The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1888-05-30


:. Again | see in my text the beauty
OF untaltering friendship. ! suppose there
were plenty OF friends for Naomi while
she was IN prosperity; but of all her ac-
qualntances how many were willing to
| trudge off with her toward Judah when
| she had to make the lonely journey
One-the heroine of my text. One-ab-
soiutely one. 1 suppose when Naomi's
husband was living and they had plenty
/ OF money and all things went well, they
had q great many callers; but l suppose
/ that after her husband died and her
| property went and she had got old and
| poor she was not troubled very much
| With callers. All the birds that sung
in the bower while the sun shown have
| gone to their nests now the night has
| fallen.
Oh, these beautiful sunhowers, that
| spread out their colors 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; but
when his property went and the trials
came then there were none so much that
pestered as Eliphaz the Temanite, and
Bildad the Shuttle, and Zophar, the
I Naamathite.
Life often seems to be mere game,
where the successful player pulls down
I
suspicious arise about a mans character
and he becomes like a bank in panic,
and all the imputations rush on him and
break down in a day that character which
in due time would have had strength to
defend itself. There are regulations that
have been a half century in building,
which 90 down under some moral ex-
posture, as vast temple is consumed by
the touch of a sulphurous match. A hog
can uproot a century plant
In this world, so full of heartlessness
and hypocrisy, how thrilling it is to find
some friend as faithful in days OF ADVERSE
ty as in the days OF prosperity! David
had such friend in Hushai; the Jews
had such friend in MOrdecai, who never
forgot their cause Paul had such friend
in phosphorus, who visited him In jail;
Christ had such in the Marys, who adj
hered to him on the cross; Naomi had
such a one in Ruth, who cried out: EN-
treat me not TO leave thee, or to return
from following after thee; for whittier
thou goest, l will go: and where thou
lodgest, | VIII lodge; thy people shall be
my people, and thy God my God; where
thou diest will l die and there will l be
buried; the Lord do 50 TO me, and more
also, if aught but death part thee and
me-"
8. Again, learn from this subject that
paths which open in hardship and dark
ness 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: ooh,
what a foolish creature to 90 away from
her fathers house to 90 off with poor
old woman toward the land of JUDAH
They will be drowned in the sea of the
"a q
them" 1t was a very dark morning when
Ruth started off with Naomi; but behold
her in my text in the harvest-field of Boaz
to be atfianced to one OF the lords OF the
land and become one of the grandmothers
OF Jesus Christ, the lord of glory. And so
1t often is that q 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 tormented
and the darkness thickened! Ill 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 field of Gods
mercy; you began to giean 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
ilidil NnOSC lIdllS8ICSSlOuS 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 OFT on a
very dark path. We must 90. The flesh
may shrink back, but there is voice
within, or "A voice from above, saying:
You must co." and we have to drink tho
gall, and we have to carry the cross, 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 10000 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 castle;
but, blessed be God, the day of rest and
reward will come. On the tiptop 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 l know it? Know it, l know it be-
cause God saws 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"
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 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 ruined earth.
Christ, bounded of prosecutors, denied
a 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 crucifxion. Tell me. o
Gethsemane and Golgotha, were there
ever darker times than those? Like the
booming OF the midnight sea against the
rock, the 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 re-
ward comes for Christ; all the pomp and
dominion of this world are to De 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 Ii ze the TtIShino Of the waters