<h2><SPAN name="LOVE_AND_LOYALTY" id="LOVE_AND_LOYALTY" /><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_74" id="Page_74"></SPAN>[74]</span>LOVE AND LOYALTY</h2>
<p>Once upon a time, long, long ago, there was a man who had a wife and two
sons. There was a famine in the land where he lived, so he said to his
wife and sons, "We will journey down to another country where the crops
have not failed. There shall we find plenty to eat, and there will we
make our home."</p>
<p>So the family moved to the strange land where they prospered and were
happy. In time the boys grew to young manhood and married young women of
the new land where they dwelt. Then sorrow entered their homes, as
sorrow comes sooner or later to every home. The father and the two sons
died, and the mother and her two daughters-in-law were left alone. The
mother, whose name was Naomi, said, "I am going back to the land where I
lived in former days, back to the people of my girlhood." The young
women said, "We shall go with you also." "No," replied Naomi, "you must
not do that. Go back to your homes, there you shall be cared for, and
may the Lord deal gently with you."</p>
<p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_75" id="Page_75"></SPAN>[75]</span>The names of these two daughters-in-law were Ruth and Orpah. It was
Ruth who then spoke up and said in words that are not surpassed in all
the English language:</p>
<div class="blockquot"><p>"Intreat me not to leave thee, Or to return from following after
thee; For whither thou goest I will go; And where thou lodgest I
will lodge; Thy people shall be my people, And thy God my God;
Where thou diest will I die, And there will I be buried; The Lord
do so to me, and even more, If ought but death part thee and me."</p>
</div>
<p>Great words are these, words of love and loyalty.</p>
<p>MEMORY VERSE, <i>Exodus</i> 20: 12</p>
<div class="blockquot"><p>"Honour thy father and thy mother; that thy days may be long upon
the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee."</p>
</div>
<p>MEMORY HYMN [668]</p>
<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
<span><i>"O perfect love, all human thought transcending."</i><br/></span></div>
</div>
<hr style="width: 65%;" />
<h2><SPAN name="KUMMOGOKDONATTOOTTAMMOCTITEAONGANNUNNONASH" id="KUMMOGOKDONATTOOTTAMMOCTITEAONGANNUNNONASH" /><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_76" id="Page_76"></SPAN>[76]</span<div style="break-after:column;"></div><br />