: ' ' ':' i : ' 
 
 i 
 
 ill! 
 
 
 ill! !
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 THIS volume brings down the female biogra- 
 phy of Scripture from the age of Jepthah^ 
 daughter to the close of the Old Testament 
 history.
 
 FEMALE CHARACTERS 
 
 HOLY WRIT: 
 
 COURSE OF SERMONS, 
 
 n F i ' J-i J n P r* 
 Q r~ J= ti n " 
 
 HUGH HUGHES, E.D. 
 
 ^ ~* nECion. 
 
 f~ -Vt>.' 
 
 "" '" f n ' '**8&k: 
 
 +*~ * ?5i * ~~" "* m 
 
 rA>ND SERIES. 
 
 a 
 
 DEDICATED, BY PERMISSION, TO HER ROYAL HIGHNESS 
 THE DUCHESS OF KENT. 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 HAMILTON, ADAMS, & CO., 38, PATERNOSTER ROW 
 AND H. HUGHES, \5, ST. MARTIN'S LE-GRAND. 
 
 1840.
 
 %/ -' f 
 
 8 3 3 
 
 -3 
 
 4 3 i 
 
 " 
 
 D 
 
 ^ : 
 
 j a 3 
 
 tf 3 M 
 
 -I U Tj 
 
 3 3 
 
 n 
 v: ^ 
 
 a 
 
 ' ^ 4 w 
 
 vT 2 W -" 
 
 ^1 ^ u 
 
 J u d 
 
 H^! ^ 
 
 f l H J 7 
 
 U 
 
 n *. ?\ 
 
 U U *5 
 
 i.a-J 
 
 3 * 
 
 j ^ n rt u 
 
 "' 1 si 8 n 
 
 * "- ^
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 SERMON I. 
 SAMSON'S MOTHER. 
 
 JUDGES xiii. 2224. PAGE 
 
 And Manoah said unto his wife, We shall surely die, be- 
 cause we have seen God. But his wife said unto him, 
 If the Lord were pleased to kill us, he would not have 
 received a burnt offering and a meat offering at our 
 hands, neither would he have shewed us all these things, 
 nor would as at this time have told us such things as 
 these. And the woman bare a son, and called his name 
 Samson : and the child grew, and the Lord blessed him 1 
 
 SERMON II. 
 
 NAOMI. 
 
 RUTH i. 1, 2. 
 
 Now it came to pass in the days when the judges ruled, 
 that there was a famine in the land. And a certain 
 man of Beth-lehem-judah went to sojourn in the country 
 of Moab, he, and his wife, and his two sons. And the 
 name of the man was Elimelech, and the name of his 
 
 wife Naomi 24 
 
 A 3 
 
 2096851
 
 VI CONTEXTS. 
 
 SERMON III. 
 
 ORPAH AND RUTH. 
 
 RUTH i. 14. PAGE 
 
 And Orpah kissed her mother-in-law ; but Ruth clave 
 unto her 46 
 
 SERMON IV. 
 
 RUTH. 
 
 RUTH ii. 2, 3. 
 
 And Ruth the Muabitess said unto Naomi, Let me now 
 go to the field, and glean ears of corn after him in 
 whose sight I shall find grace. And she said unto her, 
 Go, my daughter. And she went, and came, and 
 gleaned in the field after the reapers : and her hap was 
 to light on a part of the field belonging to Boaz, who 
 was of the kindred of Elimelech . . 68 
 
 SERMON V. 
 
 HANNAH. 
 I SAM. i. 10. 
 
 And she was in bitterness of soul, and prayed unto the 
 Lord, and wept sore 89 
 
 SERMON VI. 
 
 PHINEHAS' WIFE. 
 1 SAM. iv. 22. 
 
 And she said, The glory is departed from Israel : for the 
 ark of God is taken 108
 
 CONTENTS. Vll 
 
 SERMON VII. 
 
 MICHAL. 
 
 1 SAM. xviii. 20, 21. PAGE 
 
 And Michal, Saul's daughter, loved David : and they told 
 Saul, and the thing pleased him. And Saul said, I will 
 give him her, that she may be a snare to him, and the 
 hand of the Philistines may be against him. Where- 
 fore Saul said to David, Thou shalt this day be my son- 
 in-law in the one of the twain 129 
 
 SERMON VIII. 
 
 ABIGAIL. 
 1 SAM. xxv. 32. 
 
 And David said to Abigail, Blessed be the Lord God of 
 Israel, which sent thee this day to meet me .... 150 
 
 SERMON IX. 
 
 WITCH OF ENDOR. 
 
 1 SAM. xxviii. 7- 
 
 Then said Saul unto his servants, Seek me a woman that 
 hath a familiar spirit, that I may go to her and inquire 
 of her. And his servants said unto him, Behold, there 
 is a woman that hath a familiar spirit at Eudor . . .173 
 
 SERMON X. 
 
 BATHSHEBA. 
 2 SAM. xi. 3. 
 
 And David sent and inquired after the woman, and one 
 said, Is not this Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the 
 wife of Uriah the Hittite . 205
 
 V1U CONTEXTS. 
 
 SERMON XI. 
 
 TWO WISE WOMEN. 
 2 SAM. xiv. 4. xx. 16. PAGE 
 
 And when the woman of Tekoah spake to the king, she 
 fell on her face to the ground, and did obeisance, and 
 said, Help, king 
 
 Then cried a wise woman out of the city, Hear, hear ; say, 
 I pray you, unto Joab, Come near hither, that I may 
 speak with thee 232 
 
 SERMON XII. 
 
 RIZPAH. 
 2 SAM. xxi. 10. 
 
 And Rizpah, the daughter of Aiah, took sackcloth, and 
 spread it for her upon the rock, from the beginning of 
 harvest until water dropped upon them out of heaven, 
 and suffered neither the birds of the air to rest on them 
 by day, nor the beasts of the field by night 256 
 
 SERMON XIII. 
 
 TWO WOMEN AT THE JUDGMENT-SEAT 
 
 OF SOLOMON. 
 
 1 KINGS iii. 22. 
 
 And the other woman said, Nay, but the living is my son, 
 and the dead is thy son. And this said, No, but the 
 dead is thy son, and the living is my son. Thus they 
 spake before the king 280
 
 CONTEXTS. IX 
 
 SERMON XIV. 
 
 THE QUEEN OF SHEBA. 
 
 2 CHRON. ix. 1. PAGE 
 
 And when the Queen of Sheba heard of the fame of 
 Solomon, she came to prove Solomon with hard ques- 
 tions at Jerusalem, with a very great company, and 
 camels that bare spices, and gold in abundance, and 
 precious stones : and when she was come to Solomon, 
 she communed with him of all that was in her heart . 301 
 
 SERMON XV. 
 
 WIDOW OF SAREPTA. 
 1 KINGS xvii. 9. 
 
 Arise, get thee to Zarephath, which belongeth to Zion, 
 and dwell there : behold, I have commanded a widow 
 woman there to sustain thee 32C 
 
 SERMON XVI. 
 
 JEZEBEL. 
 1 KINGS xxi. 25. 
 
 But there was none like unto Ahab, which did sell himself 
 to work wickedness in the sight of the Lord, whom 
 Jezebel his wife stirred up 352 
 
 SERMON XVII. 
 
 THE PROPHET'S WIDOW. 
 
 2 KINGS iv. 7- 
 
 Then she came and told the man of God. And he said, 
 Go, sell the oil, and pay thy debt, and live thou and thy 
 children of the rest 378
 
 CONTEXTS. 
 
 SERMON XVIII. 
 
 WOMAN OF SHUNEM. 
 
 2 KINGS iv. 8. PAGE 
 
 And it fell on a day, that Elisha passed to Shunem, where 
 was a great woman, and she constrained him to eat 
 bread. And so it was, that as oft as he passed by, he 
 turned in thither to eat bread . . . 400 
 
 SERMON XIX. 
 NAAMAN'S LITTLE MAID. 
 
 2 KINGS v. 2. 
 
 And the Syrians went out by companies, and had brought 
 away captive out of the land of Israel a little maid ; 
 and she waited on Naaman's wife 427 
 
 SERMON XX. 
 
 ATHALIAH AND JEHOSHEBA. 
 2 KINGS xi. 1, 2. 
 
 And when Athaliah, the mother of Ahaziah, saw that her 
 son was dead, she arose and destroyed all the seed 
 royal. But Jehosheba, the daughter of king Joi-am, 
 sister of Ahaziah, took Joash, the son of Ahaziah, 
 and stole him from among the king's sons which were 
 slain ; and they hid him, even him and his nurse, in the 
 bed-chamber from Athaliah, so that he was not slain . 451
 
 CONTEXTS. XI 
 
 SERMON XXI. 
 
 HULDAH THE PROPHETESS. 
 
 2 KINGS xxii. 14. PAGE 
 
 So Hilkiah the priest, and Ahikam,and Achbor, and Sha- 
 phan, and Asahiah, went unto Huldah, the prophetess, 
 the wife of Shallum, the son of Tikvah,the son of Har- 
 has, keeper of the wardrobe (now she dwelt in Jerusa- 
 lem, in the college), and they communed with her . . 473 
 
 SERMON XXII. 
 
 VASHTI. 
 ESTHER i. 12. 
 
 But the Queen Vashti refused to come at the king's com- 
 mandment by his chamberlains : therefore was the king 
 very wroth, and his anger burned in him 497 
 
 SERMON XXIII. 
 
 ESTHER. 
 ESTHER ii. 17. 
 
 And the king loved Esther above all the women, and she 
 obtained grace and favour in his sight more than all 
 the virgins ; so that he set the royal crown upon her 
 head, and made her queen instead of Vashti . . . .521 
 
 SERMON XXIV. 
 
 ESTHER. 
 ESTHER v. 1. 
 
 Now it came to pass on the third day, that Esther put on 
 her royal apparel, and stood in the inner court of the 
 king's house : and the king sat upon his royal throne, 
 in the royal house over against the gate of the house . 547
 
 SERMON I. 
 
 SAMSON'S MOTHER. 
 
 JUDGES xiii. 22 24. 
 
 "And Manoah said unto his wife, We shall surely die, because 
 we have seen God. But his wife said unto him, If the Lord 
 were pleased to kill us, he would not have received a burnt 
 offering and a meat offering at our hands, neither would he 
 have shewed us all these things, nor would as at this time 
 have told us such things as these. And the woman bare a 
 son, and called his name Samson : and the child grew, and 
 the Lord blessed him." 
 
 THE mother of Samson, or the wife of Manoah, 
 is the third female Scripture character of any 
 note, whose name is not recorded by the pen of 
 inspiration ; Lot's wife being the first, and the 
 daughter of Pharaoh the second. But although 
 her name is not transmitted, her history, like the 
 brief notice of the Egyptian princess, is full of 
 interest and instruction ; and in the passage we 
 have selected for our text, she exhibits a strength 
 of faith and understanding equal to that of any 
 holy women whose lives we have been contem- 
 plating, and most worthy of our careful study 
 and sedulous imitation. 
 
 SECOND SERIES. B
 
 2 SAMSON'S MOTHER. 
 
 We propose now to set before you the events 
 with which she was connected, and to point out 
 their practical application. 
 
 After the deliverance by the hand of Jephthah, 
 the children of Israel appear to have enjoyed 
 peace and prosperity for. a considerable period. 
 He lived six years after his second return to 
 Mizpeh and the fulfilment of his vow, and he 
 was succeeded in the government of his nation 
 by Ibzan, Elon, and Abdon, who, being men of 
 great power, and exercising a salutary influence, 
 maintained Israel in a flourishing state for 
 twenty-five years more. At the end of that 
 period, and perhaps partly in consequence of 
 the death of these wise rulers, they relapsed 
 into some of their former sins, and did evil again 
 in the sight of the Lord. For this backsliding 
 they were punished again with a severe and long- 
 continued affliction : " And the Lord deli vered 
 them into the hand of the Philistines forty 
 years." What a blessing to a nation are wise 
 and pious rulers! While such stand at the 
 helm of affairs, the people are in security and 
 happiness. And what a blessing to a C i 
 
 are enlightened and judicious and holy minis- 
 ters and chief pastors, who carefully watc over 
 for good the flocks over which the Holy ^ has 
 made them overseers ! While such are invested 
 with authority, the spiritual Zion shall strengthen 
 her stakes, lengthen her cords, enlarge the place 
 of her tent, stretch out the curtains of her habi-
 
 SAMSON'S MOTHER. 3 
 
 tation, and break forth on every hand in the 
 fruits of righteousness and joy. And what a 
 calamity to a nation and its religion, when faith- 
 ful guides are withdrawn, and perhaps succeeded 
 by tyrants and hypocrites ! Let in? then ever nrav 
 that our dear country ,<., u ' * ' - .. U 
 
 may be superintended by meu oi integrity and 
 wisdom, and whose heart is right with God. 
 
 Israel had often before suffered from the in- 
 cursions of the Philistines, from whom they 
 were partly delivered in the days of Shamgar, 
 the son of Anath ; but they had never been so 
 long and completely under the oppressive power 
 of that nation as now. Forty years of bondage 
 was the sore punishment inflicted for the evil 
 which Jehovah's people had done in his sight. 
 Forty years of wandering in a weary wilderness 
 had been their punishment on a former occasion 
 for their unbelief and disobedience. But since 
 their entrance into Canaan, they had never, 
 until now, been visited with such long-continued 
 affliction. They were only eight years in sub- 
 jection to Chushan-rishathaim, king of Mesopo- 
 tamia, from which they were delivered by Oth- 
 niel; only eighteen years in subjection to Eglon, 
 king of Moab, from which they were delivered by 
 Ehud ; only twenty years in subjection to Jabin, 
 king of Canaan, from which they were delivered 
 by Deborah, Barak, and Jael ; only seven years 
 in subjection to the Midianites, from which they 
 were delivered by Gideon the Abi-ezrite; and only 
 B 2
 
 4 SAMSON'S MOTHER. 
 
 eighteen years in subjection to the children of 
 Ammon, from which they were delivered by 
 Jephthah the Gileadite. Their present bondage 
 was therefore double the length of any one of 
 their former oppressions by the heathens around 
 them ; and like the bondage of Egypt, seeming 
 for a time to be interminable, was well calcu- 
 lated to overwhelm them with gloom and de- 
 spair. And we cannot wonder at the severity 
 and duration of their punishment, when we 
 consider how often they had been admonished, 
 how often reproved before without producing 
 any permanent effect, how frequently they had 
 been already delivered out of their distress on 
 crying unto the Lord in their trouble, and 
 making resolutions of amendment, and how, not- 
 withstanding the Divine goodness towards them, 
 they had relapsedagain and again into idolatrous 
 and abominable practices. We wonder not 
 that a whole generation was allowed to pass 
 away under a cloud of sorrow, before the Lord 
 would again interpose in behalf of Israel an 
 emblemetic representation of the doom of those 
 in every age, who, regardless of God's threats 
 and promises, of his judgments and mercies, 
 persist in impenitence,and unbelief,and iniquity, 
 until they are consigned to the blackness of 
 darkness for ever. 
 
 Another generation had now sprung up, and 
 the children, disciplined in the salutary school 
 of affliction, sought the help of that God whom
 
 SAMSON S MOTHER. 5 
 
 their fathers had forsaken; and He, who in 
 wrath remembers mercy, gave ear unto their 
 cry. But so riveted were the chains of their 
 slavery, by the continual oppression of forty 
 years, that their emancipation had become a 
 matter of extraordinary and almost unexampled 
 difficulty. It was something like the difficulty 
 of their deliverance from Egyptian bondage. 
 Accordingly, we find a preparation made for it 
 analogous to the mission of Moses to the court 
 of Pharaoh. An angel of God makes his ap- 
 pearance, and mingles with the fiery flames in 
 the presence of Manoah and his wife. He first 
 presents himself to the wife, and announces 
 unto her, who had hitherto been childless, the 
 glad intelligence, that she should become a 
 mother, saying unto her, "Behold now, thou 
 art barren, and bearest not : but thou shalt con- 
 ceive, and bear a son." Many eminent persons 
 have been born of mothers who were for many 
 years childless wives, as Isaac, and Jacob, and 
 Joseph, and Samuel, 
 
 God often withholds his blessings, m ora r tha. 
 we may the more appreciate them when they 
 come; and they who wait for them with prayer, 
 faith, and patience, shall at last obtain them in 
 greater abundance than many who once ap- 
 peared more highly favoured, according to the 
 words of Isaiah, " Sing, O barren, thou that 
 didst not bear ; break forth into singing, and 
 cry aloud, thou that didst not travail with child: 
 B 3
 
 5 SAMSON S MOTHER. 
 
 for thou shalt break forth on the right hand 
 and on the left ; and thy seed shall inherit the 
 Gentiles, and make the desolate cities to be 
 inhabited." And all persons whose birth or 
 infancy has called forth remarkable Divine 
 manifestations, have been either typically or 
 instrumentally, or in both ways, connected with 
 mighty deliverances wrought by Jehovah for 
 the children of men. Isaac, whose birth was 
 announced by the angel of God at Mamre, was 
 that son of Abraham with whom Jehovah esta- 
 blished his special covenant, and who was to be 
 a type and progenitor of the Saviour of the 
 world. Moses, who in childhood was so mar- 
 vellously rescued from the drowning river, was 
 destined to lead forth the chosen race out of 
 the house of bondage. Samuel, who was the 
 child of many prayers and many tears, and 
 dedicated from his infancy by a grateful mother 
 to the service of Jehovah, proved a national 
 blessing in his day and generation. John the 
 Baptist, whose birth was announced by the 
 angel Gabriel, was to be the forerunner of the 
 Messiah, "to make ready a people prepared 
 for the Lord." And he, concerning whose 
 birth and education a solemn communication 
 was made by an angel of the Lord to the wife 
 of Manoah, was to " begin to deliver Israel out 
 of the hand of the Philistines." And all were 
 but shadows of Him, concerning whom it was 
 declared by an angel of God, " She shall bring
 
 SAMSON'S MOTHER. 7 
 
 forth a son, and thou shalt call his name Jesus : 
 for he shall save his people from their sins." 
 
 The wife of Manoah immediately informed 
 her husband of the extraordinary appearance 
 she had witnessed, and the welcome intelligence 
 she had heard. It was a man of God, according 
 to her designation of him, and his countenance 
 was like the countenance of an angel of God, 
 very terrible. She had not ascertained from 
 whence he came, nor by what name he was 
 called, but there was such a majesty in his gait, 
 such a lustre in his eyes, such a dignity in his 
 mien, as commanded her respect and reverence, 
 and constrained her implicit belief and confi- 
 dence. The intelligence he had imparted was 
 of the most gladsome and important character, 
 and the instruction she had received was of a 
 very strict and peculiar kind, directly bearing 
 upon the end and object of the surprising com- 
 munication, and therefore calculated to impress 
 conviction of its reality and truth. She was to 
 give birth to a son : that was news enough to 
 thrill with joy the heart of a wife in Israel. But 
 more than that, she was to give birth to a son 
 who should cause the light of liberty to dawn 
 on her oppressed country, and " begin to deliver 
 Israel out of the hand of the Philistines." This 
 child of exalted destiny was to be brought up 
 in a particular manner, and demanded the ob- 
 servance of a peculiarly sober and abstemious 
 conduct on the part of his highly favoured 
 B 4
 
 8 SAMSON'S MOTHER. 
 
 mother. She was to drink no wine nor strong 
 drink, nor eat any unclean thing; and no 
 razor was to come on his head, for he was to be 
 " a Nazarite unto God from the womb." We 
 learn from the sixth chapter of Numbers, that 
 those who vowed the vow of a Nazarite, or who 
 separated themselves by a solemn dedication to 
 the service of God, were, during the time of such 
 separation, which was generally limited, required 
 to observe the rules here specified l . But, in 
 the case of this peculiar child, stricter obser- 
 vances still were required. Even the mother 
 was to abstain from the meats and drinks for- 
 bidden to the Nazarite, and the son was to be a 
 Nazarite, not for a limited time, but from his 
 birth to his death : whence you may learn, that 
 they who would be eminently serviceable to 
 the cause of God and his people, must be very 
 careful of their manner of living, give none 
 offence by the conduct of themselves or families, 
 and avoid every appearance of evil, following 
 the example and praying for the spirit of Him 
 who was " holy, harmless, undefiled, and sepa- 
 rate from sinners." 
 
 Manoah, upon receiving this intelligence from 
 his wife, betook himself by earnest prayer unto 
 God, and entreated that he might have an 
 interview with the heavenly messenger, and 
 learn from his own lips how he was to educate 
 the promised child. God condescended to 
 
 1 See Note I.
 
 SAMSON'S MOTHER. 9 
 
 hearken to his prayer, and the angelic visitant 
 appeared again to his wife, for the purpose of a 
 more distinct and convincing manifestation; 
 whereupon, she immediately went and informed 
 her husband of it, and brought him to the place 
 where the heavenly messenger presented him- 
 self. Manoah expressed entire satisfaction 
 with the prospect held out to him from the 
 information of his wife, saying to the mysterious 
 visitant, " Now let thy words come to pass," 
 and requested to know how the child of so extra- 
 ordinary a promise was to be brought up. The 
 angel answered, that the directions already given 
 to his wife were to be exactly observed. He 
 added no new precept to those he had given 
 before. Manoah' s curiosity and anxiety elicited 
 no more than heaven had already vouchsafed to 
 reveal. The will of God may be imparted in a few 
 words, and the simplest, who are possessed of an 
 honest and good heart, may without difficulty 
 ascertain it. Manoah was not favoured with more 
 knowledge than had been already communi- 
 cated, but was only urged to practise what he 
 knew to the best of his ability. Those who are not 
 disposed to conform to the revealed will of hea- 
 ven, without receiving some greater evidences 
 than God has condescended to give, will be dis- 
 appointed. Enough is revealed unto all to guide 
 them in the way of salvation. That way is so 
 plain, that the wayfaring men, though fools, shall 
 not err therein; and the simple and ignorant, if 
 B 5
 
 10 SAMSON'S MOTHER. 
 
 there be a willing heart, may discover it as easily 
 as the most learned and the most curious. I re- 
 member reading in the life of a very eminent 
 scholar, that he complained to a friend of his 
 imperfect perception of spiritual things, and 
 faint realization of redeeming love. His friend 
 answered, " The only way to obtain a greater 
 and full assurance of faith is, to lead a holier 
 life." If then we are ever troubled with 
 doubts and misgivings, let us follow this ex- 
 cellent advice, remembering the words of our 
 Saviour, " If any man shall do his will, he shall 
 know of the doctrine whether it be of God." 
 
 Manoah had desired no more information as 
 to the promised child, but he wished to evince 
 his gratitude to the herald of so great a blessing, 
 and requested that he would partake of his 
 hospitality. The heavenly messenger declined 
 his invitation, and recommended him rather to 
 offer a burnt offering unto the Lord. Manoah, 
 perplexed as to the character of his mysterious 
 visitant, endeavoured to ascertain some more 
 particulars respecting him, by asking what was 
 his name, and was answered, "Why askest 
 thoumyname, seeing it is secret?" or, as it may 
 be more correctly translated, seeing it is won- 
 derful. He then followed the recommenda- 
 tion to perform an act of worship, and offered 
 up a burnt offering. He " took a kid, with a meat 
 offering, and offered it upon a rock unto the 
 Lord," i.e. instead of preparing the kid to feast
 
 SAMSON'S MOTHER. 11 
 
 his guests as he had intended, he changed it 
 into a burnt offering, and the adjoining rock into 
 an altar, and made an oblation unto the great 
 disposer of all things. Then the angel of God 
 did wondrously, in accordance with the intima- 
 tion he had given of his name, being " mysteri- 
 ously wonderful " " for it came to pass, when 
 the flame went up toward heaven from off the 
 altar, that the angel of the Lord ascended in 
 the flame of the altar. And Manoah and his 
 wife," who had been quiet, but intensely inte- 
 rested spectators of the scene, "fell down on their 
 faces to the ground." It would appear that the 
 wonders he wrought were similar to those ex- 
 hibited in the interview with Gideon, causing 
 fire to rise up out of the rock and consume the 
 sacrifice. But he did more on this occasion : 
 like him, who spake unto Moses out .of the 
 midst of the burning bush, he mingled with the 
 rising flame, and still, more than that, he 
 ascended up to heaven in the sight of the 
 astonished worshippers. The Being who did 
 thus wondrously, was, according to the opinions 
 of the best divines, the same being who appeared 
 to Abraham and his wife at Mamre, and pro- 
 mised that Sarah should have a son ; the same 
 who wrestled with Jacob, and changed his 
 name into Israel ; the same who presented him- 
 self to the eyes of Joshua as captain of the 
 Lord's host ; the same who protected the three 
 children in the midst of the burning fiery fur- 
 B 6
 
 12 SAMSON'S MOTHER. 
 
 nace, even the second Person of the adorable 
 Trinity, the only begotten Son of God, the 
 destined Saviour of our fallen race from spiritual 
 bondage and eternal ruin. He was the antitype of 
 all temporal deliverers, and, therefore, He made 
 Himself visible on many occasions previous to 
 his incarnation, to indicate his presence with his 
 imperilled and afflicted people, and to intimate 
 that He should one day sojourn among the sons 
 of men, and work out for them a mighty salva- 
 tion indeed, and bring them into the glorious 
 liberty of the children of God. Hence his ap- 
 pearance now to Manoah and his wife, to point 
 out the approaching emancipation of Israel from 
 the sore Philistine oppression of forty years. And 
 whereas He commanded a burnt offering, He 
 intimated " that without shedding of blood there 
 is no remission of sins," and no possibility of 
 escaping the kindling wrath of heaven against 
 the workers of iniquity. And whereas He in- 
 termingled Himself with the rising flame, He 
 taught us that these sacrifices were but shadows 
 of the great atonement to be made for trans- 
 gression, and that He must Himself become the 
 propitiation for our sins, in order to completely 
 re-establish the broken union between God 
 and man, and to bring in an everlasting 
 righteousness. " It is not possible," saith the 
 Apostle to the Hebrews, "that the blood of 
 bulls and of goats should take away sins. 
 Wherefore, when he cometh into the world, he
 
 SAMSON'S MOTHER. 13 
 
 saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, 
 but a body hast thou prepared me. In burnt 
 offerings and sacrifices for sin thou hast had no 
 pleasure." They did but typify ; they afforded 
 in themselves no real satisfaction to God's 
 justice for the violation of his holy law. " Then 
 said he, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God : 
 by the which will we are sanctified through the 
 offering of th' ,.. -i^i, once for 
 
 all." He ascended up to heaven in the sight of 
 Manoah and his wife, and thereby presignified 
 the glorious period when, after " suffering death 
 upon the cross for our redemption, and making 
 there, by his one oblation of himself once 
 offered, a full, perfect, and sufficient sacrifice, 
 oblation, and satisfaction for the sins of the whole 
 world," He should rise again from the dead, 
 triumphant over all the powers of darkness, and 
 show Himself again alive by many infallible 
 proofs; and finally, while his disciples stead- 
 fastly looked on, ascend to his Father and their 
 Father, and to his God and their God, there to 
 be seated on the right hand of the Majesty in 
 heaven till the time when He shall come again 
 with great glory to judge the quick and dead. 
 Even here then we have / ~ v , preached 
 unto men; the far-darting rays of the sun of 
 righteousness heralding his glorious approach 
 long before his actual appearance above the 
 horizon of our world. How many and various 
 are the manifestations of his loving regard for a
 
 14 SAMSON'S MOTHER. 
 
 sinful race! How the beams of his benignity 
 pervade and penetrate the records of history, 
 the details of biography, the revelations of pro- 
 phecy, and the ceremonies of religion ! How the 
 indications of his interposing mercy mingle 
 with the trials of patriarchs, the missions of 
 legislators, the persecutions of saints, and the 
 achievements of heroes ! How, from the mo- 
 ment of the promise of the woman's seed in 
 Eden, that love has never ceased to be exerted 
 in behalf of a fallen and wretched race ! Who, 
 then, with so many demonstrations of its active 
 existence shall doubt its reality, or question its 
 sufficiency? Who shall not receive it with a 
 grateful and obedient heart ? and who shall re- 
 fuse to offer themselves, their souls and bodies, 
 in return for that unspeakable gift of the love of 
 God 
 
 " Oh, for that love let rocks and hills 
 
 Their lasting silence break, 
 And all harmonious human tongues 
 Their Maker's praises speak." 
 
 The amazing spectacle exhibited to the eyes 
 of Manoah and his wife struck them both for 
 the moment with insupportable awe, and they 
 fell on their faces to the ground. Manoah could 
 not overcome the impression of dread he had 
 received upon discovering that he had been 
 conversing with an inhabitant of the invisible 
 world; and upon beholding his marvellous 
 ascent in the burning flame, he apprehended 
 fatal consequences from the strange phenome-
 
 SAMSON'S MOTHER. 15 
 
 non, and " said uato his wife, We shall surely 
 die, because we have seen God. But his wife 
 said unto him, If the Lord were pleased to 
 kill us, he would not have received a burnt 
 offering and a meat offering at our hands ; 
 neither would he have showed us all these things, 
 nor would, as at this time, have told us such 
 things as these." What a striking and instruc- 
 tive contrast between the fear of the man and 
 the confidence of the woman ! The weaker vessel 
 is seen to aid and support the drooping spirits 
 of the stronger. A superstitious notion appears 
 to have prevailed among the Israelites, that if 
 God, an angel, or a spirit, presented himself to 
 any individual of our race, that individual was 
 doomed to a speedy, if not an instant death. 
 Thus Gideon exclaimed, " Alas, O Lord God ! 
 for because I have seen an angel of the Lord 
 face to face;" and the evil which he feared 
 appears from the answer he received from the 
 Lord, who said unto him, " Peace be unto thee; 
 fear not: thou shalt not die." Thus Jacob, when 
 he had conversed and wrestled with a myste- 
 rious visitant on his return from Padan-aram, 
 counted it a strange thing, and a matter for 
 great thankfulness, that he should survive the 
 wonderful interview ; and to commemorate the 
 extraordinary circumstance, he called the name 
 of the place, which was the scene of the occur- 
 rence, Peniel, which signifies, the face of God, 
 " because," said he, " I have seen God face to
 
 18 SAMSON'S MOTHER. 
 
 face, and my life is preserved." Manoah, under 
 the influence of that widely prevailing notion, 
 gave way to the deepest despondency, and the 
 gloomiest foreboding. How inconsistent is 
 frail man while surrounded by the infirmities 
 and weaknesses of a fallen nature ! He had 
 just before expressed great confidence in the 
 expectation of a son, wishing only, in his 
 prayer to God, to obtain more particular infor- 
 mation as to the manner of bringing him up. 
 But now the very spectacle which was vouch- 
 safed in answer to his own entreaty, for the 
 purpose of confirming that expectation, threw 
 him into confusion and distress of mind, and so 
 overwhelmed him with perplexity and terror, 
 that he could not refrain from exclaiming, "We 
 shall surely die, because we have seen God !" 
 Alas ! we know not what is best for us. Let us, 
 then, not seek to pry into mysteries which are too 
 deep for our present faculties to comprehend or to 
 bear ; they are veiled in mercy from our weak 
 sight. Let us be content to follow with meek 
 obedience the light which has been already given 
 in the inspired Word of God, persuaded that, if 
 we diligently search the Scriptures, we shall 
 neither be "afraid with any amazement," nor fail 
 of thence deriving a knowledge of eternal life. 
 
 Manoah's wife answered her husband's de- 
 sponding exclamation by the most just and 
 judicious reasoning; and she showed herself, 
 on this occasion, a help most meet for him in
 
 SAMSON'S MOTHER. 17 
 
 time of need. "Nay," said she, "let us not 
 be so unreasonable as to convert Heaven's con- 
 spicuous blessings into sources of grief and 
 despair. The scene we have witnessed is the 
 greatest security we can have for the con- 
 tinuance of our life and happiness. If God 
 had intended our destruction, He would never 
 have received a burnt offering and a meat 
 offering at our hands. That was a ransom for 
 our lives, and the fire fastening upon that, 
 was a plain indication that his wrath was 
 turned away from us. Neither, if He had 
 doomed us to death, would He have showed us 
 all these things. He would never have mocked 
 and tantalized us with such blessed revelations. 
 He would never have made such great and 
 precious promises relating to the birth of a son 
 that shall fill the important position of a Naza- 
 rite from the womb, and achieve glorious ex- 
 ploits for the deliverance of his oppressed 
 people Israel." And, brethren, is not this rea- 
 soning most sound and scriptural, and applica- 
 ble to many more cases than that of the de- 
 sponding Manoah ? Ye who are tempted to fear 
 eternal death, as you think of the terrors of the 
 Lord, let me ask you, would God have accepted 
 the great sacrifice of Calvary for sinners, had 
 He been pleased to kill them ? would He have 
 ever made it known to you, and brought you to 
 plead its merits in your behalf, and to offer it
 
 18 SAMSON'S MOTHER. 
 
 up again, as it were, by your strong cries and 
 earnest prayers, had He predestined your de- 
 struction ? He would never have given you the 
 blessed volume of the Scriptures, had He not 
 intended that your diligent search of them 
 should issue in eternal life. He would never 
 have made unto you such gracious revelations 
 He would never have acquainted you with such 
 exceeding great and precious promises He 
 would never have told you all these things 
 without a purpose of good, the very reverse of 
 your groundless fears even the conferring upon 
 you the distinguished privileges of honour, glory, 
 happiness, and immortality. Oh, then, ye who 
 strive, by God's grace, to be his servants indeed, 
 remember the many merciful declarations, in- 
 vitations, and encouragements of his word, and 
 above all, the full, perfect, and sufficient sacri- 
 fice offered for your sins, and let not your heart 
 be any longer troubled, neither let it be afraid. 
 In due time the woman who thus answered 
 her husband's fears by the well-grounded assur- 
 ances of faith and hope, realized the precious 
 promise of heaven, and bare a son, and called 
 his name Samson. As we might have expected 
 of a mother of such enlightened and exemplary 
 piety, she observed with regard to the child the 
 exact regulations prescribed by the celestial 
 visitant. She brought him up " in the nurture 
 and admonition of the Lord," and the happy
 
 SAMSON'S MOTHER. 19 
 
 consequence was, that the Lord blessed him, 
 and the Spirit of the Lord came upon him, and 
 endowed him with unusual strength and courage, 
 and qualified him to encounter with success 
 the hostile forces of the Philistines, and to break 
 the oppressive yoke which they had laid on the 
 neck of his country. It is beside our purpose 
 to enter into the details of his life. Suffice it 
 just to observe, that all his victories and suc- 
 cesses emanated under God from his pious 
 mother's bringing him up according to the 
 Divine direction; and that all his misery, and his 
 final capture by his insolent enemies, were the 
 consequences of allying himself with strange and 
 heathen women, and of departing from the prin- 
 ciples inculcated upon him in infancy and youth. 
 When he first proposed to marry a Philistine 
 woman, his father and mother remonstrated 
 with him, and endeavoured to dissuade him from 
 such a connexion, bearing in mind the evils 
 which, before the Deluge, had followed from the 
 sons of God intermarrying with " the daughters 
 of men." But he persisted in the choice ; and 
 although God out of this evil educed good for his 
 people by the eventual punishment of their 
 oppressors, yet to Samson himself the alliance 
 produced any thing but happiness or comfort. 
 Her treachery in discovering the secret of 
 his riddle, induced him abruptly to quit her 
 company, and involved him in a quarrel with 
 her people. During his absence she was given
 
 20 SAMSON'S MOTHER. 
 
 to another. For this affront he revenged 
 himself upon the whole country, and by means 
 of foxes, which he let loose with firebrands at- 
 tached to each, destroyed the standing corn and 
 the shocks of corn, and the vineyards and olives 
 round about. The Philistines were so enraged 
 at this injury, that they burnt both his wife 
 and his father-in-law with fire, as the original 
 causes of the mischief. Such was the tragical 
 catastrophe of the first alliance between Samson 
 and a heathen woman. A second alliance with 
 one of the same nation exposed him to great 
 personal danger, and it was only by the super- 
 natural strength which enabled him to carry off 
 the gates of Gaza, that he escaped with his life. 
 His third alliance with a woman of that country 
 led to his capture, his imprisonment, and his 
 death. He revealed to that woman Delilah by 
 name the secret of his strength, which lay in his 
 unshorn hair. By making that revelation, he 
 virtually violated his Nazarite's vow ', for the 
 revelation presently led to the cutting off of his 
 hair, which no steel had ever touched before; 
 and when the command of God, which had been 
 given concerning him before he was born, and 
 which had hitherto been solemnly observed, 
 was trampled upon by the instrumentality of a 
 strange woman, who had won his heart, no 
 wonder that the help of God was withdrawn, 
 
 1 See Note I.
 
 SAMSON'S MOTHER. 21 
 
 and he became weak as an ordinary mortal. 
 He was taken by the Philistines, had his eyes 
 put out, was bound with fetters of brass, and 
 compelled to grind in the prison-house in the 
 city of Gaza. In that humiliating and shameful 
 situation he was detained until, on one occasion, 
 he was brought forth to be made a ridiculous 
 spectacle of before the lords of the Philistines, 
 and a great concourse of people. To enjoy the 
 exhibition, three thousand men and women 
 were assembled upon the roof of the house, and 
 Samson determined to punish their cruel inso- 
 lence, and avenge the wrongs of his country, 
 by one great effort, even at the sacrifice of his 
 own life. His hair having grown since the 
 commencement of his captivity, probably to its 
 former length, and with it his previous strength 
 having returned, he directed the boy that led 
 him to place him near the two pillars which 
 supported the house, and laying hold of the one 
 with his right hand, and of the other with his 
 left hand, and praying to the Almighty for aid, 
 he exerted his utmost strength, and succeeded 
 in pulling down the whole edifice at once, and 
 he and all the spectators were buried in the 
 ruins. 
 
 Behold then in this history a conspicuous 
 display of female influence, either for good or 
 for evil, and see how much it is in the power 
 of women to benefit or to injure those with whom 
 they are connected. See, on the one hand, the
 
 22 SAMSON'S MOTHER. 
 
 baneful effect on the mind of Samson, and on 
 the well-being of himself and his country, of 
 the alliance he had formed with women not 
 actuated by the fear of God. To them are 
 traceable all his errors and all his woes, his af- 
 flictive imprisonment, and his violent death. 
 Though he had doubtless grace to repent of his 
 departure from the piety of his early days, 
 and though doubtless he was, by means of sore 
 affliction, re-established in the favour of God 
 before his death, since he is reckoned among 
 the patterns of faith, yet what an illustratior 
 have we in this case of the wisdom of S . 
 precept, "Be not ye unequally yoked with un- 
 believers;" and of Solomon's warning, "My son, 
 keep thee from the strange woman, for she hath 
 cast down many wounded, yea, many strong 
 men have been slain by her." 
 
 See, on the other hand, the salutary influence 
 of a wise and pious woman in the example of 
 the mother of Samson. By her strong faith 
 and enlightened piety, she guarded the mind 
 and reassured the heart of her husband in an 
 hour of fear and despondency. By her strict 
 attention to the Divine directions in regard to the 
 education of her son, she secured for him the 
 blessing of God, and brought him up to be a 
 worker of mighty deliverances for her oppressed 
 people. Wives and mothers, walk in her holy 
 steps, and learn from her conduct what a 
 comfort and support your prudence and piety
 
 SAMSON'S MOTHER. 23 
 
 may afford your partners in seasons of darkness 
 and perplexity, and how much you may advance 
 the usefulness and happiness of your children, 
 by dedicating them early to God, and carefully 
 bringing them up " in the nurture and admoni- 
 tion of the Lord."
 
 SERMON II. 
 
 NAOMI. 
 
 RUTH i. 1, 2. 
 
 " Now it caine to pass in the days when the judges ruled, 
 that there was a famine in the land. And a certain man of 
 Beth-lehem-judah went to sojourn in the country of Moab, 
 he, and his wife, and his two sons. And the name of the man 
 was Elimelech, and the name of his wife Naomi." 
 
 NAOMI, whose instructive life we propose now 
 to consider, is the first female mentioned in the 
 interesting book of Ruth. That book is to be 
 regarded as an appendix to the book of Judges, 
 and not a continuation of the Scripture history. 
 It relates events, which, according to the best 
 chronologers, took place long before the times 
 of Samson or Jephthah, the periods referred to 
 in our last and two preceding discourses ; but, 
 as it is placed in our Bibles between the books 
 of Judges and Samuel, I have followed that 
 order in laying its contents before you, as more 
 simple, and less perplexing to the memory and 
 comprehension of the generality of hearers. 
 There is, also, a fitness in appending its history
 
 NAOMI. 25 
 
 to rather than inserting it in that of the Judges, 
 from the circumstance of its concluding with 
 the genealogy of David, whose celebrated life is 
 narrated in the succeeding books of Samuel. 
 It was written, according to some, by Ezra; 
 according to others, by Hezekiah ; but most 
 probably by Samuel, or the author of the books 
 called after his name : and it is a very important 
 record, as exhibiting the descent of David, who 
 according to the flesh was forefather to the 
 Messiah, from Judah, the fourth son of Jacob ; 
 and demonstrating the fulfilment of the remark- 
 able prophecy of dying Israel, "the sceptre 
 shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver 
 from between his feet, until Shiloh come ; and 
 unto him shall the gathering of the people be." 
 While Josephus would refer the events re- 
 corded in this book to the time when Eli judged 
 Israel, and others to those of Gideon, or Abime- 
 lech, and others to a date as early as that of 
 Ehud, who delivered Israel by killing Eglon, 
 king of Moab, the most probable period of their 
 occurrence, according to the generally approved 
 chronology, is the time of Shamgar, who re- 
 pelled the incursions of the Philistines ; or just 
 before the memorable defeat and death of Sisera 
 by Deborah, Barak, and Jael. It was a period 
 of great desolation for the chosen race, as we 
 have shown in former discourses. Their sin 
 against God had converted the land, which once 
 flowed with milk and honey, into a dry and 
 
 SECOND SERIES. C
 
 26 NAOMI. 
 
 barren land, and rendered it no longer desirable 
 as a country to dwell in. The judgment of 
 Jehovah had fallen upon his backsliding people; 
 and had either caused the harvest to fail, or 
 permitted the Philistines, or the Canaanites to 
 plunder the country, and appropriate to them- 
 selves its fruitful produce ; and the consequence 
 was a sore " famine in the land," which induced 
 some of the inhabitants to quit their homes, and 
 to seek sustenance for themselves by settling 
 among foreign and heathen nations. Among 
 these emigrants was a man of Bethlehem Judah. 
 Elimelech by name, with his wife, Naomi, and 
 their two sons, Mahlon and Chilion. There is 
 a prophetic signification in the names of most of 
 the remarkable characters recorded in Scripture, 
 and that appears to have been the case with the 
 names of these parents, and their children. The 
 names of the father, Elimelech, God is my king. 
 and of the mother, Naomi, pleasant, happy, in- 
 dicate Divine favour and worldly prosperity. 
 The names of the sons, Mahlon, signifying 
 weakness, sickness, and Chilion, meaning con- 
 sumption, decay, imply the very reverse of 
 health and comfort. Perhaps they were respec- 
 tively given them by the suggestion of the Holy 
 Spirit, to indicate the mournful contrast between 
 the once flourishing condition of the hopeful 
 pair, and the subsequent sore adversity and 
 blighting desolation of the family. The father 
 is supposed to have been brother to that Salmon,
 
 NAOMI. 27 
 
 who married Rahab, and who was the son of 
 Nashon, a prince of the children of Judah ; and 
 Naomi is supposed to have been his niece ; and, 
 consequently, they were nearly connected with 
 the highest families of the land. How greatly, 
 then, must they have been reduced in circum- 
 stances, when they were compelled, by the 
 dreaded wantof the necessaries of life, to quit their 
 homes, and seek a more comfortable subsistence 
 in a foreign land ! How fleeting often is worldly 
 prosperity ! How frail is high connexion, when 
 the Almighty frowns ! How perishable is worldly 
 wealth, when the Disposer of all withdraws his 
 blessing ! How weak are all earthly supports, 
 when He dries up the streams of consolation ! 
 " Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom ; 
 neither let the mighty glory in his might ; let 
 not the rich man glory in his riches : but let 
 him that glorieth glory in this, that he under- 
 standeth and knoweth me, saith the Lord." 
 
 The visitation of famine, which at this time 
 afflicted the land of Canaan, had been distinctly 
 declared in the law of Moses to be one of the 
 judgments of God against the workers of 
 iniquity. " If ye will not hearken unto me/' 
 saith Jehovah in Leviticus ', " and will not do 
 all my commandments, your strength shall be 
 spent in vain, for your land shall not yield her 
 increase ; neither shall the trees of the land yield 
 
 1 Chap. xxvi. 14. 20. 
 
 c 2
 
 28 NAOMI. 
 
 their fruits." It was one of the arrows, which 
 He selected out of his quiver for the punishment 
 of David's sin in numbering the people of Israel, 
 and so dreadful was the havoc which it was 
 known to make, when let fly upon a land, that 
 the distressed and perplexed monarch depre- 
 cated it as much as the edge of the all-conquer- 
 ing sword, and preferred to either, that the 
 plague should be let loose upon the length and 
 breadth of his kingdom. It was a weapon 
 so keen, and penetrating, and all-pervading, that 
 it reached even the vicinity and village of 
 Bethlehem, the very meaning of which is the 
 house of bread. Not only was the land, which 
 once flowed with milk and honey, become gene- 
 rally barren by reason of the sin of its inhabitants, 
 but even its most fruitful region, and best fur- 
 nished storehouse, had been exhausted. Let our 
 own nation beware of provoking the wrath of 
 God, by backsliding from the way of his com- 
 mandments. Like the Israelites of old, the lot 
 of our inheritance has been cast in pleasant 
 places. We have been blessed with a prosperity 
 beyond any people on the face of the earth. 
 Victory in war has been ours. Pre-eminence 
 in commerce, literature, and arts has been ours. 
 The possession of civil liberty and religious 
 freedom has been ours. Exemption from the 
 sword, the pestilence, and the famine for ages 
 has been ours. And these blessings, with in- 
 significant exceptions, have abounded in our
 
 NAOMI. 29 
 
 land, chiefly from the period when we came out 
 of the bondage of popish superstitions, galling 
 as the bondage of Egypt, and when we passed 
 into the purer atmosphere of reformed and pro- 
 testant Christianity. If we return to the idola- 
 tries of a corrupt faith if we backslide to the 
 wretched darkness of the middle ages, from 
 which our Moseses, and Joshuas, and Baraks, 
 and Samsons, the immortal champions of our 
 Reformation, emancipated us, then let us pre- 
 pare for the pestilence, and the sword, and the 
 famine, which were the almost inseparable con- 
 comitants of those wretched times. Let us not 
 vainly look at our present prosperity, and con- 
 fide in our position as at the head of all nations, 
 and, thinking such apprehensions groundless, 
 imagine our mountain to be so strong that it 
 cannot be moved at any time. Be assured that 
 the Gospel alone is the ark of our strength, 
 and if we despise it, or substitute hay and 
 stubble for its pure gold, the glory will depart 
 from our country. Not only is there an almost 
 necessary connexion between national purity 
 and vitality of religion, and national enjoyment 
 of temporal prosperity ; but we may most rea- 
 sonably fear the infliction of divine judgments 
 for the disregard of such dear-bought blessings ; 
 and flourishing as we may be now, we shall 
 find Him able and ready, as of old, to vindicate 
 the truth of his word ; " He turneth rivers into 
 a wilderness, and the water-springs into a dry 
 c 3
 
 30 NAOMI. 
 
 ground ; a fruitful land into barrenness, for the 
 wickedness of them that dwell therein." 
 
 We may well suppose that Naomi felt as a 
 great affliction, the necessity of quitting the 
 land of her birth, and of going into a foreign 
 and heathen country. This necessity was pro- 
 bably imposed by the will of her husband, 
 whom she would not disobey, rather than by an 
 immediate and absolute pressure of circum- 
 stances ; for we infer from the subsequent part 
 of the history, that Elimelech was influenced, 
 rather by the fear than by the actual experience 
 of destitution. He seems to have lost all confi- 
 dence in the resources of the promised land, and 
 he hastened prematurely away into a region of 
 heathens and idolaters. We may imagine 
 Naomi to have remonstrated against this rash- 
 ness and precipitation. There was no precedent 
 for such a step. Abraham, and Isaac, and 
 Jacob had indeed left Canaan for Egypt under 
 the pressure of famine. But they were des- 
 tined to be strangers and pilgrims on the earth, 
 without any fixed habitation. It was not so 
 with their descendants, when Jehovah had driven 
 out the Canaanites before them, and given them 
 their land for an everlasting possession. There 
 therefore it was their duty to abide as long as 
 they were not driven away by irresistible vio- 
 lence or uncontrollable necessity. There was 
 the ark of the covenant ; there was the taber- 
 nacle of worship ; there was to be expected the
 
 NAOMI. 31 
 
 fulfilment of the great and glorious promises 
 made to the chosen race. To quit the scene of 
 so many solemn injunctions, sacred associations, 
 and bright anticipations, was like going out of 
 the true Church, and apostatizing from the God 
 of Israel. When Elimelech determined upon 
 the step, though Naomi did not feel it to be her 
 duty to refuse accompanying her husband and 
 her sons, yet her tender aad pious heart might 
 well be apprehensive of the worst consequences, 
 for they were about to go, not from one tribe to 
 another, not from one part of her native country 
 to another province of the same, but from the 
 land of Canaan to the land of the Moabites, from 
 the inheritance of the Israelites to the habitation 
 of heathens, from the place where Jehovah had 
 fixed his residence and name, to a region of 
 abominable superstitions and idolatries. When 
 men, from motives of gain or advancement in 
 the world, or from distrustful fears of poverty 
 and distress, quit the Church of God, and depart 
 from the communion of the saints and the 
 society of the pious, and associate with godless 
 companions, and link themselves with worldly 
 and unprincipled connexions ; let them fear the 
 worst from their short-sighted wisdom, and let 
 them be assured that they will one day be com- 
 pelled in bitterness to confess, " I have sinned, 
 and perverted that which is right, and it pro- 
 fited me nothing." 
 
 The gloomiest forebodings that Naomi might 
 c 4
 
 32 NAOMI. 
 
 have entertained were mournfully realized, as 
 we shall learn, if we pursue the history of the 
 family into the land of Moab. It was a trial to 
 a pious mind to be separated from the commu- 
 nion of the people of God, and to be com- 
 pelled to hold intercourse with a people who 
 worshipped false gods. It was a trial to any 
 mind to quit country, friends, connexions, and 
 scenes interwoven with the dearest recollections 
 and associations of the heart and memory. But, 
 although compelled to leave the land of her 
 birth, yet it may be said, that she carried her 
 home with her. It is not a house, or a street, 
 or a locality, that constitutes a home. It is the 
 presence of those whom we value most on earth. 
 Naomi, though in a strange land, enjoyed the 
 company of such, for she had a husband and 
 two sons, and though in the midst of idolaters, 
 she could with these dear members of her 
 family, lift up her heart in prayer and praise to 
 the throne of the true God. The little family 
 was a little Church in the desert of sin, a little 
 spiritual oasis in the wild and desolate wilder- 
 ness, and all its several members must in con- 
 sequence of this spiritual isolation have become 
 more than ever all in all to one another. How 
 dear to Naomi's heart, in such a case, must have 
 been the lives of her husband and her two sons ! 
 How incalculably enhanced in value, if possible, 
 beyond what they had been when living among 
 her countrymen and co-religionists ! Oh ! if there
 
 NAOMI. 33 
 
 was a prayer that escaped her lips for temporal 
 blessings more fervent, more earnest, more 
 importunate than another, it was that those 
 precious lives might be spared. If there was a 
 calamity which she deprecated beyond any other 
 on earth, it was the departure of those beloved 
 ones before herself into another world. But, 
 alas ! that which she would have most avoided 
 overtook her, and she could say with Job in his 
 affliction, "The thing which I greatly feared is 
 come upon me, and that which I was afraid of 
 is come unto me." One of the small commu- 
 nity, and that the chief staff of its support, is 
 called away. "Elimelech, Naomi's husband, died, 
 and she was left with her two sons." We know 
 not exactly how soon this took place after the 
 commencement of their residence in Moab. It 
 does not appear to have been many years. It 
 was, then, as we have already intimated, a very 
 short-sighted wisdom in Elimelech to leave his 
 country on account of a temporary pressure, and 
 to forego the invaluable privileges of the com- 
 monwealth of Israel, for the sake of advancing 
 his worldly interests. It would appear that he 
 died prematurely and unexpectedly, and left his 
 wife and children in a far worse condition than 
 when he quitted the land of Canaan. And is not 
 his case a type of many in the present day ? 
 Under the pretence of providing for those that 
 are dear unto him, but really from a spirit of 
 discontent with his present inferior condition. 
 c 5
 
 34 NAOMI. 
 
 and from an unhallowed ambition to attain a 
 higher than Providence has allotted him, a man 
 will devote himself to this world without refer- 
 ence to another, and in the keen and eager pur- 
 suit of wealth make shipwreck of faith and good 
 conscience, and, after all, gain not one of the 
 objects he laboured to accomplish, but cause by 
 his reckless worldliness many a -pang to con- 
 scientious members of his family while living, 
 and being cut off in the midst of his career, and 
 all his thoughts perishing, leave them suddenly 
 without provision or protection in a hard- 
 hearted and unpitying world. " Go to now, ye 
 that say, To-day or to-morrow we will go into 
 such a city, and continue there a year, and buy 
 and sell and get gain. Whereas ye know not 
 what shall be on the morrow. For what is your 
 life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a 
 little time, and then vanisheth away." 
 
 Naomi is now a widow ; a condition, which is 
 set forth in Scripture as calling for peculiar 
 compassion, and repeatedly represented as having 
 attracted the especial commiseration of Jehovah 
 and of his most eminent servants. Moses and 
 the prophets of the Old Testament recommend 
 it to our consideration. Elijah was so moved 
 with pity at the desolation of a widow of Sarepta, 
 that he raised her son from death to life. Eli- 
 sha was so moved with pity at the desolation 
 of a widow of Shunem, that he performed the 
 same office in her behalf. , ,,ho was
 
 NAOMI. 35 
 
 greater than any prophet, felt a similar sympa- 
 thy for the sad bereavement of a widow of Nain, 
 when He met the funeral procession that was 
 conveying the body of her son to its last earthly 
 resting-place. Addressing to her the touching 
 consolation "weep not," and placing his hand 
 upon the bier, he said, "Young man, I say unto 
 thee, arise. And he that was dead sat up, and 
 began to speak. And he delivered him to his 
 mother." To regard the widow's affliction is by 
 St. James specified as an essential part of pure 
 and undefiled religion. To have caused her 
 heart to sing for joy was Job's comfort in his 
 deepest affliction. Yea, the Almighty himself 
 has declared himself to be her especial guardian 
 according to the words of the Psalmist, "A 
 father of the fatherless, and a judge of the 
 widows, is God in his holy habitation." Naomi 
 then was now reduced to a condition, which \c 
 M . recognizes as peculiarly pitiable. 
 It was aggravated by the circumstance of being 
 far away from brothers, sisters, and dear rela- 
 tives among her own people. It was as yet, 
 however, far from being inconsolable. She had 
 two sons, who, if not already arrived, she hoped 
 soon to see arrived, at man's estate. To them 
 she turned her eyes with fond affection, as the 
 pledges of her husband's love, and the dear 
 tokens of departed happiness. To them she 
 looked forward as the solace of her remaining 
 life, and the props of her declining age. With 
 c 6
 
 36 NAOMI. 
 
 them she hoped one day to return to Zion, and 
 to appear again in the " amiable tabernacles of 
 the Lord of hosts." Them she loved to think 
 she should one day behold as the heads of flou- 
 rishing houses in Israel. But, alas ! she was 
 doomed to disappointment in regard to them. 
 Instead of keeping themselves aloof from the 
 surrounding idolaters, and preparing at the first 
 opportunity to revisit the homes of their fathers 
 and join the worshippers of Jehovah, they formed 
 matrimonial connexions with the daughters of 
 the land, "and they took them wives of the 
 women of Moab," of whom the name of the one 
 was Orpah, and the name of the other Ruth. 
 This was according to some contrary to the 
 decree of God. It was certainly a practice dis- 
 countenanced by the inspired writers, and disap- 
 proved of by pious parents in Israel. The 
 corruption of the antediluvian ( ', and the 
 degeneracy of the antediluvian race, are ascribed 
 to the intermarriage of the sons of God with the 
 daughters of men. Abraham made his servant 
 swear a solemn oath, that he would not "take 
 a wife unto his son of the daughters of the 
 Canaanites, but go for this purpose unto his 
 own country and to his own kindred." Rebekah 
 complained, that she was weary of her life, 
 because of the daughters of Heth, whom Esau 
 had married, and expressed a most earnest wish 
 that Jacob would abstain from such alliances, 
 and marry one of his own relations. Samson's
 
 NAOMI. 37 
 
 father and mother lamented their son's choice, 
 when he declared his intention to marry a 
 woman of Timnath, and regretfully remonstrated 
 with him, saying, "Is there never a woman 
 among the daughters of thy brethren, or among 
 all thy people, that thou goest to take a wife of 
 the uncircumcised Philistines?" Deep, then, 
 must have been the grief of the pious Naomi to 
 find her two sons, her only hope in the world, 
 determined to unite themselves in marriage 
 with two Gentile women, accustomed to pagan 
 worship, attached to a pagan country, and pos- 
 sessed with pagan prejudices, and pagan predi- 
 lections. The prospect presented by such an 
 alliance must have been gloomy in many ways. 
 The hearts of her sons might become so linked 
 with these foreign connexions, that they would 
 never return to their native land. Their souls 
 might become so corrupted by so intimate a 
 union with those who had been brought up in 
 the abominations of idolatry, that they would 
 entirely forget their allegiance to the God of 
 Israel. Oh, it was a sad contemplation for a 
 pious mother! But, alas! what other result was 
 reasonably to have been expected from the un- 
 wise step of their father, in taking up his 
 residence among heathens, and consequently 
 bringing his sons into the society of idolatrous 
 women? Let parents beware of sacrificing the 
 spiritual interests of their children to the hopes 
 of worldly advancement, and remember that
 
 38 NAOMI. 
 
 nothing can alter or invalidate the apostolic 
 quotation " Evil communications corrupt good 
 manners," nor the wise man's truthful declara- 
 tion, " He that walketh with wise men shall be 
 wise, but a companion of fools shall be de- 
 stroyed." 
 
 Troubles upon troubles accumulated on the 
 head of Naomi as years passed away. It was 
 sad to leave her native land for a land of 
 strangers. It was grievous to be surrounded 
 by heathens and idolaters. It was dreadful to 
 be left a widow under such circumstances. It 
 was a melancholy prospect for an Israelitish 
 mother to see both her sons connect themselves 
 with pagan families; which might have the 
 effect of winning their hearts alike from their 
 country and their God. But still she had hopes 
 of them : she derived consolation from their 
 presence: they were in the land of the living: 
 they might prosper in the world : they might 
 hold fast to their faith in the midst of unfavour- 
 able associations: they might, as better times 
 returned, revisit Canaan and spend the remain- 
 der of their days in the land of Judah and 
 within the commonwealth of Israel. But, alas ! 
 even this prospect was destined to be blighted. 
 After the lapse of ten years from their arrival in 
 Moab, or perhaps from their marriage, Mahlon 
 and Chilion died also, both of them ; and " the 
 woman was left of her two sons and her hus- 
 band." Wave after wave of affliction had broken
 
 NAOMI. 39 
 
 over her before, and she had been able to sus- 
 tain the shock. But this stormy billow shat- 
 tered her last earthly hopes, and overwhelmed 
 her in the fathomless ocean of despair 
 despair we mean of any chance of happiness 
 or comfort in the land she dwelt in. Like 
 Noah's dove flying over the unbroken waste of 
 waters, she could now discover not one green 
 spot in Moab whereon to rest the sole of her 
 foot. What remained for her, then, but to 
 betake herself to the country of her own kindred 
 and her own people ? It appears, however, that 
 her amiable temper and fervent piety had won 
 the deep attachment of the Moabitish women 
 who had married her sons. They would not 
 allow her to commence her journey to her 
 native land alone. They accompanied her, 
 as it would appear, without thought of partings 
 to the extreme borders of their own country. 
 And even there, both were very reluctant, and 
 one of them absolutely refused to separate from 
 their beloved mother-in-law. When she at last 
 counselled them to return, each to her own 
 mother's house when she pronounced upon 
 them her most hearty benediction, and prayed 
 that the Lord would deal kindly with them, as 
 they had dealt kindly with the dead and her 
 when she expressed on their behalf the disinter- 
 ested wish that they might form more prosper- 
 ous connexions than her own shortlived and 
 afflicted sons had proved when she sealed her
 
 40 NAOMI. 
 
 undying affection for them by the kiss of peace 
 and farewell she recalled the memory of their 
 wedded love, opened afresh the fountains of 
 their grief for their dear departed ones, and 
 knit their hearts more closely than ever to the 
 only living memorial of those they had lost, 
 "and they lift up their voice and wept. And 
 they said unto her, Surely we will return with 
 thee unto thy people." Naomi, though loth to 
 part with them, remonstrated strongly against 
 this resolution, on the ground of its temporal 
 disadvantage to them. She endeavoured in the 
 most disinterested manner to convince them 
 that she saw no prospect of earthly prosperity 
 for them in her own country and among her own 
 connexions. She lamented much the afflictive 
 dispensation, which had caused their union with 
 her sons, to issue so prematurely and so disas- 
 trously, but declared her opinion that, under 
 the circumstances which it had pleased Provi- 
 dence to ordain, the most prudent step they 
 could take was to return to the land of their 
 birth and the home of their childhood. It was 
 a hard and perplexing case it was to make a 
 choice between fond attachment and worldly 
 wisdom yea, more, between true religion and 
 earthly comforts ; and we wonder not that " they 
 lift up their voice and wept again." 
 
 The result, however, was different with the 
 two daughters-in-law, which result we hope to 
 consider at large in our next discourse, Orpah
 
 NAOMI. 41 
 
 being persuaded to return to her own peo- 
 ple, and Ruth determining to cast her lot 
 with her mother-in-law and to cleave to 
 her and her nation. With the latter, Naomi 
 proceeds to Bethlehem, and takes up her abode 
 in the place of her former habitation. Her 
 arrival after so long an absence created a great 
 sensation in the city. Her reduced circum- 
 stances, her bereaved condition, her altered 
 mien, her faded beauty, increased the interest 
 which her reappearance excited, and induced 
 her old acquaintances to ask with wonder and 
 with pity, "Is this Naomi?" Is this she, whose 
 person and prosperity once so happily corres- 
 ponded with her name, the beautiful, the blessed 
 one ? Is this the wife of the once affluent, but 
 too ambitious Elimelech? Is this she, whose 
 personal attractions were universally admired, 
 and whose benevolent heart and bountiful 
 hand scattered blessings all around? This 
 stricken deer, this withered form, this destitute 
 pilgrim, this desolate widow, is this Naomi? 
 " Oh," replied she, " utter not again that word. 
 It awakens too many sad remembrances in this 
 sorrow-deluged heart. Call me not Naomi." 
 The bloom of former happiness is all gone, and 
 nothing is left but the sere leaf. The rose is all 
 withered, and nothing remains but the hard 
 and prickly thorn. " Call me Mara now," 
 which signifies bitterness, "for very bitter is 
 my unhappy lot." " I went out full, and the
 
 42 NAOMI. 
 
 Lord hath brought me home empty." I went 
 out with comparative comfort and with hope, 
 but I return in desolation and despondency. I 
 went out with a dear partner and two beloved 
 sons, but they are all gone from the land of the 
 living, and, behold, I am left alone. Why, 
 then, pronounce a word, which recalls joys de- 
 parted never to return, of which the remem- 
 brance is now so bitter ? " Why call ye me 
 Naomi, seeing the Lord hath testified against 
 me, and the Almighty hath afflicted me ?" 
 
 Among the many lessons presented by this 
 instructive history, learn, first, from the change 
 in the circumstances of Naomi's husband, not to 
 trust in the uncertain possessions of this world. 
 You may now be wealthy and respectable 
 among your neighbours and acquaintances. A 
 few years, or months, may reduce you to a con- 
 dition of discomfort, if not of poverty and in- 
 digence. Remember, it is not the contriving 
 head, or the toiling hand, but it is the Lord that 
 maketh rich and maketh poor, and lifteth up and 
 casteth down. Let this remind you of the duty, 
 while ye have this world's goods, to spend them 
 in his service and to his glory, and gratefully 
 to say, with one of old, "All things come of 
 thee." 
 
 2. Learn, from the consequences of the step 
 taken by Elimelech, the peril of discontented- 
 ness and impatience under adverse circum- 
 stances. Should riches make themselves wings,
 
 NAOMI. 43 
 
 and poverty threaten to be your lot, beware of 
 rashly changing your habits and connexions. 
 Especially beware of seeking to mend your for- 
 tune by associating with the unprincipled and 
 the irreligious. However gloomy the prospect, 
 and however threatening the storm, never think 
 of having recourse to forbidden methods of 
 escape. But rather hold ye more fast than ever 
 your confidence in the promised aid of a gracious 
 God, exclaiming with the Psalmist, " My soul 
 trusteth in thee: yea, in the shadow of thy 
 wings will I make my refuge, until these calami- 
 ties be overpast." 
 
 3. Ye that are parents, surrounded with a 
 family of children, learn from this history to re- 
 flect how soon those children may be taken 
 away ; and, oh ! strive and pray, above all things, 
 that they may be the children of God tn 
 
 \ Though it may be hard to see 
 them sinking and withering away before your 
 eyes, like a flower nipped in its early bloom, 
 yet, how will your heart be lightened, and your 
 sorrow soothed, bv the thought that they are 
 fallen asleep in and by the sure and 
 
 certain hope of a. resurrection to eternal life ! 
 Bring them to '' while living, and your 
 bereaved hearts shall nave the unspeakable com- 
 fort of saying of them when departed, " Blessed 
 are the dead which die in the Lord." 
 
 4. Learn from Naomi's trials the beneficial 
 effects of affliction, and from her resolution to re-
 
 44 NAOMI. 
 
 turn to her native land the land of Jehovah's 
 worship, that the only true refuge in affliction is 
 pure and undefiled religion. All her chief calami- 
 ties befell her while in the land of idolatry and 
 darkness. All her remaining hope lay in quitting 
 the melancholy scene, and revisiting the neigh- 
 bourhood of Zion. She felt, as she confessed 
 on her return to Bethlehem, that it was the 
 Lord who had, in those dispensations, testified 
 against her, and the Almighty who had afflicted 
 her. God had been contending with her to 
 bring her to a more excellent way, even as by 
 severe discipline He compelled the prodigal to 
 arise and go to his father. Perhaps, if her hus- 
 band and sons had not died, she would have 
 spent her days in the land of Moab, and become 
 accustomed and attached to the society of those 
 who lived without God in the world. And so 
 it may be with some of you whom God visits 
 with his chastening rod. You are in danger of 
 continuing in a state of alienation, and of perish- 
 ing in your sins, and therefore God, in love to 
 your souls, takes away the desire of your eyes 
 with a stroke, and bereaves you of your children 
 or partner, or sends poverty or pain, to bring 
 you to reflection, to repentance, to a reconsider- 
 ation of your ways, and to a return unto the 
 Lord your God. My afflicted friends, seek not 
 to defeat the gracious and merciful design. Look 
 not for relief or consolation in your state of 
 distance and rebellion. But return unto the
 
 NAOMI. 45 
 
 spiritual Zion ; repair to the sanctuary of Judah; 
 cast yourself at the feet of Shiloh there ; and 
 say 
 
 - 
 
 Dcs'-pts'c not, slirewd reckoner, the God of a good 
 
 man's worship, 
 Neither let thy calculating folly gainsay the unity of 
 
 Nor scorn another's creed, although he cannot solve thy 
 
 douhts ; 
 Reason is the follower of faith, where he may not be 
 
 precursor : 
 It is written, and so we believe, waiting not for outward 
 
 proof, 
 
 Inasmuch as mysteries inscrutable are the clear preroga- 
 tives of godhead. 
 Reason hath nothing positive, faith hath nothing 
 
 doubtful ; 
 And the height of unbelieving wisdom is to question all 
 
 things. 
 When there is marvel in a doctrine, faith is joyful and 
 
 adoreth ; 
 
 But when all is clear, what place is left for faith ? 
 
 Tell me the sum of thy knowledge, is it yet assured of 
 
 anything ? 
 
 Despise not what is wonderful, when all things are won- 
 derful around thee. 
 From the multitude of like effects, thou sayest, behold 
 
 a law : 
 And the matter thou art baffled in unmaking is to thy 
 
 mind an element. 
 
 Then look abroad, I pray thee, for analogy holdeth 
 everywhere,
 
 SERMON III. 
 
 ORPAH AND RUTH. 
 
 RUTH i. 14. 
 
 " And Orpah kissed her mother-in-law ; but Ruth clave 
 unto her." 
 
 To the former clause of this sentence, the Sep- 
 tuagint translation of the Scriptures adds the 
 words, " And she returned to her own people ;" 
 and several other versions of high authority 
 contain expressions to the same effect. But, 
 even without such addition, the decision of 
 Orpah is sufficiently manifested by her return- 
 ing the valedictory salutation of Naomi. The 
 afflicted mother-in-law had given both the fare- 
 well kiss ; but after that a very interesting and 
 affecting conversation took place between them, 
 expressive of a strong determination on the part 
 of both Orpah and Ruth to accompany Naomi 
 to her own country and people. Upon hearing 
 that determination, Naomi set forth the dis- 
 couraging prospects of a temporal nature which 
 she and her resources held out, and pointed to 
 their own country and their own connexions as 
 far more likely to advance their earthly com-
 
 ORPAH AND RUTH. 47 
 
 forts and worldly prosperity. Influenced at 
 last by these considerations, Orpah kissed her 
 mother-in-law, that is, by returning the saluta- , 
 tlon, signified her acquiescence in the reasons 
 adduced for going back to Moab, but Ruth 
 withheld the token of assent, and " clave unto 
 her/' 
 
 Naomi then addresses herself to Ruth alone ; 
 and she said, " 'Behold, thy sister-in-law is gone 
 back unto her people, and unto her gods : 
 return thou after thy sister-in-law ' she is per- 
 suaded that she can be happier in her native 
 land than by proceeding with me to my 
 country. She has seen little but affliction in 
 connexion with me and mine ; and, therefore, 
 discouraged from sharing my lot any longer, 
 she is gone back unto her own people and her 
 gods. Return thou after hei^ for what canst 
 thou hope from me more than she could ?" But 
 Ruth said, " Intreat me not to leave thee, or to 
 return from following after thee; for whither 
 thou goest, I will go ; and where thou lodgest 
 I will lodge : thy people shall be my people, and 
 thy God my God. Where thou diest will I 
 die, and there will I be buried : the Lord do so 
 to me, and more also, if aught but death part 
 thee and me V J 
 
 The difference between the final resolutions 
 of these two daughters-in-law, thus particular!*- 
 detailed, was, doubtless, intended !; \y 
 
 1 See Note II.
 
 48 ORPAH AND RUTH. 
 
 to convey most important instruction ; 
 and the chief purpose of this discourse is to lay 
 the particulars of that instruction before your 
 minds. May the same Divine Spirit make it 
 profitable to your immortal souls ! 
 
 1. We observe that both Orpah and Ruth 
 appear to have been at first equally attached to 
 Naomi. They both accompanied her to the 
 very borders of Canaan. They were both alike 
 commended for their conduct as wives and 
 daughters-in-law. They both lifted up their 
 voice and wept at the thought of parting, and 
 said to Naomi, "Surely, we will return with 
 thee, and to thy people." But when she pro- 
 ceeded to describe the desolate circumstances 
 of her situation the dreary prospects before 
 them the hopelessness of deriving earthly con- 
 solation or advantage from sharing her humble 
 lot, Orpah wavered in her mind, and staggered 
 at the difficulty, and thought of her own 
 mother's more comfortable home ; and, at last, 
 determined to retrace her steps to her own 
 country, and to her own people. Behold in this 
 conduct an illustration of what our Saviour has 
 since, on more than one occasion taught, rela- 
 tive to the reluctance of the human heart to 
 abide all the consequences of true religion. 
 Orpah was like him " that receiveth the seed of 
 God's word into stony places, who heareth the 
 word, and anon with joy receiveth it : yet hath 
 he not root in himself, but dureth for awhile ;
 
 ORPAH AND RUTH. 49 
 
 for when tribulation or persecution ariseth be- 
 cause of the word, by and by he is offended." 
 
 Orpah loved Naomi : but her attachment was 
 not strong enough to encounter all the perils 
 and difficulties which her fortune might involve. 
 Many and his people to a certain 
 
 extent ; but their affections are not sufficiently 
 fixed on things above, to induce the sacrifice of 
 worldly comforts and worldly prospects for their 
 sake and the ^i. Like Agrippa, their rea- 
 son, and judgment, and conscience are favour- 
 able to the cause of truth ; but their hearts are 
 riveted to earthly joys ; and, like him, they go 
 no farther than to sav, " Almost thou per- 
 suadest me to ^ . - Let such remem- 
 
 ber* 3t. , a s warning words: "He that loveth 
 fa f ' '.nd mother more than me is no-' . .rthy 
 ot 'in. : and he that loveth son rer more 
 
 th. 1 me is not worthy vf ,ie that 
 
 tak h not i ., and followeth After me, is 
 not worthy of me." . 
 
 2. We observe that Orpah and Ruth had 
 the same opportunities of becoming acquainted 
 with the true God. They were married to two 
 Israelites : they were alike in the company, 
 and under the influence of their pious mother- 
 in-law. We cannot for a moment suppose that 
 either of them had remained ignorant of Jeho- 
 vah's incomparable superiority over Chemosh, 
 the abomination of the Moabites: they had 
 both heard, beyond a doubt, of the marvellous 
 
 SECOND SEKIES. D
 
 50 ORPAH AND RUTH. 
 
 things He had done for his people, and of the 
 exceeding great and precious promises, the 
 bright anticipations, and the eternal hopes 
 which were the privileges of the chosen race. 
 Yes : they had heard from the same lips the 
 same blessed and gracious truths. And yet 
 how different was the final result ! Orpah, 
 after receiving such valuable instruction, stum- 
 bled upon the entrance of Canaan, and returned 
 unto her people and to her gods. And is not 
 this a case of frequent occurrence in the present 
 day ? We see the same instruction given, the 
 same opportunities afforded, the same gospel 
 preached, the same means of grace, and the 
 same ordinances of religion administered to 
 men, without producing the same desirable 
 effect. While some find grace to enter the 
 spiritual Canaan, and resolve to share the lot 
 of God's people through evil report and through 
 good report, others doubt, and hesitate, and 
 stumble at the threshold of the good Shep- 
 herd's fold, and remain in the land of ; ^olatry 
 and sin. While some become . i_ >, in- 
 
 deed, and altogether, and stand immovable as 
 the rock in the pure faith ... thers, 
 
 however near they may at times seem to come 
 to the land of safety, in the hour of temptation 
 and trial fall away. The difference is not in 
 the seed, but in the soil. It was the same seed 
 that fell among the thorns and was choked 
 that fell on the wayside and was snatched up
 
 ORPAH AND RUTH. 51 
 
 by the fowls of the air that fell upon the rock 
 and withered away through lack of moisture 
 and that fell on the good ground, and brought 
 forth fruit, fifty, sixty, and a hundred fold. 
 How just, then, will be the final condemnation 
 of the unbelieving and disobedient ! How fear- 
 ful and lamentable the thought that light is 
 come into the world, and men love darkness 
 rather than light ! Pray ye, brethren, for " an 
 honest and good heart," that ye may receive 
 the word of God in the love of it, and bring 
 forth the fruit of repentance and holiness, and 
 attain unto the blessed end of everlasting life. 
 
 3. Again, Orpah and Ruth were equally the 
 subjects of sore affliction. The death of Elime- 
 lech, the head of the family, had been a cala- 
 mity to both alike. They had been bereaved 
 each of the youthful partner of her life. They 
 felt each a deep sympathy in the sorrows and 
 woes of Naomi ; and yet the chastisement did 
 not lead both to the same blessed determina- 
 tion. While it brought Ruth to Bethlehem, it 
 left Orpah in the land of Moab. Affliction in 
 itself will not, any more than the divine word, 
 work the salvation of sinners, except the heart 
 be prepared by grace to receive the lesson with 
 faith and prayer. Pharaoh felt the chastising 
 hand of God in the many calamities which 
 befell his kingdom, and even acknowledged the 
 finger of God therein ; and yet he resumed his 
 D 2
 
 52 ORPAH AND RUTH. 
 
 hardness of heart again and again, and finally 
 died in impenitence. Saul felt the chastising 
 hand of God in the successes of his enemies, 
 and the reverses his arms sustained, and even 
 confessed that God was contending with him, 
 and yet he refused to be reformed, and ended 
 his life in despair. Beware, then, of despising 
 the chastisement of the Lord. When poverty 
 comes, or sickness or death comes, and makes 
 your homes desolate, think not that it is a 
 chance which has brought about the visitation. 
 Be assured that it is an arrow from the Al- 
 mighty's quiver, winged with purposes of good 
 towards you. Receive it then with patience ; 
 receive it with an anxious desire to profit by 
 it. Pray that it may be the means of drawing 
 your hearts from things temporal to things 
 eternal of leading you from the idolatry of 
 present objects into a more excellent way, and 
 that you may be enabled by blessed experience 
 to say, " Our light affliction, which is but for a 
 moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding 
 and eternal weight of glory." 
 
 4. We find that Orpah and Ruth had been 
 equally amiable, faithful, and kind, as wives 
 and daughters-in-law. Naomi, when urging 
 them to return to their own kindred, speaks of 
 them both with the same feelings of gratitude 
 and commendation. They had both dealt 
 kindly with the dead, and they w r ere on that
 
 ORPAH AND RUTH. 53 
 
 account very dear to her heart. We have 
 reason to infer from her sons' names 2 , that 
 they were both weak and sickly, and it is pos- 
 sible that these affectionate wives had had to 
 attend to their many wants through a painful 
 and tedious illness, and to watch through many 
 weary days and sleepless nights, the sinking 
 frame, the languid eye, the pallid cheek, the 
 trembling nerve, until death at last came and 
 closed the mournful scene. A bereaved mo- 
 ther could not recall these kind attentions to 
 her dear departed ones, without being melted 
 into tears of tender gratitude towards those 
 who had been such friends and helpers in time 
 of need. Perhaps there are none of whom we 
 think more highly in this vale of tears, than 
 those who showed kindness to our beloved 
 relatives now no more. Hence Naomi seems 
 to have loved these dear partners of her lost 
 sons, with a deep and indelible affection. They 
 had both dealt kindly also with herself. Mo- 
 thers-in-law and daughters-in-law are often at 
 variance. Alas ! that in this short life, so soon 
 to end, those who are so closely knit together 
 by the bonds of kindred, should so often be 
 severed by envy, jealousy, strife, and unnatural 
 hatred. It was not so in this little family. 
 We have the willing testimony of the mother, 
 that the daughters had been to her all that she 
 
 * See Sermon on Naomi. 
 D 3
 
 54 ORPAH AND RUTH. 
 
 could have wished. Yea, they had been kind 
 to her in time of sore affliction. When she 
 lost her husband, they had helped to soothe her 
 sorrow, and to dry up her tears. When she 
 lost her sons, and the last link between her 
 and them seemed to be dissolved, they still ma- 
 nifested the same unbroken attachment. Like 
 those who have been kind to our dear departed 
 ones, we naturally retain a very thankful feel- 
 ing towards those who have shown kindness to 
 ourselves in the season of tribulation, comforted 
 us when we had no other comforters in the 
 wide world, and befriended us when we had no 
 other friends on earth. Naomi then had the 
 strongest possible reasons to speak well of 
 Orpah and Ruth, and to speak well of them 
 alike. They had both dealt kindly with the 
 dead : they had both dealt kindly with herself 
 in her adversity and in her woe ; and, there- 
 fore, she prayed the Lord, who alone could 
 reward them adequately, to bestow upon them 
 his richest blessings. Brethren, when the 
 hour of parting with near and dear relatives 
 shall come, as at last it must come to all, the 
 trial will be robbed of half its bitterness if they 
 can testify of you, as Naomi did of her two 
 daughters-in-law. If they can say of you, with 
 their last breath, you have been uniformly kind 
 to me, and to those dear relatives who died 
 before me if they can sincerely thank you and 
 heartily bless you for your dutiful, peaceable,
 
 ORPAH AND RUTH. 55 
 
 and affectionate conduct to them and theirs, 
 oh, what a balm the testimony will be to your 
 broken heart what a soothing recollection as 
 you follow them to the grave what a sweet 
 drop in the cup of sorrowful meditation as you 
 recall the memory of those who are gone ! 
 Children, remember this. Sons and daughters, 
 sons-in-law and daughters-in-law, anticipate the 
 closing scene, and be ye habitually affectionate 
 and kind to your aged parents, and in their 
 parting benediction and grateful testimony ye 
 shall receive a rich and invaluable reward. 
 
 Very lovely, and, as appears, equally lovely, 
 had been the conduct of Orpah and Ruth 
 towards Naomi. And yet, notwithstanding 
 their previous similarity of demeanour, there 
 was a very striking difference in the ultimate 
 determinations of their minds. The one bade 
 farewell to her mother-in-law and returned to 
 her country and to her gods, but the other 
 clave unto her, and accompanied her to Bethle- 
 hem. Let us now consider the conduct of 
 Ruth at this parting scene, and we shall more 
 clearly perceive the affectingly instructive dif- 
 ference between their real characters. We 
 have seen that they were equally amiable as 
 wives and daughters. They had sustained the 
 same affliction. They had possessed the same 
 opportunities of spiritual illumination. They 
 appear to have loved Naomi with the same 
 attachment. Even Orpah at first expressed 
 D 4
 
 56 ORPAH AND RUTH. 
 
 her determination to go to Bethlehem. But 
 when Naomi distinctly and particularly set 
 before her the temporal difficulties, disadvan- 
 tages, and discouragements of such a step, 
 though she had a regard for her mother-in-law, 
 she was deterred from accompanying her any 
 further, and returned to the land of idolaters. 
 
 But not so Ruth. The opportunities of ac- 
 quainting herself with the true God, had been 
 by her improved to a knowledge of the things 
 that belonged to her everlasting peace. The 
 chastising hand of the Almighty had brought 
 her to see the vanity of the idolatrous customs 
 and sinful pleasures of her own country and 
 her own people. Her attachment to her pious 
 mother-in-law was laid on a deeper and more 
 lasting foundation than the soil of earthly love. 
 From her company and converse she had re- 
 ceived light into her darkened mind she had 
 received a heavenly consolation to her broken 
 heart she had received a great and precious 
 boon, which made smooth paths for her feet 
 through the rugged soil of sin and sorrow, and 
 opened to her admiring gaze a bright and 
 blessed inheritance beyond the gloomy grave. 
 A pearl of great price had become hers through 
 the blessed means of Naomi's family, and 
 Naomi's teaching, and Naomi's afflictive trials. 
 Her heart was changed from darkness unto 
 light, and from the power of Satan unto God, 
 and all through the instrumentality of the con-
 
 ORPAH AND RUTH. 57 
 
 nexion, of which Naomi was the sole surviving 
 member. She would, therefore, sooner tear 
 her heart from her bosom, than tear herself 
 away from one, who was associated in her 
 mind with so unspeakable a gift ; and she re- 
 sisted every argument, and set at nought every 
 consideration calculated to dissuade her from 
 proceeding with Naomi, and to induce a return 
 to Moab ; and she at last put an end to the de- 
 bate by the decided expression of her firm and 
 immovable purpose in those ever memorable 
 words : " Entreat me not to leave thee, or to 
 return from following after thee ; for whither 
 thou goest I will go ; and where thou lodgest 
 I will lodge : thy people shall be my people, 
 and thy God my God : where thou diest will I 
 die, and there will I be buried. The Lord do 
 so to me, and more also, if aught but death 
 part thee and me." Here we have a blessed 
 response to the challenge of Joshua, the ser- 
 vant of God, " Choose ye this day whom ye 
 will serve." Here we have a happy imitation 
 of Israel's decision on that memorable day, 
 " God forbid that we should forsake the Lord, 
 to serve other gods. Nay; but we will serve 
 the Lord." Ruth had counted the cost, and no 
 representation of peril or difficulty could alter 
 her pious determination. Her affections were 
 irrevocably fixed on things eternal, and no ex- 
 ample of defection on the part of others could 
 incline her to draw back. " Thy sister-in- 
 D 5
 
 58 ORPAH AND RUTH. 
 
 law/' said Naomi, " is gone back to her people, 
 and gone back to her gods." Why shouldst 
 thou act differently ? Is not the example enough 
 to stagger thy resolution ? she will renew the 
 associations of her early days ere affliction had 
 yet clouded her brow. She will plunge again 
 into the amusements of her own people, which 
 she enjoyed while yet a stranger to the people 
 of God. She will return to the worship of 
 Chemosh, the God of the Moabites, and find 
 greater pleasure, and experience less self-denial 
 in the vanities of that superstition, than in the 
 pure service of the High and the Lofty One, whom 
 without holiness no man shall see. Her path 
 will be smoother and wider far than this narrow 
 and rugged one which thou proposest to tread 
 with me. Canst thou resist the influence of her 
 example ? Hast thou faith and courage to take 
 the harder, though ultimately wiser part; to 
 follow the more difficult, though eventually the 
 more excellent way ? Is thy mind made up, 
 without regard to the opinion or conduct of 
 others, without regard to the loss of pleasure 
 and profit, to "come and follow me?" O, 
 replied the firm believer, "none of these things 
 move." Cease from further efforts to dissuade 
 me from my purpose 3 , "entreat me not to 
 leave thee." Even entreaties cannot shake 
 that resolution, which thy former valuable in- 
 
 3 See Note II.
 
 ORPAH AND RUTH. 59 
 
 struction and noble conduct have been the 
 means of working within this once dark and 
 sinful heart. " Whither thou goest, I will go." 
 Though I know not the country which thou 
 art entering, yet I feel certain of being safe in 
 thy company, and I confidently rely on the 
 memorable advice and promise, " Come thou 
 with us and we will do thee good, for the Lord 
 hath spoken good concerning Israel." " Where 
 thou lodgest I will lodge." However humble 
 thy dwelling, with thee it will be better than a 
 royal abode without thee. The grace of God, of 
 which thou art a partaker, and the Divine bless- 
 ing which accompanies thee, will make an hum- 
 ble and poor cottage far more precious, than the 
 rich tents of ungodliness and the gorgeous 
 palaces* of idolatry. Thy people shall be my 
 people : yea, though they may be visited again 
 with famine and subjected to many calamities, 
 I will cast in my lot among them, for it is better 
 to suffer affliction with the people of God, 
 than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season, 
 and then to perish for ever. "Thy God shall 
 be my God." I bid an eternal farewell to the 
 gods of Moab, and renounce for ever those lying 
 vanities which once commanded my ignorant 
 allegiance. Those other lords which once had 
 a dominion over me, I abjure with all my heart, 
 and am henceforth determined to make mention 
 only of the God of Israel's name. "Where 
 
 * Some Jewish teachers have held, that Ruth was daughter 
 of Eglon, king of Moab. 
 
 D 6
 
 60 ORPAH AND RUTH. 
 
 thou diest I will die, and there will I be buried." 
 11 Oh, yes : let me die the death of the righteous, 
 and let my last end be like his." With thee 
 my spirit hopes to commune at the approach of 
 the king of terrors, and on the dark borders of 
 the sepulchre. With thee I hope to stand on 
 the right hand of the Judge of quick and dead. 
 In thy company I hope to lift up my head with 
 a multitude which no man can number, of those 
 who have come out of great tribulation to enjoy 
 the glory of ^eternity. Possessed of thy all- 
 conquering faith, I can say to death, Where is 
 thy sting ? and to the grave, Where is thy vic- 
 tory ? In communion with thee and thy people, 
 I can look at both without dismay, and my 
 departing soul shall quit this earthly tabernacle 
 in sure and certain hope of a resurrection to 
 eternal life, and of a joyful meeting again in 
 realms of endless bliss. " And therefore where 
 thou diest, will I die, and there will I be 
 buried." She completed her irrevocable deter- 
 mination by the sanction of an inviolable oath. 
 " God do so to me and more also, if aught but 
 death part thee and me." Death parts those 
 whom nothing else can part, but then the part- 
 ing is only for a time between them who belong 
 to the Israel of God. Death alone can separate 
 the true believer from the company and con- 
 verse of those who are members of 
 spiritual icre on earth. No inconveni- 
 
 ence can part him : no discouragement can part 
 him : no required self-denial can part him : no
 
 ORPAH AND RUTH. 61 
 
 disappointment in those from whom more 
 might have been hoped for can part him : no 
 apparent unkindness on the part of those who 
 were expected to be all love to one another can 
 part him. No : nothing but the dissolution of 
 this perishable frame, and the departure of the 
 free spirit into a world of eternal rest, can part 
 him, who has tasted that the Lord is precious, 
 from his servants here below : nothing in short 
 can do it but that which brings him into a more 
 bl? ^d Company still, the general assembly and 
 cl of the first-born in heaven, and to 
 
 the spirits of just men made perfect in glory. 
 And we have the secret determination of every 
 one that is truly born again, expressed in the 
 strong language of Ruth to Naomi, "God do so 
 to me and more also, if aught but death part 
 thee and me." 
 
 1. From this subject it is manifest that God 
 can bring good out of what appears at first to 
 be an unmixed evil. The union of Naomi's 
 sons with two gentile women was not according 
 to the practice of the chosen race and the dic- 
 tates of the word of God ; and it is possible, as 
 some Jewish teachers have held, that their pre- 
 mature death was a judgment upon them for 
 deviating from the hallowed customs of their 
 nation in that respect. Nevertheless, a gracious 
 God ultimately overruled the evil to the conso- 
 lation of his afflicted servant, and to the salva- 
 tion of an immortal soul. To Naomi the union
 
 62 ORPAH AND RUTH. 
 
 proved a source of consolation in the lowest 
 depths of woe, for Orpah and Ruth befriended 
 her, and solaced her, and stood by her when she 
 had no other comforter or companioin in the 
 wide world. To Ruth the connexion proved an 
 unspeakable gain, for it was the means of 
 bringing her from the condition of an alien and 
 a foreigner to that of a member of the common- 
 wealth of Israel, and of joining her ultimately 
 to the happy throng that shall come from the 
 north and from the south, from the east and 
 from the west, and sit down with Abraham and 
 Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of their God. 
 Here then is encouragement, not indeed to the 
 worldly-minded or the presumptuous hypocrite 
 who says, "Let us do evil that good may come;" 
 but to the afflicted one that is already plunged 
 in a sea of troubles. Even though these 
 troubles may have been partly owing to your 
 own want of faith, or to the errors of those who 
 were very dear unto you, yet do not despair. 
 There is a God in heaven who can even out of 
 these calamities work out unexpected and in- 
 valuable blessings. He can rule the fiercest 
 tempests, and cause the stormiest winds and 
 waves of sorrow to waft your frail bark to a 
 haven of peace and joy at last. O then "cast 
 thy burden upon the Lord, and He will sustain 
 thee," and whatever be your lot in this vale of 
 tears, learn to say with the Psalmist, " Why art 
 thou cast down, O my soul ? and why art thou
 
 ORPAH AND RUTH. 63 
 
 disquieted within me ? Hope thou in God ; for 
 I shall yet praise Him, who is the health of my 
 countenance, and my God." 
 
 2. From Naomi's conduct in setting clearly 
 before the minds of her daughters-in-law the 
 difficulties and discouragements connected with 
 her future home and prospects, we gather the 
 duty of Ministers of the Gospel fully to acquaint 
 sinners with the trials, and self-denials, and 
 present disadvantages to be expected by the 
 heirs of salvation. We find on v ,ur speak- 
 ing very plainly and unreservedly upon that 
 point. "Strait is the gate," said he on one 
 occasion, " and narrow is the way that leadeth 
 unto life, and few there be that go in thereat." 
 And on another occasion, when a man said unto 
 him, "Lord, I will follow thee whithersoever 
 thou goest," He answered in effect, Be not so 
 hasty in making the resolution : thou knowest 
 not the hardships of my lot. It is more trying 
 far than you appear to imagine ; for " the foxes 
 have holes, and the birds of the air have nests, 
 but the Son of man hath not where to lay his 
 head." That is my case, and therefore whoever 
 cometh after me must deny himself and take up 
 his cross. Those who embrace +" " m of 
 - without being prepared to encounter all 
 and to risk all for his sake to suffer scorn, and 
 contempt, and poverty, and destitution in his 
 service, will in the hour of trial, like Orpah, 
 return to their own country and to their own
 
 64 ORPAH AND RUTH. 
 
 gods. Mindful of this, we would anxiously 
 warn men against taking up a hollow and super- 
 ficial profession of religion a religion that will 
 last only during the sunshine of fashion or 
 prosperity or a religion that requires but a 
 partial renunciation of the world, the flesh, and 
 the devil or a religion that stops short of follow- 
 ing out the whole revealed will of God. " Ye 
 cannot serve the Lord/' said Joshua to assem- 
 bled Israel, wishing plainly to guard them 
 against self-deception, "ye cannot serve the 
 Lord :" and why ? " for he is a holy God ; he 
 is a jealous God ; he will not forgive your trans- 
 gressions nor your sins:" i.e. you cannot serve 
 Him acceptably unless you are pure in heart, 
 for He is a holy God ; not unless you give Him 
 your undivided homage, for He is a jealous 
 God; not unless you discontinue every evil 
 habit, for He will not forgive your transgres- 
 sions nor your sins while they are unforsaken. 
 And we <^y unto you, brethren, you cannot be 
 j indeed, while your minds are divided 
 between God and the world, and your lives 
 stained with daily transgression. Cleanse your 
 hands, therefore, ye sinners, and purify your 
 hearts, ye double-minded men ; and then shall 
 ye acceptably draw nigh unto God, and He will 
 draw nigh unto you. 
 
 3. We learn from this subject, that much 
 amiability may exist in the character without 
 any grace in the heart. Orpah was an affection-
 
 ORPAH AND RUTH. 65 
 
 ate and dutiful wife. She was a kind and atten- 
 tive and attached daughter-in-law. She sym- 
 pathized in Naomi's sorrow, and accompanied 
 her a long way towards her native home, and 
 even expressed an intention to follow her to the 
 end of her journey, and to participate in all the 
 remaining contingencies of her earthly lot. And 
 yet she stopped short of Canaan, and returned 
 to Moab. We cannot but lament that one of 
 so fair a promise should have drawn back to 
 the darkness of idolatry and heathenism. All 
 our partialities and best wishes are in favour of 
 persons displaying such qualities as hers, and 
 we grieve to think that they should come short 
 of the kingdom of heaven. We cannot help 
 loving the young men and women who appear 
 faithful to all their moral duties, faultless in the 
 eye of the world, and correct in all the relations 
 of life. Nay, it is expressly said, that our 
 blessed Saviour himself, on one occasion, loved 
 a character such as these. One came running 
 unto Him, and kneeled to Him, and said, 
 <f Good Master, what must I do to inherit eter- 
 nal life ?" And wher enumerated the com- 
 mandments, he replied, "All these have I ob- 
 served from my youth." How amiable and 
 lovely ! Respectful in approaching, and deferen- 
 tial in addressing the great Teacher, and literally 
 exact in his obedience to the moral law. And 
 yet, when .- wishing to save his soul, dis- 
 tinctly told him what he must do and endure
 
 66 ORPAH AND RUTH. 
 
 to obtain that eternal life, concerning which he 
 had inquired, he shrunk from the difficulty of 
 the enterprise. Whe . ,, out of regard to 
 
 his highest interests, said, "One thing thou 
 lackest yet: go thy way, sell whatsoever thou 
 hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have 
 treasure in heaven, and come, and take up the 
 cross and follow me. He was sad at that say- 
 ing, and went away grieved, for he had many 
 possessions." It is clear, then, that you may 
 bear a very fair and promising character before 
 men, and yet be destitute of the one thing 
 needful. Oh, what a solemn and awful thought! 
 to love and to be loved here, and to lie under 
 the curse and the wrath of God hereafter. How 
 shall we save you, my friends, both young and 
 old, from such a fearful peril ? We must pray, 
 indeed, that God will give you his grace, and 
 give you a new heart, and put a right spirit 
 within you, and " take away your heart of stone 
 and give you a heart of flesh." But we must 
 also insist upon your imitating the conduct of 
 Ruth. You must not be satisfied with a formal 
 worship, like that of idolaters, but must take 
 the true God for your God, and worship Him 
 in spirit and in truth. You must no longer 
 associate with the careless or the profane, nor 
 think of turning again to the unhallowed plea- 
 sures of a world that passeth away, but you 
 must choose God's people for your people, and 
 willingly unite in the communion of the saints.
 
 ORPAH AND RUTH. 67 
 
 You must cleave unto them until death, and 
 say from the ground of the heart, and by daily 
 practice, " Let me die the death of the righte- 
 ous, and let my last end be like his." You 
 must allow no difficulties to deter you from the 
 stedfastness of such a purpose ; and you must, 
 like Ruth, take a solemn oath of inviolable 
 attachment and eternal adherence to Jehovah 
 and his people. That oath you will have an 
 opportunity of taking in this place on the morn- 
 ing of the next Sabbath ; for the very meaning 
 of the word Sacrament is an oath of fidelity. 
 Oh, that all that hear ^rae would so devote 
 themselves to thr reasonable service, 
 
 and say, with one heart and one mind, {S Come 
 and let us henceforth join ourselves unto the 
 Lord in a perpetual covenant, that shall never 
 be forgotten." Amen.
 
 SERMON IV. 
 
 RUTH. 
 
 RUTH ii. 2, 3. 
 
 " And Ruth the Moabitess said unto Naomi, Let me now go 
 to the field, and glean ears of corn after him in whose sight 
 I shall find grace. And she said unto her, Go, my daughter. 
 And she went, and came, and gleaned in the field after the 
 reapers : and her hap was to light on a part of the field be- 
 longing unto Boaz, who was of the kindred of Elimelech." 
 
 RUTH, whose determination to cleave to her 
 mother-in-law we considered at large in our 
 last discourse, accompanied Naomi to Beth- 
 lehem. The inhabitants of that place received 
 the pilgrims with mingled feelings of surprise 
 and grief, at the havoc which affliction had 
 made in the once prosperous house of Elime- 
 lech 1 . But their sympathy seems to have ex- 
 tended no further than to expressions of pity 
 and condolence; and the prospect of temporal 
 comfort there appeared, at first, fully as gloomy 
 as Naomi had represented it to her two daugh- 
 
 1 See Sermon on Naomi.
 
 RUTH. 69 
 
 ters-in-law, when she recommended them to 
 return to the land of Moab. Ruth was obliged 
 to support herself, and probably her mother- 
 in-law also, by the fruits of her own industry. 
 The time of their arrival at Bethlehem was the 
 beginning of barley harvest 2 , and she proposed 
 to Naomi to avail herself of the opportunity 
 presented by the season of the year to obtain 
 the means of subsistence by the labour of her 
 hands. "Let me now go," said she, "to the 
 field, and glean ears of corn after him in whose 
 sight I shall find grace." 
 
 Although the manners of those times were 
 far more simple than the present, and women 
 of rank were often found engaged in pursuits 
 now considered menial, yet, we are sure that 
 this occupation of gleaning was, even in those 
 early ages, and Eastern countries, confined to 
 persons in distressed and troubled circum- 
 stances, as appears from these passages in the 
 law of Moses : " When thou beatest thine olive 
 tree, thou shalt not go over the boughs again ; 
 when thou gatherest the grapes of thy vine- 
 yard, thou shalt not glean it afterwards ; when 
 ye reap the harvest of the land, thou shalt 
 not wholly reap the corners of thy field, neither 
 shalt thou gather the gleanings of thy harvest : 
 thou shalt leave them for the poor, for the 
 stranger, for the fatherless, and for the widow," 
 
 2 About the 15th day of the month Nisan, which corresponds 
 nearly with our month of March.
 
 70 RUTH. 
 
 It appears, however, from Ruth's expression, 
 " In whose sight I shall find grace," and from 
 other expressions in this book, that the owner 
 of the land had a right to choice and exclusion 
 with regard to the individuals who should enjoy 
 these advantages. By the providence of God, 
 in which she now evidently trusted on every 
 occasion, she entered the field of one predis- 
 posed to kindness and liberality in her behalf. 
 The servant who was over the reapers, aware, 
 doubtless, of his master's sentiments, had al- 
 ready complied with her request that she might 
 " glean and gather after the reapers among the 
 sheaves." And when the master himself arrived, 
 and ascertained who she was, he confirmed the 
 permission, and enhanced its value by the most 
 encouraging language, and by the addition of 
 other marks of welcome and kindness. He 
 addressed her by the condescending and affec- 
 tionate appellation of " daughter." He told her 
 that she need not trouble herself to ask the 
 favour of any other proprietor of land, and 
 urged her to continue her industrious labours 
 within his own possessions. He charged all his 
 servants to treat her with respect and kindness. 
 She was a stranger and a foreigner: her lan- 
 guage, her dress, her general appearance were 
 probably different from those of his dependants; 
 and therefore it was the more necessary to 
 caution them against any conduct that might 
 cause her pain. How considerate and delicate
 
 RUTH. 71 
 
 a behaviour was this ! There are many who 
 mar the good effects of their charity, by for- 
 getting that the poor have feelings as well as 
 the rich. This truly generous man was as 
 careful to guard the destitute damsel against in- 
 sult, as he was to supply her with the necessaries 
 of life. He also consulted her immediate com- 
 forts, and invited her to partake of the refresh- 
 ing water provided for his own servants, which 
 was probably brought from the delicious well of 
 Bethlehem, the same which David, ages after, 
 on a memorable occasion, so earnestly longed 
 to drink of 3 , saying unto her, " When thou art 
 athirst, go unto the vessels which the young 
 men have drawn." 
 
 These words of kindness and demonstrations 
 of unusual welcome filled the poor daughter of 
 affliction with sentiments of wondering and 
 overwhelming gratitude; and she could not 
 refrain from asking the reason of a reception so 
 far beyond all that she had ventured to hope 
 for. " She fell on her face and bowed herself 
 to the ground, and said unto him, Why have I 
 found grace in thine eyes, that thou shouldst 
 take knowledge of me, seeing I am a stranger ?" 
 He answered, that he was not ignorant of her 
 history, and said unto her, " It hath been 
 fully shown me, all that thou hast done since 
 the death of thine husband : and how thou 
 
 3 2 Sam. xxiii. 15. 1 Chron. xi. 17-
 
 72 RUTH. 
 
 hast left thy father and thy mother, and the 
 land of thy nativity, and art come unto a peo- 
 ple which thou knewest not heretofore." From 
 this language it is clear, that though Naomi 
 had counselled her on prudential grounds to 
 return to Moab, like Orpah, her magnanimous 
 and self-denying conduct in following the for- 
 tunes of the desolate mother at the sacrifice of 
 early associations and domestic comforts, had 
 excited the warmest admiration of Naomi her- 
 self, and Naomi's people. This excellent man 
 had deeply appreciated a disinterested attach- 
 ment such as that, and, therefore, he added an 
 .earnest prayer that Heaven itself might abun- 
 dantly bless it. " The Lord," said he, " re- 
 compense thy work, and a full reward be given 
 thee of the Lord God of Israel, under whose 
 wings thou art come to trust." Thus, when 
 the redeemed shall stand at the right hand of 
 their chief Friend, and hear his gracious accents 
 bidding them welcome into glory and bliss, 
 and they shall fall down at his feet, lost in 
 wonder, love, and praise, at his marvellous 
 loving-kindness, so far beyond what they had 
 presumed to hope, He will say unto them, It 
 hath fully been showed me, how ye willingly 
 renounced the sinful pleasures and idolatrous 
 predilections of yonder world, to join your- 
 selves to my family and country how you 
 severed yourselves from youthful companions, 
 early friends, yea, even near relatives, because
 
 RUTH. 73 
 
 they were aliens from the commonwealth of 
 Israel, to hold sweet communion with the 
 saints of God how you left as it were your 
 father and mother and the land of your nativity, 
 and came unto a people that you knew not 
 before how you inconvenienced yourselves to 
 show kindness to the bereaved, destitute, and 
 woe-begone members of my flock in the vale of 
 tears. O think ye that I knew not or felt not 
 those self-denying works of faith, and those 
 most generous labours of love ? I was afflicted 
 in all the afflictions of those broken-hearted 
 ones, and I count all your goodness towards 
 them as a kindness bestowed upon me. I was 
 in their persons hungry and ye gave me meat : 
 I was thirsty and ye gave me drink, a stranger 
 and ye took me in, sick and in prison and ye 
 visited me. And, therefore, everlasting recom- 
 penses and rewards shall be yours : and come, 
 ye blessed children of my Father, inherit the 
 kingdom prepared for you from the beginning 
 of the world." O then, who shall not strive 
 to imitate according to their circumstances and 
 opportunities the noble conduct of Ruth? 
 
 The master's subsequent conduct to the 
 grateful stranger, proved as liberal as his words 
 had been gracious. He bade her sit down and 
 eat with his own family, and helped her to food 
 with his own hand. He commanded his young 
 men to allow her greater privileges than ordi- 
 nary gleaners, saying unto them, " Let her 
 
 SECOND SERIES.
 
 74 RUTH. 
 
 glean even among the sheaves, and reproach 
 her not. And let fall also some of the hand- 
 fuls of purpose for her, and leave them, that 
 she may glean them, and rebuke her not." 
 Thus encouraged and favoured, she proceeded 
 industriously with her work throughout the 
 day, and at its close found that she had ga- 
 thered an ephah of barley. This quantity of 
 corn, 4 which was probably more than the usual 
 fruit of one day's gleaning, she carried home 
 to share it with Naomi. It appears also, 
 that, mindful of her mother-in-law's wants, she 
 brought her part of the victuals which she 
 had received in the field, as we may infer from 
 the words, " And she brought forth, and gave 
 her that she had reserved, after she was suf- 
 ficed." Naomi, surprised and delighted by 
 the successful result of her day's labour, asked 
 her where she had toiled, and before she could 
 receive an answer, blessed the man, whoever he 
 might be, that had shown so much of kindness 
 and generosity to her beloved daughter-in-law. 
 When Ruth told her that his name was Boaz, 
 and doubtless also related the particulars of the 
 conversation that had taken place between 
 them, Naomi felt doubly grateful to him for 
 having thought of the dead as well as the 
 living, and for having been influenced in his 
 generous behaviour to Ruth by a kind remem- 
 
 4 An ephah was three pecks and three pints.
 
 RUTH. 75 
 
 brance of her dear departed ones. She then 
 accounted to her daughter-in-law, in some mea- 
 sure, for the extraordinary and unexpected 
 goodness which he had displayed, by explain- 
 ing the near relationship which existed between 
 Boaz and the family of Elimelech, and advised 
 her carefully to avail herself of the kind invita- 
 tion he had given to continue gleaning in his 
 fields alone, and to persevere in working among 
 his labourers, " until they had ended all the 
 harvest." Ruth faithfully acted upon the ad- 
 vice, kept fast by the maidens of Boaz, to 
 glean unto the end of barley harvest and of 
 wheat harvest. L 
 
 whom Boaz was a type, is merciful and gra- 
 cious to the weary and heavy laden, because He 
 is their near kinsman. He assumed our nature 
 with all its pains and trials. He has been 
 experimentally afflicted in our afflictions. He 
 has been sorely assaulted by our temptations. 
 He therefore feels a sympathetic tenderness for 
 the woes and sorrows of fallen humanity, and 
 is most willing to console, as He is most able to 
 succour, all that come unto Him for help. O 
 then, go unto Him in your desolation and dis- 
 tress. Say unto Him, like Ruth, " Let me find 
 favour in thy sight, my Lord," and He will feed 
 you with the bread of life, and refresh you with 
 the streams of salvation, and cause you to go 
 on your way rejoicing. Be advised to continue 
 among his people, like Ruth, throughout the 
 E 2
 
 76 RUTH. 
 
 barley harvest and the wheat harvest. Through 
 every season, through youth, through man- 
 hood, and through old age, seek not to increase 
 your happiness out of the Good Shepherd's 
 fold, but be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always 
 abounding in the works of the Lord ; and when 
 the harvest of probation is past, and the sum- 
 mer of life is ended, you shall enter into that 
 blessed rest which remaineth for the people of 
 God. 
 
 To proceed with the history of Ruth : it was 
 one of the provisions of the Levitical law, that 
 the brother or nearest kinsman 5 of a deceased 
 husband should marry his widow, and that her 
 first-born son, after such a marriage, should 
 succeed to the name of her first husband, " that 
 his name should not be put out in Israel." 
 Now Naomi deemed it right that her widowed 
 daughter should avail herself of the privilege to 
 which she was entitled by this enactment. 
 She imagined that Boaz stood the nearest in 
 that relation, and was encouraged by his kind- 
 ness already showed to Ruth to hope that he 
 would do the kinsman's part according to the 
 letter of the law. She therefore advised Ruth 
 to go and assert this claim. There was no- 
 thing unusual in such an assertion. It was 
 
 5 The letter of the law (Deut. xxv. 5.) seems to have re- 
 quired this only of brothers, but custom probably extended 
 the obligation afterwards to relatives, especially those who 
 were heirs-at-law to he deceased.
 
 RUTH. 77 
 
 customary in Israel for widows so to do, 
 though the manner of doing so on this oc- 
 casion might not be free from objection. By 
 some the conduct of Naomi, in dictating that 
 manner of obtaining justice for her daughter-in- 
 law is strongly censured, since we must beware 
 not only of doing evil, but of risking evil, that 
 good may come. By others it is contended 
 that the customs of those simple times are not 
 to be judged by the standard of the present 
 artificial and refined state of society that 
 Naomi had perfect confidence in the high 
 characters both of Ruth and Boaz that the 
 claim would be more likely to succeed with a 
 man of Boaz's generous nature, if made in a 
 private, than if preferred in a more open and 
 public manner and that, therefore, apprehend- 
 ing no evil consequences from the step she 
 advised, she recommended it as the most likely 
 to secure for her excellent daughter-in-law the 
 temporal blessings which would arise from a 
 union with Boaz, and which she had a legal 
 right to aspire to. But however correct the 
 motives of Naomi, and however equitable the 
 claims of Ruth, it appears from the language 
 and conduct of Boaz himself, that the counsel of 
 the mother to the daughter on this occasion so 
 far as the manner of proceeding was concerned, 
 was to a certain extent censurable, and incapa- 
 ble of being altogether justified, whence you 
 may learn that you must guard against claiming 
 E 3
 
 78 RUTH. 
 
 or doing that which is true and just in a man- 
 ner calculated to excite suspicions of your in- 
 tegrity and holiness. Exactly to the same 
 effect the Apostle exhorts, "Avoid all appear- 
 ance of evil," and " let not your good be evil 
 spoken of." 
 
 Boaz, however, did not, like a proud and 
 hard-hearted man seeking an excuse for neglect- 
 ing a poor relation, make the injudicious mode 
 in which the claim had been made, a ground 
 for rejecting the claim altogether. On the 
 contrary, he spoke graciously to her as he had 
 done the day he first saw her in the field, praised 
 her virtuous, generous, and exemplary conduct, 
 and promised to do all in his power to promote 
 her prosperity and happiness. He informed 
 her that she was mistaken in supposing him to 
 be the most nearly related to her deceased hus- 
 band, that there was a nearer kinsman living in 
 the city, and that under those circumstances 
 it did not belong to him to marry Mahlon's 
 widow. But he added, that if that person 
 refused to comply with the directions of the law 
 upon the subject, he as the next related after 
 him would, and he confirmed that promise by a 
 solemn appeal to the Searcher of hearts. With 
 this assurance, and with a present of corn from 
 Boaz, she returned to her mother-in-law, and 
 related to her all the particulars of the interview. 
 Naomi was perfectly satisfied with the result, 
 and encouraged Ruth to wait with patient yet
 
 RUTH. 79 
 
 confident hope in Boaz's continued goodness, 
 saying, "Sit still, my daughter, until thou know 
 how the matter will fall : for the man will not 
 bein rest until he have finished the thing this 
 day." Excellent advice this, founded on the 
 best possible ground, the general character of 
 Boaz, and his particular goodness already 
 shewed to the applicant. " Sit still," said Naomi 
 to Ruth, "and see how the matter will turn out." 
 She had done her duty in making her claim as 
 directed by the law, aud now she was to give 
 herself no further anxiety on the subject, but 
 to leave the issue in the hands of a gracious 
 Providence. " Be careful for nothing," says the 
 apostle, " but in every thing by prayer and sup- 
 plication let your wants be made known unto 
 God." Do not suffer yourselves to be distracted 
 by cares and anxieties about the future. Having 
 done what you could for the best, and having 
 solicited the Divine blessing on your efforts, 
 quietly wait the event whatever it may be. Ruth 
 was encouraged so to do from the known 
 character of Boaz. Even so, ever} ', 
 may confidently rely upon Him who has done 
 so much for sinful men. See how good and 
 condescending He has already been. He has 
 visited you in your low estate. He has encou- 
 raged you by words of welcome and consolation. 
 He has invited you to his own blessed table. 
 He has made unto you exceeding great and 
 precious promises. O then let not the contin- 
 E 4
 
 SO RUTH. 
 
 gencies of this evanescent world disturb your 
 minds. " Cast all your care upon him, for he 
 careth for you. Cast thy burden upon the 
 Lord and he will sustain thee. He giveth 
 power to the faint ; and to them that have no 
 might he increaseth strength. Even the youths 
 shall faint and be weary, and the young men 
 shall utterly fall : But they that wait upon the 
 Lord shall renew their strength : they shall mount 
 up with wings as eagles ; they shall run and 
 not be weary; and they shall walk and not faint." 
 Boaz amply fulfilled the hopes of Naomi. 
 He embraced the first opportunity of doing jus- 
 tice to the claims of Ruth. According to the 
 directions of the law in such a case, he called 
 the nearest kinsman to a court of elders, held 
 at the gate of the city, the usual place for the 
 administration of justice, and made him ac- 
 quainted with the distressed circumstances of 
 Naomi, recently returned from the country of 
 Moab. He informed him that she had a parcel 
 of land to sell, which had probably been mort- 
 gaged by Elimelech on quitting his country for 
 the land of strangers, and the remaining value 
 of which the widow's urgent necessities com- 
 pelled her to convert into money, (or if, as some 
 suppose, it was Naomi's own jointure, the same 
 necessities required that it should now be sold). 
 He reminded him that he as the heir-at-law had 
 the first right a right established by the cus- 
 tom of the country, or conceded by the honour-
 
 KUTH. 81 
 
 able and courteous feelings of Boaz to purchase 
 that property. He asked him to come to a 
 decision upon the subject in the presence of 
 witnesses, giving him to understand, that if he 
 declined the possession he himself, as the next 
 of kin after him, would become the buyer of it. 
 Upon that person expressing his readiness to 
 redeem it, Boaz stated that one condition of 
 the sale was, that the purchaser should marry 
 the relict of Naomi's son. This condition was 
 either imposed by the Divine law, or established 
 by the custom of the country, or insisted upon 
 by the mother as an indispensable part of the 
 contract. The nearest kinsman on receiving 
 this information declined the engagement, as- 
 signing as a reason, "lest he should mar his 
 own inheritance/' Some suppose that he was 
 already a husband, and that although the law of 
 Moses did not absolutely forbid a multiplicity 
 of wives, he wisely feared the introduction by 
 such a step of strife and contention into his 
 family, which would have the effect of marring 
 the comfort, peace and happiness of his house. 
 Others are of opinion that he apprehended the 
 additional burden which such a marriage would 
 impose, would be more than proportionable to 
 the additional property it would bring, and 
 that he dreaded lest the division of his property 
 among a greater number of children should 
 lower the rank and consequence of his posterity, 
 and mar the respectability of those who should 
 E 5
 
 82 RUTH. 
 
 inherit his possessions. Or he might be un- 
 willing that his own name should be merged or 
 lost in his whose widow he married. Whatever 
 was the precise reason for his refusal, we are 
 rather inclined to think it was a reason which 
 was satisfactory to the court of elders, and 
 which reflected upon him no personal discredit, 
 since he was spared the contemptuous treat- 
 ment which the rigid letter of the law prescribed 
 in such a case 6 . Boaz, upon hearing the de- 
 cision of the nearest kinsman, and receiving his 
 consent to purchase the property for himself, 
 willingly entered upon the engagement, and 
 called all the people assembled to attest the 
 contract, saying, " Ye are witnesses this day 
 that I have bought all that was Elimelech's, and 
 all that was Chilion's and Mahlon's, of the 
 hand of Naomi. Moreover, Ruth the Moabi- 
 tess, the wife of Mahlon, have I purchased to 
 be my wife, to raise up the name of the dead 
 upon his inheritance, that the name of the dead 
 be not cut off from among his brethren, and 
 from the gate of his place : ye are witnesses this 
 day." We cannot be said to strain the mean- 
 ing of Scripture, when we hold out this part of 
 Boaz's conduct as strikingly typical of His, who 
 became our Goel, who "did" unto us "the kins- 
 man's part" by redeeming the lost inheritance, 
 which was forfeited by our first parents' sad im- 
 
 6 Compare Ruth iv. 8. with Deut. xxv. 9.
 
 RUTH. 83 
 
 prudence and calamity in Eden. He beheld 
 our fallen race in its poverty and desolation, 
 felt towards it the yearnings of a tender com- 
 passion, and declared his purpose of adopting 
 some plan to bring it into a more prosperous 
 state. Perhaps many plans for the purpose were 
 suggested by angels and archangels in the coun- 
 cils of eternity ; but they were all found inade- 
 quate to achieve the mighty enterprise. Perhaps 
 suggestions were thrown out regarding the 
 resources of the human family itself, as capable 
 of being employed for its restoration the wis- 
 dom, the intellect, the conscientiousness, the 
 morality of some of its own members, but there 
 were not found in one of them both the willing- 
 ness and the ability to rescue it from woe. 
 "There was no one in heaven, nor in earth, 
 neither under the earth, able to open the book" 
 of human redemption, and "to loose the seals 
 thereof," save " the lion of the tribe of Juda, 
 the root of David V " And when he saw that 
 there was no man, and wondered that there was 
 no intercessor, his own arm brought salvation 
 unto him ; arid his righteousness, it sustained 
 him " in the mighty and gracious scheme. He 
 entered our family, assumed our nature, became 
 bone of our bone, and flesh of our flesh, and 
 thus stepped into the situation of a near kins- 
 man, and acquired a right to redeem us and 
 
 7 Rev. v. 3. 5. 
 E 6
 
 84 RUTH. 
 
 ours, and to improve our spiritual state and 
 eternal prospects. " He called us," according 
 to the prophet's words, " as a woman forsaken 
 and grieved in spirit, and a wife of youth, that 
 was refused "." Yea, though our father was an 
 Amorite and our mother a Hittite a parentage 
 that had apostatised from the true God though 
 we lay as it were polluted in our own blood, and 
 no eye did pity, and no hand could save us % that 
 celestial Kinsman came and said unto us, "Live 
 and dwell with me." He ventured the marring 
 of his own inheritance to give us an inheritance 
 that fadeth not away ; for though he was rich, 
 He for our sake became poor, that we through 
 his poverty might become rich. He submitted 
 to contempt and pain and contumely and death 
 and the perfection of sufferings, in order to ac- 
 complish the grand and generous design of 
 bringing many sons to glory. He declared his 
 blessed purpose by types, by prophecies, by 
 signs and by miracles. He sent forth his apos- 
 tles " to witness " it like St. Paul " to small 
 and great " and to them that were afar off and 
 to them that were near. And now He proclaims 
 to all the human family, " I have purchased you 
 to myself to raise up the name of the dead upon 
 his inheritance, and therefore awake thou that 
 sleepest and arise from the dead, and I will give 
 thee light. Come unto me and be ye saved, all 
 the ends of the earth." 
 
 8 Isaiah liv. 6. Ezek. xvi. 6.
 
 RUTH. 85 
 
 When Boaz declared his intention to marry 
 Ruth, the people appear to have expressed 
 great admiration of his noble conduct towards 
 the memory of the departed, and the affliction 
 of the living, and implored the richest blessings 
 of heaven upon him and upon his bride, saying, 
 " The Lord make the woman that is come unto 
 thine house like Rachel, and like Leah, which 
 two did build the house of Israel: and do 
 thou worthily in Ephratah, and be famous in 
 Beth-lehem." And when a son was born unto 
 them, Naomi's friends poured their congratula- 
 tions on her aged head, and blessed the Lord, 
 who had brought her out of great tribulation 
 into a condition of comfort and prosperity at 
 last, given her a child that would replace those 
 who were gone, and perpetuate her name and 
 family in Israel, and raised her up a beloved re- 
 lative that should be a restorer of her life, and 
 a nourisher of her old age. That son Naomi 
 took under her own especial care, and was 
 nursed by herself, and called by the name of 
 Obed, or servant, to indicate, as it is supposed, 
 how subservient and attentive he was to the com- 
 fort and happiness of the once afflicted grand- 
 mother during the remainder of her peaceful 
 days. Obed became the father of Jesse, who 
 was the father of David, king of Israel; from 
 whom sprang a renowned line of princes, saints, 
 and heroes. How important and wonderful,
 
 86 RUTH. 
 
 then, were the results of Ruth's happy choice, 
 when she stedfastly clave to Naomi, and said, 
 with full purpose of heart, " Thy people shall 
 be my people, and thy God shall be my God !" 
 She was not only raised to unexpected affluence 
 in her own lifetime ; she was not only enabled 
 to solace the declining years of her aged mother- 
 in-law, to whom she had manifested so tender 
 an attachment ; but she became the foremother 
 of the most celebrated characters, and the most 
 renowned personages recorded in the annals of 
 our race. From her came David, the hero-king, 
 and the hero-saint, the sweet singer of Israel, 
 and the man after God's own heart. From her 
 came Solomon, the most magnificent of mon- 
 archs, the most instructive of moral writers, and 
 the wisest of men. From her came Hezekiah, 
 at whose supplication his term of life was pro- 
 longed, and a formidable host of enemies mira- 
 culously destroyed. From her came Josiah, 
 the reformer of abuses, the exterminator of 
 idolatries, and the restorer of the pure worship 
 of Jehovah. From her, probably, came Daniel, 
 who returned unhurt from the den of fierce 
 lions ; and Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, 
 who passed unscathed through the burning 
 fiery furnace. And, above all, from her came 
 He who was higher than any earthly monarch, 
 and superior to any human teacher or prophet, 
 "greater than Solomon" "greater than Jonah"
 
 RUTH. 87 
 
 the Counsellor, the Wonderful, the Prince of 
 Peace, the Redeemer of all men, and the Saviour 
 of every one that believeth. 
 
 When we consider this last-mentioned fact, 
 the Messiah's descent from her and, as we 
 have already said, accurately to exhibit this 
 genealogy was one of the chief purposes of the 
 Holy Spirit in recording her history 1 the choice 
 of Ruth becomes invested with an importance 
 of a singularly interesting and almost 2 unrivalled 
 character. It appears to have been peculiarly 
 directed by the finger of God, not only to 
 promote the salvation of one individual, but 
 also to serve the purpose of teaching a truth of 
 universal moment ; the connexion of the Hea- 
 thens as well as the Jews with the incarnation 
 of the Son of God. By the union of Ruth the 
 Moabitess with Boaz the lineal descendant of 
 Judah, the Saviour of sinners, as touching his 
 humanity, was descended from Gentile as well 
 as from Israelitish ancestry ; and we are thereby 
 given clearly to understand that when He ap- 
 peared to bring in an everlasting righteousness, 
 the wall of partition would be broken down, 
 that the descendants of Abraham, according to 
 the flesh, were no longer to be a peculiar people 
 and to enjoy a preference of religious privileges, 
 
 1 See Sermon on Naomi. 
 
 1 The determination of Rahab in favour of the spies was of 
 a similar character. See Sermons on Rahab, First Series.
 
 88 RUTH. 
 
 but that the door of hope would be opened to 
 all nations, peoples, and tongues, that all the 
 ends of the earth should one day see the salva- 
 tion of our God, and that all the tribes of our 
 divided race should form one fold under one 
 shepherd, Jesus Christ. 
 
 Who could have foreseen such a variety of 
 blessed results from the inviolable attachment 
 and resolute piety of Ruth? A.S little, my 
 brethren, can you imagine the multifarious 
 benefits that will arise from serving the true 
 God, and cleaving to the people of God, through 
 good report, and through evil report. Godliness 
 has promise of the life that now is. I have 
 no doubt that the preponderance of real happi- 
 ness in this world is vastly in favour of Jehovah's 
 faithful servants ; and it is past all dispute 
 that none but they have any chance of happi- 
 ness in that which is to come. Oh, then, imi- 
 tate the decided conduct of Ruth, and elevation 
 and joys shall be yours, the extent and splendour 
 of which it hath never entered into the heart of 
 man to conceive. Choose the God of Israel, 
 as revealed in the volume of inspired truth, for 
 your God, and his people for your people ; and 
 even here you shall enter into rest, and joy, and 
 peace, that passeth all understanding, and 
 henceforth you shall inherit diadems of glory, 
 and drink of rivers of bliss at God's right hand 
 for evermore.
 
 SERMON V. 
 
 HANNAH. 
 
 1 SAM. i. 10. 
 
 " And she was in bitterness of soul, and prayed unto the 
 Lord, and wept sore." 
 
 THE person, whose mingled affliction and de- 
 votion are thus described, was Hannah, whose 
 life we propose now to consider. She was the 
 wife of Elkanah, a Levite, of the house of 
 Kohath. Some of the Kohathites, upon the 
 settlement of Israel in Canaan, took up their 
 residence in Ephratah, or Beth-lehem-judah ; 
 and of this branch of the Kohathites, indivi- 
 duals afterwards, from time to time, removed to 
 the neighbourhood of mount Ephraim. A 
 branch of the Kohathites had also fixed their 
 habitations near mount Ephraim, on the original 
 division of the country 1 , the Levites not having 
 been allotted a continuous tract of territory, 
 like the other tribes, but having, by Divine 
 ordinance, been dispersed throughout the coun- 
 
 1 Josh. xxi. 4,5.
 
 90 HANNAH. 
 
 try for the more convenient instruction of the 
 whole nation, whose appointed teachers they 
 were. There was, therefore, a family connexion 
 between Beth-lehem or Ephratah and the neigh- 
 bourhood of mount Ephraim, which will account 
 for the recorded removal of individual Levites 
 from the one place to the other, as that of 
 Micah's Levite mentioned in the book of 
 Judges 2 , who came from Beth-lehem to mount 
 Ephraim, and will explain the description given 
 of Elkanah's residence, and genealogy, that he 
 was a man of Ramathaim-zophim 3 , of mount 
 Ephraim, and yet, that his ancestor Zuph was 
 an Ephrathite, or a native of Beth-lehem-judah. 
 Elkanah is supposed to have lived about the 
 time of Manoah, the father of Samson, which 
 was the middle of the twelfth century before 
 our Saviour's birth. He was regularly atten- 
 tive to his religious duties, for he went at the 
 appointed times of the year to worship God at 
 Shiloh, where the ark and tabernacle had con- 
 tinued from the days of Joshua. But he had 
 departed from the original institution relating 
 to marriage, and had taken to himself two wives, 
 of whom, the name of the one was Hannah, and 
 the name of the other Peninnah. This depar- 
 ture from the ordinance of Eden, though, as we 
 have often had occasion to observe, not abso- 
 lutely forbidden by the Mosaic law, appears to 
 
 Chap. xvii. 7- 
 
 3 The Arimathea of the New Testament.
 
 HANNAH. 91 
 
 have been almost invariably attended with family 
 troubles, dissensions, and jealousies. You will 
 remember its effects in the household of Abra- 
 ham, the heart-burnings it occasioned to Sarah, 
 the arrogance and vain-glory it excited in Hagar, 
 and the final banishment of the latter with her 
 youthful son from the patriarch's opulent home 
 into the waste and barren wilderness. You will 
 remember its effects in the family of Jacob, the 
 parental partialities to which it gave rise, the 
 envy and jealousies between the children which 
 followed, the unnatural treatment of Joseph by 
 his brethren, and the cruel presentation to the 
 aged father of the coat of many colours dipped 
 in blood. Similar were the effects of polygamy 
 in the family of Elkanah ; and when we consider 
 that all such evils are traceable to a deviation 
 from the original institution of marriage as or- 
 dained by God, we are reminded of the wise 
 man's remark, " God hath made man upright, 
 but they have found out many inventions." 
 
 Hannah was, probably, his first wife ; but she 
 was debarred the blessing of children, so earn- 
 estly desired by the wives of Israel, each of 
 them hoping that from herself might descend 
 the Messiah, the King of kings. And it might 
 be with Hannah's own consent, as in the case of 
 Sarah and Hagar, that her husband was induced 
 to marry a second wife, to prevent the oblitera- 
 tion of his name in Israel; and, perhaps, in 
 hopes of his becoming an ancestor of the Mes-
 
 92 HANNAH. 
 
 siah. This other wife, as Hagar, before her 
 heart was touched by Divine grace, did unto 
 Sarah, behaved to Hannah with cruel insolence 
 and contemptuousness. She reproached her with 
 that, which she already regarded as the greatest 
 affliction, the want of children. This was most 
 ungenerous and unkind conduct, and had the 
 effect of plunging Hannah into a deep sea 
 of mental distress and anguish. If we are 
 visited by misfortune, it becomes incalculably 
 more bitter, when we find it made a ground 
 of obloquy and insulting triumph by rivals 
 and by enemies. This state of things con- 
 tinued, we know not how many years, in the 
 family of Elkanah. Notwithstanding these 
 jealousies and heartburnings in his household, 
 he did not discontinue attending the courts of 
 the Lord's house. He went up three times in 
 the year according to the law at the feasts of 
 the passover, the pentecost, and the taberna- 
 cles, to sacrifice unto the Lord at Shiloh. It 
 appears, however, that on these public occasions, 
 which ought to have been devoted to more so- 
 lemn meditations, Peninnah made an especial 
 display of her superiority over the afflicted 
 Hannah. The former could appear before the 
 Lord with a numerous train of children, while 
 the latter presented the desolate appearance of 
 one debarred from the envied honours of ma- 
 ternity. Her husband would endeavour to 
 console her despondency by peculiar marks of
 
 HANNAH. 93 
 
 affection and regard ; for while he gave to Pe- 
 ninnah and to all her sons and daughters por- 
 tions of the sacrifice which they were to partake 
 of in token of their communion with God, to 
 Hannah he gave a worthy portion, or a double 
 portion, in proof of his especial love and re- 
 spect. 4 This preference inflamed Peninnah's 
 violent temper beyond all power of control, 
 and caused her to avenge her husband's par- 
 tiality to Hannah by upbraiding her with her 
 barrenness more insultingly than before ; and 
 " she provoked her soul to make her fret be- 
 cause the Lord had shut up her womb/' She 
 would probably ask her, " Where are thy sons 
 and daughters, who are to perpetuate in Israel 
 these feasts of the Lord ? Shalt thou have a 
 double portion of the meat of a sacrifice in 
 which thou canst have comparatively but little 
 interest? And shall I, a mother of God's 
 children, be set in honour below thee, whom, 
 if all the mothers in the land had resembled, 
 this ordinance, designed for us and for our 
 posterity for evermore, had long ceased for the 
 want of persons to celebrate it. I have not 
 made the Lord's promises of none effect. See 
 how largely they have been fulfilled in these 
 many sons and daughters who surround my 
 table. Why He hath withheld them from thee 
 thou best canst tell. Doubtless thy sin hath 
 
 4 See Evans's Scrip. Biog.
 
 94 HANNAH. 
 
 herein found thee out. Thou hast committed 
 some grievous offence against the Lord, and 
 his judgment has overtaken thee, and his curse 
 has fallen upon thee." 
 
 Often had she heard some such language as 
 this, and often had she shed floods of tears 
 under the barbarous treatment, and often had 
 these reproaches interrupted her enjoyment of 
 the religious festival. Although her husband 
 said unto her on these sad occasions, " Han- 
 nah, why weepest thou ? And why eatest thou 
 not? And why is thy heart grieved? Am 
 not I better to thee than ten sons?" yet she 
 refused to be comforted. There are troubles 
 of the mind which no human counsel can 
 assuage. There are wounds of the heart which 
 neither human friendship nor human love can 
 heal. There are times when we are compelled 
 to say of all human instruments of solace and 
 support, " Miserable comforters are ye all." 
 Hannah felt this, and while, doubtless, she was 
 grateful for her husband's kind solicitude in 
 endeavouring to cheer her heavy laden spirit, 
 she saw there was no remedy for her broken 
 heart, but in the almighty grace and goodness 
 of the Lord. She therefore resolved to have 
 recourse to Him by humble and earnest prayer. 
 The time and place happened to be very fa- 
 vourable for the purpose. She was at Shiloh, 
 where was the special house of prayer, and 
 where God had promised to meet his people.
 
 HANNAH. 95 
 
 She, with her family, had just offered unto the 
 Lord their peace offerings, which typified the 
 mediatorial services of the Redeemer, and had 
 held communion with Him at his holy altar. 
 She availed herself of the convenient place, and 
 accepted time, to unburden the load of her 
 grief, and to prefer an earnest petition for the 
 merciful interposition of Heaven. It was not a 
 lukewarm prayer which she offered, but the 
 earnest appeal of a breaking heart, " for she was 
 in bitterness of soul." It was not a dry and 
 tearless supplication, but while she prayed unto 
 the Lord, "she wept sore/' It was not the 
 request of a selfish and thankless mind, which, 
 having obtained its desire, cared not about 
 afterwards acknowledging its obligations, but 
 she vowed a solemn vow of deepest gratitude, 
 and said, {( O Lord God of hosts 5 , if thou wilt 
 indeed look on the affliction of thine handmaid, 
 and remember me, and not forget thine hand- 
 maid, but wilt give unto thine handmaid a man 
 child, then I will give him unto the Lord all 
 the days of his life, and there shall no razor 
 come upon his head." All this was spoken., 
 though very earnestly, yet so softly, that no 
 articulate voice or sound reached any human 
 ear. She thus proved her faith in Jehovah's 
 omniscience, and the conviction that she was 
 speaking to One who knew the thoughts and 
 
 5 This is the first place in Scripture where this title is 
 given to God.
 
 96 HANNAH. 
 
 intents of the heart, and who needed not to be 
 addressed in audible speech. She also mani- 
 fested her modesty and humility, such as be- 
 came a sinful person approaching the High 
 and the Holy One, in whose sight the heavens 
 are not clean, and who chargeth his angels 
 with folly. Whence you may gather, that 
 though on the one hand we are not to be 
 ashamed of prayer, we are on the other hand to 
 guard against praying for the purpose of being 
 seen of men; and while it is a plain duty to 
 join visibly and audibly in the public worship 
 of God in the congregation, there are private 
 devotions to be performed, of which none are 
 cognisant but our own earnest souls, and He, 
 " to whom all hearts are open, and from whom 
 no secrets are hid." 
 
 But Hannah, with all her modesty, sincerity, 
 and true devotion, could not escape censure 
 and rebuke. She had retired from the presence 
 of the adversary, to seek consolation in the 
 presence of God. But even here her conduct 
 at first subjected her to misconstruction and 
 reproof, and that from a quarter where she 
 might have expected encouragement and sup- 
 port. Eli, the high priest, who was seated in 
 the tabernacle', observing her lips move, sus- 
 
 6 In the text, the word " temple " is used, a substitution 
 which is by some regarded as one proof that the compiler of 
 the books of Samuel lived after the building of the first 
 temple.
 
 HANNAH. 97 
 
 pected her of being in a state most unbecom- 
 ing a frequenter of God's house, and directly 
 charged her with the shameful vice of drunken- 
 ness. It was the imputation cast upon Peter 
 and the rest of the apostles on the day of 
 Pentecost, when in fact they vv>r- "nder the 
 blessed influence < It was 
 
 great rashness, in both cases, to pass so severe 
 a censure without better information, but more 
 especially in Eli, the priest of the Lord, who 
 should have had compassion on the afflicted as 
 well as the ignorant, and who should have been 
 withheld from finding fault, except on the 
 foundation of undoubted proof. Let all hence 
 learn to be cautious how they judge the devo- 
 tions of others, and apply the hard names of 
 hypocrisy, or fanaticism, to that which is no 
 other than a hearty earnestness and an ardent 
 zeal in the reasonable service of God. Let 
 them beware, too, of embittering the feelings of 
 a spirit already wounded by the imputation of 
 evil motives ; and even though their suspicions 
 may be excited, yet, while certainty is not at- 
 tained, let them rather incline to a favourable 
 construction, remembering that the heavenly 
 grace of charity, with which every true believer 
 is clothed, " is not easily provoked, thinketh 
 no evil, but beareth all things, and hopeth all 
 things." Hannah, though now unjustly accused, 
 as before she had been cruelly reproached, did 
 not forget the temper that became a woman 
 
 SECOND SERIES. F
 
 98 HANNAH. 
 
 professing godliness, nor the respect which 
 was due to the priest of God. She never 
 thought of making a sharp retort, and of up- 
 braiding him with the dissolute and profligate 
 conduct of his own sons. She did not tell him 
 how ill it became one who restrained not his 
 own children from notorious debauchery, to 
 overwhelm a desolate worshipper with such 
 severity of rebuke. No : She thought she had 
 no right to go beyond the vindication of her 
 own character, and contenting herself with a 
 modest, yet firm, denial of the charge, she 
 answered, in a manner that conveyed conviction 
 to her reprover's heart, " No ; my lord, I am a 
 woman of a sorrowful spirit : I have drunk 
 neither wine nor strong drink, but have poured 
 out my soul before the Lord. Count not thine 
 handmaid for a daughter of Belial ; for out of the 
 abundance of my complaint and grief have I 
 spoken hitherto," i.e. I am dejected in mind, and 
 discomposed by sore vexation and solicitude, and 
 that is the reason why my conduct may appear 
 strange and extraordinary. Mine eyes are not 
 red with wine, but with streams of bitter tears. 
 I have not been talking to myself like the fools 
 who are overcome with drink, but I have been 
 conversing with One who can understand the 
 inarticulate language of a broken heart, and 
 the noiseless appeal of a wounded spirit. A 
 daughter of Belial should I justly be regarded, 
 did I give way to that abominable vice, so de-
 
 HANNAH. 99 
 
 structive both to body and soul. Most pro- 
 fane, and wicked, and most deserving of the 
 gravest censure should I be, did I venture to 
 come in such a state into the courts of the 
 Lord's house. But blessed be God, with all 
 my sorrows, I have not that to be sorry for. 
 My conduct has been actuated by very different 
 causes. With prayer and supplication I have 
 been making known my wants to the Source of 
 all consolation, and pouring forth at his footstool 
 the heavy load of my grief. Eli, upon hearing 
 this, immediately endeavoured to soothe the 
 feelings he had unjustly hurt. A pious man may 
 fall into error respecting the character of others, 
 but he will no sooner discover his mistake, 
 than he will endeavour to make all the repara- 
 tion in his power for the pain or injury he has 
 occasioned. It is only the unprincipled and 
 the malignant that will persist in groundless 
 suspicions and unsustainable accusations. The 
 aged priest addressed her now in very different 
 language, poured balm into the wounds of her 
 mind, and dismissed her with a blessing and an 
 earnest prayer for her prosperity and success, 
 saying, " Go in peace ; and the God of Israel 
 grant thee thy petition that thou hast asked of 
 him !" That benediction and her own suppli- 
 cations the God of Israel graciously heard, and 
 eventually carried into effect ; and Hannah, 
 having a full assurance of faith that it would 
 "be unto her even as she willed," ceased to 
 F 2
 
 100 HANNAH. 
 
 fast and to grieve, but went her way, and did 
 eat, and her countenance was no more sad. 
 She had received " beauty for ashes, the oil of 
 joy for mourning, and the garments of praise 
 for the spirit of heaviness. Blessed are they 
 that mourn before the Lord, for they shall be 
 comforted." 
 
 Hannah was not disappointed in her ex- 
 pectations. She became a mother, and called 
 the child by a name which indicated that he 
 had been given her in answer to prayer, Samuel, 
 or asked of God. Nor did she forget the vow 
 of thanksgiving which she had made in the sea- 
 son of her tribulation. No sooner was her son 
 weaned, which was probably at the age of three 
 years, than she brought him to Shiloh and pre- 
 sented him to the Lord to abide in his tabernacle 
 for ever. She reminded Eli of her earnest prayer 
 in the house of God. She now came to pay 
 her vow for the success of her petition. She 
 offered a burnt offering and a meat offering on 
 the occasion, and said unto the aged priest, "O 
 my Lord, as my soul liveth, my Lord, I am the 
 woman that stood by thee here praying unto 
 the Lord. For this child I prayed ; and the 
 Lord hath given me my petition, which I asked 
 of him. Therefore also I have lent him 7 to the 
 
 7 The Hebrew verb, from which the word Samuel is de- 
 rived, signifies in one conjugation "asked" and in another 
 ''lent ;" accordingly, the name may be translated either 
 " asked of the Lord," or " lent to the Lord."
 
 HANNAH. 101 
 
 Lord. As long as he liveth, he shall be lent to 
 the Lord. All the blessings we enjoy, whether 
 asked for or not, are the gifts of God. And 
 whatever we give Him in return, we do but give 
 Him of his own. The children in whom we 
 take delight come from the same source, and 
 if we like Hannah will lend them unto the 
 Lord, we shall receive a return of incalculable 
 blessings in their and our own spiritual and 
 eternal good. And let us not merely do like 
 all the mothers of Israel, who presented their 
 h'rst-born in the tabernacle or the temple at the 
 age of forty days and then took them home 
 dedicate them at baptism only, and then neglect 
 the bringing of them up in the nurture and 
 admonition of the Lord but let us like Hannah 
 lend them unto the Lord for ever, and strive 
 and pray that they may keep God's holy will 
 and commandments and walk in the same all 
 the days of their life. You may well expect the 
 divine blessing on such godly efforts. Samuel, 
 early initiated into the service of the taber- 
 nacle by a pious mother, appears to have 
 presently taken to the delightful and heavenly 
 work, for it is distinctly added immediately 
 after his dedication, that he " worshipped the 
 Lord there. 3 ' And believers have reason in 
 every age to hope the best of those who have 
 been the objects of parental solicitude, parental 
 supplication, and careful parental introduction 
 into the fruitful vineyard of the Lord. " Train 
 F 3
 
 102 HANNAH. 
 
 up a child in the way he should go," and the 
 blessed promise is, " when he is old, he will not 
 depart from it." 
 
 Hannah on presenting her son unto the Lord, 
 and offering a sacrifice of thanksgiving, or per- 
 haps on some subsequent occasion of visiting 
 her son, at Shiloh, poured forth the feelings of 
 her full heart in a beautiful hymn of praise. 
 From that hymn we find sentiments and ex- 
 pressions borrowed by Habakkuk, by David 
 the sweet singer of Israel, and by Zecharias the 
 father of John the Baptist, a proof of its ex- 
 traordinary merit and propriety as a poetical 
 and devotional effusion. And more than all, it 
 wn? ^ a erreat measure adopted by the blessed 
 j _o express her wondering gratitude 
 at the marvellous condescension and goodness, 
 which had made her so eminently blessed 
 among women, there being a close parallel be- 
 tween it and the magnificat, so often read or 
 chanted in the service of our .11. Thus, 
 
 with the exception of the book of Psalms, 
 which is a collection of songs, we find the 
 principal and the finest poetical compositions 
 of Scripture partly or wholly emanating from 
 women ; such as the song of Moses, in which 
 Miriam took a conspicuous part, the song of 
 Deborah and Barak, most probably composed 
 by that eminent prophetess, the song of 
 Hannah now under consideration, and the paral- 
 lel but still more beautiful song of the blessed
 
 HANNAH. 103 
 
 In the fervid strain of mingled 
 poetry and devotion uttered on this occasion by 
 the mother of Samuel, we have exclamations of 
 joy and confidence in Jehovah alternating with 
 allusions to the former pride and arrogance of 
 her enemies, now stripped of their boasted 
 superiority. But her feelings of gratitude and 
 admiration towards her gracious Benefactor 
 evidently predominate over those of exultation 
 and triumph towards the adversary by whom 
 her soul had once been made sorrowful. To 
 Him she traces every good gift, and to Him 
 therefore she ascribes all the praise. His glorious 
 attributes call forth her rapturous and repeated 
 eulogy, such as His unrivalled purity, for "there 
 is none holy as the Lord " His unparticipated 
 divinity, " for there is none beside thee ;" His 
 unequalled power, for " neither is there any 
 rock like our God;" His sublime omniscience, 
 " for the Lord is a God of knowledge, and by 
 Him actions are weighed ;" His absolute control 
 over life and death, for " the Lord killeth and 
 maketh alive : He bringeth down to the grave, 
 and bringeth up ;" His minute superintendence 
 over the distribution of the world's goods, for 
 the u Lord maketh poor and maketh rich ; He 
 bringeth low and lifteth up ;" His creative and 
 sustaining power, by which this terraqueous 
 globe was made and continues to be supported, 
 " for the pillars of the earth are the Lord's, and 
 He hath set the world upon them ;" His unfail- 
 F 4
 
 104 HANNAH. 
 
 ing care of those who put their trust in Him, 
 and his irresistible wrath against the children 
 of disobedience, ts for He preserveth the way of 
 his saints, and the wicked shall be silent in 
 darkness ;" and, lastly, His impartial and uni- 
 versal judgment, whereby the wicked shall be 
 utterly destroyed, and the righteous crowned 
 with glory, for " the adversaries of the Lord 
 shall be broken in pieces : out of heaven shall 
 He thunder upon them : the Lord shall judge 
 the ends of the earth, and He shall give strength 
 unto his king, and exalt the horn of his anointed." 
 How weak, she would seem to say, is the subtlety 
 or violence of the devil or man against such an 
 array of bright perfections, and how peaceful in 
 their minds, how confident of help and defence 
 may all the servants of the Lord feel, when they 
 consider that all these perfections are engaged 
 in their behalf. How little have they to fear 
 from the assaults of enemies, and how safe they 
 may believe themselves to be while under the 
 care of so powerful a Friend, since by " human 
 strength no man can prevail," either to do 
 injury or to escape peril ! How foolish it is to 
 look with envious admiration at the prosperity 
 of the rich and great of this world, and to fret 
 at the adversity of the poor and humble, when 
 the Almighty, if, He please, can cause them to 
 exchange places the one with the other, "for do 
 I not see that the bows of the mighty are broken, 
 while they that slumbered are girt with strength ?
 
 HANNAH. 105 
 
 Yea, they that were full have hired out themselves 
 for bread, and they that were hungry ceased ; so 
 that the barren hath borne seven, and she that 
 hath many children hath waxed feeble. Surely 
 mine horn is exalted in the Lord : my mouth is 
 enlarged over mine enemies. I will therefore 
 rejoice in the Lord, and delight in the God of 
 my salvation." But we have in this heavenly 
 song, agreeably to the typical and prophetic 
 character of the sayings and doings of ancient 
 saints, far greater things intimated and shadowed 
 forth than the fluctuations of earthly prosperity 
 and adversity. We here behold as in a glass 
 the enemy of all righteousness vanquished and 
 disgraced, and the anointed of the Lord exalted 
 to universal dominion. We have also a figura- 
 tive representation of those who shall have come 
 out of great tribulation, and washed their robes 
 and made them white in the blood of the Lamb, 
 and reached the happy state whence sorrow 
 and sighing shall flee away. They are here in 
 heaviness through many temptations and trials 
 sometimes the children of distress and poverty, 
 sometimes the subjects of pain and sickness, 
 often the marks for the contempt and scorn of 
 men, always struggling with spiritual foes, who 
 seek to cover them with dishonour and to over- 
 whelm them with destruction ; but the time is 
 coming on, when He to whom they have often 
 poured forth their souls in sighs and lamenta- 
 tions and earnest prayers, shall raise them far 
 F 5
 
 106 HANNAH. 
 
 above the storms and billows of this vale of tears, 
 and put in their mouth a song of everlasting 
 triumph and exultation, and enable them re- 
 joicingly to say, "to Him who loved us, and made 
 us kings and priests unto our God, be honour 
 and blessing and glory and praise for ever and 
 ever." Then, beloved, partakers of the heavenly 
 calling, whatever be your lot here below, hope 
 ye in God, for ye " shall yet praise him, who is 
 the health of your countenance and your God." 
 We further read of Hannah that she went up 
 every year with her husband to Shiloh, and was 
 very attentive to the comfort and welfare of her 
 first-born, whom she had consecrated to the 
 Lord ; "she made him a little coat, and brought 
 it to him from year to year, when she came up 
 with her husband to offer the yearly sacrifice." 
 She did not think she had done enough by 
 giving him over to the charge of the high 
 priest. She watched over him with maternal 
 solicitude, and continued to minister to his pros- 
 perity and happiness; and her conduct through- 
 out was so acceptable to the aged Eli, now pro- 
 bably deriving a melancholy consolation from 
 the society of the devout child under the sad 
 and heart-breaking disappointment occasioned 
 by the profligacy of his own sons, that he pro- 
 nounced an additional solemn blessing upon her 
 and her husband, and earnestly prayed that 
 Heaven might grant them the then most highly 
 valued gift of many children ; and there were
 
 HANNAH. 107 
 
 born unto them three sons and two daughters. 
 And as for the child Samuel, who was thus 
 carefully trained in the way he should go, lan- 
 guage is used to describe his expanding virtues 
 and amiable qualities, similar to that which was 
 afterwards applied to his Divine Antitype, our 
 great High Priest, and Prophet and King. " He 
 grew on, and was in favour with God and man." 
 Revelations were made to him, while yet of 
 very tender age, concerning the coming de- 
 struction of Eli's house, on account of the profane 
 and dissolute conduct of his sons, and it became 
 known before long from Dan to Beersheba that 
 Samuel was established to be a prophet of the 
 Lord. He was eminently a type of Christ, 
 being not only a prophet, but, as some suppose, 
 a priest also, and one who exercised sovereign 
 power, and he had the high honour of delegat- 
 ing from God sovereign power to the two first 
 monarchs of Israel, having been expressly com- 
 manded from heaven to anoint Saul to be king, 
 and David to be his successor on the throne. 
 Such advancement, both temporal and spiritual, 
 was the happy effect of Hannah's solicitude 
 that her son should remember his Creator in 
 the days of his youth, and such is the illustra- 
 tion which this history presents of the memora- 
 ble proclamation of divine wisdom, "I love them 
 that love me; and those that seek me early 
 shall find me. Riches and honours are with me ; 
 yea, durable riches and righteousness." 
 F 6
 
 SERMON VI. 
 
 PH1NEHAS' WIFE. 
 
 1 Sam. iv. 22. 
 
 " And she said, The glory is departed from Israel : for the 
 ark of God is taken." 
 
 THIS was the exclamation of the wife of 
 Phinehas, the son of Eli the high priest of 
 Israel. That exclamation was uttered under 
 the most affecting circumstances. It is those 
 circumstances, connected as they are with 
 events of a very solemnly instructive character, 
 which give importance to a distinct notice of 
 one, concerning whose personal history so few 
 particulars are recorded. She had just given 
 birth to a child, and she was already in the 
 agonies of death ; and it was the language of 
 deep despondency, indicating the chief cause 
 of her premature and fatal labour, to which 
 she gave utterance, when " she said, The glory 
 is departed from Israel : for the ark of God 
 is taken." 
 
 I propose, therefore, to trace the events which
 
 PHINEHAS* WIFE. 109 
 
 ended in this melancholy catastrophe, as being 
 calculated under the divine blessing to lead to 
 many solemn and salutary meditations. We 
 have already intimated in our last discourse, 
 that though Eli himself was a pious man, his 
 two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, bore a very 
 different character. They disgraced and dese- 
 crated their offices as priests of Jehovah, by a 
 rapacious, oppressive, and dissolute course of 
 life. They exacted of those who came to offer 
 sacrifice beyond the liberal allowance which 
 the law of Moses prescribed for their use, and 
 they exacted it in an arrogant and imperious 
 manner, most unbecoming the demeanour of 
 those who ought to have been examples to the 
 other worshippers of the Lord, and to their 
 cupidity and tyranny they added the vilest pro- 
 fligacy and licentiousness. The effect of such 
 conduct was to make the people lose all rever- 
 ence for the appointed solemnities of religion, 
 and to inspire them with contempt and abhor- 
 rence for its most sacred rites and ordinances. 
 Their evil report reached the ears of their aged 
 father, who, bowed down with years and in- 
 firmities, could scarcely bear the additional 
 load of grief which this sad intelligence brought 
 upon his grey hairs. He remonstrated with 
 them upon their horrid impiety, and inexcus- 
 able wickedness. He set before them the many 
 and repeated complaints which all the people 
 made of their conduct. He reminded them of
 
 110 PHINEHAS* WIFE. 
 
 the aggravated nature of their sins, from the 
 conspicuous situation they occupied, and the 
 sacred offices they sustained. He admonished 
 them of the scandal they occasioned in the 
 of God, and of the transgressions which 
 the evil example of men in their position gave 
 rise to in others. He sought to convince them, 
 that the course they were pursuing was pecu- 
 liarly offensive to the Almighty, and, if not 
 abandoned, must inevitably bring down his 
 unappeasable wrath. He thus expostulated 
 with them indeed, and that apparently with 
 much seriousness. But he appears to have 
 spoken too tenderly and too gently for such a 
 very grave occasion. He seems to have con- 
 fined himself to reasoning and entreaty, when 
 he ought to have issued his positive commands, 
 and repressed their crying abominations by an 
 exercise of the strong authority with which, as 
 a father, and a judge in Israel, he was abun- 
 dantly invested. The consequence was such 
 as may always be expected of unrestrained and 
 ungrateful children. They hearkened not to 
 his voice, but regardless alike of the feelings of 
 their father, the interests of their people, and 
 the judgment of their God, they resumed their 
 former career of profane rapacity and impious 
 profligacy. 
 
 Parental admonition having failed, and pa- 
 rental authority not having been sufficiently 
 put forth to restrain the evil doings of the sons
 
 PHINEHAS* WIFE. Ill 
 
 of Eli, the Almighty took the matter into his 
 own hand, and sent a prophet on purpose to 
 denounce the wrath of heaven against his irre- 
 claimable house. That divinely appointed mes- 
 senger presented himself to the aged high 
 priest, and recalled to his consideration the 
 glorious and unequalled privileges bestowed 
 upon his family and ancestors the appearance 
 of Jehovah in Egypt to Aaron, his elevation to 
 the distinguished honour of the priesthood, the 
 continuation of that sacred office in his de- 
 scendants, and the ample remuneration pro- 
 vided for the performance of its functions. He 
 animadverted in severe terms upon the ingrati- 
 tude and impiety which could, under such 
 circumstances, desecrate by rapacity the holy 
 oblations of the altar; and he charged the 
 parental indulgence, which refused to put a 
 stop to such a profanity, with a wilful prefer- 
 ence of affection and partiality towards children 
 to the supreme attachment and devotion which 
 are due unto God. He declared Jehovah's de- 
 termination to punish such complicated ini- 
 quity, by degrading his descendants from the 
 dignities and emoluments of the holy office 
 which his libertine sons had disgraced. He 
 prophesied the invasion of the country by ene- 
 mies, who should spoil the wealth so much 
 coveted by his sons, and cut off the members 
 of his family from the old age, the venerable 
 influence of which he had refused properly to
 
 112 PHINEHAS* WIFE. 
 
 exert. He predicted the reduction of his sur- 
 viving posterity to poverty, to disgrace, to beg- 
 gary, and to premature death. He held forth 
 an awful signal of the realisation of these terri- 
 fic threats in the coming destruction of his two 
 sons on the same day, and concluded with an 
 announcement of the Divine purpose, to trans- 
 fer the functions of the high priesthood to a 
 worthier branch of the house of Aaron, saying, 
 " And I will raise me up a faithful priest, that 
 shall do according to that which is in mine 
 heart, and in my mind : and I will build him a 
 sure house, and he shall walk before mine 
 anointed for ever l " 
 
 The truth of the prophet's mission was pre- 
 sently confirmed in a remarkable manner by 
 the instrumentality of Samuel, whose mother 
 was the subject of our last discourse. He had 
 now been probably some years in the discharge 
 of those duties at the tabernacle, to which ma- 
 ternal gratitude had consecrated him. His 
 amiable and pious life strongly contrasted with 
 those of Eli's sons, and the descriptions of their 
 respective characters are interwoven in the text 
 of the sacred narrative, so as to place that con- 
 trast in a more conspicuous and striking view. 
 While they lived in open defiance of both human 
 and Divine laws, " he grew in favour with God 
 and man." To the aged Eli he was evidently 
 
 ' See Note III.
 
 PIIINEHAS* WIFE. 113 
 
 a source of melancholy comfort under the 
 gloom cast upon his declining years by the 
 conduct of his o\vn offspring. By God he was 
 honoured at a very early period, and in a very 
 distinguished manner, being presently made 
 the channel of further communication from 
 heaven concerning the house of Eli. " The 
 word of God, it is said, was precious in those 
 days : there was no open vision/' i. e. there was 
 not one person known as the established pro- 
 phet of the Lord, to whom the people could 
 confidently resort for help in difficulty and for 
 counsel in perplexity. This honour was now 
 to be conferred upon Samuel. A voice arrested 
 his attention while he was laid down to sleep, 
 and called him by his name. The child, mis- 
 taking it for that of Eli, rose up and presented 
 himself to the aged priest, saying, " Here am I, 
 for thou calledst me/' Eli answered, that he 
 had not called, and bade him return to his rest. 
 The same voice came a second and a third 
 time, and a second and a third time Samuel 
 rose, and came to Eli, and requested to know 
 his commands. Eli then perceived that it was 
 a voice from heaven, and directed Samuel, 
 when it came again, to answer, by saying, 
 " Speak, Lord, for thy servant heareth." When 
 the voice came a fourth time, Samuel followed 
 Eli's direction. Whereupon the Lord made 
 an awful communication confirmatory of all 
 that the first messenger of heaven had declared
 
 114 PHINEHAS' WIFE. 
 
 against Eli and his house. He repeated his 
 purpose, to take vengeance upon the sons for 
 their vile conduct, and upon the father for his 
 sinful remissness in not restraining them, by 
 an overwhelming, astounding, and exterminat- 
 ing judgment. He reiterated, with the solemnity 
 of an oath, that offences had been committed 
 which no sacrifice could ever purge away, and 
 that such notorious and complicated abomina- 
 tions must issue in total and irremediable ruin. 
 How dreadful to persist in evil against repeated 
 admonition and warning! What aggravated 
 guilt to continue in the abuse of religious pri- 
 vileges, and in the profane contempt of reli- 
 gious obligations and religious ordinances ! 
 " He that, being often reproved, hardeneth his 
 neck shall suddenly be destroyed, and that 
 without remedy." 
 
 Samuel heard the tremendous denunciations 
 of Heaven with silent awe, and when the morn- 
 ing arose he was afraid to communicate their 
 terrific import to the aged high priest. But 
 Eli presently examined him upon the subject, 
 and adjured him under a heavy imprecation to 
 conceal from him no particle of the revelations 
 which he had received. When the child, in 
 obedience to this demand, related, without re- 
 serve, the particulars of the celestial message 
 the guilt of the sons the negligence of the 
 father the ruin that was to follow, who can 
 describe the bitter feelings and sad reflections
 
 PHINEHAS' WIFE. 115 
 
 which rent the heart of Eli ? But, though he 
 was doubtless much to blame for his remiss- 
 ness as a magistrate and a parent, his heart 
 was in the main right with God, and, therefore, 
 though he heard, we may be sure, the threatened 
 vengeance against himself and his house with 
 an anguish of grief too deep for utterance, he 
 spoke not one syllable of murmuring or disap- 
 probation, but exclaimed with meek resignation 
 to the Divine will, " It is the Lord : let him 
 do what seemeth him good." Aaron before 
 him had manifested the same pious acqui- 
 escence on a similar occasion. When his sons 
 were slain for their impiety by fire from the 
 Lord, he humbly submitted to the dispensa- 
 tion, and held his peace. Hezekiah after him, 
 when threatened with Divine judgments, pre- 
 sumed not to utter a word of discontent, but 
 devoutly replied, " Good is the word of the 
 Lord." How different from the rebellious and 
 despairing spirit of Cain, who answered to the 
 rebuke of the Almighty, "My punishment is 
 greater than I can bear !" Be not ye, brethren, 
 in your day of tribulation, like that wicked one, 
 but rather imitate the humility and resignation 
 of Eli, and Aaron, and Hezekiah, under their 
 deep affliction. Restrain your loud complaints 
 and bitter accusations against the wisdom of 
 Providence. Remember your sinfulness, and 
 carelessness, and your unworthiness, when 
 placed beside the demands of the High and the
 
 116 PHINEHAS 5 WIFE. 
 
 Holy One. Acknowledge his justice, submit 
 to his authority, and learn to trust in the mer- 
 ciful disposal of Him who saith, " Be still ; and 
 know that I am God." 
 
 We proceed now to the events, by which the 
 Divine threats against the house of Eli were 
 carried into execution. The Philistines, whose 
 power had been weakened by the strong arm of 
 Samson, and whose chief nobility had been 
 buried in that hero's grave, had now resumed 
 their insolence, and recommenced their en- 
 croachments on the land of Israel. When the 
 inhabitants met them in a pitched battle, the 
 Philistines were permitted to prevail. The 
 Israelitish army was defeated with the loss of 
 four thousand men left dead on the field. God 
 had promised to his people that one of them 
 should chase a thousand ; but sin had rendered 
 that promise of none effect, and they were, con- 
 sequently, now made to flee, perhaps, before an 
 equal, or even a smaller number of their ene- 
 mies. A council of the elders of Israel was 
 held to inquire into the cause of this discom- 
 fiture. It was admitted that it had taken place 
 in consequence of the withdrawal of Jehovah's 
 sustaining arm, for they agitated the question, 
 "Wherefore hath the Lord smitten us to-day 
 before the Philistines ?" The reason, also, of 
 that withdrawal they might have easily dis- 
 covered in the notorious conduct of the two 
 priests, and their profanation of God's worship,
 
 PHIXEHAS' WIFE. 117 
 
 had riot their minds been blinded by the pre- 
 valence of general corruption. But, instead of 
 recognising the true reason, and humbling them- 
 selves for the national wickedness, which was 
 the natural effect of the profligacy of the minis- 
 ters of the altar, they had recourse to a step 
 which indicated a bold, impenitent, and pre- 
 sumptuous spirit. They determined, as if to 
 extort the powerful aid of that Lord who had 
 so often scattered before them the armies of the 
 aliens, to fetch his ark from Shiloh to the 
 theatre of war 2 . The ark was a coffer or chest of 
 wood, constructed in the wilderness under the 
 superintendence of Moses, and according to the 
 directions given him by God himself on mount 
 Sinai. It was two cubits and a half long, one 
 cubit and a half broad, and one cubit and a half 
 deep, or about fifty-two inches long, thirty-one 
 broad, and thirty-one deep. The wooden mate- 
 rial was overlaid within and without with plates 
 of pure gold ; and round about it was a crown 
 or cornice of gold. The cover of it, which was 
 called the mercy-seat, consisted entirely of pure 
 gold. At each end of the mercy-seat was the 
 golden figure of an angel or a cherub, represent- 
 ing the ministering spirits which wait upon God. 
 These two cherubim stood face to face, stretch- 
 ing out their wings so as by the extremities of 
 their wings to meet each other above either side 
 in the middle. Between the two cherubim, and 
 directly over the cover of the ark, or the mercy- 
 
 J See Note I V .
 
 118 PHINEHAS' WIFE. 
 
 seat, was the Shechinah, or luminous cloud, 
 which was the symbolical representation of the 
 special presence of Jehovah in the midst of his 
 people. Whence the expression of the Psalmist, 
 "Thou that dwellest between the cherubims, 
 shine forth 3 ." Within the ark were placed by 
 Divine command, first, the two tables of the 
 law, written by God's own hand 4 , and after- 
 wards the rod of Aaron, which miraculously 
 budded and bloomed, andbrought forth almonds, 
 to demonstrate his supreme right to the priest- 
 hood 5 ; and a golden pot full of manna, to com- 
 memorate the feeding of Israel in the wilderness 
 by food sent down from heaven 6 . This precious 
 casket was placed in that part of the tabernacle 
 which was held the most sacred, and called the 
 Holy of Holies ; and Jehovah delivered, con- 
 cerning the valuable deposit so situated, the 
 following memorable promise, "There I will 
 meet with thee, and I will commune with thee, 
 from above the mercy-seat, from between the 
 two cherubim, which are upon the ark of the 
 testimony of all things, which I will give thee 
 in commandment unto the children of Israel." 
 The ark, thus possessing so many badges of 
 Jehovah's peculiar favour, was justly regarded 
 by the children of Israel with unrivalled esteem 
 and veneration. They thought that power and 
 
 s Ps. Ixxx. 1. 4 Exod. xxv. 1G. * Numb. xvii. 8. 
 6 Exod. xvi. 33. Heb. ix. 4.
 
 PHINEHAS' WIFE. 119 
 
 success must inevitably attend, as of old, its 
 progress, whithersoever it went. They, there- 
 fore, resolved to bring it from its place of rest 
 in Shiloh to the battle field against the Philis- 
 tines. It came accompanied by the two reck- 
 less sons of Eli, already referred to, Hophni and 
 Phinehas. Its presence in the camp spread joy 
 and exultation through the army ; and they ex- 
 pressed their feelings at its arrival by "shout- 
 ing with a great shout, so that the earth rang 
 again." The far-sounding acclamations reached 
 the ears, and excited the curiosity of the Philis- 
 tines ; and when they ascertained the cause they 
 were affected with great terror and alarm. In 
 all their encounters with the Israelites, they had 
 never encountered such a formidable auxiliary 
 as this. They feared that it might bring imme- 
 diately to bear against them the irresistible arm 
 of that God that had done so wondrously for 
 His people in Egypt, and in the perilous wilder- 
 ness. They exclaimed in undisguised dismay, 
 " Wo unto us ; for there hath not been such a 
 thing heretofore. Woe unto us ; who shall de- 
 liver us out of the hand of these mighty gods ?" 
 and thinking the crisis had come which would 
 decide their fate as an independent nation, they 
 urged one another to the exertion of unusual 
 and desperate efforts, as the only resource left 
 them under circumstances so menacing and 
 alarming, and said, " Be strong, and quit your- 
 selves like men, O ye Philistines, that ye be
 
 120 PHINEHAS' WIFE. 
 
 not servants unto the Hebrews, as they have been 
 to you : quit yourselves like men and fight." 
 
 Great was the anxiety at Shiloh, the residence 
 of Eli, about the results of a conflict for which 
 such mighty and extraordinary preparations 
 had been made on either side. That venerable 
 high priest was urged by his intense solicitude 
 about the issue, especially about the safety of 
 the ark, to take his seat in the open air on the way 
 side, to watch for the very first intelligence from 
 the field of battle. While there, a loud wail of woe 
 suddenly burst upon his aged ears, and he had 
 scarcely time to inquire into the meaning of the 
 tumult and the cry which filled the air, and rent 
 the city, when a man presented himself before him 
 {( with his clothes rent and with earth upon his 
 head," the usual outward signs of heart-break- 
 ing sorrow and despondency. He was a man of 
 Benjamin ; and, according to a Jewish tradition 
 he was Saul, the son of Kish, who afterwards 
 became the first king of Israel. He had come 
 out of the army, and with difficulty made his 
 escape from the perilous encounter with the 
 enemy ; and he brought this doleful news : 
 " Israel is fled before the Philistines, and there 
 hath been also a great slaughter among the 
 people, and thy two sons also, Hophni and Phi- 
 nehas, are dead ; and the ark of God is taken." 
 The circumstances here related successively in- 
 crease in distress and horror; but the aged 
 minister of the sanctuary bore up under each
 
 PHINEHAS 5 WIFE. 121 
 
 stroke of disaster, until he heard the last. It 
 was most grievous to him, as a judge, or a ruler, 
 to learn the discomfiture of the army, and the 
 slaughter of so many as thirty thousand of the 
 people ; but he sustained the blow. It was 
 dreadful to find that his two sons had been 
 taken away by a violent death, and before they 
 had repented of their evil ways ; but even that 
 calamity he seems to have endured, as he had 
 previously endured the prediction of it, with 
 patience and resignation. But when the mes- 
 senger added to his melancholy tale that the ark 
 of God had been taken, his strength gave way, 
 and his heart entirely failed him, and he fell 
 from off his seat backward by the side of the 
 gate, and his neck brake, and he died. Oh sad 
 and deplorable death of one who had ministered 
 before the Lord as a high priest, and who, as a 
 ruler, had judged Israel forty years ! 
 
 But this was not the only fatal effect of the 
 sad and shocking news. The wife of Phinehas, 
 one of those two sons who had incurred the 
 Divine displeasure, and died on the bloody field, 
 was with child, near to be delivered. Her 
 husband's death, her father-in-law's death, and 
 the capture of God's ark, caused her such a 
 grievous and trembling agitation of mind, that 
 her pains suddenly came upon her, and termi- 
 nated her life. She appears to have been a 
 woman of great tenderness, and of still greater 
 piety. She felt deeply how deeply none can 
 
 SECOND SERIES. G
 
 122 PHINEHAS' WIFE. 
 
 tell the successive calamities that had taken 
 place; but, like Eli, she felt most of all the one last 
 mentioned by the messenger of evil tidings, the 
 capture of the ark of God. The knowledge of 
 her husband's death, and that of her heart- 
 broken father-in-law, doubtless, helped to hasten 
 her travail : but it is clear, from her dying words, 
 that a concern for the interests of religion, occa- 
 sioned by the loss of the ark, lay nearest to her 
 heart. The women endeavoured to comfort her 
 by the information of the birth of a son. They 
 hoped that the sorrows of her travail would be 
 "forgotten for joy that a man child had been 
 born into the world." But what was that joy to 
 one that was sinking into the arms of death? 
 No joy but that which is spiritual and divine 
 could then yield her any consolation; and, there- 
 fore, she "answered not" to the information, "nei- 
 ther did she regard it." What comfort could her 
 departing spirit derive from having a son born 
 in Israel, when Israel's highest distinction and 
 most sacred treasure, the symbol of Jehovah's 
 presence, was gone away into a strange land ? 
 and, therefore, she indicated with her last 
 breath that there was no longer any thing in 
 the nation deserving of attachment, and no 
 longer any thing worth clinging for to this life, 
 by naming the child Ichabod, or no glory, say- 
 ing, "The glory is departed from Israel." What 
 delight can a pious mind take in any earthly 
 possessions, if deprived of God's word and
 
 PHINEHAS' WIFE. 123 
 
 ordinances, the assurances of his presence and 
 the light of his countenance ? " Farewell all in 
 this world/' thought the wife of Phinehas "the 
 sight of children, and the chance of some 
 remaining enjoyments, if the depository of 
 Jehovah's testimonies and Jehovah's pledges of 
 regard be no longer accessible," and, therefore, 
 she said a second time with a last and dying 
 effort, " The glory is departed from Israel, for 
 the ark of God is taken." What a complication 
 of calamities, and what a terrible fulfilment of 
 Jehovah's threatened judgments ! Two bro- 
 thers slain in the blood-stained field, the father 
 and the daughter-in-law dying of a broken 
 heart, and the most precious token of the Divine 
 favour taken away, all on the same disastrous 
 day, and all the sad consequences of obstinacy 
 in sin and the neglect of repeated warnings. 
 Oh ! let men in every age and country take heed 
 to the awful lesson. " It is a fearful thing to 
 fall into the hands of the living God." 
 
 1. Among other lessons taught us by this 
 tragical story, we have set before .us the pro- 
 gressively increasing rashness and presumption 
 of irreclaimable wickedness. The sons of Eli, 
 having dared to pollute the altar and the taber- 
 nacle by rapacity and profligacy, and having 
 refused to be reformed by the serious though 
 too mild remonstrances of their father, proceeded 
 to a direct violation of God's revealed will re- 
 specting the most sacred symbol of his presence 
 G 2
 
 124 PHIXEHAS' WIFE. 
 
 with his people. Though the ark moved from 
 place to place necessarily during the wanderings 
 of Israel in the wilderness, yet it was distinctly 
 commanded that, when they were settled in the 
 land of Canaan it was to remain in the place 
 which the Lord should choose to put his name 
 there 7 . When therefore the corrupt Israelites, 
 with Hophni and Phinehas at their head, took the 
 ark to the field of battle, they entirely overlooked 
 or audaciously disregarded a distinct and posi- 
 tive injunction. The consequence was defeat, 
 disgrace, and incurable ruin. Beware then of 
 the increasingly blinding nature of indulged 
 profligacy and profaneness, hardening the heart, 
 blunting the conscience, leading on to open 
 acts of desecration and disobedience, and ending 
 in sudden and irremediable perdition. 
 
 2. This subject teaches you, in the second 
 place, the vanity and folly of trusting to any 
 outward and visible sign, when separated from 
 the inward and spiritual grace. The Israelites 
 thought, that by taking the ark into the field 
 they would infallibly carry thither the divine 
 power, whose presence was symbolised by the 
 luminous cloud which rested on the mercy-seat 
 between the cherubim. When Moses and 
 Joshua had the ark conveyed from place to 
 place, they, being his faithful servants, well knew 
 that Jehovah's special favour accompanied the 
 
 7 Deut. xii. 5. 11.
 
 PH1NEHAS* WIFE. 125 
 
 sacred treasure, and they could say with the 
 confidence of perfect truth, when they ordered 
 it to be moved, "Rise up, Lord, and let thine 
 enemies be scattered." But their present 
 degenerate descendants had by their sins caused 
 that favour to be withdrawn, and consequently 
 the most striking symbols of God's presence be- 
 came powerless as an empty name. See you 
 not here illustrated the utter worthlessness of 
 all outward rites and ceremonies, apart from 
 inward holiness and earnest piety ? How con- 
 demnatory of papistical mummeries is the trans- 
 action now under consideration ! Can the host 
 or consecrated bread carried from place to place 
 ensure among a besotted and sinful people tfre 
 blessing and favour of the High and the Holy 
 One ' has promised to be with two or 
 
 three tnat should be truly gathered together in 
 his name, in however simple a dwelling, and He 
 will ever be present with his tnr . ch, though 
 assembled on the bleak mountain or the lonely 
 desert, even as He preceded the ark in the deso- 
 late wilderness, like a pillar of cloud by day 
 and a pillar of fire by night ; but He will never 
 vouchsafe his presence to the most dignified 
 priests in the most gorgeous temple, whose 
 hearts are not right with God. A c s no 
 
 better than a private habitation a priest is no 
 better than a layman a sacramental symbol is 
 no better than the natural production of the 
 earth, without a converted heart and a renewed 
 G 3
 
 126 PHINEHAS 5 WIFE. 
 
 spirit in the immortal souls concerned with 
 them. Let this truth remain impressed upon 
 your minds as an antidote to the poison of 
 formalism and priestcraft, which threaten to 
 pervade the land. Remember the ., ?. 
 
 answer to the woman of Samaria, when cunously 
 inquiring about the proper place where worship 
 should be offered, and the answer explanatory 
 of the truly spiritual and universal nature of 
 his most holy religion ou<?ht to have prevented 
 all disputes amon^ -N.S as to mere out- 
 
 ward rites and edifices and dresses and ceremo- 
 nies : " Woman, believe me, the hour cometh, 
 when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet 
 at Jerusalem, worship the Father. But the 
 true worshippers shall worship the Father in 
 spirit and in truth, for the Father seeketh such 
 to worship him." 
 
 3. Learn hence the bounden duty of every 
 parent to restrain by a seasonable exercise of 
 his authority the lawless conduct of his children. 
 The neglect of that duty in Eli proved the ruin 
 of himself and all his house. We believe him 
 to have been himself personally pious, but he 
 was chargeable with a great and culpable weak- 
 ness in regard to his profane and profligate sons. 
 How dreadful was the ultimate effect of that 
 weakness on himself and all his family ! The 
 disregard of the bringing up of children in the 
 fear of God is the ruin of individuals, the ruin 
 of households, the ruin of nations, and the ruin
 
 PHINEUAS 5 WIFE. 127 
 
 of Beware of it, parents. Do not 
 
 by a ibolish and mistaken tenderness neglect 
 that wise and seasonable restraint of your child- 
 ren, which the word of God prescribes. Re- 
 member that i( foolishness is bound in the heart 
 of a child, but the rod of correction shall drive 
 it away." While ye are not by undue severity 
 to " provoke your children to wrath," ye are 
 bound by the most solemn and momentous 
 considerations to " bring them up in the nurture 
 and admonition of the Lord." 
 
 4. Lastly, observe how even in the history 
 of this signal vengeance we discover ample 
 proofs of the long-suffering of a gracious God. 
 Great as were the sins of the sons of Eli, and 
 urgently as they cried to heaven for punishment, 
 yet He would not execute judgment without 
 giving them repeated warnings. A messenger 
 was sent to Eli on purpose to set the iniquities 
 of his sons in order before his eyes, and to 
 announce the determination of heaven to take 
 vengeance, if they continued in their evil course. 
 But the message, with the paternal remonstrance 
 by which it was enforced, was unheeded by 
 those graceless sons. A second message to the 
 same purport, and confirmatory of all the first, 
 was sent by the instrumentality of Samuel. 
 But it also was set at nought. Truly God 
 spake once, yea twice, but man regarded it not. 
 Then followed a fulfilment of the awful menace 
 in an accumulation of national, family, and 
 G 4
 
 PHINEHAS* WIFE. 
 
 individual calamities, realising the Psalmist's 
 words, " God is angry with the wicked every 
 day. If he turn not, he will whet his sword. 
 He hath bent his bow and made it ready. He 
 hath also prepared for him the instruments of 
 death." The returning penitent may indeed 
 take comfort from the narrative, for if God was 
 long-suffering, and not willing, without repeated 
 warnings, to punish the profane and profligate 
 sons of Eli, what mercy and goodness will He 
 not readily extend to every one who strives and 
 prays to lead a new life. But let the per- 
 tinaciously disobedient and unbelieving the 
 breaker of the law, the neglecter of the Gospel, 
 the desecrator of God's ordinances, and the 
 habitual violator of God's holy will and com- 
 mandments let them take warning by the 
 awful lesson, and make haste to flee from the 
 wrath to come, for the obstinately " wicked 
 shall be turned into hell, and all the nations 
 that forget God."
 
 SERMON VII. 
 
 MICHAL. 
 
 1 Sam. xviii. 20, 21. 
 
 " And Michal, Saul's daughter, loved David : and they told 
 Saul, and the thing pleased him. And Saul said, I will 
 give him her, that she may be a snare to him, and the hand 
 of the Philistines may be against him. Wherefore Saul 
 said to David, Thou shalt this day be my son-in-law in the 
 oneofthe twain*." 
 
 MICHAL was the first wife of David, and the 
 daughter of Saul, the first king of Israel. She 
 lived about eighty years after the events nar- 
 rated in our last discourse, and in the eleventh 
 century before our Saviour's birth. On the 
 death of Eli, Samuel succeeded to the office of 
 chief magistrate of the people, and he judged 
 Israel for many years with great ability and 
 success. But, as in the case of his predecessor, 
 his sons, with whom he shared his authority, 
 as he grew old, departed from the integrity and 
 piety of their father. Their corrupt proceed- 
 
 1 See Note V. 
 G 5
 
 130 MICHAL. 
 
 ings spread discontent among the people, and 
 caused them to wish for a different kind of go- 
 vernment, and to desire a king such as ruled 
 over the surrounding nations. God commanded 
 Samuel to hearken to their voice, and to anoint 
 Saul, the son of Kish, of the tribe of Benjamin, 
 to be the sovereign of all the tribes of Israel. 
 For a time that monarch conducted himself 
 with great propriety and apparent piety. He 
 displayed great modesty on being proposed for 
 the throne, and seemed reluctant, from a deep 
 sense of unworthiness, to occupy so exalted a 
 position. He ascribed the success he soon 
 after obtained over his enemies, the children of 
 Ammon, not to his own arm, but to the Al- 
 mighty interposition of Jehovah ; and when it 
 was proposed to him, after he was established 
 in power, to punish those who had treated his 
 pretensions to the kingdom with contempt, he 
 refused to act on such a suggestion, and exhi- 
 bited a laudable spirit of clemency and forbear- 
 ance, giving a noble example of conformity to 
 the Divine will, as enumerated by the apostle, 
 "Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves; for 
 vengeance is mine, I will repay, saith the 
 Lord." And yet, such is the corrupting influ- 
 ence of prosperity, when not counteracted by 
 Divine grace, after he had been some years on 
 the throne, he gave way to those jealous and 
 vindictive feelings, the repression of which, at 
 the commencement of his reign, places his
 
 MICHAL. 131 
 
 character in so amiable and magnanimous a 
 light. It is in connexion with the indulgence 
 of such unhappy feelings of the father, that his 
 daughter Michal is first introduced into the 
 records of the inspired narrative, according to 
 the words of the text; "And Michal, Saul's 
 daughter, loved David: and they told Saul, 
 and the thing pleased him. And Saul said, I 
 will give him her, that she may be a snare to 
 him, and that the hand of the Philistines may 
 be against him." 
 
 We have no reason to believe that the 
 daughter was any more than the father under 
 the influence of Divine grace ; and the one in 
 hating, and the other in loving David, appear to 
 have been alike actuated by considerations of 
 an earthly nature. David, though of a family 
 that was then comparatively obscure, had al- 
 ready acquired considerable distinction and 
 renown. To the attractions of his outward 
 appearance, he added mental qualities of the 
 highest order, as a poet and a musician. As 
 an enterprising and successful warrior he had 
 excited the admiration and gratitude of his 
 country. He had delivered Israel from the 
 insults and terrors of the Philistines, by slaying 
 in single combat their champion Goliath, of 
 Gath, and he had been greeted by acclamations 
 which ascribed unto him more glory than to 
 his royal master, for "the women answered 
 one another as they played, and said, Saul hath 
 G 6
 
 132 MICHAL. 
 
 slain his thousands, and David his ten thou- 
 sands." These circumstances, while they filled 
 the father with envy and hatred against the 
 youthful hero, fired the daughter with an at- 
 tachment to his person, and an ambition to 
 share his honours. Saul had repeatedly pro- 
 mised one of his daughters to David for his 
 wife, but had hitherto refused to keep his 
 word. He had made that promise by public 
 proclamation to any one that should kill Goliath, 
 of Gath. But when the glorious exploit was 
 achieved the reward was dishonourably with- 
 held. He had subsequently made a voluntary 
 promise to David of the hand of his eldest 
 daughter Merab in particular. But it was done 
 only with the sinister design of luring him to 
 expose his life to peril by further conflicts with 
 the Philistines. When the specified time of 
 marriage arrived, the promise was basely broken, 
 and Merab 2 " was given unto Adriel the Meho- 
 lathite to wife." This insulting treatment is 
 supposed to have been persisted in by Saul 
 towards David, to tempt him to resentment and 
 rebellion, and to furnish himself with a pretence 
 for legally putting to death an obnoxious per- 
 son, who was too gallant a soldier to be slain 
 by an open enemy in war. But David exhi- 
 bited the most exemplary meekness on the 
 occasion, even as he had already declared him- 
 
 3 See Note V.
 
 MICHAL. 133 
 
 self, his exploits, and his family, altogether un- 
 worthy of so great an honour, as to be allied to 
 a king's daughter. It appears, however, as 
 already intimated, that another daughter of 
 Saul, Michal, the subject of our present dis- 
 course, was smitten with admiration of either 
 the person or renown of David. Saul was 
 pleased with the intelligence, and caused it to 
 be communicated to David, with an intimation 
 that the king would approve of the union, his 
 real purpose being the same as before, namely, 
 to take him out of the way by a violent and 
 premature death. " I will give him her," said 
 he, " that she may be a snare to him, and that 
 the hand of the Philistines may be against 
 him." True to this diabolical purpose, he 
 expressed to David his willing consent to such 
 a marriage, and replied to his alleged inability 
 from poverty to furnish the dowry required in 
 such a case, by saying, that he should require 
 no other dowry than the slaughter of one hun- 
 dred Philistines 3 . Thus he hoped in more than 
 one way to make the marriage of his daughter 
 auxiliary to the execution of his murderous in- 
 tentions. He thought that, perhaps, after the 
 marriage, she might be induced to forward the 
 father's designs against the life of the husband, 
 or if he was not very sanguine in that expecta- 
 
 3 In those days the dowry was paid for and not received 
 with the wife. See the lives of Jacob's wives and daughter.
 
 134 MICHAL. 
 
 tion, he considered the apparently disinterested 4 
 but most hard conditions of the alliance would 
 almost inevitably ensure his destruction. But 
 how vain are the machinations of the wicked 
 against those who are shielded by the protect- 
 ing arm of the Almighty ! David went forth 
 against the Philistines, and as if he would not 
 suspect the king of intending to expose him to 
 unnecessary danger, he generously hazarded 
 his life to a greater extent than the royal con- 
 ditions required. Not content with slaying a 
 hundred, he persevered against the Philistines 
 until he had laid two hundred of them dead at 
 his feet; and he not only escaped the plot laid 
 for his destruction, but acquired, together with 
 a right to the princess's hand, a great aug- 
 mentation of popularity and renown. Truly 
 God can make all things to work together for 
 good to them that love Him. Fret not thyself, 
 therefore, because of the ungodly. Return not 
 evil for evil, but rather overcome evil with 
 good. Be slow, like David, to harbour sus- 
 picions of evil, but rather, like him, confound 
 the evil-minded by forbearance, meekness, and 
 generosity. Boldly persevering in the path of 
 duty, " commit thy way unto the Lord ; and 
 in due time he shall bring forth thy righteous- 
 
 4 Saul professed that he was actuated only by the patriotic 
 motive of chastising a national enemy, by requiring the lives 
 of one hundred Philistines.
 
 MICHAL. 135 
 
 ness as the light, and thy judgment as the 
 noon-day." 
 
 The next transaction in the biography of 
 Michal is the artifice by which she saved her 
 husband's life. Her father continued to pur- 
 sue his malicious designs against David as 
 before. He sent one night a number of men 
 to watch at the door of his house, with 
 orders to assassinate him as he came forth in 
 the morning. Michal, having received secret 
 intelligence of the plot, immediately commu- 
 nicated it to her husband, and represented 
 to him the urgent necessity of making his 
 escape during the hours of darkness. It 
 was on this occasion, it is supposed, and 
 probably while making preparation for his 
 escape, that he penned the fifty-ninth Psalm, 
 in which he earnestly prays for the protection 
 of God against the malicious vigilance of his 
 insidious foes, saying, "Deliver me from the 
 workers of iniquity, and save me from bloody 
 men. For, lo, they lie in wait for my soul : the 
 mighty are gathered against me." David was 
 not accustomed to flee before his enemies ; and 
 his temper and disposition would have doubt- 
 less inclined him to encounter them face to face, 
 or to force his way through them sword in hand. 
 But Michal rightly judged it altogether impru- 
 dent in him to meet a danger, from which, with- 
 out a miracle, he could scarcely have hoped to 
 escape, and she had recourse to a stratagem
 
 136 MICHAL. 
 
 for his deliverance. As Rahab let out the spies, 
 she secretly let him down through a window ; 
 and he went and fled and escaped. When it 
 was discovered that he was not forthcoming in 
 the morning, Saul, imagining him to be still in 
 the house, sent messengers to apprehend him. 
 In the meantime, Michal had placed an image 
 in David's bed to counterfeit his person, and 
 answered to her father's message, that he was 
 sick and incapable of making his appearance in 
 the presence of the king. The object of that 
 artifice was to lull the immediate suspicion of 
 her father's officers, and to afford her husband 
 longer time for effecting his escape. Her con- 
 trivance was attended with complete success. 
 The king sent a second time men to David's 
 house, with strict orders to bring him in the 
 bed, sick as he was, that he might slay him 
 while in that helpless state. But the bed, upon 
 examination, was found to contain nothing but 
 a dead image, clothed and laid so as to resem- 
 ble a human being; and David had, by this 
 time, been able to place himself beyond the 
 reach of his enemies. His escape was a bitter 
 disappointment to the king, and the more mor- 
 tifying from its having been effected by the aid 
 of her whom he had given him in marriage, with 
 no other purpose than to ensnare him into de- 
 struction. He, therefore, sharply rebuked her 
 for the part she had acted, and charged her 
 with practising on him a deception in favour of
 
 MICHAL. 137 
 
 his worst enemy. Michal, probably terrified 
 by her father's frowns, had recourse again to 
 deceit in her own defence, and shifted the blame 
 from her own shoulders, by laying it on the 
 alleged threatening demeanour of her husband, 
 who she declared had said unto her, " Let me 
 go: why should I kill thee?" 
 
 Saul having been unable to get David's per- 
 son into his power, determined to take all the 
 revenge he was able upon him during his ab- 
 sence. He took Michal, who had been instru- 
 mental in aiding his escape, and gave her in 
 marriage to another, probably intending thereby 
 not only to insult her husband, but also to 
 punish herself for the part she had taken in 
 facilitating his escape. With Phalti or Phaltiel, 
 the son of Laish, which was of Gallum, the 
 person to whom she was transferred, she is 
 supposed to have lived about fifteen years. At 
 the expiration of that period, Abner took offence 
 with Ishbosheth, who had succeeded to a por- 
 tion of his father's Saul's dominions, and to 
 whose party he had hitherto adhered, and 
 offered to transfer his allegiance and influence 
 to the side of David, who ruled the remainder 
 of the kingdom. David, on receiving the over- 
 tures of Abner, made it a condition of admitting 
 him into his service, that he should bring him 
 back his wife Michal, who was living with 
 Phalti, in the country which was under the 
 sway of Ishbosheth. Abner, who was a very
 
 138 MICHAL. 
 
 able and successful soldier, and who appears to 
 have possessed almost sovereign power under 
 the nominal sceptre of the weak son of Saul, 
 expressed his readiness to comply with the de- 
 mand, and being also seconded by a direct 
 message on the subject from David to Ish- 
 bosheth, he took Michal from the house of 
 Phalti, in order to restore her to her first and 
 lawful husband. Phalti, though compelled to 
 part with her, manifested much reluctance 
 and grief on the occasion. He accompanied 
 her a considerable part of the way with tears 
 and lamentations, and it required a peremptory 
 command from Abner, who was charged with 
 her conveyance, to induce him to separate him- 
 self from her, and to return to his home. But 
 the separation was just, however painful. He 
 had been guilty of a wrong to an individual, 
 and of a transgression of the divine law, in 
 sharing her father's injustice, and taking to 
 himself one who was the lawful wife of another. 
 It is just that usurpers and dishonest gainers 
 should be compelled to restore what they had 
 never a right to, though the restoration after 
 years of possession be attended with grievous 
 inconveniences and distressing sensations to 
 themselves and their relatives. We often now 
 behold the robber, the plunderer, and the dis- 
 honest trafficker reduced to a similar predica- 
 ment of affliction by the operation of human 
 laws, the restoration of the property acquired
 
 MICHAL. 139 
 
 by fraud or violence, and the punishment con- 
 nected with it, terminating in sorrow and weep- 
 ing, and the desolation of families. And this 
 consequence is but a shadow of what must 
 follow through the ultimate operation of the 
 Divine laws, in the case of all who set their 
 affections on forbidden possessions and plea- 
 sures. When the King, of whom David was 
 a type, shall call you to account, and compel 
 you to separate by death from the objects which 
 you have clung to with an attachment that was 
 unlawful and reprobated in the word of God 
 " there will be weeping and wailing and gnash- 
 ing of teeth." Then, my brethren, take warn- 
 ing in time. Voluntarily restore your unjust 
 acquisitions, of whatever nature they may be, 
 without delay. Strive to sever your hearts 
 from every possession and every enjoyment 
 which are contrary to the testimonies of con- 
 science and Scripture. Pray for grace to resist 
 the temptations and allurements of a sinful 
 world, that when ye are separated from visible 
 things, ye may resign them with joy and not 
 with grief, and exchange a corruptible inherit- 
 ance for that which fadeth not away. 
 
 We proceed to the last recorded transaction 
 in the life of Michal. It was on the grand 
 occasion of bringing the ark of God to Jerusa- 
 lem. You will remember that the capture of 
 that sacred symbol of the Divine presence 
 formed a considerable part of our last discourse.
 
 140 MICHAL. 
 
 The Philistines took it from the field of battle, 
 and placed it in the house of Dagon, their god, 
 at Ashdod. But the judgment of Jehovah 
 came upon the people, and his wrath was mani- 
 fested against them by the repeated overthrow 
 of their idol, and by fatal inflictions on them- 
 selves. The inhabitants, on ascertaining that 
 the cause of their calamities was the detention 
 of the ark, consulted together as to the measures 
 to be adopted under the alarming circumstances, 
 and decided upon sending it away to Gath. The 
 Divine displeasure came upon the inhabitants of 
 that city in a similar terrible manner, and they 
 sent it away to another city, the city of Ekron, 
 where the like distressing and fatal calamities 
 took place. These visitations seem to have 
 continued for the whole space of seven months, 
 during which it remained in Philistia. The 
 consequence was, that consternation spread 
 throughout the population of the country on 
 account of the presence among them of the ark 
 of God ; and they called together their priests 
 and divines to consider what they should do 
 with the awful treasure. They determined to 
 restore it to the Israelites, and to accompany 
 its return with many valuable presents as a 
 trespass offering to Jehovah. It was sent back 
 accordingly, and the Divine judgment ceased 
 to afflict the Philistines. It was conveyed first 
 to Bethshemesh, a town within the borders of 
 the promised land, at which town the inhabi-
 
 MICHAL. 141 
 
 tants, instigated by an unhallowed curiosity, pre- 
 sumed to look into it a thing forbidden even 
 to the high priest, who was only allowed to look 
 upon it once a year, on the great day of atone- 
 ment, and they were destroyed for their pro- 
 faneness, to the number of more than fifty 
 thousand men. The Bethshemites, terrified by 
 the tremendous visitation, sent messengers to 
 Kirjath-jearim with a request that it might be 
 fetched thither, with a view probably that it might 
 be forwarded to Shiloh, its residence in the 
 time of Eli, Kirjath-jearim being a town lying 
 in the road between Bethshemesh and Shiloh. 
 There it remained all the time of Samuel and 
 Saul. It was never forwarded and restored to 
 Shiloh, from whence it had been taken by 
 Hophni and Phinehas, probably in consequence 
 of a Divine command to the contrary, on account 
 of the desecrations and abominations which had 
 taken place there in the days of Eli. Thus a 
 people who despise or disregard the gospel, of 
 which the ark was a type, have reason to fear 
 that the sacred treasure may be taken from them 
 never to return. When David was established 
 on the throne of Israel, he turned his attention 
 to the ark of God, and determined to bring it 
 into his own city, even to mount Zion in Jeru- 
 salem. There he knew it was the will of God, 
 that a glorious temple should be built for his 
 worship, and he was directed doubtless by a 
 divine communication to transfer thither the
 
 142 MICHAL. 
 
 ark, as being destined one day to occupy the 
 holiest part of that magnificent edifice. Being 
 deeply imbued with the spirit of religion, he 
 undertook the enterprise with great solemnity 
 and devotion. He held a council of the chief 
 men in the nation, the elders of Israel, and the 
 officers of the army, and proposed the measure 
 for their serious consideration. It was resolved 
 to assemble the priests and Levites, and a vast 
 multitude of people, to form a grand procession 
 on the occasion. The king went forth from his 
 capital attended by thirty thousand men, among 
 whom were found the most distinguished in 
 the land. Having reached Kirjath-jearim, and 
 brought the ark out of the house of Abinadab 
 at that place, they accompanied it towards 
 Jerusalem, " playing before God with all their 
 might, and with singing, and with harps, and 
 with psalteries, and with timbrels, and with 
 cymbals, and with trumpets." After some 
 interruption, occasioned by the judgment of 
 God upon Uzzah, who was smitten with death 
 for improperly handling the holy symbol an 
 event, which delayed it three months on the 
 road the solemn work of bringing it into the 
 city of David was resumed. The king built 
 many altars and offered many sacrifices along 
 the road between the house of Obed-Edom, 
 where it had rested during the three months, 
 and the gates of Jerusalem. He was trans- 
 ported with joy on the occasion, delighted at
 
 MICHAL. 143 
 
 the thought of having within the city of his 
 own royal residence the most significant index 
 of the immediate presence of the King of kings. 
 He gave expression to the ecstatic raptures of 
 his soul by dancing before the Lord with all 
 his might. He manifested his feelings of hu- 
 mility, reverence, and gratitude, by exchanging 
 the imperial purple for a linen ephod the robe 
 of royalty for the garment of a priest the 
 badge of earthly dominion for the habit of one 
 who served at the altar of the Ruler of all. He 
 and the magnificent procession at last entered 
 the holy city, with the sound of the trumpet 
 and loud exclamations of thanksgiving and 
 praise. They finally placed the sacred treasure 
 in the midst of the new tabernacle, which had 
 been recently prepared for its reception 6 , the 
 tabernacle of Moses, through the wear of many 
 centuries, being no longer fit for the purpose, 
 and David, having accomplished the solemn and 
 delightful enterprise, again "offered burnt offer- 
 ings and peace offerings before the Lord." 
 He concluded the whole of the important cere- 
 mony, by pronouncing a solemn benediction on 
 the people, and by a liberal distribution of 
 provisions among every class of the congregated 
 multitude. " It was a day of holy rejoicing 
 before the Lord of hosts." 
 
 David, having dismissed the people with 
 blessings and with gifts, returned to bless his 
 See Note IV.
 
 144 M1CHAL. 
 
 own household. Perhaps there never was a 
 time when he entered his house in the enjoy- 
 ment of more real happiness. It was the 
 happiness of one filled with the peace which 
 passeth all understanding. It was the happi- 
 ness of one transported with joy unspeakable 
 and full of glory, that is in believing. He had 
 brought the ark of God into his own city. He 
 had thereby secured to himself the peculiar 
 presence of Jehovah. His subjects, among 
 whom a great revival of religion had taken 
 place, had willingly joined him in the blessed 
 work, had greatly rejoiced on the glorious occa- 
 sion, and had exhibited most auspicious signs 
 of attachment to himself, to his family, and to 
 the pure and solemn worship of Jehovah. 
 When he entered his home, he doubtless ex- 
 pected to meet with still more lively emotions 
 of personal regard, of sympathetic excitement, 
 and of rejoicing gratitude for the marvellous 
 loving-kindness of the Lord. But Michal his 
 wife manifested a totally different temper and 
 disposition. She received him with taunts of 
 derision and scorn. She had beheld him in the 
 procession, while entering the city, robed, not in 
 the imperial purple of state like a monarch, but 
 in an ephod, the comparatively lowly garb of a 
 priest, and giving expression to the transports 
 of his religious zeal and joy, by leaping and 
 dancing before the Lord, like one of the Lord's 
 humblest and most unaffected servants. For
 
 MICHAL. 145 
 
 this conduct, which she espied through a win- 
 dow, she had despised him in her heart, and, 
 when he entered his home, she accosted him in 
 the most insulting and contemptuous manner, 
 saying, "How glorious was the king of Israel 
 to-day, who uncovered himself to-day in the 
 eyes of the handmaids of his servants, as one 
 of the vain fellows shamelessly uncovereth him- 
 self! There is no reason to suppose that 
 David had been guilty of indecorum, as the 
 strong expression "uncovereth himself," which 
 she used, would seem to indicate. He had but 
 taken off his royal robe and substituted a 
 religious garb in honour of the Lord. Her own 
 father, though a king like her husband, had on 
 one occasion acted in a similar manner, when 
 he was seized with a transient fit of religious 
 fervour. But Michal could sympathise in no 
 such feelings : her heart had never been touched 
 by Divine grace: her affections had never been 
 moved by the grateful love of God. Her pride 
 was hurt at the thought of being united to such 
 an enthusiast in religion, and regardless of her 
 husband's attachment to herself, who had made 
 her restoration a condition of receiving into his 
 service a most powerful chief, and thus proved 
 that he had valued her as much as a great part 
 of his kingdom, regardless of his known devo- 
 tion, his superior understanding, his tender 
 conscience and warm feelings, she had the folly 
 and the hard heartedness of receiving him with 
 
 SECOND SERIES. H
 
 146 MICHAL. 
 
 sarcastic and insolent remarks on the fervour of 
 his religious zeal, and the earnestness of his 
 religious observances. The king was affected 
 with a just indignation at so unexpected and 
 unreasonable a reception. He replied, that if 
 he had lowered himself, it had been before the 
 Lord and in honour of the Lord, who had 
 chosen him to be king of Israel, in preference 
 to her own father, and to any member of her 
 father's family; and "therefore," added he, "I 
 will play before the Lord. And I will yet be 
 more vile than thus, and will be base in mine 
 own sight." As though he had said, Perhaps 
 religion was unfashionable in thy father's court, 
 and dishonoured by him and most of his family : 
 but He, who setteth up and bringeth down 
 kings, hath judged me, who honour religion 
 and intend to bring it into fashion, wiser and 
 fitter to rule than thy earthly-minded rela- 
 tives. I am now the fountain of honour, 
 and can influence by God's blessing the opin- 
 ions of the high and the great in favour of 
 religion. I wish to set them an example of 
 devotion and thanksgiving by playing before 
 the Lord, i.e. by taking a part personally 
 and publicly in the exercises of religion, and so 
 to bring into high repute those too long and 
 shamefully neglected duties; and, if thus to 
 humble myself before the High God, my creator, 
 preserver, and redeemer, be thought vile and 
 base, I am content to bear the imputation, and
 
 MICHAL. 147 
 
 I will yet be more vile than thus, and will be 
 base in mine own sight. David added, " Of 
 the maid servants which thou hast spoken of, 
 of them shall I be had in honour." And 
 " therefore," concludes the sacred historian, 
 " Michal, the daughter of Saul, had no child 
 until the day of her death." The probable mean- 
 ing of these two last sentences is, that she was 
 discarded from being the wife of a king, and 
 reduced to the condition of a subject and a 
 widow, and that one of those religious women, 
 who joined in the devout exercises of David, 
 and of whom she spoke with contempt, was 
 elevated to her place. And thus, regarding-. the 
 man after God's own heart : 
 we have, in the degradation of the one, and the 
 advancement of the other, a figurative illustra- 
 tion of the truth, " Them that honour me I will 
 honour, and they that despise me shall be 
 lightly esteemed." 
 
 1. This subject may teach both parents and 
 children the wickedness and the futility of seek- 
 ing matrimonial alliances from mere worldly, 
 selfish, and interested motives. By the great 
 and overruling Providence of God such alliances, 
 as in the case before us, invariably prove dis- 
 appointing and mortifying to their projectors 
 and promoters. Saul sought, by uniting his 
 daughter to David, to lay a snare for his life, 
 but she proved, in the event, the most effective 
 instrument of David's preservation from the 
 H 2
 
 148 M1CHAL. 
 
 effects of his murderous machinations. Michal 
 strove, by gaining the affections of the youthful 
 hero, and the popular chieftain, to retain or ele- 
 vate her station in the world ; but, her attach- 
 ment to him being grounded entirely on earthly 
 considerations, she disagreed with him on the 
 most momentous subjects, and ended her life in 
 obscurity and disgrace. Marriage is honour- 
 able in all ; but if parents would have their 
 children contract happy marriages, and if sons 
 and daughters would be happy in that state, 
 let it be their first and most anxious inquiry, 
 whether the motive which brings the parties 
 together be free from sinister views, and whe- 
 ther they understand each other on the all-im- 
 portant points of principle and religion. Count- 
 less are the unhappy marriages which have re- 
 sulted from overlooking these momentous con- 
 siderations. Remember that nothing can com- 
 pensate the want of sympathy on religious mat- 
 ters. On the other hand, a communion of feel- 
 ing in this respect will mitigate a world of 
 sufferings, and overcome mountains of difficul- 
 ties ; and it may truly be said in reference to 
 this as well as to many other subjects of human 
 anxiety, "Seek ye first the kingdom of God, 
 and his righteousness, and all things necessary 
 to your welfare will be added unto you." 
 
 2. Let the married learn from this subject 
 the sin and the punishment of those who op- 
 pose their partners in efforts for the glory of
 
 MICHAL. 149 
 
 God. A wife may approve and admire her 
 husband while he is pursuing a career that will 
 advance him in the world and reflecting upon 
 herself the light of his prosperity or renown ; 
 but if he turn his attention seriously to religion, 
 and prefer spiritual and eternal to earthly and 
 evanescent interests except she too be under 
 the influence of Divine grace, she will despise 
 him in her heart, damp his zeal, discourage his 
 labours, and treat his conduct with insolent 
 derision and contempt. It is a tremendous re- 
 sponsibility that either partner, whether hus- 
 band or wife, incurs, who thus thwarts the 
 piety of the other. A separation, final and 
 irremediable, must ultimately take place between 
 persons who are so unequally yoked together. 
 While the one shall rise to a dignity which was 
 but faintly shadowed forth by David's regal 
 splendour, the other shall sink into a disgrace, of 
 which Michal's degradation was but a figure or 
 a type, even everlasting shame and contempt, 
 and eternal banishment from the presence of 
 the Lord, and the glory of his power. 
 
 H 3
 
 SERMON VIII. 
 
 ABIGAIL. 
 
 1 SAM. xxv. 32. 
 
 " And David said to Abigail, Blessed be the Lord God of 
 Israel, which sent thee this day to meet me.'' 
 
 THESE words refer to the time when David 
 first saw Abigail, who became his second wife. 
 The occurrence took place during the interval 
 between his escape from his house referred to 
 in our last discourse, and his accession to the 
 throne on the death of his persecutor, and about 
 1060 years before v J incarnation. 
 
 The causes and consequences of that interview 
 are full of practical instruction, and all the cir- 
 cumstances connected with it, to which we now 
 propose to refer, set forth in a striking light 
 the mighty influence that may be exercised for 
 the prevention of evil by a prudent, discreet, 
 and pious woman. 
 
 Compelled to flee for his life from the pertina- 
 cious malice and vindictiveness of his royal 
 father-in-law, David sought refuge in distant
 
 ABIGAIL. 151 
 
 places, in the strongholds of the mountain, 
 and the lonely recesses of the desert, and was 
 forced to lead the life of an exile and an outlaw. 
 Many were the sharp privations and dangers 
 which he sustained during that desolate period. 
 On one occasion he was reduced to the neces- 
 sity of requiring from Ahimelech, the priest at 
 Nob, the bread that had been consecrated be- 
 fore the Lord, to relieve the pressing wants of 
 himself and his companions ; and was doomed 
 to hear, soon after, the distressing intelligence 
 that that transaction had exposed that priest 
 and all the inhabitants of that city to the wrath 
 of Saul, who charged them with treason against 
 himself, and a partiality to the son of Jesse, 
 and ordered them to be destroyed with the edge 
 of the sword, " both men and women, children 
 and sucklings, and oxen and asses and sheep." 
 On another, he was obliged to venture his 
 person in the country of the Philistines, whose 
 hatred he had provoked by his daring and suc- 
 cessful warlike enterprises against them in 
 defence of that king who now sought his life, 
 and of that country from which he was now 
 banished as an evil-doer ; and at the court of 
 Achish, king of Gath, the renowned and gigan- 
 tic champion of which place had fallen by his 
 hand, he was driven to the humiliating artifice 
 of feigning himself mad, to escape the fatal 
 vengeance of the national enemy. On another, 
 he was distressed by the thought that the effects 
 H 4
 
 152 ABIGAIL. 
 
 of his misfortune, in having incurred the royal 
 displeasure, had extended to his father and his 
 mother, and found it necessary to remove them 
 for their personal safety to the court of the 
 heathen king of Moab. On another, he was 
 cut to the heart by the base ingratitude and 
 treachery of the inhabitants of Keilah, whose 
 town he and his men had just saved from an 
 invasion of the Philistines, and whom, notwith- 
 standing the important service he had rendered 
 them, he discovered to be harbouring the design 
 of betraying him into the hands of Saul. On 
 these, and similar occasions, he was often 
 brought very low in spirit, aud plunged into 
 deep grief; and the fifty-seventh and the 
 hundred and forty-second Psalms, which he 
 composed about this time in the cave of Adul- 
 lam, show how pathetically he lamented his 
 desolate lot, and how greatly he felt the want 
 of consolation and support. A friend at such a 
 period of need would have been a friend indeed. 
 Such a friend he hoped to find, and had rea- 
 son to hope for in Nabal, the husband of 
 Abigail. He had conferred obligations upon 
 him at a former period by protecting his pro- 
 perty and servants from the violence of the 
 Philistines ; and he now applied to him in his 
 need for such help as he would vouchsafe to 
 grant. He made the application at a time usually 
 considered most favourable to success, and on an 
 occasion which commonly expands the hearts
 
 ABIGAIL. 158 
 
 oT the rich to kindness and liberality ; for Nabal 
 was shearing his sheep, of which he possessed 
 three thousand, as well as a thousand goats, and 
 it was customary in Canaan at sheep-shearings 
 to give feasts, and entertainments, and gifts, to 
 relatives and friends, as we may gather from 
 the invitation of Absalom, who said unto his 
 father ', " Behold now thy servant hath sheep- 
 shearers ; let the king, I beseech thee, and his 
 servants go with thy servant/' The applica- 
 tion was also made with much courtesy and 
 respect ; and the messengers were ordered to 
 say to the rich man, " Peace be both to thee, 
 and peace be to thine house, and peace be unto 
 all that thou hast." It was accompanied by a 
 true but unassuming representation, that when 
 David and his military followers were quartered 
 in the neighbourhood of the land occupied by 
 Nabal's shepherds, they had abstained from all 
 depredation upon his property, which was no 
 small forbearance for men in their needy and 
 difficult circumstances. The truth was, as 
 appeared afterwards, and as we have already 
 stated, that they had not only not injured his 
 property, but had even saved it from the pre* 
 datory violence of others. The application, 
 moreover, was exceedingly deferential in its 
 tone, and by no means dictatorial or exorbitant 
 in its demands, it being a request that he 
 would confer upon the messengers, who called 
 
 1 2 Sam. xiii. 24. 
 H 5
 
 154 ABIGAIL. 
 
 themselves his servants, and upon David, whom 
 they were instructed to call his son, out of 
 respect to him, not royal dainties, or costly 
 luxuries, but whatever he might condescend to 
 give towards their necessary support. It pro- 
 ceeded too from one who was brave in war, and 
 surrounded by a band of warriors, and who was 
 powerful enough to send an imperative demand, 
 and yet it was delivered with all the meekness 
 and humility of one who had no power to 
 enforce his wishes. It also came from one 
 who had been beforehand with Nabal in 
 granting favours, and who had already laid 
 him under unquestionable obligations, and 
 yet it prescribed no specific return, but sim- 
 ply asked for what he could conveniently 
 afford to persons who were in need and neces- 
 sity. In short, the application was attended 
 with so many considerations calculated to excite 
 kindliness, and to disarm resistance, that with 
 men of ordinary sense and gratitude, it could 
 not have failed of success. Combine together 
 the previous services of David, his present 
 power, his modest and unassuming demeanour, 
 and you might well expect that Nabal would 
 have felt disposed with the utmost readiness 
 and liberality to comply with his request. But 
 the result was totally different, as will appear 
 in the sequel. 
 
 The servants of David, on delivering to 
 Nabal their master's reasonable and courteous
 
 ABIGAIL. 155 
 
 message, were surprised and confounded by a 
 most unexpected and repulsive answer : " Who 
 is David ?" said he, " and who is the son of 
 Jesse ? There be many servants now a days 
 that break away every man from his master. 
 Shall I then take my bread and water, and my 
 flesh that I have killed for my shearers, and 
 give it unto men whom I know not whence 
 they be ?" It is difficult to imagine a more 
 offensive refusal. Not content with a denial of 
 the request, he gives way to violence of temper, 
 and employs abusive language. It is not an 
 uncommon thing at the present day for selfish 
 and avaricious men to find fault with those 
 who ask their charitable aid by way of excusing 
 their own hardheartedness. Nabal went be- 
 yond most of his class in churlishness and 
 insolence, and gratuitously insulted David, by 
 affecting to consider him an obscure individual, 
 whom nobody had heard of before, and by 
 plainly intimating, that he must be some un- 
 principled vagrant, who, like a runaway slave, 
 had deserted his master's service. There was 
 manifest untruth in such a pretence of igno- 
 rance; for who in Israel could have been un- 
 acquainted with the fame of the conqueror of 
 Goliath, and the scourge of the Philistines? 
 There was evident injustice in the insinuation, 
 that he had wilfully absented himself from his 
 duty to his royal master, for he had been com- 
 pelled, by the repeated and notorious attempts 
 H 6
 
 156 ABIGAIL. 
 
 upon his life, to tear himself away from the 
 court and the camp of Saul, in spite of his 
 strong attachment to Michal, his wife, and his 
 unequalled friendship for Jonathan, her brother. 
 Then what impious arrogance to speak of the 
 property, part of which he was respectfully 
 requested to give to the needy, as his own ex- 
 clusive and inalienable possession, without the 
 least reference to the good providence of God, 
 who had so munificently blessed him ! " Shall I 
 take my bread, and my water, and my flesh 
 that I have killed for my shearers, and give it 
 unto men whom I know not whence they be ?" 
 His churlish answer was a tissue of insolence, 
 selfishness, ingratitude, and irreligion ; most 
 insulting to the petitioner, and, doubtless, most 
 displeasing to the Giver of all his wealth ; and 
 we cannot wonder at the melancholy judgment 
 by which he speedily closed his unprofitable 
 career. Let men be warned by his fate against 
 giving way to a worldly-minded, hard-hearted, 
 and violent temper, and bear in mind, that 
 while godly sorrow worketh repentance not to 
 be repented of, there is a sorrow of the world, 
 often inflicted on the wicked, which worketh 
 death. 
 
 The servants of David, upon hearing this 
 abusive speech of Nabal, appear to have made 
 no reply, but to have retired silently and speed- 
 ily from his presence, shocked and amazed at 
 their unexpected reception. When they re-
 
 ABIGAIL. 157 
 
 turned and reported to their master all that 
 had taken place, he was fired with indignation 
 at the insult, and formed a hasty determination 
 to take vengeance upon Nabal and all his 
 family. He quickly girded on his sword, and 
 put himself at the head of four hundred armed 
 followers, and immediately marched in the di- 
 rection of Mount Carmel ; and it is impossible 
 to say what blood would have been shed, and 
 what terrible havoc would have followed, had 
 it not been for the timely interference of Abi- 
 gail, who became instrumental in the hands of 
 Providence to avert the impending calamity. 
 One of Nabal's servants, who witnessed the con- 
 tumelious treatment of David's message, felt 
 instant alarm for the consequences, and know- 
 ing it to be useless to remonstrate with such a 
 son of Belial as his master, he anxiously com- 
 municated the matter to his mistress. He 
 represented to her the utter unreasonableness 
 of such conduct towards David and his men, 
 who had not only sacredly abstained from Na- 
 bal's property, but had protected his shepherds 
 safely against the violence of others, and had 
 been a wall of defence to them by night and by 
 day. He had gathered from the manner or 
 the language of the messengers, and from his 
 own knowledge of David's power, that his mas- 
 ter's ungrateful and unprovoked conduct must 
 bring upon him and his household fearful, and, 
 possibly, fatal evils, and urged her, without
 
 158 ABIGAIL. 
 
 delay, to consider whether she could adopt any 
 step to prevent them. Abigail fully compre- 
 hended the imminence and peril of the coming 
 storm, and with admirable presence of mind im- 
 mediately proceeded to do what she could to 
 avert it. She pursued a line of conduct the 
 very reverse of that by which her foolish hus- 
 band had given cause for the apprehended evil. 
 Nabal had grudged David a moderate supply 
 of provisions. She determined to present him 
 with a very ample an f l liberal portion, and 
 ordered to be got ready many asses' loads of 
 bread, and corn, and wine, and figs, and raisins. 
 Nabal had refused him the mere necessaries of 
 bread and water. She added the luxuries of 
 wine and fruit. Nabal would not exercise 
 common civility towards his messengers. She 
 undertook the labour of a journey to appear 
 before him in person to conciliate his regard. 
 We are not, therefore, surprised that she 
 planned and executed her enterprise without ac- 
 quainting her husband with her intention. Had 
 she communicated with him on the subject, he 
 would doubtless have opposed and frustrated 
 her wise and pious purpose. Knowing his 
 temper and disposition, she was perfectly jus- 
 tified in acting secretly on an emergency, 
 which his folly and wickedness had occa- 
 sioned, and which his obstinacy in wrong 
 might have aggravated into a wide-spreading 
 and irremediable calamity. Her enlightened
 
 ABIGAIL. 159 
 
 and pious mind saw that minor duties must 
 give way to greater duties; and clearly per- 
 ceiving and conscientiously feeling it to be a 
 far more important object to save many from 
 a violent death, than to consult the will of a 
 rash and unwise husband, she wisely took upon 
 herself the undivided responsibility of the un- 
 dertaking, and the course she adopted may 
 safely be followed by all who may be placed 
 under a similar necessity. If husbands or 
 parents, or any who in general have a right to 
 command, act in defiance of the will of Heaven, 
 their authority is no longer to be regarded, or 
 their opinion consulted, since it is clearly laid 
 down by inspiration as an invariable rule, that 
 we "ought to obey God rather than man." 
 
 Behold Abigail then embarked on a moment- 
 ous enterprise against an armed force of excited 
 soldiers and an indignant chief, with no other 
 resources to depend upon, than those of her 
 own mind, with a trusting reliance on the 
 merciful goodness of a gracious Providence. 
 Proceeding on her journey, as she descended 
 with her cavalcade towards the foot of Mount 
 Carmel, she beheld David and his men coming 
 down the opposite declivity of Mount Paran, 
 and they were about to meet in the valley be- 
 tween, whereupon " she lighted off the beast on 
 which she rode 2 , and fell before David on her 
 face and bowed herself to the ground." Here 
 
 2 See first Sermon on Rebekah. p. 168.
 
 160 ABIGAIL. 
 
 again she presented a striking contrast to the 
 rude deportment of her husband. Studying to 
 shew David every mark of respect and defer- 
 ence, she fell down at his feet, and addressed 
 him with the greatest humility and reverence, 
 repeatedly calling him lord. She entreated 
 him to give ear to what she had to say on the 
 deplorable business which brought her to his 
 presence. She begged him to consider, that 
 the transaction was attributable to her husband's 
 want of common judgment and understanding, 
 and that, son of Belial as he was, his wicked- 
 ness was exceeded by his folly, saying, "Nabal 
 or fool is his name, and folly is with him." She 
 assured him that she was utterly ignorant of 
 the arrival of the messengers, the nature of 
 their application, or the manner of their recep- 
 tion, until they were gone, and intimated her 
 utter reprobation of the churlish treatment 
 which they had experienced. Then perceiving 
 the effect which her representation had pro- 
 duced in softening the wrath of David, she 
 pressed him to accept the presents of provisions 
 which she had brought, and as though she had 
 been the sole guilty party, and as one who was 
 willing to take upon her own head the respon- 
 sibility of her husband's trespass, she besought 
 him to grant unto her a pardon for the deep 
 offence that had been committed. To fix his 
 determination in favour of her humble suit, she 
 unfolded to him, perhaps by prophetic inspira-
 
 ABIGAIL. 161 
 
 tion, the noble and royal destiny which awaited 
 him and his eventual triumph over all his ene- 
 mies, whether stupidly insulting like Nabal, or 
 violently persecuting like Saul, and she set 
 before him how much more worthy of one 
 intended for so exalted a station, and so mani- 
 festly favoured of Heaven, it was, generously to 
 overlook a despicable affront, than to visit it 
 with severity of punishment. She further re- 
 presented to him how at a future period it 
 would save him, in the retrospect of the past, 
 the painful regret which must necessarily arise 
 from the revengeful shedding of blood, and like 
 one confident of his ultimate success and su- 
 premacy, she concluded her supplication with 
 a hope that he would, when arrived at his 
 approaching elevation, remember her as one 
 whose instrumentality Providence had em- 
 ployed to divert him from inflicting a lasting 
 disquietude on his conscience and a disho- 
 nouring blot on his fair fame. The effect of 
 this appeal was such as might have been ex- 
 pected on one of David's character. He was a 
 man of warm feelings, and he had allowed him- 
 self for the moment to be excited into vindic- 
 tiveness at the insult he had received. But he 
 was open to conviction, and of a tender consci- 
 ence, and when he was calmly and judiciously 
 reasoned with, he not only according to Abigail's 
 request forbore to punish Nabal, but blessed 
 the Lord God of Israel, who had put it into her
 
 162 ABIGAIL. 
 
 heart to come and meet him, and so saved him 
 from shedding blood under the influence of 
 revengeful feelings. He had made a solemn 
 vow to destroy Nabal and every male in his 
 household. But it was a rash and a sinful vow. 
 While the making of such vows entails much 
 guilt, the keeping of them entails still greater 
 guilt. David became fully sensible of this. 
 He repented of his temerity, and he most de- 
 voutly thanked God for having interposed to 
 restrain his impetuous fury, and earnestly 
 blessed Abigail, whose discreet address had been 
 the happy means employed to divert him from 
 his purpose. He readily consented to accept of 
 her gifts, declared himself willing to comply in 
 all respects with her wishes, and sent her back 
 to her home in peace. Oh happy result of well- 
 directed efforts for good ! What countless and 
 unknown evils were prevented by this timely 
 exercise of prudence, faith, and prayer on the 
 part of Abigail ! what guilt averted from the 
 conscience of David! what suffering and ruin 
 from the house of Nabal! "Truly the tongue of 
 the wise useth knowledge aright ; and a word 
 spoken in season, how good is it !" 
 
 Abigail having happily succeeded in her en- 
 terprise returns to Nabal, and finds the man 
 who had refused to help the necessitous grudg- 
 ing no expense for the gratification of his own 
 vanity and carnal appetites. He was entertain- 
 ing his friends on a scale of regal splendour,
 
 ABIGAIL. 163 
 
 and indulging to excess in hilarity and wine. 
 " He held a feast in his house like the feast of 
 a king, and his heart was merry within him, for 
 he was very drunken." And do we not see 
 many in the present day, who are most niggardly 
 in their contributions for the purposes of charity 
 and piety, often extravagant and profuse in their 
 expenditure for the purposes of ostentation and 
 sensuality? Let such consider the words of the 
 prophet Isaiah, and be afraid : "Woe unto them 
 that rise up early in the morning that they may 
 follow strong drink ; that continue until night, 
 till wine inflame them ! And the harp and the 
 viol, the tabret and pipe and wine are in their 
 feasts: but they regard not the work of the 
 Lord, neither consider the operation of his 
 hands. Therefore, hell hath enlarged herself 
 and opened her mouth without measure ; and 
 their glory and their multitude and their pomp, 
 and he that rejoiceth shall descend into it." 
 The uncharitable and selfish, yet luxurious rich 
 are treading on the brink of a dreadful precipice, 
 like Nabal, who was exposed to a most terrible, 
 though little suspected danger, while in the 
 midst of revelry and dissipation. While he 
 said unto himself, Peace, peace, sudden de- 
 struction was menacing his house ; while he 
 was enjoying ease and pleasure, the sword of 
 David was rapidly approaching his habitation, 
 and would have overwhelmed both it, and its 
 owner, and his company, with desolation and
 
 164 ABIGAIL. 
 
 death, but for the timely interference of his dis- 
 creet and pious wife. In the morning she 
 acquainted him with all this, and set before him, 
 doubtless with a view to his reformation, the 
 fearful danger which his folly and selfishness 
 had created. The madness of intoxication had 
 passed away; the hour of reflection had re- 
 turned; a depression of spirits corresponding 
 with their elation in the season of revelry had 
 followed : these circumstances, combined with the 
 dreadful nature of the danger his conduct had 
 caused, as described in his wife's recital, pro- 
 duced such an effect upon his mind that he 
 never recovered the shock. " His heart died 
 within him and he became as a stone." Like 
 the handwriting on the wall of the palace of 
 Babylon, which caused "the king's counte- 
 nance to be changed, and his thoughts to be 
 troubled, so that the joints of his loins were 
 loosed and his knees smote one against another," 
 the melancholy tale of the consequences that 
 had so nearly followed from his excessive 
 thoughtlessness and wickedness threw him 
 into a fit of affright and despair, which 
 speedily brought his useless life to a close. 
 " And it came to pass about ten days after 
 that the Lord smote Nabal that he died." It 
 is intimated in these last words that he died 
 by the judgment of God. It was doubt- 
 less the case with him as well as with Belshaz- 
 zar. Natural causes indeed were in operation
 
 ABIGAIL. 165 
 
 in both cases, but they might have been turned 
 aside by the mercy, as they were rendered fatal 
 by the judgment of God. O then let men be- 
 ware of blindness of heart, of hateful tempers, 
 of uncharitableness, and of selfish sensuality. 
 Against such the judgment of God lingereth 
 not, and their damnation doth not slumber. 
 The Bible gives repeated warnings against fol- 
 lowing their evil ways. In addition to the ex- 
 amples in the Old Testament here referred to, we 
 have the awful admonitions of the New. "There 
 was a certain rich man," observed . ^r. 
 
 on one occasion, " who said unto his soul, Soul, 
 thou hast much goods laid up for many years ; 
 take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry. But 
 God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy 
 soul shall be required of thee : then whose shall 
 those things be which thou hast provided? 
 So is he that layeth up treasure for himself, and 
 is not rich towards God." " There was a certain 
 rich man," said He, on another occasion, "which 
 was clothed in purple and fine linen ; and fared 
 sumptuously every day : And there was a cer- 
 tain beggar, named Lazarus, which was laid at 
 his gate full of sores, and desiring to be fed 
 with the crumbs which fell from the rich man's 
 table : And it came to pass that the beggar died, 
 and was carried by the angels into Abraham's 
 bosom : the rich man also died, and was buried. 
 And in hell he lifted up his eyes being in tor- 
 ments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Laza-
 
 166 ABIGAIL. 
 
 rus in his bosom. And he cried, and said, 
 Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send 
 Lazarus that he may dip the tip of his finger 
 in water and cool my tongue, for I am tor- 
 mented in this flame. But Abraham said, Son, 
 remember that thou in thy lifetime receivedest 
 thy good things, and likewise Lazarus evil 
 things : but now, he is comforted, and thou art 
 tormented." Oh, then, I say again, let men be- 
 ware of the deceitfulness of riches, the snares 
 of sensuality, and the peril of ungoverned pas- 
 sions, which harden the heart, and drown men 
 in destruction and perdition. Be afraid of 
 trusting in uncertain riches rather than in the 
 living God. Be on your guard against being 
 lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God. 
 Bear in mind that ye are but stewards of the 
 good things with which God hath blessed you, 
 and that it is required by Him of stewards that 
 they be found faithful. Set not your affections, 
 therefore, on things on the earth, but set your 
 affection on things above, where sitteth 
 
 on the right hand of God ; and make to your- 
 selves true friends of the Mammon of righte- 
 ousness, that when ye fail they may receive you 
 into everlasting habitations. 
 
 David, upon hearing the intelligence of 
 Nabal's death, while he recognised in the sud- 
 den visitation the just judgment of the Almighty, 
 poured forth his heart in gratitude to God for 
 having kept him from inflicting the punishment
 
 ABIGAIL. 167 
 
 with his own hand, and for having restrained 
 him from the guilt of blood. He also remem- 
 bered the singular messenger, by whose instru- 
 mentality he had been saved from so great a 
 misfortune. Abigail was a woman of great and 
 varied attractions, so that in all things she most 
 favourably contrasted with her departed hus- 
 band, a circumstance directly calculated to im- 
 press David with a deep and lively interest in 
 her destiny. We are distinctly told that she 
 was a woman of a beautiful countenance, and 
 of a good understanding. Her good under- 
 standing might have been inferred from the 
 prudence and address she displayed in the hour 
 of imminent peril, even if the sacred writer had 
 not positively declared it. The declaration 
 concerning her external charms was, doubtless, 
 equally true. These graces of person, and more 
 valuable graces of the mind and heart, combined 
 with the affecting circumstances under which 
 she was first presented to his notice, and under 
 which she had been reduced to the condition 
 of a widow, strongly recommended her to his 
 judgment, his pity, and his warm affection; 
 and he determined to unite her to himself in 
 marriage. Upon his sending a message to her 
 with that proposal, though he was then but an 
 exile and an outlaw, she humbly and gratefully 
 gave her consent. She knew that although he 
 was then unfortunate, yet he was a good and 
 enlightened man, and that, although he was
 
 168 ABIGAIL. 
 
 then destitute and persecuted, yet he was des- 
 tined, one day, to triumph over all his foes, and 
 to command the wealth of a kingdom. And, 
 therefore, on the appearance of his messengers, 
 and on learning the purport of their errand, 
 she arose and bowed herself on her face to the 
 earth, and said, " Behold, let thine handmaid 
 be a servant to wash the feet of the servants of 
 my lord. And she hasted and arose, and rode 
 upon an ass, with five damsels of hers that 
 went after her ; and she went after the messen- 
 gers of David, and became his wife." 
 
 To conclude with a brief application of the 
 subject. I have often had occasion to observe 
 how wonderfully instructive is every part of the 
 Word of God, and how it exhibits both men 
 and women in almost every relation of life, and 
 under the most various and interesting circum- 
 stances ; so that they serve either as warnings 
 or examples for the guidance of the children of 
 frail humanity under every Divine dispensation, 
 and in every age of the world. Thus, in the 
 biographies contained in the present and the 
 last discourse, we behold, as in a clear mirror, 
 the great disadvantage, on the one hand, of 
 thoughtlessness and irreligion, and the incal- 
 culable value, on the other, of discretion and 
 piety in a woman and a wife. Michal, thought- 
 less, irreligious, and proud, tried to set her hus- 
 band's mind against his highest duties. Abigail, 
 discreet, pious, and meek, succeeded in turning
 
 ABIGAIL. 169 
 
 aside the consequences of her husband's infatu- 
 ated wickedness. The influence of Michal, if 
 not counteracted by the intellect and zeal of 
 David, would, by causing the neglect of Divine 
 worship, have brought a curse upon her hus- 
 band and his family. The influence of Abigail 
 accomplished the deliverance of her house from a 
 terrible calamity, which the stupidity and reck- 
 lessness of Nabal, her husband, had provoked. 
 Michal used the gift of speech for the derision 
 of that which was good. Abigail employed 
 the most moving eloquence in deploring that 
 which was evil, and in preventing its direful con- 
 sequences. Michal was degraded for her conduct 
 from the royal station she occupied. Abigail was 
 elevated for hers to the ultimate enjoyment 
 of higher honours than she possessed before. 
 Let wives hence learn the great duty of exercis- 
 ing their influence aright, and consider how- 
 much the piety or impiety, the happiness or 
 misery of families depend upon them, and how 
 unspeakably momentous the consequences of 
 their conduct to themselves. The degradation 
 of Michal marks out the everlasting shame and 
 contempt of the foolish wife, and the elevation 
 of Abigail, the honour, glory, and immortality 
 of the wise one. God give you grace in time 
 to choose the better part. 
 
 But the subject is susceptible of a more 
 general application. See, as exhibited here, 
 
 SECOND SERIES. I
 
 170 ABIGAIL. 
 
 what an odious thing in the sight of God and 
 man, is a selfish, grasping, and unfeeling de- 
 meanour. It is directly opposed to the in- 
 spired command, " Love as brethren, be piti- 
 ful, be courteous." Let those, who, in their 
 daily life, disregard that command, tremble for 
 themselves, and dread the fate of Nabal. See, 
 again, how watchful even pious men ought to 
 be against being transported into passion, and 
 making rash vows of revenge when smarting 
 under a sense of insult or injury. David, 
 being off his guard on such an occasion, would? 
 had not God providentially interposed to re- 
 strain him, have given way to a violence, of 
 which, according to Abigail's opinion, and ac- 
 cording to his own confession, he must have 
 bitterly repented, and been deeply ashamed to 
 the end of his days. And how many have 
 been disgraced and made miserable all their 
 lifetime, and even been brought to a premature 
 death, by a resolution formed, or an act done 
 in the heat of angry excitement ! In this view } 
 how significant is that beatitude of the Saviour, 
 " Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit 
 the earth." See, moreover, how much evil 
 and suffering may be prevented by a calm, dis- 
 creet, and religious remonstrance. Nabal's 
 grievous words had stirred up a terrible strife, 
 but Abigail's soft answer turned away the wrath 
 of David, and her earnest intercession put a stop
 
 ABIGAIL. 171 
 
 to incalculable evils. " Blessed are the peace- 
 makers ; for they shall be called the children 
 of God." 
 
 But we learn from this subject, as indeed 
 
 what part of Scripture does not teach us, t 
 
 . David was in many 
 
 wnys a . .' ' m. How terrible was David's 
 
 wrath when kindled against his foolish and 
 wicked enemy ! But it was a shadow only of 
 the wrath of David's Son, when it shall burst 
 forth against the finally impenitent. Brethren, 
 if you will, like Abigail, go unto Him in time, 
 that wrath may be turned away from you, and 
 you shall rejoice in His reconciled presence. 
 Oh then go unto Him : prostrate yourselves in 
 the dust before Him : bow down with deep hu- 
 mility, and yet with faith, at His feet, and He 
 will give ear to your cry, and listen to the voice 
 of your supplication. But no time is to be 
 lost. His vengeance is moving on towards the 
 habitation of the ungodly like an army of irre- 
 sistible power. Oh, then, delay not to seek 
 His favour, and His peace. " Oh, kiss the Son, 
 lest He be angry, and ye perish from the way, 
 when His wrath is kindled, yea, but a little. 
 Blessed are all they," and only they, " who put 
 their trust in Him." 
 
 Finally, Abigail's acceptance of the invitation 
 of David, typifies the believer's acceptance of 
 the invitation i ,. She willingly con- 
 
 sented to become tiie wife of David, and that 
 ,2 *
 
 172 ABIGAIL. 
 
 at a time when he was in adversity and under 
 persecution. But she had seen and heard 
 enough of him to regard him as the chief 
 among ten thousand, and altogether lovely, and 
 she foresaw with the eye of faith, that he would 
 triumph over all his enemies, and arrive at 
 supreme dominion, and, therefore, she willingly 
 and gratefully accepted the invitation by the 
 mouth of his messengers. Brethren, the am- 
 bassadors of , who is the great antitype 
 of David, bring unto you an offer from their 
 Lord and Master, and ask you to consent to a 
 blessed union with Him. The proposal is made 
 to-night to those of you who have hitherto 
 been aliens from his family. Are you willing 
 to accede to it, my dear friends ? Are you dis- 
 posed to close with it, though it may subject 
 you to self-denial? You have, I trust, already 
 learnt something of his unequalled excellence. 
 Be not discouraged then by the present aspect 
 of his fortunes in this world. Look forward 
 with the vision of faith. He is destined to 
 make all his enemies his footstool, and to esta- 
 blish a universal dominion in heaven and earth. 
 Come to Him now. Join his family now, and 
 ye shall presently share his unspeakable ho- 
 nours and riches, drink of his pleasures, sit 
 upon his throne, and be glorified with his glory 
 through ages that never end.
 
 SERMON IX. 
 
 WITCH OF ENDOR. 
 
 1 SAM. xxviii. 7- 
 
 " Then said Saul unto his servants, Seek me a woman that 
 hath a familiar spirit, that I may go to her and inquire of 
 her. And his servants said to him, Behold, there is a 
 woman that hath a familiar spirit at Endor." 
 
 IN these discourses on the female characters of 
 Holy Writ, it has not been our purpose to limit 
 our attention to those women who have set in 
 their conduct an example worthy of imitation, 
 but to notice as equally profitable for instruc- 
 tion, the irreligious and unprincipled, whose lives 
 are recorded, to serve as a warning against the 
 error of their ways. Those of you who have 
 regularly attended this course of our Sunday 
 evening's meditations, and all of you who are in- 
 timately acquainted with Scripture, will remem- 
 ber that the former class, the good and the ex- 
 emplary, have far outnumbered the latter class, 
 the wicked and the condemnable. Whence 
 you may infer that the great majority of the 
 i 3
 
 174 WITCH OF ENDOR. 
 
 eminent and influential females among the 
 peculiar people of God, were virtuously and 
 piously disposed ; and also that the intellectual, 
 moral, and religious state of the mothers, wives, 
 and daughters of a land has a very close bear- 
 ing upon the temporal and spiritual condition of 
 its people. There were, however, some, and when 
 we consider the corruption of human nature, 
 we are surprised that there were so few, among 
 the conspicuous female characters of Israel, 
 who perverted the influence of their station or 
 talents to the purposes of worldliness, irreligion 
 and rebellious opposition to the true God ; 
 
 /h ~ 1 .--t has thought wise to place 
 their lives in the records of inspiration, we can 
 entertain no doubt of their being intended for 
 careful meditation and practical application in 
 every age of the world ; and, therefore, while 
 we have discoursed upon the many honourable 
 and holy women, according as they presented 
 themselves in the order of the sacred narrative, 
 as upon Sarah, and Deborah, and Hannah, and 
 Ruth, we have thought it an equally imperative 
 duty to set before you, for caution and warning, 
 the histories presented in the order of the same 
 sacred narrative, of the few, who were neither 
 honourable nor holy, as Lot's wife, Michal the 
 wife of David, and the person so prominently 
 connected with the circumstances now to be 
 submitted to your attention, who is known by 
 the name of the Witch of Endor.
 
 WITCH OF ENDOR. 175 
 
 Endor was the name of a town situated in 
 the valley of Jezreel, at the foot of mount Gil- 
 boa, near the borders of the adjoining districts 
 of Manasseh and Issachar. It was, therefore, 
 not many miles from the spot where Saul, king 
 of Israel, happened to be encamped with his 
 army, in expectation of being attacked by the 
 formidable hosts of the Philistines. That mo- 
 narch had not only declined from the promises 
 of his youth, which excited hopes of his proving 
 an unambitious, meek, forgiving, and pious sove- 
 reign, but he had run into the very extremity 
 of the opposite vices. He had disregarded the 
 plain command of Jehovah relative to the ex- 
 ecution of his judgment on the Amalekites. 
 He had presumed to offer sacrifice in an un- 
 authorized manner. He had made a rash oath, 
 which involved the life of his brave son, Jona- 
 than, and would have put him to death, if he 
 had not been rescued by the people. He, in a 
 fit of violent passion, cast a javelin to smite 
 that excellent man for his attachment to the 
 persecuted David. Against David himself, 
 though he had rendered him and his kingdom 
 most important services, and had been married 
 to his own daughter, he had harboured the 
 deepest malice, and indulged the most fierce 
 resentment. He had attempted to thrust him 
 through with a javelin while securely seated in 
 his presence, and enjoying his hospitality. He 
 had lured him to expose his person to the 
 i 4
 
 176 WITCH OF EXDOR. 
 
 greatest peril in unequal conflicts with the Phi- 
 listines, by false promises of a matrimonial 
 alliance with the family. He had, subsequently, 
 given one of his daughters to him in actual 
 marriage, with the diabolical design of effecting 
 his destruction. When disappointed in that 
 scheme, he had, contrary to the laws of God and 
 man, taken the same daughter, in the absence of 
 her husband, whom he had compelled to flee 
 away for his life, and married her to another. He 
 had pursued him from place to place with the 
 most unrelenting hatred, and executed the most 
 unscrupulous violence against all who had ap- 
 peared to favour him by relieving his pressing 
 necessities. He had rashly put to death the 
 priests and all the inhabitants of Nob, without 
 distinction of age or sex, because David and 
 his men had found in that city the means of 
 satisfying the importunate cravings of hunger. 
 He had continued his mad rage against David, 
 though, during that persecution, on two occa- 
 sions, he was indebted for the preservation of 
 his life to David's generosity and forbearance. 
 He had, finally, compelled that near relative of 
 his family, that faithful officer of his army, that 
 heroic champion of his country, to seek refuge 
 from destruction in the land of the Philistines, 
 the most formidable enemies of Israel. His 
 iniquity was at length full, and cried to Heaven 
 tor judgment. And, as is most frequently the 
 case with criminals, the very course which he
 
 WITCH OF EXDOR. 177 
 
 pursued to preserve his rank and power, led to 
 the loss of his kingdom and his life. The sepa- 
 ration of David, the conqueror of Goliath, from 
 the interests of Saul, and the residence of that 
 renowned warrior among the Philistines, which 
 led them to expect that he would transfer to 
 them the weight of his valour and his fame, en- 
 couraged that people to make head against 
 Israel, and to invade their country. They ap- 
 pear never to have been so bold as at this junc- 
 ture, owing doubtless to the extraordinary folly 
 and rashness of the king, and consequent mani- 
 fest weakness of his kingdom. They penetrated to 
 the very heart of the land of Canaan, and must 
 have spread terror and devastation throughout 
 the nation, Shunem, the place where they had 
 now pitched, being in the tribe of Issachar, in 
 the northern part of the country, while their own 
 territories lay at its southern extremity. Saul, 
 who, in his rage against David, had neglected 
 the defence of the kingdom, sacrificing the 
 national welfare to private and individual spite, 
 was at length roused to a sense of the peril 
 which his folly and wickedness had created. 
 He gathered all Israel together, that is, we sup- 
 pose, all the military forces of Israel, and took 
 up a position on the mountains of Gilboa, not 
 far from the encampment of the Philistines at 
 Shunem, in the adjoining plains. Being in a 
 situation to behold the extent of the hostile 
 army, he was amazed and terrified at its num- 
 i 5
 
 178 WITCH OF ENDOR. 
 
 her and strength, and concluded that his un- 
 equal forces could not meet such a formidable 
 host with any hope of success, and that without 
 supernatural aid and counsel, he must inevita- 
 bly be overpowered and cut off. 
 
 In this distress and perplexity, he sought to 
 inquire of the Lord. Samuel, his faithful coun- 
 sellor, was dead, and he could no longer, 
 through him, obtain help and advice, as hereto- 
 fore, in his time of need. There were, however, 
 three ways by which Jehovah could yet be 
 legitimately consulted, by dreams, by Urim, 
 and by prophets. 1. The consultation by 
 dreams was performed by praying that God 
 would reveal his will to the supplicant, and 
 make that revelation during the season of sleep. 
 We have frequent instances of Heaven's will 
 being thus communicated to man under the patri- 
 archal and Levitical dispensations, according to 
 the words of Job, who represents God as often 
 speaking to his rational creatures " in a dream, 
 in a vision of the night, when deep sleep falleth 
 upon men, in slumbering upon the bed." God 
 came to Abimelech in a dream to inform him 
 that Sarah was the wife of Abraham. The 
 angel of God spake to Jacob in a dream. The 
 Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream. Daniel 
 received in a dream a knowledge of far distant 
 future events. Joseph was encouraged in a 
 dream to take unto hin, '. his wife ; and was 
 warned in a dream to fly wth the child
 
 WITCH OF ENDOR. 179 
 
 into Egypt from the murderous designs of 
 Herod. 
 
 2. The mode of consulting God by Urim 
 and Thummim has not been so clearly ascer- 
 tained. The words Urim and Thummim are 
 interpreted by some to mean light and perfec- 
 tion ; by others, doctrine and judgment ; and 
 by others, truth and manifestation. There is, 
 in reality, but little difference between these 
 several meanings, and they appear all to imply 
 a knowledge beyond the unassisted capacity of 
 man. It is agreed generally among critics and 
 divines, that these words or things were in 
 some way connected with the pectoral, or the 
 breastplate of the high priest, which was a 
 piece of embroidery set with twelve precious 
 stones containing the names of the twelve 
 tribes of Israel. Some suppose that the words 
 Urim and Thummim were inscribed on this 
 breastplate, to indicate the clear and perfect 
 knowledge which Jehovah would, by its means, 
 impart to the high priest, and, through him, to 
 the people of Israel ; others, that the Urim and 
 Thummim were a distinct appendage, perhaps 
 one or two precious stones larger than any of 
 the others, and perhaps as valuable as all the 
 rest put together, or even more valuable. It 
 was not lawful to consult God by Urim and 
 Thummim, except in cases of national import- 
 ance, or at the request of persons in very 
 high authority. The mode of consulting by 
 i 6
 
 180 WITCH OF EXDOR. 
 
 Urim and Thummim was, according to the 
 most generally received opinion, by the high 
 priest's putting on his ephod, and upon that 
 the pectoral or breastplate just described, and 
 taking his station, not in the holy of holies, for 
 that he was to enter only on the great day of 
 atonement once a year, but in the holy place 
 just outside the separating veil, and opposite 
 the ark of the covenant, with the mercy seat, 
 the cherubim, and the Shechinah within. There, 
 so habited, he proposed the question on which 
 information was needed, and an answer was 
 communicated, it is generally maintained, by a 
 rising up of the letters on the breastplate, so as 
 to form a legible and intelligible word or sen- 
 tence, or by such a disposal of the rays of 
 light on the brilliant ornaments of the pectoral, 
 as to produce the same or an equally satisfac- 
 tory effect. The high priest would thus per- 
 ceive the Divine will on the subject of con- 
 sultation, and report it for the national benefit. 
 3. The mode of consulting God by prophets, 
 was by proposing the question to a holy man, 
 who was known, like Abraham and Samuel, to 
 be favoured with celestial intercourse. It was 
 probably done also in later times, and after the 
 establishment of the schools of the prophets, 
 by bringing the matter requiring elucidation 
 before the company or college of those who at 
 such institutions had dedicated themselves to 
 the service of God, who were fully instructed
 
 WITCH OF EXDOR. 181 
 
 in divine knowledge, and who were prepared by 
 prayer and meditation to be the most suitable ve- 
 hicles of Jehovah's instructions to his creatures. 
 But none of these three methods of in- 
 tercourse with Heaven availed the wretched 
 king of Israel. " The Lord answered him 
 not, neither by dreams, nor by Urim, nor by 
 prophets." And we cannot wonder at the 
 refusal, for 1 he had forfeited the benefit of all 
 these methods of inquiry. How could he, who 
 had disregarded Samuel and persecuted David, 
 who were both prophets, expect to be answered 
 by prophets ? Or he that had slain the high 
 priest, to be answered by Urim ? Or he that 
 had sinned away the Spirit of grace, to be an- 
 swered by dreams, like the distinguished ser- 
 vants of God ? " Be not deceived, God is not 
 mocked; for whatsoever a man soweth, that 
 shall he also reap." "Then said Saul unto 
 his servants, Seek me a woman that hath 
 a familiar spirit, that I may go to her 
 and inquire of her." Impious and incon- 
 sistent conduct ! Impious, to suppose that 
 he could derive benefit from a creature, 
 when the Creator had repelled and frowned 
 upon him ! Inconsistent, to seek aid from arts, 
 the dealers in which he himself had, in execu- 
 tion of the Divine law, actively striven to exter- 
 minate from the land ! Daring defiance of God's 
 distinct and menacing prohibition, which said, 
 
 1 See Matth. Henry's Comment.
 
 182 WITCH OF ENDOR. 
 
 " The soul that turneth after such as have fami- 
 liar spirits, and after wizards, to go a whoring after 
 them, I will even set my face against that soul, 
 and will cut him off from among his people " ! 
 
 Now the question, what is meant by a 
 woman having a familiar spirit, or a woman 
 that is a witch, is one which is surrounded 
 with very considerable difficulties, and one 
 which appears to have received different solu- 
 tions in different ages of the world, and in dif- 
 ferent regions of the globe. There are those 
 who maintain that all pretensions to intercourse 
 with supernatural evil agency, were, and are, 
 entire impostures, without the slightest founda- 
 tion in truth. Others assert, that mankind 
 have held, and may still hold, such intercourse ; 
 and they allege in favour of their opinion the 
 almost unanimous consent of all antiquity, the 
 literal meaning of the Scripture phrases upon 
 the subject, and the impossibility of explaining 
 many recorded phenomena on any other suppo- 
 sition. I have no doubt that imposture has 
 had to do with most of the operations and 
 revelations which have been ascribed to imma- 
 terial agency. For I find, that as mankind 
 have progressed in knowledge, and become 
 better acquainted with the laws of nature, the 
 belief in the existence of persons able to com- 
 mand the service of Satanic interference has 
 declined and faded away. With regard to the 
 phraseology of Scripture on the subject, it may
 
 WITCH OF ENDOR. 
 
 be answered, that the diction employed was 
 accommodated to the prevailing notions of the 
 time, without any reference to their truth or 
 falsehood, as the most convenient and intelligi- 
 ble form of speech, as we now say the sun rises 
 and the sun sets, although, literally speaking, 
 we know he neither rises nor sets, but remains 
 fixed, and is revolved around by the earth on 
 which we stand. And as for antiquity, it is 
 well known that most of the ancient world was 
 overspread with the shades of ignorance and 
 idolatry, and open to all kinds of deceivableness 
 of unrighteousness. On the other hand, we 
 must bear in mind that history, both sacred and 
 profane, both ancient and modern, presents us 
 with difficulties upon the subject, which can- 
 not, I think, in the mind of any fair and candid 
 reason er, be solved by the supposition of sheer 
 deceit and imposture. Though I cannot stop 
 to instance them, works appear to me to have 
 been done, knowledge imparted, sights seen, in 
 connexion with sorcerers and sorceresses, for 
 which deceit and imposture cannot account. 
 We may add, that confessions of personal fa- 
 miliarity with evil spirits have been made by 
 such, when on the point of being executed for 
 their crime. It is true, that these confessions 
 might be often extorted by the fear of torture, 
 and the terror of a more lingering and painful 
 death, than that by the gibbet or the stake, but 
 they have been made when no such overwhelm-
 
 184 WITCH OF EXDOR. 
 
 ing necessity existed, and yet at a time when a 
 person may be expected, if ever, to speak the 
 truth. Upon the whole, then, after carefully 
 considering the subject, comparing Scripture 
 with Scripture, ancient with modern testimo- 
 nies, dark with enlightened ages, heathen and 
 idolatrous countries with the lands of pure 
 religion and holy worship, my opinion is, and I 
 believe it to be an opinion that will meet all 
 the difficulties of the case, first, that the vast 
 majority of those who in all countries and ages 
 have professed to have the power of command- 
 ing the service of evil spirits, or of compelling 
 any spirits, whether good or evil, to make their 
 appearance, have been impostors and deceivers, 
 and their works deceits and impostures, with- 
 out the slightest foundation in truth, or a con- 
 viction of their truth on their own part. Hence 
 the decrease of their number as light increases. 
 Secondly, that there have been persons, who 
 have imagined themselves to have intercourse 
 with the invisible world, simply from being in 
 a state of mental derangement, though perhaps 
 it might scarcely be perceptible to others, or in 
 a state of overwrought excitement, amount- 
 ing to a transient or permanent insanity, 
 and have sincerely believed concerning them- 
 selves what in reality had no existence. 
 Hence the confessions of sorcery or witch- 
 craft under solemn circumstances. Tfdrdly, 
 that while we are slow to believe, though we
 
 WITCH OF ENDOR. 185 
 
 do not absolutely deny, that any man or woman 
 is now permitted or has ever been permitted to 
 command the service of evil spirits, or to recall 
 from their dread abode the souls of the de- 
 parted, the Almighty God, who ruleth in hea- 
 ven and earth, and under the earth, has without 
 any expectation or influence on the part of the 
 dealer in lies, interfered on such occasions to 
 baffle the deceiver, to reprove the wicked, or to 
 accomplish some other wise and momentous 
 purpose. Hence the occurrence of events in 
 connexion with pretended sorcery, which cannot 
 be explained without reference to supernatural 
 agency. Nor let it be thought incredible, that 
 the Almighty should so interpose. He inter- 
 posed to baffle the schemes of the false prophet 
 Balaam. He interposed to punish the false- 
 hood of Ananias and Sapphira. And since sor- 
 cery is a deliberate falsehood or deceit, and, 
 therefore, emphatically a work of the devil, 
 who was a liar from the beginning and if it 
 be more than a deliberate falsehood or deceit, 
 it is still more emphatically a work of the devil, 
 and since the dupe of sorcery is appealing 
 for knowledge or aid to a quarter which the 
 Almighty has thought wise to veil from human 
 eyes, and is therefore guilty of a daring and 
 presumptuous disregard of his interdict, there 
 is a complication and peculiarity of wickedness 
 perpetrated, which may well call for the extra- 
 ordinary interference of the Ruler of the visible
 
 186 WITCH OF ENDOR. 
 
 and invisible world, and the Judge of quick 
 and dead. Let men beware then of what He 
 has so plainly forbidden, or expect his sudden 
 and awful judgment. 
 
 Now Saul, with a perfect knowledge of Jeho- 
 vah's prohibition against the practice of witch- 
 craft, and against the consulting of those who 
 practised it, determined to go to the witch of 
 Endor to seek advice in the season of adversity. 
 " He disguised himself, and put on other rai- 
 ment," on undertaking this strange enterprise. 
 For the disguise there might be more reasons 
 than one. He who had been active in expel- 
 ling all witches from his dominions, might well 
 be ashamed of consulting a witch himself, and 
 therefore he did it secretly. He would also 
 naturally infer that the witch would not grant 
 him an interview, or perform her incantations 
 for him, and so acknowledge herself to be a 
 practiser of the prohibited art, if he appeared 
 before her as the king who had so rigorously 
 put the law in force against the class to which 
 she belonged, and therefore he came to her in 
 the guise of a less conspicuous character. In 
 this disguise, and attended by two servants, he 
 sets out by night from the Israelitish camp on 
 Mount Gilboa, and descending to the adja- 
 cent valley, arrives at the town of Endor, and 
 entering the habitation of the witch, addressed 
 her in these words : " I pray thee divine unto 
 me by the familiar spirit, and bring .me up
 
 WITCH OP ENDOR. 187 
 
 whom I shall name unto thee." Fearing lest 
 he might have come to lay a snare for her, to 
 discover the reality of her reported character, 
 and to inform against her with a view to her 
 punishment, or perhaps suspecting, perhaps 
 knowing him to be the king, though, with the 
 characteristic craft of her class, she would pre- 
 tend to be ignorant of him, she charged him 
 with a treacherous design upon her life, and 
 intimated her unwillingness to comply with his 
 request. But upon his declaring with a solemn 
 oath that no harm should happen unto her, she 
 consented, and " then said the woman, Whom 
 shall I bring up unto thee? And he said, 
 Bring me up Samuel. And when the woman 
 saw Samuel, she cried with a loud voice : And 
 the woman spake to Saul, saying, Why hast 
 thou deceived me? for thou art Saul. And 
 the king said unto her, Be not afraid ; for what 
 sawest thou ? And the woman said unto Saul, 
 I saw gods ascending out of the earth. And 
 he said unto her, What form is he of? And 
 she said, An old man cometh up, and he is 
 covered with a mantle. And Saul perceived 
 that it was Samuel; and he stooped with his 
 face to the ground, and bowed himself. And 
 Samuel said to Saul, Why hast thou disquieted 
 me to bring me up ? And Saul answered, I 
 am sore distressed; for the Philistines make 
 war against me, and God is departed from me, 
 and answereth me no more, neither by pro-
 
 188 WITCH OF ENDOR. 
 
 phets nor by dreams : therefore I have called 
 thee, that thou mayest make known unto me 
 what I shall do. Then said Samuel, Wherefore 
 then dost thou ask of me, seeing the Lord is 
 departed from thee and become thine enemy ? 
 And the Lord hath done to him," or, as some 
 read, " to thee, as he spake by me : for the 
 Lord hath rent the kingdom out of thine hand, 
 and given it to thy neighbour, even to David, 
 because thou obeyedst not the voice of the 
 Lord, nor -executedst his fierce wrath upon 
 Amalek : therefore hath the Lord done this 
 thing unto thee this day. Moreover, the Lord 
 will also deliver Israel with thee into the hand 
 of the Philistines : and to-morrow shalt thou 
 and thy sons be with me." 
 
 Now let us inquire what was the true nature 
 of this transaction ? We have already stated our 
 opinion on witchcraft in general. Let us now 
 endeavour to ascertain what was the exact 
 character of the proceedings which took place 
 in the presence of the witch of Endor, and the 
 royal applicant for her counsel. Did a super- 
 natural being appear and speak to the king? 
 and if so, who was that supernatural being? 
 With regard to the question, whether any super- 
 natural being did appear and speak to the king, 
 some are of opinion that the whole scene was 
 a delusion practised by the woman on the ex- 
 cited and distracted monarch, and that no spiri- 
 tual agency whatever intervened. "It is no
 
 WITCH OF ENDOR. 189 
 
 where said," observe the defenders of this 
 opinion, "that Saul saw Samuel on the occasion, 
 but only that the woman saw him. She had 
 probably known the person and dress of Sa- 
 muel, or had heard a sufficiently minute account 
 of him to give a correct description of his ap- 
 pearance ; and while she in a separate apartment, 
 or in a distant part of the same apartment, pre- 
 tended to behold his person and to hear his 
 voice, no visible object was really present, and 
 the words were uttered by herself in an imita- 
 tive tone, effected by the powers of ventrilo- 
 quism, or by another human being, who was 
 her accomplice in the imposture. And with 
 regard to her sudden recognition of the king, as 
 though suggested by the apparition, that was 
 merely the effect of her cunning art, to confirm 
 the king's delusion with regard to her super- 
 natural knowledge. She might have already 
 possessed, although she concealed that she 
 possessed, an acquaintance with his person, 
 or she might have inferred from the nature of 
 his consultation, the majesty of his stature, the 
 dignity of his mien, and the solemn oath he had 
 made to bear her harmless from all punishment 
 for complying with his request, that it was no 
 other than the monarch of Israel. And as to the 
 communication she delivered in the assumed 
 voice of Samuel, relative to his approaching 
 death and that of his sons, and the devolution of 
 his kingdom on David his neighbour a com-
 
 190 WITCH OF ENDOR. 
 
 munication which proved eventually true it 
 was founded on the well-known rivalry then ex- 
 isting between him and that successful chief, 
 the formidable host of enemies arranged against 
 him, the knowledge of his own courage and 
 that of his sons, not apt to fly from the field of 
 battle, and the consequent high probability of 
 his being cut off, with his brave children, by an 
 overwhelming hostile force, and of his being 
 naturally succeeded by the anointed of Samuel 
 and the favourite of the people. It is added, 
 that she had peculiar facilities for the acquisi- 
 tion of the knowledge contained in such an 
 answer by the proximity of Endor to the posi- 
 tion of the adverse armies, that town being 
 probably situated between the encampment of 
 the Israelites, on the mountain of Gilboa, and 
 the encampment of the Philistines in the ad- 
 jacent valley of Jezreel. On these grounds, it 
 is by some strenuously maintained, that the 
 supposition of any supernatural agency is un- 
 necessary, and that the whole scene was nothing 
 but the effect of craft and imposture. 
 
 This opinion, I confess I have once been 
 inclined to adopt ; but on a more mature con- 
 sideration of the subject, I think there are 
 opposed to it insurmountable objections. 1. 
 There is, first, the primary and plain sense of 
 the words which describe the transaction, and 
 which at first convey to an unsophisticated 
 mind no other meaning than that it was of a
 
 WITCH OP BNDOR. 191 
 
 supernatural character, and that a messenger 
 from the invisible world was present. 2. There 
 is, secondly, the expression, "Saul perceived that 
 it was Samuel," which some scholars will have 
 to imply personally, "seeing so as to recognize." 
 3. There is, thirdly, the sudden exclamation of 
 the woman, immediately after the naming of 
 Samuel by Saul, and before she had any time 
 to perform her incantations. 4. Then, there is 
 the very strong objection, which I consider 
 fatal to the soundness of the opinion we have 
 stated, arising from the singularly ominous 
 nature of the answer which the king received, 
 and the overpowering effect it produced upon 
 him, causing him to fall all along on the earth, 
 totally unmanned by terror and distress of 
 mind. Would the false woman, whose object 
 was gain, and who must have desired to con- 
 ciliate the king's favour, and to dispose him to 
 liberality, have uttered of her own accord, 
 words most grating to his ears, and communi- 
 cated information most unwelcome and repul- 
 sive to his heart? Would she not rather have 
 soothed him with encouraging promises, and 
 deluded him with hopes of success ? Would she 
 not, had she spoken from her own mind, at 
 least have clothed her responses in ambiguous 
 language, like the heathen oracles of antiquity, 
 so that her words might bear the appearance of 
 truth, whatever the event might be? That she 
 was really desirous to please and comfort him
 
 192 WITCH OF EN DOR. 
 
 evidently appears, from the efforts she made to 
 restore him from his deep depression of spirits, 
 to rouse him from his stupor of melancholy, to 
 provide an entertainment suitable to the occa- 
 sion, and to induce him to partake of refresh- 
 ment necessary to the recruiting of his failing 
 strength, and to the enabling him to perform the 
 journey back to his camp. Would a woman, 
 thus desirous to please him, have returned an 
 answer so bitter to his feelings and so disap- 
 pointing to his hopes ? On these grounds we 
 think, that there was the interference of a super- 
 natural agent, and that the occurrence, so far 
 from being an imposition practised by the wo- 
 man, was by her totally unexpected, and caused 
 her no small consternation and alarm. 
 
 If then there was a supernatural agent, the next 
 question is, who that supernatural agent was. 
 Some are of opinion that it was an evil spirit, 
 who counterfeited the person and voice of 
 Samuel; others, that it was no other than the 
 soul of the departed prophet himself. Those 
 who contend for the former opinion, namely, 
 that it was an evil spirit disguised as Samuel, 
 ground their opinion on the supposed great 
 incredibility, that an impostor and deceiver, 
 and, according to some, a more abandoned 
 character still, like the witch of Endor, should 
 have had the power to disturb the repose of 
 those who have died in the Lord. How can 
 they be said to rest from their labours, if they
 
 WITCH OF ENDOR. 
 
 are liable to be so disquieted? What a contra- 
 diction, say they, to suppose that the practiser 
 of delusive or infernal arts should exercise an 
 influence on the inhabitants of that celestial 
 habitation, into which "there shall in no wise 
 enter any thing that defileth, neither whatso- 
 ever committeth abomination or maketh a lie ?" 
 How dishonourable to the character of God as 
 Almighty, all knowing, and ever faithful to his 
 word, who has all power in heaven, in earth, 
 and under the earth, whose eyes are ever over 
 the righteous, and who hath pronounced that 
 no one shall ever pluck them out of his hands, 
 to suppose that the most eminent of his saints 
 could be brought back from heaven to earth at 
 the bidding of one of the most abandoned of 
 sinners? But that Satan himself, or one of the 
 Satanic host should present himself, on such an 
 occasion, transformed, as the Scripture assures 
 us he often is, into an angel of light, and dis- 
 guised in the form of a departed righteous man 
 for the purpose of forwarding the unfruitful 
 works of darkness, is consistent with all we 
 know, or can imagine, concerning the powers of 
 darkness. And with regard to the prediction 
 he delivered, which proved true, though it be 
 fully conceded, that all the secrets of futurity 
 are known only to the Omniscient God himself; 
 yet if it be contended by those, who deny all 
 supernatural intervention, whether good or evil, 
 in the case, that the woman herself, from the 
 
 SECOND SERIES. K
 
 194 WITCH OF E:\DOR. 
 
 situation of her abode, and from her knowledge 
 of current affairs, was capable of the sagacity 
 requisite for such an accurate revelation, much 
 more probable is it, that the subtle spirit, 
 who walketh up and down and cometh to and 
 fro unseen, should venture on such a bold and 
 circumstantial representation of the future. 
 Such are in brief the chief considerations on 
 which is rested the opinion of those, who, 
 while they admit the presence of an unearthly 
 visitant, believe that he was not the departed 
 spirit of Samuel himself, but a spirit of hell in 
 the form of Samuel. 
 
 But to this opinion the objections appear to 
 me as strong as to the opinion already noticed, 
 that there was no supernatural agency of any 
 kind concerned; while the arguments in its sup- 
 port seem far outweighed by those in support 
 of the opinion, that the being seen and heard by 
 the witch, and, probably, also both seen and 
 heard by Saul, was the identical soul or spirit 
 which once animated the body of Samuel, and 
 had, since his body's dissolution, rested in the 
 bosom of Abraham. 1. In the first place, there 
 is not the slightest reference in the description 
 of the proceeding to an evil spirit of any kind, 
 nor the least intimation given that any other 
 being than Samuel might be present. Such a 
 supposition is obviously contrary to the pri- 
 mary and plain meaning of the words which 
 the sacred writer employs. If you adopt any
 
 WITCH OF ENDOB. 
 
 opinion founded on such a latitudinarian inter- 
 pretation of language, then the opinion that the 
 whole transaction was a juggle, altogether un- 
 connected with spiritual intercourse, appears 
 far more probable, than the opinion that the 
 devil is meant, when a saint is named. 
 
 2. Secondly, it is utterly inconsistent with the 
 notion suggested to us by Scripture, of the 
 character of Satan, to suppose that he would 
 reprove and threaten the king on account of 
 his disobedience to the command of the Lord 
 concerning Amalek, and his other acts of wick- 
 edness, and so become divided against himself, 
 by discouraging, at one time, the practice of 
 evil, which, at another, he employs his subtlety 
 and malice to promote. 
 
 3. Thirdly, the minute, clear, and circum- 
 stantial account of what should take place on 
 the following day, not only of Saul's own death, 
 but of the death of his two sons on the same 
 bloody field, appears to exceed the foresight of 
 any creature, whether human or infernal, and to 
 have come only from Him, or from one com- 
 missioned by Him, who knoweth the end from 
 the beginning, who is not far from every one of 
 us, who is acquainted with all our ways, and 
 who determines the bounds of our habitation. 
 
 4. Fourthly, it is plainly declared by the wise 
 son of Sirach, who is admitted to be a most 
 able and competent interpreter of Scripture, 
 being far more ancient than the fathers of the 
 
 K 2
 
 196 WITCH OF EXDOR. 
 
 and more likely to under- 
 stand thoroughly the Hebrew original, and the 
 exact meaning it was intended to convey, than 
 any ' 'ommentator, whether of the pre- 
 
 sent time, or of former ages, it is plainly de- 
 clared by him, that it was the spirit of Samuel 
 himself who appeared and spoke. "And after 
 his death," says he, '* Samuel prophesied, and 
 showed the king his end; and lifted up his 
 voice from the earth in prophecy, to blot out 
 the wickedness of the people." As to the dif- 
 ficulty, and even incredibility of the supposition 
 that the practiser of forbidden arts should have 
 power to bring down the souls of the blessed to 
 this scene of mortality, and by so doing, prac- 
 tically overthrow the declarations of Scripture, 
 concerning their security and uninterrupted 
 happiness, such a supposition is not at all 
 necessary to the truth of this opinion. The 
 woman had no such power over good spirits ; 
 and I am slow to believe that she had any 
 power over evil spirits. She only pretended to 
 have such power. But the Holy and the Just, 
 the Almighty and the Omniscient One, overruled 
 the occasion for the condemnation of the 
 monarch's audacious and desperate conduct, 
 and, perhaps, also for the conversion of his 
 attendants, and the reproof of the cunning im- 
 postor. The woman did not bring up Samuel, 
 but, while she was preparing her operations 
 for such an unhallowed pretence, God judicially
 
 WITCH OF ENDOR. 197 
 
 interposed to the surprise and consternation of 
 all the evil-doers. And we can have no diffi- 
 culty whatever in believing, that in obedience to 
 the will of the Most High, Samuel, like the 
 angels who delight to do his bidding, felt even 
 an increase of happiness in being employed by 
 Him on an especial errand, though it was a 
 mission from the elysium of bliss to a vale of 
 tears. Obedience to God was the highest hap- 
 piness of Adam in the earthly paradise. Obe- 
 dience to God is the highest happiness of the 
 cherub and the seraph in the heavenly. Obe- 
 dience to God, we may be sure too, is the high- 
 est happiness of the spirits of just men made 
 perfect, who have, through grace, found en- 
 trance into the same glorious mansions. To obey 
 Him, therefore, cannot abate one jot of their 
 felicity, whether He commands them to regions 
 of light or regions of darkness, to the empyrean 
 heights of celestial glory, to the uttermost 
 parts of the deep sea, or to the many-coloured 
 scenes of the terraqueous globe we inhabit, 
 whether to comfort a David in his persecution 
 and exile, or whether to reprove a Saul in his 
 presumption and profaneness. Lazarus, for 
 aught we know to the contrary, would have 
 been sent, at the request of Dives, though not to 
 hell with a drop of water to cool his own burn- 
 ing tongue, yet to earth for the benefit of his 
 five brethren, had it not been certain that the 
 hardihood which could disbelieve Moses and the 
 K 3
 
 WITCH OF EN'DOR. 
 
 prophets, would have rendered such a mission 
 vain. Moses and Elias did actually come down 
 from their abodes of bliss to the mount of trans- 
 figuration, to attend upon Him whom all the 
 angels of God were commanded to worship ; 
 and many of the buried saints, on the great 
 occasion of his resurrection from the dead, went 
 into the holy city and appeared unto many. 
 There is nothing, then, inconsistent with the 
 Scriptural account of the departed, nor with the 
 continuance of the enjoyments of the blessed, 
 in the notion of their being sent to reappear on 
 this our earthly dwelling. With regard to the 
 expression of Samuel to Saul, " Why hast thou 
 disquieted me to bring me up" perhaps the 
 circumstance most opposed to this view of the 
 subject, we may, I think, very safely regard 
 that language as an accommodation to the pre- 
 vailing notions of the day, and a mere form of 
 introducing the conversation with the king, 
 without attaching to it any precise meaning as 
 indicative of either the nature of the spirit's 
 condition, or the quarter from which he had 
 come. Nor are we to regard that other expres- 
 sion, " To-morrow shalt thou and thy sons be 
 with me," as indicating any more than that they 
 should die, and depart into the invisible world 
 as he, had done, their destined abode in that in- 
 visible world being left altogether unnoticed. 
 These expressions we can have no difficulty in 
 considering as language accommodated to the
 
 WITCH OF ENDOR. 199 
 
 then prevailing notions, or employed to con- 
 vey general and undefined ideas ; remembering 
 always, that to use an occasional expression in 
 adaptation to popular modes of thinking, like 
 the expression, " The sun rises or the sun sets," 
 already quoted, is a very different thing from 
 constructing an entire narrative of events with 
 words to be understood only in a figurative sig- 
 nification, which would be the case on the sup- 
 position that no supernatural being interfered 
 in the scene at Endor, or that the being who 
 did interfere, was not the spirit of Samuel, but 
 an evil spirit personating Samuel. 
 
 Samuel himself then, we verily believe, ap- 
 peared on this awful occasion. His spirit, 
 though divested of its earthly habiliments, 
 clothed itself with an aerial or some other mate- 
 rial garb that would be visible to earthly eyes, 
 and uttered sounds that would be cognizable 
 by earthly ears. And if you should think it 
 strange that he should come, we mean not at 
 the bidding of a desperate man, or a wicked 
 woman, for it was, as I have already affirmed, at 
 the bidding of God, and not at their bidding 
 that he came; but that he should come by 
 Heaven's direction to hold converse with a man 
 of unholy life and rebellious heart, we answer, 
 that it is by no means more strange, than the 
 interference of Jehovah with the false prophet 
 of the east. He interfered by his angel with 
 Balaam, though engaged in an unholy enter- 
 ic 4
 
 200 WITCH OF ENDOR. 
 
 prise, and afterwards caused him to see, and 
 Balak, who heard him, to hear things concern- 
 ing Israel, which were as gall and wormwood 
 to their hearts. He, in like manner, now inter- 
 fered by his prophet with the Witch of Endor, 
 and the king of Israel, to turn the counsel of 
 the wicked into foolishness, and to pronounce 
 an awful judgment on final impenitence and 
 irreclaimable iniquity. God, remember, comes 
 in judgment, even in this world, to those who 
 have long despised his mercy and goodness. He 
 may, at last, by his servants, utter words that 
 shall drive to despair those who have trifled 
 with every valuable religious privilege, and dis- 
 regarded every precious opportunity of repent- 
 ance and salvation. The words of to 
 Judas, who had trampled underfoot every 
 blessing, and every feeling calculated to dis- 
 suade from crime, appear to have struck his 
 heart with the madness of desperation, and to 
 have accelerated his awful doom ; and the words 
 of Samuel to Saul seem to have been attended 
 with somewhat similar effect. With each of 
 them the day of reformation was past. The 
 amount of their iniquity was full. Warning 
 had already failed advice and reproof had al- 
 ready failed the persuasive voice of goodness, 
 mercy, long-suffering, kindness, and love had 
 already failed to melt their hearts; and now 
 that the Spirit of grace had finally ceased to 
 strive with them, any words, whether from
 
 WITCH OF ENDOR. 201 
 
 heaven or earth, did but harden those hearts 
 into adamantine hardness, and hasten the event, 
 which sealed their hopeless ruin. There is a 
 power in long indulged criminality, which, at 
 length, entirely overmasters a man's mind, in- 
 volving him in inextricable meshes, and blind- 
 ing him to the plainest but most fearful conse- 
 quences. We see it illustrated, I think, in 
 atrocious criminals of the present day, of whom 
 we have recently had many shocking instances. 
 Men, who are given over to the power of evil, 
 will commit horrible crimes with scarcely any 
 provocation, and pursue a path, as though their 
 eyes were shut, which directly and inevitably 
 leads to their speedy and utter ruin. Oh, let 
 men beware of trifling with their Creator. Let 
 them tremble at the thought of proceeding from 
 sin to sin, and slighting warning after warning. 
 " He that being often reproved hardeneth his 
 neck, shall suddenly be destroyed, and that 
 without remedy." 
 
 This subject is very full of instruction on 
 many interesting points, which I have but just 
 time to glance at before concluding. 1. Learn, 
 first, that sorcery, witchcraft, or necromancy, or 
 any intercourse, whether real or pretended, and 
 by whatever name known, with the invisible 
 world, has been ever prohibited by the true God, 
 and held utterly inconsistent with true religion. 
 Supposing it to be nothing more than impos- 
 ture and if it is more it is still worse but 
 K 5
 
 202 WITCH OF ENDOR. 
 
 supposing it to be nothing more than imposture, 
 it is more injurious to man and more offensive 
 to God than ordinary deceit or falsehood. 
 Besides imposing on the understanding, it en- 
 tangles the heart in the snares of idolatry, by 
 causing it to look in the spiritual world for 
 direction and support from other sources, than 
 from the only Fountain of wisdom, consolation, 
 and strength. It was, therefore, most solemnly 
 prohibited by the law of Moses, whose grand 
 object was to extirpate idolatry under every 
 shape. Death was the punishment for those, 
 who were convicted of its practice 2 . The 
 judgment of God was threatened against all 
 who resorted for consultation to those who did 
 practise it 3 ; and the folly and wickedness of 
 Saul in so doing are reckoned among the chief 
 causes of his defeat and death *. All pagan coun- 
 tries have abounded and still abound with it. 
 But in proportion as true religion has prevailed, 
 it has been discountenanced and diminished. 
 Its existence in Canaan after the occupation of 
 the country by the Israelites, was but the 
 remains of pagan idolatry, which had n^ver 
 been entirely extirpated. Its existence in 
 tian countries for many ages is attributable 
 to the very same source, and, like many of the 
 absurdities of popery, is to be traced to the 
 pagan and idolatrous notions and customs 
 which cling to the people after they had nomi- 
 2 Lev. xx. 27- 3 Lev. xx. 6. * 1 Chron. x. 13, 14.
 
 WITCH OF ENDOR. 203 
 
 nally embraced a more enlightened faith. It is 
 entirely opposed to the religion ^ ;> as 
 
 well as the religion of Moses. And a$ it was 
 punished with natural death under the Jewish 
 dispensation, it is reckoned among the works 
 of the flesh, which exclude from spiritual and 
 eternal life under th- . .- of the which 
 
 works, says the Apostle to the Galatians, "I tell 
 you before as I have also told you in times past, 
 that they which do such things shall not inherit 
 the kingdom of God." 
 
 2. This subject teaches the separate existence 
 of the immaterial spirit after the dissolution of 
 the body. Whatever views you take of the 
 transaction we have been considering, it proves 
 that in the time of Saul a belief in that doctrine 
 generally prevailed; and, if we are right in 
 supposing that the spirit of Samuel appeared 
 and spoke, it is placed beyond the possibility of 
 a doubt, independently of all the other argu- 
 ments in its support. It is a solemn and yet 
 a very delightful contemplation solemn and 
 awful to those who are unprepared for death 
 elevating and delightful to those whose affec- 
 tions are set on things above ! O may we all 
 have grace to be ready for our coming great 
 change ! 
 
 3. Lastly, the subject warns you, that con- 
 tinued transgression may before your life is 
 ended, raise an impassable barrier between you 
 and God. Jehovah at last refused to answer 
 
 K 6
 
 WITCH OF ENfDOR. 
 
 Saul for his relief and direction by dreams, by 
 Urim, or by prophets ; and when He spoke to 
 him by an extraordinary messenger, He spoke 
 to him in wrath. O let men beware of persist- 
 ing in sin and impiety, and be afraid of the 
 dreadful menace pronounced against the obsti- 
 nately impenitent and hardened heart, "Be- 
 cause I have called," &c. Prov. i. 2429.
 
 SERMON X. 
 
 BATHSHEBA. 
 
 2 SAMUEL xi. 3. 
 
 " And David sent and inquired after the woman, and one said, 
 Is not this Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of 
 Uriah the Hittite." 
 
 IN the histories already set before you of 
 Michal and Abigail, the first two wives of David, 
 his character, with the exception of a temporary 
 resentment at the churlish conduct of Nabal, 
 has appeared worthy of all imitation and admi- 
 ration, and if the history of his wife Bathsheba 
 had been excluded from the sacred record, he 
 would have descended into the grave with 
 scarcely a blot upon his celebrated name. Had 
 the Bible been a fiction, and the religion it in- 
 culcates false, doubtless this passage in the life 
 of one who is reckoned among the saints of 
 Jehovah, would have been artfully glossed over 
 or entirely suppressed. But the revelation 
 which comes from the God of truth, and which 
 was dictated by the Holy Spirit, the guide into
 
 206 BATHSHEBA. 
 
 all truth, records without reserve the failings 
 as well as the virtues, the vices and crimes as 
 well as the graces and excellences of those indi- 
 viduals, who are in general spoken of with ap- 
 probation, and recommended as examples ; and 
 this impartial fidelity of representation is justly 
 regarded as one of the strong proofs of the 
 inspiration of the Scriptures. If then we would 
 carefully follow the guidance of that Spirit, 
 faithfully interpret that revelation, and rightly 
 divide the word of truth, we must not in these 
 meditations on the sacred narrative stop at 
 those biographies connected with the distin- 
 guished king and sweet singer of Israel, which 
 exhibit the fair side of his character, but include 
 those also, which expose its shadows, blemishes, 
 and deformities. We must not limit our notices 
 to those of his wives whose histories illustrate 
 his fidelity to his engagements, his patience in 
 tribulation, his forbearance under persecution, 
 his forgiveness of unprovoked affronts and in- 
 juries, his deep piety and fervent zeal in the 
 service of God, but extend our attention to her, 
 whose history has transmitted to all posterity 
 the record of his treachery, his impiety, his 
 cruelty, his inexcusable wickedness, and atro- 
 cious criminality, even to Bathsheba, the widow 
 of the injured and murdered Uriah the Hittite. 
 Uriah the Hittite, the first husband of Bath- 
 sheba, was so called, according to some, because 
 he originally belonged to the heathen Hittite
 
 BATHSHEBA. 207 
 
 nation, but had become a proselyte to the Jew- 
 ish religion ; according to others, because he 
 had distinguished himself in war against that 
 nation, as the celebrated Roman generals received 
 such additional names as Parthicus, Hispanicus, 
 and Africanus, on account of their successful 
 exploits against the inhabitants of the countries 
 to which those titles respectively refer. He 
 was a brave and able officer, and engaged in 
 fighting the battles of his country at the time 
 when the name of his wife Bathsheba is first 
 introduced to our notice. A war had broken 
 out between Israel and the children of Ammon, 
 on account of the shameful treatment of David's 
 ambassadors by the ill-advised king of that 
 people. In that war David's arms were attended 
 with their usual success. The Syrians, who 
 had come to assist the children of Ammon, were 
 defeated and put to flight by Joab his general ; 
 and the Ammonites themselves were discom- 
 fited by another of his generals, Abishai, Joab's 
 brother, and compelled to take refuge within 
 the fortifications of Kabbah^ the metropolis of 
 their kingdom. In the following year, which 
 was about the twenty-first of David's reign over 
 Judah, the fourteenth of his reign over all the 
 tribes of Israel, and the one thousand and thirty- 
 fifth before our Saviour's birth, it was deter- 
 mined to renew the war against these unpro- 
 voked aggressors, and to complete their humili- 
 ation by the siege and capture of their capital
 
 208 BATHSHEBA. 
 
 city. Among the officers engaged in that 
 arduous enterprise was Uriah the Hittite, who 
 had left his wife and his home in the city of 
 Jerusalem to join the distant expedition against 
 the enemies of his king and country. For 
 reasons not specified, probably from motives 
 of indolence and self-indulgence, the noxious 
 growth of security and prosperity, the king, con- 
 trary to his former habits of activity and vi- 
 gilance, declined to take a personal part in the 
 campaign, but remained to enjoy the tranquil- 
 lity and ease of his palace within the walls of 
 his metropolis. During one of these days of 
 inactive existence, " it came to pass," says 
 the sacred historian, " in an eventide, that 
 David arose from off his bed," or his couch, 
 where he had reclined during the heat of the 
 day, " and walked upon the roof of the king's 
 house or palace : and from the roof he saw a 
 woman washing herself: and the woman was 
 very beautiful to look upon." In his adversity, 
 when persecuted by Saul, and hunted as a par- 
 tridge on the mountains, he had been wont to 
 pray at morning, at evening, and at noon-day. 
 But now in his prosperity, he appears to have 
 omitted his watchfulness and supplication, or 
 to have greatly relaxed in the earnest perform- 
 ance of that duty, and to have continued it 
 only in a spirit of lukewarmness and formality. 
 Whether in the morning or noon of that day 
 he had lifted up his heart to God in prayer, we
 
 BATHSHEBA. 209 
 
 cannot tell. At eventide we are assured that 
 his heart was far from God, for it harboured 
 thoughts and feelings most repugnant to God's 
 holiness. Upon seeing his neighbour's wife in 
 the manner we have described, he looked upon 
 the woman with a sinful eye and coveted her ; 
 and daringly violated a plain and positive com- 
 mandment of Jehovah. Melancholy conse- 
 quence of neglecting to watch and pray ! Sad 
 effects of idle and luxurious indulgence ! Dread- 
 ful danger of encouraging in the bosom the 
 first insinuations of iniquity ! How important 
 the wise man's caution, " Keep thine heart 
 with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of 
 life!" 
 
 David, having committed this great sin, en- 
 deavoured by the most cunning artifice to con- 
 ceal it from the eyes of the world. Men will 
 often seek to hide from the knowledge of men, 
 what they have scrupled not to do in the all- 
 seeing presence of God. When he was in- 
 formed that Bathsheba was with child in con- 
 sequence of their adulterous intercourse, he 
 despatched an order to Joab, the commander of 
 his army at the siege of Kabbah, that he should 
 send him Uriah the Hittite, apparently on 
 pretence of wishing to receive from his mouth 
 an accurate account of the progress of the 
 military operations. Upon Uriah's arrival the 
 king received him with great ostentation of 
 anxiety about the public affairs, and asked him
 
 210 BATHSIIEBA. 
 
 " how Joab did, and how the people did, and 
 how the war prospered." Seeming to be well 
 pleased with the account he heard, he recom- 
 mended Uriah to retire to his house for rest 
 and refreshment, and presently sent after him 
 a mess of meat for his luxurious entertainment. 
 But Uriah's thoughts were intent upon the 
 critical state of the army, the sufferings of his 
 fellow- soldiers, and the imperilled honour of 
 the Lord of hosts : and under these circum- 
 stances he thought, that as one who feared 
 God, and sympathized with his fellow-creatures, 
 and felt for the public weal, he ought not to 
 indulge the tranquil enjoyments of domestic 
 life, and instead of going down to his house, he 
 slept at the door of the king's house, with all 
 the servants of his lord. Baffled in his first 
 attempt to provide for the concealment of his 
 guilt, David proceeded to another, and scrupled 
 not to expose his faithful and pious servant to 
 the temptation of excess in wine, for the pur- 
 pose of hiding his own previous iniquity. He 
 invited him to a feast in his house, and made 
 him drunk, in hopes that in the forgetfulness 
 of intoxication, he would break his resolution 
 of keeping away from his wife and home. But 
 the wicked contrivance entirely failed, and 
 Uriah slept again "with the servants of his 
 lord, but went not down to his house." Then 
 David, entangled in the meshes of guilt, medir- 
 tated a yet greater crime, in the vain hope of
 
 BATHSHEBA. 211 
 
 securing secrecy for the crime he had already 
 committed. He wrote a letter to Joab, saying, 
 " Set ye Uriah in the forefront of the 'hottest 
 battle, and retire ye from him, that he may be 
 smitten and die." He basely availed himself 
 of his servant's known courageous readiness to 
 encounter the public enemy for the accomplish- 
 ment of his destruction, doubting not that he 
 would, when ordered, advance to the forefront 
 of the hottest battle. He treacherously and 
 ungenerously took advantage of his servant's 
 scrupulous honour, to transmit his murderous 
 orders ; for he sent them by Uriah's own hand, 
 being well assured that he would deliver them 
 with inviolable fidelity and security. Uriah, 
 returning without suspicion to the siege of 
 Rabbah, and delivering the fatal letter into the 
 hands of Joab, that general wickedly responded 
 to the wishes of the king, and soon found an 
 opportunity of carrying them into effect. "He 
 assigned Uriah unto a place where he knew 
 that valiant men were," i. e. to a post of great 
 peril, which the bravest alone would be dis- 
 posed to encounter, and there, deserted doubt- 
 less through the secret orders of Joab, accord- 
 ing to the royal commands, " fell some of the 
 people of the servants of David, and Uriah the 
 Hittite died also." 
 
 It would appear, that in this engagement the 
 Israelites suffered a severe loss, and Joab seems 
 to have apprehended the imputation of rash-
 
 212 BATHSHEBA. 
 
 ness, in having exposed his men to so unequal 
 and perilous a conflict, and to have dreaded the 
 king's displeasure on account of the disastrous 
 result. But he possessed a talisman, by which 
 he well knew he could easily appease the royal 
 mind. He instructed the messenger who was 
 charged with conveying to the king intelli- 
 gence of the defeat and slaughter that had 
 taken place, to add to a general account of the 
 conflict, a particular mention of the death of 
 Uriah the Hittite. David, on receiving that 
 news, overlooked, as Joab had anticipated, any 
 faults his general might have committed in the 
 conduct of the siege, being, with the character- 
 istic selfishness of conscious guilt, more intent 
 upon hiding his own shame by the death of au 
 individual whom he had injured, than upon 
 advancing the national renown, and consulting 
 the interests of his subjects; and, adding hy- 
 pocrisy to treachery, he ascribed the loss of all 
 the lives, Uriah's among the rest, to the chances 
 of war, which make no distinction between 
 the good and the bad, the fearful and the 
 brave; and he sent back the messenger to 
 Joab with words of comfort and encourage- 
 ment, saying, "Thus shalt thou say to Joab, 
 Let not this thing displease thee ; for the sword 
 devoureth one as well as another: make thy 
 battle more strong against the city and over- 
 throw it." 
 
 What were the feelings of Bathsheba, on
 
 BATHSHEBA. 213 
 
 hearing of the death of her brave and pious 
 husband, we are not informed. She mourned 
 indeed for her husband, in appearance, accord- 
 ing to the usual manner, and during the custo- 
 mary time. But the outward habiliments of 
 woe are sometimes put on when there is no 
 real regret, as the garments of joy are often 
 worn to conceal a heart ill at ease, and a spirit 
 full of heaviness. It is probable, that the 
 prospect of worldly elevation, the attractions of 
 a throne, the affections of a king, and especially 
 her anxiety, like David's, to hide from the eyes 
 of men their shameful violation of God's law, 
 had previously made her participate in the 
 guilty wish for her husband's removal by death. 
 In that case, her assumed sorrow was a mere 
 formal compliance with the manners of the age 
 and country. The sacred narrative, without 
 reference to her sincerity or insincerity, her 
 willingness or reluctance, simply adds, that 
 " when the mourning was past, David sent and 
 fetched her to his house, and she became his 
 wife and bare him a son." Thus the king and 
 his accomplices seemed at first entirely success- 
 ful in their atrocious schemes David in issuing 
 his murderous orders, Joab in executing them, 
 and Bathsheba in consenting to a speedy mar- 
 riage. No human eye saw no human ear 
 heard possibly, no human mind suspected, 
 ought of the deeds of darkness and guilt, save 
 those of the three, who were more or less
 
 214 BATHSHEBA. 
 
 directly concerned ; and there was every pros- 
 pect of the secret being securely kept from the 
 knowledge of all the rest of mankind. " But," 
 says the inspired writer, and what a different 
 conclusion that exceptive circumstance gives to 
 the designs of evil-doers, " but the thing that 
 David did displeased the Lord." His eyes are 
 on the ways of man, how secret soever they 
 may be, and He seeth all his goings. There is 
 no darkness nor shadow of death, where the 
 workers of iniquity may hide themselves from 
 Him, whose eyes are in every place, beholding 
 the evil and the good, and to whom the dark- 
 ness and the light are both alike." And He 
 not only beholds every iniquity, but will infal- 
 libly bring it to judgment. Yea, He will not 
 merely bring it before his own dread tribunal 
 at the great day of universal assize, and if its 
 guilt be not previously obliterated by the all- 
 atoning stream, visit it with a bitterness of 
 punishment, compared to which the pleasure of 
 its enjoyment cannot he named, but will often, 
 by mysterious and unexpected ways, discover 
 it to human notice, and cause it to be con- 
 demned by human judges, and avenged by 
 human hands. He can cause a dream of the 
 night to make known a deed of supposed im- 
 penetrable mystery. He can cause a dumb 
 and irrational animal to give eloquent indica- 
 tions of a scene of dark atrocity, and to point 
 with infallible certainty at its guilty perpe-
 
 BATHSHEBA. 215 
 
 trator. He can cause the criminal's nearest 
 connexions and relatives, either voluntarily or 
 involuntarily, to become the instruments of his 
 detection and conviction. He can turn the 
 wicked's own cunning counsel into foolishness, 
 and make the very plans and language which 
 they purposely employed to ward off suspicion, 
 the very snares whereby they are caught and 
 brought to justice. We have had, in our own 
 age and country, actual instances of these sur- 
 prising and wonderful workings of Divine Pro- 
 vidence, for the exposure and punishment of 
 crime, which else perhaps had remained unno- 
 ticed by man. A man may go on in sin for a time 
 undetected he may proceed from one degree 
 of guilt to another in fancied security from dis- 
 covery he may commit crime after crime, and 
 hope at last, by some masterpiece of criminality, 
 to veil his enormities in impenetrable secrecy, 
 and to enjoy their fruits in peace and safety. 
 " But," as in the case of David, " the thing that 
 he hath done hath displeased the Lord." His 
 eye of fire hath been fixed upon all his mis- 
 deeds, and has tracked him through all his 
 crafty windings, and He will sooner or later 
 make his guilt clear as the light, and evident 
 as the noon-day. Oh ! let the remembrance 
 of that ceaseless Presence deter you from the 
 thoughts of evil ; and whenever you are tempted 
 to sin in the hope of secrecy, and the enemy of 
 souls may suggest the improbability or even
 
 216 BATHSHEBA. 
 
 impossibility of its being discovered by the ken of 
 man, bear in mind the solemn exception, " But 
 the thing will displease the Lord," and He 
 can find a thousand unexpected ways of caus- 
 ing its exposure and bringing it to punishment. 
 Let us now proceed to consider how the dis- 
 pleasure of the Lord at the guilt of David and 
 his accomplices was manifested. The Lord sent 
 Nathan unto David. It is not altogether im- 
 probable that suspicions of the truth might 
 have been excited in the public mind by the 
 circumstance of the hasty marriage, and by the 
 inference which a sagacious messenger might 
 have drawn from Joab's singular instruction, 
 respecting the announcement to the king of 
 Uriah's death, and that the circumstance might 
 have come to the knowledge of the prophet 
 through the channel of human instrumentality. 
 It is certainly not said that God directly com- 
 municated it to Nathan, but merely that he 
 sent him to David on an errand connected with 
 it. And if it did reach his ears through the 
 operation of natural causes, namely, the suspi- 
 cions excited by the hasty union of David and 
 Bathsheba, and the charge of Joab to the mes- 
 senger respecting a particular individual's death, 
 we have here a proof of what we have already 
 intimated, that the counsels of the guilty, the 
 schemes they devise, and the instruments they 
 employ, to prevent the discovery of their guilt, 
 are often converted by the retributive vigilance
 
 BATHSHEBA. 217 
 
 of a righteous providence into the very means 
 of their more speedy and certain exposure. 
 But whether Nathan received his information 
 through human instrumentality, or by prophetic 
 inspiration, we are distinctly told that he re- 
 ceived his commission to speak to the king 
 upon the subject from God himself. Nathan 
 was a true-hearted and faithful prophet. He 
 had already given David honest counsel in mat- 
 ters of religion ; and he was now prepared to 
 administer to him the requisite reproof for his 
 backsliding and wickedness. But although he 
 was not afraid to speak in a monarch's ear the 
 language of truth, he did not neglect the use of 
 caution and discretion in his mode of delivering 
 the Divine message, well knowing that the 
 effect of the best meant advice and admonition 
 is often marred by the manner of communicat- 
 ing them. He did not directly charge the king 
 with his crimes, but brought him to acknow- 
 ledge his guilt, and to pronounce his own con- 
 demnation by this ingenious and appropriate 
 parable : " There were two men," said he, " in 
 one city ; the one rich, and the other poor : The 
 rich man had exceeding many flocks and herds : 
 but the poor man had nothing, save one little 
 ewe lamb, which he had bought, and nourished 
 up : and it grew up together with him and with 
 his children : it did eat of his own meat, and 
 drank of his own cup, and lay in his bosom, 
 and was unto him as a daughter. And there 
 
 SECOND SERIES. L
 
 218 BATHSHEBA. 
 
 came a traveller unto the rich man, and he spared 
 to take of his own flock and of his own herd, 
 to dress for the wayfaring man that was come 
 unto him, but took the poor man's lamb, and 
 dressed it for the man that was come unto him." 
 And David's anger was greatly kindled against 
 the man, and he said to Nathan, " As the Lord 
 liveth, the man that hath done this thing shall 
 surely die. And he shall restore the lamb four- 
 fold, because he did this thing, and because he 
 had no pity." And Nathan said to David, 
 " Thou art the man : thus saith the Lord God 
 of Israel, I anointed thee King over Israel, and 
 I delivered thee out of the hand of Saul. And 
 I gave thee thy master's wives into thy bosom, 
 and gave thee the house of Israel and Judah ; 
 and if that had been too little, I would more- 
 over have given unto thee such and such things. 
 Wherefore hast thou despised the command- 
 ment of the Lord, to do evil in his sight ? thou 
 hast killed Uriah the Hittite with the sword, 
 and hast taken his wife to be thy wife, and hast 
 slain him with the sword of the children of 
 Ammon. Now, therefore, the sword shall never 
 depart from thine house; I will raise up evil 
 against thee out of thine own house. For thou 
 didst it secretly, but I will do this thing before all 
 Israel, and before the sun." And David said unto 
 Nathan, "I have sinned against the Lord." 
 And Nathan said unto David, " The Lord also 
 hath put away thy sin, thou shalt not die.
 
 BATHSHEBA. 219 
 
 Howbeit, because by this deed thou hast given 
 great occasion to the enemies of the Lord to 
 blaspheme ; the child also that is born unto thee 
 shall surely die." 
 
 In this parable we have a faithful and a strik- 
 ing representation of the completeness of a sin- 
 ner's conviction before God, of his punishment 
 by Divine judgment, and yet of the efficacy of 
 seasonable repentance in preventing his future 
 and eternal misery. 1. How complete every 
 sinner's conviction before God will ultimately 
 be, is clearly represented in the conviction 
 of David. Before Nathan had finished the 
 parallel between the oppressive conduct of 
 the- supposed rich man and his own, David 
 pronounced it altogether unjustifiable, and de- 
 clared it to be worthy of death. The prophet 
 had not proceeded to say that he had murdered 
 his poor neighbour as well as deprived him of 
 his ewe lamb, but before he came to that shock- 
 ing aggravation of the injury, the king inter- 
 rupted him by a solemn oath, that rapacity so 
 tyrannical, and robbery so unprovoked and in- 
 excusable, should be punished with the utter- 
 most severity of the law. How much more 
 deserving of a fatal retribution then was he who 
 not only had, in addition to his many wives, 
 taken to his bosom that of a meritorious officer 
 and faithful servant, but had aggravated the 
 grievous wrong by his base and treacherous 
 murder ! He had not a word to offer in de- 
 L 2
 
 220 BATHSHEBA. 
 
 fence or palliation of his conduct ; nor will any 
 sinner be able to open his mouth when his ini- 
 quities are set in order before his eyes, and even 
 before the greatest enormities of his life are 
 mentioned, he will feel compelled to plead his 
 guilt before God, and to every one of the finally 
 impenitent, at the bar of everlasting judgment, 
 the Judge of quick and dead will most justly 
 exclaim, " Out of thine own mouth will I con- 
 demn thee, O thou wicked servant." 
 
 2. The Divine judgments threatened against 
 David were not slow in overtaking him. They 
 first made their appearance in the death of the 
 child born to him of Bathsheba. He fasted and 
 wept, and prayed long and earnestly in that 
 child's behalf; and he interceded the more anx- 
 iously, and with the more bitter tears for its 
 life and recovery, because it was revealed to 
 him from heaven, that the sickness under 
 which it was labouring, and the early death 
 with which it was threatened, were judicially 
 inflicted in punishment of his own sins. He 
 was made to feel, by painful experience, the 
 truth of the menace, " I will visit the sins of the 
 fathers upon the children, unto the third and 
 fourth generation of them that hate me." O, 
 bitter ingredient in the cup of sorrow for the 
 past, to think that the effects of our evil deeds 
 may extend to unborn generations ! Even 
 David's deep humiliation and sorrowful suppli- 
 cation, to which Bathsheba's were, doubtless,
 
 BATHSHEBA. 221 
 
 joined, availed not to avert the impending re- 
 tribution, and the child was taken away, as if to 
 bring home to their minds the sad connexion 
 which existed still, as at the beginning, between 
 sin and death. But this, after all, was compara- 
 tively a slight calamity, when set by the side of the 
 other dreadful evils which were included in the 
 denunciation of the prophet : " The sword shall 
 never depart from thine house. I will raise up 
 evil against thee out of thine own house. 
 For thou didst it secretly : but I will do this 
 thing before all Israel, and before the sun." 
 Shocking and terrible were the evils raised 
 against him out of his own house evils of the 
 same vile and atrocious nature as those which 
 he himself had perpetrated; yea, viler and more 
 atrocious still, such as the sin of his son Amnon 
 against his daughter Tamar, which was enough 
 to humble and disgrace a family for ever ; the 
 bloody and fatal avenging of that dishonour on 
 Amnon's head, by the treacherous and violent 
 hand of Absalom ; the exile of Absalom to avoid 
 the consequences of Amnon's assassination ; the 
 most ungrateful rebellion of Absalom against 
 his father, who had consented to recall him 
 from banishment, and to overlook his brother's 
 death ; his unexampled aggravation of that re- 
 bellion, by his treatment of his father's wives at 
 the instigation of Ahithophel, so as to heap dis- 
 grace on his father's head before the eyes of all 
 Israel, and his subsequent discomfiture and 
 L 3
 
 222 BATHSHEBA. 
 
 fierce destruction, in spite of his father's wish 
 that his life might be spared, by the sword of 
 that very Joab, who had been employed to 
 effect the death of Uriah. Oh, just retribution ! 
 the instrument of his cruelty against one whom 
 he had wished to put out of the way, become 
 the destroyer of his own son, whom spite of his 
 rebellion he would have given his own life to 
 save from so awful and unprepared a death ! 
 Nor was this all the punishment reserved for 
 David, from which Bathsheba also doubtless 
 grievously suffered. On his death-bed his 
 mind was disturbed by the dissension between 
 his sons, Adonijah aspiring to succeed him on 
 the throne, and making a strong party, consist- 
 ing of the cruel Joab and other disaffected 
 persons, against the claims of Solomon, who 
 was destined for the sovereignty by his father's 
 will and Heaven's appointment ; and after his 
 death, the retributive evil threatened by the 
 prophet continued, Solomon suspecting Ado- 
 nijah to have still designs upon the kingdom, 
 in consequence of his asking for Abishag to 
 wife, and ordering him to be put to death for 
 his presumption and supposed covert ambition, 
 though the request was made through the in- 
 tercession of Solomon's own mother Bathsheba 
 herself. How many sad afflictions had both she 
 and David to lament, in connexion with their 
 family and with the inauspicious circumstances 
 which brought them together ! How literally
 
 BATHSHEBA. 223 
 
 and completely were the threatened judgments 
 carried into effect! "The sword shall never 
 depart from thine house, behold, I will raise 
 up evil against thee out of thine own house. 
 For" although "thou didst it secretly, I will 
 do this thing before Israel and before the sun." 
 3. But while, in the history of this transac- 
 tion and its consequences, we behold a great, 
 and wilful, and deliberate sin punished by griev- 
 ous temporal judgments judgments which 
 bear a melancholy correspondence with the 
 nature of the transgression, and which seem to 
 have embittered all the after-life of the guilty 
 parties, we have also a plain intimation of the 
 efficiency of seasonable repentance in turning 
 aside future and eternal misery. Upon David's 
 confessing to Nathan, " I have sinned against 
 the Lord, Nathan said unto David, The Lord 
 also hath put away thy sin, thou shalt not die." 
 As though he had said, " Thy sin hath given 
 occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blas- 
 pheme." These enemies of the Lord, if Uriah, 
 according to one reason assigned for his cogno- 
 men, was originally a foreigner and idolater, 
 and had been induced to embrace the true reli- 
 gion, and to adopt the land of Canaan for his 
 country, might be the heathens, who would 
 exclaim, " Is that the fruit of the boasted holier 
 religion of Jehovah ? Shall any one, with the 
 fate of Uriah before his eyes, exchange the 
 land of his birth, and the worship of his fore-
 
 224 BATHSHEBA. 
 
 fathers, heathen though they be contemptuously 
 called, for the service of a king so atrociously 
 tyrannical, and the adoration of a God, whose 
 holiness is so miserably illustrated?" Or if 
 Uriah was a native Israelite, and called a Hit- 
 tite from a warlike exploit, or from the name of 
 a place in Canaan, these enemies of the Lord 
 would be the careless and the mere nominal 
 Israelites, who, like Michal, David's wife, were 
 in the habit of deriding his over-strict attention 
 to religion, and who would now exclaim, " Here 
 is your serious and God-fearing monarch. Of 
 what value is a profession which can result in 
 such abominations and atrocities as these ? Of 
 what use are his examples in dancing before 
 the ark, and his boasted intentions to build a 
 temple to Jehovah, if he can be so vile and 
 cruel as this ?" " Thy sin," would the prophet 
 therefore say, " hath given occasion to the ene- 
 mies of the Lord to blaspheme, and therefore 
 it must be punished publicly and severely, to 
 vindicate the ways of the true God to short- 
 sighted man. Nevertheless, inasmuch as thou 
 hast readily acknowledged, and with evident 
 sincerity repented, of thy wickedness, thou 
 shalt not personally pay the penalty of an 
 instant or speedy death : thou shalt be conti- 
 nued in a state of probation, and shalt have 
 time to foster and nurture the seed of penitence 
 within thy broken heart, which by Divine 
 grace shall sprout and spring up, and, turning
 
 BATHSHEBA. 225 
 
 aside the future and eternal misery doomed for 
 the obstinately wicked, bring forth fruit unto 
 everlasting life. David's repentance, in which 
 we have reason to believe Bathsheba fully par- 
 ticipated, had every mark of genuineness and 
 truth. Witness his unreserved confession and 
 most anxious and earnest supplication, " Have 
 mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lov- 
 ing kindness : according unto the multitude of 
 thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions. 
 Wash me thoroughly from mine iniquity, and 
 cleanse me from my sin. For I acknowledge 
 my transgressions ; and my sin is ever before 
 me. Deliver me from blood-guiltiness, O God, 
 thou God of my salvation. Create in me a 
 clean heart, O God ; and renew a right spirit 
 within me. Cast me not away from thy 
 presence ; and take not thy holy spirit from 
 me." Witness his meek submission to per- 
 secution and insult, which, as in the case 
 of Nabal, he would have been inclined at 
 a former period of life instantly to resent, 
 but which from thenceforward he acknow- 
 ledged to be no more than the sufferings due 
 from a righteous Providence to his notorious 
 and inexcusable wickedness. When he was 
 compelled in deep distress of mind to flee for 
 his life from his capital city, and from the 
 sword of his rebellious son Absalom, Shimei, 
 the son of Gera, a man of the family of the 
 house of Saul, appeared on a hill-side as he 
 L 5
 
 226 BATHSHEBA. 
 
 passed by, and insulted him by the most oppro- 
 brious language and the most contemptuous 
 conduct, throwing stones at him and saying, 
 "Come out, come out, thou bloody man, and 
 thou man of Belial: the Lord hath returned upon 
 thee all the blood of the house of Saul, in whose 
 stead thou hast reigned ; and the Lord hath 
 delivered the kingdom into the hand of Absalom 
 thy son : and behold thou art taken in thy mis- 
 chief, thou bloody man." This was grievous for 
 the ears of a king ; and there was even untruth 
 mingled with harshness and abuse, for David 
 had done no wrong to the house of Saul, and 
 it was not on that account that he was affected. 
 But although he was guiltless in that matter, 
 yet he was conscious of having committed still 
 greater sins than the charge of Shimei amounted 
 to, and deserving of far greater punishment than 
 Shimer's insulting address and behaviour, and 
 therefore, when Abishai, one of his attendants, 
 offered to go in pursuit of him and punish him 
 with death, he answered in meek submission to 
 the highly deserved retributive judgment of 
 God, " No : so let him curse, because the Lord 
 hath said unto him, Curse David. Who shall 
 then say, Wherefore hast thou done so ?" He 
 was humbled in the dust before his offended 
 God. His language, his demeanour, his every 
 act were those of a broken heart and contrite 
 spirit under the grievous remembrance and 
 intolerable burden of his sins; and therefore a
 
 BATHSHEBA. 227 
 
 gracious and merciful Father, who willeth not 
 the death of a sinner, and despiseth not a broken 
 heart and contrite spirit, put away his sin, so 
 that he should not die and suffer for it in a 
 future and eternal world. We are elsewhere 
 assured, that all manner of sin and blasphemy 
 shall be forgiven to repenting men, so as not to 
 be remembered against them in the last day. 
 Even those who crucified the Lord of glory 
 himself, were not excluded from the hopes of 
 salvation, if they repented and turned unto God, 
 Simon Peter proclaiming aloud on the day of 
 Pentecost to those of them who were pricked in 
 their hearts for their great criminality, "Repent 
 and be converted every one of you, and ye shall 
 receive remission of your sins; repent and be 
 converted, and your sins shall be blotted out, 
 when the times of refreshing shall come from 
 the presence of the Lord." 
 
 The only remaining notices we have of Bath- 
 sheba are on the two occasions already referred 
 to; the occasion of Adonijah aspiring to the 
 crown, when by the advice of Nathan she 
 entered the sick-chamber of David and inter- 
 ceded with him, and succeeded in obtaining from 
 him a declaration and an order in favour of her 
 own son Solomon, who was in consequence 
 established as successor to his father on the 
 throne ; and the occasion of Adonijah's wishing 
 to obtain Abishag for his wife, when at his 
 request she consented to make application to 
 
 L6
 
 228 BATHSHEBA. 
 
 that effect in his behalf to her son Solomon, 
 then king, who jealous of Adonijah's ambitious 
 views, not only refused his petition, but com- 
 manded him to be put to instant death. It is 
 not recorded how she bore this mournful issue 
 of her disinterested and, doubtless, well-intended 
 suit. It argued well for her benevolence and 
 generosity, that she was disposed to do a kind- 
 ness to one who had been her own son's rival 
 as candidate for the throne, and whose succession 
 she had been assured would have endangered 
 her life. Upon the whole, we are inclined to 
 draw very favourable conclusions concerning 
 the character of Bathsheba. The Holy Spirit 
 does not inform us to what extent she was to 
 blame in the matter of Uriah. That she was 
 altogether guiltless we cannot believe ; and yet 
 we can scarcely tell to what degrees the peculiar 
 temptations and singular circumstances, with 
 which she was surrounded, might extenuate her 
 guilt the attractions of the royal favour, the 
 commands of a powerful king, and perhaps the 
 dreaded fatal consequences of resisting his will. 
 Bearing these things in mind, and remembering 
 also, that no direct censure is any where recorded 
 against her by the inspired writer, we cannot for 
 a moment compare her guilt with David's. 
 But whatever might be the extent of her crimin- 
 ality before God, there is every reason to be- 
 lieve that she, like David, was doomed grievously 
 to suffer for it, and that she like him found her
 
 BATHSHEBA. 229 
 
 throne to which she had been elevated but a 
 bed of thorns. She had to sympathize in 
 David's grief at the loss of their first-born. She 
 shared her husband's affliction at the disgraceful 
 conduct and the violent deaths of Amnon and 
 Absalom: she must have been tormented with 
 anxiety on his account, when driven from his 
 palace and metropolis by the rebellion of his 
 own son, and exposed to the insults and perse- 
 cutions of the scornful. She must have had 
 her trembling apprehensions and sad misgivings, 
 when David was on his deathbed, and Adonijah 
 aspired to the throne, and she found it necessary 
 to take an active and perilous part, and to exercise 
 the utmost promptitude and discretion in order 
 to secure the crown for her own son Solomon, the 
 rightful heir. She must, finally, have felt the 
 deepest anguish of heart and shed tears of pecu- 
 liar bitterness, when her benevolence was so 
 miserably disappointed, and her generosity so 
 terribly thwarted by that son, whom she had 
 helped to establish on the throne, and when 
 he, in whose behalf she had interceded, was not 
 only refused his petition, but put to a speedy 
 death for making it by her mouth. She must, 
 therefore, have had no small share of mental 
 suffering and grief; and we have little doubt 
 and our favourable opinion of her is confirmed 
 by Solomon's tender and affectionate allusion 
 to her memory in the fourth chapter of the 
 Pro verbs, when his experience had taught him
 
 230 BATHSHEBA. 
 
 more clearly to appreciate her excellence, and 
 by the prudent, virtuous and pious advice she 
 gave him when he was young, supposed to be 
 that contained in the last chapter of the same 
 book, we have little doubt that her many trials 
 were sanctified, like David's, to her spiritual and 
 eternal good, producing, not the sorrow of the 
 world, which worketh death, but that godly 
 sorrow which worketh repentance not to be 
 repented of, and which leads to pardon and 
 peace, whatever the past may have been ; that 
 she could say like him, from varied and deep ex- 
 perience, "It is good for me that I have been 
 afflicted : before I was afflicted I went wrong, 
 but now have I learnt to keep the statutes of 
 the Lord;" that she could feel her troubles, 
 though often painful and long continued, to be 
 trivial evils, compared with the sins she had 
 committed, yea, positive benefits, as preparing 
 her for the blessed region, where they shall sin 
 and weep no more ; and that she was able, like 
 the apostle, at last with a thankful heart to ex- 
 claim, " Our light affliction, which is but for a 
 moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding 
 and eternal weight of glory." 
 
 I will now only detain you with two or three 
 sentences, just to point out the heads of the 
 practical instruction with which the subject 
 abounds. From Nathan's mode of admonish- 
 ing David, let preachers learn to be discreet as 
 well as honest in communicating the truth.
 
 BATHSHEBA. 231 
 
 From David's fall, let all learn the danger of 
 indolent and luxurious habits, and of admitting 
 into their minds wandering thoughts and 
 desires, which thoughts and desires are aptly 
 indicated in the parable by the traveller who 
 came to the rich man, and led to the taking away 
 of the poor man's ewe lamb. From his attempts 
 to hide his shame by proceeding to other acts 
 of wickedness, leading on at last to the enorm- 
 ous crime of murder, learn the awful danger of 
 seeking to conceal one sin by the commission of 
 another. From his sudden descent from a 
 high reputation for piety, to the perpetration of 
 complicated iniquity, learn the shocking de- 
 pravity of human nature, and the importance of 
 watching and praying lest ye enter into tempta- 
 tion. From the sore afflictions with which both 
 he and Bathsheba were afterwards visited, learn 
 the inevitable connexion between sin and suffer- 
 ing. And from their forgiveness as regards the 
 future life and their final salvation, learn the 
 wonderful efficacy of seasonable and heartfelt 
 repentance, and the inexhaustible riches of 
 divine grace. Oh, what a practical comment 
 have we here on the prophet's words: "Come 
 now," ye that truly repent and believe, " and let 
 us reason together: though your sins be as scarlet, 
 they shall be white as snow; though they be 
 red like crimson, they shall be as wool."
 
 SERMON XI. 
 
 TWO WISE WOMEN. 
 
 2 SAM. xiv. 4. xx. 16. 
 
 " And when the woman of Tekoah spake to the king, she fell 
 on her face to the ground, and did obeisance, and said, 
 Help, king." 
 
 '* Then cried a wise woman out of the city, Hear, hear ; say, 
 I pray you, unto Joab, Come near hither, that I may speak 
 with thee." 
 
 WE propose to set before you, in this evening's 
 discourse, the characters of the wise woman 
 of Tekoah, and of the wise woman of Abel, as 
 illustrating both the injurious and the beneficial 
 influence of the female intellect, according to its 
 exercise and direction for evil or for good. Both 
 these women are called " wise women " by 
 which term we are not to understand, according 
 to the peculiar meaning attached to it some- 
 times in modern phraseology, persons supposed 
 to have familiar spirits, like the witch of Endor. 
 The word " wise," is seldom, if ever used in that
 
 TWO WISE WOMEN. 233 
 
 sense by the sacred writers. By them, wisdom 
 is sometimes employed according to its present 
 signification, to indicate the most valuable com- 
 bination of moral and intellectual qualities, as 
 knowledge, benevolence, sagacity, and discre- 
 tion ; sometimes to express a profound acquaint- 
 ance with the arts and sciences, as it is said of 
 Moses, that he was learned in all the wisdom 
 of the Egyptians; sometimes to imply true 
 piety, or the fear of God, as by the Psalmist, 
 " So teach us to number our days that we may 
 apply our hearts unto wisdom." Sometimes it 
 is used for ingenuity and skill, as we read of 
 Bezaleel and Ahaliah, that they were filled with 
 wisdom, &c., to invent and perform several 
 sorts of works for completing the tabernacle; 
 and sometimes for cunning and stratagem, ac- 
 cording to the words of Pharaoh, " Come, let 
 us deal wisely with the Israelites ;" and accord- 
 ing to the words of Job, " God taketh the wise 
 in their own craftiness/'' It is in the first and 
 last mentioned of these senses that the word 
 appears to be employed in the two passages 
 before us. The woman of Tekoah was wise in the 
 sense of possessing a capacity for stratagem and 
 intrigue. The woman of Abel was wise in 
 the sense of combining the most exalted quali- 
 ties of head and heart. The circumstances 
 connected with their histories, to which we are 
 now to direct your attention, indicate the very 
 different influences exercised by such different
 
 234 TWO WISE WOMEN. 
 
 female characters on individuals, and families, 
 and communities. 
 
 I. The woman of Tekoah. 
 
 Tekoah was a town in the tribe of Judah, 
 about twelve miles to the south of Jerusalem ; 
 and it is supposed that a woman of that place 
 was fixed upon by Joab to accomplish his 
 purpose in respect to Absalom, rather than an 
 inhabitant of Jerusalem, to prevent the possi- 
 bility of testing the truth of her tale by imme- 
 diate inquiries of her neighbours and acquaint- 
 ances. She might also have been pointed out to 
 his notice on account of her remarkable acuteness 
 and sagacity, as intimated by the term wise, and, 
 subsequently, illustrated by the successful issue 
 of her mission. The occasion on which she 
 was employed to address the king has been 
 slightly alluded to in our last discourse, namely, 
 the recall of Absalom from the exile to which 
 he had betaken himself on the murder of his 
 brother Amnon. Over-indulgence to his child- 
 ren appears to have been a great failing in the 
 character of David, as well as in those of Eli 
 and Samuel. His eldest son, Amnon, had com- 
 mitted an abominable crime against Tamar, his 
 half-sister. Though both as a father and a 
 king, David was bound by duty, no less than he 
 was enabled by the power and authority of his 
 station, to punish it with severity, he appears 
 to have manifested his displeasure no further
 
 TWO WISE WOMEN. 235 
 
 than by expressions of regret, anger, and re- 
 proof. Absalom, therefore, who was own-bro- 
 ther to the shamefully ill-treated maiden, took 
 the matter into his own hands, a consequence 
 that must ever follow from the refusal of justice 
 in the proper quarter. When rulers and parents 
 neglect their duties in the punishment of 
 wrong, private revenge becomes the resource of 
 the aggrieved ; and offences against person or 
 property are retaliated by more heinous trans- 
 gressions. Absalom disguised his deep resent- 
 ment, in order the more effectually to accom- 
 plish his vindictive design. For two years he 
 concealed it within the recesses of his bosom, 
 and, by long patience and deliberation, con- 
 certed a scheme for the successful and complete 
 gratification of his wounded and revengeful 
 feelings. At the expiration of that period, he 
 invited his father and his brothers to a feast of 
 sheep-shearing at Baal-hazor, which was beside 
 Ephraim, and a considerable distance from 
 Jerusalem. He could not prevail upon his 
 father to go ; but, after some importunity, ob- 
 tained his consent to let his brothers, Amnon 
 among the rest, partake of his hospitality. 
 He then commanded his servants, saying, 
 " Mark ye now, when Amnon's heart is merry 
 with wine, and when I say unto you, Smite 
 Amnon; then kill him, fear not: have not I 
 commanded you? be courageous and be valiant." 
 Too faithfully did these servants execute his 
 murderous orders. Amnon was assassinated in
 
 236 TWO WISE WOMEN. 
 
 the house of feasting, and sent from the midst 
 of a scene of revelry to the bar of eternal judg- 
 ment. Fearful retribution for his abominable 
 wickedness ! News of the tragical catastrophe 
 quickly flew to Jerusalem, and reached the king 
 and father's ears. The first report was that all 
 the king's sons had fallen by the hand of Absa- 
 lom. But although that was an exaggeration, 
 part of the rumour was but too true, The sur- 
 viving brothers soon made their appearance, and, 
 confirming the account of Amnon's death, "lifted 
 up their voice and wept, and the king also, and 
 all his servants wept very sore." Absalom, the 
 author of this lamentation and woe, durst not 
 encounter his father's presence, or even abide 
 within the limits of his dominions. He fled 
 immediately after the perpetration of the bloody 
 deed, and sought asylum at the court of Talmai, 
 the king of Gesher, who was his grandfather 
 by the mother's side. Thus was David, in 
 realization of the threat, that for his sin in the 
 matter of Uriah, evil should spring up against 
 him out of his own house, visited with the 
 calamity deprecated in regard to her two sons 
 by the conscience-stricken and terrified Re- 
 bekah, " Why should I be deprived of you both 
 in one day?" 
 
 When Absalom had been three years an 
 exile, his father's grief and resentment for the 
 death of Amnon were, in a measure, worn away, 
 and he began to long for the return of the 
 banished one, who, though he had deeply
 
 TWO WISE WOMEN. 237 
 
 offended, was still exceedingly dear to his heart. 
 He would have been glad of any plausible 
 excuse for his recall and forgiveness. And yet, 
 how could he allow him to come home, con- 
 sistently with the demands of the law, banish- 
 ment being but a mild punishment for the 
 bloody deed which he had caused to be com- 
 mitted ? These perplexities and wishes of the 
 monarch soon became known to those around 
 him. They perceived that a struggle was going 
 on within him between duty and inclination 
 between affection for his son and the obligation 
 to punish him. Joab, the most unprincipled 
 of his courtiers and generals, probably from a 
 secret partiality for Absalom, as well as to ob- 
 tain for himself greater favour with David, de- 
 vised a plausible scheme for terminating the con- 
 flict in the royal mind, for reconciling the king's 
 duty with his inclination, for removing the scru- 
 ples of the father, and for restoring the longed- 
 for though guilty son to his home and rank in 
 the kingdom. His plan was to fetch from Tekoah 
 a woman well known for ability and address, 
 who was to petition the king's interposition and 
 assistance under very distressing circumstances. 
 She entered his presence in mourning apparel, 
 and with a sorrowful countenance fell down 
 before him on her face to the ground, and 
 earnestly entreated his protection, saying, "Help, 
 O king." And upon his inquiring into the 
 nature of her grievance, she answered, "I am
 
 238 TWO WISE WOMEN. 
 
 indeed a widow woman, and mine husband is 
 dead. And thy handmaid had two sons, and 
 they two strove together in the field, and there 
 was none to part them, but the one smote the 
 other and slew him. And behold, the whole 
 family is risen against thine handmaid, and 
 they said, Deliver him that smote his brother, 
 that we may kill him for the life of his brother 
 which he slew ; and we will destroy the heir 
 also : and so they will quench my coal which is 
 left, and shall not leave to my husband neither 
 name nor remainder upon the earth." To un- 
 derstand the expression " quench my coal that 
 is left," employed by the woman, it is to be 
 observed that lamps, lights, and living coals are 
 used by ancient writers both sacred and profane 
 for children, descendants and survivors, because 
 by them the vital flame of the human race is 
 perpetuated on the earth. " To quench her 
 coal that was left " was therefore a figurative 
 mode of saying, that they would put her only 
 son to death, and thereby cut off the possibility 
 of transmitting her deceased husband's name to 
 posterity. To this distressing representation, 
 David replied that he would take the matter 
 into his favourable consideration, and give 
 directions concerning her suit, and recommended 
 her to return home without any further anxiety. 
 But this did not satisfy her, and as if afraid 
 that inquiries into the particulars of the occur- 
 rence, and a calm consideration of what was
 
 TWO WISE WOMEN. 239 
 
 due to the law of God and the country, might 
 alter the king's purpose, she proceeded and said, 
 " My lord, O king, the iniquity be on me and on 
 my father's house : and the king and the throne 
 be guiltless:" that is " if the impunity should by 
 any be supposed to reflect on the administration 
 of justice in the land, let me and my family take 
 all the shame and abide by the consequences of 
 the guilt, if shame and guilt there be in such 
 clemency. The request is made by one to 
 whom the slain was as nearly related as the 
 living, and the king and his throne, which can- 
 not feel more concerned for -the death of the 
 departed than the parent, may well escape cen- 
 sure for consenting at that parent's request to 
 spare the life of the survivor." The king then 
 more directly encouraged her to hope for his 
 protection, and said, "Whosoever saith ought 
 unto thee, bring him to me and he shal not 
 touch thee any more." But neither would this 
 satisfy her, but as if dreading lest delay might 
 prove fatal, or a mere verbal assurance, though 
 that of a king, might not be a sufficient gua- 
 rantee for her son's safety, she ventured to 
 request a promise to that effect confirmed by 
 the solemnity of an oath, and added, " I pray 
 thee, let the king remember the Lord thy God," 
 i. e. swear by Jehovah, " that thou wilt not 
 suffer the avengers of blood to destroy any 
 more, lest they destroy my son." Some inter- 
 pret the words "remember the Lord thy God"
 
 240 TWO WISE WOMEN. 
 
 so as not to mean "Swear by the Lord thy 
 God," but simply, " Consider and imitate the 
 conduct of Jehovah, who when requested to 
 shew mercy complies in the promptest manner, 
 and does not delay the boon until the case is 
 hopeless and the remedy useless. The danger 
 to which my son is exposed is imminent, and if 
 the king do not vouchsafe to interfere in his 
 behalf instantly, it may be too late to save his 
 life." But whichever interpretation you adopt, 
 whether the woman directly asked for the 
 security of an oath, or whether she merely per- 
 sisted in her importunity, and in the use of 
 persuasive arguments, with a view to gain that 
 security, the ultimate result was the same. She 
 succeeded in obtaining from the king a most 
 solemn promise of ample protection, who at last 
 declared unto her, saying, "As the Lord liveth, 
 there shall not one hair of thy son fall to the 
 earth." 
 
 The woman of Tekoah having got the king to 
 swear that her son should not suffer for the 
 slaughter of his brother, proceeded to apply that 
 concession to the case of Absalom, and said, 
 "Wherefore then hast thou thought such a thing 
 against the people of God ? i. e. Why dost thou 
 persist in a resentment which is injurious to the 
 whole nation, for all its hopes are built on 
 Absalom as thy successor on the throne ? Why 
 continue such a one in alienation and exile, on 
 the pretence of justice for the murder of his
 
 TWO WISE WOMEN. 241 
 
 brother, when thy solemn promise of protection 
 to my son shows that pardon may be extended 
 to such an offender/' " For the king doth speak 
 this thing as one which is faulty, in that the 
 king doth not fetch home his banished." As 
 though she had said. " Is this consistent and 
 blameless conduct ? Thou art willing to pardon 
 the meanest of thy subjects for a brother's 
 death at the instance of a poor widow; and yet 
 thou art not willing to pardon thy own son, 
 whose restoration to favour is the desire of the 
 whole people. Is such a mode of acting agree- 
 able to equity and truth?" To this remon- 
 strance she added, " For we must needs die, and 
 are as water spilt on the ground, which cannot 
 be gathered up again : neither doth God re- 
 spect any person, yet doth he devise means 
 that his banished be not expelled from him ;" or, 
 as the latter part of the verse may be more cor- 
 rectly rendered, " because God hath not taken 
 away his life, he hath also devised means that 
 his banished be not expelled," i. e. irrevocably '. 
 As though she had urged, " Death is the com- 
 mon lot of all. Amnon was destined to die, 
 and he would have died in some other way if 
 he had not fallen by the hand of Absalom. 
 The death of Absalom can no more recall him 
 to life, than water spilt on the ground can be 
 gathered up again. What is done is done and 
 it were an extreme severity of justice to go on 
 1 See Adam Clarke. 
 
 SECOND SERIES. M
 
 242 TWO WISE WOMEN. 
 
 sacrificing life after life in consequence of the 
 first transgression, and to accelerate that death 
 which will very soon overtake us all. It would 
 seem/' she would add, "as if God intended him 
 to be recalled, by preserving his life so long 
 after the unfortunate occurrence in which he was 
 involved. We know," she would continue, " that 
 in a spiritual sense He devises means whereby 
 those who were banished from him by sin, 
 instead of being irrevocably and eternally ex- 
 pelled his presence, may be brought back unto 
 a participation of his clemency and the enjoy- 
 ment of his kingdom. Do thou imitate that 
 mercy. Restore thou this banished son, and 
 thou shalt act in a manner consistent with thy 
 promise to me, agreeable to the will of God, 
 and acceptable to all thy subjects." 
 
 To this she added a few remarks of an ambi- 
 guous nature, calculated to sustain the impres- 
 sion, that the case she had first represented, 
 though applicable to that of the king, was really 
 true with regard to herself, and to intimate, that 
 unless the king would consent to the pardon of 
 Absalom, she could have no confidence in his 
 promise of safety for her own son. David, 
 although he suspected, before the conclusion of 
 her speech, and fully discovered the artifice of 
 Joab in the whole transaction, would fain think 
 himself bound by consistency with the solemn 
 promise he had made to the woman to permit 
 the return of Absalom, and the proposal being 
 most agreeable to his heart's secret wishes, he
 
 TWO WISE WOMEN. 243 
 
 was glad of any pretence for giving it his assent. 
 The brother's murderer was allowed to come 
 back to Jerusalem, and after two years of a 
 more retired life and exclusion from the court, 
 as aslight manifestation of the king's displeasure, 
 for the sake as it would seem of saving appear- 
 ances, he was fully, by the further intercession 
 of Joab, permitted to enter his father's presence, 
 and restored to all his former possessions and 
 honours. But his conduct presently demon- 
 strated the folly of the lenity, and the mischiev- 
 ousness of the stratagem, which had led to his 
 pardon and restoration. He soon began to 
 deal in plots of treason and actings of rebel- 
 lion. He sought by every art to win over 
 to himself the affection of the people, in preju- 
 dice of his father and sovereign. He gathered 
 around him a band of traitors and conspirators, 
 against the settled order of affairs. He suc- 
 ceeded for a time, drove his father from his 
 palace and his capital, disgraced him in the eyes 
 of all Israel, and finally perished in his rebellion 
 by the hand of that very Joab, who had been 
 the chief instrument in effecting his recall from 
 banishment. 
 
 //. The woman of Abel. 
 
 Such was the deplorable consequence which 
 
 followed from the craft and the art of the woman 
 
 of Tekoah. Pass we on now to contemplate 
 
 the far different and more blessed effects of the 
 
 M 2
 
 244 TWO WISE WOMEN. 
 
 real wisdom which was exercised by the wi>e 
 woman of Abel. Abel was a town situated in 
 another and distant part of the land of Canaan, 
 on the confines of Syria, and probably in the 
 district inhabited by the tribe of Naphtali. It 
 was besieged by David's army, under the com- 
 mand of Joab, and threatened with destruction, 
 when its deliverance was effected by the wis- 
 dom of a woman. The circumstances were 
 these. After the defeat and death of Absalom, 
 the tribe of Judah, without consulting with the 
 other tribes, sent word to king David, who was 
 either at Mahanaim, whither he had fled before 
 Absalom, or near the wood of Ephraim, where 
 that rebellious son met his death, both places 
 beyond Jordan, and encouraged him to return 
 to Jerusalem, his capital, as a place now no 
 longer disaffected to his government, but dis- 
 posed to receive him with loyalty and affection. 
 They also went over the river to meet him, and, 
 without waiting for the advice or co-operation 
 of the nation at large, took upon themselves the 
 honourable labour of conducting back the exiled 
 monarch to his palace and his throne. The 
 other tribes were mortified by the little notice 
 that was taken of them on so important an 
 occasion, probably regarding it as a tacit impu- 
 tation on the sincerity of their allegiance ; and 
 they came, doubtless, by a deputation of elders 
 or officers, and said unto the king, " Why have 
 our brethren, the men of Judah, stolen thee
 
 TWO WISE WOMEN. 245 
 
 away, and have brought the king and his house- 
 hold, and all David's men with him over Jor- 
 dan ?" The men of Judah answered to the 
 effect that the king was more nearly related to 
 them, being of their tribe, than to the rest of the 
 nation, that, therefore, they had a right to take 
 a prominent part in the ceremony of his restor- 
 ation, and that their attention to him had been 
 of the most disinterested character, having 
 neither eaten at his cost, nor received gifts at 
 his hands. Other provoking language followed 
 on both sides, and interrupting the unanimous 
 attachment to the king, which the circumstances 
 just preceding had seemed to promise, divided 
 the people into adverse factions. Sheba, the 
 son of Bichri, a man of the tribe of Benjamin, 
 and, probably, of the family of Saul, took a 
 traitorous advantage of this unfortunate di- 
 vision, and sounding a trumpet, put himself at 
 the head of the malcontents of Israel, and said, 
 " We have no part in David, neither have we 
 inheritance in the son of Jesse : every man to 
 his tents, O Israel. So every man of Israel 
 went up from after David, and followed Sheba, 
 the son of Bichri." When David came to 
 Jerusalem, he ordered Amasa, now placed at 
 the head of his army instead of Joab, who had 
 displeased him by killing Absalom, and by other 
 offences, to collect troops for the purpose of 
 putting down the revolt. Amasa, who had 
 until recently been himself a rebel against the 
 M 3
 
 246 TWO WISE WOMEN. 
 
 king, having belonged to the party of his re- 
 bellious son, appears to have been either un- 
 able or unwilling to collect the requisite force 
 by the time appointed. David, therefore, ap- 
 prehensive of the evil consequences of delay, 
 felt compelled to order Abishai to hasten with 
 what troops were at hand against the army 
 of the disaffected. Joab, no longer invested 
 with the chief command, appears to have joined 
 this expedition, headed by his brother, Abishai. 
 either in an inferior office, or in a private capa- 
 city; but having, under the influence of hate 
 and jealousy, treacherously assassinated Amasa. 
 who had replaced him at the head of the main 
 army, and who had fallen in with Abishai's 
 detachment at Gibeon, on the road, he ulti- 
 mately obtained, either through his superiority 
 over his brother's mind, or through orders 
 afterwards extorted from the king, by the 
 perilous circumstances of the kingdom, the 
 supreme direction of the enterprise against 
 Sheba, the son of Bichri. Joab, though guilty 
 of many heinous crimes, was firmly attached to 
 the house of David, and consummately skilled 
 in the art of war. He, therefore, proceeded 
 against the rebel with vigour and despatch, and 
 his military operations were attended with their 
 usual success. He pursued him " through all 
 the tribes of Israel, drove him out of the whole 
 country, and compelled him, with what troops 
 remained faithful to his standard, to seek refuge
 
 TWO WISE WOMEN. 247 
 
 within the walls of Abel, or Abela, a town situ- 
 ated at the extreme northern boundary of the 
 land. The skilful and formidable Joab no 
 sooner reached that fortified place, than he in- 
 vested it with troops, threw up a trench, and 
 brought battering engines against it, and took 
 such other steps as would evidently result in 
 its speedy capture by storm. We can scarcely 
 imagine the calamities which such an event 
 would have produced. None but they who 
 have taken part in the most distressing scenes 
 of war can realize its horrors. Hunger and 
 thirst had perhaps already spread havoc through 
 the town, and reduced the number of its inha- 
 bitants. Perhaps disease, the plague and pesti- 
 lence, had followed in the train of starvation, 
 and aggravated the increasing misery. Per- 
 haps the women and the children were filling 
 the streets with wailings of woe, and shrieks of 
 agony; here the child sinking through exhaustion 
 before the eyes of the mother, unable to relieve 
 its cravings; and there the mother snatched away 
 by sudden and fatal sickness from her helpless 
 and piteously crying child ; and there the father 
 wounded and slain by the missile weapons of 
 the besiegers. Perhaps a still more violent and 
 terrible scene was every moment expected by 
 the distressed and distracted population that 
 of the successful assailants bursting through the 
 shattered and battered walls into the streets 
 of the doomed city, consigning father, mother, 
 M 4
 
 248 TWO WISE WOMEN. 
 
 and child to indiscriminate slaughter, and their 
 houses to the flames, and turning their once 
 happy homes into desolate places uninhabitable. 
 Oh, sad and pitiable picture ! Is there no 
 counsellor among the elders of the city to sug- 
 gest a remedy? Is there no arm among the 
 soldiers who had defied the royal power to 
 bring relief? All resources had utterly failed ; 
 and we may suppose the inhabitants giving up 
 all hopes of succour, and resigning themselves 
 into the arms of despair. 
 
 But what neither the counsel of the elders, 
 nor the valour of the soldiers could effect, was 
 brought about by the wisdom of a discreet and 
 courageous woman. A mother in Israel, like 
 Deborah before her, by her sagacity, piety, and 
 prudent management, brought help in time of 
 need, and accomplished the deliverance of her 
 people. She ventured upon the wall, caused 
 her voice to be heard by the besieging army, 
 and requested a parley with its general. Upon 
 Joab presenting himself within sight and within 
 hearing according to her proposal, she said, 
 " They were wont to speak in old time, saying, 
 They shall surely ask counsel at Abel : and so 
 they ended the matter." There is considerable 
 obscurity in this speech, perhaps a studied ob- 
 scurity, like that of the woman of Tekoah's tale, 
 the matter in hand requiring much caution and 
 delicacy of management. Some regard her 
 words as a then well-known proverb relating
 
 TWO WISE WOMEN. 249 
 
 to the besieged place, and suppose it to have 
 originated from its established reputation 
 for wisdom, which had formerly at least been 
 so high, that parties who had disputes were 
 wont to appeal to the opinion of its inhabitants, 
 and then to receive their judgment as a 
 final decision. "Surely then," she would have 
 Joab to infer, " you ought to have some respect 
 for a place so eminent for its wisdom, and you 
 ought to have considered, instead of proceeding 
 immediately to the employment of brute force, 
 that a town so celebrated for the peaceable ad- 
 justment of differences between others, would 
 be disposed to listen to any reasonable demands 
 and offers of accommodation in its own case." 
 Others regard the passage not as a proverb, but 
 as a remonstrance against Joab's unusual pro- 
 ceedings, and translate it thus: "They plainly 
 spake in the beginning, saying, Surely they will 
 ask of Abel, and so make an end ;" that is, they 
 the inhabitants of the town, when they heard 
 of the approach of your army, said, as a matter 
 of course, they will observe the ordinary rules of 
 war, more especially in regard to a town in 
 Israel, and to a place of such importance as 
 Abel, and make their wishes known in a peace- 
 able manner, before they have recourse to the 
 work of bloodshed and devastation. According 
 to this rendering and interpretation, she would 
 seem to intimate that Joab had in this case 
 M 5
 
 250 TWO WISE WOMEN. 
 
 neglected the law of Moses 2 , which required 
 that before the siege was laid, even to a foreign 
 city, peace should be offered if the citizens 
 would submit, much more to an important city 
 in Israel, and an " inheritance of the Lord " of 
 hosts. According to either sense, the folly of 
 mankind in giving way to violent and bloody 
 conflicts is surely placed in most disparaging 
 contrast with the wisdom of terminating their 
 contests by peaceable means, as the calm and 
 considerate management of the wise woman 
 puts to shame the rash proceedings of the 
 besiegers, and the hasty conclusions of the 
 besieged. Joab seems to have taken it for 
 granted, that the generality of the inhabitants 
 were firmly attached to the interests of Sheba, 
 and without making inquiries, had deemed it 
 useless to propose to them terms of peace on 
 condition of their delivering up his person. 
 The citizens on their part appear to have con- 
 cluded from Joab's sudden and unexplained 
 assault, that there was no hope of safety for 
 them except in resistance to the last extremity. 
 The fatal and calamitous effects which would 
 have resulted from this misunderstanding, were 
 prevented by the timely interposition of a good, 
 a courageous, a discreet, or, to express all her 
 excellent qualities by one comprehensive epi- 
 thet, a " wise " woman. Some commentators 
 
 2 Deut. xx. 1018.
 
 TWO WISE WOMEN. 251 
 
 suppose that in the words " I am one of them 
 that are peaceable and faithful in Israel, thou 
 seekest to destroy a city and a mother in Israel," 
 there is a personification of the city, and that 
 the reference is to the authoritative and maternal 
 station held by Abel in regard to smaller towns 
 and the surrounding country. Others think, 
 that by the mother in Israel is meant the wise 
 woman herself, and thence infer, that she occu- 
 pied the position of governor or principal person 
 of influence in the place. But whichever was 
 the fact, there is no question that like Deborah 
 she was well entitled to the distinguished name 
 of a " mother in Israel." She performed in the 
 ablest manner, and with the most salutary 
 effect the part of a mother to the community, 
 that had the happiness of her beneficial presence 
 and intercession, and like Deborah she delivered 
 her people from a situation of sore distress, and 
 from the peril of more calamitous evils. Joab 
 listened to her remonstrance, informed her that 
 he had no further object in view than to seize 
 and punish the man who had headed a rebel- 
 lion against his master, and on condition of his 
 being delivered up or executed for his treason, 
 consented to spare the city, and immediately to 
 discontinue the siege. " Then the woman went 
 unto all the people in her wisdom." She exer- 
 cised the same influence of wisdom with the 
 inhabitants of Abel as she had done with its 
 besiegers. She set before them the truth of the 
 M 6
 
 252 TWO WISE WOMEN. 
 
 case, without partiality and without hypocrisy. 
 She convinced them of the guilt of Sheba the 
 son of Bichri, in rebelling against the Lord's 
 anointed, persuaded them to divest themselves 
 of all feelings of anger that might have been 
 excited by the precipitation of the king's 
 general, and prevailed on them to act, not ac- 
 cording to the suggestions of an irritated tem- 
 per, but according to the dictates of calm reason 
 and plain duty, and to deliver up the offender 
 into the hands of justice. Her counsel was 
 attended to by her fellow-citizens, as it had been 
 by the besieging general. " They cut off the 
 head of Sheba the son of Bichri, and cast it out 
 to Joab. And he blew a trumpet, and they 
 retired from the city, every man to his tent. 
 And Joab returned to Jerusalem unto the king." 
 Thus was a deplorable ruin averted, and a great 
 deliverance effected, by the seasonable interpo- 
 sition of a really wise woman. 
 
 As we said at the beginning, the histories of 
 these two women illustrate in a striking manner 
 both the injurious and the beneficial influence 
 of the female intellect, according to its exercise 
 and direction for evil or for good. They were 
 both according to the customary phraseology of 
 the time, called wise. They were both endowed, 
 doubtless with an acuteness of intellect, superior 
 to the generality of their sex. But, how differ- 
 ently were their talents employed and how dif- 
 ferent the effects which resulted from the wisdom
 
 TWO WISE WOMEN. 253 
 
 they possessed ! The wisdom of the one was 
 allied to the wisdom of the serpent, which 
 beguiled Eve and plunged the human family in 
 sin and sorrow. The wisdom of the other, was 
 allied to that of the Seed of the woman, who is 
 emphatically called the Wisdom of God, and 
 who wrought the deliverance of our race, from 
 irremediable desolation and woe. 
 
 1. The woman of Tekoah lent herself to the 
 purpose of misrepresentation and deceit. She 
 was probably bribed by Joab. She felt pretty 
 sure that she was consulting the inclinations of 
 David. She doubted not that her stratagem 
 would conduce to her own temporal interests, 
 and she, therefore, scrupled not to employ her 
 talents to make falsehood appear like truth. 
 Even supposing her tale to have been true, 
 there was no proper similitude between the case 
 of her sons and that of David's. The death of 
 one of her sons by the hand of the other was 
 the result of a sudden quarrel. The death of 
 Amnon by the hand of Absalom, was the 
 deliberate act of two years' premeditation. The 
 death of her son was unwitnessed by a third 
 person, and might be attended by circumstances 
 greatly mitigating the guilt of his brother. 
 The death of Amnon was effected in the pre- 
 sence of numbers, and no doubt could by any 
 be entertained of the criminal intention of 
 Absalom. Neither was there any just compa- 
 rison, between the remission of future punish-
 
 254 TWO WISE WOMEN. 
 
 ment by the King of kings, and the remission 
 of temporal punishment by an earthly monarch. 
 The law of God had distinctly and in various 
 ways declared, ''Whosoever sheddeth man's 
 blood, by man shall his blood be shed ;" David 
 had therefore no right to pardon and recall Absa- 
 lom, and irrevocable exile would have been but a 
 mild punishment for the murder of his brother. 
 Bnt, although all this must have been clear to 
 the mind of the woman, and the mind of David, 
 she employed her talent to dress up the case in 
 false colours, and the misrepresentation corres- 
 ponding with the king's secret wishes, induced 
 him to yield to her request. Thus falsehood 
 prevailed over truth, stratagem over fair dealing, 
 and parental partiality and weakness over 
 parental duty and justice, and we know the 
 disgraceful, ruinous, and fatal consequences. 
 It was like the subtlety of the devil against our 
 first mother, who suited his falsehood to the 
 most vulnerable part of her nature, and suc- 
 ceeded in tempting her to transgression, whereby 
 were " brought death into the world and all our 
 woe." 
 
 2. The woman of Abel, on the contrary, em- 
 ployed the faculties with which God had blessed 
 her to the noblest and best of purposes, even to 
 the deliverance of her people from the perilous 
 effects of the woman of Tekoah's artifice. The 
 evils that menaced her city would never have 
 existed had it not been for the rebellion of Ab-
 
 TWO WISE WOMEN. 255 
 
 salom. Absalom would have had no oppor- 
 tunity to rebel had he not been restored. Con- 
 sequently, we may trace the siege of Abel to 
 the cunning of the woman of Tekoah. Accord- 
 ingly, the true wisdom of the one averted great 
 calamities, which may truly be said to have 
 been occasioned by the false wisdom of the 
 other, even as he who is emphatically called 
 the Wisdom of God has destroyed the cunning 
 works of the devil, and repaired the ruins of the 
 fall. Which of us, then, shall not strive and 
 pray to imitate the example of the one, and to 
 shun the example of the other? Remember 
 that the mental endowments, with which ye are 
 gifted, are talents committed unto you as unto 
 stewards, to be employed, not for crooked views 
 and selfish ends, but for the interests of truth, 
 for the benefit of your fellow-creatures, and for 
 the glory of your Saviour and your God ; and 
 that "it is required of stewards that they be 
 found faithful."
 
 SERMON XII. 
 
 RIZPAH. 
 
 2 SAM. xxi. 10. 
 
 " And Rizpah, the daughter of Aiali . took sackcloth, and 
 spread it for her upon the rock, from the beginning of har- 
 vest until water dropped upon them out of heaven, and 
 suffered neither the birds of the air to rest on them by day, 
 nor the beasts of the field by night." 
 
 IT is difficult to find in the whole of Scripture 
 a more truly affecting passage than this. Riz- 
 pah, though connected with royalty, appears, 
 like Naomi, to have drunk, in no ordinary de- 
 gree, of the bitter waters of affliction. The 
 notices of her life in the sacred narrative refer 
 to two distinct periods of time, separated from 
 one another by an interval of about thirty years. 
 1. She is first introduced to our notice in con- 
 nexion with the quarrel between Abner and 
 Ishbosheth, the son of Saul. She was, originally, 
 the wife of Saul, in the second degree, as Hagar 
 was that of Abraham, and bare him two sons, 
 Armoni and Mephibosheth. After the death 
 of that first monarch of Israel, Abner adhered
 
 RIZPAH. 257 
 
 to the party of Ishbosheth, and mainly contri- 
 buted, by his powerful influence and great mili- 
 tary skill, to maintain that feeble sovereign's 
 reign over Israel in defiance of David, whose 
 sway was, consequently, for years limited to 
 Judah. But in process of time, Abner became 
 enamoured of Rizpah, who lived at, or near the 
 court of Ishbosheth, and formed a union with 
 her, whether as a concubine or a wife, whether 
 as a partner in the first or second degree, the 
 Scripture does not specify. Ishbosheth entirely 
 disapproved of this alliance, possibly for two 
 reasons, both as derogatory to the dignity of 
 his family, and as savouring of treason against 
 himself. He might think it a degradation to 
 his family that a subject should marry one of 
 his father's widows. He might suspect the 
 man who aspired to an alliance with his father's 
 widow, of a design to possess his father's throne, 
 just as Adonijah was accused of treasonable 
 views by Solomon, when he asked for Abishag, 
 who had cherished David in his last illness. 
 Under the influence of one or other, or perhaps 
 both of these feelings, Ishbosheth remonstrated 
 with Abner, apparently with considerable as- 
 perity, saying unto him, " Wherefore hast thou 
 gone in unto my father's concubine?" This 
 speech filled Abner with unbounded resent- 
 ment. He retorted upon the king by upbraid- 
 ing him with ingratitude, in grudging the 
 alliance with Rizpah to a person who, like
 
 258 RIZPAH. 
 
 him, had rendered such important services to 
 the family of his father, and who was the main 
 supporter of himself on the throne in defiance 
 of the power of David. And he concluded with 
 an oath, that he would no longer continue that 
 support, but transfer his allegiance to the rival 
 king, and help to establish that rival in the 
 possession of universal sway from Dan even to 
 Beersheba. This solemn threat he presently 
 carried into execution ; and by this revolt he so 
 weakened the power of Ishbosheth, as to bring 
 both his kingdom and his life to a speedy ter- 
 mination. The step proved doubly fatal, fatal 
 to Abner himself as well as to Ishbosheth his 
 master. Abner, almost immediately after his 
 reconciliation and interview with David, perish- 
 ed by the treacherous hand of Joab, who pro- 
 fessed to suspect the sincerity of his adherence, 
 but who most probably was in reality jealous of 
 his ability and interest with David, and who 
 also, together with Abishai, thirsted for his 
 blood, in revenge for the death of their brother, 
 Asahel, slain some years before by Abner at 
 Gibeon. How empty and ill-founded are the 
 purposes of vain man ! He who promised to 
 bring with him a kingdom, cannot make sure 
 of one hour of life to himself ! Ishbosheth, in 
 consequence of Abner's defection and death, 
 became so evidently feeble, that Israel despaired 
 of his cause, and gave it up for lost. Two of 
 his captains, with a view of making a merit of
 
 BIZPAH. 259 
 
 necessity, and of ingratiating themselves with 
 his ascendant rival, basely assassinated him 
 while reposing on his couch in his house during 
 the heat of the day, and carried his head unto 
 David a deed of enormous iniquity and ag- 
 gravated guilt ; and so far from being approved 
 of by David, that, as in the case of the Amalek- 
 ite, who declared he had slain Saul, he ordered 
 its perpetrators to be instantly put to death, 
 and their heads and their feet to be cut off and 
 hanged up for public exposure ; while he com- 
 manded the head of the murdered king to be 
 honoured with a burial in the sepulchre of 
 Abner. But what must have been the grief of 
 Rizpah on hearing of these melancholy tragedies, 
 with which she was so nearly, though innocently 
 connected! Bitter must have been her lot 
 before, and most sorely must her heart have 
 been penetrated with sorrow when she heard 
 the news of the disastrous scenes of Gilboa, 
 where Saul and Jonathan bad perished by the 
 sword, and she was left a widowed mother by 
 the violent death of a first husband. And now 
 she was doomed to see Abner's attachment to 
 her, whom she might regard as a second hus- 
 band, issue in a complication of dreadful evils, 
 in a separation of interests between him and 
 her first husband's son, and in the speedy de- 
 struction of the power and life of both. Few 
 of us are altogether exempt from domestic trou- 
 bles in this vale of sin and sorrow. But it sel-
 
 260 RIZPAH. 
 
 dom happens that we are called to encounter 
 such terrible evils as these ! Let wives and 
 widows, who mourn the loss of dear departed 
 ones, and recall with deep sorrow the distress- 
 ing scenes they have passed, bear in mind 
 the far sorer trials which many of their sisters 
 have been compelled to endure, and learn to 
 be patient and resigned, yea, grateful under 
 the far milder afflictions with which God hath 
 visited them. Oh, when you think of the 
 sad and unmitigated woes which some of the 
 daughters of Eve have been called to suffer, 
 shall not every feeling of impatience be sup- 
 pressed, and every sound of murmuring be 
 hushed? and shall you not rather break forth 
 into the thanksgiving song, and say, " What 
 reward shall I give unto the Lord for all the 
 benefits he hath done unto me ?" 
 
 2. But other and bitterer sufferings were in 
 store for the afflicted daughter of Aiah, as ap- 
 pears from the second reference to her name in 
 the sacred record, to which we shall now re- 
 quest your attention. Nearly thirty years had 
 passed away from the melancholy death of 
 Abner and Ishbosheth. When and how she 
 passed that long interval of time we are riot 
 informed. It was, we are sure, embittered by 
 many and frequent recollections of those noble 
 and brave ones so dear to her heart, who had 
 been so violently snatched away, and whom no 
 tears or prayers could bring back. But at the
 
 RIZPAH. 261 
 
 expiration of that period, the fountains of her 
 grief were opened afresh, and her sorrows for 
 Saul and Jonathan, for Abner and Ishbosheth, 
 were more than renewed by the public execu- 
 tion of her two sons, along with other five sons 
 of Saul. The circumstances were these : A 
 famine had visited the land, and continued, 
 probably with great severity, for three years. 
 Upon David's inquiring of the Lord as to the 
 cause of it, he was answered, " It is for Saul 
 and for his bloody house, because he slew the 
 Gibeonites." Now to understand the nature 
 of the sin which had brought down so heavy a 
 judgment upon the whole land, we must consi- 
 der, first, who the Gibeonites were, and, secondly, 
 on what occasion they were slain by King Saul. 
 1. "The Gibeonites were not of the children 
 of Israel," we read in the chapter containing 
 the text, " but of the remnant of the Amor- 
 ites," who inhabited Canaan before its con- 
 quest by the children of Israel. In the book 
 of Joshua, it is said that they were Hivites. 
 But the inconsistency is removed by the con- 
 sideration that the word Amorites, probably 
 on account of the vast superiority of that 
 nation in power and number, is sometimes 
 used in Scripture for all the original inhabitants 
 of Canaan. The Gibeonites, then, though in a 
 looser sense they might be called Amorites, 
 properly speaking belonged to that one of the 
 seven nations of Canaan, distinguished by the
 
 262 RIZPAH. 
 
 name of Hivites. They inhabited the cities of 
 Gibeon, Chephirah, Beoroth, and Kirjath-jea- 
 rim, and were afterwards designated by the 
 general name of Gibeonites, probably because 
 Gibeon was the principal of those cities which 
 joined together for the adoption of a remarkable 
 scheme of self-preservation. Upon the crossing 
 of the Jordan by Joshua and the children of 
 Israel, their capture of Jericho and Ai, and 
 their victorious progress through the land, the 
 inhabitants of these four cities became alarmed 
 for their existence ; and deeming it vain to 
 oppose force to such formidable arms, resolved 
 to consult their safety by guile. They sent 
 ambassadors to Joshua, who were to represent 
 themselves as coming from a distant country, 
 desirous of entering into an engagement of 
 peace and amity with him ; and to give a colour 
 to their assumed character, they were directed 
 to " take old sacks upon their asses, and wine- 
 bottles, old and rent, and bound up, and old 
 shoes and clouted upon their feet, and old gar- 
 ments upon them ; and all the bread of their 
 provision was dry and mouldy." In this plight 
 they came to the camp at Gilgal, and being in- 
 troduced to Joshua, they told him that they 
 had come from a very distant country, that the 
 fame of the miracles which God had wrought 
 for Israel in Egypt, and of the wonderful suc- 
 cess with which he had subsequently blessed 
 their arms against every opposing power, had
 
 RIZPAH. 263 
 
 reached even their far-off native land, and that 
 their rulers and countrymen had resolved to 
 send ambassadors for the purpose of obtaining 
 the favour and alliance of a people so renowned 
 throughout the world, and so peculiarly ho- 
 noured by the God of heaven. And by way 
 of removing all suspicion of their belonging to 
 the land of Canaan, the inhabitants of which 
 they probably knew were irrevocably doomed 
 to destruction by the command of God, they 
 pointed to their clothes and provisions, and 
 solemnly declared that they were all perfectly 
 new when they commenced their journey, 
 whence all might infer, without further proof, 
 how very remote their homes must be. 
 
 This plausible story, and these delusive ap- 
 pearances imposed upon Joshua and the Is- 
 raelites, who were persuaded to enter into a 
 league with the Gibeonites, and to confirm that 
 league by the solemnity of an oath. The rash- 
 ness of this alliance is indicated by the words, 
 " the men" of Israel " asked not counsel at 
 the mouth of the Lord;" which words are 
 interpreted to mean, " they did not on the 
 occasion consult Jehovah by Urim and Thum- 
 mim, as they ought to have done, since it was 
 a state transaction, in which his interests and 
 honour as their King, no less than their God, 
 were immediately concerned. The sincerity 
 and inviolability of the engagement are set
 
 264 RIZPAH. 
 
 forth by the expressions 1 , "the men" of Israel 
 " took of their victuals ; and the princes of the 
 congregation sware unto them." By taking of 
 their victuals is most probably meant a con- 
 formity to the usual mode of making an invio- 
 lable engagement, eating together being consi- 
 dered in the East, from time immemorial, a 
 token of unalterable friendship ; and those who 
 ate even salt together, feeling themselves bound 
 thereby in a perpetual covenant. And this 
 outward proof of mutual good-will was confirmed 
 by the additional sanction of an oath by the 
 heads of the Israelitish nation, which is the 
 obvious meaning of the other expression, " and 
 the princes of the congregation sware unto 
 them." Although the imposture was discovered 
 in a few days, and they who had pretended to 
 have come from a far country were found in 
 fact to be the inhabitants of neighbouring 
 cities, and to form part of the Canaanitish 
 tribes which Jehovah had commanded to be 
 entirely extirpated although the people, upon 
 making that discovery, murmured against their 
 princes, censured their hasty and inconsiderate 
 management, and clamoured against the pro- 
 priety and the validity of the alliance into which 
 
 1 Some read, " they received the men by reason of their 
 victuals," which may imply that the mouldy state of their 
 victuals was a convincing argument with the Israelites of 
 their having come from a great distance.
 
 RIZPAH. 265 
 
 they had been entrapped, yet because of the 
 oath sworn by the Lord God of Israel, the 
 compact was held to be sacred and inviolable. 
 Those same elders or princes, who had allowed 
 themselves to be overreached by the Gibeonites, 
 did indeed determine to reduce them to a con- 
 dition of servitude, and to make them " hewers 
 of wood and drawers of water" for the benefit of 
 the nation, and the use of the tabernacle ; and 
 Joshua sharply reproved them for their disin- 
 genuous conduct, and communicated to them 
 in severe language the resolution which had 
 been adopted, to treat them as a degraded class 
 of citizens, and to require of them the perform- 
 ance of the meanest and most laborious offices ; 
 yet their lives might not be touched, being 
 under the protection of a solemn promise con- 
 firmed by an irrevocable oath, and they were 
 consequently permitted to dwell among the 
 children of Israel. 
 
 2. This compact appears to have been rigidly 
 respected for many generations, and the Gi- 
 beonites continued safe under the national 
 guarantee of protection, until the time of Saul, 
 the first king of Israel, who, it is said, " sought 
 to slay them in his zeal to the children of Israel 
 and Judah." Some commentators suppose 
 that Saul's slaughter of the Gibeonites was on 
 the occasion of his destroying the priests at 
 Nob, on account of the supposed attachment 
 of that city to the interests of David. You 
 
 SECOND SERIES. N
 
 266 BIZPAH. 
 
 will remember that David, when persecuted by 
 Saul, did in his great need go to Ahimelech at 
 Nob, and receive from him hallowed bread for 
 the immediate sustenance of himself and follow- 
 ers, and also the sword of Goliath, of Gath, 
 which happened to be deposited there as a 
 trophy, and that Saul, upon being informed of 
 the circumstance, became so enraged at the 
 service thereby rendered to the obnoxious son 
 of Jesse, that he ordered to be put to the sword 
 all the inhabitants of the place, not only Ahi- 
 melech himself, and the rest of the priests, 
 amounting to " fourscore and five persons," 
 but all the " men and women, children, and 
 sucklings, and oxen, and asses, and sheep." 
 As Nob was a sacerdotal city, abounding more 
 than ordinary cities in priests and Levites, the 
 Gibeonites, whose especial business was to 
 perform the mean and laborious offices con- 
 nected with the celebration of worship, would 
 there be unusually numerous, and would con- 
 sequently share to a large extent the cruel 
 calamity inflicted upon it by the vindictive 
 king. But although they might largely, yet 
 they did not exclusively, suffer by that visita- 
 tion, and, therefore, it could scarcely be said 
 to be a cruelty especially inflicted on the Gi- 
 beonites, as a distinct race, in violation of the 
 solemn compact made between Joshua and 
 their ancestors. Nor could that be regarded 
 as a national sin calling down a national judg-
 
 RIZPAH. 267 
 
 ment like a three years' famine, since it was 
 the individual act of an enraged and tyrannical 
 monarch. Neither is that opinion consistent 
 with the language already quoted, in which the 
 culpable conduct of Saul against the Gibeonites 
 is described. " He sought to slay them in his 
 zeal for the children of Israel and Judah." Nor 
 is it consistent with the language in which the 
 complaints and demands of the Gibeonites are 
 expressed, " The man that consumed us, and 
 that devised against us that we should be de- 
 stroyed from remaining in any of the coasts of 
 Israel." The inference from this language is, 
 that he was in the habit of persecuting them 
 perhaps for years, and that he extirpated them* 
 not from one place, like Nob, but from many 
 places, and that he, not on one, but on many 
 occasions, caused numbers of them to be put 
 to death. The probability is, that the Gibeon- 
 ites, being the descendants of the Canaanites, 
 were a disliked, as well as a despised, class of 
 people, and that Saul, to ingratiate himself 
 with the nation, and to increase his popularity 
 with Israel and Judah, exercised all manner of 
 oppression and cruelty against them, so as to 
 greatly aggravate their misery and shorten their 
 lives. But this was, on many grounds, shame- 
 ful, wicked, and unjustifiable. It was barba- 
 rous to oppress and injure a quiet and inoffen- 
 sive class of people, as the Gibeonites appear 
 to have been, simply because they were aliens 
 N 2
 
 268 RIZPAH. 
 
 in blood and degraded in station. It was 
 cowardly to slay them under the pretence of 
 extirpating the Canaanitish remnants, because 
 they were poor or weak, and incapable of de- 
 fence, while the Amalekites and other Canaan- 
 ites continued unexterminated, because they 
 were wealthy, or strong, and difficult to conquer. 
 But, above all, such conduct was a flagrant viola- 
 tion of the sacred engagement and solemn oath, 
 by which the whole nation had, through its 
 princes, in the time of Joshua, bound itself, and 
 which continued to be inviolably binding upon 
 it to the latest posterity, to spare the lives of 
 the Gibeonites, and to allow their residence in 
 the land. It was, therefore, a grievous, a com- 
 plicated, and a national sin, entailing guilt upon 
 both king and people, and demanding a severe 
 and exemplary retribution ; and it was accord- 
 ingly punished by the infliction upon the whole 
 country of a grievous famine of several years' 
 continuance. 
 
 Three years had passed away, and we know 
 not how much longer the judgment would have 
 been continued, if David had not inquired of 
 the Lord to ascertain its cause. He was in- 
 formed from heaven, that the cause was the 
 slaughter of the Gibeonites, and was, we have 
 reason to believe, directed from the same source, 
 to give that injured people such satisfaction for 
 their wrongs as they chose to demand. " Where- 
 fore David said unto the Gibeonites, What
 
 RIZPAH. 2G9 
 
 shall I do for you? and wherewith shall I 
 make the atonement, that ye may bless the 
 inheritance of the Lord?" And the Gibeon- 
 ites said unto him, that their complaint was 
 not against the nation at large, but against 
 Saul, who had been their chief persecutor. 
 They would not allow any man in Israel to be 
 killed on their account, though probably many 
 of Israel were guilty of their blood, but of that 
 man, who had so cruelly ministered at their 
 expense to Israel's and Judah's prejudices, they 
 demanded, and we have reason to think, were 
 directed by Heaven to demand, an atonement of 
 the same nature as the evils he had inflicted. 
 His own person no human punishment could 
 reach, since he was gone to his eternal account. 
 The silver and the gold which had belonged to 
 him, and might now be possessed by his fa- 
 mily, they would have nothing to do with ; 
 probably regarding the many dear lives of 
 friends, and relatives, and benefactors, which 
 had been so inhumanly sacrificed far too valu- 
 able to be compensated for by any amount of 
 earthly treasures. They demanded, as the 
 only satisfactory and now possible atonement, 
 that seven men of the sons of Saul be delivered 
 unto them, " to be hanged up unto the Lord 
 in Gibeah of Saul." The king assented to their 
 demands, and caused to be apprehended for 
 the purpose " five sons of Merab," here called 
 five sons of Micbal, " the daughter of Saul," 
 N 3
 
 270 RIZPAH. 
 
 the name of the one daughter, according to 
 some, being by mistake substituted in the text 
 for the name of the other according to others, 
 the one daughter having adopted and brought 
 up the children of the other 2 , "and together 
 with these five grandsons, two sons of Saul by 
 Rizpah, the daughter of Aiah, the subject of 
 our present discourse. And he delivered them 
 into the hands of the Gibeonites, and they 
 hanged them in the hill before the Lord : and 
 they fell all seven together, and were put to 
 death in the days of harvest, in the first days, 
 in the beginning of barley harvest" a mourn- 
 ful illustration of the warning, " I will visit the 
 sins of the fathers upon the children unto the 
 third and fourth generation of them that hate 
 me" and break my commandments ! 
 
 Whereas it is said, " We will hang them in 
 Gibeah of Saul, whom the Lord did choose ;" 
 that was to make the punishment appear more 
 distinctly retributive upon Saul and his con- 
 nexions, Gibeah being the city where he lived 
 both before and after God had chosen him to 
 be king. And whereas it is added, that " they 
 there hanged them in the hill before the Lord;" 
 the probable meaning is, that they were put to 
 death on an eminence for the purpose of pub- 
 licity and exposure, and under the character 
 
 2 Merab was the wife of Adriel. Michal was the wife, 
 first of David, then of Phaltiel, and afterwards restored to 
 David by the instrumentality of Abner. See Senn. on Michal.
 
 RIZPAH. 271 
 
 of expiatory victims, to appease the Divine 
 wrath enkindled by the wrongs of the Gibeon- 
 ites. And they were put to death in the days 
 of harvest, in the first days, in the beginning 
 of barley harvest, to indicate that they were 
 sacrificed to appease the wrath which had with- 
 held from the nation the fruit of the earth, and 
 visited it with the judgment of famine. " The 
 evident intention of God," says Dr. Chandler, 
 " in ordering the death of so many of Saul's 
 family, was to give a public attestation of His 
 abhorrence of Saul's perfidy and cruelty, and 
 to strike into the hearts of his successors on 
 the throne a salutary dread of committing simi- 
 lar offences. The death of these seven persons, 
 therefore, is not to be regarded as a punish- 
 ment inflicted upon them for personal offences, 
 even though they might have had a share in 
 their father's persecution of the Gibeonites, but 
 an act commanded by God in virtue of His 
 sovereign right over the lives of all men, to 
 teach princes moderation and equity, and to 
 prevent the perpetration of enormous crimes, 
 which are inconsistent with the welfare of all 
 civil government, as well as incompatible with 
 the principles of true religion. Accordingly, 
 God may be said to have dealt with these per- 
 sons exactly as if in the course of His provi- 
 dential dispensations He had cut them off by 
 a natural death: and that children are very 
 frequently called to suffer and to die for the 
 N 4
 
 272 RIZPAH. 
 
 sins of their parents, in which they have not 
 participated, is evident from the records of se- 
 cular history, and from the observation and ex- 
 perience of all ages and nations, as well as from 
 the distinct declarations of the inspired word." 
 If, in the present instance, the punishment 
 seems partial and severe, let us bear in mind 
 that we are not able fully to comprehend the 
 evil of any sin ; and the sin committed in this 
 case might have been of a very enormous na- 
 ture, and that, consequently, we are very unfit 
 to judge of the measure of the Divine Govern- 
 ment. The whole transaction is a very solemn 
 admonition to us to take heed to ourselves, 
 since it sets before us in an awful manner, that 
 our families and connexions, our children and 
 descendants, may be doomed to grievous suffer- 
 ings, in consequence of our wanton folly and 
 wilful wickedness. Who, then, shall not make 
 haste to forsake sin ? Who shall not be afraid 
 to persist in impenitence and hardness of heart? 
 Who shall not mourn before God on account 
 of his past iniquities, and pray that they may 
 be blotted out during life, and not be visited 
 after death on our surviving families, or on our 
 own immortal souls ? Oh, let men repent, and 
 believe, and entreat the pardon of their sins, 
 and the change of their hearts in time, for our 
 God is a consuming fire, and will by no means 
 clear the guilty. 
 
 We return now to the affecting passage with
 
 RIZPAH. 273 
 
 which we commenced. " And Rizpah, the 
 daughter of Aiah, took sackcloth, and spread it 
 for her upon the rock from the beginning of 
 harvest until water dropped upon them out of 
 heaven, and suffered neither the birds of the 
 air to rest on them by day, nor the beasts of 
 the field by night." There is a passage in the 
 book of Deuteronomy which prohibits the 
 leaving of the bodies of malefactors to remain 
 even one night upon the ignominious tree, and 
 positively commands that they should be buried 
 on the very day on which they were executed. 
 But that statute is supposed to refer only to 
 transgressions against human laws, or to mean 
 only those who were sentenced to death by 
 human judges. A different arrangement was 
 deemed necessary, and doubtless divinely com- 
 manded in the case of those who were put to 
 death by God's direct appointment, in atone- 
 ment for the sin of a monarch and a nation. 
 Their bodies were to remain publicly ex- 
 posed until a manifest sign was given, that 
 the justice of Heaven was satisfied, and the 
 wrath of Heaven appeased. They accord- 
 ingly were left, some say for many weeks, 
 certainly for many days and nights, as is evi- 
 dent from the inspired penman's words, " from 
 the beginning of barley harvest/' which was 
 usually a dry season, "until water dropped upon 
 them from heaven," i. e. until the descending 
 rain, the emblem and agent of fertility, demon- 
 N 5
 
 274 RIZPAH. 
 
 strated that the Almighty had ceased to be 
 angry on account of the Gibeonites, and would 
 make the land fruitful again, and put a stop to 
 the famine by which its inhabitants were afflicted. 
 But, during that waiting time, the bodies of the 
 seven victims might be defaced, mangled, or 
 devoured by the ravens, or the vultures, or the 
 lions, or the wolves, or other fowls and animals of 
 prey, numerous in thatcountry, a circumstance 
 which would have precluded their decent inter- 
 ment, when the term of their exposure was 
 ended. In modern times it would be a very 
 great aggravation of our distress at the death 
 of dear relatives, to see their corpses deprived of 
 the customary rites of sepulture. Among the 
 ancients, both Jews and Heathens, the thought 
 of such a deprivation was regarded with peculiar 
 horror, and its occurrence avoided and depre- 
 cated as the greatest calamity. Among the 
 Heathens it was supposed to interfere with the 
 repose of the departed spirit, and it is not im- 
 probable that some such notion prevailed also 
 among the Jews that the non-interment, or 
 the imperfect interment of the remains of the 
 dead, would injure the happiness of the soul, or 
 at least impair the completeness of the body's 
 resurrection. Even we, who are, by a more en- 
 lightened faith, exempted from such fears, are 
 anxious that the remains of our beloved ones 
 should be consigned un mutilated to the safe 
 repose of an undisturbed tomb. How much
 
 RIZPAH. 275 
 
 more anxious must they have been, with whose 
 heart's affections and yearnings upon the sub- 
 ject, mingled thoughts and apprehensions, 
 which extended to the spiritual and eternal 
 world ! But what was to be done on the present 
 melancholy occasion? The seven bodies that 
 were hung at Gibeah must remain, no man 
 could foretell how long, how many days and 
 nights, how many weeks or even months, and 
 might during that period become the prey of a 
 thousand accidents. A mourning mother's deep 
 love and untiring patience of affection found a 
 resource for the sad emergency. Rizpah, who 
 was the mother of two of the victims, and doubt- 
 less felt much of a mother's concern for the rest, 
 though she had been unable to save their lives, 
 determined by her own personal vigilance and 
 self-denying exertion to preserve their bodies 
 from injury. She " took sackcloth, and spread it 
 for her upon the rock near the place where the 
 bodies were exposed, and remaining there during 
 the whole time, from the beginning of the har- 
 vest until rain descended from heaven, she 
 suffered neither the birds of the air to rest on 
 them by day, nor the beasts of the field by 
 night." Some say that the " sackcloth spread 
 on the rock " was a tent pitched in the place, 
 and that Rizpah dwelt there during the melan- 
 choly period, attended by servants. That would 
 have been an act requiring much self-denial 
 and painful exertion in one who like her had 
 N 6
 
 276 RIZPAH. 
 
 occupied the delicate and luxurious station of a 
 king's wife, and shewed the strength of her 
 maternal affection, which would trust no dele- 
 gated hand to watch the dear remains of her 
 own and her husband's children. In either 
 case, especially in the former, which according 
 to the literal acceptation of the description, sup- 
 poses that she lay alone and on the ground, 
 with nothing but a sackcloth for her couch and 
 her covering, and so continued for many weary 
 days and sleepless nights, how painful must 
 have been her lot, how wonderful her patient 
 endurance, how deep and exhaustless her ma- 
 ternal love ! When her conduct was reported 
 to king David, he appears to have been deeply 
 affected, and he sought to do all in his power to 
 soothe her wounded spirit and to bind up her 
 broken heart. He ordered the bodies of the 
 seven victims to be taken down from the cursed 
 trees for the purpose of being decently interred. 
 He also sent for the bones of Saul and Jonathan, 
 which had remained at Jabesh Gilead since the 
 battle of Gilboa, and ordered the remains of 
 the nine together to be honourably buried in 
 the sepulchre of Kish, the father of Saul, a 
 result ascribed apparently to the humility, the 
 attention, the pitiable condition, the persevering 
 solicitude and enduring love of Rizpah. 
 
 Her case is not without applicability to some 
 of us, and is capable of imparting much practical 
 instruction at the present day. 1. As we have
 
 RIZPAH. 277 
 
 already observed, the spectacle of such various 
 and distressing affliction endured by this daugh- 
 ter of Eve should change our discontent into 
 gratitude, when we are apt to repine at the 
 comparatively trifling evils of our lot. You 
 may have bereavements to regret. But what 
 are they to those of Rizpah ? a first husband 
 perishing in despair ; a second bringing about, 
 through the effect of his love to her, the de- 
 struction both of himself and of her first hus- 
 band's son ; and when thirty years had been 
 passed in desolate widowhood, to have to un- 
 dergo far bitterer grief than she had endured 
 before ; to see her two sons, her last hope in the 
 world, with five near relatives taken away by a 
 public execution, and to perform, for weary days 
 and sleepless nights, the anxious task of guard- 
 ing their dead bodies from the beasts of the field 
 and the birds of the air, with a view to their 
 interment at some distant and undefined period! 
 Compare your deepest sorrows, the most afflicted 
 among you, with those of this afflicted one, and 
 shall you not have reason to say, " Why art thou 
 cast down, O my soul, and why art thou dis- 
 quieted within me ? Surely the Lord hath dealt 
 mercifully, graciously, and bountifully with 
 thee." 
 
 2. Rizpah's example of patient resignation 
 under her great calamities is very admirable, and 
 worthy of imitation. She refrained from all 
 violent and illegal methods of gaining her object.
 
 278 RIZPAH. 
 
 She used no force or stratagem to secure for her 
 beloved ones a safe and decent burial; but 
 waited watchfully, meekly, and humbly for the 
 time appointed by the Lord. Neither did she 
 give way to despondency, and quit the melan- 
 choly scene in wild despair ; but did what she 
 could to alleviate the dreadful evil. Though 
 her heart was broken and her grief too bitter 
 for utterance, she still hoped in God, still looked 
 for his merciful interposition, and waited day 
 after day and night after night, until the rain of 
 heaven came down and released the bodies of 
 her beloved ones. David pitied, loved, and 
 succoured such a case. And the Son of David, 
 be assured, brethren, will pity, love, and succour 
 all that will bear their sorrows with such pa- 
 tience, meekness, and faith. He was anointed 
 to heal the broken-hearted, and to comfort them 
 that mourn. Whatever be your troubles, wait 
 ye patiently upon the Lord, and He will give 
 you the desire of your hearts. 
 
 3. Rizpah's example of maternal attachment 
 is also very admirable, and worthy of imitation. 
 She deeply thought of her sons and relatives in 
 death, and after death. Let mothers carefully 
 mark this, and learn an important lesson from 
 this. Let them, in the management of their 
 children, and in all the notions they instil into 
 them, keep in mind the time when those dear 
 ones shall be called to their last account, and 
 summoned to enter the unseen and eternal
 
 RIZPAH. 279 
 
 world. What will it profit them then that 
 they have been accomplished, successful, re- 
 spected, or renowned in this fleeting sphere, 
 if they are unprepared for that which shall 
 endure for ever? Oh, let all parents impress upon 
 their children the Saviour's memorable advice, 
 '' Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his 
 righteousness, and all " other needful " things 
 shall be added unto you." The only true con- 
 solation for the bereaved is the sure and certain 
 hope, with regard to their lost ones, of the 
 resurrection unto eternal life. Let them be 
 brought up in the nurture and admonition of the 
 Lord let them by faith be brought unto Jesus 
 let them become true members of Christ, 
 children of God, inheritors of the kingdom of 
 heaven and, die when they may, we shall be 
 able to take up concerning them the hopeful, 
 confident, and consoling exclamation, " O death, 
 where is thy sting ? O grave, where is thy vic- 
 tory? Thanks be to God, who giveth us the 
 victory through our Lord Jesus Christ."
 
 SERMON XIII. 
 
 TWO WOMEN AT THE JUDGMENT-SEAT OF 
 SOLOMON. 
 
 1 KINGS iii. 22. 
 
 " And the other woman said, Nay, but the living is my sou, 
 and the dead is thy son. And this said, No, but the dead 
 is thy son, and the living is my son. Thus they spake be- 
 fore the king." 
 
 THE time when this occurrence took place was 
 the first year of the reign of Solomon, who 
 ascended the throne of Israel about the age of 
 twenty ; and the judgment which so young a 
 man and monarch pronounced on the occasion, 
 is justly regarded as a remarkable proof of 
 sagacity and decision. But we are at no loss 
 to account for his superior mental endowments, 
 which often supply the place of long experience, 
 if we consider the advice and care bestowed 
 upon him by his parents, and his own diligent 
 application in the pursuit of knowledge ; and, 
 above all, his earnest prayer for Divine help and 
 counsel in the arduous station he had been ap-
 
 TWO WOMEN, &C. 281 
 
 pointed to fill. That his education was an 
 object of much parental anxiety, is repeatedly 
 evidenced in Scripture. " I was my father's 
 son," says he himself, in the book of Proverbs, 
 "tender, and only beloved in the sight of my 
 mother. He taught me also, and said unto me, 
 Wisdom is the principal thing : therefore, get 
 wisdom, and with all thy getting get under- 
 standing. Forsake her not, and she shall pre- 
 serve thee : love her, and she shall keep thee. 
 Exalt her, and she shall promote thee : she shall 
 bring thee to honour when thou dost embrace 
 her." His mother also, who is supposed to be 
 the same as the mother of king Lemuel, men- 
 tioned in the 31st chapter of the same book, 
 manifested the greatest solicitude for the right 
 direction of his mind, saying unto him, " What, 
 my son ? and what, the son of my womb ? and 
 what, the son of my vows ?" As though she had 
 said, "Where shall I begin, and what terms 
 shall I employ to point out the various duties 
 you will have to perform, and to guard thee 
 against the many perils which beset thy path 
 in life?" His father's dying words to him were, 
 " Keep the charge of the Lord thy God, to 
 walk in his ways, to keep his statutes and his 
 commandments, and his judgments, and his 
 testimonies, as it is written in the law of Moses, 
 that thou mayest prosper in all that thou doest, 
 and whithersoever thou turnest thyself." He 
 endeavoured to improve the advantages of his
 
 282 TWO WOMEN AT THE 
 
 education, and to fulfil the wishes and inten- 
 tions of his parents by extraordinary personal 
 application, according to his own account, 
 in that passage of Ecclesiastes, " I, the 
 preacher, was king over Israel in Jerusalem. 
 And I gave my heart to seek and search out, by 
 wisdom, concerning all things that are done 
 under heaven." But, above all, he had the 
 penetration to see, in early youth, that human 
 means, however well employed, and human aid, 
 however excellent and abundant, were insuffi- 
 cient of themselves to impart true and consum- 
 mate wisdom, and he had, therefore, recourse 
 to God, by earnest supplication for Divine help 
 and illumination, saying, " Give thy servant an 
 understanding heart to judge thy people, that 
 I may discern between good and bad: for 
 who is able," i.e. who, of himself, and with- 
 out Divine assistance, "is able to judge this thy 
 so great a people ?" And the speech pleased the 
 Lord, that Solomon had asked this thing. And 
 God said unto him, " Because thou hast asked 
 this thing, and hast not asked for thyself long 
 life ; neither hast asked riches for thyself; nor 
 hast asked the life of thine enemies ; but hast 
 asked for thyself understanding to discern judg- 
 ment : Behold, I have done according to thy 
 words : lo, I have given thee a wise and an un- 
 derstanding heart ; so that there was none like 
 thee before thee, neither after thee shall any 
 arise like unto thee." Bearing all this in mind,
 
 JUDGMENT-SEAT OP SOLOMON. 283 
 
 we shall cease to wonder at the remarkable 
 sagacity he exhibited, and the satisfactory de- 
 cision he pronounced in the transaction now to 
 be considered, which is known by the name of 
 the Judgment of Solomon. 
 
 " Then came there," says the sacred narra- 
 tive, " two women that were harlots unto the 
 king and stood before him." The word here 
 translated "harlots" is by the Chaldee para- 
 phrast rendered tavern-keepers, and we are in- 
 clined to think that, as in the case of Rahab, 
 that expression more correctly designates their 
 character and station. As we observed in the 
 discourse on her life, there is reason to believe 
 that houses of public entertainment were ge- 
 nerally kept by women, among the ancients, 
 among the Greeks, among the Egyptians, 
 among the Philistines, among the Canaanites, 
 and most probably among the Israelites. The 
 existence of loose and abandoned females was 
 prohibited in Israel by a positive law J , and it 
 is, consequently, exceedingly unlikely that such 
 characters would have dared to appear before 
 king Solomon, and to undergo his strict and 
 unerring administration of justice. We, there- 
 fore, infer that they were persons whose occu- 
 pation was to maintain places of public enter- 
 tainment, and that they were joined together in 
 the same business, and for that purpose were 
 dwelling in the same house. The fact of their 
 
 1 Deut. ii. 317.
 
 284 TWO WOMEN AT THE 
 
 husbands not being mentioned may be account- 
 ed for by supposing them to be both widows, 
 or that their husbands were then both absent 
 from home, and that, the point being of a nature 
 which required immediate decision, they deemed 
 it right to bring it forward in their own names, 
 on their own responsibility, and before their 
 partners could have time to return. When 
 they stood before the king, the one woman 
 charged the other in this manner, " O my lord, 
 I and this woman dwell in one house ; and I 
 was delivered of a child with her in the house. 
 And it came, to pass the third day after that I 
 was delivered, that this woman was delivered 
 also : and we were together ; there was no 
 stranger with us in the house, save we two in 
 the house. And this woman's child died in the 
 night because she overlaid it. And she arose 
 at midnight and took my son from beside me, 
 while thine handmaiden slept, and laid it in her 
 bosom, and laid her dead child in my bosom. 
 And when I arose in the morning to give my 
 child suck, behold it was dead ; but when I had 
 considered it in the morning, behold it was not 
 my son which I did bear." 
 
 This representation may appear, at first, to 
 have been grounded upon nothing but suspicion 
 and conjecture. Part of it, unquestionably, was 
 conjectural ; for how could the woman that 
 was asleep, ascertain either the exact mode of 
 the child's death, that its mother had overlaid
 
 JUDGMENT-SEAT OF SOLOMON. 285 
 
 it, i. e. accidentally stifled it, or the exact time of 
 substituting the one child for the other, that 
 she arose at midnight and took her son from 
 beside her? But although some particulars of 
 her account must have been seen to rest only 
 upon inference and suspicion, yet of the sub- 
 stantial part of the accusation, of the surrepti- 
 tious exchange, she might possess proofs, which 
 to her own mind were altogether convincing 
 and conclusive. Dwelling in the same house 
 as her adversary, she might have had ample 
 opportunities of comparing the respective 
 children, each of which might possess distinc- 
 tive marks not to be mistaken. The proofs, 
 however, were exclusively confined to the know- 
 ledge of the two mothers, and were not within 
 the cognizance of any third person ; and it was 
 equally open to the one to deny, and to the other 
 to assert their validity. The accused availed 
 herself of this absence of independent evidence, 
 and solemnly answered, " Nay : but the living 
 is my son, and the dead is thy son." " No," 
 replied the complainant; "but the dead is thy 
 son, and the living is my son. Thus they spake 
 before the king." 
 
 As there were no witnesses in the transaction, 
 and both parties were alike strenuous and posi- 
 tive in their declarations, the cause became ex- 
 tremely difficult and perplexing. It had, pro- 
 bably, been tried already before an inferior 
 judge; had, for want of evidence on either side,
 
 286 TWO WOMEN AT THE 
 
 baffled his sagacity ; and was now, by way of a 
 last resource, brought before the notice of the 
 supreme magistrate, as before the court of 
 highest wisdom and final appeal. But what 
 could the chief magistrate do in such a case ? 
 What clue was there to guide his decision? 
 Family resemblance there might be none. The 
 infants, being so nearly of the same age, might 
 be much more like one another than like 
 their respective mothers. Though others 
 might have seen them at their birth, yet 
 they had not marked them with the minute- 
 ness of a mother's eye, and the affectionate 
 interest of a mothers heart; and in a few 
 days all recollection of their persons, or at 
 least of any difference between their persons, 
 would be utterly effaced from every witness's 
 mind. Neither was there any thing perhaps in 
 the appearance and demeanour of the mothers 
 to indicate the truth. They were both sorrow- 
 ful both excited both bathed in tears, the 
 one for the loss of her child by death, and the 
 other for the temporary loss of her child, and 
 the fear of its final loss by deceit and robbery. 
 They were both equally peremptory and impor- 
 tunate in the assertion of their claims, and see- 
 ing that falsehood was found, as it is now, often as 
 clamorous and confident as truth, the vehemency 
 of their challenges could guide to no decision. 
 The one said, that her child was taken away in 
 the night. The other maintained, that it hr.d
 
 JUDGMENT-SEAT OF SOLOMON. 287 
 
 died in her bosom. The one said, that while 
 she was asleep a dead child had been substituted 
 for her own child, which she saw still alive. 
 The other shewed the impossibility of her 
 knowing what she asserted regarding such 
 removal and exchange at a time when her 
 senses were locked up, and she could neither 
 feel, nor see, nor hear. The entire absence of 
 direct proof gives confidence to the guilty, and 
 therefore, when the true mother said, "Nay; 
 but the living is my son and the dead is thy 
 son," the false mother retorted, " No ; but the 
 dead is thy son, and the living is my son." 
 
 After hearing for some time, we know not 
 how long, this fruitless debate, the king deter- 
 mined on bringing it to a conclusion. But 
 how is he to do it in a manner satisfactory to 
 justice, to his own conscience, and to the minds of 
 the bystanders ? In some countries, such doubt- 
 ful cases have been decided by lot. But 
 although the use of the lot in some transactions 
 is sanctioned by Scripture, there was probably 
 a reason which rendered it inapplicable to the 
 present controversy. In after ages, and with 
 shame be it spoken, in ( 'i-i iands, such 
 
 points have been decided by duels or single 
 combats, between the individuals, or friends of 
 the individuals principally concerned. Hence 
 the origin of those conflicts in modern times, 
 which are called affairs of honour, but which 
 deserve to be called affairs of disgrace, since
 
 288 TWO WOMEN AT THE 
 
 they serve the purposes neither of justice nor of 
 truth, often issuing in the success of the slan- 
 derer and wrong-doer, and the destruction of the 
 calumniated and injured, and spreading sorrow 
 and suffering among innocent families and 
 communities. In many countries since that 
 period, a practice has prevailed, of torturing the 
 parties concerned to make them discover the 
 required information a practice equally bar- 
 barous with the former, and not more conducive 
 to the real interests of truth and justice, since 
 the innocent frequently confessed themselves to 
 be guilty, and submitted to misrepresentation 
 and wrong, in order to escape from their intol- 
 lerable torments. Such attempts at ascertaining 
 the truth are not only inconsistent with true 
 religion : they are inconsistent with right reason 
 and sound judgment: they are the miserable 
 resources of tyrannic power, seeking to make up 
 by brute violence for the lack of mental ability. 
 Solomon, who was possessed of great natural 
 capacity, cultivated by education, improved by 
 study, and enlarged and sanctified by Divine 
 assistance, adopted a very different course, and 
 thereby shewed the incalculable superiority of 
 mind over matter, of reason over force, and of 
 the real value of a truly wise and understanding 
 heart. His penetration and sagacity directed 
 him to appeal to the natural affection of the 
 contending mothers before him. He exclaimed, 
 in the midst of the controversy, "Bring me a
 
 JUDGMENT-SEAT OP SOLOMON. 289 
 
 sword." How perplexed and surprised the 
 audience must have been at such an order! 
 " What," they would exclaim " does the young 
 monarch intend by this ? Is he going after all 
 to employ brute force instead of that wisdom 
 of which he has given so much promise ? Is he 
 going to end this strange controversy by putting 
 both disputants to death?" He appeared at 
 first to intend a still more absurd and cruel 
 measure. When the sword was brought and 
 he opened his lips again, he said to one of his 
 officers that stood by, "Divide the living child 
 in two, and give half to the one, and half to the 
 other." 
 
 What a sensation of surprise, and pity, and 
 terror must have followed this extraordinary 
 and most unexpected command ! All the audi- 
 ence doubtless partook more or less of such 
 feelings. But there was one present, whose 
 heart the sword had virtually already passed 
 through. The real mother heard the words 
 "Divide the child" like a sentence of death 
 passed upon all her hopes and prospects in this 
 trying state. " Woe is me," she would think, 
 " what have I done ? I came to claim my son, 
 and my anxiety to have him again brings about 
 his early and violent death. Oh, that I had never 
 opened my lips upon the subject, and suppressed 
 the grief of my bereaved heart in everlasting 
 silence 1 Better far to have seen him in the un- 
 disputed possession of another, than to have 
 
 SECOND SERIES.
 
 290 TWO WOMEN AT THE 
 
 him mangled and slaughtered before my eyes. 
 Yea; happier thought far, that he had been 
 overlaid or stifled in my unconscious bosom, 
 than that he should through my blind and rash 
 vindication die this bloody death. How can I 
 endure the ghastly spectacle ! How shall I pre- 
 vent the dreadful deed ! What can I do to turn 
 aside the melancholy sentence? Oh, I am indeed 
 in a great strait ! I see that I must part with 
 my beautiful and dear one. Let me then part 
 with him alive, rather than part with him thus 
 put to death. I cannot bear such a destruction 
 of my babe. But the only mode of preventing 
 his destruction, is to relinquish my claim to him. 
 It is indeed a melancholy alternative. But I 
 must adopt it. It is hard to resign him to 
 another. But it is better than to see him thus 
 die. There is a hope connected with his life, 
 however faint. There is dark and heartbreaking 
 despair in the thought of having caused his 
 early and bloody death. Oh, then, let me imme- 
 diately resolve to give him up. "And she spake 
 unto the king (for her bowels yearned upon her 
 son), and she said, O my lord, give her the 
 living child, and in no wise slay it." 
 
 This exclamation of itself was enough to 
 show to which of the two women the child 
 really belonged. Any one might almost be 
 sure that it was hers who exhibited such trepi- 
 dation and alarm at the thought of its death. 
 But when the other woman expressed her opinion
 
 JUDGMENT-SEAT OF SOLOMON. 291 
 
 upon the proposal, all doubt vanished from the 
 king's mind, and we question not that the mind 
 of every one of the audience also was imme- 
 diately impressed with conviction, " She said, 
 Let it be neither mine nor thine, but divide it." 
 It seems difficult at first to reconcile this shock- 
 ing answer with her former eagerness to obtain 
 possession of the living child. It is by some 
 supposed, that in that eagerness she might be 
 influenced by the fear of reproach or punish- 
 ment, on the suspicion of having wilfully or 
 through great negligence occasioned the death 
 of her child, and that to prevent that suspicion 
 and its dreaded consequences, she had resolved 
 secretly to substitute it for that of the other 
 woman, and to persist in claiming it as her own, 
 but that when she found that danger to be over, 
 she cared not to be burdened by the mainte- 
 nance of a child that was not her own ; and the 
 exasperation which during the progress of the 
 dispute had sprung up in her mind against her 
 rival, might induce her to agree to the king's 
 proposal, for the purpose of revenge. Or, in 
 claiming the living child, she might be only 
 actuated by the well-known very strong desire, 
 which peculiarly marked the women of ancient 
 Israel, for having children to survive them, and 
 to hand down their lineage to posterity. This 
 wish would operate more strongly in both these 
 women, if, according to one of the opinions we 
 have expressed as to their condition, they were 
 o 2
 
 292 TWO WOMEN AT THE 
 
 widows, since with the death of their children, 
 their departed husbands' names would be more 
 likely to perish from the earth 2 . Connected 
 with this wish in the mind of the false mother, 
 might be a feeling of envy against the other 
 mother, who possessed the much coveted trea- 
 sure of a living son, while she was in the de- 
 precated state of a childless woman. When, 
 however, she found that even supposing she 
 took the child and brought it up for her own, 
 an opinion of its spuriousness would still prevail 
 in the minds of her neighbours, and that under 
 such circumstances, instead of being more hon- 
 oured as being a mother in Israel, she would 
 more probably be reproached as a disgraced 
 character, who had continued a pretended parent 
 at the expense of the tender love of the true one, 
 she became indifferent to its possession. But to 
 gratify her malignity and vindictiveness against 
 the woman who, first by her stout resistance, 
 and afterwards by her voluntary resignation, 
 had baffled her attempts and defeated her plans, 
 and, probably, also, in the hope of gaining 
 favour with the king, by a ready acquiescence 
 in his decree, she returned the cruel answer, 
 " Let it be neither mine nor thine, but divide it." 
 But the determination to which the king now 
 came was different from what either woman 
 
 2 Not certain to perish, since they might have male relations 
 of their husbands, who by the law of Moses were required to 
 marry the widows and to raise seed to their brethren.
 
 JUDGMENT-SEAT OF SOLOMON. 293 
 
 had expected a moment before. The sword, 
 which he had sent for, was not employed to 
 divide the child. But it had served the pur- 
 pose he had had in view, which was to draw out 
 the maternal affection of the real mother, and 
 to expose the callous heart of the false one. 
 " Oh, Divine oracle of justice !" says Bishop 
 Hall, "commanding that which it would not 
 have done, that it might find out that which 
 could not be discovered. Neither God nor 
 his deputies may be so taken at their words, as 
 if they always intended their commands for 
 action, and not sometimes for probation." 
 Solomon could no longer doubt to whom to 
 assign the child. Could a woman so forget 
 her sucking child could she have so entirely 
 dried up her compassion for the son of her 
 womb, as to consent to the ruthless tragedy? 
 God himself, by the prophet, intimates that such 
 a thing is scarcely possible ; and Solomon, the 
 Saviour's type, and the next to Him in wisdom, 
 concluded that she was either no real mother, 
 or a monster of a mother. Even if she could 
 have been the mother, she deserved to be de- 
 prived of her child for her inhuman acqui- 
 escence, as the other was worthy of its pos- 
 session on account of her anxious tender-heart- 
 edness. But the footsteps of love and pity 
 pointed, we think, unerringly to the truth, 
 while malignity and barbarity unmistakeably 
 exposed the falsehood. Not more kindly than 
 o 3
 
 294 TWO WOMEN AT THE 
 
 justly, therefore, did he adjudge the infant to 
 the woman that was terrified and heart-rent at 
 his peril ; and we wonder not that his decision 
 gave universal satisfaction, when he answered, 
 and said, "Give her the living child, and in no 
 wise slay it : she is the mother thereof 3 ." 
 
 1. From this subject we infer the value to a 
 nation of enlightened and pious magistrates 
 and judges. Under such administrators justice 
 and humanity go hand in hand. Falsehood is 
 detected, fraud is exposed, malignity is defeated, 
 wrong is redressed, right asserted, truth upheld, 
 and innocence protected. Peace and security, 
 domestic comfort, individual happiness, and 
 national prosperity universally flourish and pre- 
 vail. A state of things is induced on the earth, 
 typical of and approaching to that which shall 
 arise under the universal reign of Him who 
 shall judge the world with righteousness, and 
 the people with equity. Let the matter, then, 
 engage our "V 1 -st prayer, and let us heartily 
 join in our supplications, " that it may 
 
 please God to ruie our sovereign's heart in his 
 faith, fear and love ; to endue the lords of the 
 council and all the nobility with grace, wisdom, 
 and understanding; to direct and prosper all 
 the consultations of the High Court of Parlia- 
 ment, under our most religious Queen, at this 
 time assembled ; and to bless and keep the 
 
 3 See Note VI.
 
 JUDGMENT-SEAT OF SOLOMON. 295 
 
 magistrates, giving them grace to execute jus- 
 tice, and to maintain truth/' 
 
 2. From this subject we infer, secondly, the 
 connexion between wisdom and humanity. In 
 dark ages, and among ignorant legislators, and 
 magistrates, the most cruel methods were re- 
 sorted to, on such occasions, in order to ascer- 
 tain the truth. Bloody combats between in- 
 dividuals, ordeals by fire, tortures by the scourge 
 and the rack were made the barbarous criteria 
 of justice and veracity tests which, with all 
 their torments, led to no certainty, and often 
 issued in the triumph of falsehood and the dis- 
 comfiture of innocence. As pure religion, and 
 its handmaid intellectual cultivation, have gained 
 ground, these barbarities have decreased and dis- 
 appeared like the ill-omened birds of night before 
 the cheering beams of the orient sun. And the 
 wisest of the children of men has proved, by 
 the judgment before us, that an enlightened 
 mind, cultivated by study, strengthened by 
 piety, and furnished, as such a mind will inevit- 
 ably be, with a correct knowledge of human 
 nature, can penetrate secrets, and arrive at con- 
 clusions which may be expected in vain from 
 the operation of violence and cruelty. It is 
 also clear that mental and moral appliances are 
 just as conducive to the interests of justice as of 
 humanity. The enlightened and humane regu- 
 lations of our own king Alfred produced, 
 throughout his realm, an unprecedented sense 
 o 4
 
 296 TWO WOMEN AT THE 
 
 of the sacred inviolability of persons and pro- 
 perty, while under more ignorant and fiercer 
 occupants of his throne, countless robberies 
 and murders have disgraced the land. And of 
 Solomon, we read, that when " all Israel heard 
 of the judgment which the king had judged," so 
 remarkable for its union of sagacity and real 
 mildness, " they feared the king, for they saw 
 that the wisdom of God was in him to do judg- 
 ment." 
 
 3. In this transaction we find exhibited the 
 power of maternal affection. It is one of the 
 strongest feelings known to the human heart, 
 probably the very strongest of all, as intimated 
 by the already quoted question of Isaiah, " Can 
 a woman forget her sucking child ?" It was 
 implanted there thus vigorously by God, as 
 the most efficacious instrument for preserving 
 the tender and the helpless amid the many 
 perils and infirmities to which they are liable ; 
 and, notwithstanding the ceaseless troubles, and 
 anxieties, and fatigues which they occasion, it 
 operated so mightily in the bosom of the mother 
 arraigned before Solomon, that it brought her 
 to consent to any suffering, any self-denial, to 
 the transference of her child to a malignant 
 adversary, a melancholy trial to a mother's 
 hopes, rather than agree to the sacrifice of his 
 life. And yet there are too often found in our 
 own country women who have extinguished 
 that feeling, and have murdered their own infants.
 
 JUDGMENT-SEAT OF SOLOMON. 297 
 
 We scarcely read an instance of such unnatural- 
 ness among the ancient Israelites. In the ex- 
 tremity of famine, indeed, when the senses were 
 bewildered by exhaustion, and death was ex- 
 pected by all, such a sacrifice might, in a rare 
 instance, be consented to: yet, even on such 
 an overwhelming emergency, we have an 
 instance of maternal affection operating so 
 strongly as to refuse the sacrifice after it had 
 been most solemnly, and under the most bind- 
 ing obligations promised 4 . But we have not in 
 the whole Bible a single intimation of a mother 
 being instrumental or accessary to the slaughter 
 of her child, from motives of shame or the mere 
 dread of destitution. To think that in our age 
 and country such considerations have predomi- 
 nated over maternal love, and caused a mother 
 often to forget her newly born or sucking child, 
 so that she should not have compassion on the 
 son of her womb, is matter for the deepest 
 humiliation at the depravity of our race, and 
 surelv deserving the most anxious investigation 
 of a < in people, and a legisla- 
 
 ture. Oh, there must be something wrong in 
 the constitution of society, or there must be 
 something wrong in the laws of the land, to 
 render such a result possible^ as that a woman 
 in spite of the strongest feelings of nature, im- 
 planted by God for the wisest purposes, and in 
 
 4 2 Kings vi. 29. 
 
 o 5
 
 298 TWO WOMEN AT THE 
 
 spite of the characteristically mild spirit of the 
 v dispensation, and of the whole tenour 
 of God's inspired word from Genesis to Reve- 
 lation, should have so little compassion on the 
 son of her womb as to extinguish his innocent 
 life by a violent death. Oh, let us consider our 
 ways as a nation and as individuals. Let us 
 inquire into the origin, and the cause, and the 
 cure of so portentous and unnatural a crime. 
 Let us humble ourselves in penitence for our 
 own and our country's sins, and supplicate the 
 Father of mercies, the friend of little children, 
 to pardon the thoughtlessness, the iniquity, and 
 the depravity which have involved us in such 
 guilt, and beseech Him to wipe away so foul 
 and disgraceful a blot from our land and age. 
 
 4. But we recommend the conduct of the real 
 mother at Solomon's judgment-seat to mothersin 
 general for more reasons than one. We trust 
 there are none here who require to be warned 
 and cautioned with regard to the safety of their 
 children's natural lives. Maternal affection, we 
 hope, is strong enough in you all to render 
 such an admonition superfluous. But have you 
 a feeling equally strong regarding the salvation 
 of their immortal souls? Do you seek to save 
 them from spiritual and eternal death, with the 
 same solicitude and terror, as you would pre- 
 serve them from temporal death ? Do you 
 adopt, with reference to your children's spiritual 
 welfare, similar sentiments, and a similar course
 
 JUDGMENT-SEAT OF SOLOMON. 299 
 
 of conduct, if necessary, to those adopted by 
 her with reference to her child's bodily welfare ? 
 Are you ready to say, " Oh, ray lord, give 
 her the living child," i. e. do you strive with a 
 holy violence, and at any sacrifice, to pluck 
 your children's souls as brands from the burn- 
 ing, and to rescue them from everlasting de- 
 struction ? Is this feeling manifested in your 
 habitual walk and conversation in your in- 
 struction, in your advice, and in your example ? 
 Do you study to bring them up more care- 
 fully with a view to their happiness in eternity, 
 than with a view to their advancement in the 
 world? Do you sincerely and honestly en- 
 deavour to impress upon their minds the Sa- 
 viour's blessed advice, " Seek ye first the king- 
 dom of God and his righteousness, and all 
 these things shall be added unto you ?" Oh, 
 let none suppose that they do their full duty 
 by their children, or hope to have much com- 
 fort from them, unless they diligently bring 
 them up in the nurture and admonition of the 
 Lord. 
 
 5. " But to accommodate" the other part of 
 "this transaction to the purpose of spiritual 
 instruction, may we not observe that many 
 professors of the - -i ( like the pretended 
 mother, who consented to have the child di- 
 vided) would mutilate the sacred Scriptures, 
 and leave out those parts which oppose their 
 prejudices, their vanity, their covetousness, 
 o 6
 
 300 JUDGMENT-SEAT OF SOLOMON. 
 
 their ambition, their pride, or their lusts. Yea, 
 they would fain divide their hearts between 
 God and Mammon. But the true believer 
 loves the whole Scripture, holds fast every part 
 of it, and values its doctrines, its precepts, its 
 facts, its promises, and its warnings, as equally 
 necessary to its completeness and perfection. 
 This cordial affection for the inspired volume, 
 proves the entire of it to be, and to be felt as, 
 the believer's own, who wishes to give his 
 heart unto the Lord without reserve, and to 
 seek his happiness from Him alone. Oh, let 
 us all strive after this singleness of purpose, 
 and pray, that with simplicity and godly sin- 
 cerity we may have our conversation in the 
 world. Soon our Solomon will come and de- 
 cide between the false and true professor. See 
 ye to it, that your title to heaven be clear, for 
 in Him is the wisdom of God to do judgment, 
 and He cannot be imposed upon by subterfuges 
 or evasions ; seeing He searcheth the hearts of 
 the children of men, and all things are naked 
 and open before Him with whom we have to 
 do 5 ." 
 
 * Scott's Comment.
 
 SERMON XIV. 
 
 THE QUEEN OF SHEBA. 
 
 2 CHRON. 5x. 1. 
 
 " And when the Queen of Sheba heard of the fame of Solomon, 
 she came to prove Solomon with hard questions at Jerusa- 
 lem, with a very great company, and camels that bare 
 spices, and gold in abundance, and precious stones : and 
 when she was come to Solomon, she communed with him 
 of all that was in her heart." 
 
 THE word Sheba is in Scripture used in three 
 different senses. 1. It is used in four places 
 for the name of a man, as in the tenth chapter 
 of Genesis, we read of a Sheba, a grandson of 
 Ham ; in the twenty-fifth of the same book, 
 we read of a Sheba, a grandson of Abraham ; 
 in the second book of Samuel 1 , of a Sheba, the 
 son of Bichri, who headed a revolt against 
 David; and in the first book of the Chroni- 
 cles 2 , we read of a Sheba, the son of Abihail, 
 of the tribe of Gad, who dwelt in the country 
 
 1 Chap. xx. 1, &c. 2 Chap. v. 11. 13, 14.
 
 302 THE QUERN OF SHEBA. 
 
 of Bashan. 2. It is used in Joshua 3 for the 
 name of a city ; as we read of the Simeonites, 
 that they had in their inheritance Beersheba, 
 Sheba, and Moladah. 3. It is generally consi- 
 dered to be the name of a country in the pas- 
 sage we have just read " And when the Queen 
 of Sheba heard of the fame of Solomon." 
 But what country that was is a question which 
 has given rise to various opinions. According 
 to some, it was a part of Arabia Felix, to- 
 wards the southern extremity of the Red Sea. 
 In support of this opinion, we have, first, 
 the general consent of historians and geogra- 
 phers, that that region was inhabited by a 
 people called Sabaeans, a name very nearly 
 allied in sound and orthography to the Sheba 
 of the inspired record, and supposed by many 
 to be the descendants of Sheba, a grandson of 
 Abraham 4 , by his second wife Keturah; secondly, 
 the peculiar gifts which its queen presented to 
 King Solomon, " spices, and gold, and precious 
 stones," productions in which that country 
 abounded ; thirdly, the admitted fact that the 
 Sabaeans had queens for their sovereigns ; 
 fourthly, a tradition still existing among them, 
 that their queen paid a visit to the renowned 
 king of Israel ; and, fifthly, the position of their 
 country, at the extremity of the Arabian pe- 
 
 3 Chap. xv. 26, and chap. xix. 2 ; in the former of these 
 places, Shema seems written for Sheba. 
 * Gen. xxv. 3.
 
 THE QUEEN OF SHEBA. 303 
 
 ninsula, corresponding with the words applied 
 to it by our Saviour, " The uttermost parts of 
 the earth." According to others, Sheba was a 
 part of the African continent, now known by 
 the name of Abyssinia. In support of this 
 opinion are brought forward, first, the Scripture 
 record 5 , that there was another Sheba, a grand- 
 son of Ham, whose descendants became the 
 inhabitants of Africa ; secondly, the fact that 
 the gifts of " spices, and gold, and precious 
 stones," referred to, are produced in Abyssinia, 
 as well as in Arabia ; thirdly, the equal, nay, 
 the greater applicability of the description, 
 " Uttermost parts of the earth," to Abyssinia, 
 than to the southern extremity of Arabia, since 
 a region more distant from Jerusalem than 
 Arabia was in our Saviour's time known to the 
 civilized world, while Abyssinia was reported 
 to be the actual boundary of the habitable 
 globe; fourthly, and chiefly, the striking and 
 remarkable circumstances, that when 
 tianity first penetrated into that country, the 
 inhabitants of it were found to profess the 
 Jewish religion, which, according to a very 
 ancient tradition among them, supported by 
 the testimony of all the neighbouring nations, 
 was introduced among their ancestors by their 
 queen, after her visit to the king of Israel. 
 The weight of arguments appears to prepon- 
 
 5 Gen. x. 7-
 
 304 THE QUEEN OF SHEBA. 
 
 derate in favour of the latter opinion, and I am 
 much inclined to think with a modern cele- 
 brated traveller, who has visited that country, 
 that she was queen of Abyssinia. 
 
 To this celebrated queen no name is given, 
 either in the Old or in the New Testament. 
 By the Arabians, she is called Balkes, by the 
 Abyssinian s, Maqueda, by Josephus, Candaule, 
 by our Saviour she is simply called the queen 
 of the South, and some think that the original 
 word, which we translate " Sheba," is merely 
 an appellative, signifying the south country, 
 which may apply equally to the one or to the 
 other of the countries we have named, and, 
 therefore, decides nothing as to the specific 
 region from whence she came, though, as we 
 have already intimated, the words, " Uttermost 
 parts of the earth," which follow, would seem 
 to indicate a more distant region than the ex- 
 tremity of the Arabian peninsula, and point 
 rather to the farthest part of the then habitable 
 globe. 
 
 In this remote region she heard of the fame 
 of Solomon, and she determined to gratify her 
 eyes and ears with the sight and speech of a 
 man so renowned throughout the world. The 
 report of his wealth, and power, and magnifi- 
 cence had, doubtless, made a great impression 
 upon her mind, as they afterwards contributed, 
 when she beheld them, to excite in her mind 
 an unutterable and overpowering admiration.
 
 THE QUEEN OF SHEBA. 305 
 
 But it is clear, both from the Old and the New 
 Testament, that these were not the principal 
 attractions which drew her from her distant 
 home to the court of the Israelitish monarch. 
 Our Saviour says, that her motive in coming 
 was to hear the wisdom of Solomon. The in- 
 spired author of the books of Chronicles says, 
 that she came to Solomon because she had 
 heard of his fame concerning the name of the 
 Lord. He had exhibited incomparable wisdom, 
 and he had erected an unrivalled temple in 
 honour of Jehovah, and it was these wonderful 
 instances of intellectual wealth, and deep and 
 fervent piety, which had so strongly attracted 
 her attention, and roused her to enterprise. It 
 was not to gratify an idle curiosity, or to ac- 
 quire worldly riches, or to form high connex- 
 ions, or to make a vain ostentation of the pomp, 
 and splendour, and riches, which already be- 
 longed to her, by exhibiting " a very great 
 train, with camels bearing spices, and very 
 much gold and precious stones," it was not 
 motives of this nature, but a motive connected 
 with the highest and most substantial interests 
 of man in time and in eternity which dictated 
 her arduous undertaking. It was not, as ap- 
 pears from the distinct statements, both of the 
 inspired penman and of >t himself, merely 
 because she had heard or iiis princely power, 
 his extensive dominions, his magnificent me- 
 tropolis, but it was chiefly for the purpose of
 
 306 THE QUEEN OF SHEBA. 
 
 being enlightened by his instruction, and to be 
 edified by his piety it was because she had 
 heard of his wisdom, and heard of his fame 
 concerning the name of the Lord it was " to 
 prove him with hard questions relative to these 
 matters of solemn concernment," and " to 
 commune with him of all that was in her 
 heart," that she came from her far-off realm to 
 Canaan and to Jerusalem. 
 
 It is highly probable that she possessed some 
 previous knowledge of Jehovah, derived from 
 her forefathers, or from the intercourse which 
 had already taken place between her subject;* 
 and those of the King of Israel, whose navies 
 had touched on the borders of all known lands, 
 and carried on commercial transactions with 
 almost all nations, that she had become un- 
 easy and perplexed on religious subjects, and 
 that she anxiously desired to become better 
 acquainted with the true God. To satisfy her 
 mind, and to tranquillize her conscience on 
 these matters of highest import, she thinks no 
 trouble too great to endure, and no labour too 
 toilsome to undergo. The anxieties of her 
 public station were not sufficient to divert her 
 attention from the one thing needful. The 
 vast distance of her residence could not deter 
 her from seeking the place where heavenly 
 truth was to be ascertained. The loyalty and 
 attachment of her own people, the endearing 
 connexions of her native land, and the danger
 
 THE QUEEN OP SHEBA. 307 
 
 of sacrificing them all, could not restrain her 
 from resorting to one, who, she trusted, would 
 guide her steps to the region of undying love, 
 and immortal friendship and communion. She 
 cheerfully expended her worldly wealth in order 
 to obtain the pearl of great price. She readily 
 quitted her own metropolis in order to ac- 
 quire a knowledge of the city which hath eter- 
 nal foundations. She willingly came from the 
 uttermost parts of the earth, in order to become 
 acquainted with a better and enduring country. 
 She came not with the selfishness of a grudging 
 heart and an empty hand to the sanctuary of 
 Jehovah, but "with a very great train, with 
 camels that bare spices, and very much gold, 
 and precious stones ;" and when she came to 
 the king in Zion, she remained, not in any re- 
 serve, through pride, or vanity, or unbelief, but 
 "she communed with him of all that was in her 
 heart." We doubt not that she asked his ad- 
 vice about the best method of governing and 
 improving her people. Rulers, when they meet 
 together, should not spend their time in mere 
 pomp and parade, in the reception of flattery, 
 and in the expression of mutual congratula- 
 tions, but should remember that the welfare of 
 millions is committed to their keeping by One 
 who will call them to account, and should dili- 
 gently study, like careful fathers and nursing 
 mothers, what they can do for the best interests 
 of their subjects. We doubt not that the Queen
 
 308 THE QUEEN OF SHEBA. 
 
 of Sheba inquired of the great oracle she came 
 to consult, what were the best modes of civil 
 government, what were the arts and the sci- 
 ences, the cultivation of which would best pro- 
 mote the prosperity of her people, how know- 
 ledge was to be diffused, industry promoted, 
 virtue cultivated, vice discouraged, violence re- 
 strained, weakness supported, poverty relieved, 
 the young educated, the old respected, and all 
 ranks of her people made comfortable and 
 happy. These are the matters that should 
 hold a prominent place in the minds of sove- 
 reigns when they meet face to face, and not, as 
 has been too often the case, the questions how 
 they shall subdue some obnoxious kingdom, or 
 enslave some neighbouring people, or enlarge 
 the bounds of their dominion, or overthrow 
 and destroy each other. We are sure, from 
 the commendation bestowed upon her by our 
 Saviour, that the queen of Sheba came with no 
 such sinister views, and with no such perni- 
 cious intentions ; and while we are left safely 
 to infer her anxiety to learn what might con- 
 duce to the temporal well-being of those com- 
 mitted to her charge, we are not permitted to 
 doubt, that her solicitude extended to high and 
 heavenly things, and to matters of spiritual 
 and eternal moment. What hard questions 
 she would propose concerning the creation of 
 all things, the government of the world, and 
 the existence of a Supreme Being ! What
 
 THE QUEEN OF SHEBA. 309 
 
 mighty problems she would bring forward con- 
 cerning the origin of evil, the corruption of 
 man, the immortality of the soul, the resurrec- 
 tion of the body, the judgment to come, and 
 the way of salvation ! What interesting in- 
 quiries she would make concerning the modes 
 of faith, the forms of worship, and the habits 
 of life, most acceptable to the true and only 
 God ! And how her heart would thrill with 
 satisfaction, and leap for joy, as the wise mo- 
 narch would unrol to her the volume of Jeho- 
 vah's mysteries, and tell her the history of 
 man's fall and degeneracy the calling of Abra- 
 ham and his descendants out of the midst of 
 idolaters, to preserve the knowledge of the 
 true God in the world; the promise of the 
 Messiah that should destroy the works of the 
 devil, and bring back an apostate race to the 
 obedience and the favour of a reconciled Cre- 
 ator ! All her doubts were resolved, all her 
 perplexities were unravelled, all her difficulties 
 removed, for " Solomon told her all her ques- 
 tions : there was not any thing hid from the 
 king which he told her not." 
 
 These things were written for our learning, 
 and herein is an encouragement to all to come 
 unto Him, of whom Solomon was a type. If 
 you are dark and perplexed with regrard to 
 your immortal concerns, come unto , and 
 
 He will make your path of faith and duty clear 
 as the light and bright as the noon-day. In
 
 310 THE QUEEX OF SHEBA. 
 
 temporal difficulties and sufferings, if you will 
 cast your burden upon the Lord, He will sustain 
 you. He will guide you in darkness, comfort 
 you in sorrow, support you in bereavement; 
 and destitution, and bring you by ways that 
 you know not, and by paths that you little 
 dream of, into regions of light and peace. In 
 spiritual trials and temptations He is a never- 
 failing friend in time of need. If your con- 
 science is uneasy, come unto .s, and He will 
 turn the troubled waters into a clear fountain, 
 and the tumultuous waves which rage horribly, 
 and disturb your rest, and frighten your hearts, 
 into the sweet and calm repose of heavenly 
 hope and assured confidence. If your mind is 
 obscured by the clouds of unbelief, of infirmity, 
 of temptation, or if it be distressed by the 
 assaults of scepticism, infidelity or error if 
 you are sore let and hindered in running the 
 race that is set before you, distracted by the 
 cares of this world, and the deceitfulness of 
 riches, borne down by sorrow, doubt, or gloomy 
 apprehensions, come untc , listen to His 
 
 voice, open your heart unto Him in free com- 
 munion, cast your burden upon His shoulders, 
 and He will dissipate the shadows which rest 
 upon you, surround you with a clear and 
 wholesome atmosphere, make smooth paths for 
 your feet, guide you out of the labyrinths of 
 sin and sorrow, bring you unto a large and 
 wealthy place, and displaying to your spiritual
 
 THE QUEEN OF SHEBA. 311 
 
 vision a picture of the heavenly Jerusalem, 
 will comfort your souls with a prospect of the 
 glories and the pleasures which are at His right 
 hand, to be enjoyed by his chosen for evermore. 
 The Queen of Sheba, after receiving from 
 Solomon satisfaction of mind on matters con- 
 nected with the highest wisdom and piety, pro- 
 ceeded to view the wonders of his metropolis, 
 the arrangements of his court, the decorations 
 of his palace, and the munificence of his obla- 
 tions in the service of the Almighty ; and when 
 she " had seen all Solomon's wisdom, and the 
 house that he had built, and the meat of his 
 table, and the sitting of his servants, and the 
 attendance of his ministers, and their apparel, 
 and his cupbearers" all remarkable for num- 
 ber, order, regularity, and elegance " and his 
 ascent by which he went up unto the house of 
 the Lord" which "ascent" some would have to 
 imply, the acclivity, adorned with unrivalled 
 beauty of architecture, by which they entered 
 from the city into the temple ; others, to mean 
 the solemn gravity, seriousness, and devotion of 
 the Israelitish monarch, when he went to pay 
 homage to the Monarch of the universe ; others, 
 (and this is the most probable translation,) to 
 signify the burnt-offerings which, at vast ex- 
 pense, he offered in the house of the Lord 
 when she had seen all these things, espe- 
 cially his wisdom and piety, which, observe, 
 are placed first and last, and most promi-
 
 312 THE QUEEN OF SHEBA. 
 
 nent in the catalogue of the wonders which 
 affected her senses and feelings she became 
 so overwhelmed with admiration and amaze- 
 ment that she fainted away, the probable 
 meaning of the expression " there was no 
 more spirit in her," or at least that, unable to 
 give utterance to the overpowering impressions 
 she had received, she remained for a considera- 
 ble time in mute astonishment. But, recovering 
 
 * ~ 
 
 herself, she said unto the king, " It was a true- 
 report that I heard in mine own land of thy 
 acts, and of thy wisdom. Howbeit I believed 
 not the words until I came, and mine eyes had 
 seen it ; and behold the half was not told me : 
 thy wisdom and prosperity exceedeth the fame 
 that I heard." 
 
 And it is with feelings like these that every 
 one who will really come to Him that is greater 
 than Solomon, will contemplate his unsearch- 
 able riches. Many a man hears of ' ,, and, 
 like the Queen of Sheba, does not sincerely and 
 heartily believe the report concerning Him. He 
 does not realize to his mind the truth of his 
 servants' declarations. He does not even dream 
 how good and gracious the Lord is, how rich 
 in wisdom, how magnificent in power, how 
 astonishing in kindness, love, and truth ; how 
 opulent and boundless in all the elements of 
 happiness. But when, at last, He actually arises 
 and comes from the strange land of darkness 
 and sin to ascertain the reality of the good re-
 
 THE QUEEN OF SHEBA. 313 
 
 port, he discovers with feelings of deep wonder 
 that what he had heard was more than true ; 
 that the representation, though true so far as it 
 went, had not done justice to the reality ; that the 
 half was not told him of the peace of mind, the 
 satisfaction of conscience, the wealth of happi- 
 ness, temporal and spiritual, which He will im- 
 part to those who seek his presence and ap- 
 proach his throne of grace, and "commune 
 with him of all that is in their heart." He had 
 heard, for example, of pardon before, but he 
 never imagined that the sense which he now 
 entertains of it could give him half the holy joy 
 he feels. He has heard before of peace to the 
 troubled in spirit ; but it had never entered into 
 his heart to conceive that it was a peace which 
 so far passeth all understanding. He had often 
 heard the invitation, " Come unto me, all ye that 
 are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you 
 rest :" but it was only when he accepted the in- 
 vitation, and actually came to the Saviour, held 
 spiritual communion with Him, and, by faith, 
 tasted how precious the Lord is, that he found 
 the rest he had promised so far transcending 
 all earthly repose, that it may well be regarded 
 as a foretaste of that heavenly rest, which re- 
 maineth for the people of God. And if it he 
 true that in this world the presence of 
 diffuses so much of light and life, and imparis 
 so much of joyous sensation, what will it be 
 when we shall enter into his more immediate 
 
 SECOND SERIES. P
 
 314 THE QUEEN OF SIIEBA. 
 
 into his visible presence in the world of glory ! 
 Will not the recompense of reward that we 
 shall then receive, cause us to forget all the 
 toils and all the pains of our weary pilgrimage ? 
 Shall we not bless the hour when God first put 
 i<- into our hearts to set forth on our journey to 
 .-i in spite of the worldly pleasures, and 
 worldly interests, and worldly society, which 
 tempted us to remain in the land of aliens and 
 foreigners ? Oh, yes, we shall recall with grati- 
 tude the time we heard of the fame of this King 
 of kings with the ear of faith, and were induced 
 to listen to the glad tidings of his salvation, and 
 to go to his Zion and his sanctuary. But when 
 we shall see Him as He is, our expectation will 
 not only be fully realized, but far more than 
 realized. We shall even wonder at the faint- 
 ness of the representation of Him that had 
 reached our ears. We shall be astonished that 
 his heralds, and ministers, and servants spread 
 throughout all lands, had not proclaimed more 
 effectually, and given the world a more faith- 
 ful picture of his unsearchable riches and his 
 boundless resources of wisdom, power, goodness, 
 and love. And when we shall find speech to 
 express our feelings, we shall cry out in a rap- 
 ture of admiration and amazement, " It was a 
 true report," O King eternal, " that I heard in 
 mine own land of thy acts and of thy wisdom. 
 Howbeit I believed not the words until I came, 
 and mine eyes had seen it : and behold the half
 
 THE QUEEN OF SHEBA. 315 
 
 was not told me : thy wisdom and prosperity 
 exceedeth the fame which I heard." 
 
 The Queen of Sheba, after the memorable de- 
 claration she made in these words of the report 
 she had heard, and the belief she had enter- 
 tained, as compared to the scenes which now 
 presented themselves to her eyes, and the truths 
 which now arrested and charmed her ears, 
 breaks forth into strains of blessing and praise 
 at the marvels before her, saying, " Happy are 
 thy men, happy are these thy servants which 
 stand continually before thee, and that hear thy 
 wisdom. Blessed be the Lord thy God, which 
 delighteth in thee, to set thee on the throne of 
 Israel ; because the Lord loved Israel, therefore 
 made He thee king to do judgment and justice." 
 She then made presents to the king. "She 
 gave the king an hundred and twenty talents of 
 gold, and of spices a very great store, and pre- 
 cious stones : there came no more such abund- 
 ance of spices as these which the queen of 
 Sheba gave to king Solomon." And she re- 
 ceived gifts probably more precious far in her 
 eyes than those she bestowed, "for king So- 
 lomon gave unto the Queen of Sheba all her 
 desire, whatsoever she asked, besides that which 
 Solomon gave her of his royal bounty." This is 
 the last account we have of her, except that the 
 inspired penman winds up her history with the 
 words "so she turned and went to her own 
 country, she and her servants." Behold herein 
 p 2
 
 316 THE QUEEX OF SHEBA. 
 
 a type of the believer on earth and in heaven. 
 Like the Queen of Sheba, filled with admiration 
 and gratitude at the wisdom and loving-kind- 
 ness of the Lord, he offers Him gifts according 
 to the extent of his possessions. Having first 
 given Him his heart, he gives Him of his worldly 
 substance to promote his glory, and to advance 
 his interests in the world. When the wise 
 men of the east came to the infant Messiah, 
 (f they presented unto him gifts; gold, and frank- 
 incense, and rvrrh ;" and there is not one true 
 comer to the * . who is not ready to open 
 
 his treasures to do Him honour, and willing 
 to give according to his ability of the perishable 
 wealth to enlarge the boundaries of his dominion, 
 to strengthen the sway of his sceptre, to help the 
 poor of his flock, to feed the lambs of his fold, 
 to bring back the sheep that are going astray to 
 the Shepherd and Bishop of their souls, and to 
 make his name known in all the earth, his saving 
 health among all nations. Like the Queen of Sheba 
 too, he offers the Lord the free-will offering of 
 blessing and praise. He ascribes all the riches of 
 wisdom and goodness presented to the hearts of 
 men by the Prince of Peace to the distinguished 
 loveofGodfor his chosen people, the spiritual Israel. 
 He endeavours, even in this vale of sin and sor- 
 row, to lift up his heart in gratitude, and to 
 utter strains of praise for the marvellous loving- 
 kindness of the Lord, and he shall praise Him 
 worthily when he enters the Zion that is above,
 
 THE QUEEN OF SHEBA. 317 
 
 and joins the multitude that no man can num- 
 ber of them who have washed the ; " robes and 
 made them white in the ' . . -, .md 
 
 who shall cause the vaults of eternity 16 ring 
 with Hosannahs to the Son of David. He shall 
 lift up a voice worthy of the theme, when among 
 the spirits of just men made perfect he shall 
 " sing the song of Moses, and the song of the 
 i, saying, Great and marvellous are thy 
 works, O Lord God Almighty ; just and true are 
 thy ways, thou King of saints." And lastly, like 
 the Queen of Sheba, he shall receive from the 
 greater than Solomon " all his desire, whatsoever 
 he asketh for." In this world he shall receive, 
 as on this day 6 the first ' ..> received, the 
 
 precious gift of the -. concerning 
 
 which the 'ir emphatically declares, Ask 
 
 and ye shall receive ; and along with that gift all 
 that a fallen, fearful, and sorrowful creature can 
 desire, the pardon of sin, the hope of glory, the 
 assurance of bliss beyond the grave, rest to a 
 troubled spirit and consolation to a broken 
 heart, beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourn- 
 ing and the garments of praise for the spirit of 
 heaviness ;" and in the world to come, he shall 
 receive of the King of heaven's royal bounty 
 far more than he ever desired or ever thought 
 of asking for, since " eye hath not seen, nor ear 
 heard, neither have entered into the heart of
 
 318 THE QUEEN OF SHEBA. 
 
 man, the things which God hath prepared for 
 them that love him." Blessed are they now, 
 unspeakably and eternally blessed shall they be, 
 who wait upon the King of Zion. Happy are 
 the people who are in such a case; yea, happy 
 are the people who?' God is the Lord." 
 
 Our >' <-. \r made a memorable use 
 
 of the visa of dheba's queen to Solomon, by way 
 of reproof to the Jews for their insensibility to 
 his heavenly teaching. From the fact of her 
 having undertaken a long journey, faced diffi- 
 culties, encountered perils, submitted to incon- 
 venience and self-denial to learn of the king of 
 Israel, he inferred the guilt of those who turned 
 away from Him who brought instruction to 
 their very doors, and who was far more capable 
 of communicating what it concerned man to 
 know. " The queen of the south," said He, 
 " shall rise up in the judgment w r ith this genera- 
 tion and shall condemn it, for she came from the 
 uttermost parts of the earth to hear the wisdom 
 of Solomon, and behold a greater than Solomon 
 is here." And I pray you carefully to observe 
 that that inference is just as applicable to us, 
 to whom. ,.. - the Wisdom of God, is preached, 
 as to the people among whom He was personally 
 present. How many, then, of this generation 
 will the conduct of the Queen of Sheba condemn ! 
 The inhabitants of this country not only hear 
 of the fame of . but are continually invited 
 
 to listen to the wisdom of ( ' . They are not 
 
 J
 
 THE QUEEN OF SHEBA. 319 
 
 only told again and again of his wealth and 
 goodness and truth, but they are incessantly 
 urged to come and see how gracious the Lord 
 is. And yet they seem as men who hear but 
 do not understand, or rather as men who receive 
 an invitation, but do not appreciate it, and they 
 go away one to his farm and another to his 
 merchandise. How different was the conduct 
 of the Queen of Sheba ! There did but a vague 
 report of Solomon's wisdom, and piety, and opu- 
 lence reach her ears ; no ambassador came from 
 his court to give her an invitation ; no assur- 
 ance had been communicated to her that she 
 would meet with a welcome reception. And 
 yet, though unsolicited, uninvited, and ignorant 
 of the light in which her visit would be looked 
 upon by the king and his subjects, she came in 
 pursuit of heavenly wisdom. Ye of this gene- 
 ration, who hear but do not obey the call to 
 repentance, do ye not see that the Queen of 
 Sheba will rise up in the judgment and condemn 
 you, because she came uninvited to hear the 
 wisdom of Solomon, "and behold a greater than 
 Solomon is here ?" 
 
 But some of you may say, it is not always 
 convenient to attend to religious matters. We 
 have difficulties to encounter that you know not 
 of, impediments at home, impediments abroad, 
 impediments in our families, impediments in 
 our connexions. The scoffs of our friends and 
 companions, the ridicule and calumny of our 
 p 4
 
 320 THE QUEEN OF SHEBA. 
 
 enemies, the required self-denial, so hard to flesh 
 and blood, discourage us from undertaking the 
 journey tt< All these things are against 
 
 us, and prevent us from going to the throne of 
 grace, to sit at the footstool of aa, and to 
 listen to his heavenly wisdom. And do you 
 think these excuses will be accepted at the 
 judgment? How trifling are your obstacles 
 compared with those of the queen of the south ! 
 nay, how great your facilities in the prosecution 
 of a heavenly journey ! The word of God is nigh 
 unto you. The Bible is put into your hands ; 
 the gospel is preached close to your homes ; 
 the ordinances of religion are easily accessible ; 
 and the quickly recurring sabbaths give you 
 frequent opportunities for their participation. 
 And if you avail not yourselves of privileges so 
 exceedingly great, and suffer yourselves to be 
 deterred from duty by inconveniences so insig- 
 nificantly trifling, the Queen of Sheba will most 
 assuredly rise up in judgment and condemn 
 you, because she thought no difficulties too 
 great to encounter, no labour too arduous to 
 undertake, no journey too distant to perform, 
 but "came from the uttermost parts of the earth 
 to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and behold a 
 greater than Solomon is here." 
 
 Others of you may say the cares of this life, 
 the occupations of our worldly calling, the 
 anxieties to provide for our children, engross 
 our minds and hinder us from giving that at-
 
 THE QUEEN OF SHEBA. 321 
 
 tention to heavenly things, which, if disengaged 
 i'rom these obstacles, we should be willing to 
 bestow. But are these impediments greater 
 than, are they so great as, those with which the 
 Queen of Sheba was surrounded ? She might 
 have most plausibly pleaded, " The concerns of 
 my government are so numerous and so compli- 
 cated that I cannot leave my kingdom and go 
 to a distant land." She might have urged, that 
 during her absence on so long a journey every 
 thing would go wrong at home. Her subjects 
 might be exposed to oppression or tempted to 
 rebellion. Her country might be invaded and 
 conquered, and her very crown might be plucked 
 from her brow or denuded of its lustre, and she 
 might have said, " All these things are against 
 my going so far in quest even of heavenly wis- 
 dom." Can you adduce any excuses so plausible 
 as these for inattention to divine instruction ? 
 Are all the cares and all the anxieties with 
 which you are entangled, however multitudinous 
 and complicated, equal or even comparable to 
 hers ? Can you, then, bring them forward as rea- 
 sons for not coming unto One that is greater 
 than Solomon ? Oh, should not obstacles even 
 greater than stood in her way, be in your 
 imagination trifles light as air when they oppose 
 your approach to so far superior a teacher? 
 Should you not make any sacrifice, submit to 
 any self-denial, forego any gratification, and 
 incur any expense, in order to attend to the 
 p 5
 
 322 THE QUEEN OF SHEBA. 
 
 wisdom of the only begotten Son of God, to 
 listen to the oracles of immutable truth, and to 
 seek the things which so indisputably belong to 
 your everlasting peace ? And if you refuse, will 
 not the Queen of Sheba rise up with you in the 
 judgment and condemn you, "because," not- 
 withstanding her many worldly responsibilities 
 and many worldly avocations, " she came from 
 the uttermost parts of the earth to hear the 
 wisdom of Solomon, and behold a greater than 
 Solomon is here ?" 
 
 How dreadful and desperate at the day of 
 judgment will be the case ^f the rr\nn <*:Vio has 
 lived and died a , , -L.ia, but y ; ; . ,,oi only 
 in name ! Every heathen among the millions 
 assembled on that awful occasion will stand 
 before the Searcher of hearts less guilty than he. 
 Pagan nations may then ask for mercy on 
 grounds which in his case will be altogether 
 untenable. <f The Egyptian may come from 
 regions in which he worshipped mystic deities 
 the Greek may rise from the tomb on which 
 heathen orators may have poured their panegy- 
 ric the Roman may rise from the ruins of 
 some fane devoted to an imaginary divinity 
 the Hindoo may rise from the scene of wild 
 rites performed in honour of wilder gods, and 
 the poor Indian of the western world may 
 come from the place where he poured forth 
 his supplications to one whom he worshipped 
 under the name of the great Spirit, and all
 
 THE QUEEN OF SHEBA. 323 
 
 may come and kneel at the throne of judgment 
 and ask for merr" wHh greater reason than 
 the nomina ; iii. They may plead that, 
 
 if they lived and died in sin, it was because 
 they lived and died in ignorance ; that if 
 the disease of their souls was never cured, it 
 was not because they had rejected a physician, 
 for they had never seen or known one; and 
 that if there was great guilt on their heads, 
 they had not the guilt of rejecting salvation, 
 for they had never heard its joyful sound. 
 Such may be their pleas for pardon and peace. 
 But what excuse can be made by the nominal 
 - When the record of his transgres- 
 sion is recited, what can he say in his defence ? 
 When his opportunities of salvation are set 
 before him, what can he offer by way of ex- 
 cuse ? He must instantly appear indefensible. 
 He must stand altogether inexcusable. He 
 must confess that he knew his master's will 
 and would not do it. He must acknowledge 
 that he wore th" rarb oi ; and vowed 
 
 the vows of ; . , and possessed the pri- 
 
 vileges of a but that all was hollow, 
 
 all was false, all was hypocritical, or all was 
 formal. He promised obedience, and was sin- 
 ful ; he knew his duties, and forsook them ; he 
 was led to the feet of tfi.' >ur and deserted 
 
 him ; and so he lived anu died i i 
 
 but '<\ ' 01 only in name an alien in re- 
 
 ality trom the Father, who was willing to adopt 
 p 6
 
 324 THE QUEEN OF SHEBA. 
 
 him, a traitor to the Son, who died for him, and 
 unsanctified by the Holy Spirit, whose gifts 
 were promised for his aid 7 ." 
 
 Beware, then, my f ' un brethren, lest any 
 of you be found at the judgment in this predi- 
 cament. Let not the cares of this world keep 
 you from the fountain of heavenly wisdom. 
 Let no difficulties, or temptations, or avoca- 
 tions, or enjoyments, prevent you from coming 
 to the King of Zion. Come and enrol your- 
 selves among those who obediently listen to 
 his teaching, and hold intimate communion 
 with his spirit, and He will solve all your 
 doubts, satisfy all your scruples, and chase 
 away your every misgiving and despondency. 
 Become not almost, but altogether, 
 acquiesce entirely in his revelations, aim uuide 
 without deviation in his precepts, and you will 
 receive a light into your minds, such as never 
 visited you before, and you will find rest for 
 your souls, such as nothing earthly can bestow 
 or take away. Like the Queen of Sheba, vou 
 will discover, that the report concerning ' , 
 
 even by His most zealous and able se vants, 
 fell far short of the reality of his excellence. 
 In the Zion that is below, in th< .. mili- 
 
 tant here on earth, you shall be cheered by the 
 rays of His pre-eminent wisdom, and when 
 that wisdom shall have conducted you to the 
 
 7 Altered and abridged from a Sermon, by the Rev. F. E. 
 Thoaipson.
 
 THE QUEEX OF SHEBA. 325 
 
 Zion that is above, you will adopt more heartily 
 than ever the admiring language of Sheba's 
 queen, "Behold, the half was not told me: 
 thy wisdom and prosperity exceedeth the fame 
 that I heard."
 
 SERMON XV. 
 
 WIDOW OF SAREPTA. 
 
 1 KINGS xvii. 9. 
 
 ,,Arise, get thee to Zarephath, which belongeth to Zidon, 
 and dwell there : behold, I have commanded a widow 
 woman there to sustain thee." 
 
 WE advance this evening above eighty years in 
 the course of the sacred history from the period 
 to which our last discourse adverted, that of 
 King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba. During 
 that interval, scarcely a female character is 
 noticed, except the wife of Jeroboam, whom 
 that monarch sends to consult the prophet 
 Ahijah, about the recovery of their son from 
 sickness, and Maachah, the mother of Aza, 
 who was by her son dethroned, degraded, or 
 banished, on account of her idolatry, and both 
 of whose histories are confined to those respec- 
 tive transactions, without any reference to their 
 thoughts or feelings on the occasions, or to the 
 general conduct of their lives. Passing, there- 
 fore, over them, as not particularized in a man-
 
 WIDOW OF SAREPTA. 327 
 
 ner sufficiently characteristic to furnish peculiar 
 lessons, we come down to the reign of Ahab 
 king of Israel, when we find two females pre- 
 sented to our notice, with circumstances sug- 
 gestive of marked instruction, the widow of 
 Sarepta, the announced subject of our present 
 discourse, and Jezebel, the wicked queen of 
 Israel, whose life we propose to consider in our 
 next. 
 
 On the death of Solomon, his kingdom be- 
 came divided into two parts, of which one 
 clave to Rehoboam, his son, and the other to 
 Jeroboam, the son of Nebat. While the suc- 
 cessors of the former on the throne of Judah 
 were some of them good, and others of them 
 wicked kings, those of the latter on the throne 
 of Israel were without exception idolatrous or 
 impious characters. Too faithfully did they 
 tread in the steps of Jeroboam, the son of 
 Nebat, who made the nation to sin, and the 
 eighty years which followed from the com- 
 mencement of his reign, appear to have been 
 years of progressive degeneracy from the reli- 
 gion and morality of their forefathers. At last, 
 there succeeded Ahab, who did more to provoke 
 the Lord God of Israel to anger than all the 
 kings of Israel that were before him. He mar- 
 ried Jezebel, the daughter of a heathen king, 
 who was not only educated in idolatry, but 
 bigotedly attached to the worship of false gods, 
 and determinedly hostile to the worship of
 
 328 WIDOW OF SAREPTA. 
 
 Jehovah. Their sins cried aloud to heaven for 
 vengeance, and a prophet suddenly appears to 
 announce it in these words : " And Elijah, the 
 Tishbite, who was of the inhabitants of Gilead, 
 said unto Ahab, As the Lord God of Tsrael 
 liveth, there shall not be dew nor rain these 
 years, but according to my word." To account 
 for this apparently abrupt introduction into the 
 sacred narrative of the prophet's appearance 
 and address to the king, the Jewish commenta- 
 tors, with much plausibility, consider the cir- 
 cumstance as closely connected with the fact 
 recorded at the conclusion of the preceding 
 chapter. There we read of Kiel, a man of 
 power and influence in the land, and probably 
 a relative or friend of Ahab, rebuilding Jericho, 
 and incurring in consequence the curse pro- 
 nounced by Joshua five hundred years before, 
 who, after destroying that city, had said : 
 " Cursed be the man before the Lord that 
 riseth up and buildeth this city of Jericho : he 
 shall lay the foundation thereof in his first- 
 born ; and in his youngest son shall he set up 
 the gates thereof." By the penalty thus threat- 
 ened and realized in Kiel the Bethelite, is most 
 probably meant, that when he laid the founda- 
 tion of that city, his eldest son died by the 
 judgment of God ; that during the progress of 
 the work, others of his children died in suc- 
 cession ; and that when it was on the eve of 
 completion, his last and youngest was taken
 
 WIDOW OF SAREPTA. 329 
 
 away ; so that, instead of securing for himself a 
 name by the attempt, he effected and hastened 
 the extinction of his family 1 . Ahab is supposed 
 to have been deeply concerned for Kiel's afflic- 
 tion, and when assured by Elijah, whose coun- 
 sel and warning he had probably often heard 
 before, though they are not recorded, that it 
 was an exact fulfilment of the threatened judg- 
 ment of God, he is thought to have manifested 
 his incredulity upon the subject, and to have 
 answered with audacious impiety, " Is it likely 
 that the curse of Joshua, the son of Nun, who 
 was only the servant of Moses, should be ful- 
 filled," and the curse of Moses himself, our 
 pretended great prophet and lawgiver, should 
 not be fulfilled, who said, " If ye turn aside, 
 and serve other gods, and worship them, then 
 the Lord's wrath shall be kindled against you ; 
 and he will shut up the heaven that there be 
 no rain." Now, see how false is that denunci- 
 ation, " All the Israelites serve other gods, and 
 yet the rain is not withheld." While this 
 daring defiance of Jehovah, like the presump- 
 tuous boast of Nebuchadnezzar, was scarce 
 gone out of his mouth, Elijah replied, that the 
 predicted judgment was at that moment on the 
 eve of execution, and as one who, like Moses 
 himself, was commissioned to make God's will 
 known unto man, he assured the king, with 
 
 1 See Note VI I.
 
 330 WIDOW OF SAREPTA. 
 
 great solemnity, of the speedily coining wo, 
 saying unto Ahab, " As the Lord God of Israel 
 liveth, before whom I stand, there shall not be 
 dew nor rain these years, but according to my 
 word." 
 
 After delivering this declaration, it became 
 necessary for the prophet to seek personal 
 safety by flight and concealment. God, know- 
 ing that on the first appearance of the impend- 
 ing drought, his life would be in peril from the 
 resentment of Ahab, commanded him to direct 
 his steps towards the east, and hide himself in 
 the valley, through which flowed the brook 
 Cherith, and promised that he should be sus- 
 tained by the water of that stream, and by food 
 miraculously supplied him, saying, " It shall be 
 that thou shalt drink of the brook ; and I have 
 commanded the ravens to feed thee 2 ." There 
 he appears to have lived in seclusion and soli- 
 tude for above a year, at the end of which 
 space, the brook dried up by reason of the 
 excessive and continued drought. Although the 
 food miraculously supplied failed not, the water 
 supplied by nature entirely ceased, which re- 
 minds you that heaven is far better and richer 
 than earth. Worldly comforts, like the brook 
 Cherith, may vanish when we stand most in need 
 of them ; but there is a stream which is never 
 exhausted, the river of spiritual blessing which 
 
 2 See Note VIII.
 
 WIDOW OF SAREPTA. 331 
 
 maketh glad the city of God, the well of living 
 water which springeth up into everlasting life. 
 God grant that we may all taste of that celestial 
 element which the Saviour giveth his chosen 
 to drink ! 
 
 Elijah,, upon the drying up of the brook, is 
 directed, by the word of the Lord, to go to 
 Zarephath or Sarepta, a town situated between 
 the cities of Tyre and Sidon. There a widow 
 woman was commanded to sustain him. This 
 was a heathen country; and there were wise 
 reasons for Elijah's going hither. He was per- 
 secuted by his own king, and, perhaps, rejected 
 by his own nation, and, therefore, like the 
 apostles afterwards, he is sent to bless the Gen- 
 tiles. This was the very country from which 
 his greatest enemy, Jezebel, had come and im- 
 ported her idolatrous abominations, and he is 
 sent thither for refuge, to expose the impotence 
 of her malice against the protected of Jehovah, 
 and, perhaps, also to encounter and reprove at 
 its source the evil which had overspread and 
 threatened to ruin his own country. It was the 
 region whence the Syrophcenician or woman of 
 Canaan came, who so perseveringly supplicated 
 the mercy of Jesus for her diseased daughter, 
 and, at last, received from him the gratifying 
 and applauding answer, "O woman, great is 
 thy faith : be it unto thee even as thou wilt." 
 And Elijah might be ordered thither to presig- 
 nify our Saviour's reception of the woman of
 
 332 WIDOW OF SAREPTA. 
 
 Canaan, who, perhaps, was lineally descended 
 from the widow of Sarepta, and thereby to in- 
 dicate the future breaking down of the partition 
 wall between Jew and Gentile, and the a^mis- 
 sion of al 1 nations into the h of 
 
 the i -;v.r, and the formation out of all 
 kindreds and tongues and ^eoV f one fold 
 under one shepherd, =t f . He was 
 
 ordered thither, moreover, partly, to show that 
 God dispenses his blessings in the manner, in 
 the places, and to the persons He pleases, with- 
 out giving any account of his matters, and partly 
 to warn those who disregard valuable pri- 
 vileges, that they shall be punished for their 
 neglect and abuse of them by deprivation and 
 destitution, according to the intimation of 3 .*>.; 
 and the inference drawn by the Jews from his 
 allusion, as recorded in those words of the 
 ^ Li , " I tell you of a truth, many widows 
 
 were in Israel in the days of Elias, when the 
 heaven was shut up three years and six months, 
 when great famine was throughout all the land ; 
 but unto none of them was Elias sent, save unto 
 Sarepta, a city of Sidon, unto a woman that 
 was a widow; and all they in the synagogue, 
 when they heard these things, were filled with 
 wrath." 
 
 As Elijah, in obedience to the Divine com- 
 mand, approached the city of Zarephath or 
 Sarepta, he beheld, near the gate, a woman en- 
 gaged in the humble occupation of gathering a
 
 WIDOW OF SAREPTA. 333 
 
 few sticks for fuel. Doubtless he immediately 
 recognized in her the widow appointed to sus- 
 tain him. The drought, which had visited 
 Canaan, had extended to the neighbourhood of 
 Sarepta ; and the prophet was parched by thirst, 
 and exhausted by the fatigue of his long jour- 
 ney from the brook Cherith. Accordingly, he 
 no sooner came within hearing of the person 
 whom he had been directed to seek, than he 
 said, " Fetch me, I pray thee, a little water in 
 a vessel, that I may drink." There was, pro- 
 bably, something very venerable in the aspect 
 of the prophet ; or she had received a pre-inti- 
 mation from heaven, which convinced her that 
 he was a servant of the most High. She, there- 
 fore, hesitated not to comply with his request, 
 though compliance with such a request under 
 the pressure of the severe drought must have 
 been a matter of difficulty and self-denial. In-, 
 asmuch as it was not impossible, however hard, 
 she willingly prepared to perform the service, 
 and to do what she could for God and his ser- 
 vant, and thus manifested a disposition that is 
 most acceptable in his sight, and ensured his 
 invaluable blessing. " If," says the Apostle, 
 "there be first a willing mind, it is accepted ac- 
 cording to that a man hath, and not according 
 to that a man hath not." "He," says our 
 m, "that receiveth a prophet in the name 
 of a prophet, shall receive a prophet's reward ; 
 and he that receiveth a righteous man in the
 
 334 WIDOW OF SAREPTA. 
 
 name of a righteous man, shall receive a righte- 
 ous man's reward. And whosoever shall give 
 to drink unto one of these little ones a cup of 
 cold water only in the name of a disciple, verily 
 I say uuto you, He shall in no wise lose his 
 reward." 
 
 The poor Sareptan was hastening away on 
 her mission of kindness, and showing her will- 
 ing heart by going to fetch the water, when 
 the prophet called her back and requested that 
 she would add unto it the boon of a morsel of 
 bread, since he was hungry as well as thirsty. 
 But, alas ! this additional request she thought 
 she could not grant without exposing herself 
 and her son to immediate death by famine. 
 Every drop of water had become precious ; but 
 every crumb of bread had become invaluable 
 and essential to the preservation of her own 
 and her only child's life. Nay, she had no 
 bread at all in her possession. All her store 
 of provisions consisted of but a handful of meal 
 and a little oil, which was only enough to alle- 
 viate or to stave off, for a few hours longer, the 
 lingering tortures of starvation. She was able 
 to spare that share of her small pittance which 
 consisted of a cup of water, but she could not 
 give away all that she had, and rashly precipitate 
 into ruin. She had, indeed, a willing heart, 
 and she probably yearned over the distress of 
 the man of God ; and to convince him that if she 
 did not satisfy his hunger as well as his thirst,
 
 WIDOW OF SAREPTA. 335 
 
 it was entirely from want of ability so to do, 
 without imminent risk to herself and her dear- 
 est on earth, she called the Omniscient to wit- 
 ness her sincerity, and very solemnly said, "As 
 the Lord thy God liveth, I have not a cake, 
 but a handful of meal in a barrel, and a little 
 oil in a cruse : and behold I am gathering two 
 sticks, that I may go in and dress it for me and 
 my son, that we may eat it and die." 
 
 What a dreadful state of things had the sins 
 of Israel and its rulers brought upon the land ! 
 Let us be thankful that we are spared notwith- 
 standing our iniquities and idolatries as a nation 
 and as individuals. Did we consider how much 
 better we are dealt with than we deserve, and 
 how many are destitute of the necessaries of life, 
 not only should we not hanker after luxuries 
 and superfluities, but having food and raiment 
 we should be well content, and our heart would 
 overflow with gratitude to Him whose goodness 
 we see over all his works, and whose mercy to 
 us endureth for ever. 
 
 Elijah, upon hearing the solemn and evidently 
 sincere declaration of the poor widow, might 
 have been expected to turn to some other quar- 
 ter for relief. An ordinary traveller would 
 have despaired of obtaining aid from such desti- 
 tution, and would have been disposed to regard 
 any previous intimation to that effect as a delu- 
 sive and mistaken notion. But being a prophet 
 of God, like Abraham, he staggered not at his
 
 336 WIDOW OF SAREPTA. 
 
 promise through unbelief, but was bold in 
 faith, and replied unto the woman, " Fear not ; 
 go and do as thou hast said : but make me there- 
 of a little cake first, and bring it unto me, and 
 after make for thee and thy son. For thus saith 
 the Lord God of Israel, The barrel of meal shall 
 not waste, neither shall the cruse of oil fail un- 
 til the day that the Lord sendeth rain upon the 
 earth." Oh, what a trial of faith was this to a 
 poor woman that was a heathen, or at most a 
 proselyte to the religion of Israel ! To be re- 
 quired to give to a stranger a share of what 
 was barely sufficient for herself and son, in the 
 hope of a miraculous increase ! To part with 
 what she had actually in hand, and what was 
 immediately necessary, on the promise of a 
 future and supernatural supply ! To risk the 
 loss of life by the diminution of its neces- 
 sary sustenance, on the bare assurance that 
 the sustenance would not fail and that life 
 would remain unhurt. " Presumptuous and 
 unfeeling man," some in such a predica- 
 ment would have answered, "there is no 
 reason in thy request. Wert thou a friend, 
 a relative, or even a brother, you could scarcely 
 expect from me that which is absolutely neces- 
 sary to myself and my child. But for a stranger 
 to ask of me in this dying extremity to make 
 a provision for him, rather than for my own 
 flesh and blood, how preposterous a demand ! 
 and with regard to the promise, that the meal
 
 WIDOW OF SAREPTA. 337 
 
 shall not waste and that the oil shall not fail, 
 how shall I believe it ? If thou hast power with 
 God to obtain such a continuance of the means 
 of subsistence, how is it that thou thyself now 
 standest in need? Do for thy individual self 
 what thou undertakest to do for thee and me 
 and mine together. Or do beforehand what 
 thou promisest to perform hereafter. Secure a 
 present supply if thou art so confident of future 
 assistance. It will be vain to claim the fulfilment 
 of thy promise, when all my store is gone, and 
 nothing remains to supply its place, and I and 
 my child shall be dying. Presumptuous and un- 
 feeling man, miserable comforter art thou in 
 this my hour of need." 
 
 But that was not her language. It would 
 have been the language of an unbeliever. She 
 was not of that number. She knew that she 
 was addressing a prophet of the true God, 
 whose word would not return to Him void, a 
 servant of the Creator of the heaven and the 
 earth, who could cause the wilderness to yield 
 food and the desert to send forth rivers for his 
 chosen people. She had learnt something of the 
 might and goodness of Jehovah, her heart was 
 touched with love and reverence for his holy 
 name, and like the woman of Canaan in after 
 times, great was her faith in his ever-during 
 mercy and his inexhaustible bounty. She, 
 therefore, took Him at his word as delivered by 
 the prophet, and "went and did according to the 
 
 SECOND SERIES. Q,
 
 338 WIDOW OF SAREPTA. 
 
 saying of Elijah." Though not descended from 
 Abraham according to the flesh, she was a true 
 daughter of that pattern of believers, who when 
 he received the command, " Take now thy son, 
 thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get 
 thee into the land of Moriah; and offer him there 
 for a burnt-offering upon one of the mountains 
 which I will tell thee of," proceeded without 
 hesitation to sacrifice him, "of whom it was 
 said, that in Isaac shall thy seed be called: 
 accounting that God was able to raise him up 
 even from the dead." Hard are the commands 
 sometimes laid on the people of God arduous 
 the task they are sometimes called upon to per- 
 form severe the self-denials and afflictions they 
 are sometimes compelled to undergo. But 
 wonderful is the power of faith, wonderful the 
 fortitude of faith, wonderful the daring of faith, 
 wonderful the achievements of faith. " Faith," 
 saith the Apostle, " hath subdued kingdoms, 
 wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stop- 
 ped the mouths of lions, quenched the violence 
 of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, where- 
 fore seeing we have so great a cloud of witnesses 
 to the efficacy of a living faith let us run with 
 patience the race that is set before us, looking 
 unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith." 
 The widow of Sarepta believed the word of 
 God, and believing obeyed, obedience being the 
 invariable result of a living faith, and the only 
 fruit by which the children of God are certainly
 
 WIDOW OF SAREPTA. 339 
 
 known. Let us now consider the result which 
 followed from her faith and obedience. " She 
 and the prophet and her house did eat many 
 days. And the barrel of meal wasted not, neither 
 did the cruse of oil fail, according to the word 
 of the Lord which he spake to Elijah." She 
 who gave at the divine command received a 
 hundred-fold. She who would have presently 
 lost her life by famine, if she had sought to save 
 it without reference to God's will, did by risking 
 the loss of it at his word abundantly find it. 
 She who would have perished perhaps on the 
 morrow, had she possessed a selfish and grudg- 
 ing and distrusting heart, did by the workings 
 of a liberal faith and self-denying charity, live 
 in abundance and happiness for many days. 
 While the rest of the Sareptans, and the Tyrians, 
 and Sidonians, and the Israelites were fainting, 
 and grieving, and dying by the sore judgment 
 which afflicted the land, she and hers, like Noah 
 and his family in the ark, were safe amid the cries 
 of distress and the shrieks of agony. Happy 
 thought for her and hers, that she resolved to 
 open her hands to the hungry and famished 
 prophet ! How she would bless the hour when he 
 appeared at the city gates! How shewould thank 
 the God of Israel for having brought her from 
 her desolate home at that particular moment, 
 and for having put it into her heart to offer his 
 servant the willing cup of water, and for having 
 given her strength to do far more than she could 
 Q 2
 
 340 WIDOW OF SAREPTA. 
 
 ever have thought herself able to perform to 
 share with him the very last morsel of her 
 worldly subsistence in the midst of pressing 
 want . How amply was she now repaid ! How 
 she would rejoice in the presence of the man of 
 God, and how delightedly she would listen to 
 his lessons of heavenly wisdom ! With what 
 fond affection and grateful upliftings of the 
 heart to God for his goodness, she would con- 
 template that only son, alive, and well, and 
 happy, with whom awhile before she had 
 thought in wretchedness to die ! Oh, seasonable 
 and wonderful deliverance ! What shall she 
 render unto the Lord for his marvellous loving- 
 kindness? With what fitness she could antici- 
 pate the admiring and devout exclamation, 
 
 " How blest are all thy servants, Lord, 
 How great thy grace to me." 
 
 Seek ye to be possessed of the like precious 
 faith and to do the like precious work, and 
 ye shall inherit a blessing that is but faintly 
 symbolized by her temporal prosperity ; peace 
 in the midst of an anxious world, hope in 
 the midst of discouraging circumstances, com- 
 fort in tribulation, joy in sorrow; and when this 
 short life is ended, glory and bliss unspeakable 
 at God's right hand for evermore. 
 
 " To patient faith the prize is sure, 
 And all that to the end endure 
 The cross, shall wear the crown." 
 
 But that crown, the crown of perfect enjoy- 
 ment, is not to be looked for on this side the
 
 WIDOW OF SAREPTA. 341 
 
 grave. We may have peace, we may have hope, 
 we may have joy in believing, but the peace is 
 often ruffled, the hope is often mixed with fear, 
 and the joy is often alloyed with grief in this 
 vale of tears. When we have escaped from one 
 evil, we are not unfrequently surprised by 
 another. When we think ourselves safe from 
 harm, we are then sometimes on the brink of a 
 dreadful calamity. It was precisely so with 
 the widow of Sarepta. Famine had come on 
 the land, and reduced both her and her only son 
 to death's door. Elijah seasonably appeared 
 at the city gates, and by his residence in her 
 house saved her household from the impending 
 ruin, and changed its want into abundance and 
 its misery into happiness. But, alas ! behold the 
 widow's heart, which after a recent weight of sor- 
 row had been made to sing for joy, weighed 
 down with a new load of grief. Her only son, 
 to whom she had so touchingly alluded in 
 her conversation with the prophet, is overtaken 
 by disease. What the nature of his ailment 
 was, the sacred narrator has not specified. It 
 might be a lingering illness, which required 
 the mother's careful watching and tender atten- 
 tion for weary days and sleepless nights. How 
 many hopes and fears would in that case alter- 
 nate in her trembling bosom ! To-day she 
 would hope the best. To-morrow she would 
 fear the worst. Now his brightening counte- 
 nance would light up her own with returning 
 Q 3
 
 342 WIDOW OF SABEPTA. 
 
 smiles. Now his languid looks would stream 
 her eyes with tears. Now the hectic flush of 
 his cheeks would hold forth a delusive prospect 
 of renovated vigour. Now his pallid and sink- 
 ing aspect would indicate the last stage of debi- 
 lity. Now his encouraging and animating 
 words would bid her not despond. Anon his 
 failing strength and quivering frame would cause 
 her heart to vibrate with anguish, as her lips pro- 
 nounced the words " There is no hope." O ye 
 mothers who have thus watched your dear ones, 
 you can tell, and you alone can tell the arrows of 
 grief which the while pierced her breaking 
 heart. Or perhaps it was, and we are inclined 
 to think that it was, an acute disease a sudden 
 and overwhelming attack, which, in a few hours, 
 reduced the strong and the sprightly youth or 
 infant into a spectacle of pitiable weakness and 
 wretchedness. Perhaps the plague or the pesti- 
 lence seized for its prey the child that had been 
 rescued from the ravages of the famine, and 
 suddenly turned the widow's home into a scene 
 of darkness and wo, and brought her down at 
 once from the highest pinnacle of happiness to 
 the lowest pit of misery, dashing to the ground 
 with one fell swoop all her edifice of serenity 
 and joy. Whichever was the case, the issue was 
 disastrous, fatal. Physicians, if there were any, 
 proved of no avail. A prophet's presence ap- 
 peared vain. A mother's anxious care and 
 flowing tears could not stop the progress of the
 
 WIDOW OF SAREPTA. 343 
 
 fell disease. " His sickness was so sore, that 
 there was no breath left in him." The last looks 
 had been exchanged, the last groan was uttered, 
 the last sigh was heaved, the last struggle was 
 over, and all was still. 
 
 All was still. But the stillness was presently 
 succeeded by the heart-rending cries of the 
 now childless mother. The blow fell with 
 dreadful force on the bereaved widow, and 
 threw her into a paroxysm of bitter grief. She 
 went in her distress and distraction to the pro- 
 phet, and passionately exclaimed, " What have 
 I to do with thee, O thou man of God ? Art 
 thou come unto me to call my sin to remem- 
 brance, and to slay my son? Is this, after all ? 
 the purpose of thy mission ? Is this the fruit 
 of my readiness to do thee a kindness? Where- 
 as I took thee for a messenger of good, when 
 thou savedst me and mine from famine, is it 
 the fact that thou art come unto me for severe 
 judgment, to call my sin to remembrance, and 
 to punish me for mine iniquities by the death 
 of my only son ?" But why should she impute 
 his death to the prophet? Why should she 
 think that he had saved him from famine to kill 
 him by disease? And why should she charge 
 the prophet with calling her sins to remem- 
 brance, as if God visited for wickedness only 
 when pointed out and denounced by his ser- 
 vants ? It would appear that Ahab and Jeze- 
 bel had some such idea when they persecuted 
 Q 4
 
 344 WIDOW OF SAREPTA. 
 
 the prophet, as if he had been the author of the 
 drought which afflicted the kingdom. Thus men 
 are now often made miserable by the denuncia- 
 tions of God's ministers, and charge them with 
 harshness and severity when they lay bare the 
 guilt and danger of the wicked, and warn them 
 in unsparing terms to flee from the wrath to 
 come : whereas, not the exposure, but the ex- 
 istence of sin, not the denunciation, but the 
 cause of wrath, are the things to be deprecated 
 and avoided. The delusion is attributable to 
 inconsideration. The people do not know 
 better, because they do not stop to consider, 
 even as the Sareptan, transported with grief, 
 had had yet no time for reflection, and there- 
 fore addressed the prophet with the impatient 
 interrogation, " What have I to do with thee, 
 O thou man of God ? Art thou come unto me 
 to call my sin to remembrance, and to slay 
 my son ?" 
 
 This was a wrongful insinuation, and might 
 have provoked a sharp reproof in answer. But 
 Elijah, though in general apparently hasty in 
 his temper as he was fervid in his zeal, re- 
 frained from a word of censure. Grace sub- 
 dued him into a condescending sympathy with 
 the bereaved one before him, though she spoke 
 in ignorance and in haste. Like a greater than 
 He, who, when told by the sisters of Lazarus 
 that if He had been present their brother would 
 not have died, and thus upbraided indirectly
 
 WIDOW OF SAREPTA. 345 
 
 with a neglect of duty to his friend, did not 
 aggravate their distress by reprimanding their 
 unjust imputation, but mingled his tears with 
 theirs, and wept, and tenderly asked, " Where 
 have ye laid him ?" like him, the prophet re- 
 ceived the desolate mourner's expostulation 
 without retorting, and doubtless wept like Him 
 at the wo occasioned to families by the ravages 
 of death, the sad entail of man's transgression, 
 and having, we little question, like Him, soothed 
 the heart-broken mother with looks of kindness, 
 and words of comfort, he put an end to the 
 distressing scene by saying, " Give me thy son." 
 For what purpose was such a request ? What 
 availed it to transfer the lifeless corpse from 
 arm to arm, and from bosom to bosom ? But 
 God has remedies in store, when man despairs 
 of a cure. God has resources at his command 
 when human means are exhausted. The Sarep- 
 tan who had witnessed the increase of the meal 
 and the oil began to consider this. Her faith, 
 which burnt so bright before, which led her to 
 hope almost against hope in reliance on the 
 prophet's words before that faith had only been 
 obscured or weakened, not extinguished by the 
 flood of affliction which had just betided her. 
 It revived when the first shock was passed, and 
 gradually resumed its former brightness, and 
 led her to believe that He who had saved her 
 son from perishing by famine, would be able to 
 recover him from the arms of death ; and, upon 
 Q 5
 
 346 WIDOW OF SAREPTA. 
 
 his saying, "Give me thy son," she allowed 
 him, without gainsaying, to take him out of her 
 bosom. Whereupon the prophet carried him 
 into his own apartment, and laid him upon his 
 own bed, and then lifted up his heart and 
 voice in earnest supplication to the Lord and 
 giver of life. Every word of his brief prayer is 
 full of weighty meaning. He pleads his inter- 
 est in the Most High, as one who had borne 
 witness for him in Israel, as one who had suf- 
 fered for his sake, as one who, at all risks, had 
 preferred him to Baal, and such false divinities, 
 addressing him with " O Lord my God." He 
 pleads the peculiarly desolate condition of the 
 sufferer, arid her very important services to 
 himself, the Lord's prophet, saying, "Hast 
 thou also brought evil upon the widow with 
 whom I sojourn?" He pleads the extreme 
 severity of the stroke that had been inflicted 
 upon her, " slaying her son," her only son, her 
 only comfort in the wide world, her only staff 
 of supp'ort in the pilgrimage of life, her anchor 
 in the floods of adversity, her joy in the sun- 
 shine of prosperity, the solace of her declining 
 years, and the prop of her old age. To bring 
 on such a woman, under such circumstances, 
 such an evil as to slay her only son would, the 
 prophet might fear, be made a ground of reflec- 
 tion on both himself and the true God, whom 
 he served. He, therefore, pleads it with God 
 in prayer, and entreats that it might be reversed,
 
 WIDOW OF SAREPTA. 347 
 
 so that glory and not dishonour should re- 
 dound to his great name. " He stretched him- 
 self upon the child three times," denoting by 
 the action the earnestness of his wish, the 
 heartiness of his desire, the agony of his prayer 
 for his recovery, and wishing, as it were, to aid 
 his reanimation by communicating warmth from 
 his own person, " and he cried unto the Lord 
 again, and said, O Lord my God, I pray thee 
 let this child's soul come unto him again." And 
 the Lord heard the voice of Elijah; and the 
 soul of the child came into him again, and he 
 revived. 
 
 And now how the scene changes again in the 
 Sareptan's home, as it changed once before 
 from mourning to gladness, from darkness to 
 light, from despair to happiness ! How the 
 spirit of the prophet himself revives ! How his 
 heart leaps within him at this wonderful proof 
 of God's power over the dead, of mercy to the 
 widow, of kindness and favour to himself! How 
 gratefully and joyfully would he take up again 
 in his arms the child so marvellously revived, 
 deliver the recovered treasure to his wo-worn 
 mother, and utter the welcome sound, "See, 
 thy son liveth \" And who can describe that 
 mother's feelings now ? To see that face bloom- 
 ing again, which has assumed the paleness 
 of death to behold those eyes beam upon 
 her again which she thought had closed for 
 ever to feel that flesh warm again which in 
 Q 6
 
 348 WIDOW OF SAREPTA. 
 
 her imagination had become cold as the clod 
 of the valley, and fitted only for the damp 
 and dark sepulchre ! Oh, what a blessed 
 change; communicating almost as much of 
 life to the mother as to the son ! All things 
 became new with her on the joyous occasion. 
 New blood flowed through her veins, new spirits 
 animated her frame, new lustre sparkled in her 
 eye, new bloom suffused her countenance, new 
 hope came, and her faith was renovated and 
 become stronger far than before the mournful 
 visitation, and she could speak henceforth by 
 faith, with the confidence of visible reality and 
 absolute certainty, for she said to Elijah, " Now 
 by this I know that thou art a man of God, and 
 that the word of the Lord in thy mouth is truth." 
 She believed it once before, but her faith was 
 imperfect, and it received a shock by the mourn- 
 ful visitation. It was impossible altogether to 
 divest herself of such an opinion before, when 
 she saw the meal and the oil feeding a whole 
 family for weeks, and months, and years, and 
 remaining unconsumed, according to the pro- 
 phet's words. But now she had the strongest 
 proof of his veracity and divine inspiration, that 
 could possibly be exhibited the same as our 
 Saviour's greatest miracles the raising of the 
 dead to life, and, therefore, she could now say, 
 not only I believe, but " I know that thou art a 
 man of God, and that the word of the Lord in 
 thy mouth is truth."
 
 WIDOW OF 8AREPTA. 349 
 
 1. We hence learn the uses of affliction. It 
 gives strength to our faith, depth to our repent- 
 ance, and steadfastness to our profession. The 
 Sareptan believed in Jehovah on the first ap- 
 pearance of the prophet, yea, believed probably 
 before his appearance, and she was disposed to 
 listen to his advice, to relieve his need, and to 
 give him a share of her all. Her belief grew as 
 she conversed more with him and perceived day 
 by day the marvellous fulfilment of his predic- 
 tion. But there were flaws in her faith. There 
 were sins, as appears from her subsequent doubts 
 and impatient misgivings regarding the pro- 
 phet's visit. There were sins of which she had 
 not cordially repented, as appears by her ques- 
 tion, " Art thou come to call my sin to remem- 
 brance?" She must, therefore, pass through 
 another furnace of affliction in order to be puri- 
 fied from remaining corruptions, and to be made 
 complete in heavenly graces, and steadfast and 
 immovable in the works of the Lord. Before 
 she was sore afflicted she went wrong : but after 
 the fiery ordeals she learnt to keep the statutes 
 of the Lord. 
 
 2. We hence learn, secondly, the blessings 
 which attend the footsteps of those "who are 
 merciful after their power, who, if they have 
 much, give plenteously, if they have little do 
 their diligence to give of that little, and what 
 good rewards they gather for themselves in the 
 day of necessity." How small were the pos-
 
 350 WIDOW OP SAREPTA. 
 
 sessions of the Sareptan widow ! and yet out of 
 that pittance she gave a share to him who was 
 zealous for God's honour and suffering in God's 
 cause, and manifested thereby her readiness to 
 mitigate human want and to advance the divine 
 glory; and how rich were the rewards of her 
 charity and self-denial ! she and her household 
 enjoying plenty, while all around were pining 
 in want ! she and her household edified by the 
 converse of the prophet of the most High, while 
 all around were overshadowed with heathen 
 darkness ! her intervening temporary affliction 
 replaced by permanent happiness, her dead son 
 restored to life, her conversion thereby com- 
 pleted, her mind enlightened, her faith matured, 
 her repentance perfected, her profession made 
 more steadfast, and her soul made more meet 
 for the inheritance of the saints in light ! So 
 be ye merciful and kind to the needy for your 
 Saviour's sake, and you shall be rewarded a 
 hundredfold both here and hereafter. So make 
 ye to yourselves friends of the Mamnon of 
 unrighteousness, and you shall be received into 
 everlasting habitations. 
 
 3. The lesson, which our Saviour deduced 
 from Elijah's visit to the woman of Sarepta, to 
 reprove and convince the Jews, is a lesson not 
 inapplicable to us, and one which we shall do 
 well to ponder. There were many widows in 
 Israel, who needed Elijah's miraculous aid, and 
 who would doubtless have been during the sore
 
 WIDOW OF SAREPTA. 351 
 
 famine most glad of an undiminished handful 
 of meal and unexhausted cruse of oil. But that 
 people with their king had disregarded his 
 admonitions, undervalued his counsel, and com- 
 pelled him to flee for his life. No wonder then 
 that he should turn to the Gentiles, and take up 
 his abode where his instructions would be 
 acceptable, his services available, his person 
 revered, and his God glorified. Does not the 
 fact, as applied by our Saviour, show unto us 
 the peril of despising religious privileges, and of 
 undervaluing the divine word and ordinances ? 
 If we appreciate them not, they will ultimately 
 be taken away from us as a nation, they will 
 assuredly be missed and regretted by us as 
 individuals, when distress and anguish come 
 upon us. Learn ye then to know the day of 
 your visitation. " Seek ye the Lord while he 
 may be found ; call ye upon Him while He is 
 near."
 
 SERMON XVI. 
 
 JEZEBEL. 
 
 1 KINGS xxi. 25. 
 
 " But there was none like unto Ahab, which did sell himself 
 to work wickedness in the sight of the Lord, whom Jezebel 
 his wife stirred up." 
 
 IN the female characters of Scripture, to which 
 we have directed your attention, we have con- 
 templated the influence of woman in a variety 
 of scenes and stations of life. In general we 
 have beheld her exercising her power bene- 
 ficially. In some few instances we have seen 
 her spend her talents injudiciously. But the 
 subject of our present discourse stands forth on 
 the canvass of inspiration with a prominence of 
 immoral influence such as is not exceeded, if 
 equalled, in the annals of the world. In the 
 words of the text we have the most emphatic 
 description that can be easily imagined of an 
 odiously mischievous character : " There was 
 none like unto Ahab, which did sell himself to 
 work wickedness in the sight of the Lord, whom 
 Jezebel his wife stirred up." Although there 
 was not one of the bad kings of Israel so un-
 
 JEZEBEL. 353 
 
 principled as Ahab, we are assured that to this 
 unequalled profligacy and profaneness he was 
 stimulated by the advice and the example of 
 one who should have drawn him by the cords 
 of love to walk in the paths of righteousness. 
 O sad perversion of opportunities of good to 
 the purposes of evil ! 
 
 Her history is deserving of our most careful 
 attention for warning, for correction, and for 
 reproof; and as we proceed to consider the 
 different parts of her history, we shall see to 
 what evils she influenced or stirred up her 
 husband. 1. We shall see first that she in- 
 fluenced him to idolatry. This might have 
 been expected from one of her country and 
 lineage. She was the daughter of Ethbaal, or 
 as the profane writers call him Ithobalus, the 
 eighth king of Tyre and Sidon, two cities of great 
 note, and probably having each the honour 
 of a royal residence, and commanding the 
 allegiance of an extensive surrounding territory. 
 The name Ethbaal * implies a near connexion 
 with Baal, an object of oriental idolatrous 
 worship, considered generally to be the same as 
 the sun ; and as the offices of high priest and 
 supreme ruler were, in ancient times, and 
 eastern countries, frequently united, it is sup- 
 posed that the father of Jezebel was both chief 
 minister of Baal, and chief ruler of the Sido- 
 nians and Tyrians. With the worship of Baal, 
 
 1 See Stackhouse.
 
 354 JEZEBEL. 
 
 or the sun, was intimately connected the 
 worship of Astarte, the grove or sylvan goddess, 
 supposed, by some, to be the same as the moon, 
 or Diana ; by others, to be the same as Venus ; 
 and by others, to be the same as Priapus, the 
 protector of gardens and orchards. Jezebel, 
 being the daughter of a man who was at once 
 the high priest of such a religion, and the sove- 
 reign of the people among whom such a religion 
 prevailed, was, by country, by education, and 
 by relationship, predisposed in favour of idolatry. 
 Ahab was most culpable in forming a matri- 
 monial alliance with the inhabitants of such a 
 country, and the daughter of such a parent; 
 and his espousal of her is markedly pointed out 
 as an extraordinary and excessive offence against 
 Jehovah the true God. " As if it had been a light 
 thing," says the sacred historian, " for him to 
 walk in the sins of Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, 
 he took to wife Jezebel, the daughter of Eth- 
 baal, king of the Zidonians." Such a union 
 produced, as might have been expected, the most 
 melancholy effects among the children of Israel. 
 The monarch had already gone so far in 
 apostasy as to patronize and encourage the 
 worship of the calves of Jeroboam ; but the 
 heathen woman, whom, in disregard of God's 
 command by Moses 2 , he brought into his king- 
 dom, and family, led away his heart farther 
 than ever from the religion of Jehovah. She 
 
 2 Deut. vii. 3, 4.
 
 JEZEBEL. 355 
 
 not only made the worship of the false gods we 
 have mentioned fashionable at the court, and 
 strove, by every encouragement, to establish it 
 through the length and breadth of the land, 
 but sought, by every means, to supersede and 
 extirpate the true religion, persecuted its priests 
 and prophets without mercy ; and had it not 
 been for the humane and pious interference of 
 Obadiah, a righteous man connected with her 
 household, and placed in a situation to counter- 
 act her murderous designs, who hid a hundred of 
 Jehovah's ministers in a cave, she would have left 
 scarcely one remaining in the whole kingdom. 
 Who can imagine the sufferings and the woes 
 occasioned by such unrelenting fury? What 
 miseries must have been endured by individuals 
 and by families, by fathers, mothers, and help- 
 less children ! How sad the condition of the 
 remaining people of God ! 
 
 But perhaps it will be said that this idola- 
 trous and persecuting queen acted in ignorance, 
 and, like Saul of Tarsus, before his conversion* 
 thought that she was promoting the cause of 
 truth, while she was serving the interests of 
 Satan. We shall now discover, as we proceed 
 with her history, that, if she once laboured under 
 a delusion, she must, afterwards, have resisted 
 conviction, and persisted in evil, despite of de- 
 monstration. When, through her influence, 
 idolatry had almost overspread the entire land, 
 and the prophets and priests of Jehovah had
 
 356 JEZEBEL. 
 
 been well-nigh extirpated, a man of undaunted 
 spirit, and charged with a divine commission, 
 comes from a distant part of the kingdom, and 
 presenting himself before the king, remonstrates 
 with him on the abominable idolatries and 
 cruelties which, under his sanction, prevailed. 
 Elijah, the Tishbite, who was of the inhabitants 
 of Gilead beyond Jordan, an apt t* -f 
 t' t st, who severely reproved his contem- 
 
 poraries as a generation of vipers, and warned 
 them to flee from the wrath to come, armed 
 with supernatural boldness and intrepidity, 
 charged the king to his face with the iniquities 
 of his house and kingdom, and menaced him 
 with the impending vengeance of Heaven. 
 Ahab, under the influence of Jezebel, probably 
 treated his denunciations as idle and ground- 
 less; and when Elijah, as the rabbins with 
 great appearance of truth suppose, pointed to 
 the execution of a Divine curse upon the re- 
 builder of Jericho 3 , as a proof of the inspiration 
 of the Bible, and of the divinity of the Mosaic 
 religion, it is imagined that the king answered 
 with incredulous scorn, and alleged an existing 
 fact in confutation of the prophet's theory, the 
 present prevalence of foreign worship ; the abet- 
 tors of which, if Moses' words were true, could 
 not be permitted to exist. "Then," replied 
 Elijah, "if you have no faith in Joshua, or in 
 Moses' words, witness this prediction of mine, 
 
 3 See Sermon on the Widow of Sarepta.
 
 JEZEBEL. 357 
 
 which shall be fulfilled speedily, and in the life- 
 time of thee and me." " As the Lord God of 
 Israel liveth, before whom I stand, there shall 
 not be dew nor rain these years, but according 
 to my word." In six months the truth of this 
 prediction began to appear, and for three years 
 such a drought came upon the land as reduced 
 both man and beast to the last extremity of 
 suffering, and compelled even the king himself 
 to pass from place to place throughout the 
 kingdom in search of "all fountains of water, and 
 all brooks, and grass to save the horses and 
 mules alive, and to prevent the utter destruc- 
 tion of all the beasts." But, notwithstanding 
 this verification of Elijah's words, and the 
 punishment thus evidently inflicted by Jehovah, 
 on account of the idolatries introduced, Jezebel 
 refused to be reformed. She persisted in the 
 exercise of an evil influence upon her husband's 
 mind, and continued to stir him up to the 
 maintenance of the false religion, and to the 
 discouragement and suppression of the true. 
 Ahab, evidently at her instigation, sent to all 
 the surrounding nations in pursuit of Elijah, 
 with a view to his destruction ; and she herself, 
 probably, at the very time when the predicted 
 judgment was raging, ordered to execution all 
 the prophets of the true God remaining in the 
 country, that she could get into her power. 
 She, therefore, persisted in idolatry, and influ- 
 enced her husband to persist in idolatry against
 
 358 JEZEBEL. 
 
 conviction, and disregarded the undeniable 
 judgment of God. 
 
 We shall next see that she persisted in the 
 sin in disregard of conviction produced by the 
 mercy of God. When the drought, and the 
 accompanying famine had continued three years, 
 and Samaria was reduced to the uttermost dis- 
 tress by the want of food and water, Elijah is 
 commanded by God to return from Sarepta to 
 his afflicted country, and propose to the king 
 its conditional relief. He is commissioned to 
 declare that rain would descend again upon the 
 land, if the worship of the true God were re- 
 stored, and the ministers of idolatry extermi- 
 nated. For that purpose he first presents him- 
 self to good Obadiah, who had saved some of 
 the prophets of the Lord from the ruthless 
 hand of Jezebel, and to him makes known his 
 willingness to meet the king on the subject of the 
 pressing calamity. The interview takes place. 
 The king, at first, charges the prophet with being 
 the cause of the prevailing tribulation, saying, 
 "Art thou he that troubleth Israel?" The 
 prophet sharply retorts the accusation, and un- 
 hesitatingly ascribes the whole mischief to the 
 iniquity and idolatry of the king and his house. 
 Ahab, withdrawn for a time from the influence 
 of Jezebel, appears to have been staggered and 
 softened by the penetrating speech of Elijah, 
 and to have expressed his willingness to support 
 the true worship, upon receiving another and
 
 JEZEBEL. 359 
 
 unequivocal proof of Jehovah's supremacy. 
 Elijah answered that he was ready to furnish 
 that proof. He proposed that the ministers of 
 idolatry and he should meet on mount Carmel> 
 and put their respective pretensions to a public 
 trial. The proposal seemed to Ahab unobjec- 
 tionably fair, and he appears to have readily 
 acceded to it. The prophets of Baal are ordered 
 to repair to the appointed place. Elijah single- 
 handed meets his numerous antagonists, amount- 
 ing to no fewer than four hundred and fifty. 
 The scene of contest is surrounded by a count- 
 less multitude of spectators, drawn together 
 probably by the intensest curiosity and interest 
 from every part of the country. The issue was 
 a matter of life or death to the contending par- 
 ties, for according to the law of Moses, those 
 who should be demonstrated to be the abettors 
 of a false religion must suffer capital punish- 
 ment as traitors against the theocracy of Israel. 
 Elijah stood up and said to the assembled 
 throng, who might be regarded as the repre- 
 sentatives of the whole nation, " How long 
 halt ye between two opinions ? if the Lord be 
 God, follow him : but if Baal, then follow him." 
 He then proposed that the contending parties 
 should respectively offer sacrifices, the prophets 
 of Baal to their god, and he to his God, and that 
 the god who should answer by fire, that is send 
 down fire from heaven to consume the victims 
 on the altars, should be acknowledged and wor-
 
 360 JEZEBEL. 
 
 shipped as the true God. The people unani- 
 mously approved of the proposal. The contest 
 was proceeded with, and the issue was not 
 doubtful. The ministers of idolatry cried to 
 their idol in vain from morning even until noon ; 
 f( but there was no voice, nor any that answered." 
 But when the servant of Jehovah lifted up his 
 prayer " the fire of the Lord fell, and consumed 
 the burnt sacrifice, and the wood, and the stones, 
 and the dust, and licked up the water that was 
 in the trench. And when all the people saw it 
 they fell on their faces and exclaimed, The 
 Lord, he is the God ; the Lord, he is the God." 
 The prophets of Baal being proved to the 
 satisfaction of all to be impostors and deceivers, 
 were put to death according to the law, and 
 the land being thereby cleared of the supporters 
 of idolatry, the cause of the judgment was 
 removed, and an abundance of gracious rain 
 was vouchsafed from heaven by the mercy of a 
 reconciled God. All hearts seemed now con- 
 vinced. The open discomfiture of the priests 
 of Baal, together with the blessed change which 
 immediately followed their destruction, would 
 appear to leave no doubt in the most incredu- 
 lous mind as to the proper object of worship. 
 Even Ahab appears to have been convinced and 
 softened by the indisputable testimony of what 
 he had seen, and heard, and felt. He returns to 
 his home. He relates the wonderful scene to 
 Jezebel, hoping perhaps that now she would no
 
 JEZEBEL. 361 
 
 longer continue idolatrous, but would become 
 a willing convert to the religion of Jehovah, and 
 an obedient and grateful disciple to the emi- 
 nently gifted Elijah. But neither prophecy, 
 nor miracle, nor judgment, nor mercy will avail 
 with the hardened heart, that is untouched by 
 divine grace. So far from being converted to 
 the true God, she burst into passionate ex- 
 clamations of rage at the loss of the priests of 
 the false one, vowed vengeance against Elijah, 
 who had brought about their execution, and 
 could not refrain from instantly sending him a 
 furious message to that effect, saying, " So let 
 the gods do to me and more also, if I make not 
 thy life as the life of one of them by to-morrow 
 about this time." How dreadful is the power 
 of evil! How it can change the softness of a 
 woman into the cruelty of a monster, and the 
 kindness of a woman into the revenge of a 
 demon ! Neither scourges nor favour, neither 
 severity nor goodness, can prevail with the 
 daughters any more than with the sons of men, 
 whose hearts are fully set in them to do evil. 
 
 2. We come now to exhibit the evil influence 
 of Jezebel in stirring up her husband to crime. 
 We have seen that she stirred him up to idolatry, 
 and opposed his better mind, when the scene of 
 Mount Carmel and the consequent return of 
 rain had convinced and softened his heart, and 
 inclined him probably to resume and re-establish 
 the religion of his forefathers. We shall now 
 
 SECOND SERIES. R
 
 362 JEZEBEL. 
 
 see how she stirred him up to crimes which 
 otherwise he would not have dared to commit. 
 There lived at Jezreel a righteous man of the 
 name of Naboth, whose vineyard bordered on 
 the grounds belonging to the royal palace. 
 Ahab, in disregard of the tenth commandment, 
 coveted this possession of his neighbour, and 
 wished to annex it to his own property, it being 
 conveniently situated for the extension of his 
 park or gardens. He therefore communicated 
 with him upon the subject. He was not so un- 
 just as to expect it without an equivalent price. 
 He offered to give a better vineyard in exchange 
 for it, or to pay its full value in money. But 
 Naboth said to Ahab, " The Lord forbid it me 
 that I should give the inheritance of my fathers 
 unto thee." To understand the apparent 
 abruptness and seemingly unnecessary solemnity 
 of this answer, we must call to mind a law of 
 Moses concerning inheritances, and we shall find 
 that compliance with such a request would have 
 been an illegal and impious act. God had 
 distinctly forbidden that any one in Israel 
 should finally alienate his patrimony. It might 
 be sold or mortgaged for a time, when circum- 
 stances rendered it necessary, but it m ust invari- 
 ably return at the Jubilee, if not redeemed before, 
 to the possession of the original owner. Now 
 Ahab most evidently wished Naboth to part 
 with his vineyard irrevocably, a request that 
 could not be complied with consistently with
 
 JEZEBEL. 363 
 
 law and religion. It was a disregard of the 
 divine will in Ahab to express or even to enter- 
 tain such a desire, and a proof that his heart 
 had been depraved and perverted by the trans- 
 ference of his allegiance and worship from the 
 true to false gods. It would have been wicked 
 and impious in Naboth to have gratified such a 
 desire by making such a bargain. It was not 
 vanity or pride, or even ancestral associations 
 alone; as a pious man and loyal subject he might 
 have subdued such feelings in deference to the 
 wishes of his royal master. Nor was it the fear 
 of a temporal disadvantage; it would most 
 probably have been a considerable advantage 
 to him in a temporal view, for he was offered a 
 better vineyard in exchange, or its full worth, 
 perhaps more than its worth in money. It 
 was chiefly a veneration for the sacredness of 
 the law, and a fear to offend its Author, which 
 prompted his peremptory refusal. When re- 
 quested to part with his vineyard, which had 
 descended to him from his ancestors, he was 
 asked to " do a great evil and sin against God." 
 He therefore, as a man of righteousness and 
 holiness, received the proposal with horror, and 
 unhesitatingly answered, "The Lord forbid it 
 me that I should give the inheritance of my 
 fathers unto thee." 
 
 Ahab, who had sinfully set his heart upon 
 this property, was greatly chagrined and 
 disappointed at Naboth's refusal. But dis- 
 R 2
 
 364 JEZEBEL. 
 
 pleased as he was, and despotic as he was, he 
 durst not by force seize upon another's in- 
 heritance, as it would have been a flagrant 
 breach of the constitution of the country, 
 and, perhaps, by creating a universal panic re- 
 specting the security of property, would have 
 endangered the stability of his throne. Neither 
 could he alter the law upon the point, the 
 Israelitish kings having no authority to alter, 
 annul, or enact a single statute of the realm, 
 the code of Moses being the alpha and omega 
 of the national legislation. Under these cir- 
 cumstances, the evil passion of covetousness, 
 and his inability to gratify it, caused him exces- 
 sive annoyance, embittered all his enjoyments, 
 and appear to have seriously affected his health. 
 " He laid him down on his bed, and turned 
 away his face, and would eat no bread." What 
 sources of misery are capricious appetites and 
 ill-regulated .desires! Here is a man, already 
 lord of ten-twelfths of the country, the king of 
 Israel, and the recent conqueror of Syria, made 
 wretched, because he could not obtain posses- 
 sion of a poor man's vineyard. What a proof 
 of the vanity of worldly things, and their inabi- 
 lity to " minister to a mind diseased !" How 
 true it is that happiness depends not on outward 
 circumstances, but on the healthy condition 
 of the heart ! The poor man, who has the peace 
 of God dwelling within him, is happy with his 
 scanty fare. The rich man, who is a stranger
 
 JEZEBEL. 365 
 
 to faith and holiness, is wretched in the midst 
 of luxury and abundance. Oh, let us cease 
 to hanker after the things which perish in the 
 using, and bear daily in mind that one thing is 
 needful ; and pray for grace to choose and 
 cherish that good part, which cannot be taken 
 away! 
 
 Jezebel, upon observing the dejection of her 
 husband, and learning its cause, instead of per- 
 forming the duty of a discreet and pious wife, 
 and remonstrating with him on the unreason- 
 ableness and wickedness of yielding to an un- 
 hallowed passion, instantly undertook to gratify 
 his humour by violence and wrong. " What," 
 said she, " dost thou now govern the kingdom 
 of Israel ? Arise, and eat bread, and let thine 
 heart be merry : I will give thee the vineyard of 
 Naboth the Jezreelite." A foreigner by birth, 
 and the daughter, probably, of a despotic sove- 
 reign, she had no idea of being trammelled by 
 laws in the accomplishment of a favourite object; 
 and she dared, what her husband educated in 
 Israel, though he was extremely vicious, had 
 not dared to do, to act like the most arbitrary 
 of sovereigns, who acknowledged no law buttheir 
 own will, and to seize another's property by the 
 destruction of its owner. She adopted a most 
 nefarious scheme for the purpose a scheme 
 the more abominable in the sight of God and up- 
 right men, from its combining with robbery and 
 murder the odious vices of hypocrisy and per- 
 B 3
 
 366 JEZEBEL. 
 
 jury. She wrote letters, in Ahab's name, to 
 the elders and nobles of Jezreel, and commanded 
 them to procure two men, sons of Belial, i. e. two 
 men who were unprincipled enough to take a 
 false oath, and for a bribe to swear away the 
 life of a fellow-creature. She ordered that 
 Naboth should be charged with treason and 
 blasphemy, the penalty for which, according to 
 the Mosaic law *, was death by stoning. She 
 ordered a fast to be proclaimed in the place, to 
 intimate the deprecation of a great calamity im- 
 pending over the nation for its toleration of 
 such a crying evil as the existence of such a 
 traitor and blasphemer within the city. From 
 the adoption of such a mode of proceeding, it 
 would appear that even Jezebel was not bold 
 enough to order his arrest and execution with- 
 out assigning a reason for it to the public, there 
 being yet a semblance of civil liberty, and the 
 outward forms of justice in Israel, notwith- 
 standing the general corruption and degeneracy. 
 But when the principles of a nation are cor- 
 rupted by the overflowings of idolatry, there 
 are ways of compassing the destruction of the 
 innocent without departing from the letter of 
 the law, and the ceremonials of justice and re- 
 ligion. Justice and religion are themselves 
 made the pretexts for perpetrating the most 
 atrocious crimes. The very seat of justice is 
 corrupted, and the very sanctuary of religion 
 4 Lev. xxiv. 14.
 
 JEZEBEL. 367 
 
 polluted. The handmaids of virtue become 
 the abettors of vice, and the daughters of Hea- 
 ven are changed into ministers of hell, the 
 angels of light into the emissaries of Satan. 
 Under such circumstances, the decay of moral 
 and religious principles is rapid beyond calcula- 
 tion. Profligacy, treachery, fear, and syco- 
 phancy bear uncontrolled sway. It was pre- 
 cisely so on the present occasion. There was 
 not among all the magistrates and counsellors 
 of Jezreel so much of regard for righteousness 
 and purity as in the single breast of the God- 
 fearing Naboth. There was not found in the 
 whole body courage enough to disobey the atro- 
 cious orders which they received from a cruelly 
 tyrannical queen. Naboth nobly disregarded 
 the wishes of a king, when they were found op- 
 posed to the will of God ; and he appears to have 
 been the only faithful among the many faithless. 
 They were so regardless of the claims of law 
 and religion, and so afraid of the resentment of 
 the queen against themselves, who, they knew, 
 had a thousand ways of punishing their disobe- 
 dience, that instead of imitating his noble 
 courage and faithfulness, they consented to gra- 
 tify her by his sacrifice. They proclaimed a 
 fast, set Naboth on high among the people, 
 that is, brought him to a public trial, and 
 suborned two men, children of Belial, or two 
 men capable of lying and bearing false testi- 
 mony, two witnesses being by the law required 
 R 4
 
 368 JEZEBEL. 
 
 in such a case, who swore, saying, "Naboth 
 did blaspheme God and the king." That is, 
 according to their evidence, he was an atheist 
 and a rebel, having spoken words injurious to 
 the perfections and nature of God, and hostile 
 to the crown and dignity of the king. Some 
 think the charge should be translated " Naboth 
 did bless the false gods and Moloch 5 ;" in which 
 case Jezebel seems to have been wicked enough 
 to avail herself of the law 6 of Moses, which 
 awarded death for idolatry; and to destroy 
 Naboth on the false accusation of being at- 
 tached to the heathen divinities, though she 
 herself was an abominable idolatress, and had 
 set that law at defiance. It is impossible to 
 imagine a blacker transaction than a careful 
 consideration of the whole account brings to 
 view. We do not hear that the innocent ac- 
 cused attempted a word of defence. Her charge 
 against him was similar to that against Him 
 who, " as a lamb brought to the slaughter, and 
 as a sheep before her shearers, was dumb and 
 opened not his mouth." In the one case as 
 in the other, all defence was useless. The 
 power of evil, under the auspices of Jezebel, 
 was triumphant, as it triumphed at the insti- 
 gation of those who cried out, i: ^ iiim, 
 crucify him !" and, li; < c Naboth was over- 
 whelmed by the force of injustice and malig- 
 
 5 See Parkhurst's Heb. Lexicon. 
 
 6 Dcut. xii. 6 ; xviii. 27.
 
 JEZEBEL. 369 
 
 nity, and consigned to execution. " They car- 
 ried him forth out of the city and stoned him 
 with stones that he died." And when Jezebel 
 heard that Naboth was stoned, and was dead, 
 she said to Ahab, "Arise, take possession of 
 the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite, which 
 he refused to give thee for money : for Naboth 
 is not alive, but dead." It is considered highly 
 probable that, together with Naboth, the whole 
 of his family, as being involved in his guilt, was 
 destroyed, though its head only for brevity's sake 
 is mentioned, for we read in the second book of 
 Kings 7 of the "blood of Naboth, and the blood of 
 his sons," calling for vengeance, and that there 
 being consequently no heirs at law to the coveted 
 vineyard surviving, the property became con- 
 fiscated or escheated to the king as a matter of 
 course. "Accordingly it came to pass, when 
 Ahab heard that Naboth was dead, that Ahab 
 rose up to go down to the vineyard of Naboth 
 the Jezreelite, to take possession of it." Thus 
 Jezebel stirred up her husband to the blackest 
 crime, as well as to the basest idolatry. Ahab, 
 though wickedly disposed, was not himself 
 daring enough in wickedness to command the 
 unjust condemnation and execution of an inno- 
 cent man, but he consented, at the instigation 
 of Jezebel, to lend her his name and his seal 
 to facilitate the perpetration of the iniquity. 
 Though covetously disposed, he was not suffi- 
 
 ? Chap. ix. 26, 
 R 5
 
 370 JEZEBEL. 
 
 ciently unscrupulous in the pursuit of acquisi- 
 tions, as by force to eject and extirpate a right- 
 ful proprietor, but he went at the instigation of 
 Jezebel, when the deed was done, to reap its 
 fruits. Unhappy princes and unhappy hus- 
 bands they, who are encouraged and incited to 
 evil by the wives of their bosoms and the dear- 
 est friends of their hearts ! 
 
 " Strange," some faithful Israelite might 
 exclaim, "that such a woman should be per- 
 mitted to live and to go on from evil to evil, 
 from idolatry to persecution, from persecution 
 to injustice, subornation, hypocrisy, and blood- 
 shed, apparently without a check ! Strange 
 that God does not instantly interfere, by means 
 of his strong arm, and rid the earth of such a 
 monster. Where was his justice ? Where was 
 his care of his people ?" And the abounding of 
 such iniquity, and the uncontrolled sway of 
 such a queen, might for a moment cast into 
 many a heavy heart dark thoughts about the 
 omniscience and omnipotence of the God of 
 Israel, or inspire doubts of His equity as a 
 Ruler, seeing that He did not punish such 
 crying evils. But this would have been a far 
 over-hasty conclusion. He was already prepar- 
 ing the instruments of vengeance. While this 
 tragedy was proceeding, or probably before this 
 consummation of iniquity, He was paving the 
 way for the signal punishment of its contrivers. 
 In the wilderness, whither Elijah fled for fear
 
 JEZEBEL. 371 
 
 of Jezebel, He gave him commission to anoint 
 Jehu the son of Nimshi to be king over Israel, 
 who should be the destruction of Jezebel and 
 the whole house of Ahab. Soon after the 
 death of Naboth, He sent the same prophet to 
 Ahab to reprove him to his face in the very 
 vineyard which he had acquired, for the bar- 
 barity by which it had come into his possession. 
 How short are the triumphs of the wicked, and 
 how vain the attempt to increase our enjoy- 
 ments by crime ! In the very scene where 
 Ahab expected an augmentation of happiness, 
 there was presented to him the greatest source 
 of mental disquietude and suffering. There 
 Elijah told him from the Lord that ample ven- 
 geance would be taken upon him, his wife, and 
 family, for the atrocity connected with that 
 vineyard that he himself should die a violent 
 death, and that the dogs should lick his blood 
 as they had licked the blood of Naboth that 
 Jezebel should die a violent death, and that the 
 dogs should eat her up, so as to deprive her of 
 the honour of a burial and that his whole 
 family should be extinguished, and no posterity 
 left him in the land. All this terrible judg- 
 ment, though part of it was delayed on account 
 of Ahab's humiliation under the reproof, so 
 that it was not fulfilled in his lifetime, was 
 ultimately brought to pass to the uttermost 
 extent of its meaning. Ahab died in conse- 
 quence of a wound received in battle, and they 
 R 6
 
 372 JEZEBEL. 
 
 washed his chariot and his armour in the pool 
 of Samaria, and the dogs licked up his blood, 
 according to the word of the Lord. His son 
 Ahaziah, who succeeded him on the throne, 
 came to a premature end by an accident, which 
 by the judgment of God proved fatal on ac- 
 count of his persistence in idolatry. His son 
 Jehoram, the next in succession, fell by the 
 hand of Jehu, and his bleeding body was cast 
 into that very vineyard, which his father and 
 mother had criminally taken from Naboth. But 
 Jezebel closed her wicked life more miserably 
 and ignominiously than all. The formidable 
 Jehu, whom God, by Elijah, commissioned to 
 punish the house of Ahab, after slaying Jeho- 
 ram, proceeds to Jezreel with his victorious 
 adherents. Jezebel, hearing of his arrival, in- 
 stead of repenting in dust and ashes of the 
 idolatries and crimes which she had committed, 
 and by which she had brought ruin upon her 
 family, seeks by insidious arts and fictitious 
 charms, to conciliate the regards of the con- 
 queror. " She painted her face and tired her 
 head, and looked out at a window, and saluted 
 the subverter of the throne with the words, 
 Had Zimri peace who slew his master ?" Or, 
 as it is by some, we think, better translated, 
 " Zimri had peace, though he slew his master ;" 
 by others, " Long live the memory of Zimri, 
 who slew his master." By which salutation, it 
 is probable, that she meant to welcome and
 
 JEZEBEL. 373 
 
 praise Jehu, who had climbed to power by 
 similar means, though the means were fatal to 
 her own family. Nothing could be meaner and 
 baser than such an attempt to gain favour, and 
 it is often found that they who are proud and 
 hard-hearted in prosperity, are capable of the 
 most abject conduct in adversity. But the 
 artifice was of no avail. Her days were num- 
 bered, and her last hour was come. As she 
 had shown no mercy, she found none in her 
 hour of need. "Ye who are on my side," 
 cried the victorious soldier, " throw her down." 
 And her own servants, perhaps too glad to get 
 rid of a mistress whom they had served more 
 from fear than from affection, hesitated not to 
 obey the command, and heeding not her threats, 
 her prayers, or her tears, "they threw her down, 
 and some of her blood was sprinkled on the 
 wall, and on the horses, and Jehu trode her 
 under foot." What a terrible death ! She 
 was, by the fall, almost dashed to pieces, and then 
 her already mangled body was trampled under 
 the horses' feet. After awhile, Jehu, who had 
 retired into a house to refresh himself, remem- 
 bering Jezebel's rank, though her life had been 
 infamous, gave orders for her funeral, and said 
 to his attendants, " Go, see now this cursed 
 woman and bury her : for she is a king's 
 daughter." She was a woman of very high 
 lineage, daughter of the king of Tyre, wife of 
 Ahab king of Israel, mother of Jehoram king
 
 374 JEZEBEL. 
 
 of Israel, mother-in-law of Jehoram king of 
 Judah, and grand-mother to Ahaziah king of 
 Judah. But, though so great a woman by her 
 birth, connexions, and alliances, she had not 
 the honour of a burial. For, when her body 
 was sought for, with a view to do her that 
 honour, they found no more of her than the 
 skull, and the feet, and the palms of her hands. 
 Jehu, upon learning the fact, was struck with 
 the exact fulfilment of prophecy, and exclaimed, 
 " This is the word of the Lord, which he spake 
 by his servant, Elijah the Tishbite, saying, In 
 the portion of Jezreel shall dogs eat the flesh 
 of Jezebel. And the carcase of Jezebel shall 
 be as dung on the face of the field in the por- 
 tion of Jezreel, so that they shall not say, This 
 is Jezebel." There was not even a solitary stone 
 to say, Here lies Jezebel ! Not even a mound 
 of earth to designate the place of her sepulchre. 
 " Judgment is God's strange work ; but when 
 He contends, how terrible are his judgments ! 
 And when He ariseth to execute his judgment, 
 who shall stay his hand ? How deep are his 
 counsels, and how terrible are his workings 8 !" 
 So wicked was Jezebel, and so terrible her 
 end, that her name has passed into a byword 
 to indicate the worst combination of qualities, 
 and her end may be regarded as a symbol of 
 the final judgment of God upon irreclaimable 
 
 8 Adam Clarke.
 
 JEZEBEL. 375 
 
 transgressors. Her history is accommodated 
 to that use by iiu in f< , ,, who 
 
 recapitulating the principal features of her life, 
 intimates that they were intended for the warn- 
 ing of the vicious, the hypocrite, and the impe- 
 nitent. The Alpha and the Omega reproves 
 the angel of the jf Thyatira " for suf- 
 
 fering a woman," whom he calls Jezebel, to 
 proceed unchecked in the exercise of an evil 
 influence. 
 
 We have space but to indicate the principal 
 and most prominent lessons taught us by this 
 awfully instructive history. 1. Learn the great 
 evil of forming matrimonial alliances with the 
 idolatrous and the wicked. How baneful was 
 the influence of a heathen and profligate prin- 
 cess on the heart and life of an Israelitish king ! 
 She arrested his convictions, and prevented his 
 complete repentance, when the manifestations 
 of Jehovah's power and truth seemed to have 
 brought him to seriousness and reflection. She 
 instigated him to crime, which otherwise he 
 had not had the boldness to perpetrate, and 
 which led to the destruction of himself and his 
 whole family. Beware of being yoked together 
 with the children of disobedience, on whom 
 cometh the wrath of God. 
 
 2. Learn the vast importance to human wel- 
 fare of the gift of Divine revelation. The worst 
 female character recorded in the sacred history
 
 376 JEZEBEL. 
 
 is the one whom we have now contemplated, 
 and she by birth and education belonged to a 
 people who were unacquainted with the true 
 God, and wholly given to idolatrous worship. 
 She is pointed out by her peculiarly wicked 
 life } and her peculiarly awful end, b an 
 
 i; ^n, chap. ii. 20, &c. as the cha- 
 
 racter the most exactly adapted symbolically to 
 represent the conduct and fall of the most 
 idolatrous and abandoned of communities or 
 individuals. That, it is supposed, is the sense 
 in which her name is introduced in the charge 
 to the angel of the <""' jh of Thyatira. No 
 Jewish or nominally > woman ever 
 
 presented such a personification of female de- 
 pravity, and such an apt type of all that is to 
 be avoided and abhorred. Oh, then, let us be 
 thankful for the blessings of a true religion, 
 and for the wonderful testimonies of God ! 
 
 3. From the incorrigibleness of Jezebel, 
 under both the severity and goodness of God, 
 we learn that there is a power of wickedness in 
 the unbelieving human heart, to resist the most 
 striking lessons of Providence. And let the 
 thought teach us to be watchful over ourselves, 
 and to pray for the indispensable gift of con- 
 verting and sanctifying grace. From the mi- 
 serable end of herself and her family let us 
 infer with fear the terrible wrath which cometh 
 on every child of disobedience, and from her
 
 JEZEBEL. 377 
 
 ignominious death, the everlasting shame and 
 contempt which await all the workers of ini- 
 quity. " He that being often reproved harden- 
 eth his neck shall suddenly be destroyed, and 
 that without remedy."
 
 SERMON XVII. 
 
 THE PROPHET'S WIDOW. 
 
 2 KINGS iv. 7- 
 
 "Then she came and told the man of God. And he said, Go, 
 sell the oil, and pay thy debt, and live thou and thy children 
 of the rest." 
 
 THE woman referred to in this passage, the 
 proposed subject of our present discourse, is a 
 distinct person both from the widow of Sarepta 
 and the woman of Shunem. It is necessary to 
 point out this difference, since, without a careful 
 and attentive perusal of their several histories, 
 these three persons are very apt to be confounded 
 together in the mind. This confusion arises 
 from the great resemblance between the mira- 
 cles wrought for their benefit, and the prophets 
 with whom they had the happiness of being 
 acquainted, and from their proximity to one 
 another in the records of sacred biography. 
 Let it be carefully impressed in the memory 
 then, that of those persons the widow of
 
 THE PROPHET'S WIDOW. 379 
 
 Sarepta, already discoursed on, and alluded to 
 by our Saviour, was the person who entertained 
 Elijah in the reign of Ahab, and during the 
 famine brought by the judgment of God on the 
 land on account of its idolatries and iniquities. 
 She was not an Israelite, but a heathen, mar- 
 vellously brought to a knowledge of the true 
 God, like the woman of Canaan in after times. 
 For her benefit, two miracles were performed. 
 
 1. The preservation of the barrel of meal from 
 wasting, and the cruse of oil from failing, so as 
 to furnish to her and her family, and to Elijah, 
 who sojourned in her house, a sufficiency of 
 sustenance for about the space of two years. 
 
 2. The restoration of her son from death to life. 
 The other two women referred to in the chapter 
 containing the text, were benefited by the in- 
 strumentality of Elisha, the successor of Elijah, 
 in the reign of Jehoram, the son and successor 
 of Ahab. These two women were not heathens, 
 but Israelites. The first-mentioned of these 
 had her measure of oil, not prevented from 
 wasting to save her from famine, like the Sarep- 
 tan, but increased for the purpose of paying a 
 pressing debt, and of supplying her with sub- 
 sequent subsistence. The second, the woman 
 of Shunem, who entertained Elisha, had both 
 a son given her, and some years after raised 
 from the dead, at that prophet's intercession. 
 Thus, although on account of the great simi- 
 larity between the two miracles wrought by
 
 380 THE PROPHET'S WIDOW. 
 
 Elijah in favour of the Sareptan alone, and the 
 two miracles wrought by Elisha in favour of the 
 subject of our present discourse, and of the Shu- 
 nammite respectively, confusion is apt to arise 
 in the mind from an occasional or careless 
 perusal of their several histories, a closer at- 
 tention to the inspired narrative will discover 
 them to be three persons, differing materially in 
 the circumstances of their lives, and the fea- 
 tures of their characters, and presenting dis- 
 tinct lessons of practical instruction. 
 
 Of the person to whom our attention is now 
 particularly directed, we have neither the name 
 nor the residence recorded. She is designated 
 simply as a certain woman of the wives of the 
 sons of the prophets. By the sons of the pro- 
 phets are meant disciples of the prophets, or 
 men instructed and trained to the prophetic 
 office by an eminent person of that order. It 
 is supposed that there were, in Israel, educa- 
 tional institutions or colleges, superintended 
 by such a person, at which, those who intended 
 to become the moral and spiritual guides of the 
 nation, spent many years of their lives in study 
 and meditation and prayer. These are the 
 sort of establishments supposed to be meant by 
 the schools of the prophets. There were, pro- 
 bably, taught at these seminaries divinity, his- 
 tory, philosophy, and such other arts and 
 sciences as were calculated, under the Divine 
 blessing, to be useful in the instruction of the
 
 THE PROPHET'S WIDOW. 381 
 
 people. But they were by no means places of 
 luxurious indulgence or worldly attraction. 
 Their inmates are supposed to have supported 
 themselves to a certain extent by the labour of 
 their own hands ; and while a certain measure 
 of secular knowledge was communicated at 
 them, it would appear that their predominating 
 character was unusual religious strictness, and 
 devotion to heavenly things. We have, ac- 
 cordingly, reason to think that they furnished 
 no attraction for the idle, the covetous, the am- 
 bitious, or the sensual; and that none were 
 induced to join them but those who set no 
 value upon earth in comparison with heaven, 
 and who, disregarding the things that are seen 
 and temporal, had determined to dedicate their 
 lives to the prosecution of the things that are 
 unseen and eternal. It is not clear how these 
 sons, or disciples of the prophets, obtained their 
 livelihood in after life ; probably from the same 
 sources as during the period of their prepara- 
 tion partly from the labour of their own hands, 
 and partly from the voluntary offerings of the 
 people. Relying on such a provision, it is pro- 
 bable that few of them were possessed of riches, 
 that many were in straitened circumstances, 
 and that some left their families, at death, in 
 embarrassment and destitution. It was the case 
 of him, whose widow's history we are now con- 
 templating. She cried unto Elisha, saying, 
 " Thy servant, my husband, is dead ; and thou
 
 382 THE PROPHET'S WIDOW. 
 
 knowest that thy servant did fear the Lord: 
 and the creditor is come to take unto him my 
 two sons to be bondmen." 
 
 It was a distressing case. It will appear 
 still more distressing, and more calculated to 
 move the prophet's sympathy and compassion, 
 if the opinion of the Rabbinical writers be true 
 as to who the departed prophet and the un- 
 sparing creditor were, and if we consider the 
 penalty with which the widow's sons were 
 menaced. The Rabbinical writers are of opi- 
 nion that the widow's deceased husband was 
 Obadiah, the steward of Ahab's household, 
 who hid fifty of the Lord's prophets in a cave, 
 and so rescued their lives from the murderous 
 hands of Jezebel. They also think that the 
 creditor was Jehoram, the son of Ahab and 
 Jezebel, and brother of Ahaziah, and the suc- 
 cessor of both those kings on the throne of 
 Israel. Obadiah, they further suppose, had 
 borrowed money of Jehoram for the purpose of 
 maintaining, in secrecy, the prophets of the 
 Lord ; and Jehoram, who had now become king, 
 and who was, to a certain extent, though ap- 
 parently not to the same extent as his father 
 and mother, an abettor of idolatry, upon dis- 
 covering what use had been made of his loan, 
 was resolved, no less from avarice and cupidity 
 than from revenge against the faithful servant of 
 Jehovah, to exact from his widow the uttermost 
 farthing of his claim, and in default of pay-
 
 THE PROPHET'S WIDOW. 383 
 
 ment, to take her two sons to be slaves or 
 bondmen. 
 
 The right to enslave a person in default of the 
 payment of a debt, appears to have been inferred 
 from, rather than sanctioned by, the law of 
 Moses, which referred to a thief that was unable 
 to make restitution. " If such an one have 
 nothing wherewith to satisfy such a demand,'" 1 
 says the law, "then he shall be sold for his 
 theft." From hence it became a custom in 
 Israel to treat, in a similar manner, a debtor 
 unable to return what he had borrowed, as 
 appears from a parable of our Saviour, wherein 
 we read of " a certain king who would take ac- 
 count of his servants. And when he had be- 
 gun to reckon, one was brought unto him 
 which owed him ten thousand talents. But, 
 forasmuch as he had not to pay, his lord com- 
 manded him to be sold, and his wife and 
 children, and all that he had, and payment 
 to be made." The creditor of the departed 
 prophet took advantage of this custom. Find- 
 ing that the prophet's effects were not sufficient 
 to satisfy his demand, he determined to take 
 possession of the persons of the prophet's two 
 sons, and to repay himself by their labours as 
 slaves on his own property, or by their sale 
 into the service of others. It was a desolate day 
 for the poor woman. She had already lost her 
 husband, who had left her in destitute circum- 
 stances ; and now she was about to lose her two
 
 384 THE PROPHET'S WIDOW. 
 
 sons, her last hope in this world's wilderness. 
 Perhaps her husband's death had been hastened 
 by the weight of his embarrassment, an embar- 
 rassment probably incurred through an anxious 
 concern for the glory of God, and the lives of his 
 servants ; and now the same load of debt was 
 taking away hersonsintoa condition more dreaded 
 often than death. What is to be done to avert this 
 additional and aggravated calamity? Is there 
 no friend or neighbour to help in time of need? 
 Is there no charitable rich man to set aside the 
 direful necessity ? Alas ! it too often happens, 
 as the wise man says, that " all the brethren of 
 the poor do hate him, much more do his friends 
 go far from him : he pursueth them with words, 
 yet they are wanting to him." Perhaps she 
 had been compelled often before to pursue 
 her wealthy neighbours with words of impor- 
 tunate supplication. Perhaps she had done so 
 with many tears and lamentations before her 
 husband's death; and when she saw that his 
 embarrassed circumstances were preying upon 
 his mind, and bringing him down to the place 
 where the wicked cease from troubling, and the 
 weary are at rest, she had not been able to 
 obtain human aid to turn aside that dreadful 
 blow; andshallshetry the sameresource again? 
 No : she will no longer trust to an arm of flesh. 
 She will cast her burden upon the Lord. She 
 will make her case known to the prophet of 
 Jehovah. She will remind him of her dear
 
 THE PROPHET'S WIDOW. 385 
 
 husband's piety, and, perhaps, of the sacrifices 
 he had made of comfort, yea, of health and of 
 life, for the sake of Jehovah and his servants. 
 She will open to him the deep and unutterable 
 distress of her heart at the prospect of her two 
 sons, her only sources of support and consola- 
 tion, being taken away from her, perhaps never 
 to be seen again, and reduced into the toilsome, 
 suffering, and wretched condition of slavery. 
 She, therefore, brought her tale of terror and 
 wo to Elisha, and said, "Thy servant, my 
 husband, is dead : and thou knowest that thy 
 servant did fear the Lord. And the creditor is 
 come to take my two sons to be bondmen." 
 
 There were two considerations which induced 
 her to apply to Elisha, and encouraged her to 
 think that her suit would be successful; Elisha's 
 reputation, and Elisha's acquaintance with her 
 husband. Elisha was the servant and successor 
 of that most eminent prophet, who had saved 
 from death, by famine, the widow of Sarepta, 
 and her family, and restored her son from death 
 unto life. Elisha had been greeted by the sons 
 of the prophets at Jericho, among whom, per- 
 haps, was the widow's departed husband, as 
 one upon whom had descended the spirit of 
 Elijah. Yea, it may most truly be said, if you 
 judge by the relative number of their miracles, 
 that a double portion of Elijah's spirit had de- 
 scended upon Elisha, according to his request, 
 at parting with his master. Elisha had already 
 
 SECOND SERIES. S
 
 386 THE PROPHET'S WIDOW. 
 
 made the country, far and wide, ring with the 
 fame of his miraculous works. He had divided 
 the waters of the Jordan by the application of 
 the mantle of his master. He had healed the 
 waters of Jericho, and converted its barren 
 vicinity into a green and fruitful land. He had 
 moved God to judgment against the children 
 who mocked and reviled him. He had procured 
 water for the timely relief of three kings, who, 
 with then* armies, were in imminent danger of 
 perishing by thirst, and gave them an easy 
 conquest over the formidable hosts of Moab. 
 Elisha was not only thus known to her as one 
 who had power with God, and prevailed, but 
 also as one who was acquainted with the piety 
 of her deceased husband, and, probably, with 
 important services rendered by him to the pro- 
 phets of Jehovah in the time of the persecuted 
 and revered Elijah. On these grounds she felt 
 she could adopt no better course than to appeal 
 to Elisha, and she confidently solicited his in- 
 terposition in her time of grievous need and 
 necessity. It is a blessed thought, and a great 
 encouragement to run with patience the race 
 that is set before us, to reflect that the odour of 
 our sanctity will remain when our place on 
 earth shall know us no more; and that the 
 memory of our piety will strengthen the hearts 
 of dear ones, whom we may leave behind in this 
 vale of tears, and engage, in their behalf, the 
 prayers and the services of men able to mini-
 
 THE PROPHET'S WIDOW. 387 
 
 ster to their consolation and relief. " Cast thy 
 bread upon the waters, and thou shalt find it 
 after many days." 
 
 The desolate widow's appeal went directly to 
 the heart of the prophet. He is touched by the 
 picture of her distress. He is moved by the 
 recollection of her pious husband. He made 
 no objections to her suit, but expressed his 
 willingness to relieve her trouble by imme- 
 diately asking the question, " What shall I do 
 for thee ? I am ready to do what I can for thy 
 relief, if thou wilt point out the way." But, 
 alas ! she had no resource of counsel any more 
 than of wealth, and she stood dumb before the 
 prophet in a bewilderment of perplexity and 
 helplessness. Then said the prophet, " What 
 hast thou in thy house ? Hast thou no kind 
 of property remaining, no species of commodity 
 in thy possession, no substance within thy 
 dwelling which may be converted into money, 
 to meet the emergency ? Come, let us take a 
 calm and discreet view of the matter. Perhaps 
 thou art not so utterly poor, as thou hast been 
 made to fancy thyself by this surprising and 
 urgent demand. And if that be the case, thou 
 mayest be able to find means of deliverance 
 without the aid of my liberality or co-operation. 
 We must not have recourse to charity, still less 
 to the asking for supernatural interposition, so 
 long as by a prudent management and well- 
 directed exertion we can help ourselves. Tell 
 s 2
 
 388 THE PROPHET'S WIDOW. 
 
 me all thy circumstances. If thou hast no 
 possessions elsewhere, what hast thou in thy 
 house ?" She answered with simplicity and 
 truth, " Thine handmaid hath not any thing in 
 the house, save a pot of oil." This oil, we may 
 well suppose, was not in the possession of so 
 poor a widow for the anointing or perfuming 
 the person, though the custom was more com- 
 mon with all ranks in those times and countries 
 than in our age and clime. A species of oil 
 was used for nourishment, such as that in the 
 cruse of the Sareptan, and this was probably 
 the species of oil contained in her pot. Oil 
 was, also, considered essential to the due 
 honouring of the dead, and the decent perform- 
 ance of funeral rites. When a woman, having 
 an alabaster box of very precious ointment, 
 poured it on the head r he acknow- 
 
 ledged the service as a proof of ner love mani- 
 fested in conferring upon him by anticipation 
 funeral honours, and said unto the disciples 
 who complained of the waste, " Why trouble 
 ye the woman ? for she hath wrought a good, a 
 respectful work upon me, and in that she hath 
 poured this ointment on my body, she did it for 
 my burial." Oil intended for this purpose, and 
 considered essential to decent burial, we may 
 well suppose the very poorest would strive to 
 possess, in some small measure; and it would 
 be the very last property they would be in- 
 duced, under the direst necessity, to part with,
 
 THE PROPHET'S WIDOW. 389 
 
 even as the humblest in the present day, when 
 the superstition connected with the disposal of 
 the corpse is much diminished and qualified, 
 wish that they and theirs should be committed 
 to the ground in the usual manner. If such 
 was the destination of the widow's pot of oil, 
 the only property she had in the house, there 
 cannot be a stronger proof of her having been 
 already reduced to the very verge of utter de- 
 stitution. She had sold all she possessed, and 
 reserved only what seemed necessary for the 
 peaceful departure of her and hers out of this 
 miserable world into another and a happier; and 
 with the despondency of one weary of life, 
 there would mingle the solemnity of one pre- 
 paring for death in her manner, as she returned 
 the answer, "Thine handmaid hath not any 
 thing in the house, save a pot of oil." 
 
 Elisha, upon hearing this declaration, replied, 
 " Go, borrow thee vessels abroad of all thy 
 neighbours, even empty vessels, borrow not a 
 few. And when thou art come in, thou shalt 
 shut the door upon thee and upon thy sons, 
 and shalt pour out into all those vessels, and 
 thou shalt set aside that which is full." If she 
 had possessed any other valuables, he would 
 have commanded her to sell them and discharge 
 her debt with the produce, since it is not ho- 
 nest to surround ourselves with comforts as 
 long as the just claims of creditors are not 
 satisfied. But, inasmuch as she had nothing 
 s 3
 
 390 THE PROPHET'S WIDOW. 
 
 but a pot of oil, the last property retained in 
 those climes and regions by the most destitute, 
 he will pray for the Divine interposition in her 
 behalf; and even in the working of a miracle 
 he will make use of the means in her possession. 
 He will not pray that a heap of silver or gold 
 should be produced on the occasion. But he 
 will turn into use the pittance of oil in her 
 house, and make it capable of producing the 
 requisite sum of money, and so teach us the 
 importance of economising what we have, and 
 of acting according to the best of our abilities 
 under the circumstances, in which Providence 
 may place us. The prophet's command that 
 she should borrow vessels abroad of all her 
 neighbours, shows his conviction of her honest 
 and upright character, though she was reduced 
 to poverty. She could not have succeeded in 
 her request, had she not maintained a fair re- 
 putation in the neighbourhood. God, at the 
 prayer of the prophet, would doubtless have 
 created vessels for the purpose, had they been 
 procurable in no other way. But the widow 
 is directed to borrow them of her neighbours, 
 not only to illustrate the invariable Divine rule 
 of not working a miracle without absolute ne- 
 cessity, but to inculcate the duty of maintaining 
 an unblemished and amiable reputation among 
 our fellow-creatures, and of cultivating mutual 
 kindness and good-will among neighbours and 
 acquaintances. But why is she, after the vessels
 
 THE PROPHET'S WIDOW. 391 
 
 are brought into her house, to shut the door 
 upon herself and her sons ? Why not call in 
 her neighbours to witness the distinguished 
 Divine favour conferred upon her ? Why not 
 call in the ruthless creditor, to show him that 
 she had a friend able to meet his uttermost 
 demand, and to defeat his malice against her 
 family, and exult over his mortification ? She 
 is to shut the door upon herself and her sons, 
 to prevent interruption from without during 
 the Divine operation that was about to take 
 place in her humble dwelling, to indicate the 
 duty of shutting out the world with its friend- 
 ships and enmities alike, when we enter into 
 solemn communion with our God. She is to 
 shut out her neighbours from the sight of the 
 heavenly favour she received, to teach us that 
 spiritual blessings are not matters for ostenta- 
 tion and boasting, but matters for heartfelt 
 gratitude to Him who seeth in secret. She is 
 to shut out the creditor, her enemy, from the 
 spectacle of her celestial wealth, to show that 
 the indulgence of vain, self-righteous, and exult- 
 ing feelings is incompatible with the meekness 
 of the people of God. So full of instruction is 
 every part of the Holy Scriptures written for 
 our learning. 
 
 She carefully followed the directions of the 
 
 prophet, borrowed vessels, not a few, of all her 
 
 neighbours, shut the door upon her and upon 
 
 her sons, who brought the vessels to her, and 
 
 s 4
 
 392 
 
 THE PROPHET S WIDOW. 
 
 she poured out. "By her sons bringing the 
 vessels to her," is probably meant, that they 
 brought the vessels in succession from one 
 part of the room or the house to the spot where 
 she took her station for the purpose of pouring 
 into them from the pot of oil, and conveyed 
 them away, when filled, for the convenience 
 of room and order. Under this arrangement 
 they brought her vessel after vessel, and she 
 poured into vessel after vessel from the appa- 
 rently inexhaustible pot of oil. How her heart 
 must have been filled with wonder, as vessel 
 after vessel was filled with oil ! How her feel- 
 ings of gratitude and joy must have overflowed 
 in expressions of thankfulness and tears of joy, 
 as she beheld the constantly flowing river of 
 heavenly bountifulness ! The stream of miracu- 
 lous increase welled forth so copiously and 
 abundantly, as to fill all the vessels that were 
 in the house ; and it never ceased to flow while 
 the vessels continued to receive it. It was only 
 when she was obliged to ask one of her sons 
 " to bring her yet a vessel/ 7 and she received 
 for an answer, "There is not a vessel more," 
 that the oil stayed. This wonderful oil, bre- 
 thren, is the symbol of Divine grace. We are 
 never straitened in God. His power is unli- 
 mited. His bounty is inexhaustible. He gives 
 above what we ask. He grants more than we 
 expect. He pours forth his Spirit without 
 measure. The straitness is in us. The failure
 
 THE PROPHET'S WIDOW. 393 
 
 is in our faith. The defect is in our importunity 
 and earnestness of supplication. The oil was 
 not at all exhausted, while there were vessels to 
 be filled ; and the golden oil which flows from 
 the rich fatness of the good olive shall never 
 fail while there are lamps ready to be supplied. 
 In the fountain of living water there is enough 
 for all and for each. "Ask, and it shall be 
 given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it 
 shall be opened unto you : for if ye, being evil, 
 know how to give good gifts to your children, 
 how much more will your heavenly Father give 
 good things to them that ask Him ?" 
 
 When the widow found all the vessels filled, 
 she " came and told the man of God." Trans- 
 ported, as she must have been, with joy at her 
 sudden opulence, she did not allow her feeling 
 to betray her into vanity or ostentation, or 
 forgetfulness of God. She did not call her 
 neighbours together, to wonder at her good 
 fortune. She went to the man of God. But 
 why apply to him again ? She wanted not his 
 counsel any more. Her own reason and judg- 
 ment might have sufficiently suggested what to 
 do with the commodity, which had been so 
 wonderfully supplied. Why not sell it at once 
 and pay off her debt, without reference to the 
 prophet's advice? We answer, 1. She went to 
 him for direction. She, who had been so re- 
 cently perplexed by adversity, was now per- 
 plexed by prosperity. Her change of circum- 
 s 5
 
 394 THE PROPHET'S WIDOW. 
 
 stances was so sudden and so great, that she 
 was afraid to take a step without his guidance. 
 So ought we to do in all situations ; especially 
 on occasions of passing from one condition to 
 another, from one calling to another, and from 
 one grade of society or rank of life to another ; 
 we ought carefully to attend to the oracles of 
 Heaven ; and if we would walk safely, we must 
 never make a move or do an action without the 
 warranty and approbation of the word of God. 
 2. She went to the prophet from a feeling of 
 gratitude. She did not, as too many are apt to 
 do, forget, in the season of deliverance, the hand 
 that brought her out of great tribulation. Her 
 gratitude now was as fervent as her affliction 
 had been bitter before. And we may suppose 
 that, as she thought of Jehovah's goodness and 
 Jehovah's minister, who was the instrument of 
 manifesting that goodness to her desolate heart, 
 she would participate in the feelings of her who 
 loved our Saviour so deeply for his marvellous 
 loving-kindness, that she washed his feet with 
 her tears, and wiped them with the hair of 
 her head. 3. She went to the prophet in ac- 
 cordance with the conduct of every true child 
 of God. His spurious children act differently. 
 Many, when brought low by any plague or trou- 
 ble, by poverty, by bereavement, by sickness, will 
 seek the consolation of religion ; but will dis- 
 regard and forget God and his ministers when 
 restored to health and worldly comfort. " Their
 
 THE PROPHET'S WIDOW. 395 
 
 goodness is as the morning cloud, and as the 
 early dew it passeth away." The ministers of 
 Christ are compelled to witness many instances 
 of this apparent or evanescent piety in the 
 course of their attendance on beds of sickness. 
 But this is not the case with those who have 
 believed with the heart unto salvation. They 
 follow their Divine Master, observe his ordi- 
 nance, and attend to his ministers through 
 good report and through evil report, in health 
 as in sickness, in prosperity as in adversity, in 
 the prospect and enjoyment of worldly advan- 
 tages as in the hour of distress, in the season of 
 tribulation, and in the apprehension of ap- 
 proaching death. Gratefully, therefore, as be- 
 came one who had been greatly benefited, humbly 
 as became one whose own resources had been 
 unavailing in the hour of need, and consistently 
 with the character of one who had laboured 
 under great perplexity, and felt the presence of 
 a higher power in effecting a solution of her 
 difficulties ; the widow . upon seeing the issue 
 of the Divine interposition, and finding that all 
 her vessels were full, " came and told the man 
 of God." 
 
 Elisha, upon receiving her account of the 
 miraculous transaction ,replied, " Go, sell the 
 oil, and pay thy debt, and live thou and thy 
 children of the rest." It appears, from Ezekiel, 
 that oil was one of the commodities which 
 Israel traded in, and exported to foreign lands; 
 s 6
 
 396 THE PROPHET'S WIDOW. 
 
 and this having been produced by a miracle, 
 like the wine created at Cana, would, doubtless, 
 be of the best quality, letch the highest price 3 
 and meet with a ready sale. The gift was, 
 therefore, on every account, of the most season- 
 able and valuable kind. And now that she had 
 obtained wealth, she was to make the most 
 honest and discreet use of it. She was not im- 
 mediately to spend it upon the gratification of 
 appetite or vanity, as too many, even of our 
 poor, are apt to do. She was not first to em- 
 ploy any part of it to surround herself and sons 
 with ordinary comforts. She was, first of all, 
 to pay her debt. The creditor might have been 
 clamorous, insolent, and cruel in exacting so 
 rigorously the uttermost farthing from so poor 
 a widow. But that was an affair between him 
 and God. It was no reason for her delaying 
 or grudging a payment which could be enforced 
 by law, now that she had the means in her pos- 
 session. We must be just, whether we have to 
 deal with the grasping and the hard-hearted, or 
 with the considerate and kind. Not only must 
 we be just before we are generous ; not only 
 must we be just before we are self-indulgent ; we 
 must be just towards those whose harsh demands 
 border very closely upon extortion. We do 
 not commend those who are extreme and hard- 
 hearted in claiming even their just rights. We 
 have great fears for the violent and unpitying 
 exactors of what may be legally their dues.
 
 THE PROPHET'S WIDOW. 397 
 
 We know the judgment of God against the man 
 who, after he had been himself forgiven ten 
 thousand talents, went and took his fellow- 
 servant by the throat and cast him into prison, 
 though he owed him but a hundred pence. 
 But these are considerations for those who may 
 too rigorously claim, not for those who owe the 
 debt. Nothing is more clearly laid down in the 
 as well as in the Law, than that we 
 snouid endeavour most rigidly to fulfil our 
 pecuniary responsibilities, and our obligations, 
 as members of civil society. "Render to all 
 their dues," says the Apostle to the Romans, 
 " and owe no man any thing,, but to love one 
 another." And the prophet wrought a miracle 
 when no other means existed, to satisfy a just, 
 though a very rigorously exacted, demand ; and 
 the first direction he gave the poor widow, on 
 learning the increase of her store, was, " Go, sell 
 the oil, and pay thy debt." 
 
 But when the debt was paid she and her 
 sons were to live of the rest. Although the 
 truly honest and really religious will seek, not 
 from constraint but willingly, not for wrath or 
 the fear of suffering, but for conscience sake, to 
 give every body their own, though they leave 
 ever so little for themselves ; and although they 
 cannot, with peace and pleasure, eat their daily 
 bread, except it be the bread of their own pos- 
 session, yet is it no virtue whatever in the sight 
 of God to deny ourselves the necessaries, or
 
 398 THE PROPHET'S WIDOW. 
 
 even the ordinary comforts of life. The pro- 
 phet not only provided for the widow's debt, 
 but supplied her and her sons with the means 
 of subsistence for the time to come. The over- 
 plus was not to be laid up, nor even to be dedi- 
 cated to a sacred purpose: it was to be em- 
 ployed to gain an honest livelihood, to supply 
 the wants of the body, and by prudent manage- 
 ment to prevent the future recurrence of tem- 
 poral destitution and wretchedness. " Go first, 
 and pay thy debt ; and then live thou and thy 
 children of the rest." 
 
 1. We learn from this subject that the right- 
 eous are not exempt from grievous worldly 
 difficulties. It is dishonest to contract debts 
 through prodigality, luxury, or extravagance. 
 But they that fear God, like the departed son 
 of the prophet, the best and the most religious 
 men, may, through losses, mismanagement, 
 ignorance of the world, or over-confidence in 
 others, the children of light being not so wise 
 in their generation as the children of darkness, 
 fall into embarrassment, die insolvent, and leave 
 their wives and children in destitution and 
 danger. Such cases we ought not harshly to 
 condemn, but be ready, like the prophet, to 
 assist and relieve. 
 
 2. Let us learn, from this subject, to place 
 our trust in a gracious Providence under the 
 pressure of affliction. We cannot expect, now- 
 adays, the working of a miracle in our behalf.
 
 THE PROPHET'S WIDOW. 399 
 
 But if we look for help unto the Lord by 
 patient faith and earnest prayer, He will in his 
 own good time make for us a way of escape. 
 " Cast thy burthen upon the Lord," is the 
 command ; and " He will sustain thee," is the 
 promise. " They that wait upon the Lord shall 
 mount up with wings as eagles; they shall 
 run, and not be weary; they shall walk, and 
 faint not." 
 
 3. Let us hence learn to make a right use 
 of wealth and power. Let us, like the widow, 
 first discharge our obligations to others, and 
 then provide for our own comfortable subsist- 
 ence ; and let us, like Elisha, compassionate 
 those in distress, save the fatherless from ruin, 
 and cause the widow's heart to sing for joy. 
 
 4. Lastly, let all, of every rank and station, 
 hence learn the inexhaustible nature of Divine 
 grace. It is a fountain that ceaseth not to send 
 forth its refreshing streams wherever there are 
 vessels ready to receive it. It is a river that 
 ever floweth on until it comes to the ocean of 
 eternity ; and none of you need lack spiritual 
 refreshment, if you will draw nigh and taste of 
 its healing draughts. " Ho ! then every one 
 that thirsteth, come ye to the waters. Come 
 ye, buy wine and milk without money and 
 without price."
 
 SERMON XVIJI. 
 
 WOMAN OF SHUNEM. 
 
 2 KINGS iv. 8. 
 
 " And it fell on a day, that Elisha passed to Shunem, where 
 was a great woman, and she constrained him to eat bread. 
 And so it was, that as oft as he passed by, he turned in 
 thither to eat bread." 
 
 SHUNEM, the residence of the woman whose 
 life we are now to notice, is first mentioned in 
 the book of Joshua 1 in connexion with the al- 
 lotment of the land of Canaan to the children of 
 Israel. It occurs next in the history of king 
 Saul 2 , as the place where the Philistines were 
 encamped, when that monarch had assembled 
 his troops against them on mount Gilboa, and 
 when he went to consult the witch of Endor in 
 his perplexing fears of that formidable enemy. 
 From the former of these passages we learn that 
 it was in the borders of the tribe of Issachar, 
 and from the latter we infer that it could not 
 be far from Endor and Gilboa. It is next 
 
 1 Chap. xix. 18. 2 1 Sam. xxviii. 4.
 
 THE WOMAN OF SHUNEM. 401 
 
 referred to as the birthplace of that damsel 
 who ministered to king David in his old age 
 and last illness. And some of the rabbins are 
 of opinion, that the subject of our present dis- 
 course was sister to that damsel ; though the 
 distance of about eighty years between the 
 period of the transactions, with which their 
 names are respectively connected, would appear 
 strongly to militate against such an opinion. 
 Through this town it appears that the prophet 
 Elisha was in the habit of passing, probably 
 from mount Carmel to some school or schools 
 of the prophets, for the purpose of imparting 
 instruction and counsel. He attracted the at- 
 tention and reverence of a resident there, who 
 is designated in our version of the Bible e a great 
 woman/ in the Chaldee ( a woman fearing sin/ 
 in the Arabic ' a woman eminent for piety before 
 God.' She was probably both a wealthy and a 
 godly person ; and while vast multitudes of her 
 countrymen and countrywomen had apostatized 
 from Jehovah, after the example and under 
 the influence of Ahab and Jezebel, and their 
 son Jehoram, the then reigning monarch of 
 Israel, she clave to his service, and desired to 
 minister to the support and comfort of his pro- 
 phet; and she constrained him to turn into her 
 house, and to partake of rest and refreshment 
 on his journey. She went further, and used 
 her influence with her husband to fit up in their 
 dwelling a convenient room for his accommo-
 
 402 THE WOMAN OF SHUNEM. 
 
 dation. " Let us make," said she, " a little 
 chamber, I pray thee, on the wall ; and let us 
 set for him there a bed, and a table, and a stool, 
 and a candlestick ; and it shall be, when he 
 cometh to us, that he shall turn in thither." 
 She felt that the tumult of a large family was 
 unfit for the meditations of a prophet, and while 
 she made no ostentation of her wealth by erect- 
 ing and furnishing a magnificent and luxurious 
 apartment for his reception, she was careful to 
 secure for him a place where he might rest and 
 pursue his high and heavenly contemplations 
 without distraction or disturbance. She had 
 experienced inestimable benefit from his edify- 
 ing conversation; she had conceived a high 
 veneration for his exalted mission ; she had ob- 
 served, perhaps, that while he toiled for the spi- 
 ritual good of others, he was left himself but 
 scantily provided with temporal comforts ; and 
 she was constrained by gratitude, by veneration, 
 and by charity, to do what she could to smooth 
 his arduous path of duty. The truly pious and 
 devout are found ever ready to open their hands 
 to the cause of God, and most glad to repay 
 with thc : >- earthl-* possessions the unsearchable 
 riches of 
 
 The prophet, touched by her sedulous atten- 
 tion to his comfort, sends his servant Gehazi 
 to request her attendance, with a view to make 
 some proposal for requiting the kindness. The 
 humility of the man of God was herein very
 
 THE WOMAN OP SHUNEM. 403 
 
 conspicuous. Although he might have said 
 with St. Paul, " If we have sown unto you spi- 
 ritual things, is it a great matter if we shall 
 reap your worldly things ?" he presumed not 
 upon his services, but, regarding himself as 
 only fulfilling his duty to Him that sent him, 
 he was solicitous to confer upon her some tem- 
 poral benefit, in return for her liberal and deli- 
 cate hospitality. When, therefore, she appeared 
 before him in answer to the message sent by 
 his servant, he desired to know whether she 
 would be spoken for to the king, or to the cap- 
 tain of the host ; i. e. whether he should pro- 
 cure for her or her family some royal favour, or 
 obtain for her husband or relations a post in 
 the army? The prophet had recently saved 
 the king and his army and allies from destruc- 
 tion, by supplying them with water in a time of 
 great drought, and rendered them successful 
 over a formidable enemy ; and he had conse- 
 quently no doubt that both the sovereign and 
 the general would attend to his application. 
 He had not indeed been able, even by that 
 miracle, to effect that religious reformation in 
 the kingdom, which he had so much at heart, 
 and which was the grand object of his master 
 Elijah's and his own mission, and to induce an 
 entire renunciation of idolatry on the part of 
 Jehoram and his subjects. But he had extorted 
 their respect, and excited their gratitude by 
 the marvellous deliverance, which, as the ser-
 
 404 THE WOMAN OF SHUNEM. 
 
 vant of Jehovah, he had worked in their be- 
 half. Even the wicked pay a silent homage to 
 the pious, although they may be too strongly 
 attached to sin to follow godly admonitions, and 
 to reform their own lives. They are often con- 
 strained to exclaim, like Balaam, (t How goodly 
 are thy tents, O Jacob, and thy tabernacles, O 
 Israel !" although they love the wages of un- 
 righteousness, and the pleasures of sin too 
 deeply to cast in their lot among the people of 
 God. The prophet had made an impression 
 upon the king, and the great people of the land ; 
 and while he deplored the stubbornness of the 
 human heart, which prevented his efforts for 
 God from being completely successful, he did 
 not, because he could not do all the good he 
 wished, impatiently discontinue his connexion, 
 but maintained his influence with them, that 
 he might employ it to plead for the oppressed, 
 to defend the helpless, to raise the low, to re- 
 ward the deserving, and to win greatness to the 
 protection of innocence. We are not, because 
 our labours for the welfare of others appear not 
 to be followed by commensurate effects, to with- 
 draw in despair from the field o^ : .-.-.r use- 
 fulness, but to continue under every discourage- 
 ment and difficulty stedfast and immovable in 
 the works of the Lord ; for in due time we shall 
 reap, if we faint not. 
 
 The woman of Shunem, on hearing the well- 
 intended proposal of the prophet, made answer,
 
 THE WOMAN OF SHUNEM. 405 
 
 which sets a noble example to both sexes, and 
 reflects immortal honour on her truly noble and 
 pious mind : " I dwell/' said she, " among 
 mine own people." As if she had said, " Thy 
 offer is generous ; thy design is most gracious, 
 and calls for my grateful acknowledgment. But, 
 blessed be God, I need not thy kind interpo- 
 sition ; I labour under no oppression ; I re- 
 quire no deliverance ; I aim at no elevation ; I 
 desire no change. I am perfectly contented 
 with my lot in life. I have no ambition to share 
 the glories of a court, or the dignities of a higher 
 station. I covet not the possession of greater 
 wealth, or the enjoyment of richer luxuries; 
 neither do I suffer from injustice or oppression. 
 My neighbours are my friends ; my friends are 
 my protectors ; and if I should be subjected to 
 injury, they would not hesitate to defend my 
 cause. The favour you propose is for those 
 who are discontented or distressed. I am free 
 from both predicaments. I love my neigh- 
 bours ; my neighbours love me. I cannot im- 
 prove my society, and no change in outward 
 circumstances can increase my happiness ; for I 
 dwell among those whom on every account I 
 can call my own people." Happy Shunammite, 
 placed at equal distance from penury and from 
 excess, from affliction and from ambition, from 
 indigence and from avarice, and enjoying a calm 
 freedom of mind, a serene tranquillity of heart, 
 and a sweet contentment with her allotted habi-
 
 406 THE WOMAN OF SHUNEM. 
 
 tation and connexions ! Who can contemplate 
 thy lot, and hear thy answer, without exclaim- 
 ing, "Why am I not thus?" How few are 
 there like thee in this sphere of earthly engross- 
 ment! Who is so satisfied with his present 
 possessions as not to desire more? Who is 
 not dazzled with the prospect of riches and 
 honours ? Who would not wish to be recom- 
 mended to the notice of his sovereign, or to see 
 himself and relatives advanced to a situation of 
 eminence and emolument ? Yea, how few are 
 there that will not sacrifice domestic comfort, 
 peace of mind, and a clear conscience, for money, 
 pleasure, grandeur, and parade ! But how fool- 
 ish is the choicej and how fatal the issue ! " for 
 what will it profit a man, if he gain the whole 
 world, and lose his own soul ? or what shall a 
 man adequately give in exchange for his soul ?" 
 Be content, then, with such things as ye have, 
 remembering that but one thing is needful, 
 that all are equal in the grave, and that to all 
 there is but one Judge, one Saviour, one acquit- 
 tal, one condemnation. 
 
 The woman of Shunem, having delivered her 
 answer, appears to have retired from the pre- 
 sence of the prophet, who thereupon asked his 
 servant Gehazi, " What shall be done for her ?" 
 as though he had said, " She is indeed a lovely 
 pattern of piety. She possesses ( godliness 
 with contentment/ which truly is to possess 
 ' great gain,' and she needs not an increase of
 
 THE WOMAN OF SHUNEM. 407 
 
 acquisitions. Nevertheless, I should like to 
 bestow upon her some token of my gratitude 
 and esteem. What shall be done for her?" 
 Gehazi observed, that with all her means and 
 endowments, there was one possession of which 
 she was destitute, which was universally desired 
 by the wives of Israel, and which, doubtless, 
 she would be glad to receive. She was child- 
 less, and thereby debarred from the chance of 
 the greatest honour among the daughters of 
 the chosen race, that of being the mother, near 
 or remote, of the Desire of all nations, as well as 
 of leaving her husband's name and husband's 
 inheritance to children and to children's chil- 
 dren. The prophet, on being reminded of her 
 barrenness, immediately ordered her to be re- 
 called, and announced to her the same glad 
 tidings as the angel of old had announced unto 
 Sarah, saying, "About this season, according 
 to the time of life, thou shalt embrace a son." 
 The news appeared unto her, as unto Sarah, 
 too good to be true. She did not indeed, like 
 that mother of Israel, treat the intelligence 
 with incredulous levity ; but she could scarcely 
 receive it at first with full assurance of faith, 
 or without much anxiety about its fulfilment, 
 and "she said, Nay, my lord, thou man of 
 God, do not lie unto thine handmaid," i. e. do 
 not deceive thine handmaid with a vain and 
 delusive hope. It is a hope that I did for years 
 cherish as the dearest wish of my heart, but
 
 408 THE WOMAN OF SHUNEM. 
 
 seeing that God's will did not correspond with 
 my own, I prayed for grace to submit to his 
 all-wise arrangement, and strove to be resigned 
 and contented in my childless state. To revive 
 such a hope in my breast, without the certainty 
 of its being realized, were a mockery which 
 a man of God will surely never practise. I 
 therefore trust, that thou dost not deceive me 
 by this delightful promise, and that thy words 
 will prove indeed true ; or, as the rabbins in- 
 terpret her answer, "Do not mock me by 
 giving me a son that shall soon be removed by 
 death ; but, if I have a son, let me have one 
 that shall live, and grow up, and survive his 
 parents." Promises are fulfilled, not by repe- 
 tition or strong asseveration, but by actual 
 effects. The prophet, therefore, in whose mouth 
 the word of God was yea and amen, added not 
 a word, but left her to look forward to the 
 event for a demonstration of the truth. She 
 bare a son at the predicted time, who passed 
 unscathed through the perils of infancy, and 
 reached the promising season of boyhood, and 
 arrived at an age in which he was able to find 
 his father in the field among the reapers. Who 
 can tell the joy of that mother, who had at last 
 obtained every wish of her heart ! She was 
 contented before, and she felt that, surrounded 
 with prosperous circumstances and dear con- 
 nexions as she was, she ought not to complain 
 or express a desire for more than God had
 
 THE WOMAN OF SHUNEM. 409 
 
 been pleased to grant. But this unexpected 
 gift of a son thrilled her heart with joy unutter- 
 able ; and many a time would she look up to 
 Heaven with inexpressible gratitude, and say, 
 "What shall I render unto the Lord for his 
 marvellous loving-kindness?" And the father 
 too, now well stricken in years, would grow 
 young again at the sight of this blooming plant, 
 and rejoice more in this scion of his family 
 than in all the crops of his harvest. 
 
 But, alas ! how unstable often are these do- 
 mestic joys ! The doting mother was soon 
 called to experience the bitterest trial to a fond 
 parental heart. While in the harvest-field the 
 hot beams of the sun beat upon that tender 
 head, which in Eastern climes soon produce 
 fatal consequences, and the child cried to his 
 father, " My head, my head." The father, 
 busied with his occupations, and probably not 
 anticipating any serious result from the child's 
 complaint, committed the care of him to one of 
 his servants, with an order that he should be 
 conveyed home to his mother. That mother 
 received him into her arms, and laid him on 
 those knees which often had formed his easiest 
 couch. It appears to have been in an early 
 part of the day when she received her ailing, 
 but precious burden. Little did she think that 
 so great a calamity was so soon to betide her 
 household, and blight her comfort. But all 
 the mother's tenderness cannot restore him to 
 
 SECOND SERIES. T
 
 410 THE WOMAN OF SHUNEM. 
 
 health, or prolong his life. On the noon of 
 that same day he died upon her knees. Well 
 in the morning, and a corpse at noon ! How 
 precarious is our earthly existence ! A child of 
 promise, and given in love, yet suddenly taken 
 away ! How unsearchable are God's judgments, 
 and his ways past finding out ! But observe 
 the conduct of the bereaved mother. She has 
 lost her son for awhile, but she has not lost 
 her faith. She does not give way to despairing 
 lamentations, but flies for refuge to Divine 
 counsel and assistance. In the depths of 
 mental anguish and heart-breaking wo, she 
 does not forget the discretion that becometh a 
 woman professing godliness. She utters no 
 passionate exclamation. She manifests no sign 
 of distraction. She lays the dead child on the 
 prophet's bed, locks the door on the precious 
 treasure, conceals the sad misfortune from all 
 eyes, hides her grief within her own bosom, 
 and determines to have recourse to the aid of 
 Heaven. She calls to her husband; and not 
 willing to distress his heart with the sorrowful 
 truth, or fearing to meet a well-meant oppo- 
 sition to what he might regard as a fruitless 
 enterprise, she, without revealing the purpose 
 of her errand, acquaints him with her desire to 
 see the man of God. On the feasts of the 
 Lord, she had been accustomed to go to the 
 assemblies in which Elisha presided, and to 
 join with other believers in hearing the word of
 
 THE WOMAN OF SHUNEM. 411 
 
 God, and in offering up the sacrifice of prayer 
 and praise. But her husband, knowing that 
 there were then no feasts of the Lord, asked 
 her, " Wherefore wilt thou go to him to-day ? 
 it is neither new moon nor Sabbath." She 
 answered, " It shall be well, i. e. Ask no more 
 questions at present ; place thy wonted confi- 
 dence in me : my journey arises from a good 
 motive, and thou shalt be satisfied by the event, 
 that all has been done well." Convinced of her 
 upright intentions, and of her discreet piety, he 
 proposed no further curious inquiry, furnished 
 her with the required equipment, and sent her 
 away. Dismissed by her confiding husband, 
 she "said to her servant, Drive, and go for- 
 ward : slack not thy riding for me, except I 
 bid thee." It is customary in the East for an 
 attendant to walk alongside, or drive the beast 
 his master or mistress rides on, and to this 
 custom probably the Wise Man alludes when he 
 says, "I have seen servants on horses, and 
 princes walking as servants on the earth," or 
 the ground. In this manner she posts to Mount 
 Carmel, where the prophet then resided. The 
 man of God espies and recognises her at a dis- 
 tance, and, animated with a tender solicitude 
 for the welfare of one who was so faithful a 
 disciple of Jehovah, and from whom he had re- 
 ceived so much of kind hospitality, sends his 
 servant hastily to meet her, and to inquire 
 concerning the health of herself, her husband, 
 T 2
 
 412 THE WOMAN OF SHUNEM. 
 
 and her child. She returned the messenger a 
 general answer, saying, " It is well." How 
 strong was her faith in God ! How entire 
 her submission to his will ! how complete her 
 confidence in his support ! Though the hea- 
 viest family affliction that could befall her house 
 had taken place ; yet, believing that it was a 
 dispensation of Providence that was, in itself, 
 neither unwise nor unkind, she said, " It is 
 well with me, with my husband, and with my 
 child." All well ; and yet the child dead in the 
 house ! Yes ; all is well that is done by God. 
 When He takes away the desire of our eyes 
 with a stroke, it becomes us to say, " It is well :" 
 it is well with them that are gone, if they are 
 gone to Heaven ; and it is well with us who are 
 left behind, if we are brought by the affliction 
 to run, with patience, the same race of trial, and 
 to inherit the same eternal weight of glory. 
 
 But her errand was not to Gehazi the ser- 
 vant. It was to Elisha the master ; and no ear 
 shall hear her complaint but his who had already 
 been the instrument of doing such marvellous 
 things in her behalf. She speeds on to his 
 presence, falls down before him, and, forgetting 
 her habitual reserve in the intensity of her feel- 
 ings, she lays hold of his feet, and pours her 
 heart before him in an agony of earnest sup- 
 plication. Gehazi, regarding such a posture 
 and situation as indecorous or irreverent to- 
 wards his venerated Master, came near to thrust
 
 THE WOMAN OF SHUNEM. 413 
 
 her away. But, if excess of sorrow has over- 
 come the modest diffidence of her sex, and her 
 delicate reverence for the minister of God, the 
 considerate and kind Elisha makes allowance 
 for her conduct by ascribing it to some extra- 
 ordinary cause, with which he had not been 
 made acquainted, and bids that she should not 
 be interrupted in her proceedings, and allowed, 
 without restraint, to make known her complaint 
 and petition. " Let her alone," said he ; " for 
 her soul is vexed within her : and the Lord hath 
 hid it from me, and hath not told me." From 
 which words it appears, that, on this occasion, 
 he had not the discernment of spirits, that, 
 as well as the gift of prophecy, being a spiritual 
 influence, or a supernatural faculty, which God 
 gave or suspended according to the dictates of 
 his own infinite discretion. God discovered 
 things to the prophets as He saw fit, and, ac- 
 cording to the necessity of circumstances, not 
 always according to their desire, seldom, if ever, 
 when the required information might be com- 
 municated by ordinary means, to teach us that 
 none, however favoured, are infinite in know- 
 ledge, save He, the Omniscient one himself, and 
 that He does not capriciously and without cause 
 depart from the established laws of nature. Inthis 
 case, the secret is soon enough revealed by the 
 petitioner herself, and therefore there was no 
 occasion for its supernatural communication. 
 Encouraged to speak, she at once unburdens 
 T 3
 
 414 THE WOMAN OF SHUNEM. 
 
 her soul before him, and plunges into the midst 
 of her distressing theme, by the abrupt and 
 pithy questions, "Did I desire a son of my 
 Lord? did I not say, Do not deceive me?" 
 This short and expressive appeal to the past 
 opened the eyes of the prophet to the whole of 
 the distressing truth, and instantly conveyed 
 into his mind a volume of sorrowful thoughts 
 and earnest expostulations. He instantly felt 
 as if she had said, " Didst thou not find me 
 dwelling among my own people, contented with 
 my circumstances ? Did I express a wish for 
 change or advancement ? Was I not resigned 
 to God's will, even when debarred from the 
 honour most desired by the wives of Israel ? 
 Did I desire the miraculous interposition of 
 my Lord to procure me even the much coveted 
 blessing of a son ? And when thou didst pro- 
 mise me such a precious gift, did I not say, 
 Do not deceive me ?" - And in this connexion 
 the rabbinical interpretation of the words al- 
 ready referred to, certainly appears the most 
 probable, which would have them to signify, 
 " Do not mock me with a son that shall con- 
 tinue with me long enough to be engaging and 
 attractive, and then rend my heart by being 
 cut off in his young days, and not permitted to 
 survive his parents, and inherit their posses- 
 sions." Had I importunately asked for what 
 a wise Providence had thought good to with- 
 hold, there might have been reason to fear that
 
 THE WOMAN OF SHUNEM. 415 
 
 my request would be complied with in anger, 
 and the boon afterwardswithdrawn for the severe 
 punishment of my discontent. But the favour 
 was of thy own proposing, and didst thou pro- 
 pose it with a view to make me wretched? 
 How much easier would it have been to submit 
 to barrenness than to resign myself to this sad 
 bereavement ! O man of God, let me not have 
 to complain of a cruel kindness. Let those 
 prayers of thine, which gave me a son, restore 
 him to my arms alive." Great was her faith in 
 the efficacy of the fervent prayer of a righteous 
 man ; and the event proved that she believed 
 not in vain. 
 
 The prophet deeply sympathized in the be- 
 reaved mother's distress, and, wasting not a 
 moment in words of consolation, became imme- 
 diately absorbed in the mute but earnest con- 
 sideration of an effectual remedy. He appears 
 to have deemed it possible that it might be a 
 case only of suspended animation ; and he sent 
 his servant Gehazi, who, probably, was able to 
 travel more rapidly than himself, with orders to 
 gird up his loins, to salute no man on the way, 
 and to answer not the salutation of any, *. e. to 
 avoid all delays, and to go with the utmost 
 speed, and to lay the prophet's staff on the 
 mouth of the dead child ; probably thinking 
 that it might act as a stimulus to excite the 
 animal motions, and considering it right to adopt 
 the readiest natural means that suggested them- 
 T 4
 
 416 THE WOMAN OF SHUXEM. 
 
 selves for the restoration of life. But the 
 mother was convinced that her son was really 
 dead, and that such means would prove alto- 
 gether ineffectual; and therefore to Elisha, who 
 seems to have, at first, intended waiting until 
 Gehazi's return for intelligence of the result, 
 and to have expected that she would depart 
 homewards, satisfied for the present with the 
 steps already taken, she solemnly said, " As the 
 Lord liveth, and as thy soul liveth, I will not 
 leave thee." It is well to use means. But when 
 means are ascertained to be useless, our highest 
 wisdom is to rely only on the mighty power of 
 God. Her earnest petition is attended with 
 success. The man of God arises and follows 
 the heart-broken mother to that city and home, 
 which, during his absence, had been changed 
 from the dwelling-place of cheerful content into 
 a scene of sorrow and a house of death. He 
 is met on the road by his servant, who had 
 applied the prescribed means in vain, and had 
 come to announce that though he had laid the 
 staff on the face of the corpse, (e there had been 
 neither voice nor hearing, and that the child 
 was not awaked." He proceeds into the house, 
 finds that chamber, which had so often formed 
 his quiet and cheerful place of retirement, oc- 
 cupied by a pale corpse, and sees that the 
 mother's opinion was but too well founded, that 
 the child was really dead, that the immaterial 
 spirit had been actually separated from its
 
 THE WOMAN OP SHUNEM. 417 
 
 earthly tabernacle. He is convinced that no 
 earthly power is able to effect a cure. He, 
 therefore, closes the chamber-door, and lifts up 
 his heart in prayer to his Heavenly Father, 
 who seeth in secret. But even when he had 
 become fully sensible of the necessity of Divine 
 aid, he did not neglect the use of human means, 
 an excellent example to be carefully noticed 
 and followed by all in every age. " He went up 
 and lay upon the child, and put his mouth 
 upon his mouth, and his eyes upon his eyes, 
 and his hands upon his hands ; and he stretched 
 himself upon the child," endeavouring thus to 
 convey a portion of his own natural warmth to 
 the body of the child, and, probably, by intro- 
 ducing his own breath into the torpid frame, to 
 inflate the lungs, and restore respiration. He 
 thus mingled his own efforts with reliance on 
 Heaven's assistance, seeking by the fervour of 
 his soul to bring back the departed spirit, and by 
 the heat of his body to warm the cold corpse. He 
 was encouraged by an omen of success. "The 
 flesh of the child waxed warm. Then," continues 
 the inspired penman, "the prophet returned, 
 and walked in the house to and fro." This he 
 did, " no doubt," says Adam Clarke, " in 
 order that he might recover that natural warmth 
 which was absorbed by the cold body of the 
 child ; that he might again, by taking it in his 
 arms, communicate more warmth. Caloric, or 
 natural heat, when accumulated in any parti- 
 T 5
 
 418 THE WOMAN OF SHUXEM. 
 
 cular part, will diffuse itself to all bodies with 
 which it comes in contact, till their temperature 
 be equal, even as water invariably finds its 
 level. Thus the warm body of the prophet 
 gave out its caloric or natural heat to the cold 
 body of the child until both became of equal 
 temperature. But the process reduced the 
 prophet into such a state of coldness, that he 
 could endure the contact at present no longer. 
 He therefore covered up the child, rose up, 
 and walked smartly to and fro, in order that, 
 by violent exercise, he might increase the circu- 
 lation of the blood, and strengthen and quicken 
 the organs of respiration, and be able to com- 
 municate an additional portion of his natural 
 heat to the object of his anxiety." This explains 
 the prophet's action, as described in the words, 
 "Then he returned, and walked in the house 
 to and fro." After recovering his warmth, f f he 
 went up " again, " and stretched himself upon 
 the child." He felt deeply for the bereaved 
 mother : he desired earnestly the restoration of 
 her son to life ; and he demonstrated the sin- 
 cerity and intensity of his feelings by active and 
 persevering exertion. It is thus that they who 
 would communicate spiritual life to souls that 
 are dead in trespasses and sins, should identify 
 themselves with their sad condition, commiser- 
 ate their unhappy case, and manifest an un- 
 tiring sympathy for spiritual wretchedness, by 
 the assiduous and reiterated application of the
 
 THE WOMAN OF SHUNEM. 419 
 
 means adapted for its relief. And that we may 
 be encouraged to such perseverance in behalf 
 of the spiritually dead, observe the eventual 
 success of the prophet, and behold therein a 
 type and earnest of our own, if we imitate his 
 energy and supplication. The child began to 
 show signs of reanimation. Vitality appeared 
 again to pervade the once motionless frame. 
 The blood recommenced its flow through the 
 once frozen veins and arteries. The nervous 
 influence beginning to act on the muscular 
 system before the circulation could in every 
 part be restored, produced the natural effect of 
 sternutation or sneezing, " and the child sneezed 
 seven times," <u- very abundantly, which would 
 be conducive, and perhaps essential, to the 
 removal of the obstructions in the head and its 
 vessels, occasioned by the disorder of which he 
 had died. He at last proved beyond a doubt 
 the return of life, by exhibiting the light of its 
 brightest lamps. He opened again those eyes 
 which had been sealed by the signet of death. 
 Oh, wonderful spectacle ! How it must have 
 thrilled through the anxious prophet's heart ! 
 With what unspeakable satisfaction of mind he 
 would call Gehazi, and say unto him, "Call 
 this Shunammite !" And when she was come in, 
 with what accents of mingled thanksgiving to 
 Heaven, and congratulation to the mother, would 
 he say unto her, "Take up thy son!" And, 
 as for the mother's feelings on the occasion, 
 T 6
 
 420 THE WOMAN OF SHUNEM. 
 
 they are more specifically indicated by her 
 demeanour. They were those of deep humility 
 at the thought of her unworthiness to receive 
 so great a favour, of gratitude too deep for 
 utterance, and of joy which none but the wo- 
 men of old, who by faith received their dead 
 raised to life, could feel. "She went in, and 
 fell at the prophet's feet, and bowed herself to 
 the ground, and took up her son and went out." 
 "Oh, strong faith of the Shunammite," says 
 Bishop Hall 3 , " that could not be discouraged 
 with the seizure and continuance of death ; 
 raising up her heart still in an expectation of 
 that life, which to the eyes of nature had been 
 impossible, irrevocable ! Oh, infinite goodness 
 of the Almighty, that would not suifer such 
 faith to be frustrated ; that would rather reverse 
 the laws of nature, in returning a guest from 
 heaven, and raising a corpse from death, than 
 disappoint the confidence of a believing heart." 
 " If ye believe, all things are possible to them 
 that believe. Trust ye in the Lord for ever, 
 for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength/' 
 But we have not yet done with the woman 
 of Shunem, nor with the benefit she derived 
 from her kindness to the man of God. It 
 appears, that soon after the restoration of her 
 son to life, a famine visited the land. Elisha, 
 
 1 To the " Contemplations" of this pious bishop, the author 
 is much indebted for assistance in other parts of this dis- 
 course.
 
 THE WOMAN OF SHUNEM. 421 
 
 foreseeing this visitation, gave her timely notice 
 of it, and advised her to remove with her family 
 to another country *. After so many proofs of 
 fidelity, she cannot distrust his word, and there- 
 fore she did not wait for the event to be con- 
 vinced of its truth, but went at once with her 
 household, and sojourned in the land of Philis- 
 tia 5 , the same country to which Abraham, and 
 Sarah, and Isaac, and Rebekah, had repaired 
 under similar circumstances. And well it was 
 for her that she had, for the second time, a 
 prophet for her friend. The famine was very 
 sore, and lasted for the space of seven long- 
 years ; but she and her family, by the effect of 
 the prophet's counsel, were saved from its 
 dreadful ravages. Happy the souls that on all 
 occasions consult with God's seers ! They shall 
 be freed from the plagues by which the careless, 
 the wilful, and the spiritually blind, are over- 
 taken and destroyed. 
 
 When the famine was over, she returned 
 from the land of the Philistines to her former 
 home at Shunem. She expected, on her arrival 
 there, to take possession of her house and land 
 as before, and to enjoy her wonted prosperity 
 in her beloved neighbourhood. But, alas ! she 
 was cruelly disappointed in that hope, and she 
 was now doomed to find, by bitter experience, 
 the vanity of trusting in man. The party to 
 
 4 2 Kings, chap. viii. 1. 
 
 * See Discourses on Sarah and Rebekah in First Series.
 
 422 THE WOMAN OF SHUXEM. 
 
 whom she had confided the care of her estate 
 during her absence, refused to give it up ; and 
 she, who had been probably the wealthiest and 
 the most influential inhabitant of the place, saw 
 herself menaced with destitution and obscurity. 
 Little did she apprehend such injurious conduct 
 from her kinsfolk or acquaintances, when she 
 declined the prophet's first proposal with the 
 answer, " I dwell among mine own people." 
 Had she anticipated such wrong and oppression, 
 she might more truly have said, " I dwell 
 among robbers and extortioners." But they 
 perhaps appeared very friendly then who are 
 selfish and cruel now. It often happens that 
 men are forward with their good offices to a 
 person in prosperity, but will scarcely grant him 
 common justice, and will enrich themselves at 
 his expense, when reduced to adversity. While 
 " the rich hath many friends, the poor is hated, 
 even of his own neighbour." What is she to 
 do under this sad and unlooked-for reverse of 
 circumstances? The only remedy appears to 
 have been, to bring her complaint before the 
 sovereign authority of the land. Time was 
 when she dwelt so securely among her own 
 people, that she declined the offer of being 
 spoken for to the king. But, such is the great 
 uncertainty of human affairs, she would now 
 be very glad to have a friend at court. And 
 where is Elisha now ? Alas ! he is far away 
 in a foreign land at Damascus, the capital of
 
 THE WOMAN OF SHUNEM. 423 
 
 Syria, and she knows not when to look for his 
 return. She is, therefore, left to her own un- 
 aided resources, and she determines to make 
 application to the king in person. It was so 
 ordered by a wise and merciful Providence, 
 that when she arrived for the purpose, the 
 monarch was conversing with Gehazi, the now 
 leprous, disgraced, and discarded servant of 
 Elisha, concerning the miracles of that wonder- 
 ful servant of God. The king had himself wit- 
 nessed one instance of his power with God in 
 the seasonable relief of himself and his allies 
 with their armies, when distressed for want 
 of water. He had heard of other works equally 
 extraordinary, and he seems to have sought 
 out Gehazi in his affliction and retirement, 
 to receive an account of them from his mouth. 
 One miracle especially, as it was witnessed 
 by his own eyes, ought indeed to have con- 
 vinced him of the superiority of the prophet's 
 God, and converted him from idolatry ; but 
 such is the power of the love of sin in the 
 human heart, that that clear manifestation of 
 Divine agency had failed to work his reform- 
 ation. It seems, however, that his mind had 
 been disquieted by the fact. His curiosity, 
 if not his anxiety, had been excited by the 
 circumstance, and increased by the rumours of 
 other astounding operations which had filled 
 the land. He therefore came to Gehazi for 
 correct information upon the subject. It would
 
 424 THE WOMAN OF SHUNEM. 
 
 appear that there was still some remaining good 
 in both these very indifferent characters. Je- 
 horam, though idolatrous, seems not to have 
 abandoned himself entirely to falsehood, but to 
 have felt some inclination to know the truth, by 
 having recourse to the prophet's servant. And 
 now that that servant had incurred his master's 
 displeasure for his deceit and avarice in the 
 matter of Naaman the Syrian, there was the 
 less probability that he would ascribe to Elisha 
 any power or excellence greater than he really 
 possessed. Gehazi, on his part, though sepa- 
 rated from his master, and grievously punished 
 through his malediction for the sin he had com- 
 mitted, did not, as it should seem, plunge into 
 deeper guilt by vindictively depreciating and 
 misrepresenting the prophet's endowments and 
 operations. He seems to have spoken of him 
 to the king with truth, with respect, with ad- 
 miration. He detailed the marvellous things 
 which he had wrought ; and, among the rest, the 
 restoration to life of a dead child at the city of 
 Shunem, At the moment that he was relating 
 the particulars of this marvellous circumstance, 
 the very mother of that child, accompanied by 
 that reanimated child, makes her appearance 
 before the king, and presents her petition for 
 her house and for her land. Gehazi, surprised 
 at the coincidence, and delighted to have such 
 an indubitable confirmation of his narrative, 
 exclaimed, " My Lord, O King, this is the
 
 THE WOMAN Ofl SHUNEM. 425 
 
 woman, and this is her son whom Elisha re- 
 stored to life/' The coincidence was most pro- 
 vidential for the success of her suit. The king 
 was astonished to find, from her own lips, and 
 the lips of her son, a corroboration of the truth 
 he had just been listening to. He became, in 
 consequence, readily disposed to grant her re- 
 quest; for who could refuse a favour to one 
 whom Heaven had so wonderfully favoured? 
 And who would withhold support from a life 
 which had been given once and again by a mira- 
 cle ? " So the king appointed unto her a certain 
 officer, saying, Restore all that was hers, and 
 all the fruits of the field, since the day that she 
 left the land, even until now." 
 
 While this subject teaches the instability of 
 earthly possessions, and the evanescence of 
 earthly friendships, what a beautiful picture it 
 exhibits of contented piety, of the efficacy of 
 faith, of the fruit of perseverance, and of the 
 advantage of being connected with the people 
 of God ! In prosperity, this pious woman was 
 not ambitious or avaricious. In adversity, she 
 did not allow herself to be overwhelmed with 
 sorrow and despair. When allured by the at- 
 tractions of advancement, she answered with 
 meek satisfaction of mind, " I dwell among 
 mine own people." When she lost her child, 
 she believed that the prophet's God was able 
 to raise him up, and she persevered in her 
 efforts till he was restored to her arms. When
 
 426 THE WOMAN OF SHUNEM. 
 
 she was robbed of her property, instead of 
 sinking into helpless despondency, she pru- 
 dently adopted the best steps for its recovery ; 
 and she persisted in her exertions until they 
 were crowned with success. Having, in afflu- 
 ence, employed her wealth to support God's 
 cause and his servants, she found, in distress, 
 her godly liberality repaid by an ample recom- 
 pense of reward her dead raised to life her- 
 self and family saved from destruction by 
 famine and her house and land restored to her 
 possession her prosperity re-established, as at 
 the first, and her peace, as at the beginning, 
 yea, her happiness, by the birth, resuscitation 
 and revival of a son, increased a hundred-fold 
 a type of the unspeakable bliss that remaineth 
 in realms above for all who are partakers of like 
 precious faith, hope, and charity. May the 
 Holy Spirit endow us all with these blessed 
 graces, that we may come, at last, to the " inheri- 
 tance incorruptible, undefiled, and that fadeth 
 not away !"
 
 SERMON XIX. 
 
 NAAMAN'S LITTLE MAID. 
 
 2 KINGS v. 2. 
 
 " And the Syrians went out by companies, and had brought 
 away captive out of the land of Israel a little maid ; and she 
 waited on Naaman's wife." 
 
 IN commencing this course of sermons on the 
 Female Characters of Holy Writ, I observed that 
 the Scriptures would be found to exhibit the 
 powerful influence of woman in almost every 
 rank and grade of life. Often have we already 
 contemplated her in the more elevated and 
 eminent stations of society, as the parent of our 
 universal race ; as the partner of distinguished 
 believers ; as the queen of mighty nations; as the 
 comforter and deliverer of an oppressed people ; 
 as the terrible avenger of a nation's woes ; some- 
 times, indeed, the authoress of injury, but most 
 frequently the worker of benefit to her family, 
 her country, and her kind. We have now to 
 draw your attention to her influence when
 
 428 NAAMAN'S LITTLE MAID. 
 
 reduced to an humble condition, and employed 
 in a servile capacity ; and the history we are 
 about to set before you, strikingly illustrates 
 the important effect of her piety in the lowest 
 walk of life. Some of the circumstances con- 
 nected with that history are exceedingly in- 
 structive also, as showing to masters the value 
 of God-fearing and faithful servants, and the 
 injurious influence of wicked and faithless ones, 
 and to servants the evil and the peril of deal- 
 ing deceitfully and dishonestly towards their 
 masters. 
 
 The person whose life we are now to contem- 
 plate, was a little maid, or a young damsel. She 
 was a daughter of the chosen race, and, perhaps, 
 born to wealth and honours. But she was 
 violently carried away from her home in early 
 youth, and reduced to the condition of a slave. 
 She was removed from her country, as well as 
 from her parents, and compelled to dwell in 
 the land of the stranger, the heathen, and the 
 idolater. The Syrians, who were often at open 
 hostility with Israel, had gone out by com- 
 panies or in marauding parties, crossedthe border 
 of the neighbouring country of Canaan, and 
 among the spoils of grain, and cattle, and 
 human beings destined for slavery, they brought 
 home the little maid, now under consideration. 
 We have no record of her father, or mother, or 
 early home. We have no account of the havoc 
 caused by the fire and sword of the invaders ;
 
 NAAMAN'S LITTLE MAID. 429 
 
 of the violent death of her resisting or flying 
 parents; or of their tears and lamentations over 
 a daughter forcibly torn away into captivity, 
 and reduced into a condition often more dreaded 
 than an early grave. But we are left to infer 
 that they were religious parents; that they bad 
 trained up their child in the fear of the God of 
 Israel ; and that that home, which the enemy 
 turned into a desert, was once the tranquil 
 abode of peace, and the sacred temple of piety. 
 And well was it for their child that they had 
 brought her up in the nurture and admonition of 
 the Lord: for when the season of affliction 
 came, she had a friend that would never leave 
 her nor forsake her. And, doubtless, it would 
 be some consolation to themselves, if they sur- 
 vived the sad bereavement, to reflect that she, 
 who was torn from the embraces of her parents, 
 had already chosen that good part which could 
 not be taken away. That is the best inheri- 
 tance for children. It is better than a mine of 
 wealth. It is more valuable than the fairest 
 estate. It is more to be desired than the most 
 glittering mental endowments, or the most 
 fascinating personal attractions. It is a treasure 
 that will remain in the season of adversity. It 
 is an anchor of hope in the hour of despondency. 
 It is a rock of safety amid the billows of sorrow, 
 and the storms of misfortune. Let parents, 
 then, be more anxious to secure the pearl of 
 Divine grace for their children than all worldly
 
 430 NAAMAN'S LITTLE MAID. 
 
 possessions. Let them seek first for them the 
 kingdom of God and his righteousness, and 
 doubt not that all other needful things will be 
 added unto them. 
 
 When this maid was carried away from her 
 home and country into Syria, she became either 
 by purchase, or as part of his allotted share 
 in the division of the spoil, the property of 
 Naaman, who was the commander of the Syrian 
 forces, and a special favourite with the Syrian 
 king, " and she waited on Naaman's wife. 3 ' 
 The reason assigned by the inspired penman 
 why that soldier and general " was a great man 
 with his master, and honourable," is, " because 
 by him the Lord had given deliverance to 
 Syria." The rabbins say, that he was the man 
 who drew a bow at a venture in the battle of 
 Ramoth Gilead, and slew Ahab the king of 
 Israel, and thereby obtained, over that monarch's 
 forces and those of his ally Jehoshaphat the 
 king of Judah, a great victory for the Syrians. 
 Probably on this account, and perhaps by rea- 
 son of other great achievements performed in 
 behalf of his country, he was held in very high 
 esteem by his master, the king. " He was also 
 a mighty man of valour," i. e. he had not only 
 been successful on one occasion, but was pos- 
 sessed of great physical strength, personal cou- 
 rage, and military skill, was endowed with all 
 the qualifications of a brave soldier and an 
 able general, and was valued accordingly as one
 
 NAAMAN'S LITTLE MAID. 431 
 
 of the stoutest permanent defenders of the na- 
 tion and the throne. He had achieved great 
 exploits ; he had acquired great glory ; he had 
 eclipsed rival conquerors ; he had discomfited 
 formidable foes; he had called forth the ap- 
 plauding shouts of admiring thousands ; he 
 had gained the highest esteem of his sovereign. 
 Almost the very top of ambition's ladder had 
 been reached, and scarcely aught remained for 
 vanity or covetousne.ss to aim at, and yet he 
 was not happy, lie was afflicted with a malady 
 which would have caused the poorest and low- 
 est of his countrymen to reject the offer of an 
 exchange of conditions with him. Though he 
 was as great nearly as worldly prosperity could 
 make him, he was reduced, by the visitation of 
 a sore disease, to a condition as wretched as 
 any of his master's subjects. He was a general, 
 a patriot, a courtier, and a hero, but he was a 
 leper. How few are there in this world with- 
 out some drawback to their eminence, some 
 cloud to their sunshine, some alloy to their 
 grandeur, some damper to their joy ! Here 
 the bitter is mingled with the sweet, the gall 
 with the honey, the dark with the light, the 
 painful with the pleasurable. And why ? To 
 remind us that this is not our rest, and to point 
 our attention to regions of un mingled enjoy- 
 ment beyond the skies. How vain to expect 
 happiness from worldly wealth, elevation, or 
 celebrity ! How unfounded are their notions,
 
 432 NAAMAN'S LITTLE MAID. 
 
 who imagine, that if they could obtain great 
 possessions, and rise to high dignities in the 
 world, nothing would be wanting to their com- 
 plete felicity ! How short-sighted are they who 
 seek the dazzling prizes at the sacrifice of prin- 
 ciple, conscience, and their duty to God, for- 
 getting that He whom they so thoughtlessly 
 and wickedly disregard can, in the twinkling 
 of an eye, blast their fairest prospects, and 
 make wretched their most promising condition. 
 Nebuchadnezzar was boasting of his power, 
 and vauntingly exclaiming, " Is not this great 
 Babylon that I have built ?" but the next mo- 
 ment the kingdom was departed from him. Bel- 
 shazzar was rioting in splendour and luxury ; 
 but in the midst of his costly feast he received 
 the sentence of degradation and death. The 
 rich man was saying to his soul, "Thou hast 
 much goods laid up for many years ; eat, drink, 
 and be merry :" but that night his soul was 
 taken from him, and he was reduced to hopeless 
 destitution. Naaman, the Syrian, had attained 
 unto the highest rank among his master's sub- 
 jects, but all his happiness was marred, and his 
 whole existence was rendered wretched by the 
 presence of a loathsome disease, for " he was a 
 leper." Oh, let men cease to aim at worldly 
 gain or glory, as though such acquisitions alone 
 had power to satisfy every want, and to secure 
 perfect bliss. " Let not the wise man glory in 
 his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory
 
 NAAMAN'S LITTLE MAID. 433 
 
 in his might, let not the rich man glory in his 
 riches. But let him that glorieth, glory in this, 
 that he understandeth and knoweth me, saith 
 the Lord." 
 
 No disease was more dreaded and detested, 
 than that which afflicted Naaman the Syrian. 
 It was disgusting to the sight ; it was repulsive 
 to the touch ; it was painful to the patient 
 himself; it was offensive to the senses of 
 others. In Israel, and probably in the ad- 
 joining countries, it was often regarded as the 
 direct effect of a Divine judgment, and con- 
 sidered as capable of being removed only by 
 supernatural agency. The person visited with 
 it was, according to the law of Moses, held 
 to be polluted in the sight of God and man, 
 and excluded from fellowship with his neigh- 
 bours, and it is possible that a similar incon- 
 venience and degradation attended it among 
 the people of Syria. How wretched then was 
 the condition of Naaman ! What availed his 
 military renown, his elevated rank, his coun- 
 try's gratitude, his monarch's favour? He 
 had become a burden to himself and an object 
 of pity to his humblest menials. What a 
 source of bitter grief and vexation of spirit he 
 had become to her, who had once gloried in 
 her celebrated lord! His whole house was 
 overcast with gloom, and moved with compas- 
 sion at his miserable case. Is there no eye 
 that can effectually pity, no hand that can ex- 
 
 SECOND SERIES. TJ
 
 434 NAAMAN'S LITTLE MAID. 
 
 tend relief? Is there no physician in that 
 proud court of skill enough to recover the 
 royal favourite? no resource in that delivered 
 country to sooth the sorrows and alleviate the 
 pains of its brave preserver? These feelings 
 of sympathy would have pervaded his house- 
 hold in vain, and these anxious inquiries would 
 have occupied its attention to no purpose, had 
 it not been for the presence there of the little 
 maid, who had been brought away captive out 
 of the land of Israel. As became a good and 
 faithful servant, she felt for her master's afflic- 
 tion, and earnestly desired his restoration to 
 health. She reflected that, though his malady 
 might be incurable by human means, it was 
 not beyond the healing power exercised by Je- 
 hovah in answer to fervent prayer. She called 
 to mind his wonderful works of old. She had 
 heard how, at the intercession of Moses, his 
 sister Miriam had been cured of her leprosy. 
 She had listened with reverence to the account 
 of miracles, apparently still more difficult and 
 extraordinary, wrought by Elisha, who was 
 then a living blessing to her country, multi- 
 tudes saved from death, and the dead restored 
 to life. Why should he not cure her master's 
 malady, if requested in a proper spirit so to 
 do ? She is persuaded that Jehovah will, by 
 his instrumentality, effect the required deliver- 
 ance, if approached for the purpose with humi- 
 lity and faith ; and, determined to make known
 
 NAAMAN'S LITTLE MAID. 435 
 
 her conviction upon the subject, she said to her 
 mistress, " Would God my lord were with 
 the prophet that is in Samaria ! for he would 
 recover him of his leprosy." 
 
 The faintest glimpse of hope is eagerly caught 
 at by the afflicted and miserable. The sug- 
 gestion of a servant is not disregarded by a 
 wife anxious for the recovery of her diseased 
 lord. She communicates the information to 
 Naaman. Naaman, glad to hear of a prospect 
 of deliverance, though the prospect might be 
 dim, and have no other foundation than the 
 assurance of a young slave, and though the 
 deliverance was to be brought by the prophet 
 of a foreign and disliked nation, forwards the 
 intelligence to the king his master. The King 
 of Syria instantly approves of the proposal to 
 seek out the far-famed servant of Jehovah, and 
 sends the leper with a letter of recommendation 
 to the King of Israel, whose subject the prophet 
 was, with a view to facilitate the success of the 
 undertaking. Naaman sets out for Samaria with 
 a great retinue of servants and attendants, with 
 the interests, as he thought, of two kings, and 
 with costly presents of gold, and silver, and rai- 
 ment, to conciliate the good-will of the worker 
 of miracles. The King of Syria had imagined 
 that the King of Israel could command whatever 
 services any of his subjects was able to per- 
 form, and, perhaps, was not aware that the ex- 
 traordinary powers exerted by Elisha were of 
 u 2
 
 436 XAAMAN'S LITTLE MAID. 
 
 divine origin, possibly supposing him to be a 
 physician of very eminent, but not of more than 
 human skill, and therefore couched his letter in 
 these words: "Now when this letter is come 
 unto thee, behold, I have therewith sent 
 Naaman, my servant, to thee, that thou mayest 
 recover him of his leprosy." The King of Israel, 
 who is supposed to have been Jehoram, on re- 
 ceiving such a message, considered its language 
 to be blasphemy against God, and a provoca- 
 tion to himself blasphemy against God, be- 
 cause it implied that he who was but a man 
 could wield the power of the Almighty, by whom 
 alone the plague of leprosy could be healed ; a 
 provocation to himself, because it conveyed a 
 request with which it was impossible for him to 
 comply, and which seemed to be made only for 
 the purpose of grounding on its refusal a pre- 
 text for complaints and open hostilities. " He 
 rent his clothes, and said, Am I God, to kill and 
 to make alive, that this man doth send unto me 
 to recover a man of his leprosy? Wherefore 
 consider, I pray you, how he seeketh a quarrel 
 against me." Jehoram and his subjects were, 
 probably, kept in great awe of the Syrians ever 
 since his father, Ahab, was slain by them in 
 battle, and the confederate forces of Israel and 
 Judah discomfited : and he was terrified by the 
 expectation of no other result from this strange 
 and unheard-of message, than an immediate 
 declaration of war, and an attempted invasion
 
 NAAMAX'S LITTLE MAID. 
 
 of his kingdom. Elisha, hearing of his distress 
 and its cause, sends him an intimation that 
 there was no ground for suspicion or apprehen- 
 sion, and adds, concerning the leper, " Let hiiri 
 come unto me, and he shall know that there is 
 a prophet in Israel." So Naaman came with 
 his horses and with his chariots, and stood at 
 the door of the house of Elisha." They that 
 would be cleansed of their spiritual leprosy must 
 wait at wisdom's gate, and watch at the posts 
 of her doors. ' Let all who would be delivered 
 from the plague of sin, and obtain the blessing of 
 salvation, hence learn to give diligent heed to the 
 ministration of God's word and ordinances by his 
 appointed servants. And let those who forsake 
 the assembling of themselves together in the 
 place where prayer is wont to be made, and the 
 Gospel is wont to be preached, fear an utter ex- 
 clusion from the healing influences of the great 
 Physician, and dread the peril of an incurable 
 malady, and the misery of an eternal death. 
 
 Elisha, on perceiving the arrival of the Syrian 
 captain, sent a messenger unto" him, saying, 
 " Go, and wash in Jordan seven times, and thy 
 flesh shall come again to thee, and thou shalt 
 be clean. But Naaman was wroth and went 
 away, and said, Behold, I thought, He will 
 surely come out to me, and stand, and call on 
 the name of the Lord his God, and strike his 
 hand over the place, and recover the leper. 
 Are not Abana and Pharphar, rivers of Damas- 
 u 3
 
 438 NAAMAN'S LITTLE MAID. 
 
 cus, better than all the waters of Israel ? May 
 I not wash in them and be clean ?" The famous 
 general came, indeed, to the door of Elisha, 
 but it appears not in a proper spirit of humility 
 and faith. It is thus that many come to the 
 house of God, encumbered with pride and self- 
 righteousness. He seems to have imagined 
 that the honour he was thereby doing to Jeho- 
 vah and his prophet, was equal to the benefit 
 he was expecting at their hands. The prophet, 
 perceiving his error, would convince him of it, 
 and teach him the important lesson, that before 
 the great God whom he worshipped, all were 
 equally weak, and powerless, and that in His 
 presence all distinctions vanished, but those 
 of holy and unholy, faithful and faithless, obe- 
 dient and disobedient. He would, with a view 
 of conveying that instruction to his unconverted 
 heart, uphold in his own demeanour the dignity 
 of his Heavenly master, and communicate with 
 the pompous applicant only through the me- 
 dium of a simple and peremptory message. 
 The soul of tne proud conqueror, as yet un- 
 touched by Divine grace, was fired with indig- 
 nation at this unceremonious treatment. He 
 had imagined that the prophet would think it 
 an honour to wait upon him in person, and 
 would utter many solemn prayers, and perform 
 many grave ceremonies in his presence. A re- 
 ception so utterly at variance with his precon- 
 ceptions threw him into a tumult of fretfulness
 
 NAAMAN'S LITTLE MAID. 439 
 
 and impatience ; as though he had felt, " Am 
 I come so far to be treated with indignity and 
 derision ? What else can be the design of such 
 a dealing and such a message ? Had he meant 
 me a kindness, why should he not grant me an 
 interview ? Why not touch me with his hand, 
 and bless me with his prayers, and cure me 
 with his blessing ? Who could have anticipated 
 any other mode of miraculous healing ? What 
 is it but to mock my misery to talk of washing 
 in Jordan seven times ? Who ever heard of 
 water curing such a disease ? And if water be 
 of use, why is that of Jordan prescribed ? Is 
 that superior, nay, is it not inferior to the beau- 
 tiful streams of my native land ? And why 
 wash therein seven times ? Can there be any 
 remedial virtue in that specific number ? What 
 is such an unceremonious conduct, and such an 
 unmeaning direction, better than trifling with 
 my feelings, and laughing at my sufferings?" 
 " And so he turned and went away in a rage." 
 It is thus that reasoning pride will often object 
 to the simplicity of the Gospel, its sacraments, 
 and ordinances, and cause men to despise the 
 foolishness of preaching, to deny the efficacy of 
 faith, to keep away from the appointed means of 
 grace and salvation, and, consequently, to remain 
 under the power of a spiritual malady which 
 renders them odious in the sight of God, sepa- 
 rates them from his people below, excludes them 
 from his saints above, and is bringing them 
 u 4
 
 440 NAAMAN'S LITTLE MAID. 
 
 inevitably to the blackness of darkness for 
 ever. 
 
 But, happily for the Syrian leper, he had 
 those about him who were able and willing to 
 give him good advice. And oh that the spiri- 
 tual lepers, who take offence at God's prophets, 
 when speaking for their good, were surrounded 
 by similar discreet well-wishers ! This renowned 
 patient was remarkably blessed in the members 
 of his household, especially in his servants. A 
 little servant maid it was who first advised him 
 to undertake this journey to the prophet, and 
 when its design was nearly marred by his hasti- 
 ness, incredulity, and pride, his servants offered 
 a remonstrance, which had the effect of bring- 
 ing him to a better mind, and led to a success- 
 ful termination of his anxious enterprise. They 
 approached him, and reasoned with him, and 
 said, " My father, if the prophet had bid thee 
 do some great thing, wouldest thou not have 
 done it ? how much rather then when he saith 
 to thee, Wash and be clean ?" O most faithful 
 servants, and worthy of all imitation ! They 
 address him by the name of Father, a title of 
 the highest respect and affection ; showing us 
 that servants ought to honour, and obey, and 
 love their master, and to have a tender and 
 anxious regard for their truest interest; and 
 teaching the more general lesson that in giving 
 counsel or reproof we must make it appear not 
 as the dictate of a supercilious or censorious
 
 NAAMAN'S LITTLE MAID. 441 
 
 temper, but of pure love and esteem for the 
 object of our attention, and that onr design is 
 not to deal reproach or cause uneasiness, but to 
 produce a real reformation or a permanent ad- 
 vantage. They also, most judiciously, appeal to 
 his reason and to his inclinations, to the usual 
 soundness of his judgment, and to the indubit- 
 able earnestness of his desire for deliverance 
 from his afflictive malady. " If the prophet,'* 
 said they, " had bid thee do some great thing, 
 some arduous deed, or some expensive sendee, 
 wouldest thou not have done it? Wouldest 
 thou not undertake a difficult enterprise, or 
 expend a rich estate, to procure such a boon as 
 the recovery of thy health ? We had inferred, 
 from the trouble you have already taken, that 
 you would be willing to do any thing within the 
 verge of possibility to accomplish so desirable 
 an object. How much rather then do so simple 
 a thing, at the prophet's command, as bathe in 
 the stream of the Jordan ? ( How much 
 rather, when he saith to thee, Wash and be 
 clean ?' " To a heart open to conviction, the 
 force of this affectionate reasoning was irresist- 
 ible. The proud captain, though transported 
 into a momentary passion by the apparent dis- 
 appointment of his expectations, and the morti- 
 fication of his vanity, listened and reflected, 
 changed his mind and obeyed. "He went 
 down and dipped himself in Jordan, according 
 to the saying of the man of God," and realized 
 u 5
 
 442 XAAMAN'S LITTLE MAID. 
 
 the unspeakably precious blessing he was in 
 quest of, " and his flesh came again like unto 
 the flesh of a little child, and he was clean." 
 From that moment he became an altered 
 man in soul as well as in body. He returned 
 to the prophet in a spirit of profound humility 
 and inexpressible gratitude, so different from 
 that in which he had just approached his door. 
 He pressed him to accept a precious offering in 
 acknowledgment of the inestimable benefit he 
 had derived from his counsel. He declared 
 himself a convert to the religion of Jehovah, 
 and expressed a fixed determination for the 
 future " to worship him and him only," saying, 
 " Thy servant will henceforth offer neither 
 burnt-offering nor sacrifice unto other gods, 
 but unto the Lord." Happy Naaman ! cured 
 at once of the leprosy of the body, and the 
 leprosy of the soul, his disease changed into 
 health, his loathsomeness into beauty, his pain 
 into pleasure, his pride into humility, his arro- 
 gance into gratitude, his scepticism into faith, 
 his idolatry into true religion, now admitted into 
 the presence of that prophet from which he was 
 before debarred, dismissed by him with a bless- 
 ing, and going on his way rejoicing, guided by the 
 light of heavenly wisdom, " whose ways are ways 
 of pleasantness, and all whose paths are peace." 
 Here we might conclude the history, since 
 we have arrived at the grand result produced 
 by the influence of the little Israelitish maid,
 
 NAAMAN'S LITTLE MAID. 443 
 
 who is the principal subject of our discourse. 
 But since we have had particularly to notice the 
 conduct of good and pious servants not only 
 of the principal subject of our present discourse, 
 but of others in a similar capacity belonging to 
 the Syrian's household it seems necessary to 
 the completeness of the instruction designed 
 by the Holy Ghost upon that head, that we 
 should briefly advert to the conduct of a wicked 
 and unfaithful servant, connected with the same 
 transaction. When Naaman returned to Elisha, 
 he offered him costly presents in token of gra- 
 titude for his wonderful recovery. The pro- 
 phet declined the offer ; and though repeatedly 
 pressed to accept it, he positively and solemnly 
 persisted in his refusal. And why ? Not be- 
 cause he thought Gentile wealth impure. His 
 master Elijah had partaken of the scanty store 
 of the Syrophoenician Gentile. Not because a 
 prophet should decline the gifts of the grateful 
 or the charitable. He himself had accepted be- 
 nefits from the pious Shunammite. Not because 
 he abounded in riches and needed no addition. 
 He appears to have been poor, and scantily 
 provided with the comforts of this life. Or, if 
 his own personal wants required no increase of 
 possessions, he was surrounded by objects that 
 would be greatly benefited by such aid, the 
 sons of the prophets, the schools of the pro- 
 phets, and probably other persons and institu- 
 tions that looked to his influence and liberality 
 u 6
 
 444 NAAMAN'S LITTLE MAID. 
 
 for support. To no one would an augmenta- 
 tion of property be in some respects of greater 
 service ; and by none could silver or gold be 
 more beneficially and judiciously employed. 
 But he declined the offer of it on the present 
 occasion, to effect a more important purpose 
 than any that he could accomplish by the dis- 
 tribution of wealth in his own country. He 
 wished to give a proof of the disinterested piety 
 of the true servants of the true God, as distin- 
 guished from the lying priests of heathenism 
 who ministered only for filthy lucre's sake. 
 He designed to set forth the free mercy of 
 Jehovah, whose gifts were not granted in con- 
 sideration of riches to be given to him or his 
 servant. He intended to teach, that the mira- 
 culous powers with which he was endowed, as 
 they were not purchasable by worldly wealth, 
 were neither to be employed for worldly gain. 
 He desired to exhibit the immeasurable supe- 
 riority of the favour and grace of God over 
 perishable riches, and to intimate that all the 
 glittering treasures of earth are contemptible in 
 comparison with the unfading inheritance of 
 his chosen people. By such a manifestation of 
 the transcendent nature of the religion of Jeho- 
 vah, and of the pure motives of his faithful 
 servants, he hoped to strengthen the Gentile's 
 determination against the lying vanities of 
 paganism, to detach him for ever from a wor- 
 ship that could not profit, to win over his
 
 NAAMAN'S LITTLE MAID. 445 
 
 heart into a riveted and indissoluble attach- 
 ment to the service of the God of Israel, and to 
 make him the instrument of maintaining the 
 honour and spreading the knowledge of the 
 Holy and the True One through the dark re- 
 gions of falsehood and iniquity. But the pro- 
 phet's noble design was interfered with by the 
 cupidity of an unfaithful servant. He secretly 
 went after the Syrian captain, and under the 
 pretence of the unexpected arrival of two sons 
 of the prophets, who required assistance, he 
 requested in his master's name, and obtained, a 
 gift of clothes and money, and appropriated it 
 to his own purposes. This was in itself an 
 inexcusable act of deceit and iniquity. Under 
 the circumstances, it was an act of peculiar and 
 aggravated guilt, calculated to defeat most holy 
 intentions, and to produce we know not what 
 unhappy consequences. We wonder not, there- 
 fore, to find that it should be particularly re- 
 vealed to the prophet, and punished with a 
 severe judgment. The moment he appeared in 
 his presence, Elisha sternly asked him where 
 he had been, and upon receiving the false an- 
 swer, that he had gone no whither, showed him 
 that he was acquainted with the secrets of his 
 heart, and severely and indignantly remon- 
 strated with him on the great wickedness he 
 had committed. "Is it," said he, " a time to 
 receive money, and to receive garments, and 
 oliveyards, and vineyards, and sheep, and oxen,
 
 446 NAAMAN'S LITTLE MAID. 
 
 and men-servants, and maid-servants ?" i. e. is 
 this an opportunity of enriching thyself? Dost 
 thou take advantage of my disinterested piety, 
 and of my zeal for God's honour, to acquire 
 worldly wealth ? That very occasion of refus- 
 ing presents, which I intended for the credit of 
 our holy profession, the furtherance of the 
 divine glory, and the confirmation of a new 
 convert, hast thou profanely perverted to sel- 
 fish ends, and thereby thwarted the dearest 
 wish of my heart for the honour of God and 
 his Church ? Is not this complication of un- 
 faithfulness, deceit, covetousness, and desecra- 
 tion, a most grievous offence against God and 
 thy master? Grievous, therefore, shall thy 
 punishment be. The disease of him whose 
 riches thou hast longed after, and dishonestly 
 gained, shall be thine. " The leprosy of Naa- 
 man shall cleave unto thee and to thy seed for 
 ever. And he went out from his presence a 
 leper as white as snow." How illustrative is 
 this memorable case of the corrupting influence 
 and the fearful end of avarice and ambition. 
 To gratify these sinful cravings, Gehazi scru- 
 pled not to be guilty of dishonesty, for he im- 
 posed upon Naaman ; of falsehood, for he lied 
 unto him and also to his master ; of what may 
 be regarded as simony, for he received money 
 in consideration of a divine gift ; pf a profane 
 disregard of the interests of true religion, for 
 his conduct served to frustrate the holy views
 
 NAAMAN'S LITTLE MAID. 447 
 
 in that regard of the disinterested prophet of 
 God. And what was the result of this unprin- 
 cipled and profane conduct? Instead of ob- 
 taining the wealth and happiness he schemed 
 to possess himself of, he fell into a condition 
 worse than the poorest and the most destitute 
 in the land. He contracted the very disease, 
 for the cure of which Naaman would have 
 parted with all his wealth and glory. Like 
 the Syrian, when he first approached the pro- 
 phet's house " Gehazi went out from his pre- 
 sence a leper as white as snow." How true 
 are the words of the apostle, " They that will 
 be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and 
 into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which 
 drown men in destruction and perdition." 
 
 1. Among the many important lessons taught 
 by this history, we learn the value of an early 
 religious education. The little Israelitish maid 
 had been taught to fear the true God, and to 
 admire the wonderful works wrought by the 
 instrumentality of his prophet. The knowledge 
 and the faith she imbibed in her native home, 
 supported her under the affliction of slavery in 
 a distant land, enabled her to confer an ines- 
 timable benefit upon her master and his fa- 
 mily, and we doubt not led to her own liberty 
 and restoration to Canaan, if she expressed 
 such a desire. Parents, if you would promote 
 your children's truest interests, if you would 
 make them instruments of good in their day
 
 448 NAAMAN'S LITTLE MAID. 
 
 and generation, if you would furnish them 
 with an armour of defence, and supply them 
 with the materials of consolation and hope in 
 the season of adversity, when, perhaps, they 
 are far out of the reach of your helping hand, 
 or when your own heads are laid in the dust of 
 death; oh, teach them diligently to " remem- 
 ber their Creator in the days of their youth." 
 
 2. We learn from this subject the great ad- 
 vantage derived to a family from pious and 
 faithful servants ; and the sad influence exer- 
 cised by those of an opposite character. Naa- 
 man's little maid, by her confident recommen- 
 dation of Jehovah's prophet, induced her master 
 to undertake a journey, which resulted in the 
 cure of his bodily disease, and, we have reason 
 to believe, in the salvation of his immortal soul. 
 The example of her piety appears to have pro- 
 duced a salutary effect upon her fellow-servants, 
 perhaps converted them to the true God, for 
 they gave their master, at a very critical time, 
 advice nearly as valuable as her own; when, 
 under the influence of mortified pride, he was 
 tempted to return home unrecovered, prevailed 
 upon him to reconsider his determination, and 
 to follow the prophet's directions. Their 
 fidelity and discretion, thus seconding her ori- 
 ginal suggestion, led to a most happy conse- 
 quence, brought about the recovery of the Sy- 
 rian captain from a distressing sickness to per- 
 fect health, and terminated in his conversion,
 
 NAAMAN'S LITTLE MAID. 449 
 
 and, probably, that of his whole house, from 
 the darkness of idolatry to the light of true re- 
 ligion, and, finally, in their admission to the 
 realms of eternal day and bliss. The deceitful 
 and wicked conduct of Gehazi, on the contrary, 
 was calculated to mar the holy designs of a 
 most pious master, occasioned that master much 
 pain of mind, and brought upon himself im- 
 mediate wretchedness, and, perhaps, issued in 
 everlasting misery and despair. Let us, then, 
 earnestly strive and pray that every member of 
 our household, servants as well as children, 
 may be imbued with the fear of God, and led to 
 keep his holy will and commandments, and to 
 walk in the same all the days of their life. 
 
 3. Let servants hence learn their responsibi- 
 lity to God for their conduct to those who are 
 their masters, according to the flesh. Let the 
 irreligious among them, who perversely thwart 
 the efforts made in the family to promote the 
 interest of morality and religion, who deceit- 
 fully and dishonestly pursue their own selfish 
 ends, without caring for the extensive injury their 
 conduct may occasion to others, remember 
 Gehazi, and dread a disease, of which his 
 leprosy, which excluded him from fellowship 
 with his neighbours, was but a type, even 
 the indelible stain of guilt which unfits men 
 for heaven, and necessitates their everlasting 
 banishment from the presence of the Lord and 
 the glory of his power ; and let those servants,
 
 450 NAAMAN'S LITTLE MAID. 
 
 who have been trained up in the knowledge 
 and fear of God, gather from the conduct of 
 Naaman's servant the duty of employing the 
 opportunities of their position, and the advan- 
 tages of their religious light, for the temporal 
 and spiritual good of the family to which they 
 belong. 
 
 4. Finally, let masters and mistresses learn 
 hence not to despise godly counsel, though it 
 come from a man-servant or a maid-servant. 
 They may have been sent into your house as 
 instruments to save your souls. Blessed are 
 those families, all whose members, both high 
 and low, young and old, are bound together by 
 the silken cord of one holy faith, and one hea- 
 venly hope. A little while, and they shall meet 
 in their Father's house above, where, with one 
 heart, and one mind, they shall harmoniously 
 sing the praises of their Saviour and their God 
 for ever and ever. Amen.
 
 SERMON XX. 
 
 ATHALIAH AND JEHOSHEBA. 
 
 2 KINGS xi. 1, 2. 
 
 " And when Athaliah, the mother of Ahaziah, saw that her 
 son was dead, she arose and destroyed all the seed royal. 
 But Jehosheba, the daughter of king Joram, sister of Aha- 
 ziah, took Joash, the son of Ahaziah, and stole him from 
 among the king's sons which were slain ; and they hid him) 
 even him and his nurse, in the bed-chamher from Athaliah, 
 so that he was not slain." 
 
 IN our last discourse we beheld a striking con- 
 trast between persons in the grade of servants. 
 This passage presents a striking contrast be- 
 tween two females of royal rank. When the 
 agents of the evil one are hatching their 
 schemes of mischief, God raises up instruments 
 of good to reprove their wicked conduct, or to 
 counteract their pernicious designs, and He 
 leaves not himself without a witness in any walk 
 of life. If Elisha had an unfaithful and impious 
 servant, Naaman's exhibited a fidelity and a 
 piety which condemned him, by showing that
 
 452 ATHALIAH AND JEHOSIIEBA. 
 
 his misdeeds were not excusable by the circum- 
 stances of his station. If Queen Athaliah was 
 unprincipled and cruel, Jehosheba, who was 
 also of the blood royal, was conscientious and 
 humane, and condemned her by a practical ex- 
 hibition of the most blessed qualities, in the 
 most elevated circle of society. In no grade 
 or rank, in no age or nation, however degene- 
 rate or corrupt, are there not found some who 
 bear testimony in favour of Jehovah's cause, 
 and against the workers of iniquity, and abet- 
 tors of idolatry. There was a Noah among the 
 almost universally corrupt inhabitants of the 
 antediluvian world. There was a Lot among the 
 irreclaimable population of the cities of the 
 plain. There was a Moses at the court of 
 Pharaoh. There was a Micaiah among the 
 false counsellors of Ahab. There was a Shad- 
 rach, a Meshach, and an Abednego, to protest 
 against the worship of the golden image on the 
 plain of Dura. There was a Daniel to vindicate 
 the honour of the true God amid the king- 
 worshippers of Persia. And there was a prin- 
 cess Jehosheba ready, at the peril of her life, to 
 exercise the tenderness of womanly affection 
 towards helpless infancy, and do an important 
 service to her Church and her country, and 
 thereby to shame the unfeminine hard-hearted- 
 ness, and to defeat the impiously ambitious 
 schemes, of the murderous queen, Athaliah. 
 Athaliah was the wife of Jehoram, king of
 
 ATHALJAH AND JEHOSHEBA.^ 453 
 
 Judah, and the daughter of Ahab, king of Israel, 
 and, probably, of the heathen and idolatrous 
 Jezebel. She is, both in the books of the Kings 
 and the books of the Chronicles, called the 
 daughter of Omri. But since, in the same 
 passages, as well as in the words of our text, 
 she is said to be the mother of Ahaziah ; and 
 since, in the second book of the Kings, we read 
 that Jehoram, Ahaziah's father, and predecessor 
 on the throne of Judah, had, for his wife, the 
 daughter of Ahab ; and since it is not uncom- 
 mon in Scripture to express a nearer by a re- 
 moter degree of consanguinity, it is evident 
 that, by the term daughter, we are to under- 
 stand grand-daughter of Omri, who was the 
 father of Ahab. It should be carefully noted 
 also, to prevent a confusion of ideas in the con- 
 templation of this portion of the sacred history, 
 that about this same time the time of Atha- 
 liah two successive kings of Israel and Judah 
 respectively bore the same names, though in the 
 respective kingdoms the names did not occur in 
 the same, but in the contrary order of succession. 
 Ahab, king of Israel, was succeeded first by his 
 son Ahaziah, and then by his son Jehoram, a 
 younger brother of Ahaziah. Jehoshaphat, 
 king of Judah, who was partly contemporary 
 with Ahab, was succeeded first by his son Jeho- 
 ram, and then by his grandson Ahaziah, the 
 son of Jehoram, so that there succeeded on the 
 one throne an Ahaziah and a Jehoram, two
 
 454 ATHALIAH AND JEHOSHEBA. 
 
 brothers ; and on the other throne, a Jehoram 
 and an Ahaziah, father and son. Now Athaliah 
 was sister to the brothers Ahaziah and Jehoram, 
 who succeeded one another on the throne of 
 Israel, and she bore the relation of wife and 
 mother to Jehoram and Ahaziah, father and son, 
 who succeeded one another on the throne of 
 Judah. This identity of names was not alto- 
 gether accidental, but was, we may well 
 suppose, in part attributable to the affinity esta- 
 blished between the two kingdoms in the time 
 of Ahab and Jehoshaphat, when Athaliah, the 
 daughter of the former, was married to Jeho- 
 ram, the son of the latter. This matrimonial 
 alliance was the source of incalculable evils to 
 the kingdom of Judah. Athaliah was a true 
 daughter of Jezebel. She inherited her am- 
 bitious and cruel temper, and if she was not 
 systematically educated in paganism like that 
 superstitious and persecuting Sidonian, as the 
 mother's influence on the minds of children in 
 matters of religion is often stronger than that 
 of the father, even when he is correct in his 
 notions, she had most probably imbibed all her 
 heathenish predilections and idolatrous attach- 
 ments. She was accordingly the cause of great 
 mischief in Judah, as her mother had been the 
 cause of great mischief in Israel. The one 
 rivalled the other in inciting her husband to 
 mischief. As it is said of Ahab, that " there 
 was none like unto him, which did sell himself
 
 ATHALIAH AND JEHOSHEBA. 455 
 
 to work wickedness in the sight of the Lord, 
 whom Jezebel his wife stirred up ," so it is 
 said of Jehoram, that " he walked in the way 
 of the kings of Israel, like as did the house of 
 Ahab, and wrought that which was evil in the 
 sight of the Lord," because " he had the 
 daughter of Ahab to wife." At her instigation, 
 doubtless, it was, that he introduced idolatry 
 into Judah and Jerusalem, in defiance of the 
 positive commands of God by Moses. At her 
 instigation, most probably, it was, that "he 
 slew all his brethren with the sword, and divers 
 also of the princes of Judah." She abetted 
 false worship, and encouraged oppression and 
 bloodshed, notwithstanding the signal judg- 
 ments which those abominations and cruelties 
 had brought down on her father's kingdom 
 and her father's house. She remembered, or 
 heard of, the sore famine in Samaria, the vio- 
 lent death of Ahab her father, the bloody end 
 of Jezebel her mother, the execution of her 
 seventy brothers in Samaria, the dreadful di- 
 sease which destroyed her husband, all declared 
 to be inflicted by Heaven in vengeance for the 
 sinfulness and criminality of her family, and 
 yet she refused to be reformed, but proceeded 
 to the perpetration of even greater atrocities 
 than had ever stained the character of her 
 worst relations. As Belshazzar took no warn- 
 ing by the divine judgments upon his father 
 and predecessor Nebuchadnezzar, but went on
 
 456 ATHALIAH AND JEHOSHEBA. 
 
 in riot and profaneness until he was overtaken 
 by irremediable ruin, so Athaliah disregarded 
 the warning voice that spoke in the retributions 
 of Heaven against her parents, her husband, 
 and other relatives, but persisted in idolatry 
 and crime until she was suddenly cut off and 
 overwhelmed with an everlasting destruction. 
 Though God is long-suffering and merciful, 
 not willing that any one should perish in their 
 sins, yet we are assured that he " is angry with 
 the wicked every day. If he turn not, he will 
 whet his sword; he hath bent his bow and 
 made it ready. He hath prepared for him the 
 instruments of death: he ordaineth his arrows 
 against the persecutors." 
 
 But let us proceed to consider the circum- 
 stances and the motives of the great enormity 
 which has marked Athaliah's name with ever- 
 lasting infamy. After the death of her husband 
 Jehoram, who is supposed to have perished by 
 the same disease as Herod Agrippa, a miserable 
 spectacle of Divine vengeance for abominable 
 wickedness, Ahaziah, her son by that wicked 
 king, succeeded to the throne. That son, un- 
 warned by the fate of his father, and the peril 
 incurred by his good grandfather Jehoshaphat, 
 from connecting himself with the house of 
 Ahab, and the great evils which had accrued 
 from that connexion to his father and his 
 kingdom, no sooner ascends the throne of 
 Judah than, under the influence of his mother,
 
 ATHALIAH AND JEHOSHEBA. 457 
 
 and his mother's relatives, he cements his 
 friendship with her brother Jehoram, king of 
 Israel, by entering into an active alliance with 
 him against Hazael, king of Syria. In that 
 expedition Jehoram was wounded ; and while 
 Ahaziah was on a visit of condolence with him 
 at Jezreel, while suffering from the effects of 
 his w r ounds, Jehu, a captain of the Israelitish 
 army, marched towards that town at the head 
 of a rebellion against his royal master. The 
 two kings, upon perceiving that formidable 
 chief's approach, went out to meet him, but, 
 on coming within his hearing, alarmed by his 
 hostile language and violent bearing, they 
 turned their backs and fled. Jehoram was 
 presently slain, being by Jehu shot through 
 the heart on the spot. Ahaziah escaped for 
 the moment, and hid himself in Samaria, but 
 was soon after discovered and put to death by 
 order of the same victorious leader ; and it is 
 distinctly revealed that his premature end was 
 the result of a divine judgment upon him for 
 having associated and confederated with the King 
 of Israel. " The destruction of Ahaziah l " says 
 the inspired writer, "was of God by coming to 
 Joram, [or Jehoram,] and going out with him 
 against Jehu the son of Nimshi, whom the 
 Lord had anointed to cut off the house of 
 Ahab." It is thus that many now, through 
 
 1 2 Chron. xxii. 7. 
 
 SECOND SERIES. X
 
 458 ATHALIAH AND JEHOSHEBA. 
 
 the influence of evil companionship and evil 
 counsel, make shipwreck of faith and a good 
 conscience, and bring themselves, by the opera- 
 tion of a just retribution, to ruin both of body 
 and soul. Hence the vast importance of those 
 Scripture maxims and directions, " Evil com- 
 munications corrupt good manners :" "Have no 
 fellowship with the unfruitful works of dark- 
 ness :" Withdraw yourselves from every bro- 
 ther that walketh disorderly : Come out from 
 among them, and be ye separate, and touch not 
 the unclean thing : Blessed is the man that 
 walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor 
 standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in 
 the seat of the scornful." 
 
 While Ahaziah was gone to assist Jehoram, 
 it would appear that his mother Athaliah was 
 left in charge of the kingdom. It might have 
 been expected, that the dreadful news of the 
 double disaster her son's death and her bro- 
 ther's death, to which may be added the miser- 
 able end immediately after of her mother 
 Jezebel, together with the many other calami- 
 ties recently inflicted upon her family for its 
 vile apostasy, would have had the effect of 
 humbling her in dust and ashes, and bringing 
 her to reformation and repentance. But there 
 are hearts so abandoned and corrupt, that 
 warnings and afflictions serve only to harden 
 them in sin. Her desperate soul appears to have 
 been actuated by the mingled motives of vindic-
 
 ATHALIAH AMD JEHOSHEBA. 459 
 
 tiveness, idolatrous zeal, and personal ambition. 
 If her father's house is extirpated by Jehu, who 
 was sent to execute upon it Jehovah's wrath, 
 on account of idolatry and cruelty, and to 
 build up a throne for himself on its melancholy 
 ruins, she will extirpate the house of David, 
 even though there be mingled with it her own 
 blood, and avenge upon it the discomfiture and 
 humiliation of Baal, appropriate to herself all 
 its wealth and honours, and reign sole monarch 
 of Judah and Jerusalem. Actuated by this 
 hellish motive, she arose and destroyed all the 
 seed royal. Her husband's brothers had al- 
 ready perished by that vile king's orders. Her 
 son Ahaziah's brothers, whether her own chil- 
 dren, or those by other mothers, or, as some 
 suppose them to have been, his cousins or 
 nephews, had perished by the hand of Jehu. 
 There probably remained, therefore, scarcely 
 any of the seed royal, but the children of her 
 son Ahaziah, i. e. her own grand-children, and 
 yet these she sacrificed to the madness of her 
 idolatry and ambition. We have not upon 
 record a more unnatural and cruel murderess. 
 She was far worse than Pharaoh, who com- 
 manded the drowning of the infants of Goshen. 
 She was worse than Herod, who ordered the 
 massacre of the children at Bethlehem. She 
 set at nought the ties of kindred, as well as of 
 humanity, in the pursuit of her unprincipled 
 schemes, and to establish her own power, and to
 
 460 ATHALIAH AND JEHOSHEBA. 
 
 advance her favourite superstition, she walked 
 over the corpses of those whom she should 
 rather have died to save. We dwell not on 
 the lamentation, and weeping, and great mourn- 
 ing which filled the palaces of Jerusalem on 
 that tragical occasion, since the Scripture has 
 passed over them in silence. But that silence, 
 as to the circumstantials of the recorded deed 
 of horror, is perhaps more pathetically ex- 
 pressive than the most minute detail would 
 have been. It intimates the impossibility of 
 adequately describing, by human language, the 
 atrocity of such unheard-of slaughter. It leaves 
 the imagination at full liberty to picture what 
 no words can tell, of helpless struggles, despair- 
 ing looks, bursting hearts, terrific shrieks, and 
 dying agonies. As kings had then many wives, 
 there might be many mothers of those children, 
 whom this implacable fury of a grandmother 
 made for ever wretched; many, like Rachel, 
 weeping for their children, and refusing to be 
 comforted because they were not. Oh, the 
 woes and the wailings which this daughter of a 
 heathen woman caused to those mothers of 
 Judah ! But she heeded not the sorrows of 
 mourning mothers, the cries of helpless infants, 
 or the dying struggles of stronger victims. She 
 proceeded in her career of blood until, as she 
 thought, she had destroyed all the seed royal, 
 extirpated the last vestige of the house of David, 
 and having strewed her path with murders, she
 
 ATHALIAH AND JEHOSHEBA. 46] 
 
 unscrupulously took possession of the vacant 
 and unclaimed throne. How dreadful is the 
 lust of reigning ! how baneful is the effect of 
 superstition ! What calamities they have oc- 
 casioned in the world ! What tragedies they 
 have caused to be perpetrated among mankind ; 
 destroying the charities of life, snapping asunder 
 the ties of kindred, and turning near relatives 
 into monsters of ferocity and cruelty. Ambition, 
 whether in ancient or modern times, through 
 what seas of blood hast thou waded to thy 
 object! Superstition, whether in the form of 
 idolatry persecuting Judaism, or of Paganism 
 persecuting Christianity, or of Popery persecut- 
 ing Protestantism, what ravages hast thou com- 
 mitted among our fallen race ! Let us bless 
 God that we live in a country where the succes- 
 sion to the throne is so clearly and positively 
 settled, as to render hopeless the aspirings of 
 unlawful ambition ; and let us strive and pray 
 that superstition may never return to wave its 
 iron and bloody sceptre over our land, now 
 blessed with the liberty of the Gospel, and the 
 consolations of true religion. In that Litany of 
 our Church may we all heartily and gratefully 
 join, "From all sedition, privy conspiracy, and re- 
 bellion ; from all false doctrine, heresy, and schism ; 
 from hardness of heart, and contempt of thy 
 word and commandment, Good Lord, deliver us." 
 From the reckless cruelty of Athaliah the 
 queen, we turn with a cheered spirit to the 
 x 3
 
 462 ATHALIAH AND JEHOSHEBA. 
 
 humane exertions of the princess Jehosheba, or, 
 as she is called in the Chronicles, Jehoshebeath. 
 She was the daughter of Jehoram, and the 
 sister of Ahaziah, but probably by another 
 mother, and unconnected, by blood, with the 
 idolatrous and murderous Athaliah. She was 
 married to Jehoiada, the then high priest of 
 Jehovah, a man of exemplary piety and zeal 
 for the Lord of hosts. She ventured to 
 counteract the impious and exterminating 
 scheme of Athaliah, and by her wisdom and 
 humanity succeeded in rescuing the seed of 
 David from utter extinction. She took Joash, 
 the son of Ahaziah, a babe of a year old, and 
 stole him from among the king's sons that were 
 slain. Josephus's account of the proceeding is, 
 that coming into the palace, she found a male 
 child, of about a year old, whose name was 
 Joash, among the dead bodies of the sons of 
 Ahaziah, whom the nurse, "he thinks, had 
 there laid on purpose to save his life." The 
 probability is, that Athaliah had given strict 
 orders for all the seed royal to be put to death, 
 and brought together into one apartment for 
 her inspection, and for the satisfaction of her 
 mind that they were all certainly destroyed. 
 The nurse durst not disobey this unsparing 
 decree ; but having not the heart to kill her in- 
 nocent charge, and perhaps hoping that a slight 
 delay or a change of circumstances might, un- 
 der a merciful Providence, save his life, she
 
 ATHALIAH AND JEHOSHEBA. 463 
 
 laid him asleep among the corpses of his bro- 
 thers, in the human slaughter-house, even as 
 the mother of Moses, clinging to the last chance 
 of hope, laid her unconscious babe on the banks 
 of the perilous river, instead of plunging him in 
 its fatal waters. On what a slender thread did 
 once depend the prospects of Israel's deliver- 
 ance from the bondage of Egypt! And on 
 what a slender thread hung now the continu- 
 ance of David's line, whence was to spring, ac- 
 cording to the flesh, the Deliverer of a world 
 from the slavery and sorrow of sin ! There lay 
 the hope of the chosen race, the progenitor of 
 the Messiah, the desire of all nations, in the 
 unconsciousness of natural sleep, among heaps 
 of those whose eyes were closed in the sleep of 
 death. A princess comes to his rescue, humane 
 and considerate, and yet resolute and intrepid, 
 like the princess of Egypt. We may well sup- 
 pose that the daughter of Pharaoh exposed her- 
 self to some danger by the rescue of Moses ; 
 but the tender heart which compassionated 
 helpless innocence was courageous enough to 
 brave the worst consequences of an act of 
 humanity and charity. Jehosheba placed her- 
 self in far greater jeopardy, by conveying away 
 the infant Joash from among the murdered sons 
 of the king; but her affection for a brother's 
 child, her anxiety for the preservation of the 
 lineage of David, her zeal for the pure worship 
 of Jehovah, and for the accomplishment of 
 x 4
 
 464 ATHALIAH AND JEHOSHEBA. 
 
 the promises made to the fathers, with which 
 worship and promises the continuance of David's 
 lineage was intimately and indissolubly con- 
 nected, overmastered every other feeling in her 
 mind, and armed her woman's heart to a deed 
 of perilous daring. She set at nought the queen's 
 bloody decree. She sought the repository of 
 the dead, and, probably having a previous un- 
 derstanding with the nurse upon the subject, 
 picked out the sleeping child from the lifeless 
 bodies, and conveyed him away to a place of 
 safety. He was committed to the care of that 
 same nurse, as Moses was to his own mother's, 
 and kept concealed in an apartment of the tem- 
 ple, to which none but Jehoiada, or those 
 permitted by him, had access, kept concealed 
 in that safe asylum, not for three months, like 
 Moses, but for the protracted space of six 
 anxious years. God laughs in heaven at the 
 plots of the wicked, and confounds their deepest 
 projects. He had said unto David, " Of the 
 fruit of thy body will I set upon thy throne." 
 In vain shall earth and hell conspire to frustrate 
 the sure promise, and to break the well-ordered 
 covenant. Miserable Athaliah, to think that 
 the seed of the righteous can be so easily rooted 
 out ! When thou and thy father's house shall 
 have vanished away, the man after God's own 
 heart shall have a perpetual successor, He, 
 whose word is yea and amen, having said, " I 
 have made a covenant with my chosen ; I have
 
 ATHALIAH AND JEHOSHEBA. 465 
 
 sworn unto David, my servant, Thy seed will I 
 establish for ever, and build up thy throne to 
 all generations." 
 
 At the expiration of six years from the de- 
 struction of the seed royal, and the rescue of 
 Joash from that dreadful fate, during which 
 years the land groaned under the tyrannic sway 
 of Athaliah, Jehoiada determines to produce 
 the young king, and to overthrow the power of 
 Athaliah by placing him on the usurped throne. 
 He communicates his intention to the principal 
 officers of the army, and they impart the secret 
 to the most influential men of the kingdom, 
 and summon to Jerusalem "the Levites out of all 
 the cities of Judah, and the chief of the fathers 
 of Israel." These being assembled together at an 
 appointed place, Jehoiada causes them to make 
 a solemn covenant with, that is, to swear alle- 
 giance to the youthful king, and then gives 
 them particular directions, and supplies them 
 with the necessary arms for securing his in- 
 auguration. After these precautions, "they 
 brought out the king's son, and put upon him 
 the crown, and gave him the testimony. And 
 Jehoiada and his sons anointed him, and made 
 him king. The crown symbolized the glory 
 and majesty which belong to the kingly office : 
 the book of the testimony, or the Bible, in- 
 dicated the rules and directions by which he 
 was toguide his thoughts and actions ; and the 
 oil signified the heavenly endowments by which 
 x 5
 
 466 ATHALIAH AND JEHOSHEBA. 
 
 he was qualified to perform his royal functions. 
 Thus presented with a crown, furnished with 
 the divine word, and anointed with holy oil, all 
 the assembly saluted him with the clapping of 
 hands, and with the well-wishing salutation, 
 " God save the King !" Well might they rejoice 
 at the restoration of true religion and liberty, 
 and the termination of the reign of darkness 
 and oppression. Well might they bid him 
 welcome, who came to them, as it were, from 
 the dead, to re-establish the house of David, 
 and to spread the blessings of peace and piety 
 among an erring and groaning generation. W T ith 
 such acclamations of satisfaction and joy should 
 we welcome the accession of David's Son to the 
 throne of our hearts, and say, " Live in my 
 soul, let all its powers be subject to thy sway, 
 and reign thou there for ever and ever." 
 
 Turn we once again, for a moment, to the 
 impious queen, whose cruel schemes were, by 
 these proceedings, which originated in the in- 
 trepid compassion and piety of a God-fearing 
 princess, covered with defeat and confusion. 
 Attracted by the sound of the trumpets, and 
 the shouts of applauding loyalty, she quits her 
 palace, and, in the frenzy of impatient curiosity 
 and alarm, she rushes to the temple of the 
 Lord; and when she beheld the surprising 
 spectacle of a crowned king surrounded by 
 faithful subjects, she rent her clothes, and ex- 
 claimed in helpless despair, "Treason, trea-
 
 ATHALIAH AND JEHOSHEBA. 467 
 
 son !" Oh, Athaliah ! thy reckoning time is 
 come for all the royal blood thy superstition 
 and ambition shed. Like thy idolatrous and 
 cruel mother Jezebel, thou shalt fall, unaided 
 and unpitied. None of thy flatterers in im- 
 piety, and abettors in mischief, shall lend thee 
 succour; and thou must meet, unbefriended 
 and alone, thy dreadful and merited doom. 
 No formalities of trial are needed in the case of 
 so notorious an offender, and Jehoiada the 
 high priest, whose counsel had at length suc- 
 ceeded in defeating her machinations, hesitates 
 not to pass upon her the sentence of death, 
 saying to the captains of hundreds that were 
 set over the host, " Have her forth without the 
 ranges," or the precincts of the temple, that 
 her accursed blood may not defile Jehovah's 
 sacred place, and put her to death. " And they 
 laid hands on her, and she went by the way by 
 the which the horses came into the king's 
 house: and there was she" ignominiously 
 " slain." How just a retribution ! "He that 
 sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood 
 be shed." How sure, though slow, is the 
 wrath of God to come on the children of dis- 
 obedience ! How fearful to persist in iniquity, 
 despite the warnings and judgments of Heaven ! 
 " Though hand join in hand, the wicked shall 
 not go unpunished." Let the impenitent trem- 
 ble at the contemplation of this divine ven- 
 geance. Let the wicked be thereby roused to 
 x 6
 
 468 ATHALIAH AND JEHOSHEBA. 
 
 forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his 
 thoughts, that he mayfleefrom the wrath to come. 
 1. From this subject, we gather a striking 
 lesson as to the opposite effects of a false and 
 true religion on the national temper and dispo- 
 sition. Of all the female characters that have 
 come under our contemplation in these dis- 
 courses, by far the worst and vilest are a hea- 
 then woman, and the daughter of a heathen 
 woman; Jezebel, who was born and bred among 
 pagans, and Athaliah, who imbibed her idola- 
 trous principles. Not one of the mothers or 
 daughters of Israel or Judah, among whom a 
 knowledge of the true God existed, ever ran 
 into the same excess of profligacy and barbarity. 
 The reason of the difference is, that true reli- 
 gion not only secures the future salvation of 
 the individual believer, but exercises a present 
 humanizing influence on the whole body of a 
 nation, and diffuses streams of moral health 
 among persons of all ranks and ages. It tends 
 to improve the modes of education, and to 
 ameliorate the institutions of government. It 
 goes to curb the arrogance of the prince, and to 
 restrain the ferocity of the subject. It wars 
 against the natural selfishness of the human 
 heart, and encourages the culture of liberality 
 and charity in thinking and in acting, and of 
 mutual forbearance and mutual love. The 
 result is, that it raises the tone of sentiment 
 and feeling throughout the entire community,
 
 ATHALIAH AND JEHOSHEBA. 469 
 
 even though many of its individual members 
 may not be the subjects of divine grace, and 
 produces an effect favourable to human welfare 
 upon the high and upon the low, upon the 
 young and upon the old, upon men, upon 
 women, and upon children. Godliness, or true 
 religion, in a national as well as in an individual 
 point of view, has promise of the life that now 
 is, and is conducive in a thousand ways to the 
 diminution of present misery and the increase 
 of present happiness, while the dark places of 
 the earth, which are unblessed with the light of 
 revelation, are full of the habitations of cruelty. 
 Let us then thankfully cherish our Christianity 
 and our Protestantism, the purest form of true 
 religion that the world has ever seen, as a tem- 
 poral and national good, setting aside for the 
 moment its far greater value as the means of in- 
 dividual and eternal happiness. And let us feel 
 a compassion for those miserable portions of 
 our fallen race, who are lying as it were in the 
 valley of the shadow of death, groaning under 
 the oppressive sway of senseless and cruel 
 superstitions, and strive and pray that the true 
 God's holy ways may be made known to all 
 sorts, and conditions, and tribes of men, his 
 saving health unto all nations. 
 
 2. From this subject, we gather a striking 
 lesson also, as to the opposite effects of matri- 
 monial alliances with the wicked and with the 
 righteous. Good King Jehoshaphat committed
 
 470 ATHALIAH AND JEHOSHEBA. 
 
 a grievous error, when he formed a friendship 
 with Ahab, and cemented that friendship by 
 the marriage of his son Jehoram with Athaliah, 
 the daughter of that impious monarch, and of 
 his more impious queen. He thereby brought 
 a scorpion into his family, who, with the single 
 exception of a child providentially saved, de- 
 stroyed the whole of his descendants. The 
 great cause of the antediluvian corruption, and 
 its awful consequences, was the sons of God 
 taking to themselves wives of the daughters of 
 men, or the intermarriage of a pious with an 
 impious race. The same cause, as appears 
 from this history, operated an almost utter 
 extinction of the family of David, and wrought 
 incalculable calamities in Judah and Jerusalem. 
 Be not ye, then, unequally yoked with unbe- 
 lievers. But behold in the same narrative an 
 illustration of the good arising from intermarry- 
 ing with the righteous. Jehosheba, by being 
 united to the upright and pious high priest 
 Jehoiada, was able, by the counsel and encou- 
 ragement of a husband zealous in the cause of 
 true religion and national happiness, to defeat the 
 nefarious schemes of an unprincipled usurper. 
 She rescued the royal seed from utter extinc- 
 tion ; and her efforts ultimately resulted in the 
 establishment of David's son on the throne of 
 his ancestors, the ignominious destruction of 
 the atrocious Athaliah, the subjugation of all 
 his enemies, and the universal acknowledgment
 
 ATHALIAH AND JEHOSHEBA. 471 
 
 of his lawful sway. Thus the marriage of Je- 
 hosheba with a pious high priest was the means 
 of counteractiag the worst of the melancholy 
 effects of the marriage of Jehoram with an 
 impious woman. How important, then, to form 
 such alliances with those only who live in the 
 fear of God ! 
 
 3. From this history we gather, finally, how 
 utter and inevitable is the destruction of the 
 ungodly, and how certain is the future glory 
 of the people of God. Ahab and Jezebel, 
 great as their power seemed once to be, came 
 to a violent, and the latter to an ignominious 
 end. Every one of their children that were in 
 the land, and within reach, was put to death 
 by the hand or influence of Jehu; and even 
 the ferocious Athaliah, their only surviving 
 offspring, who was married to the king of an- 
 other country, was ultimately brought to con- 
 dign punishment, and destroyed amid the exe- 
 crations of an oppressed people. Oh, let the 
 unprincipled and impenitent take warning by 
 her fate, and her parents' fate, and be assured 
 that, sooner or later, their sins will find them 
 out; for there is no darkness nor shadow of 
 death, where the workers of iniquity may 
 hide themselves from the all-seeing eye of God. 
 But the seed of the righteous, though for a time 
 in peril and in obscurity, will at last come to 
 certain happiness and glory, even as the infant 
 Joash, though at one time in great danger of
 
 472 ATHALIAH AND JEHOSHEBA. 
 
 death, and laid amidst the slain, and afterwards 
 concealed from the nation's eyes, came forth at 
 last from the darkness and the storm, to possess 
 the throne and the diadem amid the gratula- 
 tions of rejoicing multitudes. Ye that love the 
 Lord, take courage at the sight. Whatever be 
 your perils, or trials, or difficulties, for awhile 
 in this vale of tears, let not your heart be trou- 
 bled, neither let it be afraid. The time is 
 coming on when He to whom you commit your 
 ways shall bring forth your righteousness as 
 the light, and your judgment as the noon-day. 
 Rest in the Lord, and wait ye patiently on Him, 
 and you shall ere long come to Zion with songs 
 and everlasting joy on your heads : and ye 
 shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and 
 sighing shall flee away. Like Jehosheba and 
 her pious husband Jehoiada, and emancipated 
 Judah and Jerusalem, after enduring for 
 awhile the cruel oppression of sin, you shall be 
 consoled for all your tribulation by mingling in 
 the glad throng around your Saviour-Sove- 
 reign's throne in the heavenly kingdom, and 
 joining in the joyful anthem of eternal loyalty 
 and praise 
 
 " All hail the great Immanuel's name, 
 
 Ye angels prostrate fall ; 
 Bring forth the Royal Diadem, 
 And crown Him Lord of all."
 
 SERMON XXI. 
 
 HULDAH THE PROPHETESS. 
 
 2 KINGS xxii. 14. 
 
 "SoHilkiah the priest, and Ahikam,and Achbor,and Shaphan, 
 and Asahiah, went unto Huldah, the prophetess, the wife of 
 Shallum, the son of Tikvah,the son of Harhas, keeperof.the 
 wardrobe (now she dwelt in Jerusalem, in the college), and 
 they communed with her." 
 
 As we have had, in the course of these Sabbath 
 evenings' meditations, to contemplate the con- 
 duct of women, by the light of Scripture, in all 
 grades of life, and in very various temporal 
 positions, we have now to regard her as sus- 
 taining an ecclesiastical character, or perform- 
 ing the functions of a spiritual teacher. Men- 
 tion is made of prophetesses in several parts of 
 Scripture, as of Miriam, the prophetess, the 
 sister of Moses and Aaron ; of Deborah, a pro- 
 phetess, who judged Israel ; of Anna, a pro- 
 phetess, who departed not from the temple, but 
 served God with fastings and prayers, night 
 and day; and o-' he cv~ having 
 
 four daughters, vir^iub, which dm prophesy.
 
 474 HULDAH THE PROPHETESS. 
 
 The term prophetess is, in one place, applied to 
 a prophet's wife, and apparently for no other 
 reason than because she bore that relation to 
 one sustaining the prophetic office, as the wife 
 of the prophet Isaiah. As there were false pro- 
 phets, it appears, from two passages of Scrip- 
 ture, there were sometimes also false pro- 
 phetesses, as the prophetess Noadiah, who op- 
 posed the godly works of Nehemiah, and the 
 woman Jezebel, noticed in the Revelation, who 
 called herself a prophetess '. A prophetess, in 
 the higher and present sense of the w r ord, was a 
 female who was endowed with extraordinary 
 divine gifts, and enabled to communicate to 
 man the will of God, to impart counsel beyond 
 the reach of human wisdom, and to predict 
 events undiscernible by human prescience or 
 sagacity. Persons so favoured of Heaven natu- 
 rally occupied a conspicuous place in the eyes 
 of their neighbours and contemporaries, and 
 acted as teachers of the ignorant, leaders on 
 important occasions, and guides in periods of 
 difficulty and perplexity. Of this character 
 were Miriam, and Deborah, and Anna, and 
 probably Philip's daughters, and Huldah, the 
 subject of our present discourse. 
 
 From the circumstances recorded in con- 
 nexion with these names, it is evident that the 
 gift of prophecy, in old times, was not limited 
 to the male, but extended also to the female sex. 
 
 1 See Sermons on Miriam and Jezebel.
 
 HULDAH THE PROPHETESS. 475 
 
 Some parts of St. Paul's writings appear to 
 militate against that opinion, and require, be- 
 fore we proceed, a word or two of explanation, 
 to reconcile their seeming discrepancy on this 
 point with the rest of the Holy Scriptures. 
 That Apostle, in his first epistle to the Corinth- 
 ians 2 , says, " Let your women keep silence in 
 the churches : for it is not permitted unto them 
 to speak ; but they are commanded to be under 
 obedience, as saith the law of Moses;" by which 
 Law is probably meant the book of the Law of 
 Moses, or the Pentateuch, which, in its former 
 part, or Genesis, contains these words of God to 
 Eve after her transgression, " He shall rule 
 over thee." " And," says the Apostle further, 
 " if they will learn any thing, let them ask their 
 husbands at home : for it is a shame for women 
 to speak in the church." In his first epistle to 
 Timothy, he says to the same effect : " Let the 
 woman learn, in silence, with all subjection. 
 But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp 
 authority over the man, but to be in silence." 
 These passages seem, at first sight, to be in op- 
 position to those passages of Scripture just re- 
 ferred to, which ascribe the gift of prophecy to 
 the woman ; and even to a passage in another 
 part of St. Paul's own writings, in which, while 
 he gives directions concerning the apparel of 
 women, he implies their possession of the pro- 
 phetic gift, saying, " Every woman praying or 
 
 2 Chap. xiv. 34, 35.
 
 476 HULDAH THE PROPHETESS. 
 
 prophesying with her head uncovered dishonour- 
 eth her head." But the discrepancy is only in 
 appearance, not in reality, for the thing pro- 
 hibited by the apostle is perfectly distinct from 
 the exercise of the prophetic gift which is 
 ascribed by other inspired penmen, and by 
 himself in the last passage quoted, to the female 
 sex. His prohibition refers to the delivering of 
 opinions, or asking questions in public, or the 
 assumption of authority to teach a congregation 
 by women in general, without reference to 
 supernatural qualifications. He might well in- 
 fer from the analogy of things, from a consider- 
 ation of God's usual method of dealing with 
 our race in spiritual matters, from the patri- 
 archal dispensation, in which men, and not 
 women, were the principal instruments of 
 heavenly communications, from the Mosaic 
 economy, in which men only were employed in 
 the sacerdotal office, from the evangelical minis- 
 try, which, including the twelve Apostles, and 
 the seventy rri<rinally appointed b; : to 
 
 preach the , was confined exclusively to 
 
 the male sex from all that he knew of the past 
 he might infer that God designed the appoint- 
 ment of men rather than of women to the offices 
 of public teachers in the ' .. ; or of public 
 interpreters of the divine will. He delivered 
 his admonitions and exhortations upon the sub- 
 ject in conformity with that inference, and, as 
 a general rule, prohibited the female sex from
 
 HULDAH THE PROPHETESS. 477 
 
 ministering in the congregations, or carrying 
 on disputations in a public assembly of the 
 faithful. But the rule that was proper and ex- 
 pedient for the usual course of things, ceased 
 to be of force under circumstances which called 
 for the extraordinary interposition of divine 
 power or guidance, even as the laws of nature 
 gave way before the exertion of miraculous 
 energy. Accordingly, while, agreeably to the 
 tenour of the Scriptures, the Apostle commands 
 women to be learners rather than teachers, to 
 be hearers rather than preachers, he by no 
 means forbids those of them to prophesy who 
 were unequivocally endowed with supernatural 
 gifts. There is, therefore, no real disagreement 
 upon the point between c ' and the rest 
 
 of the sacred writers, or between different parts 
 of his own writings ; the seeming inconsistency 
 arising only from our confounding God's ordi- 
 nary modes of dealing with his creatures under 
 ordinary circumstances, and his extraordinary 
 operations in peculiar times and on great emer- 
 gencies. At such times, and on such emergen- 
 cies the Almighty and the All-wise One, for 
 the best of reasons, often departs from the em- 
 ployment of the usual means, and the cus- 
 tomary instrumentality, and hence He has often 
 delegated women rather than men to communi- 
 cate his solemn messages, and to effect his high 
 purposes, such as Miriam, and Deborah, and 
 Anna, and Huldah the prophetess.
 
 478 HULDAH THE PROPHETESS. 
 
 Huldah lived in the reign of Josiah, king 
 of Israel, about 240 years later than Athaliah 
 and Jehosheba, the subjects of our last con- 
 templations ; and about 624 years before our 
 Saviour's birth. She was the wife of Shallum, 
 keeper of the wardrobe; an officer, it is sup- 
 posed, closely connected with the court. She 
 dwelt in Jerusalem, in the college. Now 
 the original word here translated " college," is 
 of somewhat doubtful meaning. If the right 
 translation be "college," or school, we may 
 suppose it to mean a school of the prophets, 
 such as are elsewhere noticed in Scripture, or 
 some important institution for male or female 
 education, with which Huldah, on account of 
 her eminent endowments, was officially con- 
 nected. But the opinion of the learned in 
 general is in favour of rendering the word by 
 the expression " second order or second rank," 
 i. e. the second rank of buildings from the royal 
 palace. The term probably indicates houses 
 or apartments adjoining the royal residence, 
 provided for the court ladies, or those con- 
 nected directly or indirectly with offices in the 
 court or palace. The Jews maintain, that she 
 was one of the court ladies, and that she exer- 
 cised her gift of prophecy in that exalted sta- 
 tion. Happy the court that had a prophetess 
 within its verge, and knew how to value her 
 holy inspiration! Residing in the immediate 
 vicinity, and being known to possess heavenly
 
 HULDAH THE PROPHETESS. 479 
 
 endowments, it became natural to have recourse 
 to her advice under circumstances which per- 
 plexed the royal mind, or concerned the well- 
 being of the nation. The particulars which 
 render the Scripture notice of her name in- 
 structive and important, may be arranged under 
 the two following heads : the occasion on which 
 she was consulted by the king's messengers, 
 and the revelations she made in answer to their 
 inquiry. 
 
 1. The occasion on which she was consulted 
 by the messengers of King Josiah, was the 
 discovery of the book of the law in the house of 
 the Lord by Hilkiah the high priest. Josiah 
 was the best of all the Jewish kings since the 
 days of David. He came to the throne at the 
 very early age of eight years. He was early 
 brought under religious impressions, and in- 
 duced soon after to set about a public reforma- 
 tion of religion in the land ; for in the eighth 
 year of his reign, " when he was about sixteen," 
 he began to seek after the God of David his 
 father ; " and in the twelfth year of his reign, 
 when he was twenty, he began to purge Judah 
 and Jerusalem from the high places, and the 
 groves, and the carved images, and the molten 
 images." Having destroyed the symbols of 
 idolatry, he adopts measures for the re-esta- 
 blishment of the worship of the true God in its 
 pristine purity and integrity. He gives orders 
 for repairing and beautifying the house of the
 
 480 HULDA.H THE PROPHETESS. 
 
 Lord. To meet the expenses necessary for the 
 purpose, he sanctions the collecting of volun- 
 tary offerings, by the Levites, at the doors of 
 entrance for public worship ; and after a con- 
 venient time, he sends his ministers to Hilkiah 
 the high priest, to take account of the accumu- 
 lated fund, and to lay it out in the reparation 
 and decoration of the temple. While employed 
 on this business, Hilkiah the high priest found 
 a book of the law of the Lord given by Moses, 
 communicated the circumstance to Shaphan 
 the scribe, and delivered it to that officer to be 
 carried by him to the king their master. The 
 scribe, upon returning to the royal presence, 
 gave the monarch an account of the execution 
 of the trust committed to him, and his fellow- 
 officers, and Hilkiah the high priest, respecting 
 the temple of the Lord, and acquainted him 
 with the discovery in that sacred edifice by 
 Hilkiah of the book which he held in his hand, 
 and which, according to the representation of 
 the high priest, was " a book of the law of the 
 Lord given by Moses." The valuable treasure 
 was immediately opened and read aloud ; but 
 Shaphan, who performed that office, had not 
 proceeded far with its precious contents, when 
 the king, surprised and affected by the awful 
 things he heard, rent his clothes in token of 
 the deepest sorrow, anxiety, and alarm. 
 
 What book was that which, in the perusal, 
 so surprised and affected the king ? The effect
 
 HULDAH THE PROPHETESS. 481 
 
 was certainly similar to what would have been 
 produced by the contents of a work with which 
 he was totally unacquainted before. Were the 
 sacred Scriptures then altogether unknown to 
 the pious Josiah, who was early impressed with 
 religion, and had already made considerable 
 progress in its public reformation? We can 
 scarcely imagine that. The apparently strange 
 circumstance has been explained in several 
 ways. 1. Some, who think it scarcely con- 
 ceivable that all copies of the Scripture but 
 this had been lost, considering the solemn in- 
 junctions contained within itself for its distri- 
 bution, and the number of copies which must 
 have been, in consequence, distributed through 
 all the tribes of Israel in different ages, and the 
 recorded fact, that in the reign of Jehoshaphat, 
 about 250 years before, an itinerant ministry 
 went about throughout the whole country, and 
 taught the people out of the book of the law 
 some, influenced by these considerations, sup- 
 pose the book discovered on the present occa- 
 sion to have been that part of the Pentateuch 
 only called Deuteronomy, or even that portion 
 of Deuteronomy, including the twenty-eighth 
 and the three following chapters, which con- 
 tain the renewing of the covenant in the plains 
 of Moab, and the most terrible invectives 
 against the corrupters of God's word and wor- 
 ship. They suppose it to have been the auto- 
 graph document written by the hand of Moses, 
 
 SECOND SERIES. Y
 
 482 HULDAH THE PROPHETESS. 
 
 containing the covenant and its appended pro- 
 mises and denunciations made between God 
 and the people of Israel on the plains of Moab, 
 just before their entrance into the promised 
 land, and concerning which Moses had com- 
 manded just before his death, saying to the 
 Levites, " Take this book of the law, and put 
 it in the side of the ark of the covenant of the 
 Lord your God, that it may be there for a wit- 
 ness against thee." The document being con- 
 fined to the last covenant made between God 
 and his people would, when perused, fix the 
 royal attention more closely upon its many 
 violations in the bygone years of idolatry, and 
 even during his own reign, and create undis- 
 guised alarm for the consequences. Or if the 
 volume was the entire of Deuteronomy, or the 
 entire of the Pentateuch, the circumstance of 
 its being found in the handwriting of the great 
 lawgiver, and complete in all its parts after so 
 many centuries, ^the wide departure of the 
 people from the holy laws therein laid down 
 for their guidance at the institution of their 
 commonwealth, the gross abuses which still 
 remained unreformed in the land, and the enor- 
 mous distance still existing between the state 
 of the nation in point of religion and morality, 
 and the state required by the standard of the 
 Divine testimony the evident genuineness of 
 the Mosaic law, and the notorious defects in its 
 obedience all this, combined together in the
 
 HULDAH THE PROPHETESS. 483 
 
 mind, would quite suffice to account for the 
 pious king's distress. 
 
 2. Others are of opinion, that this was the 
 first complete copy of the law that King Josiah 
 ever saw. Not only had idolatry often and 
 long prevailed, but many sovereigns, who were 
 persecutors of the true religion, had reigned 
 both in Israel and Judah. The Scriptures 
 would, in these ages, cease to be copied, treated 
 with neglect, and purposely destroyed, and the 
 rabbins expressly declare, that Ahaz, Manasseh, 
 and Ammon, did their utmost to obliterate 
 every trace of them from the land. Or if the 
 destruction of them was not deliberately prose- 
 cuted, it is held to be highly probable that their 
 number had decreased through the neglect of 
 the kings, and priests, and people in the course 
 of ages. Instead of every monarch, as origin- 
 ally commanded, transcribing the Scriptures, 
 on his accession to the throne, and the priests 
 and Levites multiplying entire copies of them, 
 it appears that many kings totally neglected 
 their duty in that respect, and it is supposed, 
 that those officially concerned with the services 
 of religion, to save time and toil, contented 
 themselves with transcribing certain abstracts 
 or abridgments of them, to serve as rituals or 
 compendious guides in the observances and 
 ceremonies of worship. These summaries or 
 extracts from the Bible would circulate among 
 the people, and supersede in their minds the 
 Y 2
 
 484 HULDAH THE PROPHETESS. 
 
 necessity of an acquaintance with the book of 
 Moses as originally composed. But, consisting 
 only of precepts and directions, separated from 
 the promises and threatenings by which duties 
 are enforced, they would lose their efficacy upon 
 the mind, and leave it less fortified against the 
 inroads of idolatry and superstition. It seems 
 very probable that the king himself had here- 
 tofore seen only some such compendium, and 
 therefore when he heard, for the first time, as 
 part of God's holy word, those terrible denun- 
 ciations in Deuteronomy against unfaithfulness 
 and apostasy ; and knowing how far his sub- 
 jects and ancestors on the throne had departed 
 from the divine commands, and how they had 
 exposed themselves to the threatened vengeance, 
 he was overwhelmed with grief and fear, and he 
 expressed to the chief officers of the church and 
 state the deepest anxiety to ascertain what 
 could be done to avert the impending destruc- 
 tion, saying, " Go ye, inquire of the Lord for 
 me, and for the people, and for all Judah, con- 
 cerning the words of this book that is found : 
 for great is the wrath of the Lord that is kin- 
 dled against us, because our fathers have not 
 hearkened unto the words of this book, to do 
 according unto all that which is written con- 
 cerning us." 
 
 But whither shall they go to inquire of the 
 Lord? There had been a time when the high 
 priest could solve such difficulties. The Urim
 
 HULDAH THE PROPHETESS. 485 
 
 and Thummim on his breast-plate had once 
 brightly reflected the light of heaven. But the 
 priests, as well as the people, had for ages so 
 corrupted their ways, as probably to have for- 
 feited that oracular gift. Or the word of God 
 in its entireness had been so neglected by all 
 classes of the nation for so long a time, that 
 Hilkiah, though himself a pious man, was igno- 
 rant that to inquire of God was a distinguishing 
 part of his office, or he thought himself un- 
 worthy after so long disuse to revive its exercise 
 in his own person. And as for Jeremiah and 
 Zephaniah, who prophesied in this reign, it is 
 possible that the former was at Anathoth, and 
 too far away to be consulted with the despatch 
 which the emergency seemed to require, and 
 that the latter had not yet been called to the 
 prophetic office, or was not yet known as a pro- 
 phet of the Lord. But it had pleased God to 
 raise up a pious woman to meet the difficulty. 
 As Deborah brought relief to an afflicted nation, 
 so Huldah was able to solve the difficulties of 
 a perplexed king. Shaphan, though a scribe, 
 and one who ought to have been learned in the 
 divine law, and Hilkiah, though a high-priest, 
 and one whose official endowments in better 
 times had sufficed for the occasion, were glad 
 to have recourse to the advice of the heavenly- 
 minded prophetess, and they went and " com- 
 muned with her." The subject of their com- 
 munion or conversation with her was the por- 
 Y 3
 
 486 HULDAH THE PROPHETESS. 
 
 tion of the Mosaic law which had excited the 
 alarm of the king, and the inquiry they pro- 
 posed, as appears from her answer, was in what 
 sense the divine denunciations were to be un- 
 derstood, to whom they applied, or what steps 
 were to be taken to prevent their execution 
 upon the present generation. 
 
 The answer she returned to this inquiry 
 was twofold, an answer of severity to the nation 
 an answer of mercy to the king. The people, 
 as a nation, had sinned beyond forgiveness, 
 and must undergo the threatened penalty. 
 They had done according to all the abomina- 
 tions which Moses had warned them against, 
 and they must suffer according to all the 
 threatenings contained in the awful book. God, 
 through his servant Moses, had, at the begin- 
 ning, by a solemn covenant set before them life 
 and death, saying 3 , "If thine heart turn away 
 so that thou shalt not hear, but shalt be drawn 
 away, and worship other gods and serve them, 
 I denounce unto you this day that ye shall 
 surely perish, and that ye shall not prolong 
 your days upon the land whither ye go over 
 Jordan to possess it." They had disregarded 
 the menace they had done the very thing pro- 
 hibited they had forsaken the Lord they had 
 burned incense to other gods they had pro- 
 voked Jehovah to anger with all the works 
 of their hand ; and, " therefore," added God by 
 
 8 Deut. xxx. 17, 18.
 
 HULDAH THE PROPHETESS. 487 
 
 the prophetess, "my wrath shall be kindled 
 against this place, and shall not be quenched." 
 The decree was gone forth against the long- 
 continued contempt of God's revealed will, and 
 the obstinate iniquity of Jerusalem should not be 
 purged with sacrifice or offering ; and the time 
 was coming on when a highly prosperous and 
 privileged people were to taste the bitter woes 
 described in those words of terror, "The Lord 
 shall scatter thee among all people from the one 
 end of the earth even unto the other; and 
 among these nations shalt thou find no ease, 
 neither shall the sole of thy foot have rest : but 
 the Lord shall give thee there a trembling 
 heart and failing of eyes, and sorrow of mind ; 
 and thy life shall hang in doubt before thee ; 
 and thou shalt fear day and night, and shalt 
 have none assurance of thy life. In the morn- 
 ing thou shalt say, Would God it were even- 
 ing ! And at even thou shalt say, Would God 
 it were morning ! for the fear of thine heart 
 wherewith thou shalt fear, and for the sight of 
 thine eyes which thou shalt see." Oh, fearful 
 consequences of apostasy and impenitence, rea- 
 lized before men's eyes by the varied sufferings 
 through many ages of the ancient people of 
 God! What a pledge is exhibited in their 
 history of the certainty of God's vengeance in 
 the world to come against all the hardened 
 workers of iniquity, and the despisers of God's 
 gracious privileges! What an emblem does 
 Y 4
 
 488 HULDAH THE PROPHETESS. 
 
 the Mosaic picture of their punishment hold 
 forth of that sorer wo which awaits the unpar- 
 doned in the realms of eternal retribution, con- 
 cerning whom we read in the R- Vtibn, that 
 " they shall drink of the wine of the wrath of 
 God, which is poured out without mixture into 
 the cup of his indignation ; and they shall be 
 tormented with fire and brimstone in the pre- 
 sence of the holy angels, and the presence of 
 the . . : and they have no rest day nor night; 
 and the smoke of their torment ascendeth up 
 for ever and ever." Oh, let men think of this, 
 and be roused from their carelessness and tri- 
 fling. Let them be afraid of exhausting the 
 season of grace, the accepted time, and the day 
 of salvation, and let them make haste and delay 
 not to be reconciled to their offended God. 
 
 But terrible as He is in his wrath against the 
 impenitent, He will have mercy upon those 
 who, in time, turn unto Him with a broken 
 heart and a contrite spirit. His answer, by 
 Huldah, to the messengers of Josiah, as we 
 said, was twofold. If it was one of severity to 
 the people who, as a nation, had exhausted the 
 day of grace, it was one of mercy to the indi- 
 vidual royal applicant, who had himself sought 
 in time the Lord his God. He had sought 
 Him early and he found Him. He remembered 
 his Creator in the days of his youth; and he 
 was delivered from the evil days to come. His 
 heart was tender, and he felt the evil and
 
 HULDAH THE PROPHETESS. 489 
 
 clanger of sin. He humbled himself before God 
 on account of the iniquities of his people. He 
 rent his clothes, and wept before the Lord in 
 deep distress of mind at their awful departure 
 from his service, and the terrible indignation 
 they had provoked. He was anxious, and he 
 exerted himself to bring about a thorough 
 reformation in his court and kingdom. He, in 
 short, bore all the marks of a sincerely penitent 
 and renewed character ; and, therefore, he re- 
 ceived for himself a blessed answer of peace, 
 " Behold, I will gather thee unto thy fathers, 
 and thou shalt be gathered unto thy grave in 
 peace; and thine eyes shall not see all the evils 
 which I will bring upon this place." " Blessed 
 are they that mourn, for they shall be com- 
 forted." A broken heart and contrite spirit, an 
 humble consciousness of having deserved wrath, 
 an earnest application for mercy, a solicitude to 
 know, and henceforth to do the will of the Most 
 High, these are things which accompany salva- 
 tion, and will never be rejected by a gracious 
 God and Saviour. His language to all such is, 
 " Him that cometh unto me I will in no wise cast 
 out." Oh, then, who shall delay to apply unto 
 Him? Who shall disregard the blessed and 
 comprehensive invitation, " Come unto me all 
 ye that are weary and heavy laden, and I will 
 give you rest?" 
 
 The communication of Huldah stimulated 
 the king and his ministers, and the high priest, 
 Y 5
 
 490 HULDAH THE PROPHETESS. 
 
 who cheerfully co-operated with their monarch 
 to work a great reformation. As already inti- 
 mated, it had been commenced before the find- 
 ing of the book of the law. But that providen- 
 tial discovery gave an extraordinary impulse to 
 the carrying on of the good work. The king 
 assembled together in the house of God an im- 
 mense multitude of priests, and Levites, and pro- 
 phets, and people, and read in their ears the 
 contents of the wonderful volume, and caused 
 them to renew, in their own names, and by per- 
 sonal and voluntary engagement, the covenant 
 therein contained, as originally made between 
 Jehovah and the children of Israel in the time 
 of Moses. He then proceeded to destroy every 
 vestige of idolatry throughout the land, and in 
 that same year celebrated a passover unto the 
 Lord, pure and complete in all its parts, as 
 commanded in the law of Moses, so that " there 
 was not holden such a passover from the days 
 of the judges that judged Israel, nor in all the 
 days of the kings of Israel, nor of the kings of 
 Judah." The effect of this hearty and thorough 
 return unto the Lord, and restoration of his 
 worship, was to avert from that reign the cala- 
 mities threatened against the crying sins of the 
 nation, so that Josiah saw nothing of the deso- 
 lation of Jerusalem, and the captivity of Judah, 
 and their attendant unprecedented national woes, 
 but was gathered into the grave of his fathers 
 in peace. The manner of his death may in-
 
 HULDAH THE PROPHETESS. 491 
 
 deed, at first sight, appear to be a contradiction 
 of Huldah's prophecy, for he died in conse- 
 quence of a wound which he received in a 
 battle with Pharaoh Necho, king of Egypt 
 but in fact it was a merciful fulfilment of it. 
 He had thought it his duty to oppose that 
 monarch, when attempting to force a passage 
 through his territories, and was wounded in 
 the conflict, but was not slain on the field of 
 battle. He was brought home to Jerusalem, 
 and died in peace amid the lamentations of his 
 people ; and his beloved memory became the 
 subject of mourning songs, and pathetic strains, 
 attuned to the harps of Israel, and sung by the 
 chiefs and matrons of Judah for many ages and 
 generations, even to the present day. Had his 
 life not been cut short by war, it is most pro- 
 bable that, according to the course of nature, 
 being then not forty years of age, he might 
 have lived to the period appointed for the cap- 
 tivity of his subjects, and the destruction of 
 his capital, which took place in three-and- 
 twenty years from that time, and as his piety 
 and zeal, though the means of his own salva- 
 tion, could not have availed to prevent that 
 predestined national catastrophe, he was by a 
 premature and honourable death taken away 
 from the evil to come. He was spared the 
 sight of the humiliation and disgrace of Israel, 
 of the carrying away into a distant land of bond- 
 age both king and subject, high and low, old 
 Y 6
 
 492 HULDAH THE PROPHETESS. 
 
 and young, men, mothers, maidens, and chil- 
 dren, and of all the heartbreaking scenes of that 
 desolating retribution events, oh how infinitely 
 more distressing to a king, that was the father 
 of his people, than his own fatal wound which 
 he received in defence of his country ! So that, 
 in comparison with such calamities, his death, 
 though the effect of a wound, taking place in 
 his own metropolis and his own palace, and 
 surrounded by the regrets and sympathies of 
 admiring friends, attached servants, and faithful 
 subjects, was a dispensation of most seasonable 
 mercy and goodness, and the prophecy of Hul- 
 dah was full of significant meaning and most 
 consistent truth : " Behold, I will gather thee 
 unto thy fathers, and thou shalt be gathered 
 unto thy grave in peace, and thine eyes shall 
 not see the evil which I will bring upon this 
 place." 
 
 Briefly to apply the subject, this, like all the 
 preceding female histories we have considered, 
 is replete with practical instruction of a very 
 important kind, indeed far more so than we 
 had anticipated before we came to its careful 
 study ; and we have no time to do any thing 
 like justice to the varied lessons it conveys. 
 We can but briefly indicate one or two of them, 
 leaving the rest to be deduced by your own 
 private and devout meditations. 
 
 1. I think the subject full of admonitions 
 applicable to the present day. It is an age,
 
 HULDAH THE PROPHETESS. 493 
 
 for example, when, by some, inordinate import- 
 ance is attached to the doctrine of a, iral 
 succession, as if none could be true ministers 
 o' 'at those who could trace up their 
 
 ecclesiastical pedigree through an unbroken 
 chain o> ,,... consecration and ordination 
 
 to the first i ^ v a'tlu Y and as if the 
 
 sacraments and ordinances m CIH -.- a1 were 
 
 altogether invalid, unless administered ay such 
 hands. It is well indeed to have good order 
 and government in the . ~^i as well as 
 in the state, and most consistent with God's 
 word that all things connected with the minis- 
 tration of religion should be done decently and 
 in order, for God is not the author of confu- 
 sion ; and I think that the episcopal form of 
 church government is the best calculated to 
 maintain that decency and order, though it 
 may not be without disadvantages, and indeed 
 nothing can pretend to perfection in this world 
 of sin and corruption. But there is nothing in 
 the Bible to warrant the attaching of so much 
 importance to that form of < i as if 
 
 every other form had no sh;ue m the cove- 
 nanted promises of God .1 Even if 
 the inspired volume had distinctly and expressly 
 pointed out what persons, and how ordained, 
 were they that should minister in the 
 sanctuary, it would not have followed, that tne 
 provisions of the . . & > Covenant would be 
 limited to the range ot their ministrations.
 
 494 HULDAH THE PROPHETESS. 
 
 Such distinct and express indication was made 
 with respect to the ministers of God under the 
 old dispensation, of which the present cannot 
 boast, and yet, even in that case, it was found 
 imperfect, not entirely adequate to the end 
 proposed, liable to corruption and abuse, and, 
 consequently, often deviated from, and super- 
 seded with the most salutary effects. The 
 appointed priest's lips, that should have always 
 kept knowledge, were often mute in darkness, 
 and their lives, which should have been patterns 
 to the rest of the nation, were a disgrace to 
 their sacred offices, as in the case of Eli's sons 
 and others, which caused the people committed 
 to their care to fall away into abominable ini- 
 quities and idolatries, and they were brought 
 back again and reformed only by the instru- 
 mentality of extraordinary messengers, inspired 
 by the Spirit of God, but not belonging to the 
 succession of the priesthood, as by Samuel, 
 Elijah, Elisha, and other prophets. And not 
 only was the spiritual guidance of the nation not 
 confined to the appointed priesthood, it was not 
 even confined to the male sex. The present and 
 other portions of the inspired record abundantly 
 prove, that holy women were often made in- 
 strumental in shedding divine light upon an 
 erring and sinful people. Who then shall pre- 
 sume to limit the channel of the divine opera- 
 tions ? 
 
 2. This subject is singularly instructive in
 
 HULDAH THE PROPHETESS. 495 
 
 another view, with regard to popish errors and 
 practices. There is a remarkable resemblance 
 between the time of Josiah, the youthful and 
 pious king of Judah, and our sixth Edward, 
 the youthful and pious king of England. In 
 the reign of the one, the book of the law of 
 Moses was found and read to the people ; in 
 the reign of the other, the Scriptures were 
 drawn out of obscurity, by means of transla- 
 tions, into the vernacular tongue, and dispersed 
 among the people. In both cases, an immense 
 impulse was thereby given to the reformation 
 of religion. Do not these two facts, so wonder- 
 fully parallel in their nature and consequences, 
 speak volumes as to the importance of dissemi- 
 nating the word of God, without mutilation or 
 abridgment, among all classes of people ? When 
 idolatry had overspread the land of Judah, it 
 appears, according to one interpretation of the 
 passage referring to the discovered book, that 
 not one whole copy of the Holy Scriptures had 
 been ever seen by the king or his subjects. 
 They had at best but seen abridgments or 
 summaries of the same, in which a most incor- 
 rect notion was conveyed of the Holy Spirit's 
 original composition by the hand of Moses. It 
 was precisely so at the reformation of Chris- 
 tianity in Europe in the sixteenth century. 
 The people and the generality of the priests 
 were utterly ignorant of the sacred volume in 
 its entireness. All that was commonly known
 
 496 HULDAH THE PROPHETESS. 
 
 of it consisted of short manuals, or abstracts 
 of God's word, mingled with human composi- 
 tions, which were held to be sufficient guides in 
 morality and devotion. When the whole Bible 
 was rendered into the vulgar tongue of the 
 country, the people were perfectly amazed at 
 such a work, and flocked in vast crowds to 
 read or to hear it read. The discrepancy be- 
 tween its contents, and the vile superstitions 
 and idolatries in which they had been educated, 
 exposed the errors of popery, and produced an 
 almost universal conviction in the land of its 
 impure and indefensible character; and the 
 people threw their idols to the moles and to 
 the bats, and embraced, with glad hearts and 
 with wonderful unanimity, the pure and una- 
 dulterated form " with which this 
 kingdom is blesseu a ^ me present day. What 
 once gave that superstition a shock, from which 
 it has not yet recovered, will, if encouraged and 
 supported for ever, prevent its return to enslave 
 the human race. If we would secure an un- 
 fettered and uncormptef 7 i, let us value, 
 and study, and strive to circulate the Holy 
 Scriptures, which in their perfect and unmuti- 
 lated form, are able to make men wise unto 
 salvation.
 
 SERMON XXII. 
 
 VASHTI. 
 
 ESTHER i. 12. 
 
 " But the Queen Vashti refused to come at the king's com- 
 mandment by his chamberlains : therefore was the king 
 very wroth, and his anger burned in him." 
 
 FROM the time of Huldah, the prophetess, 
 whose life was the subject of our last discourse, 
 and who lived in the reign of Josiah, king of 
 Judah, about 620 before the birth of Christ, a 
 whole century passed away in Jewish history, 
 without reference to any individuals of note 
 among the female sex. Some, especially the 
 Roman Catholics, might say that the heroic 
 Judith, and the virtuous Susanna, who are sup- 
 posed to have lived during that interval, must 
 be held to form very conspicuous exceptions to 
 that remark. But as they are mentioned only 
 in that portion of the Jewish writings which 
 we Protestants call the Apocrypha, and which,
 
 498 VASHTI. 
 
 however useful to be " read for example of life 
 and instruction of manners," we regard only as 
 of human origin, we cannot give them a place 
 among those whose characters have been pour- 
 trayed by the infallible pencil of inspiration, 
 and concerning whose biography no doubt has 
 ever been entertained by any branch of the 
 universal h. We, therefore, pass over, as 
 
 not coming \vahin the scope of our present 
 design, those hundred years of most stirring 
 events connected with God^s ancient people, as 
 foretold by Huldah, the prophetess, and others, 
 the Chaldean invasion of Judea the destruc- 
 tion of Jerusalem, with its splendid palaces, and 
 magnificent Temple of Solomon the carrying 
 away of the whole people into a distant land of 
 captivity their tears and sighs, and the mourn- 
 ful silence of their harps by the rivers of Baby- 
 lon all the sad effects of sin and impenitence; 
 and then the change wrought in them by the 
 severe lessons of affliction the noble and heroic 
 example of attachment to Jehovah which many 
 of them displayed in the season of tribulation, 
 even to the braving of torture and death, such 
 as Daniel entering undismayed into the den of 
 fierce lions, and the three children plunging 
 without alarm into the burning fiery furnace ; 
 and, finally, the mercy of a gracious God in re- 
 membering his people in their low estate, and 
 moving the heart of Cyrus to permit their re- 
 turn to the land of their fathers. All these
 
 VASHTI. 499 
 
 most interesting and momentous occurrences 
 took place between the time of Huldah and 
 the time when lived the only two remaining 
 women particularly noticed in the pages of 
 the Old Testament Vashti, the queen of 
 Persia, and Esther, her successor on that far- 
 famed throne. 
 
 Of these two, the one, the subject of our 
 present discourse, was an alien from the com- 
 monwealth of Israel; the other, to whom we 
 shall direct attention in our next, was a 
 daughter of Abraham, according to the flesh. 
 The history of God's ancient people is often 
 connected with that of heathen nations; and this 
 connexion has necessarily brought several 
 females before our notice, in these discourses, 
 belonging to other races and nations than that 
 of Israel, such as Thermuthis, the daughter of 
 Pharaoh ; Rahab, an inhabitant of Jericho ; 
 Ruth, a woman of Moab ; and Jezebel, the 
 daughter of Ethbaal, king of Tyre. Of all these, 
 though of heathen origin, with the single ex- 
 ception of Jezebel, we have reason to entertain 
 a very favourable opinion ; and their history 
 seems to show that at no time did " He, who 
 made of one blood all nations of men," entirely 
 confine the riches of his grace to the inhabi- 
 tants of a single country, or the members of a 
 particular ' 1>.. while it intimates the will of 
 God that all tne ends of the earth should come 
 unto Him and be saved. We think Vashti not
 
 500 VASHTI. 
 
 excepted from this worthy catalogue. We con- 
 sider her conduct far more entitled to our re- 
 spect than our censure ; and are much inclined 
 to believe that an impartial consideration of her 
 case will point her out as one of those who pre- 
 ferred the favour of God to the favour of man, 
 and who sought, though it cost her much tri- 
 bulation, to enter into the kingdom of heaven. 
 We have already intimated the time when she 
 lived. To determine it with accuracy, we must 
 determine what king of Persia is meant by the 
 Ahasuerus of the book of Esther, whose wife 
 she is said to have been. He is supposed, by 
 some, to have been the same as Darius Hys- 
 taspes, and by others the same as Xerxes, his 
 son, who, with an innumerable army, attempted 
 in vain to subdue the Greeks. But according 
 to the best authorities, and the most commonly 
 received opinion, he was the grandson of the 
 former, and the son of the latter, and the same 
 as Artaxerxes Longimanus, or the Longhanded, 
 so called, as some think, from the extraordinary 
 length of his hands ; as others think, from the 
 vast extent of territory comprehended within 
 his capacious grasp, his reign extending " from 
 India even unto Ethiopia, over a hundred and 
 seven and twenty provinces." Now this king, 
 whom we believe to have been the husband of 
 Vashti, began to reign about 470 years before 
 our Saviour's birth. On the death of his father 
 he found powerful opponents and competitors
 
 VASHTI. 501 
 
 for the throne in the persons of his cousins, the 
 children of Artabanus, and in the person of his 
 own brother, whose name was Hystaspes. In 
 the course of two years he totally subdued 
 these rivals and their adherents, and succeeded 
 in establishing himself in the undisputed pos- 
 session of the extensive Persian empire just 
 named. In the third year of his reign he made 
 a feast unto all his princes and his servants, 
 for the purpose, it is supposed, of celebrating, 
 by public rejoicings, the success which had 
 attended his arms, and his present undisturbed 
 enjoyment of power. After this feast, which 
 lasted a hundred and eighty days, he made 
 another feast unto all the people that were pre- 
 sent in Shushan, the palace, which lasted seven 
 days. Of these two feasts, some think the for- 
 mer was for the aristocracy of the empire, and 
 the latter for the common people then resident 
 in Shushan, the palace, i. e. Shushan, the city 
 of royal residence. Josephus says, that the 
 former feast, which continued for so long a 
 time, was for the entertainment of the king's 
 own numerous subjects, and the governors 
 of their respective provinces; and that the 
 latter, which was of a much shorter duration, 
 was for the entertainment of embassies, and 
 individuals from foreign nations. It is probable 
 that the former extended over the whole face of 
 the metropolitan city, if not, in a sense, over 
 the whole face of the Persian empire. The
 
 502 VASHTI. 
 
 latter was confined to the grounds and gardens 
 attached to the royal abode. The one was more 
 general : the other more select. Both were on 
 a vast scale of magnificence and prodigality. 
 At the first the king displayed the ample re- 
 sources of his wealth and power, for he 
 "showed the riches of his glorious kingdom, 
 and the honours of his excellent majesty." At 
 the second, though not equal to the first in the 
 amount of expenditure, he yet exhibited scenes 
 of most dazzling splendour and attractive lux- 
 uriousness. The spacious court of the palace 
 was turned into a banqueting hall, the partitions 
 consisting of richly and variously coloured 
 hangings, "fastened with cords of fine linen 
 and silk to silver rings and pillars of marble." 
 The couches, whereon the guests reclined, were 
 of the costliest materials, being made of 
 silver and gold; and the pavement under 
 their feet was composed of the most beauti- 
 ful mosaic work. The vessels, out of which 
 they drank, were of the most precious metal, 
 and of endless variety 1 in shape, size, and 
 workmanship; and the wines with which 
 they were regaled were of the richest flavour 
 and the most exquisite delicacy. That nothing 
 might interfere with the complete enjoyment 
 of his guests, the king issued orders, that 
 they should entirely use their own discre- 
 
 1 Some think that " diverse " implies different services of 
 plate.
 
 VASHTI. 503 
 
 tion as to the quantity of wine to be drunk by 
 each. It appears to have been customary 
 among the Persians at their feasts, as has been, 
 and too much is still the case, among many 
 other nations, not only to press, but by a 
 received law of revelry, to compel one another 
 to drink, without reference either to the rules 
 of sobriety or the ends of gratification. This 
 is the law to which reference is made in the 
 eighth verse of the first chapter of this history ; 
 where we should read, I think, not according to 
 the common rendering, " And the drinking 
 was according to the law ; none did compel :" 
 but thus, " The drinking which was according 
 to the law none did compel," i. e. the law by 
 which each guest was forced to drink certain 
 quantities, or by certain turns, was for that 
 time set aside by royal dispensation. In su- 
 perseding this absurd practice on the occasion, 
 the king acted the part of a true father to his 
 subjects, and showed a regard at once for their 
 virtue and their enjoyments, for drunkenness 
 is a foe to every virtue, and without temperance 
 there can be little enjoyment. 
 
 While the king was entertaining the male 
 guests in the pavilions erected on the palace 
 grounds, the queen Vashti was entertaining the 
 females within the apartments of the palace. 
 It was not usual, nor is it usual at the present 
 day, in the East, for men and women to feast 
 together at the same tables or in the same
 
 504 VASHTI. 
 
 rooms 2 . Travellers inform us, that not the 
 least communication is allowed between them 
 on these occasions, which accounts for the fact 
 that "Vashti the queen made a feast for the 
 women," not in the court, the garden, or the 
 grounds, where the men feasted, but " in the 
 royal house, which belonged to King Ahasue- 
 rus." Six days appear to have been spent by 
 both sexes without the occurrence of any event 
 to disturb the harmony and pleasure of their 
 festivities. But on the seventh day, a circum- 
 stance took place, which changed, in the case 
 of some of them at least, their scenes of mirth 
 into scenes of sadness, and their short-lived 
 enjoyments into scenes of lasting regrets. The 
 king sends a messenger to the queen, requiring 
 her to appear in his presence with the crown- 
 royal on her head, "to show the people and 
 the princes her beauty." What message shall 
 the king of Persia send that shall not be unhe- 
 sitatingly obeyed? What wish shall be ex- 
 pressed by the ruler of a hundred and twenty- 
 seven provinces that shall not be immediately 
 gratified ? What governor of a distant princi- 
 pality shall not fear to disregard his commands? 
 Surely, then^ there is no one in Persia, in Shu- 
 shan, in his own palace, in his own family, 
 who shall presume to refuse compliance. Yes, 
 " Vashti the queen heeded not the king's mes- 
 sage by his chamberlains, and refused to come." 
 
 2 See Burder.
 
 VASHTI. 505 
 
 Some are of opinion that she was to blame 
 for a conduct which, at first sight, may appear 
 uncourteous, and even haughty, and think it 
 would have better become the meekness of a 
 quiet spirit, which is the greatest ornament of 
 woman, to have gone, though it might be to a 
 company of wassailers, and that she would 
 have better performed the part of a dutiful 
 wife, by responding to the summons, though it 
 required an exhibition somewhat hurtful to her 
 feminine modesty, and derogatory to her royal 
 dignity. The religion which we have the hap- 
 piness to be blessed with, and which we believe 
 fully to embody the revealed will of God, is 
 eminently a religion of humility and kindness, 
 and sets such a value upon the prevalence of 
 peace, as to intimate, that scarcely any sacrifice 
 of convenience is too great to be made for its 
 preservation. Contentions and quarrels, heart- 
 burnings and animosities, are so utterly op- 
 posed to its genius, that every one of its sincere 
 disciples must acknowledge it to be a principal 
 human obligation, habitually to aim at their 
 restraint and eradication. The great Author of 
 the Gospel is styled the Prince of Peace. His 
 conduct on earth corresponded with the de- 
 signation, and fulfilled the prophetic declaration 
 concerning Him, that He should neither "strive 
 nor cry, and that he should be led as a lamb to 
 the slaughter, opening not his mouth against 
 his persecutors, though he had power to com- 
 
 SECOND SERIES. /
 
 506 VASHTI. 
 
 mand more than twelve legions of angels for 
 their destruction." His precepts to his disci- 
 ples were of the same peaceable tendency, and 
 He recommended them to suffer the loss of time 
 and property, rather than kindle the flames of 
 litigation and hostility. " I say unto you/' was 
 his positive command, " that ye resist not evil : 
 but whosoever shall smite thee on the right 
 cheek, turn to him the other also. And if any 
 man will sue thee at the law, and take away 
 thy coat, let him have thy cloak also. And 
 whosoever shall compel thee to go with him a 
 mile, go with him twain. Love your enemies, 
 bless them that curse you, do good to them 
 that hate you, and pray for them that despite- 
 fully use you, and persecute you." Among 
 the fruits of that Spirit, whom He sent to sup- 
 ply his own place, to perfect that which He had 
 left undone, and to lead men unto all truth 
 and holiness, are reckoned peace, long-suffering, 
 gentleness, while hatred, variance, emulations, 
 wrath, strife, are classed among the fruits of 
 the flesh, or of man's corrupt and unregenerate 
 nature. And the language of Christ's greatest 
 apostle is, " If it be possible, live peaceably 
 with all men." These considerations, which 
 are undeniably most weighty and important, 
 have inclined many to think that Vashti would 
 have acted a wiser part, if she had yielded to 
 the imperiousness of circumstances, and obeyed 
 the monarch's commands, and that she did but
 
 VASHTI. 507 
 
 indulge in an uncalled-for haughtiness, and 
 gratify an overweening pride, when, on being 
 summoned during the feast into the presence 
 of the king, she " refused to come." 
 
 But, weighty and important as these consi- 
 derations are, we are inclined to take a different 
 view of her conduct, and, far from regarding it 
 as censurable, to applaud it as worthy of praise 
 and imitation. We fully grant that the genuine 
 revelations of the true God most emphatically 
 recommend the preservation of peace among 
 men, and that they approve of the sacrifice of 
 much for its sake. We may well believe the trea- 
 sure to be an ample compensation for the loss 
 of time, the loss of property, and the loss of per- 
 sonal consequence. But we must bear in mind, 
 that it will never compensate for the loss of 
 character, and that it is preserved at too dear a 
 rate, when it is preserved at the risk of princi- 
 ple. Such, we think, a careful attention to the 
 circumstances will show would have been the 
 case with Vashti, if she had complied with the 
 king's command. Let it be observed, that she 
 was required to take a step utterly inconsistent 
 with an established and universal custom of 
 the realm. There is, indeed, a passage in He- 
 rodotus, which represents the Persians as intro- 
 ducing their wives and concubines into their 
 public entertainments at a certain period of the 
 feast. But it is very doubtful whether such a 
 departure from the usual practice of the East 
 z 2
 
 508 VASHTI. 
 
 was any thing more than an act of licentious- 
 ness and extravagant revelry, and the outbreak- 
 ing of intellects obscured and bewildered by 
 intoxication and excess. Nay, it would appear 
 that the summons to Vashti proceeded from 
 that very cause ; for it was when the king's 
 heart was merry with wine, that he commanded 
 his chamberlains to bring the queen into the 
 presence of feasting and drinking men. Was 
 she, then, to blame, for refusing to break 
 through a respected custom of the country, out 
 of deference to the wishes of the intemperate 
 and unreasoning ? Would it have become her 
 station, as one from whom millions expected 
 an undeviating example of propriety and deco- 
 rum, to have exhibited herself to a company of 
 drunken Bacchanalians ? Would not the act of 
 appearing in such a presence have compromised 
 her character, and injured her reputation, and 
 relaxed, if not destroyed, her principle as a 
 virtuous and pure-minded woman ? Such a 
 sacrifice of modesty, more especially if, as some 
 Jewish writers contend, the sacrifice was still 
 more than we have supposed, and implied the 
 presenting herself to such a company in a state 
 too indelicate here to allude to, such a sacri- 
 fice of modesty would have been too great 
 even for the sake of domestic peace and har- 
 mony. We therefore think that she owed it to 
 herself as the most exalted female in the realm 
 that she owed it to her subjects, who, doubt-
 
 VASHTI. 509 
 
 less, as subjects usually do, narrowly watched 
 the demeanour of their sovereigns that she 
 owed it to the true God, if at all acquainted 
 with his will, who requires " shamefacedness 
 and sobriety in a woman professing godliness/' 
 to disobey the unreasonable summons of her 
 husband and her king. Her conduct appears 
 to us to be not only free from blame, but most 
 highly deserving of respect and admiration, 
 and to display a combination of qualities most 
 worthy the imitation of all her sex. Had she 
 consulted her own vanity, she would have un- 
 doubtedly complied, for she was very fair to 
 look upon. The very name by which she was 
 called implies extraordinary beauty, and her 
 personal attractions, combined with the un- 
 rivalled splendour of her royal apparel, would 
 have dazzled every eye, and won every heart, 
 and excited even the idolatrous applause of 
 every beholder among the wondering multitude. 
 Here, then, was the exercise of self-denial 
 rather than do wrong. Had she consulted the 
 natural timidity of her sex, she would have 
 complied ; for, although she might have reason 
 to fear the trusting of herself in the company 
 of the intoxicated, she had far greater reason to 
 fear the resentment of a disappointed despot, 
 possessed of absolute authority, and inflamed 
 by the -fumes of wine. Here, then, was courage 
 to brave peril rather than compromise character. 
 Had she been swayed by temporal consider- 
 z 3
 
 510 VASHTI. 
 
 ations of personal interest the possible loss of 
 her rank, her station, her crown, the most bril- 
 liant then on earth, and perhaps life itself, that 
 might follow as the penalty of disobedience 
 she would have complied. Here, then, was ex- 
 emplary fortitude, prepared to encounter adver- 
 sity, and probably death, rather than sacrifice 
 principle. In short, we think that if she had 
 attended to her own immediate ease and com- 
 fort, without reference to Him who shall bring 
 every work into judgment, she would not have 
 refused compliance with the royal message. 
 Here, then, was a piety, a resolve to please God 
 rather than men, which reminds us of that 
 eminent servant of the Most High, who refused 
 to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, 
 and chose rather to suffer affliction with the 
 people of God than enjoy the pleasures of sin 
 for a season ; yea, of those still more sorely 
 tried confessors of the true faith, who, when 
 required to worship the symbol of idolatry, 
 erected in the plain of Dura, replied, " O Nebu- 
 chadnezzar, we are not careful to answer thee in 
 this matter. If it be so, our God, whom we serve 
 is able to deliver us from the burning fiery fur- 
 nace, and he will deliver us out of thy hands, 
 O king. But if not, be it known unto thee, O 
 king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor wor- 
 ship the golden image which thou hast set up." 
 Let us now consider the consequences which 
 actually followed her refusal. King Ahasuerus,
 
 VASHTI. 511 
 
 upon learning that Vashti refused to come, like 
 Nebuchadnezzar before him, when the servants 
 of the true God refused to worship an abomin- 
 able idol, was transported with rage and fury. 
 As it vexed Nebuchadnezzar to think that 
 those whom he had brought from all the pro- 
 vinces of his empire to witness the grandeur of 
 his majesty, and the mightiness of his power, 
 should find him thwarted by men, who had 
 been carefully prepared for his service, who 
 stood continually in his presence, whom he 
 consulted on matters of the highest moment, 
 and whom he had placed over the affairs of the 
 metropolitan province of Babylon ; so it morti- 
 fied and enraged Ahasuerus to reflect that those 
 whom he had invited from the remotest parts 
 of his dominions, and probably from the realms 
 of other monarchs, and whom he meant to send 
 away astonished at the vastness of his resources, 
 the absoluteness of his authority, and the prompt 
 submission paid to every intimation of his will, 
 should behold him checked in his projects by 
 the rebellion of a woman, and unable to rule 
 the members of his own household. "He was, 
 therefore," we read, " very wroth, and his anger 
 burned within him." He summoned a council 
 of his chief ministers and advisers, and pro- 
 posed for their consideration the inquiry, what 
 should be done unto the queen for refusing 
 obedience to the command of the king? Arbi- 
 trary despots, who have the power of life and 
 z 4
 
 512 VASHTI. 
 
 death ; nay, even limited monarchs, who have 
 the dispensing of wealth and honours, find too 
 many counsellors ready to shape their advice 
 in accordance with the royal inclination, rather 
 than in accordance with the dictates of justice 
 and truth. A subtle minister of the name of 
 Memucan, perceiving the feelings and wishes 
 of the king upon the subject, immediately 
 echoed his sentiments, by pronouncing the 
 queen's conduct inexcusable, and deserving of 
 severe punishment. He maintained that she 
 had not only given personal offence to her royal 
 husband, but set an example of conjugal dis- 
 obedience, which would have a prejudicial effect 
 upon the wives of the nobility, and even of the 
 meanest subjects of the kingdom, except it were 
 counteracted by the infliction of exemplary 
 vengeance. To prevent the contempt which he 
 alleged her impunity would produce in the 
 wives of Persia towards their husbands, and 
 the consequent { wrath' which would be excited 
 in the husbands towards their wives, and the 
 domestic dissensions and heart-burnings which 
 would follow from both, he boldly proposed her 
 dethronement and degradation, and advised 
 her replacement by another queen, who should 
 more worthily fill her station, insisting that 
 such a severe measure alone, and the publica- 
 tion throughout the empire of a decree for 
 carrying it into effect, could secure the tran- 
 quillity of families among the king's subjects.
 
 VASHTI. 513 
 
 The proposal, as had been foreseen, was accept- 
 able to the monarch, not yet recovered from his 
 transport of resentment, while its injustice was 
 glossed over by the plea of expediency and 
 necessity a plea too often recurred to by artful 
 courtiers and unprincipled politicians ; and 
 Vashti, whose very name, according to some, 
 implied the excellence of her character as well 
 as the beauty of her person, was, for resisting 
 an unreasonable command, visited with a 
 punishment, than which scarcely a more severe 
 could be inflicted on one in her exalted station. 
 She was deprived of her rights as a wife and a 
 queen ; forbidden ever to appear again in her 
 husband's presence ; compelled to resign her 
 crown and her throne ; and condemned to a life 
 of discomfort and obscurity, if not to destitu- 
 tion and suffering, and an early grave. We 
 have reason to think that the king, afterwards, 
 regretted the cruel decree which, in the fury of 
 his rage, he passed against her, for it is said 
 that, when his wrath was appeased, he remem- 
 bered Vashti ; and this confirms us in the 
 opinion we have expressed of her worth, and 
 seems strongly to intimate that she was treated 
 with injustice and undue severity. And, if we 
 are right in this view of the subject, we may 
 rank her among the many excellent of the 
 earth who have been called to suffer here for 
 righteousness' sake, and with respect to whom 
 we may confidently affirm that the time i* 
 z 5
 
 514 VASHTI. 
 
 coming on when He to whose will they sub- 
 mitted themselves, and to whose direction they 
 resolutely, without regard to temporal conse- 
 quences, committed their ways, " will bring 
 forth their righteousness as the light and their 
 judgment as the noon-day." 
 
 We hasten, before concluding, to notice 
 some of the very important practical lessons 
 which the narrative we have set before you 
 seems calculated to teach. 1. Observe, first? 
 a feature in the conduct of the heathen king 
 Ahasuerus, which may put to shame that of 
 many bearing the name of Christians. He 
 interfered to supersede an absurd custom 
 of the country, which compelled many to 
 drink more than was consistent with moder- 
 ation and sobriety. A similar custom has 
 too frequently prevailed in modern times 
 and Christian lands. But no practice or 
 regulation of society can be more opposed to 
 the divine commands, than that which encou- 
 rages, and even compels men to excess in drink. 
 It is, therefore, a matter of joy to every man 
 who considers the well-being both temporal 
 and spiritual of his species, that more correct 
 notions upon the subject have sprung up re- 
 cently both in this and other countries. But 
 great as the improvements are which have 
 taken place in this respect among all ranks, 
 the vice of drunkenness still prevails to a most 
 detrimental and ruinous extent. It fearfully
 
 VASHTI. 515 
 
 operates still to the injury of the earthly and 
 heavenly interests of thousands. It paralyses 
 the hand of industry. It destroys domestic 
 comfort. It hurts the health, brings on disease, 
 accelerates death, debilitates the body, and 
 awfully imperils the soul. It is a monster 
 which opposes greater obstacles than any other 
 evil you can name to the efforts of those who 
 go about doing good, and seek to improve the 
 physical, moral, and spiritual condition of their 
 fellow-creatures, causing often the minister, and 
 those who labour with him in the same field, 
 to yield to the desponding exclamation, " I 
 have laboured in vain : I have spent my 
 strength for nought." Oh, if there be a drunk- 
 ard now within my hearing, let me tell thee 
 that thou art a fearful character. Thou art an 
 enemy to thy family. Thou art an enemy to 
 thyself. Thou art an enemy of God's servants. 
 Thou art an enemy of the Almighty God him- 
 self. Thou indulgest in a vice, to which both 
 reason and revelation ascribe the most dreadful 
 effects. Thou indulgest in a vice against which 
 the voice of inspiration denounces the most 
 terrible woes. Hear it, thou drunkard, and 
 tremble. " Woe unto them that rise up early 
 in the morning, that they may follow strong 
 drink : that continue until night till wine in- 
 flame them. Woe unto him that giveth his 
 neighbour drink, that puttest thy bottle to him, 
 and makest him drunken also." Thou indulgest 
 z 6
 
 516 VASHTI. 
 
 in a vice which is classed In r ' with the 
 
 most degrading and enormous abominations of 
 which our fallen humanity is capable with 
 idolatry, fornication, adultery, theft, murder, 
 and unnatural crimes, " of the which," says he, 
 " I tell you before, as I have also told you in 
 times past, that they who do such things shall 
 not inherit the kingdom of God." Hear these 
 words of heavenly warning, ye drunkards, and 
 make haste to shake off the cursed habit, that 
 ye may flee from the wrath to come. 
 
 2. Learn from this subject the truth of the 
 wise man's remark, " It is better to go to the 
 house of mourning, than to the house of feast- 
 ing." It is better for the immortal soul to 
 stand by the bed of the sick and the dying, 
 than to repose on the couches of luxury, and 
 to frequent the haunts of pleasure. In the 
 one, we are reminded of the frailty of life, the 
 certainty of death, and the approach of judg- 
 ment, and taught a salutary lesson of prepara- 
 tion for eternity. In the other, we are too 
 often lulled into forgetfulness of this world's 
 evanescence, and brought under influences 
 which soothe men into spiritual insensibility, 
 and, by drawing away the thoughts from the 
 unseen world, most injuriously affect their im- 
 mortal interests. It is remarkable, that most 
 of the feasts adverted to in the Bible ended 
 disastrously. Belshazzar's impious feast ended 
 in the destruction of himself and his dynasty.
 
 VASHTI. 517 
 
 Herod's feast, at which the daughter of Hero- 
 dias pleased him with her dancing, ended in 
 the death of Jonu ti; The sons and 
 
 daughters of Job were leasting, when the Sa- 
 baeans fell upon them, and took them away. 
 And Ahasuerus' feast issued in the dethrone- 
 ment and degradation, if not the execution also, 
 of his once loved, and, we think, most excellent 
 queen. Ye, then, who have been brought by 
 divine grace to renounce the pomps and vani- 
 ties of this wicked world, look not back with 
 longing desire to the scenes ye have quitted. 
 Ye have " been delivered from the snare of the 
 fowler, and from" an evil far more perilous 
 than "the noisome pestilence." And ye who 
 are debarred by poverty from partaking in the 
 enjoyments of such festivity, be not sorry 
 but rather thankful for your exclusion. Ye 
 have escaped strong temptations and great 
 perils, which might have ruined your undying 
 souls, for Isaiah saith of those who are too 
 much given to feasts, wherein are the harp and 
 the viol, the tabret, and pipe, and wine, that 
 " they regard not the work of the Lord, neither 
 consider the operation of his hands, and that, 
 therefore, hell hath enlarged herself, and opened 
 her mouth without measure; and their glory, 
 and their multitude, and their pomp, and he 
 that rejoiceth, shall descend into it." Frequent 
 and expensive feastings are objectionable also, 
 on account of the wealth which is absorbed by
 
 518 VASHTI. 
 
 them, and which, o has very dis- 
 
 tinctly intimated, might be tar better expended, 
 by accountable beings, in relieving the needy 
 and consoling the wicked. He did not, indeed, 
 enjoin an ascetic life, nor did He refuse Himself 
 to partake in moderation of feasts to which He 
 was invited. But He evidently intimated, that 
 there is often spent upon them too much of 
 that property which may be laid out to an infi- 
 nitely better account. These are his words : 
 " When thou makest a dinner or a supper, call 
 not thy friends nor thy brethren, neither thy 
 kinsmen, nor thy rich neighbours : lest they 
 also bid thee again, and a recompense be made 
 thee. But when thou makest a feast, call the 
 poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind ; and 
 thou shalt be blessed : for they cannot recom- 
 pense thee : for thou shalt be recompensed at 
 the resurrection of the just." 
 
 3. We have expressed our approbation of 
 Ahasuerus' interference with a foolish and sin- 
 ful custom, so as to promote both the sobriety 
 and the real enjoyment of his guests. In that 
 respect, he acted most humanely and consider- 
 ately. But although he seemed to recommend 
 moderation to others, he exceeded its bounds 
 himself, and his excess led him on to other 
 evils and deplorable consequences. W T hile in 
 that state, he forgot the respect due to the 
 queen, sent her an immodest and unreasonable 
 summons, and upon her refusal to obey he was
 
 VASHTI. 519 
 
 betrayed into the additional sin of vindictive 
 rage, which issued in the cruel measure of dis- 
 gracing her whom he ought to have honoured, 
 and most probably in his own subsequent bitter 
 and unavailing regret. How possible it is to 
 give good advice to others, and yet to disregard 
 it in our own case ! how possible to warn 
 others against a vice, and yet to trifle with it 
 ourselves, and to proceed from that one vice to 
 a second and a third, until we are at last in- 
 volved in troubles and difficulties, from which 
 there is no escape ! Yea, even v dreaded 
 such a possibility in his own case, saying, 
 " lest, after I have preached unto others, 1 my- 
 self be a cast-away." Oh, then, how imnortant 
 to all, both teacher and taught, is the 
 solemn warning, "Watch and pray, .aut ye 
 enter not into temptation." 
 
 4. With regard, lastly, to Vashti's disobe- 
 dience, if. as we think, she was required to do 
 what was inconsistent with her principles as a 
 virtuous woman, and with her station as an 
 exemplary queen, her disobedience was justifi- 
 able. In such a case, had she obeyed her 
 husband and earthly king, she would have dis- 
 obeyed her Maker and heavenly King ; and 
 we have shown, in a former discourse, that 
 whenever these two claims clash or come into 
 competition, there can be no doubt as to which 
 to disregard and which to respect. The sub- 
 ject owes obedience to the sovereign, the servant
 
 520 VASHTI. 
 
 to the master, the wife to the husband, only so 
 far as that obedience is consistent with the 
 known will of God. If any authority com- 
 mands what Heaven has prohibited, it is a 
 duty to disobey. Let it be, then, our prayer 
 and study on all occasions to ascertain the 
 perfect will of the Most High. Let that be 
 the guiding star of all our thoughts, and words, 
 and actions let us follow it through good re- 
 port and through evil report let us adhere to it 
 whatever may be the temporal consequences 
 let us be stedfast and immovable in the 
 works of the Lord, and at last our labour will 
 be found not to be in vain. The fear of God 
 may for a time, and perhaps during the whole 
 of life, involve us in troubles. It may cause us 
 inconvenience, lose us the favour of the great 
 ones of the earth, constrain us to much self- 
 denial, suffering, and sorrow; but all this is 
 comparatively a light affliction, which is but for 
 a moment, and worketh for us a far more ex- 
 ceeding and eternal weight of glory. "Fret 
 not thyself," therefore, " because of evil doers, 
 neither be thou envious against the workers of 
 iniquity. Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently 
 for him : commit thy way unto the Lord, trust 
 also in him ; and he shall bring it to pass. Be 
 thou faithful unto death, and he will give thee 
 a crown of life."
 
 SERMON XXIII. 
 
 ESTHER. 
 
 ESTHER ii. 17- 
 
 " And the king loved Esther above all the women, and she 
 obtained grace and favour in his sight more than all the 
 virgins ; so that he set the royal crown upon her head, and 
 made her queen instead of Vashti." 
 
 ESTHER l , who succeeded the subject of our 
 last discourse on the throne of Persia, was of 
 Jewish origin. We have often had to notice 
 heathen women in connexion with Israelitish 
 history. We have now to contemplate an Is- 
 raelitish woman, occupying the most exalted 
 station among a heathen people. She was the 
 daughter of Abihail, of the tribe of Benjamin. 
 From that tribe sprang some very distinguished 
 characters in sacred history, such as Ehud the 
 second judge of Israel, Saul the first king of 
 Israel, and Saul of Tarsus, afterwards called 
 Paul, the great apostle of the Gentiles, and 
 
 1 See Note IX.
 
 522 ESTHER. 
 
 Esther, the only Jewess that wore a Gentile 
 crown. Her parents or ancestors had been 
 carried away captive from their country by 
 Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon ; but for some 
 reason, not specified, they as well as many other 
 families did not avail themselves of the decree of 
 Cynis, to return with the bulk of the nation to 
 their native land. Hence she was born, not in 
 Jerusalem, or in the land of Canaan, but in 
 that eastern part of the world comprehended 
 within, first, the Chaldasan or Babylonian, and 
 afterwards the Persian Empire, and probably 
 in Shushan, one of its royal residences or me- 
 tropolitan cities. Having lost her father and 
 mother at a very early age, she was adopted 
 and educated by Mordecai, her father's nephew, 
 an inhabitant of that city, who, as the progress 
 of our narrative will show, was afterwards am- 
 ply recompensed by a gracious Providence for 
 his kind care of his orphan relative. Her ex- 
 traordinary advancement arose out of the events 
 which we noticed in our last discourse. We 
 read, that some time after the period of those 
 events, the king remembered Vashti, and what 
 she had done, and what was decreed against 
 her. From these words we may infer an in- 
 ference borne out by the express testimony of 
 Josephus that Ahasuerus bitterly lamented 
 the loss of the queen, whom in his rage he had 
 been persuaded to divorce, but whom, on ac- 
 count of the irreversible nature of the laws of
 
 ESTHER. 
 
 the Medes and Persians, he could not recall, 
 even supposing her to be still in the land of 
 the living. This regret of the king, as already 
 intimated 2 , confirms us in the favourable view 
 we took of Vashti's character. Now to divert 
 his mind from brooding on this melancholy 
 subject, and perhaps to turn aside from them- 
 selves the vengeance which they might appre- 
 hend their severe counsel deserved, his minis- 
 ters proposed to him a plan for replacing the 
 banished queen by an equal, if not superior, in 
 personal attractions. They advised, that the 
 fairest virgins throughout the numerous and 
 extensive provinces of the empire should be 
 brought to Shushan, and that the king should 
 select from among them her with whom he 
 should be most captivated, to be his royal 
 partner instead of Vashti. Among these vir- 
 gins Esther appeared. The beauty of her per- 
 son, and the sweetness of her disposition, soon 
 attracted the particular attention of Hegai the 
 chamberlain, under whose care the young fe- 
 males were placed during the period of their 
 preparation, before appearing in the royal pre- 
 sence. She, with the seven maids appointed 
 to wait upon her, was lodged by that func- 
 tionary in the most eligible apartments, and 
 supplied with whatever might conduce to her 
 comfort and set off her charms. She was so 
 amiable and fair, that " she obtained favour," 
 
 2 See last Discourse.
 
 524 ESTHER. 
 
 not only in his sight, but " in the sight of all 
 them that looked upon her;" and when at 
 length she was brought to the king, it is said, 
 that " he loved her above all the women, and 
 she obtained grace and favour in his sight more 
 than all the virgins ; so that he set the royal 
 crown upon her head, and made her queen 
 instead of Vashti." Thus was it ruled by the 
 providence of the Universal Sovereign, that an 
 orphan child of the captives of Judah should 
 be elevated to the highest earthly throne. To 
 carry out his wise decrees, and to promote the 
 interests of his believing people, He often 
 "putteth down one and setteth up another. 
 He raiseth up the poor out of the dust, and 
 lifteth up the beggar from the dunghill, to set 
 them among princes, and to make them inherit 
 the throne of glory/ 7 
 
 Mordecai acted the part of a true father to 
 Esther. He not only undertook her support 
 and education, when bereaved of both her 
 parents, but anxiously watched over her wel- 
 fare on the eve of her attaining, and after she 
 had attained, an unexpectedly elevated rank. 
 " He walked every day during the period of 
 her preparation before the court of the women's 
 house, to know how Esther did, and what 
 would become of her;" and it appears that, 
 after her succession to the throne, he ceased 
 not to exercise a careful vigilance over her fate 
 and interests. How kind and paternal a soli-
 
 ESTHER. 525 
 
 citude did he exhibit towards his interesting 
 charge ! He thought it possible her health 
 might suffer by the new position in which she 
 was placed under the king's chamberlain, and 
 therefore, he every day inquired how she did. 
 He felt an intense interest in the issue of her 
 approaching interview with the king himself, 
 and, therefore, he every day anxiously watched 
 what would become of her. Like every man of 
 piety and experience, he was justly apprehen- 
 sive, that prosperity might prove more danger- 
 ous in many ways to her welfare than adversity, 
 and, therefore, he ceased not to regard her with 
 a cautious and attentive eye, after she had 
 become the chosen bride of the greatest earthly 
 sovereign. Esther nobly repaid his care and 
 kindness, by yielding to his influence, and ob- 
 serving his injunctions with the same feelings 
 of respect and affection, as when she was de- 
 pendent on his bounty for her daily bread ; 
 " for she did the commandment of Mordecai as 
 when she was brought up with him." It is 
 supposed that she used her influence to procure 
 him an office in the royal household. Some have 
 thought that the office he filled was the humble 
 one of porter or gatekeeper, drawing that infer- 
 ence from the expressions, " while Mordecai 
 sat at the king's gate." But the probability 
 is, that he belonged to a higher rank of func- 
 tionaries, and that the gate is mentioned as 
 being the place where such officers sat or at-
 
 526 ESTHER. 
 
 tended to await the king's call. This situation 
 held by Mordecai showed Esther's gratitude 
 for his protection and kindness, according to 
 the supposition of its having been conferred 
 upon him through her interest ; and, by facili- 
 tating intercourse also served to cement and 
 perpetuate their reciprocal attachment. In the 
 continuance of this affectionate connexion, we 
 have a worthy example set forth to parents 
 and children to parents, that of watching, 
 and caring, and praying for their children, as 
 anxiously when basking in the sun of pros- 
 perity, as when exposed to the storms of ad- 
 versity to children, that of paying the same 
 deference to the protectors of their childhood 
 and the guides of their youth, when they have 
 risen to wealth and rank, as when they received 
 from those friends the supply of their necessary 
 wants. The advantage as well as the duty of 
 this line of conduct in the case of Mordecai and 
 Esther presently appeared. Two of the cham- 
 berlains, Bigthan and Teresh by name, con- 
 spired against the king's life. Some Jewish 
 writers say that they included the queen in 
 their murderous design, intending to take her 
 off by poison, and slay her royal partner in his 
 bedchamber. But the unslumbering vigilance 
 of Mordecai, watching over the welfare of his 
 relative, detected the foul conspiracy ; and, from 
 the easy and constant communication kept up 
 between them, he was enabled to make a timely
 
 ESTHER. 527 
 
 discovery of it to Esther. Esther immediately 
 forwarded the important intelligence to the 
 king, which led to the prevention of the con- 
 templated tragedy; and the conviction and 
 execution of its guilty projectors. Thus did 
 the continued intimacy between Mordecai and 
 Esther save the king, and probably the queen 
 also, from perishing by the hands of murderous 
 assassins. 
 
 But the good understanding between Mor- 
 decai and Esther was blessed to the prevention 
 of a still greater and more extensive calamity, 
 which was no less than the destruction of all 
 the Jews within the Persian empire. About 
 four or five years after the conspiracy of the 
 two chamberlains, a man of the name of Haman 
 rose into such favour with the king as to be 
 advanced to a rank and power far above all the 
 rest of his subjects. He received, by an express 
 wish of his royal master, extraordinary marks 
 of respect and reverence from the other officers 
 and servants in attendance at the palace. But 
 among those officers and servants, who paid 
 unwonted homage to the favourite, there was 
 one remarkable exception, and that was Mor- 
 decai, the relative of Esther. "He bowed not, 
 nor did him reverence." He was remonstrated 
 with on the singularity and peril of his conduct; 
 and when, day after day, he persisted in his re- 
 fusal, information of the circumstance was 
 formally laid before Haman. Such conduct on
 
 528 ESTHER. 
 
 the part of Mordecai may, at first sight, appear 
 to indicate unusual wilfulness and obstinacy; 
 but an attention to the meaning of the original 
 Hebrew will lead to the inference, that the 
 respect required to be paid to Hatnan was more 
 than was due to man, and amounted to idola- 
 trous adoration, and could not, therefore, be 
 rendered by a conscientious Jew. That his 
 scruples arose from this cause is further 
 indicated by the language in which the conduct 
 of his accusers is described, of whom we read 
 that " when he hearkened not unto them, they 
 told Haman to see whether Mordecai's matters 
 would stand : for he had told them that he was 
 a Jew" language clearly intimating that Mor- 
 decai, on his part, claimed exemption from 
 rendering the required homage, on the ground 
 of belonging to a nation whose religion forbade 
 it ; and that they, on their part, determined to 
 decide " whether his matters would stand," i. e. 
 whether his claim would be allowed, or his 
 objections considered valid. To these reasons, 
 when we add the universal opinion of his nation, 
 that he withheld this mark of reverence because 
 the paying of it would have been idolatrous, 
 there can be little doubt of his having acted 
 throughout under a holy fear of offending the 
 true God, who is alone worthy of worship. His 
 conduct, therefore, far from being censurable 
 as an obstinate peculiarity, was a noble and 
 self-denying attachment to Jehovah, like that
 
 ESTHER. 529 
 
 of Moses, and Daniel, and the three children, 
 and the confessors, and martyrs, of every age, who 
 risked their wealth, their rank, their comforts, 
 and their very lives, for the sake of their most 
 holy faith. But that consideration, which was 
 entitled to the most respectful regard from every 
 reasonable being, had no weight with the un- 
 reasoning vanity and towering pride of Haman. 
 On the contrary, it caused his resentment to 
 extend to the ruin, and beyond the ruin of the 
 individual who had dared, on such grounds, to 
 withhold the required homage, even to the de- 
 struction of the entire nation, to whom such 
 inconvenient scruples belonged; and we may 
 suppose him actuated in the conception of so 
 barbarous and sweeping a measure, not merely 
 by a savage desire of a signal revenge against 
 Mordecai himself, but by the ferocious resolve 
 to extirpate from the kingdom all who might, 
 from the same motives, imitate his disrespect. 
 He took the utmost precaution to ensure the 
 success of his nefarious scheme. He had re- 
 course to the arts of divination, with a view to 
 ascertain the most propitious time for striking 
 the intended blow. " In the first month they 
 cast pur, that is, the lot before him, from day to 
 day, and from month to month, to the twelfth 
 month, that is, the month Adar." The meaning 
 of which verse, as is made more clear by the 
 Septuagint version of this part, and from a 
 
 SECOND SERIES. A a
 
 530 ESTHER. 
 
 subsequent part of the history 3 is, that Haman's 
 diviners endeavoured, by means of the lot, to 
 find out the month and the day most propitious 
 to the enterprise, and that for that purpose they 
 went in regular order through every day in 
 each successive month, and through every 
 month in the year, until the lot at last pointed 
 out the supposed exact period for the execution 
 of their projects. That period was the thir- 
 teenth day of the last month of the year, leav- 
 ing an interval of nearly a year between the 
 concerting and the effectuating of the measure. 
 The proud favourite no sooner imagined that 
 he had discovered the auspicious season, than 
 he proceeded to procure the royal permission 
 for carrying his purpose into effect. He repre- 
 sented to the king, that the Jews were an in- 
 convenient, peculiar, and a rebellious people ; 
 that their existence was injurious to the well- 
 being of the king ; and that their total destruc- 
 tion was highly expedient; and he engaged to 
 pay into the king's treasury ten thousand 
 talents of silver, as an immediate pecuniary 
 advantage that would result from the measure, 
 probably intended to be derived from the spolia- 
 tion of the obnoxious nation, or, if not an imme- 
 diate pecuniary advantage, at least, as more 
 than an equivalent for the loss of revenue 
 which their destruction would entail. The 
 king consented to the whole scheme, and gave 
 
 3 See Ad. Clarke, v. 12.
 
 ESTHER. 531 
 
 Haman his ring to seal the decree for carrying 
 it into effect. He even furnished a stimulus to 
 his atrocious machinations, by allowing him to 
 retain in his possession, or appropriate to him- 
 self the forementioned sum of money, and by 
 expressly giving him uncontrolled power over 
 the objects of his displeasure, and, in less than 
 a fortnight from the conception of the inhuman 
 project, even on the thirteenth day of Nisan? 
 the first month of the year, orders were des- 
 patched through every province of the king's 
 dominions " to destroy, to kill, and to cause to 
 perish, all Jews, both young and old, little child- 
 ren and women, in one day, even upon the thir- 
 teenth day of the twelfth month, which is the 
 month Adar, and to take the spoil of them 
 for a prey." 
 
 There is only one way of accounting for the 
 idiot acquiescence of the king in so bloody a 
 proposal ; and it is suggested, by what is added 
 in immediate connexion with its adoption, 
 namely, " that the King and Haman sat down 
 to drink" drunkenness, to which, in our last 
 discourse, we ascribed so many evils, blinding 
 the eyes of the king to the wickedness of a 
 measure unparalleled for its atrocious barbarity 
 in the annals of the human race. While, 
 however, the duped sovereign and his crafty 
 favourite were drowning thought and lulling 
 conscience in the draughts and fumes of intoxi- 
 cation, " the city Shushan was perplexed." It 
 A a 2
 
 532 ESTHER. 
 
 was speedily seen by the inhabitants of the 
 metropolis, who naturally obtained the earliest 
 information of what had been determined on, 
 that a more impolitic, disgraceful, and cruel 
 measure was never concocted by any govern- 
 ment. Even those of them who belonged not 
 to the devoted race were filled with undisguis- 
 able alarm at the confusion that must ensue, and 
 the spoliation and destruction that must over- 
 take many of themselves when a desperate mob 
 had begun to taste of human blood, and to 
 enrich themselves with the property of the 
 murdered. Besides, it is highly probable 
 that many Persian families had become united 
 by intermarriages with Jewish families, and 
 would by necessary consequence share the 
 fate of the condemned nation. We wonder 
 not, therefore, that "the city Shushan was" 
 greatly "perplexed." But the Jews them- 
 selves were naturally, beyond measure, dis- 
 tressed at the terrible intelligence. The pic- 
 ture of their wives and their little ones wel- 
 tering in their blood, and of themselves, at last? 
 falling by the hands of cruelty, after attempt- 
 ing a vain defence, was before their mind's eye, 
 " and in every province whithersoever the 
 king's commandment and his decree came, 
 there was great mourning among them, and 
 fasting, and weeping, and wailing; and many 
 lay in sackcloth and ashes." But of all the 
 Jews not one was so utterly overwhelmed with
 
 ESTHER. 533 
 
 poignant and oppressive grief as Mordecai him- 
 self, the conscious but innocent cause of the 
 terrible calamity impending over his nation. 
 He "rent his clothes, and put on sackcloth 
 with ashes, and went out into the midst of the 
 city, and cried with a loud and bitter cry." 
 And although he could not enter within the 
 precincts of the palace in such a plight, it 
 being forbidden by law to any one to appear 
 there in the habiliments of mourning, yet he 
 carried the burden of his heavy wo to the 
 palace gates, and there gave loud utterance to 
 the insupportable sorrow of his broken heart. 
 
 The distressed condition of Mordecai soon 
 attracted general notice, and information of it 
 was quickly conveyed to Esther. She felt for 
 him all the interest and kindness of an affec- 
 tionate daughter, "and she sent raiment to 
 clothe him, and to take away his sackcloth." 
 This she did, we suppose, to intimate her lively 
 concern for his welfare, to signify her anxious 
 desire that he " should put on the garments of 
 praise instead of the spirit of heaviness ;" and 
 also, perhaps, to enable him, by being clothed 
 in a garb admissible within the palace gates, 
 more distinctly to make known to her the nature 
 of his trouble by personal communication. 
 But the evil he lamented was too great to allow 
 a moment's intermission of mourning, and, 
 therefore, he declined the well-intended offer, 
 clung to his habiliments of wo, and continued 
 A a 3
 
 534 ESTHER. 
 
 to be as one who refused to be comforted. 
 Esther then sent him another message by 
 Hatach, one of the king's chamberlains, whom 
 she charged to make a particular and complete 
 inquiry into the nature and cause of the un- 
 usual affliction that had overtaken her beloved 
 relative. In answer to that inquiry, Mordecai 
 detailed all that had taken place with respect 
 to Haman and himself, the measures which 
 that proud and vindictive minister had adopted 
 for the purpose of revenge, and the consider- 
 ation by which he had persuaded the king to con- 
 sent to those measures, not omitting the sum of 
 money he had offered to pay into the treasury. 
 He furnished, for the perusal and conviction of 
 the queen, a copy of the decree, which had 
 been actually issued for the destruction of the 
 Jews ; and concluded with charging her to use 
 all the influence she possessed for the counter- 
 action of the horrible design. The Greek 
 translation of the story represents him as em- 
 ploying very moving arguments to induce her 
 compliance, adjuring her by the remembrance 
 of her once desolate and helpless condition 
 when left an orphan without a father or a 
 mother, by the parental care which he had then 
 extended towards her, by the tenderness and 
 fondness with which he had watched over her 
 infancy, and carried her in his arms, and by all 
 the interest and solicitude which he had always 
 felt and manifested on her account, to "go in
 
 ESTHER. 535 
 
 at once even unto the king, to make suppli- 
 cation unto him, and to make request before 
 him for her people." 
 
 It might, at first, appear that she would need 
 but little persuasion, and that so much of argu- 
 ment and entreaty was scarcely required to in- 
 duce her undertaking such a commission. But 
 on attending to a custom of the Persian court, 
 we find in her way a great and almost insuper- 
 able difficulty. No man or woman ever entered 
 into the inner court, or the king's secret apart- 
 ments and favourite habitation, unless especially 
 invited by the king himself, without hazarding 
 life. If any of his ministers, or courtiers, or 
 wives, appeared there, without being led in, or 
 ordered to come in by the king himself, a well- 
 known law commanded that death should be 
 the penalty of the intrusion. The only excep- 
 tion was the case of those to whom the king, on 
 their appearance, might be pleased to hold out 
 his golden sceptre, and thereby signify that 
 their lives were mercifully and graciously 
 spared. How, then, could Esther present her- 
 self uninvited before her royal husband? If 
 she went in upon the chance of having held 
 out to her the golden sceptre, the symbol of 
 grace and mercy, there was a circumstance 
 which might well cause her to have much mis- 
 giving as to the issue. She had not been called 
 into the royal presence for thirty days an inter- 
 val of absence which she might fear indicated a 
 A a 4
 
 536 
 
 ESTHER. 
 
 waning of affection towards her on the part of 
 the king, and which, accordingly, weakened in 
 her mind the hope of escaping, by virtue of the 
 royal clemency, the dreaded consequences of 
 intrusion. It is not an improbable conjecture 
 that this prolonged separation of the queen 
 from the king's apartments was the effect of 
 Hainan's intrigues, who, having received inti- 
 mation of the relationship between Esther and 
 Mordecai, might fear that her influence, if per- 
 mitted to have intercourse with her husband, 
 would defeat the barbarous scheme determined 
 on against her people. Perhaps this very sus- 
 picion crossed her mind ; and the fear of enemies 
 undermining her in the royal affections, more 
 to be dreaded than the capriciousness of a 
 despot's love, would, in that case, increase her 
 reluctance to appear uninvited in his presence, 
 and cause to appear exceedingly faint the 
 chance of escaping the fatal operation of the 
 law. We cannot much wonder, then, that the 
 thought of complying with Mordecai's request 
 was very startling and alarming to her mind, 
 already occupied with many causes of dis- 
 quietude ; and that the love of life prevailed, 
 for a time, in her young heart, and dictated a 
 refusal to undertake the perilous enterprise. 
 Oh, life ! most precious art thou to every 
 heart ! For thee men sacrifice willingly rank, 
 and wealth, and every earthly possession. 
 When Satan had tried the patriarch Job with
 
 ESTHER. 537 
 
 the loss of property, the loss of sons and 
 daughters, the loss of his wife's sympathizing 
 support, he maintained that the greatest trial 
 of humanity had not yet been applied to him, 
 the peril of losing his life, saying, " Skin for 
 skin, yea, all that a man hath will he give for 
 his life." Let us not then be hasty to blame 
 Esther for being reluctant, in the midst of youth 
 and health, to jeopardize the precious gift of 
 life. 
 
 But Mordecai, much as he might sympathize 
 in his youthful relative's feelings, justly thought 
 that the coming crisis was of such a nature as 
 to justify the emperiling of an individual's life 
 in the attempt to give it a favourable turn. 
 He, therefore, upon receiving her answer, hesi- 
 tated not to repeat solemnly and urgently the 
 request he had made. He reminded her that 
 she herself must eventually perish by the oper- 
 ation of the bloody decree that had been sent 
 forth ; whence we may infer, as already inti- 
 mated, that the lineage of Esther, however it 
 might, for the present, be carefully concealed 
 from the king, was far from being unknown to 
 Haman and his co-partners in guilt. He also 
 expressed his confidence as a man of faith, that 
 Jehovah would, in some way, interpose for the 
 deliverance of his people, even though she 
 refused her instrumentality, while she and her 
 father's house would be destroyed, as a just 
 judgment upon her for refusing to do what she 
 A a 5
 
 538 ESTHER. 
 
 could to prevent so dreadful an evil. He con- 
 cluded with an argument calculated to come 
 home with irresistible force to every pious heart, 
 saying, " Who knoweth whether thou art come 
 to the kingdom for such a time as this ?" As 
 though he had said *, " Is it likely that Divine 
 Providence would have so distinguished thee, 
 and raised thee from a state of abject obscurity, 
 merely for thine own sake ? Must it not have 
 been on some public account ? Did not He 
 foresee what was coming ; and has He not pur- 
 posely raised thee to that station in order to 
 counteract one of the most ruinous purposes 
 ever formed ? Who knoweth whether thou art 
 come to the kingdom for such a time as this ?" 
 This appeal to her piety and her responsi- 
 bility to the Supreme Disposer of all things, 
 served to overmaster her womanly fears, and to 
 extinguish every selfish feeling in her bosom, 
 and armed her heart with heroic courage to 
 accomplish the required task. But she un- 
 dertook not the perilous enterprise in her own 
 strength. She sent back to her anxious relative 
 a request, that he and all the Jews in Shushan 
 gathered together would, by fasting, intercede 
 with the Most High in her behalf. She de- 
 termined herself, together with her maidens, to 
 fast on the occasion, and expressed her resolu- 
 tion after that, in the strength of the Almighty, 
 
 * Ad. Clarke's Comm.
 
 ESTHER. 539 
 
 to hazard her life in the defence of her people, 
 saying, "If I perish, I perish!" 
 
 Oh, worthy daughter of Abraham! Very sore 
 was thy trial, but grace has enabled thee to 
 triumph. Very hard was thy conflict with flesh 
 and blood, but thou hast conquered at last. 
 Equal, if not superior in true nobility of soul, to 
 the most pious and most heroic of thy noble 
 race, and to the best of all the sainted heroines 
 of sacred history, art thou. Not the mother or 
 sister of Moses, not Rahab in Jericho, nor 
 Ruth in Moab, nor Deborah, nor Jael, nor 
 Jephthah's daughter, were more self-denying, 
 devoted, and courageous in the service of God 
 and his people, than thou. Dear, for this, shall 
 thy name for ever be to every heart among the 
 chosen race. In all their weary wanderings, in 
 all their removes from place to place, in adver- 
 sity and prosperity, in persecution and in tri- 
 umph, in tribulation and in joy, they shall bless 
 and honour thee, and thy memory shall be as 
 incense of sweet-smelling savour among all 
 their posterities for evermore. 
 
 The issue of her courageous undertaking, we 
 have not at present time to consider. We shall 
 see it in our next discourse, and conclude the 
 present with a few practical reflections on the 
 events we have related. From this portion of 
 sacred history we learn 
 
 1. How God can bring good out of evil for 
 the accomplishment of his high purposes, and 
 A a 6
 
 540 ESTHER. 
 
 the promotion of his people's good. It was an 
 evil on the part of Ahasuerus and his counsel- 
 lors, to degrade the virtuous Vashti, but the 
 Almighty overruled it to the advancement of 
 Esther, a daughter of the chosen race, destined, 
 by virtue of that exaltation, to save a nation 
 from ruin. It was an evil, as it was dishonour- 
 ing to the true God, to have recourse, as Haman 
 did, to the arts of magic and divination to ascer- 
 tain the proper time for action, but the Al- 
 mighty overruled that superstitious practice to 
 the subservience of his hidden counsels and 
 gracious purposes towards his people, causing 
 the lot which was cast in the first month to fall 
 upon the very last month of the year, and thus 
 interposing a wide interval between the concep- 
 tion and the execution of the bloody plot, and 
 leaving time to adopt measures for its counter- 
 action and defeat. Brethren, if ever we are 
 pained or alarmed by the sight of wickedness, 
 or the prospect of superstition whether indi- 
 vidual or national let us remember the al- 
 mightiness of the supreme Disposer of all 
 things, and lift up our hearts to Him in prayer, 
 and in confidence that He will, according to 
 his infinite wisdom, overrule the whole to the 
 advancement of his own glory, and the final 
 happiness of his people. 
 
 2. Observe the dreadful effects of evil pas- 
 sions when unrestrained by circumstances from 
 without, and unchecked by divine grace from
 
 ESTHER. 541 
 
 within. Haman's pride, when fostered by ele- 
 vation, became unbounded and insatiable, and, 
 when offended, gave rise to a resentment and 
 vindictiveness, so exacting and inhuman, that 
 his feelings could be gratified with no less a 
 sacrifice than the extinction of a whole people. 
 For the offensive conduct of one, thousands are 
 devoted to death thousands who participated 
 not in the offence complained of, and who had 
 never even heard the name of their offending 
 countryman supposed guilt and unquestioned 
 innocence being doomed alike to perish in one 
 indiscriminate massacre ! How hateful is pride, 
 how cruel is wrath, how outrageous is anger ! 
 Oh, let us earnestly pray for " the wisdom that 
 is from above, which is first pure, then peace- 
 able, gentle, and easy to be entreated, full of 
 mercy and good fruits." 
 
 3. Learn hence in all your troubles to rest 
 upon the blessing and aid of Heaven. Trust 
 not to your own arm, neither rely on your own 
 strength, or wisdom, or contrivance, or fore- 
 sight. You may be very anxious, for example, 
 about your children, and imagine that you can 
 do great things for them, by putting them 
 forward in life. But, alas ! you may be cut 
 off, both father and mother, in the very infancy 
 and helplessness of your beloved ones, and leave 
 them orphans in the wide world. What, then, 
 can you best do for them ? Ensure for them 
 the friendship of their heavenly Father. He
 
 542 ESTHER. 
 
 will take them up when earthly parents forsake 
 them. He can dispose the heart of relatives 
 and friends, like that of Mordecai, to supply 
 the place of a father and a mother to them. He 
 can exalt them from the most desolate condi- 
 tion, as he exalted Esther to conditions of 
 highest prosperity and influence. " He can 
 raise up the poor out of the dust, and lift the 
 needy out of the dunghill, and set him with 
 princes, even with the princes of his people/' 
 " Leave thy fatherless children unto me," saith 
 God, " and I will preserve them alive." And 
 with regard to other evils, of which you may 
 be apprehensive, and which you may take great 
 pains to prevent, remember that your chief help 
 is in the name of the Lord. Mordecai and 
 Esther might have been taken by utter surprise, 
 and overwhelmed by a sudden calamity, had 
 not their All-seeing and Almighty Protector 
 caused the lot to fall on a distant day, and 
 given them time to find a way of escape. You 
 may labour, and study, and plan, but the Di- 
 vine blessing alone can ensure you success. 
 "The lot may be cast into the lap, but the 
 whole disposing thereof is of the Lord." 
 
 4. Let children learn from Esther's conduct 
 the duty of reverencing those, whether parents 
 or relatives, who brought them up. She, when 
 elevated to a throne, did the commandment of 
 Mordecai like as when she was brought up 
 with him. Here was a spirit of humility and
 
 ESTHER. 543 
 
 obedience, so rare in human nature, that I 
 believe nothing but the implantation of divine 
 grace can account for it. But how lovely a 
 picture such a demeanour presents, and how 
 worthy of imitation by all the young, both sons 
 and daughters ! Too often do children forget 
 the respect due to those who once bestowed 
 much labour and anxiety upon their comforts 
 and interests. Too often, if they are raised in 
 the world above their parents or kind relatives, 
 are they ashamed of those to whom they were 
 once indebted for their daily bread. Let none 
 of you, my young friends, be ever guilty of such 
 meanness and wickedness. Take for your pat- 
 tern the Queen of Persia, who, when advanced 
 to the very highest earthly elevation, did the 
 commandment of Mordecai like as when she 
 was brought up with him. Or rather follow 
 the example of a greater far than Esther, of 
 whom, though He was higher than any earthly 
 potentate, and though in Him dwelt all the 
 fulness of the Godhead, it is said that He paid 
 every respect to his parents according to the 
 flesh, and was obedient unto them. 
 
 5. See in Mordecai a noble example of fide- 
 lity to his God in the midst of most discourag- 
 ing circumstances. Had he been less sincere 
 and earnest in his devotion to Jehovah, he 
 would have attempted to reconcile it to his 
 conscience to render adoration to Haman by 
 calling it only a sort of secondary worship, and
 
 544 ESTHER. 
 
 not that kind of worship to which the Supreme 
 Being is entitled. Do not thousands, under 
 this kind of delusion, now offer prayer and 
 praise to men and women who were once but 
 sinful creatures like themselves ? But Mor- 
 decai had been taught in a better school. He 
 had not so learned to trifle with the God of 
 his fathers. He had heard and believed that 
 He allowed none of his peculiar honour to be 
 given to another, and justly thought that no- 
 thing could modify the plain and positive com- 
 mand, " Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, 
 and Him only shalt thou serve." With this 
 conviction, nothing could move him from the 
 course he had adopted not the remonstrances 
 of his friends, not the ridicule of his acquaint- 
 ances, not the threats of his enemies, not the 
 terrors of disgrace and death nothing could 
 move him from his stedfastness in refusing to 
 yield any kind of adoration, save to God only. 
 His resolution was taken, whether he lived or 
 whether he died, to be the Lord's. Oh, pray 
 that we also may be endowed with the like 
 fidelity. 
 
 6. But look, in conclusion, at the sublime 
 acquiescence of Esther in that pious man's 
 request. She at first felt a reluctance to face 
 in her young days the valley of the shadow of 
 death to part with pomp and splendour, with 
 wealth and rank just attained, and to encounter 
 in the midst of health and bloom the terrors of
 
 ESTHER. 545 
 
 the scaffold, the gloom of the sepulchre, and the 
 unknown possibilities of the unseen world. 
 But she at last received strength to meet the 
 trial. She found grace to undertake the mo- 
 mentous enterprise, and she hazarded her life 
 for the salvation of her people. A noble sacri- 
 fice indeed ! But who is not thereby reminded 
 of a far nobler sacrifice still ? When the entire 
 of our fallen race was brought to the brink of 
 perdition by the pride, the envy, the malice of 
 Satan ; and when there was no eye to pity and 
 no hand to relieve, behold the only-begotten of 
 the Father stand forth in the midst of the ce- 
 lestial councils, not reluctantly, nor after long 
 persuasion, but of his own free-will and spon- 
 taneous promptitude stand forth, and exclaim, 
 " Lo, I come to do thy will, O God. I will be 
 led as a lamb to the slaughter to save that 
 perishing race. I will pour out my soul unto 
 death, to rescue those millions from death 
 eternal. I will lay aside my celestial pomp 
 and glory, my attendance of angels and seraphs, 
 my station at the right hand of the Highest, 
 and descend to yonder wretched world, and 
 will encounter its worst trials, its poverty, its 
 scorn, its cruelty, and will pass through the 
 ignominy and agony of the bitterest of deaths, 
 and the thick darkness of the gloomy grave, to 
 defeat the enemy of immortal souls, and to 
 deliver the undying from a fate worse than 
 death." Oh, what shall we render unto the
 
 546 ESTHER. 
 
 Lord for this his marvellous loving-kindness to 
 the help lessrace of Adam ! Who shall not 
 appreciate and hold it in daily and everlasting 
 remembrance ! 
 
 "0 , '"> of God ! the victim sl- ; r 
 
 Oil .vhom our sins were laid j 
 
 Whose life for every soul of man 
 
 Was once an offering made. 
 
 " The Grea ' - ^'ner, Thee we own, 
 
 Of all ou. -alien race ; 
 Our faith would look to Thee alone, 
 And rest upon thy grace. 
 
 " Oh, make us thine, that we may know 
 
 And feel our sins forgiven ; 
 So shall we do thy will below, 
 And praise thy love in heaven."
 
 SERMON XXIV. 
 
 ESTHER. 
 
 ESTHER v. 1. 
 
 " Now it came to pass on the third day, that Esther put on 
 her royal apparel, and stood in the inner court of the king's 
 house : and the king sat upon his royal throne in the royal 
 house over against the gate of the house." 
 
 IN our last discourse we discontinued our 
 account of Esther at that point of her history 
 where she exhibits the sublime spectacle of one 
 determined, in the strength of God, to risk her 
 life for the salvation of her people. We left 
 her with those words of devout heroism on her 
 lips, " If I perish, I perish !" For three days 
 and three nights did she, and her maidens, and 
 Mordecai, and all the Jewish inhabitants of 
 the city, intercede with the supreme Disposer of 
 all things for a blessing on her perilous enter- 
 prise. On the third of those days she rises in 
 the true majesty of a heaven-inspired faith, and 
 addresses herself to the arduous work appointed 
 her to do. She lays aside the garments of hu-
 
 548 ESTHER. 
 
 railiation and sorrow, and puts on her royal 
 apparel meet for the eyes of the king. She 
 quits her own apartments, though we may sup- 
 pose not without regret at so soon resigning 
 scenes of unrivalled dignity, to which she had 
 been unexpectedly elevated, yet with a deter- 
 mined willingness, if such be the will of God, to 
 see them no more. She traverses the inter- 
 vening halls, or corridors, or passages, though 
 we may suppose not without a heavy heart, 
 seeing that every step she took might be bring- 
 ing her nearer and nearer to the gates of death, 
 yet with a firm resolve to count not her life 
 dear unto her, so that she might finish her 
 course in the service of her people, and accord- 
 ing to the will of her God. The awful moment 
 decisive of her fate is come. She reaches the 
 entrance of the forbidden ground : 
 
 " A moment's pause, one upward glance, 
 
 One earnest prayer to heaven, 
 
 And quickly to her fainting heart 
 
 The needed strength is given." 
 
 She ventures forward, and presents herself at 
 last within the inner court of the king's house. 
 Oh, crisis big with the destiny of a queen and 
 a nation ! It was, however, in all probability 
 but a very brief and transient crisis, for the 
 monarch happened to be seated on his royal 
 throne, right opposite to the gate or door of his 
 house, so as to command a view of the entrance 
 into the inner court which surrounded it, and
 
 ESTHER. 549 
 
 in which Esther was now stationed; and his 
 eyes fell upon the queen probably on the in- 
 stant of her appearance there. He no sooner 
 beheld his lovely wife, perhaps now rendered 
 doubly interesting by the deep emotions and 
 anxious cares which agitated her bosom : 
 
 " The self-devotedness and zeal 
 Within her bosom glowing, 
 Around her thoughtful countenance 
 Unearthly beauty throwing:*' 
 
 He no sooner beheld her, than, by the ordina- 
 tion of a gracious Providence, he was induced 
 to exhibit the token of favourable regard, and 
 he held out to Esther the golden sceptre that 
 was in his hand. Blessed be God, her life is 
 spared. . She can speak for the life even of her 
 people. Who can describe her unutterable 
 transports of hope and joy, as she responded to 
 the auspicious omen, and " drew near and 
 touched the top of the sceptre !" Having 
 touched the top of the golden sceptre, she is 
 sure of life for herself. She begins to trust that 
 she shall save the life of her people. Her con- 
 fidence of success increases upon hearing, im- 
 mediately after, the accents of strong partiality 
 and bountiful goodness towards her from the 
 lips of the king, who said, " What wilt thou, 
 Queen Esther? and what is thy request? It 
 shall be given thee to the half of the kingdom." 
 In answering these kind questions and this 
 most gracious offer of the king, she manifested
 
 550 ESTHER. 
 
 a forethought and prudence equal to the cou- 
 rage and devotion she had exercised before. 
 For the present, she merely requested that the 
 king, and together with him, strange as it might 
 at first appear, Haman, the very man who was 
 the great enemy of her people, would come 
 that day and partake of a banquet which she 
 had prepared for them. She deemed it neces- 
 sary, we imagine, to invite Haman, to lull his 
 suspicion of her design, and thereby to prevent 
 his taking any immediate steps to counteract it. 
 When we have to do with the unprincipled and 
 unscrupulous, we must be "wise as serpents" to 
 defeat their wicked machinations ; while, in 
 respect to the causing of mischief ourselves, we 
 must be " harmless as doves." To that enter- 
 tainment the monarch and his favourite came, 
 and at that part of it called the banquet of wine, 
 that is, at the time when the wine was introduced, 
 the king repeated to the queen his former 
 gracious questions and oifer. Esther did 
 not yet reveal her ultimate object, but con- 
 tented foerself, for the present, with inviting the 
 same two guests to a similar banquet on the 
 following day, at which she promised to make 
 known the petition and request she had at 
 heart. The purpose of this delay, on her part, 
 was the more certainly to secure the end she had 
 in view. Finding, on the one hand, that she 
 was gaining on the king's affections, and being, 
 on the other, not yet sufficiently confident of
 
 ESTHER. 551 
 
 possessing such an influence over his mind as 
 the very momentous nature of her mission 
 required, she wisely judged, that by another in- 
 terview, she would still more ingratiate herself 
 in his favour, and make more sure of the success 
 of her suit. Such, we have little doubt, were 
 Esther's motives for delay. But He that ruleth 
 over all was using this delay, and, we doubt not, 
 had suggested it to the queen's mind, for a still 
 more important purpose for the purpose of de- 
 veloping circumstances, which had such a bearing 
 on the matter under her consideration, as to 
 make it next to impossible that she should fail 
 of success. The circumstances which occurred 
 during that short interval exposed more dis- 
 tinctly the baseness of Haman, brought clearly 
 into the king's view the merit of Mordecai, and 
 consequently led to the exaltation of the one, and 
 the accelerated confusion of the other, and thus 
 conduced irresistibly to the complete triumph 
 of the royal supplicant. Let this remind 
 us how much better a kind Providence can 
 work in our behalf than any contrivance or 
 labour of our own. All your caution and fore- 
 sight may end in disappointment if you lean 
 only to your own understanding and your own 
 strength ; but cast thy burden upon the Lord, 
 and He will sustain thee. Esther, indeed, did 
 all that could have been done by a prudent and 
 circumspect conduct. But, had she been con- 
 tented with doing no more, she might have
 
 552 ESTHER. 
 
 failed, after all. She, however, had done far 
 more. She had applied to the Almighty in her 
 time of need. She had directed her people to 
 apply for help to the Almighty. And He that 
 heareth prayer was answering their interces- 
 sions in a marvellous way, and realizing unto 
 them the blessed experience of the Psalmist, 
 "Offer unto God thanksgiving: and pay thy 
 vows unto the Most High : and call upon me 
 in the day of trouble : I will deliver thee, and 
 thou shalt glorify me." 
 
 To detail the circumstances which occurred 
 during that delay, we first notice the conduct 
 of Haman. He left the first banquet of Esther 
 exceedingly elated with the honour he had 
 received, and with the additional honour of an 
 invitation for the following day. But, almost 
 immediately afterwards, his vanity and pride 
 received a great mortification as he passed 
 through the gate on his way homewards, from 
 the conduct of the obnoxious Mordecai, who 
 persisted in refusing him the required reverence. 
 His heart boiled with such furious resentment, 
 on account of the repeated affront, that he could 
 scarcely refrain from punishing it on the spot 
 by outrageous violence. He no sooner reached 
 his house than he bitterly complained of it to 
 his wife and friends purposely called together 
 for consultation on the subject. After setting 
 before them his wealth, and rank, and power, 
 he appealed to them whether it was endurable
 
 ESTHER. 553 
 
 that an individual like Mordecai, should be 
 permitted to pursue a line of conduct which 
 marred all the happiness of his exalted station. 
 He referred to his high promotion, and un- 
 rivalled advancement by the king to the sin- 
 gular honour of having been admitted, by the 
 queen, in preference to all others, to feast with 
 her and her royal consort alone to the addi- 
 tional honour of having been invited to a 
 similar entertainment the following day, and 
 " yet," added he, " all this availeth me nothing, 
 so long as I see Mordecai, the Jew, sitting at 
 the king's gate." How distressing are the in- 
 quietudes of vanity ! How harassing the ex- 
 actions of pride ! Let the heart that is under 
 their influence have abundance of all things ; 
 yet the denial of one thing will make it un- 
 happy. Ahab, though possessed of a throne, 
 took to his bed, and refused to eat bread, be- 
 cause the vineyard of Naboth was denied him. 
 The truth is, that all that this world contains 
 will not make an immortal soul happy. 
 Nothing can satisfy its unearthly longings but 
 the fulness of God himself. Every individual, 
 therefore, in whom God's sanctifying Spirit 
 dwelleth not and He will be no inmate with 
 pride and vanity is a discontented and dis- 
 satisfied being, whatever may be the external 
 wealth and splendour which surround him. 
 The angels ceased to be happy in heaven when 
 they cast off their allegiance to their Maker. 
 
 SECOND SERIES. B b
 
 554 ESTHER. 
 
 Adam ceased to be happy in Paradise when he 
 discontinued his fidelity to his Creator. Solo- 
 mon was unhappy in all his glory, and found 
 all in this world to be vanity and vexation of 
 spirit while he had not God for his portion. 
 And Haman was wretched, though he had the 
 kingdom of Persia at his feet, while he cherished 
 feelings inconsistent with the indwelling Spirit 
 of God. And wretched is every man un- 
 speakably wretched will every man hereafter be, 
 who has not the God of Jacob for his help, and 
 in whose heart his love is not shed abroad 
 b. 'h ' Joh we, then, most 
 
 earnestly m t;iu prayer of c , "O 
 
 God, make clean our hearts witau. aa. And 
 take not thy Holy Spirit from us." 
 
 Hainan's wife and friends, instead of remon- 
 strating with him upon the unreasonableness of 
 his discontent, and the sinfulness of his rage, as 
 wise counsellors and well-wishers would have 
 done, fostered his worst passions, and encou- 
 raged him to take decisive and immediate steps 
 for their gratification. They advised him to have 
 a gallows erected without delay, and to request 
 the king's permission, on the morrow, to have 
 Mordecai executed upon it. 'He should then, 
 they said, have his mind at ease, and be able to 
 " go in merrily with the king unto the banquet." 
 He was pleased with the murderous proposal, 
 caused the instrument of death to be prepared, 
 and retired to rest in the confident hope of ob-
 
 ESTHER. 555 
 
 taining the royal assent to the speedy and igno- 
 minious destruction of the man he hated. But, 
 oh! how He who sitteth in the heavens laughs 
 at the counsels of the wicked, and taketh the 
 sinfully wise in their own craftiness ! He con- 
 trols the wings of sleep, and forbids him that 
 night to visit the monarch's eyes. Ye, who 
 have spent the hours of darkness in wakeful- 
 ness, unable to obtain slumber for your eyelids, 
 can tell how heavily then move the wheels of 
 time. What shall the king do to wile away the 
 leaden moments ? He calls for the chronicles 
 of the kingdom, in which every occurrence 
 of importance was recorded, and commands 
 them to be read in his hearing. It was so 
 ordered that the passages read contained an 
 account of the conspiracy, formed a few years 
 previous, against the life of the king, by Big- 
 than and Teresh, the two chamberlains, specify- 
 ing the name of the person whose vigilance and 
 timely information defeated their design, and 
 led to their conviction, and who was no other 
 than that very Mordecai, now brought to the 
 very brink of destruction by the vindictive 
 malice of Haman. Upon hearing the record 
 of this murderous plot, the king naturally 
 inquired what reward had been given to the 
 individual to whose sagacity and promp- 
 titude he was indebted for his life. He learnt, 
 with evident surprise and chagrin, that the 
 meritorious service had remained entirely un- 
 B b 2
 
 556 ESTHER. 
 
 recompensed and unnoticed, like that of the 
 poor wise man, mentioned in Ecclesiastes, who, 
 by his wisdom, delivered a beleaguered city, 
 and of whom it is said, " yet no man remem- 
 bered that same poor man." He instantly felt 
 a desire to repair the discreditable neglect, and 
 with that view asked which of his courtiers or 
 ministers were within call, that he might imme- 
 diately consult with them upon the subject. 
 He was answered that Hainan was within the 
 palace, who appears to have arrived there at an 
 earlier hour than usual. And why had Haman 
 come so early ? Malice and revenge had made 
 him restless and impatient, and he had pre- 
 sented himself at the palace before the usual 
 time, from an anxiety to see the king as soon as 
 possible, and to obtain his consent, with the 
 least delay, for the execution of Mordecai on 
 the gallows he had already prepared for him. 
 The king orders him to be called into his pre- 
 sence, and proposes to him the question, 
 " What shall be done unto the man whom the 
 king delighteth to honour?" Haman, ignorant 
 of what had passed during the night within 
 the palace, and believing that no one appeared 
 so high in the king's favour as himself, doubted 
 not that the honour was intended for his own 
 person, and answered, "For the man whom 
 the king delighteth to honour, let the royal 
 apparel be brought which the king useth to 
 wear, and the horse that the king rideth upon,
 
 ESTHER. 557 
 
 and the crown royal which is set upon his head : 
 and let this apparel and horse be delivered 
 to the hand of one of the king's most noble 
 princes, that they may array the man withal 
 whom the king delighteth to honour, and bring 
 him on horseback through the street of the 
 city, and proclaim before him, Thus shall it be 
 done to the man whom the king delighteth to 
 honour." Tn proposing such honours for him- 
 self, even if he had really been the person 
 intended by the king,hemanifestedas much folly 
 as pride. The royal apparel was never worn but 
 by the king ; and it was death, under ordinary 
 circumstances, to put them on when the king 
 had laid them aside. Accordingly, his short- 
 sighted and overweening vanity tempted him 
 to include, in the arrangement for his own 
 exaltation, what might have awakened in the 
 royal mind a suspicion of treason a suspicion 
 that nothing would satisfy such towering am- 
 bition but the dignity of occupying the throne 
 itself, and what, therefore, might have turned 
 upon him the fatal wrath instead of the un- 
 precedented favour of his royal master. So 
 imprudent as well as sinful is the heart that is 
 under the unrestrained influence of vanity, am- 
 bition, and pride. It would have been a foolish 
 as well as an arrogant thing to propose such 
 honours for himself; but how immeasurably 
 foolish he must have appeared in his own 
 eyes, and what a mortifying shock his arro- 
 B b 3
 
 558 ESTHER. 
 
 gance must have received, when he found 
 those honours were intended for another, and 
 that other the man whom, of all others, he 
 most detested, the unbending Mordecai ! The 
 honours were for Mordecai the Jew, whom 
 he had that day intended to cover with 
 ignominy. The sunshine of the royal favour 
 was for Mordecai the Jew, whom he had in- 
 tended that day to bring to the darkness 
 of death. And to increase his mortification, 
 he himself, in exact accordance with his own 
 suggestion, was, as one of the king's most noble 
 princes, to perform the ceremony in honour of 
 the man he abominated. His own hand was to 
 take the apparel and array Mordecai withal; 
 and to bring him on horseback through the 
 street of the city ; and his own lips were to 
 proclaim before him, " Thus shall it be done 
 unto the man whom the king delighteth to 
 honour." Overwhelming reverse ! How could he 
 endure such mortifying disappointment! He 
 was totally unable to endure it in the presence 
 of the king and courtiers; and, consequently, 
 after the ceremony, while Mordecai returned to 
 the palace gates, " Haman hastened to his house 
 mourning, and having his head covered" the 
 expressive symbol of grief of heart and con- 
 fusion of face. And what consolation did he 
 receive in the season of his humiliation and 
 distress from Zeresh his wife, and his friends, 
 those evil counsellors who had encouraged him
 
 ESTHER. 559 
 
 to deeds of guilt ?" Alas ! they did but aggra- 
 vate his wretchedness and despondency. They 
 foreboded him still greater evil from the influ- 
 ence of the man who had baffled him, saying, 
 "If Mordecai be of the seed of the Jews, before 
 whom thou hast begun to fall, thou shalt not 
 prevail against him, but shalt surely fall before 
 him." Miserable comforters were they all ! 
 
 This domestic council, which seemed to sug- 
 gest nothing but gloomy forebodings and dark- 
 ening prospects, was broken up by a royal 
 message, summoning the perplexed Haman to 
 the second banquet which Esther had prepared 
 for him and the king, and the invitation to 
 which had so inordinately flattered his vanity 
 and increased his arrogance. We know not 
 with what thoughts and feelings he actually 
 went to that banquet. We can scarcely think 
 that he went in merrily to that feast, as his 
 foolish wife and friends had once predicted. 
 Or if brighter prospects beamed upon him, as 
 his mind reverted to this distinguished honour, 
 they were destined soon to be for ever clouded* 
 At the same period of the feast as on the pre- 
 ceding day, the king repeated his former ques- 
 tions and offer, and said, for the third time, 
 " What is thy petition, Queen Esther ? and it 
 shall be granted thee : and what is thy request ? 
 and it shall be performed, even to the half of 
 my kingdom." The promised time had come 
 for revealing the momentous secret. The cri- 
 B b 4
 
 560 ESTHER. 
 
 tical period had arrived for making the decisive 
 effort to expose guilt and vindicate innocence. 
 And with what inimitable skill and wisdom did 
 divine grace enable her to perform her arduous 
 task ! With what words and sentiments of 
 irresistible pathos did she appeal to the pitying 
 compassion of her royal husband ! She told 
 him with streaming eyes that she was doomed 
 to die. She told him with bitter sorrow that 
 her entire nation was condemned to die. " Let 
 my life," said she, " O king, be given me at 
 my petition, and my people at my request. 
 For we are sold, I and my people, to be de- 
 stroyed, to be slain, and to perish/' repeating 
 the very words of the bloody edict. The king 
 was, by this moving speech and alarming state- 
 ment, thrown into the wildest tumult of sur- 
 prise, and grief, and anxious curiosity. When 
 set before him in its proper light, he was struck 
 with horror at a conspiracy so sweeping, cruel, 
 and diabolical, and impatiently demanded who 
 was the man, and where was the man, who had 
 presumed in his heart to meditate such a crime. 
 " The adversary and enemy," said Esther, " is 
 this wicked Haman." Oh, Haman ! those 
 words sound like thy death-knell. What wilt 
 thou do, and whither wilt thou go for refuge? 
 The king quits the apartment in ungovernable 
 rage at the baseness and barbarity of thy cruel 
 machinations. He plunges into the open air 
 of the adjoining gardens to shun thy detestable
 
 ESTHER. 561 
 
 presence, and to cool the burning fever which 
 the thought of thy hellish plot has kindled in 
 his brain. Thou seest that evil is determined 
 against thee. Thou availest thyself of his brief 
 absence, to fall down on thy knees to beg thy 
 life of her whom but now thou hadst compelled 
 to supplicate for her own and her people's. 
 But thou hast no time to make thy supplica- 
 tion. He who has the power of life and death 
 returns too soon, and in the wild turmoil of 
 indignant fury, puts a construction on the mean- 
 ing of thy suppliant posture, that even thy 
 wicked soul under such circumstances could 
 not contemplate and, without hearing a word 
 of defence or entreaty, commands thee forth 
 to instant death, and, oh righteous retribu- 
 tion ! thou art executed on the very gallows 
 which thou preparedst for Mordecai ! How 
 hast thou exemplified the Scripture truths, 
 " Pride goeth before destruction, and a haughty 
 spirit before a fall !" " Thou art sunk down 
 in the pit which thou thyself has made ; in 
 the net which thou didst hide is thy own foot 
 taken." 
 
 While the wicked perish miserably, the righ- 
 teous are had in everlasting remembrance. Not 
 only is Mordecai's cruel enemy baffled and de- 
 stroyed, but Mordecai himself is promoted by 
 the king to the highest rank, and loaded with 
 wealth and honours. His great service in de- 
 feating the conspiracy of the chamberlains has 
 B b 5
 
 562 ESTHER. 
 
 already obtained him a distinguished mark of 
 royal esteem and gratitude. His relationship 
 to the queen, which had now been made known 
 to the king, procures him a more permanent 
 station of dignity and wealth, and his persecu- 
 tion by Haman, we may well suppose, points 
 him out as the most worthy person to fill the 
 post and enjoy the privileges vacated by that 
 unhappy individual. " And the king took off 
 his ring which he had taken from Haman, and 
 gave it unto Mordecai" thus conferring upon 
 the Jew all the rank and influence lately en- 
 joyed by the Amalekite. "And Esther set Mor- 
 decai over the house of Haman.'"' The decree, 
 however, which had gone forth against their 
 people was still in full force, and, therefore, 
 Esther lost no time in presenting herself before 
 the king, unbidden as before, to prevent its 
 execution. She fell down again at his feet, and 
 besought him with tears to reverse the letters 
 devised by Haman against the Jews, saying, 
 " For how can I endure to see the evil that 
 shall come unto my people? or how can I 
 endure to see the destmction of my kindred ?" 
 But what need now of all this lamentation and 
 entreaty ? Was not every difficulty removed 
 by the circumstances just developed, and by 
 the king's solemn engagement to grant the 
 queen's request to the half of his kingdom ? 
 No. A very great difficulty still existed, arising 
 from an absurd peculiarity of all the laws and
 
 ESTHER. 563 
 
 edicts of the Medes and Persians already re- 
 ferred to that they were unchangeable, inca- 
 pable of being repealed or annulled. It was 
 that peculiarity which put it out of the power 
 of Darius to save his highly valued counsellor 
 Daniel from the den of lions. And now his 
 successor Ahasuerus, though willing to gratify 
 the queen to the half of his kingdom, and most 
 anxious to save her people and Mordecai from 
 the ruin contrived against them, could not, 
 without endangering his crown and his life, 
 reverse a single word of the murderous decree 
 that had gone forth. He did, however, all he 
 could to repair the mischief. If it was not in 
 his power literally to reverse the issued edict, 
 he could do much to neutralize its effect, by 
 issuing another edict, authorizing the Jews to 
 gather themselves together in their own de- 
 fence against the appointed day, and " to 
 destroy, to slay, and to cause to perish, and 
 to take the spoil for a prey of" using the 
 identical words of the first decree all that 
 should in any part of the Persian dominions 
 dare to rise up against them. This second 
 decree worked a mighty change in favour 
 of the endangered people. Conveying the 
 king's sentiments in their behalf, it influenced 
 all the authorities of the kingdom to abet their 
 cause, and discountenance their enemies. And, 
 by the time when the day fixed for their 
 slaughter arrived, they had become so power. 
 B b 6
 
 564 ESTHER. 
 
 ful and formidable that no man could withstand 
 them, for the fear of them fell upon all the peo- 
 ple." They obtained an easy victory over such as 
 rose up against them; and their sorrow was 
 turned into joy, and their mourning into a good 
 day. Mordecai appointed the fourteenth and 
 fifteenth days of the month Adar, the days 
 immediately following that fixed for their de- 
 struction, to be kept by the whole nation as 
 days of praise and thanksgiving, of feasting 
 and joy, and of sending portions one to another, 
 and gifts to the poor. They called them the 
 days of Purim, the plural of Pur, or the lot, in 
 allusion to the lot which Haman cast for their 
 ruin, but which the Lord disposed to their 
 triumph and exaltation ; and they have kept 
 those days as annual feasts in all their gener- 
 ations, in all their troubles, in all their wander- 
 ings, from that memorable period even to the 
 present time. 
 
 We close the wonderful history with a few 
 practical remarks. 1. From Hainan's discon- 
 tent learn the unsatisfactory nature of worldly 
 possessions. All his wealth and glory availed 
 him nothing, while Mordecai the Jew, who 
 refused him reverence, sat at the king's gate. 
 You may reach the highest earthly elevation, 
 and surround yourselves with riches, luxuries, 
 and honours, and yet be unhappy. You may 
 rise up early, and late take rest, to accumulate 
 a fortune, and succeed in accumulating a for-
 
 ESTHER. 565 
 
 tune, and yet be so wretched in your mind as to 
 regard all you have done, and all you have 
 attained, to be no better thon vanity and vex- 
 ation of spirit. I have read of a great statesman 
 and scholar of modern times, who wished he 
 could exchange conditions with a poor me- 
 chanic of his acquaintance, whom he knew to 
 be a pious man. Nothing can give content to 
 the mind of immortal man but the grace of God. 
 Set not your hearts, then, upon earthly things. 
 Do not deceive yourselves with the idea that 
 high prosperity will leave you nothing to desire. 
 You will be as uncomfortable as ever if you 
 secure not the good part which cannot be taken 
 away. Seek the unsearchable riches of Christ ; 
 seek the honour that corneth from the King of 
 Heaven, and you shall discover the true secret 
 of happiness, " for the Lord God is a sun and 
 shield : the Lord will give grace and glory : no 
 good thing will he withhold from them that 
 walk uprightly." 
 
 2. From the conduct of Haman's wife and 
 friends, learn what broken reeds, in the day of 
 trouble and adversity, are sinful companions and 
 evil counsellors. The persons who instigated 
 him to crime, far from comforting his heart 
 when a cloud came over it, did but depress it 
 still more by forebodings of greater evil. And 
 is it not ever found, that those associates who 
 encourage their fellows to evil, are the first to 
 desert them, or to treat them with derision and
 
 566 ESTHER. 
 
 scorn when threatened with failure or suffering? 
 Have we not here a specimen of what the wicked 
 shall be to one another in the world to come? 
 They will reciprocate cutting reproaches and 
 bitter curses for having banded together against 
 the Lord, and against his anointed, to their 
 own irremediable ruin. Flee, then, the com- 
 pany of the ungodly. Walk not in the counsel 
 of the wicked. Stand not in the way of sinners, 
 nor sit in the seat of the scornful. Associate 
 yourselves with the excellent of the earth. Join 
 yourselves to the people of God. Cultivate the 
 communion of the saints. They will comfort you 
 in the day of trouble. They will aid you in the 
 season of distress. They will weep with you when 
 weeping, as well as rejoice with you when rejoic- 
 ing; and when you shall come out of all your 
 tribulation, you will find them joining in your 
 hallelujahs of triumph at the right hand of God 
 for ever. 
 
 3. In the change which took place in the 
 circumstances of Haman and Mordecai, behold 
 a symbolic picture of the reverses of the world 
 to come. Haman, the king's favourite, pre- 
 pared a gallows for Mordecai. Mordecai be- 
 came the king's favourite, and Haman was 
 executed on the gallows. Similar will be the 
 change of ranks and places in the scene of final 
 retribution. The man that was here clothed 
 in purple and fine linen, because he lived and 
 died impenitent will there be compelled, in the
 
 ESTHER. 567 
 
 nakedness of guilt, and the defencelessness of 
 his unrenewed nature, to dwell in everlasting 
 desolation, while the man of mean attire here, 
 because a child of God will wear a robe of 
 spotless righteousness, and a diadem of unfad- 
 ing glory. The man that here fared sumptu- 
 ously every day, because he lived and died im- 
 penitent will there himself become the food of 
 the worm that never dieth, while the man that 
 could scarcely obtain bread and water here, be- 
 cause a child of God will there feed on the fruit 
 of the tree of life, which is in the midst of Para- 
 dise, and enjoy the milk and honey of heaven's 
 choicest pleasures. The man that was here 
 greeted, wherever he went, with marks of 
 deference and respect, because he lived and 
 died impenitent will there be doomed to shame 
 and everlasting contempt, while the man whom 
 here none would notice, because a child of God 
 will, after death, become the companion of 
 powers and principalities in heavenly places. 
 Then will be illustrated, on the grandest scale, 
 the declaration, " Them that honour me, I will 
 honour, and they that despise me shall be 
 lightly esteemed." Oh, then, who shall not 
 now seek first the kingdom of Heaven and his 
 righteousness ? Who shall not count as nothing 
 the advantages of this world when they come 
 in competition with those of the world that 
 is eternal ? Who shall not count all things as
 
 568 ESTHER. 
 
 dung that he may win Christ, and be found in 
 Him? Who shall count even his life dear unto 
 Him, so that he may keep the faith, and finish 
 his course in holiness, and obtain a crown of 
 righteousness, and hear the welcome invitation, 
 "Come, ye blessed children of my Father, 
 inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the 
 beginning of the world ?" 
 
 4. By the success of Esther, in accomplish- 
 ing the rescue of her people, we are reminded, 
 and, indeed, what part of the inspired volume, 
 whether the Old or the New Testament, does 
 not remind us ? of the great salvation wrought 
 by one far greater than Esther for the whole 
 of our fallen race. We saw the Queen of Per- 
 sia walking, with a sad step and a heavy heart, 
 to the interview which might cost her her life ; 
 but she shrunk not from the dread encounter 
 in the attempt to deliver her people. But, oh ! 
 how heavier was his weight of wo whose soul was 
 exceeding sorrowful even unto death ! how 
 dreadfully more piercing was the agony of Him 
 who, in the prospect of the sufferings ,to be 
 endured for man's deliverance, sweated great 
 drops of blood, which flowed down his body 
 to the cold ground ! How intense the torment 
 of the coming struggle, when in a paroxysm 
 of terror He exclaimed, " Father, if it be pos- 
 sible, let this cup pass from me!" How 
 dark and overwhelming was the misery of
 
 ESTHER. 569 
 
 his soul, when broke forth from him the 
 exceeding bitter cry, " My God, my God, why 
 hast thou forsaken me ?" And yet He braved 
 it all for us. He determined to pass through 
 the furnace of our guilt in submission to 
 Heaven's will, saying, " Nevertheless, not my 
 will, but thine be done." He persevered in 
 the perilous struggle till He could say, " It is 
 finished." The work is done. The success is 
 complete. The powers of hell are defeated, 
 and a world of souls is saved. He comes forth 
 from the grave, and reappears to his disciples, 
 as Esther came from the king's presence to 
 Mordecai. He sends them throughout the 
 world, as Esther and Mordecai sent messengers 
 through Persia, to proclaim the glad tidings of 
 salvation. The sin by which the devil tempted 
 Adam, and by which he sought the destruction 
 of his race, cannot indeed be reversed, as though 
 it had never been committed, any more than 
 the laws of the Medes and Persians. But it 
 can be neutralized by the effects of a ' 
 interposition, and the proclamation of the 
 pel decree. Avail yourselves then of that inter- 
 position and that decree. Fight manfully 
 against your spiritual enemies. Not one of 
 them will be able to stand before you. The 
 influence of the court of heaven is all on your 
 side. The grace of the Almighty Potentate is 
 aiding you in the conflict, and He will beat
 
 570 ESTHER. 
 
 down Satan under your feet. And oh, when 
 we have conquered every foe, and come forth 
 out of every tribulation, what a feast shall we 
 keep in honour of our Great Deliverer ! Cen- 
 turies have not wiped away from the hearts of 
 God's ancient people the perilous enterprise of 
 Esther. The ages of a long eternity will not 
 obliterate from our hearts the love of Him who 
 for us actually went through death and hell. 
 
 _ .-adless love 
 
 My admiration raise : 
 Oh God ! thy name exalted is 
 Above the highest praise. 
 
 " When shall our souls mount up to thee, 
 
 Most holy, just, and true, 
 To eat that bread, and drink that wine, 
 Which is for ever new I" 
 
 5. But the most striking and instructive 
 lesson taught by this wonderful history is the 
 superintendence of a particular Providence, and 
 the minute care which the King of heaven 
 takes of his chosen people. How marvellously 
 did He cause all things to work together for 
 Mordecai and his nation, who trusted in Him ! 
 We think it probable that Mordecai was con- 
 nected with the palace before the dismissal of 
 Vashti, though he might be raised to a higher
 
 ESTHER. 571 
 
 post after the elevation of Esther. In that 
 case he might have come in contact with Ha- 
 man, and drawn down his displeasure upon 
 himself and his people, without a friend at 
 court of sufficient influence to counteract his 
 hellish design. Jehovah, foreseeing the peril, 
 paved the way for the advancement of Esther 
 to meet it. Again, the lot might have fallen on 
 an early day, in which case there would have 
 been no time to take measures for preventing 
 the intended massacre. Jehovah, foreseeing 
 the necessity of delay, caused the lot to fall on 
 one of the latest days of the year. Moreover, 
 Esther might have made known her petition 
 and request on her first interview with the 
 king. Her mind was directed to put off her 
 communication till the following day, and God 
 most wonderfully turned that interval to the 
 advantage of Mordecai and the confusion of Ha- 
 man, preluding the still greater advantage and 
 confusion which respectively befell them at last. 
 That night sleep refuses to visit the monarch's 
 eyes, and there is, in consequence, brought to his 
 notice the merit of Mordecai, which led to his 
 glorification and the humiliation of Haman. All 
 bore so wonderfully on the queen's suit, that we 
 cannot but see therein the finger of Omniscience. 
 Had there been a single link wanting in this com- 
 plicated chain of circumstances, the massacre 
 might, have taken place. All combined effec-
 
 572 ESTHER. 
 
 tually prevented it. Oh, then, let us ever trust 
 all our concerns, national, ecclesiastical, and 
 individual, to the wise direction of a careful 
 and merciful Providence. ({ Review past dis- 
 pensations, and gather encouragement for pre- 
 sent confidence ! If God be for us, who can 
 be against us ? Did he not choose Abraham 
 among a nation of idolaters, and call him 
 friend ? Did he not release Joseph from the 
 pit, and raise him to princely glory ? Did he 
 not rescue Moses from the destructive waters, 
 and constitute him the leader of his oppressed 
 people ? Did he not deliver David from the 
 lion and the bear, from the strength of the 
 giant, and the madness of Saul, and exalt him 
 to a throne ? He was with Elijah in the desert, 
 with Job in his poverty, with Jonah in the 
 sea, with Peter in his fears, with Paul in his 
 persecutions, with Daniel in the den of lions, 
 with Esther and Mordecai, when exposed to 
 ignominy and death. He has in all ages sup- 
 plied his saints' necessities, alleviated their sor- 
 rows, sweetened their trials, turned shame into 
 honour, and death into life in their behalf. 
 Believe in Him, and He will deliver you from 
 all difficulties, preserve you in all dangers, and 
 make you more than conquerors over sin, and 
 misery, and death, and hell. Believe in Him, 
 and He will array you in a robe of light, adorn 
 you with a crown of glory, associate you with
 
 ESTHER. 573 
 
 holy angels, stamp immortality on your blessed- 
 ness, wipe all tears from your eyes, and admit 
 you to rivers of pleasure at his own right hand 
 for evermore l ." " Trust ye in the Lord for 
 ever, for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting 
 strength." 
 
 1 Altered from Cox.
 
 NOTES. 
 
 NOTE I. p. 8. 
 
 THE vow of the Nazarite consisted in the following 
 particulars : 1. He consecrated himself in a very espe- 
 cial and extraordinary manner to God. 2. This was to 
 continue for a certain season, probably never less than a 
 whole year, that he might have a full growth of hair to 
 burn in the fire which was under tfte sacrifice of the peace- 
 offering. 3. During the time of his separation or Nazarate, 
 he drank no wine nor strong drink ; nor used any vinegar 
 formed from any inebriating liquor, nor ate fresh or dried 
 grapes, nor tasted even the kernels or husks of any thing 
 that had grown upon the vine. 4. He never shaved his 
 head, but let his hair grow, as the proof of his being in 
 this separated state, and under vows of peculiar austerity. 
 5. He never touched any dead body, nor did any of the 
 last offices, even to his nearest kin ; but was considered 
 as the priests, who were wholly taken up with the service 
 of God, and regarded nothing else. 6. All the days of his 
 separation he was holy unto the Lord. During the whole 
 time, he was to be incessantly employed in religious acts. 
 It is very likely that St. Paul had taken the vow of a 
 Nazarite upon him, from the circumstance mentioned 
 Acts xviii. 18, Having shorn his head at Cenchrea, for he 
 had a vow. See more on this subject in Ad. Clarke's 
 Comment, on Numbers vi.
 
 576 NOTES. 
 
 NOTE II. p. 47 & 58. 
 
 To the conversation between Naomi and Ruth related 
 in the inspired volume, the Targum adds many particu- 
 lars as follows : " And Ruth said, Entreat me not to leave 
 thee, for I desire to become a proselyte. And Naomi said, 
 We are commanded to keep the sabbath, and other holy days ; 
 and on it not to travel more than two thousand cubits. And 
 Ruth said, Whither thou goest I will go. And Naomi 
 said, We are commanded not to lodge with the Gentiles. 
 Ruth answered, Where thou lodgest, I will lodge. And 
 Naomi said, We are commanded to observe the one hundred 
 and thirteen precepts. Ruth answered, What thy people 
 observe, that will I observe, as if they had been my people of 
 old. And Naomi said, We are commanded not to worship 
 with any strange worship. Ruth answered, Thy God shall 
 be my God. Naomi said, We have four kinds of capital 
 punishments for criminals : stoning, burning, beheading, and 
 hanging. Ruth answered, In whatsoever manner thou 
 diest, I will die. Naomi said, We have a house of burial. 
 Ruth answered, And there will I be buried." 
 
 NOTE III. p. 112. 
 
 This prediction was verified in the reign of Solomon, 
 when the exercise of the high-priesthood was taken from 
 Abiathar and committed to Zadok. By that transference 
 the office reverted to its original channel, the elder branch 
 (Eleazar's) of the house of Aaron. How it came to Eli, 
 who belonged to the younger branch (Ithamar's) we are 
 not informed. It was probably for a reason similar to that 
 which caused its re-transference from the younger to the 
 elder branch. The prediction, however, is by many sup- 
 posed to have a more extensive reference than to Zadok, 
 and Solomon, the Lord's anointed on the throne of Israel ; 
 and to allude to Him that was anointed to be the King- if 
 the - :o our great High Priest, and to t' 
 
 system.
 
 NOTES. 577 
 
 NOTE IV. p. 117 & 143. 
 
 The ark was, in the reign of Solomon, placed in the 
 Temple which he built on Mount Zion. There it re- 
 mained till the times of the last kings of Judah, who gave 
 themselves up to idolatry, and were so daring as to put 
 their idols in the very holy place itself. The priests, 
 being unable to endure this profanation, took the ark, and 
 carried it from place to place, that so they might preserve 
 it from the fury of these impious princes. [This is not 
 inconsistent with what we have said about the ordained 
 immovability of the sacred coffer. Extraordinary circum- 
 stances may justify a departure from ordinary rules re- 
 specting modes and places of worship, to prevent a still 
 greater evil.] Josiah commanded them to bring it back 
 to the sanctuary, and forbade them to carry it, as they 
 had hithertc done, into the country. Calmet. The Tal- 
 mudists relate that Solomon, having learned by revela- 
 tion that the Assyrians would one day burn the temple 
 lately built by him, and carry away all the rich materials 
 which he had placed there, took care to have a secret 
 place made under ground, where, in case of necessity, he 
 might conceal the most precious ornaments and sacred 
 things belonging to the temple from the knowledge of 
 any enemies ; and that Josiah, having a foresight of the 
 calamities which were about to fall on the Hebrew nation, 
 hid there the ark of the covenant, together with Aaron's 
 rod, the pot of Manna, the high priest's pectoral, and the 
 holy oil ; but that during the Babylonish captivity, the 
 priests having lost all knowledge of the place where these 
 things had been concealed, they were never afterwards 
 seen, and were not in the second temple. The Gemara 
 of Jerusalem and that of Babylon, both acknowledge that 
 the ark of the covenant is one of the things wanting in 
 
 SECOND SERIES. C C
 
 578 NOTES. 
 
 the second temple, after the return from the captivity of 
 Babylon. The Jews flatter themselves that it will appear 
 again with the Messiah whom they expect. But Jere- 
 miah, speaking of the time of the Messiah, and the calling 
 of the Gentiles to the faith, says that they shall neither 
 talk nor think of the ark, nor remember it any more. 
 Jer. iii. 16. 
 
 NOTE V. p. 129 & 132. 
 
 The Hebrew expression translated "in the one of the twain" 
 means literally " in the twain" and so some versions render 
 it. But it is doubted whether it refers to Saul's twain, or 
 two daughters, Merab and Michal, one of whom was be- 
 trothed to David, and the other was about to be actually 
 given to him ; or to David's twain, or two claims of 
 merit in having killed Gohath, and in slaughtering the 
 required number of the Philistines. Pole's Syn. Crit. 
 
 NOTE VI. p. 294. 
 
 According to a quotation of Grotius from Diodorus 
 Siculus, Ariopharnes, king of Thrace, used similar means 
 to solve a perplexing question. Being appointed to de- 
 cide between three young men, who each professed to be 
 the son of the deceased king of the Cimmerians, and 
 claimed the crown in consequence, found out the real son 
 by commanding each to shoot an arrow into the body of 
 the dead king : two of them did this without hesitation : 
 the third refused ; and was, therefore, judged by Ario- 
 pharnes to be the real son of the deceased. This, says 
 Ad. Clarke, is a parallel case to that in the text : a covert 
 appeal was made to the principle of affection, and the 
 truth was discovered, as in the case of the living child.
 
 NOTES. 579 
 
 NOTE VII. p. 329. 
 
 Some are of opinion that the expressions relating- to 
 Hiel, the rebuilder of Jericho, signify only great delay : 
 that he, who should undertake it, should spend nearly his 
 whole life in it ; all the time of his manhood, or the most 
 important portion of his life ; that if a man laid the foun- 
 dation when his first-born came into the world, his youngest 
 and last son should be born before the walls should be in 
 readiness to admit the gates to be set up in them ; and 
 that the phrase is of the proverbial kind, intimating 
 greatly protracted labour, occasioned by multitudinous 
 hindrances and delays. 
 
 Another opinion respecting the passage is, that he who 
 rebuilt this city should, in laying the foundation, slay or 
 sacrifice his first-born, in order to consecrate it, and 
 secure the assistance of the objects of his idolatrous wor- 
 ship ; and should slay his youngest son at the completion 
 of the work, as a gratitude-offering for the assistance 
 received. 
 
 NOTE VIII. p. 330. 
 
 Some commentators are of opinion that the Hebrew 
 word Orebim, rendered in our common English version 
 " ravens," signifies also " merchants" persons occasionally 
 trading through the country, whom God directed by in- 
 spiration to supply the prophet with food. Others think 
 that the original means " Arabians ;" and others, the inha- 
 bitants of a city or town of the name of Orbo or Oreb, and 
 that they, especially influenced by the Spirit of the Lord, 
 furnished his servant with necessaries in his retreat. 
 These opinions, however, as well as that presented in our 
 common version, still imply the working of a miracle 
 an extraordinary manifestation of Heaven's superintend- 
 ing care.
 
 580 NOTES. 
 
 NOTE IX. Sec ESTHEU. 
 
 Hadassah was, probably, her first, or Chaldaic name, 
 which, in that language, signifies a myrtle ; Esther, the name 
 given her when she came to the Persian court, which, in 
 that language, signifies a star. Being the daughter of 
 Abihail, the uncle of Mordecai, she must have been 
 Mordecai's cousin, though the Vulgate and Josephus 
 make her Mordecai's niece. 
 
 THE END. 
 
 GILBKKT & RIVINOTON, Printers, St. John's Square, Lftndoii.
 
 Waiting, 
 
 ZSphe world, Micawber-like, is waiting for happiness to turn 
 ^^ up by some fortuitous circumstance, but Micawber-like, 
 it never turns up, until we get to work ourselves and turn it 
 up. Happiness is the culmination of love's labour successfully 
 performed it is the spiritual blossom evolved from the ful- 
 filment of duty. 
 
 But people are praying (preying) and waiting for a 
 " Saviour " to appear who will deliver them from their sins and 
 transport them to a place of happiness ; and while waiting for 
 some one to do that which they are obliged to do themselves, 
 they are getting farther and farther away from their salvation. 
 Salvation can never come through greed, selfishness, unkind- 
 ness and sensual gratification. While these are cultivated by 
 the individual, he will always be in need of salvation. 
 
 A Messiah could do no more than teach obedience to the 
 Law of Love and wisdom. Learn to conform to the mental- 
 spiritual and physical laws of harmony. Bring the body and 
 mind under harmonious control. This you know in theory ; 
 put it into practice, and the Saviour will appear ! 
 
 World's Advance Thought.
 
 A 000 065 545 6