The Monitor-register., 1897-04-30

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 one push. as a vast temple is con-
sumed by the touch of a sulphurous
match. A hog can uproot a century
l plant.
In this world, so full of heartlessness
and hypocrisy, how thrilling it is to
find some friend as faithful i'll days OF
adversely as in days of prosperity? Da-
vid had such a friend in Hushai; the
Jews had such a friend in Mordecal,
who never forgot their cause; Paul had
such a friend in Onesiphorus, who Wis
tied 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 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 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.
After Storm. Sunshine.
Again, | learn from this subject that
paths which open in hardship and dark
kness often come out in places OF joy.
When Ruth started from Moab toward
Jerusalem to go along with her mother
in-law, l suppose the people said: Ion,
what a foolish creature to go away from
her fathers house; to go 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 grandmothers of Jesus Christ, the
Lord of glory. And 50 it often is that a
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 Numbered and devils tor
mented and the darkness thickenedl 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 rams
erosion are forgiven and whose sins are
covered" A very dark starting in con
v%iction, a very bright ending in the par
don 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 &C. The
flesh may shrink back, but there is a
voice within, Or a voice from above,
saying, "You must 60" And we have
to drink the gall, and we have to carry
the cross, and we have to traverse the
of misrepresentation and abuse, and we
have to urge our way through 0 1000
obstacles that have been slain by our
! own right arm. We have to ford the
river, we nave to climb the mountain,
we have to storm the castle, but, blessed
be God, the day of rest and reward 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 bur-
dens to carry, no battles to fight How
do I know it? Know it'll l know it be-
cause 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 soothing of the people in his day,
while he was trying to build the ark and
was 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 dis
appeared like the backs of sea monsters,
and the elements, dashed up in fury,
elapped their hands over a drowned
NO1Ah, iC ANOou III tliO LII iCJOlCtu LII
his own safety and i'll 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 its
last drop of blood, the sheeted dead
bursting from the sepulchers at his cru.
ciixion! Tell me, o Gethsemane and
Golgoi@a, were there even darker times
than those? Like the booming 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-
and dominion of this world are to be
hung on his throne, crowned heads are
to bow before him ON whose head are
many crowns, and all the celestial wor-
ship 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 Oh their
thrones, beat time with their scepters,
"Halleluiah, for the Lord God omnipo-
tent 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.
Importance of Little Things.
| Again I 1parp from INV cuh5aof that
events which seem to be most insignif-
can't may be momentous. Can you i'm
agine anything more unimportant than
the coming of a poor woman from Moab
to Judah? Can you imagine anything
more trivial than the fact that this Ruth
just happened to alight-as they say
just happened to alight on that field of
Boaz? Yet all ages, all generations,
have an interest in the fact that she
was to become an ancestress Of the Lord
Jesus Christ, and all nations and king
doms must look at that one little Incl
dent with a thrill of unspeakable and
eternal satisfaction. So it IL in your
history and i'll mine. Events that you
thought of no Importance at all have
been Of very great moment. That casual
conversation, that accidental meeting
you did not think of it again for a long
while, but how it changed all the
phases of your life.
1t seemed to be of 10 Importance that
Jubal invented rude instruments Of mu-
sic, calling them harp and organs but
they were the introduction Of all the
worlds minstrelsy, and as you hear tho
vibration of a stringed instrument, ever
after the fingers have been taken away
from it, SO all music nov Of lutte and
drum and cornet is only the long CON