Fort Worth weekly gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1888-05-25

snd they had plenty Of money, and al
things went well, they had = great man,
callers; but suppose that after her hue.
band died, and her property went, snt
she got old and poor, she was not troub
led very much with callers. All the
birds that surg in the bower while ths
sun shone have gone to their nests, now
the night has fallen.
On, these beautiful sur flowers thai
spread out their color in the morning
hour but are always asleep when the sun
Is going down. Job had plenty Of friends
when he was the richest man In Uz; bui
when his property went and the trials
came, then there were none so much that
pestered Is Euphaz the Temsnite, and
Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the
Nasmathite.
Life often seems to be 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 q panic,
and all the imputations rush on hum 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 expo
sure as
VAST TEMPLE
is consumed by the touch Of sulphurous
match. A hog can uproot century
plant.
and h5 pocrisy, now thrilling it Is to fad
some friend as faithful in days nj adver-
sity as IN days OF prosperity! David had
fr.r -, no haA
such friend in Mordecat, who never for
got their cause; Paul had such friend in
OnesiphoTus, who visited him in jail |;
Christ had such 10 the Marys, who sd-
hered to him on the cross; Naomi had
such one in Ruth, who cried out: "En-
treat me not to leave thee, or to return
from following after thee, for whittier
| thou goeet, will go; snd where thou
lodgest, will lodge; thy people shall be
my people, and thy God my God; where
thou diest will die, and there will be
buried; the Lord do so to me, and more
also, If aught but desth part thee and
me-"
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 toward
Jerusalem, to go along with her mother
in-law, suppose the people said: "Oh,
what foolish creature to go away from
, her fathers house, to go of with poor
old womad toward the land of Judah!
Tney won't live TO get across the desert.
They will be drowned in the ses, or the
jsckals Of the wilderness will destroy
them" It was very dark morning when
Rath started OF with Naomi; but behold
her in my text In the harvest field Of
BOSE, to be aff1anced to one Of the lords
of the land, and become one of the grand
mothers Of Jesus Christ, the Lord Of
glory. And 30 1t 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
nente6, and
THE DARKNESS THICKKNEDi
All the sins of your life bounced upon
you, and 1t was the darkest hour you ever
saw when you first found out your sins.
After awhile you went into the
harvest asld of Gods mercy;
you began to CLEAN in the fields
Of divine promise and you had
more shelves than you could carry, IS
the voice Of God addressed you, saying:
"RlesSed is the man whose trsnsgres
sions are forgiven, and whose sins are
covered" A very dark starting in con-
viction, q very bright ending in the par
don and the hope and the triumph Of the
Gospel!
So, very often in our worldly business.
or in our spiritual career, we start e6 on
very dark path. We must go. The
nesh may shrink back, but there is voice
within, or voice from above, saying:
s'You must go;" and we have to drink the
gall, and We have to carry the crose, and
we have to traverse the desert, and we
are pounded and failed Of misrepresenta-
ton 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 CAS-.
tie; 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; II not In this world, then in
that world where there is no gall to
drink, no burdens to carry, no battles to
fight. How dol know it? Know It'll I
know it becausesGod 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,"
It was very hard for Noah to endure
the ecofing Of the people in his day, while
he was trying to build the ark, snd was
every morning qulzzed about his old boat
that would never be Of any practical use;
but when
THE DELUGE CAME,
and the tops Of the mountains disap-
pesred like the backs of see-monsters,
and the elements, lsehed up in fury,
clspped their hsnds over q drowned
world, then Eosh in the ark rejoiced In
his own safety and in the safety OF his
family, srd looked out on the wreck of
ruined earth.
Christ, bounded Of prosecutors. de-
MED q pillow, worse maltreated than the
thieves on either side of the cross, human
hate smacking its lips in satisfaction at
ter it had been draining Bis last
drop OF blood, the sheeted dead
bursting from the sepulchres
at His cruciixlon. Tell me, oh Gethse-
name and Golgotba, were there ever
darker times than those? Like the
booming Of the midnight sea against the
rock, the surges Of Chris.'s anguish beat
sgainst the gates Of eternity, to be
echoed back by all the thrones Of heaven