Some sixteen hundred years before the first advent of the Lord's ANIONTED, there lived in Bethlehem a man of wealth and distinction. He possessed extensive flocks and herds, and fields, and all the usual resources of oriental riches. Palestine was then the land that _flowed with milk and honey_. Though there had been periods when for the sins of the people the heavens were shut, and the dews and rains withheld--till the blight of sterility seemed to have impressed its dreary iron aspect upon every smiling valley and sunny hill:--at the time to which we refer it was not so. That whole region then poured forth its productions most luxuriantly, for the blessing of the Lord was upon the land. And now the season of the barley harvest had arrived, and the reapers went forth with their sickles to cut down the bearded and bending grain. This opulent citizen of Bethlehem, to whom we have referred, when the rising sun, ascending the deep blue arch of heaven and pouring its full orbed radiance over hill and dale, had drank up the dew drops of morning, rode forth into the country amid vine-clad hills, and beneath groves of olive and palm till he reached his own paternal estate. The bright luminary of day now poured down a full tide of heat and effulgence over the whole surrounding scene. The reapers were plying their glittering steel, and gathering the falling grain into sheaves. The sound of rustic music came upon his ears as he rode along through the fields. It was the song of the reapers. He approached them. They were his own hired servants. Though they were poor, and had to toil for their daily bread, their wealthy employer did not despise them. He was one who feared the Lord, and saw in every human form a brother. Kind were his words as he approached the reapers, and full of pious sentiment--for his salutation was, _The Lord be with you_. Those sun-burnt and swarthy laborers, suspending for a moment their toil, respectfully and piously responded, _The Lord bless thee_. I know not what other pleasant discourse followed. An object of deep interest now presented itself to the rich owner of these grounds. In a distant part of the field was to be seen the slender and delicate form of a young female walking hither and thither to gather up the scattered heads of barley that had escaped the hand of the reaper. Then said he to his servant who was set over the reapers: _Whose damsel is this?_ And he replied, _It is the Moabitish damsel that came back with Naomi_.