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THE TEACHER AND HIS CLASS. III.

The younger classes will be taught to see in Ruth a lovely illustration of the performance of duty toward the aged and the rewards it brings, a lesson IV. greatly needed by the young.

The intermediate pupils will need to have the same lesson brought out, and also will be profited by a study of Ruth as illustrating the great question of wise decisions for life.

The older classes will find in the lesson some strong teachings regarding the right relations between rich and poor, employer and employees; also regarding respect for law; also regarding duty to one's kindred; also concerning the care of the old. Ruth is a book full of charm and wisdom for all ages.

THE LESSON IN ITS SETTING. Time. The fact that Ruth was the great-grandmother of David makes it fairly certain (Hastings) that the events of this book took place when Eli was judge, or about B.C. 1173 (Beecher).

Place. The parting between Orpah and Naomi may have taken place (Hastings) at the Ford of the Arnon, on the northern boundary of the Field of Moab, or perhaps when they reached the Fords of the Jordan, the eastern boundary of Judah. The scene of the rest of the story is Bethlehem, five miles south of Jerusalem, the town which was to become the birthplace of Ruth's great descendants, David and Jesus. "Then, as now, the single street of Bethlehem ran along the double crest of the white chalk ridge, 2500 feet above the sea; its slopes terraced into hanging gardens, with rows of olives and vines; a pleasant valley lying underneath on three sides, musical with the sound of brooks, though its eastern end is almost touched by the terrible wilderness of Judah."-Cunningham Geikie.

THE PLAN OF THE LESSON.
SUBJECT: Ruth's Wise Decision, and
Ours.

I. RUTH AND ORPAH : THEIR AL-
TERNATIVES, Ruth 1:1-13.

Famine, exile, and grief.

Naomi's decision.

Naomi's unselfish proposal.

RUTH THE GLEANER, Ruth 1: 1922; 21-23.

Her courage.

Her industry.

Her modesty.

RUTH THE HAPPY WIFE, Ruth 3:

I-4 22.

A brave petition.

Boaz the honorable.

The ancestress of David and of Christ.
Lessons from Ruth.

THE ROUND TABLE.

FOR RESEARCH AND DISCUSSION.

The character and purpose of the book of Ruth.
Ruth compared with Esther.
Notable parting scenes in the Bible.
Naomi compared with Hannah.
Great decisions in the Bible.
The character of Boaz.

THE TEACHER'S LIBRARY. Hastings's Greater Men and Women of the Bible, Vol. III. Rankin's Character Matheson's Studies in the Old Testament. Representative Women of the Bible. Armstrong Black's Ruth: a Hebrew Idyl. Broughton's Representative Women of the Bible. Ruth and Esther, by William M. Taylor. "Ruth the Gleaner," by Prof. R. G. Moulton, in Women of the Bible (Harper's). Whyte's Bible Characters, Gideon to Absalom. Hastings's Great Texts of the Bible on Ruth 1 : 16, 17 and 2: 4. Jesus in the Cornfield, by Hugh Macmillan. Lewis's Sermons Preached in England. Mackay's The Woman of Tact. John Foster's noble book, Decision of Character. Wharton's Famous Women of the Old Testament. Bible Partings, by E. J. Hasell.

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II. THE TWO DECISIONS, Ruth 1: 14- Gleaning,'

18.

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I. RUTH AND ORPAH: THEIR ALTERNATIVES, Ruth 1:1-13. THE BOOK OF RUTH. This little book is one of a collection of five short works called "the five rolls," the others being the Song of Songs, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes, and Esther. These "five rolls " belong to the third of the three divisions of the Bible as the Jews arranged it the Law, the Prophets, and the Writings; the other "Writings were the Psalms, Proverbs, Job, Daniel, Ezra, Nehemiah, and Chronicles. Ruth was read in the synagogues every year at the Feast of Weeks.

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We do not know the author of the book of Ruth, nor the date. It tells a story of the period of the Judges, which extended over three and a half centuries. The book of Judges is full of war and commotion and Ruth is a peaceful idyl, but between the wars there were many intervals of peace when these events might have occurred.

The story of Ruth is of special importance because it gives the ancestry of David, the ancestor of Christ. It is of special interest also because of the prominence it thus gives to a Moabitess, in spite of the fact that, on account of their unkind treatment of the Israelites as they went up from Egypt to Canaan, Moabites to the tenth generation were forbidden to enter the Hebrew religious assemblies (Deut. 23:3). Further it is of interest because it illustrates the duty of the nearest relative to marry the widow of a man who has died without male children.

But the beauty of the character of Ruth, the charm of her simple story, are enough in themselves to account for the popularity of this little book. It is the loveliest narrative in the Old Testament, which abounds in beautiful stories. Merely as a piece of literature, it is perfect and priceless.

"Between the books of Judges and Samuel, full of war and tumult, is the book of Ruth, as a beautiful valley full of flowers and fertile fields and with a gentle brook singing down through the meadows is often found between two mountain ranges." Hastings.

"Dr. Wharton tells us of a distinguished literary man in England who was asked by some young ladies to read to them the most touching story he had ever seen. Substituting modern names for the real ones he read to them the story of Ruth. They were perfectly delighted with the story, said it was the finest they had ever heard, and asked who was the author." Broughton.

"This is the only book of the Bible which is devoted to the domestic history of a woman, and that woman a stranger in Israel. But that woman was the Mary of the Old Testament." Edersheim.

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"A man of practical life, a great man but purely a man of the world, once said to me: 'If I could enact one statute for all the women of America, it would be that each of them should read the book of Ruth once a month.'"- A. Lewis.

1. In the days when the judges judged. Ruth became the great-grandmother of David, so that her story must belong to the close of the period of the judges, which extended from B.C. 1450 to B.C. 1102. There was a famine in Palestine. Modern civilization, with its telegraphs, railroads, and steamboats, has conquered famine for itself, rendering the surplus of one part of the world available for the failure of crops in another part, though still the largely populated and backward nations suffer severely from hunger. But all the world, in ancient days, was in frequent peril of famine, and this terrible scourge often afflicted ancient Palestine. See Gen. 12 10; 26: 1; 41: 56; 2 Sam. 21 : 1; 1 Kings 17, etc. A certain man of Bethlehem-judah, so called to distinguish it from the Bethlehem in Zebulun. Ephratha is the name of the district in Judah containing Bethlehem. This man, Elimelech ("God is King "), with his wife, Naomi, and his sons, Mahlon and Chilion, in order to escape the famine emigrated eastward across the Jordan to Moab, the high plateau 4300 feet above the Dead Sea. The Moabites were descendants of Lot, the nephew of Abraham, and so were kindred of the Israelites; but they had quite lost their true religion, and had fallen away into idolatry.

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3. Naomi's husband died. She had left, however, her two sons, who married two Moabite girls, Ruth and Orpah. Such a marriage was allowable (see Edersheim) in foreign lands, though not in the homeland of the Hebrews. But after ten years the two sons also died, leaving Naomi indeed a stranger in a strange land. She had learned that the famine was over in Palestine, and, old as she was, and very poor, the courageous woman made up her mind to walk home to Bethlehem alone.

7. They went on the way. This does not mean that the two daughters-in-law intended to go with Naomi, for the people of the East seldom say good-by in the house, but accompany a departing friend part way on his road. When Naomi

14. And they lifted up their voice, and wept again: and Orpah kissed her mother in law; but Ruth clave unto her.

15. And she said, Behold, thy sister in law is gone back unto her people, and unto her gods: return thou after thy sister in law.

16. And Ruth said, Intreat me not to leave thee, or to return from following after thee: for whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge: thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God:

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thought they had gone far enough, she thanked them for all their kindness to her sons and to her, and bade them each return to her own mother's home and marry again. Struck with pity for her loneliness, the two young women wept, and declared that they would not leave her. Naomi, however, insisted. If she had had other sons, it would have been their duty under the law (Deut. 25: 5-10; compare Matt. 22 23-30) to marry Ruth and Orpah; but as this was impossible, and as the young men in Bethlehem would not be likely to marry women of Moab, and as Naomi takes it for granted that Ruth and Orpah will wish to have husbands and children, she persists in sending them back. "When we consider how dark and solitary Naomi's path must have been had Ruth yielded to her entreaties, it is hard to say which of these two noble women was the more generous and self-forgetting." Hastings. "If we had more elder women like Naomi, we should have more younger women like Ruth." Alexander Maclaren.

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II. THE TWO DECISIONS, Ruth 1: 14-18. 14. Orpah kissed her motherin-law. The Greek translation, the Septuagint, adds, "and returned unto her people." But Ruth clave unto her. Kissing and cleaving, the outward show of affection and the reality of affection! Naomi might well have spared some of Orpah's kisses if Orpah had had Ruth's fidelity.

15. Gone back... unto her god. While she lived with her husband and with Naomi, Orpah had worshipped Jehovah; but her worship had little conviction back of it, evidently, for Naomi expected her to return to her heathen god when she returned to her heathen home. Her religion was "in her husband's name."

16. Verses 16 and 17 are the most famous of this book, among the best-loved of the Bible. They constitute the most determined, the most decisive, the most

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Ruth and Naomi.

unhesitating confession of love in all literature." -Hastings. It should be printed as poetry :

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"Intreat me not to leave thee,
To return from following after
thee:
Whither thou goest, I will go;
Where thou lodgest, I will
lodge;

Thy people shall be my people,
Thy God shall be my God:
Where thou diest, will I die,
There also will I be buried:"
Jehovah do so to me, and
more also,

If aught but death part thee
and me."

"What a perfect little

carol of love and duty to have been begotten Philip H. Calderon. without a moment's effort and flung to the mountain winds! The story of Ruth tells where David got his poetry." Armstrong Black.

Illustration. Dr. Wharton tells a story of Senator Foster, of Connecticut, who rose from humble birth to become a brilliant young lawyer. He was about to marry a society belle, but the night before the wedding she said to him, "I will go to see your parents once, but you must not expect one in my station of society to

17. Where thou diest, will I die, and there will I be buried: the LORD do so to me, and more also, if ought but death part thee and me.

18. When she saw that she was stedfastly minded to go with her, then she left speaking unto her.

19. So they two went until they came to Beth-lehem. And it came to pass, when they were come to Beth-lehem, that all the city was moved about them, and they said, Is this Naomi?

repeat the visit." Mr. Foster took his hat, left the house, and never saw her again.

Dr. Wharton also describes an eloquent speech in which Andrew Johnson answered a Senator who had defamed his own State of Tennessee. After describing the part which Tennessee had taken in the history of our country, he closed by saying, "Tennessee is my foster-mother, and with all the devotion of a loyal son I say to her,. 'Whither thou goest I will go, thy people shall be my people,' "" and he quoted the whole of the famous verse.

17. There will I be buried. The Hebrew family lived all together, father and mother, sons and daughters and their wives and husbands and children. So also they were usually buried in one place, and expected thus to be a united family in the next life. Note the expressions so common in the Bible, were gathered to their fathers," slept with their fathers." Ruth showed her devotion conspicuously by this surrender of her family burial place.

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Illustration. A certain Scotchman, of whom Dean Ramsay tells, was in love with a housemaid, but afraid to declare himself. At last one day he took her to walk in the cemetery and, pointing with his finger, asked her the important question thus: "My fouk lie there, Mary; wad ye like to lie there?" Jehovah do so to me, and more also. This oath is common through the books of Samuel and Kings. The form of the imprecation is vague: "so" may include any evil that God chooses to send; yes, " and more also !" "Ruth shows how instantly and entirely she adopts Naomi's religion by sealing her vow with the Hebrew oath and by calling on the God of the Hebrews." Hastings.

Illustration. Philip Henry's advice to his children regarding marriage was, "Please God, and please yourselves, and you will please me"; his usual compliment to his newly married friends: “Others wish you all happiness. I wish you all holiness, and then there will be no doubt but you will enjoy all happiness.” Ruth chose holiness, and so she chose happiness.

18. She was stedfastly minded. Ruth was of a very sweet disposition, but she had a firm will, as her mother-in-law doubtless knew. When Naomi saw that she had made up her mind, she ceased to urge her to return to Moab. They gave one look after the figure of Orpah, now far in the distance, and then with happy hearts set out together on the long road to Bethlehem.

NOBLE DECISIONS. They are strongly aided by friendships. "It was said of Thomas Arnold, the great English educator, that he first gained the boys' confidence in himself, and then on the strength of that led them to confidence in Christ. So here Naomi had unconsciously, by the silent eloquence of her character, led Ruth to confide in her; and then at the critical moment Ruth, through that confidence, was brought to decide for Jehovah." — William M. Taylor.

"The quality of decision is one of the most important a character can possess. There are at least three great choices which meet most men in life the choice of work, the choice of love, and the choice of God and each of these is mirrored in some measure in the choice of Ruth." Rev. W. Mackintosh Mackay.

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"We make choice of Christ's people when we choose him. We cut ourselves off from our old ties if they are not Christly, our old friendships if they are still in the old life, and we take Christ's people as ours henceforward. If we follow Christ we must identify ourselves with his church and friends, separating ourselves from the world." J. R. Miller.

III. RUTH THE GLEANER, Ruth 1: 19-22; 2:1-23. 19. They came to Bethlehem. It was a walk of about sixty miles, and they may have been six days on the journey. All the city was moved about them. In the abundant leisure and keen curiosity of the East news travels fast, and the coming of every stranger is soon known.

20. And she said unto them, Call me not Naomi, call me Mara: for the Almighty hath dealt very bitterly with me.

21. I went out full, and the LORD hath brought me home again empty: why then call ye me Naomi, seeing the LORD hath testified against me, and the Almighty hath afflicted me?

22. So Naomi returned, and Ruth the Moabitess, her daughter in law, with her, which returned out of the country of Moab: and they came to Beth-lehem in the beginning of barley harvest.

20. Call me not Naomi, which means pleasant," "delightful," call me Mara, which means "bitter," ""sad." Thus Gideon (Judg. 6: 13) caught up the common

Ruth the Gleaner.

greeting, "God is with thee," and turned it

back: "God is far from our wretched nation." The Almighty (Heb., "Shaddai ") hath dealt very bitterly with me. Like many of us, Naomi saw only the bitter side of her life, and did not realize how much sweetness God had dealt to her in Ruth.

21. I went out full, having a husband and two sons, the height of a Hebrew woman's good fortune. Home again empty, for girls did not count in those days. Jehovah hath testified against me. Naomi, in her bitterness, thinks of Jehovah as a hostile witness in a law

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court.

22. In the beginning of barley harvest, which was in April. "Bethlehem is still the house of bread,' as its name implies, and the way to Bethlehem is still through fields of barley in April as it was in the days of Boaz. A quarter of a mile below the town, on the slope of the hill, the traditional site of the threshing-floor of the great Hebrew farmer is pointed out to the visitor." Hugh Macmillan.

GO TO WORK! Ruth was evidently a very attractive young woman, but she did not rely on her youth and attractions, or think that she was brought into the world merely to be admired; nor would she shamefully depend on an old woman. She set a fine example to every young man and young woman of to-day by going

promptly to work. She was "a combination of Mary and Martha."

Illustration. "Senseless pride keeps many a girl from joining the working girls'

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brigade. Not long ago I heard a

young woman ask a girl if she worked, and she replied, "Oh, no; now and then I get restless and go into thestore for pastime.' Poor idiot; her feet were on the ground then."-Rev. Len G. Broughton, D.D.

Ruth chose the task that lay plainly at hand. Both custom and sacrificial law (Deut. 24: 19-22; Lev. 19:9, IO; 23: 22) forbade the too-close reaping of fields, and allowed the poor to glean after the reapers. Of this merciful custom Ruth took advantage.

Illustration. As I am writing this lesson I find in Thrift Magazine a good

Threshing Wheat.

example of the profit of gleaning even in our modern days of careful farming. Four girls of Stony Beach, Saskatchewan, Western Canada, asked a farmer's

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