mother-in-law. The narration is inimitable, and needs nothing to make it
stand out like a picture before the mind. Suffice it then that we now
attend only to the lessons which may be gathered from it, and endeavor
to profit by them through all our coming lives. Nor let any think the
lessons afforded by these four short chapters few or easily acted upon,
though they may be soon comprehended. They will amply reward earnest
study and persevering practice.

The first thing which wins our admiration is Ruth's faith. She had been
educated in the degrading worship of Chemosh, the supreme deity of Moab.
Probably no conception of the one living God had been formed in her mind
until her acquaintance with the Jewish youth, the son of Elimelech and
Naomi. How long she had the happiness of a wife we are not informed. We
know it was only a few years. But during that period she had learned to
put such confidence in Jehovah, that she was willing to forsake country
and friends, even the home of her childhood and beloved parents, and go
forth with her mother-in-law to strange scenes, and willing to brave
penury and vicissitude that she might be numbered among His people.
Firmly she adhered to her resolution. The entreaties of Naomi--the
thought of her mother--the prospects which might await her in her own
land--even the retreating form of Orpah--nothing had power to prevail
over her desire to see Canaan and unite in the worship of her husband's
God. "The Lord recompense thy work," said Boaz to her, "and a full
reward be given thee of the Lord God of Israel, under whose wings thou
art come to trust." He is not unfaithful, and that reward was made
sure. "Of the life that now is," the promise speaks, and it was
fulfilled to her. Of an undying honorable name it says nothing, but that
is also awarded her. "Upon a monument which has already outlasted
thrones and empires, and which shall endure until there be a new heaven
and a new earth--upon the front page of the New Testament is inscribed