News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1891-08-06

One-absolutely one. suppose when
Naomi's husband was living, and they
had plenty of money, and all things
went well, they had great many call
ers; but | suppose that after her hus-
band died, and her property went, and
she got old and poor, she was not trou-
bled very much with callers. 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 sunfiowers that
spread out their color in the morning
hourl but they are always asleep when
the sun is going down. Job had plenty
of friends when he was the richest man
in Uz; but when his property went and
the trials came, then there were none
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 mans charac-
ter 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 itself.
There are regulations that have been
half a century in building which go
down under some moral exposure, rs a
vast temple is consumed by the touch
of sulphurous match. A hog can up
root century plant.
In this world, SO full of heartlessness
and hypocrisy, how thrilling it is to find
some friend as faithful in days of ad-
versity as in days of prosperity David
had such friend in Hushai; the Jews
had such a 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; Naomi had such a one in Ruth,
who cried out, ''Entreat me not to
leave thee, or to return from following
after thee; for whittier thou goest, l
will go; and where thou lodgest, | will
lodge; thy people shall be my people,
and thy God my God; where thou diest
will 1 die, and there will l be buried:
the Lord do so to me, and more also,
if aught but death part thee and me"
OUT OF DARKNESS INTO LIGHT.
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, / suppose the people said:
ooh, what a foolish creature to go away
from her fathers house, to go off with
a poor old woman toward the land OF
Judeal They won't live to get across
the desert. They will be drowned in
the sea, or the 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 afianced
to one of the lords Of the land, and be-
come one of the grandmothers of Jesus
Christ, the Lord of Glory. And SO it
often is that path which starts very
darkly ends very Drlgntly.
When you started out for heaven, oh,
how dark was the hour of conviction
how Sinai Numbered and devils tor
mented, and the darkness thickenedl
All the sins of your life bounced 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 be-
gan to CLEAN in the fields of divine
promise, and you had more sheaves
than you could carry, as the voice of
God addressed you, saying, Blessed is
the man whose transgressions are for
given 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
a voice within, or a 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
thousand obstacles that have to be
slain by our own right arm. We have
10 ford the river, we have to climb the
we have to storm the castle;
but, blessed be God, the day of rest
and reward will come
On the tiptop of the captured battle
ments we will shout the victory; if not
in this world, then in that world where
there is no gall to drink, no burdens to
carry, no battles to fight. How do /
know it2 Know it'll know it because
God says so. '"They shall hunger no
more, neither thirst any more, neither
shall the sun light on 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"
NOAH AND THE scoFFERs.
1t was very hard for Noah to endure
the scoffing of the people in his day
while he was trying to build the ark,
and. was every morning quizzed about
MS 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 mon
,ters, 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 earth
Christ, bounded of prosecutors, de-
MED a pillow, worse maltreated than
the thieves on either side of the cross,
human hate smacking its lips in salts
faction after it had been draining his
last drop of blood, the sheeted dead
bursting from the sepulchers at his cru
cifixion. Tell me, o Gethsemane and
Golgothai were there ever darker times
than those2 Like the booming of the
midnight sea against the rocks, 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 reward comes for
Christ; all the pomp and dominion of
this world are to be hung on his throne.
heads are to bow before
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,
ike the laundering of the seas, while
all heaven. rising on their thrones, beat
time with their scepters: "Hallelujah,
Tor the Lord God omnipotent reignethl