RELIGIOUS LESSONS FROM RUTH.
By Alexander McLaren
[Alexander McLaren, D. D., in S. S. Times.] The first is that it tells of the entrance of a Moabitess into Israel. Boaz speaks a great lesson for Israel of all ages when he invokes on Ruth’s head a “full reward” from the “God of Israel, under whose wings thou art come to take refuge.” It is the lesson that Israel’s privileges were theirs first, in order that they might belong to all the world, and that therefore hand and heart should be open to all from every land who turned to Jehovah. The lamp was set on a candlestick that it might give light to all that were in the great house, which is the world with its “many mansions.” Israel needed the lesson; the church has not yet laid it enough to heart. Another reason for the presence of the book is its bearing on the ancestry of David. That reason is set forth in the appendix in the last verses of Ruth, containing David’s genealogy. A tinge of Moabite blood, then, ran in the veins of the royal house, and it may be remembered that when he was a fugitive he took his father and mother to the king of Moab, and sought an asylum for them there. The significance of Ruth’s being David’s ancestress is brought distinctly out by her inclusion (exceptionally) in Matthew’s genealogy. She is one of the four women mentioned there. The other three have tainted reputations. They suggest Christ’s kinship with sinners; Ruth suggests His brotherhood with aliens and Gentiles.