mise, it has the enjoyment of the life that now is. Mysterious Providence, that directed my doubtful, trembling steps to glean in that field, that has in a few short weeks made such a change in my condition, that has raised me from the lowest, meanest, most forlorn of dependants, to the highest state of affluence, ease, and respectability; and transplanted me from the vast howling deserts of idolatry and ignorance, to the fair and fertile regions of knowledge, of purity, of hope, and joy! To comfort and maintain a mother like Naomi, to find such a friend and husband as Boaz! It is life from the dead. It is of that God who has taught me to know, and to choose him as my God, and who will never fail nor forsake them who put their trust in him." Boaz, too, finds his situation greatly improved, rejoices and gives God thanks." My wealth was great, my garners full, my manservants and maidens numerous, dutiful, and affectionate, but I had no one to share my prosperity with me, I was solitary in the midst of a multitude: like Adam in Paradise, incapable of enjoyment, because destitute of a companion, an help meet for me; but God hath provided for me a virtuous woman, whose price is above rubies. My house has now received its brightest ornament, my family its firmest support, my estate its most prudent and faithful dispenser. I have done my duty. I have respected the majesty of the law. I have followed where Providence led the way, and I have found my reward, in the peace of my own mind, in the possession of a wise and good woman, in the blessing of that God who has done all things for me, and who does all things wisely and well." Behold a match formed immediately by the hand of Providence, through the happy concurrence of little incidental circumstances; a match built, not on the brittle foundation of sordid interest, but on the solid basis of mutual affection, of generosity, of wisdom, of religion; a match pregnant with what consequences to Beth-lehem-judah, to all Israel, to the human race! purpose and grace given in Christ Jesus before the world began," and terminating in the final and everlasting redemption of a lost world, through faith in his blood? The veil of eternity is drawn over it; "Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them that love him."* " Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is."+ The history of Ruth, will be brought to a period next Lord's day. You see, men and brethren, the object which is closely kept in view, through every era of time, under all dispensations, and by whatever instruments. The work of God cannot stand still, his purpose cannot be defeated. One generation of men goeth and another cometh, but every succeeding generation contributes to the furtherance of his design; and, whether knowingly or ignorantly, voluntarily or reluctantly, all fulfil his pleasure. None are forsaken of Providence, but such as are false to themselves, and till we have done what is incumbent upon us, we have neither warrant nor encouragement to look up and wish, to expect and pray. Nothing is dishonourable, but what is sinful: poverty that is not the effect of idleness, prodigality, or vice, has nothing shameful in it; the gleaner behind the reapers may be as truly dignified as the lord of the harvest. Let lordly wealth cease from pride, and virtuous obscurity and indigence from dejection and despair. Waste not time, spirits, and thought in airy speculation about imaginary situations, but try to make the most of that in which infinite wisdom has seen meet to place thee. Disdain to envy any one, at least until thou hast thoroughly examined into the estate of him whom thou art disposed to envy. He is destitute of the happiest preparation for the relish and enjoyment of prosperity, who has not arrived at it through the path of adversity. To receive with thankfulness, to enjoy with moderation, to resign with cheerfulness, to endure with patience, is the highest pitch of human virtue. From this advantage of ground, how pleasant it is to trace the sweetly meandering course of the river of prophecy and promise united, toward the vast, the immeasurable ocean of accomplishment. Now the tribe of Judah is rising into consequence, now the royal sceptre is ready to be put into his hand, never to depart thence "till Shiloh come, of Men are often fulfilling a plan of Provithe increase of whose government and peace dence, without intending, or even being conthere shall be no end to whom the gather-scious of it. They are acting a double part ing of the people shall be." Now the star at the same instant; the one private and of Jacob begins to appear. Now the "tender plant" begins to rear its head, and the "root out of the dry ground to spring up; it buds and blossoms as the rose, and its smell is as the smell of Lebanon." But what eye can discover, what created spirit take in the whole extent of "God's personal, local and transitory, the other public, comprehensive, and permanent; they may be building up at once a private family, and the church of God, carrying on and maintaining the succession to an inheritance, to a throne, and ministering to the 440 HISTORY OF RUTH.. [LECT. XCIX. extension and progress of a kingdom which whose streams make glad the city of our shall never be moved or shaken. God? What will it be, from the summit of In the kingdom of nature, there is high yonder eternal hills, to contemplate the and low, mountain and valley, sameness whole extent of Emanuel's land," watered with diversity in the kingdom of Provi- with the pure river of water of life;" to dence, there is difference of rank and sta- mingle with the nations of them that are tion, of talent and accomplishment, of for- saved, as they expatiate through the blissful tune and success, but a mutual and necessary groves, planted with the tree of life: to conconnexion and dependence. In the king- verse with the distinguished personages who dom of grace, there is diversity of gifts and shine on this hallowed page, and shall then offices, but the same Spirit; and so in the shine in immortal lustre; to reap with Boaz kingdom of glory, different degrees of lus- a richer harvest than ever waved on the tre, as stars differ one from another, but one plains of Beth-lehem-judah; to assist Naomi universal glory, of which all the redeemed in raising her triumphant song of praise; are together partakers, all being kings and and to rejoice with Ruth, and with one anpriests unto God. Throughout the whole, other, in our joint reception into God's everthere is a gradation which at once pleases lasting kingdom, in our common admission and confounds, that depresses and exalts, into "the general assembly and church of that inspires contentment, and teaches to the first-born.” Glorious things are spoken aspire, that now attracts to the pure foun- of thee, O city of our God. We have heard tain of uncreated light, and now repels the of them with the hearing of the ear, may bold inquirer to his native darkness and dis- our eyes be blessed with the sight of them. tance again. May "the Lamb who is in the midst of the Is it pleasant to survey from the exceed-throne lead us to living fountains of waters, ing high mountain, where the Christian and God wipe away all tears from our eyes." tabernacle is pitched, the course of that river" Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus." HISTORY OF RUTH. LECTURE XCIX. So Boaz took Ruth, and she was his wife: and when he went in unto her, the Lord gave her conception, and she bare a son. And the women said unto Naomi, Blessed be the Lord, which hath not left thee this day without a kinsman, that his name may be famous in Israel. And he shall be unto thee a restorer of thy life, and a nourisher of thine old age. For thy daughter-in-law, which loveth thee, which is better to thee than seven sons, hath borne him. And Naomi took the child, and laid it in her bosom, and became nurse unto it. And the women her neighbours gave it a name, saying, There is a son born to Naomi, and they called his name Obed. He is the father of Jesse, the father of David.— RUTH iv. 13-17. which we have passed. The perils of a battle, the horrors of a shipwreck, so dreadful at the moment, become the source of lasting joy, when the tempest has ceased to roar, and the confused noise of the warrior is hushed into silence. THERE is an obvious resemblance between | of depression, mortification, and pain through the general plan of the divine providence, and the separate and detached parts of it. The life of almost every good man exhibits virtue for a season struggling with difficulty, overwhelmed with distress, but emerging, rising, triumphing at length. Through much tribulation the Christian must enter Fiction, in order to please, is, accordingly, into the kingdom of God, and on his way be forced to borrow the garb of truth. The often in heaviness through manifold tempta- hero's sufferings, the lover's solicitude and tions. It is the wise ordinance of infinite uncertainty, the parent's anguish, the pagoodness. Opposition rouses, calls forth the triot's conflict, are the subject of the drama. latent powers of the soul; success is height-When the ship has reached her desired ened by the danger to which we were exposed, by the trouble which it cost us, by the pains we took; antecedent labour sweetens rest. Hence, the passages of our own lives which we most fondly recollect and relate, and those in the lives of others which most deeply engage and interest us, are the scenes haven, when the cloud disperses, when the contest is decided, the curtain must drop. Periods of prosperity cannot be the theme of history. The vast, general system, in like manner, exhibits "the whole creation groaning and travailing in pain together:" interest clash ing with interest, spirit rising up against | to the effect intended to be produced. There spirit, one purpose defeating another, uni- is no violent or sudden transition, but a calm, versal nature apparently on the verge of rational, progressive change from deep sorrow confusion; chaos and ancient night threat to moderated affliction, to composed resignaening to resume their empire: but without tion, to budding hope, to dawning prosperity, Knowledge, design, or co-operation, nay, to solicitous prosecution, to partial success, to in defiance of concert and co-operation, the final and full attainment. whole is making a regular, steady progress; The discovery of Ruth, of her character, of the muddy stream is working itself pure; the her virtues, of her relation to Boaz, is in the discordant mass is bound as in chains of ada- same happy style of natural simplicity and mant, the wrath of man is praising God; ease. On her part we see no indecent eagerevery succeeding era and event is explain-ness to bring herself forward, no clamourous ing and confirming that which preceded it; publication of her distresses or pretensions, no all is tending towards one grand consumma-affected disguise or concealment to attract tion which shall collect, adjust, unite, and observation or provoke inquiry: on his, there crown the scattered parts, and demonstrate, is no vehemence of exclamation, no hastiness to the conviction of every intelligent being, of resolution; but in both, the calmness of that all was, is, and shall be very good. good minds, the satisfaction which conscious virtue enjoys, in the unexpected discovery of mutual attractions and kindred worth. The situations are interesting, affecting, governed by the laws of nature and probability, and consonant to every day's experience. Finite capacity can contemplate, and comprehend but a few fragments at most: and scripture has furnished us with a most delicious one, in the little history of which I have now read the conclusion. The story of Ruth has been considered, by every reader of taste, as a perfect model in that species of composition. It will stand the test of the most rigid criticism, or rather, is calculated to give instruction and law to criticism. With your patience I will attempt a brief analysis of it. 1st. The subject is great and important beyond all that heathen antiquity presents: the foundation and establishment of the regal dignity in the house of David, the type and ancestor of the Messiah. An event in which not one age, one nation, one interest is concerned, but the whole extent of time, the whole human race, the temporal, the spiritual, the everlasting interests of mankind. What is the demolition of Troy, or the settlement of Eneas in Latium, compared to this? Paradise Lost, itself, must give place to this glorious opening of Paradise Regained. 2d. The story is perfect and complete in itself; or, as the critic would say, has a beginning, a middle, and an end. Elimelech is driven by famine into banishment, dies in the land of Moab, and leaves his family in distress. Here the action commences. Naomi and Ruth, united by propinquity, by affection and by distress, are induced to return to Beth-lehem-judah, in hope of effecting a redemption of the estate which had belonged to the family, but under the pressure of necessity had been alienated. Their reception, deportment, and progress, form the great body of the piece. The marriage of Boaz and Ruth, and the birth of Obed is the conclusion of it. 4th. The sentiments are just, arising out of the situations, adapted to the characters, guarded equally from apathy and violence. The pathetic expostulation of Ruth with her mother-in-law, when she proposed a separation, is in particular, a masterpiece of native eloquence: at hearing it, the heart is melted into tenderness, the tear of sympathy rushes to the eye, nature feels and acknowledges the triumph of virtue. The sentiment of impassioned sorrow glows with equal vehemence on the lips of Naomi, and excite in the bosom of sensibility, pity mingled with respect. In Boaz we praise and admire unostentatious generosity, dignified condescension, honest, undisguised affection, a sense of impartial, inflexible, undeviating justice. 5th. The characters are nicely discriminated, boldly designed, and uniformly supported. The grief of Naomi is verbose, impetuous, and penetrating; that of Ruth calm, silent, melting, modest. The plans of the mother are sagacious, comprehensive; the result of reflection, of experience; they indicate skill, ability, resolution, perseverance, Those of the daughter are artless, innocent; the suggestion of the moment, the effusion of the heart; indicate candour, sincerity, conscious, unblushing, unsuspecting rectitude. In Boaz the struggle between inclination, propriety, prudence, and justice is happily designed, and forcibly executed: it is a painting from nature, and therefore cannot fail to please. His openness and fair dealing also, 3d. The conduct of the plot is simple, natu- as was observed in a former Lecture, are finely ral, and easy. No extraneous matter, person-contrasted with the selfishness, insincerity, age, or event is introduced, from first to last: and unsteadiness of the nearer kinsman. the incidents follow, and arise out of one The character of the servant who was over another, without force, without effort. No extraordinary agency appears, because none is requisite; the ordinary powers of nature, and the ordinary course of things, are adequate the reapers, though we have but a slight sketch of it, discovers the hand of a master, the hand of truth and nature. We see in it, the beautiful and interesting portrait of una bashed, unassuming inferiority, of authority, undisfigured by insolence or severity, the happy medium between power and dependence, the link in the scale of society which connects the wealthy lord with the honest labourer, the friend and companion of both. The rest of the characters are classed in groups, but discover a characteristic and decided distinction. We have the inquisitiveness, curiosity, hard-heartedness and indifference of an idle provincial town; the good nature, hospitality, candour, and cheerfulness of the country. The compliments of congratulation presented to Boaz, on his marriage, and those addressed to Naomi, on the birth of her grandson, clearly evince the different train of thought and feeling which dictated them, and mark beyond the possibility of mistake the sex and sentiment of the addressors. In a word, the ideas expressed by the several characters in this sacred drama, are so peculiarly their own, that no reader of ordinary discernment needs to be told, who it is that speaks: the sentiments cannot possibly be transferred from one to another. 6th. The manners are delineated with the same felicity of pencil. We have a faithful representation of those that are permanent and founded in nature: and of those which are local and temporary. When I observe these Bethlehemites flocking round the old woman and her outlandish daughter, plying them and one another with questions, circulating the leer and the whisper, I could suppose myself in one of the gossiping villages which surround this metropolis, whose inhabitants feed on rumour, exercise no principle but curiosity, employ no member but the tongue, or the feet, in hunting after the materials for that employinent. In the innocent festivity, the uncomplaining toil, the contented simplicity, the unaffected benevolence, the unprofessing piety of that field of reapers, I have mingled a thousand and a thousand times. It was the delight of childhood, it is the unpainful, the undepressing retrospect of age. We have a representation equally faithful and just of customs and manners which are local and temporary; some of which excite our astonishment, some shock our delicacy, and some provoke our mirth. Such are the inodes of courtship here described, the transfer of property, the forms of judicial procedure, the terms of familiar address and friendly communication: and the like. These, having no intrinsic moral excellence or turpitude, are the object of neither praise nor censure. To trace their origin, or explain their nature and design, may be an innocent amusement, but it were unjust to explode them as absurd, or to run them down as ridiculous. The antiquarian will revere them for their age, the phiiosopher will investigate them as opening a new path to the knowledge of the human heart, the philanthropist will deal with them gently, because they are the harmless peculiarities of his fellow-creatures, and piety will respect them as presenting another view of the endless variety discoverable in all the ways and works of the great Creator. In the permanent manners of mankind we see the eternal sameness of the human mind, which no change of climate, times, government, education, can alter; a sameness as discernible and as fixed as the number of eyes, arms, and fingers peculiar to the species. In those which are local and transient, we behold the infinite and endless variety of the human powers, which no stability and uniformity of law, instruction, discipline, interest, example, can arrest and fix; a variety as discernible, as unsteady, as unaccountable, as the different shades of complexion, the conformation of feature, the measurements of stature, the fluctuations of thought. Every thing satisfies, every thing confounds. Once more, the language of this charming little epic history is plain and perspicuous, elegant yet unadorned, nervous yet chaste, simple yet not mean or vulgar. It consists of narration and dialogue, the former possessing the most exquisite degree of grace and ease, the latter of vivacity and force. There is no obscurity of idea, no redundancy of expression, no appearance of labour, no artful polish, no tinsel of words, no disgusting tediousness, no affected conciseness. Like the general code of scripture, it is capable of neither increase nor diminution, without sustaining an injury. But the least merit of the piece is its excellency as a composition. It forms a most material member of the great building of God, an important link in the chain of providence, an interesting and instructive chapter in the history of redemption. The union of Boaz and Ruth can never lose its influence, never spend its force. When nature expires, and all these things are dissolved, the offspring of that pair "shall shine as the brightness of the firmament, and as the stars for ever and ever." From that root behold a branch has arisen, to which "the nations of them that are saved" continually resort, under whose shadow they repose, whose fruit is the source and support of a divine life, whose “leaves are for the healing of the nations." Let the Jew read this sacred page, and glory in his ancestry; let the scholar read it, and improve his taste, and extend his knowledge; let the rustic read it, and prize his humble pursuits and innocent delights; let the sons of poverty and the daughters of affliction read it, and cease from despair, let them learn to "trust in the Lord, and to do good; let the Christian read it, and "hold fast the beginning of his confidence," and "rejoice in hope of the glory of God." The last obvious remark on the history, The Spirit of God has drawn a veil over the feelings of the mother herself, and the expression of them, and left it to the imagination to figure the felicity of Ruth the widow of Mahlon, the daughter of Naomi, the wife of Boaz, the mother of Obed, in surveying the changes of her life, in comparing what she was with what she is. sorry I am to say it, is not highly honourable | my eyes, and then I shall not feel the oppresto human nature. While Naomi was poor, sion of death; if he survive I cannot all die." and friendless, and forlorn, she met with lit-"Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart tle sympathy, with little countenance; she in peace, for mine eyes have seen thy salvawas permitted to depend for subsistence on tion." the miserable, unproductive industry of a woman, weak and wretched as herself; but no sooner is she connected with "a mighty man of wealth," become a mother to Boaz, than the whole city is seeking to her; her own sex, in particular, we see entering into all her feelings, flattering all her natural propensities, accommodating themselves to her little wishes and desires, and trying to compensate their former coldness and neglect by every art of attention, officiousness, and zeal. Base spirit! base world! Behold kindness pressed upon a man, just in proportion as he has no need of it; behold him oppressed with new friends, because he has already got too many, caressed by those who lately knew him not, praised and flattered to his face, by the very tongues which maligned and censured him in his absence. But that man is left to continue poor, because he is poor. He finds no support because he wants it, he stands unbefriended, because he has no friend. Shame on the fawning sycophants that only flutter about in fair weather, that only frequent the mansions of the rich and great, that turn with the tide, that can despise ragged poverty, and offer incense to ermined villany. Let us turn with contempt from the sight, and take a last parting look of one of the worthiest, best, happiest of human beingsNaomi nursing and cherishing her little grandson in her bosom. If there be bliss on earth, she enjoyed it. Her honest scheme had succeeded, the name of her beloved husband was revived, and his house begun to be built up; her amiable and beloved daughter was nobly rewarded for her tenderness and attachment; the inheritance of Elimelech is redeemed and reverted to its proper channel; the wisdom and goodness of Providence are fully justified, and a prospect of felicity and honour is opened which knew no bounds. The miseries of a whole life are done away in one hour, converted into blessings, blessings heightened and improved by the memory of past woes; the name of Mara is for ever obliterated, and the original, the suitable, the prophetic name of Naomi restored and confirmed. The sensibilities of a Grandmother are peculiarly pure and delicate respecting infant offspring. All good women are fond of children, to whomsoever they belong, how much more of their own whom they bare with sorrow, and have brought up with solicitude: but "that I should live to see my child's child, my being multiplied; dropping into the grave, yet reviving in that infant. I feel myself immortal; this babe will live to put his hand upon And thus have we finished what was intended, in discoursing on the book of Ruth. We have considered it, as a beautiful, because natural representation of human life; as a curious and interesting detail of important facts; and as an essential, constituent part of the plan of redemption. It happily connects the history of the Israelitish judges with that of their kings, and is obviously blended with both : and while it demonstrates the care of Providence, in fulfilling the promises made to Abraham, the friend of God, in prolonging his race, in multiplying his seed, in making kings to arise out of him, it unfolds the more enlarged and comprehensive purpose of the eternal Mind; it points directly forward to that "seed in whom all the families of the earth shall be blessed;" it shows the subserviency of all that preceded, to the evangelical dispensation; it breathes good-will to men. The reception of Ruth, a Gentile, within the pale of the church of the living God; her advancement to honour, her participation of the privileges of a mother in Israel, are a happy prefiguration of the admission of the whole Gentile world within the bond of God's covenant. We see the work of God still going forward and prospering; the work of mercy enlarging, extending its sphere; all bending forward to that grand consummation, when “Israel too shall be saved," and the ancient people of God brought into a communication of the blessings of the gospel, together with "the fulness of the Gentile nations;" when there shall be "one shepherd and one sheepfold;" when Jew and Gentile shall arise together from the dead, because "Christ doth give them life." The birth of Obed, the father of Jesse, the father of David, brings the history of the world down to the year two thousand six hundred and ninety-seven, from the creation, and before Christ one thousand three hundred and seven, and conducts us to the eve of the establishment of kingly power in Israel. How many generations of men have passed in review before us, in the course of these few years evening exercises from Adam down to Boaz! What changes has the audience undergone, since first it collected in this |