in building, which go down
under some moral exposure, 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 heartlessness and hypocrisy, how thrilling
it is to find some friend as faithful in days of adversity as in days
of prosperity! David had such a friend in Hushai; the Jews had such a
friend in Mordecai, who never forgot their cause; Paul had such a
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 one in
Ruth, who cried out: "Entreat 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 be my people, and thy God
my God; where thou diest will I die, and there will I be buried: the
Lord do so to me, and more also, if aught but death part thee and me."

III. Again, I learn from this subject that paths which open in
hardship and darkness often come out in places of joy. When Ruth
started from Moab toward Jerusalem, to go along with her
mother-in-law, I suppose the people said: "Oh, what a foolish creature
to go away from her father's 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." It 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 so 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 thundered, and devils tormented, and the
darkness thickened! 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 God's mercy; you
began to glean 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 and the triumph of the
Gospel!

So, very often in our worldly business or in our spiritual career, we
start of