SUNDAY READING.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIV, Issue 13485, 11 May 1907, Page 4 (Supplement)

SUNDAY READING.

THE PASSIONATE PILGRIM. BY THE REV. JOHN/ MCNEILL.;

"And Ruth said, Intreat me not to. leave thee, or to return from following after thee: far whither thou goest, I will go, and where thon lodgest, I will lodee; thy neople shall be my people, and thy God my God."— i. 16. ;:. ;..:-;:- : V;; : V i ;:' : ;:///-'.-/;;' : -:' ;^

The strongest thought, : the leading ■ idea, the practical idea in my mind in connection with this text, is simply this—that what you have hero working between Ruth and Naomi is an element between the soul of man and the Lord Jesus Christ. What you have here is a true, valid, unmistakable element in religion warm, loving, melting, unspeakable ■ tenderness; -this whole-hearted, irrevocable decision in an hour or a moment of crisis.

You remember how Ruth ; came to this crisis in her life's history. l Some ten years before this old Naomi had gone away from Israel into the country of Moab. Some time afterwards her husband died. She had two sons, and they had married two women of Moab. The j sons also died; and now Naomi, older, lonelier, more hopeless and helpless and heartless than ever, rises up to;» wend her weary-way; back [ to her own country. She had been driven out by famine years before. She now hears that the Lord has visited- His people, and that where there used to be famine thore is abundance; so" she comes back again, poor old body, like a shuttle/tossed here and there. Is she not like some of ourselves— tossed here and there like a' cork in the stream, seemingly the very sport of adverso winds and waves and circumstance*? "I came out full," she said; "I go back empty." She is poured out from vessel to vessel, with no abiding rest, and, seemingly, with _ , . //; NO PEOSPERITT IN HEK LIKE. And when she starts to- take the Jong journey homo again to Bethlehem, her own land, her two daughters-in-law, Ruth and Orpab, ) themselves widowed and bereaved, go ; naturally :' a bit of the road along with her. Presently Orpab kisses her, and then goes .•. away '■'~. back , again. But suddenly Ruth, who perhaps has been standing apart, flings herself forward, woman-like, ; ;and puts her arms round Naomi's neck, bends her head down on the aged breast, and:says: " Intreat me not to leave thee, or to return from following after thee: for whither thou: goest I will go, and where thou lodgest I will lodge; Thy people shall bo my people, and thy God my God." • : Well spoken, Ruth! spoken! We shall always turn to Ruth, and to what she said, with tender, ■■: softened, chastened feelings; and I feel sure you will accuse mo of no forcing when I repeat what 1 said before. I will ask you to come to this position, and to find in these .sobbing, throbbing, trembling tones what ought to bo the tone of some hearts in the hour of crisis to One who is worthy of such affection—worthy of j. this outgushing and swelling of our deepest soul within us, even Jesua Christ, who gives us the opportunity of a new career and a boundless, . endless life and -boundless and blessed and endless as His own. ',/,

• Of -«,„.*. I know that, what keeps i™,. 'J of us lack it what might bay*, kept bfek Ruth; and thereby our passage ?, tm "i further illustrated. There -was not mttck ' > I to. draw her to ' Naomi from a . certain pain* '"'■ '' of view, was - there? "Naomi ' was '' old ay I withered—"homeless, ragged, and tainted »> |I had almost, said— ' , s j i POOR, tOKELr, desolate.

Now. the same thing is in Christ. \> r . r '■ remember what Isaiah nay*: " Who huh ' believed our report, and to whom is* tfe# arm of the Lord revealed?" From on* point of view, that widowed old woman ajjrf our Saviour are not unlike each otbet To many He is " a root out of a dri ground;" "He hath no form or comely ness;" at the first look that they got of Him ''He has no beauty that men »lso<«|<j ! desire Him.*' But look again, my friend— look again. Is Christ so withered.' \% J[ w I so wrinkled? I* ■ true religion such *«» root out of a dry ground" a* from certain ■ ■■"■'! (points or view it seems to be? Have, not some of us within us the secret tot» drawing us to Christ which Ruth • h*d ■ | drawing her to Naomi? Away back yon. der, when the great - row of Ruth's |j{ 9 came, Naomi was a power to licr. Naomi knew the God of Israel. In the. dcsolat'* and lonely hour when Ruth's young )u.», band was stricken down from her side. when the light wont out of her eyes sad out of her home and out of her heart, I have no doubt that Naomi appeared* to Ruth to be a wonderful woman. Naomi knew the true God. When the cold, senseless, dumb, dead idols of lloab iffi; could do nothing for a young, bursting, ■- sobbing, breaking heart, then old Naomi I would come near with the faith of Israel. j and with her prayer, to the God of Israel. 1 And all that is rushing through Ruth's blood and pulsing in her veins, as the stands at this turn of the road and says, "I cannot leave old Naomi. At the thought. of parting with her this flashes in upon mo. She is more than life and meat and drink and everything to me. To be with her is life, and to part from her it j darkness and misery and death." And '■THAT' is IS REUGIO.V. ■■ -::':■: "/XhM

Let me ring it out again' and again. Christ is that, and a thousand times more than that. Why are we His? Why are we with Him? Blessed bo Thy name, 0 Saviour, wo san say without exaggeration that we aro with Thee, because wo arc the captives of love. Wo could not bo other than we are, seeing that Christ is what Ec : is and what Ho has been to us. He win ! our fathers' God, and we will extol Him'; 'our mothers' God, and our lips shall praiae Him. Ho has been recommended to us by a whole lifetime- of grace and of mercy; i and at one critical hour on one uever-io-bo-forgotten day we wore in this crisis in' j whioh poor Ruth was placed. Wo made, like Ruth, the great, momentous, irrevocable decision, urged forward by a thousand . considerations,, bringing out ,of O; past years what those years contained to help us to decision. The present _ and the past and tho future, like deep calling unto deep, all constrained us to put the arms— clinging, warmof unfeigned faith and love' round the Sou of God, and to Say to Him, | "Intreat us not to leave Thee, or to return' from following after Thee, 0 Jesii*. Whither Thou goest, wo will go; whore I Thou lodgest, we will lodge; Thy God and Thy home shall bo .ours also." ■ j Ave, that is in religion. More is the pity that wo have to stand arguing ami , arguing and arguing, and talking and talking and talking to people's "-intellect* an*! heads. I think that lam justified in, as it , wore, trying to ; carry you by storm an., making a strong pull upon the heart within you. Can you love? Can you love your mother? Can you love your wife? Do you ever feel -the tug at your heartstrings of. powerful, gushing human affection? Then I claim you for tho Son of God. ■-'■ No love is like His; unequalled it ia , ! By that of a- mother or friend. | With all Ruth's warmth and impetuosity and splendid abandon, fling yourself, body, soul, and spirit into tho embraco of tlw everlasting arms.

MAT THE LOVE OF CHRIST CO.NSTKAI.N' 081 ' What does that " constrain" moan?,!? means the love of Christ hurrying us alonff. Paul could use that word; Paul could use it justly. Paul was none of your cool v»n People often talk about Paul and- say, "Paul was a groat man of logic. Paw was a wonderful man to argue." So Ist was, but never, ? never, - never think of the groat Apostle as one of those. little, poor, peddling creatures called . " logicians.' 1 Logic is a very shrivelling science wbea there is nothing but itself. Never dream of. Paul as being, simply of your argumentative, dry logicians. Paul- was a vol- { cano 'in a 'perpetual"-state of activity ' | Logic? Aye; but logic sot on fire with j love ; to ewJWv'''*"«''''"wt**'- : lo*r s ''*^'- , #A'»j*« , wil*' ■■'■'* of men.' And lie, said, "The love of "CSvnsV:, 1 hurried us along. The tovo of C'bri*t, liko l ] a mighty flood lot loose, baa got hold of us. ' and swept us off our old bed, and we are caught and carried in its mighty flood." : |It was love that 'bound Ruth to Naomi. Iti was love that made her forget all the risks , and all the chances and all tho uncertainties. ■■■-.■"*'•;,';'v':;: : ':; i , : ''' v ';..;-::.: .What else does she say? " Whither then goest, I will, go; where . thou lodgest, J will lodge; thy people shall be my.prop and thy God; my God." /That is splendid-, the absolute identity of the two of them - Understand, my; friend, that if you -,:.;;■ ■;:'/.;'. ,/.-/:./,'''. GIVE TOUR HEART ■'■■■, -;i/'1%;:/

to Christ, ■■■ you'! will ;'•• content yourself lot this world to ■■■ be, like Him", a wayfarer. ; He does not dwell here. This is not Wis rest; this is not His home. The hope of Israel and the Saviour thereof in all' ii». troubles is a, airing man. He is *; sojourner who turns aside but to tarry for a night. Understand that this Saviour Ik.-; longs to heaven, belongs to eternity, ami • that if . you give your heart to Him you have to let this world go, with all its seeming wealth, and all "its ambition,. and all its pomp, and all its vanity. .":'■ These two widowed women travelled • a cross from i Moab to Israel—two ; lonely women who were all. in all to each other. " Who is this that goelh up through the wilderness, loaning upon the arm of her In?- , loved?" What a picture of Christ and ~Hi* peopleNaomi and Ruth travelling to- - gether from Moab to Befrhlchem in the Land of Promise. Now, will we be liko Ruth? Take Christ. Take Him to-day, and let.fn understand what we are doing. -Man, it i» love that your heart in needing. Think el yourself, you young • fellow, with all your dreams and all your ambitions; think of. yourself, when you climb up all those stairs into your lonely lodging. What is it . you need? Suppose .you had all the wealth of the Bank of England, you lonely people, what could money do to cure loneliness? What could rank and titles fa to feed _ the famine of the heart? The famine in the heart is a famine for love, for sympathy, for "a friend who stick** closer: than ■. a brother," and that is vhtU'\: draws us to Christ. Now, are you content to trudge iktng. sure of it that all that is worth; having lies thafcTroad—everything as it came to Ruth? Could she ever have dreamt what .' . was coming to her? "Eye hath not wee, nor ear heard, neither have entered into Ithe heart of man, the things ■ which Goi hath in storo for them that love Him; but God hath revealed them to us by /Hi*." Holy Spirit." The fortune, the : heavenly■ riches,' lie in this seemingly, empty ana barren way. The disappointment," deep, and bitter, and eternal, lies in ; ' TUB "WAT OF THE WOULD.

You have heard -.about th.it old 1 " Mcthody preacher," a lonely old m«if U who spent his days as a Primitive Metho- - j dist preacher. And, when he came near ' to the end of his days, some kind, wealthy 1 brother thought that ho would make provision for him, and ho bought* him a Ji»!<> house. All his days previously, lie had ] only been a lodger, travelling about frorc place to place, and taking the people's hospitality for: a night; ' but now' that h* had com© to old age the gentleman bough* _ him a house, and made him a present.of : it, with as much &* would keep him. H* tried it for a while, and then he came : back to the man who had given him the .; gift, and said, "It will not do. I,ant tot contented. I do not like this way of lining There is too much in it. I never had this before, and I 'do not take well *° , it. There is a hymn which I used **'"'.' sing, which drew out my whole heart to my Master, and to the portion that i' . waiting for me; and I have lost rcliflh for that hymn since I have taken the gift* o ' this house." You remember what do hymn was with which he had cheered himself : — No foot of land do I possess, •' No cottage in this wilderness; A poor wayfaring man. . ".. 't ;?g i I lodge awhile in tents below,' I Or gladly wander to and tro. I Till I ray Canaan sain. , ~ There is my honse and portion fair: My treasure and heart are there, » And my abiding home." : • *^';;S And in order to sing that hymn will) ** old sweetness he i gave up the .''house »° || took-to the tramp again. If we hav#,g° ( the Lord Jesus Christ Himself into .oil' ;"\ hearts, then our broad is baked, and it » buttered on both sides;, and that la » w end of. it. What more could you have.t*Wps Him who is tho Lord of heaven and « j earth? Take Him, not of constraint. W»* * [willingly.