The Londonderry sifter. (South Londonderry, Vt.) 1883-19??, 1886-09-09
pR. TALMAGE'S SERMON.
IMPORTANCE OF CHRISTIANITY
In THE HOME.
preached at Grlm.hy, Canalal

TeJuIu from loIloNins AFTER lnie, loF Whitner
thou goest, will go, aud whore thou lodgest,
Twill lodge; thy people shall b. my people,
and thy tod my TO where thou uie,t, will
die, and there will l be buried; the Lord do
SO TO me, and more also, il aught but death
part thee aud me, Ruth l., Ii aud H.,
Famine in Judah. Upon folds distin'
guished for fertility the blight came aud at
the door OF princely abodeS want knocked,
Turning his back upon his house and his
lands, Elimee Ia 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 lilo a,crs Ruth
the name of one, Orpah the name of the
other, Great CalaMiti came upon that
household, Elimeeth died and his two sons,
leaving Naomi, the wife, and the two daush-
ters-in.iaw, loor Naomi in a strange land
and her husband and two Sons dead, She
must so bacl; to Judah. She cannot stand it
in place whore everything reminded herof
her sorrow. just AS now, som2ti mes you
sec PERSONS moving from one house to auoth-
or, or from one tity to another, and you can
not understand 1t until YOU find out that it is
because there were assoc atoms with q GER
tain place that they could no longer bear
Naomi mast tayt for the land of judah; but
how shall she st III re, EoJweea Moab aud
the place where she would like to 80 there
are deserts; there are wild beasts ranging the
wilderness; there are savages so ne up AMI
down, AMI there is the awlul Deal Sea.
Well, you say, she came over the I, al 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
her; now Thy are all gone. The hour of
parting has come, and Naomi must be sepa-
rated from her two daughtarS-in law Ruth
AMI Orpah. They We're tcnderly attached,
these three IN turner's They had b2nt over
the same sick b d; they had moved in the
same funeral procession; they had wept
nxrar thn sl., tl,,n..
mourners stand talking. Naomi thinks
of the time when she left Jul
dab, with prince for her COMPANION.
Then they all think of the marriage festiy ais
when Naomis two sons were united to these
women, who have now exchanged the wreath
of the bride for the veil of the mourner.
Naomi S arts for the land Of Judah, and Ruth
and urpah re. olive to go a little way along
with her. They have gons but n short dis
tance when Naomi t3rns around AMI says to
her daughters-in.law: 60 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 within The Lord deal gently with
YOU as We have dealt with tie dead aud with
me-" But they persisted in going, and so the
three Travelled on until after awhile Naomi
turns arounl again and begs them to go back
Orpah takes the suggestion, and after a sa |
gloriols Ruth, turns hcr back upon her home
She says: 81 can't bear to let that old mothe
go alone. 1t is my duty TO go with her.
And throwing her arms around weeping Ma
omj, she pourS oIt her soul in the tenderness
and pathos and Christian clo1uence of my
text: "Entreat me not to leave thee, or to
rel urn from following after thee for hther
thou goest, will go; and whittier thou lodg-
est, | will lodge; thy people shall be my peo-
pie, and thy God my G. d; where thou diest
] will die and there will l be buried the
Lord do 50 TO ne, 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, ii 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 wrinGled face of Naomi
and said: 'Thy God shall be my Godn You
see it was change of gods Naomis God
was Jeh )vah; Ruths God was Chem0Sh. the
divinity of the Moabites, v HON Size had wor-
SHIPPED under the symbol of q black star.
Now she comes out from that back-starred
divinity, an takes tic Lord in whom there
is no darkness a. all, the silver starred divin-
lty to whom the met or pointed down in
Bethlehem, the sunshny God, of whom the
psalni,t wrote; The Lord God is a
sun" And so, my friends, if we want
to become Christians, we must change
gods. This world S the Chemosh to
most People 1t is a black starred gol. 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 thsat, so
many thousand miles in diameter an so
many thousand miles in Circumference. If
should put this audience under oath, one
half Of them would swear that this world is
liar. 1t is q bank watch makes large adver-
tisem mt of what it has in the vaults and of
d INpIy L.. hat
that if We want happinc S, al we have got
to do Is to come to t!at }au!i and apply for
it, In the hour of need, we go to that bank
to get haprl3ess, and we find that the vaults
are empty and all reabiliti s have alb
seconded and we are swindlel GU of every
thing. o thou bla 'k-starrcd Chemosh, how
many are burning IN enc at thy Shrine
Now, Ruth turrei away from this god
ChemoSh, and she took Naomi's God Who
was that: The t;ol that made the worll and
put you i'll it. The God thaj fashioned the
heal en- and filed it with hlssful inhabitants
The God whose lifetime study it has been tc
make you and all his creatures happy. The
God who watche us in childhood, and led IL!
through the gauntlet Of infan;ie dstresses
feeding us when we were hungry, pillowiug
us when we were somn0l2nt, and sending hiI
only Son to wash away our pollution with
Che tears ard blood of his own eye
and heart, and offering to be oul
everlasting rest, comfort, and &C.
stasy. A loving Col A sympathetic
God A great-hearted God, An aLencom
passing God. A col who filings himself or
this world in very abandonment Of ever
lasting Fiction. 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 Hannahs prayer and Esthers conse
alton, and Marys broken heart and Ruth's
loving and bereft spirit. Oh, choose we be-
tween Chemosh and Jehovah! The one SER
vice is pain and disappointment the other SER
vice is brightness ana life. | have tried BOTH
! chose the service of God berause l was
ashamed to do otherwise felt it would be
imbecile for me to choose Chemosh above
Jehovah.
"Oh, happy day that fixed my choice
Oh Thee, my Saviour, Fad my God!
Well may this glowing heart re joice,
And tell its rapture al abroad.
ooh, happy hord that seals my VOWS
To Him no merits all my loyel
Let cheerful anthems fill His house,
While to His sacred throne mo e.
"High heaven, that heard the solemn VOW,
That VOW renewed shall daily hear;
iii in lifes latest hour bow
And bless in death bond SO DEAR"
H. Again, if we want to be Christians
like Ruth in the text, we must take the
Christ ans path. Where thou goest viii
60" cried out the beautiful Moabtess tc
Naomi, the nlother-inlaw. Dangerous prom.
Use that. There were deserts to be crossed.
There were iaekas that came down through
the wilderness; There were bandits. There
was the Dead sea. Naomi says: truth, you
must go baek. You are too delicate to take
this journey. You will give out in the first
five miles. You cannot go You have moi
the physical stamina Or tie moral courage tc
go with me- Ruth responds Mother,
am going anyhow. If | stay in this land
will be overcome Of the iolaters: if | nc
along with you, | shall serve God Give me
that bundle. Let me carry it. l am going
with you, mother anyhow"
And if we want to serve God we must dc
"a Ruth did, crying out: where thou goest
will go" Never mind the Dead Sea Afoo
or horseback If there be ri yers to ford, W.
must ford them. II there be mountains te
scale. we must scale the n. Ii there be enc
l.iies to fight, W must fight them It re1uire:
grit and pluck to get from NJ ab to Judah. Oh
how many Christian there are who can b
diverted from the path by CULVER of the lin
indicative of scorn. They do not surrender t,
temptation, but they bend to it, And if in
company there he those who tell uncleal