HOMILIES BY VARIOUS AUTHORS. Ver. 20.-Kindred and kindness. When Naomi and Ruth returned to Bethlehem they could scarcely have found friends there, but they found kinsmen. They do not seem, in their circumstances, to have sought assistance from relatives, or even to have brought themselves under the notice of such. Still, Naomi bad not lost sight of Elimelech's family connections; and when the name of Boaz was mentioned, she recognised it as the name of one of her husband's nearest kindred. I. KINDRED IS A DIVINE INSTITUTION. Men have many artificial associations; bonds of sympathy, and of locality, and of common occupation bind them together. But kindred is the Divine, the natural tie. II. KINDRED IS AT THE FOUNDATION OF SOCIAL AND POLITICAL LIFE. The patriarchal economy was the earliest. The family is the first social unit, out of which springs the tribe, the clan, the nation. III. KINDRED INVOLVES AN OBLIGATION TO CONSIDERATION AND REGARD. we cannot always cherish feelings of congeniality or of respect with reference to all who nre our kindred according to the flesh. But relatives should not lose sight of one another-should not, if it can be avoided, be estranged from one another. IV. KINDRED MAY, IN CERTAIN CASES, INVOLVE THE DUTY OF PRACTICAL HELP. Christian wisdom must here be called in to the counsels of Christian kindness. v. KINDRED IS SUGGESTIVE AND EMBLEMATIC OF DIVINE RELATIONS. Apart from human relationship, how could we conceive of God as our Father? of Christ Jesus as our elder Brother? of Christians as our brethren and sisters in a spiritual family ?-T.
Ver. 23.-Harvest-time. This Book of Ruth is emphatically the book of the hus- bandman. It pictures the barley-harvest and the wheat-harvest of ancient days. 46 THE BOOK OF HUTH. [CH, If. 18-23.
'l'l1C' primitive manners and usages are interesting, and deserve attentive study. But harvest-as here so vividly brought before us-is full of lessons of a spiritual kind. E. g.- I. HARVEST WITNESSES TO THE ATTRIBUTES OF THE DlvINE CREATOR. To his power and wisdom. To his goodness. To his faithfulness to his promise : " Seed-time and harvest shall not cease." II. HARVEST IS A SUMMONS TO MAN'S GRATITUDE AND CONFIDENCE. III. HARVEST IS SUGGESTIVE OF GREAT SPIRITUAL TRUTHS. There is a moral harvest in the history of the human character and of human society. Seed and soil are presumed. Development and growth are evidenced. The law operates: "What- soever a man soweth, that shall he also reap." The fruit is matured and gathered in. The Husbandman-God himself-is interested in the result. To us the result is infinitely important.-T.
Ver. 20.-"Wbo bath not left off his kindne~s to the living and the dead." The prayers of the poor for their helpers a.re very precious. Naomi remembers the former kindnesses that Boaz had shown to the husband of her youth and to her two boys. I. HERE IS CONTINUITY OF CHARACTER. Some leave off kindness because they meet with experiences of ingratitude and callousness. The once warm deep within them is frozen up by these wintry experiences. But e.s God continues his mercy through all generations, so those who are followers of God e.s dear children walk in love; that is, it becomes the spirit and he.bit of their lives. Boaz had not left off bis kind- ness. Ruth now drinks at the so.me fountain of considerate care that bad refreshed Elimelecb. II. HERE IS THE GOOD WORD OF A MOTHER. It is well when the mother respects the man who may become allied in marriage to one who is akin to her. Naomi says to her daughter, "Blessed be he of the Lord." Let those who have become sceptical concerning Christianity ask themselves this: Whether should I like to give my child in marriage to a Christian or an infidel? This practical query would suggest many thoughts tending to renewed faith, and would stifle for ever many superficial doubts. -T. EXPOSITION. aim, so _that :ip1~ it~ is equivalent to CHAPTER III. Ver. 1.-And Naomi, her mother-in-law, I~? :ip 1'. (see Dent. iv. 40 ; vi. 3, 18 ; L said to her, My daughter, shall not I seek 11, 25, 28). Naomi did not distinguish out for thee e. rest, that it may be well with between rests that would be 'good,' and thee 1 When Ruth had nothing more to do other rests which would not be 'good.' on the harvest-fields, where Boaz appeared Nor did she moralise on the idea. of a rest, daily, and was unremittingly graci?us to her, and affirm that it would be 'good ' for her she may have fallen into a pensive mood. widowed daughter-in-law. She assumed that Naomi was quick to note the varying every true rest was 'good,' and, on the basis 'nuances' offeeling, and said "My daughter, of that assumption, she sought out one for ehall I not seek out for thee a rest 1" The her devoted Ruth. Hence the superiority expression rest, or restiT11J-pla,ce, though in of the rendering that expresses aim to that itBelf of generic import, was, when used in which expresses the mere prediction of such circumstances as environed Ruth, quite result. specific in application, and would be at once Yer. 2.-And now is not Boaz, with understood. It was a home to which Naomi whose young women thou ·wast, our rela- pointed, a home for her daughter's heart. In tive 1 Naomi opens her case. She had such a home, if warm and pure, there would been studying Boaz all through the harvest season. She had been studying Ruth too. be repose for the affections. " T~t it may She saw unmistakable evidence of mutual be well with thee," or, "which shall (or may) be gooii for thee." Either translatio_n responsiveness and attachment. And now is warrantable and excellent. The latter 1s she had a matured scheme in her head. the most simple, and is given by Carpzov Hence she brings up Boaz's name at o~ee, and Rosenmii.ller ; but the former is in ac- and says, "Is he not our relative 1" MllJ'1~, cordance with a frequent idiomatic use of an abstract term used concrctelv, meaning the expression, in which there is a change literally" acquaintance," but here· "relative," from the relative in result to th,e relative in or "kinsman" (eee eh. ii. 1). Lo he i■ en. 111. 1-18.] 'l'HE BOOK OF RUTH. 47