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WANT to say first of all about this love
story, that it is to me and always has
been since I was able to appreciate a
story at all, one of the most interesting
and thrilling stories in all literature, and
as I grow in my ability to appreciate
a story I have grown in my apprecia
tion of this. It is perfectly wonderful
how few of our people are acquainted
I
with tne story of Ruth. Most of us have heard of
Ruth and Naomi; but few of us know them. Most
of us are more familiar with the recent novels of
the day than with this wonderful, thrilling story,
that has stood the test of the critics of the ages
and has been the admiration of students of literature
through all the history of the world since it was
written.
A CONTRAST.
There is striking contrast between the main fea
tures of this story and the main feature of
the love stories of our present day. In the
first place, it differs in that you find in it only the
purest language; there is not the first hint of slang.
Now, that is certainly not true of the love stories of
the present day. The slangier they are the more
popular they seem to be, and I think perhaps this
is one way of counting for the increase of slang
among our people and especially among our wo
men; for I believe our women are growing to use
slang more than our men. I am told that it is
nothing at all unusual for a young woman in com
pany to use slang; and sometimes worse than slang;
that which borders on to profanity. There is one
thing I know I would do, if I were a young man
today, in search for a companion, whether for a
life companion or simply a temporary associate, I
would not keep fellowship with any woman that
used profane language. Os all the hideous, contempt
ible things, it is to me to hear a woman, whose
words ought to be pure and well chosen, dealing
out profanity.
Another striking difference between it and the
modern love story, is that there is not found any
where in it the slightest suggestion of vulgarity or
suggestion of licenciousness. The chief charm of
many of the modern novels is to take the reader
just as near the border land of impurity as they
can possibly get. Many of you who read modern love
stories know that this is a fact, and it is one of the
sad commentaries that the critics of the world
today are heaping upon our present day writers
of fiction, that they and the plays that are made
from the books, account for the spread of impurity
in our day as nothing else does.
Again, there is another thing that I want us to
see. There is in this story of Ruth not the slight
est suggestion of adventure. Now, the modern love
story lives largely upon adventure. The heroine
must be a woman who can go all the paces, and
the hero must be a man full of the adventurer’s
spirit; it is not exciting, if it is not full of all sorts
of impossible situations, thrilling adventure, etc., it
finds itself left upon the shelves of the book stores.
Ruth does not suggest any of this spirit of adven
ture. The story begins simply with a brief recount
ing of the life of common, plain, everyday people;
no intrigue; no girl deceived; no blood shed; no
glitter and glare of high life in contrast with low
life; it begins on the simple plane of everyday
life, with common, ordinary humanity, just such as
we are.
The chief character of the story is a young wo
man —a heathen woman, a Moabitess, about which
we know practically nothing aside from what we
find in this story. There is nothing said of her
early life. Someone has tried to prove that she was
the daughter of the King of Moab. That is entirely
too far fetched; it is purely imaginary. There isn’t
the slightest hint in the divine library that she was
the daughter of king or prince. To my way of think
ing, she was simply a plain, ordinary woman of Moab,
and yet, around this woman is gathered the interest
and the admiration of the Christian world, and she
>I7V ANCIENT LOVE STOEI
Tabernacle Sermon by Reb, Len G "Broughton, D. D.
Stenographically reported for The Golden Age.—Copyright applied for.
has been an inspiration to the highest and noblest
ideals in women.
The date of the writing of the story is not given,
but there is enough said to give us some idea as to
the time when it was written. There is reference
made to David and his reign as king of Israel and
we may judge from this that the book was written
some time during the reign of David, perhaps dur
ing the first period of his wonderful reign. There
is nothing said at all concerning the authorship of
it and no one can tell. I have searched and done
my best to find some clue as to the authoi - of this
wonderful story, and from all I can gather, it seems
to me that the story was written by Samuel.
PURPOSE OF THE STORY.
Now, as to the place and purpose of the story.
The story of Ruth we find lying between the Books
of the Judges and the First Book of Samuel, and
when we read the story of the Judges and the
story of Samuel, as contained in these two books,
we are impressed at once, if we skip over Ruth,
that there is a missing link, and when we read
the story of Ruth from beginning to end, we are
impressed with the fact that this Book of Ruth
is but a supplement to the Book of Judges, and not
only a supplement to the Book of Judges, but an
introduction to the Book of Samuel; therefore, it is
in its proper place, lying between the two, and it
may be said that the Book of Ruth is the connect
ing link between the Book of Judges and the Books
of Samuel. The purpose of the story is also easily
seen. Ruth is the grandmother of David, and that
fact is not revealed in anything else besides the
Book of Ruth. If we had no Book of Ruth we had
no ancestral history of David. And not only that,
but Boaz, who figures as the hero of the story, we
find to be of the House of Judah. But for these
two facts, revealed in the story of Ruth, the fact that
she was the great grandmother of Israel’s great king
from whom Jesus was descended, and the fact that
Boaz, the hero of the story, is himself of the house
of Judah, we would not be able to trace the ancestry
of our Lord. We would not be able to under
stand how it was that He, our Lord, according to
prophecy, was of the tribe of Judah, and when we
have this story before us and when we see that
Ruth is the great grandmother of David, and that
Boaz is of the house of Judah, we are able to see
how there flows through the veins of the Son of
God both Gentile blood and Jewish blood. It is
not true that Jesus was simply a Jew. He was a
Jew and a Gentile. On the side of Ruth He is a
Gentile, and on the side of Boaz, He is a Jew
and hence Jesus is able to mingle with both Jew
and Gentile; hence the line of partition between
Jew and Gentile is broken down, for in Him mingles
and flows the blood of both Jew and Gentile. This is
a very important fact, and it is only revealed in
the Book of Ruth.
With this much of the family history proper, we
want to get a picture of the family group. There
is in Bethlehem Judah just ten miles outside of
the city of Jerusalem, a very celebrated little city
where Jacob died and was buried, and a city
from which Jesus came as the Lion of the Tribe
of Judah. In this little city of Bethlehem Judah
the meaning of which is “The House of Bread.”
because it was a land of plenty, we find this little
family. The family is made up of Elimelech and
Naomi, and Mahlon and Chilion, their two sons.
Their names are very significant. Elimelech means,
“My God is King”; Naomi means “sweetness”. Mah
lon means weakling; Chilion means wasting. In
those Old Testament days names for children meant
something. They were not given as early in life as
they are today. They were not given until after the
temperament and the disposition of the child was
understood and the name was selected indicative
of the temperament and the disposition and char
acter of the child. Mahlon was a weakly lad;
Chilion was thin, emaciated. There comes a time in
the history of Bethlehem Judah when it is no longer
true of it that it is the “House of Bread;” a famine
spreads through the land. The only solution was to
The Golden Age for April 21, 1910.
move out of the country. I have heard this man
Elimelech criticised for leaving Bethlehem Judah, a
religious community, to go over the Jordan into
Moab, a heathen community, with his family. I
do not feel it in my heart to criticise him. He
had the problem of the support of his family; so
with his wife and his two sons he moves over into
Moab. Not long after this Elimelech dies and Naomi
is left —a Widow in a strange land with a strange
people, without religious environment. After this
the two sons Mahlon and Chilion fell in love with
Moabitish girls. There is no telling how or where
or with whom Cupid is to do his work, and he did
it there, and these two boys in spite of what we
might expect, each married a Moabitish girl, a heath
en. Afterwards, these two sons, the husbands of
these two Moabitish wives, died. And Naomi and
her two daughters-in-law are left, left together in
the same home, without hubands, without friends,
without protection. Now, just here our introduction
of this story ends. Only suffer me to draw from
this a suggestion or two with reference to the
sad predicament in which this woman, Naomi, finds
herself. I can conceive of no more pitiable cir
cumstances than the circumstances with which she
is confronted after the death of her husband and the
death of her two sons, away over there in a strange
people, of no religious association, and she a deeply
religious woman. I think that there is no situation
in life more to be pitied anywhere under any cir
cumstances that the situation of widowhood. Several
years ago I made up my mind that I would go to
the old home and see my grandmother before she
died. I had not seen her for a long time and so I
journeyed to the city of Raleigh and there took
a horse and went driving out through the country
along the old road that I used to travel as a child.
Things had wonderfully changed. I never would
have known where I was but for the fact that I had
with me a man acquainted with the entrie com
munity. Farms had grown up where forests once
were and little towns had grown up where splendid
plantations once were. Finally, we came within
sight of the old home place. Away back there be
hind the white oak trees was the simple, plain home,
in which I used to live and where I had spent the
past days of my life, the days of childhood. Around
those oaks I had played and frolicked; in those
streams I had fished. All about me as I stood and
looked were scenes that reminded me of pleasant
associations, those that are to be prized for the
rest of my life, but, oh! how changed! The house
was changed; the barn yard was gone; the fences
all down; briers and broomsage had taken the place
of flowers and nicely kept trees, and when I had got
in the house and had finished my greeting with my
old grandmother she took me on the front porch and
looking about the house and the yard and the place
she said: “You would not have known the place,
would you?” with a tremor in her voice. I said “No,
grandmother,” “Oh,” she said, “it has never been
the same.” Then pointing to the beautiful white
oak, one of the largest that I ever saw, at the right
of which lay the remains of my old grandfather,
one of the dearest men that ever walked on this
earth; “It has never been the same since he went.”
He was gone; every sister she had was gone; every
brother and my own mother, the only child, gone,
and she, dear old soul, was there just waiting the
summons while she walked through the shadow. I
tried my best to get her to live with me. Others
had tried, but there was no use in trying. She was
hugging close to the right of the tree at which lay
all that was dear to her, the dust of one of the
best husbands that God ever gave a woman, and
there, close to the road she stayed until one day,
not as the result of sickness, but simply the wear
and tear of close on to a hundred years, she closed
her eyes and stepped across.
And, my friends, I want to speak just this word
as I close the introductory part of this story. I
want to speak this word in behalf of the widow who
lives perhaps close to you, whose lonely position
(Continued on Page 8.)
