The Brookhaven leader. [volume] (Brookhaven, Miss.) 1883-1891, 1888-05-31

4
| 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.
Oh, these beautiful sunhowers that
| spread out their colors in the morning
| but are always asleep when the sun is GO
| ing down job had plenty OF friends when
! he was the richest man in Uz; but when
| his property went and the trials came,
then there were none that pestered him so
much as EliphGz, the Temanite, and
Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the
| Naamathite.
Life often seems to be e mere game,
where the successful player pulls down
| all the other men into his own lap. Let
suspicious arise about mans character,
and he becomes like bank in a panic,
and all the imputations rush on him and
break down In day that character which
in due time would have had strength to
defend itself. There are regulations that
| have been half century in building,
which go down under some moral cx.
posture, as a vast temple is consumed by
the touch of a sulphurous match. a hog
can uproot century plant.
In this world, so full Of heartlessncss
and hypocrisy, how thrilling it is to find
some friend as faithful in days Of adver-
sity as in days of prosperity! David had
such friend in Hushal; the Jews had
such friend in MoTdecai, who never for
got their cause; Paul had such a friend in
one Siphorus, who visited him IN Jail; !;
Christ had such Il friend in the Marys,
who adhered to Him on the cross; Naomi
had such a one in RutL, who cried out
| Entreat me not to leave thee, or to return
from following after thee; for whittier thou
gocst | Will go; and where thou lodgest, will
lodge thy people shall be my people, and thy
| God my Cod; when thou dicst will / die. and
there will be buried; the Lord do so to me,
and moro also, if aught but death part thee and
| me.
Again | learn from this subject that
paths which open in hardship and dark
ness often come ont in places of joy.
When Ruth started from Moab toward
Jerusalem, to go along with her mother
in-law, suppose the people said:
"Oh, what a foolish creature to go away
from her fathers house, to go off with q
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
jackaIs OF the wilderness will 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
affianced 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 path which starts very
darkly ends very brightly.
When you started out for Heaven, oh,
how dark was the hour of confederation
Sinai Numbered, and devils tormented,
and the darkness thickened, 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 arc
forg ven and whose sins are covered.
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 q
pillow, worse maltreated ban the thieves
on either side of the cross, human hate
| smacking its lips in satisfaction after il
| T. L. - l.
the sheeted dead bursting from the sepul-
chers at His crucifXion. Tell me, o Geth-
semane and Golgotha We're 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
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, uncrowned 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 humming 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: "Hallelujah, for the Lord
God omnipOtent reigneth! Hallelujah,
the kingdoms of this world have become
the kingdoms of our Lord Jesus Christ!'
That song of love, now low and far,
| Ere long shall swell from star 10 star;
That light, the breaking day which tips
| The golden-spired Apocalypse.
| Again: | learn from my subject that
| events which seem to be most insig-
nifcant 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 alight on this field of Boaz?
Yet all ages, all 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 it
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 a
long while; but how it changed all the
phase of your life!
| 1t seems to be of no Importance that
| 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 vibration
| of a stringed instrument, even after the
| fingers have been taken away from it,
| so all music now of lutte and drum and
cornet is only the long continued strains
| of Jubals harp and JubaPs organ. 1t
| seemed TO be matter of very littio i'm
/ portance that Tubal Cain learned the use