LECTURE I.

ELIMELECH, OR SPIRITUAL DEATH.

RUTH 1, 1-5.

"Now it came to pass in the days when the judges ruled, that there was a famine in the land. And a certain man of Bethlehem-judah went to sojourn in the country of Moab, he, and his wife, and his two sons. And the name of the man was Elimelech, and the name of his wife Naomi, and the name of his two sons Mahlon and Chilion, Ephrathites of Bethlehem-judah. And they came into the country of Moab, and continued there. And Elimelech Naomi's husband died; and she was left, and her two sons. And they took them wives of the women of Moab; the name of the one was Orpah, and the name of the other Ruth: and they dwelled there about ten years. And Mahlon and Chilion died also both of them; and the woman was left of her two sons and her husband."

FROM the genealogy given at the end of chapter iv, it appears that the writer of this book lived in the time of David.

B

Probably the book was written by Samuel. The events recorded in it seem to have taken place between the years 1322 and 1312 B.C. Like the book of Esther this book is a remarkable record of God's particular providence, and is, therefore, full of encouragement to all who love and fear God. Apart from this, it is interesting, as containing, in the call and conversion of Ruth the Moabitess, a shadow and a pledge of the bringing in of the Gentiles. In attempting to give a short course of Lectures upon this book, I wish, at the outset, to say that it is not at all my intention to go through it verse by verse, in the way of exposition. I wish rather to take up in order the principal characters in the book, and to deal with them as illustrative characters. There are five of these characters, viz., Elimelech, Naomi, Orpah, Ruth, and Boaz. May God the Holy Ghost, without whose aid we cannot understand the Scriptures, teach us, and make