The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1920-04-23
International
SundaySchoolLesson
By WILLIAM T. ELLIS.

i.
Fer April rs is, "Ruth's wise Choice"
Ruth !.
A Woman Who stood BY.
Colonel T. z. Lawrence, the bril-
liant young British scholar who
created the Arab army, and whose ex-
pleits made him easily the most pic
| turesque figure of the world war, was
| only accidentally q soldier; he was an
archa eolegist, digging in the ruins of
Carchemish. when the call to serve his
| country and civilization came to him.
| Now he has returned to the pursuits
| of scholarship. A year ago he told me
| that the distinction which really in
| terested him most was the discovery
| by him at Carchemish of the oldest
Genealogical man-that is, of the
most ancient human remains falling
within the period of recorded history.
This skeleton was more than five thou
sand years old, and, according tie Law
renee, by the measurements of his
skull, his brain capacity would be
counted normal today. That is to say,
there has been no essential evolution
| in the physical characteristics of man
/ since our first authentic records of
| the race.
1t is easy for one who is more
| familiar with the East and its re-
mains than with speculations upon
| 0EO1uLlOn 10 accept luis
kfact, with it's implications Life has
not essentially changed in the Orient
| for millenniums. Just as the imprint
| of the reed mating on the clay bricks
| OF Nebuchadnezzar' palace at Baby
| Ion. as saw, shows that exactly the
same sort of mating as the Arab
workmen now employ was used TWEEN
| ty-five hundred years ago; SO the hu-
| man traits persist unchanged thru
out the centuries. People today are
not in any innate quality different
| from the people of the days of Abra-
| ham. This story of Ruth and Naomi
which we study is true to type; it
might have been an incident of yester-
| day. Because of these persistins char
acteristics it is now a Sunday school
lesson fer milliens of persons.
The Loyal sex.
| Decadent poets and novelists rail
against the inconsistency of woman:
| but they knew only their own crowd.
| In wider view, woman is the loyal sex.
Ruth is typical There were tickle
| sweethearts and wives discovered dur
| one such there were hundred women
whose loyalty led them into Ieftier
lives and into sublime steadfastness.
| No more pernicious teaching can be
| injected into the mind OF youth than
| the idea that women as sex are
| false to friendship and love. Let that
notion prevail generally, and the
foundations of society crunble.
Against it there is evidence beyond
count or measure. For every Delilah
there are a hundred Ruths.
This quality of standing by. in sim
pie. patient fidelity, is a character
| istic trait of woman. How women
| have had to practice it during the
war! It first struck me dramatically
as I watched the women on the edge
I Ts11rr
waiting for their men to come back.
Then in Russia, among the peasants.
it was enacted before my eyes. In
Armenia I saw it again. Then in
France I glimpsed the heroism of the
| waiting wives and mothers. Great
Britain offered no nobler spectacle
during the war than the conduct of
| her heroic women.
l. Not alone to men end cause are
women loyal; despite cynical sneers
and jests to the contrary, they are
also loyal to enc another. The Ruth
/ and Naomi story is being enacted in
modern version all around u.s. Wom-
| en- are oftener than not true to other
women; and especially TO their own
kindred God endowed woman largely
with the gift of loyalty. for that is the
cement of society.
| 4 Mother-in-I.aw Story.
| Jokes and jibes against mothers-in-
law are one of the cemmonest stocks
| of the meager store of joke-1na kers'
| materials Often these are cruel and
unjust. When we turn to the Bible,
we cannot recall single mother-in-
| law incident that lends support to
i this vicious notion. We remember
| Peters mother-in-law, whom he loved
| and whom Jesus healed. And first of
all we recall Naomi, the mother-in-
law of Ruth. and principal figure in
| the present story, a Beautiful and pa
/ thetic type of womanhood.
We need to know nothing more
about Naomi than The affection and
/ devotion which she elected from Ruth.
Her traits were such as to lead her
Moabite daughter-in-la to forsake
home and kindred and faith in order
| to remain by her side, as a support in
her sorrow and need. There must have
| been real contagion in Naomis char
acter and faith. Religion is eftener
caught than taught" The silent in
| fluence of Naomi. like that of our own
mothers had transformed Ruths life.
There IL no preaching so eloquent as
| quiet example
In the close contacts of home life
| and OF a meager oriental home at that,
with its barrenness and lack of re-
| sources and interests-Naomi had
stood the test. She practiced every
| day religion. AS the three women
shared their tasks and quarters they
came to know one another. thru and
| thru: and that knowledge begot love
and admiration for the mother-in-l ".
Character which stands the home test
is real.
Emgrants to the Uplands.
Because chance to be familiar with
the geographical setting of this Old
Testament fdyl. il makes a peculiar ap
peal to me. 1 know Bethlehem, the
hillside home of Naomi and her hus-
band, from which they emigrated be-
cause of famine. And I also know the
upiands of Moab, across the Jordan, on
the high. wind -swept, fertile plateaus
of which grain grows abundantly to
this day.