And Ruth the Moabitish said unto Naomi, Let me now go to the field, and glean ears of corn after him in whose sight I shall find grace. And she said unto her, Go, my daughter.
Reader! if we apply this passage in a spiritual sense to the state of the soul (and I see no reason why we may not) it will open a subject both pleasing and profitable. When a sinner is brought by the Holy Ghost out of the world, as Ruth was out of Moab, though the world promiseth plenty of enjoyments, and a fulness of all sensual pleasures, yet the poor in spirit desires rather to glean of the bread of life, even though but in the smallest portion of the ears of corn, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season. But then the desire of the awakened soul is also to glean after him in whose sight is found grace. And in whose sight but Jesus can sinners find grace? In the field of his word, his scriptures, his ordinances, there is plenty indeed to glean; and if the Lord Jesus gives grace, he will give the soul to find and inherit substance, and he will fill their treasures. Proverbs 8:18-21.