ing us ever, until He brings us home to a land of light, and peace, and joy, from which sorrow and sighing, and sin the prime cause of both, are banished for ever and ever.

No wonder that Peter, who had had such experience of the gentleness of Christ, wrote "Unto you which believe He is precious." No wonder that Solomon, in the book of Canticles, makes the Church to say, "My beloved is the chiefest among ten thousand, and the altogether lovely." Every believer who is walking in the light of Christ's countenance will gratefully echo the words. Christ is precious to him. And yet precious as He is now to His people, when they see Him in a world of unclouded day, as Sheba's queen said of Solomon's glory, so will they say of the love and tenderness of their Lord, which have so endeared Him to their souls, "Behold the half was not told me."

Brother, sister, it is this gentle Jesus,

this loving Saviour, this tender and yet powerful Friend that I would make perDo not think of Him

sonal to you.

merely as another man's Christ. Is He yours? He pleads with you individually. He asks for your heart, and this only that He may make you happy. Do not think of His service as for the Sabbath day alone. Serve Him every day. There is no reason why the busiest merchant in our busy metropolis should not serve Christ, aye, and glorify Him too in his business, as much as the man of leisure. No man will ever be a better man by seclusion; and no man need ever be a worse man by engaging actively and enthusiastically in the lawful things of human life. There is grave reason to question the genuineness of the man's christianity who acts on the principle that it is a sin to have much to do with the secular avocations and duties of life. At any rate, if his christianity be genuine, it is a very sickly and puny thing.

It wants the robustness of healthy spiritual life. Of course christianity and worldliness are incompatible. The man who tries to live a christian life on one side, and a worldly life on the other, makes a great mistake. He will never succeed. He cannot do so. The testimony of Scripture is dead against him. St. James says “Whosoever will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God:" Jas. iv, 4. But, then, it is possible, and this we ought to aim at, to throw ourselves heart and soul into the work, however secular it may be, of our position in life, and yet to live to God. One thing only is indispensable. must know Christ as our dear Saviour. We must have had experience of His love. We must be able to say, and to mean it when we say it, "Whom have I in heaven but thee, and there is none upon earth that I desire beside thee." If Christ be thus ours, we are safe anywhere, and we can do anything.

We

139

LECTURE VII.

BOAZ A TYPE OF CHRIST.

RUTH III, IV.

In the last lecture we dealt with the character of Boaz in its typical aspect. We noticed how tenderly and gently he acted towards Ruth, and how carefully he provided for her wants, and protected her from insult or wrong. In all this we saw a beautiful type of Christ's dealings in grace with His blood-bought church. We are now to consider that portion of the history in which Boaz appears as the "goel" or kinsman redeemer.

I. We will touch briefly upon the main points in the story.

II. Consider them in their typical aspect.

I. Let us touch briefly upon the main points in the story.

When Ruth, after her interview with Boaz in the field, went home and told Naomi of all his kindness to her, Naomi said, "It is good, my daughter, that thou go out with his maidens, that they meet thee not in any other field:" chap. ii, 22. This advice Ruth followed; "She kept fast by the maidens of Boaz to glean unto the end of barley harvest and of wheat har vest; and dwelt with her mother in law:" chap. ii, 23. When the harvest had drawn to a close, Naomi thus addressed her daughter in law, "My daughter, shall I not seek rest for thee, that it may be well with thee? And now is not Boaz of our kindred, with whose maidens thou wast? Behold, he winnoweth barley to-night in