The Maryville times. (Maryville, Tenn.) 1884-1944, 1886-09-08

There were jackals that came down
through the wilderness. There were ban
dts. There was the Dead Sea. Naomi
says:
"Ruth, you must go back. You are too
delicate to take this journey. You will
give out in the first five miles. You can
not 60. You have not the physical STAN.
ina or the moral courage to 60 with me-"
Ruth responds:
"Mother, am going anyhow. If stay
in this land will be overborne OF the
idolators; il go along with you l shall
serve God. Give me that bundle. Letme
carry it. l am going with you mother
anyhow"
And il we want to serve God, we must
do as Ruth did, crying out:
Where thou goest, will go.
Never mind the Dead Sea. Afoct or
horseback. If there be rivers to ford, we
must ford them. If Their be mountains to
scale, we must scale them. II there be
enemies to fight, we must fight them. 1t
requires grit and pluck to get from Moao
to Judah. Oh, how many Christians
there are who can be diverted from the
Path by qulver of the lip, indicative OF
scorn? They do not surrender to tempta'
ton, but they bend to it. And If IN
company there be those who tell unclean
stories they will 60 so far as to tell some.
thing on the margin between the pure and
the impure. And il there be those who
swear in the room and use the rough word
"damn," they will 60 SO far as the WORD
"darn," and look over the fence, wishing
they could go farther; but as to any de-
termination like Ruth's to 60 the whole
road of all that is right, they have not the
grace 10 do it. They have not in all their
body as much courage as Ruth had in her
little finger. Oh, my friends, let us
start for Heaven and go clear
through! In the river that runs by
the gate of the city we shall wash OIL all
our bruises. When DR.. Chalmers printed
his astronomical discourses, they were
were read in the haylofts, in the fields, in
the garrets and in the palaces. because
they advocated the idea that the stars
were inhabited. o, hearer, does not your
soul thrill with the thought that there is
another world beautifully inhabited? Nay
more, that you by the grace of God may
become one of its glorious citizens!
8. Again remark: If we want to be-
come Christians. like Ruth in the text, we
must choose the Christians habitation.
Where thou lodgest, will lodge,
cried ruth to Naomi. She knew that
wherever Naomi stopped, whether it were
howell or mansion, there would be a Chris
tian home, and she wanted to be in it..
| What do mean by Christian home? l
mean home in which the Bible is the
chief book; a home in which the family
kneel in prayers; home in which father
and mother are practical Christians; a
home in which on Sabbath, from sunrise
| to sunset, there is profitable converse, and
cheerful song, and suggestions of better
world. Whether the wall be frescoed or
not, or only a ceiling of unplaned rafters;
the front entrance, or plain
latch is lifted by a tow-string-that
home is the ante chamber OF
Heaven. A man never gets over
having lived in such an early home. II
holds you in an eternal grip. Though
your parents may have been gone forty
years, the tears Of penitence and gladness
that were wept at the family altar still
glitter in your memory. Nay, do you not
now feel warm and hot on your hands the
tears which that mother shed thirty years
ago, when, one cold winter night, she
came and wrapped you up in the bed and
prayed for your welfare here and fol
your everlasting welfare before the throne:
o, We who are to set up your own home
see that it be Christian home! Let Jesus
make the wine at that wedding. A HON,
without God is an awful place, there are
SO many perils to threaten it, and Goo
himself is so bitterly against it; but
The Lord encampeth around about tn,
habitaton of the just.
What a grand thing it is to have Coo
stand guard at that door, and the Lore
Jesus the family physician; and the wing
of angels the canopy over the pillow, an,
the Lord of Glory n perpetual guest. Yo,
say it is important that the wife and tn
mother be Christian. l say to you it i
just as important that the husband an
father be Christian. Yet how man,
clever men there are who say:
"My wife does all the religion of m
house. l am worldly man, but | hav
, confidence in her, and l think she will
bring the whole family up all right"
, 1t will not do, my brother. The fac
that you are not Christian has more in
fluence on your family than the fact tina
your wife is Christian. Your childre
|. will say:
"Father's very good man; he is not
Christian, and if he can risk the future,
can risk the future"
o father and husband! join your wifi
on the road TO Heaven, and at night gath
!, er your family at the altar. Do you say
81 can't pray. lam man of few word
u and don't think could put half doze
sentences together in such prayer"
You can pray; you can. if your chill
were down with scarlet fever, and I'll
d next hour were to decide its recovery
o its death, you would pray in sobs, an
d groans and paroxysms of earnestnes
d Yes, you can pray. When the etern,
i life of your household may depend upo
y your s,,eplication, let your knees limb
!. and 60 down; but if you still insist thu
n you can not compose prayer, then bu
: or borrow prayer-book of the Episcop
n church, and gather your family, and p
e your prayer book on chair, and kne
n down before it, and in the solemn al
IS hushed presence of God gather up all yo'
d sorrows, and temptations, and sins, ar
It cry out
l. "Good Lord, deliver u.s."
Il 4. Again, remark, if we want to b
Is come Christians, like Ruth in the text, v
l. must choose Christian associations.
=, NV people shall be my people,