The Forrest City times., 1888-05-26
And the stars heard, and the sea; And he g ulding aisles of the dim W Rang 10 the anthems Of the free"

It took all our past national distresses to lift up our nation on that high career where it will march along after the foreign aristo- cracies that have m0cke1 and the tyranies that have jeered shall be swept down under the omnipotent wrath of God, who hates despotlsm, and who by the strength of His own red right arm, will make all men free And so 1t is individually, and in the family. and in the Church, and in the world, through darkness and storm and trouble that men, women, churches nations, are develop ed.
 II. Again, see In my text the beauty of unfaltering friendship. l suppose there are plenty of friends for Naomi while she was fin prosperity; but of all her acquaintanees how many were willing to trudge of with her toward Judah. when she had 10 make that lonely journeyi One-the heroine of my text. One-absolutely one. l suppose when Naomfs husband was living, and they had plenty Of money, and all things went well, they had a great many callers but I suppose that after her husband died, and her property went, and she got old and poor. she was not troubled very much with callers, All the birds that sung in the bower while the sun shone have gone to their nests, now the night has fallen.
 Ohr these beautiful sun flowers that spread our their color in the morning houri but are always asleep when the sun Is going down Job had plenty of friends when he was the richest man in Uz; but when his property
 
 none so much that pestered as Eliphaz the Temanite and Bldad the Shuhite, and Zo- phar the Naamatbte
 Life often seems to be Q mere game, where the successful player pulls down all the other men into his own lap. Let suspicious arise about the mans character, and he becomes like bank in panic, and all the imputa- tiOns rush on him and break down in 8 day that character which in due time would have had strengh to defend Itself. There are rep
 I.NF nNarss. fns building, which go down under some moral exposure, as a vast temple Is consumed by the touch of a sulphurous match. hog can uproot & century plant.
 In this world so full of heartlessness and hvpocrisy, how thrilling it IS to fud some friend as faithful in days of diversity as in days of prosperity David had such friend fin Hushsi; the Jews had such a friend in Mordeeai, who never forgot their cause; Paul had such friend in Onesiphorus, who visited him in jail; Christ had such as the Marys, who adhered to Him on the cross; Naomi had such a one in Ruth, who cried out: "Entreat me not to leave thee; for whither thou goest, I will 20; and where thou lodgest, l will lodge; thy people shall be my people, and thy God, my God; where thou diest will de, and there will I be buried: the Lord do so to me, and more also, if aught but death part thee and me"
 III Again; I learn from this subject that paths which open in hardship and darkness often come out in places or lof. when kuth starteJ from Moab toward Jerusalem, to go along with her mother -in-law I suppose the people said: 1Oh, what foolish creature to 20 away from her fathers house, to go of with poor old woman toward the land Of Jndahl They won't live to get across the desert They will be drowned in the sea, or the iacksls of the wilderness will destroy them.n It was a very dark morning when Ruth started of with Naomi; but behold her in my text in the harvest field of Boaz, to be sfianced to one of the lords of ihe land, and become one of the grandmothers Of Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory. And so it often is that path which starts very darkly ends very brightly.
 When you started out for heaven, oh, how lark w as the hour of eonyletioa-hOw Sinai thundered, and the deyils t0rmented, aud he darkness thickensdl All the sins oi your