The Brookhaven leader. [volume] (Brookhaven, Miss.) 1883-1891, 1891-08-13
troub,s men. women, churches ma


her acquaintance, how many were
willing to trsdge of with her toward
Judea, when she had to make that
lonely journey? One-the heroine of
my text One-absolutely one. / sup
pose when Naomi's husband was living,
and they had plenty of money, and all
things went well, they had a great
many callers; but I suppose that after
her husband died, and her property
went, and she got old and poor, she
was not troubled very much with call
ers. All the birds that sang in the
bower while the sun shone have gone
to their nests, now the night has fallen.
Oh, these beautiful sunhowcrs that
spread out their color in the morning
hour! but they are always asleep when
the sun is going down. Job had
plenty of friends when he was the rich
est man In Uz; but when his property
went and the trials came, then there
were mono so much that pestered as
Eliphaz the Temanite, and Bildad the
Shuttle, and Zophar the Naamathite.
Life often seems to be a mere game,
where the successful player pulls down
all the other men into his own lap.
Let suspicious arise about a mans char
acter, and he becomes like bank in a
panic, and all the imputations rush on
him and break down in a day that
character which in due time would have
had strength to defend himself. There
arc regulations that have been half a
century in building which go down
under some moral exposure, as a vast
temple is consumed by the touch of a
sulphurous match. A hog can uproot a
century plant In this world, so full of
beartlessness and hypocrisy, how thrill
ing it is 10 find some friend as faithful
in days of adversely as in days of pros
perity! David had such friend in
| Hushai; the Jews had such friend in
| Mordecai, who never forgot their cause;
Paul had such a friend in Onesiphorus,
who visited him in Jail; Christ had such
in the Marys, who adhered to Him On
the cross; Noami had such a one in
Ruth, who cried out: "Entreat me not
to leave thee, or to return from follow
ing after thee, for wither thou goest, |
will 90, 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, if
aught but death part thee and me-"
Again, learn from this subject that
paths which open in hardship and dark
ness often come out in places of Joy
When Ruth started from Moab toward
Jerusalem to go along with her moth
er-in-law, l suppose the people said;
| h,t fDnlSS !, to u
from her fathers house. TO go off with
poor old woman toward the land of
Judea. They won't live to get across
the desert. They will be drowned in
the sea, or tie jackals of the wilderness
will destroy Them" 1t 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 be-
come one of the grandmothers of Jesus
C!1rist the Lord of Glory. And SO it
often is that a path which starts very
darkly ends very brightly.
! When you started out for Heaven.
oh. how dark was the hour of convic-
tion-how Sinai Numbered, and devils
tormentcd, 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 PROMISE
and you had more sheaves than you
could carry, as the voice of God adj
dressed you, saying: BLESSED is the
man whose tranSgrcssions are forgiven,
and whose sins are covered A very
dark starting in conviction, 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 {.
voice within, or n voice from above,
saying, you must GO" and we have
to 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 thou
sand obstacles that have to be slain by
our own right arm. We have to ford
the river, we have to climb the noun
blessed be God, the day of rest and re-
ward will come. On the tip-top of the
captured battlements we will shout the
victory; if not in this world then in
that world where there is no gall to
drink, no burden to carry, no battle to
fight. How do | know it? Know it?
/ know it because God says so: They
shall hunger no more, neither thirst
any more, neither shall the sun light
or 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 hard for Noah to endure the
scoffing of the people in his day, while
he was trying to build the ark, and was
quizzed every morning about his old
boat that would never be of any prac-
teal use; but when the deluge came
and 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 world.
Christ, bounded of prosecutors, denied
pillow, worse maltreated than the
thieves on either side of the cross hui
man hate smacking its lips in satisfac-