Page images
PDF
EPUB

by the late calamity; but, on the contrary, they sought to repair it as rapidly as possible, by providing the wretched remnant with wives. How was the requisite number at length completed?

MARY. The Benjamites were advised to lie in wait for the daughters of Shiloh, when they should come out to dance in the vineyards. Was their dancing sinful or idolatrous that these girls were fixed on?

MAMA. No; on the contrary, it is supposed that the festival here alluded to was that of Tabernacles; which, occurring in the season of the vintage, was always celebrated with great rejoicings. And Shiloh, the place where alone it could be lawfully celebrated, was of course pointed out as the scene of the intended violence. How was

it to be palliated in the eyes of the justly incensed parents?

MARY. The whole people were to beg them to pass it over for their sakes; and to consider that they were saved by it from breaking their word, and giving the Benjamites wives voluntarily, when they had promised not.

MAMA. And thus ended in rapine and subterfuge, what had begun in adultery and elopement, and led (as we have sadly seen) to civil war, disgrace, and massacre! Let us lay to heart, my dear Mary, the impressive lesson, that all this

occurred in Israel in those unhappy days " when there was no king, and where every man did that which was right in his own eyes." And, when we read (as yesterday) of idolatry flourishing amid contempt, and disuse of national religion; and (as to-day) of licentiousness and rapine arising from the absence of wholesome legal authority, let us draw fresh encouragment in these evil times to" fear God and honour the king." To bless Him, "from whom cometh down every good and perfect gift," for the boon of a pure and scriptural church; and to do homage to Him, "by whom kings reign," in the person of His appointed human vicegerent.

MORNING SEVENTEENTH.

LESSON-Ruth, Chapters i. and ii.

MARY. Oh! Mama, what a beautiful day's reading we have had! and how delightful it is to hear of sweet Ruth, and her dutiful behaviour to her mother, and her gleaning in the harvest-field, after all the fighting and wickedness we read of in the book of Judges!

MAMA. Your remark is very natural; and proves (independently of the more attractive nature of the subject) how infinitely deeper is the hold taken of our feelings by the simple history of individuals, than by the destiny of nations? But how, do you think, came the life of so humble a person as Ruth, to be recorded at such length, and in a separate form, in the Jewish Scriptures?

MARY. I never thought of that; or how a poor gleaner came to have the honour of a book to herself. Was it in reward of her duty and kindness to Naomi ?

MAMA. These, though they brought, even in

this world, their own rich recompence, in prosperity, distinction, and knowledge of the true God; and though they doubtless indirectly contributed to the honourable place assigned in the Hebrew Canon to the memory of Ruth, are insufficient to account for it without a further circumstance in her history, which we will not anticipate, by considering to-day. In the mean time, let us be thankful for the example it sets before us, of the blessing of God on the two great duties of filial piety and cheerful industry; and strive to improve it by careful investigation.

At what period of the history of the Israelites are the events recorded in the book of Ruth, said to have happened?

MARY." In the days when the Judges ruled." That is a wide word, Mama !

MAMA. And the precise period must ever remain in some degree uncertain; though learned men (from no other famine being specially mentioned) have been inclined to identify the one in the time of Gideon, with that which drove into exile the family of Elimelech. Of what tribe was this individual?

MARY. An Ephrathite of Beth-lehem-judah.

MAMA. For which latter place Ephratah was another name. But his tribe, viz. that of Judah, is what the future part of the history requires us

to bear in mind. What violation of the law of Moses was the first, and not unnatural, consequence of the residence of a Jewish family in a

heathen land?

MARY. Elimelech's two sons married women of Moab. I daresay this was because they continued there, as it says they did, even after their father's death. Surely the famine in their own country must have been over by that time, or else Boaz would not have had corn fields to glean in.

MAMA. A very just remark, Mary, and one with which I am much pleased. Necessity may compel, for a time, the servants of God to associate with unbelievers; but no one, who has at heart either his safety or salvation, will prolong, voluntarily, so dangerous an intercourse.

How long were Mahlon and Chilion suffered to enjoy their unhallowed connexions ?

MARY. About ten years, and then they both died. Did God punish them for marrying heathen women?

MAMA. It has been so conjectured by some expositors. But, as marriages among the Jews were contracted at a very early age, and under the immediate sanction of parental authority, I should be more inclined to read the Divine displeasure in the destitution and desolation of their surviving parent. But were this mere conjecture

« PreviousContinue »