asleep, and its weakness becomes its strength.hension of what might yet be before them: Though in misery we cleave to the love of attempting to comfort each other, and, in life, and having lost our comforts one after that, every one seeking some slender consoanother, we are still enabled to look forward lation for herself. Think on the failure of with fond expectation to a new source of bread, on the failure of money, on the apjoy, and when all temporal hope is extin- proaches of night, on the natural terrors and guished, and reluctantly given up, the spirit dangers of darkness, on the savageness of asserts its own immortality, and rests in hope wild beasts, and the more formidable sabeyond the grave. Naomi is reduced to a vageness of wicked men. Think on the unmelancholy, mortifying alternative; of con- kindness and indifference of an unfeeling tinuing a poor, deserted exile in the land of world, and the darker frowns of angry HeaMoab, or of returning to Beth-lehem-judah, ven. We are disposed to weep while we stripped of all her wealth, all her glory; to reflect on Jacob, a fugitive from his father's be an object, at best, of pity, perhaps of con- house, composing his head to rest upon a pillow tempt. On this however she resolves, flat- of stone, under the canopy of the open sky; at tering herself that change of place and reflecting on Joseph, torn from his father's change of objects may alleviate her distress. embrace, sold into slavery, cast into a dunThe two young Moabitesses, in uniting geon; but I find here something infinitely themselves to men of Israel, had renounced more deplorable. They were men, fushed their own kindred and country, perhaps their with youthful spirits, with youthful hope: the native gods; and therefore listen with joy to vigour of their minds had not been broken the proposal of their mother-in-law, to return down by the iron hand of affliction, their to Canaan. It is the more pleasing to observe prospects were enlivened with the promises this union of sentiment and affection, that and visions of the Almighty; but these unthe relation in question is seldom found fa- happy wanderers have drunk deep of the cup vourable to cordiality and harmony. It fur- of adversity; their society is worse than nishes a presumptive proof of the goodness solitude, despair hangs over all their future of all the three, and they had indeed a most prospects. Stand still and shed the tear of mournful bond of union among themselves compassion over them, ye daughters of afflucommon loss, common misery: and the heart ence, prosperity, and ease, who start at a seems to have felt and acknowledged the shadow, who scream at the sight of a harmless ties which alliance had formed and the hand mouse, who tremble at the rustling of a leaf of death had rivetted. shaken by the wind; ye who never knew the heart of a stranger, the keen biting of the wind of heaven, the stern aspect of hunger, the surly blow, or scornful look of pride and cruelty. Or rather, weep over them, ye whose wounds are still bleeding, to whom wearisome days and nights have been appointed, who by the experience of misery, have learned to pity and to succour the miserable. May the God of mercy, the friend of the orphan, the judge of the widow, the refuge of the distressed, have mercy upon them, and conduct them in safety to their desired haven.

Behold then the mother and her daughters turning their back on the painfully pleasing scenes of joys and sorrows past, unattended, unprotected, unbefriended, disregarded, as sad a retinue as ever wandered from place to place. They are hardly in motion from their place, when Naomi, penetrated with a lively sense of gratitude for friendship so generous and disinterested, overwhelmed with the prospect of the still greater misery in which these dutiful young women were about to involve themselves, from their love to her, and unwilling to be outdone in kindness, earnestly entreats them to return home Which shall we most admire, the geneagain, urging upon them every consideration rosity and disinterestedness of the mother, or that reason, that affection, that prudence could the steadiness, spirit, and resolution of the suggest, to induce them to separate from a daughters? How pleasurable is strife of a wretch so friendless and forlorn, so helpless, certain kind, the strife of good will, of magso hopeless as herself. To suffer alone is now nanimity, of gratitude, of piety, of selfall the consolation she either expects or denial! The language, the sentiments, are seems to wish; the destitute condition of the language and sentiments of nature, they these sisters in affliction, is now her heaviest flow from the heart, and reach the heart. burden. Indeed the situation of these three "And Naomi said unto her too daughters-infemale pilgrims has in it something wonder-law, Go, return each to her mother's house: fully pathetic and interesting. There they are upon the road, on foot, with all the weakness, ignorance, timidity, uncertainty, and irresolution of their sex; not knowing which way to bend their course, exposed to the craft, violence, or insult of every one they met; sinking under the recollection of what they had endured, shrinking from the appre

the Lord deal kindly with you, as ye have
dealt with the dead, and with me. The Lord
grant you that ye may find rest, each of you,
in the house of her husband. Then she
kissed them. And they lift up their voice
and wept."*
The good

woman herself admits that

* Ruth i. 8, 9

A

who felt and expressed it; composed to the prospect and suffering of solitary anguish, provided her amiable children were restored to the rank, affluence, and comfort which they so well deserved. How poor and contemptible are the contentions for precedency and pre-eminence, the emulation of fortune and dress, the rage of admiration and conquest compared to this! How pleasant is it to see an humble fortune dignified and supported by generosity and greatness of mind!

enough of respect has been paid to filial and conjugal tenderness; she wishes and prays, as a recompence for their kindness to the living, and devotedness to the memory of the dead, more lasting and more auspicious connexions with husbands of their own country. She proposes not, recommends not the affected, constrained, involuntary retirement and sequestration of prudish, squeamish virtue; and they, on their part, assume no unnatural airs of immortal grief; they form no flimsy suspicious vows of undeviating, unalterable The touchstone is now applied to the affecattachment; make no clamourous, unmean- tion of the two sisters, and their characters ing, deceptious protestation of love extin- and merits are finally disclosed. Orpah sufguished, and never to be rekindled, the piti-fers herself to be persuaded; with regret we ful artifice of little minds to flatter them- behold her resolution overcome; we behold selves, and catch the admiration of others. her separating from her mother-in-law, with How much more emphatical the silent, un- the valedictory kiss of peace, and returning protesting reply of Orpah and Ruth! She to her own country and her gods; and we kissed them; and they lift up their voice and hear of her no more. But Ruth cleaves to wept." What charming eloquence is heard, her new choice, unmoved by the example of is seen, is felt in those tears! Have these her sister, or the entreaties of her mother, lovely damsels less regard for their departed she persists in her purpose; the desertion of lords, are they, more eager to form new alli- Orpah only knits her heart the faster to her ances, that they say nothing? I cannot be adopted parent, and in words far sweeter than lieve it. Noisy grief is quickly over, soon the nightingale's song, she breathes out her spends itself. Sincerity seldom calls in the unalterable resolution to live and to die with aid of exclamation, vehemence, and vows; her. How could Naomi find in her heart to but dubious, staggering fidelity is glad to make another attempt to shake off so lovely support itself with the parade of wo, and a companion? How delighted must she have the pomp of declamation. been, in yielding the triumph of kindness to a pleader so irresistible. "And Ruth said, Entreat 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: where thou diest, will I die, and there will I be buried: the Lord do so to me, and more also, if aught but death part thee and me."*

Their persevering, determined, unprotesting friendship but endears them the more to their venerable parent, and inclines her the more powerfully to resist their inclination, and prevent the sacrifice which they were disposed to make; and again she has recourse to more earnest and tender expostulation, resolved to offer up a noble sacrifice to maternal tenderness in her turn. "And Naomi said, Turn again, my daughters: why will ye The mother is every way outdone, overgo with me! are there yet any more sons in come, and contends no longer-to persist farmy womb, that they may be your husbands?ther had been cruelty, not friendship: and Turn again, my daughters, go your way; for thus mutual sympathy and deliberate choice I am too old to have an husband. If I should have, under the direction of all-ruling Provisay, I have hope, if I should have a husband dence, formed an union dearer than the ties also to-night, and should also bear sons; of interest, or even the bonds of nature know: would ye tarry for them till they were grown? and thus the same breath which extinguishwould ye stay for them from having hus-es the fainter spark, blows up the stronger bands? nay, my daughters: for it grieveth me much for your sakes, that the hand of the Lord is gone out against me."*

What sweet touches of unsophisticated nature press upon the heart, in perusing this address! beyond the pomp and power of art to reach. Who is not melted at hearing the undissembled wailings of a good and honest mind, mourning for others, not itself; calmly surrendering its own interest in the joys of life, but anxiously desirous to procure and preserve them for those whom she loved as her own soul; nobly resigning that cordial of cordials, virtuous friendship, when it could not be enjoyed but to the detriment of those

*Ruth i. 11-13.

into a purer, brighter flame; and thus the God who has all hearts and all events in his hand, ever rears a refuge for the miserable, provides a remedy against despair, and extracts a precious essence from calamity, which operates its own cure. "When she saw that she was steadfastly minded to go with her, then she left speaking unto her." And thus Ruth stands without an equal, without a rival. And how has she gained the glorious superiority over a sister! By a lofty tone and an overbearing spirit, by the poisoned whisper, and the dark insinuation; by smoothness of forehead and malignity of heart! No, but by perseverance in well-doing, and ad

house, or married to an husband; at home, I science, where your duty to your Creator or in a strange land; in society or soli- are concerned, be firm and resolute, "be tude; followed or neglected; be this thy steadfast and unmoveable, always abounding monitor, this thy guide, this thy refuge "The love of God shed abroad in thy heart;""the fear of God which is the beginning of wisdom;" "the peace of God which passeth all understanding." However easy, gentle, flexible, complying, in other respects, where your religious principles, where the testimony of a good con

in the work of the Lord," Thus shall youth be guarded, and beauty adorned; thus shall society be sweetened, and solitude cheered; thus shall prosperity be sanctified, and adversity soothed; thus shall life, even to old age and decay, be rendered useful and respectable; and thus shall death and the grave be stripped of all that is terrible in them.

HISTORY OF RUTH.

LECTURE XCIV.

So they 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 ? And she said unto them, Call me not Naomi, call me Mara: for the Almighty hath dealt very bitterly with me. 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? 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.-RUTH i. 19–22.

ed, friendless, destitute, and cease from thy complaints, and stretch out thy hand to succour the miserable.

In the glorious strife of affection, Ruth has nobly prevailed. Impelled by the fond recollection of endearments past, and now no more-prompted by filial duty and tenderness to the mother of her choice, attracted, animated, upheld by the powers and prospects of religion, she composedly yields up her worldly all, takes up her cross, and

Or the calamities to which human life is exposed, a few only are to be accounted real evils: the rest are imaginary and fantastical. Want of health is real wo; but what proportion do the hours of pain and sickness bear to the years of ease, and comfort, and joy? Want of bread is real distress, but it is very seldom the work of nature, and therefore ought not, in justice, to be introduced into the list of the unavoidable ills which flesh is heir to. The loss of friends is a sore evil, but even wounds from this sharp-bears it patiently along from Moab to Bethpointed weapon are closed at length, by the gentle hand of time, and the tender consolations of religion.

lehem-judah. The history is silent on the subject of their journey. It is easy to conceive the anxieties, the terrors, the fatigues, the sufferings of female travellers, on a route of at least a hundred and twenty miles across the Arnon, across the Jordan, over mountains, through solitudes, without a protector, without a guide, without money. But that God who is the friend of the destitute, and the refuge of the miserable, that God who was preparing for them infinitely more than they could ask, wish, or think, guides and guards them by the way, and brings them at length to their desired resting place.

Whence then the unceasing, the universal murmurings of discontent, of desire, of impatience? Men fix their standard of felicity too high; and all they have attained goes for nothing, because one darling object is still out of reach; or they groan and sigh under the weight of some petty disaster, which scarce deserves the name; while ten thousand substantial blessings are daily falling on their heads unnoticed, unacknowledged, unenjoyed. Compare, O man, thy possessions with thy privations, compare thy comforts with thy deserts, compare thy con- These are not the only female pilgrims dition with thy neighbour's, consider how whom the sacred page has presented to our far, how very far thy state is on this side view, advancing by slow and painful stages worst, and learn to give God thanks. Re- to Beth-lehem of Judah. Upwards of thir pine not that some wants are unsupplied, teen hundred years after this period we be that some griefs are endured, that some de- hold a still more illustrious traveller, and in signs have been frustrated, while so many circumstances still more delicate, on the road unmerited good things are left, while hope from Nazareth of Galilee, to her native city; remains, while there is recourse to Heaven. but not to take possession of the inheritance Behold these two forlorn wanderers, widow-of her fathers, not to repose in the lap of

ease and indulgence, not to deposit the Base, unfeeling world, that can feast itself anxieties of approaching childbirth in the on the orphan's tears, and the widow's sorrow! bosom of a fond and sympathizing parent; See, there they are, every one from his own but to know the heart of a stranger, to feel business, or rather his own idleness, to stare the bitterness of unkindness and neglect; and talk a wretched woman out of counteso friendless that not a door would open to nance; the whisper goes round, the finger receive her, so poor that she cannot purchase points, the scandal of ten years standing is the accommodations of an inn, overtaken by revived, and a new colouring is given to it. nature's inevitable hour, "she brings forth Affected pity and real indifference wound her first-born son in a stable, and lays him in the heart which God himself has just bruised! the manger, because there was no room for whose husband and children he has taken them in the inn." But through such humi- to himself. The wretched mourner seems liating circumstances of meanness and po- to feel it; she bursts into an agony of grief, verty, what a display of glory and magnifi- and thus vents the bitterness of her soul, cence was the arm of Jehovah preparing! Call me not Naomi, call me Mara: for the What an important station do the simple Almighty hath dealt very bitterly with me. annals of these poor women hold in the I went out full, and the Lord hath brought history of mankind! What celebrity, in the me home again empty: why then call ye eyes of all nations, have they conferred on me Naomi, seeing the Lord hath testified Beth-lehem, on their country! How a thou- against me, and the Almighty hath afflicted sand years shrink into a point, before that me?" What simple, but what forcible lanGod who "sees the end from the begin-guage the heart speaks! She dwells on the ning!" How the purposes of Heaven are minute circumstances of her case, takes up accomplished to an iota, to one tittle! How her own name as a theme of wo, changes places and times are determined of Him who the fond appellation of parental affection, of saith, as one having authority, "My coun- parental hope, Naomi, on which Providence sel shall stand, and I will fulfil all my had poured out the wormwood and gall of pleasure." disappointment, into one better adapted to her tragical history. The past presents nothing but happiness passed away as a shadow; rank, and opulence, and importance gone, gone, never to return. The future spreads a gloom unirradiated by a single gleam of hope. She apprehends no change of things, but the op

One of the advantages, and not the least, of travelling abroad, is the joy which the thought of returning home inspires; but this is a consolation which Naomi's return is not permitted to enjoy. She brings back no treasures to purchase attention, to command respect, to excite envy. She is accompa-pressive change from evil to worse. nied with no husband, no son, to maintain But yet her misery admits of alleviation. her cause, or cheer her solitude. She brings It comes from God, she sees the hand of a back nothing but emptiness, dereliction, and Father in her affliction, she kisses the rod, tears. A great part of her ancient acquaint- and commands the soul to peace. To endure ance and friends are gone, as well as her distress the fruit of our own folly, to suffer own family. Those who remain hardly know from the pride, cruelty, and carelessness of her again, so much are her looks impaired a man like ourselves, is grievous, is unsupand disfigured with grief. A new genera-portable, it drinks up our spirits. But the tion has arisen, to whom she is an utter stranger, and who are utter strangers to her. But in a little city, a trifling event makes a great noise. The curiosity of the whole town is excited by the appearance of these two insignificant fugitives; and various we may suppose were the inquiries set on foot, the conjectures formed, the remarks made, the censures passed, on their account. This is the never-failing inconveniency of inconsiderable places. Where there is abundance of idleness, abundance of ill-nature, every man is a spy upon his neighbour, every one is at leisure to attend to the affairs of another, because he is but half occupied by his own. We have here enough of inquiry, enough of wonder, but not a single word of compassion, of kindness, of hospitality; and Naomi might have gone without a roof to From all that we see, Naomi had slender shelter her head, or a morsel of bread to sus-motives, and poor encouragement, to return tain sinking nature, but for the industry and to her own country; we cannot tell what attachment of her amiable daughter-in-law !

evil that comes immediately from God has its own antidote blended into its substance; we drink the poison and the medicine from the same chalice, and at the same instant; the one destroys the effect of the other; their joint operation is salutary, is life-giving, not deadly. Was that the voice of God which I heard? Spake it not in thunder? Said it not, "Take now thy son, thine only son, Isaac, whom thou lovest, and offer him for a burntoffering?" It is well; it was the voice of God, and that is enough. I will offer up the sacrifice, I will surrender my dearest delight, I cannot tell how the promise is to be accomplished, consistently with my obedience and submission, but the command and the promise proceed from the same lips; I leave all to him.

* Ruth i. 20, 21.