The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1888-05-25
had such friend ia onesrpborus, WHO visited


turn from following after thee. for whittier
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 be buried: the Lord do
| so to me, and more also, il aught but death
| part thee and me-"
Ill 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
| 60 away from her fathers house, to go of
| with poor old woman toward 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 IL 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 thickenedl All the sins of your
life bounced upon you, and it was the dark
| est 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
| are forgiven and whose sins are covered" A
very dark starting in conviction, a 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
| shrink back, but there is a voice within, or
voice from above, saying: You must go;"
and we have tc 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 thousand OBJ
stacles that must be slain by our OVID 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 the vic
tory; 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'll ! know it 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
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, dashed up in
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 out on the wreck of a ruined earth
Christ, bounded of prosecutors, denied
pillow, worse matreated than the thieves
| on either side Of the cross, human hate smack.
ing its Iips i'm satisfaction after it had been
draining his last drop of blood, the sheeted
dead bursting from the sepulchers at his
crucifixion Tell me, o Gethsemane and
| Golgothal were there ever darker times than
thosel Like the booming of the midnight
sea against the rock, the surges of Christ's
anguish beat against the gates of eternity, to
| bc echoed back by all the thrones of heaven
and all the dungeons of hell. But the day of
! reward comes for Christ: al the pomp and
| dominion OF this world are TO be hung on his
| throne, uncrOwned heads are to bow before
him OH whoSo head are many crowns, and all
| the celestial worship is to come up at his
feet like the hunming 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: Halle
lujab, for the Lord God omnipotent reignethl
| Hallelujah, the kingdoms of this world have
become the kingdoms of our Lord Jesus
Christi"
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
" 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
| q 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 Boat Yet all ages, all generations,
| have an interest in the Tact 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 IN
| speakabe and eternal satisfaction. So it is
| in your history and mine; events that you
| thought of no Importance at all have been Of
| very great moment. That casual converse
ton, that accidental meeting-you did not
think of it again for long while. but how it
changed all the phase of your lifei
| 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 a stringed
| instrument, even after the fingers have been
| taken away from it, so all music now of lutte
/ and drum and coruet IS only the long con-
| tinued strains Of Jubal's harp and Jubal's
| organ. IL seemed to be a matter of very lit
| tie importance that Tubal Cain learned the
| uses of copper and iron; but that rude
| foundry of ancient days has It's echo in the
| rattle of Birmingham machinery, and the
| roar and bang of factories on the Merrimac.
| It seemed to he matter of no Importance
/ that Luther found Bible i'm a monastery:
| but as he opened that Bible. and the
brass bound lids fell back, they Jared every
thing 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 It seemed to
be matter of no importance that a woman,
| whose name has been forgotten, dropped a
tract In the way Of very bad man by the
name of Richard Baxter He picked up the
| tract and read 1t, and it was the means of his
| salvation.
| In after days that man wrote a book called
''The Call to the Uncovered" that was the
means of bringing multitude to God, among
| others Philip Doddridge Philip Doddridge
wrote book called '"The Rise and Progress
| of Religion" which has brought thousands
| and tens of thousands into the kingdom of
| God, among others the great Wilberforce
| Wherefore wrote a book called "A Practi
| cal View of Christianity" which was the
| means of bringing great multitude to Christ
| among others Leigh Richmond Leigh Rich
| mond wrote tract called 1.-THE Dairyman's
| Daughter" which has been the means of the
/ salvation Of unconverted multitudes. And
| that tide of influence started from the fact
that one Christian woman dropped Christian
tract in the way of Richard Baxter--the tide
of influence rolling on through Richard Bax-
| ter, through Philip Doddridge, through the
| great Wherefore, through Leigh Richmond,
| on, on, on, forever. forever So the insig-
nificant events Of this world seem, after all,
| to be most nomentous The fact that you
came up that street or this street seemed to
| be of no Importance to you. and the fact that
you went inside of some church may seem to
be matter of very great insignifcance to
you, but you will find it the turning point In
| your history
| v Again | see In my subject an illustra
ton of the beauty of female industry
Behold Ruth toiling in the harvest field
under the hot sun, or at noon taking plain
bread with the reapers, or eating the
parched corn which Boaz handed to her The
customs of society OF course, have changed,
| and vvithouf tho harlShina and axrNoe11ra IN