Ruth 2:23

Harvest-time.

This Book of Ruth is emphatically the book of the husbandman. It pictures the barley-harvest and the wheat-harvest of ancient days. The primitive manners and usages are interesting, and deserve attentive study. But harvest—as here so vividly brought before us—is full of lessons of a spiritual kind. E.g.—

I. HARVEST WITNESSES TO THE ATTRIBUTES OF THE DIVINE CREATOR . To his power and wisdom. To his goodness. To his faithfulness to his promise: "Seed-time and harvest shall not cease."

II. HARVEST IS A SUMMONS TO MAN 'S GRATITUDE AND CONFIDENCE .

III. HARVEST IS SUGGESTIVE OF GREAT SPIRITUAL TRUTHS . There is a moral harvest in the history of the human character and of human society. Seed and soil are presumed. Development and growth are evidenced. The law operates: " Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap." The fruit is matured and gathered in. The Husbandman—God himself—is interested in the result. To us the result is infinitely important.—T.