Democratic Northwest and Henry County news. [volume] (Napoleon, O. [Ohio]) 1894-1905, 1897-04-29


One, the heruino OF my text One, abso-
lutely one suppose when Naomi's hus-
band was living, and they had plenty of
money, and all things went well, they had
q great many callers, but l suppose that
after her husband died, and her property
oent, and sho got old and poor. she was
.Dt troubled very much with callers. AL
the birds that sung in the bower while the
sun shone have gone to their nests, now
the night has fallen.
Oh, these beautiful sunfowers that
spread out their color in the morning hour!
But they arc 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 tho Temanite and Bill
dad the Shuhite and Zophar the Mama
thite.
Life oftsn seems to be a mere game,
where the successful player pulls down all
the other men into his own lap. Let sus-
picion arise about q mans character, and
he becomes like bank in panic, and all
the imputations rush on him and break
down in 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 one push, as vast temple is
consumed by the touch of sulphurous
match. A hog can uproot a century plant.
In this world, so full of heartlessness
and hypocrisy, how thrilling it is to find
some friend as faithful in days of adversely
as in days of prosperity David had such
| e,s, u. fba hod 81
friend in Mordecai, who never forgot their
cause; Paul had such a friend in Onesi-
phorus, who visited him in Jail; Christ
had such in the Marys, who adhered to
him on the cross; Naomi had such 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 whittier thou lodgest l 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-"
From Darkness to Light.
Again, learn from this subject that
paths which open in hardship and dark
ness often come out in places of joy. When
|
lem, to go along with her mother-in-law,
suppose the people said: "Oh, what a
foolish creature to go away from her IA
theirs house, to go off with poor old
woman toward the land of Judah! 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 he
affianced to one of the lords of the land
and become one of the grandmothers of
Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory. And SC
it often is that path which often starts
very darkly ends very brightly.
When you started out for heaven, oh,
how dark was the hour of conviction
How Sinai thundered, and devils torment
ed, and the darkness thickened! All the
sins of your life pounced upon you, and il
was the darkest hour you ever saw when
you first found out your sins. Aftel
awhile you went into the harvest field Of
Gods mercy. You began to CLEAN In tht
fields of divine PROMISE and you had mort
, sheaves than you could carry, as the voict
, of God addressed you, saying, =" Blessed i!
and whose sins are covered" A very darl
J starting in conviction, very bright end
ing in the pardon and the hope and thu
triumph of the gospel.
So very often in our worldly business G.
in our spiritual career we start off on
very dark path. We must go. The f1esl
may shrink back, but there is voic
within, or a voice from above, saying
. 'You must go, and we have to drink tn
. gall, and we have to carry the cross, an
we have to traverse the desert, and we or
: pounded and failed of misrepresentation
! and abuse, and we have to urge our wa
. through 10000 obstacles that have beel
J slain by our own right arm. We have
ford the river, we have to climb the noun
tain, we have to storm the castle; but
blessed be God, the day of rest and rewar
will come On the tiptop of the capture
battlements we will shout the victory,
not in this world, then in that worl
!, where there is no gall to drink, no bul
dens to carry, no battles to fight. How d
l know it? Know it! I know it becaus
l God says so, "They shall hunger no more
u neither thirst any more, neither shall tfl
sun light on them, nor any heat, for tn
l. Lamb which Is in the midst of the throI
e shall lead them to living fountains of wt
9 ter, and God shall wipe all tears frol
their eyes"
n 1t was very hard for Noah to endure til
scoffing of the people in his day, while /
was trying to build the ark, and was e'
J cry morning quizzed about his old boz
L that would never be of any practical us
But when the deluge came and the tops
u the mountains disappeared like the bacl
b. of sea monsters, and the elements, lashe
9 up in fury, clapped their hands over
"a drowned world, then Noah in the ark r
ss ioiced in his own safety and in the safet
Is of his family, and looked out on the wret
y of ruined earth.
l. Christ, bounded of prosecutors, denied
u pillow worse maltreated than the thiev
'p on either side of the cross, human ha
III smacking its lips in satisfaction after
Oh had been draining his last drop of bloo
o, the sheeted dead bursting from the sepu
to chres at his cruciflxion. Tell me, o Get
OF semane and Golgotha, were there ev
le darker times than those? Like the boor
ing of the midnight sea against the roc
the surges of Christ's anguish beat again
the gates of eternity, to be echoed back
all the thrones of heaven and all the du
geons of hell. But the day of reward com
s. for Christ. All the pomp and dominic
r Of this world are to be hung on his thron
a. crowned heads are to bow before him I
u whose head are many crowns, and all t
I'd celestial worship is to come up at his fet
pit like the humming of the forest like t
a. rushing of the waters, like the thunderil
ne of the seas, while all heaven, rising
Ill their thrones, beat time with their sceptel
u "Halleluiah, for the Lord God omnipote
n, reigneth.
'ss That song of love, now low and far,
II, Ere long shall swell from star to star;
That light, the breaking day which tips
/ The golden spired Apocalypse.
Momentous Incidents.
ire Again, learn from my subject th
lie events which seem to be most insignifica
[N--. s.s,.,t ~.