ccnse ut thy shrine!
Now. Ruth turned away from this
god Chemosh and she took Naomis
God. Who was that? The God that
fashioned the heaven and filled it with
blissful inhabitants. The God whose
lifetime study it has been to make YOU
and all his creatures happy. The God
who watched us in childhood, and led
Va through the gauntlet Of infantile
dis;resses, feeding Us when We're hun
cry, pillowing us when we were somo-
lent, and sending
HIS ONL son
To wash away our pollution with the
tears and blood of His own eye and
heart, and Offering to be our eyerlast-
ing rest, comfort and ecStacy. A low
ing God. A sympathetic Cod. A
great-hearted God. An all-encom-
passing God. A God who filings him
self on this world in a very abandon
ment 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 prayer, and Esther's ON
secration, and Mary's broken heart,
+ and Ruth's loving and bereft spirit. q
choose We between Chemosh and Jeho-
, yah! The n service is pain and dis
appointment; the other service is bright
ness and life. ] have tried both.
ashamed to DO otherwise. | felt i
would be imbccile for me TO choose
, Chcmosh above Jehovah.
o happy day that fixed my choice
! On thee my Saviour and my God!
Well may this glowing heart rejoice,
And tell its raptures all abroad.
o Ohappy bond that seals my VOWS
To him who merits all my love,
Let cheerful anthems fill His house,
Z While to His sacred throne | move.
Q "High Heaven, that beard the solemn vow
q That vow renewed shall daily hear;
Till In life's latest hour | bow,
: And bless In death a bond SO dear"
$ III. Again; If you want to b
Q Christians, like Ruth in the tex! w
must take the Christian's path; "Whcr
thou goest, will CO." cried out tn
beautiful Moabitess to Naomi, tn
4 mother-in-iaw. Dangerous promis,
n that. There were deserts to be crossed
/, There were jackals that came dowr
-, through the wilderness. There wer'
: bandits. There was the Dead sea
Naomi says: Ruth, you must 20 back
You are too delicate to take this jour
ney. You will give out in the first iiv,
miles. You cannot 90. You have no
the physical stamina or the moral cour
age TO go with me" Ruth responds
Mother, | am going anyhow. If
stay in this land | will be overbornC
with idolaters; if | go along with you
shall
SERVE GOD
Give me that bundle. Let me carry it.
| am going with You, mother, any
how
And if we want 10 serve God we must
do as Ruth did, crying out: where
thou goest. | will 90" Never mind
the Dead sea. Afoot or horseback.
If there be rivers TO ford wo must
ford them. If there be noun.
tains to scale, we must scale them. /.
there be enemies 10 fight. we must fight
them. 1t requires grit and pluck to
get from Moab TO Judah. Oh, how
many Christians there who can be
diverted from the path by a 9uiv,r OF
the lip, indicative Of scorn! They do
not surrender to temptation, but they
bend to it. And if in Il company there
be those who tell unclean stories
they will 20 SO far us TO tell
something on the margin between the
pure and the impure. And if there nc
those who swear in the room, and use