shaken the world, and their echo will never die away.

Their mutual love and devout character, remind us of the affectionate
fidelity to each other and to God, of Ruth the Moabitess, and her Hebrew
mother-in-law Naomi, who lived in the time of the Judges.

Naomi's family were self-exiled on account of famine in Palestine. Ruth
had married a man of Moab; but he and her father-in-law died. A sister
whose husband was brother to her own, was also a widow; and when Naomi
determined to return to her native land, at her request, Orphah sought
her people and friends.

Ruth would not leave the pilgrim to the Holy Land. Embracing Naomi, she
said: "Entreat me not to leave thee, for where thou goest I will go, and
where thou lodgest, I will lodge: thy people shall be mine, and thy God
my God: where thou diest I will die, and there will I be buried: naught
but death shall part us."

Beautiful and brave heart! home, and friends, and wealth, nay, the gods
she had been taught to worship, were all forgotten in the warmth of her
affection. Tearful yet firm, "Entreat me not to leave thee," she said.
"I care not for the future; I can bear the worst; and when thou art
taken from me, I will linger around thy grave till I die, and then the
stranger shall lay me by thy side!" What could Naomi do but fold the
beautiful being to her bosom and be silent, except as tears gave
utterance to her emotions. Such a heart outweighs the treasures of the
world, and such absorbing love, truth, and virtue, make all the
accomplishments of life appear worthless in comparison.

God blessed their devotion to him and each other, giving his special
tokens of favor to the young heroine from Moab. Upon reaching Bethlehem,
she went into the fields of a kinsman of her mother-in-law, Boaz, a
wealthy citizen, to glean after the reapers. He inquired after her,
became interested in her, and, remembering his obligations on account of
their relationship, married her. An honorable portion and plenty crowned
the homeless wanderings of Ruth and Naomi, as they did the captivity of
Mordecai and Esther.

About two hundred years after the death of the latter, the Hebrew
Scriptures were translated into Greek by the order of Ptolemy
Philadelphus, the Egyptian sovereign of Palestine, making the famous
Septuagint--the name probably referring to seventy-two persons engaged
on the work.

A little over two centuries passed, and the Roman armies began their
conquests in Asia. Less