all weapons of fence, all means of consolation, all prosperity that shall not harm ~'our soul. So true, then, is the Bible to the real facts of human life. It is not a book of gaiety, for life is real and earnest, and its associations are mortal and mut- able. It consecrates home joy, and yet reminds us that every garden has its grave every dear union its separation. But, on the other hand, there are no utternnces of unbearable grief, or unmitigated woe. It says ever to us, Jehovah-Jireh, the Lord will provide. And the facts of experience in every age endorse its truth. As the snows hide flowers even in the Alps, so b\'neath all our separations and sorrows there are still plants of the Lord, peace, and hope, and joy, and rest in him. Blessed, indeed, shall we be if we can rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for him. We, too, shall all change. Time and sorrow will write their experiences on our brow. There will be hours in which we feel like Naomi, empty, oh I so empty. The cup of_ affec~ion poured out on the _groun~, the f_o:est without its songsters, the garden v.,thout its flowers, the home without its familiar faces. We shall see these pictures every day, and wonder, more and more, how any hearts can do without a Brother and a Sa,,iour in Jesus Christ. But if character be enriched and trained, all is well; for this very end have we had Divine discipline, and the Lord will perfect that which concerneth us for the highest ends of eternal life in him. The baptism with which our Lord was baptised changed his face, altered his mien, enlarged even his Divine experience. He was made" perfect through suffering," and became the Author of eternal salvation to all who trust in him. Coming back even to Bethlehem is only for a season. As Naomi returns, nature alone remains the same; the blue roller-bird would flash for a moment across her path, the music of the turtle-dove remind her of the melody of nature in her childhood ;-the peasant garb would tell her of the old unchanged ways ; and the line of hills against the sky would remind her that the earth abideth for ever. But for her there was a still more abiding country, where Elimelech, like Abraham, lived, and where Mahlon and Chilion waited for the familiar face that had made their boyhood blessed. And so we wait. The redemp- tion we celebrate here is a passover, a memorial of deliverance and a prophecy of home. Home where sorrow and sighing, night and death, will flee away ; where, no longer pilgrims, we shall no more go out, and where the worn face and the weary heart shall be transfigured into the immortal life.-W. M. S. Ver. 21. "I went out full, and the Lord bath brought me home again empty." It seemed, indeed, a via doloi·osa, this path homeward. How exp:-essive the words. I. LOVE MAKES LIFE FULL. Why, I thought they went out poor? Yes. Seeking bread ? Yes. Yet Naomi's description is true and beautiful. We are "full" when we have that which makes home, home indeed, and we are poor if, having all wealth of means we have not love. Well, indeed, has it been said that "the golden moments in the stream of life rush past us, and we see nothing but sand ; the angels come to visit us, and we only know them when they are gone." We never know how empty life is till the loved are lost to us. ll. THE LORD IS THE DISPOSER OF ALL EVENTS. " The Lord bath brought me home." We talk of Providence when all goes well with us, when the harvests are ripened, and the fruits hang on the wall. But we must not limit Providence to the pleasant. The Lord " takes away" as well as gives. It is said that, in the order of readin~ at the hmily altar when the late John Angell James was about to conduct worship after a severe ber~avement the Psalm to be read was the hundred and third. The good man stopped tears ~olled down his face; and then, gathering up his strength, he said, " Why not? It is the Father I " and he read on, " Bless the Lord, 0 my soul I" Ill. THE FULLEST HOME MAY SOON BE EMPTIED. Yes I We too should feel it 110, A husband and two sons gone I What converse there had been I what inte~est in each other's pursuits I what affectionate concern for each other's weal and happmese I and what a wealth of love for Naomi, the centre of all I We feel at such seasons that death would be blessed relief for us. The thought comes across us, "I have got to live ; " to live on from day to day, attending to the minutim of.duty, and corning ~e~ and there so often on the little relics of the dead. Home agam I That has music m CH. !I. 1--9.] THE BOOK OF RUTH. 29
it for the school-children, who come back to the bright home; but to thl'l widow oh how different I Home again, but how empty I Yet we may learn, even from Nn~mi'. that rest and refreshment come to heo.rtR that trust in God their Saviour· ancl we may learn too what rnista_kes we ~ake. N a?,mi R:'lid, "Why call ye me N ao~i, seeing tha, the Lord hath testified against me? :r-.atural enourrb 0 • but life was still to have a pleasant side for her.-W. M. S. '
EXPOSITION.