Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1886-08-23
HOW TO GET TO HEAVEN.
REV. TAT.MAGE AT THE GRIMS-
By CAMP MEETING.

Christians Habitation and Death ano
Burial Must Also be Chosen.
GRIMsBY, ONTARIO, Aug. 22.-The Rev
+. Dewitt Talmage, d. D., is attending
this Old historical camp meeting tor the
third time. People from all parts OF
Canada attended the service to-day, at
which he was the preacher. His text was
Ruth j., 16 and Il: Entreat me not to
leave thee, or to return from following
after thee: for whittier thou goest l Will
20: and where thou lOdgest l will lodge:
thy people shall be my people. and thy
Sod my God: where thou diest will die,
ana there will | be buried: the Lord do
SO to me, and more also If aught but
death part thee and me-" Following is
DR.. 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 his
house and his lands, Elimelech took his
wife Naomi and mis- two sons and started
for the land OF Moab in search of bread.
Getting into Moab his two sons married
idOaters-Ruth, the name OF one, Orpah
the name OF the other. Great calamities
came upon that household. Eiimeech
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
20 back TO Judah. She cannot stand it in
place where everything reminded her OF
her sorrow. just as now, sometimes you
see persons moving from one house to an
other, or from one city TO another, and
you cannot understand it until you find
out that 1t is because there were associa-
tons with certain 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 go, there are des-
erts; 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 husband 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 dauglters-in-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 went over
the same grave. There the three mourn
ers stand talking. Naomi thinks OF the
time when she left Judah with "A prince
for her companion. Then they all think
of the marriage festivals, when Na0mPs
two sons were united 10 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 togo little way
along with her. They have gone but a
short distance when Naomi turns around
and says to her daughters-in-law: go
hanE HhGFA m "A nava nf hri
yet for you in your native land. 1 can't
bear TO take you away from your home
and the homes OF your kindred. l am old
and troubled. Go not along with me. The
Lord deal gently with you as We bave
dealt with the dead ana with me-" But
they persisted in going, and so the three
Travelled on until after awhile Naomi
turns around again and begs them to 20
back. Orpah takes the sugges-
ton, and after sad part
ing goes away; but Ruth. grand and glo-
rious Ruth, turns her back upon her
home. She says: 81 cant 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 pa
thOs, and Christian elOQuence OF my text:
"Ehtreat me not to leave thee, or to re-
turn from following after thee: for
whittier thou gcest, | will go: and whittier
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 do so to me,
and more also, if aught but death part
thee and me-"
Five choices Ruth made in that text.
and i've choices must we all make if we
ever want to get TO heaven.
l. In the first place. if we want to be-
come Christians, we must, like Ruth in
the text, choose the Christians God. Beau
tiful Ruth looked up into the wrinkled
face OF Naomi and said: "rhy God shall
be my God" You see it was a change OF
gods. Naomi's God was Jehovah; Ruth's
god was Chemosh, the divinity of the
Moabites, whom she had wOrshiped
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 me.
te0r pointed down in Bethlehem; the sun.
shiny God of whom the Psalmist wrote
the Lord God is a sum-" And so, my
friends, if we want to become Christians
We must change gods. This world is the
&nemosh to most people. 1t is black.
starred god. 1t can heal no wounds. Ii
can wipe away no sorrows. 1t can pay nc
debts. 1t can save no undying soul. 1t Is
a great cheat, so many thousand miles
In diameter and so many thousand miles
in circumference. Ii l should put this
audience under oath, one-h2lf of them
would swear that this world is a liar. Ii
is bank which makes large advertise
ment of what ii has in the vaults and OF
the dividends that it declares, and tells
us that If we want happiness, all we have
got 10 do is to come to that bank and APP
ply for it. In the hour OF need, we 20 Il
that bank to get happiness, and we finC
that the vaults are empty. and all relia
bilities have absconded and we are swim
died out of everything. . tnOu black
starred Chemosh, how many are burning
incense at thy shrine!
Now. Ruth turned away from this god
ChemOsh and she took Naomi's God. Who
was that? The God that made the wort
and put you in II. The God that fashioned
the heaven and filed IL with blissfll in
babitants. The God whose lifetime study
IL has been to make you and all his
creatures happy. The God who watched
us in childhood and led US through The
gauntlet of intantlle distresses, feeding u
when we were hungry, pillowing US wher
we were somnnlent, and sending Hi.
only Son TO wash away our pollution
with the tears aud blood of His own eve
and heart, aud offering to De our ever
tastlng rest, comfort and ccstacy. A
loving God. A sympathetic God
"A greai-hearted God. An all
accomplishing God. A God who
filings himself on this world in very
abandonment OF everlasting affection
The clouds, the veil of His face, The sea
the aquarium Of his palace. The stars