Ruth going into that harvest-field might have said: "There is a straw,
and there is a straw, but what is a straw? I can't get any barley for
myself or my mother-in-law out of these separate straws." Not so said
beautiful Ruth. She gathered two straws, and she put them together,
and more straws, until she got enough to make a sheaf. Putting that
down, she went and gathered more straws, until she had another sheaf,
and another, and another, and another, and then she brought them all
together, and she threshed them out, and she had an ephah of barley,
nigh a bushel. Oh, that we might all be gleaners!
Elihu Burritt learned many things while toiling in a blacksmith's
shop. Abercrombie, the world-renowned philosopher, was a philosopher
in Scotland, and he got his philosophy, or the chief part of it,
while, as a physician, he was waiting for the door of the sick-room to
open. Yet how many there are in this day who say they are so busy they
have no time for mental or spiritual improvement; the great duties of
life cross the field like strong reapers, and carry off all the hours,
and there is only here and there a fragment left, that is not worth
gleaning. Ah, my friends, you could go into the busiest day and
busiest week of your life and find golden opportunities, which,
gathered, might at last make a whole sheaf for the Lord's garner. It
is the stray opportunities and the stray privileges which, taken up
and bound together and beaten out, will at last fill you with much
joy.
There are a few moments left worth the gleaning. Now, Ruth, to the
field! May each one have a measure full and running over! Oh, you
gleaners, to the field! And if there be in your household an aged one
or a sick relative that is not strong enough to come forth and toil in
this field, then let Ruth take home to feeble Naomi this sheaf of
gleaning: "He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed,
shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with
him." May the Lord God of Ruth and Naomi be our portion forever!