The Pulpit Commentary — Ruth — Section 30

11 heart thRt fet'ls whnt limits there are to the power of resistance within us. Test rn11~· turn in unwise h11nds into overpowering tempt11tion, Naomi knew where to stop, and Ruth remains to us a picture of heroic devotion. Orpah failed in courage but was not destitute of affection, for her farewell is accompn.nied with a kiss of love. In her character we see impulse without strength. But II Ruth clave unto her." And it was no light sacrifice to leave fatherland and home. ,ve can luudly c111l the test at first a religious one, for it is evident that Ruth's love for her mother- in-law was t.he immediate occasion of her cleaving to her, and leaving the Moabitish gods. In time, doubtless, her nominal faith turned into a living heritage. II. LovE CREATES THE FINEST ELOQUENCE. There is no utterance in tl1e Old Testa- ment more p11t.hetic and melodious than these words. They are idyllic in their eloquence. There is nothing stilted or artificial in them, and they have in them a rhythm of melody which is more beautiful than a mere rhyme of words. Courage and sacrifice, love nnd devotion, breathe all tlirough them. They condense too all tl!at _is prophetic of comi~g expei:ience-the lodging and the loneliness, the weary p1lgnmage and the grave m a foreign land. The mind cannot frame sentences like these without the glow of a sincere and sacrificial heart. We feel as we read them what grandeur there is in human nature when love evokes all its depth of power. It is not a skilful touch that can do this, but a soul alive to the calls of love and duty. III. No TRUE LIFE WAS EVER LIVED IN VAIN. It was what Naomi had been to her what she was in herself, that made this sacrifice possible. Love creates love. Th~ charm of friendship may be merely intellectual, and then, after the feast of reason, all is over. But Naomi's character was rooted in religion. She did not carry the mere roll of the prophets in her band ; she carried the spirit of the Holy Book in her heart. Ruth had never been in synagogue or temple; she had listened to no Rabbi, and never sat at the feet of the doctors ; but as " the earliest piety is mother's love," so the character of a true mother is a stem around which the tendrils of the young heart climb to the mother's God. None of us liveth to himself. And so from the flower of piety, the seed drops into other hearts, and brings forth fruit after many days.-W. M. S. Ver. 18.-Moral stearlfastness. "When she saw that she was steadfastly minded." "Then she left speaking." The test had done a true work, and we see the heroine who conld stand fast. Yee; "having done all, to stand," is something in the great emergencies and temptations of life. There are times when to stand in the rush of the stream, as the river breaks into spray around us, is as much for the hour as we can do, and God knows and honours that. I. THE STEADFAST MIND GIVES THE STEADFAST STEP. A double-minded man is onstable in all hie ways. Veering here and there like the wind, there is no depend- ence on the direction he may take. The man or the woman is made by something within them invisible to the world. When Christ was led as a lamb to the slaughter, the great conflict had been fought out in Gethsemane, and then the steps were calm and steadfast. What an hour is that in which, in common parlance, 11 the mind is made np," the resolution taken. This is firmness, as opposed to obstinacy, which acts with· out reasons, and often in the teeth of them. The misery caused in this world by obstinate people is to be seen sometimes in the home, where sulkiness of temper makes the lives of others miserable. Firmness is the result of the thoughtful decision of an enlightened mind and a consecrated heart. II. THE STEADFAST MIND MAKES THE BEST COMPANION. Ruth was ready for the companion journey back to Bethlehem. A~d in all o~~ life joum_eys _nothin 9 is so precious as a steadfast heart. There are times of m1smterpretatlon m all hves- times of disheartenment, times of shadow and darkness. In such hour!' e. steadfast companion is God's richest gift to us. What consolation it ie to know that even humanly every support will not give way, that there w1ll always be one eye to brighten, one hand to help, one heart to love, one mind to e.ppreciate. The fickle and irn:solute may have a transient beauty and a winning manner, but these are poor endowments without a steadfast mind. Ill. Tru; ETEADFABT MIND IS FllEED FllOM THE INFINI'l'UDE OJ! LESBEB WOBBIKS, on. 1. 15-22.J THE BOOK OF RUTH. 25