The weekly sentinel. [volume] (Winston-Salem, N.C.) 1886-1887, 1886-08-26
TALMAGES SERMON.
DELIVERED LAST SUNDAY i'm CAN

The Duty of Choosing the Christians God,
the Christians Path, the Christians
Home, Christian Associations. and the
Christians Death and Burial.
Specially Reported for The Sentinel.
GRIMsBY, ONTARIO. August %: The
Rev T. Dewitt Talmage. D. D.. is at
tending this old historical camp meet
ing 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 i, 16 and II: '+Entreat
u not to leave thee, or to return from
following after thee: for whittier thou
goest. 1 will go and whittier thou lodg-
est, l 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-" Following is DIR. Talmage's
sermon:
Famine in Judah. Upon fields dis
til sulshed for fertility the blight came,
ana ut the door of princeIy abodes
Want knocked. Turning his back upon
his house and hi lands. EImelech cook
his wife Naom anu his two sons anu
started or the land Of Moab i'll search
of brea,!. Getti. & into Moab his two
sons married idoiater,-R Ruth, the name
of one, O:pa;i the name Of the other.
Great calainltieS came upon that house
hold. Eiuuele h cd. nd his two
sons. leaving Naomi, the wife, and the
two dau@l LcrS-ilI-law. POOR Naomi in a
strange lind and her huSbaIr. and two
sons dead. She III, st go bsi * to Judah.
he w
eve-ytl.il- r-mIadcd her of her SORROW;
just IL HOW, sometimes you see persons
moving nom OH HO.s~o to an Their, or
from one city To .-nother, am you can
not er TN; II U:.lll YOU iinu out that
it is because there were associations with
a certain place that They co.ld no longer
bear. Naomi must start for the land of
Judah but how Shall She get there? Be
tw GA Moab and thu place where she
wOe.ld like t" go, there are de-erl
there are wild beasts ranging the wilder
ness; there are Sarageo going up and
down. ail.- ;here IL The awful Dead Sea.
Well. 20 -ly, she came over the road
once SIN can do SO again All when
she came "v. 1 TIE roal before she had
the strong arms or her husband and her
two 5 us 10 de!e..d her; now they are
all gone. The hour Of parting has
come and Naomi must be SO, arated
from her two daug!tcrs-in-law, Ruth
and Orpah. They We're tenderly at
tached these three mourners. They
tad bent over the same sick bed they
hat moved i'll the same funeral process
sion; they had wept over the same grave.
There the three mOurnerS stand talk
ing. Naomi thinks of the time when
she left Judah with a prince Tor her
companion. Then they all think OF the
marriage festivals, when Nil,mis two
sons We're united to these women who
Of
the bride for the veil Of t mourner.
Naomi Starts for the land Of Judah, and
Ruth aud Orpah resolve 10 go a Ii tie
way along with her. Th>y have gone
but a st.c:t distance when Naomi turns
arou-d al says to her dau ugh erSin-iaw:
20 ack. There may be days Of
brightness Ut for you in your native
land. I can't bear to lake you away
from, yoEr Il lut AID the !.oltt's Of your
k;ir;",,, am old am ;rouLied. Gro
net along With me. The L, I'd deal
gently vi Ii V Il as ye have dealt with
the cad and with me-" But they per-
cd in going. and so the three trav-
ci!cd on until after awhile Naomi turns
around again and begs them to go back.
Orpah takes the SugSeS ion, and after a
sad parting goes away; but Ruth, grand
ana glorious Ruth turns her back upon
her home. she says: &c 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 p:thos,
and Christian eloquence of my text:
Entreat me not to leave thee, or to re-
turn from following after thee: for with
thou goest, l will go; and whittier thou
lodgest, will lodg.: thy poop e shall
be my people, thy God my God:
where thou diest l will die, and there
l h. a6 he | 6n To
aud more also, if aught but death part
thee and me"
Five choices Ruth made in that text,
and five choices must we all make
ii we ever want o 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 g Thy
God shall be my God" You see it was
a change Of gods. Naomfs god was
Jehovah; Ruth's god was Chemosh. the
divinity OF the Moabites, whom she
had worshipped under the symbol Of q
black star. Now she comes out from
under thai black-starred divinity, and
takes the Lord in whom there is no
darkness at all; the silver-StaIred divin-
ity to whom the meteor polluted down in
Beth leheln the suiehiny God Of whom
thu PsalMist wrote: The Lord God Is q
sun And SO, my friends. il we want
to become Christians we must change
gods. tbs worll is the ChemOSh to
most people II is black-starred god.
Ii can heal no wounds. 1t can wipe
away no SORROWS. 1t can pay no debts.
II can save no undyIng soul. It is q
great cheat, so many thousand miles In
diameter and so many thousand miles
in circumference. L; / should put this
audienee under oath, the half of them