n_nd. com_rnerci11) Ii£? increases nnd creates ever new demands; hut the agricult,,rnl h~e IH still the bus1s of nil. Xou may make new threshing-machines, but you must still lrnve bread. It_ m(ly he wmnowed by steam or hand, but it must be winnowed. A ple(lsant Eastern sight; work done in the cool of the evening-" to-night." I. ".\'ORK IS EVER ASSOCIATED BY GOD ":ITH HIS BLESSl~GS TO MAN. We must plant and dig and reap. God sends the sunshme, the sweet air, and the shower. If a man will not work, neither shall he eat. A paradise of idlers would soon be a Gehenna indeed. No curse can come to a nation so sad as this: "Abundance of idleness was in her sons and her daughters." . II. WORK IS NEVER UNDIGNIFIED OR TO BE DISDAINED. A gentleman is gentle in lus work-not because he does no work. It is a false pride that dislikes handiwork. Man~ of the _diseases wl~ich darken the brain come from the unwise neglect of physical exercise. What 1s swee~er than the fragrance of the upturned soil ? What is more beneficent than the law of labour, which calls forth the exercise of body mind, and spirit ? ' III. WORK OF WINNOWING IS A DIVINE WORK ALSO. God uses his trihulum in our history, and the tribulation-work produces experience, patience, hope. When we are mourning over some sorrow or loss, it is the bruising flail of God's correction. And this comes at all seasons of life, even in the evening of the day. For we shall need chastisement eve::i. unto the end. What a doom is that "without chastisement."- W. M. S. Ver. 11.-Above rubies. "A virtuous woman." Here is the crown of all beauty. What a renown is this of Ruth's. No jewelled necklet, no Eastern retinue, can give such attraction as this. We may have women of genius, and we admire genius ; we may have women of scientific attainment, and God has given no lack of intel- lectual endowments to women , but we must have virtue. Let the history of later Rome tell us what the loss of this is. I. No LIFE IS HIDDEN. "All the city of my people doth know that thou art a virtuous woman." Every history stands revealed. Concerning Nehemiah, we read of the testimony given in time of national trouble: " There is a man in thy kingdom in whose heart is the fear of the noly God." And so this simple-hearted Ruth, who had not tried to make herself attractive to the young men, poor or rich, who had been modest in manner and heroic in conduct, left the impress of her character on the city. II. No LIFE CAN BE RELIGIOUS THAT IS NOT VlRTUOUS. We may, indeed, have vi1tue of a kind, a morality of respectability, without religion ; but we cannot be religious without morality, for religion does not consist in ceremonies however impressive, or days however sacred, or opinion!! however sound ; but in a life of consecration to God, and of obedience to all the sanctities of the moral law. There may be a religion of emotionalism merely ; but blessed as it is to feel the true, we must live it out as well in common life. III. No POWER IS so PERMANENT AS THAT OF HOLY LIFE. Character lives in others. We do not die when we pass from earth. Ruth lives to-day. It would be interesting to know how many have been led even in this agi, to devoutw,ss and decision by the remembrance of her conduct and the exquisite pathos of her words. The little "city" of which our text speaks has passed away, but wherever the word of God is known and read, there Ruth reproduces herself in the history of others. The very name has become a family name, o.nd is honoured by constant use in every generation.-W. M. S. Ver. 12.-Woman's injf,uence. In all history woman has held a place of regal influence. Not by intruding on the sphere of man, not by acting as if there were no Divine providence in the more delicate physical constitution of woman which incapacitates her for the strain of hardest toil; but in the ideal of "home," in which she is to be the "abiding" one, filling it with the charm of quiet influence and the sacredness of self-sacrificing love. I. HERE IS A STRANGE CONJUNCTION OF TERMS. "Virtuous" comes from the Latin vir which me.ms EL man. What then? Is a woman to be like a mnn ? Doe~ it we~n a m(lnly woman ? In one sense it does. For "tho man" is taken i11 tl-d 60 THE BOOK OF RU'rit. ten. 11. 1-22.
Scripture RB the type of humanity in its best estate. "Show thyself o. man," says Da,id to Solomon. It means all that is pure, and brave, and true, and good. Thus "abominable" means somethins ab homo, to be desig·nated as "away from a man; " eomething altogether alien to Ins nature. A virtuous woman is a woman who has strength of resistance to enl, strength of devotion to God, strength of patience and endurance in the path of obedience. Il. HERE IS THE POWER OF INFLUENCE. "All the people of my city ( or, at the gate) doth know that thou art a virtuous woman." Certainly. "They that be otherwise cannot be bid." What a lesson that is I Character tells everywhere. You may not note the CUITent running, but place your boat upon it, and you soon see it. So it is v.;th a g·ood life-it bears others in its current. We are all known. Men and women are judged at their true worth even in this world, and even the wicked respect the upright and the just. It was said of Nehemiah to the king in a ,time of trouble, " There is a man in thy kingdom in whose heart is the fear of the holy God." III. HERE IS THE SECRET OF NATIONAL GLORY. It was so in Rome when they could speak with pride of the Roman matron, and it bas been so in every nation under heaven. A Dinne judgment was needed to purify this nation after the days of Charles II. Had it not been a time of judgment, the nation, as Charle"s Kingsley says, would have perished. Let the young be taught modesty even in dress and demeanour. Let tt.ll that is "fast " be frowned upon and made unfashionable. The grace that Christ gives is humility with the fear of the Lord.-W. M. S.
EXPOSITION.