The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1895-10-12
The Sunday School Lesson.
SERIES FOR 1895--FOURTH QUARTER.
STUDIES IN JEWISH HISTORY.


character of her mother-in law. But
she had not set her heart on Israel's
God. She was not of the stuff of which
heroines are made.
2. Ruth leaves to her dead
husbands mOther.-vs 1918.
Naomi, when she saw that Ruth really
meant her offer to go with her to her
own country, still endeavored to dis
suade her. Behold, she said, thy sister
in ta,c is gone back unto her people and
unto her god; return thou after thy
sister in-law. The disinterestedness of
this advice strikes us with admira ton.
The pagan worship of Chemosh or Mo-
lech had evidently not furnished the ma
ture of Ruth; and Naomi exercised a
breadth of charity not very common
even in our day when she exhorted her
to faithfulness to her own home and to
the best religion known in her home.
The reply of Ruth is rhythmic and
beautiful: And Ruth said, Intreat me
not to leave thee. and to return from
folloaoinq after thee: for achither thou
goest ,oiU go; and aohere thou Iodgest
aUiU lodge: thy people shall be mig
people, and thy God mig God: chere
thou diest IaciU die. and there aUiU Ibe
buried: the Lord do so to me, and more
also. If aught but death part thee and
me. Never did one soul more complete
ly dedicate itself to the love an service
of another. Well does Maclaren say:
"Ruth's passionate burst of tenderness is
immortal. 1t has put into fitting words
for all generations the deepest thoughts
of loving hearts, and comes to US over
all the centuries between as warm and
living as when it welled up from that
pure, heroic soul. The two strongest
emotions of our nature are blended in
it. and. each gives portion of it's fervor
love and religion"
When Naomi saw that it was Ruth's
religious purpose to devote her life to
her no more. She was, we conceive, de-
voutly glad for Ruth's loving disobedi-
ence.
3. Naomi, accompanied by
Ruth, returns to her home in
Bethlehem,-vs.1 1922.
There are touches of nature in the
account given of the two lonely women's
reception in Bethlehem. The whole
city,-the citadel, the walled village
was moved concerning these pilgrims
Is this Naomi? they asked. The ques-
tion is suggestive. The people of the
village remembered her before her going
as true to her name pleasant" or "the
Loveable." She then had great gladness
in her life. She had an esteemed hus-.
band; she had what all Hebrew wives
regard as the crown of their lives, son
to perpetuate the family; she was blest
in having even two sons. What could
then cast abiding gloom into her heart?
The trials attending the famine were of
| but slight account. She could cheer
| fully go with her household to Moab,
| the land of plenty. She was thus ra-
diant with happiness and hope, till the
day of her departure. But now! She
| comes back troubled and repentant.
Deaths relentless hand has been laid
heavily upon her,-heavily and repeat
eddy. Her husband and both her sons
have been taken from her. Save for the
company Of her widowed daughteri in
law Ruth, the alien Moabitess, she
would come back utterly alone and
forsaken. How fully is her condition
implied in her worde, and also her re-
pentance for having forsaken Gods peo-
| pie and thus turned God againt her.
| call me not Naomi, call me Mara
| Bitter: for the Almighty hath dealt
! bitterly a1ith me. I acent out full (of
her own choice, in self confidence), and
the Lord hath brought me home again
empty: -aohy call me Naomi. seeing the
Lord has testified against me, and the
Almighty hath afflicted naes
Naomi was faithful to the Hebrew
thought OF her day, in believing that her
Affections had come to her as punish
ment for her SINS She haze not learned
and none in her day had learned, that
the Christening of the Father is not ap-
portioned merely because OF guilt; but
often serves disciplinary purpose,
which the future will fully reveal.
The story to the end is thus sum
married.: 1t being the time of the bar
ley harvest when Naomi and Ruth ar
rive at Bethlehem, Ruth goes at once in
to the fields as a gleaner,-that is, to
gather the heads OF grain left by the
harvesters, that she may obtain bread
for herself and her mother in-law. The
ground on which she CLEANED, without
choice of her own, belonged to Boaz, a
prosperous husbandman OF Judah, one
of the relatives of Elimelecb, her father
n-law. Boaz, finding who she was,
treated her kindly, and appointed her
meat and drink among his own people.
Finding that she was by marriage his
kins- woman, and that, if abe had not
been Moabitess by birth, she would
be, according to the Jewish law, entitled
| IN a huahand from among her husbands