Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1886-09-01

DIS NULL ulu, crying OUT. = w uele tHou isoeoo
| will CO." Never mind the Dead sea-
Afoot or horseback. If there be rivers to
ford, we must ford them. Ii there be
mountains to scale, We must scale them.
If there be enemies to fight, we must light
them. 1t requires grit and pluck to get
from Moab to Judah. Oh, how many Chris
tians there are who can be diverted from the
path by quiver of the lip, indicative OF
scorn! They do not surrender to tempta-
ton, but they bend to it. And if in q COM
pany there be those who tell unclean stories
they will go so far as to tell something Oh
the margin between the pure and the i'm
pure. And if there be those who swear in
the room, and use the rough word 'tdlmn, &"
they will go so far as the word darn, and
look over the fenca wishing they could go
farther; but as to any determination like
Ruth's to go 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 60 clear
through! In the river that runs BY the
gate of the city we shall wash off all our
bruises. When DR.. Chalmers printed his
astronomical discourses, they weresread il,
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 beauti-
fully inhabited? Nay, more, that you, by
the grace of God, may become one of its
glorious citizens?
III. 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 hovel or
mansion, there would be Christian home,
and she wanted to be in it. What do l
mean by a Christian home? | mean a
home in which the Bible is the chief book;
a home in which the family kneel in pray
ers; 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
Of a better world. Whether
the walls be frescoed or not, or only cell
ing of unplained rafters; whether marble
lions are couchant at the front entrance, or
a plain latch is lifted by tow string, that
home is the ante chamber of heaven. A
man never gets over having lived 10 such an
early 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 glitter in your memory. Nay, do you
not now feel warm and hot on your hands
the tears which that mother she'd thirty
years ago when, one cold winter night, she
came and wrapped you up in the bed and
prayed for your welfare here and for your
everlasting welfare before the throne?
o ye who are TO set up your own home,
see that it be a Christian home! Let Jesus
make the wine at that wedding. A home
without God is an awful place, there are SO
many perils to threaten it and God Himself
is so bitterly against it; but 'the Lord en-
campeth around about the habitation 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 perpetual guest. You
say it is important that the wife and the
mother be Christian. | say to you it is
just as important that the. husband and
father be a Christian. Yet how many
clever men there are who say: "My wife
does all the religion of my house. l am a
worldly man; but have confidence in her,
and think she viii bring the whole family
up all right It will not do, my brother
The fact that you are not Christian has
more influence on. your family than the fact
that your wife.is a Christian. Your chill
dren will say: aFather'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 wife on the road to
heaven, and at night gather your family at
the altar. Do you say: 81 can't pray. l
am man of few words and don't think
could put half a dozen 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 its re-
covery or its death, you would pray in sobs,
and groans, and paroxysms of earnestness.
Yes, you can pray. When the eternal life
of your household may depend upon your
let your knees Timber and go
down; but if you still insist that you cannot
prayer, then buy or borroy
Prayer Book of the Episcopal Church, and
gather your family, and put your Prayer
Book on chair, and kneel down before it,
God gather up all your sorrows, and temp
tations, and sins, and cry out: "Good Lord,
deliver u.s..
", 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,
I want to associate with. They will come
and see me, and I will go and see them I
want to move in the highest of all circles,
the circle of Gods elect; and therefore
mother, am going back with you to the
land of Judah" Do you who are seeking
after God-and I suppose there are many
such in this presence-do you who are seek
ing after God prefer Christian society to
worldly society? NO" you say; 81 pre-
fer the worlds mirth, and the worlds
laughter, and the worlds innuendo, and
the worlds paraphernalia. Well, this is
of choice; but let me tell you that the purest
mirth, and the most untrammelled glee, and
the greatest residence of soul are inside
of it. I have tried both styles of compan-
and the companionship of Christ; and l
know by experience. l have been now so
long in the sunshiny experience and society
of Christian people that when am compeIl-
ed to 60 for little while amid intense
worldly society feel depressed. 1t is like
going ont of June garden into an ice
house. Men never know fully how to
laugh until they become Christians. The
worlds laughter has jerk of dissatisfac-
ton at the end; but when man is conse-
Grated to God, and he is all right for the
world to come, then when he laughs, body,
mind and soul crackle. Let a group of
ministers of the gospel, gathered from all
denominations of Christians, be together
in dining-hall or in social circle, and
you know they are proverbially jocund.
Oh, We unconverted people! l know not
how you can stand it down in that moping,
bilious, saturnine, worldly association.
Come up into the sunlight of Christian So
ciety-those people for whom all things are
working right now, and will work right
forever. 1 tell you that the. sweetest ja-
ponicas grow in the Lords garden; that
the largest grapes are from the vineyards
of Canaan; that the most sparkling floods
break forth from the Rock of Ages. Dc
not too much pity this Ruth of my text,
for she is going to become joint owner OF
the great haryest-felds of Boaz.
V. Once more: If we want to become
Christians we must, like Ruth in the text,
choose the Christians death and burial.
She exclaimed: "Where thou diest will
die, and there will be buried" Think we
~, L