Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-09-15
THE WINGS OF LOVE.
A Lesson on the Strength and Good
ness of God as Shown by
THE BEAUTIFUL STORY OF RUTH.
Grace and Help Near at Hand at All Times
for All Who
TRUST WHOLLY IN THE ALMIGHTY
ESPECIAL TELEGRAM TO THE pIsPATcH.l

"WingS OF Love, the famous preacher
taking for his text the words: "The Lord
God Of Israel, under whose wings thou art
come to trust Ruth H., u.
Scene-An Oriental harvest field. Grain
standing. Grain in swaths Grain in sheaves
AT the side of the field, white tent in which
10 take the nooning jars of vinegar or of sour
wine 20 quench the thirst of the hot working
people. Swarthy men striking their sickles
into the rustling barley. Others twisting the
bands for the sheaves, putting one end of the
band under the arm, and with the free arm and
loot collecting the sheaf. Sunburned women
picking up the stray straws and bringing them
TO the binders. Boaz a finelooking Oriental,
gray-bearded and bright-faced. the owner OF the
field, looking on and estimating the value OF
the grain and calculating so many ephahs to the
acre; and. with his large, sympathetic heart.
pltying the overtasked workmen and the
women. with white faces enough to faint, in the
hot noondav sun. But there is one woman who
especially attracts the mans attention. She is
soon to he with him the Joint owner of the field.
She has come from distant land for the sole
purpose of being kind to an aged woman. L
know not what her features were; but when the
Lord God sets behind a woman's face the lamp
OF courage, and faith and self-sacrifice, there
comes out a glory independent of features.
She is to be the ancestress of Jesus Christ.
Boaz, the owner of the field, as soon as he
understands that Ii is Ruth, accosts her with a
blessing: "a full reward be given thee of the
Lord God of Israel. under whose wings thou
art come to trust" Christ tcompares himself to
hen gathering the chickens under her wings.
In Deuteronomy, God Is represented as an eagle
stirring up her nest. In a great many places in
the Psalms. David makes orniJhological allu-
sions; while my text mentions the wings of
God, under which poor, weary soul had come
to trust.
WINGS SWIFT AND STRONG.
ask your attention. therefore, while. taking
the suggestion of my text, 1 speak to you in all
simplicity and love of the wings of the
Almighty.
First, remark that they were swift wings
under which Ruth had come to trust. There is
nothing in all the handiwork of God more Curl
Gus than birds wing. You have been sur
prised. sometimes, to see how far it could fly
with one stroke of the wing; and. when 1t has
food in prospect, or when IL is atfrlghted. the
pulsations Of the birds wing are unimaginable
Tor velocity. The English lords used to PRIDE
themselves on the speed of their falcons. These
birds. when tanned, had in them the dart of
lightning. How swift were the carrier pigeons
IN the time OF Anthony and at the siege of Je-
rusalem! Wonderful speed! A carrier pigeon
was thrown up at Rouen and came down at
GhPnt-9O miles Off-in one hour. The car
rieT pigeons were the telegraphs of the olden
time. swallows have been shot in our lati-
tude having the undlgested rice of Georgia
swampS in their crops, showing that they had
come 4U0 miles in six hours. 1t has been esti-
mated that in the ten years of a swallows life
il flies far enough to have gone around the
world SO times. so great is Its velocity. And so
the wings of the Almighty, spoken of in the
text, are swift wings. They are swift when
they drop upon foe, and swift when they
come to help Gods friends. If father and
his son be walking by the way and the child
goes too near precipice, how long does it take
for the father to deliver the child from
danger? Longer than 1t takes God to swoop
for the rescue of His children.
The fact is that you cannot get away from the
care of God. If You take the steamship, or the
swift rail train, He is all the time along with
you. Whittier shall go from Thy spirit, and
whittier shall ] flee from Thy presence? If l
xscend up into heaven Thou art there. If
@uake my bed IN hell. behold Thou art there.
II | take the wings of the morning and dwellp
IN the uttermoSt parts of the sea, even there N
Thy hand shall hold me.
HELP NEAR AT HAND.
The Arabian gazelle is swift as the wind. If
it gets but one glimpse of the hunter it puts /
many craGs between. Solomon four .ors five |
times compares Christ to an Arabian gazene |
tcallInG it by another name) when he says:
My beloved is like a roe.'' The difference is
that the roe speeds the other way; Jesus speeds
this. Who but Christ could have been quick
enough to have helped Peter when the water
pavement broke? Who but Christ could have
been quick enough to help the Duke of Argyle
when, IN his dying moment, he cried: Good
cheer! could die like Roman, but mean to
die like Christian. Come away, gentlemen.
He who goes first goes cleanest"
had friend who stood by the rail-track at
Carlisle Pa, when the ammunition had given |
out ut Anuetam; and he saw the train from
Harrisburg. frelghted with shot and shell, as it
went numbering down toward the battlefield. |
he said that 1t stopped not for any crossing
They put down the brakes for no grade. They
held up for no peril. The wheels were fire |
with the speed as they dashed past. Ii the |
train did not come up in time with the ammu-
milton, il might as well not come at all So nv
friends, there are times in lives when we |
must have help Immediately or perish. The
grace that comes too late is no grace at all
What yOu and want is a God-now OH is it
not blessed to think that God is always in such
quick pursuit of his dear children? When a
sinner seeks pardon, or a baffled soul needs
help. swifter than thrush's wing, swifter than
ptarmigan wing, Swifter than flaminEo's wing
swIfter than eagles wing, are the wings of the
Almighty.
remark further, carrying out the idea of nv
text that the wings under which Ruth had
come to trust were very broad wings There
have been eagles shot on the Rocky Mountains
with wings that were seven feet from tip to
TIP. When the king of the air sits on the crag,
the wings are spread over all the eaglets in the
eyrie, and when the eagle starts from the rock
the shadow is like the spreading of a storm
cloud So the wings of God are broad wings.
Ruth had been under those wings in her in
1antlle days; in the days of her happy girlhood
IN Moab; in the day when she gave her hand
TO Mahlon, in her first marriage; IN the day
when she wept over his grave: in the day when
she trudged out into the wilderness of poverty;
IN the days when she picked up the few straws
OF barley dropped by ancient custom in the
way OF the Door
AID FOR THE DISCONSoLATE.
Oh!yes, the wings of God are broad WINGS
They cover up all our wants, all our sorrows.
all our suTerings. He puts one wing over our
cradle, and he puts the other over our grave.
Yes, my dear friend, it is not desert in which
we are placed: 1t Is nest. Sometimes it is a
very hard nest, like that of the eagle spread on
the rock with ragged moss and rough sticks
but stu Is a nest; and although 1t may be yery
hard under uS, over us are the wings of the
Almighty There sometimes comes neriod in
ones life when he feels forsaken You said.
Everything is against me. The world is
against me. The church is against me- No
sympathy; no hope. Everybody that comes
near me thrusts at me. | wonder if there is a
God. anyhow Everything seems to be going
shpshod and at haphazard There does not
seem to be any hand on the helm. Jobs health
fails. David's Absalom gets to be a reprobate
Martha's brother dies. Abrahams Sarah goes
into the grave of Machpelah. Woe worth the
day IN which l was bornr' has said many a
Christian. David seemed to scream out in his
sorrow, as he said: is His mercy clean gone
forever? And will He be favorable no more?
And hath He in anger shut up His tender ner-
cies?' Job, with his throat swollen and
ulcered until he could not even swallow the
saliva that ran into his mouth, exclaims: How
long before Thou wilt depart from me. and
leave me alone, that / may swallow down my
splitter Have there never been times in your
life when you envIed those who were buried?
When you longed for the gravedigger to do his
work Tor you? Oh the faIuhlessness of the
human heart! Coos wings are broad, whether
we know it or not.
Sometimes the mother-bird goes away from
the nest, aud it seems very strange that she
should leave the callow young. She plunges
neT peak INTO the bark of the tree, and she
drops into the grain field and into the chaff at
the barn door, and into the furrow of the plow-
boy. Meanwhile. the birds in the nest shiver
and complain. and call, and wonder why the
H.nsaT-1 ind Il,