Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-08-03

pose the people said: ''Oh, what a foolish
creature to go away from her fathers house,
! 10 60 off with poor old woman toward the
land of Jud;ca! They won't live to get
across the desert. They will be drowned in
the seq, or the jackals of the wilderness will
destroy them" 1t was a very dark morn
ing 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 grand
mothers of Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory.
| And so it often is that path which starts
| very darklv ends very brightly.
When You started out for heaven, oh,
| how dark was the hour of conviction-how
Sinai thundercd, and devils tormented and
the darkness thickened All the sins of
your life pounced 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 CLEAN in the fields of divine prom
| Use, 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 con-
Nictlon, very bright ending in the pardon
and the hope and the triumph of the Gospel!
HARD FOR NOAH.
scoffing 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 ND in
fury, clapped their hands over a drowned
world, then Noah in the ark reioiced in his
own safety and the safety of his family, and
looked out on the wreck of ruined earth.
Christ, bounded of prosecutors, denied
pillow, worse maItreated 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 selpulchres
at HIS crucifixion. 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 be hung on
His throne, uncrowned heads are to bow be-
fore 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,
like the rushing of the waters, like the
laundering of the seas, while all Heaven,
rising on their thrones, beat time with their
seeptres: "Hallelujah, for the Lord God
omnipOtent reigneth! Halleluiah, the
Kingdoms of this world have become the
Kingdoms of our Lord Jesus Christi
CUSTOMS HAVE CHANGED.
The customs of society, of course, have
changed, and without the ha-dships and ex-
poSure to which Ruth was subjected, every
Intelligent woman will find something TO
do. know there is sickly sentimentality
on this subject In some families there are
persons of no practical service to the house.
hold or community; and though there are
so many woes all around about them in the
world, they spend their time languishing
over new pattern, or bursting into tears
at midnight over the story of some lover
who shot himself! They would not deign
TO look at Ruth carrying back the barley
on her way home to her mother-inlaw,
Naomi. All this faStidiousness NAV seem
to do very well while they are under the
shelter of their fathers house; but when
the sharp winter of misfortune comes, what
of these butterflies? Persons under in
dulgent parentage may get upon themselves
habits of Incidence; but when they come
out into practical life their soul will recoil
with disgust and chagrin. They will feel
in their hearts what the poet so severely
satirized when he said:
Folks are so awkward, things so impolite,
They're elegantly panied from morn till
night.
Through that gate of Incidence how MANY
men and women have marched, useless on
earth, to destroyed eternity! Spinola
said TO Sir Horace We're: "Of what did your
brother die?" ''Of having nothing to do"
was the answer. 'Ah? said Spinola.
that's enough to kill any general of US.
OH can it be possible in this world, where |
thsre is so much suffering to be alleviated, |
so much darkness to be enlightened, and so |
many burdens TO be carried, that there is |
any person who cannot find anything to do? |
WORLD OF WORK DONE.
Madame de Stael did world of work in |
her time; and one day, while she was seated |
amid instruments of music, all of which =!
she had mastered, and amid manuscript |
books which she had written, some one said |
to her: GLOW do you find time to attend to
all these things?" ooh, . she replied, these are
not the things 1 am proud of Ny chief
boast is in the fact that l have II trades, by
anyone of which could make livelihood |
if necessary" And if in secular spheres
there is so much to be done, in spiritual
work how vast the field! How many dying
all around about us without one word of
comfort! We want more Abigails, more
Hannahs, more Rebeccas, more Marys,
more Deborahs consecrated-body, mind,
soul-to the Lord who bought them
Once more I learn from my subject the
value of cleaning. Ruth going into the
harvest-feld might have said: "There is
straw, and there is straw; but what is
straw? l can't get any barley for myself or
my mother-in-law out of these separate
straws." Not so said beautiful Ruth She
gathered two straws, and she put them to-
yether, and more straws, until she got
enough to make sheaf Putting that
down, she went and gathered more straws,
until she had another sheaf, and another,
md another and another, and then she
brought them all together and she threshed
hem out, and she had an ephah of barley,
llgh a busheL. Oh, that we might all be
cleaners!
Elihu Burritt learned many things while
oiling in blacksmith's shop. Aber-
the world-renowned philosopher,
vas a physician in Scotland, and he got his
philosophy, or the chiefpa of it, while, as
physician, he was waiting for the door of
he sick room to open. Yet how many there |
Ire in this day who say they are so busy
hey have no time for mental or spiritual
improvement; the great duties of life cross
he field like strong reapers, and carry off
al the hours, and there is only here and
there a fragment left that is not worth
cleaning. All, my friends, you could 90
INTO the busiest week of your life and find
golden opportunities, which, gathered,
night at last make a whole sheaf for the |
.ord's gnrner 1t is the stray opnortpn;+;a, |