There have been
such men in all wild times--outlaws, chiefs of armed bands, like our
Robin Hood, whose name was honoured in England for hundreds of years as
the protector of the poor and the opprest, and the punisher of the Norman
tyrants: a man made up of much good and much evil, whom we must not
judge, but when we think of him, only thank God that we do not live in
such times now, when no man's life or property, or the honour of his
family was safe.

Such men, too, in our fathers' days, were the Tyrolese heroes, Hofer and
the Good Monk who left, the one his farm and the other his cloister, to
lead their countrymen against the invading French; men of blood, who were
none the less men of God. And such is, in our own days, that famous
Garibaldi, whose portrait hangs in many an English cottage, for a proof
that though we, thank God, do not need such men in peaceful England, our
hearts bid us to love and honour them wherever they be. There have been
such men in all bad times, and there will be till the world's end, and
they will do great deeds, and their names will be famous, and often
honoured and adored by men.

Now, what does the Bible say of such men? Does it give any rule by which
we may judge them? any rule which they ought to obey? Can God's blessing
be on them? Can they obey God in that wild and dark and dangerous
station to which He seems to have called them--to which God certainly
called Hofer and the Good Monk?

I think if the Bible did not answer that question it would not be a
complete book--if it spoke only of peaceful folk, and peaceful times;
when, alas! from the beginning of the world, the earth has been but too
full of violence and misrule, war and desolation. But the Bible _does_
answer that question. A large portion of one whole book is actually
taken up with the history of a young outlaw--of David, the shepherd boy,
who rises through strange temptations and dangers to be a great king, the
first man who, since Moses, formed the Jews into one strong united
nation. It does not hide his faults, even his fearful sins, but it shows
us that he _had_ a right road to follow, though he often turned aside
from it. It shows us that he could be a good man if he chose, though he
was an outlaw at the head of a band of ruffians; and it shows us the
secret of his power and of his success--_Faith in the Living God_.

Therefore it is that after the Bible has shown us (in the Book of Ruth)
worthy Boaz stand