Iuka reporter. (Iuka, Miss.) 1888-1894, 1888-06-07

thou goest, will go; and where thou lodgest,
will lodge thy people shall be my people,
and thy God, my God; where thou diest will
die, and there will Ibe buried; the Lord de
so to me, and more also, if aught but death
part thee and me.n
III. Again: learn from this subject that
paths which open in hardship and darkness
often come out in places of joy. When Ruth
started from Moab towards Jerusalem, to go
along with her mother-in-law. l suppose
the people said oh, what foolish
so e. poSr cd Ren the
land of JUDAH They won't live to get
across the desert. They will be drowned in
the sea, or the jackals of the wilderness will
DESTROY them.n 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
afiianced 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 conviction
how Sinai Numbered and devils tor
mented, and the darkness thckened!
An the sins of your life bounced 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.feld of
Gods mercy, You began to CLEAN in the fields
VI tlNlIe pTutiiiSs, uutt YOU udu IuOTe SuedNeS
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 go. The flesh may
-1, rt.xlr L,,N
voice from above, saying: 'You must go;"
and we have to drink the gall, aud we
have to carry the eros, and we have
to traverse the desert,and we are pounded and
Hailed of misrepresentation and abuse, and
we have TO urge our way through ten thou
sand obstacles that must be slain by cur 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 tie victory; if not in this world,
then in tina word where there is no gall to
drink, no burdens to carry, no battles to
fight. Ho&do know it, Know it know
it becauf God says so: ''They shall
hunger nSehore neither thirst any moro,
neither ST pl the sun light on them, nor any
heat, for i've lamb which is in the midst of
the throFF shall lead them to living foun-
t t Of Eater and God shall wipe all tears
Itww hery hard for Noah to endure the
scofSr bisbf the people in his day, while
he nan trying to build the ark, and
wa. Try morning quizzed about his
old W " that would never be of any
pr a use; but when the deluge came,
az rthe tops of the mountains disappeared
Hiis the backs of sea-monsters, and the ele-
II Vents, dashed up in fury, clapped their
Gands over drowned world, then Noah in
the ark rejoiced in his own safety and in the
safety of his family, and looked on the wreck
of ruined earth.
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
sepulchres at His crucifixion. Tell me, o
Gethsemane and Golgotha! were there ever
darker times than those! Like the booming
surges of Christ's anguish beat against the
gates of eternity, to be echoed back
by all the thrones of heaven and all the
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,
uncrowned heads are to bow before Him on
whose head af0 many crowns, and ali 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 sceptres "Hallelujah, for
the Lord God omnpotent reignethI Halle
luiah, the kingdoms of this world have be-
come the kingdoms of our Lord Jesus
Christln
That song of love. now low and far,
Ere long shall swell from star to star;
That light, the breaking day which tips
The golden-spired Apocalypse"
w. Again: learn from my subject that
events which seem to be most insignificant
may be momentous Can you imagine any
thing more unimportant than the coming
of poor woman from Moab to Judah! Can
you imagine anything more trivial than the
fact that this Ruth just happened to alight
AS they say-just happened to alight on
that field of Boaz! Yet all ages, all genera
tions have an interest 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
satisfaction. So it is in your history and in
mine; events that you thought of no import
ance at all have been of very great moment.
That casual conversation, that accidental
meeting-you did not think of it again for a
long while; but how it changed all the phase
of your life!
1t seemed 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 stringed
instrument, even after the fingers have
been taken away from it, so all music
now of flute and drum and cornet is only the
long continued strains of Jubals harp and
Jubals organ. 1t seemed to be a matter OF
very little Importance that Tubal Cain
learned the uses of copper and iron but that
rude foundry of ancient days has its echo in
the rattle of Birmingham machinery, AND
the roar and bang of factories on the Merri.
mac.
1t seemed to be matter of no Importance
that Luther found a 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 II
Germany, and the rustling of the wormed
leaves was the sound of the wings of the AAge
+, of the Reformation. 1t seemed to be mattel
of no Importance that a woman, whose name
has been forgotten, dropped a tract in tn,
way of very bad man by the name o
| Richard Baxter He picked up the trac
] and read it, and it was the means of hi
salvation.
| In after-days that man wrote q book callet
"The Call to the Unconverted, /" that was tn,
means of bringing a multitude to God
among others Philip Doddridge Philip Dodd
| bridge wrote book called THE Rise anC
| Progress of Religion" which has brought
thousands and tens of thousands into TIN
kingdom Of God, and among others tn
| great Wilberforce. Wilberforce wrote {
book called; ga Practical View Of Christi