V -'' 
 
 I
 
 -n Gensonl, j] 
 
 IMPORTKR, 
 
 -., K.
 
 THE 
 
 EXCELLENT WOMAN 
 
 AS DESCRIBED IN THE 
 
 BOOK OF PEOVERBS. 
 
 WITH AN INTRODUCTION 
 
 BY 
 
 "WILLIAM B. SPRAGUE, D. D., 
 
 AUTHOR OF "LETTERS TO A DAUGHTER," "LETTERS TO YOUNG MEN," "WOMEN or 
 
 THE OLD AND NEW TESTAMENT," ETC. 
 
 Cmfcdltsftrti foitf) numerous Illustrations jnjjrabrtJ 63 33afr. 
 
 BOSTON: 
 
 OOULD AND LINCOLN, 
 
 59 WASHINGTON STREET. 
 
 NEW YORK: SHELDON AND COMPANY. 
 CINCINNATI ! GEO. S. BLANCHARD.
 
 Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1851, 
 
 BY GOULD & LINCOLN, 
 In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of MassachuaetU 
 
 Printed by George C. Rand &. Co., No. 3 Cornhill.
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 WE hail it as one of the signs of good, that the female 
 sex have, in these latter years, been gradually coming up to 
 the position of dignity and influence which Providence has 
 evidently designed for them. If we compare woman as she 
 was with woman as she is, or if we view her as she is now 
 under Pagan and under Christian influences, we cannot resist 
 the conviction that Christianity is the wonder-working agent 
 that has produced the change in both her character and her 
 condition. And we have a right to expect that this change 
 will become yet more deep and universal. We anticipate 
 the time when Christianity will dispense to her still brighter 
 glories ; when her intellect will act more vigorously, and her 
 heart be lifted up in purer and nobler aspirations ; when she 
 will not only better understand, but more faithfully fulfil, her 
 allotted mission ; in .short, when her influence shall be felt 
 everywhere, welcomed everywhere, pure as the breath of the 
 morning, and merciful, yet powerful, as the ministry of 
 angels. 
 
 But notwithstanding the favorable change that has already 
 taken place, and the yet more favorable change which is
 
 XH INTRODUCTION. 
 
 justified to our hopes and expectations, it must be acknowl- 
 edged that we have little reason to be satisfied with the 
 present standard of female excellence, even in those commu- 
 nities where the standard is the highest. Many examples, 
 indeed, there are of female character, which would seem to 
 us to have been formed after a perfect model, and to leave 
 as little to be desired as consists with the present state of 
 human imperfection ; but these examples, instead of indicat- 
 ing the ordinary measure of female attainment and usefulness, 
 are always marked as glorious exceptions ; they stand forth 
 from the mass in goodly prominence, showing at once what 
 woman may become, and what every woman ought to aspire 
 to, as she would accomplish her legitimate destiny or attain 
 to the highest dignity of her sex. 
 
 There is, perhaps, nothing that stands more radically in 
 the way of female progress than that spirit of self-indulgence 
 which so extensively pervades the higher classes of female 
 society. It cannot be disguised that it seems to have become 
 almost an essential part of the economy of fashionable life, 
 that a lady should have little or nothing to do. She may, 
 indeed, make her own toilet ; she may, when it is convenient, 
 and she does not wish to spend the hour in sleep, receive the 
 calls of her friends; she may walk in her garden, and 
 admire the progress of vegetation, and be regaled with the 
 fragrance of flowers; she may occasionally take an airing in 
 pleasant weather, and spend here and there a few moments
 
 INTRODUCTION. XIII 
 
 of idle chit-chat with some of her acquaintances ; she may 
 grace the splendid ball-room or the fashionable party ; she 
 may sometimes even sport a little delicate needle-work with 
 which to adorn in a higher degree her own person ; but 
 further than this she does not go, much further than this 
 she is forbidden to go, by the false code of fashion to which 
 she has subjected herself. Not that all these tilings which 
 we have mentioned are in themselves worthy of condemna- 
 tion : we would allow to a lady her delicate occupations 
 and her innocent amusements, but we would not allow 
 her to feel as if these were the greater concerns of human 
 life, in other words, as if she had nothing to do which did 
 not terminate ultimately in self-indulgence. The truth is, 
 that woman, as well as man, is made for activity ; she is 
 gifted with the same intellectual and moral faculties ; and 
 though Providence has assigned to her a different sphere of 
 action, yet he has in no wise absolved her from the obliga- 
 tion to be active. Let her remember, then, if she settles 
 down into a state of indolent inaction, because either an 
 opulent condition in life or the false maxims of the age 
 permit it, that she offends as well against the claims of 
 Heaven as against the dignity of her own nature. 
 
 But it is not enough that woman should be active ; her 
 activity must be guided by discretion and animated by benev- 
 olence; she must be contented to work within her own 
 sphere 3 and to occupy her own quiet throne. It is not more 
 1*
 
 XIV INTRODUCTION. 
 
 certain that she is endowed with faculties that qualify her 
 for useful exertion, than that she has her own peculiar field 
 of labor indicated to her. But, unhappily, she has not 
 always been satisfied to keep within the bound which the 
 finger of Providence has manifestly drawn around her. She 
 has sometimes forgotten her native modesty, and thrust her- 
 self into the rough and tumultuous scenes of life, where her 
 voice has been heard, not to allay, but to swell the tempest. 
 She has talked extravagantly and violently of her own rights, 
 mistaking a frenzied ambition to be known and heard and 
 talked about, for an honest desire to reform and purify 
 society. And even where she has stopped short of this 
 extreme point, against which all decency and all common 
 sense remonstrate, she has not unfrequently overstepped the 
 bounds of strict decorum, by an interference with matters 
 not appropriately belonging to her. Who, for instance, 
 could hear a lady, at a large dinner-party, making her voice 
 heard above the voices of a dozen professed politicians, in 
 debating some party question, without feeling that she had 
 forgotten her sex and her place, and that no more fitting 
 word of counsel could be addressed to her than that she 
 should remember that she is a woman ? 
 
 What, then, is woman's peculiar sphere ? In what field 
 may her influence be most appropriately and most advan- 
 tageously exerted ? 
 
 First of all, surely, in her own dwelling in the sacred pri-
 
 INTRODUCTION. XV 
 
 vacy of home. Here she sustains her most intimate rela- 
 tions ; and the duties belonging to them.are sufficient to put 
 in requisition the full vigor of her faculties. What important 
 duties devolve upon her in the relation of a wife ! Not 
 only is she bound to study the happiness of her husband, 
 to do what she can to alleviate his burdens of care, and pre- 
 vent the occasions of disquietude, but she should consider 
 herself pledged to the promotion of his usefulness in the 
 highest possible degree ; and the heart of an affectionate and 
 intelligent wife will quickly find out many means of doing 
 this which nothing but experience could suggest. Hence it 
 has almost grown into a proverb, that an individual who has 
 been eminently successful in business, or eminently useful in 
 society, has been blessed with an uncommonly prudent and 
 excellent wife. In respect to no profession, perhaps, is this 
 remark so frequently or so justly made, as the clerical: 
 almost every minister's standing and general influence are 
 affected more or less by the character of his wife ; and while 
 many owe to this circumstance a greatly-increased usefulness, 
 many others find in it a mill-stone about their necks, their 
 efforts are in a great degree paralyzed, and life with them 
 is little more than a protracted and unbroken sickness of the 
 heart. As a mother, too, who shall fix a limit to woman's 
 responsibility ? In her house, and under her eye, are grow- 
 ing up the component parts of society in the next generation ; 
 and, moreover, each of them has an immortal nature, in which
 
 XVI INTRODUCTION. 
 
 are bound up elements of character that will prove the seeds 
 of an eternal harvest of glory or woe. The father has, indeed, 
 important duties to perform towards these rising immortals : 
 but it is the mother's plastic hand that chiefly forms their 
 characters ; it is her winning voice especially that is to mate 
 them familiar with the lessons of truth and wisdom ; it is 
 her gentle hand that is to lead them into the paths of 
 virtue ; it is her firm but loving look in which they are to 
 find the most powerful dissuasive from evil ; in short, it 
 is through her agency, far more than any other, that they 
 are to be formed for a life of honorable usefulness, and an 
 interminable career of virtue and happiness beyond the 
 grave. Is there anything that can task woman's energies 
 and affections, if this does not ? But yet another of her 
 domestic relations is that of a sister. Suppose her to be 
 the elder of a circle of brothers and sisters how much is 
 it in her power to do for the improvement and the happiness 
 of all of them ! How can she make herself felt by all, not 
 merely in inculcating the maxims of prudence and kindness, 
 nor yet merely in acting as a teacher to those whose facul- 
 ties are less developed than her own, but in the strict pro- 
 priety of her daily walk, and by a thousand insensible and 
 nameless influences which become that tender and beautiful 
 relation ! It may safely be said, then, that woman is most 
 in her element when she is at home. The objects that meet 
 her eye every hour are those upon which her influence is
 
 INTRODUCTION. XVII 
 
 primarily to be exerted, and through which she is to reach 
 out into the great world. 
 
 But, though home is woman's highest and most peculiar 
 sphere, it is by no means her only sphere ; she has important 
 work to perform outside of her own dwelling. It is a con- 
 ceded fact that Heaven has strung in woman's heart a chord 
 that vibrates quickly and deeply to the notes of sorrow, and 
 thus has indicated to her that her mission is to be in no 
 small degree a mission of sympathy and charity. Hence, it 
 is peculiarly fitting that she should make herself at home in 
 the dwellings of the destitute and the desolate ; that she should 
 familiarize herself to scenes of mourning, as a comforter to 
 the sorrowful; that she should look after the poor widow 
 and the helpless orphan, making provision for the supply of 
 the one and the education of the other ; in short, that 
 wherever she sees a cup of bitterness administered to a 
 human being, she should endeavor, if it is in her power, to 
 infuse into it some ingredients of consolation. Who does 
 not honor the name of Mrs. Fry, who spent many of her 
 last years in laboring to enlighten and reform the miserable 
 tenants of Newgate ? And who does not equally honor our 
 own distinguished countrywoman, Miss Dix, who, with the 
 spirit of a Howard animating every pulsation of her heart, 
 may be said almost literally to be living in prisons, not 
 merely for the physical relief, but for the moral and spiritual 
 benefit, of those whom neither justice nor safety would suffer 
 to be at large ?
 
 XVIII INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Nor is it required of woman that she should limit her 
 benevolent offices to scenes of visible and palpable suffering ; 
 she may do much, she ought to do much, in sustaining and 
 advancing the interests of true Christianity. She is by no 
 means to be considered as infringing the province of the 
 other sex, or as recreant to the delicacy of her own nature, 
 when she puts forth vigorous and combined efforts for extend- 
 ing the knowledge and influence of the Gospel. We have 
 nothing to say against, but much to say in favor of, female 
 societies in the different departments of evangelical charity : 
 and it is to be devoutly hoped and confidently expected, that 
 with the gradual progress of the spirit of benevolence in 
 future years and ages, these societies will form a far more 
 effective and extended agency than they now do, in the great 
 work of renovating the world. 
 
 There is yet another department in which female effort 
 may very properly be encouraged, and in which many 
 females have already labored in a manner worthy of all 
 praise namely, the department of authorship. There is 
 no reason suggested by delicacy, or common sense, or public 
 sentiment, why a lady who has fine thoughts on any subject 
 of importance, and has the power of expressing them on 
 paper in a fitting manner, should not give them to the world ; 
 and hence it has come to pass, especially in latter years, that 
 many of the books which are fitted to exert the most benign 
 influence on society are from female writers. It would bo
 
 INTRODUCTION. XIX 
 
 easy to make out a list of such works, not only from the 
 dead hut from the living, which have already acquired the 
 character of standard productions, and the loss of which 
 would make a chasm in our literature which it would be 
 hard to realize, and still harder to supply. There are certain 
 subjects upon which females write far more effectively than 
 men ; and that must be a dull book, indeed, written by a 
 lady, which the men will not read. Let our gifted ladies, 
 then, not be afraid to use the pen ; but let them use it in 
 such a manner that they shall never have occasion to blush 
 for what they have written. 
 
 It is an obvious deduction, from the preceding train of 
 thought, that nothing is more important to the well being of 
 society and the prospects of the race, than a high standard 
 of female education ; by which I mean, not merely great 
 proficiency in what are commonly called accomplishments, 
 nor even a thorough training of the intellect alone, but 
 such a formation of the physical, intellectual, moral and 
 social habits, as shall best subserve the great end of a happy 
 and useful life. It scarcely need be said that such a result 
 is not to be looked for, independently of the influence of 
 Christianity ; and hence anything that falls short of a Chris- 
 tian education, however it may furnish a passport to the 
 favor of the world, leaves the greatest interests of the present, 
 and all the interests of the future, utterly unprovided for. 
 A female may undoubtedly be amiable in her disposition and
 
 XX INTRODUCTION. 
 
 attractive in her manners, and may be admired and loved by 
 large circles rf friends, "while yet she has not the fear of God 
 before her eyes, nor the love of God in her heart ; but, in 
 order to fulfil the great end of her existence on earth, and to 
 be prepared for a nobler existence in heaven, she must draw 
 her motives of action from the future and the invisible, and 
 never lose sight of her relations to God and eternity. 
 
 Whoever makes a discreet and well-directed effort to 
 improve and elevate the character of woman, is certainly to 
 be regarded as a benefactor to his race. On this ground, I 
 hesitate not to say that the author of the following work has 
 richly merited such a distinction. In a simple and beautiful 
 commentary on Solomon's description of a virtuous woman, 
 we find much light thrown upon the text, by a reference to 
 ancient usages ; a fine illustration of various points of differ- 
 ence between the Jewish and the Christian woman; and 
 many of the soundest maxims of wisdom bearing upon the 
 subject of female education. It is a work that will bear to 
 be read more than once ; and each successive reading will be 
 likely to reveal some new gem of thought which in the 
 general mass of excellence had been overlooked before. It 
 is a book suitable for the husband to present to his wife, the 
 mother to her daughter, and the brother to his sister ; and 
 the more widely it is circulated, the better for the country 
 and the world. 
 
 W. B. S. 
 
 ALBANY, October 15, 1851.
 
 ,, o=g[i 
 
 WHO CAN FIND A VIRTUOUS WOMAN? FOB HER PRICE IS 
 FAR ABOVE RUBIES. PAGE 25. 
 
 THE HEART OF HER HUSBAND DOTH SAFELY TRUST IN HER, SO THAT 
 HE SHALL HAVE NO NEED OF SPOIL. PAGE 36. 
 
 SHE WILL DO HIM GOOD, AND NOT EVIL, ALL THH 
 DAYS OF HER LIFE. PAGE 42. 
 
 SHE SEEKETH WOOL AND FLAX, AND WORKETH WILLINGLY WITH 
 HER HANDS. PAGE SO. 
 
 SHE IS LIKE THE MERCHANTS' SHIPS ; SHE BRIIIGETH 
 HER FOOD FROM AFAR. PAGE 64. 
 
 SHE RISETH ALSO WHILE IT IS YET NIGHT, AND GIVETH MEAT TO HER 
 
 HOUSEHOLD, AND A PORTION TO HER 
 
 MAIDENS. PAGE 73. 
 
 BHE CONSIDERETH A FIELD, AND BUYETH IT J WITH THE FRUIT OF IIEB 
 HANDS SHE PLANTETH A VINEYARD. PAGE 84. 
 
 SHE GIRDETH HER LOINS WITH STRENGTH, AND STRENGTHENETH 
 HER ARMS. PAGE 99. 
 
 SHE PERCEIVETH THAT HER MERCHANDISE IS GOOD J HER CANDLE 
 GOETH NOT OUT BY NIGHT. PAGE 106. 
 
 SHE LAYETH HER HANDS TO THE SPINDLE, AND HER HANDS 
 HOLD THE DISTAFF. PAGE 117.
 
 SUBJECTS ILLUSTRATED. 
 
 SHE BTBETCHETH OUT HER HAND TO THE POOR ; YEA, SHE BEACHETH 
 FORTH HER HANDS TO THE NEEDY. PAGE 122. 
 
 SHE IS NOT AFRAID OF THE SNOW FOR HER HOUSEHOLD ; FOR ALL 
 
 HER HOUSEHOLD ARE CLOTHED WITH 
 
 SCARLET. PAGE 132. 
 
 SUE MAKETH HERSELF COVERINGS OF TAPESTRY J HER CLOTHING IS SILK 
 AND PURPLE. PAGE 146. 
 
 HER HUSBAND IS KNOWN IN THE GATES, WHEN HE SITTETH 
 AMONG THE ELDERS OF THE LAND. PAGE 159. 
 
 SHE MAKETH FINE LINEN, AND SELLETH IT ; AND DELIVERETH GIRDLES 
 UNTO THE MERCHANT. PAGE 169. 
 
 STRENGTH AND HONOR ARE HER CLOTHING ; AND SHE SHALL 
 REJOICE IN TIME TO COME. PAGE 181. 
 
 SHE OPENETH HER MOUTH WITH WISDOM ; AND IN HER TONGUE 
 IS THE LAW OF KINDNESS. PAGE 186. 
 
 8HE LOOKETH WELL TO THE WAYS OF HER HOUSEHOLD, AND EATETH NOT 
 THE BREAD OF IDLENESS. PAGE 204. 
 
 HER CHILDREN ARISE UP, AND CALL HER BLESSED : HER HUSBAND 
 ALSO, AND HE PRAISETH HER. PAGE 223. 
 
 MANY DAUGHTERS HAVE DONE VIRTUOUSLY, BUT THOU 
 EXCELLEST THEM ALL. PAGE 231. 
 
 FAVOR IS DECEITFUL, AND BEAUTY 18 VAIN ; BUT A WOMAN THAT FEARETH 
 THE LORD, SHE SHALL BE PRAISED. PAGE 237. 
 
 GIVE HER OF THE FRUIT OF HER HANDS J AND LET HER OWN 
 WORKS PRAISE Trot IN THE GATES. PAGE 247.
 
 THE 
 
 EXCELLENT WOMAN. 
 
 SECTION I. 
 
 WHO CAN FIND A VIRTUOUS WOMAN ? FOR HER PRICE IS FAR 
 ABOVE RUBIES. 
 
 HE whole of this beautiful descrip- 
 tion of female excellence consists of 
 twenty-two verses, distinct from the 
 remaining part of the chapter, and 
 forming, in themselves, a poem, of 
 which each verse commences with a let- 
 ter of the Hebrew alphabet. It is the 
 conclusion of that book which has been 
 called the storehouse of practical wisdom; 
 and, like the chapters of Proverbs which 
 precede it, it is admirable for its just delin- 
 eations of human character, its wise practical 
 directions, and its appropriate commendations and 
 reproof. To the female sex, in all ages, it pre-
 
 26 THE EXCELLENT WOMAN. 
 
 sents many striking and valuable lessons. To the 
 Hebrews, indeed, accustomed to a highly figurative 
 mode of discourse, and a perpetual reference to 
 proverbs and wise sayings, the various portions of 
 this book seem singularly appropriate ; and perhaps 
 many of those holy women of old, of whom we read 
 in the New Testament, learned by the study of this 
 poem the duties enjoined by the God of their fathers 
 on those who professed to be his servants. Some 
 of the lessons which it teaches belong especially to 
 older times ; to days when patient, unremitting 
 labor, and submission, and modesty, were the 
 virtues most highly commendable in women: but 
 all Scripture has been written for our learning, and 
 its instructions belong to all times ; and the Chris- 
 tian woman who has received a larger Bible, and a 
 clearer discovery of divine light, has, while striving 
 to imitate the virtues and graces here enjoined by 
 God's Holy Spirit, the influence of even a stronger 
 motive than any which Jewish females could feel, 
 since Christ has said to his followers, "If ye love 
 me, keep my commandments." 
 
 This poem has occupied much of the attention of 
 the learned. The simple reader of Scripture would
 
 THE VIRTUOUS WOMAN. 27 
 
 infer from it one of two things. Either that it was 
 the description of some woman whose character was 
 present to the mind of the writer ; or, that it was a 
 picture of such a woman as the inspired writer 
 would propose as a general example. It is by 
 many supposed to have been written by Bathsheba, 
 and intended as a direction to Solomon, under the 
 name of Lemuel, in his choice of a wife. 
 
 It would seem, on reading the comments on Scrip- 
 ture, both of old and modern authors, as if learning 
 sometimes served chiefly to perplex and confound 
 simple things. Dr. Doddridge has observed, that 
 the meaning of Scripture, as it presents itself to the 
 unlearned but intelligent reader, is generally the 
 sense in which it is intended ; and, though some 
 limitation must be made to this remark, especially 
 in cases in which a knowledge of oriental character 
 and customs aids in so important a manner the illus- 
 tration of Scripture truth, yet it is, in the main, a 
 just conclusion. Some of the fathers of the church, 
 not content to see in this description a beautiful 
 exhibition of female character, searched for a hidden 
 meaning in its simple declarations. One believed 
 that the virtuous woman shadowed forth the sens- 
 2*
 
 28 THE EXCELLENT WOMAN. 
 
 itive soul, subject to the understanding and the 
 reason. Another considered that God's holy word, 
 the Scripture of truth, was thus signified. Some 
 thought, with more apparent reason, that it was 
 emblematic of wisdom ; and many, with Ambrose 
 and Bede, have regarded the virtuous woman as a 
 type of the church of Christ. Leaving, however, 
 these mystical and spiritual interpretations of the 
 passage, we shall consider it as an example of moral 
 and religious excellence, presented by God to every 
 woman whose standard of life and character is found 
 in his written word. 
 
 The word translated "virtuous," in the first verse 
 of this poem, has a reference also to strength of 
 character, and implies mental and moral energy, or 
 courage. So, too, in the command of the apostle 
 Paul, "Add to your faith virtue," the more strict 
 reading of the word would be, " courage." " The 
 word," says Bishop Patrick, "signifies both strength, 
 or rather courage, and riches, and virtue. Thus, in 
 the description of fitting persons for the magistracy, 
 Jethro, in general, says, they should be anschee 
 chajil, which we translate, able men ; and then fol- 
 lows more particularly wherein their ability should
 
 THE VIRTUOUS WOMAN. 29 
 
 consist. Such as fear God, men of truth, men 
 hating covetousness. I take therefore the word to 
 include a great fear of God, which is so powerful as 
 to endue one with courage to do well, when piety 
 is contemned, nay, laughed at and abused." 
 
 There is throughout this portrait a firmness and 
 consistency of character, which renders it truly 
 worthy of admiration, and which, owing to the 
 sensibility with which women generally are endued, 
 is a virtue demanding great moral and religious 
 principle. Women, influenced as they necessarily 
 are by their feelings and affections, and rendered, 
 by their dependence on the stronger sex, more 
 liable to adopt the sentiments of others, and to have 
 the character moulded by those to whom they are 
 attached, are peculiarly liable to a want of firmness 
 in conduct. Yet the highest commendation of God 
 is given to this strength of character. We find it 
 recommended in the sacred writings, and especially 
 enjoined on every Christian. " Wherefore add to 
 your faith virtue," says St. Paul ; " be ye steadfast, 
 unmovable, always abounding in the work of the 
 Lord." Our Christian profession requires, indeed, 
 to be held with firmness, in days when those who
 
 30 THE EXCELLENT WOMAN. 
 
 are called Christian women are often found conform- 
 ing so much to the spirit and manners of the world. 
 " Hold fast," says the apostle, " the confidence and 
 the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end ;" and 
 we are to "hold fast our profession," seeing that 
 we have " a great High Priest, that is passed into 
 the heavens," and therefore by him we may approach 
 boldly unto the throne of grace, to ask for that firm- 
 ness and consistency which we so much need. And 
 great encouragement, too, is given to firmness ; for 
 when we are desired to " hold fast the profession of 
 our faith, without wavering," we are directed to 
 the cheering consideration of the unchanging prom- 
 ises of Christ, " For he is faithful that promised." 
 
 There was among the Hebrews a strong and deep 
 earnestness of character, contrasting remarkably 
 with the listlessness and supineness of many ori- 
 ental people ; and the Scripture exhibits numerous 
 instances of moral strength among the Jewish 
 women. There was Miriam, the sister of Moses 
 and Aaron, who, in those days when Israel's God 
 had led them through the dry land, and overwhelmed 
 their enemies in the deep waters, left the privacy 
 of domestic life, and joined with all the Hebrew
 
 THE VIRTUOUS WOMAN. 31 
 
 women in publicly praising their Great Deliverer ; 
 and, in a noble fervor of inspired feeling, sang that 
 song, which no poet of later ages has ever equalled 
 in sublimity : 
 
 " Sing ye to the Lord, for he hath triumphed gloriously ; 
 The horse and his rider hath ho thrown into the sea." 
 
 There was Deborah, who sat beneath the palm- 
 tree, judging Israel, and even went up fearlessly to 
 the battles of the Lord. There was the noble-minded 
 daughter of the rash Jephthah, whose moral courage 
 failed not in the hour of danger, but who, even in 
 the prospect of personal sacrifices, could rejoice that 
 her father had conquered the enemies of her people ; 
 and, with firm integrity, could urge him to keep a 
 promise very injurious to herself. " My father, if 
 thou hast opened thy mouth unto the Lord, do to 
 me according to that which hath proceeded out of 
 thy mouth ; forasmuch as the Lord hath taken ven- 
 geance for thee of thine enemies, even of the chil- 
 dren of Ammon." 
 
 In the less troublous times of Israel, no doubt, 
 Jewish women could be found who, like the female 
 of the text, were quietly performing the duties of
 
 32 THE EXCELLENT WOMAN. 
 
 life, with strength and steadiness of character. But 
 the records of domestic life are written chiefly in 
 the hearts of the home circle ; its events, important 
 as they are, not only to that circle, but also, in their 
 eventual influence, on the whole character of a 
 nation, are yet too uniform and simple for the page 
 of either inspired or profane history ; and the detail 
 given of the Excellent Woman in this book is the 
 fullest picture which is to be found in the sacred 
 writings of the excellency and employments of a 
 holy woman in her home. Happy is that woman 
 who well performs the duties of home, to whom 
 home is the sphere which concentrates her ambition, 
 and has the largest share of her love ; and who 
 governs her household actively and diligently, and 
 in the fear of the Lord. 
 
 But, although no other part of Scripture gives so 
 connected a detail of a pious woman's works and 
 duties, yet all the various directions to the female 
 sex, with which the writings of the apostles abound, 
 accord with its principles. " Wives, submit your- 
 selves unto your own husbands, as it is fit in the 
 Lord;" even so must the wives "be grave, not 
 slanderers, sober, faithful in all things."
 
 THE VIRTUOUS WOMAN. 33 
 
 Again : she is to be well reported of for good 
 works ; if she have brought up children, if she have 
 lodged strangers, if she have washed the saints' feet, 
 if she have relieved the afflicted, if she have dili- 
 gently followed every good work. " In behavior," 
 good wives were to be " as becometh holiness : not 
 false accusers, not given to much wine, teachers of 
 good things ; to be sober, to love their husbands, 
 to love their children. To be discreet, chaste, 
 keepers at home." 
 
 It was from such holy mothers that the saints of 
 the New Testament were descended. Of such a 
 mother and such a grandmother, young Timothy 
 learned the Holy Scriptures. In homes like this 
 were reared Martha and Mary, those sisters of 
 Bethany, that family whom Jesus loved, and one 
 of whom he gently reproved, because her energy 
 of character led her to a restless anxiety of serving 
 at a moment when she should have sat and listened 
 to the words of her Lord. In households like these 
 dwelt the mother of our Saviour, and Elizabeth, the 
 blessed of the Lord, names ever dear to us all. 
 From such sprung Priscilla, who received the young 
 Apollos into her home, and expounded unto him the
 
 34 THE EXCELLENT WOMAN. 
 
 way of Goi more perfectly ; aiid who, with her 
 husband, is said by the apostle to have been ready, 
 for his life, to have laid down their own necks. Of 
 such were Phebe, the servant of the church at Cen- 
 chrea ; and Mary, who bestowed much labor on the 
 ministers of Christ ; and many others, who, when 
 faithful steadfastness and pious strength of resolu- 
 tion led to death, yet shrunk not even from suffering, 
 but joined the noble army of martyrs, and are among 
 those who " came out of great tribulation, and have 
 washed their robes, and made them white in the 
 blood of the Lamb." 
 
 Even in that deeply solemn hour when the blessed 
 Saviour yielded his life on the cross, to atone for 
 sinful man, at an hour when the fear of death had 
 power to triumph over the faith of many, when 
 his disciples forsook him and fled, yet holy women 
 shrunk not from following him to the cross. 
 
 When foes the hand of menace shook, 
 And friends betrayed, denied, forsook, 
 Then woman, meekly constant still, 
 Followed to Calvary's fatal hill : 
 
 Yes, followed where the boldest failed, 
 Unmoved by threat or sneer :
 
 THE VIRTUOUS WOMAN. 35 
 
 For faithful woman's love prevailed 
 O'er helpless woman's fear. 
 
 To a woman, the pious virgin Mary, the mother 
 of the Saviour, his dying eyes were directed, and 
 his dying bequest made, that the beloved disciple 
 would take her to his own home. that woman's 
 steadfastness of character may shrink not, either in 
 the day of persecution or in the daily acts of house- 
 hold duty, since strength and wisdom are given now 
 by him who gave it to holy women of old ; that 
 now, as then, they may follow the Lord fully ! The 
 example here given should lead every female to seek 
 from the Holy Spirit the grace to abound in holy 
 courage and devotedness to the Lord. 
 
 Woman ! blest partner of our joys and woes ! 
 
 Even in the darkest hour of earthly ill, 
 Untarnished yet thy fond affection glows, 
 
 Throbs with each pulse, and beats with every thrill ! 
 When sorrow rends the heart, when feverish pain 
 
 Wrings the hot drops of anguish from the brow, 
 To soothe the soul, to cool the burning brain, 
 
 J who so welcome and so prompt as thou ? 
 
 3
 
 36 
 
 THE EXCELLENT WOMAN. 
 
 SECTION II. 
 
 THE HEART OP HER HUSBAND DOTH SAFELY TRUST IN HER, SO 
 THAT HE SHALL HAVE NO NEED OF SPOIL. 
 
 ONFIDENCE of such a kind implies 
 'not only a conviction of simplicity 
 and guilelessness of character in 
 
 I 
 
 the wife, but it also assures us of 
 .her discretion. No man could safely 
 trust in one whose conduct was not 
 'unspotted in all her intercourse with 
 society. The heart of her husband had 
 (no care, lest, by any unguarded act, any 
 imprudence on her part, she should bring a 
 reproach upon his name, or a sorrow into his 
 bosom. Such a woman must have shunned even 
 the appearance of evil. She must have acted on 
 the principle of the Hebrew proverb, "A good name 
 is better than precious ointment, and loving favor to 
 be chosen rather than choice gold;" and, by the 
 uniform consistency of a virtuous life, have gained 
 the entire confidence of him who best knew her 
 character.
 
 HEART 
 
 SAFELY THyST 
 > TOAT ME iJflALL HAVE 
 Sfl MEED 7 SPIIIU
 
 THE TRUSTWORTHY WOMAN. 39 
 
 But while the text implies this, yet it mainly 
 refers to the assurance entertained by her husband 
 of her care and skill in the management of her 
 household. Archbishop Cranmer renders this pas- 
 sage, " So that he shall fall into no poverty," and 
 Boothroyd translates it, "And of his property he 
 will not be deprived." The Septuagint version 
 understands the word spoil as referring to the 
 woman, and nqt to her husband ; " Such an one 
 as she shall not want good spoils." But in any 
 case it signifies that provident care and management, 
 that looking after the concerns of her family, for 
 which we find her so often commended throughout 
 the poem. 
 
 The need of spoil must be explained by a refer- 
 ence to the usages of the Hebrews at this period 
 of society. The Israelites had often obtained spoils 
 in their encounters with neighboring nations. The 
 reign of David had been occupied by continual war- 
 fare. The pastoral community at this time were 
 not a tribe of idle shepherds, but those who had 
 been men of war from their youth ; and their fre- 
 quent expeditions were regarded as acts of retalia- 
 tion for similar offences from the herdsmen of 
 neighboring tribes. Saul and David had been great
 
 40 THE EXCELLENT WOMAN. 
 
 warriors ; and under the latter king, the Israelites 
 had been so trained to military discipline that they 
 appear to have been always victorious in the field, 
 and are frequently represented as sharing that spoil 
 which in the more peaceful days of Solomon was 
 less generally enjoyed. The first public act of 
 Saul had been a battle against Nahash the Ammon- 
 ite ; and in the description of the spoil taken, when 
 Saul and Jonathan, and all the Hebrews, encoun- 
 tered the Philistines, we see the nature of the wealth 
 gained by the Israelites. In the narrative given in 
 1 Samuel xv., we find that the people flew upon the 
 spoil, and took sheep and oxen and calves. And 
 when, in the following chapter, we read that Saul 
 fought against the Amalekites, and sinned against 
 Jehovah by appropriating, as spoil, those things 
 which he had commanded him to destroy, we find 
 enumerated the sheep and oxen and lambs, which 
 formed the wealth of a pastoral people. 
 
 But if Saul, as had been sung by the Hebrew 
 maidens, had slain his thousands, David had slain 
 his tens of thousands, and the records of his life 
 display how much wealth had been gained by the 
 Israelites from their enemies. At the time when 
 David, driven from his home by the jealousy of
 
 THE TRUSTWORTHY WOMAN. 41 
 
 Saul, wandered with his men to the wilderness of 
 Paran, they probably supported themselves by spoil 
 gathered from the tribes who came down upon the 
 shepherds of the land. The narrative of Nabal's 
 churlishness refers to David's protection of the 
 herdsmen from incursions of this nature ; for when 
 their unthankful master refused his help to the 
 wanderer, the young men told Abigail, and said of 
 David's host, " They were a wall unto us both by 
 night and day, all the while we were with them 
 keeping sheep." And now, when peace was in 
 Israel generally, yet in adjacent countries the same 
 practices were continued, and the man who sought 
 to be rich often shared the spoil taken from others. 
 
 But in the case of this Jewish family there was 
 no need of such spoil. Industry supplied the house- 
 hold wants, and care kept that from waste which 
 industry had gathered, and the husband had no 
 occasion to go out to warfare. Under the shadow 
 of his own vine and his own fig-tree he could enjoy 
 the blessings of a peaceful life ; and in his earthly 
 home could find that love and quietness which might 
 prove the best foretaste that earth can give of the 
 heavenly home to which he was tending. 
 3*
 
 42 THE EXCELLENT WOMAN. 
 
 SECTION III. 
 
 SHE WILL DO HIM GOOD, AND NOT EVIL, ALL THE DAYS 01 
 HER LIFE. 
 
 T is much in the power of all who 
 dwell in the same household to ben- 
 efit each other. Hourly opportuni- 
 ties occur of showing kindness, of 
 "lending aid, of practising forbearance, 
 and of constantly doing mutual good. 
 But this is most especially the case with 
 husbands and wives. If we except the 
 'strongest of all earthly influences, that of 
 the mother on her child, there is none 
 which can equal that of the conjugal relation. 
 Time and eternity are connected with it. Happi- 
 ness or misery is dependent on the way in which it 
 is exercised ; so important is it, that the wise and 
 inspired man said, " A good wife is from the Lord." 
 " See that ye love one another with a pure heart 
 fervently," said the apostle Peter, when enjoining 
 on the early converts the duties of the Christian 
 life ; and if this is commanded to all, how much
 
 THE BENEFICENT WOMAN. 45 
 
 more is it to be cultivated by those who are attached 
 by the strongest domestic tie ! And as no marriage 
 should be contracted without mutual love, so the 
 principle of love should guide a woman in all her 
 married life, and lead her always to do good to her 
 husband. 
 
 A wife can do much good to her husband by 
 promoting his domestic comfort. This is, indeed, 
 placed almost wholly in her hands ; it rests with 
 her to see that the fireside is the place of attraction, 
 that home is the brightest spot on earth. And love 
 will teach ingenuity to the faithful wife, and show 
 to her a thousand ways by which she may endeai 
 the home circle. If she wish to enjoy her husband'? 
 society, she must be a keeper at home ; and so 
 arrange her family as that he, when he returns 
 from the care and noise and contention of the world, 
 shall find a retreat in which sweet converse shall 
 beguile him of his cares, and peace, and love, and 
 order, and gentle welcome, and soothing sympathy, 
 shall form a striking contrast to the scenes he has 
 just quitted. 
 
 Another way in which we may feel certain that 
 the matron of the text did good to her husband,
 
 46 THE EXCELLENT WOMAN. 
 
 was by sharing his cares. On many, in modern 
 times, the charge is not incumbent of laboring with 
 the hands to provide food and raiment for the family, 
 as did this eminent example of female virtue. The 
 different constitution of modern society has placed 
 upon men the duty of maintaining a family, and 
 left to woman the sweeter privilege of ordering the 
 charities of home. Yet, even now, a wife may do 
 much to lessen the cares of a husband. She may 
 not fully understand the nature of his employments, 
 she cannot exactly enter into the details of his 
 business ; but she can give the attentive ear ; she 
 can endeavor to comprehend his difficulties ; she 
 can forbear the mention of any irritating domestic 
 circumstances ; she can soften down annoyances. 
 Sometimes she can cheer him by reminding him of 
 some consoling promise of God's word. She can 
 show him the command of holy writ, to cast his care 
 upon God. She can tell him that " they that seek 
 the Lord shall not want any good thing," and per- 
 haps lead him to say, with David, "What time I 
 am afraid, I will trust in thee." And when all 
 these fail, and her anxious eye sees the cloud still 
 darken over his brow, then she can pray, with a
 
 THE BENEFICENT WOMAN. 47 
 
 firm, unwavering faith, that God would indeed 
 " lift up the light of his countenance upon him, and 
 give him peace." 
 
 Nor is it less her duty to share in his joys. If 
 her husband have succeeded in some pursuit, with 
 what heartiness should the wife enter into his pleas- 
 ure ! Never should the wandering eye betray that 
 she listens with indifference to the details which 
 interest him. She should value his pursuits, if for 
 no other reason than because they are his ; and by 
 an ever ready sympathy should " do him good, and 
 not evil," all the days of her life. Never should 
 the depressing fear or the ardent hope be thrown 
 coldly back again on him who utters it. One such 
 repulsion will do more to alienate the love of a 
 sensitive mind than many little acts of neglect or 
 annoyance. 
 
 A wife will also do her husband good by encour- 
 aging him to holiness and virtue, and warning him 
 against sin. In the intimacy of domestic life, the 
 first tendency to evil is sometimes evident to the 
 wife, and it is her duty to rebuke with all gentle- 
 ness, and to plead with all earnestness, against 
 conduct which may be displeasing to God and man.
 
 48 THE EXCELLENT WOMAN. 
 
 Abigail's reproof and counsel of David is a beauti- 
 ful instance of womanly tact and delicacy thus 
 employed. When Nabal, in return for David's 
 kindness and protection, had contemptuously refused 
 refreshments to the warrior shepherd, how does 
 Abigail propitiate David's wrath, and dissuade him 
 from revenge ! "And it shall come to pass, when 
 the Lord shall have done to my lord according to all 
 the good that he hath spoken concerning thee, and 
 shall have appointed thee ruler over Israel ; that 
 this shall be no grief unto thee, nor offence of heart 
 unto my lord, either that thou hast shed blood 
 causeless, or $|tt my lord hath avenged himself." 
 And, in like manner, how often may the wife 
 expostulate with her husband, and thus keep him 
 from evil that it may not grieve him ; and in after 
 days he may look back with gratitude and affection 
 for the warning voice which checked his onward 
 course, and bade him pause and consider. 
 
 The wife of the text did her husband no evil. 
 She neither wasted his wealth nor neglected his 
 comfort, nor was careless of his reputation, nor 
 provoked him to anger. She loved him with a 
 steady love, all the days of her life ; in joy and in
 
 THE BENEFICENT WOMAN. 49 
 
 sorrow, in sickness and in health. Years passed 
 on, and saw it fixed, while all around was changing. 
 Et was not like the vapory cloud upon the blue sky, 
 driven about by every wind of heaven, and skim- 
 ming lightly over the surface ; but as the rock in 
 the midst of the waters, against which the waves 
 might dash and bring no change, and on which all 
 the alternations of sun and wind fell harmlessly, 
 and which stood unshaken by all things. Seldom 
 is love like this, love which can bear the test of 
 time and the shock of adversity, love which can 
 flourish even amid infirmities ; seldom is it found 
 but in the home of the loved and 
 
 They who love us till we die, 
 
 Who in sorrow have been tried, 
 Who will watch our closing eye, 
 
 When all grows cold beside : 
 Where shall friends like these be found, 
 
 Search the earth and ocean wide ; 
 On what hallowed spot of ground, 
 
 Save our own fireside ?
 
 50 
 
 THE EXCELLENT WOMAN. 
 
 SECTION IV. 
 
 SHE SEEKETH WOOL AND FLAX, AND WORKETH WILLINGLY WITH 
 HER HANDS. 
 
 BVIOUSLY, the whole description 
 given by the inspired writer of the 
 employments of the Jewish matron 
 belongs either to primitive ages, or 
 to those pastoral regions of modern 
 times, in which commerce with other 
 nations has made little progress, and for- 
 eign manufactures are almost unknown. 
 Recently, the Hebrew people had been 
 engaged continually in battle, and now the 
 men of Israel were chiefly occupied with 
 agriculture and pastoral employments. Trade with 
 other lands was confined to occasional barter, and 
 the various stuffs needful for the clothing of the 
 household, though sometimes wrought by the pro- 
 fessed weaver, were chiefly fabricated by the hands 
 of the mistresses or maidens of the Jewish homes. 
 Solomon, indeed, had fetched spices from Arabia, 
 and fine linen from Egypt ; and, in his love for
 
 THE ACTIVE WOMAN. 53 
 
 natural history, had assembled in his capital the 
 birds and animals of distant countries ; yet his 
 traffic seems to have been almost confined to his 
 own requirements, and not to have extended itself 
 to his subjects. In such a state of society, the 
 domestic industry of the female part of the popula- 
 tion becomes so necessary, that it is always encour- 
 aged and valued. The ancient Romans, under 
 circumstances somewhat similar, expected from 
 their wives a great degree of attention to household 
 employments, and this was enjoined by their mar- 
 riage rites. So also among the Greeks, in the 
 early ages of the world, the mistress worked with 
 her servants, and the high-born lady, as well as the 
 daughter of the peasant, performed those humble 
 and more active duties generally left, in our time 
 and country, to the poor. Homer intimates that 
 the daughters of princes washed, in the fountain, 
 the clothing of the family ; while from Scripture 
 we learn that Rebecca, the heiress of a pastoral 
 prince, gave drink to the servant of Abraham, and 
 afterwards drew water for himself and his cattle. 
 Rachel, too, the beautiful daughter of one who 
 possessed sheep and herds in abundance, yet kept 
 4
 
 54 THE EXCELLENT WOMAN. 
 
 her father's flocks on the plains of Syria, exposed 
 to the scorching heat of day, if not to the heavy 
 dews of night. Even now, in the pastoral regions 
 of Asia, it is the glory of a woman that her own 
 hand has wrought the clothing of her husband, son, 
 or brother, and has decked the walls of their dwell- 
 ings ; and a helpless, useless woman would be 
 despised by the other females of her tribe. 
 
 So it was of old, 
 
 That woman's hand, amid the elements 
 Of patient industry and household good, 
 Reproachless wrought, twining the slender thread 
 From the light distaff; or in skilful loom 
 Weaving rich tissues, or with glowing tints 
 Of rich embroidery, pleased to decorate 
 The mantle of her lord. And it was well ; 
 For in such sheltered and congenial sphere 
 Content with duty dwells. 
 
 And this diligent industry, so applicable to the 
 wants of the people, had its praise of God, while 
 the luxurious and delicate habits of the daughters 
 of Zion, in later ages, are marked with his displeas- 
 ure. It is with stern reprobation that the prophet 
 Isaiah speaks of the rings, and chains, and mufflers,
 
 THE ACTIVE WOMAN. 55 
 
 and fine linen, of the Jewish ladies, whose haughty 
 demeanor called for the solemn threatenings of God ; 
 and all whose ornaments were to be forgotten soon, 
 when Zion, the faithless Zion, should be full of 
 mourning and lamentation, and, "being desolate, 
 should sit upon the ground." 
 
 Owing to the almost unchanging customs of 
 Eastern nations, the people of modern Palestine are 
 probably clothed nearly in the same manner as the 
 ancient Hebrews, and a variety of woollen and linen 
 garments are still worn in that land. When Hannah 
 made the young Samuel a little coat, and brought it 
 to him, year by year, as she came up with her hus- 
 band to the yearly sacrifice, she performed the part 
 of a mother in Israel ; and, in all likelihood, carried 
 to her beloved child a garment of pure white linen, 
 or wool, for such were much worn by the ancient 
 Jews, to whom frequent purifications and washings 
 were commanded by Israel's God. It might have 
 been, however, a coat, like that of Joseph, of many 
 colors, for brilliant dyes and skilful embroidery 
 were often used by the Israelites to ornament their 
 dresses. One prohibition on the subject of woollen 
 clothing had been given to the Jews. God had
 
 56 THE EXCELLENT WOMAN. 
 
 forbidden them to wear a garment made of woollen 
 and linen, for in such a dress the heathen priests 
 worshipped their false gods, in the superstitious 
 hope of a blessing on their flax and their sheep ; 
 and the one true God, the great Jehovah, would 
 that his chosen race should come out from idolaters, 
 and be a separate people. 
 
 The excellent woman whom we are considering 
 was evidently a person of wealth and distinction , 
 she was the wife of one who sat among the elders 
 of the land, and we may reasonably suppose that 
 she gathered the flax from her own fields, as well 
 as that the wool was the produce of her own flocks. 
 Flax was one of the plants earliest cultivated by 
 mankind in masses. Its bright green stalks with- 
 ered before the plague of hail which came upon 
 Egypt, when the flax and barley were smitten ; 
 and its bright blue flower seems to have been very 
 abundant in 
 
 That fertile land, where mighty Moses stretched 
 His rod miraculous. 
 
 A little later in the history of the world we find 
 a woman preparing it for use ; for Bahab had laid
 
 THE ACTIVE WOMAN. 57 
 
 the stalks of flax on the roof of her house, that the 
 scorching sun and the damp Syrian dews might 
 macerate its fibres, when the spies entreated her 
 compassion, and were hidden by her among the 
 half-dried plants. " By comparing the several 
 passages in Scripture," says Kitto, " in which flax 
 is mentioned, we shall find the amount to be, that 
 flax was cultivated to a considerable extent in Pal- 
 estine ; that garments of it were worn not only by 
 the priests and Levites, but very largely by the 
 people. The coarse linen cloths were manufactured 
 at home by the women, but the finer were imported 
 from Egypt ; the ancient celebrity of which coun- 
 try, for its linen fabrics, is abundantly confirmed in 
 Scripture. We cannot find that flax is now much 
 cultivated in Palestine, although considerable atten- 
 tion is paid to the culture of cotton. It may be 
 that the soil and climate are less suited than that 
 of Egypt to its production." 
 
 There is a cheerfulness and a heartiness in the 
 character which the inspired writer gives of the 
 Jewish woman. She " worketh willingly," or, as 
 some translate it, " with the delight of her hands ;" 
 
 and it is this willingness which lends a grace tc 
 
 4*
 
 58 THE EXCELLENT WOMAN. 
 
 every household employment, and infuses a spirit 
 of alacrity into the daily duties of life. Cheerful 
 willingness is no small virtue in a woman ; for the 
 duties performed with a smiling countenance and a 
 ready hand are far differently done from those which 
 seem wrung out of necessity, and are accompanied 
 by a mournful voice and a languid footstep. A 
 willing mind is enjoined, by God's word, on every 
 performance of duty. With the Most High, the 
 motive of the heart is regarded, rather than the 
 outward act. So we learn that, in working for 
 God, "if there be first a willing mind, it is accepted 
 according to that a man hath, and not according to 
 that he hath not :" while to both mistress and 
 servant comes the exhortation respecting the humble 
 duties of every-day life, " Whatsoever ye do, do it 
 heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men/' 
 
 If we consider the benefits which we hourly 
 receive from the Great Giver of all good gifts, we 
 shall see that a willing cheerfulness is indeed but 
 the proper response which should be given by his 
 human family. There may, it is true, be a cheer- 
 fulness which is in no way connected with thank- 
 fulness, but never yet was there a thankful spirit
 
 THE ACTIVE WOMAN. 59 
 
 which did not lead to acts of cheerful service. 
 And, notwithstanding the various sorrows which sin 
 has brought into the world, yet how much remains 
 to gladden the heart of one who is disposed to 
 observe God's goodness ! How do all our senses 
 minister to enjoyment! The sense of touch and 
 the sense of taste are continually gratified, and 
 delicious odors greet us from a thousand flowers. 
 And the eye of man, how is it an inlet to wisdom, 
 and what beautiful forms and what gorgeous color- 
 ings please our sight, and thus charm our imagina 
 tion, till we are lost in wonder at the sublime, 01 
 melt in tenderness at lowly beauty ! And the ear, 
 too, made as it is to receive the impression of all 
 sweet sounds and concords, how do the tunes of 
 birds, and the roar of waters, and the sweet tink 
 lings of the distant bell, and the low murmuring of 
 the pleasant brooks, and the soothing influence of 
 kindly voices, bring through it a song of joy to the 
 spirit, or, sweeter still, a song of softened and pen- 
 sive tunefulness. And when outward nature speaks 
 to us through the senses, then and then only is it 
 rightly received, while it tells of God and his good- 
 ness and when the grateful heart prompts words
 
 60 THE EXCELLENT WOMAN. 
 
 of thankfulness to the ready tongue, and the willing 
 hand performs the active service, in the spirit of 
 him who said, " What shall I render unto the Lord 
 for all his mercies ? " 
 
 And if all might render willing service to God 
 in acknowledgment of mercies, how much more 
 shall the child of God be ready to perform every 
 duty with an enlightened thankfulness ? To him is 
 given the precious Bible ; on him are bestowed its 
 promises, cheering him under every sorrow, and 
 telling him that God is with him in the darkest hour, 
 yea, even in the valley of the shadow of death. To 
 him is access given to the throne of grace, so that 
 his prayers rise up to God, through the intercession 
 of the great Mediator. For him the Saviour lived 
 a life of sorrow and humiliation, and died a dishon- 
 ored death, that his sins might be pardoned, and his 
 soul saved from the wrath which God denounces 
 against the transgressors of his holy law. To him 
 are often given holy aspirations after God's presence, 
 and a sure sense of his love ; so that he seems able 
 to join even in the songs of heaven, and his spirit 
 seems carried away for a while from his earthly 
 house up to that glorious home of rest which is
 
 THE ACTIVE WOMAN. 61 
 
 eternal, and where God and the blessed angels shall 
 at last receive him. 
 
 Every one must have remarked how pleasant is 
 that household in which a cheerful spirit of energy 
 is cultivated by the mistress and mother. It is a 
 pleasant thing to dwell with one who is not troubled 
 by trifling annoyances, who is skilled in looking at 
 the bright side of things, and hoping for the best ; 
 with one who believes that all the ways of the Lord 
 are right, and who attaches a deep importance to 
 duty. Such a one will work willingly, in the belief 
 that God has appointed both her lot and her duties ; 
 and it is surprising how many obstacles are met and 
 overcome by such a spirit. 
 
 The wise and active conquer difficulties 
 By daring to attempt them. Sloth and folly 
 Shiver and shrink at sight of toil and trouble, 
 And make the impossibilities they fear. 
 
 The employments of daily life, of women espe- 
 cially, need often the remembrance that they are 
 done in the sight of him in whose eye the lowliest 
 act is of importance. There are many persons who 
 do not perform them well, because they do not look
 
 62 THE EXCELLENT WOMAN. 
 
 upon them as part of their religious duties. Such 
 persons could perhaps make great sacrifices for con- 
 science' sake ; they could act nobly and wisely if 
 any great service were demanded ; but they do not 
 consider that the whole progress of human life con- 
 sists of a succession of small acts. It is often with 
 smaller duties as with smaller trials, that strength 
 to do or to bear is not sought of God. Some great 
 trial befalls us, some important sacrifice is required, 
 and, feeling our helplessness, we fall back upon God, 
 and support is given ; but every-day events are, by 
 their very monotony, unimpressive ; we think lightly 
 of them, and the help of God is not sought, and they 
 are not duly considered, and so are performed in a 
 careless, perhaps in an unwilling spirit. But he 
 who is the Judge of all the earth looks down with 
 approval on the mother whose life is one daily course 
 of self-sacrifice, on the daughter whose gentle smiles 
 and willing work render home happy, rather than on 
 her who is roused from a course of usual listlessness 
 to some one act of great exertion, or to some one 
 costly deed of self-denial. The flash of lightning 
 produces a great effect ; and the clearer air and the 
 cloudless sky show that it has well performed God's
 
 THE ACTIVE WOMAN. 63 
 
 mission; yet who would not rather that her light 
 should shine like that of the evening star, whose 
 tranquil rays nightly guide the traveller home, and 
 cheer the mariner on the deep, and smile sweetly 
 on the shepherd who watches by his fold, till they 
 " fade away into the light of heaven" 1 
 
 Who 's born for sloth ? To some we find 
 The ploughshare's annual toil assigned ; 
 Some at the sounding anvil glow ; 
 Some the swift-sliding shuttle throw ; 
 Some, studious of the wind and tide, 
 From pole to pole our commerce guide ; 
 While some, of genius more refined, 
 With head and tongue assist mankind. 
 In every rank, or great or small, 
 T is industry supports us all.
 
 64 
 
 THE EXCELLENT WOMAN. 
 
 SECTION V. 
 
 SHE IS LIKE THE MERCHANTS' SHIPS; SHE BRINGETH HER FOOD 
 FROM AFAR. 
 
 ERCHANTS' ships, in King Solo- 
 mon's days, might, indeed, be said to 
 bring their cargoes from afar. If we 
 look at the record of the sea voyages 
 made at that time, when the Hebrew 
 was assisted by Hiram, who furnished 
 with " shipmen who had knowledge 
 >of the sea," we shall find that they occu- 
 pied a very considerable period. " For the 
 king had at sea a navy of Tarshish with the 
 navy of Hiram ; once in three years came 
 the navy of Tarshish, bringing gold, and silver, 
 ivory, and apes, and peacocks." The Phoenicians, 
 who resided on the north-west of Palestine, are 
 known to have had a commercial settlement, called 
 Tartessus, on the Atlantic coast of Spain, near to 
 the modern Cadiz ; and, whatever may be the 
 various opinions respecting the situation of ancient 
 Ophir, there is little doubt that this port was the
 
 THE ENTERPRISING WOMAN. 67 
 
 Tarshish of the Scriptures. In the imperfect state 
 of navigation, the voyages, performed as they were 
 in small and ill-constructed vessels, would seem to 
 the Israelites "afar," indeed, and attended with 
 very considerable peril. 
 
 But, as food rather than other merchandise seems 
 alluded to in the text, it is probable that the ships 
 which brought corn from Egypt are here referred to. 
 Although the ancient Hebrews were decidedly an 
 agricultural community, and the rich valley of Pal- 
 estine abounded in corn and wine, yet, in seasons 
 of dearth, as well as on other occasions, the Jewish 
 people appear to have traded with Egypt for corn. 
 On the fertile lands of that well-watered country 
 corn grew so abundantly that Egypt was the general 
 granary of the East ; and the touching narrative of 
 Joseph and his brethren at once occurs to the mind, 
 as an instance in which men went down into Egypt 
 to buy corn. 
 
 The Israelites were by no means a maritime peo- 
 ple ; yet bordered as the Holy Land was by the 
 Great Sea, now called the Mediterranean, which 
 was the very highway of commerce, and familiar 
 as they were with the Nile, on whose shores their 
 ' 5
 
 68 THE EXCELLENT WOMAN. 
 
 fathers had rendered a hard service to the line of 
 Pharaohs, they doubtless had many ships of burden, 
 which were, at least, as well constructed as those 
 in the western parts of the world at the same period 
 of time. It must be remembered that their vessels 
 were almost exclusively ships of merchandise. As 
 yet, no battle-ship had carried proud defiance to 
 the peaceful shores ; no cannon thundered its awful 
 challenges on the deep ; but the ship, in its occa- 
 sional course over the waters, brought from afar the 
 luxuries or the food of other lands, and bore in its 
 welcome progress nothing to fill the heart with 
 sorrow, or to leave a trace of that anguish and 
 desolation which war brings so often now over the 
 distant sea. 
 
 Very early mention is made in Scripture of ships. 
 " Zebulun shall dwell at the haven of the sea ; and 
 he shall be for an haven of ships," was the pro- 
 phecy of the dying patriarch, as his eye, though 
 dimmed to the sights of this world by the film of 
 death, glanced forth and kindled at the view of 
 futurity ; and yet no regular trade by sea seems to 
 have been established in Solomon's day, skice he 
 was obliged to seek aid from Hiram Many beau
 
 THE ENTERPRISING WOMAN. 69 
 
 tiful spots on the shores of the sea are familiar to 
 Scripture readers, and the vessels which floated on 
 the Lake of Gennesareth were often honored by 
 the presence of Him who disdained not the poor 
 and the lowly, but gathered his apostles from among 
 fishermen, and, standing on the brow of a Jewish 
 vessel, delivered to the people on the shore those 
 beautiful parables, and those teachings of heavenly 
 love and wisdom, which brought many to his feet 
 as his disciples, and are now the treasure of mil- 
 lions of hearts, to whom the truths taught by the 
 Saviour are dearer than gold or silver, more pre- 
 cious than life itself. 
 
 The Jewish matron, whose various kinds of 
 manufacture are so specifically named, would have 
 much to offer in exchange either for corn or other 
 commodities, which the merchants' ships convey. 
 Garments made of fine wool or of hair stuffs, 
 gorgeous tapestry wrought by her own hands, fine 
 linen girdles, all were suitable objects of barter ; 
 and the rich clusters of grapes which her vineyard 
 could furnish, arid the well-dried flax from her 
 fields, constituted a store from which something 
 might be -well spared. It seems probable, how-
 
 70 THE EXCELLENT WOMAN. 
 
 ever, that the articles chiefly sent by her, either to 
 distant tribes, or perhaps occasionally to lands 
 beyond the seas, were those costly and magnificent 
 dresses which form the wealth of the eastern 
 female, and which are highly scented with per- 
 fumes, an(" laid up for many years, to be brought 
 out only on important occasions. The use of dresses 
 also as presents, in the East, would render the bar- 
 ter of them a very likely and considerable source 
 of profit ; and this would enable this Jewish lady, 
 whose intelligent and well-devoted industry is so 
 often commended, to procure for her family some 
 of those enjoyments from afar, which the home 
 produce would not supply. 
 
 Let us, then, be up and doing, 
 
 With a heart for any fate ; 
 Still achieving, still pursuing, 
 
 Learn to labor and to wait.
 
 THE PROVIDENT WOMAN. 
 
 SECTION VI. 
 
 SHE RISETH ALSO WHILE IT IS YET NIGHT, AND GIVETH MEAT TO 
 HER HOUSEHOLD, AND A PORTION TO HER MAIDENS. 
 
 PROVERB in the preceding part 
 of this book says that "every wise 
 woman buildeth her house, while 
 'the foolish plucketh it down with 
 her hands." The stability and com- 
 fort of the household are, indeed, so 
 dependent on the domestic arrangements 
 of her who presides, punctuality and 
 order in the wife are so necessary for the 
 preservation of the property which may 
 have been acquired, that the truth of the 
 old Irish saying, "A man must ask his wife's 
 leave to be rich," is very apparent. Early risers 
 will not often be found among those whose habits 
 are irregular and disorderly. The practice of 
 beginning the work with the commencement of the 
 day is almost always found in conjunction with 
 punctual and diligent habits, and with such love of 
 order and management as is described in the text. 
 5*
 
 74 THE EXCELLENT WOMAN. 
 
 The learned Aben Ezra poetically interprets the 
 expression of the former part of the verse, " She 
 riseth before the ascent of day." Early rising in 
 the East is different from that of our native land. 
 To be up with the lark, or when the robin is first 
 uttering his morning song, to brush away the 
 pearls from the grass, while the sun is just driving 
 afar the gray mists of the morning, this is, with 
 us, to rise early. But the diligent man of eastern 
 lands is up long before sunrise, long before 
 
 " Morn, her rosy steps 
 Advancing, sows the earth with orient pearls;" 
 
 and has begun his labor at an hour when the Euro- 
 pean is sleeping still, with the sound sleep of mid- 
 night. And when the dawn breaks over the vine- 
 yards of Palestine, and the sun sheds his red 
 lustre on her ruddy hills, the vine-dresser has 
 tended his vine, and the shepherd has led forth his 
 flock from the fold. In the city, too, the merchant 
 is busy in the shop ; and the courtier and the king 
 are occupied in the business of the court ; and the 
 women are spinning the web of industry. Among 
 the Hebrews, it was also customary for the diligent
 
 THE PROVIDENT WOMAN. 75 
 
 women to be up earlier than the men ; for adding 
 to the usual domestic employments of females in 
 general the duty of manufacturing various fabrics 
 of use or merchandise, the day was never too long 
 for their busy skill, and they knew nothing of that 
 weariness which belongs to the idle, and which 
 deprives them, of that freshness and energy of char- 
 acter which "make existence a blessing. 
 
 We find continual reference in Scripture to the 
 habit of beginning the business of the day at a very 
 early hour in the morning. Thus, when Moses was 
 sent to Pharaoh, by the Lord God of the Hebrews, 
 and the haughty king was commanded to let the 
 people of Israel go out from their cruel bondage, 
 the Jewish lawgiver was commanded to rise up 
 early in the morning, and to stand before Pharaoh 
 as "he cometh forth to the water." And when 
 the vain and deceitful Absalom sought to win away 
 the hearts of Israel from their allegiance to his 
 father, "he rose up early, and stood beside the way 
 of the gate" of the city; for he well knew, that, 
 passing through its arches, he should meet those 
 who were gcing out of the town to the daily labor 
 of the fields, or find there assembled the concourse
 
 76 THE EXCELLENT WOMAN. 
 
 of merchants. And in that day of Israel's affliction 
 and reproach, when the walls of Jerusalem had 
 been broken down, and the gates thereof burned 
 
 with fire, and Nehemiah and the Jews labored 
 
 
 
 amidst danger and anxiety to build again the walls 
 of their beloved city, we find them early at their 
 work, cheered by the promises and prayers of the 
 diligent prophet ; and while some labored, half of 
 them "held the spears from the rising of the 
 morning till the stars appeared." And well would 
 it be for us if we could return to the early rising 
 and retiring, once general even in our own land, 
 when our forefathers saw the sun set on their native 
 hills, and slept on their less luxurious couches, at 
 an hour far earlier than the business of the day now 
 closes on busy multitudes. 
 
 The description given by the Hebrew writer is so 
 graphic, that our imaginations can easily picture 
 the Jewish matron, as surrounded by her family at 
 early day, and apportioning to each of her house- 
 hold, not only daily food, but also daily work. 
 One is going to the field ; another, to relieve the 
 herdsman who has watched through the starry night 
 on the hill-side, or on the plain. Her daughters
 
 THE PROVIDENT WOMAN. 77 
 
 and her maidens will ply the distaff, or with the 
 needle weave delicate embroideries ; and the 
 materials for the work of each must be selected, 
 and, by a judicious division of labor, all be made 
 easy. And in this diligent and well-ordered family, 
 not only must the domestic animals be cared for, 
 but the young infant must be tended, and the older 
 child taught to walk in wisdom's ways, and to know 
 the law of the God of Israel. The word here 
 translated "portion" seems certainly to include 
 work as well as food. The Targum renders it by 
 service, and interprets the passage as meaning 
 employment, rather than a portion of daily meat. 
 The same word is used in Exodus 5 : 14, when the 
 task-masters of the children of Israel demanded, 
 " Wherefore have ye not fulfilled your task in 
 making brick both yesterday and to-day as hereto- 
 fore ?" The Septuagint, as well as the Syriac and 
 Arabic versions, render the word " works." 
 
 The ancient custom of dividing the food into 
 separate portions is alluded to not only in several 
 parts of the Sacred Scripture, but is frequently 
 mentioned by profane writers. Thus, when the 
 ambassadors of Agamemnon were received at the
 
 78 THE EXCELLENT WOMAN. 
 
 table of Achilles, the warrior distributed to every 
 man his portion. Among the Romans an officer 
 presided over this distribution at the ancient meal, 
 and seems to have borne a similar office to him who 
 is mentioned, in the narrative of the marriage of 
 Cana, as the governor of the feast. And when 
 Joseph entertained his brethren who had come up 
 to Egypt, we mark how, with the peculiar love 
 which the man of the East feels for the brother who 
 claims the same mother as himself, he apportioned 
 to his beloved Benjamin a mess five times as large 
 as that of any of his other brethren. Not but that 
 each had a portion large enough for his refresh- 
 ment, but that a stronger warmth of hospitality 
 might mark his deeper love to him whom his dying 
 mother had called " the son of my sorrow." 
 
 The right economy of time is a highly important 
 duty. To those who are called to exercise the 
 duties of active life, this is very evident. The mis- 
 tress, the mother, and the domestic servant, Ihese 
 will all feel the value of time ; yet no gift is more 
 often wasted by those to whom God has allotted a 
 large portion of leisure. The waste of time is a sin 
 especially chargeable on a large number of the
 
 THE PROVIDENT WOMAN. 79 
 
 female sex in the present day. Hours are wasted 
 in frivolous accomplishments ; in the performance 
 of some of the lighter works of art ; in dissipated 
 visiting ; in reading novels and idle books, and in 
 absolute lounging and indolence ; so that if we could 
 trace the history of the life of many an English 
 woman, we should find her employments of little 
 more worth to herself and others than those of the 
 butterfly which skims from flower to flower, the gay 
 creature of the summer's day. And yet to every 
 reasonable being existence brings an amount of 
 responsibility which we shall comprehend only in 
 eternity. Time is given ~us for duty, for the prep- 
 aration for a future state, for the good of others ; 
 and every fragment of it should be gathered up, 
 that nothing of so precious a gift may be lost. It 
 should become a subject of deep and frequent 
 thought to every woman, and especially to every 
 Christian woman, whether her time is rightly spent. 
 Owing to the great improvements in manufactures, 
 and the high civilization of modern society, women 
 in the middle and higher classes -of life are rarely 
 required to apply unremittingly to any pursuit 
 which can be called toil or labor. Many have no
 
 80 THE EXCELLENT WOMAN. 
 
 pursuit at all. And is there nothing to do, that 
 God should look down on the couch of the luxurious, 
 when the morning sun has long shed his light on its 
 drapery, and should see the sleeper still seeking 
 repose ? Is there nothing that the daughter or sister 
 can do to lighten the cares or anxieties of parents or 
 brothers ? Is there no active duty, which, if cheer- 
 fully done, would make home happier ? If we are 
 not required, like the excellent women of old, to 
 rise while it is yet night, and to apportion to those 
 of our household food or work, yet there is still 
 enough to do. There are our hearts to examine, as 
 in the sight of God. There are prayer and medita- 
 tion, and reading of the Scripture, all best done in 
 the quiet of early day, ere the noise and tumult of 
 the tempting world have distracted the thoughts. 
 David could say, when referring to his moments of 
 prayer, "My soul prevented the dawning of the 
 morning," and could deem it a "good thing" to 
 " show forth the loving kindness of the Lord in the 
 morning;" and as his soul thirsted for God, he 
 exclaimed, " Early will I seek thee." In the 
 solemn moment of approaching suffering, our Saviour
 
 THE PROVIDENT WOMAN. 81 
 
 himself rose a great while before day, that he might 
 commune with his Father. 
 
 But, beside the study of God's word, there is 
 also the duty of mental improvement. For this end, 
 we should seek to redeem the time, and see that the 
 early hours are not wasted. An hour gained daily 
 from sleep, how much might be done with this, 
 in the study of any valuable species of knowledge ! 
 How much might we learn of any one portion of 
 nature, by an hour of daily reading and observation ! 
 And does not nature tell of God ? It is not the 
 stars alone, and the sun and moon, which speak of 
 God's greatness and power, and so from day unto 
 day utter speech, and from night unto night teach 
 knowledge. All his works praiee him. The sea, 
 with its ebb and flow, and changing tides, and all its 
 curious store of weeds and corals, and its silver- 
 spangled fishes, has a wondrous lesson to teach the 
 docile spirit, of God's power and love. The softly- 
 flowing stream, gladdening the verdant herbage, and 
 serving as a home of happiness to the living crea- 
 tures which inhabit it, and as a scene of sport to the 
 brilliant-winged insects, of all the bright hues of 
 earth and heaven, which hover above it ; the flowery
 
 82 THE EXCELLENT WOMAN. 
 
 meadow and the dark-robed forest ; the bird, with 
 its plumage dipped in hues of Paradise, and its song 
 suggesting thoughts of poetry, all, all have been 
 studied by human minds, which have lived in ages 
 before we were born, and their wonders and their 
 histories have been traced by human pens, and we 
 may read their records in books, and learn their 
 teachings beneath the morning sunshine. And 
 health, too, that valuable blessing, how greatly is it 
 promoted by early hours ! Many diseases, and 
 especially those called nervous disorders, were 
 almost unknown in Britain a few ages since, when 
 luxury had not yet made it a common practice to 
 be found in bed in full day. Many serious illnesses 
 would take their flight before the long-continued and 
 diligent practice of an early morning walk ; and the 
 cheek now pale from indolent habits, and the -eye 
 now dim from want of the exercise required by the 
 frame, might glow and sparkle with the bloom and 
 vigor of life, if, like the country laborer or the 
 diligent rustic maiden, and the excellent woman of 
 the text, we should rise with the ascent of day. 
 And if we redeemed an hour in the morning, it 
 might leave us one in the after day to visit the poor
 
 THE PROVIDENT WOMAN. 83 
 
 and afflicted, to instruct the ignorant, to help those 
 who need our aid. If household duties demanded 
 exertion, then the gained hour might enable us to 
 pass through them more leisurely and more pleas- 
 antly, and we might be saved the irritation of 
 hurried business ; or, if we gave that hour to God, 
 who shall say what blessings our prayers might 
 bring down on ourselves and on those dear to us, 
 - on the church of God and on the world at large ' 
 
 Her might is gentleness ; she winneth sway 
 By a soft word and softer look ; 
 Where she, the gentle, loving one, hath failed, 
 The proud or stern might never yet succeed. 
 
 Strength, power and majesty, belong to man; 
 They make the glory native to his life ; 
 But sweetness is a woman's attribute ; 
 By that she reigns, and will forever reign. 
 
 There have been some who, with a mightier mind, 
 Have won dominion ; but they never won 
 The dearer empire of the beautiful, 
 Sweet sovereigns of their natural loveliness.
 
 84 THE EXCELLENT WOMAN. 
 
 SECTION VII. 
 
 SUE CCNSIDERETH A FIELD, AND BUYETH IT J WITH THE TIIUIT OF 
 HER HANDS SHE PLANTETH A VINEYARD. 
 
 HILE we observe how various were 
 the employments of the Hebrew 
 woman, we cannot fail to remark the 
 great and entire confidence which 
 ? must have been placed in her by her 
 'husband. That he should leave to her 
 care the management of her house and 
 servants, and in great measure the train- 
 ing of her children, seems, at all times, 
 natural, and in the state of society we are 
 considering, peculiarly so ; but we should 
 scarcely expect to find a Jewish female left so 
 entirely to her own judgment in matters of business. 
 It was probably, however, not unusual at this time. 
 Abigail, the wife of Nabal, seems to have had an 
 entire command over the family property, when she 
 hesitated not to take two hundred loaves, and two 
 bottles of wine, and five sheep ready dressed, and 
 fruits and other valuable articles of food, and give
 
 THE MANAGING WOMAN. 87 
 
 them to David. That the woman of the text was 
 worthy of this entire confidence is very evident, 
 for hers was the systematic industry of a well- 
 ordered mind, and not the occasional result of mere 
 impulse. She deliberated on the best plan to be 
 pursued. She saw that her children were rising 
 up, her household numerous, her husband a man of 
 wealth and distinction ; and the requirements of 
 such a family demanded a careful consideration. 
 
 Perhaps, in looking around her in order to make 
 a provision for an increasing household, the eye of 
 the Hebrew woman often rested on some field of 
 waving corn which lay near her own estate ; and 
 she saw, in its golden ears, the prospect of an 
 abundant store for the food of her family ; and then, 
 with the fruits of her own hands, the works which 
 her own fingers had wrought, she purchased the 
 land. The luxuriant vegetation of the vineyard, 
 watered by the fruitful rill, or lying on the hill-side, 
 where the morning sun shed most of his light and 
 warmth, would attract her notice, and the wild 
 roses, and the bright pomegranates, shedding the 
 deep red lustre of their flowers in the hedges which 
 surrounded it, and wafting to her some of the 
 6*
 
 88 THE EXCELLENT WOMAN. 
 
 sweetest of eastern odors, would convince her that 
 the soil which yielded them would repay careful 
 culture. 
 
 The rich drapery of the vine, though now less 
 cultivated in the Holy Land, once formed one of 
 its most striking and picturesque objects. Far away 
 over the hills of the then fruitful, though now neg- 
 lected Palestine, might be heard the joyous song 
 of the vine-dressers, speaking of peace and plenty, 
 and attesting the happy feeling and the joyous 
 emotion of the natives of a pure and lovely climate, 
 whose animal spirits and earnest feelings seemed 
 wrought upon by the gladness of nature, till they 
 flowed forth in song. And many a pious Israelite 
 may have sung with the sweet singer of his country, 
 " The earth is the Lord's, and the fulness thereof;" 
 and as he looked upon his rich corn-fields, have 
 chanted gladly, "Thou visitest the earth, and 
 waterest it ; thou greatly enrichest it with the rivei 
 of God, which is full of water ; thou preparest 
 them corn, when thou hast so provided for it. Thou 
 crownest the year with thy goodness ; and thy 
 paths drop fatness." 
 
 But although the modern inhabitant of Palestine
 
 THE MANAGING WOMAN. 89 
 
 no longer labors assiduously, as did the ancient 
 Israelite, to render his beautiful land an earthly 
 paradise, though in many parts joy and gladness 
 have ceased from the fruitful field, and all the 
 daughters of music are brought low, yet the vine- 
 yards are often beautiful still. On the Syrian hills 
 and plains may yet be seen the tower or the lonely 
 cottage in a vineyard, on which the eye of the 
 evangelical prophet rested when he foretold the 
 desolation of the daughter of Zion ; or when he 
 spake of the vineyard in the fruitful hill, planted 
 with the choicest vine, in which the lord of the 
 vineyard built a tower, and made a wine-press, and 
 looked for the grateful fruits of his culture, and 
 found nothing but wild grapes, sad emblem of the 
 sins and idolatries which ran wild in the heart of 
 God's chosen and cherished people. In this tower 
 of the vineyard were kept, in former days, and may 
 still be seen, the various implements of husbandry, 
 and all the means of pressing the grapes and 
 making them into wine, so that it may be called 
 "the farm of the vineyard." But the chief use 
 of the tower, both in ancient and modern times, is 
 as a dwelling-place and defence to the keeper of the
 
 90 THE EXCELLENT WOMAN. 
 
 vineyard, who, when the grapes are ripening, takes 
 his station there, lest others should deprive him of 
 the produce of his labor. McCheyne, describing 
 the vineyards of Hebron, as he saw them in the 
 year 1842, says, "They are of the most rich and 
 fertile description, each one having a tower in the 
 midst for the keeper of the vineyards. We were 
 told that bunches of grapes from these vineyards 
 sometimes weigh six pounds, every grape of which 
 weighs six or seven drachms. Sir Moses Montefiore 
 mentioned that he got here a bunch of grapes about 
 a yard in length." 
 
 It is not possible for the reader of Scripture to 
 have passed unnoticed the various allusions to the 
 culture of the grape by the Hebrews. The great 
 care which they bestowed on their vineyards, in 
 selecting an appropriate spot of land for their 
 growth, as well as in training the vine, is very 
 apparent from the records of Holy Writ. Almost 
 every part of Palestine is favorable to the culture 
 of the grape ; but the grapes of Eshcol, and Car- 
 mel, and Hermon, and the wines of Lebanon, were 
 ever renowned for their sweetness, and are still 
 unrivalled in the land of the sun. Sometimes the
 
 THE MANAGIlSb WOMAN. 91 
 
 luxuriant plant hung its graceful festoons about the 
 reed trellis ; at others it clung from pole to pole, 
 or clad the wooden palisade with a garment of 
 verdure. Often, too, the vine-dresser directed its 
 flexible branches over the side of the sunny wall, 
 and then its boughs, as they ran over their support, 
 suggested such images as lingered in the mind of 
 the dying Jacob, when, describing the fruitfulncss, 
 and alluding to the protection given by his beloved 
 son, he, in the figurative language of the eastern 
 husbandman, said, "Joseph is a fruitful bough, 
 even a fruitful bough by the side of a well ; whose 
 branches run over the wall." 
 
 Frequent and beautiful as are the poetic figures 
 of the Old and New Testament, yet no object of 
 nature furnished so great a variety of allusions as 
 did the vine. Wherever the ancient Israelite 
 looked around, there its broad leaves and wide- 
 spreading boughs, and its purple clusters, caught 
 his eye ; and the holy prophet of old, and the 
 Divine Saviour himself, ever ready to lead the mind 
 from the fields of nature to the field of holy thought 
 and spiritual communion, failed not to associate 
 with it such lessons of joy and thankfulness, or of
 
 92 THE EXCELLENT WOMAN. 
 
 solemn admonition, as might recur again and again, 
 in after ages, to him who walked in the vineyard. 
 In the earliest parable of Scripture, that of the 
 Trees choosing a King, we find the vine, in the 
 language of allegory, exclaiming, " Shall I leave 
 my wine, which cheereth God and man, and go to 
 be promoted over the trees ?" thus adverting to the 
 use of wine in sacrifice, or to the first- fruit offering 
 of the grape on the altar of God, as well as to its 
 benefit to mankind. In that beautiful lament of 
 forsaken Israel, expressed in Psalm Ixxx., the 
 writer portrays the sorrows of the church of God, 
 under the image of a vine ; and carries out, through 
 a long succession, a series of figures so beautiful 
 and touching, that he who now reads it mourns 
 over ancient Israel's woes, and remembers, too, 
 periods in the history of the Christian church when 
 the vine seemed indeed trodden down, and when, 
 for "a small moment," God " hid his face" from 
 his people. " Once," says the sorrowing Asaph, 
 " the hills were covered with the shadow of it, and 
 the boughs were like goodly cedars. She sent out 
 her boughs to the sea, and her branches unto the 
 river. Now the boar out of the wood doth waste
 
 THE MANAGING WOMAN. 93 
 
 it, and the wild beast of the field doth devour it." 
 And surely as we look upon God's ancient people, 
 and see how their loved and holy city is trodden 
 down of the Gentiles, we should breathe the aspi- 
 ration of the Psalmist, " Return, we beseech thee, 
 God of Hosts ; look down from heaven, and 
 behold, and visit this vine ; and the vineyard which 
 thy right hand hath planted, and the branch that 
 thou madest strong for thyself." In later days, our 
 Saviour told his disciples, " I am the true vine, and 
 my Father is the husbandman. As the branch 
 cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the 
 vine ; no more can ye, except ye abide in me." 
 Then perchance he looked from the table, around 
 which the disciples were gathered, and saw the 
 graceful plant waving to the gentle summer wind, 
 and putting forth its fruits for the vintage. 
 
 There is something pleasing in considering the 
 Hebrew matron in the text as planting a vineyard 
 for the use of her family. It was not enough for 
 her that only what was absolutely needed should be 
 supplied. She acted in the wise and beneficent 
 spirit of the great Creator, who scatters, with liberal 
 hand, not only the supply of our necessities, but 
 the means of enjoyment ; who charms the eye with
 
 94 THE EXCELLENT WOMAN. 
 
 verdure, and the ear with the songs of nature. We, 
 in our northern climate, can scarcely form, an idea 
 of the value of the vineyard to an eastern family ; 
 the cooling shade of its overhanging boughs, in a 
 land where the sun shines hotly through the long 
 summer day, is indeed delightful ; and in the Syrian 
 vine-clad arbor, the Jewish families assembled, as 
 do the natives of modern Palestine, beneath the 
 vine and fig-tree. There, in pleasant groups, sit- 
 ting in the soft air, we can fancy the pious mother, 
 surrounded by her family, speaking with cheerful 
 and thankful spirit of God's goodness to them all, 
 and partaking together with them of the large 
 clusters of yellow or purple fruits, gathered from 
 the boughs. There lay the goodly cluster, and 
 each took from it the welcome refreshment ; and 
 of the fruits which were to spare, the laborer gath- 
 ered and packed in baskets, and probably laid, as 
 they would do now, the broad palm-leaves above 
 them, to preserve their coolness. 
 
 The month of October is that of the vintage ; and 
 on the hills once trod by the feet of the patriarchs 
 the autumnal vintage is yet gathered. The Christian 
 inhabitants of Lebanon, and other parts of Palestine, 
 cultivate the grape for wine, both for themselves
 
 THE MANAGING WOMAN. 95 
 
 and for exportation ; and the Moslems, as they do 
 not drink wine, value the vine for its shadow, its 
 fresh fruit, and for the raisins which they dry 
 from it ; besides that, vinegar is made from the 
 grape, and the vine-leaves are eaten by cattle. 
 This latter practice is referred to in the Jewish law, 
 where Moses commands, " If a man shall cause a 
 field or vineyard to be eaten, and shall put in his 
 beast, and shall feed in another man's field ; of the 
 best of his own field, and of the best of his own 
 vineyard, shall he make restitution." Chandler 
 says of this practice in the East : " We remarked 
 that about Smyrna the leaves were decayed or 
 stripped by the camels and herds of goats, which 
 are admitted to browse after the vintage." 
 
 Travellers who now visit the Holy Land are 
 struck, however, with the desolate appearance 
 exhibited by spots once famous for corn and wine, 
 and the luxuriant vegetation of the East. God has 
 turned " the fruitful land into barrenness, for the 
 wickedness of them that dwelt therein." The old 
 inhabitants of the land of the Hebrews are scattered 
 as God predicted ; and the thin population of 
 strangers who now dwell there take little pains to 
 7
 
 96 THE EXCELLENT WOMAN. 
 
 cherish the soil. The want of agricultuial industry 
 is everywhere apparent ; and he who loves the hill 
 of Zion and the mountains about Jerusalem, because 
 associated in his mind with all that is holy and all 
 that is dear, longs for that glorious day when the 
 Jews shall again be gathered under their native 
 vines and fig-trees. 
 
 It is thought by most writers that the autumnal 
 feast of Tabernacles, held by the Jews, had especial 
 reference to the ingathering of the vineyard. 
 " When ye have gathered in the fruit of the land, 
 ye shall keep a feast unto the Lord seven days," 
 were the words which enjoined this festival. The 
 Syrian winter does not commence until December ; 
 and in that pleasant climate the month of October 
 was well suited for the joyous out-door life which 
 ancient Israel spent on this occasion. Then the 
 song of praise and gratitude went up from the 
 arbors formed of the " boughs of goodly trees, 
 branches of palm-trees, and the boughs of thick 
 trees, and willows of the brook." Then a loud 
 burst of national thanksgiving was offered to the 
 God who brought his people into a land flowing with 
 milk and with honey ; and every Jewish family 
 brought its tribute of gratitude and praise.
 
 THE ENERGETIC WOMAN. 
 
 99 
 
 SECTION VIII. 
 
 SHE QIRDETH HER LOINS WITH STRENGTH, AND STRENGTHENETH 
 HER ARMS. 
 
 EFERENCE is had, in this figurative 
 expression, to the practice of girding 
 I tightly for any great exertion. The 
 girdle which confines the loose and 
 'flowing garments of the native of the 
 East is broad and long, and can, when 
 occasion requires it, be bound several 
 times round the waist and over the chest. 
 This tight girding enables the men of 
 'oriental countries to perform wonderful feats 
 of strength, especially in running ; as they 
 will make a journey of several miles, keeping pace 
 with a horseman, or with the chariot of the great 
 man. Sometimes the girdle is so tightly bound as 
 to endanger life ; and the editor of the " Pictorial 
 Bible" mentions that he saw, at Ispahan, a pillar 
 raised to mark the spot on which one of these 
 tightly-girded runners expired, in attempting to 
 stoop to the ground.
 
 100 THE EXCELLENT WOMAN. 
 
 Scripture contains many references to this prac- 
 tice of girding. Thus we read, that when the 
 prophet Elijah accompanied the bold and wicked 
 king, "he girded up his loins, and ran before 
 Ahab to the entrance of Jezreel." Even on occa- 
 sions which demanded less exertion, it was usual to 
 gather up the garment under the girdle, lest it 
 might incommode the progress of the wearer. So 
 our blessed Saviour represents the master as 
 addressing his servant, " Make ready wherewith I 
 may sup, and gird thyself, and serve me, till I have 
 eaten and drunken;" and, when urging his disci- 
 ples to a constant readiness for that spiritual warfare 
 which they must encounter, and that watchfulness 
 which the servants of the Lord must always exer- 
 cise, he said, " Let your loins be girded about, arid 
 your lights burning ; and ye yourselves like unto 
 men that wait for their lord." 
 
 This figure of girding the loins would be espec- 
 ially expressive to the eastern, as well as to the 
 ancient Greek and Roman people, among whom the 
 practice prevailed. With the latter, it was con- 
 sidered very effeminate for a man to be seen abroad 
 either without his girdle, or loosely girded , and to
 
 THE ENERGETIC WOMAN. 101 
 
 be ungirt became an expression of an unmanly 
 luxury. Sulla reproached Caesar that he was 
 ungirt ; and Maecenas was blamed because he wore 
 his girdle loosely. 
 
 Boothroyd renders the passage, 
 
 She girdeth up her loins for strength, 
 And by exercise giveth vigor to her arms ; 
 
 and it very evidently implies that she preserved her 
 health by the very best means that of cheerful and 
 earnest employment. When we look at our bodily 
 frames, and see how they are formed for exercise, 
 when we mark how the muscles of the active arm 
 are firm, and those of the indolent soft and tender, 
 we see something of the bodily ills to which indo- 
 lence exposes, and are convinced that a healthy 
 frame can be preserved only by a due attention to 
 activity ; and when we mark, too, how painful and 
 weary a thing sickness is, and how great is the 
 physical enjoyment of health, it seems strange that 
 exercise is so much neglected by thousands who 
 have the means of taking it. How much exquisite 
 enjoyment is afforded by the mere possession of 
 health! the pure taste, the high spirits, which 
 7*
 
 102 THE EXCELLENT WOMAN. 
 
 render existence itself an enjoyment and a blessing , 
 the good humor, the pleasure in innocent delights, 
 the light and refreshing sleep, the appetite which 
 needs no dainties, the untiring footstep, and the 
 placid breathing, which scarcely quickens at the 
 ascent of the mountain ! 0, if some of those of 
 the female sex, who now spend their days on sofas, 
 and their nights in unquiet dreams, would, like the 
 excellent woman, strengthen their arms by exercise, 
 and gird up their loins by some vigorous employ- 
 ment, how great a change should come over their 
 constitutions, and how great a blessing should they 
 gain for themselves ! 
 
 There are also higher considerations than those 
 of mere enjoyment which should induce us to cul- 
 tivate the means of health. To do so is a religious 
 duty. Health is one of the gifts which God has 
 bestowed for usefulness one of those talents of 
 which he has said, " Occupy till I come ;" and if 
 it be wasted either by intemperance, indolence, or 
 carelessness, we shall have to account for it at the 
 great and solemn day of final retribution. If the 
 hand of God deprive us of it, then may we calmly 
 say, " The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken
 
 THE ENERGETIC WOMAN. 103 
 
 away; blessed be the name of the Lord;" and 
 appropriate the blessed promises to sufferers con- 
 tained in Holy Writ ; and while we remember that 
 they also serve God who only stand and wait, we 
 may learn many blessed lessons, when, like David, 
 we can say, " Before I was afflicted I went astray ; 
 but now I have kept thy word." But if God has 
 given us a robust constitution, or at least one that 
 might, by exertion, be rendered such, then our very 
 sickness is a sin. " Health," says Jeremy Taylor, 
 " is the opportunity of wisdom, the fairest scene 
 of religion, the advantages of the glorification of 
 God, and the charitable ministries of men ; it is a 
 state of joy and thanksgiving, and in every one of 
 its periods feels a pleasure from the blessed emana- 
 tions of a merciful Providence. No organs, no 
 lute, can sound out the praises of the Almighty 
 Father so spritefully as the man that rises from his 
 bed of sorrows, and considers what an excellent 
 difference he feels from the groans and intolerable 
 accents of yesterday." Health carries us to the 
 place of worship, and helps us to rejoice in the 
 communion of saints. 
 
 But though the text has an especial reference to
 
 104 THE EXCELLENT WOMAN. 
 
 the strengthening of the body, yet that vigorous 
 resolution inculcated by the apostle Paul may also 
 be intimated here : " Wherefore," says the inspired 
 writer, " gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, 
 and hope to the end." A holy resolution, a moral 
 courage, a steady determination in all things to obey 
 the voice of conscience, seems a strong feature of 
 the character of the Jewish woman. It is true that 
 no resolution made in our own strength can avail 
 us. Our hearts are sinful by nature, and ever 
 ready to depart from God and holiness. Satan, 
 like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour, 
 is ever watching to hinder the progress of every 
 right resolve. The world, with its anxious cares 
 on the one hand, and its fascinating vanities on the 
 other, is present with us to banish every pious 
 motive, and drive us into forgetfulness and sinful 
 weakness. Yet, unless we resolve rightly, we 
 cannot act rightly ; and there is a way of keeping 
 the promise made to our own hearts and to God. 
 There is a strength given to all who humbly ask it, 
 in the name of the Great Mediator ; a strength to 
 will, to do, and to endure, even to the death ; a 
 strength, given by God, enabling the timid to be
 
 THE ENERGETIC WOMAN. 105 
 
 brave, ai_d imparting a consistent firmness, even to 
 those who feel themselves ready to be shaken by 
 every breeze. But unless we seek from Heaven 
 this consistent firmness of principle, our goodness 
 shall be but as the morning cloud, and as the early 
 dew that passeth away. Without it, no Christian 
 course can be a happy or a useful one. It is not 
 enough to know and approve what is right. Prin- 
 ciple must be acted upon, whether the world smile 
 or condemn ; and the diligent and steady cultiva- 
 tion of firmness be sought in humble dependence 
 on God. And as the eastern traveller girded his 
 garments from the dust, so, too, must Christians 
 keep themselves unspotted from the contamination 
 of vain intercourse, and the defilement of sin ; and 
 as the Hebrew matron girded herself for strength, 
 so should we strive to invigorate our principles by 
 holy determination, by steady watchfulness, and by 
 humble prayer ; so that we may say with the 
 apostle, " I can do all things through Christ which 
 strengtheneth me." 
 
 " Weak as I am, yet, through thy grace, 
 I all things can perform."
 
 106 
 
 THE EXCELLENT WOMAN. 
 
 SECTION IX. 
 
 SHE PEECEIVETH THAT HER MERCHANDISE IS GOOD ; HER CANDLE 
 GOETH NOT OUT BY NIGHT. 
 
 ,ROM the regular and constant indus- 
 try for which the excellent woman is 
 commended, it is evident that the 
 work which she wrought, or which 
 [she superintended, would be of a good 
 and valuable description. Diligence and 
 /perseverance in any pursuit give skill 
 and taste in its performance, and enable 
 'the worker to excel one who is little inter- 
 Bested in his work. Such a matron would, in 
 time, become known and confided in for 
 promptness and regularity, and for durable and 
 beautiful workmanship ; and as Boothroyd renders 
 the passage, would see "that her traffic is profit- 
 able." The tapestry, and girdles, and garments, 
 all carefully woven and beautifully ornamental, 
 would not disappoint the purchaser, who expected 
 them, perhaps, to last a lifetime ; and the maker 
 would soon gain an established reputation among
 
 _Jt 
 CWi, 
 
 *-% 
 
 (E> y c f ii Y W j >S H T .
 
 THE VIGILANT WOMAN. 109 
 
 those who bought, and thus in every way her mer- 
 chandise would be good. 
 
 Archbishop Cranmer renders this verse : " If 
 she perceives that her merchandise is good, her 
 candle goeth not out by night." This might sig- 
 nify, that if, on any particular occasion, this Jewish 
 lady saw some desirable object of purchase, she 
 and her maidens would work long and diligently, 
 even till night was far advanced, in order to procure 
 it in exchange for her manufactures. Be that as it 
 may, however, it is no uncommon thing, either in 
 our own or other lands, for those engaged in manu- 
 factures to fulfil any large order by occasionally 
 spending even a part of the night in its execution. 
 In those eastern dwellings in which stuffs are made, 
 there is great attention to business ; and it some- 
 times occurs, that not only a busy group work from 
 before the dawn till day is over, but that parties of 
 workers are employed through the night, one party 
 rising to work when the other retires to repose. 
 
 Dr. Clarke suggests that this burning of the 
 lamp, however, implies rather a careful vigilance 
 than a perpetual industry in the Hebrew mistress. 
 He suggests that it was probably burned on account
 
 110 THE EXCELLENT WOMAN. 
 
 of the numerous banditti and lawless men, from 
 various wandering tribes, who might come suddenly 
 and endanger the family during the hours of dark- 
 ness ; and this caution to avert an ill, rather than 
 to suffer it, well corresponds with the general char- 
 acter given by the description of the poem. 
 
 It appears to have been a very common practice 
 among the ancient Hebrews, as it is now with 
 nations of the East, for careful persons to burn a 
 lamp by night in their dwellings. Candles are not 
 burned in any oriental country, and therefore the 
 word thus rendered refers to the lamp, of which we 
 have so many notices in Scripture. Even as early 
 as the time of Abraham we find a " burning lamp " 
 mentioned, which appeared to him as a revelation 
 from God. Gideon, when he led out his men 
 against the host of Midian, bade them take their 
 lamps in their pitchers ; and from these early 
 records of patriarchal times, even to the days of 
 those whose pens concluded the pages of Holy Writ, 
 we find the lamp and the oil continually referred 
 to. Lamps were used in the tabernacle, and at 
 marriage festivals were hung around the room, and 
 cast down their light from above. Herodotus
 
 THE VIGILANT WOMAN. Ill 
 
 describes the lamps of the ancient Egyptians as 
 " small vases, filled with salt and olive oil, in which 
 the wick floated and burned during the whole 
 night ;" and as this description of the lamp exactly 
 accords with the eastern lamp of modern usage, it 
 seems probable that it was also a common form of 
 the Jewish lamp. Many lamps, too, appear, like 
 that of our engraving, to have had a small handle, 
 for the convenience of removing them, from place 
 to place. Vegetable oil of some kind, and most 
 probably exclusively olive oil, was burned by the 
 Hebrews. Thus we find Moses commanding the 
 Israelites to prepare the lamp for the tabernacle, 
 which was to burn from evening to morning before 
 the Lord : " Thou shalt command the children of 
 Israel, that they bring thee pure oil olive beaten for 
 the light, to cause the lamp to burn always." The 
 wicks of the lamps were made of the coarser fibres 
 of flax ; and the Rabbins record, that the old linen 
 garments of the priests were unravelled, to furnish 
 those of the sacred lamps in the tabernacle. 
 
 The general use of the lamp naturally made it a 
 frequent subject of metaphor and simile among 
 ancient writers. Thus the wise man says, " The 
 8
 
 112 THE EXCELLENT WOMAN. 
 
 light of the righteous rejoiceth ; but the lamp of 
 the wicked shall be put out ;" and again, the sud- 
 den extinction of the lamp served as a figure to 
 express the wrath of God against him who cursed 
 father or mother ; for " his lamp shall be put out 
 in obscure darkness." Many writers think that the 
 expression " outer darkness," often used in Scrip- 
 ture, refers to the contrast of the outward darkness 
 of night, when compared with that of the chamber 
 in which it was so customary for the light to be 
 burning. Our Saviour, addressing those who were 
 accustomed to the highly poetic imagery of the 
 east, spoke of the professor of piety under the 
 figure of a lamp ; and in the well-known and beau- 
 tiful parable of the wise and foolish virgins, showed 
 the danger of a careless and unwatchful profession 
 of religion, commanding his followers to have their 
 lights always burning. 
 
 In all ages, the lamp beaming from the chamber 
 window on the dimness and gloom of the outward 
 world, has awakened pleasurable and poetic associ- 
 ations in the mind of the traveller ; and whether 
 we are attracted by the small light of a cottage 
 candle, seen from afar, or the still fainter lustre of
 
 THE VIGILANT WOMAN. 113 
 
 an eastern lamp, yet our minds form some picture 
 of the home within. The writer of the book of 
 Proverbs, whose eye might rest on such a lamp, 
 would imagine a home of industrious application. 
 To him it would speak of care and vigilance ; of the 
 mistress and maidens gathered round it at their 
 work ; of children striving to lend a helping hand ; 
 and of a domestic scene of cheerful employment. 
 To all of us such a lamp might seem like the hope 
 which burns in the breast of one who loves and 
 fears God. Now, perhaps, it burns feebly ; some 
 passing object dims its brightness, and suggests the 
 idea of the worldly anxiety, or the sinful infirmity, 
 which shadows that hope in the human bosom. 
 Again, it rises into a bright and steady flame, 
 cheering and gladdening all around it ; and so the 
 Christian's hope, soaring above these passing 
 shadows, burns with its holy and life-giving lustre, 
 shining brighter and brighter, till that perfect day 
 of pure and unshadowed light. Perhaps it was 
 after wandering in some lonely spot in the dimness 
 of night, that David came upon some household 
 lamp, and exclaimed, as it guided him onwards, 
 " Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light
 
 114 THE EXCELLENT WOMAN. 
 
 unto my path ;" and while he blessed God for his 
 holy word, added, " Thou shalt guide me with thy 
 counsel, and afterwards receive me to glory." Our 
 blessed Saviour said to his disciples, "Ye are the 
 light of the world," and bade them, and us, for 
 whom also his blessed words were spoken and after- 
 wards written, so to let our light shine before men, 
 that they, seeing our good works, might glorify our 
 Father which is in heaven. 
 
 The dearest boon from Heaven above 
 
 Is bliss which brightly hallows home ; 
 'T is sunlight to the world of love, 
 
 And life's pure wine, without its foam. 
 There is a sympathy of heart, 
 
 Which consecrates the social shrine, 
 Robs grief of gloom, and doth impart 
 
 A joy to gladness all divine. 
 
 Let others seek in wealth or fame 
 
 A splendid path whereon to tread ; 
 I 'd rather wear a lowlier name, 
 
 With love's enchantments round it shed. 
 Fame 's but a light to gild the grave, 
 
 And wealth can never calm the breast ; 
 But LOVE, a halcyon on life 's wave, 
 
 Hatlr power to soothe its strifes to rest.
 
 LAYSTTKI HER MASSES 
 TOE SPJHUBILIE, WE> MSB 
 Ma. TKIS
 
 THE INDUSTRIOUS WOMAN. 117 
 
 SECTION X. 
 
 BHE LAYETH HER HANDS TO THE SPINDLE, AND HER HANDS HOLD 
 THE DISTAFF. 
 
 AD not the sacred writer further 
 enlarged upon the character of this 
 woman, had this single praise been 
 uttered of her, it would, to those 
 for whom it was immediately intend- 
 ed, be of itself a high commendation. 
 The Rabbins record an old saying of the 
 
 Hebrews, that there is no wisdom in a 
 t 
 
 woman but in the distaff ; implying, as 
 I do the words of the text, that a woman's 
 great praise is her industry. The Greeks 
 and Romans would have accorded fully with the 
 implied sentiment. When a Roman lady became a 
 bride, she received many a hint, from the marriage 
 ceremony, that she was about to enter on active 
 domestic employment ; and again and again the 
 word thalassio resounded on her ear. This word, 
 8*
 
 118 THE EXCELLENT WOMAN. 
 
 which signified the vessel in which were kept the 
 materials for spinning, and the work already spun, 
 reminded her, not only of the spindle and the 
 distaff, to which it might directly refer, but was 
 also significant of the various household occupations 
 in which the women of ancient days felt it their 
 duty and their honor to excel. 
 
 "In those old times, 
 
 There was far less of gadding, and far more 
 Of home-born, heart-felt comfort, rooted strong 
 In industry, an I bearing such rare fruit 
 As wealth might never purchase." 
 
 It was not until the more degenerate days of 
 Rome, when luxury had supplanted the habits of 
 the older state of society, that spinning and weaving 
 were left to the slave. In earlier times, the bride 
 went to her new home amid the throng of rejoicing 
 maidens ; and the young attendants carried in their 
 hands the distaff and the spindle, with the gay 
 colored wools hanging about them ; to all it spoke 
 the same lesson, the lesson so often inculcated by 
 the Roman writers, that a woman should resemble
 
 THE INDUSTRIOUS WOMAN. 119 
 
 the bee for industry, and imitate Minerva, whose 
 wisdom, was so truly womanly in its direction, that 
 she was said to be the first who ever wrought a 
 web. 
 
 It was the pride of Augustus Caesar, that his 
 imperial robes, his fringed tunic, and costly girdle, 
 were wrought in his household, by the hands of his 
 wife, his sister, his daughter, and his grand- 
 daughters. So, too, Alexander the Great, when 
 advising the mother of Darius to teach her nieces 
 to imitate the Grecian ladies in spinning wool, 
 showed her the garments which he wore, and told 
 her they were made by his sisters. The virtuous 
 Lucretia worked with her maidens at the spinning- 
 wheel ; and Tanaquil, the wife of Tarquin, wrought 
 woollen robes so well, that long after her death, her 
 spinning implements, together with a robe of her 
 manufacture, were hung up in the Temple of 
 Fortune ; a constant monument of her taste and 
 skill, and an intimation to Koman maids and 
 matrons that they, too, should lay their hands tc 
 the spindle, and their hands should hold the distaff 
 
 The Jewish Scriptures so frequently refer to the
 
 120 THE EXCELLENT WOMAN. 
 
 industry of women in occupations of this kind, that 
 one can easily imagine the matron 
 
 " At her wheel, 
 
 Spinning amain, as if to overtake 
 The never-halting time ; or, in her turn, 
 Teaching some novice of the sisterhood 
 Her skill in this or other household work." 
 
 The ancient spindle or spinning-wheel was held 
 by the right hand, and turned round, while the 
 distaff or staff around which the wool was rolled 
 was held in the bend of the left arm, and the thread 
 drawn over the fingers of the left hand, so that 
 both hands were employed. 
 
 The spindle and the distaff are the most ancient 
 form of the spinning apparatus, and, in an improved 
 condition, were long used even in our own country ; 
 hence the word spinster ; and the English maiden 
 or mother might often be seen sitting at her wheel 
 
 " In summer, ere the mower was abroad 
 Among the dewy grass in early spring, 
 Ere the last star had vanished." 
 
 But time has brought its wondrous improvements 
 and great changes, and the well-constructed spin-
 
 THE INDUSTRIOUS WOMAN. 121 
 
 ning machinery of modern days has banished from 
 our cottage-doors the busy hum of the wheel. The 
 cottager who once turned it gayly round has now 
 to change her mode of industry, and has only to 
 make up with her needle, into garments, the fabric 
 which she would once have manufactured for herself. 
 But, besides the actual spinning or weaving of 
 the wool and flax, the preparation of these sub- 
 stances gave much employment to the Jewish 
 household. The flax required drying and preparing 
 for use. The wool, after being combed and picked 
 and carded, was put up in round balls, ready for 
 the spindle. It was sometimes left for use with the 
 natural moisture which fresh cut wool always yields, 
 and which reminds us of the wool of Gideon's fleeces, 
 out of which, in the Syrian climate, he could wring 
 dew, " even a bowl full of water." Wool in this 
 state was called plump-wool ; but when the manu- 
 facturers were about to make some of those brilliant 
 garments, whose tints no modern skill can furnish, 
 the wool had to be subjected to the various processes 
 of dyeing. In this case it was usual to anoint the 
 wool with wine, or with some unctuous substance, 
 preparatory to plunging it into the dye.
 
 122 THE EXCELLENT WOMAN. 
 
 SECTION XI. 
 
 BHE STRETCHFTH OUT HER HAND TO THE POOR J YEA, SHE REACHETH 
 FORTH HER HANDS TO THE NEEDY. 
 
 VERY reader of the Holy Scriptures 
 1 must see how careful the great Jeho- 
 vah has been, both under the old 
 and new dispensation, to recommend 
 (to the care of the rich the wants of 
 their poorer brethren. The law of Moses 
 abounded in humane institutions respect- 
 ing the poor, and these would be familiar 
 the Jewish woman. Though her Bible 
 had not the Gospels, with their illustrations 
 of the living and dying love of the Redeemer; 
 though the sacred volume of the ancient Hebrew 
 told not of the self-denying zeal of St. Paul, or 
 other holy men of old, who lived and labored and 
 suffered for others ; though it had not the gentle 
 and affectionate tenderness of the lovely and beloved 
 disciple, yet its law made provision for kindness 
 and humanity ; and the poor and the destitute, the 
 fatherless and the widow, were ever described as
 
 OUT JOS 73 HAMS 7 1THS 
 
 KE^M17H ? 8 IT H 
 HI'S HA?3E)1 T9 TH1 MSSEY,
 
 THE HUMANE WOMAN. 125 
 
 the peculiar objects of God's love and compassion, 
 and were recommended to the care of those to whom 
 God had given wealth. " Blessed is he that con- 
 sidereth the poor : the Lord will deliver him in time 
 of trouble," had been sung by the Psalmist; and 
 .still the words resounded in the tabernacle of the 
 righteous, and still were met by answering feelings 
 in the hearts of those who loved and feared Israel's 
 God. It was in the exact spirit of the divine law 
 that this woman acted. Moses had said, " The 
 poor shall never cease out of the land ; therefore I 
 command thee, saying, Thou shalt open thine hand 
 wide unto thy brother, to thy poor, and to thy needy, 
 in thy land." 
 
 There is something very expressive in the figure 
 of the text : " She stretcheth out her hand to the 
 poor ; yea, she reacheth forth her hands to the 
 needy." It would seem to imply an attention to 
 the wants of the poor, not forced upon her by 
 immediate neighborhood. She waited not for the 
 poor man to come to her door, but she went out to 
 look for him. She did not deal out her bounty 
 grudgingly, and by slow degrees, but gave with 
 bounteous hands, and anticipated the duty taught
 
 126 THE EXCELLENT WOMAN. 
 
 afterwards : "Freely ye have received, freely give." 
 She might have been seen, like Dorcas, making 
 clothing for the poor, and distributing it with cheer- 
 ful and willing kindness. She knew well that God 
 loveth a cheerful giver. She was described as a 
 woman " who feared the Lord," and his commands 
 were her standard of duty. She would feel that the 
 destitute ought to have a portion in all riches, so 
 that God's blessing might rest on the wealth which 
 she had gained. Such a woman could appreciate 
 the kind and considerate command of her holy law, 
 so suited to the agricultural habits of the people of 
 a rich and fertile land : " When thou cuttest down 
 thine harvest in thy field, and hast forgot a sheaf in 
 the field, thou shalt not go again to fetch it ; it 
 shall be for the stranger, for the fatherless, and for 
 the widow ; that the Lord thy God may bless thee 
 in all the works of thine hands. When thou beatest 
 thine olive-tree, thou shalt not go over the boughs 
 again; it shall be for the stranger, for the fatherless, 
 and for the widow. When thou gatherest the grapes 
 of thy vineyard, thou shalt not glean it afterwards; 
 it shall be for the stranger, for the fatherless, and 
 for the widow." And, whether it were the glean-
 
 THE HUMANE WOMAN. 127 
 
 ings of her harvest field, or the wool of her flock, it 
 was given with gladness. The poor who were near 
 her rejoiced in her bounty, and the poor afar off 
 were not forgotten. Even so may we see the rip- 
 plings of the waters around the pebble which is cast 
 into the stream ; and the ridges of water are fuller 
 and larger nearest to the stone, and though they 
 lessen as they recede, yet they form widening circles 
 still, until they enclose the whole lake ; just so were 
 the deeds of love wrought by this woman, fullest in 
 the charities of home, yet widening ever, until they 
 encompassed the whole world in their embrace. 
 
 Dr. Adam Clarke considers the expression 
 "needy" as applying especially to the afflicted 
 poor. The poor whom sickness prevented from 
 labor ; the aged man, whose limbs refused to bear 
 the weight of toil ; the little child, too young to 
 help himself ; or the houseless stranger, who came 
 to the gate of the Israelitish city to ask for succor ; 
 the latter had been especially commended to the 
 pity of the ancient Hebrew: "Love ye therefore the 
 stranger," said the Lord to his chosen people ; "for 
 ye were strangers in the land of Egypt." And he 
 whom adverse circumstances had brought low was 
 9
 
 128 THE EXCELLENT WOMAN. 
 
 cared for in the humane precepts of the law. " If 
 thy brother be waxen poor, and fallen in decay with 
 thee, then thou shalt relieve him ; yea, though he 
 be a stranger or a sojourner ; that he may live with 
 thee.' 
 
 If we find it commanded as a duty and named as 
 a praise, of the Hebrew woman, that she reached 
 forth her hands to the poor and needy, how much 
 more should this kindness to the indigent be expected 
 of women reared in a country in which the gentle 
 and loving spirit of the Gospel is fully known ! The 
 ancient duty of remembering the poor, so far from 
 being abrogated by the New Testament, is enforced 
 by more numerous and direct commands, and by the 
 living example of our blessed Saviour, who " went 
 about doing good." 
 
 One thing which must ever endear to the Chris- 
 tian his poorer brethren is the remembrance that 
 Jesus Christ himself was the member of a poor 
 family. The disciple of the Lord who had not 
 where to lay his head, and who was supplied by the 
 kind women who ministered to him, should feel a 
 sincere pity and regard for the poor ; for verily the 
 Lord of glory took not upon him the nature of un
 
 THE HUMANE WOMAN. 129 
 
 angel ; he came not with wealth or power, but 
 made himself of no reputation, and for more than 
 thirty years endured poverty and privation, that we 
 might have everlasting happiness, that to the poor 
 the Gospel might be preached, and that they might 
 be made " rich in faith, and heirs of the kingdom." 
 In all the solemn and affectionate appeals made in 
 God's holy word in behalf of the poor, there is not 
 one which comes home more fully than this to the 
 heart of God's children : " For ye know the grace 
 of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich, 
 yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through 
 his poverty might be rich." 0, if we could ever 
 remember how short our time is for doing good, 
 that our sun may go down suddenly, while it is yet 
 day ; that if even the threescore years and ten of 
 this mortal life should be allotted to us, it will be too 
 short for half our projects, surely we should hasten 
 to-day to labor in God's vineyard ; making sacrifices 
 of time, and talents, and property, for the poor and 
 needy of God's heritage, and laboring diligently 
 ere the night cometh, when no man can work. 
 
 Nor must it be forgotten that on a Christian 
 devolves the duty, not only of doing good to the
 
 130 THE EXCELLENT WOMAN. 
 
 body, but to the soul. Every one who has himself 
 received the gift of God's spirit, whose sins are 
 pardoned through the Eedeemer's grace, is bound 
 to study and promote the eternal welfare of others. 
 Woe be to us, if our poorer brethren shall say, at 
 the day of judgment, " No man cared for my soul." 
 If we have the tongue of the learned, and can give 
 good instruction, yet forbear to give it ; if we can 
 help the ignorant with a word of counsel ; if we 
 can bestow upon him the word of life, or induce 
 him to join the assembly of God's earthly worship- 
 pers on the Sabbath day ; if we can set before him 
 a holy example ; if we can send the missionary to 
 the crowded alleys of our cities, or help him to 
 traverse the wide waters to the dim and dark 
 recesses of ignorance or cruelty, and yet sloth, or 
 carelessness, or self-indulgence, or parsimony, lead 
 us to inertness, then we are robbing those whom 
 God has given into our care, and God will require 
 their souls at our hands. But if we stretch out our 
 hands to the needy, then may we hope for God's 
 promised blessing, and our own spiritual wants will 
 be supplied while we are aiding others. 
 
 There is also a peculiar feature in love to the
 
 THE HUMANE WOMAN. 131 
 
 poor, which is impressed on the doctrines of the 
 New Testament with greater distinctness than on 
 those of the Old. Besides the general commands to 
 love our poorer neighbor, we are especially "to do 
 good to them who are of the household of faith." 
 So much is this love to the disciples of Christ incul- 
 cated in the writings of the evangelists and apostles, 
 that we are told we ought to " lay down our lives 
 for the brethren." It is even made a test of our 
 love to God. " Whoso hath this world's good," 
 saith St. John, " and seeth his brother have need, 
 and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, 
 how dwelleth the love of God in him 1 " The con- 
 tributions for the poor saints were not forgotten by 
 the apostle Paul and the early Christians ; and 
 while it is the duty of Christians to do good to the 
 bodies and to the souls of all, to stretch out the 
 willing hand to the poor and needy, the poor of 
 God's adopted family should be the especial objects 
 of their love and care. 
 
 From Christ, the Lord, shall they obtain 
 Like sympathy and love again. 
 9*
 
 132 
 
 THE EXCELLENT WOMAN. 
 
 SECTION XII. 
 
 EHE IS NOT AFRAID OF THE SNOW FOE HER HOUSEHOLD J FOR ALL 
 HER HOUSEHOLD ARE CLOTHED WITH SCARLET. 
 
 10 accustomed are we to hear of the 
 i serene skies and genial warmth of 
 "the climate of Palestine, that we are, 
 in our thoughts, apt to invest that 
 )interesting land with a perpetual sun- 
 k shine. The flowery heights of the 
 fragrant Carmel ; the magnificent and 
 enduring vegetation of Lebanon ; the 
 smiling plains of the still lovely and 
 verdant Sharon ; the grapes of Eshcol, 
 these are the features of the landscape most 
 familiar to our mind. Although the cold of winter 
 is not so severe as in some other parts of Syria, 
 still it is scarcely less than that experienced in our 
 own country. The autumnal shower is the early 
 rain, for which the "husbandman long waited," 
 that he might sow his seed ; and in December, 
 which is the first winter month, the rain falls in 
 torrents, and the snow covers the plains occasion-
 
 
 8 A ISLE 7,
 
 THE THOUGHTFUL WOMAN. 135 
 
 ally, and lies on the elevated mountains lung after 
 spring has made considerable advance ; while hoar- 
 frost Scatters its diamonds, or a mist, like that of 
 our northern climates, obscures the face of nature. 
 Owing to the great inequalities of surface in the 
 Holy Land, there are some sheltered and favored 
 spots which are free from the cold of winter. Here 
 the season is soft and mild, snow is seldom seen on 
 the plains, and the orange-tree and the citron and 
 the goodly palm contrast with the white summits 
 and glittering icicles of Lebanon. On the moun- 
 tains the snow is peculiarly deep from December, 
 and scarcely decreases before the month of July. 
 Dr. E. D. Clarke, speaking of one of the hills 
 which forms a part of the majestic Lebanon, says : 
 "The snow entirely covers the upper part of it; 
 not lying in patches, as I have seen it, during 
 summer, upon the tops of very elevated mountains, 
 for instance, that of Nevis in Scotland ; but invest- 
 ing all the higher part with that perfect white and 
 smooth velvet-like appearance which snow only 
 exhibits when it is very deep ; a striking spectacle 
 in such a climate, where the beholder, seeking pro-
 
 136 THE EXCELLENT WOMAN. 
 
 tection from a burning sun, almost considers the 
 firmament to be on fire." 
 
 We have various other instances in Scripture, 
 besides that quoted at the head of the chapter, of 
 the cold and snow of Palestine. The psalmist of 
 Israel sung of the fleeces which the Creator "giveth 
 like wool," and prayed that he might be purified, 
 and made " whiter than snow." We infer the cold 
 from the statement of the prophet Jeremiah, when 
 he described Jehoiakim, king of Judah, as sitting 
 with his nobles around the hearth, and daringly 
 cutting with his penknife, and casting into the fire, 
 the scroll which contained the denunciations of the 
 Almighty. So again, in that sad hour, when the 
 affectionate but frail apostle denied the Master 
 whom he loved, we read that they had kindled a 
 fire in the midst of the hall, and that Peter and 
 others sat down together by it, " for it was cold." 
 
 The writer of the " Pictorial Palestine," describ- 
 ing the severe weather of January, says: " Major 
 Skinner, who states that he traversed this country 
 in a season unusually severe, speaks much of snow 
 and cold. He mentions a village under Mount 
 Carmel, in which many houses had been destroyed
 
 THE THOUGHTFUL WOMAN. 137 
 
 by the great quantities of snow which had fallen. 
 He spent a night in that village, and on the morn- 
 ing of the twenty-eighth found the court-yard full 
 of snow, which had fallen during the night. Snow 
 was then resting on the ridge of Mount Carmel. 
 Penetrating to the interior of the country, the 
 same traveller reached Nazareth on the thirtieth. 
 The heights around the town, and many of the 
 houses, were covered with snow, large heaps of 
 which were piled up in the court-yard of the con- 
 vent. Many of the smaller houses had been 
 destroyed by it ; and the next day he found that 
 the deep snow in the streets rendered it impossible 
 to quit the city, and difficult to move about in it. 
 A thaw had, however, commenced. The snow falls 
 thick, and lies long on the mountains and high and 
 intervening plains and valleys of Jebel Haouran, 
 which may be said to bound eastward the country 
 beyond Jordan. Madox found it so at the end of 
 January. The same traveller, on the thirteenth, 
 found Damascus covered with snow, as well as the 
 mountains and plains round it." 
 
 Most commentators think that the Hebrew word 
 rendered " scarlet" would be more correctly trans-
 
 138 THE EXCELLENT WOMAN. 
 
 lated by the marginal reading, " double garments. 
 It is thus rendered by Boothroyd in his version of 
 Scripture, and the Septuagint and Arabic versions 
 give it thus. The twice dyeing, which formed part 
 of the process used in obtaining the brilliant scarlet 
 of the East, caused this color to be expressed in the 
 original language by the verb to redouble, and 
 thus leaves the rendering in some measure doubt- 
 ful. Dr. Adam Clarke states, in his commentary, 
 that his old manuscript Bible renders this part of 
 the passage " ben clothed with double ;" and adds 
 that Coverdale, with equal propriety, translates it, 
 " For all hir household folkes are duble clothed." 
 Whether we regard this double clothing as relating 
 to an additional number of garments, put on during 
 the winter season, or whether we consider it as 
 relating to a double stock of clothes, suitable for 
 the winter, as well as the summer, it still marks 
 the care of her household shown by the mistress 
 and the mother. 
 
 There are, however, some commentators who 
 consider scarlet as the right rendering of the word 
 from the original. Dr. Gill remarks, that if the 
 word here used had been designed to be " double,"
 
 THE THOUGHTFUL WOMAN. 139 
 
 it would have been in the dual number ; and as this 
 is not the case, he considers that in this, and simi- 
 lar instances, it is used for the scarlet color. He 
 adds that both the Targum and Aben Ezra thus 
 interpret it. 
 
 Supposing the word scarlet to be the correct 
 translation in this passage, it would refer to the 
 clothing provided by the Jewish matron for her 
 husband and children only, and would not include 
 the dress of her servants. Scarlet was a color 
 much esteemed in the East, and the Jewish nobles 
 and courtiers were accustomed, on state occasions 
 and festivals, to wear robes of this brilliant dye. 
 In that exquisitely touching lament, uttered by 
 David over the fallen king, he exclaims, " Ye 
 daughters of Israel, weep over Saul, who clothed 
 you in scarlet, with other delights, who put on 
 ornaments of gold upon your apparel." So, too, 
 Belshazzar was decked in the robe of scarlet ; 
 and when the prophet meant to contrast the wealth 
 and luxury of Israel with its deepest degradation, 
 he said, " They that were brought up in scarlet 
 embrace dunghills." And now, in the land endeared 
 to us by holiest associations, the bright coloring of
 
 140 THE EXCELLENT WOMAN. 
 
 the scarlet robe still attracts the eye of the traveller, 
 in the winter season ; and Lamartine speaks of the 
 picturesque scarlet mantles of the Druses of Leba- 
 non, and of the brilliant vests of scarlet velvet 
 sometimes adopted by the Arab women. 
 
 If we keep to the latter rendering of the word, 
 the passage would leave us simply to infer, that as 
 the ordinary clothing of the family was that of the 
 wealthier classes, there would not fail to be a pro- 
 vision of warm raiment prepared for the inclement 
 season. 
 
 The ancient scarlet appears to have been some- 
 times a vegetable dye, obtained from the berries of 
 a tree common in Canaan, and at others to have 
 been procured from an insect resembling the 
 American cochineal, though of a less brilliant tint. 
 This insect, which was found chiefly on the leaves 
 of the evergreen oak (ilex aculeata), was called by 
 the Greeks and Romans coccus, but by the Arabs 
 kermes, and from this latter word we derive our 
 crimson and carmine. This scarlet dye is supposed 
 to have been common in Egypt before the time of 
 Moses, and to have been brought by the Israelites 
 from that land. It is considered by most writers
 
 THE THOUGHTFUL WOMAN. 141 
 
 to be the scarlet named among the colors of the 
 hangings of the tabernacle, by the cunning (or 
 skilful) workman and embroiderer. 
 
 In the national character of the Hebrews, we 
 can, through all ages, perceive the virtue of fore- 
 thought, a characteristic which appears the more 
 striking if we contrast it with the carelessness of 
 the future exhibited by our warm-hearted neighbors, 
 the Irish, or with the love of mere present gratifi- 
 cation which marks the people of some continental 
 nations. In the long series of cruel and oppressive 
 acts, to which, in comparatively modern times, the 
 ancient people of God have been subjected, this 
 forethought has, in many instances, degenerated 
 into a spirit of covetousness ; and the love of hoard- 
 ing has been censured in the Jew by the very men 
 whose rapacious tyranny turned this characteristic 
 virtue into a vice. But the bright example of this 
 pious woman, as portrayed by the Hebrew writer, 
 under the direct inspiration of the Holy Spirit of 
 God, is not that of a mean selfishness, not 
 
 " That strict parsimony 
 
 Which sternly hoarded all that could be spared 
 From each day's need, out of each day's least gain :" 
 
 10
 
 142 THE EXCELLENT WOMAN. 
 
 Hers was an enlarged and bounteous providence , 
 one which, while it sought to guard against the ills, 
 and provided for the comforts, of the coming days, 
 while it gathered for her family enough and to 
 spare, yet could have an open hand for the poor and 
 needy. She acted on the principle of the charge 
 given by the wise man to the sluggard, when he 
 bade him consider the ways of the ant, " which 
 provideth her meat in the summer, and gathereth 
 her food in the harvest." She could give liberally 
 to those who had nothing, while she avoided the 
 censure afterwards pronounced by the apostle, " If 
 any provide not for his own, and specially for those 
 of his own house, he hath denied the faith, and is 
 worse than an infidel." We have sometimes need 
 to be reminded that prodigality is not generosity ; 
 that there is a prudent care for ourselves and others, 
 which may consist in economizing present provision, 
 so as to afford future comfort ; and which is, as in 
 the beautiful illustration of womanly virtue now 
 before us, the result of a generous and enlarged 
 thoughtfulness, which forgets not to consider the 
 poor, nor neglects the enjoyment of present good. 
 Prudence is that necessary part of wisdom, which,
 
 THE THOUGHTFUL WOMAN. 143 
 
 while it adapts its means to the end, refers chiefly 
 to the prevention of ill. In looking to the future, 
 we must see that evil of one kind or other waits 
 us, if not met by a careful prudence. Even the 
 warm and pleasant days of Palestine, its myrtles 
 and roses, its many-tinted hues of sky, all had 
 to yield to the winter's snows, and coldness, and 
 barrenness ; and thus it is with our life itself. 
 "The prudent man foreseeth the evil, and hideth 
 himself; but the simple pass on, and are punished;" 
 and the wretched fate of the imprudent man, whose 
 want of consideration for the future leads him to 
 poverty and ruin, is too often before us to be for- 
 gotten. But there is a worse evil to be prepared 
 for than mere earthly poverty, and cold, and want, 
 and suffering. Death is in itself an evil. Even 
 the apostle could say, when speaking of the disunion 
 of soul and body, "Not for that we would be 
 unclothed." And if the Christian naturally shrinks 
 from the prospect of death, though his life has been 
 a preparation for heaven, and he knows that God 
 will be with him in dying, 0, how fearful must it 
 be to him who in life never looked forward to his 
 dying hour ! The infidel is an imprudent man, for
 
 144 THE EXCELLENT WOMAN. 
 
 he hideth himself not from coming evil, but boldly 
 defies the wintry hour of life. The worldly man is 
 imprudent, for he sends forward no careful thought 
 into the long future ; and though even our ages are 
 but as a few waves from the great sea of Eternity, 
 which ebb back again into that boundless ocean, 
 yet he lives as if all our interests belonged to Time. 
 The profligate man, who despises God, and loses in 
 the sense of present gratification all consciousness 
 of the evil which lies beyond, laments bitterly, on 
 his dying bed, his neglect of the duty of fore- 
 thought. 
 
 Forethought, however, must be distinguished 
 from foreboding ; that cheerful calculation on future 
 events, and providing against the vicissitudes of 
 life, which are exemplified in the text, are wholly 
 different from the dread of coming evil, the anxiety 
 about sorrows which may never happen, which 
 arises from a mistrust of the providence of God. 
 Some people build castles in the air ; others seem 
 intent on building dungeons. The over anxious 
 mind is distrustful, and makes its owner miserable, 
 when he ought calmly and happily to wait on God,
 
 THE THOUGHTFUL WOMAN. 145 
 
 and rely on his promises. To such might be applied 
 the words of the poet : 
 
 " Does each day upon its wing 
 Its allotted burden bring ? 
 Load it not beside with sorrow 
 Which belongeth to the morrow. 
 Strength is promised strength is given 
 When the heart by God is riven : 
 But, foredate the day of woe, 
 And alone thou bear'st the blow." 
 
 10*
 
 146 THE EXCELLENT WOMAN. 
 
 SECTION XIII. 
 
 SHE MAKETH HERSELF COVERINGS OF TAPESTRY; HER CLOTHING 
 IS SILK AND PURPLE. 
 
 ERSONS of wealth, in eastern coun- 
 tries, have ever been accustomed to 
 .dress in magnificent clothing, and to 
 | furnish their dwellings in a sumptu- 
 ous and tasteful manner. There is, 
 indeed, but little furniture in an ori- 
 ental house. Couches and sofas, and 
 hangings at the doors, are almost the 
 only objects on which skill can be exercised, 
 or which will admit the display of wealth in 
 the possessor. In such a condition of soci- 
 ety, it was certainly the duty of the wife of a Jew- 
 ish magistrate, both to dress herself, and to array 
 her house, in a style becoming the place and time. 
 Had she done otherwise, she would have neglected 
 the duties of her station, exposed her husband to 
 censure, and herself have borne the reputation of a 
 careless housewife. While to be clothed in silk 
 and purple would be no praise of the modern female,
 
 vKJj IHI IE '' M A & I IT H H I 03 1 k ? 
 
 Y S 38 ?S 'Q 8 
 
 R P L B .
 
 THE TASTEFUL WOMAN. 149 
 
 in her it was significant of that sense of propriety 
 which, in all ages, especially becomes the feminine 
 character. The same duty of making home com- 
 fortable, of providing suitable furniture and clothing 
 for the family, and of dressing according to her 
 station, is practised by the excellent woman of 
 modern times ; and she who is not attired with a 
 woman's neatness, and is indiiferent even to the 
 appearance of her house and family, has no claim 
 to the reputation of a good wife, nor can she expect 
 that her children will rise up and call her blessed. 
 
 The coverings of tapestry named in this passage 
 refer probably to those embroidered quilted cover- 
 lets, used in all parts of Asia, for the divan or sofa. 
 They might, however, signify carpets for her guests 
 to sit upon ; or those richly- worked curtains often 
 hung at the oriental doorway, to keep the warm 
 rays of the sun from entering the apartment ; and 
 which, separating the room from the beautiful 
 garden into which it opens, yet admit the soft 
 wind, laden with odors from shrubs and flowers. 
 It seems most likely that these coverings of tapestry 
 were worked with the needle, for although, in very 
 early days, the Greeks and Romans used the loom
 
 150 THE EXCELLENT WOMAN. 
 
 in embroidering their tapestries, yet the practice of 
 working by the needle was not only earlier, but was 
 continued long after the introduction of the loom, 
 and, indeed, to comparatively modern times. The 
 Hebrews derived their skill in this art from the 
 Egyptians, and among this people either the loom 
 or the hand was employed in this kind of manufac- 
 ture. Until within the last few centuries, much 
 female skill and ingenuity have been bestowed on 
 the working of tapestry, of which the celebrated 
 Bayeux tapestry is a well known instance. This 
 piece of needle-work, wrought either by the hand 
 of Matilda, the wife of the Norman Conqueror, or 
 worked by her maidens, under her direction, is a 
 standing monument of feminine perseverance. It 
 is twenty inches wide, and two hundred and four- 
 teen long. It is worked in woollen threads, and 
 resembles a large sampler ; portraying, in figures 
 somewhat uncouth, the various events connected 
 with the Norman conquest. 
 
 The curtains of the Jewish tabernacle, described 
 in the book of Exodus, " made of fine twined linen, 
 and blue, and purple, and scarlet," are generally 
 supposed to have been made of needle-work, in
 
 THE TASTEFUL WOMAN. 151 
 
 which the Jewish women are known to have 
 excelled. Some of these curtains had precious 
 stones and wires of gold worked in among the 
 threads, as we see in the " clothes of service," and 
 "holy garments," described by Moses. "And 
 they did beat the gold into thin plates, and cut it 
 into wires, to work it in the blue, and in the purple, 
 and in the scarlet, and in the fine linen, with 
 cunning work." That pictures describing various 
 scenes of life or landscape were traced by female 
 hands on their tapestries, there can be little doubt. 
 Archbishop Cranmer translates the first and second 
 verses of Exodus xxvi. : " Thou shalt make cur- 
 taynes of whyte twyned silke, yelowe silke, purple 
 and scarlet. And in them thou shalt make pyctures 
 of broidered work." The celebrated Babylonian 
 tapestries were wrought with the needle, and rep- 
 resented either the mysteries of religion or some 
 historical incidents ; and the Greek and Roman 
 ladies wrought embroideries which told to the eye 
 a tale of hunting or war, of love or sorrow, and 
 even in those early days wove tapestry little inferior 
 to that which graces the halls of some of our old 
 English castles and mansions.
 
 152 THE EXCELLENT WOMAN. 
 
 The taste for brilliant coloring, so marked among 
 the people of the East, seems a natural consequence 
 of the bright hue of nature in the lands in which 
 they reside ; and the sober tints of our colder 
 climate may have had their effect in moderating 
 that taste in our own land. In countries in which 
 the flowers are so brilliant that the flame itself seems 
 hardly to exceed their brightness ; where insects 
 of ruby color or of brightest emerald unfold their 
 wings ; and birds varying in tint from every shade 
 of purple to faintest azure fly among the trees, 
 there is a depth and richness of coloring to which 
 our eye is unaccustomed. The amethyst sky at 
 sunset ; the very mountain peaks, tinged as they 
 are, in some eastern lands, with hues of rose, and 
 violet, and orange, 
 
 " For God has set his rainbows on them, while the cloud 
 Lies at their feet : " 
 
 These, when seen constantly, tend to impart to the 
 taste a love for the bright and gorgeous tints which 
 God has lent to color this earthly home. Blue, in 
 every variety, was a favorite color with the ancient 
 Hebrews. We find it mentioned continually in the
 
 THE TASTEFUL WOMAN. 153 
 
 decoration of the Tabernacle, and the dress of the 
 priest ; and it is generally thought to have been 
 procured from indigo, which appears from the 
 mummy cloths to have been used by the Egyptians, 
 and was therefore doubtless known to the Jews. It 
 is rather remarkable that in modern times this color 
 is not esteemed in Palestine, nor admired as it once 
 was, but has become connected with the idea of 
 meanness, and worn only by the poorest of the 
 people. But the purple was the color which appears 
 to have had preeminence in ancient times, and 
 which was so generally appropriated to kings and 
 important personages, that even unto modern days 
 the purple robe is emblematic of royalty. At a 
 period early as that when Israel was ruled by 
 judges, we find mention of this color, as worn by 
 royal persons ; and on that eventful day, 
 
 " When grove was felled, and altar was cast down, 
 And Gideon blew the trumpet, soul-inflamed, 
 And strong in hatred of idolatry," 
 
 the kings of Midian appeared " clothed in purple 
 raiment." It was, too, with the purple robe that 
 Mordecai was decked, when he was promoted to 
 honor by the Persian king ; and to be clothed in
 
 154 THE EXCELLENT WOMAN. 
 
 purple and fine linen was the distinction of the rich 
 man in the parable of the New Testament. 
 
 The purple mentioned in the text is believed by 
 most writers to be the highly- valued Tyrian dye. 
 This color was known in very ancient times, and 
 prized, not only by the Hebrews, but by the Greeks 
 and Romans. It was procured from two species of 
 fish found on the shores of the Mediterranean and 
 Atlantic seas ; the one (buccinujn) adhered to the 
 rocks ; the other (purpurd) floated in the sea, and 
 it was this species which afforded the dye most in 
 request, and which is called in the Apocrypha .the 
 purple of the sea. From various varieties of these 
 two species of shell-fish several tints of purple were 
 obtained. The one was of a paler hue, and more 
 resembling our scarlet ; another was a deep violet 
 tint, a color much valued by the Roman ladies in 
 the time of Augustus ; but the hue most admired 
 was that deep purplish crimson which resembles 
 clotted blood. This is said by Mr. Harmer to be 
 the most sublime of all earthly colors, " having the 
 gaudiness of red, of which it retains a shade, soft- 
 ened by the gravity of blue." 
 
 We can form some idea of the expensive nature 
 of Tyrian purples, when we consider how large a
 
 THE TASTEFUL WOMAN. 155 
 
 number of shell-fish must be collected to furnish 
 even a small quantity of the dye. These fish were 
 sometimes two feet in length, but the only portion 
 which yielded the color was a small white vein in 
 the neck ; so that a number of fishermen must have 
 been employed for many days, before they could 
 obtain enough to color even a single garment. The 
 art of dyeing the Tyrian purple is now lost ; but it 
 is probable that its place is well supplied by the 
 rich hues of vegetable dyes employed in modern 
 times. 
 
 The Rev. A. Bonar and Robert McCheyne, who 
 lately visited the Holy Land, on a mission of inquiry 
 respecting the Jews, remark of the shore near the 
 bay of Acre : ' ' We saw some of our neighbors 
 seeking for specimens of the shell-fish from which, 
 in ancient times, used to be extracted the famous 
 purple dye. We did not find any specimens, but 
 were told it is still to be found there. It used to 
 be found in all parts of the bay, and there were two 
 kinds of it. One of these yielded a dark blue color, 
 the other a brighter tint, like scarlet ; and by 
 mingling these two juices, the true purple color 
 was obtained." " It was thus," adds the writer, 
 11
 
 156 THE EXCELLENT WOMAN. 
 
 " that Asher, whose rich and beautiful plain sup- 
 plied viands fit for the table of kings, yielded also 
 the dye of their royal robes, conveyed to many a 
 distant coast by the merchants of Tyre and Sidon ; 
 and thus we see the full meaning of Jacob's bless- 
 ing on Asher, ' He shall yield royal dainties.' ' 
 
 The great use of the purple color among the 
 wealthy classes of the Hebrews gave employment 
 to many of the Tyrian merchants. Thus we find 
 that when Ezekiel addressed Tyrus, in the language 
 of prophecy, he referred to it : " Syria was thy 
 merchant by reason of the multitude of the wares 
 of thy making ; they occupied in thy fairs with 
 emeralds, purple and broidered work." In later 
 ages, we read of a very interesting character, 
 Lydia, who was " a seller of purple " at Thyatira, 
 whose " heart the Lord opened, that she attended 
 unto the things which were spoken of Paul," and 
 whose warm and earnest love to the apostle and his 
 companions urged her to constrain them to dwell in 
 her house ; and this rich color, in which the matron 
 of the text is said to be clothed, was probably one 
 of those species of merchandise which she is said, 
 "like the merchants' ships, to have brought from 
 afar."
 
 THE CREDITABLE WOMAN, 
 
 159 
 
 SECTION XIV. 
 
 HER HUSBAND IS KNOWN IN THE GATES, WHEN HE SITTETH AMONG* 
 THE ELDERS OF THE LAND. 
 
 REATLY, indeed, is it to the credit 
 I of a woman, that her husband should 
 be known and honored for her sake ; 
 'that in the places of public resort he 
 !<should be recognized as the husband 
 of a wife, who so arranged the household 
 duties, and took so practical a part in 
 the concerns of the family, that he was 
 enabled to devote his time to public business. 
 His dress, too, ever becoming his station, and 
 wrought with industrious skill in his own 
 home, would be noticed in an oriental assembly ; 
 while an unspotted reputation, gained by a virtuous 
 and consistent life, reflected its lustre on all con- 
 nected with the Jewish woman. 
 
 And as it was in the days of old, so is it now, 
 that whatever position in life we ^may occupy, we 
 cannot stand alone. Whether individual conduct 
 bring disgrace or win respect, others must share
 
 160 THE EXCELLENT WOMAN. 
 
 in it. So, too, we all must influence others ; and 
 of all means of moral influence, none is greater 
 than that of a good reputation. Without it, indeed, 
 all good influence is lost. The Scripture proverb 
 says, "A good name is rather to be chosen than 
 precious ointment;" and, for the preservation of 
 this good name, a woman's conduct must not only 
 be marked by integrity and simplicity, but it must 
 be steady and uniform. The very shadow of ill, 
 the very appearance of evil, is to be shunned by 
 every woman professing godliness ; and in the eye 
 of the world she should be blameless, approving 
 herself not only unto God, but also unto men. 
 
 AVhen Ave find it implied that a woman's charac- 
 ter brought an honor to her husband, we are quite 
 sure that it was marked by consistency. This can 
 be the result only of the possession of good princi- 
 ples, and of a determination, by the grace of God, 
 to make these principles the basis, not only of every 
 important duty, but of the minor acts of life. It 
 must proceed from a high and enlarged sense of 
 responsibility, and was never yet attained by any 
 who had not seriously studied her own particular 
 duties, and cultivated also the duty of firmness.
 
 THE CREDITABLE WOMAN. 161 
 
 We all rely fully on a consistent person, and 
 instinctively value his opinion. Every one must 
 have seen that there are some, who, without attempt- 
 ing to gain influence over others, yet possess it to 
 so great a degree, that even vice stands abashed in 
 their presence : the swearer will fear to utter his 
 oath, the drunkard will feel ashamed of his sin, 
 and the frivolous will stay his folly. Even the little 
 child recognizes consistency, and feels the force of 
 reproof or praise uttered by its possessor. It is 
 remarkable, too, that our characters are generally 
 read fairly, and well understood, by those around 
 us. Weight of character never fails to make its 
 due impression. We are judged, not only by the 
 expression of our sentiments, for in these we might 
 deceive, but by the hourly acts which make up 
 human life, the impulse which prompts the uncon- 
 sidered word, the very look which betrays the 
 thought ; the little things, which in their individual 
 manifestation seem nothing, yet the amount of 
 which makes up our character, and causes it to be 
 rightly read. 
 
 The ancient custom of holding meetings for pub- 
 lic justice under the gateway of the town, as well 
 11*
 
 162 THE EXCELLENT WOMAN. 
 
 as the reference to the elders, leads us to the 
 conclusion that the husband of the Jewish woman 
 held some office of public trust. As early as the 
 time of Abraham, we find business transactions 
 performed in the gate, when the patriarch pur- 
 chased the cave of Machpelah, in the audience of 
 Heth ; and the silver was weighed in the presence 
 of all them that went in at the gate of the city. 
 And Boaz bought of Naomi the land of his family, 
 in the presence of the witnesses at the gateway, 
 and of the elders. The convenience of the gate, 
 as being not only a regular place of thoroughfare in 
 and out of the city, but a public place of resort, 
 rendered it peculiarly suitable for the transfer of 
 property, at a time when written documents were 
 little known, and the transaction had consequently 
 to be attested by several of the inhabitants of the 
 neighborhood. Homer states of the Trojans, that 
 their elders assembled in the gate to judge of the 
 rights between man and man. 
 
 In the law of Moses we find direct reference to 
 the practice of holding law-courts in these entrances 
 to towns. " Judges and officers shalt thou make 
 thee in all thy gates, which the Lord thy God giveth
 
 THE CREDITABLE WOMAN. 163 
 
 thee, throughout thy tribes ; and they shall judge 
 the people with just judgment." And when Job 
 looked back on more prosperous days, and corn- 
 fared with them his state of present sorrow, he 
 says : " When I went out to the gate through the 
 city, when I prepared my seat in the street ! the 
 young men saw me, and hid themselves ; and the 
 aged arose, and stood up ;" while the mournful 
 Jeremiah predicted, as one of the signs of desola- 
 tion on his native land, that the elders should cease 
 from the gate. 
 
 But beside the business of judging the people 
 of Israel, and of conveying estates or other prop- 
 erty, the gateway was often a market-place ; and 
 there were assembled the merchants who trafficked 
 in the various goods of the East. Thus we find 
 Elisha announcing to the famished people of Sama- 
 ria, " To-morrow shall a measure of fine flour be 
 sold for a shekel, and two measures of barley for a 
 shekel, in the gate of Samaria." 
 
 It can easily be imagined that a place of such 
 great concourse would become a resort, not only 
 for men of business, but for men of leisure ; and the 
 oriental gateway held the same place in the town
 
 164 THE EXCELLENT WOMAN. 
 
 which is now occupied by the coffee-house. There 
 neighbors met to talk over the affairs of the city, to 
 speak of the past, and to speculate on the future ; 
 to dwell on the faults of their fellow-townsmen, or 
 to expatiate on their worth. If any man wished to 
 meet with his neighbor, he went up to the gateway ; 
 if he had public news to communicate, he carried 
 it thither. If he wished to attract the notice or 
 to win the ear of the governor of the city, he would 
 sit, day by day, as Mordecai did, in the king's 
 gate. So, too, we find Isaiah speaking of him 
 " that reproveth in the gate ;" and Jeremiah deliv- 
 ered his solemn warnings and commands " in the 
 gate of the children of the people;" and it was 
 when the Psalmist felt that he had become the 
 object of the unjust reproaches of his neighbors, 
 that he said, " They that sit in the gate speak 
 against me." 
 
 It does not appear that the assembly of people 
 who thus met in the gateway formed any hindrance 
 to the passing of the towns-people in and out of the 
 city. In eastern gateways, in the present day, 
 there is a slightly raised seat on both sides of the 
 arch, and under the pleasant shadow of the wall
 
 THE CREDITABLE WOMAN. 165 
 
 the man of the East still lounges and chats, and 
 receives company. Such accommodation no doubt 
 belonged to the Hebrew gate. There are, besides, 
 on each side of some gateways, open rooms or cells 
 in the walls of the gate, in which a number of peo- 
 ple sit during the greater part of the day. 
 
 It was because of the publicity of the Hebrew 
 gateway, that the Lord commanded the ancient 
 Israelite to write upon it the words of his holy law. 
 Texts of the sacred book were ordered to be trans- 
 cribed upon the posts of their houses, and upon 
 their gates, that all Israel might continually be 
 reminded of the Great Jehovah, and of his high and 
 holy commands. The laborer, as he went forth to 
 his fields and his vines, looked up to the written 
 words, and the merchant's busy thoughts of gain 
 were sometimes arrested and brought into a differ- 
 ent course. Many a pious Israelite regarded them 
 with love and reverence, and perhaps, like David, 
 thanked God for them, and could exclaim, " Thy 
 word is very pure ; therefore thy servant loveth 
 it;" and often they suggested thoughts of prayer, or 
 led the mind of the pious Jew forward to the Great 
 Messiah, who should come one day to fulfil all those
 
 166 THE EXCELLENT WOMAN. 
 
 solemn types and shadows which the law now set 
 forth, and who should, under a more glorious dis- 
 pensation, himself magnify the law, and make it 
 honorable. 
 
 " What I most prize in woman 
 Is her affection, not her intellect. 
 Compare me with the great men of the earth 
 What am I ? Why, a pigmy among giants ! 
 But if thou lovest, mark me, I say lovest, 
 The greatest of thy sex excels thee not ! 
 The world of the affections is thy world 
 Not that of man's ambition. In that stillness 
 Which most becomes a woman, calm and holy, 
 Thou sittest by the fireside of the heart, 
 Feeding its flame. The element of fire 
 Is pure. It cannot change or hide its nature, 
 But burns as brightly in a gypsy camp 
 As in a palace hall."
 
 ira & K s irw 
 
 P3M1 LBR1E1M, 
 SELLE1TK1 OTTl 
 1U51SLSS JJIMTT
 
 THE TRAFFICKING WOMAN. 169 
 
 SECTION XV. 
 
 SHE MAKETH FINE LINEN, AND SELLETH IT J AND DELIVERETU 
 GIRDLES UNTO THE MERCHANT. 
 
 IBLICAL critics have carefully 
 studied the Hebrew word here trans- 
 lated "fine linen." Woollen gar- 
 ments seem to have formed the 
 chief articles of dress among the 
 <= ancient Jews ; but both in Egypt and 
 Syria garments were also worn of fine 
 linen and cotton, as well as of a substance 
 
 called bussus. This latter material seems to 
 o 
 
 have been a fabric of fine muslin one of 
 'those " webs woven of air," which in India 
 are worn at the present day, and which the Hindoo 
 ladies wrap around them in numerous folds of 
 drapery. It seems probable that persons of wealth 
 and distinction in Canaan, as well as the priests and 
 Levites, wore garments of fine linen, either white 
 or dyed ; made of the linen manufactured either in 
 Egypt, or of the somewhat inferior quality made in
 
 170 THE EXCELLENT WOMAN. 
 
 the Jewish household, such as was wrought by the 
 excellent woman in the text. 
 
 The general culture of flax in Palestine, the 
 statement that the women spun it for the hangings 
 of the tabernacle, and the still more immediate fact 
 that this woman, when she worked willingly with 
 her hands, sought flax as well as wool, leads us to 
 infer that in this passage at least the rendering of 
 linen rather than silk or cotton is the true one. 
 Although, according to the Talmudists, the ancient 
 Hebrew wore a woollen garment next his skin by 
 day, yet cleanliness and comfort rendered it neces- 
 sary that the nightly dress should be made of linen, 
 and this appears to have been the general practice. 
 Many of the robes of purple, scarlet, blue, and 
 other colors, of which we read, appear to have been 
 of a linen fabric. 
 
 But this word is thought by some writers to imply 
 a loose inner garment, generally worn in the East 
 a kind of shirt. Kimchi thinks the word signi- 
 fies a night-covering, and considers that it ought to 
 be translated " linen sheets." " The Arabic," 
 says Dr. Clarke, " gives a remarkable rendering of 
 this verse : ' She maketh towels or table-cloths, and
 
 THE TRAFFICKING WOMAN. 171 
 
 sells them to the inhabitants of Bozra, a city of 
 Mesopotamia, and fine linen, and sells them to 
 the Canaanites. ' ' Kitto concurs with the Rabbi in 
 thinking that the word here used describes either 
 sheets, or else under garments made of linen. It 
 is the same as is rendered sheets in the book of 
 Judges, where Samson promised thirty sheets and 
 thirty changes of raiment, as a reward for guessing 
 his riddle. It is not at all probable that in this 
 latter case sheets are intended, because, when Sam- 
 son slew thirty Philistines near Ashkelon, it is 
 hardly to be supposed that they were carrying their 
 bed-clothes with them. Besides, they would, like 
 all other eastern beds, have had two sheets, and 
 therefore thirty would have provided twice the 
 number required, while the shirts taken from the 
 bodies of the slain would have exactly supplied 
 Samson with the means of performing his promise. 
 
 As no pictures or monuments have descended 
 from the people of Israel to the modern Jew, we 
 have no definite means of ascertaining their mode 
 of dress. Scripture allusions form our chief guide, 
 but tradition, as well as the costumes figured on the 
 
 monuments of the other ancient nations of the East, 
 12
 
 172 THE EXCELLENT WOMAN. 
 
 and the present mode of dress in Egypt and the 
 Holy Land, afford some assistance. It is still cus- 
 tomary for the Bedouin to wear a cotton or woollen 
 shirt or frock, generally fastened round the waist 
 with a girdle. This is often, in summer, the only 
 dress of the poor, and is the usual in-door dress even 
 of the wealthy class of society. In winter, persons 
 of humble condition wear over this garment the 
 woollen mantle or " hyke," a kind of dress very 
 similar to the plaid of the Scottish Highlander. 
 The hyke may be described as a large woollen 
 blanket, serving as a covering both for day and for 
 night ; and was, most likely, the garment referred 
 to in that humane provision of the law, where, if 
 the Israelite took a pledge of his poorer brother, he 
 was enjoined : "In any case thou shalt deliver him 
 the pledge again when the sun goeth down, that he 
 may sleep in his own raiment, and bless thee ; and 
 it shall be righteousness unto thee before the Lord 
 thy God." 
 
 The Talmud enumerates eighteen several gar- 
 ments, as forming the dress of the ancient Israel- 
 ites ; and it is evident from Scripture, that many
 
 THE TRAFFICKING WOMAN. 173 
 
 robes and garments were worn by the rich, though 
 the frock and mantle might serve for the poor. 
 
 That fine linen was worn only by persons of dis- 
 tinction in Canaan, is very apparent, from the value 
 attached to it, and the comparisons it suggested. 
 When the beloved apostle John wrote, in the isle 
 of Patmos, that solemn revelation of prophecy, so 
 much of which yet remains unfulfilled to the church 
 and to the world, the fine linen, pure and white, 
 presented to his mind an image of the righteousness 
 of the redeemed church. " And to her," says he, 
 " was granted that she should be arrayed in fine 
 linen, clean and white ; for the fine linen is the 
 righteousness of saints," that spotless robe 
 wrought by the Saviour, for every child of God, 
 redeemed from among men by the blood of the 
 Lamb, sanctified by his Spirit, and made meet for 
 tuning the golden harp of the celestial city, that 
 robe, of which the Saviour says, "I counsel thee 
 to buy of me white raiment, that thou mayest be 
 clothed;" lest, being unclothed, the sinner should 
 find, at the great day of God's judgment, that he 
 was " poor, and miserable, and blind, and naked," 
 having nothing in which to appear but his own
 
 174 THE EXCELLENT WOMAN. 
 
 righteousness, which the Scripture has declared to 
 be, in the sight of God, but as " filthy rags." 
 
 In a house in which the manufacture of various 
 tissues seems to have been carried on so diligently 
 as in that of the excellent woman, linen enough 
 would be wrought for traffic. Both this and the 
 girdles were probably sold, not only to the mer- 
 chants of her own city, but also to the Canaanites, 
 or Phoenicians, who traded with them to Egypt and 
 other distant lands, which their ships visited. 
 
 The continual reference to the girdle in Scripture 
 establishes the fact, that among the ancient Hebrews 
 it was considered as necessary an article of attire 
 as it is in the present day in oriental countries. Its 
 use in girding the loins for exertion has been 
 already referred to, but it served also for various 
 other purposes. The ancient Jews are supposed to 
 have worn two girdles, the one around the body, 
 under their inner garment, the other around their 
 outer dress. It was this latter girdle which was 
 tightened for exercise. The wealthy Jews, who 
 evidently paid much attention to dress, no doubt 
 prided themselves upon the taste and manufacture 
 of this portion of it. In the present day, the Arabs
 
 THE TRAFFICKING WOMAN. 175 
 
 wear, as a girdle, an embroidered shawl, or a figured 
 muslin, and the girdle is a piece of outward finery 
 throughout the East. Sometimes it is beautifully 
 wrought with colored wools or silks, shells, beads, 
 etc. Among the poorer classes, leathern girdles 
 are still worn, and probably differ little from that 
 with which John the Baptist fastened his camel's- 
 hair garments. Leathern girdles are also worn by 
 the richer Arab, when he prepares his dress for a 
 journey. 
 
 The girdle most commonly worn by the ancient 
 Hebrews was probably made of woollen fabric, 
 skilfully wrought by woman's hand with embroi- 
 dered patterns. It folded several times round the 
 body, and confined the floating garment. One end 
 of this girdle was doubled back, and sewn at the 
 edge, GO as to form a purse ; and was most likely 
 referred to by our Saviour, when, sending forth his 
 apostles on their holy mission of love, he said, 
 " Provide neither gold, nor silver, nor brass, in 
 your purses." The Romans and Greeks also formed 
 their purses by the folding of the girdle, and there 
 carried their money. Paxton quotes the saying of 
 C. Gracchus, in Aulus Gellius : "Those girdles 
 12*
 
 176 THE EXCELLENT WOMAN. 
 
 which I carried out full of money, when I went 
 from Rome, I have, at my return from the province, 
 brought home empty." Forbes mentions that the 
 Mahrattes of the present day generally carry in 
 their leathern girdles, covered with velvet, their 
 most valuable papers and precious jewels. 
 
 It appears from the Scriptures, that the ancient 
 Hebrews, like the modern Turks, wore a poniard or 
 sword in their girdle ; for we read, " And Joab's 
 garment that he had put on was girded unto him, 
 and upon it a girdle with a sword fastened upon his 
 loins in the sheath thereof; and as he went forth, 
 it fell out." This practice must not be understood 
 as designed for a cruel and revengeful purpose, but 
 originated in the want of knives. The Turkish 
 secretary, or writer of modern days, substitutes for 
 this weapon in his girdle the ink-horn and the pen ; 
 and it seems probable that those among the Jews 
 whose employments were of a literary character 
 wore ink-horns in their girdles. Thus we read in 
 Ezekiel of one who was clothed with linen, and 
 had an ink-horn by his side. The pens too are 
 placed in the girdle, and the ink-horn is firmly 
 closed with a clasped lid.
 
 THE TRAFFICKING WOMAN. 177 
 
 The manufacture of girdles for the merchants 
 would, of course, employ many hands. When we 
 consider, too, that girdles, as well as robes, are in 
 request for presents all over the East, this alone 
 requires a great supply. The Rev. W. Jowett has 
 said that the two words " give, give," might very 
 properly be taken as a motto to the armorial bear- 
 ings of Syria. No one would think of appearing 
 before a great man without a present in his hand : 
 as says the proverb, " A man's gift maketh room 
 for him, and bringeth him before great men ;" and 
 the habit of giving gifts, especially of various parts 
 of the dress, extends itself to the most ordinary 
 occasions. The gift of a girdle from a warrior 
 was evidently a great mark of friendship. Among 
 the Greeks and Romans also it was thus considered. 
 When Hector and Ajax ceased from the combat, in 
 Avhich they had encountered each other, Hector 
 gave his girdle to Ajax, as a token of amity. In 
 the book of Samuel we find Joab blaming the man 
 who saw Absalom hanging in the wood, in these 
 words, " Why didst thou not smite him there to 
 the ground ? and I would have given thee ten 
 shekels of silver, and a girdle." Jonathan, too
 
 178 THE EXCELLENT WOMAN. 
 
 the " lovely and pleasant" Jonathan, when about 
 to certify the covenant made between himself and 
 his friend, gave, among other things, his girdle to 
 David ; and even to the present day, the girdle is 
 often loosed and given to one who is beloved. " And 
 Jonathan stripped himself of the robe that was upon 
 him, and gave it to David ; and his garments, even 
 to his sword, and to his bow, and to his girdle." 
 
 " She, while her husband toiled in state affairs, 
 
 Eased him of all his economic cares ; 
 
 In all that bounded was within her sphere, 
 
 Her wisdom shined, in her whole conduct clear ; 
 \ No vain expense she on herself bestowed, 
 
 A spirit frugal and yet generous showed ; 
 
 She of God's blessings could no waste endure, 
 
 But in rewards was bountiful and sure ; 
 
 The poor had an allotted liberal share 
 
 In all that she with decency could spare. 
 
 Her usual dress was comely, never gay, 
 
 No new vain fashion could her judgment sway ; 
 
 Her speech was uncensorious and restrained, 
 
 All that she spake a pleased attention gained."
 
 THE REPUTABLE WOMAN. 
 
 181 
 
 SECTION XVI. 
 
 STRENGTH AND HONOR ARE HER CLOTHING ; AND SHE SHALL 
 REJOICE IN TIME TO COME. 
 
 one can fail to see that the char- 
 acter ascribed to this woman, espe- 
 cially the stability of her conduct, 
 and the good reputation which it 
 'gained her, render this figure suffi- 
 ciently expressive. She was, indeed, 
 clothed in strength and honor, and might 
 well rejoice in coming days. For old 
 age she had prepared some thing, more than 
 a store of mere worldly good. She had not 
 only been provident of present wealth, and 
 wrought such works as time should not easily injure, 
 such as she should not blush to acknowledge as 
 hers in future time, but she had laid up in the 
 hearts of her husband and children, and the poor 
 and needy, a treasure of love, which time should 
 not change. Above all, if the days should come, 
 when, in the figurative language of Solomon, the 
 grasshopper should be a burden, and desire should
 
 182 THE EXCELLENT WOMAN. 
 
 fail, and the almond-tree should blossom, her help 
 and stay would be on God, her hope and trust in 
 heaven, and the joy of the Lord should be her 
 strength. He who had sustained her through the 
 active period of life, who had kept alive in her 
 heart his love and fear at a period when tempta- 
 tions from outward circumstances and inward 
 feelings were great, would not fail her in days 
 when exertion would become toil, and when the 
 desire of rest had taken the place of pleasure in 
 her heart : for he had said, " Even to your old age 
 I am he ; and even to hoar hairs will I carry you." 
 How beautiful and graceful is the repose of the 
 aged servant of God ! How placid the mental rest 
 and assurance of one who has served God from 
 youth upward ! The Christian graces, mellowed by 
 time, shine now with a mild and settled lustre ; and 
 the meek waiting upon God diffuses over the later 
 hours of life its calm and steady light, like the soft 
 tints which the moon casts on the tranquil sea. 
 Every one too must rejoice, who has been enabled, 
 by God's grace, to maintain through life a consistent 
 profession of holiness ; and to have spent the days 
 in useful employment must bring to old age its
 
 THE REPUTABLE WOMAN. 183 
 
 pleasant recollections. No self-gratulation would 
 indeed fill the pious mind, on a review of the past. 
 "Not unto us, Lord, not unto us, but to thy 
 name" be the praise, would be the exclamation of 
 one who opened her mouth with wisdom ; but she 
 would trace with thankfulness how God had led 
 her all her life through the wilderness ; how he had 
 placed her in a land where his ordinances were 
 known, and his name honored; and had enabled 
 her to conduct her household in the fear of the 
 Lord, and to provide them with every temporal and 
 spiritual good. For such blessings she would 
 rejoice in the time to come, in the season of gray 
 hairs ; for such pleasant remembrances, she would 
 lift up her heart to God and be thankful. 
 
 But the time to come may have reference to the 
 day of death, to that solemn hour of final parting 
 with earth, to that glorious moment of entering 
 heaven ; and at a period when the worldly woman 
 might shrink with fear, she might rejoice in the 
 Lord. For David sang, and the response to his 
 harp has been echoed by millions of God's children 
 in the last hour, " Yea, though I walk through the 
 valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil :
 
 184 THE EXCELLENT WOMAN. 
 
 for thou art with me ; thy rod and thy staff they 
 comfort me." Leaning on this staff, how many 
 pious men and women of all ages have entered the 
 valley, singing as they went ! Many years before 
 this time, Jacob had said, on his dying bed, " I have 
 waited for thy salvation, Lori} ;" and Job, full 
 of a fervent faith, had exclaimed, " I know that 
 my Redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the 
 latter day upon the earth ; and though after my 
 skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall 
 I see God." We have not recorded for us the last 
 breathings of Moses ; yet how calmly and cheerfully 
 did he resign his breath ! And when the Lord bade 
 him go up alone to Mount Nebo, and to die there, 
 after having given his last glance to the promised 
 land, what was his testimony of his heavenly 
 Father? "Yea," said the dying saint, "the 
 Lord loved his people ;" and looking up to God, he 
 added, " all his saints are in thy hand :" and thus 
 he rejoiced in God, when heart and flesh were fail- 
 ing. " Ah ! " said a holy woman, known to the 
 writer, " in a few moments I shall be in heaven ; I 
 have nothing to do now ; I am only waiting :
 
 THE REPUTABLE WOMAN. 185 
 
 how I long to be released ! Christ is with me ; 
 nature may fail, but he never will." 
 
 The " time to come " may also have reference to 
 eternity, to the unending myriads of years to be 
 spent in the presence of God, to the days of 
 glory to be passed in that heavenly city, to which 
 the pious Jew, as well as the Christian, was tend- 
 ing, where the inhabitant shall no more go out. 
 And who shall describe or imagine the joys of 
 heaven ? What earthly tongue shall tell of the 
 rejoicing in that time to come, when the Lord shall 
 say, " Well done, thou good and faithful servant, 
 enter thou into the joy of thy Lord" ? 
 
 " Hath she not soothed me sick, enriched when poor, 
 And banished grief and misery from my door ? 
 Hath she not cherished every moment's bliss, 
 And made an Eden of a world like this ? 
 When care would strive with us his watch to keep, 
 Hath she not sung the snarling fiend to sleep ? 
 And when distress hath looked us in the face, 
 Hath she not told him, thou art not disgrace ? " 
 
 13
 
 186 
 
 THE EXCELLENT WOMAN. 
 
 SECTION XVII. 
 
 SHE OPENETH HER MOUTH WITH WISDOM J AND IN HER TONGUE 13 
 THE LAW OF KINDNESS. 
 
 BLIGHTED, we turn from the con- 
 templation of the active duties of 
 ;this Jewish matron, to the gentle 
 graces which adorn her character. So 
 ;many proofs of practical judiciousness 
 are exhibited in this portraiture, that we 
 are not surprised to find that she also 
 opened her mouth with wisdom. It is, 
 however, a most difficult part of self-govern- 
 ment to guard the tongue. The apostle 
 James recognized this, when he said, " If 
 any man offend not in word, the same is a perfect 
 man, and able also to bridle the whole body." And 
 yet how important a medium of good or ill is con- 
 versation ! The children in a household gather 
 instruction not only from direct teaching, but from 
 the casual expressions to which they listen. A 
 word spoken in due season, how good is it ! and 
 happy are they, who form part of the domestic
 
 THE PEACEFUL WOMAN. 189 
 
 circle of one whose piety and experience of life 
 enable her to give wise counsels, and to utter senti- 
 ments of justice and truth. 
 
 The wisdom for which this woman is commended 
 related not alone to the things of the present world. 
 She was one who feared the Lord. She could tell 
 to her listening household of the wonders of nature ; 
 and of the deliverances wrought by God's providence 
 to ancient Israel, how he brought them through the 
 Red Sea, and out of the land of bondage, and gave 
 them the promised country. She could point to the 
 infallible laws of nature, and show that the morning 
 sun and the evening star never disappointed him 
 who watched for them in the heavens. She could 
 point to the lily of the field, which bloomed at its 
 appointed season, and to the swallow which knew 
 the time of its coming, and infer from them that he 
 who gave his written promise would as assuredly 
 fulfil this also. She could discern in the types and 
 figures of God's law the shadows of a more glorious 
 future ; and the promise of Messiah, the Hope of 
 Israel, who was to bring comfort and holiness to the 
 church of God, was a living fountain of joy in her 
 bosom. Doubtless, too, she could tell of family and
 
 190 THE EXCELLENT WOMAN. 
 
 individual mercies ; for God never implanted his fear 
 in any human heart, but in that heart was awakened 
 a chord of love and gratitude, which excited it to 
 praise. She could remind her children of God's 
 solemn commands, and, speaking of the saints of 
 older times, could bid them to be " not slothful, but 
 followers of them who through faith and patience 
 inherited the promises." Hers was the wisdom 
 described in Scripture as that which cometh from 
 above, which is " first pure, then peaceable, gentle, 
 and easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good 
 fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy." 
 
 But the wisdom of the Jewish woman related not 
 alone to the things of our better life ; it took cog- 
 nizance also of the affairs of this. While she did 
 not always speak of the things of religion, she spoke 
 always as a religious woman, as one who felt the 
 responsibility of life and duty. 
 
 " Me thinks we see thee, as in olden times, 
 Unmoved by pomp or circumstance, in truth, 
 Inflexible, and with a Spartan zeal 
 Repressing vice and making folly grave. 
 Thou didst not deem it woman's part to waste 
 Life in inglorious sloth, to sport a while
 
 THE PEACEFUL WOMAN. 191 
 
 Amid the flowers, or on the summer wave, 
 Then fleet, like the ephemeron, away ; 
 Building no temple in her children's hearts, 
 Save to the vanity and pride of life 
 Which she had worshipped." 
 
 The wisdom with which this woman opened her 
 mouth was most likely that derived from experience 
 of life, from thought and observation, and a knowl- 
 edge of her own heart. It was something better 
 than mere learning, and did not consist in a simple 
 acquaintance with facts. Facts, witji such a woman, 
 would form the basis of intelligent thought ; and 
 while her wisdom would not be opposed to cheerful 
 converse and the play of fancy, it would discoun- 
 tenance sin and folly, and all profane jestings or 
 irreligious allusions, and qualify her to give good 
 counsels as a mother in Israel. 
 
 " Knowledge and wisdom, far from being one, 
 Have ofttimes no connection. Knowledge dwells 
 In heads replete with thoughts of other men ; 
 Wisdom, in minds attentive to their own. 
 Knowledge, a rude, unprofitable mass, 
 The mere material with which wisdom builds, 
 
 13*
 
 192 THE EXCELLENT WOMAN. 
 
 Till smoothed and squared, and fitted to its place, 
 Does but encumber whom it seems to enrich. 
 Knowledge is proud that he has learned so much, 
 Wisdom is humble that he knows no more." 
 
 It is a beautiful and appropriate praise of worm ,n, 
 that on her tongue is the law of kindness. When 
 we look on this fallen world, and see what misery 
 has been brought into it by sin ; that the storm, 
 and the famine, and poverty, and sickness, bring 
 sufferings which none can avert ; and when we see, 
 too, that there exist sorrows deeper still than these, 
 and hear the expressions wrung out from hearts full 
 of anguish, how strange does it seem, that any 
 should add to the afflictions of life by a want of 
 kindness, or aggravate by cruel words the bitterness 
 with which the heart is already breaking ! And if 
 the sorrows of life demand sympathy and help from 
 every member of the human family, if it is by 
 bearing one another's burdens that we are to fulfil 
 the law of Christ, surely there is an especial claim 
 on woman for deeds and words of kindness. On 
 her devolve all the tender offices of life. To her 
 care is given the frail and helpless infant, needing 
 from the hour of its birth all that deep and earnest
 
 THE PEACEFUL WOMAN. 193 
 
 solicitude, and patience, and self-denial, which God 
 has provided for in the richness and fulness of 
 maternal love. In her charge, too, is placed the 
 simple child, with 'its questionings of wonder and 
 its innocent confidence ; needing the exercise of 
 love and tenderness, to restrain the sinful propensi- 
 ties of its nature, and to lead into the paths of peace. 
 And where is woman's kindness more often needed, 
 or more often seen, than in the chamber of sickness ? 
 It is hers to watch through days and nights by the 
 ';ouch of suffering ; to tread so softly as not to 
 disturb the lightest sleep ; to anticipate every want ; 
 to bear patiently with the irritability of pain ; and 
 to minister relief with a tact and unweariedness to 
 be found nowhere so securely as in woman's love. 
 It is often woman's lot, too, to point the dying man 
 to that atonement for sin which the death of the 
 Saviour has provided ; and frequently, in dwellings 
 where the foot of the man of God may not have 
 found its way, she may be found bringing the joyful 
 tidings of salvation to the repentant sinner. 
 
 " woman ! though thy fragile form 
 Bows like the willow to the storm,
 
 194 THE EXCELLENT WOMAN. 
 
 Ill suited in unequal strife 
 
 To brave the ruder scenes of life ; 
 
 Yet, if the power of grace divine 
 
 Find in thy lowly heart a shrine, 
 
 Then, in thy very weakness strong, 
 
 Thou winn'st thy noiseless course along ; 
 
 Weaving thine influence with the ties 
 
 Of sweet domestic charities, 
 
 And softening haughtier spirits down, 
 
 By happy contact with thine own." 
 
 God has provided for woman's duties by endow- 
 ing her with the faculties which tend to their per- 
 formance. He has given the quick sensibility ; the 
 lively imagination, which helps her to guess, by a 
 word or glance, at the feelings of others ; and, in 
 most cases, a warm devotion to those whom she 
 loves ; and it cannot be denied that impulses of 
 kindness are generally found in the female sex. It 
 remains for a holier motive than mere human feel- 
 ing to make this kindness constant and enduring ; 
 and it needs a sense of duty, derived from a consid- 
 eration of love to God, to enable woman to be kind 
 always, and be kind to all, even her enemies, and 
 especially to let all her words be governed by the 
 law of kindness.
 
 THE PEACEFUL WOMAN. 195 
 
 It is often a painful subject of remark, that some- 
 times the very woman whose kind acts may be 
 depended on is guilty of a serious want of kindness 
 in her conversation ; but it must be admitted that 
 many, even of the educated in our own land, nay, 
 many even among Christian women, are lament- 
 ably deficient in this respect. This we shall see, 
 if we consider to what the law of kindness in the 
 tongue is opposed. It is opposed to angry words. 
 How many yield to angry passions, and utter, in 
 unguarded moments, words which can never be 
 recalled, and which leave a painful impression on 
 others, not to be effaced, while they thus lay up for 
 themselves a store of bitter remembrances ! Many 
 reproofs are given in anger, which excite in the 
 person reproved no feeling but that of ill-will ; 
 whereas, had they been spoken wisely and gently, 
 they might have softened the heart. Anger is a 
 temporary madness, discomposing the spirit, and 
 rendering it unfit either for earthly duty or heavenly 
 communion. It is, as the proverb declares, "a 
 snare to the soul." A person cannot pray while 
 under its influence. How can we ask for sins to 
 be forgiven, if we are either angry without a cause,
 
 196 THE EXCELLENT WOMAN. 
 
 or even on lawful causes are carrying anger too far ? 
 or who can turn, in the midst of proud and angry 
 words, to the lowly prayer, the confession of sin, 
 the deep humility of heart, with which alone we 
 can approach the footstool of Jehovah ? It is not 
 before God's throne that we can indulge in wrath ; 
 and as we may at any moment be called to die, so 
 we ought at every moment to be fit for prayer. 
 And wrath and anger are especially sinful and dis- 
 pleasing in a woman, as gentleness is her especial 
 virtue. "A man," says a female writer, "in a 
 furious passion, is terrible to his enemies ; but a 
 woman in a passion is disgusting to her friends ; 
 she loses the respect due to her sex, and she has 
 not masculine strength and courage to enforce any 
 other species of respect." 
 
 There is indeed an anger which is not sinful, nor 
 contrary to the law of kindness which should ever 
 govern a woman's tongue. There is a righteous 
 indignation against sin and oppression, which we 
 find enjoined in Scripture by the words, "Be ye 
 angry, and sin not," and which the holy apostles, 
 and even our Saviour himself, so often expressed 
 wliile on earth. Had not public anger been shown
 
 THE PEACEFUL WOMAN. 197 
 
 against slavery, our country might still have labored 
 under its heavy guilt, and our fellow-creatures 
 under its mighty curse. Against this, as against 
 other national and individual sins, woman's voice 
 was not wanting to express displeasure, nor was 
 woman's hand slow to aid the great philanthropists 
 who sought its extinction. So, in private life, warm 
 and indignant words against wrong and guilt, so 
 far from offending God, are often marked by his 
 approbation, as proofs of that deep feeling of right, 
 and that moral courage, for which the holy woman 
 of the text was commended by the pen of inspira- 
 tion. 
 
 The apostle James, whose epistle contains more 
 admonitions against the sins of the tongue than can 
 be found in any other portion of Holy Writ, has 
 said, " The tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity : 
 so is the tongue among our members, that it defileth 
 the whole body, and setteth on fire the course of 
 nature, and it is set on fire of hell." ! beau- 
 tiful on woman's lips is the law of kindness, turning 
 away wrath by a soft answer ; bearing with the 
 irritabilities or the infirmities of others, who have 
 had fewer advantages in early training ; enforcing
 
 198 THE EXCELLENT WOMAN. 
 
 truth with gentleness and persuasion, and uttering 
 that love which is described by St. Paul as that 
 which " beareth all things, believeth all things, 
 hopeth all things, and endureth all things." 
 
 But far more commonly, among women in gen- 
 eral, is the law of kindness violated by censorious- 
 ness, or by sarcastic remark, than by anger. This 
 sin of the tongue is peculiar to neither sex, but is 
 one which prevails to a great extent in female 
 society. The peculiar faculties of women, as well 
 as their habits, make this an offence against which 
 they ought to be watchful. In them exist a quick- 
 ness of perception and imagination, and conse- 
 quently a ready sense of the ludicrous ; and these, 
 combined with a facility of speech, a power of 
 detail, and often a great degree of leisure, expose 
 them to the temptation of indulging in that " evil 
 speaking" which God's word has commanded us to 
 put far away from us. The habit of censuring the 
 absent has much in it which ought to be offensive 
 to every generous mind. " Thou shalt not speak 
 evil of the deaf," is one of the commands of the 
 law of Moses, which appeals to every right senti- 
 ment ; yet the same principle might be carried
 
 THE PEACEFUL WOMAN. 
 
 further, and lead us to avoid speaking ill of the 
 absent. 
 
 Nor is censoriousness chargeable only on those 
 who strive to exaggerate the reports of evil which 
 they may have heard, or who put on them the worst 
 possible construction. To a sin like this surely 
 Christian women cannot be addicted ; but many, 
 alas ! are not exempt from the habit of dwelling, 
 in conversation, on the actual faults and follies of 
 others. Few seem to think it is a sin, yet it is 
 decidedly opposed to the law of kindness that should 
 regulate the tongue. It is a practice, too, which 
 increases by indulgence. 
 
 It may begin by an expression of displeasure 
 against vice, but soon advances to a watchfulness 
 for offences in others. If we are to make a man 
 an offender for a word, if we are to watch narrowly 
 for his faults, it is generally easy enough to find 
 some cause of censure. In many things we offend 
 all ; and few indeed are they who can be found 
 always exempt from the blame of censoriousness. But 
 when we are speaking of the faults of our neighbor, 
 we are sinning against love. And how many are 
 the reputations which have been injured Vy the 
 14
 
 200 THE EXCELLENT WOMAN. 
 
 repetition of casual remarks ! Well might the 
 Hebrew sage declare, that " life and death are in 
 the power of the tongue ;" for unkind remarks, and 
 unjust suspicions, have sometimes subjected the 
 sensitive to griefs more distressing than even death 
 itself. 
 
 " ! never, never let us fling 
 
 The barb of woe to wound another ; 
 ! never let us haste to bring 
 The cup of sorrow to a brother." 
 
 And who are they who are foremost to detect the 
 faults of others, and to judge them severely ? Cer- 
 tainly not those who have watched most diligently 
 over their own hearts. They who have striven and 
 longed most for conformity to the law of God, and 
 to the example of the Saviour, know best how 
 many graces need diligent cultivation, how many 
 sins need to be subdued. They know, too, that 
 often, when they have believed that some sin had 
 been conquered, it has, in an unguarded hour, again 
 given them sorrow, and again they have had to 
 pray for help, and to strive against it. And ever 
 has it been seen that the best and holiest are the
 
 THE PEACEFUL WOMAN. 201 
 
 most pitiful ; and that they who have the law of 
 kindness on the tongue are the very women who 
 are most likely also to open the mouth with wis- 
 dom, and to live in the consistent practice of every 
 feminine duty. 
 
 And the sarcastic reply, too, how frequently does 
 it wound ! If others sin, we are not to let that sin 
 pass unnoticed. " Thou shalt in any wise rebuke 
 thy brother, and not suffer sin upon him." But in 
 what way is reproof to be administered ? We are 
 told to rebuke with all long-suffering and gentle- 
 ness. Sin is a deep evil ; it is not to be spoken of 
 lightly, nor to be the subject of a bitter jest. It 
 is to engage our earnest expostulation. The apostle 
 spoke, even weeping, of those who were enemies 
 to the cross of Christ ; and with a conviction of 
 our sinful nature, and our dependence on the grace 
 of God for safety, we are to reprove others. Sar- 
 casm should never be on the lip of a Christian 
 woman, for she, indeed, should ever be found with 
 the law of kindness on her tongue. If bitterness 
 is in the word of reproof, the reprover is not sinless ; 
 and her rebuke does not originate from the love of 
 God, and the hatred of sin, but from the indulgence 
 of a sinful nature. Pride must not be met by
 
 202 THE EXCELLENT WOMAN. 
 
 pride pride in others is never cured by being 
 mortified and insulted, but is rather increased into 
 hatred and revenge. Wherefore, putting away all 
 wrath and malice, and evil speaking, " be kindly 
 affectioned one to another." 
 
 The law of kindness is often broken, also, by 
 haughty words spoken to inferiors, when, forgetful 
 that the dependant is one of God's large family, he 
 is addressed as a stranger and an alien. The 
 haughty look and the proud heart are an abomina- 
 tion unto the Lord. Pride ever proceeds, too, from 
 an ignorance of ourselves, as Wordsworth has said : 
 
 " He who feels contempt for any living thing 
 
 Has faculties within his soul which he has never used ; 
 And thought with him is in its infancy." 
 
 Who has not marked the mild and blessed influ- 
 ence of her on whose tongue is the law of kindness ? 
 It is to such a woman that the little child comes for 
 direction. It is to such that the sufferer tells his 
 tale of sorrow, in full certainty of that ready sym- 
 pathy which can do so much to lessen it ; and 
 whether the tale be that of bodily pain, or of the 
 deeper woe of mental emotion ; whether it be of 
 the convinced spirit struggling with a sense of sin,
 
 THE PEACEFUL WOMAN. 203 
 
 and with only a vague idea of the possibility of 
 pardon, or perhaps with no idea at all ; or whether 
 it be some temporary cause of depression, some 
 worldly loss, or some unexpected unkindness, yet 
 all may be soothed by the gentle accents of compas- 
 sion and tenderness. How many quarrels are 
 averted by the mediation and counsel of such a 
 woman ! how many beginnings of strife stopped in 
 their progress by a word of gentle remonstrance ! 
 and how many little domestic troubles prevented or 
 met by her kindly warning or encouragement ! 
 And let no woman say that she cannot acquire a 
 sweet temper ; that she cannot always have on her 
 lips the law of kindness. She may be naturally 
 irritable, and, worse still, her natural irritability 
 may never have been checked by the restraining 
 power of early education ; but there is a deeper 
 and fuller restraining influence than even that, 
 namely, the principle of love to God ; and the cul- 
 tivation of this love in the heart will lead to a 
 prayer for holiness of heart and lip, which never 
 goes up to Heaven unanswered, and to a constant 
 and earnest striving with a besetting sin, which 
 God's Holy Spirit will aid and bless. 
 14*
 
 204 
 
 THE EXCELLENT WOMAN. 
 
 SECTION XVIII. 
 
 SHE LOOKETH WELL TO THE WAYS OF HER HOUSEHOLD, AND 
 EATETH NOT THE BREAD OF IDLENESS. 
 
 NO WING, as we do, the great influ- 
 ence which family training has on the 
 world at large, we cannot wonder 
 that he who divided mankind into 
 families should so commend the woman 
 who looked well to the ways of those who 
 * compose the circle which she superintends, 
 constant recognition of family duties, 
 the emphatic injunctions that women should 
 *be keepers at home, and love their husbands 
 and love their children, all lead us to the 
 remembrance that God is not only the God of each 
 individual, but that he is indeed the God of all 
 families. It was the praise given of the patriarch, 
 by Jehovah, " I know Abraham, that he will com- 
 mand his household after him." Moses reminded 
 the ancient Hebrew that the statutes of God were 
 not for himself only, but that " they were for his 
 son's son, all the days of his life ;" and added to his
 
 THE DOMESTIC WOMAN. 207 
 
 command the assurance "that it may be well with 
 thee, and with thy children after thee." The 
 Great Founder of human families knew that it could 
 be well with the people in general only in propor- 
 tion as household duty and religion were taught and 
 practised. From the house, the quiet hearth, and 
 the peaceful vine-arbor, were to go forth those who 
 should form the future nation. And still the sena- 
 tor and the philosopher, the philanthropist and the 
 missionary, go from the house of youth full of the 
 sentiments which they have learned there, and with 
 their habits formed on the model of home. 
 
 There is something so endearing in the ties which 
 weave around the early home, that every human 
 heart feels their power. The gentle words of a 
 mother's love, the counsels of a father's wisdom, 
 how do they return with freshness and vividness 
 upon the spirit, long after the lips which uttered 
 them have mingled with the dust ; and are awakened 
 with all their power by some little incident, some 
 casual word, the sight of a handwriting, the scent of 
 a flower. The Rev. James Hamilton records the nar- 
 rative of one who unexpectedly joined with a family 
 in the solemn service of family prayer ; one who
 
 208 THE EXCELLENT WOMAN. 
 
 had wandered from God and truth, yet was recalled 
 to religion and duty by this circumstance. And 
 was it the word of God, as uttered in that prayer, 
 which subdued the proud spirit of infidelity ? No ! 
 he heard it not ; his heart was filled with the remem- 
 brances of home. He thought of the peaceful hearth 
 on which his own father once knelt, and commended 
 to God his surrounding family. All the guilt which 
 he had incurred by his forgetfulness of the prayers 
 and lessons of home rushed upon his spirit, and from 
 that hour he sought the God of his fathers. 
 
 And who has never felt a deep emotion at the 
 thought of the home of his youth ? The child at 
 school yearns for his home ; the sailor on the deep 
 is full of thoughts of that one happy spot of earth ; 
 and when the angry waves threaten his bark, his 
 heart swells with the remembrance of home. The 
 prodigal who wilfully left that home is often led 
 back to the paths of virtue and religion, as some of 
 its teachings are brought to his mind. And the 
 exile, and the weary wanderer, is not home to 
 them so dear, as that they cannot name it but with 
 a trembling breath ? and as the moon smiles out on 
 the scene of their exile, does not the recollection
 
 THE DOMESTIC WOMAN. 209 
 
 that she smiles too on their home bow down even 
 the strong man, and bring tears into the eyes of 
 those who are little used to weep ? And the wan- 
 derer on this world's wilderness, who has found that 
 earth has no home for him, can any sweeter 
 description be given to him, or one which speaks 
 more touchingly to his heart of a future world, than 
 this, " There remaineth therefore a rest to the 
 people of God," a home never to change, a 
 mansion that passeth not away ? 
 
 When God gives to a mother's care a helpless 
 child, what a solemn charge does the mother receive ! 
 A being born for eternity, a creature destined to 
 everlasting happiness or misery, is committed to 
 her, and its future character and destiny in great 
 measure dependent on her instruction and example 
 its eternal condition often determined by the hours 
 spent in the home of its parents. And God has 
 given great encouragement to the mother who looks 
 well to the ways of her household ; for when he 
 says, " Train up a child in the way he should go," 
 he adds the promise, " and when he is old he will 
 not depart from it." This promise has often been 
 fulfilled in the holy and useful lives of those whose
 
 210 THE EXCELLENT WOMAN. 
 
 home has proved a nursery for God. And though 
 the child of a pious mother may stray in youth from 
 the ways of wisdom, yet often he returns to the path 
 of truth before he is old. And when we see the 
 child of religious parents wandering on in error and 
 vice, and at last dying impenitent, shall we con- 
 clude that the promise of God has failed ? Alas ! 
 it is not every pious mother who looks well to the 
 ways of her household. The love of the creature 
 sometimes overpowers for a time the love of the 
 Creator ; and, as in the case of the sons of Eli, the 
 child is too often left to his uncontrolled passions, 
 and the mother, in helpless sorrow, looks on the 
 growth of vices which it was her duty to check, 
 and drinks at last, with bitter anguish, the cup 
 which her own mismanagement and indulgence 
 had filled. She can value and keep God's word 
 herself, but has not courage to command her chil- 
 dren, or to make them obey. 
 
 Nor is it only while the child forms one of his 
 parents' household, that there is a danger of failing 
 in the duty of training him rightly. Many a pious 
 parent fulfils to the children under his roof the com- 
 mand given to God's ancient people when Moses
 
 THE DOMESTIC WOMAN. 211 
 
 said, "These words, which I command thee this 
 day, shall be in thine heart ; and thou shalt teach 
 them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of 
 them when thou sittest in thine house, and when 
 thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, 
 and when thou risest up." But ambition and the 
 love of the world, which seemed to have been stifled 
 in the parent's heart for himself, are sometimes 
 awakened for his child. He may have seemed to 
 learn the lesson of being content with lowly things, 
 but is tempted to seek great things for his children. 
 How often do we see this when a child is sent forth 
 from his own home ! Some school, eminent for the 
 learning and accomplishments of its instructor, is 
 preferred to that in which piety forms the basis of 
 education. Some eligible appointment presents 
 itself. Some means of increasing riches, some 
 opportunity of forming connections which may be 
 of use in advancing his progress in the world, is 
 offered ; and the child, trained in his parents' house- 
 hold to the duties of religion and virtue, is sent into 
 the world, at an age when his character is unformed, 
 into scenes of great danger. And then come the 
 bitter consequences. The youth forgets the coun
 
 212 THE EXCELLENT WOMAN. 
 
 sels of wisdom ; he stifles the voice of conscience ; 
 and the pleasures of the world allure him. Perhaps 
 he loses his morality, or even if his outward conduct 
 remains the same, yet spiritual religion gradually 
 loses its influence ; and the very mother who in 
 early life looked diligently to his ways, has perhaps 
 joined her efforts in sending him thus unshielded 
 into the world. 
 
 The looking well to the ways of her household 
 includes also the care of domestic servants ; and the 
 maidens to whom the Jewish matron gave their por- 
 tion of food and work were doubtless guarded from 
 evil by her watchful prudence. Some mistresses 
 appear to think that little responsibility attaches to 
 them with regard to servants, and that so long as 
 they provide them with home, and food, and wages, 
 they perform all the duty required. But the ways 
 of every member of a household should be looked to 
 by her whom Providence has placed at the head of 
 a family. The habits of life, the moral and religious 
 character of each, should be regarded by the mis- 
 tress ; and if an ignorant servant becomes a member 
 of a household, she should be instructed. It is 
 plainly the duty of all to lead a useful life, and it is
 
 THE DOMESTIC WOMAN. 213 
 
 in the immediate circle that we are to commence 
 our labors. The mistress of a family, while remem- 
 bering that her own advantages of training may 
 have been superior to those placed under her care, 
 should strive that every servant who enters her 
 dwelling should be benefited during her residence 
 there. Especially she should employ the means of 
 restraint with which she is endowed by her authority, 
 to prevent any irregularity of conduct, and the prac- 
 tice of any wrong habits. She should see to the 
 ways of her household, by taking care that every 
 one composing it should attend to the means of 
 religion. Time and opportunity should be given for 
 serving God. Her authority should keep them from 
 scenes of vice and dissipation, and from evil com- 
 pany ; and, in forming her domestic plans, it is hers 
 to regulate both their comfort and their duty, on the 
 broad principle of Christian benevolence : " What- 
 soever ye would that others should do unto you, do 
 ye also unto them." 
 
 It is desirable for the comfort of a family, and 
 for its permanent welfare, that the servants should 
 be rightly directed and kindly treated. Such con- 
 duct meets its immediate reward. Children are 
 15
 
 214 THE EXCELLENT WOMAN. 
 
 necessarily influenced by them, and in that respect 
 the character of servants is most important to every 
 household. In every family in which they are 
 kept, their performance of duty is requisite for 
 order and comfort, and this must be determined by 
 their moral character. Their willing service, and 
 even their thoughtful tenderness, are required in 
 the hour of sickness, and their sympathy and help 
 is sometimes wanted in the day of sorrow. During 
 that awful season of tragic suffering comprised in 
 the French revolution, many valuable lives were 
 saved by the attachment of confidential servants ; 
 and that period, remarkable for the exhibition of 
 some of the deepest crimes and some of the 
 sweetest virtues of human nature, presents a record 
 of devoted men and maidens, who counted not even 
 their own lives dear unto them, so that they might 
 rescue from danger some mistress whose former 
 kindness had cheered them, or some helpless child 
 whom they once had carried in their arms. The 
 history of the church of God, too, could present 
 details of holy and useful servants, from the time 
 when Phoebe was a servant at Cenchrea, and Onesi- 
 mus was dear to the apostle Paul, to the recent
 
 THE DOMESTIC WOMAN. 215 
 
 days when the Dairyman's Daughter performed her 
 humble duties with exalted faith and fervent piety, 
 till her spirit sought its heavenly home, and her 
 frame was laid in its lowly grave. 
 
 A woman so well taught in wisdom's ways as the 
 matron of the text, would know well that idleness 
 leads certainly to vice and sorrow. Idleness and 
 fulness of bread were the vices mentioned as 
 exciting God's wrath against the sinful Sodom, and 
 were doubtless the chief means of fostering all its 
 depravity. It is, indeed, the source of a thousand 
 ills, and so certain a cause of discomfort, that 
 happier is he who earns his bread by the sweat of 
 his brow, than he who spends his life in indolence. 
 Cheerfulness is almost the necessary result of mod- 
 erate employment, just as ennui and languor are the 
 consequences of a life without pursuit. " Idleness," 
 says old Burton, somewhat quaintly, " is the badge 
 of gentry ; the bane of body and mind ; the nurse 
 of naughtiness ; the step-mother of discipline ; the 
 chief author of all mischief ; one of the seven deadly 
 sins ; the cushion on which the devil chiefly 
 reposes ; and a great cause, not only of melancholy, 
 but of many other diseases ; for the mind is natu-
 
 216 THE EXCELLENT WOMAN. 
 
 rally active, and if it be not occupied about some 
 honest business, it rushes into mischief, or sinks into 
 melancholy." 
 
 And what woman would wish so to pass her life 
 that at death she should not be missed ? Of how 
 many might it be said that the world and the home 
 could well spare them ; but who can tell the worth 
 of a life spent in useful occupation ? It is not till 
 the seat is vacant on which the busy matron sat, it 
 is not till the implements of industry lie by unused, 
 till the animating voice is silent, and the busy hand 
 is still, that we fully perceive how much was done 
 hourly, and quietly, and surely, in the well-regu- 
 lated home. From many such a hearth, when the 
 mother has been taken, the comfort of home is gone 
 too ; and ill-managed children, once so tenderly 
 cared for, show their orphan condition to every 
 passer by. There is a solemn responsibility attach- 
 ing to life, a responsibility only to be met by 
 active exertion ; and a woe is denounced against 
 the idle. A woman who looked well to the ways 
 of her household would not only herself avoid eat- 
 ing the bread of idleness, but she would see that 
 each one had a suitable engagement ; and every
 
 THE DOMESTIC WOMAN. 217 
 
 one who is the mother of a family not compelled to 
 work, should strive to interest her children in some 
 one employment which they should cultivate with 
 pleasure, and which should call forth their latent 
 energies. Much may be done for the young, by 
 consulting their tastes, and encouraging them in 
 some pursuit ; and the skill to select this does not 
 require in the mother so much talent, as the exer- 
 tion of that tact which is so common to women, and 
 which, like many other faculties, is rendered 
 stronger by a woman's affection. 
 
 One of the first aims of education should be to 
 promote activity of mind ; and the acquisition of a 
 taste for simple and unexpensive pleasures is, in 
 itself, so valuable a source of enjoyment, that it is 
 to be regretted that this is also not made a more 
 usual part of education. On this account, may be 
 recommended the study of the various departments 
 of natural history and science. It may seem to 
 matter little, indeed, that a woman should be a 
 botanist, or an entomologist, though all would 
 allow that these pursuits might afford much pleas- 
 ure ; but the activity of mind, and the power of 
 application and observation, which such a study will 
 15*
 
 218 THE EXCELLENT WOMAN. 
 
 awaken, is of incalculable worth. Plutarch said 
 that a woman who studied geometry would not be 
 fond of dancing ; and we may add, that a woman 
 who feels interested in studies of this nature will 
 neither be frivolous nor idle. 
 
 But it is only to the few that the choice of the 
 pursuits of life is left. The many are called to 
 work in this anxious, toiling world, and thousands 
 are sighing for that leisure which others waste so 
 carelessly. But has active and regular employment 
 no advantages ? Does not the heart fill with 
 pleasure, when the eye marks the fruit of exertion ; 
 and does not the hour of occasional recreation 
 bring with it far more of enjoyment, and is it not 
 fuller of life, than is the day of indolence to the 
 unemployed ? Above all, is not the busy man or 
 woman living the life which God has ordained ? His 
 own word has said, " If any will not work, neither 
 shall he eat." The ancient Hebrews had all their 
 occupations. The rich and the poor were alike 
 taught in the knowledge of some business, by which 
 they might labor with hand or head ; nor did rank 
 or station exempt any from useful toil. And the 
 result of this industry was a thoughtful and provi-
 
 THE DOMESTIC WOMAN. 219 
 
 dent people ; a nation standing out from, oriental 
 nations generally, as marked by an energy and 
 force of character, much of which has descended to 
 the modern Jew, under all the varied circumstances 
 of place and time. 
 
 In the consideration of the Christian graces, one 
 cannot help remarking that they are all active. 
 Piety is not to consist in quiet contemplation, but 
 in active duty. If we read in the Scripture of 
 love, then there is the labor of love ; and every 
 kind heart knows the truth of the proverb, that love 
 can make labor light. If we read of faith, it is 
 of an active faith, a work of faith, a faith which 
 overcometh the world. If of hope, then is it a hope 
 powerful enough to expel sin, since he who hath 
 this hope purifieth himself, even as God is pure. 
 Holy principle must lead to holy practice ; and the 
 woman who, while professing to serve God, neglects 
 the duty of caring for her household, dishonors her 
 Christian profession, and brings disgrace upon God's 
 cause. Even the Great Creator of the universe 
 himself is represented as active. Our Saviour 
 remarked, "My Father worketh hitherto, and I 
 work." Our blessed Lord lived a life of unwearied
 
 220 THE EXCELLENT WOMAN. 
 
 labor in the cause of man. The angels, too, are 
 represented as employed, not only in tuning their 
 harps of gold and singing the songs of the celestial 
 city, but as winging their way to this world on 
 ministries of love ; and who shall say how much 
 they who shall be heirs of salvation are indebted to 
 their guardian care ? 
 
 " Where burns the loved hearth brightest, 
 
 Cheering the social breast ? 
 Where beats the fond heart lightest, 
 
 Its humble hopes possessed ? 
 Where is the smile of sadness, 
 
 Of meek-eyed patience born, 
 Worth more than those of gladness, 
 
 Which mirth's bright cheek adorn ? 
 Pleasure is marked by fleetness 
 
 To those who ever roam, 
 While grief itself has sweetness 
 
 At Home, DEAR HOME ! "
 
 >] 3LB J5 ESS 
 A ME) AL 
 H JD 8 IB A M AL8, 
 HI IPH/JUSETKl
 
 THE COMMENDED WOMAN. 
 
 223 
 
 SECTION XIX. 
 
 HER CHILDREN ARISE UP, AND CALL HER BLESSED: HER HUSBAND 
 ALSO, AND HE PRAISETH HER. 
 
 ERY probably the expression of 
 rising up to bless the parent may 
 have some allusion to the eastern 
 practice of rising and bowing to the 
 'ground before the head of the family, 
 as this mode of reverence is very general. 
 Yet it will bear the meaning in which it 
 1 would be taken in our land, that the 
 children rise from infancy to childhood, 
 Und on to youth and manhood, with hearts 
 full of affection, and grateful recollections of 
 the worth of an excellent mother. 
 
 It has been said that home praise is the truest 
 praise ; and it is certain we can be known by none 
 so well as by those who surround the family hearth. 
 A far higher virtue and more consistent excellence 
 belongs to her of whom all her household can speak 
 well, than to those who can shine only in company, 
 and who require but the charms of politeness and
 
 224 THE EXCELLENT WOMAN. 
 
 the graces of conversation to gain approval. And 
 how pleasant is it to hear the blessings bestowed by 
 the child on the name of the good mother ! Who 
 shall tell the hours of anxiety, the words of care 
 and tenderness, which such a mother has bestowed 
 on his infancy ; the sleepless nights, and careful 
 days, and all the maternal solicitudes, which shielded 
 from harm his childhood and early youth ; and which, 
 as he grew older, changed their mode of expression, 
 but never lost sight of their object ? Truly did 
 Gray say, " We can never have but one mother." 
 No love, not even the tenderest, can equal hers ; 
 for she will love on, though sickness should wither 
 the flower and turn all its beauty into decay ; and 
 fix her firmest and deepest affection on that one of 
 her children who has least of outward grace and 
 loveliness. Her love, unlike all others, can with- 
 stand neglect, and ingratitude, and forgetfulness. 
 The prodigal son may stray from his home, and the 
 world may frown on him, and frown justly ; and all 
 the love of neighbors, or of friends, or even of 
 brother or sister, may have been worn out by his folly 
 and wickedness ; yet is there a stream of love in 
 the mother's heart, ever fresh and ever living ; he is
 
 THE COMMENDED WOMAN. 225 
 
 still her own loved son ; and one word of penitence, 
 one look of sorrow, will win forgiveness for a life of 
 unkindness. The love of a mother is like the bounty 
 of God, who " causeth his sun to rise on the evil 
 and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and 
 on the unjust." 
 
 It is, indeed, a sure proof of their excellent edu- 
 cation, when all the children of a family can arise 
 and call their mother blessed. And when all are 
 gathered in the circle of love, such a home presents 
 the loveliest scene on earth. 
 
 " Domestic Happiness, thou only bliss 
 Of Paradise that has survived the fall ! 
 Though few now taste thee, unimpaired and pure ; 
 Or, tasting, long enjoy thee ; too infirm 
 Or too incautious to preserve thy sweets 
 Unmixed with drops of bitter, which neglect 
 Or temper sheds into thy crystal cup. 
 Thou art the nurse of Virtue ; in thine arms 
 She smiles, appearing, as in truth she is, 
 Heaven-born, and destined to the skies again." 
 
 When the law was given from Mount Sinai to 
 ancient Israel, we find included in it not only the 
 reverence of the father, but " Thou shalt honor thy
 
 226 THE EXCELLENT WOMAN. 
 
 father and thy mother," was its direct injunction. 
 It would be from the lip of his mother that the 
 Jewish child would learn his most sacred lessons. 
 It must be remembered that the young Israelite had 
 no school but his home. He was not sent away 
 from the paternal roof to gather learning ; but under 
 its happy shadow he learned, from his parents' lips, 
 his knowledge of business, of life and duty, and 
 became early familiar with the law of God. He 
 had not, perhaps, even his smaller Bible to refer to, 
 but this law was taught in the house when the family 
 met together ; it was written up upon the gates of 
 the city, and read aloud by the priests and Levites 
 to assembled multitudes. It does not seem that, 
 previous to the Babylonish captivity, the ancient 
 Israelites had schools, save those for the " sons 
 of the prophets," the pious youths who were 
 destined to be teachers in Israel ; but many a 
 mother's tongue could tell of Israel's Hope, the 
 glorious Messiah, the Prince of the people, for 
 whom every devout Israelite was hoping and look- 
 ing ; and for whose advent the Hebrew matron was 
 so anxious, that she grieved if she was childless, 
 because she hoped that from her house might spring
 
 THE COMMENDED WOMAN. 227 
 
 forth the " Prophet like unto Moses." Guided by 
 his mother's hand, the Jewish child went to the 
 temple, which God had chosen. From her lip he 
 learned the meaning of those yearly festivals, when 
 every male among the Jews appeared in Jerusalem, 
 the holy city ; and when, in after times, they sang, 
 as they went up, that beautiful Psalm, " I was 
 glad when they said unto me, Let us go into the 
 house of the Lord. Our feet shall stand within thy 
 gates, Jerusalem. Jerusalem is builded as a city 
 that is compact together : whither the tribes go up, 
 the tribes of the Lord, unto the testimony of Israel, 
 to give thanks unto the name of the Lord." And 
 thus the pious Hebrew mother would weave with 
 her child's earliest impressions a store of associations 
 to bless his after years. that every mother in 
 our own land would make her home a nursery for 
 God ; and teach such Christian principle, and enjoin 
 such Christian practice, as would fully insure her 
 children's love ! Then of every American mother 
 might it be said, " Her children arise up, and call 
 her blessed." 
 
 The husband of the excellent woman is repre- 
 sented as adding his praise to that of the younger 
 16
 
 228 THE EXCELLENT WOMAN. 
 
 members of the family. He could indeed point to 
 her example for their imitation. He could praise 
 her, not alone for the comfort which her useful 
 energy cast throughout his home, but for the sweet- 
 ness which her gentleness and goodness brought 
 into it, and which rendered it so attractive. He 
 could tell of enjoyment provided by her industry ; 
 of anxieties prevented by her caution ; of sorrows 
 lightened by her sympathy ; and could perhaps look 
 around on children walking in the fear of the Lord, 
 who learned that fear from the teaching of their 
 mother. 
 
 " 0, say to mothers what a holy charge 
 Is theirs ! with what a kingly power their love 
 Might rule the fountain of the new-born mind ! 
 Warn them to wake at early dawn, and sow 
 Good seed before the world hath sown her tares ; 
 Nor in their toil decline, that angel bands 
 May put their sickle in, and reap for God, 
 And gather to his garner."
 
 THE PRE-EMINENT WOMAN. 
 
 231 
 
 SECTION XX. 
 
 MANY DAUGHTERS HAVE DONE VIRTUOUSLY, BUT THOU EXCELLEST 
 THEM ALL. 
 
 UDGING from probabilities, we 
 can hardly suppose that this high 
 commendation is intended to be 
 taken by the inspired writer as 
 3^ the praise given by God to the Jewish 
 matron. Commentators generally 
 ) refer it to the warm expression of -affec- 
 tion and esteem uttered either by her 
 husband or children, on a review of her 
 consistent and valuable life. Nor was this 
 expression of an overflowing affection with- 
 out justice or truth ; for one who acted so well 
 would far exceed in virtue the generality of 
 wives and mothers, and would probably be superior 
 in worth to any woman known by those who praised 
 her. The Septuagint, Syriac, and other versions, 
 render this passage, " Many daughters have gath- 
 ered riches ;" and as industry seems to have been a 
 ruling feature in the character of Hebrew women
 
 232 THE EXCELLENT WOMAN. 
 
 generally at this early period, this rendering would 
 not be unsuitable. In such case, the praise would 
 extend not only to the number of garments which 
 she had wrought for merchandise, but to her skill 
 in acquiring property, and her care in preventing 
 an unnecessary expenditure of wealth. 
 
 But although so finished a degree of excellence 
 as that recorded in this beautiful poem must, at 
 any period of this world's history, have been a rare 
 attainment, yet a great degree of loveliness and 
 virtue marked many of the women of early days. 
 To all the mental vigor, and industry, and noble 
 sentiments, which belong to the matron of ancient 
 Rome, the Jewish female seems to have added a 
 warm, enthusiastic, and gentle tenderness, which 
 renders her lovelier than the sterner Roman lady ; 
 and which, while it commands our respect, wins a 
 deeper and warmer love. Nor was the Hebrew 
 woman wanting in that clear intellect, or versatility 
 of talent, which fitted her for rivalling the Grecian 
 dame in the lighter and more graceful accomplish- 
 ments of life. The commands of Moses, the 
 writings of the prophets, nay, the very history of 
 the creation of the world, on which the eye of the
 
 THE PRE-EMINENT WOMAN. 233 
 
 ancient Israelite pondered, all taught that woman 
 was not intended for the slave of man. Recognizing 
 the woman as an immortal being, providing for her 
 protection and comfort, giving to her, as to her 
 husband, the assurances of God's favor and the 
 hopes of a future life, presenting her to the Hebrew 
 as the mother of the coming Messiah, the Jewish 
 woman was raised above that degradation to which 
 the oriental female was subjected ; and still, even 
 in Asia, enjoys a freedom and an importance 
 unknown among other Asiatics. " The singular 
 beauty of the Hebrew women," says an interesting 
 writer, " and the natural warmth of their affections, 
 have conspired to throw gems of domestic loveli- 
 ness over the pages of the Bible. In no history 
 can there be found a greater number of charming 
 female portraits. From Hagar, down to Mary and 
 Martha, the Bible presents pictures of womanly 
 beauty that are unsurpassed and rarely paralleled. 
 But we should very imperfectly represent, in these 
 general remarks, the formative influence of the 
 female character as seen in the Bible, did we not 
 refer these amiable traits of character to the original 
 conceptions of which we have spoken, and to the 
 16*
 
 234 THE EXCELLENT WOMAN. 
 
 pure and lofty religious ideas which the American 
 books in general present. If woman, then, appears 
 as the companion and friend of man, if she rises to 
 that noble position which is held by the mother of a 
 family, she owes her elevation in the main to the 
 religion of Moses and to that of Jesus. The first 
 system, as a preparatory one, did not, and could not, 
 complete the emancipation of woman." Let Ameri- 
 can females remember what Christianity has done for 
 them, and that their responsibility is consequently 
 greatly increased. 
 
 " Charms there may be, that waken admiration 
 When first beheld, that have no dwelling-place 
 On memory's tablet ; while on it we trace 
 Features less perfect, and less marked at first, 
 But made indelible by softer grace ; 
 Too unobtrusive all at once to burst 
 Upon the gazer's soul, once known, forever nursed 
 With cherished fondness, for the much-loved sake 
 Of purest happiness, which these alone 
 Have had the power within our hearts to wake, 
 By witchery peculiarly their own."
 
 IS "VAlia^ ID IV 
 WSJVJAJfl THAT FEJ4KE7>] 
 3, SHI SHRILL 18E r f
 
 THE GODLY WOMAN. 
 
 237 
 
 SECTION XXI. 
 
 FAVOR IS DECEITFUL, AND BEAUTY IS VAIN; BUT A WOMAN THAT 
 FEARETH THE LORD, SHE SHALL BE PRAISED. 
 
 ITTLE do we need a revelation to 
 
 i 
 
 tell us that worldly favor is vain 
 indeed: experience of the world 
 attests it ; and the philosopher, and, 
 still more frequently, the poet, have 
 again and again lamented the worthless- 
 ness of the favor of this world. For a 
 little while, the man who rises in general 
 favor is loved and honored, his presence 
 welcomed, his opinion valued ; but soon some 
 new favorite takes his place, and general 
 adulation is directed to the rising sun. How many 
 have sickened, as they told how in hours of pros- 
 perity the smile of the rich and the praise of the 
 young and gay were given for a season ; and then, 
 as some new mood came over the public mind, they 
 were left to die in poverty ; while they who once 
 sought their society looked at them now with cold 
 indifference, and passed by them as strangers.
 
 238 THE EXCELLENT WOMAN. 
 
 But the instability of worldly favor is not con- 
 fined to public praise ; for, in the more private 
 circles of fashionable life, it is equally deceitful. 
 'Favor is given to a woman because she is rich, or 
 beautiful, or elegant. She is praised and admired, 
 and learns to take such admiration as her right ; 
 and she finds it a true proverb, that "Men will 
 praise thee when thou doest well to thyself." But 
 poverty comes suddenly, even as an armed man ; 
 sickness overtakes her, and all her beauty fades like 
 that of the flower of the field ; and the graces, 
 which gave life and spirit to the gay assembly, are 
 gone forever. Then she can add hers to the sad 
 testimony of the poet 
 
 " The friends who in our sunshine live, 
 
 When winter comes are flown ; 
 And she who hath but tears to give, 
 Must weep those tears alone." 
 
 How frequently does the young and trusting 
 heart swell with emotion, on the discovery of the 
 deceitful nature of worldly favor ! " The greetings 
 where no kindness is " are taken by the truthful as 
 truth itself ; and when they change to coldness or
 
 THE GODLY WOMAN. 239 
 
 contempt, the ardent spirit shrinks beneath them, 
 as the lily withers when the sunshine of heaven 
 changes to the chill north wind. And the young, 
 having no hope of God's favor, or of happiness in 
 the world to come, exchange for a misanthropic 
 and ungentle spirit the trusting affection of an ingen- 
 uous mind, and become like the cold and worldly 
 beings whose deceitful favor once misled them. 
 
 Perhaps there is scarcely a woman who has not 
 listened to the voice of flattery ; and though the 
 coarse praise of a flattering tongue would disgust 
 the pious, and displease too the cultivated and 
 refined, yet most have been sometimes beguiled 
 by its more delicate and skilful application. There 
 is a self-love in every human heart to which such 
 praise can appeal ; and even the woman who knows 
 the commendation to be undeserved will sometimes 
 be pleased, as she believes that such at least is the 
 opinion of those who utter it. But time comes, 
 and truth comes with him, and with rude hand tears 
 away the veil from falsehood, and the deceived 
 spirit learns at length the lesson that favor is 
 deceitful. 
 
 And is Christian intercourse altogether free from
 
 240 THE EXCELLENT WOMAN. 
 
 this deceitfulness ? Are there not prevalent, in 
 Christian society, words and practices which express 
 far more than the heart can respond to ? To the 
 courtesies of life no Christian should be indifferent. 
 If the worldly woman learns, from the politeness of 
 the world, to prefer the comfort of others to her 
 own, if she must make sacrifices of feeling, that 
 in society she may appear kind and polite, how 
 much more should Christian women practise a gen- 
 tle courtesy of manner, from the consideration that 
 even Christ pleased not himself. "Be ye kind, be 
 ye courteous," is the injunction of a holy apostle ; 
 and all rudeness and incivility should be shunned 
 by every woman professing to have been taught of 
 God. 
 
 On the other hand, is not the favor of that woman 
 deceitful, who stretches out the hand of kindness to 
 her acquaintance, who welcomes her to her house, 
 and listens with apparent sympathy to the expres- 
 sion of her feelings, and who will, on her absence, 
 recount her faults or ridicule her follies ? that 
 all Christian women were wholly free from this 
 portion of worldly false-heartedness, this conformity 
 to worldly favor ; and were ever sincere and candid
 
 THE GODLY WOMAN. 241 
 
 in their expressions of friendship ! On them, at 
 least, let the trusting heart lean, in full assurance 
 that the love which is uttered is the love which is 
 felt. 
 
 But while we must admit that, even in Christian 
 intercourse, much imperfection exists, and the 
 spirit of the world sometimes darkens the brighter 
 lustre of the Christian character, yet it has ever 
 been the lot of the sorrowful and desolate to find 
 compassion and sincerity nowhere so fully developed 
 as in the circle of those who are the real followers 
 of Christ. The woman who sincerely fears the 
 Lord, who lives nearest to him, will be, too, the 
 truest and best of earthly friends ; and when David 
 said, " I am a companion of all them that fear 
 thee," he could number among those servants of 
 God the faithful friends of his hours of adversity ; 
 and he could think of the pleasant Jonathan, and 
 the liberal Barzillai, and the faithful Nathan, men 
 who never forsook him when sorrow came, whose 
 favor was never deceitful ; but who loved him best 
 when most he needed their friendship, because their 
 love was strengthened by their fear and love of God. 
 
 And are not the favor and love of God unchang- 
 ing ? He has said, " Call upon me in the day of
 
 242 THE EXCELLENT WOMAN. 
 
 trouble ;" he has bid us, when earthly favor has 
 proved deceitful, to bring the worn and weary spirit 
 to him for refuge. And no one ever sought him in 
 vain, or had reason to regret that he had cast all 
 his care on the loving-kindness of an unchanging 
 God. 
 
 We have not need to look for to see the passing 
 nature, the vanity, of personal beauty : 
 
 " For not a year but pilfers, as it goes, 
 Some youthful grace that age would gladly keep : " 
 
 f 
 
 and time brings assuredly his wrinkles to furrow the 
 fairest countenance. Sudden or prolonged sickness 
 changes the rose on the cheek to paleness, and dims 
 the eye whose brightness told a tale of health and 
 gladness ; for when God with rebukes doth chasten 
 for iniquity, he maketh beauty to pass away like a 
 moth ; so that all, even in their best states, are 
 altogether vanity. But the frailty of beauty is most 
 apparent when we look on death, on that change 
 which all must encounter. "It is," says Jeremy 
 Taylor, "a mighty change that is made by the 
 death of every person, and it is visible to us who 
 are alive. Keckon but from the sprightfulness of
 
 THE GODLY WOMAN. 243 
 
 youth, and the fair cheeks and the full eyes of 
 childhood ; from the vigorousness and strong flex- 
 ure of the joints of five-and-twenty, to the hollow- 
 ness and dead paleness, to the loathsomeness and 
 horror, of a three days' burial, and he shall perceive 
 the distance to be very great and very strange." 
 
 " 0, what is beauty's power ? 
 
 It perishes and dies. 
 Shall the cold earth its silence break, 
 To tell how soft and smooth a cheek 
 Beneath its surface lies ? 
 Mute, mute is all, 
 O'er beauty's fall ; 
 Her praise resounds no more when mantled in her pall." 
 
 " But a woman that feareth the Lord, she shall 
 be praised." Such a woman would have praise of 
 God. The ornament of a meek and quiet spirit is 
 of great price, and to the true believer in Christ 
 God will say, at the great day, " Well done, good 
 and faithful servant ; enter thou into the joy of thy 
 Lord." And, 0! what praise can equal this? 
 Men may praise those whom God disapproves. 
 They may hold that to be good which God abhors ; 
 and even when they have the right standard of 
 17
 
 244 THE EXCELLENT WOMAN. 
 
 holiness, yet they may so little know the hearts of 
 others as to mistake in their estimate of good and 
 evil. On whom is the* praise of men bestowed ? 
 On those who conquer kingdoms, who perform great 
 exploits in discovery and science, who make high 
 attainments in knowledge, or who clothe in lofty 
 verse thoughts of beauty and genius. And who 
 will deny his meed of praise to the philosopher or 
 the poet ? We owe them so much, that we could 
 not pluck a leaf from the laurel or the bay, without 
 ingratitude. Yet, in all their thoughts of sublimity 
 or tenderness, there may be no fear of God ; he may 
 not be pleased. " To that man will I look," saith 
 Jehovah, " who is of an humble and contrite heart, 
 and who trembleth at my word." The humble and 
 lowly Christian, performing the simplest and com- 
 monest duties of domestic life in his fear ; seeking 
 his counsel, and earnestly striving to keep his com- 
 mands ; praying for the guidance of the Holy Spirit, 
 and confidently trusting for the pardon of her sin in 
 him who died on the cross to redeem her, this is 
 the woman on whom shall be bestowed that best, 
 that only praise which is truly valuable ; for of her 
 the Lord himself shall say, " She hath chosen that 
 good part, which shall not be taken away from her."
 
 >/ TA'S. 'f'RVrf 7 MS 
 H/RJ3E>8, ^73 LIT H I IS OW 
 
 OKI TTHI
 
 THE REWARDED WOMAN. 
 
 247 
 
 SECTION XXII. 
 
 GIVE HER OF THE FRUIT OF HER HANDS > AND LET HEE OWN 
 WORKS PRAISE HER IN THE GATES. 
 
 t 
 
 'UESTIONS have been raised whether 
 this passage is a continuation of the 
 Upraise bestowed on this excellent 
 matron by her husband, or whether 
 it may not be regarded as a prayer 
 offered up on her behalf. We have 
 spoken of the gate as the place of assem- 
 bly and of commerce, where the fruits 
 of her industry would be known and appre- 
 ciated, and where men would speak of her 
 virtues ; where she would be mentioned as 
 a great example of female excellence, and her deeds 
 of mercy and her unblamable life would characterize 
 her as a mother in Israel, and a devout and humble 
 "servant of the great Jehovah. 
 
 Although a life of consistent virtue generally 
 brings its own reward in the esteem of those whose 
 good opinion is truly valuable, and though the hand 
 of the diligent usually, in some degree, maketh
 
 248 THE EXCELLENT WOMAN. 
 
 rich, yet it is not always in this world that the good 
 receive of the fruit of their hands. But there is a 
 world on which the holy women of old have long 
 since entered, a world to which we are all hasten- 
 ing, when every one shall receive according to the 
 deeds done in the body, whether they be good, or 
 whether they be evil. We cannot be saved by an 
 exemplary and virtuous life ; for never yet was there 
 a human being who lived and sinned not ; and the 
 holiest action ever performed by sinful man had yet 
 mingled with it so much infirmity of motive, that 
 it needed the atoning blood of Christ to render it 
 acceptable in the eyes of an infinitely holy God. 
 But Christian principle, though it will not enable 
 us, while in this world, to offer a perfect obedience, 
 will certainly be accompanied by the practice of 
 holiness, an earnest endeavor after godliness, and a 
 hatred and avoidance of sin. For the Scripture has 
 said, "As the body without the spirit is dead, so 
 faith without works is dead also." "While we can- 
 not answer God for one of a thousand of our trans- 
 gressions, yet he will reward the humblest deed of 
 good which proceeds from love to Christ. And 
 when the beloved apostle spoke of the blessedness
 
 THE REWARDED WOMAN. 249 
 
 of those who die in the Lord, he adds, " They rest 
 from their lahors, and their works do follow them." 
 The pious deeds which they had wrought on earth 
 were not forgotten in heaven ; but they followed as 
 evidences of love to Christ, as the result of holy 
 principles, and are thus accepted and approved by 
 a gracious God. Blessed indeed are they who 
 steadily endure, amid all temptation ; for when 
 they are tried, they shall receive the crown of life, 
 which the Lord hath promised to them that love 
 him ; and thus the fruits of their hands and hearts 
 shall be given to them through all eternity. 
 
 " ! in our sterner manhood, when no ray 
 Of earlier sunshine glimmers on our way, 
 When girt with sin, and sorrow, and the toil 
 Of cares which tear the bosom that they soil, 
 ! if there be in retrospection's chain 
 One link that knits us with young dreams again, 
 One thought so sweet we scarcely dare to muse 
 On all the hoarded raptures it reviews, 
 Which seems each instant, in its backward range, 
 The heart to soften, and its ties to change, 
 And every spring, untouched for years, to move, 
 
 It is THE MEMOEY OF A MOTHER'S LOVE ! " 
 
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