The Maryville times. (Maryville, Tenn.) 1884-1944, 1886-09-08
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
A Campaigning Discourse on the
Daughter-in.Law.
The Love Of Ruth for NaOmi-Five Indis.
Pensables 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-meeting at
Ont, preached sermon, taking
for his subject the beautiful story of Ruth
and Naomi. His text was:
Entreat me not to leave thee, or to return
from following after thee for WHITTIER thou
goest. l will go; and where thou lodgest,
will lodge thy people shall be my people,
md thy God my God; where thou diest will
! die. and there will be buried; the Lord do
SO to me, and more also, If aught but death
part thee and me. Ruth l., 1917.
[ Following is DIR. Talmage's sermon:
Famine in Judah. Upon fields distin-
guished for fertility the blight came, and
at the door of princely abodes want
knocked. Turning his back upon bis
house and his lands Elimelech took his
wife Naomi and his two sons and started
for the land Of Moab, in search of bread.
Get ing into Moab his two sons married
idolatt rs-Ruth the name of one, Orpah
the name of the other. Great calamities
came upon that household. Elimelech
died and his two sons, leaving Naomi, the
wife, and the two daughters in. law. Poor
Naomi, IN strange land and her husband
and two sons dead. She must go back to
Judah. She can not stand it in place
where everything reminded her Of her
sorrow. just as now, sometimes YOU see
persons moving from one house to anoth-
or, or from one city to anoth-
er, and you can not understand
it until you find out that it is because
there were associations with cer-
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 60. there are deserts; there are wild
beasts ranging the wilderness; there are
savages 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 bus.
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
daughters law, Ruth and Orpah. They
were tenderly attached, these three
mourners. They had bent over the same
sick bed; they had moved in the same
funeral procession; they had wept over
the same grave. There the three mourners
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, and Ruth and
Orpah resolve to 60 little way along
with her. They have gone but short dis
lance when Naomi turns around and says
to her daughters-n-law:
$50 back. There may be days of
brightness yet for you in your native
land. can't bear to take you away from
your home and the homes Of your kindred
am 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 go
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;
81 can't bear to let that old mother go
alone. 1t is my duty to go with her."
And throwing her arms around weeping
Naomi she pours out her soul in the
tenderness, and pathos, and Christian
eoquence Of my text:
Entreat me not to leave thee, or to return
from following after thee; for whittier thou
goest, will go; and where thou lodgest,
will lodge; thy people shall be my people
and thy God my God; where thou diest will
die, and there will be buried the Lord d.
so to me, and more also, If aught but deatl
part thee and me.
Five choices Ruth made in that text
and five choices must we all make If W
ever want to get to heaven.
/. In the first place, if we want to be
text, choose the Christians God Beauti
full Ruth looked up into the wrinkled fac
of Naomi, and said:
Thy God shall be my God.
You see it was change of Gods
Noami's God was Jehovah; Ruth's go
was Chemosh, the divinity of the Moab
ties, whom she had worshiped under tn
symbol Of black star. Now she come
out from under that black starred divin
ity, and takes the Lord in whom there
no darkness at all; the silver Stare
divinity to whom the meteor poured dow
In Bethlehem; the sunshiny god of whor
the Psalmist wrote: :,
The LORD God is a sun. "a"
Now Ruth turned away from this go
Chemosh and she took Naomi's God. VIII
was that? The God that made the worl
and put you in it. The God that fashione
the Heaven and filled it with biissful in
habitants. The God whose lifetime stud
it has been to make you and all his cres
lures happy. The God who watched us
childhood. and led us through the gaun
let of infantile distresses, feeding us whe
we were hungry, pillowing us when "
were somnolent, and sending His only SC
to wash away our pollution with the teal
and blood of His own eve and heart, al
offering to be our everlasting rest, comfo
and ecstacy. A loving God. A symp,
thetic God. A great-hearted God. An a
encompassing God. A God who films
himself on this world in very abandon
ment of everlasting affection. The cloud
the veil of his face. The sea, the aquariu
of his palace. The stars, the dev
drops on His lawn. The God of Hannah
pray er, and Esther's conservation ar
Mary's broken heart, and Ruth's lovir
and bereft spirit. o choose We betwe'
Chemosh and jehovah! The one serv
is pain and disappointment: the 9th
service is brightness and life. l ha'
tried both, I choose the service of God b