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posed like the prophet's girdle to all their deadly effects, what then? will you sit down and give a triumph to the ruler of hell? will you complain that they are too strong for resistance? They would indeed be so, if a mere weak one like ourselves, were to oppose them with his carnal weapons; but is there one enemy too mighty for Christ, or one sin too vast to be covered by the mantle of his love? "Is his mercy clean gone," that he cannot feel? or "his arm shortened that he cannot save?" You may distrust your own willingness to credit this; but when you remember the debtor of ten thousand talents, you cannot distrust his. Come unto him, Christians! for to-day he calls you. Multitudes have already been gathered out of the highways and hedges, the halt, the lame, the blind; as many as could be found he has brought in as guests, and yet there is room: be not faithless but believing, and ages of rejoicing may be still before you; my eyes may yet behold you all sealed, preserved, and glorified, cleaving to the ark of salvation, even as a girdle cleaveth to the loins of a man, and glorying in him, who has dug you out of the hole of a rock, and triumphantly borne you without spot or wrinkle into the presence of the living God.

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SERMON VI.

CHRIST MAKING TRIAL OF HIS CHURCH.

RUTI i. 15, 16.

Behold thy sister-in-law is gone back unto her people, and unto her gods: return thou after thy sister-in-law. And Ruth said, 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 be my people, and thy God my God.

THERE is a two fold object connected with this history: the one is general, and its simple intention is to describe a person, from whom, as according to the flesh, Christ was to come. The other is particular, and directs us exclusively to points of character: and these are of such brightness and beauty, that they are thought worthy of being handed down for imitation, and affording an instance to the Christian world of one who acted more like a disciple of Jesus, than many who profess to take up their cross daily, to deny themselves, and to follow him.

The circumstances that led to the event are briefly these. "It came to pass in those days, when the judges ruled over Israel, that a great famine was in the land, and a certain man, by name Elimelech, and his wife, and his two sons, went to sojourn in the land of Moab ; and there Elimelech died, and his two sons took them wives of the women of Moab; the name of the one was Orpah, and the name of the other Ruth; and after they had dwelled there about ten years, the husbands died, and the woman was left of her two sons and her husband; then she arose with her daughters-inlaw, that she might return from the country of Moab, for she had heard how that the Lord had visited his people in giving them bread. Wherefore she went forth out of the place where she was, and her two daughters-in-law with her, and they went on the way to return unto the land of Judah; and Naomi said unto her two daughters-in-law, Go! return each to her mother's house; the Lord deal kindly with you, as ye have dealt kindly with the dead, and with me. And they lifted up their voices and wept, and Orpah kissed her mother-in-law, but Ruth clave to her." Then rose that little contest of affection that we may discover in the text. And she said, "Behold thy sister-in-law is gone back unto her people, and unto her gods return thou after thy sister-in-law. But

Ruth said, 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."

There is much to be gained, my brethren, in the way of improvement, out of these expressions, by comparing the practice of a Gentile, who had never heard of Jesus or the wells of salvation, with the practice of the Christian, who has a knowledge of both. May the arm of the Lord be revealed to day! may his overruling Spirit fix his word in your hearts, as a nail in a sure place. Unless his power be with, us, I shall but beat the air with my voice, and your hearing, and education, and intelligence, will be no more than the sound of a tinkling. cymbal be humble, be teachable, whilst I lead you to this interesting scripture, with a view to consider, in the first place, the force of these dissuading arguments, that are brought forward in the text; and secondly, the reply that was given to them. We must not imagine that a true worshipper, as Naomi appears to have been, could have seriously desired that a daughter-in-law, whom she loved so tenderly, should continue to dwell in the land of idolaters, and to sit in the regions and shadow of death. If we merely regard her as a poor solitary thing, a bereft and afflicted widow, the voice of nature

would cry out, depart not hence; “go not thou far from me." But when we look at her in the higher character of a believer, we at once feel, how impossible it should be that she could lend herself to so ungodly an act, as that of driving back into a nation of bondmen, one who had passed the valley of destruction, and whom the Spirit of the living God had made free. The words of Naomi were trying, searching words; they were to act as a touchstone, and to determine what manner of spirit she was of, whether she was still in the shallow waters of danger and unbelief, or had launched boldly into the deep; whether she could stand proof against the pressing solicitations of nature, and forsake her kindred and brethren, and father's house, and depart into a far country, from some nobler motive than mere affection to herself. She therefore adopts the ordinary language of the world, and tries how far she can resist the claims of relationship: "Behold! thy sister-inlaw has gone back :" here is a strong bond to detain thee; canst thou detach thyself from it? is such a tie to be severed and a family to be so divided? she has departed homewards, rise up and follow her! This argument she attempted to apply as a principle of duty; and again and again it has been used-alas! too successfully used--by the carnal mind, to keep a whole household in chains. The father who loves his

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