Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1886-09-10

company there be those who tell uuclean
stories, they will go so far as 10 tell some
thing on the margin between the pure and
tire impure And If thero be those who
swear in the room and uss the rough word
damn" they will go so far as the word
"darn," and look over the fence wishing they
could go farther; but as to any determine
tion, like Ruth's, to so the whole road of all
that is right, they have not the grace to 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 OF all nnr
bruises. When DR.. Chalmers printed his
astronomical discourses, they 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. Oh,
Eearerl does not yoIr soul thrill with the
thought that there is another world beauti-
fully inhabited! Nay, more that you by the
grace of God may become one of its glorious
citizensl
Ill Agan remark, II we want to become
Christians, like Ruth IN the text, we must
choose the Christian habitation. "Where
thou lodgeSt, will | LODGE cried Ruth TO
Naomi. She knew that wherever Naomi
stopped, whether it were hovel or mansion,
there would be a Christian home, and she
wanted to be in it. What do | mean by
L
Bible Is the chief book; a home in which the
family kneel in prayer; home in which
father and mother are practical Christians; a
home in which on Sabbath, from sunr Sc to
sunset, there is profitable converse and cheer
full song and suggestions of better world.
Whether the wal be frescoed or not, or only
a ceiling of upplaned rafters; whether mar
BILE lions are couchant at the front entrance,
or plain latch is lifted by o tow-string, that
home is the ante-i hamber of heaven. A man
never gets over having lived in such home
1t 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 gilt
ter in your memory. Nay, do you not now
feel hot and warm 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 led and prayed for
your welfare h9re and for your everlasting
welfare before the throne9
Dye who are to set up your own home, see
| that it be Christian home Let Jesus make
the wine at that wedding. A home without
| God is an awful place, there are 30 many
| peris to threaten it, AMI God himself Is SO
bitterly against it; but 1.-THE Lord en- ampeth
around about the inhabitation Of the just.
| What grand thing it Is to have God stand
| guard at that door, and the Lord Jesus the
| family physician; and the wings OF angels the
canopy over the pillow and the Lord of Glory
| a perpetual guest. You say it is mportant that
the wife and mother be Christian l say to
| you it is Just as important that the hus-
band and father be a Christian. Yet
| how many clever men there are who say:
| "My wife does all the religion of my house.
, am worldly man; but | have confidence in
her, and | think she will bring the whole fam
lily up all right" 1t will not do, my brother.
| The fact that you are not Christian has
| t,,Np on, fo Ooilu than the fact
! tnat your wife is Chris ian. Your children
'ill say: "Father'S a very good man; he is
not Christian, and if he can risk the future,
| / can risk the future" o father and husband! !!
| join your wife on the road to heaven, aud at
night gather your family at the altar. Do you
say: lean tpray. / am amau of few words
and don't think | could put half a dol en-
sentences together in such prayer" You
can pray; you can. If your child were down
with scarlet fever, and the next hour were to
decide it. recovery or its death, you would
pray in sobs and groans and Iaroxysms OF
earnestness. Yes, you can pray. When the
eternal life of your household may depend
upon your supplication, let your knees timber
and go down, but, il you still insist that you
cannot compose prayer, then buy or bor-
row prayer book of the Episcopal church,
and gather your family, and put your prayer
book on chair and kneel down before it,
and in the solemn and huS he'd presence of
God gather up all your sorrows and tempta-
tions and sins, and cry out: Good Lord, de-
liver US.
w. Again remark: If we want to be-
come Christians, like Ruth in the text we
must choose Christian associations. "Thy
people shall be my people," cried out Ruth to
Naomi. "The folks you associate with |
want to associate with. They will come and
see me, and will go and see them. | want
to move in the highest of all circles, the circle
| ~ ta11, a1a AZ o,,1t tbar mot a1n
going back with you to the land Of Judah. :
DO you who are seeking after God-and
suppose there are many such in this pres
Ell edo you who are seeking after
God prefer Christian society to
worldly society NO" you say,
81 prefer the worlds mirth, and the
worlds laughter, and the worlds innuendo,
and the worlds paraphernalia." Well, this
is free country, and you shall have the
right of choice; but let me tell yoI that the
purest mirth, and the most untrammele1
glee, and the greatest residence of soul are in
side Christian companionship, and not out
side of it. | have tried both styles of COM
panionship-tLe companionship of the world
and the companionship of Christ, and know
by experience. l have been now so long in
the sunShiuy expel ience and society oil
Christian people, that when | am compel ed
to go for little while amid intense worldly
society feel depressed. 1t is like going out
of q June garden into an icehouse. MeI
never know fully how to laugh until they
become Christians. The worlds laughter
has jerk of dissatisfaction at the end; but
when a'man is consecrated to God, and he il
all right for the world to come, then when he
laughs, body mind AMI soul crackle. Let q
group of ministers of th3 gospel, gathered
from all denominations of Christian be to-
gether in a dining hall, or in a social circle
and you know they are proverbially jocuud
o, ye unconverted people! | know not Row
you ian stand it down in that moping, bill
ious saturnine, worldly association. Come
up into the sunlight of Christian so :iety-
those people fer whom all thin csare workins
right now, and will work right forever. l tel
you that the sweetest japonicaS grow in thu
Lords garden; that the llrgest apes arr
from the vine ards of Canaan; that the mos
sparkling foods break forth from the Rocl
of Ages Do not too much pity this Ruth o
my text, for she is going to be'ome join
owner of the great harvest fields of Boaz.
v. Once more: If we want to becom'
Christians, we must, like Ruth in the text
choose the Christians death and burial. Sht
exclaimed: Where thou diejt will die, anC
there will be buried. l think we all, wher
leaving this world, would like to he sur
rounded by Christian influences Iou won
not like to have your dying pillow surrounded
by caricaturists and punsters and win
6bbers How would you like to hay
JOHu leoCn COlno WIN i-OhNoh.
torials and CHRISTOPHER North with hi
loose fun, and Tom Hood with his rhymlnI
jokes, when you are dyingl Mol mol NO
Let me have Christian nurse in ny las
sickness Let me have Christian physician
to administer the melicine. Let it lie
Christ an wife, or parent, or child, tina
watches the going out of the tides Of m,
mortal existen o Let Christian men com
into the room and read of the illuminate
valley and the extinguishment of grie', an
drown the hoarse blasts of death with tn
strains of mt. Pisgah" and "St. Martin"
In our last moment we VIII all he children
Said DR.. Guthrie the famous Scotch clergy