obeyed in Bethlehem. The distinctions of society, although as marked
apparently as in our own time, seem not to have caused either
unhappiness nor the slightest approach to unkind or unchristian
feeling. Witness the greeting between Boaz and the reapers on his
harvest field. "And behold Boaz came from Bethlehem and said unto the
reapers, The Lord be with you. And they answered him, The Lord bless
thee." Boaz was "a mighty man of wealth;" he had his hired workmen
around him, and in the same field was found the poor "Moabitish damsel,"
gleaning here and there the scattered ears, her only dependence. Yet we
find them all sitting together in the hut which was erected for shelter,
and eating together the parched grain which was provided for the noon's
refreshment, while Boaz enters into a conversation with Ruth which
indicates his truly noble and generous character, and speaks words which
are like balm to the sorrowing spirit. "Thou hast comforted me and
spoken to the heart of thy handmaid," she said as she rose to leave the
tent and felt herself no longer a stranger, since one so excellent and
so exalted in station appreciated and sympathized with her. We see
little in these Gospel days and in this favored land which will compare
with the genuine kindliness which breathes in every word and act
recorded in the book of Ruth.

But the most surprising revelation is made in the account which follows
the scene in the tent. What exalted principle--what respect for
woman--what noble virtue must have characterized those among whom a
mother could send her daughter at night to perform the part assigned to
Ruth, apparently without a fear of evil, and receive her again, not only
unharmed, but understood, honored, and wedded by the man to whom she was
sent, and that notwithstanding her foreign birth and dependent
situation, and fettered with the condition that her first-born son must
bear the name and be considered the child of a dead man!