AconsT. 165 



■with the remembrances of by-gone ages. The 

 pious attachment of the gentle Ruth, who chose 

 to share the sufferings of her aged relative, and to 

 follow her to the land, blessed with the ordinances 

 of the God of Israel: those touchins; words of 

 love spoken by her, "^Vhither thou goest, I will 

 go ; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge : thy 

 people shall be my people, and thy God my 

 God : where thou diest will I die, and there 

 will I be buried :" all these things are brought 

 vividly before the mind, as we mark the gleaner, 

 who, like her of old, fills her apron with the 

 brown ears of corn. The remembrance of the 

 early disciples, who, being hungry, "plucked the 

 ears of corn, and did eat, rubbing them in their 

 liands ;" and the emphatic words of our Lord, 

 who, when calling their attention to the state of 

 the world, and the need of missionary exertion, 

 said, " Look on the fields ; for they are white 

 already to harvest ; " and that solemn com- 

 parison of the harvest to the end of the world, 

 when "the reapers are the angels," and God 

 shall separate the chaff from, the wheat, wall 

 recur to the thoughtful reader of Scripture, to 

 whom God has given feeling and imagination, 

 and may fill the inmost recesses of his mind 

 with trains of holy and devout imagery. Such 

 a wanderer will not think it enough to exclaim, 

 " All thy works shall praise thee, O Lord," but 

 will add, with his whole heart, " and thy saints 

 shall bless thee !" 



Corn, in the state in which we have it, when 

 cultivated, does not grow wild in any land ; atid 



