Sunday Evening, Sept. 22, 1832. "Where hast thou gleaned to-day, and where wroughtest thou?" Ruth ii. 19. "Mr. Farrar opened his discourse by observing, that the good that attended our Saviour's instruction, was the more striking, when we observe the familiarity of his subjects. The images employed were not far fetched, or too refined to be understood. Viewing those pastoral plains of the East, whilst the numerous flocks followed their shepherds, (for the Eastern shepherds lead, not drive their flocks,) he delivered that beautiful parable. 'I am the good shepherd, my sheep hear my voice, &c.' It might be that reclining under a vine, whilst its rich clusters of grapes hung above them, that he compared himself to the vine, and his disciples to the branches, and then adds, ‘Abide in me and I in you, so shall ye bear much fruit.' The Spring of the year might have furnished him with the opportunity, of comparing the sower and his seed to the word of God, scattered on the different soils of the human heart. "When the fields were brown with Autumn, and the wheat ready for the sickle, he could take hold of that season of the year to convey instruction by comparing the field to the world, the reapers to the angels, the wheat to the righteous, and the tares to the wicked. Thus every passing event, every common occurrence was marked by him, as a means to convey instruction. This is the apology we shall make, if indeed any may be needed, for the selection of a text that may appear singular. But, whatever the Holy Ghost has condescended to write for our instruction, can never be unimportant or trifling. We shall consider the question before us in three ways; first, as occurring in the sacred history; secondly, as referring to the season of the year; and thirdly, by spiritualizing, bring it home to our hearts. "It is the history of a family who lived in Bethlehem Juda. This city being visited by a dreadful famine, (a very common event in those eastern countries) Elimelech, a prince of his tribe, with Naomi his wife and two sons, took shelter in the country of Moab; but scarcely had they settled in the country, than Elimelech died, leaving Naomi a destitute widow in a strange land. Of all the dispensations of a mysterious Providence, through which as his creatures he calls us to pass, perhaps the state of widowhood may be the most poignant and complicated. The death of a husband is doubly afflictive. The bereaved wife not only finds herself deprived of his society, but his pro tection; his counsels too are gone, and now she feels she wants them most; perhaps too by his death, she is deprived of the means of subsistence; perhaps his circumstances would |