She took it up, and went into the city.
Careful of the fruit of labour
It is no less necessary to be careful of the fruit of our labours than to labour with diligence. “In all labour there is profit,” says the wise man; yet there are some that labour for the wind. They lose what they have wrought because they suffer it, through their carelessness, to slip through their fingers. This folly, however, is much less frequent in things relating to the body than in those which relate to the soul. Yet some need admonition to manage their worldly affairs with discretion; but it is far more needful to be careful that we lose none of those things which we have wrought in the service of God, for the benefit of our souls, but that we receive a full reward. (G. Lawson.)
Carry home the wheat
You know it is one thing to have grace, and another thing to have common sense. But she had both. She had got more than she wanted, and “she beat out that she had gleaned; and it was about an ephah of barley.” And she carried away--the straw? No, she did not; but that is what we do sometimes. We attend a meeting, and when we go away we leave the corn behind, and carry away the straw. (H. Moorhouse.)