edness of the Creator is fuperior to that of the creature. It is as much an ordination of Providence, that "the poor should never cease out of the land," as that "the earth fhould yield her increafe," and the spheres perform their ftated revolutions: and while they do exift, the great Lord and Preferver of all things, is concerned to make fuitable provifion for them. The rich are his ftewards, and their ftorekeepers: he that gleans his own field to the laft ear, is a thief and a robber as much as he who plunders his neighbour's granary; he robs God, he plunders the needy and the deftitute, he does what he can to fubvert the divine government, he would make the law of charity and mercy of none effect, he bars his own plea for pardon at a throne of grace, he mars the poffeflion of all he has, he cankers his own enjoyment, and affixes his feal to his own condemnation.

5thly. The law particularly defcribes the objects which it meant to relieve," the stranger, the fatherlefs, and the widow." Unhappy Ruth! her title to the wretched offal from the hand of the reaper was but too well eftablished. She united in her own perfon all these characters of woe. Her melancholy claim to pity and fupport was fearfully multiplied, and a three-fold burden preffes her down to the ground: nevertheless she entreats, as a boon, what he might have demanded, and taken, as a right.

Her truft in, and fubmiffion to the direction of Providente fweetly accord with her filial affection and tenderness, and her noble independency of fpirit; fhe is determined to labour, fhe difdains not to employ the neceffary means for fupplying herfelf and aged parent with food, but fhe leaves the direction of her footsteps to High Heaven; fhe is in the way of her duty, and depofits all anxiety about the iffue in the bofom of her heavenly Father. What a happy mixture of fortitude and refignation! It cannot but profper.

Having obtained the confent of her mother, who perhaps might have a prefentiment of what was approaching,

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proaching, behold her up with the dawn, penfive, timorous and flow, advancing to the fields; the country all before her, where to choose her place of toil, and Providence her guide; with the downcaft look of ingenuous modefty; the timidity which four misfortune infpires; the firm ftep of confcious rectitude, and the flufhed cheek of kindling hope. By fome nameless, unaccountable circumftance, Heavendirected, fhe unknowingly bends her courfe to the field and reapers of Boaz. She has done her part, has made the facrifices which confcience and affection demanded, has fubmitted cheerfully to the hardships which neceflity impofed, has put herself in the way of relief which her fituation pointed out. God is good, and takes all the reft upon himself. He, who ordered her flight to Canaan at the time of barley-harvest, when nature, and Providence, and the law concurred to find her fubfiftence, orders her path to that field, where every thing, without the knowledge of the parties concerned, was prepared and arranged for the high fcenes now ready to be acted.

The order of human procedure generally is from blaze to smoke, from noife and buftle to nothing, from mighty preparation, to feeblenefs of execution. The divine conduct, on the contrary, is a glorious rife from obfcurity into light, from "fmall beginnings to a latter end greatly increased;" from "the mouth of babes and fucklings he ordaineth ftrength," and by a concurrence of circumftances which no human fagacity could forefee, and no human power could either bring together or keep afunder, raises a neglected gleaner in the field into the lady of the domain, and a fugitive of Moab into a mother in Ifrael; a mother of kings, whofe name fhall never expire but with the diffolution of nature.

At this period of the ftory, let us pause, and meditate

-On the power which regulates and controls all the affairs of men, who has all hearts, all events in

his hand, who "poureth contempt upon princes, and bringeth to nought the wifdom of the prudent;" who raifeth up the poor out of the duft, and lifteth up the needy out of the dunghill, that he may fet him with princes, even with the princes of his people; he maketh the barren woman to keep house, and to be a joyful mother of children." Is there a God who doth according to his will in the armies of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth?" then let me never be high-minded, but fear" always before him, for I am never out of his reach, never concealed from his eye, never fheltered from his juftice. Is there a God who judgeth in the earth, in whom the fatherlefs findeth mercy, to whom the miferable never look, never cry in vain? then let me never fink into defpair. I am not too humble for his notice, my disease is not beyond his fkill to cure, my wants are not too numerous for his fupplies, nor my tranfgreffions beyond the multitude of his tender mercies. Doth not He deck the lily, and feed the raven? a fparrow rifeth not on the wing, falleth not to the ground, without my heavenly Father. "Hitherto hath the Lord helped," and "his hand is not fhortened, nor his ear heavy, nor his bowels of compaffion restrained.”

Meditate again, on what ground you have encouragement to afk and to expect the divine protection and favour, Have you given up all for God? Have you good hope through grace that you are reconciled to God through the blood of his Son? Have you a good confcience toward God that you are in the proper use of appointed means? Can you look up with confidence and fay, "Lord, thou knowest all things, thou knowest I have not folded my hands to fleep, have not fat down in fullen discontent, have not charged thee foolishly, have not fled to unjustifiable methods of relief. I have not impiously striven with my Maker, nor prefumptuously expected a miracle to be wrought in my behalf. I have in much weakness, but in trembling hope, endeavoured

deavoured to do my duty; and I now, Lord, caft all my care, caft my burden upon thee." Look into the history of divine interpofitions. Were they in compliment to the peevish and capricious, were they extorted by the loud lamentations or the fecret murmurings of infolence and ingratitude? were they the pillows fmoothed by the hand of weak indulgence for the drowsy head of floth and indifference to repose on? No, but they were the feasonable cordial of parental affection to a fainting child; the reward which wifdom and goodness bestow on diligence and perfeverance; the indiffoluble union which God has established between human exertion and divine co-operation; they were the recompense of labour and vigilance, the anfwer of prayer.

Meditate yet again, on the true dignity of human nature, on the true glory of man and of woman alfo ;honeft, useful employment. It is not idle, luxurious enjoyment, it is not to do nothing, to be eternally waited upon, and miniftered unto, to grow torpid by inaction, to flumber away life in a lethargic dream, and to lose the powers of the foul and body by difufe; but to preserve and promote health by moderate exercife, to earn cheerfulness and self-approbation, by the sweet consciousness that you are not living wholly in vain, and to rife into importance by being fomewhat useful to your fellow-creatures. In the eye of fober, unbiasfed reason, whether of the two is the more pleasing, the more respectable fight; and which is, in her own mind, the happier of the two, Ruth laden with the ears of corn which fhe has toiled to gather, haftening home to the hut of obfcurity, to administer food and comfort to old age and forrow; or a modern belle, iffuing forth under a load of uneafy finery, to imaginary triumphs, and certain difappointment? Who fleeps foundest at night, and who awakes and arifes in the best health and fpirits next day? I expect not an anfwer.

The

The thing speaks for itfelf; and I have purpofely forborne to state the cafe fo ftrongly as I might have done. The virtuous damfel has, in part, received her reward, but a greater and better is preparing for her. The mother and daughter have been arranging their little matters with discretion; and the great God has been preparing his agents, putting his armies in motion; all is made ready, is made to meet, is made to work together, is made to profper, by Him who fees the perfect man in the embryo, the end from the beginning, the effect in its primary cause, the eternal chain in every feries, and in all its extent.

History