Fort Worth weekly gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1890-06-26

but are like stupefying drugs that dull
the pain only temporarily. Ahab has
great kingdom, and you would think he
ought TO be happy with bis courtiers and
chariots and palace, yet he goes to bed
sick because Naboth will not sell him his
vineyard. Haman is prime minister OF
the greatest nation in the world, and
vet, one poor man who will not bow the
head makes him utterly miserable.
Herod monopoliZes the most OF the
world s honor, aud yet is thrown into
rage because they say little child is
born in Bethlehem who may
AFTER WHILE DISPUTE HIS AUTHORITY.
Byron conquered the world with his pen,
and yet SAID that he felt more unhappi-
ness from the criticism of the most Hit
crate reader than he experienced pleas
ure from the praise of all the talented.
In the last century in England lived
the immortal Shenstone. Portions of his
life were given TO the writing of poetry,
but this was not evidently the field for
which nature had equipped him. His
name will never be forgotten, because
of the home which he adorned and
beautified, until there probably never
has been SO bright spot since the Gar
den of Eden as what he loved to call
''the LeasoWes.' In addition to the
marvels which nature had wrought, he
added the perfection of art. Arbor and
terrace, and slope and rustic temple,
and reservoir and urn and fountain here
had their browning. Oak and yew and
hazel put on their glory of verdure.
What the greenness of deep grass and the
foam of cascade and the glitter of still
lake could give of beauty were added.
No life was more dIlIgent and no soul
more ingenious than that of Shenstone,
and all that genius and diligence were di-
rected to the adjournment of that treas
ured spot. What more could one want to
make home happy? Yet there is one
man who sits signing in those bowers,
and casting gloomy looks upon those
parks, and the mirth of leaping water
falls makes no melody in his ear. 1t is
Shenstone, the owner of the Leasowes-
81 have lost my road to happiness, -
says the respondent man. 81 am angry
and enviCus, and detected, and frantic,
and disregard all present things just as
it becomes madman to do My
friends, there is no solid happiness in
anything but religion, care not how
bright a home Orpah has in Moab,
when she turns away from duty she turns
of Belshazzar's feast, and the glitter of
chalices there always will come out
handwriting on the wall, tearfullY omi-
nous: ''Tekel weighed in the bal
ances and found wanting. When you
can reap haryests of bare rocks, and
gather balm out of nghtshade, and
make sunlight
SLEEP IN THE HEART OF EPULCHREs,
and build firm house on a rocking bill
low, then can an unpardoned soul find
firm enjoyment amid its transgressions.
Then eau Orpah 60 back to Moab without
weeping.
Again: This subject teaches that a
religious choice and the want of it fire.
quently divide families. Ruth and
Orpah and Naomi were teuderly at
tached. They were all widows and their
life had been consecrated by a baptism
of tears. In the fire of trial their affec-
lions aad been forged. Together they
were so pleasantly united, you can hard
ly imagine them separated. Yet fatal
line is drawn dividing them from each
other, perhaps forever. Naomi cannot
live III u heather country. She must go
into Bethlehem that there among the
pious she may worship the true God.
rebels. "And they lifted up their voice
mother in-law, but Ruth cl6ve unto
her 1.-THE history of this family of Elm
elech is the history of many families of
this day. How often is it that in cir
Gle of relatives. while they look alike,
and walk alike, and talk alike, there is a
tremendous difference. Outwardly
united in the affectional relations of this
life, they are separated IN the most i'm
portant respects. Some now are the
children of light and others the children
of darkness. These are alive in Christ,
and those are dead in sin, Ruth III the
land of Bethlehem, Orpah in Moab. OF
the same family are David and Solomon,
worshipers of the most high God, and
Apon jah and AbsalOm, who live and die
the enemies of all Righteousness. Be-
longing 20 the same family was the holy
and devout Eli, and the reckless Phineas,
and HOphni. Jonathan Edwards, the
good, and Pierrepont Edwards, the bad,
belonging to the same family. Aaron
Burr, the dissOlute, had most excellent
father. Dying, yet immortal nearer.
by the solGmnity of the parental, and
filial, aud cOnjugal relation, by the sa-
credness of the family hearth, By the
honor of the family name, by the memo
ry of the departed kindred, / point out
TINS parting of Ruth and Orpah.
Again: This subject suggests to me
two of the prominent reasons why the
people refuse the kingdom of Christ.
There may have been many other rea-
sons why Orpah left her sister and moth
er-in-law, and went back home, but
there were two reasons which l think
were more prominent than the rest. She
had been brought up in idolatries.
SHE LOVED THE HEATHER GODS
which her ancestors had worshipped,
and, though these blocks of wood and
stone could not hear, she thought they
could hear, and, though they could not
see, she thought they could see, and,
though they could not feel, she thought
they could feel. A new relig
ion had been brought to her attention.
She had married u cody man. She
must often have heard her mother-in-
law talk of the God of Israel. She was
SO shaken in her original belief that she
concluded 10 leave her idolatries, but,
coming to the margin of the land of
Bethlehem, her determination failed her,