In this world's strange vanishing show, The one truth is Loving. 0 sister, the dark cloud that veils All life lets this rift through to glorify future and past. "Love ever — love only — love faithfully — love to the last."
2. Htr love to God. — Naomi knew the true God. When the cold, senseless, dumb, dead idols of Moab could do nothing for a young, bursting, sobbing, breaking heart, then old Naomi would come near with the faith of Israel, and with her prayer to the God of Israel. And what she knew of God she had been careful to teach her sons and her sons' wives. And now all that is rushing through Euth's blood and pulsing in her veins, as she stands at the turn of the road and says, "I cannot leave old Naomi. At the thought of parting with her this flashes in upon me. She is more than life, and meat, and drink, and wealth, and everything to me. To be with her is life, and to part from her is darkness, and misery, and death."
Do we not find here a venture of faith, as great a venture, indeed, in its own way, as that of Abraham when he went forth, not knowing whither he went ? Euth had listened to Naomi's words of warning — that hardship and persecution and privation awaited them : they would be going among a people who did not take kindly to foreigners and treated them as aliens ; and while no doubt they would be a comfort to their mother-in-law, yet they would mar their own future. "Go," said Naomi to her daughters-in-law, " return each of you to her mother's house : and the Lord deal kindly with you, as ye have done with the dead, and with me." Euth heard those arguments and warnings, and this is her answer : " Intreat me not to leave thee, and to return from following after thee." What are bonds and imprisonment to a soul of this heroic mould ? " What mean ye to weep and to break mine heart ? for I am ready not to be bound only, but also to die at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus." There is a gulf of centuries between those words of St. Paul and the
* A. H. Savage Landor, In the Forbidden Land,
RUTH I. i6, 17 223
words of Euth, but they vibrate with the same emotion, the same passion pulsates in both.
What we here read teaches that God not only knows human sorrow, but can transmit through a human heart something of His own power to alleviate and heal. Euth's love was in this one instance to do what His own was in the fulness of the time to do universally in Jesus Christ : she was to give rest to one who was weary and heavy-laden. This Gentile woman at one step came across the boundaries of life into its glorious liberty, when she so loved and made sacrifice ; on her altar there was Christian flame before the time, and her love was that of the daughters of God. They who can be to any lonely and ailing heart what Euth was to Naomi have the Divine within them; they are making some spot of our world a part of the new earth under the new heavens ; they are in their measure wielding the power by which God Himself makes all things new. Love of such quality as Euth's never faileth: it is of unconquerable strength. Like hers, all love will overcome when it is reinforced by the Divine, and when it says not only " Thy people my people," but also " Thy God my God." But that it may retain its virtue and possess the power of an endless life, it must be continually renewed and purified in the love of God.
^ We have, perhaps, been accustomed to think of faith as taking the precedence of love — I mean in point of time. I will not say that that does not represent the fact in any sense at all. But I do say that the converse is distinctly true, namely, that faith follows love, and makes its presence known as it could not do if love were wanting. The more we dwell upon it, the more clearly shall we see that St. Peter was right when he said, " Above all things have fervent love among yourselves," for the simple reason that it cannot stand alone, that in its train will follow all other qualities which adorn and make life beautiful.
" Love " Is a short word that says so very much! It says that you confide in me.^
^ Euth shows how instantly and entirely she adopts Naomi's religion by sealing her vow with the Hebrew oath and by calling on the God of the Hebrews : " Jehovah do so to me, and more also, if aught but death part thee and me."
* J. Flew, Studies in Browning, 140.
224 A WOMAN'S CHOICE
3. Her decision. — Ruth's resolution to join the Lord's people was the result of deliberate resolve. To quote old Bishop Hall : " She must evidently have been a proselyte, converted to the faith of Israel prior to the utterance of these words, or else, surely, she would never have been so determined in her language." If Ruth had been persuaded to take the step of joining Israel, and if her coming as far as she did had been the result of outward pressure brought to bear upon her, depend upon it she would have gone back when Naomi presented before her eyes all that she would have to bear, and what her profession would entail.