The L'Anse sentinel. (L'Anse, L.S., Mich.) 18??-current, 1897-05-08

L
tied him in jail; Christ had such in tn
Marys, who adhered to Him on tn
cross; Naomi had such a one In Ruth
who cried out: "Entreat me not 3
leave thee, or to return from following
after thee; for whittier thou goest,
will 90; and whittier thou lodgest.
will lodge; thy people shall be my pee
pie, and thy God my God; where thor
diest will i die, and there will l b
buried; the Lord do so to me. and mor'
also, II aught but death part thee an
me-"
Again, learn from this subject tina
paths which open in hardship ant
darkness often come out in places o
J joy. When Ruth started from Moal
toward Jerusalem, to go along with
her mother-in-law, suppose the peo
pie said: "Oh, what foolish crea
ture to go away from her father
house, to go off with a poor old woman
toward the land of Judah! They won''
live to get across the desert. They
will be drowned in the sea or the jack
| ais 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 har'
vest of Boa7, 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 so 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 convic-
tion-how Sinai Numbered, and devils
tormented, and the darkness thick
ened! 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 transgressions are
forgiven and whose sins are covered"
A very dark starting in conviction, a
very bright ending in the pardon and
the hope aud the triumph of the Cos
pei!
So, very often in our worldly bust
ness or in our spiritual career we start
Off on very dark path. We must go.
The flesh may shrink back, but there
is voice within, or 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
in misrepresentation and abuse, and
we have to urge our way throuth TO-
900 obstacles that have been slain by
our own right arm. We have to 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
reward will come. On the tip-top of
the captured battlements we will
shout the victory; II 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 linger 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
of water, and God shall wipe
all tears from their eyes"
II 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
his old boat that would never be of
any practical use; but when the deluge
came, and the tops of the mountains
like the backs of sea-mon-
sters, 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 ruined earth.
Christ, bounded of prosecutors, de-
MED pillow, worse maltreated than
the thieves on either side of the cross,
human hate smacking it's lips in salts
faction after it had been draining His
last drop of blood, the sheeted dead
bursting from the sepulchers Mt His
Tell me, o Gethsemane
and Golgotha. were there ever 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 reward comes for
Christ: all the pomp and dominion of
this world are to he hung on 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 TO His feet. like the hum
ming Of the forest, like the rushing of
the waters, like the laundering of the
seas, while all Heaven. rising on their
thrones, beat time with their scepters:
''Hallelujah, for the Lord God omnip-
otent 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.
Again. learn from my subject that
events which seem to be most insignifi-
can't may be momentous. Can you i'm
agine anything more important than
The coming of poor woman from Moab
to judah? Can you imagine anything
more trivial than the fact that this
Ruth just happened to alight-as they