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IK X )K A SERIES OF ONE HUNDRED DELIGHTFUL FIRESIDE STORIES, IN THE CHATTY, CONVER- SATIONAL STYLE, IN WHICH GRANDPA GOODWIN NARRATES THE MOST WON- DERFUL OCCURRENCES RECORDED IN THE SACRED VOLUME IN A MANNER TO CHARM THE YOUNG FOLKS BY THE REAL ROMANCE THEY CONTAIN, AND AT THE SAME TIME SOW THE GOOD WHEAT OF DIVINE TRUTH IN FERTILE SOIL, BY REV. GEORGE A. PELTZ, D. D. rORMBMLV ASSOL'IATB lUITOR SUNDAY SCHOOL TIMBS, ETC., »TC. , ■^, ^ jl Kiciii V nil ^iKwrHi) BEST BROTHERS, Publishers, TORONTO AND WINNIPEG, 1887. Bul I /4^^3 Entered accordInK to Act of (oiiKresK. In llie year 1K85, by HrHBAHD imoTHKHH, In the Office of the Librarian of ftonKress, at Washington. PREFACE. This book is unique in some important respects. Bible stories have been told in tlie words of tiie Bible and in the sermonizing or didactic style, but seldom have they appeared in the real language of the household and in the sprightly, conversational manner of an intelligent family group about the home fireside. This home style is that which childhood craves, which childhood understands. Not to be read to nor preached at is childhood's de- light; but to be talked with, to have questions answered and s^xpla- nations given, to give and take in the bright word battles of the home circle. For the lack of this attractive, nineteenth-century style, books of Bible stories and the Bible itself lie neglected and unread by numbers of well-meaning people. To popularize the rich treas- ures of the Book of Books is the aim of Grandpa Goodwin's Stories. In developing the fireside conversations of the book representative characters have been chosen. Grandpa himself, Mrs. Reed, Mary, Carrie, and Charley are just such people as live everywhere. There is not an unreal charactei- in the entire group, and the stories are looked at through the eyes of childhood. They are clothed in the language of home ; they are brightened with the queries and com- PREFACE. ments of a company of wide-awake juveniles ; and yet, in them all there is a scrupulous regard for truth and a constant pursuit of the profitable. To children these stories will prove a genuine delight ; to parents or teachers a valuable help. The source whence these stories are drawn is at once the most ancient, the most varied, and the most authentic in the world. It commands a wider and more profound reverence than any other volume extant. Its narratives diverge widely from the beaten paths of nineteenth-century life, but they invariably lead to the higher grounds of a nobler and happier career. To effectively present these romances of sacred writ in the most attractive torm, the reader is introduced into Grandpa Goodwin's home. Sitting there and chatting with him and his dear ones, many u happy hour will be passed and many a precious lesson will be learned. The power of illustration has also been brought to bear in this volume. It is adorned with nearly two hundred elegant engravings, about half of which are full-page size. The value of such a pictorial presentation of truth will be incalculable to the children and their maturer friends. Every one of these illustrations throws light upon the text with which it is used, and the one result of the volume must be entertainment and profit. CONTENTS. Vkam THE WEEK OF WONDERS; or, Making Great Things out of Notkino, 27 Genesis i, i — 31 ; Hebrews xi, 3. . , f A PEEP INTO PARADISE; or, Happy People in A Happy Home 36 Genesis ii, 1—25; Revelation ii, 7 ; xxii, 1—5. I III. FEASTING ON FORBIDDEN FRUIT; or, Trifling with a Serpent 40 Genesis iii, i — 21. IV, LEAVING A HAPPY HOME; OR, From Peace and Plenty to Toil and Tears, ... 48 Genesis iii, 22 — 24, V. BURNING THE FIRST FRUITS; OR, A Wicked Brother's Brutal Deed 51 Genesis iv, i — 8 ; Hebrews xi, 4. VI. THE VOICE OF VtOOD; or, A Strange Cry from the Ground 56 Gsnesis iv, 9 — 16; Matthew xxiii, 35 ; Hebrews xii, 24. vii viu CONTENTS. VII. PAGk GREATER AND RICHER; OR, From Farm Life TO City Splendor 60 Genesis iv, i6 — 24. VIII. ALONE, YET NOT ALONE; OR, The Unseen Companion OF A Singular Mam, .... 64 Genesis v, 21 — 24; Hebrews xi, 5, 5. IX. A HUNDRED YEARS' JOB; or, A Marvelous Piece of Joiner Work 69 Genesis vi, l — 22; Hebrews xi, 7 ; J Peter iii, 20; II Peter ii, 5. t X. TOO WICKED TO LIVE; or. The Greatest Storm on Record, 74 Genesis vii, I — 24; Matthew xxiv, 37 — 39. XI. THE BOW OF BEAUTY; or, A Token of Good Things to Come 7S Genesis viii, i — 22; ix, i — 17. XII. MAKlriG FUN OF HIS FATHER; or. When Wine is in Wit is Out 83 Genesis ix, 18 — 29. XIII. TOO BIG A JOB ; or, A Sudden Change ok Plan 87 Genesis xi, I — 9. XIV. SURPRISED .\ND DELIGHTED; or. The First Sight of a Splendid Inheritance, . 91 Genesis xi, 26 — 32 ; xii, i — 20. • XV. TRUE NOBILITY; or. Stooping to Conquer 95 Genesis xiii, i — 18. CONTENTS. ix XVI. HOME FROM THE FIGHT; or, Roval Honors for Victom, 'j^JJ Genesis xiv, i — 24. XVH. LESSONS FROM THE STARS; or, A Grand Future Foretold, 04 Genesis XV, I— 6; Hebrews xi, II, 12. xvni. . FAMILY TROUBLES; or, The Sfrpknt in the Home,. . 107 Genesis xvi, i— 16; xxi, I— 21 ; xxv, 9—18. XIX. THREE WONDERFUL GUESTS; or, Enthrtaining Angels Unawares, nt Genesis xviii, i — ■^■^. XX. EVERYTHING DESTROYED; or, Fleeing from the Burning City, 116 Genesis xix, I — 38; Deuteronomy xxix, 23. XXL A TIMELY RESCUE; or. The Child of Promise Saved ,20 Genesis xxii, i— 19; Hebrews xi, 17—19. XXIL A QUEER COURTSHIP; or. Why Supper was Delayed ,2^ Genesis xxiv, i — 67. XXIH. SHARP PRACTICE; or, Diamond Cut Diamond , . ,30 Genesis xxvii, 1—45 ; Hebrews xi, 20. XXIV. THE WONDERFUL LADDER; or, A Stairway to the Skies, ,35 Genesis xxviii, I— 22; John i, 51. If z CONTENTS. XXV. Paob WHICH HE LOVED BEST; or, Seeking One and Gettino Two, 140 Genesis xxix, 1 — 30; xxx, 35 — 43; xxxi, i — 55. XXVI. A FAMOUS WRESTLING MATCH ; or. The Victorious Crippls, 144 Geneiii, chapteri xxxii — xxxiii. XXVII. THE FRUITS OF ENVY; OR, Darterino Away A Brother, . . 148 Genesis xxxvii, 1 — 36. XXV TIL FROM PRISON TO POWER; or, Good Brought Out OF Evil, 152 Genesis, chapters xxxix, xl, xli. XXIX. HUNGRY AND HELPLESS; or, Boyhood's Dreams Fulfilled, 156 Genesis, chapters xlii — Ixvii. I ■ XXX. . HARD TIMES; or. Much Work and Little Pay, 162 Genesis, chapters xlviii — 1; Exodus i, I — 16. XXXL A WAIF ON THE WATER; OR, Floating Into Fortune, 165 Exodus, chapters ii, iii. ^ XXXII. A STRANGE SNAKE STORY; or, One Swallowing a Multitude, 170 Exodus iv, I — 23; vii, I — 12. xxxin. FLYING FOR FREEDOM; OR, A Marvelous Deliverance 173 Exodus vii, 1 2 — 25; chapters viii — xv. CONTENTS. xl XXXIV. Pao* HANDS UP; or, How They Won the Battle 180 Exodiu xvii, 8—16. XXXV. A POOR EXCUSE; OR, What Came Out OP THE Fire * 183 Exodus, cSapterb xix, xxxii. XXXVI. THE GORGEOUS TENT; or, Worship m THE 'V ldernuss, r8« Exodus, chapters xxv — xxxi, a.xxv — xl , Niri.jers xvii. XXXVIl. LIFE FOR A LOOK; or, Thousands Curkd Tiiough F"^\lly Bitten 193 Numbers xxi, 4 — 9; II Kings xviii, 4 ; John iii, 14, 15. XXXVHL FORTY YEARS A GENERAL; or, Surrenderinc; a Great Commission 197 Numbers xxvii, 15 — 23; Deuteronomy xxxiv; Joshua i, i — 18; v, 13 — 15. XXXIX. WATER HEAPED UP; OR, The Wonderfui. Crossing, 202 Joshua, chapters iii, iv. XL. VICTORY AND DEFEAT; OR, Why They Conquered AND How They Fled, 206 Joshua, chapters vi — viii. XLI. DIVIDING THE INHERIT \NCE; or. Realizing A Great Possession 210 Joshua, chapters x — xix. XLII. STRENGTHTURNEDTO WEAKNESS; or. How THE Mighty Fell, 214 Judges, chapters xiii — xvi. xii CONTENTS. XLIII. Paob UNDYING DEVOTION; or, Two LoviNr. Hearts 219 Ruth, chapters i — iv. XLIV. BRAVE DEEDS OF A SHEPHERD BOV; or, Fit to Become A King, 224 I Samuel xvii. XLV. A RUGGED WAV TO THE THRONE; or, Patience and Forbearance Rewarded, . . 230 I Samuel, chapters xvi — xxxi; II Samuel i. XLVI. THE WAYWARD SON; or, Troubles AND Trials About THE Throne, 236 II Samuel, chapters xiv — xviii. XLVII. GREATEST AMONG KINGS; or, Splendor Dazzlincj A Queen, 240 I Kings i, S — 53; chapters ii — x; Matthew vi, 28 — 30. XLVIII. THE RIVAL KINGS ; or, Rough Roads for Royal Fkkt 245 I Kings xi, 26 — 43; chapters xii — xiv. XLIX. MIRACULOUS FEEDING; OR, Strange Supplies IN Dire Distress, 249 I Kings xvii, i — 24; Luke iv, 25, 26. L. THE PLOWMAN'S APPOINTMENT; or. Called to A Great Office, 254 I Kings xix, 15 — 21 ; II Kings, chapters ii — iv. LI. THE LITTLE CAPTIVE; or. What A Serving Maid May Do 259 II Kings V, I — 27. CONTENTS. xiii LI I. Pagb THE MYSTERIOUS PANIC; or, Abundance for Starvation, 263 II Kings vi, 24 — ly, vii, 1—20. LIII. THROWN FROM THE WINDOW; OR, A Wicked Queen's Fearful End, 267 II Kings ix, 30—37. LIV. GOOD AND BEAUTIFUL; or, A Godly Queen's Noble Act, 270 Esther, chapters i — x. LV, SATAN LET LOOSE; or, Suffering Without Sinning, 275 Job, chapters i, ii, xlii. LVI. UNCOMFORTABLE QUARTERS; or, The Runaway Brought Back 280 Jonah, chapters i, ii; Matthew xii, 40. LVII. THE DISAPPOINTED PREACHER; OR, Prophecy not Fulfilled 284 Jonah iii,iv; Matthew xii, 41. LVIII. FOUR NOBLE BOYS; or, Right Better than Royalty 288 Daniel i, i — 21, ! LIX. FAITHFUL AND FEARLESS; or, Bravinp, Death for Duty's Sake, 293 Daniel, chapters ii, iii, vi. LX. THE MYSTERIOUS MESSAGE; or, Panic at the Feast 2^ Daniel v, i — 31. xiv CONTENTS. LXI, Pagb WONDERFUL BABES; or, The King and his Herald, 303, Luke i, 5 — 80; ii, 21 — 40. LXIL CHRISTMAS CAROLS; or, Heaven and Earth Rejoicing, 308 Luke ii, i — 20. LXHL LED BY A STAR; or, A Long Way TC Worship 313. Matthew ii, i — 23. LXIV. PUZZLING HIS TEACHERS; or, Youth Wiser than Old Age, 317 Luke ii, 41 — 52. LXV. A BACKWOODS PREACHER; or, Crying IN the Wilderness, 322 Matthew iii; Luke iii, i — 20; John i, 18 — 37; Matthew xiv, i — 12. LXVI. THE WONDERFUL WATER- JARS; OR, Serving His Friends 328 John .i, I — II. LXVII. CHOOSING COMPANIONS ; or. How the Lord Got His Helpers nz Matthew x; John iii, I — 21. LXVIII. A DEN OF THIEVES; or. Turning the Rascals Out, 338 John ii, 13 — 17; Matthew xxi, 10 — 13. 1 LXIX. WALKING ON THE WAVES; or. Lord of the Seas 342 Matthew viii, 23—26; xiv, 22 — 33; Mark vi, 45 — 51. I !■ 'fl * ^iiii*«B*i ' - CONTENTS. XV LXX. pAr R THE GREAT OCULIST; or, Sight for the Blind 3^7 Matthew ix, 27—31 ; xi, 4, 5; Mark viii, 22—25; «, 46—52; John ix, i— 41. LXXI. GETTING AT THE DOCTOR; or, Odd Ways of Gaining a Cure 352 Mark v, 24—34; Luke v, 18—26. LXXII. THE CHILDREN'S FRIEND ; or, Jesus Among the Little Ones, 357 Mark v, 21—43; w. »7— 29. Lxxin, CALLED BACK FROM THE GRAVE; or, Victories over Death, 363 Luke vii, II— 15; John xi, I— 54. LXXIV. THE ROYAL SHEPHERD; or, Love for the Lowly 35^ John X, I— 18; Luke xv, 1—7. LXXV. SCATTERING SEED; OH, Evil Among THE Good, ... Matthew xiii, i — 30, 36 — 43. LXXVL WONDERS OF YEAST; or, The Power of Influence, 380 Matthew xiii, 33. LXXVn. VINES AND FRUIT TREES; or. Shall we Cut it Down ? 384 John XV, 1—8; Luke xiii, 6—9. LXXVIII. SEEKING IN EARNEST; or, Bound to Win 33^ Matthew xiii, 44— 46; Luke XV, 8, 9. 'i£Su^em^ii£M.- '11 i r xvi CONTENTS. LXXIX. Pagb A ROYAL WELCOME; or, The Wanderer Home Again 396 Luke XV, II — 24. LXXX. TOO LATE; OR, Rejected AT the Door, 400 Matthew xxv, i — 13. LXXXL GENEROSITY ABUSED; OR, Forgiveness FOR THE Forgiving, 405 Matthew xviii, 23 — 35. LXXXIL WORK AND WAGES; or. Settling with the Servants, 409 Matthew xx, i — 16. LXXXin. ANOINTING JESUS; or, The Good Work of Two Women, 414 Luke vii, 36 — 50; John xii, I — 7. LXXXIV. THE TRIUMPHAL MARCH; OR, A Worthy Welcome to the King, 419 John xii, 12 — 16. LXXXV. GATHERING DARKNESS ; or. Love and Sorrow Strangely Blended 424 John, chapters xiii — xviii; Mark xiv, 26 — 52. LXXXVI. BETRAYED AND BOUND; or. Still Deeper Darkness 43° Luke xxii, 39—54; Matthew xxvi, 30 — 56. LXXXVII. MIDNIGHT ADVENTURES; OR, Deserted and Denied 435 Mark xiv, 53—72 ; Luke xxii, 21 — 34, 54 — 62. ill CONTENTS. xvn LXXXVIII, A MOCKERY OF JUSTICE; or, Overawed by a Mon Matthew xxvii, 1—32; Mark xv, i— 21; Luke xxiii, I— 32; John xviii, xix, i— 16. Page 440 LXXXIX. IT IS FINISHED; or, The Tragedy Covu-leted Matthew xxvii, 34—66; Mark xv, 22—47; Luke xxiii, 33—56; John xix, 17—42. 447 XC. THE OPENED TOMB; or, From Death to Life Again Matthew xxviii; Mark xvi; Luke xxiv, 1—49; John xx, xxi. 454 XCI. THE CONQUEROR'S RETURN; or, A Marvelous Ascension, Luke xxiv, 50-53; Acts i, i— n. 461 XCII. TALKING IN STRANGE TONGUES; or, Power from on High, Actsi, 12— 26; ii; iv. 32— 37; v, I— 11. 466 XCIII. POWER IN A NAME; or, A Lame Man Caused to Leap, Acts iii, I — 26. 473 XCIV. FREED FROM PRISON; or, Doors Opened without Hands, Acts xii, I — 23. 478 XCV. PICKING UP A PASSENGER; oR, The Right Man in the Right Place, Acts viii, 26 — 40. 483 XCVI. A BONFIRE OF BOOKS; or. Strange Honors for True Men, Acts xiv, 8 — 18; xix, I — 20. 489 xviii CONTENTS. XCVII. Pacb IN THE PATH OF DUTY; or, Tears and Terrors Powerless, 495 Acts, chapters xx — xxvi. XCVHI. THE IMPERIAL CITY; or, The End AT Hand, 500 Acts, chapters xxvii, xxviii. XCIX. LESSONS FROM NATURE; OR, New Views OF Old Subjects 506 Isaiah xxxii, 2; Song of Solomon ii, i ; Luke xii, 4. C THE VENERABLE PRISONER; OR, Broad Views from A Narrow Island, 51a Revelation, chapters i — xxii. I List of Illustrations. ►Grandpa's Stories from the Wonderful Book ' Fkontispirce. Philip Doddridge Taught by Pictures (fu)I page) ^*°» Emerging from Chaos Dominion Over Created Things, "'' Hiding from the Lord ^^ Expelled from Paradise ^^ Toiling for Daily Bread, '*^ Burning the First Fruits '^^ Slaying His Brother, ^^ Fleeing from the Dead (full page) ^^ Building a City ^^ 62 Walking Heavenward (full page) The Boatbuilder Taught The Dove Sent Forth (full page), '" ' Coming Ashore yg The Bow of Beauty, c. Cursed be Canaan, g« Scattering of the Nations, A Splendid Outlook, ^ ( 02 Abram's Magnanimous Offer (full page) Blessing the Victors, o . o '02 Seeing Stars Banished from Home, Entertaining Angels, ■A City on Fire, '^ "7 xlx XX LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. Pacb A Narrow Escape, 122 Seeking a Bride, 125 Meeting; a Husband, 127 An Oriental Well-scene (full page), 129 The Wrong Man Blessed, 133 The Wonderful Ladder, 137 Fixing His Wages 141 Off for Home, . . ■ 143 A Strange Wrestling Match, 146 Reconciliation 147 A Wicked Sale, 150 Before the King, 154 In the Place of Honor • 157 The Unknown Brother (fii'l page) 159 A Glad Meeting 161 Hard Times 163 Rescuing a Waif, ... i66 Slaying the Tyrant, 167 Burning, yet not Consumed (full page) 169 Sticks Turned to Snakes 17 1 Death in every House 174 Buried in the Sea (full page) 177 Celebrating Victory (full page), 179 Winning the Battle (full page), 181 Worshiping a Calf, 185 Mount Sinai (full page), 187 The Tent of Worship 189 Carrie's Flan of the Tabernacle, 190 Blossoms on a Rod 191 The Healing Serpent (full page), 19S The New Commander 198 The Commander-in-Chief, . . • 201 Waters Heaped Up (full page) "Joj LIST OF ILL USTRA TIONS. xxi Pagb Carry Out the Memorials (full page), 205 The Falling WalU of Jericho, 207 Recovering the Stolen Treasures (full page), 209 Five Kings in a Cave 211 Dividing the Land by Lot, • 213 Samson Slaying his Foes, 215 Fall of Dagoa's Temple 218 Ruth and Naomi, 221 Ancient Israelites at their Meal (full page) 223 Bearding the Lion in his Den (full page), 225 Gathering Ammunition from the Brook (full page), 227 The Giant Beheaded (full page), • 229 God's Chosen King Anointed, 231 Sparing a Sleeping Foe, 233 Death of Israel's first King (full page), 235 Curses on a King 237 David's Charge to his Son (full page), S41 Royal Courtesies Interchanged (full page), . 243 Dividing the Kingdom, 246 Death of the Young Prince (full page), . . , . • 248 Supplied in the Wilderness (full page), 250 Suppliedin the City (full page), 251 Life for the Dead Boy 253 The Mocking Children (full page), 255 A Marvelous Jar of Oil (full page) 257 View of the Jordan 260 Gehazi's Terrible Penalty (full page) 261 Lepers Viewing the Deserted Camp (full page), 265 Thrown from a Window, 268 Scribes at their Work (full page) 27! Mordecai in Honor (full page), 273 Job in Sorrow (full page), 27^ Job in Prosperity, 279 2 n 11 xxii LIST OF ILLUS2 RATIONS, Tossed into the Sea, 2g| Preaching in Nineveh, 285 Nineveh's Great Palace „ 287 The Young Teetotalers (full page) 289 The Youthful Counsellor (full page), 291 In the Den of Lions, 296 The Proud King's Outlook (full page) 297 The Mysterious Handwriting (full page) 299 Destruction of Babylon (full page) '. 30I John's Birth Foretold, 304 Mary and Elizabeth Rejoicing 305 The Babe in the Temple, 307 The First Christmas Carol 309 Chapel of the Nativity (full page), ■ 310 Telling the Good News 311 Led by a Star (full page) 315 The Boy in the Temple, 319 The Backwoods Preacher, 323 Reproving the Soldiers 324 "Behold the Lamb of God!" 325 A Joyous Feast (full page), 329 View of Cana (full page), 331 The Night Interview 334 " Go ye and Preach," 33S Driving Out the Peddlers 339 View of the Sea of Galilee (full page), 343 Walkingon the Sea (full page), 345 Two Persistent Blind Men, 349 The Oculist at His Work (full page) 3S» A Successful Seeker (full page) 353 Lowered through the Roof (full page) 355 A Helping Hand for a Boy (full page), 358- A Helping Hand for a Girl (full page), 3^1 LIST OF ILL USTRA TIONS. xxiU Paob Life for a Dead Young Man 364 View of bethany (full page), 365 Life for One Dead Four Days 367 The Fond Sheep-owner (full page), 371 Bringing Back the Lost One (full page), 373 Scattering Good Seed (full page) 375 Doing Mischief (full page) 379 Wonders of Yeast (full page), 383 Lessons from the Vine (full page), 385 Shall We Cut it Down ? (full page), 387 Seeking Hidden Treasures (full page) 390 Buying the Splendid Pearl (full page), 391 Search for the Coin (full page) 395 Home Again (full page), 398 The Disappointed Girls (full page), 403 The Forgiving King (full page) 407 Dissatisfied with their Wages (full page), • 413 Jesus Anointed by Mary Magdalene 415 Anointed by the Sister of Lazarus, 4'7 The Triumphal March, 421 View of Jerusalt..' Cfull page) 423 Garden of Gethsemane (f'U page), 426 Agony in the Garden (full page), 429 Arrested and Bound 433 The Fearful Denial (full page) 437 Pilate's Mockery of Justice, 442 On the Way to Calvary, 444 The Sorrowful Way (full page), 445 Church of the Holy Sepulchre (full page) 449 Laid in the Tomb 453 Mary at the Opened Tomb 45^ The Joyful Meeting, 457 The Wayside Talk (full page), 4S9 xxiv LIST OF ILL USTRA TIONS. Paus The Meeting by the Sea 463 Return to the Father 465 DeKent of the Comforter 468 Brin(;ing in the Money (full page), 47 1 The Discarded Crutches (full page) 475 An Unexpected Liberation (full page), 481 A Helpful Companion 4*5 Philip's Fountain 487 Mistaken for Gods 490 A Bonfire of Books (full page), 493 A Tearful Parting 49^ Pursued by a Mob (full page) 499 Aacient Style of Ships 5°' The Appian Way (full page) S03 Paul and his Son in the Gospel (full page) So5 Shadow of a Great Rock, S©?" lily of the Valley S08 Caring for the Birds (full page) 5" The Outlook from Patmos (full page), 5'3^ ,J Grandpa Goodwins Stories FROM The Wonderful Book. I I! ii '* ii I s i PHILIP DODDRIDGE .TAUGHT EY PICTURES. THE WEEK OF WONDERS. 27 THE WEEK OF WONDERS : Or, making great THINGS OUT OF NOTHING. Wl "HEN Grandpa comes I will ask him," said little Charley Reed to his sister Carrie, who had been telling him how the world was made. Her teacher had told her that God made all things out of nothing. Carrie was but two years older than Charley, yet she thought herself quite competent to be his teacher. But Charley was full of questions, and it was not many minutes before he had completely puzzled Carrie, and it was his unsatisfied curiosity about this making of the world that prompted his resolution to atk Grandpa about it. Carne and Charley, with their older sister Mary and their mother, lived at Grandpa's house, their father being away from home much of the time attending to business. Grandpa, or " Grandpa Goodwin," as many persons called him, was Mrs. Reed's father, and he was very fond of his "little pets," the grandchildren. But his fondness was not of a foolish sort. It did not show itself in candies and cakes half so often as in kind and wise words and acts, which made the children happier and better. They believed in Grandpa. They were sure he knew everything, and that he could do everything that was worth doing. Grandpa Goodwin did know a great many things, for he had always loved to read good books and to listen to wise men, and he had a wonderfully happy knack in telling what he knew. Charley waited very impatiently for Grandpa's return. He had never seen anything made out of nothing. His top, he argued, was made out of wood and iron. His pocket-knife was made of iron and steel and bone. His shoes were made of leather. E m 28 GRANDPA GOODWIN'S STORIES. and leather was made of skins, and the skins had grown on cows. So Charley thought over very many things, but they all were made out of something. Then he thought how big the world was and how many things were made up in it. Where did all the dirt come from, and the rocks that make the great mountains ? Then he thought about the ocean, which he had seen at Long- Branch, and he wondered where all the water came from. So his ideas grew bigger and bigger, and there were so many things he wanted to ask about that he wished and waited and looked and longed for the sight of Grandpa hurrying home. At last Charley did see him coming, and ran to meet him. Hardly waiting for the kiss Grandpa stooped to give him, he broke out very eagerly with the question, " Where did God get things to make the world of, Grandpa ?" Grandpa Goodwin was too wise a man to answer such a big question carelessly. He never gave the children a false or evasive answer. He used to say, " When a child wants to learn, then is the time to teach." So Grandpa did not answer Charley's question, but roused his curiosity still further by asking, " How many things did God need to make a world ?" " Oh ! I don't know," said the boy, " but ever so many things, I'm sure. There are stones and trees and dirt and water and horses and — oh ! I don't know. Grandpa ; but tell me, where did God get them ? Did He make tliem out of nothing ? Carrie said He did, but He didn't, did He ? He couldn't do that, could He, Grandpa ?" By this time they were fairly in the house, and Grandpa felt more than ever that what he might say should be wisely said, so he told Charley that after supper they would sit down for a good talk on how God made the world. When supper was over the family gathered in the sitting-room about the centre-table, on which a bright light burned. Grandpa was in his easy-chair, while Charley, restless and eager, was close beside him. Carrie looked a little anxious, as though half afraid that her well-meant lesson of the afternoon would prove incorrect. Mary THE WEEK OF WONDERS. 29 had brought her Bible, which she opened at the first chapter of Genesis, so that she might see what was there said about the creation. Mrs. Reed sat in her sewing-chair doing some fancy work, and andcipating a pleasant evening. " Now, Grandpa," began Charley, " do please tell us how God made the world. I am almost crazy to hear all about it," "To tell all about it," replied Grandpa, " is more than any man can do. We have neither time nor knowledge for so great a task. But I can tell you many things about it, and shall do so very willingly. To give us a fair start, will Mary please read the first two verses of Genesis?" Mary had her eye on the place in an instant, and read : " In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void ; and darkness was upon the face of the deep : and the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters." " When was the beginning ?" asked Carrie, who had listened very intently to these verses. " Nobody knows when it was," said Grandpa. " It was very, very long ago when God began His work upon the heavens and the earth." " But," interposed Mary, " my Bible says it was four thousand and four years before Christ." " Your Bible does not say so, Mary. The notes put in its margin by the good men who edited it say so ; but this is no part of what God said. Those good men wanted to make the Bible plain for its readers. They figured out that Adam was created four thousand and four years before Christ came, but that time is probably far too short. The beginning, however, was long before Adam was created." " Why," said Carrie, " did not God make all things in six days ?" " Yes, Carrie, but not in six short days such as we have. A day may be a very long period of time. God's seventh day of rest from crea- ting has lasted six thousand years already. If the other days were as long, thirty-six thousand years passed between the beginning and 30 GRANDPA GOODWIN'S STORIES. U I w I . the time of Adam's creation. The fact is, that many more years passed — how many, nobody knows. But that far-off beginning was not God's beginning. He never had a beginning. He is eternal. He always did Hve, and always will live. And in that beginning God was able to create the heaven and the earth." " What does create mean. Grandpa ?" asked Charley. " Mary may read you an answer from the dictionary. That, I think, will give the clearest and best explanation." " Create," said Mary, who quickly found the word, " means — to bring into being ; to form out of nothing ; to cause to exist." "Yes," said Grandpa, "and that is exactly what God did. He did not take a quantity of material and make it into a sun, a moon, a star, or a world, but He brought them into being ; He formed them out of nothing ; He caused them to exist, as the dictionary explains * create.' In Hebrews xi, 2, it is said, ' Things which are seen were not made of things which do appear ;' that is, nothing appears any- where out of which the things we now see — the heavens and the earth — were made." "This verse in Hebrews," said Mary, who had turned to the text quoted by Grandpa, " also says, ' The worlds were framed by the word of God.' What does that mean ?" " It means that they were made, not by any work or effort of God, but simply by His command. The third verse of Genesis tells us, ' God said. Let there be light ; and there was light.' In one of the Psalms we read, ' He spake, and it was done ; He commanded, and it stood fast.' " " I told you so, Charley," shouted Carrie, who was delighted to find her afternoon's teaching approved by Grandpa. "Well," said Charley, "that's a new way to make things. 'He spake, and it was done.' I wish I could make things I want so easily. I'd speak for a lot of 'em, I know." " But what is meant by this." asked Mary, as she again read from Genesis — "'The earth was without form and void'?" ^^ V- — THE WEEK OF WONDERS. 3t to " Simply that it had none of the regularity and beauty we now see. But God was taking care of it. His Spirit was there bringing things into proper shape. At first total darkness rested everywhere, but God spoke, and light broke in, showing for tne first time the difference between day and night. Thus much was done in God's first day of creatmg. "His Monday," said Carrie, " for it was His first work-day." ''And the Spirit of God moved u/'oii the Jaic of tlie '<^uiters." — • u !i !i 66 GRANDPA GOODWIN'S STORIES. THE VOICE OF BLOOD: Or, a strange CRY FROM THE GROUND. E VER -,ince last night," began Mary, when the family was again seated in the sitting-room, " I have fancied I could see Abel lying dead in the field where Cain had left him. It was an awful sin for him to kill Abel, wasn't it?" "And I," said Mrs. Reed, " have been thinking of his poor mother. I am sure Abel was a loving boy, who always hurried home when his day's duties were done, and who always greeted his mother with a kiss. On the morning of his death he left home alive and well, full of hope and love, and she had thought of him often as the day passed by. At last evening approached and she expected him to supper ; but he did not come. She looked out from the door, but could not see him. I can imagine all the v/orriment of her motherly heart as darkness came and Abel had not returned. She had lon<:r been afraid that Cain would do harm to Abel ; now she is sure of it, for Cain, too, is away. So she spends the night in anxiety. Adam only half sympathizes with her. He thinks it will come out all right and goes to sleep, but Eve is wide awake. Morning comes, and out they go to seek the boys. Abel's sheep are wandering without care ; Cain's work lies unfinished ; but where are the bro- thers? Eve sees something yonder. It is Abel lying on the ground. Is he asleep? She hurries to him. Adam follows. They reach the body. It is battered and bloody. It is cold and dead. Eve calls, but Abel does not answer. .She lifts his head, but it drops limp and heavy from her hands. She calls, and calls again, but no answer comes. Then she weeps, O so bitterly, over her dear, dead 1 '3* m FLEEING FROM THE DEAD. 58 GRANDPA GOODWIN'S STORIES. ' I boy. This is what I have thought of all day, until my own eyes have been full of tears for that poor bereaved mother." When Mrs. Reed ceased speaking, the children were in tears. They sat without a word for a few minutes and then Grandpa broke the silence by quoting God's words to Eve : " I will gready multiply thy sorrow." " Grandpa," asked Charley, as if anxious to change the subject, " where did they bury Abel ?" " I don't know, my boy, but I suppose they did bury him; probably right where they found his body. It must have been a very sad fu- neral, and it was the first in the world. They probably straightened out the cold, stiffened limbs, washed away the blood, wrapped the body in skins, and then covered it with earth. All around was still, but from that ground there rose to the ear of God a voice, for He said to Cain, The voice of thy brother's blood crieth unto me from the ground." " What does that mean ?" asked Carrie. " Blood cannot speak, Grandpa," " No, my child ; but to God's mind there was such a demand that Cain should be punished that it seemed as if every drop of Abtl's blood had a voice which cried out for vengeance. To kill a human being is an awful crime, and especially to kill one so pure and good as Abel, and to do it simply because of his goodness. God heard that cry of Abel's blood, and, so far as Cain was concerned, God put a special curse on the ground. Cain was a farmer, but no more was the earth to yield her strength to him. However skillfully and hard he might toil, he would not get a full return. And he was to be restless and unhappy, becoming a fugitive and a vagabond, a wanderer on the earth, a trampy a man whom all should hate and none should love." "That was a fearful p • ;ishment," said Mary, with a shudder. " So Cain felt, for his answer to God was. My punishment is greater than I can bear. He was afraid, too, that even his kindred would I 't^r THE VOICE OF BLOOD. 69 want to kill him, but this God would not permit. For men to go on killing one another would never do ; so God put a mark on Cain that everybody should know him, and God said that any one killing Cain should suffer seven times more penalty than was already in- flicted on this wicked man. Then God sent Cain, the first murderer, out into the world, away from his own people, to wander alone, and to be forever full of fears and anxiety." " I'm glad I wasn't Cain," said Charley, as Grandpa was called away by a visiting friend. " I guess he felt like killing himself too, and it's a pity he didn't do it." "Possibly not so great a pity," answered Mrs. Reed, "That would have been to add self-murder to the murder already com- mitted. Two wrongs never make a right, you know. The true course for him would have been that of humble repentance and sin- cere reformation. God would have forgiven him ; and while Cain could never have undone the great crime of his life, he could have done much to prevent a similar crime in others, and he could have spent his days in doing good. But we have no account that he did any such thing. He was full of remorse and dread of penalty for his sin, but he did not love and practice any better ways." " I don't wonder that John, who was so full of love and so good a man, warned people against going in the way of Cain. I'm sure I never want to be like him in any respect." "Well said, Mary," answered her mother. "May we ail walk in the better and nobler ways !" l! 8 t I i. 'i h 4 60 GRANDPA GOODWIN ':> STORIES. GREATER AND RICHER; Or. from farm LIFE TO CITY SPLENDOR. W HERE did Cain go after he killed Abel ?" asked Charley, as Grandpa entered the sitting-room. " He went away toward the East as a lonely wan- derer, into a strange place called the land of Nod, or the land of the vagabond, from the fact that he, the chief of vagabonds, went there to live." " With whom did he live ?" asked Mary. " Who was there, Gra." dpa, in that land ?" " Nobody at that time, so far as we know, but after a while brothers and sisters of his, with their children, came that way and settled. One of them Cain afterwards persuaded to share his hard lot and be his wife." " I wouldn't have married him," shouted Carrie, with an earnest- ness that made the others laugh heartily, at which Carrie colored up and said even more earnestly, " Well, I'm sure I wouldn't want any- thing to do with such a man, much less to keep house for him." " Cain may have become a far better man," said Mrs. Reed, sooth- ingly. " Very wicked persons sometimes become very good." " Yes, I know," answerec' Carrie, " but I'd rather take my chances with somebody who always had been very good." " I hope my little daughter will remain as wise when she is grown up, and when some son of Cain may put her principles to the test." " Never fear for me," was Carrie's merry reply. " But, really," continued she, " why did Cain go off? Why didn't he stay just where he was ?" GREATER AND RICHER. 61 " We are sure," continued Grandpa, " that when Cain started he wanted to get away from God and from all talk about Him. This is what he meant in Genesis iv, 1 6, where it says, Cain went out from the presence of the Lord. He could not get away from God, for God is everywhere ; but he could get away from his father and mother and from the other children which they probably had at that time. By so doing he would have no one to remind him of God and of his own sin. That was what he then wanted." " Ah," said Mrs. Reed, " Cain's attempt to get away from God recalls these verses : " Is there throughout all worlds one spot, One lonely wild, where Thou art not ? The hosts of heaven enjoy Thy care, And those of hell know Thou art there. Awake, asleep, where none intrude, Or 'midst the thronging multitude — In every land, on every sea, We are surrounded still with Thee." " Very true," added Grandpa, " and worthy to be remembered by us all. After Cain married he roamed about the countrv, gfettinsf his living by cultivating the ground as best he could. Years went by, and Cain had children and grandchildren. His family became very numerous, and he was a great and rich man among them. Some of his descendants were shepherds and herdsmen, having im- mense flocks and m.any cattle. Others were musicians, and some were mechanics who wroucfht in brass and iron. With all this e^rowth about him it is not strange that Cain made up his mind to builw a city, which he did, calling it Enoch, after his eldest son." " I wouldn't have done that," said Charley. " I think the country is a heap better than any city." " But, Charley," replied his good teacher, " Cain had two special reasons for doinij this. God had sentenced him to be a vasfabond and a fugitive, having no home anywhere ; but if by building a city liii 11::^ ! 62 GRANDPA GOODWIN'S STORIES. Cain could settle himself and no more wander up and down the earth, he would be glad enough of it. And then he was a farmer, but for him the ground was specially cursed. He never prospered at this work ; but if he could get into a real estate business, selling " And he builded a city, and called the name of the city after the name of his son, Enoch." — Genesis iv, 17. town-lots and houses, he might do a great deal better. So Cain had special reasons fo" quitting his farm-life and seeking rest in city splendor. How much he really gained by it nobody knows, for the Bible says nothing more about his history." " Don't we know anything more about him ?" asked Carrie. i I) GREATER AND RICHER. 63 " Only this," said Grandpa, " that from the closing verses of Gen- esis iv, it is quite certain that Cain himself was killed by Lamech, one of his own descendants. This Lamech did kill a man, and in speaking of it he says. If Cain shall be avenged sevenfold (which God had said should be if any man killed him), truly Lamech seventy-and-seven- fold. In speaking thus he seems to make himself the one who re- ceives the penalty for killing Cain, and who may himself expect an even greater protection because he was in so much greater peril." •' So Cain died a violent death, as Abel did, and by one of his own kindred, too," said Mary, in a thoughtful way. "Well, I think he deserved it if ever any one did." " Do you think Cain ever was happy after he killed Abel ?" asked Carrie. " I do not think he could have been," replied Grandpa, " As the head of a large family many would honor him. In his work of build- ing a city he would rule over many men, but no doubt he carried a sad heart and a cheerless face. Possibly his disposition became better. He may have learned to control his hasty temper; but the man that Lamech killed had wounded him, and was killed for that reason. That man probably was Cain, who, it seems from this, still struck and beat others when aroused to anger. If Cain was not the man whom Lamech killed, however, still murder was committed in the city of Enoch, and a city where murder is, is a city where there are other fearful crimes. So Cain did not escape from sin and its penalties by means of his city life. There is but one city where such escape is possible, that is the heavenly Jerusalem. Amid its splendor sin is unknown and sorrow never comes." " That is the place of which the hymn tells, isn't it, Grandpa ? I mean the hymn, Jerusalem the golden." " Yes, darling, and we will sing a verse or two of that same old hymn before we say good-night." Then they sang with real earnest- ness and went to their beds to dream of the holy city. II «4 GRANDPA GOODWIN'S SlOJi/ES. ALOXE. YET. NOT ALOXE; Or, the unseen COMPANION OF A SINGULAR MAN. \ S' !i . . i i I ■ ^m I HAVE but a little while to spend with you this evening-," said Grandpa, as he seated himself in his favorite chair ; " but I would feel that something was lacking in the day's work if we did not have our little talk about a Bible story. I want to tell you about a very singular man wlio had a companion whom nobody saw. Can you guess to whom I refer ?" Guesses were made by all the children, and holy men of every period were named, but the correct name was not given. Grandpa then asked, "What was the name of the city built by Cain?" "Enoch," was shouted in reply by the entire group. " After whom did Cain name that city ?" " After his eldest son." "Yes," continued Grandpa, "and some years after that there was another Enoch, and he it is of whom I will now tell you. His father was Jared and his son was Methuseleh, who is famous for what?" " For being the oldest man that ever lived," answered Carrie. " How old did he become?" "Nine hundred and sixty-nine years," answered both the girls. " Yes ; Methuseleh became very aged and his father was very godly. Read what was said of him in Genesis v, 24." The place was quickly found, and Mary read, "And Enoch walked with God ; and he was not, for God took him." " When you are coming home from school, Carrie, with which girls do you walk ?" asked Grandpa. " With those I like." '<: WALKING HEAVENWARD. n l. i 1 i, 1 1 1" 1 si . 1 lifi; €6 GRANDPA GOODWIN' a STORJES. "With those you like and who y^o your way," added Mary. Carrie assented, saying-, " Of course, I don't walk with girls who go another way any more than I walk with girls who stand still." " \V(ill, now," interrupted Grandpa, "just that is the idea I want you to get about Enoch. As he walked with God, three things are true of him and God. What are they?" " They both walked," answered Mary. " They did not stand still." " Yes, they did walk ; that is, both of them made progress. Neither God nor men stand still. Men go on becoming better or worse all the time. This is their walk. We are all walking. We are going on — you children to manhood and womanhood ; your father and mother to old age; I to my end, which is not far off; all of us, I trust, are going to a better world. What other thing is true since Enoch walked with God?" " God and he loved each other," answered Carrie. " Yes, they were pleased in each other's society. That Enoch should be pleased with God's company is not surprising, but it is strange that God should be pleased with the society of any man ; but in Hebrews xi, 5, it is expressly said that Enoch pleased God, so we need have no doubt at that point. God and he kept very close together, for they were well pleased with each other. Now, what other fact is sure since Enoch walked with God ?" " Why, Enoch went God's way," said Charley. " I guess God wouldn't walk in any man's way; He's too great for that." "Correct," said Grandpa. "God has His own perfect way of thought, feeling, and action, which He could not and would not change to suit a man or an angel. Enoch shaped his thoughts, feel- ings, and acts so that they should be like those of God. In this way they thought alike, felt alike, and acted alike. Enoch would not go into any way where he could not keep company with God. Wicked peo- ple might coax him, everydiing in other ways might look very bright and pretty, but he walked with God. though he walked alone." " Enoch must have been kind of lonesome, walking that way." I ALONE, YET NOT ALONE. 67 " Yes, Charley, I presume lie was lonesome as men judne of loiie- someness, and yet he never was alone, thoiit^h he seemcil to he. He always had a companion whom nobody else saw, but who to him was very real, very near, and very dear. Sometimes he would lift up his eyes as if charmed by some beautiful vision, but other people saw nothing'; sometimes he would look so glad, but others knew not why; he often would talk tenderly, but others knew not to whom; they thought him very queer; they called him a singular man ; but his unseen companion heard his words antl spoke temlerly in reply. So Enoch was happy, though the reason for it the world did not know." " Grandpa, I should think Enoch would have become tired of so singular a life, even though God did walk and talk with him. It seems to me I would want companions whom I could see and talk with as I see you and talk with you and others." " Hut, Mary, he did not tire of it. We are told in Genesis that he walked with God three hundred years; so he held out pretty well, didn't he?" " I shouKl say so," answered Mary, smiling. " But the story also says. He xvas not, for Got* took him. What does that mean ?" "Turn to Hebrews xi, 5, and you will see precisely what it means." Mary turned to this verse and read aloud : " By faith Enoch was translated, that he should not see death, and was not found, because God had translated him." "Oh!" exclaimed Carrie. " He was not found anywhere on the earth, because God had taken him up to heaven." "Yes, God had translated him; that is, had taken him out of this into another world," added Grandpa. " But long before he was taken there were places where he was not. Can you name some of thei- ^" " Taverns," began Charley. "In bad company," said Carrie; and so they rattled in their answers until theatres, horse-races, beer-shops, ball-rooms, street-corners, and many other evil and doubtful places mmmmmmmmmm-t 68 GRANDPA GOODWIN'S STORIES. ■ \ had been named. Then Grandpa remarked, " He who walks with God has pleasanter padis than such places afford, and these paths Enoch found." " How queer it must have seemed to people who knew Enoch when all of a sudden he disappeared," said Charley. " Yes, to them his was a mysterious disappearance. They did not find him where he used to eat and sleep and walk and pray. They sought him everywhere; they found him nowhere. The reason was, God had taken him." " But why did God take him in this unusual way ?" asked Mary. "The reason given in Hebrews is, that Enoch should not see death. That terrible experience God determined to spare this dear companion of his." " That was good," said Carrie. " I wish more of us might be spared that too. But if we please God as Enoch did we might be spared as he was, I suppose ?" "And how may we please God ?" asked Mrs. Reed, looking ten- derly at the happy young faces before her. "Walking where God wants us to," said Charley. "Yes," answered she, "and the Bible tells us Avhere this is. We must read His word and keep His ways ; then will we meet our re- ward, whether we die or, like Enoch, are translated." "That reminds me," said Mary, "of two beautiful verses by Bonar. I learned them because I liked them so much: "Thy way, not niii i», O Lord ! However dark it be ; Oh! lead me by Tliine own right hand, Choose out the path for me. " I dare not choore my lot ; I would not if I migiit ; But choose Thou for me, O my God J So shall I walk aright." I A HUNDRED YEARS' JOB. 69 % A HUNDRED YEARS' JOB; Or, a marvelous PIECE OF JOINER WORK. SEVERAL evenings had passed and Grandpa had been unable to meet the children for their chat on Bible subjects, but at last he was again with them, and they clamored earnestly for another story. " Well," said the kind-hearted old gentleman, " of whom shall we talk to-night ?" " Of anybody you please," said Mary. " Everybody interests m^ when you talk about them." "Thank you, Mary," said he, smiling. "I will tell you about a man who, at five hundred years of age, began a job which lasted a centur'. He was a great-grandson of the oldest man that ever lived. Who was that man ?" " Methuselah I" shouted they all. " But," added Grandpa, with a merry twinkle in his eye, " how could he be the oldest man when he died before his own father ?" "Why, he couldn't," said Charley, very positively, "or his father would have been the oldest man." " I know. Grandpa," shouted Carrie, clapping her hands. "His father was Enoch, who didn't die at all." " Oh ! yes, I forgot," said Charley. " So he did — I mean, so he didn't — for God took him to heaven without dying." " But who," asked Grandpa, "was the man who undertook this big job of work when he was so old ?" Silence rested on the company for a moment, and then Mary spoke up somewhat doubtfully : " You mean Noah, don't you ? It took- 6 i 51 i 70 GRANDPA GOODWIN'S STORIES. hirn a hundred years to build the ark, but I didn't think he was so old when he began." " You have hit it, Mary. I mean Noah," said Grandpa. " He was one of those sino^ular men who walked with God, as En6ch did. And the Bible calls him just and perfect, and says he found grace, or favor, in the eyes of the Lord. The rest of the world was so wicked that God determined to destroy all men and animals, but Noah and his family God determined to save. For this purpose God set Noah at that marvelous piece of joiner work — the building of the ark. No person sympathized with the good man in his queer undertaking, though many must have helped him. I am sure the people laughed at him and called him a crank ; but Noah worked away in faith, as it is said in Hebrews xi, and moved with fear, too, for he fully believed that the flood would come, and so he pushed on with his work." " What was the shape of the ark ?" asked Mary. " I have seen ever so many pictures of it and no two of them are the same." " Nobody can answer that positively," replied Grandpa. " It is not likely that it had a rounded prow, like modern ships, for such work was then unknown, in all probability, and such a prow would have been useless, as the ark was not to sail and to be steered. A great covered, scow-like affair, a sort of floating barn, would have answered every purpose, and is probably more like the ark Noah built." " How big was the ark ?" was the next question. This came from Charley, whose mind ran to the practical side of things. " That is not positively known," replied Grandpa, " because the length of the cubit in which its size is stated is not entirely clear. But we are sure that the ark was at least four hundred and fifty feet long, one hundred and fifty feet wide, and forty-five feet high, and that its appearance was more like an immense block of warehouses than an ordinary ship." " Why was it made so big, Grandpa, when only one family was to •lail in it ?" asked Carrie. " Because," said Grandpa, " with that family there needed to be A HUNDRED YEARS' JOB. 71 kept, Tor a year or more, enough domestic animals to serve for sacri- fices and for all future needs of men until another supply could be raised. Birds, also, and many other living creatures were to be kept there, and immense quantities of provisions were needed for them while in the ark and to supply them for a considerable time after they "And Noah did according unto all that the f.ord commanded him.'" — Genesis vii, 6. should leave it. The greatest ship ever built was the Great Eastern, which has about the same carrying capacity as had Noah's ark." " How did Noah manage to build such a monstrous affair, with nobody to help him?" asked Mary. -JIU— LtMJBBBmB I I 72 GRANDPA GOODWIN'S STORIES. Ill % I i 'Mi vm\ \ s, . V " He worked on it for a long time," said Grandpa. "No doubt his family and servants worked with him, and at times other help was hired as needed. Very likely, the neighbors would occasionally lend a hand, by way of a frolic if for no better reason. They cared little for his supposed freak, but went on in their own ways, eating, drinking, and carousing right before Noah's eyes, and under the very shadow of the ark worshiping their dumb idols, while he was hard at work." " But liovv could Noah get everything just right ?" asked Carrie. " I think he would have made lots of mistakes." " God showed him how to do it. The wood to be used, the height of the stories, the number and size of the rooms, the window, the door — everything, in short, was directed by the Lord, to whom Noah was always attentive and obedient. That was the way by which he avoided mistakes," said Grandpa. " But why didn't other people come and help Noah, and get saved in his ark ?" asked Charley. " Simply because they did not believe God," was the reply. " I am sure Noah urged them, for Peter calls him 'a preacher of righteousness,* and Paul says he ' condemned the world,' so we may judge that he was not silent. He did preach. At his work and in his rest, he told the story over and over, and warned the people of the coming flood. Every blow of his axes and hammers was a call to men to turn from their sins and be saved, and yet nobody came. That is why only Noah and his family were saved. Nobody else was willing to enter the ark." " When the work was all done," asked Charley, " did the flood come right off?" " No. The ark was finished, the rubbish was cleared away, and it stood complete, but unoccupied, until God one day said to Noah, ' Come thou and all thy house into the ark.' Seven days were then, allowed them to get settled in the great beat. It was a busy week. Noah's family, the beasts, the birds, the food, the seed, everything A HUNDRED YEARS' JOB. 73 needed for the long voyage and the wonderfu! change which was at hand, was brought and stowed away safely ; and then the ' Lord shut him in ' and shut out all the world besides. So the hundred years' job was ended, the ark was occupied, and everydiing was ready for the threatened flood." "Oh! tell us about that," cried Charley. " Yes, do, please do," echoed Mary and Carrie ; but Grandpa sliook his silvery head and said, " Not to-night, my dears. To-mor- row night we will talk about that, if nothing prevent." "I remember," said Mrs, Reed, "a little tract 1 saw when I was a girl. Its title was Noah's Carpenters^ " Noah's carpenters !" exclaimed the children, Mary asking, " Who were they, pray ?" " Why," answered their mother, " the men who at one time and another did work on the ark. Though they helped prepare the vessel which saved Noah and his family, yet they themselves were lost. They built an ark, but for them it did no good. They are dead, but many of the same stock live to-day." " Why who, mother, are like them to-day ?" asked Carrie. "I don't know anybody who is so foolish." " Don't you, darling? Let us see. Sunday-school children who gather in the poor or contribute their money to send tracts and books to the destitute or to aid the work of niissions, and yet do not for them- selves enter the ark of God's full service, are like Noah's carpenters. Parents who instruct their children in the doctrines of the gospel, and yet fail to illustrate these doctrines in their lives and to seek a personal interest in the I^ord's work, are like Noah's carpenters." " Oh ! I see, I see," answered Carrie, -'and I, for one, will try to be in the ark." "And I," answered Mary; to which Charley gave his not uncom- mon," Me too." I 74 GRANDPA GOODWIN'S STORIES. TOO WICKED TO LIVE : Or, the greatest STORM ON RECORD. I 'VE been thinkin. slight sinking of the ground would permit water to flow from the Black and Caspian Seas on the north, from the Pa- cific Ocean by way of the Red Sea and Persian Gulf on the south, and from the Mediterranean Sea on the west. By causing the land to sink even a little, this whole country would quickly be under water deep enough to cover every hilltop." " But I don't see, Grandpa, how the sinking of that one part of the earth could make a flood all over the world." " I do not suppose there was a flood over all the world, Mary. All the world inhabited by man was flooded. What need was there of more ? What the Bible says applies to this narrower limit just as well as to the entire world. Nor do I suppose all existing animals went into the ark. Why should they? All such as might be destroyed by the flood went in and were saved." " That's a new idea," exclaimed Mary, " but I must admit it seems to be right." " Were n't there lions and tigers in the ark, Grandpa ?" '• Why should there be, my boy ? They live far beyond where the flood reached and were in no danger of being blotted out, even though some of them were drowned. I don't believe any wild animals were there, though in this opinion I have against me all the picture-books and Noah's arks of the toy stores." " Pshaw ! the ark wasn't half as grand, then, as I thought it was." " You thought it was a menagerie, didn't you, Charley ?" asked Mary, with a laugh. Charley made no answer, but looked cross. " How long did the flood last?" asked Carrie. "Rain fell forty days and nights, but the ground continued to sink even longer, and the flood rose forty days more. Then the waters ijitl •iiil 7() GRANDPA GOODWIN'S STORIES. stood over the hilltops for a hundred and fifty days. Then they ben^an to llow off as the land rose again, and at the end of seven months the ark rested on the top of Mount Ararat. In two more months lower hilltops appeared. In forty days more Noah sent (nit a raven, which found plenty of dead bodies to feed on and did not return to the ark. Next he sent out a dove, which found nothing suiting its pure tastes, so it came back. After another week the dove was sent again, and this time it brought back a branch from an olive tree, which showed that the trees were budding. In another week the dove was sent again, but it did not come back. Noah then knew that the ground was fit for man to live upon. It was one year and ten days from the time Noah went into the ark till God told him to go out of it." " Mustn't there have been fearful sufferinfj duringf that Hood?" said Carrie, sadly. " No doubt there was," replied Grandpa. " When rain began to fall and water to llow in from the seas the people were startled, but they hoped it would soon be over. The first night must have been terrible. Driven from their houses, they huddled together on higher ground. Men, women, children, cattle, sheep, horses, dogs, and even wild beasts, were there. All were wet, cold, shivering, panic-stricken. The au'fiii night dragged through only to bring a day of terrors. Cattle bellowed, sheep bleated, dogs howled, men shouted, women screamed, children cried. Some, caught in the rushing waters, were quickly drowned; others clambered to higher places, and were tliere overtaken by the rising waters ; some reached the highest hilltops, but death reachetl them even there; some died from fright, some from exposure, some from hunger, but more b\' drowning. Men, beasts, birds, and serpents clustered on the highest places, all strufi-rrlincr for life. Still the waters rose until every trace of life was gone except the ark, which floated in safety over a deluged world." "That was awful," said Charley. "I'm glad I wasn't there." I THE DOVE SENT FOn' H - Hv 1> GRANDPA GOODWIN'S STORIES. THE BOW OF BEAUTY: Or, a token of GOOD THINGS TO COME. G' RANDPA, you said it was a year and ten days that Noali was in the ark. But the ark rested on the mountain Ion": before that. Why didn't Noah go out of the ark sooner ?" " Noah did not go into the ark, Carrie, till God commanded it. al- though the ark had been finished for some time ; nor would he go out of it till God commanded it, though he knew the earth to be dried. He obeyed God in all things. Neither his own opinions, his curiosity, nor anything else was allowed to rule him. He waited till God said, Go forth of the ark. Then he and all that were in the ark did go forth, and right glad they were to do so, I am sure. I can imagine how the birds soared, the animals capered, and Noah's family sang praises as they came down the gangway of the ark and stood once more on dry land." " They must have been glad to walk out again after having been shut up more than a year." " Yes, Mary. And what do you suppose was the first thing they did after leaving the ark ?" asked Grandpa. " I know what I would have done," said Charley. " I would have ran off to see how things looked after the flood and to see what I could find." " Many other people would have done just so, Charley," added Grandpa; "but Noah and his sons began rolling great stones together with which to build an altar. They then took one of every suitable beast and bird, and having killed them beside the altar, they burned their bodies as an offering to God. This showed thei*- grati- THE BOW OF BEAUTY. 7l> tude, and God was pleased. It was no great thing, but it came from loving hearts. It was like the loving little things which children do sometimes, and which make their parents very happy. As the smoke of those sacrifices went up to heaven, the Lord was pleased that He should be remembered in that way." " And Noah went forth, and his sons, and his wife, and his sons' wives with him.'" — Genesis viii, 1 8. " God had been very good to them and they ought to be good to Him," said Carrie. "And yet," remarked Mrs. Reed, "we are not always willing to serve God first. We usually please ourselves and then ask how we 80 GRANDPA G O OD WIN'S STOE/ES. ^'^li V'4 may please God. With Noah God was first — as Me always should be." " So well pleased was God with Noah and his children," resumed Grandpa, " that 1 le promised them many excellent things. They were to become a very numerous family ; to ruh,' over all crea- tures; Lo eat any food they wished; their lives were to be pro- tected, and never again was the world to be drowned. This last point was the great dread of men just then. Tiie flood had been awful ; it had washed away all the people of the world except those in the ark ; but now, having promised that another flood should never come, God gave a token or sign of that fact. But Mary may read of this from Genesis ix, i 2-16." Mary's Bible was at hand, and she read as follows : " And God said. This is the token of the covenant which I make between me and you, and every living creature that is with you, for perpetual generations. I do set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a token of a covenant between me and the earth. And it shall come to pass, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the bow shall be seen in the cloud : and I will remember my covenant, which is between me and you, and every living creature of all flesh; and the waters shall no more become a flood to destroy all flesh. And the bow shall be in the cloud ; and I will look upon it, that I may remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is upon the earth." " Wasn't there any rainbow until then ?" asked Charley. " I suppose not," said Grandpa. " The rainbow is caused by the sun shining through drops of rain, the colors thus produced being thrown on a screen of cloud beyond. It had probably never rained till the flood came. No rainbow could have been seen, then, up to the time Noah came out of the ark. But rain was to fall after that, and with rain comes the possibility of a rainbow, and that was always to be a token of God's good-will." " Well," remarked Mrs. Reed, " I never understood that rainbow. THE JJOir OF BEAUTY . 81 It certainly was a very appropriate as well as beautiful eniblt.'in. Where better could God write His promise never afjain to destroy the earth with a Hood than on the very clouds out of which comes the rain ? Whenever ai/ain I look at a rainbow I shall be d grape-juice, and in drinking it he found its flavor had changed. But it was very pleasant, and, ignorant of its effects, Noah drank on until he became drunk and fell over on his tent-floor in a heavy drunken sleep. Good man that he was — able as he had been to dis- regard the opinions of all the world for a hundred years and to work at that ark — yet when he drank wine he sank helpless to the ground iind lay there in shame, like the commonest drunkard." '* That was too bad," said Carrie, her quick sympathy taking In r 84 GRANDPA GOODWIN'S STORIES. the situation. " It reminds me of the saying, When wine is in wit is out; tor I'm sure Noah lost his wits when he took tliat wine." " Any man loses his wits that way," said Grandpa. " Intoxicating drink has spoiled more good men and ruined more happy homes than any other ten causes." " He ought to have joined our temperanc . society," said Charley. "We boys don't mean to lose our wits," "That Noah became drunV is very sad," continued Grandpa. " But that, I think, was an accident. He did not know the strength of what he drank. But as he lay there in his drunken stupor, his second son, Ham by name, came along and saw his father. Instead of feeling an honest grief or shame, he ran off to tell his brothers — as though it were a good joke, a thing to laugh at. He really made fun of his aged father instead of trying to conceal his pitiable condi- tion. Ham's conduct was not an accident. It was a base, unworthy act ; and God is angry with every child who does not honor his father and his mother." " What did the other fellows say ?" asked Charley, much inter- ested in the unfolding of the plot. " Did they make fun, too. We boys make fun of drunken men often." " Not they, Charley," answered Grandpa. " Noah was their father and they honored him, even if he was drunk ; so they took a large garment like a cloak or sh.awl, and holding it between them, they went backward into the tent and covered it over their father so that not even themselves shou'd see the condition in which he was. They were not disposed to make fun, but rather to hide their father's wrong." " They were noble, good sons !" cried Mary, in a burst of enthusi- asm. " I like them for that." "What did Noah say when he woke. Grandpa?" questioned Charley, anxious to yfet at the end of the case. " He slept — we know not how long — and when he awoke he found out what had been done. He was covered with that garment, and MAKING FUN OF HIS FATHER. 85 he naturally asked who had put it over him, and why So the truth came out, and Noah was indignant. He spoke some terrible words ; but he spoke them, not in any^er of his own, but for God, who was angry too. Ham had a favorite son named Canaan, I am sure he ■ Aniah awoki- from hi wnu. ,inj l-ih:j what /li.^ yoitiij^tr son had done unto him: ,inii he siid, Cursed lie Canaan. — Genesis ix, 24, 25. lovud his son very much and would rather have suffered himself tlian have had his dear boy suHcr. Hut Noah said, Cursetl be Canaan ; a servant of servants shall he be. liam heard these words, and the precious son was doomed because of the father's sin. Ham had grieved his father, and in turn was to be grieved in his own son.'' 6 % h §. \'- i i i 1 III! li ■' ^ Vl' ' 86 GRANDPA GOODWIN'S STORIES. " But in what way was Canaan cursed, Grandpa ? What harm came to him ?" asked Carrie. " From him descended those nations — the African, for instance — which have always been the servants and burden-bearers of tlie world." " That seems too bad," said both girls together. " But Ham was a mean, bad man," added Mary, to which Charley added a very solemn " That's so." " On the other two sons," continued Grandpa, " Noah pronounced blessings, and said that Canaan's children should be their servants. All we know more about Noah is that he lived until he became nine hundred and fifty years old and then died." " Why, Grandpa," continued Carrie, in a serious way, " I thought no ofood man could get drunk." " No good man willingly does anything which debases himsell and sets a bad example to others, which drunkenness certainly does. Accidents may happen, as to Noah ; tastes for intoxicating drink may be inherited, as in the children of drunkards; men may be so weak morally as to be unable to resist temptation, but still it re- mains true, as Solomon said, Wine is a mocker, strong drink is raging, and whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise." " That reminds me, Grandpa, of some verses from Proverbs which I learned because they seemed so good and true. May I repeat them ?" " Certainly, darling. I would gladly see each of you so firm that your wits would never go out because wine came in." Mary then repeated from Proverbs xxiii, 29-32, these words: "Who hath woe? who hath sorrow? who hath contentions? who hath babbling ? who hath wounds without cause ? who hath redness of eyes ? They that tarry long at the wine ; they that go to seek mixed wine. Look not thou upon the wine when it is red, when it givcth his color in the cup. when it movcth itself aright. At the last it biteth like a serpent and stingeth like an adder." TOO BIG A JOB. 87 TOO BIG A JOB; Or, a sudden CHANGE OF PLAN. H OW did it come, Grandpa," began Mary, " diat the people of the world got so far apart in their looks and their lan- guages ? If they all came from Noah, it seems to me they •would be more like each other than they are." "That is a very natural question, my child. We have seen all the people of the world as one family, in one ark, and on one farm, and yet we now find many races of men very different from each other in looks and in languages, as you say. While Noah still lived his children and grandchildren became very numerous, and scattered in all directions in search of good places to live. Toward the east, where the Euphrates and the Tigris rivers flow, they found a splen- did level country, very rich in soil, and here many of them settled. By and by they concluded to build a city, as Cain had done before the tlood. The soil was good for making bricks. They found also plenty of bitumen, or pitch, which they used as mortar to cement the bricks together, and so they built their city. As they went on an- other great idea struck them. Some one proposed to build a tower that should reach to heaven, and at this big job they went." " How foolish ! Wliy, tliey couldn't reach heaven, could they?" " No, Carrie, that was too big a job. The great pyramid of Egypt is only some six hundred feet high. That is the greatest work of man so far as height goes, and yet it scarce reaches the lowest clouds. But they probably did not expect to build so high that they coukl step off into heaven from their top stor)'. It is more probable that their idea was to build so high that they would be safe from another flood." t il nW i (i w tf i K >iiw*»3.»;.^:^^^-'^^^:J WBTp i ji 88 GRANDPA GOODWIN'S STORIES. "But God had said there shouldn't be another llood," said Cliarley. "True; but people do not always believe what God says, and these people seem to have forgotten God entirely, for when the building of the tower was proposed they said, Let us make us a name. They had no regard to God, but wished only to make themselves famous." " Why," said Carrie, " I always thought that tower — the tower of Babel, I mean — was to honor God, like the steeples on our churches." " No, dear ; it was to honor its builders, and nobody else. They did have one other idea — they might be attacked by enemies, in which case the tower would be a splendid place of safety. In its upper stories they could so defend themselves that no enemy could reach them. This would prevent their being captured or scattered from that place. But God is never at a loss for a way to baffle bad men. He saw what they were doing and heard what they said, and He made His own plan for doing just what they did not want done." " But, Grandpa," interrupted Charley, " what harm was there in wanting to stay in a nice place ?" " None at all, my boy ; God did not object to that. But He saw how proud and selfish they were getting, and He said. Nothing will be restrained from them which they have imagined to do. He knew jiJiat they would not stop to ask whether a thing was right or wrong, whether it pleased God or not, but if they wanted it they would go at it — so God decided to scatter them. And how do you suppose He did it ? He changed the language each leader spoke, so that not one of them could understand another. There they were at their work, talking as usual, giving and receiving orders, but suddenly one spoke words no one else understood. The others suppose him to be in fun and answer him in fun. But no one understands what the others say. Ever\~ man thinks himself to be talking sense ant.! others to be talking nonsense — so they talk and jabber in the worst way." " Ha, ha, ha," roared Charley. "What fun that must have been!" " Not much fun for them," replied Grandpa, smiling at the boy's. 1 Hcm TOO BIG A JOB. 89 I elee. "The fact is that men would not stand much of that without getting angry. It is quite hkely that some did lose their tempers and that they came to blows." " Ha, ha, that's so," said Charley, slapping his hand vigorously on " So the Lord S'-atter-ed them abroad from /hence upon the face of all the earth : and they left off i6 build the aV/."— Genesis xi, 8. his knee, " Big time they must have had quarreling and fighting each other. Guess they didn't work much more that day," " No, nor any other day. They gave up that job and left off to build the city. Such a sudden change of plan men seldom make, and never was a change made for so odd a cause." II I ^iii llil 90 GRANDPA GOODWIN'S STORIES. " But couldn't any one understand another? Did every one have a new language ?" asked Mary. " For each one to have his own language and understand nobody else would have split them entirely into fragments. The probability is that each family had its own language, so that when a man packed his tools and went home from the tower he found his own folks quite able to talk with him. This would only make each the more certain that his talk was correct and that the others were all wrong. They had known but one language up to that time, and they had no idea that there could be another." " Ha, ha, ha," burst out Charley again in a most boisterous man- ner ; " what a time the boys must have had trying to talk ! I'l' A they made faces and called hard names before they quit." "And the mothers, too," said Mrs. Reed, "when they tried to ex- plain things and make peace among the children, what a time there must have been !" "And the girls, too," said Carrie; "dear me! I'm glad I wasn't there. I don't like quarrels and making faces." " You see," said Grandpa, " that the elements of a first-class row soon gathered in that city, and the only thing that could be done was to separate. The very thing Uiey once meant not to do they now were glad to do. God brought this about by His skill and power. He knows just how to overturn the best laid plans of the wicked." " I don't wonder," said Mary, " that the place was called Babel. That means confusion, and things did get rather mixed there." "And our word babble, meaning the noises made by babes, came from the same word," said Mrs. Reed. " The people there babbled — used sounds without meaning — one to another." " So it came to pass that families were separated one from another in location as well as in language," said Grandpa. " Living for ages in different lands, under different conditions of food, water, shelter, and employment, permanent changes were made in the appearances of the people, such as Mary asked about when our cliat began." : t SURPJilSED AND DELIGHTED. 91 SURPRISED AND DELIGHTED: Or, the first SIGHT OF A SPLENDID INHERITANCE, H ERE is another Bible picture," said Grandpa Goodwin, un- rolling an engraving and spreading it on the table. " I want you to look it over carefully and tell me what you suppose it to show." After a good deal of looking and talking, the children agreed they could not tell. Nothing in the picture reminded them of anything they had read or heard of in the Bible. Grandpa then followed with the question: "What to you, Mary, is the main thing of this picture ?" " The angel who is directing the company. He seems co be point- ing them to the country off to the left, toward which they are all looking." " And who are the persons riding, Carrie ?" " I don't know their names," replied she ; " but there is an old man in the middle with a young man and a- young woman. They look surprised ; but whether at something pleasant or not, I'm not sure." "What have you to say about the picture, Charley?" " I was wondering about those boys who are cutting capers in front of the donkeys. They'll get run over if they're not careful. Any- how, I'd rather walk than ride a donkey. But if I were there, I'd get on one of the camels. I'd like to ride on a camel." "You get the points of the picture very well," said Grandpa; "but what it represents you don't catch. Mary, please read Genesis xii, 4. 5." Mary turned as directed and read thus: "So Abram departed, as i. m 92 GRANDPA GOODWIN'S STORIES. the Lord liacl spoken unto him; and Lot went with liim : and Abram was seventy and five years old when he departed out of Maran. And Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother's son, and all their substance that diey had gathered, and the souls that they had •• rhey went forth to go into the land of Cnnann ; and into the land of Canaan they came." — Genesis xii, 5. gotten in Haran ; and they went forth to go into the land of Canaan ; and into the land of Canaan they came." " We can all tell now who the people are," said Mrs. Reed, as Mary finished the verses, to which the children responded by point- ing out one and another of the persons, and saying, as the did so : SURPRISED AND DELIGHTED. 93 "That's Abram;" "And that's Sarai ;" "This is Lot;" "Here are the servants;" "Here are the llocks," and so on until ahnost every point of the picture was covered by some one. Tlien Ciiarley asked : "Who's boys are these? — Abrani's?" " No," answered Grandpa ; " Abram haa no boys ; nor had Lot — so far as we know. They are probably children of some of the ser- vants ; but Abram allows the lads to cut capers, as you put it, and to have a good time as they journey on." " Do, Grandpa, tell us the story about Abram. I want so much to hear about this journey," said Carrie ; and the others heartily seconded her request. On this invitation. Grandpa settled himself in his chair and began : ''About four hundred years after the flood, when the inhabitants of the world had again become very many, there was a man named Abram, who lived at Ur, in the land of Chaldea, away to the east of Palestine. When he was over seventy years old, God told him to leave his own country and all his kindred and go to a place which should be shown him. Where that place was, or what it was, Abram did not know. But he started, as Paul says of him. Not knowing whither he went." " Good for him !" exclaimed Charley. " He wasn't afraid to travel if he was old. Was he ?" " No. But though he started so well, he did not fully obey God and leave his kindred ; for he took Tcrah, his father, and Lot, his nephew, with him. No doubt he loved them ; but he had been told to leave them, and he ought to have done just that. When they had gone about half way on their journey they stopped at a place called Haran^ where, after a delay of two years, Terah died. After his death Abram started again to go into Canaan, and into Canaan he did go, as Mar)' read. As he entered this land from Haran he passed along the hills at the foot of the Lebanon mountains, and off to his left, as shown in the picture, the promised land could be seen. Its hills and valleys ; its famous river, the Jordan ; and its great lake, the Sea of Galilee — \ ^J ^> IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) y A {/ 1.0 I.I :: 'III- |||||2i 1.8 • 1.25 1.4 1.6 < 6" — ► y] 1^ e". ^4 ,.% -p^ ^/, .% ' y '/ M Photographic Sciences Corporation 23 WEST MAIN STREET WEBSTER, N V i4580 (716) 873-4503 Vf^Vii -'%V'J- '*r "LW 1*! . ^ JL I IHliJ . ^ fA >> 94 GRANDPA GOODWIN'S STORIES. i'l all were clearly seen. Abrani had always lived in a flat country, so tha*^^ the view of this splendid, rolling land must have been to him particularly charming. It would surprise and delight him at every step of his journey. Charmed by his new surroundings, Abram journeyed on into the very heart of the country. Wherever he stopped on his way he built an altar and worshiped God, who had so kindly led him. This is the journey shown in the picture. It was one in which they had reason to be happy every moment." " So I think," said Charley. *' And now I don't wonder the boys are dancing along in such a jolly way." " But no nun's path is always full of sunshine," resumed Grandpa. "Abram soon found that his two years' delay in Haran was to cost him very dearly. A famine was just then beginning in Canaan. The water failed, the grass dried, and no food could be found. Had Abram reached there two years sooner he would have been ready for this trouble. But what could a stranger do who had just arrived in the country? So Abram could not stop in Canaan. He had to move on and on toward the south and southwest, until he came to Egypt. Here was plenty of food. But after a while he had trouble with the King, who wanted to marry Abram's wife. Abram could not stay there any longer ; so back again he went to Canaan, sorry enough, I am sure, that he had lost those two years at Haran." " Guess the boys didn't dance so much that time," said Charley, with a shrug of his shoulders. " Probably not, Charley," added Grandpa. " But when they got back to Canaan the famine was over and all the country was green and beautiful. Then Abram was ready really to settle in the land and the boys were ready once more to cut their capers." "All's well that ends well," added the boy, feeling that the end was all that could be desired. TRUE NOBILITY. 95 TRUE NOBILITY: Or, stooping TO CONQUER. B' lEFORE Abram went into Egypt," began Grandpa, as the family was awaiting the expected talk, " he had stopped at a place called Bethel. It is up on the highlands of Palestine, northeast of the city of Jerusalem. Toward the east of Bethel this high ground falls off rapidly to the plain of Jericho. This plain is a rich, broad piece of land, east of which the Jordan Hows. The Jordan is v*^ry crooked and rapid, rushing and tumbling on its way from the Sea of Galilee on the north to the Dead Sea on the south. From Bethel one looks down upon the river winding through its beautiful green banks and stretching away mile after mile in either direction. On that high ground, overlooking the beautiful river scene below, Abram and Lot pitched their tents when they came back from Egypt. Both of them had become very rich, having immense flocks of sheep and herds of cattle, with tents, slaves, silver, and gold. Indeed, they had such great possessions that the place where they settled was not big enough for them; and their servants, for the want of room, fell to quarreling and fighting among themselves. This was a great grief to Abram. The old inhabitants of the land saw it and sneered at him and his religion because his servants behaved so badly. Abram at last determined to stop this disgraceful conduct, and how do you suppose he did it ?" " I know wliat I'd have done if I'd been Abram." responded Charley, shaking his head with a decided air — "I'd have bounced every fellow that quarreled. I wouldn't have had such chaps about the place." " I think he would have done better to clear out Lot bag and bag- ^ 11 ti>"!| w y*i GRANDPA GOODWIN'S STORIES. gage," said Mary, warmly. " God did not tell Abram to take Lot, anyway, but to leave him. Abram brought Lot along, and had been a good, kind uncle to him, and now that Lot had grown rich he had grown saucy too. It was mean of him to let his men interfere widi Abram's. Abram had the best right there. God called him, but didn't call Lot." "Well! well!" exclaimed Grandpa, with an amused look, "Abram's interests are not likely to suffer in your hands, Mary. But what you say is really very forcible. The probability is that Lot came with Abram solely because he saw a chance to make money. When he and Abram had come to be in each other's way, Lot should have stepped out of the way." " Abram would have done just right had he driven Lot ofif," sug- crested Carrie. " He might have done that," answered Grandpa, " or he might have talked with Lot and Insisted on his going, or he might have claimed the land as his by gift from God. Then, too, as the younger, Lot should have given way to his elder and superior, as Abram certainly was; but Lot did not move in the matter. He did not seem troubled over die quarrels of the men nor concerned about what the neighbors thought. At last, therefore, Abram called Lot aside, and what, sup- pose you, he said ?" " Get away, or I'll blow you out," shouted Charley. " Oh ! no, Charley ; Abram did not talk like a thoughtless boy," in- terposed Mrs. Reed, "and I am glad he did not." " Mary may turn to Genesis xiii, 8. 9, and see what he said," added Grandpa. Mary found the place and read as follows : "And Abram said unto Lot, Let there be no strife, I pray thee, between me and thee, ami between my herdmen and thy herdmen ; for we be brethren. Is not the whole land before thee ? Separate thyself, I pray thee, from me. If thou wilt take the left hand, then I will go to the right: or if thou depart to the right hand, then I will go to the left." '13 p 1 ABRAMS MAGNAN.MOUS OFFEF^ t! m ft GRANDPA GOODWIN'S STORIES. " Wasn't that splendid ?" exclaimed Mary, as she finished reading. "That was really noble, wasn't it, Grandpa?" "It certainly was. Abram did show true nobility in this offer. Instead of clamoring for his rights or acting selfishly, he waived them all and at once settled the trouble. In short, he stooped to concjuer. He made himself the less that he might secure peace, and in so doing he became immensely the greater. He acted ac- cording to a rule which Jesus put into words 2,500 years later, when He said, Whosoever will be great among you, let him be your min- ister; and whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant." " What did Lot say, Grandpa ? I think he must have felt flat when Abram talked to him that way." " He does not seem to have felt flat, Charley. He looked down into the beautiful Jordan valley ; he saw how green it was and hoA/ well watered, and said he, I'll take this for my share. He was quick to fall in with Abram' s offer. That he owed anything to his uncle does not seem to have occurred to him. Abram must have felt that Lot was selfish and mean, but he nobly granted Lot his choice, and that day the two rich chieftains separated from each other." " Good riddance to him," exclaimed Mary. " But he was not rid of him, my child," said Grandpa. " Abram had a great deal more trouble with Lot, of which 1 will tell you. Lot was not long in gathering all his live stock and other treasures together, and soon was on his journey down the hillside to the plain below. Over the southern end of this plain little cities were scat- tered ; and though he left his flocks and herds on the plain of Jeri- cho, he himself moved on toward Sodom, the very worst of those cities, and there he pitched his tent. The men of Sodom are said to have been wicked and sinners before the Lord exceedingly. That is the Bible statement about them, and yet among those vile persons Lot went to live with his family." " Why did he do such a foolish thing ?" inquired Carrie. "I should TRUE NOBILITY. M think he would vvant to keep as far as possible from such persons. He had plenty of room in the fields, hadn't he, without going to that city ?" " Why he settled there we can readily judge," was Grandpa's an- swer. " Lot went into the valley to make money. It was a warm, unhealthy place, but it promised large profits. Sodom was the chief city of the vicinity, and for this reason was an attractive place for him, and his family who had seen but little of city life. Lot was not quite willing to go at once into the city to live, but he set up his tent near it. By one writer of the Bible he is called a righteous man. He did not plunge headlong into so wicked a place as Sodom, but pitched his tent outside the city, and yet near by. The next news we have of him, however, is that he had really gone into the city to live. He had taken a house there, and was settled among its vile inhabitants." " That's the way people do," said Carrie. " They don't mean any great harm, but once started, on they go, and do far worse at the end than they ever meant to." '* Yes," said Grandpa, " entering into sin is like entering into a net. The danger seems small at first, but once in, every moment makes matters worse and fastens the captive tighter — so Lot became entan- gled, and directly we find him sitting at the gate of Sodom. The gates of a city were cool, sheltered places, where idlers loved to sit and talk and see the passers-by. Lot had becorne so far like the men of Sodom that he sat and chatted with them in these public places. He was quite at home among them. He had become more and more entangled in their net. Then his daughters married and settled in Sodom ; but so far did Lot fall from the right and the good way, that when he tried to warn them of danger because of their sins he seemed to them as one that mocked. His influence with his own children was gone, and the people of the city spoke contemptuously of him. Everybody despised him." " He did indeed get into the net, sure enough," said Mary, as she ilJ i >»♦ 100 GRANDPA GOODWIN'S STORIES. heard this sketch of Lot's history. " How could he enjoy such a life after being so long with Abram ?" " He did not enjoy it. See what is said of him in 1 1 Peter ii, 8," said Grandpa. Carrie took the Bible this time and read as follows : " For that righteous man dwelling among them, in seeing and hearing, vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds." " He was a big goose to stay in such a place and be vexed every day. I'd have moved," said Charley. " Why he did not move we can only imagine," answered Grandpa. " He was probably making money and living in luxury — so he stayed, right or wrong, happy or unhappy. Better far is it not to ent jr the net at all, not to go near that which is wrong. Keep away off from it, as a careful driver keeps from the edge of a precipice. Do not enter the outer circles of a whirlpool, then the centre of it will never swallow you." " May I add a quotation from Solomon ?" said Mrs. Reed. " My son, if sinners entice thee, consent thou not." " What about my daughter, if sinners entice thee ?" asked Charley, laughing. "Solomon knew the daughters would be all right," answered Mary, as the party broke up in a merry mood. HOME FROM THE FIGHT. 101 HOME FROM THE FIGHT; Or, royal honors FOR VICTORS. 1 •• '^ ¥ ^ELL us about Abram and Lot, Grandpa. I want to know I more of what happened to them," said Carrie on the^ next -*- assembling of the family in the sitting-room. " How do you suppose," asked Grandpa in reply, " that Abram treated Lot after they separated ?" " I know how I would have treated him," said Mary. " I would have let him totally alone; I would never have spoken to him again ; I would never have cared to see him. He was too mean for any thing." " So would I — only worse," exclaimed Charley. "Well, we will see what Abram did," replied Grandpa. "Sodom and the cities about it were subject to a great King known as the King of Elam. But they rebelled against him, and would not pay him any more money for taxes. So this King and three others came one day and attacked the cities of the plain. They made short work of the soldiers who came out to fight them. Then they stole all the valuables they could find and carried off Lot and many other people as prisoners." "Served Lot right," exclaimea Charley; "he had no business to live there." " By and by Abram heard what had happened to Lot. What do you suppose he then did ? He did not say, Served him right, nor, It's none of my business. Oh ! no ; he gathered together his own men who could serve as soldiers and other men who were his friends, three hundred and eighteen in all, and away he went in pursuit of the vic- . 7 102 GRANDPA GOODWIN'S STORIES. torious King of Elam. After a chase of about a hundred miles, he overtook and beat him completely and took back the prisoners and all the stolen goods. So Abram saved Lot and recovered all the treasures of those cities of the plain." *""-•* '•■^^'t"" "AniMelchisedek King of Salem brought forth bread and wine : and he was the priest of the moit high God." — Genesis xiv, i8. " He was just grand !" exclaimed Mary, who was an ardent hero- worshiper. " I wish I had seen that fight," said Charley. " It would have been splendid fun to see those fellows chased over the hills, dropping all the nice things as they ran." HOME FROM THE FIGHT. 103 " When fhe fi*jht was over and Abram's men had rested, he began his march home, and everybody on the way was anxious to do him honor. The King of Sodom, who had escaped capture at the time of the battle, went out a long way to meet Abram and his men ; and well he might. They had done a great thing for him. Another great King named Melchizedek came out to meet them also. He was King of Salem. He was so noble and good and so honorable a priest of God that the Lord Jesus Himself is called, a priest after the order of Melchizedek. This King brought out food and drink for the soldiers, and in the name of God pronounced blessings on Abram. So as they came home from the fight royal honors were bestowed upon them everywhere, and it must have been a happy day for them all. Melchizedek's men brought jars of wine and baskets of bread, and Abram's men brought the treasures they had recaptured, a tenth of which he gave to Melchizedek to be used in the service of God," " What was Lot doing all this time ?" asked Carrie. " Standing around, I suppose," said Grandpa. " He probably picked up the sword of some dead man, so that he too might look like a soldier now that danger was over. But he must have been very glad to be free again, and must have realized how good and grand his dear old uncle was. The King of Sodom was so grateful that he urged Abram to keep all the recaptured treasures for himself. But Abram was too independent for that; he would not take a thread or a shoestring. He did his part from a generous and noble heart, and he was generous and noble to the end." "That's so," shouted Charley. "They ought to have made him President, so they ought." Laughing heartily at Charley's republican honors for the old patri- arch, the little company separated, each thinking of Mrs. Reed's good-night text, which she read from Matthew v, 44, 45 : " Do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefuHy use you and persecute you, that ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven." II mm m^* 104 GRANDPA GOODWIN'S STORIES. LESSONS FROM THE STARS: Or, a grand future FORETOLD. i' L' ET us go out to the porch," said Grandpa, as the family rose from the supper table. " It is a clear night and we will enjoy looking at the stars." This request seemed a little odd ; but nobody questioned it, and in a moment all were looking heavenward upon stars which seemed especially bright in the dark-blue heavens. " Let us count them," said Grandpa, after a moment's silent looking. " Count them !" said Mary. " That's more than any of us can do." With this all agreed ; so Grandpa proposed that, as they could not count the stars, they should go again to the sitting-room. Won- dering at his unusual conduct, they re-entered the house, and when all were seated. Grandpa began : " One night Abram and the Lord had been talking together very lovingly, and Abram opened his heart on a matter that puzzled him. It had been promised that he should have many descendants, who should become a great people. But the fact was that Abram had no child at all. How that promise was to be fulfilled Abram did not see ; so he made free to ask the Lord about it. Then the Lord led Abram out of the house. It was a clear, bright night, and God said, Look, now, toward heaven and count the stars. Could Abram do any better at this than we did a few minutes ago? The skies of Palestine are very clear and more stars are visible there than here. We could not fairly begin to count the stars we saw. Could Abram have done any better?" " Why, no," said all at once. LESSONS FROM THE STA/iS. 105 "Just so; and when Abram gave up his effort to count, then God said, So shall thy seed be." " Wasn't that a beautiful way for God to teach Abram ?" said Mary. "Yes; and Abram believed it just as God said it. This pleased God all the more, and He went on ro assure Abram that he should " And he brought him forth abroad, and said, Look tww toward heaven, and tell the stars, if thou be able to number them. And he said unto him. So shall thy seed be." — Uenesis xv, 5. possess all that land. He also foretold many important things about Abram's descendants, and finally told Abram that he should end his days in peace and be buried at a good old age." " That was lovely, wasn't it ?" said Carrie, who had made Abram's .'i 'J^ I i I I 'ii! ' M 106 GRANDPA GOODWIN'S STORIES. affairs her special delight. " But, Grandpa, what great nation is it that descended from Abram ?" " The Jews — or Israelites, as they prefer to be called ; a people that has held together from Abram's time till now, though it has suffered more persecution and harsh treatment than any other nation of the world." " Why, I don't think the Jews are so many that they can't be num- bered," said Mary. " My geography gives their number as six hun- dred thousand, while some nations have eight or ten times as many." '' True ; but the Jews have been a people continuously for nearly four thousand years. Who can tell how many of them have lived in all that time ? And remember one other thing : Abram's seed, or descendants, are not those who bear the name of Israel only. Real servants of God — those who love Him from the heart — are the true Is'-aelites, the true children of Abram ; for see what Paul says in Galatians iii, 29." Carrie found the verse and read as follows : " And if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise." " Oh ! I understand," exclaimed Mary. " Abram was so very good that all good people are called his children," "Yes," added Grandpa; "and when we feel discouraged at the great number of evil people in the world, we need only to look to the stars, as Abram did. We may be sure that those who love and serve God can no more be counted than can the stars." " That is a grand encouragement," said Mrs. Reed. " It reminds me of those splendid words of the hymn : " ' Ten thousand times ten thousand, In sparkling raiment bright — The armies of the ransomed. Throng up the steeps of light.' " "And that," said Grandpa, "is but the echo of those Bible de- scriptions of the occupants of heaven as an innumerable company, a multitude which no man could number in that throng." ■ FAMILY TROUBLES. 107 FAMILY TROUBLES: Or, the serpent IN THE HOME. W "HAT would you think if I should tell you a story that would maUe you feel displeased with Abram ?" asked Grandpa Goodwin, as the children gathered about him. " I should be very sorry," said Mary, " for I think Abram was just splendid." " So should I be sorry," chimed in Carrie, " for he is so nice." " Tell us the story. Grandpa," urged Charley ; " I guess we can stand it." " Well," began Grandpa, " I suppose we may talk over this story, since God for some good reason has allowed it to go into the Bible. Abram's wife had a servant-maid named Hagar. She was dutiful and well-behaved, and Sarai at last urged Abram to marry this ma'd and have two wives. It was an odd thing for her to urge, but she did it, and Abram yielded and married HaL;ar. It was quite common in those days for men to have several wives, though the Bible never approves such conduct. Tliis second marriage soon brought trouble into Abram's family. It let Satan, the old serpent, right into his home." " I should think it would," said Mary; "but Sarai was very foolish to ask Abram to do such a thing." " And he very foolish to do it," continued Grandpa, " for no sooner was Hagar recognized as his wife than her head was turned by her new honors, and she despised the very woman whose influence had made her what she was. Then Sarai became jealous and ran to Abram with sore complaints against Hagar. Abram hardly did 108 GRANDPA GOOD WIN' S STORIES. 5 ! li 1 , right by Hagar either, for he said to Sarai, Do to her as it pleaseth thee. Now Sarai was pleased to abuse Hagar, and abuse her she did, until in sheer desperation Hagar ran off into the woods away from Abram and his people." "That was a shame!" exclaimed Mary, indignantly; "but I blame Sarai most. She was real ugly, and had no business to treat Hagar so." " What happened to Hagar out in the woods ?" asked Charley. *' Did Indians get after her ?" " No, Charley. There were no Indians there ; but an angel of the Lord got after her, and that was a great deal better." " What did he say ?" asked the boy, who anticipated some great adventure of this lone woman in the woods. " The angel found her sitting by a well of water, where she had stopped for rest and drink. On his asking where she was going, she told him all about her troubles. Then he told her to go back, be patient, and all would come out well, because the Lord had heard her cry and would care for her. Then Hagar said, Thou God seest me ; and trusting this fact and saying these words over and over in her heart, she went back to her home, and for several years after this we hear of no more trouble." " That was real kind of the angel," said Carrie ; " but then angels are always kind, aren't they, Grandpa ?" "Yes, darling; it is their business to minister to the children of God ?" " What happened after that ?" inquired Charley, feeling that the story had not yet topped out just as he had anticipated. " Years ran on, and a son of Hagar's had become a large, strong lad. His name was Ishmael. Sarai, too, had a son, named Isaac. One day Sarai gave a great party in honor of her boy, and in the midst of the enjoyment what did she see but Ishmael making faces at Isaac and mocking him. She was very angry at this, and demanded that Ishmael be sent away from the house at once, and his mother 11 '4 FAMILY TROUBLES. 109 with him. That boy and her boy should not live together. One or the other must go. That was an awful trial for dear, kind Abram. What could he do ?" " Let Sarai clear out herself and take Ike along," answered Char- ley, with promptness and decision. " Ami she departed, and wandered in the ■wilderness of BeershehaT — Genesis xxi, 14. "I'm not so sure about that," said Mary ; "but Hagar was not to blame. Boys will be boys ; and I suppose Ish.nael was full of fun and didn't mean any harm. He wouldn't have hurt little Isaac, I'm sure. Sarai needn't have become so cross about it." 110 GRANDPA GOODWIN'S STORIES. I " I don't like her, any way," said Carrie. " She was an old mischief- maker — that's what she was." " I don't suppose Abram was very clear as to what was best in the case," continued Grandpa ; " but he went to God with his trouble, and God told him to do what Sarai asked and He would make it al! right for Hagar. So, early the next morning, Abram sent Hagar off, giving her food and water, and Sarai, no doubt, rejoiced to be rid of her and her saucy boy. It was a terrible trouble in a family, and none but God could in any way lighten it." " It must have been all right, for God approved it. But it don't seem so ; does it, Grandpa ?" " No, Mary ; it does not seem right. It was grievous to Abram, and I am sure it was terrible to Hagar and Ishmael. But God undertook to bring good out of it, though it seemed so full of evil." " What did He do ? I'm sure I don't see what could be done," added Carrie. " Hagar and the boy started and journeyed on in the wilderness until their provisions were gone and they were thoroughly tired. So faint did Ishmael become that Hagar laid him in a shady place under the bushes, supposing he was about to die. She could not bear to sit there and see his agony ; so she went off a little way and wept aloud, while the boy, too, sobbed and moaned in his sufferings. Then she heard a kind voice asking. What aileth thee, Hagar ? what aileth thee, Hagar ? It was God's voice, and He assured her that the lad should be saved and should become the head of a great nation. Looking up, as she heard this good news, she saw a well near by. It took her but a moment to fill her pitcher, give the sick boy a drink, and bathe his hot head. Soon he was much better, and he lived, grew, became a famous hunter, and at last married a woman of Egypt, which was his mother's native land." " And is that all we know about him ?" asked Charley. "We know," answered Grandpa, " that many years after, when his father died, Ishmael and Isaac met in sorrow and buried him. We FA MIL Y TRO UBLES. Ill know, also, that Ishmael became very great and that his descendants^ the Ishmaelites, were a brave and strong people, so that the outcast boy had no reason to grieve in the end. The Arabs, probably, are descended from him, and through him they claim Abram as their father. They believe that Ishmael was offered in sacrifice by his father, on a mountain near their sacred city, Mecca. When Mo- hammedan pilgrims go to that city they visit this mount in honor of Ishmael. If they desire to make a perfect pilgrimage, they also listen to a sermon at this place and offer a sacrifice of their own. Ishmael's burial-place is pointed out near Mecca, and the claim is made that Abraham once visited him in this city and helped him rebuild its temple, which had been destroyed by a flood. Ishmael lived to be one hundred and thirty-seven years old and to become very famous." "This is far better than I expected," said Mary; "but God, not Sarai or Abram, made it come out so well." "God's hands are good hands in which to leave our affairs," said Mrs. Reed. " As the Psalmist says. Commit thy way unto the Lord, trust also in Him, and He shall bring it to pass." "That's what I'll do," added Charley. " He did so well for Ish- mael I'll let Him try me." " If you really do, Charley," said his mother, " I'm sure He'll make a good job of it ; so I hope you'll let Him try." " About one hundred and twenty years ago," added Grandpa, " Michael Bruce, a Scottish poet, died, being only twenty-one years of age. Among many beautiful verses he left are these; " How happy is the child who hears Instruction's warning voice, And who celestial wisdom makes His early, only choice. "^ *' For she has treasures greater far Than east or west unfold, And her rewards more precious are Than all their stores of gold.'' Jm 112 GRANDPA GOODWIN'S STORIES. THREE WONDERFUL GUESTS; Or, entertaining ANGELS UNAWARES. C 'V:}. ^ARRIE, turn to Hebrews xiii and read the first two verses," said Grandpa. Carrie turned as told and read these words: "Let brotherly love continue. Be not forgetful to entertain strangers : for thereby some have entertained angels unawares." " What is unawares ?" asked Charley. " Unawares," repeated Mary ; " why, unawares means without thinking. They entertained angels without supposing them to be angels." *' Can either of you tell of a person who once entertained stran- gers without suspecting them to be angels, but who afterward found them to be really such ?" asked Grandpa. Nobody answered ; so Grandpa went on : " One very warm day Abram — whose name God had lately changed to Abraham — was sitting at his tent-door, resting and cooling himself, when suddenly three men appeared. He hastened forward to meet them and bowed most politely. They were entire strangers to him, but he offered to entertain them, and they consented to stop. So Abraham had water brought for them to wash, and while they rested under a tree near by, he had meat and cakes cooked ; then the table was set in a shady place, and while the strangers ate, Abraham stood by to see that all their wants were supplied." "Who were these men?" asked Carrie, whose curiosity was rising with the story. " Abraham did not know, nor did he ask. No doubt he wondered, I V THREE WONDERFUL GUESTS. 115 but he was too gentlemanly to question them. Maybe he suspected whom they were, but he kept still and served them as best he knew how. The fact is that one of them was the Lord Himself, who after- ward was known as Jesus ; the others were angels who went with " He took butter, and milk, and the cal/'u -hat he might drink from it, and she also offered to dra ! - ; <-he camels. So surprised was the good old man that lie . . . on drawing water until the camels were satisfied. Then he gave her a splendid gold ear-ring and two beautiful bracelets, and asked her whose daughter she was, and whether her father could keep him for the night. She told who she was — a grand- A QUEER COURTSHIP. 127 daughter of Abraham's brother — and then she ran home to tell of the strangers who were coming. Possibly the rich gifts she had received helped the welcome, but sure it is that her brother Laban ran out to the well and urged the strangers to come right along, as everything was ready for them and their beasts. The camels were quickly " What man is this that walketh in thcfitlJ to meet us f — Genesis xxiv, 64. unladen and fed, and supper was soon ready for the old servant. • But,* said he, 'I will not eat until I have told mine errand.' So he kept supper waiting while he told who he was, why he came, and what had happened at the well. When he was through they all agreed thaJi 128 GRANDPA GOODWIN'S STORIES. the matter was from the Lord. Then the old servant handed out a splendid lot of presents to each of the family, after which they took supper and spent a happy evening together." " And was she really engaged to Isaac so quick as that, and she had never seen him ?" asked Mary, with astonishment. " Even so. Rebekah (for that was her name) was willing, and who was more concerned than she ? Early next morning the old servant wanted to be right off to Isaac. The family very naturally wanted him to stay a few days, but he was urgent and Rebekah agreed, so off they started for Isaac's home in Canaan. Her old nurse, Deborah, went with her, as did her servant maids, and so, mounted on camels and escorted by Abraham's men, the bridal party began its march to the far-off, and to them, unknown land." " That was a queer performance," said Carrie. " And what was Isaac doing all this time ?" " He was anxious and impatient, I am sure, for he moved up toward the north a little to meet the caravan as it should be return- ing. One evening, as we are told in Genesis xxiv, 63, ' he went out to meditate in the field.' He went in the direction which the old servant would naturally take in returning, and as IsJiac looked, 'behold! the camels were comine.' At the same moment Rebekah saw him and asked who he was. Then she drew a veil over her face, got down off her camel, and in another moment Isaac, her future husband, was at her side." " Suppose they had not liked each other, wouldn't it have been awful ?" said Carrie. " But they did like each other. Isaac loved her, and she was a comfort to liim, and she went to live in his mother's splendid tent, and Abraham was glad that Isaac had found so good a wife in so odd a way." " That is a nice story," said Carrie. " I shall certainly tell it to alll the girls in school to-morrow," 130 GRANDPA GOODWIN'S STORIES. SHARP PRACTICE: Or, diamond CUT DIAMOND. H OW did Isaac and his wife get along after that queer court- ship ?" asked Carrie, when Grandpa was seated with the family. " Very well in their young days, so far as we know. He loved her and she was a comfort to him, which is a good record for a man and his wife. But things were not smooth and happy as they became older, I am sorry to say." " Why, what happened to them then ?" asked Mary. " It seemed to me they were just a splendid couple. They should have lived in comfort to the end of their days." " Trouble came in this way. After they had been married a good many years they had twin boys, whom they called Esau and Jacob. Even as babies these boys were very unlike each other. Esau was red-haired, and had plenty of it too, so that his hands and arms were like a hairy garment. He grew up to be a great hunter, living out- of-doors in a bold, roving way. Jacob was smooth-skinned and of quiet manners, staying about in the house and enjoying his mother's society." " He was a mother's boy," said Charley, with something of con- tempt in his manner; but catching himself in an instant, he added " But if his mother was like my mother, I don't blame him a bit." " Jacob became his mother's favorite," continued Grandpa, " while Esau was a pet of his father's, chiefly because he captured so much fine game, of which his father was very fond. So the father favored and petted one son and the mother favored and petted the other. SHARP FRACTICE. i;ji In this way trouble is sure to come. Neitlier boy was slow to see with which parent he could best get along, so Esau ran to father and Jacob to mother with their complaints or requests. Soon things in that home became unpleasant. Trickery, deceit, falsehood, and favoritism grew fast. The family was divided into two parts, each planning against the other, each using sharp practice to outwit the other. It was diamond cut diamond, as the common phrase puts it; trust and comfort departed." " I'm sorry to know that," sighed Carrie. " I thought Rebekah was so good. I didn't think she could do an ugly thing." " But she did, Carrie. Like ourselves, she was only human, and liable to do wrong." " What wrong did she do, Grandpa ? I want to know all about it, and yet I don't want to know ; but tell me, what was it she did ?" " Well, my dear," resumed Grandpa, " it was the custom in that land for the elder son of a family to receive twice as much of his father's property as any other son." " That's the kind of a son I am, the elder son," said Charley, be- tween Grandpa's sentences. •' The father generally gave a special blessing to this son, so that he became rich in property and in his father's good-will also. Of right this honor belonged to Esau, but Jacob envied it, and he and his mother talked and schemed to get it. One day Jacob had a splendid mess of beans just smoking hot from the fire. As he was about to eat this savory food, in came Esau from a hunting trip, and he was both tired and hungry. He asked Jacob for the dish of beans he was about to eat, and Jacob said, Se.l me this day thy birthright. That was a big price for a mess of beans ; but Esau was a tired, hungry boy, and he thought he was about to die any way for the want of food, so he said to himself, What profit shall this birthright do to me? He thought his last hour had come unless he should get food at once, so he sold his birthright, and by a solemn oath turned it over to Jacob." 132 GRANDPA GOODWIN'S STORIES. "The foolish fellow!" exclaimed the girls. "Why didn't he go into the kitchen and get something for him- self?" asked Charley, certain that he could have managed things far better than l£sau did. "The fact is," said Grandpa, "that Esau cared very litde for the honor and privilege that were his. He despised his birthright^ as we are told in Genesis xxv, 34, and having eaten his fill, he rose up and went his way withput regret for having parted with it. Whether his father knew that Esau had sold the birthriirht we do not know, but he loved Esau and the venison Esau brou, ^ ! r THE WONDERFUL LADDER. 135 \ " I I r THE WONDERFUL LADDER; Or, a STAIRWAV TO THE SKIES. W HAT happened to Jacob after he got that birthright ?" asked Charley before Grandpa had fairly settled him- self in his easy-chair. " Did Esau hurt him ? I've been wondering all day how their quarrel came out." " No ; Esau did not harm him," replied Grandpa. " But Jacob's mother was afraid harm would come to her pet boy ; so she made an excuse to send him away to her father's until Esau's anger should cool off. She told Isaac that she feared Jacob would marry a young woman of the land where they were dwelling, and this she thought would never do, so she proposed that he go off to Padan-aram and there get a wife. Isaac approved the plan and Jacob started. He had a long and lonesome journey before him. No doubt he was somewhat homesick, for he had never gone far from his mother be- fore. His father, too, was so aged and feeble that Jacob could hardly expect to see him again, and his mother possibly might die before he should get back ; then, too, Esau hated him bitterly and was ready to kill him at the first chance he should find." " I don't wonder Jacob felt badly," broke in Charley. " Seems to me I'd have stayed home and tried co make it up with Esau." "So should I," said Carrie. "I could not have enjoyed any such birthright." " Nor was Jacob happy, my dear," resumed her kind Grandpa. " There had been so much trickery and deception in the whole affair that his conscience must have troubled him, and nobody can be happy with an accusing conscience. But Jacob trudgjed on — fearful, won- 186 GRANDPA GOOD WIN' S STORIES. dering, and penitent, too, I am sure — until night came, and he lay- down to sleep with nothing but a stone for a pillow." " A hard pillow, I should think," said Mary. " Yes ; it was a hard case all through. But sweet sleep and pleas- ant dreams often come on hard beds ; and so it was with Jacob that night." " What did he dream ?" asked Carrie. " He had the nightmare awfully," said her brother. " No," said Grandpa, " not the nightmare, but a wonderful dream, a beautiful dream — a dream that Jesus Himself refers to in one of His talks." " What was the dream. Grandpa ? I am interested in dreams. They are so nice, I think. Do tell us !" exclaimed Carrie. "Mary may read about it from Genesis xxviii, 12, 13." In an instant Mary had the place and read : " And he dreamed, and behold, a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven : and behold, the angels of God ascending and descending on it: and behold, the Lord stood above it, and said, I am the Lord God of Abraham thy father, and the God of Isaac : the land whereon thou liest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed." " Well, that seems very queer," said Carrie. " Jacob had acted so meanly about the birthright, and yet God treats him so nicely." " That is why I spoke so positively about Jacob as penitent. Had he not been so, God would not have favored him ; but for Abraham's sake and Isaac's sake, God was ready to bless even Jacob and to assure him of that blessing in this splendid dream." "That is just like God," said Mary. " He is so good and so for- giving." " But what was meant by that ladder?" asked Charley. "I don't see any good it did. It was very pretty, but it was just a dream." "A dream, indeed, Charley," replied Grandpa; "and yet a dream which God sent to teach Jacob some great lessons." " What lessons ?" asked the boy, eagerly. I THE WONDERFUL LADDER. 137 M i« I "Why, think a moment, each of you, and see for yourselves what such a dream taught." " It taught that there is an open way between heaven and earth," said Mary. ' And he drfamed, and behold u ladder set up on the earth, and the lop of it reached to heaven ; and behold the angels of God ascending and descending on it," — Genesis xxviii, 12. " And that God's angels go back and forth between God to men," said Carrie. " And that God stands at the top and watches all that goes on," said Charley, " And that the road to heaven is direct," said Mary. 138 GRANDPA GOODWIN'S STORIES. " And even when you're asleep it's all the same," said Charley. " Well done, my little dears !" exclaimed Grandpa. " And now, think how grand a view this must have been for Jacob ! From the rocky spot where he lay asleep a pathway of silvery light led up through the darkness — up above the tree-tops, up above the moon and the stars — up to where the Lord Himself, the Light of the world,, the Sun of righteousness, stood — Himself the source of all that splen- dor, the fountain of all that glory ; while between Him and the lonely sleeper below, angels, who are God's ministering spirits, trooped back and forth. But, grand as was that display, God added to its glory by Himself speaking to Jacob. I am, said He, the Lord God of Abraham thy father, and the God of Isaac. Then followed a re- newal of the promises which had been given to those noble old patriarchs. The land where Jacob lay asleep was assured to him and his descendants as an inheritance ; an immense number of descendants, in whom all the world should be blessed, was promised to him, and God promised to go with Jacob wherever he went and to bring him again to Canaan. Such is the substance of what God said, and all question as to the favor and care of the Lord was dis- pelled by these words. Happy Jacob ! to whom God so lovingly spoke." "That was too lovely !" exclaimed Mary and Carrie together. "Jacob awoke. Possibly he was chilled with the night air and stiff from his hard couch ; but he remembered what had occurred, and his first exclamation was, Surely the Lord is in this place ! He had not suspected that the Lord was so near. When he lay down to sleep it was with misgiving and anxiety ; but now that he thought on his vision, a reverential fear came on him, and he said, How dread- ful is this place ! This is none other than the house of God ; this is the gate of heaven. It was a place ever to be remembered by him and his children, so he called it by a new name — Bethel — meaning, the House of God. The stone which he had used for a pillow he set up for a memorial pillar, a sort of monument, that it might mark f THE WONDERFUL LADDER. 139 this spot in all future years. Then Jacob made a solemn vow that this place should be kept sacred and that he himself would serve God faithfully; then he started on his journey, a wiser and better man than ever before. And now, if Mary will read what Jesus said to Nathaniel, we will see just what that wonderful ladder means for us." Mary turned to John i, 51, at Grandpa's suggestion, and read: "Verily, verily, I say unto you. Hereafter ye shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man." "Oh!" shouted Charley and Carrie together; "Jesus is the ladder between heaven and earth. Isn't He, Grandpa ?" " Yes ; He is our stairway to the skies, and so He taught — No man cometh to the Father but by me. But the grandest comfort is that on every spot of earth this ladder rests. Men may start to their heavenly Father from their own homes, wherever those homes may chance to be." " Grandpa, isn't the hymn. Nearer, my God, to Thee, founded on this dream ?" asked Mary. " It says : " Though like a wanderer, The sun gone down, Darkness comes over me, My rest a stone. Yet in my dreams I'd be Nearer, my God, to Thee Nearer to Thee." "Yes, Mary. These Bible narratives enter into many of our hymns ; I am glad to see you noticing the fact and linking story and hymn together." Carrie had turned to this hymn while this little chat was going on, and seeing still other references to the dream, she proposed that the hymn be sung. All consented readily, and with this pleasant service the evening was closed. t . 140 GRANDPA GOODWIN'S STORIES. WHICH HE LOVED BEST: Or, seeking ONE AND GETTING TWO. N' OW, Grandpa," said Mary, as the supper was finished, " let us get to work once n^'^re. ^ rm so interested in Jacob, I want to hear more of him. I have read about him often, but you make him seem more real than I ever thought him." "You remember," said Grandpa, as he drew his chair near the table, " the odd way in which Isaac got his wife. Jacob, too, had an odd experience in his mother's country. When he reached that land he came to a well, which was covered with a heavy stone. While talking with some shepherds about the people and the place, who should come near to water her flocks but his own cousin, Rachel, who wa" "^ery beautiful. Jacob at once ran forward, drew the water for he. sheep, and then told her who he was. They cried a little for joy and kissed each other ; then she ran to tell the folks at home. In a few moments her father, whose name was Laban, came hurry- ing back to welcome his nephew, whom he led off to the house. Jacob had a good time there for a few weeks. He did not sit around in idleness, but made himself so useful that his uncle proposed to keep him permanently and pay him good wages. Little suspecting the price Jacob would ask, Laban said to him, What shall thy wages be? And what think you Jacob answered ? He did not ask money or land or cattle, but said he, I will serve thee seven years for Rachel." " Ha, ha, ha," roared Charley ; " that was funny wages. I vender how Rachel liked that bargain." " I wonder how her sisters liked it," laughed Mary; " especially her older sister, if she had one." WHICH HE LOVED BEST. 141 i ' "She had one, Leah by name," continued Grandpa. "Laban agreed to Jacob's terms and Jacob went to work, and he was so happy that the years went by and seemed Hke nothing more than days to him. Then he asked for his pay — for Rachel as his wife — " And Jacob loved Rachel; and said, I will serve thee seven years for Rachel thy younger daughter"— Genesis xxix, 1 8. when, to his great surprise, Laban insisted that he should marry Leah, and, if he wanted Rachel, whom he surely loved best, that he should work another seven years for her." " Wasn't that mean ?" exclaimed both the girls. " Rather mean. I admit," said Grandpa, " but they fixed it up by 142 GRANDPA GOODWIN'S STORIES. his marrying both the sisters at once — a custom even now common in that land, but rightly prohibited in every enlightened country." " Seeking one and getting two," said Mary. " Two wives at the same time," commented Charley, slowly ; and as a merry twinkle shone in his eye, he turned to his mother, saying, " Glad I wasn't Jacob's boy, with two mothers to sit down on me." " It would take about six mothers to keep you straight," was Mrs. Reed's playful answer, and then Grandpa went on with his story. "Jacob submitted as best he could to what he could not help, and worked on for another seven years ; then he concludfed to go back to Canaan. But Laban had learned his value, and to induce him to stay offered him a share of the cattle and sheep as his pay. This arrangement suited Jacob, and under it he was growing rich very rapidly. This aroused the envy of his brothers-in-law, and even of Laban himself. Jacob thereupon determined to leave Laban and to set out at once for his own land, his wives approving his decision. They gathered together all their possessions, consisting of cattle, camels, sheep, and goods, and with their servants and children off they started, some riding, some walking, others carrying the little ones or driving the flocks, all enjoying the journey, and altogether making a great company. Laban was shearing his sheep at some distant place when they started, and did not know of their departure till they had been gone three days." "Well, that was not right. They certainly should have bidden him good-bye," said Mary, warmly. " So Laban thought, especially when he missed some of his house- hold idols, for he was an idolater ; so he gathered a company of men and started in pursuit. But God warned him in a dream that he should do Jacob no harm. He hurried on, however, and overtook the party, but, impressed by the warning, he contented himself with some good, fatherly advice. He then spoke of his missing idols, and Jacob bade him search everywhere for them. He did search, but Rachel, who had taken them, deceived him so they were not found. WHICH HE LOVED BEST. 143 Then Jacob scolded and stormed at Laban for making these false charges, and Laban begged pardon and asked Jacob to make up." " And did they ?" asked Charley, adding, " I wouldn't have made up with such an old crank as Laban." " Then Jacob rose up, and set his sons and his wives upon camels; and he carried away all his cattle, and all his goods which he had gotten." — Genesis xxxi, 17, 18. " In that Jacob showed a better spirit than Charley's," answered Grandpa. "Jacob did make up with him, and they set up a big stone as a reminder of the good understanding and good-will to which they there and then came. They had a religious service together and a great farewell feast, then they said good-bye and parted." 144 GRANDPA GOODWIN'S STORIES. A FAMOUS WRESTLING MATCH : Or, the victorious CRIPPLE. w HAT more is there about Jacob ?" asked Carrie of her Grandpa, as the little group met again. " He seems to me a queer man. I don't know whether to like him or not." " He was far from being a perfect man," replied Grandpa ; " and yet God loved him and put great honor on him. Indeed, God honored him with a new and better name, his old name, Jacob, meaning a supplanter, or one who gets advantage unfairly." " That was good enough for him, I think," said Carrie ; " for he did take advantage of Esau. But how did it come that he got a new name ?" " Why, in this way. He was no sooner free from Laban than he began to worry about Esau, through whose country he had to pass on his way to Canaan. They had parted in terrible bitterness many years before, as ypu know, and Esau, who was a wild, roving, lawless chief, like the Arab leaders of to-day, was well able to destroy Jacob and his company if he so pleased. Jacob thought it best, therefore, to send messengers ahead with presents to Esau, so as to pacify him and secure his good-will beforehand. The messengers started ; but in a little while they came dashing back, scared almost to death, and bringing news that Esau was coming with four hundred armed men." " Hey, boys !" exclaimed Charley. " Guess they'll pepper Jacob and his wives this time. But go on, Grandpa ; excuse me, please." " Jacob then was alarmed ; what to do he did not know ; he thought his end had come ; he could neither flee nor fight. But he was a A FAMOUS WRESTLING MATCH. 145 f cunning man. To lose half was not so bad as to lose all ; so he divided his company into two parts, in the forlorn hope that if Esau should destroy one, he might suppose it to be all, and allow the other to escape. Jacob himself did not stay with either party, but hurried off to a safe place and began to pray most earnestly, quoting God's promises, confessing his sins, and begging God's help against Esau." " It seems to me that Jacob never prayed except when he was in some great trouble," said Mary, thoughtfully ; " and I am not sure that such a person deserves to be answered." " Nobody deserves to be answered, Mary ; but God tells us to call upon Him in the day of trouble and assures us He will answer. We certainly ought to call upon Him in days of prosperity, too ; but He is kind and patient, even with the thoughtless and ungrateful." "But did God answer Jacob?" Mary persisted. "It don't seem to me that He should have answered him." " He did not answer at once ; so Jacob resorted again to his own schemes. He sent presents by several successive messengers, with winning words, for Esau ; for Jacob said to himself, I will appease him with the present that goeth before me, and afterward I will see his face. But even then he did not feel altogether safe : so he sent his family across a little stream, the brook Jabbok, and then crept away in the darkness to pray again. While he was praying, suddenly he was seized by a person of immense strength. , Probably at first he thought himself in the hands of Esau's men ; l^it he soon found that "his antagonist was greater than any man. It was an angel — like those he had seen in his dream of the wonderful ladder. Jacob knew that his time to succeed had now come. He was sure God was favoring him. A messenger of God had come, and Jacob deter- mined to make the most of it. So he seized the angel and the angel seized him. Of course, the angel could have crushed him in an in- stant. By a mere touch he threw Jacob's thigh out of joint. But Jacob hung to him with all his might. Let me go, said the angel, for the day breaketh. He could have gone had he really cared to, 146 GRANDPA GOODWIN'S STORIES. but he was testing Jacob by that request, Jacob stood the test grandly, for he said, I will not let thee go, except thou bless me." "Good for Jacob!" shouted Charley. "He was no slouch, was he ? That was a wresding match worth talking about, wasn't it ?" ^ to meet Israel his father, to Goshen, , . . And he fill on his neck, and xuept on his ntti- a good while." — Gene.iis xlvi, 29. " That was splendid," exclaimed Mary. " Joseph was so great and so generous I don't wonder his family were willing to move into the land where he ruled. I'd have moved myself to be near so nice and so rich an uncle." 1 i^ ml i]m ■1 H vi 11 102 GRANDPA GOODWIN'S STORIES. HARD TIMES; Or, much work AND LITTLE PAY. I HEARD some men talking to-day about hard times," began Grandpa Goodwin wiien the children were settled quietly and looking expectantly at him. "They agreed that we were having hard times, many people being out of work and those at work being poorly paid. I do not think they were altogether fair, but I can tell you a story about times that were really very hard." " Is this a Bible story, Grandj^a ?" questioned Carrie, seemingly in doubt from the berrinning made. " Yes, darling — a Bible story ; for God's people have often seen hard times. You remember hov/ splendidly Joseph settled his kin- dred in Goshen and how happy they were. They came at once when Joseph sent for them. Nothing but want was in Canaan and plenty was in Egypt ; so they gathered together their children and servants, with all their goods, and soon were on their journey. They had no telegraph to announce their approach ; so as they nearf.d Joseph's city, one of the brothers hurried on to tell him. Thei Joseph ordered out his own splendid chariot and drove out to Goshen to meet his father. That was a happy meeting. The Bible says that Joseph fell on his father's neck and wept a good while. He did not weep for sorrow, but for joy, and his dear old father said. Now let me die, since I have seen thy face." " Pshaw !" exclaimed Charley. " I wouldn't want my father to die when he gets home just because ne saw my face, and I don't think I'd cry much either." "A little while after their arrival," continued Grantipa, "Phaiaoh I! ■ , HARD TIMES. 163 sent for Jacob and had a talk with the grand old man and with some of the brothers also. He welcomed them to Egypt, and they were soon happily settled and greatly prospered, for God favored them for their father's sake and their brother's. They litde thought in «' They did set over titcm taskmasters, to ajjlict them with their burdens." — Exodus i, 1 1. that glad hour of the troubles they were yet to see in Egypt. But dear, old Jacob died, and finally Joseph, too, passed away. The King, also, who had honored Joseph, and all the people who had seen and known him, died. But Jacob's descendants had become very numerous in Egypt and were in all parts of the land. At last there l> . i! 41 iH!, n- ■j » 164 GRANDPA GOODWIN'S STORIES. came a cruel King, who thought these people were becoming entirely too many. We must grind them down, said he, and kill them off. So he began to build great cities and made the Israelites do an im- mense amount of terribly hard work ; he also put them under task- masters, who drove and beat and abused them until their lives were a continual scene of torture. The cruei King also ordered that all their boy babies should be thrown into the river. So he abused them everywhere and all the time." " Those were hard times indeed," said Mary. " I'd rather be out of work and starve than work in that terrible way." " I wouldn't have done their old work," added Charley. " I'd have run away." " Many of them thought that, too, I suppose," said Grandpa ; " but we don't know that any of them did get away. They were too closely watched. At last, however, better fortune happened to one of their little boys. His mother would not drown him, but she was afraid to keep him about the house, lest some of Pharaoh's soldiers should find and kill him ; so she made a little basket like a boat and cemented it so it would not leak. Into this she put her baby boy, whose name was — what?" " Moses !" came from them all in an instant. " Yes ; Moses. And that was the greatest basketful of blessing the world ever saw. Can you tell why ?" " Because Moses got the children of Israel out of their hard times," answered Carrie. " Because Moses became so great and good," added Mary. " Well answered, my dears ! I see that you are acquainted with Moses," said Grandpa, pleasantly. "But our hard times make it necessary for me to go and call on some of the poor to-night ; so we will content ourselves with this little chat. To-morrow night we will see how better times did come through the little boy who was hidden in the basket." A WAIF ON THE WA TER. 165 A WAIF ON THE WATER: Or, floating INTO FORTUNE. H OW it came to pass," began Grandpa, " that Moses led the children of Israel to better times is what I want to tell you to-night. When his mother put him in the little basket by the river, she sent his sister, Miriam, to watch, lest any harm should come to him. When the daughter of Pharaoh found him, his little sister came running to her and asked whether she might go an ' get a nurse for the baby. Permission was given, probably more in fun or orirlish romance than for ausfht else, and Moses' own mother was soon engaged to nurse and bring him up for the Prin- cess. From this loving mother, and while yet a little child, Moses learned to serve God and to sympathize with his suffering kindred. Though a little waif on the water, yet, under God's guidance, he floated into the best of tunes." " Did he live in the palace of that wicked King ?" asked Carrie. "In all probability he did. We know that the Princess had him taught in all the learning of that day. He became a thoroughly ed icated and highly cultivated man. She also wished him to give up all interest in the Israelites and to become her adopted son ; but Moses refused, choosing rather, as Paul says, to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season." "Well, that was noble, wasn't it?" " Yes, Mary," continued Grandpa ; " you will search long and far before you find a man who is the equal of Moses in all that is great and good. What to do for his people was not at all clear to him, till one day he was out looking on his brethren at their work, w in 11 ■j" ", ^ 1 ii •T^^w»^^M5^^wwi^MJ«" !!»»•»■» ipjiii BP^ 11^^ wiii 166 GRANDPA GOODWIN' S STORIES. he saw an Egyptian task-master cruelly abusing one of them. That was more than Moses could stand. He sprang forward, slew the Egyptian on the spot, and buried his body in the sand." " Served him right !" shouted Charley, warmly. " Good for Moses !" '' And (he daughter of Pharaoh came down to wash herself at the river. . . . And xuhen she sav, the ark among thejlags, she sent her maid to fetch il." — Exodus ii, 5. " It came near not being good for Moses, though," added Grandpa, *'for his act was seen by others and was talked about until Pharaoh himself heard it and determined to kill Moses. Learning this, pos- sibly from his foster-mother, the Princes;., Moses left Egypt in haste and went away toward the far East, into the land of Midian." A WAIF ON THE IVA TER. 167 " What a pity !" exclaimed Mary. " He was so much needed just then in Egypt, and yet he had to go so far away." " Possibly not so much of a pity," replied Grandpa. " God was leading him and fitting him for his coming work. God was in no " And he looked this luay and that way, and, 'when he sara that there was no man, he slew the £gy/>tuin . and hid him in the utnd." — Exodus ii, I 2. hurry about this work, either, strange though that may seem. ]\I6ses was forty years old when he went away from Egypt and he stayed away forty years more. /Ml that while God saw fit that His people should continue to suffer. At the end of this time He appeared in a burning bush and spoke to Moses, ordering him to go back to i* ; ii 16» GRANDPA GOODWIN'S STORIES. Egypt and demand of the King that the children of Israel should l'^o free. Moses was afraid to undertake such a work, but God led him along till he and his brother Aaron met, and, on God's orders, went together and made the demand. The King scouted the idea, and at once gave orders that the tasks of the people should be terribly increased. That made them fairly rage at Moses, and he naturally felt much discouraged at the failure." " I should think he would," answered Charley ; " and don't see how he could fail if the Lord really sent him." "That was just the way Moses felt," answered Grandpa. "He had gone to his kinsmen and told them what the Lord meant to dc *, he had shown them the signs God appointed to prove his errand; the people had joyously hailed him as a deliverer ; but now he was spurned by the King and the people were harder worked and worse treated than ever. They were bitterly disappointed and " "Tearing mad, I'll bet!" interrupted Charley, with an excited manner. " They must have thought he had been fooling with them." "Well, yes; I suppose that was so. When they saw Moses and Aaron they gave them a piece of their mind in rather bitter fashion, so that Moses was quite out of heart and said to the Lord, Why is it that Thou hast sent me ? For since I came to Pharaoh to speak in Thy name, he hath done evil to this people ; neither hast Thou delivered Thy people at all." " Poor Moses !" sighed Carrie. " He floated into good fortune at the start, but now bad fortune seems to be his." " He got left badly that time," said Charley, and just at that moment Grandpa was called away ; whereupon Mary said, " And we got left, too, didn't we ?" }\\ I THE VISION IN THE BUSH. 170 GRANDPA GOODWIN'S STORIES. A STRANGE SNAKE STORY: Or, one swallowing A MULTITUDE. t : n V « G' RANDPA," began Carrie, "I was reading in the fourth chapter of Genesis where it tells about Moses and about his rod becoming a serpent. I must say I don't under- stand it. Tell me about that snake business." " Oh ! yes," exclaimed Charley. " Snakes are my chums." " What you refer to, Carrie, occurred when God appeared in the burning bush and gave Moses orders to go to Pharaoh and ask him to let the people go. Moses wanted something to prove to the Israelites and the Egyptians that God had sent him. He stood there with his shepherd's staff in his hand, and God said, What is that in thine hand? A rod, answered Moses. Cast it on the ground, said the Lord. Moses did so, and instantly it became a great writhing, wriggling snake. Moses was nervous about snakes, for he turned and ran." " I don't wonder !" exclaimed Mary ; while Carrie cried, " Ugh !" and started, as if a real snake were after her, " But the Lord stopped Moses and said. Put forth thy hand and take it by the tail ; which no sooner had Moses done than the snake became a stiff, wooden rod, as before. Some other signs were given Moses, but this is the snake part about which you were in doubt." " Yes, Grandpa ; and I don't see why God used such a horrid thing as a snake to prove that He was with Moses." "These signs did the work, however, and convinced the Israelites that God had sent Moses to deliver them. We are told that after he had done these miracles the people believed." A STRANGE SNAKE STORY. 171 " Yes ; so would I have believed. But I would have been scared all the same by a horrid snake." " And yet, Carrie, if you saw a man who could change sticks to snakes and snakes to sticks; you would be sure he had some super- " At^ii Aaron cast down his rod before Pharaoh, and before his servants, and it became a serpent."— Exotlus vii, 10. human help, even though the snakes were horrid. The probability is that the Israelites, too, thought snakes were horrid ; but in what Moses did they saw power that could make or unmake horrid things, and so a power that could make or unmake the horrible things of their slavery in Egypt." 172 GRANDPA GOODWIN'S STORIES. 1 1 'i "That I hadn't thought of, but I guess it's so. One who can make or unmake snakes can manage any other horrible thing." " Another reason why God used the serpent in this miracle," con- tinued Grandpa, " was the fact that in Egypt serpents were esteemed very highly. The god of good and the god of evil were each sup- posed by the Egyptians to dwell in serpents. Serpents were wor- shiped ; they were carved on temples and monuments ; they were embalmed, and so preserved as sacred and precious relics ; for this reason no better form of miracle could have been selected for Egypt than one showing power over the snake." "Well, that is a reason I never heard of," said Mary. "I always supposed the stick was turned into a snake just because it happened to be in Moses' hand and it looked so much like a snake. But, Grandpa, Pharaoh's magicians made snakes the same way." "Yes, they were called, and by their enchantments — that is, by their manoeuvres and hocus-pocus — they produced snakes. But how much trick there was in this we do not know. The final proof in the case, however, was that when the several serpents fell to fighting, that made from Moses' rod swallowed all the rest; the one swal- lowed the multitude, and so ended the fight." " Good for the snake !" shouted Charley. " They're great on the swallow, I know. I saw one take in a bird, feathers and all." " I guess that settled the case for Moses, didn't it, Grandpa ?" " No, Carrie ; Pharaoh still refused to let the people go. Then God sent a variety of plagues upon the Egyptians and afflicted them terribly ; but the King grew more and more stubborn. Water was turned into blood ; frogs became so numerous as to cover the land ; flies swarmed over everything; cattle died of a terrible plague; boils broke out on all the people ; hail fell from the clouds and battered all their vegetation to ruin ; locusts swarmed over the land ; dark- ness rested on everything of theirs for three days, and yet Pharaoh would not let the people go. God then determined on one final and fearful blow, but of that we will talk to-morrow." FLYING FOR FREEDOM. 173 FLYING FOR FREEDOM; I Or, a marvelous DELIVERANCE. CARRIE opened the next talk by asking, " What was that final blow you spoke of, Grandpa ? It seems to me God had already struck such awful blows at the Egyptians that nothing could be worse." " No one knows all that God can do either in a loving way or an afflictive way," replied. Grandpa. " He is terrible to His foes and precious to His friends. In this case He determined that all the first- born, both of men and beasts, should die at midnight on a certain day." " Of His own people too ?" asked Carrie, in surprise. " Yes, unless they should sprinkle the blood of a lamb on the posts and lintels of their front doors. If that were done, the destroying angel, who was to go through the land and do this fearful work, would pass over their houses and leave them unharmed." " Oh ! that was the Passover, wasn't it, Grandpa ?" exclaimed Charley. "Our Sunday-school lesson was about it once. It seems to me awful for so many people to die in one night, and all without any sickness or accident." " Not more awful than their cruel abuse and murdering of the chil- dren of Israel," said Mary, her sense of justice making her tones very decided as she spoke. " That was the Passover, as Charley says," resumed Grandpa — " a feast which to this day Israelites keep with great fidelity, in remem-. brance of the fact that God spared their forefathers in Egypt so many years ago." 174 GRANDPA GOODWIN'S STOH/ES. " How were they spared ?" asked Charley. " Why, they obeyed God, and sprinkled blood on the doorposts and lintels of their houses, as He told them to do. They waited within doors and ate a hurried and simple meal, which God had directed. " TAere was a great cry in Egypt: for there was not a house where there was not one dead." — Exodus xii, 30. Midnight drew near ; all about them was quiet ; there was no sign of trouble ; none of the Egyptians suspected harm ; midnight was just at hand ; it came. Listen ! a wail is heard ; another and yet another. Lamentations and weeping rise on all sides and swell into a great cry. In every house there is one dead. In palace and in I FLVING FOR FREEDOM. 175> dungeon, among men and beasts, all the firstborn are sniitien with death except alohe in the houses of the children of Israel, on the doorposts and lintels of which the blood of the lamb had been sprin« kled." " How terrible !" said both the girls together, and really shudder- ing at the story. " No wonder," resumed Grandpa, " that Pharaoh rose at once, in the dead of night though it was, and that he commanded Mosiis to go, and to take with him his troublesome people. Go they did that very night, urged by the Egyptians, and enriched with presents from them to appease the God of Israel lest He should strike again and slay the entire nation. So the children of Isra 1 fled from the land of their bitter bondage to gain their long-lost freedom." " That was grand," said Mary ; " but why did Pharaoh change his mind and chase them afterward ?" " Because his heart was full of evil. When the first pang of that terrible midnight scene had passed, he began to think of the valuable slaves he had lost, and he determined to bring them back. So he marshaled his soldiers, and, taking the lead himself, began the pur- suit. Moses had a good start, and pushed on toward the Red Sea, which lay between Egypt and the Arabian peninsula. Pharaoh thought Moses would be trapped in this position. Along the shores of that sea he could not escape either to the north or the south, for steep rocks and strong military stations were there ; so Pharaoh thought he could march riofht down on the Israelites, hemmed in on the seashore, and capture the whole of them. When the Israelites heard of his coming, they were terribly frightened ; they thought their end had come. But at God's command Moses reached out his rod over the sea, and lo ! the waters rolled back, leaving an open path through the water by which the children of Israel passed over dry-shod." "That's a tip-top way to cross the ocean," exclaimed Charley; "it don't make you sea-sick." tl II ; 1 1 ^M ^ |n I m 1 1 li w! ft 1 1 1'^ ! \ ; -an - si'' r 59! ,h 176 GRANDPA GOOD WIN'S STORIES. " Piiaraoh arrived just in time to see this wonderful sight, and he knew of no reason why he should not cross by the same path, which remained invitingly open. So he ordered an advance, and down into the depths of the sea-bottom his chariots rolled and his footmen marched. Moses and his followers were now safely on the other side ; Pharaoh and his soldiers were In the deepest part of the sea. Then Moses lifted up his wonderful rod again, and back rolled the mighty waters, thundering down upon t)>e heads of the doomed army beiow. Horses, chariots, and drowninr men were tossed into struo- gling heaps. It was for them the struggle of death. In a few mo- ments all was over, and they were in the presence of the God they had despised." A deep silence rested on the little company as Grandpa ceased speaking. After a moment's pause, Mary said, " How thankful the Israelites must have been at that marvelous deliverance !" " They were," said Grandpa. " Moses and the men sang a splen- did song of praise, which is recorded in full in the fifteenth chapter of Exodus. His sister also, with a company of women, sang and danced for joy with the music of their timbrels and harps." On Grandpa's reference to the fifteenth of Exodus, Mary looked for the place, and in a moment exclaimed, " Oh ! this is beautiful ; let me read part of it." All agreeing, she read : " Then sang Moses and the children of Israel this song unto the Lord, and spake, saying, I will sing unto the Lord, for He hath triumphed gloriously ; the horse and his rider hath He thrown into the sea. The Lord is my strength and song, and He is become my salvation ; He is my God, and I will prepare Him an habitation ; my father's God, and I will exalt Him. The Lord is a man of war ; the Lord is His name. Pharaoh's char- iots and his host hath He cast into the sea ; his chosen captains also are drowned in the Red Sea. The depths have covered them ; they sank into the bottom as a stone. Thy right hand, O Lord. Is become glorious in power ; Thy righ*- hand, O Lord, hath dashed in pieces the enemy." 'i OVERWHELMED IN THE WATERS. -1^. i i! ll 178 GRANDPA GOODWIN'S STORIES. 14. '; •' That is the scene Moore describes so splendidly in a poem which I learn(*d when I was a little girl," said Mrs. Reed, as Mary ceased. " Repeat it for us mother, please do," urged the children. She yielded willingl) to their desires, and repeated as follows : " Sound the loud timbrel o'er Egypt's -l-rk sea! Jeliovah has triumphed, His people a. j free. Sing, for the pride of the tyrant is broken — His chariots, his hrr"imen, all splendid and brave; How vain was their boast, for the Lord hath but spoken, And chariots and horsemen are sunk in the wave. Sound the loud timbrel o'er Egypt's dark sea ! Jehovah has triumphed, His people are free. " Praise to the Conc^aeror, praise to the Lord ! His word was our arrow, His breath was our sword. Who shall return to tell Egypt tlie story Of t'-.ose she sent forth in the hour of her pride? For the Lord hath looked out from His pillar of glory, And all her brave thousands are dashed in the tide. Sound the loud timbrel o'er Egypt's dark sea ! Jehovah has triumphed, His people are free." " That was indeed a splendid triumph for Jehovah," added Grandpa in conclusion. ■/■' ll I i; I CELEBRATING THE VICTORY. in $■ li " I ' ii 180 GRANDPA GOODWIN'S STORIES. HANDS UP: Or, how they WON THE BATTLE. I DON'T believe anybody else ever beat his enemies so easily as Moses did," said Charley. " Old Pharaoh and his soldiers were washed out pretty quick that day." "There are other cases," replied Grandpa, "where the Lord's ene- mies were destroyed quite as strangely if not so quickly. For instance: The Israelites had not much more than begun th "'^"^ ^> 4 ^o. S^. \^ IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) I 1.0 I.I ^ Ilia °' m M M 1.8 1.25 1.4 1.6 "^ 6" ► ^ <^ C^J ^ ^2 W 0/ ^?7 ^^ >^ ^^^ op. Photographic Sciences Corporation S: ^ ..m.. <> 4.^ \\ % o^ ^J<- %v> 23 WEST MAIN STREET WEBSTER, NY 14580 (716) 872-4503 1 188 GRANDPA GOODWIN'S STORIES. THE GORGEOUS TENT: Or, worship IN THE WILDERNESS. D IDN'T you say, Grandpa, that when Moses was in the Mount God told him many other things besides the Ten Commandments ?" " Very likely I did ; for that is the fact, Carrie. God made very careful arrangement for the worship to be rendered Him while they were journeying in the wilderness. They were moving from place to place ; so a permanent house of worship would not do for them. God gave orders, therefore, for a gorgeous tent, called the Taber- nacle, and of which the Bible has a great deal to say." " I am glad you speak of that. Grandpa, for I never understood much about that Tabernacle, nor about worship there ; then, too, I sometime? think we can worship God as well in one way or in one place as in any other." " So we can, Mary, if we are so fixed that we must do it in one place or not at all, or in one way or not at all. But if we are free to choose a place and a way, and yet simply serve Him as may best suit ourselves rather than as may most honor Him, why, then self and not God is served. But I now speak of those services known as public worship. God does demand that we meet together at special places for special services, and in the days of Moses that place was the Tabernacle." " Oh ! I see," responded Mary. " Just as we meet in our churches and Sunday-schools to publicly serve God, so they met at their Tabernacle." " Precisely so. And God was very particular about this matter. THE GORGEOUS TENT. ISO- He gave the most exact directions how everything should be done. Five entire chapters in the book of Exodus are filled with these, and at the end it is said, According to all that the Lord commanded Moses, so the children of Israel made all the work." "That was good," said Mary. " Everybody ought to obey God just that way." " When all the work was done, Moses examined it very carefully and found a.l was right. Then the Tabernacle was set up with a splendid service, and over it a great cloud, representing God's pres- PROBABLE APPEARANCE OF THE TABERNACLE ence, came and rested ; while inside the tent, in its inner room — called the Holy of Holies — a wonderful light burst forth and shone to represent God's glory." " What did the tent look like, Grandpa ? Was it like the big show tent at the fair last summer ?" asked Charley. " Not at all like that, my boy. The part strictly called the Taber- nacle was a tent the sides of which were made of forty-eight upright boards set in sockets of silver. It was open at one end, where there were splendid curtains hung on pillars. For a roof, several elegant layers of curtains were used. This tent was about forty-five feet 190 GRANDPA GOODWIN'S STORIES. ■'^ ■ long by fifteen wide. It was divided by a curtain or veil hung across, making an inner room fifteen feet square. This was called the Holy of Holies, the outer room being called the Holy Place. In these two rooms were the articles used in the service and prepared expressly on the orders of God." Mrs. Reed at this moment brought out a book with a picture of the Tabernacle as it is supposed to have appeared. After looking at it and talking about it awhile, Grandpa said : " This tent stood toward the rear of an inclosed space, which was seventy-five feet wide by one hundred and fifty long. This space was inclosed by twenty pillars on its north side, twenty on its south, and ten each at its east and west ends. These were set in brass sockets, and from pillar to pillar linen curtains hung, forming the inclosure. The ^-urtains on the east end were far more beautiful than the others, that being the entrance. In this inclosure stood the altar, where sacrifices were offered, and the laver, where the priests washed. Into this space only priests and their helpers, the Levites, were allowed to come. Into the Holy Place priests only could come, and into the Holy of Holies the High Priest only could enter. • « « t • • • • • • • • • / * L O A D • CARRIES PICTURE. and he was allowed to enter but once a year." '* Grandpa, I think I know how it looked. See, I have made a pic- ture of it ; isn't this right ?" asked Carrie, pushing her slate across the table to where Grandpa sat. He put on his glasses, and, scan- ning the picture with a smile, said, " Not much of a picture, Carrie, but a very good ground-plan." "That's what I meant to make, not a nice picture; but isn't it right?" THE GORGEOUS TENT. 191 " Yes, very good. Your inclosure is about twice as long as wide, which is correct; your tent is three times as long as wide; your Holy of Holies is square — all of which is correct. But what is this small square you have marked A ?" •' And Afoses brought out all thi rods from before the Lord. . . . And they looked, and took every man his rod." — Numbers xvii, 9. " The altar." '• And this circle you have marked L ?" " The laver." " And which end is this near which they stand ?" " The east end, where the entrance was and the beautiful curtains." GRANDPA GOODWIN'S STORIES. " Very good. Now let me tell you how God settled the question as to who should be his High Priest. Aaron had acted as such till some of the people became dissatisfied with him. Then God ordered that for every tribe of Israel a marked rod of almond tree should be brought to Moses. Aaron's name was to be on the rod of Levi's tribe. These rods Moses laid up in the Holy Place, God having said that the rod of the man He chose should blossom. The next day Moses went in, and behold, Aaron's rod was full of blossoms and almonds. Then Moses brought out the rods that all might see for themselves, after which Aaron's rod was kept in the Holy Place as a token of his authority and as a rebuke to all complainers." " Well, I think that ought to have settled the question as to whom God preferred," said Mary. " Aaron must have felt all right," added Charley, " but I pity the other chaps." " How did they offer the sacrifices ?" asked Mary. " I'm not sure that I know just how it was done." " You will find all about them in the opening chapters of the book of Leviticus," answered Grandpa. " As you will there see, the pro- cess was about this. A person brought the bullock or lamb, as the case might be, to the door of the inclosure, where the priests and Levites took charge of it, the man first laying his hand upon the head of the animal and confessing his sins. Then the animal was led to the altar and killed by the Levites. Its blood was caught in a basin, and some of it was sprinkled on the altar. Then the body was cut up, and part of it or all of it, as the nature of the offering might re- quire, was burned on the altar. " That was very odd. Why was that required ?" asked Carrie. " To teach that without the shedding of blood, or the giving of a life, sin could not be forgiven. By this oft-repeated lesson at the Tabernacle and the Temple men were prepared to welcome Christ, who died once for all for the sins of men." LIFE FOR A LOOK. 193 LIFE FOR A LOOK; Or, thousands CURED THOUGH FATALLY BITTEN. G' RANDPA," began Charley, "why don't God do wonderful things now, like He did for Moses, and make everybody serve Him ?" " Everybody did not serve Him, Charley ; nor would everybody serve Him now, even though He should do the very same wonders. God does not wish to startle us with wonderful acts, but rather to draw us with loving acts. His love is clearer now than His power was in the days of Moses." " But they all had to confess then that God watched over and blessed them," said Mary. " No, dear ; they did not. Hardly had that rod blossomed, of which I told you last night, when the people began to speak against both God and Moses. Their complaint was that the way was rough and hard to travel. Then God sent among them immense numbers of fiery serpents, which bit many people, and great numbers died." " Ugh !" cried Carrie, with a shudder. " I'd have died at the sight of them without waiting for the bite." "Why were they fiery serpents?" asked Charley. "When we had fireworks on the Fourth of July we had chasers that some peo- ple called fiery serpents. Were they the chaps ?" " No, my boy. Real snakes were among the people. Why they are called y?^;^ is not positively known. They may hove had a red- dish, glowing appearance, or the bitten part may have become very red and hot, as if touched by fire." " It makes me shiver to hear about them," said Carrie. )i ii 194 GRANDPA GOODWIN' S STORIES. " No doubt many of the Israelites felt as much horror of snakes as you do ; but the snakes came all the same, and on every side men, women, and children were dying. Then the people came to Moses, full of confessions, and begging him to pray for them. He did it, and God told him to make a serpent of brass, to set it up on a pole, and that every bitten person who looked to that serpent of brass should live." " God was certainly good to deal so kindly with such people !" exclaimed Mary. "And did the people get cured that way?" asked Charley. " Yes ; every one that looked to the brazen serpent lived. No matter how badly bitten, no matter how far gone with the terrible poison, no matter from how distant a place he looked, the reco.d is, When he beheld the serpent of brass, he lived." " I wish there was a serpent now, that sick people might look and get well," s^id Carrie. " The children of Israel kept that brazen serpent some seven hun- dred years, but it did them so much harm that the good King Hez- ekiah broke it up." " Why, Grandpa, how could it do them harm ?" exclaimed all at once. " Turn to II Kings xviii, 4, and see," said he, smiling. Mary turned as directed and read : " He removed the high places, and brake the images, and cut down the groves, and brake in pieces the brazen serpent that Moses had made, for unto those days the children of Israel did burn incense to it ; and he called it Nehushtan." " Why did they burn incense to it ?" asked Carrie. " I don't see any good in that." " They worshiped it, and in their worship burned incense as part of the ceremony. Because they did this Hezekiah spoke of it con- temptuously, and called it Nehushtan." " That's a queer name to call it, anyway," said Carrie. THE MARVELOUS SERPENT. iM GRANDPA GOODWIN'S STORIES. " Called it Necushtan^' said Charley, slowly. " That was a hard name to call it. What is Necushtan ?" " Nehushian, not Necushtan," said Mary, correcting the slip of Charley's tongue. " Well, what does it mean, anyhow ? If it's a good one, I'll call the boys that." " Nehushtan means an old piece of brass, a brazen thing. It was an expression of contempt because of the evil uses to which the ser- pent had been put." "Yes, they made an idol of it, Grandpa. But then they needn't have done that ; so I still wish we had something like it to make sick people well," persisted Carrie. " We have something far better," added Grandpa. " Better ? I should like to know what." "Read John Hi, 14, 15, Mary, and you will see." Mary read : " And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilder- ness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up : That whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have eternal life." " Yes, that is better," said Carrie, thoughtfully. " And do we need simply to look to Jesus as they did to the serpent ?" "That is what Jesus says. There is life for a look at the crucified One, as the hymn has it. So let us all look." " But how can we look. Grandpa ? Not with our eyes, as I look to you, can we ?" asked Carrie. " No, darling, because we cannot see Jesus with our natural eyes. But to whom do you look for money to pay your school-bills ?" "To papa, of course; he always sends that," answered Carrie. " But," added she, with light breaking over her face, " I don't look to him with my eyes when he's away so far, do I ?" " No, dear," answered Grandpa ; " you look with your mind and your heart, and your papa does not disappoint you. That is the way to look for pardon from Jesus." "Oh! I see," exclaimed the girl ; "and I'll try to do just that." FORTY YEARS A GENERAL. 197 FORTY YEARS A GENERAL: Or, surrendering A GREAT COMMISSION. 4< H OW many years did Moses lead the children of Israel, Grandpa ?" asked Carrie, when the family was once more seated after tea. " Moses was forty years old when he fled to the land of Midian, eighty years old when he led the Israelites out of Egypt, and one hundred and twenty years old when he died." "Whew!" exclaimed Charley, with a prolonging of sound as if he would make it last as long as the life of Moses. " He was a good old gent. Why, he was old enough to be your grandfather, wasn't he, Grandpa ? He was General forty years." " Yes, and good enough to be an honor to any grandson." " Just like you," broke in Carrie. " Thanks, darling," responded Grandpa, with a loving smile. " But as Moses grew old he was sensible enough to know it, and to see that Israel needed a younger man to lead them ; so he took the mat- ter to God in prayer, just as he should have done, and God told him whom to appoint. And whom, suppose you, the chosen man was ?" "Aaron," said Carrie. " No ; Aaron was three years older than Moses, and hence hardly the man. What is worse, Aaron was then dead." "Joshua!" shouted Charley; " he was a tip-top old soldier. He was alive, and he knew how to fight." " Correct. Joshua could fight as a General, and he was also good and true. A better leader there could not be for any people. So God said. Take thee Joshua, a man in whom is the spirit, and lay 13 ;i '^ 198 GRANDPA GOODWIN'S STORIES. thine hand upon him. This was done, and Eleazar, who had become High Priest in Aaron's place, became special adviser to the new leader. Moses did not die at once, but he put honor and respon- sibility on Joshua to accustom him to his coming duties, and so taught and prepared him for what he had to do." " He took Joshua, and set him be/pre Eleazar the priest, and before all the congregation. And he laid his hands on him, and gave him a charge." — Numbers xxvii, 22, 23. " That was noble, wasn't it ?" said Mary. " It's a pity such grand men have to die." " It does seem so, but his work was done. He would have failed in strength and become less grand had he lived much longer. God FORTY YEARS A GENERAL. 199 gave Moses a most honorable removal from earth. The people he had led so long had come to the borders of Canaan, their land of promise, and were about to enter into it. Then God called Moses up into one of the lofty mountains lying east of the Jordan River, led him up to the very top of Mount Pisgah, and from that lofty height showed him all the land the Israelites were so soon to hold. It was a magnificent outlook for the veners >le ma.: ^'ho had so long toiled to bring them there.- Then Moses died tlierc, and God buried him, but just where was never told. No man knoweth his sepulchr'^. Israel mourned for him long and since* .y, as well ti.ey might ; but his bod) rested where God had laid it, and 1 ; soul was with God. whom he had served so long. Thus he lai I dr^wn his great commis- :.ion." " Let me read just here Mrs. Alexander's exquisite poem. The Burial of Moses. It has long seemed to me one of the mosi beau- tiful of compositions." So saying, Mrs. Reed proceeded as follows : By Nebo's lonely mountain, On this side Jordan's wave, In a vale in the land of Moab, There lies a lonely grave ; But no man dug that sepulchre, And no man saw it e'er, For the angels of God upturned the sod, And laid the dead man there. That was the grandest funeral That ever passed on earth j But no man heard the tramping, Or saw the train go forth ; Noiselessly as the daylight Comes when the night is done, And the crimson streak on the ocean's cheek Grows into the great sun : Noiselessly as the spring-time Her crown of verdure weaves, And all the trees on all the hills Open their thousand leaves ; So, without sound of music, Or voice of them that wept, Silently down from the mountain crown The great procession swept. Perchance the bald old eagle On gray Beth-peor's height. Out of his rocky eyrie Looked on the wondrous sight. Perchance the lion, stalking. Still shuns the hallowed spot — For beast and bird have seen and heard That which man knoweth not. Lo ! when the warrior dieth, His comrades in the war, With arms reversed and muflled drum, ^''ollow the funeral car. They show the banners taken, They tell his battles won, And after him lead his masterless steed, While peals the minute gun. 200 GRANDPA GOODWIN'S STORIES. Amid the noblest of the land Men lay the sage to rest, And give the bard an honored place. With costly marble dressed ; In the great minster transept, Where lights like glories fall, And the choir sings and the organ rings Along the emblazoned wall. This was the bravest warrior That ever buckled sword — This the most gifted poet That ever breathed a word ; And never earth's philosopher Traced, with his golden pen. On the deathless page truths half so sage As he wrote down for men. And had he not high honor ? The hillside for his pall. To lie in state while angels wait, With stars for tapers tall; And the dark rock pines, like tossing plumes. Over his bier to wave ; And God's own hand, in that lonely land, To lay him in the grave. In that deep grave without a name, Whence his uncoffined clay Shall break again — O wondrous thought ! — Before the judgment day j And stand, with glory wrapped around. On the hills he never trod, And speak of the strife that won our life With the incarnate Son of God. O lonely tomb in Moab's land ! O dark Beth-peor's hill ! Speak to these curious hearts of ours. And teach them to be still. God hath His mysteries of grace- Ways that we cannot tell ; He hides them deep, like the secret sleep Of him He loved so well. ir I ** How beautiful !" exclaimed both girls ; then, after a moment's silence, Charley asked, " What did Joshua do after that?" "God came to Joshua.after Moses died, and encouraged him with the best of promises. There Joshua went at his work and led the people into Canaan. There they had many enemies to conquer, but Joshua was not afraid. One day he went to reconnoitre, as soldiers call it — that is, to look around and spy out the situation of the enemy. While thus occupied alone, and far from his own men, suddenly an armed soldier stood before him with his sword drawn. Maybe he wished to try whether Joshua would scare easily, but there was no scare in him. Joshua advanced upon him instantly and asked, Art thou for us or for our adversaries ?" " Good for Joshua !" exclaimed Charley ; " he's the boy for me. What did the man say ?" " He said he was the captain of the Lord's host — meaning that he was a messenger from God, probably the Captain of our salvation, J FORTY YEARS A GENERAL. 201 the Lord Himself. Then Joshua fell upon the ground and worshiped his visitor, who told him how to capture Jericho, and then left." " Joshua ought tc have stood firm and fought well after such a visit," was Mary's comment ; to which Charley added " That's so !" There stood a man over against him with his sivord drawn in his hand : and Joshua unto him. Art thou for us, or for our adversaries ?" — Joshua v, 13. said Grandpa, rising from his chair, reminded them that the same great Captain has said, "Lo, I am \v\\.\\you ahvay, or all the days," as His exact words were ; and said, as he left the room, " We, too, ought to stand firm and be good soldiers for the Lord." " We'll do it," was the children's parting call. I J 202 GRANDPA GOODWIN'S STORIES. WATER HEAPED UP: Or, the wonderful CROSSING. M ir!' ' V L AST night, Grandpa," began Carrie, " you said Joshua led the children of Israel into Canaan. But they were on the other side of the Jordan, and wasn't it a big river? How did he get them across ?" " Sure enough, my child. How did he ? Jordan is a deep, rapid river at the season when they crossed. It then overfloweth all its banks, as the Bible record says. There was no bridge, nor had they any boats, but an immense number of men, women, and children, with live stock and goods, had to cross. How could it be done ?" " Swim 'em," answered Charley, with the promptness of an old commander ; " swim 'em. There's no better way to cross rivers." " How absurd !" exclaimed Carrie. " Even if all the men could swim, which I doubt, for they had not been much about the water ; but even if they could, imagine thousands of women and children and babies swimming across with all their goods. They'd have a job of It, and lots of them would be drowned." " Jess so," answered the boy, with a laugh. " Jess so, and that's where the fun would come in." " What other way was possible ?" asked Grandpa. " How else could the crossing be made ?" "As it was done at the Red Sea," said Mary. " I don't know how else it could be done." "That was the chosen way. God gave orders that the priests should take up the ark of the covenant and, with it on their shoul- ders, that they should march directly into the water. They started, but no sooner did their feet reach the brink of the river than the 204 GRANDPA GOODWIN'S STORIES. water rolled back and stood in a heap above them, while below it flowed away and left the river-bottom bare and dry, so that the peo- ple crossed right over without so much as wetting their feet. While they were passing the priests stood in the middle of the river with the ark, the waters rising behind them like a great wall." " O Grandpa ! how could that be ?" asked Carrie, as if in doubt whether he really was serious in what he said. " How ? my child. Why, it could not be at all if God kept on in His usual way, making water run down-hill, as we always see it. But He has power enough and skill enough to make it run up-hill as well as down, or stand in a heap as readily as flow. God certainly can do such acts. The only question is, Will He ?" " But why did He do it then ?" persisted Carrie. " He meant to honor Joshua by enabling him to lead the people into Canaan. There was no other way to do it save this. But in this way it would be done safely and quickly. None of the Israelites could doubt the power that brought them into the land, and they might feel sure that the same power would protect them when there." " What would the people who lived in Canaan think of such an entrance into their land ?" asked Mary. " It would certainly impress them very strongly. To see such an immense company cross the swollen river in a few minutes would amaze and terrify them." "And how would the people who crossed feel?" asked Charley. " Well, God wished them to remember this great crossing ; so He told Joshua to select one nan from each tribe, and these should each take up a stone from the very centre of the river-bed, where the priests had stood with the ark. These stones they were to carry out to the Canaan shore and there pile them up as a memorial monu- ment. This was done, and in the years which followed many a passer-by gazed on this monument and asked what it meant. Then the story of the wonderful crossing would be told and re-told, to the honor of God and the comfort of His people." I » Jfgjtmn Mmii\, i -«r^vfp^v w.i>u ■ i ■ 1 1 ^i uii i ^ jil^L BRINGING OUT THE MEMORIAL STONES. 1 ; 206 GRANDPA GOODWIN'S STORIES. VICTORY AND DEFEAT: Or, why they CONQUERED AND HOW THEY FLED. I HAVE been wondering, Grandpa," began Mary, "how the people of Canaan liked to have so many Israelites come into their land." •' They did not like it at all. They were greatly afraid and planned how they might drive out the intruders. Near where the crossing was made was a great city called Jericho. This was at once shut against the newcomers, its gates being closed tight, so that no one could go out or come in. But God gave that city to Joshua in a very strange way. There was no attack made upon it, nor any battle in front of it, but for six successive days the Israelites marched around the city, the priests leading and carrying the ark of the Lord. On the seventh day they varied their programme by marching around the city seven times ; at the end of the seventh round the priests blew their trumpets and all the people shouted." " What good would that do ?" asked Charley. " Did they expect to scare the people by yelling at them ?" "The Lord told them to do it. Do it they did, and in an instant down tumbled the great walls and towers of the city, leaving Jericho a total ruin. With the falling walls most of their soldiers must have been killed. They would naturally crowd to the tops of the walls and the towers to see the marching outside and to resist attack, if it should be made. When these walls fell so suddenly and so unex- pectedly they had no chance to escape. They must have been crushed and mangled in great heaps, and the city became the easy prey of the Israelites." VICTOR Y AND DEFEA T. 207 " Well, well !" cried Mary. " That was an amazing victory." " Yes ; but it had in it the seeds of defeat. God had said that all the goods of the city should be set apart for Him. The soldiers knew this, and had they been obedient all would have been well. " // came to pass when the people shouted with a great shout, that the wall /ell downjlat." — Joshua vi, ao. But one man kept for himself some valuable stuff that he found. No other fellow-soldier knew it ; but God saw it and sent trouble because of it. There was another city called Ai, and Joshua next went up against it. He thought to take it with just a few men ; but his men completely failed, and they were chased in disgrace from r I I 208 GRANDPA GOODWIN'S STORIES. the walls. Then Joshua was in distress; he wept and prayed, until God told him the cause of the trouble and how to detect the man who had done the wrong." " Why didn't God punish the man ?" asked Charley. " Yes ; but He wanted to impress the people, so that every one of them should feel concern in the case. So He ordered that all the tribes should come, one by one, before Him. They came, and He took the tribe of Judah ; then all the families of this tribe came, and He took that of Zerah ; then this family came by its households, and He took the household of Zabdi ; then the men of this household came, man by man, and He took Achan. The guilty man was hunted down in this deliberate and impressive way." "My!" exclaimed Carrie. "They must have felt awfully as this search went on. And how must Achan have felt !" " Badly enough, I am sure," said Grandpa. " He confessed all that he had done ; that he had stolen at Jericho a splendid robe and a lot of silver and gold, all of which he had buried in his tent." " How could he do that and his family not know it ?" asked Carrie. " They did know it, but they concealed it — though they knew it was a great sin. Joshua then sent messengers to Achan's tent, and there they found the buried treasures — just as Achan had said." "Oh, my!" sighed Carrie; "what did they do with poor Achan?" " Achan, with all his property and his family, was led out into a valley near by. He and his people were then stoned to death and their bodies, with all the property, were burned. That was the ter- rific manner in which God punished the theft of goods which had been set apart for Him." "That was awful!" said Mary; "but it does seem that they de- served It." " It does," assented Grandpa. " When this had been done, God sent Joshua once more against Ai, and he captured it easily. So we see that victory follows obedience, while disobedience and defeat go hand in hand." m FINDING THE STOLEN TREASURE. ^;iii 210 GRANDPA GOODWIN'S STORIES. DIVIDING THE INHERITANCE: Or, realizing A GREAT POSSESSION. W 'AS Joshua's trouble over when Ai was conquered?" asked Mary, taking up the thread of the last night's conversa- tion. " It seems to me it was about time for him to find some rest." " By no means, my dear," her Grandpa replied — " by no means. One of his greatest battles was with the soldiers of no less than five kings, who combined to help each other against him. But Joshua moved quickly, forced his marches, and came upon them quite un- expectedly at Gibeon. He soon put them to flight, and as they ran a terrible hail-storm came up and so pelted the fleeing men that many of them were actually beaten to death. Still Joshua pursued. Night was coming on, so he commanded the sinking sun to stand still where it was that daylight might last and the enemy be completely de- stroyed. God heard that command of Joshua ; the sun did stand still; the day was prolonged; and the armies of the kings were utterly cut to pieces." " Served them right," muttered Charley. " They had no business to trouble Joshua." " The kings themselves ran off together and hid in a cave ; but Joshua heard of it and sent men to roll great stones against its mouth, and so shut them in. When the battle was over, Joshua and his men went to the cave and opened it, when out crawled the royal runaways. After humbling them before his soldiers, Joshua ordered them to be slain, and their bodies to be hung upon five separate trees." DIVIDING THE INHERITANCE. 211 •' Poor fellows ! That ended their fight with Joshua," said Mary, sympathetically, Charley adding, " I guess that took the fight out of them," Grandpa then went on : " Yes, but other enemies came. Joshua met and conquered all " Then said Joshua, Open the mouth of the cave, and bring out those five kings unto me out of the cave." — Joshua x, 22. who came, but he grew old before the work was done or the land was in the peaceful possession of his followers. So the Lord told him to divide up the land, giving each tribe a part, and then to con- quer it for its owners. Part of the tribes had already received land on the east side of the Jordan, but all on its west side was divided 212 GRANDPA GOODWIN'S STORIES. among the others by lot, that being the fairest way of settling where each should live." " How did they do it by lot, as you say, Grandpa ?" " Why, Charley, descriptions of the various parts of the land were written on slips of parchment. These were all put into a jar, held probably by a little child, and where Joshua and the High Priest could see that everything was fairly done. Then a leader of each tribe came and drew out a roll. The land described on that roll was the prop- erty of the tribe for which it was drawn. In this way the long-prom- ised inheritance was divided ; the Israelites realized their great pos- session in Canaan." " This was what God promised to Abraham, wasn't it ?" asked Carrie. " Yes ; what God had promised, more than five hundred years be- fore Joshua divided the land, came to pass. God is in no hurry, you know; all the centuries are His. If He does not do His great works now, He may do them a hundred or a thousand years hence ; but what He promises He will certainly bring to pass." " The people must have been glad to get settled after so much moving around," remarked Carrie. " They never knew what it was to be settled till then, did they, Grandpa?" said Mary. " No, ^iary ; and even then their troubles were not over, for while the land was divided, they needed to drive out the people who held it and to hold it themselves." " But didn't the Lord give them all that land ?" asked Carrie, seemingly confused at the delay in getting full possession. " God's promise to Joshua was, Every place that the sole of your foot shall tread upon, that have I given unto you, as I said unto Moses. If they did not occupy or conquer the land it was not theirs." " Did they do it ?" asked the boy, who ever looked at the practical results. DIVIDING THE INHERITANCE. 213 " Never entirely. They contented themselves by settling as best they could on the land they then possessed. What they had not then conquered they allowed to old inhabitants to hold. So the Lord's people settled down with their heathen neighbors, and both seemed " By lot was their inheritance, as the Lord a mtnanded by the hand of Moses." — Joshua xiv, 2. willing to let each other alone. In this way the Israelites never took what the Lord offered them, and what they might have taken had they been active and bold." "That's the way we all suffer, more or less," said Mrs. Reed. *'The Lord gives each of us opportunities far better than we use." 14 wow I Wlfffi'l HH"«lHIWPI>"*,iW»*I.W^«{i.Wi' .»«":!i<4- ii I t \ 214 GRANDPA GOODWIN'S STORIES. STRENGTH TURNED TO WEAKNESS; Or, how the mighty FELL. G' RANDPA, didn't Samson live when Moses and Joshua did ?" Charley, who regarded Samson as the hero of heroes, pro- posed this question, seeming to fear that he would be overlooked in the attention bestowed on other men. " Not exactly, Charley," ai swered Grandpa. "He lived some three hundred years after Joshua." " Was it so long ?" replied the boy " Well, couldn't you tell us about him ? He was such a tremendous fellow, I always like him." " Just as you wish. Samson was one of the Judges of Israel. In all there were fifteen leaders who lield this office, Samuel being the last, and Samson being but two ahead of him. When Samson was born, the children of Israel were in great distress on account of their surrounding enemies, especially of the Philistines, who lived on the seacoast to the southeast of Canaan. God evidently thought that a man of prodigious strength and courage would do them good as a leader, so He raised up this matchless man, whose strength is ascribed directly to God's power. It is said in Judges xiii, 25, that at times the Spirit of the Lord began to move him." " Move him how?" asked Carrie. " Move him to do great and wonderful deeds, but what tTiey were is not told us." "Why are not all his doings told us. Grandpa?" inquired Charley. " It seems to me we ought to have a whole book on Samson." " That might be more interesting than profitable," answered Mary. "There are enough dime novels, without trying to turn Bible I STRENGT'H TURNED TO WEAKNESS. 215 heroes into their heroes. But, Grandpa, please tell us what we do know about Samson, for he was a tremendous man." "Yes, do," shouted Charley. " Please go on." "Very willingly," answered Grandpa, "for God raised him up to do " Ht found a new jaw-bone of an ass and put forth his hand and took it, and slew a thousand men therewith." — Judges xv, 15. a special work. His first great act of wliich we know occurred when, with his father and mother, he was going to claim his bride at Tim- nath, a city of the Philistines. He was walking apart from his parents when a young lion met him. He had no weapon with him, but he seized the brute and tore it to pieces as though it had been a kid." rr 216 GRANDPA GOODWIN'S STORIES. ! : '• How could he, Grandpa ?" exclaimed Carrie. " Why, lions are so big and so strong." " But how strong was Samson ? He may have been stronger than the strongest lion. And then the Bible says it was a young lion, which may mean that it was not an immense, full-grown fellow ; but big or little, it was a wonderful thing for Samson to kill it as he did." " It was something for him to talk about, wasn't it ?" exclaimed Charley, moving his hands as if to tear some imaginary lion to pieces. " Yes, but he didn't talk about it. Even his father and mother did not know of it, and when, finally, he did tell it, he made it into a riddle for people to guess, because none knew what he had done. So we see that Samson was no boaster. He did much and talked litde, which is by far the better v/ay." " Tell us some other thing he did. I love to hear about him," said Charley, earnestly. "At another time," continued Grandpa, " three thousand of his own people came to bind him and hand him over to the Philistines. After Samson had made them promise not to harm him themselves, he allowed them to bind him with new cords and lead him away to the Philistines. When they saw him coming, bound and seemingly help- less, they raised a great shout. Then God strengthened Samson again, and he snapped the cords as if they had been burnt off; then, seizing a big jaw-bone of an ass that lay near him, he rushed upon the Philistines, striking right and left, and before he quit a thousand men lay battered and dead upon the ground." " Hoorah for Samson !" shouted Charley, flinging his own arms about as if himself smiting down Philistines. " That was very grand," continued Grandpa, " and had Samson re- mained faithful to God, all would have been well. But he kept bad company ; he associated with low, base people, and such are sure to ruin any man. One of his most intimate friends was a woman named Delilah. She was a worthless creature, who bargained with STRENGTH TURNED TO WEAKNESS. 2YI the Philistines that she would betray Samson into their hands. She pretended to love him very tenderly, and so coaxed him to tell her why he was so strong. Instead of plumply refusing her, he made a false statement, telling her that if they should bind him with seven green withs he would be weak as any other man. While he lay asleep one day she bound him with seven withs and then called, The Philistines be upon thee, Samson ! Up he started at that cry and snapped the withs as though they had been mere threads." " Good !" exclaimed Charley. " Next he ought to have switched Delilah with one of the withs." " But he did not, Charley. She pretended to be terribly grieved because Samson had deceived her, so she coaxed him up again, and he told her that new ropes would bind him. She tried this at her next good chance, but in vain. He snapped the new ropes with per- fect ease, and was free. But Delilah did not give up. She wanted to get the pay the Philistines offered for the capture of Samson ; so she coaxed him again, and he said, if they would weave his hair into the web of a loom he would be helpless. She did it, but off he marched with the beam of the loom hanging to his hair. After that he told her all the truth, for she pestered him almost to death." ".And what was the secret of his strength ?" asked Mary. " Simply that he was dedicated unto God, and that in token of it his hair had never been cut. To cut his hair would be to cancel his vow — to signify that he was no more the Lord's, just as to cut off a Chinaman's queue indicates that he is no more a Chinaman. This Samson told Delilah, and when next she caught him asleep she cut his hair, and God forsook him as he forsook God. Then the Philis- tines took him prisoner, put out his eyes, and threw him into prison, where they harnessed him to a mill and made him grind like a beast of burden." " Poor, Samson !" sighed Carrie. " How sorry he must have been!" " He was sorry," added Grandpa, " and in his sorrow he went to God. His hair grew again, and as it grew he gave himself again to % 218 GRANDPA GOODWIN'S ST-ORIES. God, and his strengdi returned. One day the Philisdnes were having a great festival in their Temple. To make things lively they sent for Samson, who was led in by a small boy. Samson asked to be placed between the two great pillars of the house, that he might lean " And he bowed himself with all his might; and the house fell upon the lords, and upon all the people that were therein^ — Judges xvi, 30. Upon them. He was put there. Then he prayed for his old strength, and God answered the prayer. Then Samson bowed himself with all his might ; the pillars broke, and down came the overloaded house with a terrific crash, killing Samson himself and all that were about him. So at his death he killed more than in all his life." ^ % UNDYING DEVOTION. 219 UNDYING DEVOTION : Or, two loving HEARTS. P jOSSIBLY you may think," began Grandpa, " that all the good people of the Bible are men or boys." " I was wondering about that," answered Mary ; " for we have hardly talked of any women except Delilah and a few others I did not like." " Well, I will tell you to-night about a most lovely character — Ruth. Her home was away off to the east of Canaan, in the land of Moab. To that land a family from Canaan came — a man, his wife, and their two sons. One of these sons met Ruth and finally mar- ried her ; the other son married another Moabite girl named Orpah, and for some ten years they all lived happily together. Then sor- row came ; the father died and both the sons died, so that Naomi, the mother, and the two young Moabite women were left widowed and poor." " Oh ! my," sighed sympathetic Carrie. " It seems to me every- body has trouble." " Yes, Carrie ; we are born to trouble. ' Into each life some rain must fall — Some days must be dark and dreary,' as Longfellow says. After a while Naomi heard that there were better times in Canaan, her old home, and she resolved to go back there, and her daughters-in-law started with her. As they set out, Naomi thought of all they were leaving and urged them to go back to their own mothers ; not that she did not love them and wish for II I '1 •w^V^^ ^11"* ■ 220 GRANDPA GOODWIN'S STORIES. their company, but she wanted them to feel entirely free to leave her if they so desired." "That was good and kind in her, wasn't it?" said Mary. "She had to walk all the way and to go alone, too, hadn't she ?" " Yes ; she had several hundred miles to go, and there were many hardships and dangers in the way, so she would willingly spare Ruth and Orpah the toil and the peril and go alone." "But what did they do? It must have been hard to choose; but it seems to me," said Carrie, " I would have stayed with my mother." " So Orpah thought ; for though, when Naomi kissed them good- bye and wept over them, they both said. Surely we will return with thee unto thy people, yet when Naomi further urged them to act carefully in the matter, Orpah kissed her farewell and went back. But Ruth clave to Naomi. Then said Naomi to Ruth, Behold, thy sister-in-law has gone back unto her people and unto her gods ; re- turn thou after thy sister-in-law." " Why did she talk about her gods ?" asked Charley. " There is just one God, isn't there ?" " Yes ; but the Moabites were idolaters. They had many gods and idols which they worshiped, and they did not know the only true God, whom we worship." " Did Ruth go back this time ?" asked Carrie, " It seems to me she might have wondered whether Naomi really wanted her com- pany," " Ruth was not one of the suspicious kind, always looking out for slights and offenses. She knew Naomi loved her, and Naomi's last words called forth from Ruth one of the sweetest replies which ever f^"" ^r -r. human lips. Mary may read it from Ruth i, i6, 17." Pv' , ..- , . io the place and, while Carrie looked over her shoul- dci, . .1 t.. ,-'.iid Ruth said. Entreat me not to leave thee, or to return ,ving 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 UNDYING DEVOTION. 221 be buried; the Lord do so to me, and more also, if aught but death part thee and me." " How lovely !" exclaimed Carrie, as Mary ceased. " When Naomi saw that Ruth was decided to keep her company. " And she said. Behold, thy sister-in-law is gone back unto her people, and unto her gods ; return thou after thy sister-in-law. And Ruth said, Entreat me not to leave thee." — Ruth i, 15, 16. to serve the true God, and to live and die with her people, then Naomi urged no more, but the two journeyed lovingly on to Bethle- hem, where Naomi had lived before she went to Moab." " Good for them!" shouted Charley. " When they arrived there was a great stir among the kind peo- rpiTT 222 GRANDPA GOODWIN'S STORIES. \\ pie of Bethlehem. Tliey were grieved to learn how sadly Naomi had been bereaved, and how she herself had failed ; she, too, was all broken up with the memories of what she had passed through. I went out full, she sobbed, and the Lord hadi brought me home again empty." " Poor thing !" said Carrie, wiping away her own tears. " I don't wonder she was broken-hearted. She had cause to be." "When they reached Bethlehem it was just the time of barley harvest. Rich farmers there allowed poor people to follow the reapers and pick up for themselves, or glean, the little bunches of grain which fell by the way. Ruth was no idler ; so she went out to glean, and it chanced that she entered the field of a noble and good man named Boaz. As she worked along, Boaz himself came near. She was so pretty, so modest, and yet seemed so sad, that Boaz asked who she was. When told, he became gready interested. He had heard how Ruth had come from Moab with Naomi and how good she was ; so he talked very kindly to her and invited her to dinner at his house. He also told the young men to drop plenty of barley near her that she might find an abundance to gather up. Ruth did well that day and Naomi was greatly pleased. Ruth worked on in this way till the end of harvest. Boaz saw her often, and it was not long till he bought back all the land which once be- longed to her husband and to his father, and then what think you he did?" " Married her !" was the happy guess of all at once. " Yes — married her, and gave her and Naomi a good home and made them very happy. Ruth's great-grandson was the famous King David, and Jesus Himself was one of her descendants. So she became honored and happy because she chose to serve the true God and to live among His people." " She wasn't like old Lot — she wasn't," said the boy. "No. But what became of Orpah?" asked Carrie. " Nobody knows. We never again hear of her." > o M Z H ► PI r H m tti r m (/) 5 H a n < tn :z 2 PI ► r ^^It^^ *, 1 224 GRANDFA GOODWIN'S UTORIES. BRAVE DEEDS OF A SHEPHERD BOY; Or, fit to become A KING. ii I ) s ■t I i G' RANDPA," began Charley, "you spoke last night of David. Tell us about him to-night, please. He's just splendid." " He began splendidly," answered Grandpa, " He was a brave and noble boy, and such boys are fit to become kings," *' Tell us what he did when a boy. Grandpa," said Carrie. " I like to hear about boys — that is, boys who have grown up to be good men." " Or boys who may grow up to be good men," answered Grandpa, pleasandy. "Well, Carrie, dear, when David was a boy he watched his father's sheep. One day he missed a lamb, and on looking for traces of it he discovered tracks of two great beasts. Examining closely, he found that a lion and a bear had both been among the sheep and had carried off this lamb. Instead of running e vay, as most boys would have done, he caught up the sword and siiield he had to defend himself with in case of danger and off he started on the trail of these wild beasts. Soon he came to a cave, into which they had gone, and into which he plunged, sword in hand, A mo- ment more, and both bear and lion lay dead, and the lamb was delivered out of their very mouths." *' Hadn't they killed it ?" asked Charley, in surprise. " It seems not. They had caught it as a cat catches its kittens and as lions and bears catch their cubs, and so had carried it by the loose skin of its back without doing it serious harm." " Good boy !" shouted Charley, " But the boy was too good to claim for himself the credit of this Jaa 1 ( - •>¥ Aaid 'I* THE BRAVE SHEPHERD BOY. 226 GRANDPA GOODWIN'S STORIES. great deed. When he told of it to KiiiL,^ Saul, he gave God all the praise. It was God, not David, who did it. This success made him feel sure of God's help, and because he was sure of it he was not afraid to fight the great giant Goliath." " Oh ! yes, Goliath ! Tell us about him," cried Charley. " Well," said Grandpa, good-naturedly yielding, " the Philistines and the Israelites were at war, and David's brothers were ifi the army. One day David went to take them some food, and while diere he sa\/ the great, boastful, swaggering, giant soldier of the Philistines. He was about nine feet high, very stout and strong, and so skillful as a fiofhter that no man dared to meet him in battle. So Goliath used to walk along near to the soldiers of Israel and dare them to come out and fight him. David heard these defiant, insulting remarks of the giant, and he was very indignant. He heard, too, that King Saul had promised high honors to any one who would kill the giant. So David, mere boy that he was, offered to go himself and fight Goliath. His brothers ridvpuled him, but Saul heard what he had said and sent for him." " Hey! that was good !" cried Charley. " The boy who kept sheep sent for to see a King ! I'd like to see a real King." "And the King was pleased with the boy — so pleased, indeed, that he allowed David to go and fight Goliath while both armies stood and looked on. Saul wanted to give David armor s'ich as the sol- diers wore and a sword, but he was not used to these ; so off he scampered to a brook near by, where he selccie.' a lot of smooth stones such as he was accustomed to throw from his sling. With his shepherd's staff and his sling, the stones being in his shepherd's bag at his side, he went to meet the giant, who raged and swore at the idea of a boy with a stick and a bag of stones coming against him, as though he were a dog." " I'll bet he was mad. Go in, David !" shouted Charley. " David did go in and kept cool, too, When near enough, he shouted that he came in the name of the Lord of hosts, who would I m n 228 GRANDPA GOODWIN'S STORIES. . ,'t!' surely smite the Philistines that day. Then the giant started for David and David started for him. Everybody expected to see the boy crushed in a moment; but see! he draws a stone from his bag and quietly puts it into his sling; he whirls the sling till it hums, and then lets fly the stone as if it were a bullet from a gun. But Goliath had metal armor all over him, except that his eyes were uncovered. David aimed at one of these openings, and into it the stone crashed, sinking through the eye and into the brain." "Good shot! good shot!" exclaimed the boy, fairly squirming with delight ; " hit him again !" " No; David did not need to hit him again. It is no fun to have an eye knocked out ; but when a stone knocks an eye out, fractures the skull, and sinks into the brain, the man struck has about enough." " So I should think," added Mary. " How did Goliath stand this blow ?" " Down he tumbled like a great log, knocked senseless by the stone from David's sling. But David ran to him and whipped out the giant's sword, and with it hacked off the monster's head in the presence of the soldiers of both armies. Then the Philistines were scared, and away they ran, the Israelites pursuing, until they completely cut to pieces their saucy foes." " Ha ! I tell you I" exclaimed the boy ; " that's the best yet. I knew David was one of them. He's fit to be a king sure enough. Hoorah for him ! What did he do with the old fellow's head and fixin's ?" " They were kept as trophies of the victory. The head at Jerusa- lem, and the sword in the sacred tent with the holy things. Once afterward David borrowed that sword to defend himself against Saul ; but what then became of it, we do not know." The girls were not quite so demonstrative as Char'ey, but David had evidently become a hero with them, and they urged Grandpa to tell more of his marvelous exploits ; but company was announced and the subject was laid over for the night. ■-^•F • ^ ^■•■. wife THE GHASTLY TROPHY. 16 ^f 230 GRANDPA GOODWIN'S STORIES. A RUGGED WAY TO THE THRONE ; Or, patience AND FORBEARANCE REWARDED. H OW did David come to be King, Grandpa ?" asked Mary. " Saul was King, and I sliould think his sons would come to the throne, rather than David." " Before David killed Goliath Saul had so disobeyed God that God rejected him and sent Samuel, the great prophet and Judge of Israel, to anoint as King another person — the son of a man named Jesse, who lived at Bethlehem. When Samuel reached the place, one after another of Jesse's sons was called. Several of them were such fine-looking fellows that Samuel was certain, as each of them appeared, that he must be the chosen man. But no. The Lord was not seeking a man for his looks ; so the seven older sons of Jesse came in turn and were all rejected. Then Samuel asked if there was not another. There was another — a mere boy with a pretty face and a ruddy complexion. He was keeping the sheep, and it was not thought worth while to call him. But Samuel said. Send for him. He came, and no sooner did he enter than the Lord said to Samuel, Arise, anoint him ; for this is he. It was David, our brave shepherd boy." "Oh, ho'" exclaimed Mary. "So he knew he was to be King when he fought Goliath, did he ?" " Certainly," answered Grandpa; " and he believed God and acted like a king. After Goliath was killed Saul took David home to his palace. But here a new trouble arose. Saul's son, Jonathan, loved David so much, and so did all the people, that Saul became fearfully jealous and tried to kill David, so that he had to leave the palace. A RUGGED WAY TO THE THRONE. 231 Saul probably knew that David was to succeed him as King ; so he hunted him everywhere and did his best to kill him." " Why didn't David turn around and kill Saul ?" asked Charley, with unbounded faith in David's abilities. -^^:^Sr~--'-"- CT. " And he ^ent, and brought him in. N