From _Ruth_.
Frederick Denison Maurice mentioned the story of _Ruth_ in one
of his lectures, speaking of Mrs. Gaskell as “a noble-hearted
and pure-minded writer, who had given a story as true to human
experience as it is to the divinest morality.”
“Now I wish God would give me power to speak out convincingly what I
believe to be His truth, that not every woman who has fallen is depraved;
that many—how many the Great Judgment Day will reveal to those who
have shaken off the poor, sore, penitent hearts on earth—many, many
crave and hunger after a chance for virtue—the help which no man gives
to them—help—that gentle, tender help which Jesus gave once to Mary
Magdalen.” Mr. Benson was almost choked by his own feelings.
“Come, come, Mr. Benson, let us have no more of this morbid way of
talking. The world has decided how such women are to be treated; and,
you may depend upon it, there is so much practical wisdom in the world
that its way of acting is right in the long run, and that no one can
fly in its face with impunity, unless, indeed, they stoop to deceit and
imposition.”
“I take my stand with Christ against the world,” said Mr. Benson
solemnly, disregarding the covert allusion to himself. “What have the
world’s ways ended in? Can we be much worse than we are?”
“Speak for yourself, if you please.”
“Is it not time to change some of our ways of thinking and acting? I
declare before God, that if I believe in any one human truth, it is
this—that to every woman, who, like Ruth, has sinned, should be given
a chance of self-redemption—and that such a chance should be given in
no supercilious or contemptuous manner, but in the spirit of the holy
Christ.”
“Such as getting her into a friend’s house under false colours.”
“I do not argue on Ruth’s case. In that I have acknowledged my error.
I do not argue on any case. I state my firm belief, that it is God’s
will that we should not dare to trample any of His creatures down to
the hopeless dust; that it is God’s will that the women who have fallen
should be numbered among those who have broken hearts to be bound up, not
cast aside as lost beyond recall. If this be God’s will, as a thing of
God it will stand; and He will open a way.”