HOMILIES BY VARIOUS AUTHORS. Vers. 1, 2.-A: primitive council. The writer of this book depicts for us in this passage a very picturesque scene. We observe-I. The place ofjudgment and public business. "Judges and officers shalt thou make thee in all thy gates ... throughout thy tribes, and they shall judge the people with just judgment." The parents of the disobedient son were to "bring him out unto the elders of his city, and unto the gate of his place." .Absalom, when plotting against his father's authority, "stood beside the way of the gate," and intercepted those that came to the king,for judg- ment. 2. The court in whose presence important business was transacted-" the elders of the city." Such elders were prescribed, as is evident from several passages in Deuteronomy ; and the early books of the Old Testament contain frequent refer• ences to them and to their duties. .Allusion is made to the elders of Succoth, of Jezreel, and of this same Bethlehem in the time of Samuel. Ten seems to have been what we should call a quornm. There is wisdom, gravity, deliberation, dignity, in the proceedings here recorded. I. HUM.AN SOCIETY REQUIRES INSTITUTIONS OF LAW AND JUSTICE. The relations between man and man must not be determined by chance, or left to the decision of force or fraud. "Order is Heaven's first law." II. LAW AND JUSTICE SHOULD BE SANCTIONED DY RELIGION. Religion cannot approve of all actions done by all in authority ; but it acknowledges and respects government as a Divine institution, and awakens conscience to support justice. Ill. THERE ARE CERTAIN CONDITIONS IN CONFORMITY WITH WHICH PUBLIC BUSINESS SHOULD BE TRANSACTED. 1. Openness and publicity. 2. Solemn and formal ratifi- cation and record of important acts. 3. Equality of citizens before the law. 4. As much liberty as is compatible with public rights. 5. Integrity and incorruptness on the part of those who administer the law.-T. Vers. 3-8.-Tke goiil. Every nation has its own domestic and social usages . .Among those prevalent in Israel was the relationship of the goiil. He was the redeemer, or the next kinsman of one deceased, whose duty it was to purchase an inheritance in danger of lapsing, or to redeem one lapsed. The duties were de_fined in the Levitical law. .According to the custom and regulation known as Levirate, he was expected to marry the widow of the deceased, and to raise up seed unto t~e dead, in case no issue were left of the marriage dissolved by death. From this Book of Ruth it is clear that the two duties, that with regard to property a_nd that respecting marriage, centered in the same person. Failing the unnamed kmsman, it fell to the lot of Boaz to act the part of the near relative of Ruth's ~eceased husband. Usages and laws differ, but the fact of kindred remains, and mvolves many duties. I. HUMAN KINDRED IS A DIVINE APPOINTMENT. Il. AND IS BOTH SUGGESTIVE AND ILLUSTRATIVE OF RELIGIOUS, OF CHRISTIAN TRUTH. E. g. of the fatherhood of God ; of the brotherhood of man; based upon that of Christ. CII. IV. 1-22.] THE DOOK OF RUTH.
Jll. KINDRED 18 AT THE FOUNDATION OF HUMAN LIFE, ·AS SOCIAL AND POLITICAL. IV. KINDRED INVOLVES CONSIDERATION AND REGARD. V. AND, WHERE 0IRCUMSTANCES RENDER IT EXPEDIENT, PRACTICAL HELP. Appeal :-Do we recognise the just claims of kindred? If we do not, iR not our failure traceable to an imperfect apprehension of spiritual relationships ?-T. Vera. 4, 6.-0ur own inherita.nce. "Lest I mar mine own inheritance." How many do this? They have noble inheritances, but in a multitude of ways they mar them. I. THERE 1B THE INHERITA..'il'CE OF PHYSICAL HEALTH. Most precious; not to be gotten for fine gold. Yet how often it is injured by sloth and sin, by intemperance and lust, or by the overtaxed brain, and neglect of the simple economy of health. II. THERE IS THE INHERITANCE OF A GOOD NAME. This too is a. priceless gift. More to be desired than gold, yea, than fine gold. Character. It takes years to win-whether for a commercial house or for a personal reputation ; but it takes only a moment to lose. How many a son has marred his inheritance I The " good name" is irrecoverable in the highest sense. Forgiveness may ensue, bat the memory of evil lives after. III. THERE IS THE INHERITANCE OF A RELIGlOUS FAITH. 11 My father's God." Then my father had a God I There had been a generation to serve him before I was born ! Am I to be the first to break the glorious chain, to sever the great procession ? "One generation shall praise thy works to another." How beautiful I Is my voice to be silent, my thought to be idle, my heart to be cold and dead to God my Saviour? Let )lle think of the unfeigned faith of my grandmother Lois and my mother Eunice, and not mar the inheritance through unbelief.-W. M. S.
Vere. 9-11.-Honourable conduct honourably witnessed. By the" shoe" in tne context is meant, no doubt, the sandal, which in the East was, and is, the ordinary covering of the foot, fastened by means of a thong of leather. Although in a house, or in a temple, the sandal was dispensed with, it was always used in walking and upon a journey. It was taken off at meals, in every sacred place, and in the presence of every sacred person, and on occasion of mourning. The context brings before us a symbolical use of the sandal. In early times-for even when this book was written the custom was obsolete-it was the usage of the men of Israel, in taking possession of any landed property, to pluck off the shoe. This was the survival of a still older custom-the planting the foot upon the newly-acquired soil, outwardly and visibly to express the taking possession of it, and asserting a right to it as one's own. Having, by the permission and at the suggestion of the unnamed kinsman, performed this simple symbolical act, Boaz proceeded to address the assembled elders of the city, calling them to witness two facts: his purchase of the field of Elimelech, and his resolve to take Ruth, the widow of Elimelech's son, as his own wife. The elders, in presence of one another, formally and solemnly declared, We are witnesses. I. A RELIGIOUS MAN SHOULD DE SCRUPULOUSLY HONOURABLE IN THE TRANSACTIONS OF LIFE. II. IN NOTHING IS THIS RULE MORE IMPORTANT THAN IN QUESTIONS .AFFECTING l'ROPERTY AND IN MARRIAGE. Ill. PUBLICITY, THE PRESENCE OF COMPETENT AND VERACIOUS, HONOURABLE WIT- NESSES, MAY DE REGARDED AS OF THE HIGHEST IMPORTANCE, Secret marriages and underhand proceedings with regard to property are to be avoided. IV. A PUBLIO PROFESSION OF CHRISTIANITY IN THE PRESENCE OF WITNESSES IS WISE, BIGHT, AND EXPEDIENT.-T.