Scene 4 (II: 18-23). In the home of Naomi.

Naomi sees the bountiful gleaning and rejoices and blesses Boaz. She counsels Ruth to glean in no other fields.

Scene 5 (III). At the Winnowing Floor.

Naomi's appeal to the Levirate custom. She gives minute directions to Ruth. Ruth goes to the threshingfloor. The midnight interview. Boaz accepts the responsibility-if it shall prove to be his right. Ruth returns home.

Scene 6 (IV:1-12). At the City Gate.

The place of justice. The jury of ten. The kinsman's decision. Redeeming the land by custom of the shoe. The marriage and the witnesses.

Scene 7. Naomi the Happy.

The birth of Obed. Bitterness comforted. "And Naomi took the child and laid it in her bosom and nursed it.” The royal descendant.

Purposes: (1) To give an account of David's ancestors. (2) To enforce the obligation to marry a kinsman's widow. (3) As a counterblast to Ezra's crusade against foreign wives. But what other motive is necessary than the simple pleasure of telling a beautiful, idyllic, charming love story?

The plot of the story of Ruth, as may be seen from the preceding analysis, is not at all complex or startling, being made up of incidents in the uneventful lives of the people of a sleepy little town of Judea, people who are interesting and charming, but not of the great ones of earth. The skill of the narrator is shown in a number of scenes and situations: The pathetic parting scene closing with Ruth's passionate declaration of devotion; the sunny picture of the gleaners in the barley fields; the ideal relation between Boaz and his reapers, as shown by his greeting, "The Lord be with you," and their response, "The Lord bless thee"; the delicacy with which the rather unconventional incident at the

threshing floor is treated; the scene at the city gate when Boaz deals fairly with the nearest of kin, but is plainly anxious to have the redemption fall to him; the happy lot of Naomi, now that bitterness has been turned into joy.

The Levirate custom referred to in the fifth scene, is an interesting institution. The method of attracting the attention of Boaz may have been invented by Naomi, but Ruth's right to appeal to him for protection was based on an ancient law. A widow left without a son must become the wife of the husband's brother, and the oldest son of the union must be counted the child of the deceased brother.

And if the man like not to take his brother's wife, then his brother's wife shall go up to the gate unto the elders and say: My husband's brother refuseth to raise up unto his brother a name in Israel; he will not perform the duty of a husband's brother unto me. Then the elders of the city shall call him and speak unto him; and if he stand and say: I like not to take her; then shall his brother's wife come unto him in the presence of the elders, and loose his shoe from off his foot, and spit in his face and she shall answer and say: So shall it be done unto the man that doth not build up his brother's house. And his name shall be called in Israel, The house of him that hath his shoe loosed, (Deut. 25: 7-10.)

This is a charming story presenting a quaint courtship of the olden time. There are in it no impossible situations, no unspeakable emotions, no invented characters, no sickly sentiment; all is simple, natural, almost perfect. It is pleasing enough to be restful; gives interesting information about Hebrew life in the time of the judges; presents characters that are natural and life-like; and presents also the moral forces of life so as to attract the reader to the beautiful and the good. Besides these things it gives an account of David's ancestors, enforces the obligation to marry a kinsman's widow, and above and beyond all these, teaches the same lesson of tolerance that is taught so eloquently in the Book of Jonah. Such a book is immortal; its charm increases as time goes on.

CHAPTER IX

THE BOOK OF ESTHER

The scene of the story is laid in Shushan, the palace, in the city of Susa, the Persian capital, the ancient Elam, a few hundred miles north of the Persian Gulf— one of the oldest seats of civilization in the world. The time is about 482 years before Christ.

The story opens with a great feast lasting 180 days, which Ahasuerus gives to the princes and officers of the one hundred and twenty-seven provinces of his kingdom. At the end of the long feast he gives a special feast of seven days, and to it are invited only his nobles and officers. On the last day of the seven days' feast he orders his seven eunuchs to bring before him Queen Vashti, unveiled, that his drunken companions may admire her beauty. With wise, womanly courage she refuses to obey the tyrannical summons, which, according to eastern etiquette would violate all sense of propriety and modesty. The courtiers regard Vashti's refusal with consternation. They fear that the wrath of the king will be turned against them, and they seek immediate means to please and pacify him. They first urge him to depose Vashti; and the order is accordingly issued. They then persuade him to the opinion that the queen in her disobedience has not so much wronged him as she has wronged all the princes and officers of the kingdom. "For," they declare, "this deed of the queen will surely come to be known in all the provinces unto all the women; and when it is known that queen Vashti refused to come before the king at his command, what hope can there be that the wives throughout the great kingdom will continue to be respectfully obedient to their husbands?" So the king, forgetting for the time his discomfiture, sends letters to all the provinces,

proclaiming that the man is the head of the household and that this new idea of the independence of woman, of the right of woman to question the authority of the husband to rule the household, should be crushed at once. It was decreed that all wives everywhere should give to their husbands honor and obedience-both to great and small-and that the proclamation should be written among the laws of the Medes and Persians that it might not be altered.

Afterwards when the wrath of King Ahasuerus has subsided and his thoughts turn to the dethroned Vashti, his officers who advised him to depose the queen seek security for themselves in a plan to choose a new queen. They suggest that there be gathered at the palace fair young virgins from every province of the kingdom and that the maiden who shall please the king most shall be made queen instead of Vashti. The plan pleases the king and the maidens are assembled. Mordecai, an attendant at the court, a Jew, places his cousin Esther among the candidates for the king's favor, and so beautiful and charming is she that the king chooses her from among the great company of maidens as being most worthy to sit on the throne as queen of the realm. Soon after the crowning of Esther, Mordecai discovers a conspiracy against the life of the king and makes it known to Esther; she informs the king and the conspirators are arrested and put to death, and a record of the faithful service of Esther and Mordecai is made in the chronicles of the court.

Haman, the villain of the story, is now introduced. He is a cold, shrewd, cunning politician who has worked his way close up to the throne and, as prime minister, is the most influential man in the kingdom. He is not a man of noble blood, but the king issues an order that all men shall nevertheless show him the reverence due to his station. All the courtiers pay deference to him except one, Mordecai, who refuses to bow down before him. Haman determines to be revenged for Mordecai's disrespect. But he will not be satisfied with revenge upon Mordecai alone. He will humble the whole hated race to which Mordecai belongs. Accordingly he ac

cuses the Jews in the kingdom of disloyalty to the king and asks for authority to put them all to death. So artfully does he put his proposal before the king that the king at once commits the whole matter into his hands, gives him the royal signet ring that he may send out decrees with full authority, and refuses even to accept the large sum of money which Haman promises to pay into the treasury when the property of the condemned Jews is confiscated.

Mordecai learns of the plan to destroy his people, but is helpless to avert the coming danger. He sends a copy of the proclamation to Esther, with the urgent request that she go before the king and protest against the slaughter of her people. She replies, "I can do nothing; for thirty days the king has not called me before him; I am no longer in favor with the king; I can do nothing.' But with that sublime faith characteristic of the Hebrew people all through the ages, Mordecai returns answer, 'Who knows but that you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this?" And heroically Esther replies, "I will go into the presence of the king, and if I perish, I perish.'

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Esther lays her plans with womanly skill and womanly courage. She fasts three days and asks her people in the palace and the city to fast with her. At the end of that time she prepares to present her petition to the king. What a thrilling moment it is! The courtiers stand aghast at the audacity of a woman who would go from the harem unasked into the presence of the king. With beating heart and blushing face she rushes through the throng and throws herself at the king's feet. Is it death or life? If the king does not hold out to her his golden scepter, it is death. There is a pause and Ahasuerus holds out his scepter. "What is your petition?" he asks, "and I will grant it even to the half of my kingdom." She merely begs that he honor her by coming to a banquet of wine that she has prepared for him, and requests that he bring Haman with him.

They sit down to the banquet of wine. The king perceives that there is something weighing on Esther's mind. "What wilt thou have?" he asks, "and it is granted thee