Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1886-09-10
lR. TALMAGE'O SERMON.
IMPORTANCE OF CHRISTIANITY
IN THE HOME.
preached at Grlmsby, Csnadal

thou goest, will go; and where thou lodgest,
will lodge; thy people shall be my people,
and thy God my Col; where thou die t, 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., Ii and II.
Famine in Judah. Upon fields distin.
guished for fertility the blight came, and at
the door of pTincely abodes want knocked.
Turning his back upon his house and his
lands, Elimelech took his wife, Naomi and
his two sons and started for the land Of
Moab in search of bread. Getting into
Moab, his two sons married ido'aters-Ruth
the name of one, 0rpah the name of the
other. Great calamities came upon that
household. Elimelech died and his two sons
leaving Naomi, the wife, ard the two daugh-
ters-in-law. Poor Naomil in a strange land
and her husband and two sons dead She
must go back to Judah. She cannot stand it
In place where everything reminded her. of
her sorrow. just as nJw, someti nes you
see persons moving from one house to anoth-
er, or from one city to another, and YOU can
not understand it until you find out that it is
because there were assoc ations with GER
tain place that they could no longer bear
Naomi must tart for the land of Judah: but
how shall she get tn req Between Moab and
tie place where she would like to go there
arc deserts; there are wild beasts ranging the
wilderness; there are savages gong up and
down, AMI there is the awful Dead Sea-
Well, you say, she came over the rad 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
herr now they are all gone. The hour of
parting has come, and Naomi must be sepa-
rated from her two daughters-in law. Ruth
and Orpah. They were tenderly attached,
these three mJurners. 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 Ju-
dah, with a prince for her companiou.
Then they all think of the marriage festivals
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 arts for the land of Judah, and Ruth
and Orpah resolve to 60 a little way along
with her. They have gone but short dis
tance when Naomi tlrns around and says to
her daughters-in law: go 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 Ground again and begs them to go back.
vi VahSo OLI0 ollSSGoOlOu, anu aIUSr u
parting gees away; but Rnth, grand and
glorious Ruth, turns her back upon her home.
She says: II can't bear to let that old mother
go alone. 1t is my duty TO go with her. -
And throwing her arms around weeping Ma
omi, she pours out her soul in the tenderness
and pathos and Christian eloquence of my
text: "Entreat me not to leave thee, or to
return from following after thee: for hither
thou goest, will go; and whittier thou lodg-
EST. | VIII IG0pa. fhV pdNnla ChalI ho nv
pie, and thy God my Gcd; 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 made Ruth in that text, and
five choices must we all make, if we ever
want to get to heaven.
l. 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 wrinkled face of Naomi
and said: "Thy God shall be my God" You
see it was change of gods. Naomis God
was Jehovah; Ruth's God was Chemosh, the
divinity of the Moabites, whom she had wor-
SHIPPED under the symbol of black star.
Now she comes out from that black-starred
divinity, anil takes the Lord in whom there
is no darkness at all; the silver-starred divin-
lty to whom the met or pointed down in
Bethlehem, the sunshiny God, of whom the
psalmist wrote: "The Lord God is a
sun" And SO, my friends, if we want
to become Christians, we must change
gcds. This world is the Chemosh to
most people. 1t is black starred god 1t
can heal no wounds. 1t can wipe away no
solTows. 1t can pay no debts. 1t can save
no undying SOUL 1t is a great cheat, so
many thousand miles in diameter ami so
many thousand miles in circumference. If
i should put this audience under oath, one
half of them would swear that this world is
liar. 1t is bank which makes large adver-
tisem mt 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 hank and apply for
it. In the hour of need, we go to that bank
to get happiness, and we find that the vaults
are empty, and all reliabilities have alb
seconded and we are swindled out of every
thing. o thou black starred Chemosh, how
many are burning in ense 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 world and
put you i'll it. 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 us
through the gauntlet of infantile distresses
feeding us when we were hungry, pillowiug
us when we were somnolent, and sending his
OhAy ooh w "eeoh away oui PohuUIou Will
The tears and blood of his own eye
and heart, and offering to be oul
etoH everlasting rest ooa comfort and +,oei, &c
God. A great-hearted God, An alf-encom
passing God. A God who filings himself OF
this world in a very abandonment of ever
lasting affection. The clouds, the veil of hi
face The sea, the aquarium of his palace
The stars, the dew-drops on his lawn The
God of Hannahs prayer and Esther's conse
cIation, and Mary's broken heart, and Ruth'S
loving and bereft spirit. Oh, choose ye be
tween Chemosh and Jehovah! The one ser
vice is pain and disappointment; the other ser
vice is brightness ami life. l have tried both
l chose the service of Gcd because l wa.
ashamed to do otherwise. | felt it would bt
imbecile for me to choose Chemosh above
Jehovah.
"Oh, happy day that fixed my choice
Oh Thee, my Saviour, rad my Godi
Well may this glowing heart rejoice,
And tell its rapture all abroad
"Oh, happy bond that seals my VOWS
To Him who merits all my love
Let cheerful anthems fill His house,
While to His sacred throne move
"High heaven, that heard the solemn VOW
That vow renewed shall daily hear
Till in lifes latest hour | bow,
| And bless in death bond so dear"
II. Again, if we want to be Christians
! like Ruth in the text, we must take th
Christ ans path. Where thou goest vii
! go,n cried out the beautiful Moabitess Il
Naomi, the mother-in-law. Dangerous prom
ise that There were deserts to be crossed
There were iackals that came down through
the wilderness. There were bandits. Their
was the Dead sea. Naomi says: Ruth, yo
must go back. You are too delicate to TAX
this journey. You will give out in the frs
five miles. You cannot 60 You have no
the physical stamina or the moral courage t
go with me-" Ruth responds; Mother,
am going anyhow. If stay in this land
will be overborne of the idolaters; il / q