News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1888-06-07


than you could carry, as the voice
of God addressed you, saying: "Blessed is
the man whose transgressons are forgiven,
and whose sins are covered" 4 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 a very
dark path. We must go. The flesh may
shrink back, but there is a voice within, or a
voice from above, saying: "You must go;"
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 thou
sand obstacles that must be slain by cur own
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 know it? Know it | know
1t 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 foun.
tains of water, and God shall wipe all tears
from their eyes"
1t was very hard for Noah to endure the
soothing 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 eie-
ments, lashed up in a fury, clapped their
hands over a 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 a ruined earth.
Christ, bounded of prosecutors, denied a
pillow, worse maltreated than the thieves
smacking its lips in satisfaction after
it had been draining His last drop of
blood, the sheeted dead bursting from the
sepulchres at His crucifxion. Tell me, o
Gethsemane and Golgothal were there ever
darker times than those? Like the booming
of the midnight sea against the rock, the
surgeS of ChriSts 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 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 sceptres: "Halleluiah for
luJah, the kingdoms of this world have be-
come the kingdoms of our Lord Jesus
Christ!n
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-spred Apocalypse"
". Again: 1 learn from my subject that
events which seem to be most insignificant
may be momentouS. Can you imagine any,
thlng more unlmportant than the coming
n rNOfN 1.
you imagine anything more trivial than the
TACT that this Ruth just happened to alight
as they say-just happened to alight on
that held of Boaz! Yet all ages, all genera
tons 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
a thrill of unspeakable and eternal
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.
1haG casual conversation, that accidental
meeting-you did not think of it again for q
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 world 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 flute and drum and cornet is only the
long continued strains of JubaPs harp and
JubaIs 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 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 rustling of the wormed
leaves was the sound of the wings of the Angel
of the Reformation. 1t seemed to be a matter
of no Importance that a woman, whose name
has been forgotten, dropped a tract in the
way of a very bad man by the name OF
Richard Baxter. He picked up the tract
and read it, and it was the means of his
salvation.
In after-days that man wrote a book called
''The Call to the Unconverted, +" that was the
means of bringing a multitude to God,
among others Philip Doddrldge. Philip Dodd
fridge wrote book called "The Rise and
Progress of Religion" which has brought
thousands and tens of thousands into the
kingdom of God, and among others the
rreat Wilberforce Wilberforce wrote a
1ook called: "a Practical View of Christi |
unity" which was the means of bringing a
sreat multitude to Christ, among Others |
Leigh Richmond. Leigh Richmond wrote
tract called ''The Dairyman's Daugh- |
err which has been the means of the sal
ration of uncounted multitudes. And |
hat tide of influence started from the fact !
hat one Christian woman dropped Chris. |
ian tract in the way of Richard Baxter |
he tide of influence rolling on through Rich, |
ard Baxter, through fhlhp Doddridge, |
through the great Wilberforce, through |
Leigh Richmond, on, on, on, for
'ver, forever. So the insignificant
events of this world seem, afteI
Ill 10 be momentouS The fact that you |
'ame up that street or this street seemed to |
Tou went inside of some church may seem to |
'e matter OF very great insignifcance to |
-ou, but you will find it the turning point in
vour history.
V. Again: 1 see in my subject an illustra-
ion of the beauty of female industry.
Behold Ruth toiling in the harvest-field
nder the hot sun, or at noon taking plain
read with the reapers, or eating the parched
orn which Boaz handed to her. The Gus
omS of society, of course, have changed, and
Without the hardships and exposure to which
suth was subjected, every intelligent woman
7ill find something to do
| know there is a sickly sentimentality on
MS subject In some families there are per-
ons of no practical service to the household
r community; and though there are so many
yoes all around about them in the world,
ley spend their time languishing over
|
midnight over the story of some lover who
not himself They would not deign to look
Ruth carrying back the barley on her way
ONE to her mother-in-law, Naomi. All this
istidlousness may seem to do very
ell while they are under the shelter
their fathers house; but when the
1arp winter of misfortune comes, what of
lese butterflies! Persons under indulgent
may get upon themselves habits of
dolence; but when they come out into
ractical life their soul will recoi with dis
lst and chagrin. They will feel in their
carts what the poet SO severely satirized
hen he said:
Folks are so awkward, things so impolite
They're elegantly panied from morning until
night"
Through that gate of Incidence how many
en- and women have marched, useless on
rth, to destroyed eternity! Spinola said
Sir Horace We're: ''Of what did your
other die!' ''Of having nothing 20 do" was
9 answer. "Ah," said SpinoIa, "that's
ough to kill any general of u.s.. " Oh! can
be possible in this world, where there is so
uch suffering to be aleviated, so much
rkness to be enlightened. and so many
lrdens to be carried, that there is any per-
n who cannot find anything to dos
Madame de Stael did a world of work in |
n time; and one day, while she was seated
ma instruments of music, all of which she
d mastered, and amid manuscript books
iANh SLio hhd VII lIUeIly Soule ONE Salu 10 nef'
low do you find time to attend to all
ese things'' 'Oh" she replied, "these
e not the things which l am proud
My chief boast is in the
ct that | have seventeen trades, by any
q of which l could make a livelihood if
And if in secular spheres there
SO much to be done, in spiritual work how
st a field We want more Abigails, more
annahs, more Rebeccas, more Marys, more
sborahs consecrated-body, mind, soul
the Lord who bought them.
VI 0noa mara. / laarn from INV Subiact