I. Simply as here depicted —
In the circumstances before us, she approves her- self a pattern,
1 . Of fihal piety —
[Her mother-in-law, Naomi, had long endeared herself to her ; and now was about to part with her, and to return to the land of Israel. But Ruth would not suffer her to depart alone, but determined to adhere to her to the latest hour of her life. Nor in this determination was she biased by any selfish hopes of future aggrandizement. Her love was altogether pure and disinterested. She well knew, that, though Naomi was once possessed of opulence, she was now reduced to poverty : nor had Naomi any survivuig son, who might be united to her, and raise up seed to his departed brother. All this was faithfully represented by Naomi, both to her and to her sister Orpah, in the most affecting terms : " 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 a husband also to-night, and should bear sons, would ye tarry for them till they were grown ? wovdd 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 lift up their voice, and wept again*." But nothing could shake the resolution of Ruth : she deter- mined to renounce all her old relatives, and the prospects she might have in her native land, and to cleave steadfastly to Naomi, even unto death. And the manner in which she refused to acquiesce in her mother's proposal was tender and affectionate in the extreme : " Entreat me not to leave thee, or to return from following after thee." This, in other words, was as if she had said, " You know that any request of thine, however difficidt or self-denying it were, would be obeyed with the utmost alacrity : but to ask me to forsake thee, this is too much : it would break my heart : I could not do it : I pray you to forbear putting me to so severe a trial : ' Entreat vie not to leave thee ; for the alternative, of parting with thee or disobeying thy command, is as a sword in my bones, a wound which I cannot possibly endure. Be the sacrifice ever so great, I am ready to make it ; I shall delight in making it." Thus did this duteous female, from love to her mother, make, in effect, the very reply which St. Paul, many hundred years afterwards, gave, from love to the Saviour, and on an occasion not very dissimilar : " What mean ye to weep and to
a ver 11 — 14.