brightness to the most darkened life, which does not refuse to
shine on the most benighted soul. And what he sought, he found.
Slowly his hair grew, and with it slowly returned his strength ;
as health comes slowly back to the man who has been shattered
by disease or accident ; as spiritual vigour slowly returns to him
who by one rash act has let his soul be trodden in the dust.
And so Samson made restitution, and he said, " Let me die with
the Philistines. And he bowed himself with all his might ; and
the house fell upon the lords, and upon all the people that were
therein. So the dead which he slew at his death were more than
they which he slew in his life."
The Lion, he prowleth far and near,
Nor swerves for pain or rue; He heedeth nought of sloth nor fear,
He prowleth — prowleth through
JUDGES XVI. 20 213
The silent glade and the weary street,
In the empty dark and the full noon heat;
And a little Lamb with aching Feet —
He prowleth too. .
The Lion croucheth alert, apart —
With patience doth he woo; He waiteth long by the shuttered heart,
And the Lamb — He waiteth too. Up the lurid passes of dreams that kill.
Through the twisting maze of the great Untrue, The Lion foUoweth the fainting will —
And the Lamb — He followeth too.
From the thickets dim of the hidden way
Where the debts of Hell accrue, The Lion leapeth upon his prey:
But the Lamb — He leapeth too. Ah ! loose the leash of the sins that damn,
Mark Devil and God as goals, In the panting love of a famished Lamb,
Gone mad with the need of souls.
The Lion, he strayeth near and far;
What heights hath he left untrod? He crawleth nigh to the purest star,
On the trail of the saints of God. And throughout the darkness of things unclean,
In the depths where the sin-ghouls brood, There prowleth ever with yearning mien —
A lamb as white as Blood.^
^ Euth Temple Lindsay, The Hunters.
A Woman's Choice.
Literature.
Banks (L. A.), The Great Saints of the Bible, 184.
Belfrage (H.), Sacramental Addresses, 17.
Bell (C. D.), The Name above every Name, 152.
Bellew (J. C. M.), Sermons, ii. 379.
Briggs (H.), Sermons on the Book of Ruth, 25.
Brown (A. G.), Thou Bemainest, 104.
Clegg (A.), The Throne and the Voice, 12.
Cooke (S.), in Living Voices of Living Men, 64.
Davies (D.), Talks with Men, Women and Children, 6th Ser., 165,
Dawson (J. E. le S.), Lenten Readings on the Book of Ruth, 25.
Farningham (M.), Women and their Work, 56.
Lewis (A.), Sermons preached in England, 192.
M'Cheyne (R. M.), Additional Remains, 267.
Maclaren (A.), Expositions : Deuteronomy-1 Samuel, 259.
M'Neill (J.), Regent Square Pulpit, iii. 185.
Miller (T. E.), Portraits of Women of the Bible (O.T. Ser.), 94.
Rankin (J.), Character Studies in the Old Testament, 85.
Williams (J. P.), The Duty of Exercise, 45.
Christian Age, xxviii. 133 (Talmage).
Christian World Pulpit, ix. 241 (Talmage); xxx. 196 (Rawnsley);
xlix. 401 (Stalker) ; Ixxviii. 58 (Davis). Churchman's Pulpit : Foitrth Sunday after Trinity, x. 183 (Lewis), 186
(Southgate), 188 (Moister). Clergyman's Magazine, 3rd Ser., xi. 351,
3l6
A WOMAN'S Choice.
And Ruth said, Intreat me not to leave thee, and 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.— Ruth i. i6, 17.
1. At what period the events narrated in the Book of Euth occurred we are not expressly told. All we are told is that it was " in the days when the judges judged " (chap. i. 1). But as Israel was under the Judges for nearly five centuries — as long, let us say, as from the accession of the Plantagenet Henry V. to the present day — the phrase does not go far towards dating the Book. But another phrase in it (chap. iv. 21, 22), from which we learn that Boaz was the great-grandfather of David, makes it pretty certain that the Judge in whose days Euth the alien was admitted to the Commonwealth of Israel was the venerable but most un- happy Eli. Euth's son was Jesse's father ; Jesse was the father of David. It is very probable, therefore, that, when he was a child, Euth may have fondled Jesse in her arms.
^ As a fragment of early literary work, the Book of Euth stands alone ; it is certainly a curious and unexpected " find " in the annals of Israel. Take it as we may, it remains unproved and unexplained — a gem of literature so rare as to be priceless. The very genius of simple narration is in this Hebrew tale ; and around it a gentle glamourie floats in which —
All puts on a gentle hue. Hanging in the shadowy air like a picture rich and rare; It is a climate where, they say, The night is more beloved than day.