The west Tennessee star. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1888, 1888-06-01

who adhered to Him on tbs cross; Naomi
had such one in Ruth. who cried out;
Entreat me not TO leave thee, or to return
from following after thee; for whittier thou
goest will go; and where thou lodgest, will
lodge; thy people shall be my people, and thy
God my God; when 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.
Again I learn from this subject that
paths which open in hardship and dark
ness often come out in places of joy.
When Ruth started from Moab toward
Jerusalem, to go along with her mother
in-law, I suppose the people said:
"Ohs what a foolish creature to go away
from her fathers house, to so off with a
poor old woman toward the land of Judea
They won't live TO get across the desert.
They will be drowned in the sea, or the
jackals OF the wilderness viii destroy
them"
1t was very dark morning when Ruth
started off with Naomi; but behold her in
my text in the harvest field of Boaz, to be
afianced to one of the lords OF the land,
and become one of the grandmothers of
Jesus Christ, the Lord of Glory. And so
it often is that a path which starts very
darkly ends very brightly.
When you started out for Heaven, on,
how dark was the hour of convictiOn-how
Sinai thundered, and devils tormented,
and the darkness thickenedl All the sins
of your life pounced upon you, and it was
the darkest hour you ever saw when you
first found out your sins. After awhile
you went into the harvest field of Gods
mercy; you began to CLEAN in the fields
of divine promise, and you had more
sheaves than you could carry, as the voice
of God addressed you, saying:
Blessed is the man whose transgressions are
forgiven and whose sins are covered.
A very dark starting in conviction,
very bright ending in the pardon and the
hope and the triumph of the Gospel!
So, very often in our worldly business
or in our spiritual career, we start off on
very dark path. We must 90. The flesh
may shrink back, but there is a voice
within, or voice from above, saving:
fYou must CO." and we have to drink the
gall, and we have to carry the cross, and
we have to traverse the desert, and we are
pounded and failed of misrepresentation
and abuse, and we have to urge our way
through ten thousand obstacles that must
be slain by our own right arm. We have
to 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 battlements we will shout the
| victory; if not in this world, then in that
world where there is no gall to drink, no
| burdens to carry, no battles to fight. How
| do I know 1t? Know It'll l know it be-
cause 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
1t was very hard for Noah to endure the
scofing of the people in his day, while he
was trying to build the ark and was every
morning quizzed about his old boat that
| would never be of any practical use; but
| when the deluge came, and the tops of the
mountains disappeared like the backs Of
| sea-monsters, and the elements, lashed up
| in fury, clapped their hands over a
drowned world, then Noah in the ark re-
joiced in his own safety and in the safety
| of his family, and looked out on the wreck
of a ruined earth.
Christ bounded of prosecutors, denied a
| pillow, worse maltreated than the thieves
| on either side of the cross, human hate
smacking its lips in satisfaction after it
had been draining His last drop Of blood,
the sheeted dead bursting from the sepu1-
| chers at His crucifxion. Tell me, o Geth-
semane and Golgothal were there ever
| darker times than those? Like the BOOM
ing of the midnight sea against the rock,
the surges of Christ's anguish beat against
| the gates of eternity, to be echoed back by
| all the thrones of Heaven and all the dun
geons of hell. But the day of reward
| comes for Christ; all the pomp and do
miniOn of this world are to be hung on His
| throne, uncZ owned heads are to bow before
Him on whose head are many crowns,
and all the celestial worship is to come up
at His feet like the himming of the forest,
like the rushing of the waters, like the
| laundering of the seas, while all Heaven
! rising on their thrones beat time with
their scepters: "HalleIujah, for the Lord
God omnipotent reignethl Hallelujah,
the kingdoms of this world have become
the kingdoms of Our Lord Jesus ChristP'
That song Of love- now low and far
Ere long shall swell from star TO star;
That light, the breaking day which tips
The goIden-spired Apocalypse.
Again: I learn from my subject that
events which seem TO be most insig-
nificant may be momentous. Can you
imagine any thing more unimpOrtant than
the coming of a poor woman from Moab
to Judea? Can you imagine any thing
more trivial than the fact that this Ruth
just happened to alight-as they say-just
happened to a1ight on this field of Boazf
Yet all ages, ali generations, have an in-
terest in the fact that she was 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 and eternal satisfaction. So ii
is in your history and in mine; events
that you thought OF no importance at all
! have been of very great moment That
casual conversation, that incidental meet
ing-you did not think of it again for q
: long while, but how il changed all the
phase of yot1r life
1t seems to be of no importance thai
Jubal invented rude instruments of music
calling them harp and organ, but they
were the introduction Of all the worlds
minstrelsy; and as you hear the Vibrator
of a stringed instrument, even after the
fingers have been taken away from it.
+ so ali music now Of Lutte and drum and
cornet is only the long continued strains
| of Jubal's harp and JubaPs organ. II
seemed to be a matter of very little i'm
} p0rtance that Tubal Cain learned the use
, Of copper and iron, but that rude foundry
of ancient days has its echo in the rattle
Of Birmingham machinery and the roai
and bang of factories on the Merr1mac.
1t seemed to be a matter of no impor
tance that Luther found q Bible In
monastery; but as he opened that Bible
z and the BRASS bound lids fell back, they
3 tarred every thing, from the Vatican T.
. the furthest convent in Germany, and th'
r rustling Of the wormed leaves was th'
D sound OF the wings of the angel Of the Re
! | formation. 1t seemed to be matter o
3 no importance that a woman, whose nam
: has been forgotten, dropped a tract in tn
way of very bad man by the name o
, | Richard Baxter. He picked up the trac
t and read it, and 1t was the means OF hi
r | salvation.
1 In after-days that man wrote boo
called 'The Call TO the Unconverted,
s that was the means OF bringing multi
e tude 20 God, among others Philip Dodd
3 ridge. Philip Doddridge wrote a boo
called ''The Rise and Progress OF Re
t ligion," which has brought thousands an
2 tens Of thousands into the kingdom Z
: God, and among others the great Wilbe1
D force. Wilberforce wrote "A book calle
a "A Practical View Of Christianity" whic