The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1897-04-30

on that high career where it will
march long after the foreign aristOc-
racies that have Knocked and tyran-
mics that have jeered, shall be swept
down under the omnipotent wrath of
God, who hates despotism, and who,
by the strength of His own red right
arm, will make all men free. And so
it is individually, and in the family,
and in the church, and in the world,
that through darkness and storm and
trouble men, women, churches, ma
tions, are developed.
Again. see in my text the beauty
of unfaltering friendship. l suppose
there were plenty of friends for Naomi
while she was in prosperity; but of all
her acquaintance. how many were
willing to trudge off with her toward
Judah when she had to make that
lonely journey? One-the heroine of
my text. One-absolutely one. | sup
pose when NamOi's husband was liv-
ing, and they had plenty of money.
and all things went we'll they had a
great many callers; but | suppose that
after her husband died, and her prop
erty went. and she got old and poor.
she was not troubled very much with
callers. All the birds that sung in the
bower while the sun shone have gone
to their nests. now the night has fallen.
Oh, these beautiful sunflowers 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
richest man in Uz; but when his prop
erty went and the trials came. then
there were none so much that pestered
as Eliphaz the Temanite, and Bildad
the Shuttle, and Zophar the Naamath-
tie.
Life often seems to be mere game,
where the successful player pulls down
all the other men into his own lap
Let suspicious arise about a mans
character. and he becomes like bank
in a 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 it
self. There are regulations that have
been half century in building which
go down under one push, 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 heartless-
ness and hypocrisy, how thrilling it is
to find some friend as faithful in days
of adversely as in days of prosperity
David had such a friend in Hushai:
the Jews had such friend in Mordecai.
who never forgot their cause; Paul
had such 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 enc in Ruth,
who cried out: ''Entreat me not to
leave thee, or to return from following
after thee; for whittier thou goest,
will go; and whittier thou lodgest. |
will lodge; thy people shall be my peO-
pie, and thy God my God; where thou
diest will l die, and there will l 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 |
mother-in-law, the people said: ''Oh, |
what foolish creature to go away |
from her fathers house, to 90 off |
with a 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 a 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 become one of the grand
mothers of Jesus Christ, the Lord of
glory. And so it often is that a path
which often starts very darl1ly ends
very brightly.
When you started out for Heaven,
oh, how dark was the hour of convic-
tion-how Sinai Numbered, and devils
and the darkness thick
ened! 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
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
s the man whose transgressions are
forgiven and whose sins are covered"
A very dark starting in conviction, a
very bright ending in the pardon and
he hope and the triumph of the Cos
oelI
So, very often in our worldly bust
hess or in our spiritual career we start
'ff on very dark path. We must 60
The flesh may shrink back, but there
s voice within, or voice from above,
aging, You must CO." and we have
% drink the gall, and we have to carry
he cross, and we have to traverse the
iesert, and we are pounded and failed
If misrepresentation and abuse, and
We have to urge our way through TO-
100 obstacles that have been slain by
'ur own right arm. We have to ford ]
he river, we have to climb the noun