BOAZ AND RUTH

Among the people of Israel, when they were settled in the promised land, was a man named Boaz. He was very rich; for God had given him cattle and corn-fields in abundance. He was a good, kind man, too.

One day, in the tune of harvest, a poor young woman went into his field to pick up the stalks of corn and barley that the reapers left as they went along. As she was gleaning, Boaz came into the field, and asked who she was. When he had heard that she was a good woman, he spoke kindly to her, and not only gave her leave to glean in his field as long as she liked, but told her that when she was hungry she might go and get her dinner with his own reapers.

When she got home, she had such a quantity of barley that her mother-in-law, with whom she lived, asked her where she had been gleaning. She said, in the field of Boaz. Then her mother-in-law told Ruth that this kind man was a near relation of hers. After some time, Boaz became kinder to her than ever. At last he married her, and King David, who wrote so many psalms, was her great-grandson.—The place where they lived was called Bethlehem. Here, long afterwards, the Lord Jesus was born.

CITIES OF REFUGE

A refuge is a place to be safe in.

When the Israelites were travelling to the country God had promised to give them, God told Moses a great many things that He would have them do when they got there. These were things to make them live happily and comfortably in their new country.

One of the things that God would have them do, was to fix upon six cities, in various parts of the country, to which any one who had killed a man by accident might run, and be safe from punishment. As long as he stayed in the City of Refuge no one could harm him for what he had done, if it was really an accident that he could not help. Indeed, even if it was owing to something very careless that he had done, such as throwing a stone without looking whether it might hurt somebody, he was still to be safe there. But if, after he had run there for his life, it was found out that he had killed any one on purpose, then he was to be sent away and put to death. God Himself said that such people ought not to be allowed to live. In His own Book we read,"Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed: for in the image of God made He man."

MOSES STRIKING THE ROCK

When the Israelites could no longer bear their cruel treatment in Egypt, God bade Moses take them away to another land, which they were to have all to themselves. The king tried to prevent Moses taking them away; but God punished him and his people most severely for this, and then he let them go.

There was a vast number of them men, women, and children, with their cattle. And when, in the course of their journey to the land God had promised to give them, they got into wild, desert places, they were frightened, and wished themselves back again. They thought they should die of hunger; and then God sent them food from heaven itself. It was called manna, and tasted very sweet. But they soon got tired of it, and wanted something else. Then God gave them great numbers of birds. But though He gave them what they wanted, He was at the same time very angry with them, so that they had no enjoyment of' it. Not long afterwards they wanted water. And Moses prayed to God; for he did not know what to do. And God told him to strike a certain rock in Horeb with his staff; and when he did so, water gushed out in abundance.