Finally, let us remember that God always finds the providential man at the right moment. When the punishment has done its work, and the discipline has wrought a sense of wrong in the heart of the people, He finds the deliverer. We cannot produce him. Let us be careful lest we stone him when he comes, for he will not appear where we are looking, but from some unexpected quarter.

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THE MESSAGE OF RUTH

EVER measure the value of a book by its bulk. This little brochure of a few

pages is one of the rarest and most beautiful idylls in literature, even after translation. In seeking for its living message it is most necessary that we should have in mind a welldefined outline of the picture it represents.

The background is revealed in the opening words, "And it came to pass in the days when the judges judged." That places the story in that period in the history of the Hebrew people which we considered in our lecture on the book of Judges. The events chronicled transpired in troublous, stormy, and difficult times; in the midst of religious apostasy, political disorganization, and social chaos. That in itself is suggestive, reminding us that God has never left Himself without witness. In the darkest days, the light has never been totally extinguished.

The subsidiary foreground of the book presents the persons of Elimelech and Naomi, Mahlon and Chilion, and Orpah; and the events

of famine, emigration, and the sorrows following; the return of only one of those who had departed, accompanied by a stranger to the land; and finally the story of the wooing and the wedding.

In the immediate foreground two figures stand out in bold relief, Ruth and Boaz. The picture is of the Rosa Bonheur type, only a few lines, strong, clear, definite; yet full of light and shade. To think of the book of Ruth is to think of Ruth and Boaz. Ultimately, observing the historic movement and the processes of God, it is seen that these two in their union constituted a highway for God, through perils, for the accomplishment of purpose.

Taking the book thus, there are two permanent values which I shall suggest. First, the book teaches the secrets of saintship; God is the sufficiency of trusting souls. Secondly, it teaches the values of saintship; trusting souls are the instruments of God.

I must not be tempted into a long discussion of what is meant by saintship, but content myself with a simple yet inclusive definition. A saint is a person separated to the will of God. Ruth and Boaz lived the life of saintship in cir