The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1897-04-30

Iedt me not to leave thee or to return
thou goest / will go. and whittier thou
lodgest l Will lodge. Thy people shall be
my people. and thy God my God. Where
buried. The Lord do so TO me and more
also: IL but death part thee and
me-"
FROM DARKNESS TO LIGHT.
Again. I learn from this subject that
paths which open in hardship and dark
When Ruth started from Moab toward
Jerusalem. to go along with her other
in-law. l suppose the people said: oh.
a foolish creature to go away from
her fathers house. to go of with a poor
old woman toward the land of Judah,
They won't live to get across the desert.
jackals Of the wilderness will destroy
them 1t was a very dark morning when
Ruth started of 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 become one of the grandmothers
OF Jesus Christ. the Lord Of glory. And
so 1t often Is that a path which often
starts very darkly ends very rightly.
When you started out for heaven. oh,
how dark was the hour of conviction.
How Sinai Numbered, and devils torment
&c. 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 addressed you. saying. Blessed is
the man whose transgression are for
gwen and whose sins are covered" A
very dark starting in conviction. a 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 a
very dark path. We must go. The flesh
may shrink back, but there is a voice
shf ~ n -ntoa from nhnyn aNjn
"YOu must 60" 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 misrepresenta-
ton and abuse, and we have to urge our
way through 10000 obstacles that have
been slain by our own right arm. We
the mountain, we have to storm the
castle: but, blessed be God, the day of
rest and reward will come. On the tiptop
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 burdens to carry, no battles 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 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"
1t was very hard for Noah to endure the
scoffing of the people in his day, while
iS "oo L ms ~ pdllu III i n. dlIt vas
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.
dashed up in fury, clapping their hands
over a drowned world, then Noah in the
ark rejoiced in his own safety and in the
safety of his family, and ook out on
the wreck of a ruined earth.
Christ, bounded of prosecutors, denied a
pillow, worse maltreated than the thieves
nv ci6o Of h. nroCc NINA hot a
smacking it's lips in satisfaction after it
had been draining his last drop of blood,
the sheeted dead bursting from the sepul
chres at his crucifixion. Tell me, . Geth-
semane and Golgotha, were there ever
darker times than those? Like the BOOM
ing 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
his throne, crowned 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 OF their thrones, beat time
with their scepterS, "Halleluiah, for the
Lord God omnipotent reigneth."
That song of love, now low and far,
Ere long shall swell from star to star:
That light, the breaking day which tips
The golden spired Apocalypse.
MOMENTOUS INCIDENTS.
Again. I learn from my subject that
events which seem to be most inSigniti-
cant may be monentous. Can you imagine
anything more unimportant than the
coming of a poor woman from Moab to
Judah? Can you imagine anything more
trivial than the fact that his Ruth just
happened to alight-as they say-just hap
pened to alight on that field of Boaz?
Yet all ages, all generations, have an in
terest in the fact that she was to become
an ancestress of the Lord Jesus Christ,
and all nations and kingdoms must look
at that one little incident with a thrill of
u~nspeakable and eternal satisfaction. So
it is in your history and in mine, events
that you thought of no Importance at all
have been of very great moment: Ihat
casual conversation; that accidental meet
ing-you did not think of it again for a
long while. But how it changed all the
phases of your life!
Jubal invented rude instruments of music,
calling them harp and organ, but they
were the Introduction of all the worlds
minstrelsy, and as you hear the vibration
of a stringed instrument, ever after the
fingers have been taken away from it, so
all music now of flute and drum and
cornet is only the long continued strains
of Jubal's harp and Jubals organ. 1t
seemed to be a matter of very little i'm
p%ortance that Tubal Cain learned the uses
Of copper and iron, but that rude foundry
Oh dI1CltI1l udyS IDS I'D Yin III II l"NtiC
Of Birmingham machinery and the road
and bang of factories on the Merrimac.
1t seemed to be a matter of no import
ance that Luther found a Bible in a mon
astery, but as he opened hat Bible and
the brass bound lids fell back they Jared
everything, and the rustling of the worm.
ed leaves was the sound Of the wings OF
the angel of the reformation. 1t seemed
to be a matter Of no Importance that a
woman whose name has been forgotten
dropped a tract in the way of a very
bad man by the name of Richard Baxter:
He picked up the tract and read 1t, and 1t
was the means of his salvation In after
days that man wrote a book called The
Call to the Unconverted," that was the
means of bringing a multitude to God,
among others Philip Doddridge. Philip
Doddridge wrote a book called The Rise
and Progress Of Religion" which has
brought thousands and tens Of thousands
into the kingdom of God, and among
others the great WHEREFORE. Will
berforce wrote a book called "A Practical
View of Christianity which was the
means Of bringing a great multitude TO
Christ. among others Leigh Richmond
Leigh Richmond wrote a tract called The
Dairyman's Daughter" which has been
the means of the salvation of u~nconvert-