July 1929
325
T h e
K i n g ' s
B u s i n e s s
years, swelter in the iron furnace; but had brought them forth in triumph at last. She would trust Him. Thus did she commend to her heathen daughters-in- law the God of her people. They beheld her bowing under the rod that chastened, sorrowful but steadfast. What kind of a God is this that can so afflict the soul and yet hold the heart? That one can love in the bitterness of desolation? Surely, not like their own gods, for whom they feel noth ing but fear and whom they value only for their favors. Thus in Naomi’s life did they learn of Israel’s God. “TH Y God”! How weighty these two words! What faithfulness, what devotion, what patience, what resignation, what humble submission, lie back of these words! Back to her gods may Orpah go ; but Ruth will choose this God whom she has seen so steadily and so clearly revealed in the life of this faithful woman. For this God will she leave all. F a c in g t h e U n k n o w n F u t u r e So they turn their faces to the future, these lonely women. They break forever with the past; for them the past holds nothing but memories, and the soul cannot live on memories. To them the future is unknown, as it is to us all; what of adversity, of prosperity, of sorrow or of joy may be enfolded in the coming years, they cannot see. But, there are two things of which neither time nor tide can rob them,—God and love. Whatever may come or go, these abide. “Where fhou diest, I will die, and there will I be buried.” What depth, what tenderness, what invincibility of love are revealed by these words! What light do they throw on Naomi herself! What sort of woman is this that can win such love? What personality is this that, poverty- stricken and alone, can outweigh every attraction the world can have for youth and beauty? God has stripped her of everything that this world holds precious, but in return He has given that priceless treasure, the deathless love of a great heart. Only a truly great soul can win such love. And who has this has all. No life is empty or hope less where love is. Poor was Naomi in the wealth of the world, but rich unspeakably in the riches that are eternal, —the riches of the heart. Her head might ache with the pain of unshed tears, but here upon the bosom of this tire less love could she pillow her head and find rest. Oh, it is wonderful to have a love like th is! The longest, loneliest, roughest path does it people and make smooth. More than this, it binds into oneness the hearts and lives of men. This it is that tied Ruth to Naomi so closely that not all the pull of the homeland could turn her back from the path she had chosen with this lonely widow into the unknown and untried. And it is this that would hold her to this adopted mother through the tests that were to come; the strangeness, the uncertainties, the adversities, the dangers,—through it all out into the peace and rest and sunshine that lay at the end of the path that love had trod. The whole world may go on with its jealousies and hates and frictions, but here are two hearts that will defy every disruptive influence that life can bring; here is a love bond that has stood the test of adversity, and will withstand the severer test of prosperity. When the dark days have passed and the years of golden sunshine have come, Naomi in her doting old age will still be the sweet and cherished mother, and Ruth the loving and obedient daughter. Oh, this is love! Prosperity may come and pros perity may go, but love abides. Everything else may fail, but “love never fails.” So hand in hand and heart joined to heart, they turn their backs to the sorrowful past and their faces and their faith to the future, and enter with willing
feet upon the path they will walk together to life’s end and that they are walking together today and will walk together forever. M o t h e r a n d D a u g h t e r O n e i n G od “Thy God.” She will commit herself to this God of whom she has been told. What her personal experience of Him had been we do not know. It may be that her choice of Him as her God was determined solely by her mother- in-law’s godly example. Or it may be that she was moved to it by her love and pity for this lonely woman. Did she choose God for Himself, or because she must accept Him with this other thing that she desired, because her mother- in-law and her mother-in-law’s God were inseparable? While the mother did not stipulate that, if Ruth took her, Ruth must accept her God also, it may be that the daugh ter felt the incongruity of separating these two even in her thought. If she took Naomi, she must take Naomi’s God- “You cannot have me unless you take also my Christ.’' What a world of sorrow Christian womanhood would save itself, did it always make this a condition of marriage,— the supreme condition! “My Christ and I are one; you cannot have me apart from Him.” Countless thousands of broken women can testify that refusal to take this stand has doomed them to a life of discord and unhappiness and of moral and spiritual disaster. What concord could there have been between these two women, had Ruth continued to cling to her gods ? That would have been the yawning of a moral gulf between them that all the years could never bridge. “TH Y God shall be M Y God.” Blessed words! Now are they truly one. Strong as is the bond of human love, this bond is stronger. They are one in affec tion; but better than all they are one in God. The tie that binds them is no longer merely human; it is divine. Always will they have Israel’s God. As they walk on in their weary journey One walks with them. Whatever trouble they may meet, God is there to take them through. The hills may be steep and the way may be rough, but He is there to hold their hands and to steady their feet. The waters may be deep and swift, but He will take care that the rivers do not overflow them. God has stripped this woman of all that the poor human heart clings to, but in return He has given, as He ever gives, that which more than compensates for every earthly loss, the priceless treasure of Himself. And they were yet to prove that the gift of Himself brings in its train everything that is worth while. He may break the heart, but He is with the broken heart as its Healer. The whole life may be shattered, but He is there to gather up the broken pieces and to build from them a living temple, a glorious mansion, that will outlast the worlds and will outshine the stars. The years have passed and Naomi is drawing near to the end of the way. From the summit of a completed life she sees in perspective all the unfolded mystery of God’s dealings with her soul. It is plain now. God’s way was best. She is glad that through it all she had been true to Him. Because she had let God have his way, and had fol lowed Him trustingly when to her the way was dark and she could not understand, now at the last He has brought her into the sunlight where she sees and understands it all. She beholds her dutiful daughter established in the love of a good man, and she has nursed at her own breast a child whom the unfolding plan of a world’s redemption will reveal to have been one living, link in the long line that flowered at last in Him who was the Son of Man and the Son of God.
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