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NOTE

OTE once again that the sheep know their shepherd. There is a story of a Scottish traveller in Palestine, who thought he would try an experiment upon the sheep. He had been reading this chapter of St. John, and he was eager to put it to the test. So he got a shepherd to change clothes with him; and the tourist wrapped himself in the shepherd's mantle, and the shepherd donned the tourist's garb, and then both called to the flock of sheep to follow (in the East the shepherd goes before his flock). And the sheep followed the voice and not the dress. It was the voice and not the dress they knew. So you see that every sheep in the flock has got an ear-mark-it can tell the voice of the shepherd from a stranger's. And every sheep in the flock has got a foot-mark-they follow the shepherd because they know His voice. Have you been branded on the ear and foot? Are these two marks of ownership on you? Samuel was but a child when he cried out, 'Speak, Lord, Thy servant heareth!' The Shepherd called him and he heard the voice.

AGAIN, observe how the good shepherd lays His life down for the sheep. It seems a strange thing for a shepherd to do. We never think of a shepherd as a hero. But in the East there is never a day that dawns but may reveal the hero or the hireling in the shepherd. To-night there may spring a lion on the flock. Or who can tell but that yon swirling dust betokens the galloping of Bedouin sheep-stealers? If that be so-come! trusty blade! it must be battle now! For all my watching and my watering shall be vain, unless I am ready to combat to the death! So is the Eastern shepherd faced with death. Serving amid fierce beasts and fiercer bandits, he may be called to die for his sheep to-night. And I am the Good Shepherd, says Jesus, and the Good Shepherd giveth his life for the sheep. Learn, then, that the Cross is Jesus' noblest deed. It is not an accident, it

is an act. It is the crowning service of the shepherd to the sheep, whom He loves too deeply ever to let them go.

THEN, lastly, mark that the shepherd has sheep outside our fold. In the early Church there was a fiery saint, some of whose books our students study yet. And this 'fierce Tertullian,' as one of our poets calls him, said, 'The sheep He saves, the goats He doth not save.' But in the very days when Tertullian was writing, there were humble Christians hiding in the catacombs. And they loved to draw the figure of the Good Shepherd, and many of their rude drawings are there still-and often the Good Shepherd is carrying on His shoulders, not a lamb, but a kid of the goats. To the Jew there was but one fold-it was Israel. Jesus had other sheep outside. that fold. And whenever we send a missionary to China, whenever we pray for the savage tribes of Africa, we do it because the Good Shepherd has said this: 'Them also I must bring, and they shall hear My voice, and there shall be one flock and one Shepherd.'

T

NINETEENTH SUNDAY

Morning

RUTH THE GLEANER

Passage to be read: Ruth ii. 1-23.

HINGS had changed much since Naomi left Bethlehem ten years ago. The old people had died, the children had grown up; it was only now and then that she saw a familiar face passing before the windows of her little home. Times were hard, too. There was no Elimelech now to keep the home provisioned. How were they ever to struggle on until another harvest? It was then that Ruth determined to become a gleaner. It was then she formed the purpose to be the bread-winner for that little cottage. And if we loved Ruth when she cast in her lot with Naomi, I think we shall love her even more now. Do you ever find her fretting and repining? Never. Does she worry Naomi by recalling those fields of Moab where the corn rustled and the sunshine glanced? Never. Had she been mindful of the country out of which she came, now had been her opportunity to have returned. But she forgot all that. She steeled her heart like a heroine against the past. She put her pride in her pocket, and humbled herself to glean. Before Ruth's honour was humility. It is true heroism to face the present humbly and bravely. I have known young people whose prospects have been overthrown in a twinkling-some one has died, and everything is changed. That is the hour to show the spirit of Ruth;

that hour, cheerfully, strongly taken, may be the beginning of a blessedness like hers.

N AOMI had a kinsman whose name was Boaz, a rich man, and lord of many acres; and when Ruth had kissed her mother, and passed through the gates of Bethlehem out into the fields, she came on his reapers busy at the harvest. Whose reapers they were, she did not know. And what it was led her to choose that field, perhaps she never guessed. She did not know that the Lord God of Israel, who girds us when we never dream of it, and guides us when we never guess it, had turned her girlish feet through Boaz's gate. What mighty issues flow from what we call chances! How unexpectedly we hap on things-and the future shall never be the same again! It seemed a happy chance that Luther should have found the Bible in the monastery, but it meant life to him, and changed the life of Europe. It seemed a chance that Spurgeon should turn into a half-empty chapel, but it brought him to Christ, and led to the saving of countless souls. And it seemed a chance that Ruth should have chosen Boaz's field, but it wrought out God's wonderful plan for her, and for Jesus. We are not the children of a chance, but of a King.

So Ruth began to glean, and after gleaning all the

morning she was weary, and went to rest in the rude shelter that a kind-hearted master had erected in the field (v. 7). Then Boaz came, and from the kindly greetings between the master and his servants, I could almost be certain Boaz would be kind to Ruth. We sometimes talk of servants as hands. We say there are so many hands upon the farm. But the blessing of Boaz shows that he thought of their souls, and the hands did far better work for him among the barley because he remembered that. Now, some of our boys are going to

be masters. Some of our girls are going to be mistresses, and have domestic servants of their own. Never forget that they are more than hands. Never forget to pray for them (by name), and bless them. I think there will be fewer strikes then in your establishment, and fewer changes at the term in your villa. Then Boaz spied the stranger. He recognised the foreigner at once. And when he heard from his steward who she was, and found that this was the maid who had come back with Naomi, and learned how modestly she had behaved herself since she crept timidly into the field at sunrise, then a great wave of pity flowed over Boaz's heart. He was her kin ; God helping him, he would be kind.

HOW kind he was to this stranger in the field, every verse of this sweet chapter shows, and if we wish a model of the kindly heart, let us halt at Boaz, and we shall find it there. There is some kindness that is extremely foolish. It is the weak good-nature of a thoughtless heart. It is not just, it is not persevering, it is not the sweet-faced mother of self-denial. True kindness is a noble virtue. There is thought, there is strength, there is something of sacrifice, something of God, about it, and as I study this simple record of the kindness of Boaz, I find these marks of true kindness there. Do you see its thoughtfulness? Ruth is to go with her own sex to glean. The young men are specially charged to beware of rudeness. Do you note its piety? Boaz was kind because he felt it was God's will that the maid who had come under His wings to rest should be favoured so (v. 12). Do you see its humility and selfforgetfulness? It was none but the master who reached the parched corn to her-and she a gleaner (v. 14). Do you mark its inventiveness? I can see the wonder in the young men's eyes when Boaz whispered to them to drop some handfuls (v. 16). Try to be kind like that. Think shame to let Boaz beat you. Do not be kind with a rush

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