The Forrest City times., 1888-05-26
. bounced upon you. and it was the dsrkes

had more sheaves than you could carry, sI the voice Of God addressed you, saying
 'blessed is the man whose transgressions ars forgiven, and whose sins are covereu.n very dark starting in conviction, very brighi ending ia the pardon and the hope and the
 triumph of the Gospell
 So, very often in our worldly business or in our spiritual career, we start of on < yer, dark path. We must go The flesh mal shrink back, but there is a voice with in, or voice from above saving; "You must go" and we have E drink the gall, and we have to carry the croes, and VIC have to traverse the deseft and we s.s pounded and failed of misrepresentation and abuse and we hnee to urge our way through ten thousand obstacles that must be slain by our own right arm. We have te ford the river, we have to climb the mountain, we have to storm the castle; but, blessed be God. the day of rest and reward will come On the tip top of the captured battlenents we will shout the victory, If not fin this world, then in that world where there Is no gall to drink. no burdens to carry, DO battles to fight. How do know iti Know itl Iknow it because God says SO: They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more, neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat for the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall lead them to living fountains of water, and God shall wipe all tears from their eyes !"
 IL was very hard for Noah to endure the scofing of the people fin his day, while he was trying to build the ark, and was every morn ing quizzed about his old boat that would never be of any practical use, but when the deluge came, and the tops of the mountainf disappeared like the backs of sea-monsters, and the elements, lashed up in fury, ciapped their hands over a drowned world, then Noah iu the ark reioieed in his own safety and in the safety of his family, and looked out on the wreck of ruined earth.
 Christ, bounded of prosecutors, denied c pillow, worse malireated than the theives or either side of the cross human hate smack ing it's lips in satisfaction after it had been draining His last drop of blood, the theeted dead bursting from the sepulcbres al His crucifxon Tell me, O Gethsc- mane and Gogotha were there ever darer re times than thosei Like the booming of thk midnight sea against the rock, the surges of Chrlsps anguish beat against the gates of eternity, to be echoed back by all the thron es of heaven and all tbe dungeons of hell But the day of reward comes for Christ; all the pomp and dominion of this world are to be hung on His throne, uucrowned heads are to bow before him on whose head are many crowns, and all the celestial worship is to come ID at Hie feet, like the bumming Of the foreet, like the rushing of the waters, like the laundering of the seas, while all heaven, rising on their thrones, beat time with ...,-,r scs6. ters: .'llaileints..s. TOT tre Lord God omnlpo. teTs frIgneth Hallelujah, the Kingdoms of thls world have become the kingdoms Of our Lord Jesus Christn
 sTa ,sThqt ,osa song s st love % nov iow and far
 fhRt light, the breaking which tips
 The gOlden-spired Apocalypse"
 ". Again l learn from my subject that events which seem to be most insignificant may be motnentous. Can yon imagine any thing more unimportant than the coming of poor woman from Moab to Judahi Can you imagine anything more trivial than the fact that this Ruth just happened to alight- as they say-iust happened 10 alght on that field cf Boat Yet all ages, all generations, have an Interest in the fact that she vas to become an ancestor of the Lord Jesus Christ, and all nations and kingdoms must look at that one little incident with thrill of un- speakable aud eternal sgtlsfaetion. So 1t Is in your history and in mine; events that you thought of no importance at all have been of great moment. That casual conversation, that accidental meetlng-you did not think of 1t again for a long while; but how it changed all the phase of your lifei
 It seemed to be of no importance that Jubal invented rude instruments of music, calling them harp and organ; but they were the in- troduction of all the worlds minstrelsy; and as you hear the vibration of a sirlnged instru- ment, even after the fingers have been taken away from 1t, so all music now of lute and drum and cornet is only the long-eontinued strains of JubaPs harp and JubaPs organ. It seemed to be matter of very little impor- tance that Tubal Cain learned the uses of copper and iron; but that rude foundry of ancient days has It's echo In the rattle of Birmingham machinery and the roar and bang of factories on the Merrimac.
 It seemed to be a matter of DO importance that Luther found q Bible in a monastery; but as he opened that Bible. and the brass bound lids fell back, they jared everything, from the Vatican to the furthest convent in Germany, and the rusting of the wormed leaves was the sound of the wings of the angel tl.a. aFrNN. fa..s, f.h h.. ter of no importance that a woman, whose name has been forgotten, dropped a tract in the way Of very bad man by the name of Richard Baxter. He picked up the tract and read it, and it was the means of his salva- ton.
 In after.days that man wrote book called "The Call to the Uneonverted," that was the means of bringing A multitude to God, among others Philip Doddr.dge. Philip Doddridge wrote n book called ''1he Rise and Progress of Religion" which has brought thousands and lens of thousands Into the kingdom of God, and among others tbe great Wilber- force. Nflberforce wrote book called: "A Practical View of Christianity" which was the means of bringing a great multitude to Christ, among other Legh Richmond. Legh Richmond wrote a tract called: 'The Dairy mans Daughter,n which has been the means of the salvation of unconverted multltudes. And that tide of influence started from the fact that one Christian woman dropped a Christian tract fin the way Of Richard Baxter, the tide of influence rolling on through Richard Baxter, through Phillip Doddridge, through the great Wllberforee, through Lcgh Richmond, on, on, on, forever, forever So the insignificant events of this world seem, after all, to be most momentous. The fact that you came up that street or this street seemed to be of no importance to you, and the fact that you went inside of some church may seem to be a matter of very great insign- ifcance to you, but you will find it the turn ing-point in your history.
 V. Again: I see in my subject an illus tration of the beauty of female industry.
 Behold Ruth toiing in tie harvest field under the hot sun, or at noon taking plain bread with the reapers, or eating the parehed corn which Boaz handed to her. The customs of society, of course have changed, and without the hardships and exposure to which Ruth was subjected, every intelligent woman will find something to do.
 l know there is a siclly sentimentality on this subject. In some families there are per sons of no practical service to the household or community; and though there are so many woes all around about them in the world, they spend their time languishing over a new pa ttern, or bursting into tears at midnight over the story of some lover who shot him self They would not deign to look at Ruth carrying back the barley on her way home to her mother-in-law, Naomi. All this fastidt ousness may seem to do very well while they are unuer the Encltef or tntlt idtHerb houeei but when the sharp winter of misfortune comes what of these butterfiesi Persons under indulgent parentage may get upon themselves habits of incidence; but when they come out into practical life their soul will recoil with disgust and ehagrin. They Y ill feel in their hearts what the poet so se- Terely satirlzed when he said:
 Folks are so awkward. things so impolite.
 They're elegantly pained from morning until night"
 Through that gate of incidence how many neu and women have marched, useless on earth, to a destroyed eternity spinola said 70 Sir Horace We're; "Of what did your broth 1T dief' ''Of having nothing 10 do," was he answer. "Ah,n said Spinola, that's enough to Kill any general of us." Ohi can t be possible in this world, where there s 80 much suffering to be alleviated, SO much darkness to be enlightened, and so many burdens to be carried, that there is any persons who cannot find anything 10 dof
 Madame de Stael did a world Of work in her time and one day, while she was seated amid n struments of music all of which she had mastered, and amid manuscript books which ,he had written, some one said to her; "How To you find time to attend to all these hingsfr "Oh," she replied, "these are rot the things I am proud of My chief boast is in the fact that l have seventeen rades, by any one of which l could make iyelihood if necessary And if in secular g. fe ha in sr1ir