Ruth 2:8-9 Then said Boaz to Ruth, Hear you not, my daughter? Go not to glean in another field, neither go from hence… (for the Young): I. THE MANIFESTATION OF WHAT IS HIDDEN IN HUMAN LIFE. In the early spring the buried seed-corn was completely hidden. You could get no answer to such questions as, What sort? How much? Is it germinating or rotting? The reply would be, Wait. Harvest will reveal. So in human character. Thoughts, and wishes, and life-bias are often concealed. The good, through failure, seems bad; the bad, through hypocrisy, good. There shall be an unveiling. Contact with Christ brings out, in conversion and in judgment, many surprises in human character. "There is nothing hid that shall not be known." II. THE INCREASE OF WHAT IS SMALL IN HUMAN LIFE. What contrast between the seeds and the sheaf. What growth, "some sixty-fold, some an hundred-fold." So with the greatest thing in human history, Christianity. The babe, becoming the sovereign of the race. So with good and evil in human lives. The thought growing to wish, wish to resolve, resolve to deed, deed to habit, habit to influence that is immeasurable. "Who hath despised the day of small things?" III. THE RETRIBUTION FOR WHAT IS DONE IN HUMAN LIFE. In the destiny of tares and wheat, Christ teaches souls to read their retribution. It is the outcome of the life. Hell and heaven are the perfect outgrowth, the harvest of character. The good shall ripen to glory, the evil to shame. "Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap: he that soweth to the flesh," etc. IV. THE PASSING AWAY OF OPPORTUNITY IN HUMAN LIFE. Each season gives its own chances. V. THE PROVIDENCE OF GOD OVER THE WHOLE OF HUMAN LIFE. He cares for human life, and through frosts and summer heats, storms and midnights, matures the Christly soul. "All things work together for good."(Urijah R. Thomas.) Parallel Verses KJV: Then said Boaz unto Ruth, Hearest thou not, my daughter? Go not to glean in another field, neither go from hence, but abide here fast by my maidens: |
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