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darkness as with a burden, there is no Bible; there is a book large enough, but all the leaves are blank; if there are black letters upon it, they run into one another, and mean nothing in their mocking confusion. Who can speak to a soul that is religiously bruised ? Who knows the tongue of that soul? Who can drop his voice into the still small whisper that can touch such a life without further wounding it? To this deep trouble we have not come, for the Bible is open before us and God's words still give us spiritual interest and satisfaction. Short of that trouble, all other distress is manageable. The presence of God sanctifies all other good, makes the dead live twice over, throngs all heaven with images of love and welcome. Let us pray, saying, "Take not thy Holy Spirit from me!" We should take care not to fall into this great agony. There is a possibility of giving way to certain influences and suggestions of a destructive character. Feeling them coming on as an armed host, we should seek immediate relief amid the healing mountains, the great mysterious waters, and all the genial influences of wise society. Who has not heard of poor creatures who have known when insanity was near at hand? Who has not read the heart-breaking story of Mary Lamb, who begged her brother to take certain measures when she felt the darkness fast deepening? That would seem to be the worst insanity-namely, the conscious approach of madness. Is there not a reason why we should take care in time with regard to this religious melancholy? May we not waste our lives away, allow our spiritual energy to ooze out of us, so that in some fell moment the devil may spring upon us, and capture us like a lawful prey? Let us watch, and be sober. While the light lingers about us in all its sacred laughter and joy, let us add to our spiritual strength, so that when the thief cometh to steal our soul's treasure we may handle him like strong men.

Naomi brought others to the true God by the might of personal character. We are not told that she preached to Ruth in any formal manner, yet Ruth said to Naomi these words,-"Thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God" (i. 16). That is our opportunity of showing which is the true divinity. People watch us, see how we act in famine, in bereavement, in

mortal distress; and in proportion as they see our integrity untouched, our prayer enlarged rather than diminished, our confidence established upon everlasting rocks, they may begin through our character to understand our theology. Herein every man may become a preacher,—that is to say, he may become a mystery of endurance, patience, hopefulness, trust in God. What! -the enemy may say-is he not shaken off yet? Does he still cling to God? Has he not had enough of Heaven's displeasure? His house blown down, his children killed, his flocks stolendoes he still trust God? There comes a time when even a shattered life becomes an instrument of power. All men are awed by great character, by sublime endurance, by heroic patience, by tears that enlarge the eyes but never blind them. What an opportunity is this! Hardly a word spoken, no eloquence of the tongue needed, no charming imagination, no fascinating words, no wizardry of speech; yet great conversions going on night and day; persons first despising, then wondering, then admiring, and finally ascribing the mystery of sanctified endurance to the very grace of God. Although we may not be able to work great wonders in this direction, we can forbear working great destruction in the other. It will soon be discovered what our piety is worth. If the Christian man is just as afraid in a shipwreck as any other man, what is his Christianity worth? If a Christian soul is just as much troubled in times of commercial depression as the souls that resent the idea of religious faith, what is the value of his Christian sentiment ? If his face is all marked over with anxiety, fear, apprehension, mourning, what has the peace of God done for him? Though we may not work mightily as heroes, we may still do a most useful work in society by quiet, silent, patient endurance. If the question be asked, as it sometimes is, To what do you trace your conversion? how often the reply is, To what I saw of Christianity at home; without understanding the books and the preachers, without being able to follow them in their arguments, I saw what Christianity could do in a house of poverty, affliction, and great sorrow many-hued, and from what I saw of it there I wish to embrace it, understand somewhat of it, love it, and exemplify it the Christianity that made my home what it was is the religion I want. Who could give a finer reply? and blessed

be God, the reply is just. Christianity has worked these homemiracles; Christianity has furnished a house as with blessings and treasures from heaven, and having done this, he who would embrace that religion is justified by reason and fact.

Shall it always be thus with Naomi? Shall she die in sorrow? We find the answer in chapter iv. :

"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 born him" (vv. 14, 15).

Naomi saw the light again. So it shall be with us in all our sorrows if we cling to the altar, and hope steadfastly in the cross. When times are dark and our bread is moistened with our tears, when every door seems to be shut, and everything we touch fades and perishes, let us hope in God. Though weeping may endure for a night, yet joy cometh in the morning. Let us sing the old songs that made our fathers glad in the ancient days; they will be none the worse sung in Heaven's ear if stopped with sobs and tears and quite broken as to time and tune: it is the meaning that is accepted in heaven; no mechanical music is needed; the correctness is in the earnestness, the acceptableness is in the sincerity. Are we to sing in the night-time? The answer is, Most certainly. The meanest birds can sing in the day-time, what little singing they can do. What bird is it that charms the night? Even upon us light shall arise, the morning shall break, and we shall have hope in God, and our song at mid-day shall lose nothing of loudness and sweetness because of our song at midnight. Christians are called to hope. The Lord will surely appear unto his people, and turn their sorrow into joy; and there is no joy like that which comes out of sanctified distress. They are poor joys that come without preliminary sorrows: they are mere bubbles on the water, rising, sparkling, for a moment, breaking, and passing away into forgetfulness. Great joys that abide steadfastly through all heaven's eternity are the joys that are associated with a crucified Christ, who knew the darkness of religious desolation and felt the bitterness of spiritual orphanhood, saying, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?"

PRAYER.

ALMIGHTY GOD, we bless thee for all the children of Abraham, for all the inheritors of his faith. May our faith be as his was. May our trust in God be simple, deep, unchanging. Take charge of our whole life; keep our life in thine own eternity; touch the springs of our being, that the streams of our life may be pure. May all our springs be in God, in the living God, the Creator of the ends of the earth, the Redeemer of the family of man. May we have no charge over ourselves, no care concerning our own life; may our present and our future be entirely under the control of our Sovereign Father, as revealed unto us in the person and mediation of Jesus Christ thy Son. We thank thee for every man who, in a loud, clear, sweet tone, has declared his faith in God before all men for every one who has been simple in his testimony, who has convinced the world by the argument of a sober and solid life of faith in the Living One,-who has in thy strength done all things wisely and well. Let this hour be holy to us! May every heart feel that it has alighted upon a flower in which there is much honey. May weary travellers know that there is a springing well here, -the well of the Lord's revelation which is never dry. May hungry hearts eat of the bread of life and be satisfied; may bruised reeds be protected; may no smoking flax be quenched; may the feeblest aspiration after the living God be answered by wondrous revelations of love to the waiting and eager heart. Give us release from the importunities of the world! Help our recollection to remember thy goodness. Save our love from the distraction of many rivals. Draw all our faculties and powers, every desire of our soul, towards thyself in profitable concentration, that in this holy hour of worship we may become strengthened for all the engagements of life. May the strong man give thee his strength. May the wise man know that thou didst light the lamp of his understanding. Save the weak man from regarding his weakness as a temptation. Turn every eye to thyself, thou Eternal Light, and bind around thy heart all the affections of our own. God be gracious unto us! Show us a love deeper than our mother'stenderer than we have ever seen. Gather us unto thy great heart, and the storm shall never reach us there! Amen.

Ruth ii.

BOAZ A TYPE OF CHRIST.

"The fragrant sheaves of the wheat
Made the air above them sweet;
Sweeter and more divine

Was the scent of the scattered grain,

That the reaper's hand let fall

To be gathered again

By the hand of the gleaner:

Sweetest, divinest of all,

Was the humble deed of thine,

And the meekness of thy demeanour."

OAZ was not only a forerunner but a type of Christ.

BOAZ

As compared with some of the greater luminaries of the Bible, Boaz was but a secondary star; yet, in two aspects, he is amongst the brightest lights in the Biblical constellation. Even socially, Boaz is a man worth knowing-quite a healthy soul, the winds of heaven getting well around him, and the sunshine falling amply into every fold and crevice of his gracious life. Boaz had fields, and lived much in the open air. A man of cheerful voice and well-controlled hilarity; a model agriculturist, quite a man to be copied and lived over again, age after age: so hospitable, so blithe, so strong, so bright-eyed altogether. When he came into the harvest fields he said to his reapers, "The Lord be with you;" and the reapers answered, "The Lord bless thee." That was farm-life in the olden times. There is nothing humiliating in that scene, nothing merely sentimental; there is the pledge of happy fellowship, sacred and prosperous cooperation. Who will not say, when looking upon scenes of this kind, that the former times were better than these? Have we improved so very much? Is our boasted advancement a reality in very deed? Without pronouncing any opinion upon this, let us consider the inquiry and lay it solemnly to heart. Say, is there a sweeter picture in all domestic history than this? Look at it a barley field, the blue heaven like a song in colour, the blithe birds, the sharp whisk of the keen sickles amid the falling barley, the reapers turning labour into music, the master saying, "The Lord be with you," the reapers answering, "The Lord bless thee" (ii. 4).

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