and took wives according to their number, whom they caught, and returned unto their inheritance, and repaired the cities, and dwelt in them.

SECTION XXXIV.

HISTORY OF RUTH, AND NAOMI HER MOTHER-IN-LAW.

FROM the Bible history we learn, that the occurrence of famine was no uncommon event in Judea. If there was a failure of the former or latter rains, there was of course a deficiency in the productions of the earth: the first of these rains occurred in autumn, about the time of sowing the winter grain; the last in the spring, when the wheat and barley were coming to maturity. Between these seasons, during the summer months, very little rain fell; a shower in harvest was reckoned an extraordinary occurrence. As the land was filled with a dense population, a famine was a fearful calamity, and occasioned a miserable death to many. The usual method of avoiding it was to flee to some of the neighbouring countries, where bread was in abundance. Thus, on one of these emergencies, during the government of the Judges, a man of Beth-lehem-judah, whose name was Elimelech, took his wife Naomi, and his two sons, Mahlon and Chilion, and went and abode in the land of Moab. But whilst he fled from death in one form, it overtook him in another, soon after his emigration. Often families are induced to seek new habitations on account of the pressure of particular evils, but while they escape difficulties of one kind, they are apt to fall into others not less grievous. This man was in good circumstances in Judea, but in a strange land his property wasted away, and his own life was cut short. As might have been expected also, his sons formed matrimonial alliances with the daughters of Moab, which kind of connexions, in all ages, have been a snare to the people of God. Here, also, they were far removed from the house and ordinances of Jehovah, and exposed to all the abominations of idolatry. Calamities frequently come in clusters. After a sojourn of about ten years, both these young men died also in the land of Moab, it would seem nearly about the same time. Thus was Naomi

bereaved of her husband and her two sons, and left destitute in a foreign country. The name of one of her daughters-in-law was Orpah, and of the other Ruth, who after the decease of their husbands chose to live with Naomi; and they seem to have formed a strong attachment to their mother-in-law; for when she, upon hearing that the Lord had visited his people in the land of Judea, in giving them bread, resolved to return to her native country, these young women, although they had

parents of their own, insisted upon accompanying her. But as she was reduced to poverty, and had no prospect of any easy method of support, begged them to relinquish the idea of going with her, and to return each to her mother's house. "Go, said she, "return each to her mother's house; the Lord deal kindly with you, as ye have dealt with the dead, and with me. The Lord grant that ye may find rest, each of you in the house of her husband. Then she kissed them, and they lifted up their voice and wept. And they said, Surely we will return with thee unto thy people. And Naomi said, Turn again, my daughters, why will ye go with me? Are there yet any more sons in my womb, that they may be your husbands? Turn again, my daughters, go your way, for I am too old to have an husband. If I should say, I have hope, if I should have an husband also to-night, and should also bear sons, would ye tarry for them till they were grown? Would ye stay for them. from having husbands? Nay, my daughters, for it grieveth me much for your sakes, that the hand of the Lord is gone out against me. And they lifted up their voice and wept again; and Orpah kissed her mother-in-law; but Ruth clave unto her. 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. And 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. 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." When Naomi saw that her determination was fixed, she ceased from all further attempts to dissuade Ruth from going along with her.

After this tender scene, the two widows, poor and desolate, travelled on until they came to Beth-lehem, the former residence of Naomi, from which she, with her husband, had emigrated many years before. The inhabitants of the place were greatly excited when they recognized their old neighbour again restored to them after so long an absence. But they could with difficulty be persuaded that she was indeed the identical person whom they had once known as a resident among them. Doubtless, time and sorrow had made a great change in Naomi's person; and her condition as well as her person was sadly altered. No wonder, therefore, they said to one another, with surprise and some degree of doubt, "Is this Naomi?" When the afflicted widow heard her old neighbours address her by this name, the import of which is "pleasant," she said with emotion, "Call me not Naomi, call me Mara," the meaning of which is "bitter:" "for," said she, "the Almighty hath dealt very bitterly with I went out full, and the Lord hath brought me home again

.me.

empty. Why then call ye me Naomi, seeing the Lord hath testified against me, and the Almighty hath afflicted me?" The time of the arrival of Naomi and Ruth at Beth-lehem was, "in the beginning of barley-harvest." Thus that death from which Elimelech and his sons fled, overtook them in the land where they sojourned; and that poverty, the dread of which had induced them to leave the holy land, now came heavily upon the family. Their substance had wasted away in a foreign country; so that when Naomi returned, she was in a state of abject poverty. This circumstance will account for the earnestness with which she entreated her daughters-in-law to return and live with their friends; and it furnishes strong evidence of the strength of Ruth's attachment to her, or rather the strength of that piety towards the God of Israel which animated her breast. Naomi, however, had rich relations in Bethlehem, but possessing an independent spirit she would not obtrude herself upon their attention, much less solicit any favours from them.

But Naomi, though poor and desolate, trusted in God, and was blessed with a daughter-in-law who loved her most tenderly, and was not ashamed to labour for her subsistence. As these widows had no harvest to gather in, their only resource for a living was to avail themselves of that provision made for the poor in the law of Moses, by which they were permitted to follow the reapers, and glean such handfuls as they happened to drop, or such stalks as were left standing in the corners of the field. Ruth, of her own accord, proposed to engage in this work; and it so happened, that the first field into which she entered, belonged to a near relation of her mother-in-law, whose name was Boaz, and who was a man of extensive property and wealth. Boaz appears to have been a man of piety as well as wealth; for when he came out of Beth-lehem to the field to see the reapers, his salutation was, "The Lord be with you." And their answer corresponded with the piety of the master's salutation; for they said, "The Lord bless thee." There is something exceedingly pleasing in these ancient forms of pious intercourse. Very different is often the language of reapers and their employers in the harvest-field in our day. The attention of Boaz was now directed to Ruth, whom he had not before seen; and he inquired of the overseer of the reapers, "Whose damsel is this?" To whom the servant answered, "It is the Moabitish damsel that came back with Naomi out of the country of Moab. And she said, I pray you let me glean and gather after the reapers among the sheaves, so she came and hath continued. even from the morning until now. Then said Boaz unto Ruth, Hearest thou not, my daughter, go not to glean in another field, neither go from hence, but abide here fast by my maidens. Let thine eyes be on the field that they do reap, and go thou after

them. Have I not charged the young men that they shall not touch thee? And when thou art athirst, go unto the vessels and drink of that which the young men have drawn." This unexpected condescension and kindness from the wealthy owner of the harvest affected this poor young stranger not a little; for "she fell on her face, and bowed herself to the ground, and said unto him, Why have I found grace in thine eyes, that thou shouldst take knowledge of me, seeing I am a stranger? And Boaz answered and said unto her, It hath fully been showed me all that thou hast done unto thy mother-in-law since the death of thine husband; and how thou hast left thy father and thy mother, and the land of thy nativity, and art come unto a people which thou knewest not heretofore. The Lord recompense thy work, and a full reward be given thee of the Lord God of Israel, under whose wings thou art come to trust. Then she said, Let me find favour in thy sight, my lord; for that thou hast comforted me, and for that thou hast spoken friendly to thine handmaid, though I be not like thine handmaids. And Boaz said unto her, At meal-time come thou hither, and eat of the bread, and dip thy morsel in the vinegar. And she sat beside the reapers: and he reached her parched corn, and she did eat, and was sufficed, and left. And when she was risen up to glean, Boaz commanded his young men, saying, Let her glean even among the sheaves and reproach her not, and let fall also some of the handfuls of purpose for her, and leave them, that she may glean them, and rebuke her not." Thus was an acquaintance formed between these worthy persons, who, though in very different external circumstances, Providence had determined should be united in the most intimate and tender bond known upon earth. We see here, that virtuous and praise-worthy conduct, even in humble circumstances, may attract the attention and even the esteem of those in superior stations. Boaz had heard, it seems, the whole story of the devoted attachment of this young Moabitess to her afflicted mother-in-law, and how, for her sake, and more especially for the sake of her religion with which she had become enamoured, that she was willing to leave her own father and mother and her native land, and to sojourn in a land of strangers, where she was under the necessity of gleaning in the harvest field for a scanty subsistence for herself and her aged friend. But great as were the sacrifices which she had made, and urgent as were the necessities under which she laboured, and the privations of abject poverty which she endured, she neither repined nor murmured at her hard lot, but cheerfully submitted to her afflictions, and with alacrity performed the labours required by her circumstances. And until this time it is not probable that she entertained any hope of rising into a more favourable condition. It

is evident that Boaz was instantly struck with the appearance of this young woman. Although it is not recorded, it is more than probable that, like many other of the good women who have been honoured with a notice in the sacred Scriptures, she was of a beautiful aspect, and of a modest and becoming demeanour. But Boaz, a pious and prudent man, was prepared by the good report which he had heard of the kindness of Ruth to her mother-in-law, his near relation, to entertain kind feelings towards her; yet it does not appear that the idea of making her his wife had yet taken possession of his mind. The fact was, that according to the levirate law of Moses, the right of claiming her in marriage belonged to another, who stood in a nearer degree of kindred to the husband of the Moabitess than Boaz.

When Ruth returned in the evening to her mother-in-law, laden with the fruits of her successful gleaning, the inquiry was made, "Where hast thou gleaned to-day? and where wroughtest thou?" And when Naomi heard that she happened to fall into the field of Boaz-for this was not the effect of any preconcerted plan-she was sensibly affected with the providence which led her daughter-in-law to that place, and also with the remarkable kindness and condescension of her rich relative. She exclaimed, therefore, "Blessed be he of the Lord, who hath not left off his kindness to the living and to the dead. And Naomi said unto her, The man is of near kin unto us; one of our next kinsmen." Ruth also informed her mother-inlaw, that she had received a pressing invitation to glean in the field of Boaz, until the end of the harvest; which was very pleasing to Naomi, for she was glad that she could labour among those who would treat her respectfully. And accordingly she kept fast by the maidens of Boaz to glean unto the end of barley-harvest, and wheat-harvest, and dwelt with her mother-in-law.

SECTION XXXV.

BOAZ MARRIES RUTH-HER SON OBED WAS THE FATHER OF JESSE, THE FATHER OF DAVID.

THERE is nothing concerning which we are more likely to fall into grievous mistakes, than by judging of the manners and customs of ancient nations by what is common among us. That which in one age is reckoned perfectly innocent, and as laying not the least foundation for censure or reproach, would, in another country and age, be considered highly indecorous.

Naomi, who understood the laws and customs of the Jews, began now to entertain the hope, that notwithstanding their