."

Did you ever stop to think what Moses would have lost if God had
taken him at his word, and said:

"Very well, Moses; you may stay here in the desert, and I will send
Aaron, or Joshua, or Caleb!"

Don't seek to be excused if God calls you to some service. What
would the twelve disciples have lost if they had declined the call
of Jesus! I have always pitied those other disciples of whom we read
that they went back, and walked no more with Jesus. Think what Orpah
missed and what Ruth gained by cleaving to Naomi's God! Her story
has been

TOLD THESE THREE THOUSAND YEARS.

Father, mother, sisters, brothers, the grave of her husband--she
turned her back on them all. Ruth, come back, and tell us if you
regret your choice! No: her name shines one of the brightest among
all the women that have ever lived. The Messiah was one of her
descendants.

Moses, you come back and tell us if you were afterwards sorry that
God had called you? I think that when he stood in glorified body on
the Mount of Transfiguration with Jesus and Elijah, he did not
regret it.

My dear friends, God is not confined to any one messenger. We are
told that He can raise up children out of stones. Some one has said
that there are three classes of people, the "wills," the "won'ts,"
and the "can'ts"; the first accomplish everything, the second oppose
everything, and the third fail in everything. If God calls you,
consider it a great honor. Consider it a great privilege to have
partnership with Him in anything. Do it cheerfully, gladly. Do it
with all your heart, and He will bless you. Don't let false modesty
or insincerity, self-interest, or any personal consideration turn
you aside from the path of duty and sacrifice. If we listen for
God's voice, we shall hear the call; and if He calls and sends us,
there will be no such thing as failure, but success all along the
line. Moses had glorious success because he went forward and did
what God called him to do.

NAAMAN THE SYRIAN

I wish to call your attention to one who was a great man in his own
country, and very honorable; one whom the king delighted to honor.
He stood high in position; he was captain of the host of the King of
Syria; but he was a leper, and that threw a blight over his whole
life. As Bishop Hall quaintly puts it, "The meanest slave in Syria
would not have changed skins with him."

Now you cannot have a better type of a sinner than Naaman was. I
don't care who or what h