Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1886-09-01
RURAL SERMONS.
"THE DAUGHTER-IN,LAW." F"

ing this historical camp-meetlng for the
third time. People from all parts of Canada
attended the service o-day at which he was
the preacher. His text was Ruth 1, 16 and
II: "Entreat me not to leave thee, or
to return from following after thee; for
whittier thou goest, I will go; and WHARF
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-" Fol-
lowing 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 his two sons and started for the
land of Moab in search of bread. Getting
into Moab his two sons married idolaters-
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-aw. Poor Naomil in strange
land and her husband and two SOUS dead
She must go back to Judah. She cannot
stand it in place where everything remind
ed her of her sorrow. just as now, some
times you see persons moving from one
house to another or from one city to anoth-
er, and you cannot understand it until you
find out that it is because there were asso-
Citations 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 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. Ali when she came over the road
before, she had the strong arms of her hus-
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-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 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 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 starts for the
land of Judah and Ruth and Orpah resolve
to go little way along with her, They
have gone but short distance when Naomi
turns 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
homes and the homes of your kindred. l
am old and troubled. Go not along with
me. The Lord deal gently with you as ye
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 pathoss and Christian
eloquence Of my text: 'Entreat me not to
leave thee, or to return from following af-
ter thee; for whittier tnou goess, viii go;
and whittier thou lodgest, / will lodge; thy
people shall be my people, and thy God my
God; where thou diest l 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
five choices must we all make if we ever
want to get to heaven.
|. 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. y
You see it was change Ofgods. Naomi's
God was Jehovah; Ruth's god was Chemosh,
the divinity of the Moabites, whom she had
worshipped 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 sill
ver-starred divinity to whom the meteor
pointed down in Bethlehem, the sunshiny
God of whom the Psalmist wrote: "The
Lord God is sum- And so, my friends,
if we want to become Christians we must
change gods. This world is the Chemosh
to most people. 1t is a black-starred god.
1t can heal no wounds. 1t can wipe away
no sorrows. 1t can pay no 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. If
| should put this audience under oath, one
half of them would swear that this world is
a liar. 1t is bank which makes large ad-
vertisement of what it has in the vaults and
U
us that if we want happiness all we have
got to do is to come to that bank 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
absconded and we are swindled out of ev-
erything. 0, thou 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 world
and put you in it. The God that fashioned
the heaven and filed it with blissful inhab-
itants. The God whose life time study it
has been to make you and all His creatures
happy. The God who watched US in child
hood and led US through the gauntlet of in
fantie distresses, feeding US when We were
hungry, pillowing us when we were somno-
lent, and sending His only Son to wash
away our pollution with the tears and blood
of His own eye and heart, and offering to
| be our everlasting rest, comfort and ecstasy.
A loving God. A sympathetic God. A
great hearted God. An all-encompassing
God A God who filings Himself on this
world in a very abandonment of everlasting
affection The clouds, the veil of His face.
The sea, the aquarium of His palace. The
stars, the dew-drops on His lawn. The God
of Hannah's prayer, and Esther's consecra-
tion, and Mary's broken heart, and Ruth's
loving and bereft spirit. o choose ye be-
tween Chemosh and Jehovah. The QUE
service is pain and disappointment; the 9th.
er service is brightness and life. l have
tried both. | chose the service of God be-
cause I was ashamed to do otherwise.
felt it would be imbecile for me to choose
Chemosh above Jehovah.
| % happy day that fixed my choice
| On thee. my saviour and my God!
Well may this glowing heart rejoice.
And tell its raptures all abroad.
80 happy bond that seals my VOWS
To Him who merits all my love!
Let cheerful anthems I'LL Fl lis house,
While to his sacred throne lmove.
High Heaven, that heard the solemn vow,
That vow removed shall daily hear;
Till in lfe's latest hour bow,
And bless in death q bond so dear"
II. Again: If we want to be Christians
like Ruth in the text, we must take thu
Christians path. ''Where thou goest l will
CO." cried out the beautiful Moabitess t.
Naomi, the mother-in-law. Dangerous prom
&c 70 ha