The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1915-02-02
,ur WOMAN WHO ADvENTURED.
rhc International Sunday School Les
ON for February 2 is Ruth ChOOs-
- the True GOd."-Ruth 1.
(By William T.. EIliS.)

(By william T. Ellis.)
one day / was riding up from h
Jordan Valley, through a rocky defle.
INTO the land Of Moab. There came
award us a little company of the sort
nften seen in the migratory East.
'rhsra was first the man, afoot, and
vithout shoes and in poor raiment,
arriving a staff. Beside him walked
, donkey on which rode his wife and
Jittle child-a picture like that of
Joseph. Mary and Jesus, fleeing to
Egypt. We tarried for a momen of
GREETINGS by the way, and the man
told US that his home was In Beer
shebs. but a local famine had driven
him over into the fertile uplands Of
Moab. there to work n live until a
harvest should be cleaned. Now he
was on his way home.
The incident was so like that Of
Elimelech and Naomi and their two
sons that it has stayed in my mem
DRY. Famine, which comes so quickly
and easily to primitive people living
always near the hunger line, a sent
these Bethlehemites to the East. They
had crossed the Jordan above the
Dead Sea. On the high plain of Moab.
where the winds blow chill in the
mornings, there is to this day success
ful agriculture. / saw the farmers
blowing with the same sort of crook
I'd stick and oxen used in Elimelech's'
day. A fat land is Moab, and it gave
Succor and a home TO the Betnlene-
mite immigrants.
This lesson links to the days news
in the grim reality of famine in the
land of Palestine. Today the people
are suffering even unto death. Un-
able to harvest their crops, because
The men have been conScripted and
the animals confiscated by the Turkish
army, the people of the land we low
ingly call holy are today the worst
sufferers from the war. Their pligh,
is sorest because relief is not near, as
IN the case of Belgium.
In this dark hour, and in the light
Of this Old Testament famine story
we may cherish the cheer that thu
day is rapidly passing when any con
siderable portion of the race a SUI
fer from famine The net work o
communications hat is binding al
mankind together makes a famine il
Turkey or China the concern of Amer
lea and Europe. Not for many gener
atoms longer shall we be able to illus
trate this idyll Of Ruth from con
temporary conditions. New bonds o
brotherhood, and a new heart of love
will soon Danish famine, and its trail
cf attendant ills, from the earth.
Life in q New Land.
w no KNOWS the nedEt Ol an lHlIiil
grant? Only he who has bee
stranger in a strange land; and he
never heard to disdain h alien, b
ne ever so poor. The four Jews froI
Bethlehem made a home for them
selves in the new land; and the tw
sons, Mahlon and Chiffon, took t
themselves wives of the Moabite maiC
ems. 1t seemed as if the family ha
established itself permanently in TT
healthful uplandS Of Moab.
Death, that great nullifier Of a
plans, destroyed this prospect, for TT
father and the two sons died, after te
years Of life in Moab, leaving thr'
childless widows behind them. Ne
ties were thus created for the surv
vors with the land which had so no
pitably provided for them. The thr'
graves were strong links.
Nevertheless, Naomi, the mothe
and now the head Of the family, -four
her grief-smitten heart turning ba'
10 Bethlehem and it's hills. The far
Inc was long since past. Fond mer
DRY called her to the home of her gil
mood and young ~wifehood. VIII
inconsistencies is filling the hearts
aliens in America only the COmfol
~ of the lonely knows.
In Bthlehem dwelt the past: a.
the best promise for the future al
Elmelech had property there, a
mere were kinsmen, ready to full
the obligations which the hospital
cast, with its strong sense Of fam
ues, imposes. Sentiment and pl
dence alike called Naomi back
bethlehem.
The Woman Who Stayed BY.
What should be done with tn
young widows? The natural recon-
was for them to return to their o
people, and make a new beginning
me Moabite life. Orpha SO chose,
spite her fondness for Naomi.
As We read the silly n cynical
cruel jokes about mothers-in-law,
as remember Naomi, whose charac
was such that she bound her dear o
IN closest affection; and whose |
Tor daughter-in-law was SO real
lender and abiding that one Of tn
Ruth, even made the great advent
Of fOrcnkipn hor hloDI-Lin1rod