The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1890-06-23

''Tekel" weighed in the balances and
/ found wanting. When you can reap
harvests off bare rocks. and gather balm
out of nightshade, and make sunlight sleep
in the heart of sepulchers, and build a firm
house on a rocking billow, then can an IN
pardoned soul find firm enjoyment amid its
transgressions. Then can Orpah go back to
| Moab without weeping.
Again: Tits subject teaches that a re-
| ligious choice and the want of of it fire.
quently divide families. Ruth and Orpah
and Naomi were tenderly attached. They
were all widows, and their life had been
consscrated by a baptism Of tears. In the
fire of trial their affections had been forged
| Together thew were Sd pleasantly united,
| you can hardly imagine them separated.
Yet fatal line is drawn dividing them
from each other, perhaps forever. Naomi
| cannot live in heather country. She
must go into Bethlehem, that there
/ the true God. Ruth makes a similar
choice, but Orpah rebels. And they lifted
up their voice and wept again, and Orpah
/ kissed her mother-in-law, but Ruth clave
unto her," The history of this family of
Elimelech is the history of many families of
| this day. How often ii is that In circle OF
relatives, while they look alike, aud 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 important 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 in the land of Bethlehem, Orpah in
Moab. OF the same family are
David and:--Solomon, worshipers of the
| most High God, and Adonljah and Absa-
lom, who live and die the enemies of all
righteousness. Belonging to the same fam
! lily were the holy and devout Eli, and the
reckless Phineas, and Hophni. Jonathan
| Edwards, the good, and Pierrepont Ed
wards, the bad, belong to the same family.
Aaron Burr, the dissolute, had most ex-
cellent father. Dying, yet immortal
| hearer, by the solemnity of the parental,
and filial, and conjugal relation, by the sa-
credness of the family hearth, by the honor
| of the family name. by the memory of de-
| parted kindred, point out this parting of
Ruth and Orpah
Again: This subject suggests to me two
| of the prominent reasons WIN people refuse
the kingdom of Christ. There may have
been many other reasons why Orpah left
her sister and mother-in-law and went
back home, but there were two reasons
which think were more prominent than
the rest. she had been brought up in idola-
tries. She loved the heather gods which
her ancestors had worshiped, and, though
these blocks of wood and stone could not
hear, she thought they could hear, and,
though they could not see, she thought thew
could see, and, though they could not feel, she
thopghtitheyiscou feel. A new religion
had been brought to her attention. She
had married godly man. She must often
have heard her mother-in-law talk of the
God of Israel. She was so much shaken in
her original belief that she concluded to
leave her idolatries, but. coming to the
margin of the land of Bethlehem, her de-
of foS1 al har I'D xxal.a
turned to her gods. This is the very reason
why multitudes of persons never become
christians. They cannot bear to give
up their gods. Business is the
American Juggernaut that crushes more
men than the great car Of the
Hindoos. To it they say their morning and
evening prayers. little of Christ's reli-
gion may creep into the Sabbath. but Mon
day, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Fri
day and Saturday are the days devoted to
this American idol. Every hour there is
sacrifice on the altar. Home duties, health
OF body, manly strength and immortal
affections must all burn in this holocaust.
Men act as though they could take their
bonds, and mortgages, and saws, and trow-
els, and axes, and day books with them into
the kingdom of heaven.
There are many who nave no unholy
thirst for gold, yet who are devoting them
selves to their worldly occupations with a
-uinous intensity. Men of the stock ex-
change. men of the yard-stick, men of tine
saw, men of the trowel, men of the day
book, what will become of you, If unfor-
given, In the great day when there are no
houses to build and no goods to sell and no
bargains to makes 1t is possible to devote
oneself even to lawful calling until it be-
comes sinful. There is no excuse on earth
or under the earth for the neglect of our
deathless spirit Lydia was a seller of pur-
pie, yet she did not allow her extern
sive occupation to keep her from
becoming a.christian. Daniel was secre-
tary of state and attorney-general in the
empire of Babylon, and yet, three times
day he found time to pray with his face
toward Jerusalem. The man who has no
time to attend to religion will have no time
to enter heaven
But there are others who, while their
worldly occupation has no particular fasci-
nation over them, are entirely absorbed in
the gains that come to that occupation,
This is the worship of mammon. The ring
OF dollars and cents is the only litany they
ever utter. Though in the last day the
earth itself will not be worth farthing, a
heap OF ashes scattered in the whirlwind,
they are now giving their time and eternity
for the acquisition of so much of it as you
| might at last hold in the hollo "
| Of one hand. The American In
olan, VINO gave enough land to
make state out of, for a string of beads.
made princely bargain compared with the
| speculation of that man who gains the
| whole world and loses his own SOUL How
much comfort do the men take who died
unforgiven ten years ago, leaving large
fortunes to their heirs? Do they ever come
| up to count the gold they boarded, or walk
| through the mansions they built? Though
they could have bought an empire, they
have not now as much money as you have
this moment in your pocket. Solomon
| looked upon his palace and the
grounds surrounding it, pools trimmed
with gold, and circling roads along
which, at times, rushed his fourteen hun
dred chariots, while under the out-branch-
ing sycamores and cedars walked the apes
and peacocks, which by the navy of Hiram
had been brought from Tarshish, and from
the window curtains with embroidered gold
and purple through which came out the
thrill of harps and psalteries mingling with
the song of the waters. When Solomon
aw that all these luxuries of sight and
sound had been purchased by his wealth, he
broke forth in the exclamation, money
answerth all things" But we cannot receive
1t as literal. 1t cannot still the voice of con-
science. 1t cannot drown the sorrows of
the soul. 1t cannot put bribe in the hand
of death. 1t cannot unlock the gate of
heaven. The tower of Sloan fell aud
killed eighteen of its admirers, but this idol
to whose worship the exchanges and banks