The Brookhaven leader., 1886-09-02
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
A Campaigning Discourse on the
Daughter-in-Law.
The Love OF Ruth for NaOmI-Five lndis-
pensaBles which the Faithful Chris
tIan Must Possess in Order to
live aud Die Right

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and Naomi His text was:
Entreat me not to leave thee, or TO return
from following after thee; for whittier thou
goest. will 90. and where thou lodgest,
will lodge; thy people shall be my people,
and thy God my God where thou diest viii
! die. and there will be buried; the Lord do
so to me, and more also, II aught but death
part thee and me.-Ruth l.. l6-lT
ronov ing is DR.. Talmage's sermon:
Famine in Judah. Upon fields distin-
guished for fertility the light 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
id,la'ors-Ruth the name Of one, Orpah
the name of the other. Great calamitles
came upon that household. Elimelech
died and his two sons, leaving Naomi, the
wife. and the two daugh ers-in law. Poor
Naomi! In a strange land and her husband
and two sons dead. She must 90 back 10
Judah. Sbo can not stand it In place
where everything reminded her Of her
sorrow. Just as now, sometimes you Sc
persons moving from one house to anoth-
er, or from one city to anoth-
er, and you can not understand
It until you find out that Il is because
there were associations with a GER
tain place that they could 10 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 90, thers are deserts: there are wild
beast, ranging the wilderness; there are
sayages 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 bus
band and her two sons to defend her.
Now they are all gone.
The hour Of parting has come, and
Naomi must he separated from her two
dau-h ers-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 process sion; they had wept over
tie same grave. There the three mourners
stand talk ng. Naomi thinks OF the time
hen She lett Judah with prince for her
con pani5n. Then they ell think Of the
marriage festivities, 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, an / Ruth and
Orpah resolve to 20 little way along
with her. They have gone tut short dis
tance when Naomi turns around and says
10 her daughteTs-iu-law:
Go back. There may he days Of
brightness yet for you in your native
lana. l can't bear to take you away from
your home and the homes Of your kindred.
] am old and troubled. Go not along with
,ne The Lord deal gently with YOU as ye
have dealt with the dead and with me-"
But they persisted in going, and 50 the
three Travelled on until after awhile Naomi
turns around again and begs item to go
back. Orpah takes the suggestion, and
after a sad parting goes away; but Ruth,
grand and glorious Ruth, turns her back
upon her home. She says:
al can't bear to let that old mother go
alone. 1t is my duty to 60 with her."
And throwing her arms around weeping
Naomi she pours out her soul in the
tenderness, and pathos, and Christian
eloauence Of my text:
Entreat me not to leave thee, or to retur n
from following after thee. for whittier thou
goest, will go and where thou lodgest,
will lodge, thy people shall be my people,
and tiny God my God; where thou diest Will
lie. and there Will be buried; the Lord do
sotD me. and more also, If aught but death
Dart 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.
l. In the first place, if we want to be-
come Christians we must, like Ruth in the
text. choose the Christians God. Beauti-
ful Ruth locked up into the wrinkled face
Of Naomi, and said:
Thy God shall be my God.
You see it was a change Of Gods.
Noamis God was Jehovah; Ruth's god
was Chemosh, the divinity of the Moab
ties. whom she had worshiped under the
symbol of a black star. Now she comes
out from under that black starred divin-
ity, and takes the Lord in whom there is
no darkness at all the silver-s starred
divinity 10 whom the meteor poured down
IN Bethlehem; the sunshiny god of whom
the Isalmist wrote:
The LORD God is a sun.
And so. my friends, il we want to be-
come Christians we must change gods.
This world is the Chemosh to III jst 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 I'M
diving soul. II is a greater cheat, so many
thousand miles in diameter and so many
thousand miles in circumference. If i
should put this audience under oath, one
half of them would swear that this world
is s liar. 1t is a bank which makes large
advertisements of whatit 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 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 relia-
bilities have absconded and we are
swindled out of everything. o 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 1t. The God that fashioned
the Heaven and filled it with blissful in
habitants. The God whose lifetime study
ithas been to make you and all his crea-
sures happy. The God who watched us in
childhood. and led US through the gaunt-
let Of infantile distresses, feeding us when
we were hungry, pillowing US when we
were somnolent, and sending His only son
TO wash away our pollution with the tears
and blood of His own eve and heart, and
Offering to be our everlasting rest, comfort