Boaz, as we see in the course of the whole narrative, was habitually a devout man. He set the Lord always before his eyes, and acknowledged him in all his ways ; and therefore it was a perfectly natural thing for him to introduce God's Name into the midst of his ordinary pursuits. He felt that it was by God's blessing that the barley crop had grown and ripened under the favouring heavens, until the reapers were now cutting it down with their sickles, and piling up its golden sheaves on the field. And with his own lips and language Boaz set before his servants an example of piety so beautiful that they could not but admire and imitate it.
The master blesses the men, and the men bless the master. It is like our church service, where the priest and the people mutually pray for one another : " The Lord be with you," " And with thy spirit." And indeed, perhaps, that very verse and response were in the first place taken from this simple salutation * Life of Jatfus Stewwrt, 274.
246 A GREETING IN HARVEST
of Boaz and his reapers. They little thought, when with kind and devout hearts they so bade good day to each other, that they were setting a pattern for a holy service, which the Church of God, guided by His Spirit, would take up from them and use for ever. Yet so it is. They have somewhat of the same honour given them as David in the Old Testament, the blessed Virgin, Simeon, Zacharias, and others in the New — the honour of having their words appointed to be used by all Christians in their solemn offices of praise and thanksgiving — one of the greatest honours, surely, on this side the grave.^
^ Abraham reckoned the servants of his household as so many "souls." He valued them by what was best in them — the dis- tinctively human and immortal part. A modern master or farmer reckons his servants as so many " hands." He values in them only what subserves his purpose, and holds the rest as of no account ; therefore it need not be wondered at that men so rated sometimes behave in a manner as irrational as if they were hands and not souls, and break out into those lawless revolts which convulse industry and are disastrous to all concerned. Long experience as well as Scripture teaches us that he who feareth not God regardeth not man ; that the fear of God is the only sure founda- tion of truth among men in their dealings with one another ; and that where this fear is absent the issue is invariably want of mutual confidence and selfish alienation. The brotherhood of man must grow out of and be nourished by the same root as the Fatherhood of God. The commandment is binding, is absolute, that he who loveth God love his brother also.
■[j The world in these days is full of loud assertion about rights. But in the Bible we read not about rights, but about duties. He to whom all rights beloug came not to assert any rights, but to fulfil all duty, and He says, " I have given you an example, that ye should do as I have done to you." Sin is the great divider between man and man, for its essence is selfishness. Christ came to do away with sin by His own death, and to unite us to God and to one another in Himself. He draws men to each other by drawing them to God in Himself. Looking, then, on their servants, made in the image of God and redeemed by the blood of Christ, not as " hands " but as " souls," and regarding the workers themselves as more valuable than their work, their thoughtful minds and sensitive hearts as more precious than anything produced by the labour of their hands — let masters say,
1 J. Keble.
RUTH II. 4 247
" We seek not yours, but you." And so the gracious greeting of the master to his servants will ever be, in the workshop and in the market-place and in the field, " The Lord be with you," and the gracious response of the servants will inevitably be "The Lord bless thee."
The Call of Samuel.
M«
Literature.
Brooke (S. A.), The Old Testament and Modern Life, 195.
Farrar (F. W.), The Silence and the Voices of God, 3.
Garbett (E.), The Soul's Life, 52.
Huntington (F. D.), Christian Believing and Living, 16.
Illingwortli (J. E.), University and Cathedral Sermons, 120.
Maclaren (A.), Expositions : Deuteronomy-1 Samuel, 267.
Meyer (F. B.), Samuel the Prophet, 27.
Morgan (E.), The Calls of God, 113.
Newman (J. H.), Parochial and Plain Sermons, viii. 17.
Parker (J.), The City Temple (1870), 40.
Simpson (P. C), in Men of the Old Testament (Cain-David), 245.
Spurgeon (C. H.), Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, xliii. (1897), No. 2526.
Tyndall (C. H.), Object Lessons for Children, 140.
Vaughan (J.), Sermons preached in Brighton, 1st Ser., 213.
Wilson (J. H.), The Gospel and its Fruits, 3.
Christian Age, xxxvi. 146, xliii. 402 (Abbott).
Christian World Pulpit, lii. 24 (Potter).
Church of England Pulpit, xl. 181 (Pegg).
Churchman's Pulpit : Third Sunday after Trinity, x. 101 (Park) ;
Sermons to the Young, xvi. 299 (Neale). Eomiletic Review, xxxiv. 313 (Potter) ; li. 369 (Gordon). Treasury (New York), xix. 47 (Hallock).