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 presented to the 
 UNIVERSITY LIBRARY 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA 
 SAN DIEGO 
 
 by 
 
 Wesley Palms

 
 WOMEN OF THE BIBLE.
 
 lustflrirnl anil terijitiuB Ikrtrjjrs 
 
 WOMEN OF THE BIBLE 
 
 EVE OF THE OLD TO THE MARYS OF THE 
 NEW TESTAMENT. 
 
 BY P. C. HEADLEY. 
 
 AUBURN: 
 
 DERBY, MILLER, AND COMPANY. 
 1850.
 
 Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1850, 
 
 BY DERBY, MILLER, AND CO. 
 In the Clerk's Office of the Southern District of New York. 
 
 THOMAS B. SMITH, STBREOTYPBR, 
 216 WILLIAM STRKUT, N. Y.
 
 TO 
 
 IRENE, 
 
 MY ONLY AND BELOVED SISTER, 
 THIS VOLUME 
 
 3nsrrM.
 
 Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1850, 
 
 BY DERBY r , MILLER, AND CO. 
 In the Clerk's Office of the Southern District of New York. 
 
 THOMAS B. SMITH, STKRKOTYFKR, 
 216 WIU.I^M 8TRKICT, N Y.
 
 TO 
 
 IRENE, 
 
 MY ONLY AND BELOVED SISTER, 
 THIS VOLUME 
 
 3s afftteatel 3rarriW.
 
 IT was not the design of adding essentially to 
 Biblical Literature, neither the cacoethes scri- 
 bendi, that induced the Author to increase the 
 number of similar works which have appeared. 
 
 It was the suggestion of another, enforced by 
 the consideration, that while there are elegant 
 Gift Books of Female Scripture Biography, there 
 is no volume of the kind for more general read- 
 ing. The Bible is a book of facts, developing all 
 the great principles of moral obligation which 
 concern man. In these sketches it has been the 
 steady aim to preserve those principles inviolate, 
 and where imagination has aided in completing 
 the narrative, as constantly to observe the known
 
 viii PREFACE. 
 
 laws of human action, and their peculiar modifi- 
 cation in the Hebrew commonwealth. 
 
 The sketch of "The Queen of Sheba," is 
 from the pen of the REV. H. W. PARKER ; and 
 by permission a few extracts are taken from a 
 recent work entitled, " Sacred Scenes and Char- 
 acters." 
 
 The Frontispiece and tasteful illustrations are 
 from Original Design, by the promising young 
 Artist, C. L. DERBY. 
 
 The biographies are in chronological order, 
 and will make an outline of Scripture History, 
 including nearly all the heroic and distinguished 
 women of the Sacred Annals. 
 
 The circumstances under which they were 
 written will unavoidably leave traces of haste ; 
 but the volume is committed to the tide of popu- 
 lar favor, and will fulfil its mission if it breathe 
 encouragement to the maternal heart, and infuse 
 the spirit of their high destiny to any extent, 
 into the minds of the women of America a land, 
 which in its moral, no less than its civil aspect, 
 is the world's modern Palestine.
 
 I. EVE. 
 
 PAG I 
 
 Adam alone in Paradise. His first Interview with Eve. Her Temp- 
 tation and Fall. Birth of Abel. His Death. The old Age and Last 
 Hours of Eve 13 
 
 II. SARAH. 
 
 Sarah's Youth and Marriage. Life in Palestine. Abram's Visit to 
 the Court of Pharaoh. She entertains Angels. Hagar's Exile. 
 Birth of Isaac. Hagar banished the second time. Sacrifice of Isaac. 
 Sarah's Death and Burial 27 
 
 III. REBEKAH. 
 
 The Embassy of Isaac to Haran. Rebekah at the Well. The Scene 
 in the Domestic Circle. Departure for Canaan. Isaac walking in 
 the Fields sees the Servant coming, and goes forth to meet his Bride. 
 Uebekuh's Death. Her Character J5 
 
 IV. RACHEL. 
 
 Jacob's Journey to Harnn. Resting by the Well, Rachel comes with 
 her Flock. Makes himself known. Serves Seven Years for her. 
 The Fraud of Laban compels him to take Leah, and render another 
 Seven Years' Service for Rachel. The Flight. Her Death C5
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 V. MIRIAM. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Miriam by the Nile. Passage of the Red Sea, and her Song. Her Fall. 
 Death and Burial. Power of Faith ~ 5 
 
 VL DEBORAH. 
 
 Deborah beneath the Palm-tree at Bethel Her Interview with Barak. 
 The Summoning to Battle. The Conflict and Victory. Song of 
 Deborah and Barak. Her Character 91 
 
 VII JEPTHA'S DAUGHTER. 
 
 Jeptha in Exile. Called to the Generalship of the Army. His Vow. 
 The Victory and Return. Met by his Daughter. Her Lamenta- 
 tion and Sacrifice 105 
 
 VIII. DELILAH. 
 
 Life's Contrasts. Samson's Love and Fall. Scene from Samson 
 Agonistes. The Temple of Dagon overthrown. Delilah Compared 
 with the Hebrew Womeii 115 
 
 IX. RUTH. 
 
 The Design of her History. The Trial in Moab. Ruth and Naomi 
 retnrn to Bethlehem. Ruth Gleaning in the Field of Boaz. His 
 Generosity. Falls in Love with the beautiful Moabitess, and Mar- 
 ries her. Her Character 127 
 
 X. HANNAH. 
 
 Her Trial and Faith. The Annual Pilgrimage to Shiloh. Her Prayer 
 and the Answer. Birth and Consecration of Samuel. Maternal 
 Influence 141 
 
 XL QUEEN OF SHEBA. 
 
 Description of Arabia, the Queen's Realm. Her Character. Journey 
 to Solomon's Court. The Royal Interview. Her Return. Woman's 
 Sphere 149
 
 CONTENTS. XI 
 
 Xn. JEZEBEL. 
 
 MM 
 
 Jezebel's Marriage and Influence over the King. Her Persecution of 
 the Prophets. She is unmoved by the Miracle on Mount Carmel. 
 The Murder of Naboth. The Queen's Tragical Death. Compara- 
 tive Seclusion a Blessing to Woman 173 
 
 XHL ATHALIAH. 
 
 The Family of Ahab. Athaliah Marries Prince Jehoram, and enters 
 on her Career of Crime. Massacre of the " Seed Royal," and Pres- 
 ervation of Joush. The Revolution. Athaliah Slain. Origin of 
 Monarchy 187 
 
 XIV. THE SHUNAMITE. 
 
 Internal Evidence of Inspiration of the Bible. Shunem. The Woman 
 entertains Elisha. Promise of a Son. The Boy goes to the Harvest 
 Fields, is smitten with Disease, borne to his Mother, and Dies at 
 Noon. The Shunamite hastens to the Mountain Home of Elisha. 
 He restores to her the Sleeper 195 
 
 XV. ESTHER, 
 
 Vast Consequences from Small Events. The Festival of Ahasuerus. 
 He commands the Queen to grace the Banquet with her Presence. 
 The Refusal and Divorce. Esther's Appearance with the Beautiful 
 Maidens in the King's Palace. Hainan's Plot, and Esther's Petition. 
 Her Success and Noble Character 209 
 
 XVI. ELIZABETH. 
 
 The Promise of a - Messiah. Zacharias in the Temple. Family 
 Scenes. Birth of John. Maternal Influence upon the Baptist's 
 Character 229 
 
 XVII. THE VIRGIN MARY. 
 
 Her Interview with the Angel. Visit to Elizabeth. Joseph's Trial. 
 The Sojourn at Bethlehem. The Family keep the Passover at Jeru- 
 salem. Their Residence in Nazareth. The Marriage in Cana. 
 Scene at the Door of the Synagogue in Capernavrm. Mary at the 
 Cross. In the " Upper Room" at Jerusalem, after Christ's Ascen- 
 sion, with the Praying Disciples 239
 
 Xll CONTENTS. 
 
 XVIIL THE SISTERS, MARTHA AND MARY. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 The Sisters, Martha and Mary. Contrast between the Old and the 
 New Dispensation. The Family of Bethany. Lazarus' Sickness and 
 Death. His Resurrection. The Distinguishing Traits in the Charac- 
 ters of Martha and Mary. The Saviour's Last Supper and Interview 
 with them 261 
 
 XIX. TABITHA, OR DORCAS. 
 
 Joppa. Tabitha's Residence there, her Character, and Death. She is 
 Raised from the Dead by Peter. Woman's Influence as a Maiden, 
 Wife, and Mother 275
 
 EVE has a brief biography in the Sacred 
 Record. Without childhood or youth, she 
 came from the moulding hand of her Cre- 
 ator, in the full maturity of her powers, and 
 in the perfection of human beauty. 
 
 To Adam as he awakened from repose, 
 she came like a morning vision the bright 
 presence of a celestial. How long he had 
 been alone in Paradise, we do not know. 
 But he had held communion with God and
 
 14 EVE. 
 
 the angels ; and given names to the varie- 
 ties of animal creation, which passed before 
 him in obedient homage to their solitary 
 king. He had looked with rapture upon 
 the high arch of his wide domain, with its 
 wandering clouds and nightly stars upon 
 the flashing rivers, and waving foliage with 
 its golden fruit. 
 
 The world of thought within, was pure 
 and beautiful as the world without. Kea- 
 son was unshaken in its majesty and clear 
 in its judgment tone, conscience perpetual- 
 ly peaceful, and the heart tuned to the har- 
 monies of Heaven. "He was great yet 
 disconsolate" in his garden of manifold de- 
 lights. He heard sometimes the voice of 
 Jehovah, but it came to his listening ear 
 with the authority' of a Sovereign. The 
 Seraphim walked with him in the groves 
 of Eden, but they were of a higher and 
 more etherial nature. Besides, they left
 
 EVE. 15 
 
 him to many hours of solitude, in which no 
 language of sympathy broke on his con- 
 templations. Around him, in all the myr- 
 iads of submissive creatures, he found in 
 none the light of thought and the dignity 
 of moral character. It is not strange with a 
 liwrnan soul, if a shadow of mysterious lone- 
 liness at times passed over his ample brow. 
 He longed for a being who could enter into 
 the sphere of meditation and feeling pecu- 
 liar to man. This, his only want, was grat- 
 ified by the Deity, when he brought the 
 first maiden and wife, in " unadorned beau- 
 ty," to his beating heart. He received with 
 joyful welcome his fair companion, and re- 
 cognized the object of his social affections. 
 They flowed freely from their unsullied 
 fountain, and were reciprocated with the 
 confiding love of woman. She was his 
 equal in origin and immortality ; and they 
 went forth from the marriage rite, which
 
 16 EVE. 
 
 fell from the lips of God, to contemplate his 
 works, and lift an anthem of praise the 
 first epithalamium of earth. To Adam, 
 Paradise must have put on new glory, and 
 the very trees seemed to toss their green 
 crowns in gladness above his path. 
 
 He told Eve what God had done in fit- 
 ting up their abode, and gave her the names 
 of animals sporting by her side. 
 
 When he paused before the mystic " tree 
 of the knowledge of good and evil," near 
 which were the spreading and luxuriant 
 branches of the "tree of life," he repeated 
 the awful sanctions of eternal Law, which 
 invested that single tree with fearful inter- 
 est. It pointed like an index-finger to the 
 skies, and reminded them of the holiness 
 and authority of the Infinite Lawgiver. It 
 was there, though one among thousands, in 
 solitary and solemn sublimity, at once a 
 memorial of love, a test of loyalty, and a
 
 EVE. 17 
 
 beacon of warning, bidding them beware 
 how they dashed madly down the preci- 
 pice of moral ruin. They contemplated 
 that forbidden object silently, until they 
 bowed and prayed for strength to walk in 
 obedience, erecting beneath its shade a fam- 
 ily altar to the Lord. 
 
 Beautiful scene ! Heaven bent lovingly 
 over it, and 
 
 " Aside the Devil turned, 
 
 For envy." 
 
 So time passed on, with no chronometer 
 but the joy of holy affection with no dial 
 but the shadows of evening that brought no 
 gloom, and the dawn of morning that re- 
 vealed more of the glorious Giver, and 
 added new notes of praise to their hymns 
 of worship. 
 
 But one day Eve wandered alone amid 
 the bowers of the garden, and the fallen 
 Archangel watched her goings and plotted
 
 18 EVE. 
 
 her ruin. He understood the subtle power 
 of influence wielded with the magic of 
 genius, and approached her with a question 
 touching the possibility that Jehovah could 
 with propriety prohibit any pleasurable in- 
 dulgence. The purity of Eve's mind was 
 stained by indecision ; she did not repel the 
 insinuation and affirm the justness of the 
 interdiction. 
 
 The tempter became more positive, and 
 assured her that she might partake of the 
 fruit without apprehension of the threatened 
 death, and would besides, attain a glorious 
 pre-eminence in knowledge. She listened, 
 and cast a glance of desire upon the pen- 
 dent boughs, whose fragrant harvest seemed 
 to invite her touch. Fatal pause ! the first 
 act in a moral revolution, extending over 
 the ages of time and the cycles of eternity. 
 
 " Forth reaching to the fruit, she plucked, she ate." 
 
 Could she then have looked down the
 
 EVE. 19 
 
 stream of history, and read all the tragedies 
 that moment of pleasure was preparing for 
 the souls of her offspring, how would her 
 heart have burst with agony, and tears of 
 blood have stained that cheek, flushed with 
 the excitement of the conflict with con- 
 science, and the enjoyment of her uncon- 
 scious fall. Pleased with the achievement, 
 and meeting not immediately the mysteri- 
 ous doom she had feared, Eve sought the 
 bower of Adam, and urged him. to eat of 
 the pleasant fruit ; for it was truly as the 
 serpent had said. He, too, fell before the 
 temptation presented in two-fold strength, 
 and the victory of "the powers of dark- 
 ness" was complete. 
 
 A long and exultant shout went through 
 the arches of hell, and methinks every harp 
 in Heaven was silent, while a convulsive 
 throb was felt in every angel's bosom, and 
 a shadow of disappointment, wonder, and
 
 20 EVE. 
 
 grief, passed over the features of the celes- 
 tial host. 
 
 Eve soon appears in a new character. 
 With him her influence had ruined she 
 had gone forth an exile, with the curse of 
 God pursuing her and became a mother. 
 In some lonely valley, or on a mountain 
 side of the world's vast wilderness, with 
 no cheering accents but the voice of Adam, 
 she brought forth her first-born. Never 
 was there a more desolate mother. She 
 had not even a manger, and the angels who 
 fled affrighted when she sinned, came no 
 more to cheer her solitude with their song of 
 thanksgiving. She could pillow her aching 
 head on the breast of Adam, but it brought 
 only bitter recollections of brighter days. 
 With maternal interest she might rejoice 
 over the unconscious heir of frailty and suf- 
 fering ; but " what will be his destiny now 
 we are fallen ?" was a question that could
 
 EVE. 21 
 
 not fail to oppress her loving heart. It 
 would seem that Abel was a twin brother. 
 Whether this were so or not, his name 
 indicates that he was a weaker child and 
 less tenderly loved. Eve centered her 
 hopes in regard to the Redeemer and the 
 honor of her family in Cain. How much 
 this fact affected his character and cher- 
 ished the haughty spirit which at length 
 made him a fratricide, we cannot tell. 
 
 He may have apprehended something sig- 
 nificant in the sacrifices, pointing to his own 
 death as a type of the Great Sufferer. A 
 dark thought had taken possession of his 
 mind, and in sullen mood he set aside the 
 authority of parental example in his offer- 
 ing to the Lord. Jehovah frowned upon 
 him, while the smoke of his oblation as- 
 cended ; but flooded with the smile of his 
 approval the altar and the brow of Abel. 
 In the conversation which followed, Cain
 
 22 EVE. 
 
 became enraged, and smote his unoffending 
 brother. When he saw the warm blood 
 flowing from the wounds of his dying vic- 
 tim, and met the reproach of his fading eye, 
 conscience with its terrors was let loose 
 upon him, and branded by the wrath of 
 God he fled a fugitive from the face of his 
 kindred. 
 
 Adam in his customary walks, or led 
 forth by the long absence of his sons into 
 the fields, came suddenly upon the bloody 
 corpse of Abel. lie beheld the marks of 
 violence, but the companion of the slain 
 was gone ; and while he knew that death 
 had entered his family, it was murdsr too 
 the fearful harvest sown by parental 
 transgression. It opened the ravages of 
 crime, which were to make the green earth 
 one wide field of battle. When the shock 
 was over, and he recovered from his delir- 
 ium of anguish, he bore the tidings to Eve.
 
 EVE. 23 
 
 Whether she was partially prepared for the 
 bolt by his despairing face and incoherent 
 expressions, or he rushed in the excess of 
 his grief into her presence, with the shriek, 
 "Abel is dead /" is left to conj ecture. When 
 the terrible fact was known, her heart sunk 
 beneath the blow ; for to the depth of a 
 mother's sorrow was added the bitterness 
 of self-reproach. 
 
 And that first funeral was a gloomy one 
 the uncoffined form was carried without 
 a knell to its burial, and the shadow of a 
 grave darkened a ruined world. Nor since 
 has there been a sadder home or wilder lam- 
 entation, than that of the bereaved patriarch 
 and his bewailing wife. 
 
 The years melted away, and Eve was 
 again a mother. To her, evidently, was con- 
 ceded the right of naming her offspring. 
 This third son she called Seth, or the ap- 
 pointed, because God had given her another
 
 24 EVE. 
 
 to fill the place of the departed. How beau- 
 tifully this incident shows the maternal af- 
 fection and trusting spirit of Eve ! Her 
 weary heart had a new object upon which 
 to pour its wealth of love, and she recog- 
 nized the hand of her injured Father in 
 the bestowment of a blessing, which was 
 to link her destiny with the advent of the 
 promised Christ. 
 
 She lived to be the centre of a large do- 
 mestic circle, and to behold the multiplying 
 hundreds of a sinful and a suffering race. 
 Sowed with the weight of years, and an 
 experience full of the most varied and stir- 
 ring events, she reached the limit of life. 
 Oh ! with what emotion she contemplated 
 the past, while looking down into the gulf 
 of dissolution. Around her lay the wreck 
 of a planet which filled the universe with 
 melody, when it rolled from the forming 
 hand of God, and which in its moral destiny,
 
 EVE. 25 
 
 had there been no interposition of grace, 
 would have drifted forever from its orbit 
 around His Throne. Her children and 
 friends gathered about her dying couch, to 
 hear her last accents and receive her bles- 
 sing. Adam, leaning upon his staff, stood by 
 her pillow and bedewed her pale forehead 
 with his tears, breathing in her ear comfort- 
 ing words concerning the mercy of the Lord. 
 
 In the struggles of that hour, Eve could 
 lean alone upon the promise of a Messiah 
 to come the only ray penetrating the dark 
 valley was that dim revelation of a Saviour 
 who would be the "resurrection and the 
 life." She cast a mournful glance upon 
 those she had loved and ruined, murmured 
 a farewell, looked upward with a smile of 
 victory, and the conflict was over the 
 mother of mankind was no mwe. 
 
 The tidings spread, and from the scat- 
 tered dwellings of her descendants was
 
 26 EVE. 
 
 heard the voice of weeping for Eve had 
 been loved for her affectionate fidelity to 
 Adam, and her tender solicitude for the 
 happiness of all. Beside she retained traces 
 of her primeval beauty, and subdued by 
 penitence, she lived among them a model 
 of matronly dignity, meekness and piety. 
 Her solemn counsels and many prayers 
 were remembered, and her frailty in the 
 ruinous experiment of disobedience, was 
 well nigh forgotten in the grief of an orplian 
 race. In silence, except the sobs of unaf- 
 fected mourning, she was borne to her grave 
 beside that of the martyred Abel. 
 
 Though no epitaph was written, as of- 
 ten as the eye of the passer-by fell upon 
 that mound, or the foliage waving over it, 
 he read the language of those words writ- 
 ten in burning capitals over the gateway 
 of despair "In the day that thou eatest 
 thereof, THOU SHALT SUEELY DIE."
 
 SARAI was a Hebrew maiden of remark- 
 able beauty. Her childhood and youth 
 were passed among the mountains of Ar- 
 menia, whose fine climate and sublime sce- 
 nery developed her form and gave strength 
 to her intellectual powers. Her noble fig- 
 ure, dark eye luminous with expression, 
 and the graceful dignity of her manner, 
 made her the admiration of the Chaldean 
 shepherds and the pride of her kindred.
 
 28 SARAH. 
 
 Among the wealthy nomads of the fruit- 
 ful valleys who sought her hand in marriage, 
 was Abram, a kinsman. A worshipper of 
 the infinite One, he loved her for her ele- 
 vated piety, no less than for her personal 
 beauty. And doubtless they often walked 
 forth together beneath the nightly sky, 
 whose transparent air in that latitude made 
 the stars impressively 
 
 " The burning blazonry of God !' 
 
 Upon the hill-tops around, were the ob- 
 servatories and altars of Chaldean philoso- 
 phy, whose disciples worshipped the host 
 of Heaven. In the serenity of such an hour, 
 with the white tents reposing in the dis- 
 tance, and the "soul-like sound" of the 
 rustling forest alone breaking the stillness, 
 it would not be strange as they gazed on 
 flaming Orion and the Pleiades if they had 
 bowed with the devotee of Light, while
 
 SARAH. 29 
 
 " Beneath his blue and beaming sky, 
 He worshipped at their lofty shrine, 
 
 And deemed he saw with gifted eye, 
 The Godhead in his works divine." 
 
 But a purer illumination than streamed 
 from that radiant dome, brought near in 
 his ineffable majesty the Eternal, and like 
 the holy worshippers of Eden, they adored 
 with subdued and reverent hearts, their in- 
 finite Father. 
 
 To a reflective mind, there is great sub- 
 limity and impressiveness in the purity 
 and growth of religious principle, in cir- 
 cumstances so adverse to its manifesta- 
 tion. The temptations resisted the ear- 
 nest communion with each other the glo- 
 rious aspirations and soarings of imagina- 
 tion, when morning broke upon the girdling 
 summits, and when evening came down 
 with its stars, and its rising moon, flooding 
 with glory nature in her repose ; these and 
 a thousand lovely and touching scenes of
 
 30 SARAH. 
 
 that pastoral life are all unrecorded. The 
 great events in history, and bold points in 
 character, are seized by the inspired pen- 
 man as sufficient to sweep the grand out- 
 line of God's providential and moral gov- 
 ernment over the world, and his care of his 
 people. 
 
 Just when it would best accomplish his 
 designs, which are ever marching like des- 
 tiny to their fulfilment, Jehovah called to 
 Abram, and bade him go to a distant land 
 Avhich he would show him. With his 
 father-in-law and with Lot, his flocks and 
 herds, he journeyed toward Palestine. 
 When he arrived at Haran, in Mesopota- 
 mia, pleased with the country, and probably 
 influenced by the declining health of the 
 aged Terah, he took up his residence there. 
 Here he remained till the venerable patri- 
 arch, Sarai's father, died. The circle of 
 relatives bore him to the grave, and kept
 
 SARAH. 31 
 
 the days of mourning. But the dutiful 
 daughter wept in the solitary grief of an or- 
 phan's heart. A few years before, she had 
 lost a brother, and now the father to whom 
 she was the last flower that bloomed on 
 the desert of age, and who lavished his love 
 upon her, Avas buried among strangers. 
 
 Then the command to move forward to 
 his promised inheritance came again to 
 Abram. Sarai shecl upon that lonely grave 
 the baptism of her tears, and turned away 
 in the sad beauty of mourning to fold her 
 tent and enter the shadows of an untravelled 
 wilderness. They journeyed on among the 
 hills, encamping at night beside a mountain 
 spring, and beneath the unclouded heavens 
 arching their path, changeless and watchful 
 as the love of God exiles by the power of 
 their simple faith in him. Soon as they 
 reached Palestine, Abram consecrated its 
 very soil by erecting a family altar, first in
 
 32 SARAH. 
 
 the plain of Moreh, and again on the sum- 
 mits that catch the smile of morning near 
 
 i 
 the hamlet of Bethel. 
 
 Months stepped away rapidly as silently, 
 old associations wore off, and Abram was 
 a wealthy and happy man in the luxuriant 
 vales of Canaan. His nocks dotted the 
 plains, and his cattle sent down their low- 
 ing from encircling hills. But more than 
 these to him was the affection of his beau- 
 tiful wife. Her eye watched his form along 
 the winding way, when with the ascending 
 sun he went out on the dewy slopes ; and 
 kindled with a serene welcome when at 
 night-fall he returned for repose amid the 
 sacred joys of home. 
 
 At length there came on a fearful famine. 
 The rain was withholden, and the dew 
 shed its benediction no more upon the earth. 
 He was compelled to seek bread at the 
 court of Pharaoh, or perish. Knowing the
 
 SARAH. 33 
 
 power of female beauty, and the want of 
 principle among the Egyptian princes, he 
 feared assassination and the captivity of 
 Sarai which would follow. Haunted with 
 this apprehension, he told her to affirm 
 upon inquiry that she was his sister 
 which was not a direct falsehood, but only 
 so by implication. According to the Jew- 
 ish mode of reckoning she might be called 
 a sister, and Abrani stooped to this pre- 
 varication under that terrible excitement 
 of fear, which, in the case of Peter, drove 
 a true disciple of Christ to the brink of 
 apostasy and despair. 
 
 But his deception involved him in the 
 very difficulty he designed to escape. The 
 king's courtiers saw the handsome Hebrew, 
 and extolled her beauty before him. He 
 summoned her to the apartments of the 
 palace, and captivated by her loveliness, 
 determined to make her his bride. During 
 
 2*
 
 34 SARAH. 
 
 the agonizing suspense of Abram, and the 
 concealed anguish of Sarai in her conscious 
 degradation, the hours wore heavily away, 
 until the judgments of God upon the royal 
 household brought deliverance. Pharaoh, 
 though an idolater, knew by this supernat- 
 ural infliction, that there was guilt in the 
 transaction, and called Abram to an ac- 
 count. He had nothing to say in self-acquit- 
 tal, and with a strange magnanimity, was 
 sent away with his wife and his property 
 quietly ; followed only by the reproaches of 
 Pharaoh, and his own wakeful conscience. 
 
 Abram returned to Palestine, became a 
 victor in fierce battles with a vastly out- 
 numbering foe, and was in possession of a 
 splendid fortune. Yet Sarai was unhappy 
 because she was childless. She had the 
 Lord's promise that a son should beguile 
 the hours of declining life, but the years 
 fled, and there was no token of fulfilment.
 
 SARAH. 35 
 
 In lier disappointment and impatience she 
 told her husband it was folly to hope on, 
 and pointed to Hagar, a servant, as the mo- 
 ther of the expected heir. By following 
 his suggestion in Egypt she went to the 
 verge of ruin, and now in turn is the temp- 
 ter, involving her family in guilt and dis- 
 cord that almost broke the heart of Abram. 
 When the slave was likely to bear a son, 
 her vanity was excited, and she treated 
 Sarai with scorn that roused her indigna- 
 tion. Hagar was banished and became a 
 friendless fugitive in the wilderness where 
 the angel of God found her weary and faint- 
 ing, led her to a gushing spring, and there 
 bade her go back submissively to her mis- 
 tress. 
 
 Soon after Jehovah appeared to Abram 
 in a glorious vision, talking with him as 
 friend to friend. He fell on his face in the 
 dust, as did the exile of Patmos ages after,
 
 36 SARAH. 
 
 while a voice of affection and hope, canie 
 from the bending sky " I am the Almighty 
 God ; walk before me and be thou perfect." 
 The solemn covenant involving the great- 
 ness and splendor of the people and com- 
 monwealth that should spring from the soli- 
 tary pair, was renewed ; and as an outward 
 seal, he was named Abraham, The father of 
 a great multitude and his wife Sarah, The 
 princess. Still he laughed at the absurdity 
 that Sarah would ever be a mother, and in- 
 voked a blessing on Ishmael, but evidently 
 said nothing to her upon a subject dismissed 
 as incredible from his thoughts. For when 
 the celestial messengers were in the tent 
 on their way to warn Lot, she listened to 
 their earnest conversation, concealed by the 
 curtains, and hearing that repeated prom- 
 ise based on the immutability of God, also 
 laughed with bitter mirth, at her hopeless 
 prospect in regard to the marvellous pre-
 
 SARAH. 37 
 
 diction. And when one of the Angels, who 
 was Jehovah veiled in human form, as af- 
 terwards " manifest in the flesh," charged 
 her with this unbelief and levity, the dis- 
 covery roused her fears, and approaching 
 him, without hesitation, she denied the fact. 
 He knew perfectly her sudden apprehen- 
 sion, and only repeated the accusation, en- 
 forced doubtless by a glance of omniscience, 
 like that which pierced the heart of Peter. 
 The group separated, and two of those 
 bright beings went on to Sodom. The 
 next morning Abraham walked out upon 
 the plain, and looked towards the home of 
 Lot. He saw the smoke as of a great fur- 
 nace going up to the calm azure, from the 
 scathed and blackened plains where life was 
 so busy and joyous a few hours before ! 
 With a heavy heart he returned to his tent, 
 and brought Sarah forth to behold the scene. 
 She clung with trembling to his side, while
 
 38 SARAH. 
 
 she listened to the narration of the terrible 
 overthrow of those gorgeous cities, and the 
 rescue of her brother's household, and be- 
 held in the distance the seething and silent 
 grave of millions, sending up a swaying col- 
 umn of ebon, cloud-like incense to God's 
 burning indignation against sin. 
 
 They left the vale of Mamre, and jour- 
 neyed to Gera, where, with a marvellous 
 forgetfulness of the past, the beauty of Sa- 
 rah again led them into deception and false- 
 hood, and with the same result as before. 
 Abimelech, the king, would have taken her 
 for his wife as Abraham's sister, had not 
 God appeared in a dream threatening im- 
 mediate death. Upon pleading his inno- 
 cence he was spared, and expostulating 
 with his guest, generously offered him a 
 choice of residence in the land ; but rebuked 
 Sarah with merited severity. 
 
 Prophecy and covenant now hastened to
 
 SARAH. 39 
 
 their fulfilment. Sarah gave birth to a son, 
 and with the name of Grod on her lips, she 
 gave utterance to holy rapture. With all 
 her faults, she was a pious and noble wo- 
 man. She meant to train him for the Lord, 
 and therefore when she saw young Ishniael 
 mocking at the festival of his weaning, she 
 besought her husband to send away the 
 irreverent son, whose influence might ruin 
 the consecrated Isaac. Hagar, with a gen- 
 erous provision for her wants, was once 
 more a fugitive ; and the Most High ap- 
 proved the solicitude of a mother for an 
 only child, around whose destiny was gath- 
 ered the interest of ages, and the hopes of 
 a world. 
 
 And now, with the solemn shadows of 
 life's evening hours falling around her, and 
 a heart subdued by the discipline of Provi- 
 dence, in the fullness of love which had 
 been rising so long within the barriers of
 
 40 SARAH. 
 
 hope deferred, she bent prayerfully over the 
 very slumbers of that fair boy, and taught 
 him the precious name of God, with the 
 first prattle of his infant lips. How proud- 
 ly she watched the unfolding of this bud of 
 promise. When in the pastimes of child- 
 hood, he played before the tent-door, or with 
 a shout of gladness ran to meet Abraham 
 returning from the folds, her calm and glow- 
 ing eye marked his footsteps, and her grate- 
 ful aspirations for a blessing on the lad 
 went up to the Heaven of heavens. At 
 length he stood before her in the manliness 
 and beauty of youth unscarred by the rage 
 of passions, and with a brow open and 
 laughing as the radiant sky of his own 
 lovely Palestine. 
 
 It was a morning which flooded the dewy 
 plains with glory, and filled the groves with 
 music, when Abraham came in from his 
 wonted communion with God, and called
 
 SARAH. 41 
 
 for Isaac, and told Mm to prepare for a 
 three days' journey into the wilderness. 
 How tenderly was Sarah regarded in this 
 scene of trial. Evidently no information 
 of the awful command to sacrifice the son 
 of her old age, was made to her. She 
 might have read something fearful in the 
 lines of anxious thought and the workings 
 of deep emotion in the face of Abraham. 
 But he evaded all inquiries on the subject, 
 " clave the wood," and accompanied by two 
 of his young men, turned from his dwelling 
 with a blessing from that wondering mother, 
 and was soon lost from her straining vision 
 among the distant hills. Upon the third 
 day he saw the top of Mount Moriah kind- 
 ling in the rising sun, and taking Isaac 
 alone, ascended to the summit, whereon 
 was to be reared an altar, which awakened 
 more intense solicitude in heaven, than any 
 offering before or since, except on Calvary,
 
 42 SARAH. 
 
 where God's "only-begotten and well-be- 
 loved son" was slain. There is no higher 
 moral sublimity, than the unwavering trust 
 and cheerful obedience of this patriarch, 
 when the very oath of the Almighty seemed 
 perjured, and the bow of promise blotted 
 from the firmament of faith ! But he be- 
 lieved Jehovah, and would have clung to 
 his assurance, though the earth had reeled 
 in her orbit, and every star drifted from 
 its moorings. He prayed for strength, with 
 his "hand on the forehead of his submissive 
 son. 
 
 " He rose up and laid 
 The wood upon the altar. All was done, 
 He stood a moment and a deep, quick flush 
 Passed o'er his countenance ; and then he nerved 
 His spirit with a bitter strength, and spoke 
 " Isaac ! my only son " The boy looked up, 
 And Abraham turned his face away and wept. 
 " Where is the lamb, my father ?'' 0, the tones, 
 The sweet, the thrilling music of a child ! 
 How it doth agonize at such an hour ! 
 It was the last, deep struggle Abraham held 
 His loved, his beautiful, his only son,
 
 SARAH. 43 
 
 And lifted up his arm, and called on God 
 And lo ! God'a Angel staid him and he fell 
 Upon his face and wept." 
 
 When on his return he told Sarah of his 
 strange mission, and how the Lord stayed 
 his uplifted hand when the struggle had 
 passed, with deeper yearnings of the ma- 
 ternal heart she clasped Isaac to her bosom, 
 and mingled with his own, her tears of joy. 
 She did not long survive this last test of 
 fidelity, itself the crowning evidence that 
 she was the mother whose posterity would 
 out-number the stars. At Kirjath-arba, in 
 the vale of Hebron, during the absence of 
 Abraham, Sarah died. When he heard of 
 her death, he hastened to her burial, "to 
 mourn and to weep for her." There is no 
 more affecting funeral scene in history. 
 Bending over the corpse of his beautiful 
 and devoted wife, he looked upon the 
 strangers about him, and while his hoary
 
 44 SARAH. 
 
 locks shook with the excitement of grief, 
 he sobbed aloud, " I am a stranger and a 
 sojourner with you ; give me a possession 
 of a burying place with you, that I may 
 bury my dead out of my sight." 
 
 He bought the field of Machpelah, and in 
 a cave, which seemed to have been formed 
 for a sepulchre, beneath the shade of forest 
 trees, he laid the form he loved when a 
 beauteous maiden, the noblest of wives, 
 and a faithful, praying mother. With Isaac 
 weeping at his side, he turned away to en- 
 force on his tender spirit her holy counsels, 
 and wait further .upon the providence of 
 God toward the youth ; upon whom must 
 fall the patriarchal mantle, and who was to 
 guard and transmit the knowledge and wor- 
 ship of Jehovah.
 
 IT was sunset on the plains of Mesopo- 
 tamia. Around them stood the mountains, 
 with their brows bathed in the glow of an 
 oriental day, as it dropped gloriously behind 
 them. Far down their darkening sides, the 
 flocks were gathering to their folds, and 
 with a softened murmur the echoes went 
 up from the distant city in the vale of Ha- 
 ran, towards whose gates from the inter- 
 locking hills of the south, wound slowly a 
 
 3*
 
 46 REBEKAH. 
 
 strange cavalcade. The camels were la- 
 den richly, and walked wearily, for they had 
 travelled from Palestine, which was more 
 than four hundred miles from Haran. 
 They were led by an aged man of patriar- 
 chal air, whose calm face revealed both a 
 thoughtful mind, and the dignity of good- 
 ness ; while his flowing beard fell upon his 
 breast white as a wreath of snow. He 
 was the faithful steward of Abraham, and 
 with an oath of fidelity in his mission, jour- 
 neyed to the land of Nahor to choose a bride 
 for Isaac, worthy of the honor, and educa- 
 ted in the religion of his father. The shad- 
 ows of twilight were deepening upon the 
 landscape, when he passed beside a well in 
 the suburbs of the city, and gazed upon its 
 walls with the intense emotion which agi- 
 tates the heart, when the conflict between 
 hope and fear is drawing to a final issue. 
 And besides his contemplations of the In vis-
 
 REBEKAH. 47 
 
 ible, he had but one thought during all his 
 days of lonely travel, and his nights of wake- 
 fulness beneath the beaming sky above his 
 roofless head : " Where shall I find the mai- 
 den my master will approve, and his only 
 son receive to his home, as the second pi*in- 
 ce$s in their illustrious line? It was the 
 time of evening when the women came out 
 to draw water, and he determined to make 
 the occasion decisive, under the direction of 
 God. 
 
 He made the camels kneel about him, 
 and bowing himself in prayer, he besought 
 the Lord "to give him speed" in the mat- 
 ter for Abraham, his servant's sake. It was 
 no formal prayer he breathed upon the 
 quiet air, which scarcely lifted the hoary 
 locks from his anxious brow. It was no 
 wavering faith that cast all the care of 
 his troubled spirit on Jehovah, desiring the 
 sign of his approval in a simple expression
 
 48 REBEKAH. 
 
 of Eastern hospitality. And while lie was 
 communing with God, Kebekah the daugh- 
 ter of Bethuel, came out bearing her pitch- 
 er ; and, "the damsel was very fair to look 
 iipon? Her singular beauty arrested the 
 eye of Eliezer. He watched her while she 
 ran to the fountain, so airily, 
 
 " The light spring- flower would scarcely bow- 
 Beneath her step," 
 
 and stooped to the waters, like a white 
 swan bending to the glassy wave. Then 
 lifting the pitcher to her shoulder, upon 
 which the raven ringlets fell wavingly from 
 her fair forehead, she stood before him in 
 the fading light, the impersonation of virgin 
 loveliness. She did not see the charmed 
 Eliezer, and hastened nymph-like along her 
 star-lit path, towards the city gate. Start- 
 ing as from a dream, he ran forward to meet 
 her, and asked permission to drink of the 
 water. She immediately dropped the pitch-
 
 REBEKAH. 49 
 
 er upon her hand and said, " Drink, uiy lord." 
 Just then she observed the panting camels, 
 and with the same disinterested kindness, 
 and a voice which was the very music of 
 love, offered to draw water " for them also, 
 until they had done drinking." He was so 
 absorbed by a solemn interest of which she 
 knew nothing, that "he held his peace," 
 without even rendering aid to Rebekah; 
 but mutely admiring her faultless person, 
 and generous deed, he wondered if that 
 beautiful being was the object of his toil- 
 some pilgrimage. She had given the sign 
 unconsciously, of his own choosing, and the 
 fact gradually spread hopeful tranquillity 
 over his bewildered thought. He gave her 
 an ear-ring of pure gold, and a pair of cost- 
 ly bracelets, inquiring after her father's 
 house, and if he could have entertainment 
 there for the night. The maiden modestly 
 told her lineage, assuring him both of a kind
 
 50 REBEKAH. 
 
 reception and abundant provision for his 
 animals. When he knew it was the fam- 
 ily of Nahor, the pious and shrewd old man 
 doubted no more, but recognized the hand 
 of the Lord. He bowed in grateful adora- 
 tion on the dewy earth, amid the stillness 
 of nature reposing upon the bosom of God, 
 and poured forth from a full heart his 
 thanksgiving. Rebekah ran to her mother, 
 told her what had happened, and the mys- 
 terious words the man had spoken. This 
 simple incident is a sweet glimpse at the 
 amiable and filial character of Milcah's 
 daughter. 
 
 While they were talking over the mar- 
 vellous occurrence, Laban, a brother, went 
 out to see who the wealthy stranger might 
 be, and learn his design in visiting their 
 beautiful city. Doubtless he was more in- 
 terested in the shekels of gold than the 
 (Jwotional expressions his sister repeated. -
 
 REBEKAH. 51 
 
 But wlien lie found him at the well, in the 
 apparent disinterestedness of a true patri- 
 arch, with a benediction, he bade him come 
 to his dwelling, for every preparation was 
 made for his accommodation. Soon the 
 girdle and sandals were removed, and he 
 was invited to partake of the evening re- 
 past. And now appears the tact, eloquence, 
 and religious principle of this servant, which 
 were evidently the ground of Abraham's 
 confidence in his management, in the dis- 
 course and special pleading before the 
 household of his entertainer. 
 
 With solemnity becoming his responsi- 
 bility, he refused to eat till he had made 
 known his errand. He then introduces 
 himself as the servant of Abraham, who by 
 the blessing of God, he adds, " is become 
 great." After describing the magnitude of 
 his vast possessions, he makes a graceful 
 transition to Isaac, the sole heir of this fame
 
 52 EEBEKAH. 
 
 and splendid inheritance. He gives the 
 reason for his long journey in search of a 
 bride, the irreligious character of the Ca- 
 naanites, narrating the conversation with 
 his master, and the hesitation he felt in en- 
 tering upon the delicate undertaking. The 
 entire scene at the well is minutely deline- 
 ated, to convince them that the Almighty 
 had sanctioned the transaction, and be- 
 stowed unequivocal signs of his approbation 
 of the choice. Without doubt, he marked 
 the impression his address made on the 
 listening group, and was not afraid to throw 
 the entire matter upon their decision. He 
 had completely won the father and broth- 
 er to his purpose, and they referred the 
 whole question to Rebekah. There was a 
 struggle in the mother's bosom, and Rebekah 
 hung upon her neck in tears. Eliezer evi- 
 dently regarded the matter as settled, and 
 distributed with princely liberality his mag- 

 
 REBEKAH. 53 
 
 nificent presents among the members of the 
 family. 
 
 At a late hour they retired for repose, 
 but how little slumber in that dwelling ! 
 The successful servant may have fallen into 
 pleasant dreams, Bethuel and Laban, proud 
 of the prospective alliance, may have slept, 
 thronged with golden visions ; but the heart 
 of the maiden never beat so wildly before, 
 and life assumed a strange reality, to her 
 musing and restless spirit. The mother 
 was sorrowful and prayerful, for an only 
 daughter was the sacrifice demanded, and 
 sending her to Canaan, was like burying her 
 from sight forever. 
 
 In the morning came the final trial 
 when God's eternal puposes were borne 
 onward by the unostentatious incidents of 
 a touching domestic scene. And who can 
 tell the influence, though unseen, of the his- 
 tory of any family upon the destinies of a
 
 54 REBEKAH. 
 
 succeeding generation! Eliezer signified 
 the necessity of his immediate departure. 
 Milcah and Laban besought him to tarry 
 a few days, for they could not part thus 
 suddenly with the damsel. But there were 
 mightier interests than those of time at stake, 
 and he was firm in his purpose. Eebekah 
 was called, and asked if she were willing to 
 go immediately with the man. She was 
 prepared by a higher communion than that 
 with kindred, and the heroism of cheerful 
 piety, to answer unhesitatingly, "Iicill go." 
 When the circumstances are considered, 
 there is here a moral sublimity, pure and 
 impressive, as that which hung around the 
 first female who abandoned the land of her 
 birth and the friendships of home, for the 
 wide ocean, and a grave on plains overshad- 
 owed by the temples of idol-worship. 
 
 With blessings upon her head, and tear- 
 ful adieus, in her queenly womanhood, the
 
 REBEKAH. 55 
 
 more beautiful for her sadness, she mounted 
 the kneeling camel, and accompanied by the 
 nurse of her infancy, and the retinue that 
 came to escort her, moved silently from 
 the city of her fathers. And how often 
 with swimming eye, she turned to gaze on 
 the receding valley, upon whose peaceful 
 breast, like a white speck, lay the beloved 
 city. But a new world soon spread around 
 the fair traveller. Sometimes wild sum- 
 mits cast their shadows upon her way ; 
 then from a hill-top she looked off upon 
 luxuriant plains, with their isles of foliage 
 dallying with the passing wind, and a 
 horizon of mountains pencilled on the haze 
 of the dreamy sky. And there were hours 
 when her thoughts wandered from all these, 
 and brooded with painful intensity upon her 
 unfolding destiny. 
 
 It was eventide of such a day as dawns 
 on Palestine, when Eebekah saw in the
 
 56 REBEKAH. 
 
 distance, a man in meditative mood, walk- 
 ing in the fields. With that presentiment 
 which seemed often almost prophetic when 
 near an expected event, and probably aided 
 by the indication of devotional spirit, she 
 suspected him to be Isaac, and alighted from 
 her camel. Eliezer confirmed her suspi- 
 cions, and veiling herself, she modestly 
 awaited his approach. He was a stranger, 
 and might not fall in with her guide's admi- 
 ration or there might be something in him 
 repulsive to her own taste. 
 
 While these conflicting emotions were 
 passing, Eliezer had informed Isaac of his 
 travels, the interview with Rebekah at the 
 well, the objections he overruled in obtain- 
 
 <C'' 
 
 ing consent of her relatives, and the sad 
 farewells that still haunted his memory. 
 Isaac felt that the Almighty, whose voice 
 he heard when on the altar of Moriah, had 
 brought him a wife, he could love for her
 
 REBEKAH. 57 
 
 own sake, and lie took her joyfully to his 
 tent. It was the very place where Sarah 
 died, and he had mourned deeply for his 
 sainted mother. Rebekah came to his soli- 
 tude, like an angel of consolation, and his 
 pensive home was lighted with a smile of 
 returning hope. Time passed on; and with 
 all his riches, there were hours of sadness 
 in that home, because no children were 
 given him. He prayed earnestly for the 
 covenant blessing, and Rebekah bore him 
 twins, who were named Esau and Jacob- 
 the beginning of sorrows to her, and of 
 suffering to them all, till they slept in death. 
 The sous grew to manhood Esau, the 
 inheiitor of the birthright, was a sports 
 man, and a passionate man, but the favorite 
 of Isaac because he gratified his father's 
 fondness for venison ; Jacob, a quiet shep- 
 herd, became the idol of his mother; a 
 parental partiality, which resulted at length 
 
 3*
 
 58 REBEKAH. 
 
 in the overthrow of Esau, Avhile his brother 
 rose upon his ruin. 
 
 Driven by famine like Abraham before 
 him, to seek bread at a foreign court, the 
 patriarch went to Gerar. Apprehensive 
 of assassination on account of Rebekah's 
 beauty, he also was guilty of the cowardly 
 act of dissembling, in which she was ac- 
 cessory. She told the admiring princes 
 that Isaac was a brother. Abimelech the 
 king discovered the deception accidentally 
 and bitterly reproved the stranger. It is 
 somew r hat remarkable, that the grand trio 
 of prinrtil patriarchs, married handsome 
 women ; who, notwithstanding their exalted 
 character and fidelity, cost two of them 
 days of gloomy fear, and crime that left 
 ever after burning on the conscience, the 
 living coals of remorse. 
 
 Isaac now reached his dotage ; feeble and 
 blind, he knew death was near. He called
 
 REBEKAH. 59 
 
 Esau, and told him as he might die sud- 
 denly, to get him venison and prepare for the 
 solemn occasion of receiving his parting bles- 
 sing, which should secure the privileges and 
 pre-eminence of the first-born. The hunter 
 went into the fields ; and Rebekah, recol- 
 lecting that Jacob had purchased the birth- 
 right of his brother for a mess of pottage^ 
 one day when he came in from the chase 
 faint with hunger and exhaustion, deter- 
 mined by a stroke of management to seal 
 with the patriarchal benediction, that trans- 
 fer of the unappreciated distinction by Esau, 
 who was disinclined manifestly, to a reli- 
 gious life. 
 
 She sent him to the flocks after two kids, 
 which were prepared with the savory deli- 
 cacy his father loved, and assuming the 
 responsibility of any anathema that might 
 follow, she -dressed him. up in Esau's ap- 
 parel, covering his hands and neck to imi-
 
 60 REBEKAH. 
 
 tate the hairiness of the rightful heir, and 
 sent him to the bedside of the dying Isaac. 
 When the patriarch inquired who he was, 
 he replied, "I am Esau, thy first-born." 
 This was passing belief, because even the 
 skilful hunter, could scarcely without a 
 miracle so .soon bring in the game, and 
 dress it for his table. Jacob was called to 
 his side, and he felt of his hands ; the dis- 
 guise completed the delusion, although his 
 voice had the milder tone of the young 
 shepherd, to that father's ear. He repeated 
 the interrogation concerning his name, then 
 embracing him, pronounced in a strain of 
 true poetry, the perpetual blessing of Jeho- 
 vah's favor upon his undertakings, and his 
 posterity. The stratagem had succeeded, 
 and Jacob hastened to inform his mother of 
 the victory, just as Esau returned. When 
 Isaac discovered the mistake, he trembled 
 with excitement, while his son cried in an-
 
 REBEKAH. 61 
 
 guisli, " Bless even me also, O rny father !" 
 That cry pierced the breaking heart of the 
 aged man, but it was a fruitless lament. 
 He was inflexible, and Esau wept aloud 
 over his blasted hopes; plotting at the 
 same time, in his awakened enmity, the 
 murder of Jacob. Rebekah was alarmed 
 at his fury, and sent " the supplanter," to 
 her kindred in Haran of Mesopotamia. 
 
 Her tent was now a spot of deepening 
 gloom ; there were hours of mournful medi- 
 tation in the apartment of approaching dis- 
 solution, and of weeping in the solitude of 
 the noble yet erring mother. Though 
 strangely fallen from her youthful purity, 
 she exhibited decided religious principle in 
 her grief, when Esau to obtain revenge for 
 her neglect of his boyhood, married an idol- 
 ater. Accumulating troubles, made her 
 weary of life, but where or when she died, 
 the sacred historian has not given the slight-
 
 62 REBEKAH. 
 
 est intimation. There is something signifi- 
 cant in the fact, which justifies the inference, 
 that her departure was a dreary one cheer- 
 ed only by penitential trust in the Lord. It 
 may be that she was glad to leave a path- 
 way on which the morning of her existence 
 shed a heavenly radiance, but which, strew- 
 ed with the sere leaves of blighted inno- 
 cence and hope, met the grave o'erclouded 
 with sorrow, and wet with tears. 
 
 As a maiden, Rebekah was a model, an 
 acknowledged beauty, and amiable in all 
 the relations of life. She was a devoted 
 wife, and only when corrupted by favorit- 
 ism towards Jacob, and the example of 
 Isaac in falsehood, did her character as a 
 mother pass under eclipse. The crowning 
 act of her guilty fondness and ambition, 
 was presumption. Because God had made 
 known his purpose to reverse the rule of 
 primogeniture in her family, she determined
 
 REBEKAH. 63 
 
 in her own way to cany out the design. 
 This one object took possession of her mind, 
 until like a kind of madness, it urged her 
 onward to crimes that made existence a 
 burden, and which invested with a pain- 
 ful uncertainty her abode in the world to 
 come.
 
 A CENTUEY after tlie matrimonial embas- 
 sy from Palestine halted at nightfall before 
 the city of Nahor, a solitary fugitive soon 
 after noon of a sultry day, dusty and worn 
 with travel, joined a group of shepherds, 
 who waited with their flocks beside a well 
 in the same valley of Haran. He fled from 
 an angry brother, and had wandered for 
 weeks among the hills, cheered at night 
 while reposing on the ground, with the
 
 66 RACHEL. 
 
 glories of Heaven whose gates were thrown 
 wide open above him. The angels upon a 
 stair-way of light, caine in throngs from the 
 celestial plains, fanning his throbbing brow 
 with their wings, and chasing from his spirit 
 sad thoughts with the ravishing melody 
 of their sinless abode. On a throne such 
 as was never piled for human sovereignty, 
 he beheld the Almighty enrobed with splen- 
 dors that put out the stars, and heard the 
 accents of sympathy and promise from his 
 lips. 
 
 Thus sustained in his banishment, and 
 bound by an oath made at the bedside of 
 his dying father, to marry among his kin- 
 dred of Mesopotamia, Jacob rested, a 
 friendless exile, by the fountain where the 
 camels of the servant Eliezer knelt laden 
 with precious gifts. It was a strange con- 
 trast in life, especially when equal honor 
 was the inheritance. The lesson taught
 
 RACHEL. 67 
 
 then, as now, was the unerring providence 
 of God amid the mutations of time, and the 
 folly of desponding when a cloud blackens 
 on the horizon of the future. 
 
 The traveller inquired after the health of 
 Laban. The Chaldeans answered his in 
 quiries, and pointing to a beautiful shep- 
 herdess coming with her flock, told him 
 there was Rachel his daughter. With that 
 courtesy which springs from magnanimity 
 of spirit and needs only the culture of op- 
 portunity to develop itself, Jacob hastened 
 to the well, rolled away the stone, and 
 watered her sheep. The intelligence he 
 had received, stirred the depths of his spirit, 
 as the storm moves the sea, for in all his 
 wanderings he met with no familiar face, 
 nor heard one accent of affection. Saluting 
 his fair cousin with a kiss, he lifted up his 
 voice and wept. The recollections of home, 
 the present joyful surprise, and visions of
 
 68 RACHEL. 
 
 the future, swept like a rushing tide over 
 his sad heart. When the agitation subsided 
 and he could command utterance, he dis- 
 closed his relationship, by tenderly alluding 
 to his mother, Laban's only sister, with 
 whom he parted while the bloom of girlhood 
 was yet upon her cheek. Breathless with 
 excitement and delight, she flew to her 
 father with the tidings. He welcomed the 
 young man to his dwelling, and invited him 
 to become a resident in Haran, offering as 
 an inducement to pay him his own price 
 for labor. 
 
 Jacob was smitten with Rachel's beauty, 
 and the sweetness of her temper, and imme- 
 diately consented on condition that he might 
 marry her as the reward of seven years, toil. 
 The days went by on rainbow wing, and 
 the time of service vanished like a dream. 
 When he came in at evening, her beaming 
 eye was upon him and often till " the noon
 
 RACHEL. 69 
 
 of night" the hours were passed in con- 
 panionship unsullied by suspicion, while 
 they talked of their love, the strange vicis- 
 situdes of their kindred, and the bright 
 displays of Jehovah's regard. Jacob was a 
 true-hearted and godly man. He once yield- 
 ed to temptation presented by a mother, and 
 was guilty of duplicity that cost him his 
 self-respect, and made him despise her ; but 
 ever after exhibited a lofty integrity both 
 as a citizen and a devout patriarch. 
 
 At length he claimed his bride. The 
 marriage festival was magnificent, and the 
 exile of Canaan the central object of its gay 
 assemblage. The evening waned, the lamps 
 burned dimly, and music died away as with 
 very weariness, when the parting salutations 
 were exchanged around the wedded twain. 
 But by an act of basest deception, Laban 
 compelled Jacob to take Leah, an older 
 daughter, for his wife, because customary to
 
 70 RACHEL. 
 
 give the eldest first in marriage. So strong 
 was his affection for Rachel, he suppressed 
 his indignation and engaged to work another 
 seven years for her. In condemning this 
 unnatural polygamy, two things are to be 
 considered ; the fraud of the father in with- 
 holding the first choice, and the absence of 
 any established principles of civil or relig- 
 ious polity. There is a tendency in the mind 
 to bring those ancient worthies for judg- 
 ment, from the twilight of their dispensation 
 to the foot of Sinai, and even to the Cross 
 of Messiah, where we sit in the blaze of the 
 gospel's noontide, and learn the precepts of 
 immaculate widom. 
 
 Rachel, though evidently less amiable 
 than Leah, reigned in the affections of 
 Jacob. When her envy and impatience 
 because her sister bare sons and she was 
 childless, found expression in reproach of 
 her husband, and a wish to die if longer
 
 RACHEL. 71 
 
 unblest, his anger called forth but a inild 
 rebuke. 
 
 Twenty years passed by, and Jacob, a 
 wealthy patriarch, departed from Haran 
 as he came, a fugitive from kindred. And as 
 before in his flight, nightly repose brought 
 visions of paradise, and the voice of God. 
 He was overtaken by his pursuers, and 
 accused among other things of stealing La- 
 ban's teraphim. From some unknown mo- 
 tive, Kachel had carried away these house- 
 hold gods, and dissembled, to conceal the 
 fact. But the blemishes on her character, 
 when the attention and flattery her beauty 
 received are taken into the account, are 
 faint and few. She was a splendid woman, 
 beloved in all the relations of domestic and 
 social life. 
 
 At the ford of Jabbok, when Jacob was 
 about to encounter the embittered Esau 
 with his host, he placed in the rear of his
 
 72 RACHEL. 
 
 own caravan, Rachel and the stripling Jo- 
 seph, her youngest boy, to have them the 
 least exposed if an attack were made. 
 How remote the thought, when she led the 
 lad to the margin of the stream, that his 
 infant hand would in after years, hold the 
 key of a monarch's treasury, wanting only 
 a sceptre to be Sovereign of the proudest 
 realm on earth, rescuing from famine Israel 
 and his household, to prevent the failure of 
 a single promise concerning the chosen of 
 the Lord. 
 
 Not far from Bethel, Rachel gave birth to 
 another son and her own life was the price 
 of this last-born. Having escaped the rage 
 of enemies, and the perils of a wearisome 
 march, just entering into the very bosom of 
 Canaan, Rachel must be laid in the grave. 
 She was conscious of her hastening dissolu- 
 
 o 
 
 tion, and murmured Benoni the -son of my 
 sorrmv. Then with a blessing, she bade
 
 RACHEL. 73 
 
 Jacob and her noble sons farewell, looked 
 up trustingly to the sky bending brightly 
 above her, and "fell asleep.". Her last 
 gaze was towards the hills around Bethle- 
 hem, which were flooded with the light of 
 the star in the East, and echoed back to the 
 " Mount of God" the chorus of angels, when 
 " He who should redeem Israel" was cradled 
 in a manger ! They buried her there, and 
 Jacob erected a memorial of stone, which 
 survived the lapse of centuries, and was 
 cherished as the monument of beauty and 
 worth by his descendants, till it crumbled 
 to dust. 
 
 We need no further illustration of her 
 elevated character than those testimonials, 
 or of her intellectual force and piety than the 
 faultless and kingly Joseph the full-length 
 portrait of a pure and brilliant man, which 
 in the distance and dimness of antiquity, is
 
 74 RACHEL. 
 
 yet distinct and beautiful, beneath the ra- 
 diance that falls from the Eternal city of the 
 better Canaan, into which he entered.
 
 DESTINY, in tlie history of an individual 
 and a nation, often turns on apparently an 
 unimportant event. We have in Revela- 
 tion impressive illustrations of this truth ; 
 as if God, by poising his own stupendous 
 plans on the common occurrences of life, 
 would teach man his particular providence, 
 and the solemnity of action on the stage of 
 probation, where the very echo of his foot- 
 steps will be heard forever.
 
 76 MIRIAM. 
 
 The fulfilment of prophecy, and the great- 
 ness and glory of the Hebrew nation, were 
 all involved in the preservation of a single 
 man-child among thousands with whom it 
 was doomed to a violent death. For three 
 months parental love had eluded the edict 
 of the tyrant who " knew not Joseph," till 
 concealment was no longer an experiment 
 of hope. The beautiful child was enclosed 
 in a bark of rushes, and committed to the 
 bosom of the Mle. Miriam, an only sis- 
 ter, was sent to watch the frail vessel, 
 while it floated down the lazy current, the 
 plaything of every ripple, 
 
 " And every breath of air that chanced to blow." 
 
 It was to avoid suspicion that Jochebed re- 
 mained at home, to indulge a mother's grief, 
 and lift to Israel's God a mother's prayer. 
 And Miriam, a summer day rambler among 
 the flags by the river's margin, or fragrant
 
 MIRIAM. 77 
 
 wild flowers beneath the branching palm,, 
 would not arrest the eye of the passing 
 Egyptian. How strangely the bloom of 
 girlhood upon her cheek contrasted with 
 the tear-drops trembling on the long lashes, 
 which almost veiled the glance following 
 ever the boat of that young dreamer. An 
 oriental sky bends brightly above her, and 
 the waters sparkle as if in very gladness, 
 around the boy 
 
 ' The whispering reeds are all he hears, 
 The Nile's soft weltering nigh 
 Sings him to sleep ;" 
 
 but her heart beats audibly, and dark 
 thoughts of man and of life are chasing away 
 a thousand glowing visions of the future. 
 
 The day wore on, the sun bathed his 
 burning forehead in the Mediterranean sea, 
 and threw the glory of his farewell upon 
 the hills that border on the fruitful valley, 
 whose soil was wet with the blood of her
 
 78 MIRIAM. 
 
 countrymen. She heard the murmur of 
 voices, and the sound of coming footsteps 
 startling her from a mournful reverie. Pale 
 with fear, she stood like the hunted fawn 
 in his glade, panting before his pursuers. 
 The little Levite, perhaps, was slumbering 
 his last, and would be an evening sacrifice 
 at the hand of the hastening executioner. 
 
 When she saw the form of the king's 
 daughter followed by her maidens, hope 
 stilled her fluttering heart. The princess 
 raiglit take her bath without observing the 
 barge of bulrushes if she did make the 
 discovery, woman's heart was moved by 
 an infant's smile, and touched by its cry. 
 
 The tiny ark was seen, and brought to 
 the bank. The babe opened his blue eye 
 on the wondering women and wept, for 
 among them all no maternal arms were ex- 
 tended in welcome, nor familiar voice fell 
 on the ear of the Hebrew's son.
 
 MIRIAM. 79 
 
 But lie had won the royal sympathy; 
 Miriam knew he was safe, and asked per- 
 mission to find a nurse. With joy that 
 spoke in every lineament of her face, and 
 the fleetness of her arrow-like step, she re- 
 turned to the dwelling she left in sorrow, 
 and Jochebed soon clasped the child to her 
 heaving breast, naming him Moses drawn 
 from the water. Pharaoh's daughter bade 
 her train him for her father's palace, and 
 bring him there when he reached his boy- 
 hood. 
 
 Miriam rose to womanhood with a tone 
 of masculine beauty, and Moses, a manly 
 youth, took an honorable position in the 
 court of Pharaoh. The influences of home 
 were inwrought with all his sympathies, 
 and he looked with deepest scorn upon a 
 despot's favor and a splendid career, while 
 the groans of his oppressed people were 
 filling the heavens. Possessing the traits
 
 80 MIRIAM. 
 
 of a hero in the highest degree, Jehovah by 
 a visible manifestation appointed him chief- 
 tain, to strike for the deliverance of his 
 nation. 
 
 He stood with Aaron before the haughty 
 monarch, cheered doubtless by the remem- 
 bered words of Miriam who had felt the 
 bitterness of oppression, and a mother's 
 blessing, and boldly announced the com- 
 mand of God to let Israel go. Pharaoh 
 poured contempt on the message and Him 
 who sent it. Moses lifted up his rod, and 
 the Nile on which he floated in helpless 
 infancy, with every streamlet and pool, was 
 turned into blood ! But the king w T as un- 
 moved when his fears were gone. Fire 
 and hail descended in a tempest, and ran 
 in torrents upon the blackening plains. 
 Darkness deeper than broods on mornless 
 chaos blotted out the stars, and quenched 
 the flame of his brightest lamps but not
 
 MIRIAM. 81 
 
 until the first-born of every Egyptian house- 
 hold in his realm lay a stiffened corpse, as 
 a fearful atonement for the innocents he had 
 slain, did he consent to the departure of his 
 God-protected slaves. 
 
 They reached the sea, which spread its 
 waste of billows between them and Ca- 
 naan. Again the mysterious rod was 
 raised over the waters, and they rolled up 
 like mighty scrolls on each hand, and stood 
 in walls of crystal beside their paved and 
 ample path. The grand procession, with 
 flying banners and silent march, t wound 
 like a vast Hydra through that parted deep. 
 Just as Moses went up the opposing bank, 
 Pharaoh's pursuing host, with exultant 
 shouts and the noise of numberless chariot 
 wheels, poured into the gorge of uplifted 
 waves. He stretched out the rod once 
 more towards his foes, and with the crash of 
 
 a thousand besieged and falling towers, the 
 4*
 
 82 MIRIAM. 
 
 billowy mountains fell on that rushing ar- 
 my. Banner and plume the horse and his 
 rider weapons of war and shivered char- 
 iots, were mingled in a common wreck, and 
 the requiem was the shrieks and curses of 
 dying men, and the roar of foam-wreathed 
 surges. The trembling multitudes of Is- 
 rael from their peaceful shore looked mute- 
 ly on, till that mournful cadence rose faint- 
 ly on the troubled air. 
 
 "Then sang Moses and the children of 
 Israel unto the Lord" an anthem of un- 
 equalled sublimity and Miriam, inspired 
 with prophetic fire, " took a timbrel in her 
 hand ; and all the women went out after 
 her, with timbrels and with dances." She 
 threw in a chorus worthy the theme and 
 the occasion ; the wilderness sent up echoes 
 which never before stirred its solitude, and 
 the notes of rapture floated in a tide of 
 melody over the solemn sea, which was
 
 MIRIAM. 83 
 
 now the grave of an imperial army. That 
 song and response were composed six hun- 
 dred years before the immortal Grecian 
 swept his wondrous harp in his blindness, 
 and yet in grandeur that towers to the 
 Throne of God, and power that thrills like 
 a trumpet-blast, it leaves the wandering 
 bard in the low grounds of mortal conflict, 
 or on the sunny mount of contending gods. 
 It is sad to turn from that jubilant pro- 
 cession led on by the fail* prophetess, to the 
 scene of her fall. The Israelites reached 
 the wilderness of Zin, and encamped on its 
 extended plain. On each side stood the 
 sentinel mountains, whose helmets of rock 
 
 rent the folds of the summer cloud as it 
 
 
 
 passed ; the standards were unfurled, and 
 the Tabernacle set up. Miriam had seen 
 Moses robed in lightning on the smoking 
 top of Sinai, and listened to the message 
 from his lips when his brow shone like an
 
 84 MIRIAM. 
 
 augel's she had loved him as a part of her 
 own being since her lonely vigil by the 
 river's side but now ambition stalked 
 through the chambers of her soul like a 
 sceptered king, made the affections its vas- 
 sals, and was environed by the train of 
 riotous passions. Under the new arrange- 
 ment adopted by Moses at the suggestion 
 of Jethro, his father-in-law, the power was 
 divided among captains, and her authority 
 weakened. Besides, she had marked with 
 jealousy the presence of Zipporah the Ethi- 
 opian in the camp, receiving the attention 
 of the great leader, and the admiration of 
 the multitude. 
 
 She went to Aaron, and " spoke against 
 Moses." He listened to the complaint, 
 which was an appeal to his own wounded 
 honor, and a conspiracy was matured. The 
 Lawgiver was meek in his majesty, and 
 unsullied by human praise or earthly dis-
 
 MIRIAM. 85 
 
 tinction. He met the frown of the con- 
 spirators with unshadowed benignity, nor 
 did their reproaches disturb the tranquillity 
 of his spirit. One morning, a voice from 
 
 * 
 
 the opening heavens commanded Moses, 
 Aaron and Miriam, to go up to the taber- 
 nacle of the congregation. Then amid 
 strange spreadings of light, a cloud de- 
 scended and hung over that sanctuary of 
 the Shekinah which was glowing with pur- 
 ple and blue and embroidered with gold. 
 Silence hung upon the vast assembly, while 
 the three passed in wondering stillness to 
 the open court. Pausing there, Moses stood 
 in the calmness of innocence, his noble 
 figure enveloped in a simple mantle. Aaron 
 was arrayed in his sacerdotal robes flash- 
 ing with jewels and fringed with golden 
 bells. Between them was the ambitious 
 Miriam, richly apparelled, and sullen in her 
 pride and awakened fears.
 
 86 MIRIAM. 
 
 That radiant column of cloud filled the 
 door of the tabernacle, and the Almighty 
 spoke from its form reflecting the glory that 
 mantles His Throne. He called Aaron 
 and Miriam into its mysterious folds, and 
 alluding to the evidences of the celestial 
 commission of their brother, and assuring 
 them that with none other did he talk as 
 friend with friend, inquired if they were 
 not afraid to reproach his servant. 
 
 Whether with a thunder peal or a blaze 
 of Omniscience he displayed his anger, we 
 know not. But he manifested his kindled 
 indignation, and departed. The cloud rose 
 and vanished from the sight of the gazing 
 tribes, and Miriam was a leper, " white as 
 snow." Aaron beheld her, and fell at the 
 feet of Moses, beseeching him to intercede 
 with God. Miriam was mute, for she was 
 a fallen woman a loathsome monument 
 of the wrath of Him whose vivid lightning
 
 MIRIAM. 87 
 
 is a passing shadow compared to his glance 
 when once he is angry. She trembled and 
 wept, while the Lawgiver prayed for mer- 
 cy. The Lord refused to hear till the judg- 
 ment had impressed the offender, and the 
 entire multitude with its fearful lesson. 
 For seven days she was an exile from the 
 camp ; and in their yet unshaken regard, 
 the host waited uncomplainingly for her 
 return. What days of meditation and re- 
 pentance to the erring Miriam ! Genius 
 had been to her as beauty to the wives of 
 the patriarchs, a dangerous gift and on the 
 dizzy eminence of Power, she forgot her 
 frailty, and the homage due to Jehovah. 
 
 In the desert of Zin, Miriam died. The 
 people in all their tents sent up the notes 
 of wailing for the dead, till the dark defiles 
 of girdling sunnnits were filled with the sol 
 emn echoes, and Canaan itself seemed to 
 have vanished forever from the horizon of
 
 88 MIRIAM. 
 
 hope. The maiden-prophetess was dear to 
 her Wandering and weary nation. They 
 had heard the story of her watching with 
 breaking heart in her girlhood by the flow- 
 ing Nile they had seen her by the Red 
 Sea, beneath the rolling mist of returning 
 billows, stand like a rejoicing angel, and 
 strike her timbrel to the Lord, pouring her 
 chorus of victory upon the ear of solitude, 
 and over the deep grave of the on-rushing 
 foe ! They buried her at the base of a 
 lonely height, whose tower of granite, is a 
 fit memorial of her lofty genius, and singu- 
 lar pre-eminence as the first female ruler 
 and prophet mentioned in the sacred record. 
 The shadow it flings upon her grave, might 
 remind the beholder of the blemish that 
 darkens her memory, and its gilded top 
 pointing Heavenward when evening has 
 shrouded the plain, indicate the character 
 and destiny of the illustrious sleeper !
 
 MIRIAM. 89 
 
 Paul refers to the history of Moses as 
 illustrating the power of faith. It was confi- 
 dence in the promise of God, that in spite of 
 perils which made the effort to save his infant 
 life like waiting at the sepulchre's mouth, 
 committed him to Miriam and the Nile. 
 It was the same trust, breathed in Joche- 
 bed's counsels and prayer, that cheered 
 the sweet maiden while she loitered among 
 the reeds, and started at the plunge of the 
 crocodile from his banquet of babes. It 
 was faith that made her worthy to stand 
 with the brotherhood in the Red Sea's 
 wave, and look calmly on its up-rolling 
 waters. It was faith, womarfs faith trium- 
 phant, that shouted victory amid the desert's 
 gloom and the thunder of the boiling deep, 
 till the sound reached the very top of 
 Heaven. And finally, faith was by her side 
 with a convoy of angels and chariot of fire, 
 when the last struggle came on in the vale
 
 90 MIRIAM. 
 
 of Paran and she turned her fading eye in 
 love on the white tents of Israel, while the 
 recollection of her sin, which like a dark 
 cloud had spent its wrath upon her shrink- 
 ing form and retired, rushed upon her spirit 
 from the luminous past. 
 
 So is woman's destiny identified with 
 that of the church of the Living God. 
 More than once the ark of his covenant has 
 rested upon her shoulder, and she has folded 
 to her bosom the whole interests of Zion in 
 peril ; leaning as the very "Bride of Christ," 
 when all others had fallen, meekly yet heroi- 
 cally upon the arm of her Beloved.
 
 BETHEL, now called Beiten by the wan- 
 dering descendants of disinherited Ishmael, 
 lies in a solitary valley among the moun- 
 tains twelve miles north of Jerusalem. 
 
 Here Jacob rested on his way to Padan- 
 ararn, and while he slept in sadness and wea- 
 riness, beneath the open sky, had a bea- 
 tific vision of the worshipping train that 
 fill the "Temple not made with hands." 
 When he arose he poured the consecrating
 
 92 DEBORAH. 
 
 oil, and named the place Bethel, " the house 
 of God." It was here he buried Deborah, 
 who had long been an inmate of his family, 
 distinguished for her kindness and piety. 
 In this solitude the ark and tabernacle had 
 rested in sacred seclusion. But it also be- 
 came the very fastness of Judean idolatry, 
 and the heights which had glowed with the 
 presence of God, were darkened with the 
 shadow of temples to Ashtaroth and Baal. 
 The defiles which had echoed the thrilling 
 voice of the Eternal sent back the shouts 
 of licentious revelry, and the blasphemies of 
 idol-worship. 
 
 Grieving over this desolation in Israel, 
 and expostulating with her countrymen, 
 there was Deborah the Prophetess, Judge 
 among her people. According to Eastern 
 custom she pitched her tent in summer in 
 the shade of a spreading palm, and gave 
 judgment upon the lawless, uttering in their
 
 DEBORAH. 93 
 
 reluctant ears the gathering wrath of the 
 Lord for their guilty alienation from him. 
 They were crushed by the despotism of a 
 heathen invader, and their fruitful fields 
 were turned into a desert. With obla- 
 tions they crowded the shrines that glittered 
 on every summit, while the scourge fell 
 more heavily, and the cry of distress arose 
 more wildly with their increasing apostasy. 
 Deborah devoutly trusted in God, and 
 knew that deliverance would follow re- 
 buke. She remembered the flood, when 
 a lonely vessel with a single family rode 
 the crest of the billows amid the drifting 
 dead, proclaiming to the universe that " the 
 Lord's portion is his people." She read the 
 same sublime truth, in promises to the patri- 
 archs and their rescue from the vengeance 
 of foes, and it was felt in every answer to 
 prayer. Calling Barak, commander of the 
 national forces, she assured him the country
 
 94 DEBORAH. 
 
 was ripe for insurrection that Jehovah 
 would shake the throne of Jabin, and vin- 
 dicate his own sullied honor by tarnishing 
 the glory of an oppressor, whose nine hun- 
 dred chariots of iron and vast army, encom- 
 passed them darkly as the horizon of de- 
 spair. Barak was skeptical, and hesitated 
 to assume the commission ; but told Debo- 
 rah if she would attend him, he would rally 
 his scattered bands and hazard the desperate 
 encounter. Girding on his sword, with the 
 prophetess he entered his chariot and drove 
 with tempest-speed along the valleys, sum- 
 moning the tribes around the drooping 
 standard of Israel. Jabin was reposing 
 luxuriously in his palace by Lake Merom 
 when the news of revolt and revolution 
 reached his ear. He curled his lip in scorn, 
 and told his brave General, Sisera, to har- 
 ness his steeds to his scythed chariots, and 
 as a pastime of war ride over the restless
 
 DEBORAH. 95 
 
 Hebrews till the flame of rebellion was ex- 
 tinguished in blood. Barak with ten thou- 
 sand men marched up the side of Mount 
 Tabor to its fortified top, and watched their 
 coming, the thunder of whose myriad wheels 
 shook that mountain, over whose stillness 
 hovered the wings of the Almighty, and the 
 angel of victory waved unseen the banner 
 of a celestial host ! Deborah looked off on 
 the scene, with the eye of a poet and 
 prophet. On the north lay the valleys and 
 mountains of Galilee. Towards the south, 
 was the wide plain of Esdrelon, guarded 
 on one hand by Mount Hernion, and on the 
 other by Gilboa, Eastward, Kishon, " that 
 ancient river, Kishon," wound among the 
 hills to the Mediterranean, whose waters 
 melted away into the haze of the horizon. 
 On the west, slept in the sunlight the sea 
 of Genesareth, and Jordan rolled its waves. 
 Nature was peaceful and glorious as
 
 96 DEBORAH. 
 
 though, the sweet vale of Kishon could 
 never tremble to the tread of slaughtering 
 armies, and its current be turned by the 
 slain into a torrent of blood. 
 
 The host of Sisera came pouring down 
 the defile into the plain, when Deborah 
 raised her shout " Up ! Barak ! for this is 
 the day in which the Lord hath delivered 
 Sisera into thy hand ; is not the Lord gone 
 out before thee ? Barak with his ten thou- 
 sand soldiers then made a descent to the 
 banks of the river, where the Canaanites, 
 numbering according to Josephus three hun- 
 dred thousand footmen and ten thousand 
 cavalry, were drawn up in battle array. 
 
 JSisera stood in his chariot and surveyed 
 his legions with their flying banners, capa- 
 risoned steeds, and Captains impatient for 
 the glory of conquest, and turned with a 
 glance of haughty contempt toward the 
 steady march of his unequal foe. With a
 
 DEBORAH. 97 
 
 shout that was heard along the enemy's 
 line like a trumpet-call, Barak's columns 
 dashed into the very bosom of Sisera's 
 host, led on Iby disciplined horsemen, and 
 Availed in by chariots of iron which sent 
 a tempest of javelins, and the slinger's hail 
 of death ; while swords clashed and gleam- 
 ed in the resistless onset of the Hebrew 
 battalions. The imperial ranks were bro- 
 ken, and reeled before the shock. Sisera 
 rallied his hitherto invincible forces, and 
 swept down upon the enemy like an en- 
 gulfing tide and again recoiled before the 
 steady and deadly advance of the undrill- 
 ed army, Deborah had called into being, 
 like Rhoderic's men, uprising with flash- 
 ing steel from the brakes of the mountain 
 slope. He turned to flee, and the soldiers 
 followed in dismay before the devouring 
 sword into the current of Kishon, to pass 
 over. But the waters which often rose 
 
 5..
 
 98 DEBORAH. 
 
 suddenly from the swollen streams of the 
 summits at its source, overflowed the banks, 
 and they were borne, a shrieking and ghast- 
 ly throng, with horses and chariots, weap- 
 ons, and ensigns of battle, down beneath 
 the surging and crimson flood. Deborah 
 and Barak, like Moses and Miriam, looked 
 on the scene, and gave God the glory. Be- 
 hold, in the distance, the fugitive chieftain 
 of that Gentile host! Barak pursuing, 
 now catches a glimpse of his flying form on 
 the crest of a hill, and again he is lost from 
 his straining sight. 
 
 Heber, a descendant of Jethro, had pitch' 
 ed his tent in the plain of Zaanaim, and 
 maintained neutrality during the fierce con- 
 test which restored the independence of Ju- 
 dea. His wife saw Sisera coming, and with 
 a cheerful salutation offered him the refuge 
 and hospitality of her home. The terrified 
 and weary man turned in to rest till the
 
 DEBORAH. 99 
 
 pursuer had passed. She spread over him 
 a mantle, and calmed his fears as the shout 
 of the enemy came faintly to his ear, and he 
 looked wildly through the parted curtains 
 on the path of his flight. Jael bade him 
 repose securely, and he fell asleep ; for the 
 struggle of that burning day and escape 
 from the battle-field, had overtasked his 
 frame and bewildered his thought. Stealing 
 quietly to his pillow, with a single stroke, 
 the iron entered his throbbing temples, and 
 fastened him to the earth. A convulsive 
 start, a look of agony, a tremor of his manly 
 form, a gasp for life, and all was over the 
 dew of the sepulchre was on his brow, and 
 his long locks lay clammily round his pallid 
 features and rayless eye, which just before 
 shone with heroic fire in the deepening con- 
 flict. Then came Barak flushed with vic- 
 tory, and Jael met him. She told him to go 
 in and look at the man he was pursuing ;
 
 100 DEBORAH. 
 
 and with Ms hand on his sword-hilt, he en- 
 tered the tent to complete the slaughter. 
 But a woman, according to Deborah's pre- 
 diction, as a reproof for his own timidity, 
 has snatched the laurel from his extended 
 hand. Starting back from the corpse her 
 blow had riveted to the ground, with wound- 
 ed pride, he gazed silently on his helpless 
 foe. The cloud hung but a moment upon 
 his noble spirit ; he thanked God, applauded 
 the Kenite for her deed, and bore the body 
 in triumph to the foot of Tabor, where the 
 prophetess had beheld the scene of battle, 
 and waited his return. 
 
 Then sang Deborah and Barak, a duet of 
 great sublimity ; a song through which runs 
 a seraphic ardor a holy panting of soul to 
 emulate in praise those who pour their tide 
 of harmony into the depths of eternity ! 
 Every cliff and defile of Mount Tabor echo- 
 ed the melody, and the forest seemed to
 
 DEBORAH. 101 
 
 shake its green leaves with joy, while the 
 anthem died away on the bosom of distant 
 Carmel. The multitude stood mute and 
 motionless, as the jubilant strains rose like 
 the sky-lark's song to Heaven's gate, then 
 descended in fainter tones as if a wail for 
 the dead, to the bed of the slain. 
 
 Oh ! little thought they then, that the 
 mountain-top on which they encamped, and 
 which now stood a monument of mercy 
 and of wrath, would, in the lapse of ages, 
 become more luminous than day beneath 
 the opening sky, while Moses and Elias de- 
 scended in their white robes to commune 
 with the transfigured Son of God, whose 
 brightness fell on the astonished disciples, 
 till they bowed and worshipped in fearful 
 reverence. Now did they deem that on 
 its consecrated brow, a mighty Homicide 
 would stand and pour his troops upon the 
 same trampled plain. That when the strife
 
 102 DEBORAH. 
 
 was over, and the smoke of the battle gath- 
 ered upon the still height while dying groans 
 went sadly up its side, the shout of blas- 
 phemy and the riot of lust, would rent the 
 air and fill with the cries of fiends its hal- 
 lowed solitude. 
 
 Deborah returned to the shade of her 
 Palm Tree, and Israel to the High Places, 
 and shivered the idols of Baal. Whether 
 we contemplate this gifted woman listening 
 to the complaints of her people, and utter- 
 ing her decisions with the dignity and 
 authority of a Judge or attended by Barak 
 sounding through all the coast the tocsin of 
 war ; standing on Mount Tabor, and gazing 
 unterrified on the living tide of armed men 
 or with the conqueror when the battle 
 was past, in the utterance of purest poetry 
 giving all the glory to God, she commands 
 equally our admiration. This is the second 
 heroine in Scripture invested with princely
 
 DEBORAH. 103 
 
 power, and gains in the comparison with 
 Miriam. For if she had faults, they are un- 
 recorded, and she stands before us unblem- 
 ished by the homage of a grateful nation, 
 who, in their devotion, added to her titles 
 that of Mother in Israel. 
 
 How impressively the scenes at which 
 we have glanced illustrate the fact, that 
 earth is a sphere of probation and trial,, 
 foreshadowing in its retributions, the scenes 
 of that day when every man will reap the 
 harvest he has sown. The chastisement 
 of the Hebrews the overthrow of their 
 persecutors in turn the fall of Sisera, and 
 the affection Deborah received as a more 
 valued reward than laurels, for well-doing 
 when the popular taste was wholly against 
 her; are replete with encouragement and 
 warning, and point to the decisions and the 
 doom of a final adjudication.
 
 THEEE is a tragical interest in the brief 
 story of Jeptha's Daughter. It contains the 
 elements of physical, mental, and moral suf- 
 fering, which have power over the imagina- 
 tion and the heart. 
 
 Jeptha a Gileadite, was an illegitimate 
 son, and consequently subject to galling 
 insults and cold neglect, which strongly 
 marked his character. He became an in- 
 dependent, impetuous and fearless man, 
 
 5*
 
 106 JEPTHA'S DAUGHTER. 
 
 whose daring exploits won distinction for 
 the youthful hero. 
 
 This enhanced the hostility of his breth- 
 ren, until they banished him from the an- 
 cestral domain, and appropriated to them- 
 selves his patrimony. He fled to the land 
 of Tob, beyond the frontier of Israel, proba- 
 bly in the borders of Arabia, and supported 
 himself in his solitude, by depredations 
 upon the enemies of his people, a career 
 not forbidden by the ethics of those primi- 
 tive days. His achievements soon gathered 
 around him a band of lawless men a com- 
 pany of brigands ready for the wildest on- 
 set, or the dark and patient vigil 
 
 " Of him who treasures up a wrong !" 
 
 " Even our different climate and manners 
 afford some parallel in the Kol)in Hoods of 
 former days; in the border forays, when 
 England and Scotland were ostensibly at
 
 JEPTHA'S DAUGHTER. 107 
 
 peace ; and in principle, however great the 
 formal difference in the authorized and 
 popular piracies of Drake, Raleigh, and the 
 other moral heroes of the Elizabethan era." 
 Jair, the judge in Israel at the time of 
 Jeptha's expulsion, died, and the Hebrews, 
 yielding to that strange tendency of the hu- 
 man soul toward idolatry, because in his 
 absolute personality Jehovah is invisible, 
 introduced the forms of image-worship 
 which met their observation in all their in- 
 tercourse with the tribes that hung mena- 
 cingly upon their boundaries. The loss of 
 influence and dignity, disloyalty to God 
 carried along with it, besides the withdraw- 
 ment of his protection, invited the hordes 
 of idolaters to conquest and like the north- 
 men who poured resistlessly upon the plains 
 of degenerate Italy, the Amorites on one 
 side, and the Philistines upon the other, 
 overswept the land.
 
 108 JEPTHA'S DAUGHTER. 
 
 Then the Jewish Elders turned to Jep- 
 tha, whose prowess alone could rally his 
 inefficient and suffering countrymen. His 
 reply to the delegation who found him in 
 his fastness among the desolate hills exhib- 
 its the spirited independence of the fugitive. 
 " Did not ye hate me, and expel me from 
 my father's house ? and why are ye come 
 to me now, when ye are in distress ?" They 
 conciliated the chief by offering him the 
 generalship of the army. He accepted on 
 condition as security against permitting 
 again his banishment, while he was also 
 conscious of his ability to govern, that if 
 victorious, he should be made Judge in Is- 
 rael. That he was not an unprincipled 
 bandit, is evident from his tactics in the 
 projected war. He personally demanded 
 of his foes the ground of their invasion ; and 
 when they asserted their original claim, he 
 laid down an acknowledged principle in the
 
 JEPTHA'S DAUGHTER. 109 
 
 law of nations, that the actual possessors of 
 the land when taken by the Israelites, con- 
 ferred a full and unquestionable title. 
 
 The negotiation closed, and the opposing 
 armies prepared for battle. Then appeared 
 the religious element in the character of Jep- 
 tha, however obscured before, hi a solemn 
 vow, altogether rashly spoken. He pledged 
 to the Lord, if he would overthrow the 
 legions of Amorites and allow him to re- 
 turn a conqueror peacefully to his dwel- 
 ling, the first living form he met as a burnt- 
 offering upon the altar of thanksgiving. 
 It strikes one, from the fact his home was 
 cheered by a loving and only daughter, he 
 must have apprehended the possibility of 
 her welcome upon his triumphant return 
 but in the brilliant prospects before him 
 and his bleeding country, with the weight of 
 responsibility so unexpectingly assumed, his 
 enthusiasm and the doubtful struggle before
 
 110 JEPTHA'S DAUGHTER. 
 
 Mm, absorbed all considerations of personal 
 sacrifice, and gave no time for deliberation. 
 
 Girded with his tried sword, he led his 
 army from the declivities, across Jordan 
 where the enemy blackened the plain, and 
 sent out their loud challenge to conflict. 
 The might of the Lord came upon him, as 
 on Barak the son of Abinoam, and he dash- 
 ed like a falling bolt into the ranks of gleam- 
 ing spears and waiting blades. They closed 
 around Jeptha's bands, then reeled and ral- 
 lied, and again fell back as a forest before the 
 hurricane, till the rout was complete. But 
 Jeptha followed up the victory till twenty 
 cities capitulated, and his weary soldiers 
 refreshed themselves in the valley of vine- 
 yards, whose soil was reddened by the life- 
 blood that flowed in the trenches, with trod- 
 den clusters from the overshadowing vine. 
 
 Then followed the trial and the offering. 
 With a guard of his grateful warriors he
 
 JEPTHA'S DAUGHTER 111 
 
 marched towards Mizpeh and "Behold, 
 his daughter came forth to meet him with 
 timbrels and with dances ; and she was Jiis 
 only child? 
 
 In his wanderings and loneliness, she had 
 been true, and lived in the smile that played 
 upon his stern features when by his side, 
 and had wept when sadness subdued the 
 wonted brightness of his flashing eye. He 
 had thrown around her from his strong arms 
 in the affection of a great yet wounded heart, 
 and twined in musing fondness her ring- 
 lets around the hand that foemen feared. 
 And now more beautiful than ever, in the 
 fine excitement of filial rapture, with a 
 train of damsels who had gathered at the 
 tidings of conquest to celebrate the splendid 
 career of her father, she approaches him 
 with a salutation in which was poured a 
 tide of joy that spoke through every linea- 
 ment of her lovely face. The fear that had
 
 112 JEPTHA'S DAUGHTER. 
 
 made his brain reel at times along the way, 
 was merged in the crushing certainty of a 
 terrible reality. Rending his robes, he cried, 
 "Alas ! my daughter for I have opened my 
 mouth unto the Lord and I cannot go back." 
 When the rush of new emotion that met 
 the subsiding swell of gratulation, as the 
 gloomy surges of a sudden tempest chase 
 the sunlit-billows, was passed, and a mourn- 
 ful calmness succeeded, she stood there a 
 touching monument of early piety and dis- 
 interested love, neither romance nor the 
 pages of profane history can furnish. Then 
 she said, " My father, if thou hast opened 
 thy mouth unto the Lord, do to me accord- 
 ing to that which has proceeded out of 
 thy mouth ; forasmuch as the Lord has ta- 
 ken vengeance for thee of thine enemies, the 
 children of Ammon." Then pausing, while 
 he was mute in the dread paralysis of grief 
 and remorse, she asked the delay of two
 
 JEPTHA'S DAUGHTER. 113 
 
 months in the execution of his vow, while 
 attended by her companions, she went forth 
 upon the solitary mountains to bewail her 
 virginity. 
 
 There the doomed maiden wandered like 
 the very spirit of solitude, beamed a sky that 
 seemed to mock her destiny with its cloud- 
 less glow, and reposed at night while the 
 changeless stars beamed brightly, as when 
 she strayed blithely there, with the exiled 
 Jeptha. The months vanished, and she re- 
 turned with uncomplaining fidelity to yield 
 her life upon the sacrificial altar.* 
 
 Curiosity is left to conjecture in regard 
 to the particulars of that last parting of 
 Jeptha and his daughter his fruitless la- 
 ment while she hung upon his neck, and 
 
 * When the circumstances and evidences are carefully con- 
 sidered, the opinion that she was sacrificed " according to his 
 vow" rests on the strongest probability, nor would, it is be- 
 lieved, be questioned, were it not for the tearful result it in- 
 volvea.
 
 114 JEPTHA'S DAUGHTER. 
 
 her soothing accents of cheerful resignation. 
 And when she lay in robes of virgin purity 
 upon the altar, and closed her mild eye, 
 while the high-priest lifted his burnished 
 blade, what an illustration of the authority 
 of conscience, that brought her there, and 
 which echoes unceasingly when unpervert- 
 ed, the claims of immutable right. It has 
 a whisper more awakening than the trum- 
 pet-blast and a power that invests a man 
 with the majesty of an angel, or the dark 
 sublimity of a demon. 
 
 The scene also illustrates the solemnity 
 of covenant obligation to the Christian, 
 and its eternal force. The individual con- 
 secration, and baptismal vow to train off- 
 spring for God, compared with Jeptha's 
 hasty and criminal oath, are infinitely more 
 fearful and inscribed on the columns of 
 the White Throne, will meet the gaze when 
 " this mortal shall put on immortality."
 
 WEEE Life, like the " Court of Death," 
 thrown on canvass, it would be no less a 
 picture of contrasts a panorama of visible 
 scenes and shades of character dissimilar 
 ever, though perpetually changing. In the 
 market-place, the incarnate fiend jostles the 
 humble saint the haughty rich man passes 
 with scorn the unoffending poor. The vile 
 walk unblushing! y by .the side of the vir- 
 tuous, glorying over innocence and beauty
 
 116 DELILAH. 
 
 blasted forever ; and the weak cower be- 
 neath the frown and grasp of the strong. 
 In the forum, the unworthy judge gives 
 sentence on the less guilty criminal, and 
 the citizen of unstained integrity sits on the 
 same jurors' bench with the undetected 
 villain. The statesman, the orator, and 
 the bard, crowned with honor and weary 
 of praise, lie raving with delirium, or in 
 idiotic silence before the intoxicating bowl ; 
 and the proudest prince, and the hero of a 
 thousand battles, kneeling in unresisting 
 captivity, cast crown and laurels at the feet 
 of beauty. Such a contrast as the last has 
 distinguished Delilah among the women of 
 Scripture memory, while by the portraits 
 already drawn, she forms one no less strik- 
 ing as a female character. She was a 
 beautiful Philistine, living on that border 
 of Canaan settled by the tribe of Dan. 
 Samson, son of Manoah, who like Isaac
 
 DELILAH. 117" 
 
 was the gift of God in answer to prayer, 
 became judge over his nation harassed by 
 enemies, about forty years after Jeptha's 
 death. Of remarkable strength and daring 
 he was great unlike any before Trim. Barak, 
 Gideon and Jeptha, led brave armies and 
 obtained splendid victories: Samson was 
 an army in liimself, and hurled defiance by 
 the might of his single arm at the hosts of 
 Israel's foe. In one of his excursions to 
 Philistia he saw Delilah, and admired her 
 beauty. The valiant judge had occasion 
 often afterward to visit the valley of Sorek, 
 and at length made the damsel his bride.* 
 The lords of the Philistines saw that 
 Samson was in the toils of love that a 
 syren's voice had well nigh drowned the 
 call of duty and the mandate of "The un- 
 
 * His marriage is not mentioned, but as commentators differ 
 on this point, I have chosen the supposition that Delilah was 
 his wife. 
 
 6*
 
 1 18 DELILAH. 
 
 known God." They therefore went to De- 
 lilah with flattering persuasion and a bribe 
 of money, to induce her to extort from him 
 the secret of his strength, and deliver him 
 into their hands. 
 
 Three times he made a pastime of her 
 curiosity, and when she thought he was her 
 captive, swung his sinewy arms in mock-en- 
 deavor to escape, and walked away from his 
 thraldom with a smile of triumph wreath- 
 ing his lip. But as often as she met him, 
 with chiding fondness Delilah would fix her 
 dark eye upon him, and throwing around 
 him all the fascination of voluptuous love- 
 liness, entreat him to tell her the talisman 
 of his strength. 
 
 Harassed with the affairs of state, he 
 sought her home to refresh his drooping 
 spirits, and as often was wearied with her 
 request, till one day reclining by her side, 
 and completely under the influence of her
 
 DELILAH. 1 19 
 
 charms, he told her his long and raven 
 locks were the badge of his might the 
 glory of the Nazarene. God had made this 
 the symbol of his miraculous relation to 
 Him, and he threw it as a toy into the lap 
 of the Gentile beauty. He fell asleep on her 
 knee, and calling a Philistine she bade him 
 shave off the luxuriant hair that lay in folds 
 upon his brawny shoulders; then cried, 
 " The Philistines be upon thee, Samson !" 
 He awakened, and starting at the repeated 
 alarm, shook his noble frame, and took 
 the wonted attitude of battle with his foes. 
 But Jehovah who was his strength had 
 abandoned the victor. Despoiled of his 
 eyes, he was led to Gaza, whose gates he 
 had once borne away at night, and loaded 
 with chains of brass. 
 
 It is not probable Delilah anticipated 
 this result, but only expected his temporary 
 confinement. Milton has so beautifully de-
 
 120 DELILAH. 
 
 lineated in " Samson Agonistes" both the 
 hero and his wife, we shall introduce ex- 
 tracts from the scene of their meeting, just 
 before he was led from the mill where he had 
 toiled as a national slave, to entertain with 
 his feats thousands of the populace and no- 
 bility assembled in the great temple of Da- 
 gon, worshipping there before his shrine, and 
 holding a jubilee to commemorate the bril- 
 liant achievement of the champion's capture. 
 Delilah goes sorrowfully to the lonely 
 captive, yet admired of the multitude as 
 she sweeps by with an air of royalty- 
 Like a stately ship 
 Of Tarsus, bound for tb' isles 
 Of Javan or Gadire, . 
 With all her bravery on, and tackle trim, 
 Sails fill'd, and streamers waving, 
 An amber scent of odorous perfume 
 Her harbinger, a damsel train behind. 
 * * But now, with head dcclin'd, 
 Like a fair flower, surcharg'd with dew, she weeps, 
 And words address'd seem into tears dissolv'd, 
 Wetting the borders of her silken veil.
 
 DELILAH. 121 
 
 Delilah, attempts to conciliate Samson, 
 expressing her sorrow over the unlooked- 
 for consequence of her folly, and desire to 
 atone, if possible, for the fearful act. 
 
 SAMS. Out, out, hyaena ! these are thy wonted arts, 
 And arts of every woman false like thee, 
 To break all faith, all vows, deceive, betray, 
 Then as repentant, to submit, beseech, 
 And reconcilement move with feign'd remorse, 
 Confess, aild promise wonders in her change. 
 ***** 
 
 DEL. Yet hear me, Samson ; not that I endeavor 
 To lessen or extenuate my offence, 
 But that, on th' other side if it be weigh'd 
 By itself, with aggravations not surcharg'd, 
 Or else with just allowance counterpois'd, 
 I may, if possible, thy pardon find 
 The easier towards me, or thy hatred Ies8. 
 First granting, as I do, it was a weakness 
 In me, but incident to all our sex, 
 Curiosity, inquisitive, importune 
 Of secrets, then with like infirmity 
 To publish them, both common female faults : 
 Was it not Avenkness also to make known 
 For importunity, that is for naught, 
 Wherein consisted all thy strength and safety ? 
 To what I did, thou show'dst me first the way, 
 But I to enemies reveal'd, and should not ; 
 Nor shouldst thou have trusted that to woman's frailty : 
 6
 
 122 DELILAH. 
 
 Ere I to thee, thou to thyself was't cruel 
 Let weakness then to weakness come to parl, 
 So near related or the same of kind, 
 Thine forgive miue. * 
 
 SAMS. How cunningly the sorceress displays 
 Her own transgressions to upbraid me mine ! 
 * * * Weakness is thy excuse, 
 And / believe it ; weakness to resist 
 Philistia's gold ; if weakness may excuse, 
 What murderer, what traitor, parricide, 
 Incestuous, sacreligious, but may plead it ? 
 All wickedness is weakness : that plea therefore 
 With God or man will give thee no remission. 
 
 Delilah tlien interposes tlie plea of im- 
 portunity from her countrymen, and relig- 
 ious obligation urged by the priest of Dagon. 
 
 SAMS. I thought where all thy circling wiles would end ; 
 In feign'd religion, smooth hypocrisy. 
 
 DEL. I was a fool, too rash and quite mistaken 
 In what I thought would have mended best. 
 Let me obtain forgiveness of thee, Samson, 
 Afford me place to show what recompense 
 Towards thee I intend for what I have misdone, 
 Misguided. * * * * 
 
 I to the lords will intercede, not doubting 
 Their favorable ear, that I may fetch thee 
 Forth from this loathsome prison house to abide 
 With me. where my redoubled love and care
 
 DELILAH. 123 
 
 With nursing diligence, to me glad office, 
 
 May ever tend about thee to old age, 
 
 With all things grateful cheer'd, and so supplied, 
 
 That what by me thou hast lost, thou least shalt miss. 
 
 SAMS. No, no, of my condition take no care ; 
 It fits not ; thou and I long since are twain ; 
 Nor think me so unwary or accurst, 
 To bring my feet again into the snare 
 Where once I have been caught : I know thy trains, 
 Though clearly to my cost, thy gins and toils ; s 
 Thy fair enchanted cup and warbling charms 
 No more on me have power ; their force is null'd, 
 So much of adder's wisdom I have learn'd 
 To fence my ear against thy sorceries. 
 ***** 
 
 DEL. Let me approach at least and touch thy hand. 
 
 SAMS. Not for thy life, lest fierce remembrance wake 
 
 My sudden rage to tear thee joint by joint. 
 
 At distance I forgive thee ; go with that, 
 
 Bewail thy falsehood, and the pious works 
 
 It hath brought forth to make thee memorable 
 
 Among illustrious women, faithful wives. 
 
 Cherish thy hasten'd widowhood with the gold 
 
 Of matrimonial treason ! So farewell. 
 
 DEL. I see thou art implacable, more deaf 
 
 To prayers than winds and seas ; yet winds to seas 
 
 Are reconcil'd at length, and sea to shore : 
 
 Thy anger unappeasable still rages, 
 
 Kternal tempest never to be cahn'd. 
 
 Why do T humble thus myself, and, suing
 
 124 DELILAH. 
 
 For peace, reap nothing but repulse and hate ? 
 ***** 
 
 Fame, if not double-faced, is double-mouth'd, 
 
 And with contrary blast proclaims most deeds ; 
 
 On both his wings, one black, the other white, 
 
 Bears greatest names in his wild airy flight. 
 
 My name perhaps among the circumcis'd, 
 
 In Dan, in Judah, and the bordering tribes, 
 
 To all posterity may stand defam'd, 
 
 With malediction meution'd, and the blot 
 
 Of falsehood most unconjugal traduc'd. 
 
 But in my country where I most desire, 
 
 In Ecron, Gaza, Asdod, and in Gath, 
 
 I shall be nam'd among the famousest 
 
 Of women sung at solemn festivals, 
 
 Living and dead recorded, who to save 
 
 Her country from a fierce destroyer, chose 
 
 Above the faith of wedlock bands ; my tomb 
 
 With odors visited and annual flowers ; 
 
 Not less renown'd than in Mount Ephraini 
 
 Jael, with inhospitable guile 
 
 Smote Sisera sleeping, through the temples nail'd. 
 
 Nor shall I count it heinous to enjoy 
 
 The public marks of honor and reward 
 
 Conferr'd upon me, for the piety 
 
 Which to my country I was judg'd to have shown. 
 
 At this whoever envies or repines, 
 
 I leave him to his lot, and like my own. 
 
 Whether Delilah was in the mighty struc- 
 ture when Samson was the sport of his
 
 DELILAH. ^ 125 
 
 captors the subject of scorn and brilliant 
 wit by the nobility of Philistia we cannot 
 tell. She may have stood sad and silent 
 with remorse, and remembered kindness she 
 would share no more, while leaning mourn- 
 fully between the massive pillars he grasped 
 with extended arms, he bowed his sightless 
 head and prayed for the return of his for- 
 feited power, that he might avenge his own, 
 and the enemies of God. It is in accord- 
 ance with God's retributive justice on for- 
 mer occasions, to believe she was there, 
 and when in answer to that piteous cry of 
 a penitent spirit, the tall columns reeled 
 before his recovered strength, like interlock- 
 ing masts in a wrathful deep, and the walls 
 heaved and fell in with the descending roof, 
 her's was the first shriek that went up from 
 that vast tomb of living throngs, whose mu- 
 sic and mirth were drowned in a wail of 
 agony and groans of the death-struggle.
 
 126 ^ DELILAH. 
 
 This wonderful man, a greater than Her- 
 cules, was evidently subdued by his afflic- 
 tion, and a loyal worshipper of God with 
 all the strange contradictions in his char- 
 acter, his inglorious fall and tragical death, 
 he joined without doubt, the patriarchal 
 ranks above ; while the fair idolater clung 
 to her gods and perished forever. 
 
 Previous to her advent, the women of Bi- 
 ble fame, pass before the imagination in the 
 vision of antiquity, like pure and radiant 
 stars, their frailties scarcely more than the 
 wing of a transparent cloud upon these beau- 
 tiful spheres. Delilah rises suddenly from 
 darkness, as a glorious meteor describes an 
 arc of romantic and fatal light, and goes 
 down in an horizon of awful gloom. Beauty 
 with an unsanctified heart, no less than intel- 
 lect, is a bright anathema and while others 
 mourn its bestowal, the possessor is ulti- 
 mately a wreck, over which angels weep !
 
 THE story of Ruth, written doubtless by 
 Samuel, and thrown in between the deso- 
 lating wars of the Judges and those which 
 followed under the Kings, is a touching 
 picture of quiet pastoral life -SL lifting of 
 the curtain rolled in blood, from the back- 
 ground of tragic scenes, upon a peaceful 
 home, where love has its trial and triumph. 
 The thoughts rest like the Dove upon a 
 green hill-top, after flying wearily over the
 
 128 RUTH. 
 
 unburied slain and a deluged world, upon 
 this bright vision amid heathen cruelties 
 and slaughtered armies. We could not 
 spare the short book of Ruth from the 
 Bible. It not only illustrates God's par- 
 ticular providence and protection of his peo- 
 ple, but is an indispensable link in the ge- 
 nealogy of Christ, and is thus quoted in 
 Matthew. A Moabitess is united to the an- 
 cestry of David, foreshadowing the truth 
 that the Redeemer would shed his love 
 and recovering mercy on the Gentile nations. 
 
 Voltaire dwelt with enthusiasm on the 
 marvellous sweetness and simplicity of this 
 "gem in oriental history." 
 
 Fiction has never written so truthful and 
 beautiful a tale one while it reaches and 
 subdues the heart, leaves no stain that 
 would soil an angel's purity. Like all God's 
 works and manifestations, it is faultless. 
 
 "No novelist has ever been able, with
 
 RUTH. 129 
 
 his utmost efforts, to paint so lovely, so per- 
 fect a character as this simple story pre- 
 sents. From first to last, Ruth appears 
 before us endowed with every virtue and 
 charm that render a woman attractive. 
 Naomi's husband was a man of wealth, 
 and left Bethlehem to escape the famine 
 that was wasting the land. In Moab he 
 found plenty, and there with his wife and 
 two sons, who married Ruth and Orpah, 
 lived awhile and died. In the course of ten 
 years, the two sons died also, and then 
 Naomi, broken-hearted, desolate and poor, 
 resolved to return and die in her native 
 land. How touching her last interview 
 with her daughters-in-law, when she bade 
 them farewell, and prayed that as they had 
 been kind to her and her dead sons, so 
 might the Lord be kind to them. Surprised 
 that they refused to leave her, she reasoned 
 
 with them, saying that she was a widow 
 G*
 
 130 
 
 RUTH. 
 
 and childless, and to go with her was to 
 seek poverty and exile in a strange land. 
 She could offer them no home, and perhaps 
 the Jewish young men would scorn their 
 foreign birth, and when she died none would 
 be left to care for them or protect them. 
 There they had parents, brothers, and 
 friends, who loved them and would cherish 
 them. On the one hand were rank in so- 
 ciety and comfort, on the other disgrace and 
 poverty. Orpah felt the force of this lan- 
 guage and turned back ; but Ruth, still 
 clinging to her, Naomi declared that it was 
 the act of folly and madness to follow the 
 fortunes of one for whom no bright future 
 was in store, no hope this side the grave. 
 She sought only to see the place of her 
 childhood once more, and then lie down 
 where the palm trees of her native land 
 might cast their shadows over her place of 
 rest. 'Go back,' said she, 'with my sis-
 
 RUTH. 131 
 
 ter-in-law.' She might as well have spoken 
 to the rock : that gentle being by her side, 
 all shrinking timidity and modesty, whose 
 tender feelings the slightest breath could agi- 
 tate, was immovable in her affections. Her 
 eye would sink abashed before the bold 
 look of impertinence, but with her bosom 
 pressed on one she loved, she could look on 
 death in its grimest forms unappalled. Fra- 
 gile as the bending willow, she seemed, but 
 in her true love, firm as the rooted oak. 
 The hand of violence might crush, but never 
 loosen her gentle clasp. With those white 
 arms around her mother's neck, and her 
 breast heaving convulsively, she sobbed 
 forth, ' Entreat me not to leave thee, for where 
 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 I 
 will die, and there will I be buried : 
 naught but death sliall part us?
 
 1 32 RUTH. 
 
 " Beautiful and brave heart ! home, and 
 friends, and wealth, nay, the gods she had 
 been taught to worship, were all forgotten 
 in the warmth of her affection. Tearful 
 yet firm, 'Entreat me not to leave thee,' 
 she said ; ' I care not for the future ; I can 
 bear the worst ; and when thou art taken 
 from me, I will linger around thy grave till 
 I die, and then the stranger shall lay me by 
 thy side P What could Naomi do but fold 
 the beautiful being to her bosom and be 
 silent, except as tears gave utterance to her 
 emotions. Such a heart outweighs the 
 treasures of the world, and such absorbing 
 love, truth and virtue, make all the accom- 
 plishments of life appear worthless in com- 
 parison. 
 
 "The two unprotected women took their 
 journey on foot towards Bethlehem. It was 
 in the latter part of summer, and as they 
 wandered along the roads and through the
 
 RUTH. 133 
 
 fields of Palestine, Ruth by a thousand 
 winning ways endeavored to cheer her 
 mother. Naomi was leaving behind her 
 the graves of those she loved, and penni- 
 less and desolate, returning to the place 
 which she had left with a husband and two 
 manly sons, and loaded with wealth, and 
 hence a cloud hung upon her spirit. Yet 
 in spite of her grief she was often compelled 
 to smile through her tears, and struggled to 
 be cheerful, so as not to sadden the heart 
 of the unselfish, innocent being by her side. 
 And at fervid noon, when they sat down be- 
 neath the shadowy palm to take their fru- 
 gal meal, Ruth hastened to the neighboring 
 rill, for a cooling draught of water for her 
 mother, and plucked the sweetest flower's 
 to comfort her. 
 
 " Thus, day after day, they travelled on, 
 until at length, one evening, just as the glo- 
 rious sun of Asia was stooping to the wes-
 
 134 RUTH. 
 
 tern horizon, the towers of Bethlehem arose 
 in sight. Suddenly a thousand tender as- 
 sociations, all that she had possessed and 
 all that she had lost, the past and the pres- 
 ent rushed over her broken spirit, and she 
 knelt and prayed and wept. 'Call me 
 not,' said she to the friends of her early 
 days, who accosted her as she passed 
 through the gates, ' call me not Naomi, or 
 the pleasant, but Mara, bitter y for the Al- 
 mighty has dealt very bitterly with me.' 
 
 " Here again Ruth's character shone forth 
 in its loveliness. She was not one of those 
 all sentiment and no principle ; in whom de- 
 votion is mere romance, and self-sacrifice ex- 
 pends itself in poetic expressions. Though 
 accustomed to wealth, and all the attention 
 and respect of a lady of rank, she stooped to 
 the service of a menial in order to support 
 her mother. With common hirelings she 
 entered the fields as a gleaner, and without
 
 RUTH. 135 
 
 a murmur trained her delicate hands to 
 the rough usage of a day-laborer. At night 
 her hard earnings were poured with a sniile 
 into the lap of her mother, and living wholly 
 in her world of love, was unmindful of every- 
 thing else. Boaz saw her amid the glean- 
 ers, and struck with her modest bearing 
 and beauty, inquired who she was. On 
 being told, he accosted her kindly, saying 
 that he had heard of her virtues, her devo- 
 tion to her mother, and her self-sacrifices, 
 and invited her that day to dine at the com- 
 mon table. With her long, dark locks fall- 
 ing in ringlets over her neck and shoulders, 
 and her cheek crimsoned with her recent 
 exertions, and the excitement at finding 
 herself opposite the rich landlord, in whose 
 fields she had been gleaning, and who help- 
 ed her at the table as his guest, sat the im- 
 personation of beauty and loveliness. That 
 Boaz was fascinated by her charms, as well
 
 136 RUTH. 
 
 as by her character, was evident. He had 
 watched her deportment, and saw how she 
 shunned the companionship of the young 
 men who sought her acquaintance, and of 
 whose attentions her fellow-gleaners would 
 have been proud. Nothing was too hum- 
 ble, if it ministered to her mother's comfort, 
 but beyond that she condescended to noth- 
 ing that was inconsistent with her birth. 
 Whether abashed by his looks and embar- 
 rassed by his attentions, or from her native 
 delicacy of character, she arose from the 
 table before the rest had finished, and re- 
 tired. After she had left, Boaz told the 
 young men to let her take from the sheaves 
 without rebuke, and then, as if suddenly 
 recollecting how different she was from the 
 other gleaners, and that every sheaf was 
 as safe where she trod as it would have 
 been in his own granary, he bade them drop 
 handfuls by the way, which she, wondering
 
 RUTH. ] 37 
 
 at their carelessness, gathered up. At sun- 
 set she beat it out and carried it to her 
 mother. Naomi, surprised at the quantity, 
 questioned her closely as to where she had 
 gleaned, and when Ruth told her the histo- 
 ry of the day, the fond mother divined the 
 whole. Her noble and lovely Ruth had 
 touched the heart of one of her wealthy 
 kinsmen, and she waited the issue. 
 
 "The long conversations they held to- 
 gether, and the struggles of the beautiful 
 
 O i OO 
 
 Moabitess, before she could bring herself 
 to obey her mother and lie down at the feet 
 of Boaz, thus claiming his protection and 
 love, are not recorded. Custom made it 
 proper and right, but we venture to say 
 that Ruth never passed a more uncomfort- 
 able night than that. Her modesty and 
 delicacy must have kept her young heart 
 in a state of agitation that almost mocked 
 her self-control. The silent appeal, how-
 
 138 RUTH. 
 
 ever, was felt by lier rich relative, and he 
 made her his wife. The devotion to her 
 helpless mother her self-humiliation in 
 performing the office of a menial the long 
 summer of wasting toil the many heart- 
 aches caused by the rough shocks she was 
 compelled, from her very position, to receive, 
 at length met with their reward. Toiling 
 through the sultry day, and beating out her 
 hard earnings at night, the only enjoyment 
 she had known was the consciousness that 
 by her exertions Naomi lived. It had been 
 difficult, when weary and depressed, to 
 give a cheerful tone to her voice, so as not 
 to sadden her anxious mother-in-law ; but 
 still the latter saw that the task she had 
 voluntarily assumed was too great, and 
 therefore, at length, claimed from Boaz the 
 obligations of a kinsman. Love, however, 
 was stronger than those claims, and he took 
 Kuth to his bosom with the strong affection
 
 RUTH. 139 
 
 of a generous and noble man. She thus 
 rose at once to the rank for which she was 
 fitted, and in time the beautiful gleaner of 
 the fields of Bethlehem became the great- 
 grandmother of the King of Israel." 
 
 Ruth was naturally affectionate and 
 amiable, but evidently owed that moral ele- 
 vation of character which made her decision 
 to go with Naomi, although a forlorn hope 
 even did not brighten their path, sublime 
 in its unyielding strength, to the religious 
 culture of that Hebrew mother. 
 
 Orpah, less deeply impressed with the 
 worship of the living God, returned at the 
 urgent entreaty of Naomi, to her wealthy 
 friends, and the adoration of Chemosh, the 
 deity of Moab. 
 
 There is a fine appeal to the moral feel- 
 ings in the last address to Ruth. " Behold 
 thy sister-in-law is gone back unto her 
 people, and unto her gods ; return thou
 
 140 RUTH. 
 
 after thy sister-in-law." In her deep dis- 
 tress, Naomi knew not what to do and 
 throwing all the responsibility on the weep- 
 ing Ruth, seemed to say, " Before us is fam- 
 ine and death you can av r oid sharing this 
 bitter cup by a return to your people and 
 idols." With the spirit of a martyr that 
 lovely being sobbed while she hung on 
 Naomi's neck, " I cannot forsake thee let 
 thy fate and God be mine." 
 
 So did the family of Elimelech on the 
 border of extinction, emerge from gloom 
 into splendor which shines onward through 
 all the lineage of David, blending at length 
 with the glory that illumined the same vale 
 of Bethlehem, when the chorus of angels 
 was poured on the midnight air, because 
 their King was cradled there in homeless 
 solitude.
 
 IN a rich valley of Mount Ephraim, a 
 central range of summits in Palestine, El- 
 kanali, a pious shepherd, kept his flocks. 
 As Jacob before him he married two wives, 
 and had also to bear the curse which at- 
 tends a violation of the law of marriage as 
 it came from Heaven. 
 
 Peninnah had sons and daughters, while 
 Hannah, unblest with children, was the 
 
 most tenderly loved the Rachel of his 
 
 7*
 
 142 HANNAH. 
 
 heart and home. Otherwise, there was 
 nothing peculiar or remarkable in the quiet 
 life of these dwellers among the mountains. 
 Tracing their history, we seem returning 
 to the patriarchal age or rather looking 
 in upon some " Cotter's Saturday Night 1 ' 
 in the Highlands of Scotland. Every year, 
 he went with his family on a pilgrimage to 
 Shiloh, near Bethel, where the Ark and 
 Tabernacle gathered for sacrifice and wor- 
 ship, the devout Hebrews from all their 
 plains. Hannah was a meek and saintly 
 woman, but Peninnah was vain and haugh- 
 ty. Her jealousy was kindled by Elka- 
 nah's attention to his more amiable wife, 
 and glorying in her offspring, treated scorn- 
 fully her childless rival in his affections. 
 This grieved Hannah's sensitive spirit du- 
 ring their lonely travel to Shiloh, and yearn- 
 ing for the honor and joy of a mother, she 
 would have knelt in her sorrow under the
 
 HANNAH. 143 
 
 very wings of the Cherubim overshadow- 
 ing the Mercy-Seat. 
 
 Upon one of these annual visits, tempted 
 and heart-broken, she wept till Elkanah 
 touched by her tears endeavored to soothe 
 her with assurances of his own deep affec- 
 tion. Unlike the petulant Rachel, she ut- 
 tered no reproach, but restraining her grief, 
 lifted the gloom from his brow with a smile 
 mournful as a gleam of sunshine on a solitary 
 ruin. Then she sought the threshold of Je- 
 hovah's Temple, and bowed in silent prayer. 
 The depths of her being were stirred, 
 and wrestling with the Merciful One, she 
 breathed a solemn vow that if a son were 
 given her, he should be a consecrated child, 
 and with the stern discipline of a Nazarine 
 prepared for perpetual service in the Lord's 
 House. Responsive to her intense emotion, 
 her quivering lips only moved. Eli, who 
 was sitting by the door-post of the Sanctu-
 
 i44 HANNAH. 
 
 aiy, marked her strange deportment, and 
 hastily misjudging, accused her of drwik 
 enness. No murmur was heard from this 
 resigned and humble worshipper, but in sad 
 and melting accents, she said, "No, my 
 lord, I am a woman of sorrowful spirit ; 
 I have drunk neither wine nor strong drink, 
 but have poured out my soul before God." 
 Eli was affected, and with altered tone re- 
 plied, " Go in peace : and the God of Israel 
 grant thee thy petition thou hast asked of 
 him." Hannah felt that she had prevailed 
 in prayar, and her countenance became tear- 
 less and hopeful. When the morning broke 
 on the hills, gilding the gorgeous Taberna- 
 cle, the family arose and worshipped once 
 more toward the symbols of the " Upper 
 Sanctuary," and the flaming Law pencilled 
 on the tables of eternity; then striking their 
 tent, journeyed to Mount Ephraim. 
 
 And a son was born, named by Hannah,
 
 HANNAH. 145 
 
 Samuel, asked of tlie Lord. I know not of 
 a more sublime manifestation of faith and 
 piety, than her refusal to go up to the year- 
 ly festival until he was old enough to be left 
 there, according to her vow, the living sac- 
 rifice of an earnest and grateful heart. 
 Her religious principle was unbending as 
 Paul's ages after, and the glory of God filled 
 as vividly and constantly the horizon of her 
 thoughts. 
 
 She went at length to the Holy Temple, 
 with an oblation from the flocks and fields. 
 The priests laid a slain bullock upon the 
 altar, and while the smoke ascended, she 
 took from the bosom that cradled him with 
 unutterable tenderness the wondering babe, 
 and gave him to Eli, saying, we might be- 
 lieve half in reproof, " O my lord, as thy 
 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
 
 146 HANNAH. 
 
 given me my petition which I asked of him : 
 Therefore also I have lent him to the Lord : 
 cts long as lie liveth he shall be lent to the 
 Lord." The venerable priest accepted the 
 consecration, and with a solemn benedic- 
 tion devoted Samuel to the service of the 
 Tabernacle. 
 
 Then Hannah uttered a prayer, which is 
 rather a lofty ascription of praise to the Al- 
 mighty, whose sovereignty exalts the beg- 
 gar, while he shivers the sceptre and sinks 
 the throne of a king. Kindling with rap- 
 ture she emulates Deborah in celebrating 
 His majesty, till the poetic fire mounts like 
 a seraph's hymn to the unseen " Holy of 
 Holies." Doubtless Eli understood keenly 
 the allusion of that forceful expression, 
 " The Lord is a God of knowledge, and by 
 him actions are weighed? 
 
 This mother, upon whose history it is 
 sweet to linger, is the first woman men-
 
 II ANN AIL 147 
 
 tioned in the Bible kneeling in the attitude 
 of prayer not because others were prayer- 
 less, but to fill out the delineation of ma- 
 ternal character and duty, of which Han- 
 nah is a model of singular excellence. She 
 had the glow of enthusiasm and the com- 
 posure under trial, of an intellect finely bal- 
 anced, and disciplined by much communion 
 with God. 
 
 Samuel grew, and bore through all his 
 illustrious career, the most distinguished of 
 judges and honored of prophets, the impress 
 of that moulding influence, continued in 
 kind by the man of God, by whose side he 
 trimmed the temple-lamps and read the 
 mysterious tablets traced by the finger of 
 the Sternal. 
 
 Oh ! what power is lodged in a mother's 
 hand what eloquence in her prayer, and 
 what pathos in her tear ! She can lead 
 her child to the very gate of Paradise and
 
 148 HANNAH. 
 
 pour into the golden censer waved by the 
 Angel before the Majesty on High, the in- 
 cense of her petition. Her tear will burn 
 through life on the brow it baptized, and 
 the pressure of her hand be felt when the 
 world itself has become a vanished dream. 
 And many in that day, when Christ shall 
 " come to make up his jewels," will point 
 to the deepening glory that spreads away 
 to the mount of God, and murmur 
 
 " A mother's holy prayer, 
 A mother's hand and gentle tear 
 Have led the wanderer there !''
 
 THE mild administration of the Judges 
 had passed away. The splendor of the re- 
 gal period of the Hebrews had reached its 
 meridian ; and the fame of Solomon attract- 
 ed to his court a distinguished visitor 
 "The Queen of the South." 
 
 The land of Sheba was the Happy Ara- 
 bia of the ancients, and is the Sabaea and 
 Araby the Blest of modern poets. The 
 present name is Yemen. It is the south
 
 150 QUEEN OF SHEBA. 
 
 western division of Arabia, and embraces 
 an area equal to the whole of New Eng- 
 land and New York. In contrast with the 
 rest of Arabia, it has always been distin- 
 guished for fertility, beauty, and mineral 
 richness. Especially has it been famous 
 for gums, perfumes, and spices. " Neither," 
 says the sacred record, "was there any 
 such spice as the Queen of Sheba gave to 
 Solomon ;" and in our own day, her coun- 
 try is equally supreme in the excellence of 
 its Mocha coffee. If the region was not 
 the mine, its cities were, of old, the great 
 marts also of precious stones and of gold, 
 two hundred pounds of which were inclu- 
 ded in the gift of the queen to the king of Is- 
 rael. It abounds in the palm, orange, apricot 
 and sycamore ; the hills are, and doubtless 
 were, cultivated to their tops in terraces, 
 and by means of artificial reservoirs ; the 
 valleys and water-courses are exceedingly
 
 QUEEN OF SHEBA. 151 
 
 luxuriant ; the wilder parts are haunts of 
 the antelope, gazelle, leopard, and tropical 
 birds ; and, like all Arabia, it has always 
 been the home of that " living ship of the 
 desert" the camel, and that "glory of 
 Arabia" the horse. The adjacent seas 
 are filled with superb shells ; and the Per- 
 sian Gulf on the one hand furnishes the 
 finest pearls, the Red Sea on the other the 
 most beautiful corals of all the world. 
 
 It was in this country, which, as Milton 
 says, in his picture of Paradise, 
 
 " To them who sail 
 
 Beyond the Cape of Hope, and now are past 
 Mozambic. off at sea north-east winds blow 
 Sabean odors from the spicy shore 
 Of Araby the blest ;" 
 
 it was in this land, described in Lalla 
 Rookh as the clime where 
 
 " Glistening shells of ev'ry dye 
 
 Upon the margin of the Red Sea lie ; 
 
 Each brilliant bird that wings the air, is seen ; 
 
 Gay, sparkling loories, such as gleam betweeu
 
 152 QUEEN OF SHEBA. 
 
 The crimson blossom of the coral tree, 
 In the warm isles of India's sunny sea ; 
 And those that under Araby's soft sun, 
 Build their high nests of budding cinnamon ; 
 
 it was in this kingdom, and in some pal- 
 ace whose halls, and domes, and 
 
 -" towers, 
 
 "Were rich with Arabesques of gold and flowers," 
 
 that the Queen of Sheba, whose name is 
 Balkis in the Arabian traditions, was born 
 and grew, and was crowned with the sov- 
 ereignty of Happy Arabia. 
 
 No description of her person is given in 
 the inspired history. It is enough to know 
 that she belonged to a race that is regarded 
 as supplying the " primitive model form 
 the standard figure of the human family." 
 Baron de Larrey, surgeon-general of Napo- 
 leon's army in Egypt, said of the people of 
 this same region the east side of the Red 
 Sea "Their physical structure is, in all 
 respects, more perfect than that of Euro-
 
 QUEEN OF SHEBA. 153 
 
 peans ; their figure robust and elegant ; 
 their intelligence proportionate to that phy- 
 sical perfection." Some of the glowing por- 
 traitures in the Song of Solomon, indeed, 
 are supposed to have been drawn from his 
 fair and royal visitor, so that we may infer 
 that she realized a modern bard's picture 
 of her later countrywomen : 
 
 " Beautiful are the maids that glide 
 
 On summer eves, through Yemen's dales, 
 And bright, the glancing looks they hide 
 Behind their sedan's roseate veils." 
 
 But we have better proof that she had bet- 
 ter qualities than beauty. It is one of the 
 perfections of the Bible, that it compresses 
 into a few words the whole biography and 
 character of many individuals. Thus we 
 are only told that Enoch "walked with 
 God, and was not; for God took him;" 
 and, in the Gospels, we hear of a poor w r o- 
 
 rnan who cast "all her living" into the 
 
 7*
 
 154 QUEEN OF SHEBA. 
 
 treasury. In these hints, we have, as it 
 were, the entire history of a godly man, and 
 of a poor, pious woman. So, in the brief 
 notices of the visit of queen Balkis, her in- 
 tellectual and moral traits are clearly inti- 
 mated her early life readily suggested. 
 The whole case is conveyed in our Saviour's 
 language : " She came from the uttermost 
 parts of the earth, to hear the wisdom of 
 Solomon." In the Book of Kings, are fur- 
 ther data. We see her lively and para- 
 mount interest in religion, when it is said, 
 "she heard of the fame of Solomon, con- 
 cerning the name of the Lord ;" her dispo- 
 sition at once to recognize and worship the 
 true God, in her words, " Blessed be the 
 Lord thy God, which delighted in thee, to 
 set thee on the throne of Israel forever ; 
 because the Lord loved Israel forever, 
 therefore made he thee king to do judgment 
 and justice" the last words suggesting, al-
 
 QUEEN OF SHEBA. 155 
 
 so, her own upright character. Her pro- 
 ficiency in knowledge is indicated in the 
 confident purpose " to prove" the wise man 
 " with hard questions." Her frankness and 
 earnest solicitude to learn, are evident from 
 the declaration that " she communed with 
 him of all that was in her heart," words 
 that likewise discover to us her long, care- 
 ful retention of subjects of inquiry. Her 
 interest in household and architectural mat- 
 ters, is recorded ; and so candid and appre- 
 ciative was she, that " there was no more 
 spirit in her." That she had too much 
 sound sense to credit every floating report, 
 is manifest from her refusal to believe the 
 rumors of the king's acts and wisdom, until 
 her eyes had seen them ; that she was mod- 
 estly disposed to acknowledge an error from 
 her assurance that she had been mistaken ; 
 that she found her highest happiness in 
 mental and moral improvement, from her
 
 156 QUEEN OF SHEBA. 
 
 exclamation, " Happy are thy men, happy 
 these thy servants, who stand continually 
 before thee, and that hear thy wisdom." 
 Happy thy servants ! in how slight esti- 
 mation did she clearly hold all rank and so- 
 cial position, when she thus envied the con- 
 dition of menials who yet enjoyed so rare 
 intellectual opportunities. And, to crown 
 the whole delineation, the energy of her 
 character is transcendently illustrated in 
 the journey itself a journey equivalent to 
 a tour half around the globe, in these days ; 
 a journey of twelve hundred miles in a di- 
 rect line, and much further in the winding 
 course of travel ; a journey over mountains, 
 and unbridged rivers, and wide, trackless 
 deserts, where the lion prowls, the scorpion 
 stings, the simoom sweeps in scorching pow- 
 er, clouds and pillars of sand threaten the 
 traveller, and fierce robbers hover around 
 him ; a journey of two months in going and
 
 QUEEN OF SHEBA. 157 
 
 two in returning, and if made, as it pre- 
 sumably was, in company with the mer- 
 chant caravan that is known to have winter- 
 ed in Sheba and spent the summers in Ca- 
 naan, one that obliged her to be absent the 
 greater part of a year from her dominions. 
 
 It is pleasant to trace, in imagination, 
 the ingenuous, thoughtful youth of the 
 Arabian Queen, her enterprising maturity, 
 the surprises and delights of her visit, and 
 the benefits of it, resulting to her nation, 
 after her return. She had been educated 
 with royal care, in all the learning of her 
 country ; yet she felt that her education 
 was not finished that she had much to 
 learn. Her mind was busy with higher 
 themes than dress, amusements, daily news, 
 and earthly love ; her soul no longer slept in 
 the animal life of the senses of sights and 
 sounds, however refined ; it had awakened 
 to a deep feeling of, and a restless longing
 
 158 QUEEN OF SHEBA. 
 
 after, the True, the Good, the Beautiful, 
 the Eternal. The crown, the sceptre, were 
 hers, and she might have contented her- 
 self with princely ponip, with display of 
 authority, with woman's alleged desire to 
 rule; but this was not enough for her. 
 The treasures of the kingdom were hers, 
 and she could command in profusion the 
 pearls and corals of the sea, the gold of 
 Africa, the jewels of India, the fine linen of 
 Egypt, the purple of Tyre, the silks of Per- 
 sia ; she might, like many others, have sat- 
 isfied herself with costly raiment and equi- 
 page ; but these were insufficient. Any 
 eastern prince would have been made hap- 
 py by her hand, and she could have at once 
 retired into the seclusion of domestic delight, 
 leaving the cares of state to her officers ; but 
 no, she was conscious of higher objects of 
 existence than merely to be well wedded 
 we say, to be so, for her inquiring mind is
 
 QUEEN OF SHEBA. 159 
 
 evidence of her youth, and the silence of 
 sacred writ, under the circumstances, is 
 proof that she was a virgin queen. And 
 all the luxuries of the land and the delicacies 
 of the sea, Avere at her disposal ; yet she 
 could not feed her immortal soul with the 
 ashes of pleasure, nor expend her whole in- 
 tellect in royal entertainments. It was not 
 permitted her to dance, for to this day, the 
 dignified orientals esteem that exercise ap- 
 propriate only to slaves and hirelings ; but 
 she could hire the waltzing maids of neigh- 
 boring Abyssinia, with their tamborines 
 and tinkling bells ; yet she had a higher 
 purpose of life than amusement, although, 
 without doubt, she was as keenly sensible 
 to the delights of music and motion, as was 
 Coleridge in his dream, when, as he says, 
 
 " A damsel with a dulcimer 
 In a vision once I saw ; 
 It was an Abyssinian maid, 
 And on her dulcimer she play'd, 
 Singing of Mount Abora."
 
 160 QUEEN OF SIIEBA. 
 
 Queen Balkis could have further tried 
 to slake her soul's thirst with the roman- 
 ces and legends that bloom so abundantly 
 and gorgeously in the rich soil of Arabian 
 imagination ; and perhaps she tried, and 
 failed to satisfy herself with these. Last 
 of all, from her many courtiers and officers 
 and subjects, she could have drank in flat- 
 tery, and lived on the breath of praise. 
 
 After all, there was something awake and 
 sleepless in her spirit. Those things in her 
 heart, of which she afterwards communed 
 with Solomon, were yet unexplained ; the 
 hard questions she subsequently put to him, 
 were then unanswered. She felt her re- 
 sponsibility as a ruler, and her duty to fulfil 
 her lofty sphere, and longed for wiser in- 
 struction in law and equity and political 
 economy, than she had yet received. She 
 had heard vague reports of the western na- 
 tions, especially of the miraculous progress
 
 QUEEN OF SHEBA. 161 
 
 of the Israelites, and she wished to hear of 
 their history, and that of other kingdoms. 
 She looked upon the various vegetation and 
 animal life of the earth, and desired to lis- 
 ten to some one who, like Solomon, could 
 " speak of trees, from the cedar that is in 
 Lebanon even unto the hyssop that spring- 
 eth out of the wall ; and of beasts, and of 
 fowl, and creeping things, and of fishes." 
 She gazed on the moon and stars, and felt 
 that there was a higher wisdom to be drawn 
 from them than the fancies of eastern astrol- 
 ogy. She thought of life, and, to her, it 
 was all a bewildering mystery ; the per- 
 petual questions stirred within her, From 
 whence do I come ? whither do I go ? 
 And then she meditated on death and the 
 dark unknown beyond, and doubted not 
 there was something to be learned besides 
 the sensual heaven of Arab poets, or the 
 transmigration of the Egyptian and Hindoo.
 
 162 QUEEN OF SHEBA. 
 
 She pondered concerning the Powers that 
 created and rule the world, and dreamed of 
 a higher and holier Power than the genii 
 and gnomes and fairies of oriental romance, 
 or the gods of mythology. A quenchless 
 flame of thought and feeling was lit in the 
 warm heart and daring soul of Balkis, 
 Queen of Araby the Blest. 
 
 And now as a lively trade sprang up be- 
 tween Jerusalem and Sheba, and caravans 
 came and went, and the ships of Solomon 
 sailed up and down the Red Sea, increasing 
 information was diffused in Happy Arabia ; 
 the sailors and merchants then, a.s now, 
 brought to unknown regions, reports of their 
 country, religion, and government. They 
 were summoned to the presence of the 
 queen, and spoke of the amazing wisdom 
 and glory of their monarch, of their national 
 history, and of the one true and holy Je- 
 hovah. Perhaps, by some chance, they
 
 QUEEN OF SIIEBA. 163 
 
 brought manuscripts of the books of Moses 
 and of Solomon, and these deeply studied, 
 fanned the curiosity of the queen, and en- 
 lightened and enlarged her mind. How- 
 ever it was, her decision was finally and 
 resolutely formed. She knew the weari- 
 some length and appalling dangers of the 
 journey ; but her determination was an- 
 nounced ; the government was entrusted to 
 the hands of her premier ; the choicest 
 gems, gold and spices were selected for her 
 gifts ; her retinue of soldiers and servants 
 equipped and mounted, and the march 
 commenced, the queen herself borne in a 
 sedan, or throned in a canopied shade on a 
 camel, or, her clear olive face veiled from 
 the tropical sun, she mounted her favorite 
 Arab horse, and dashed forward in the van. 
 Sixty nights, her pavilion was to be pitch- 
 ed, and sixty mornings, to be struck again, 
 before she reached her destination.
 
 164 QUEEN OF SHEBA. 
 
 She saw the verdure of her own elysian 
 land disappear, and came upon the sterile 
 soil of Hedjaz, or Stony Arabia, the Red 
 Sea all the while lying upon the left, and 
 porphyry Mountains on the right. After 
 thirty days, she came to the half-way halt 
 the present Mecca, where, in those days, 
 or soon after, stood a temple with three 
 hundred and sixty images, now supplanted 
 by the Kaaba of the Mahometans. Then 
 she passed the burning springs, surrounded 
 with perpetual vegetation ; next, the pres- 
 ent Medina, now the place of the Prophet's 
 tomb, with its four hundred columns and 
 three hundred lamps, constantly burning. 
 In a few days, Mount Sinai and Horeb rose 
 to view, and the sovereign gazed in wonder 
 at their shadowy summits, recalling the 
 rumor of their memorable scenes. Here, 
 her company crossed the hills of Arabia, 
 struck upon the barren desert, and passed
 
 QUEEN OF SHEBA. 165 
 
 Petra the City of the Rocks, which then 
 resounded with busy life, and stood in all its 
 architectual freshness, not, as now, the 
 haunt of the bat and serpent. At last, the 
 Dead Sea was passed, the Jordan forded, 
 the fields and vineyards of Canaan entered. 
 How refreshing was the luxuriance of the 
 land of milk and honey, after the dreary 
 and fearful passage of the desert ! The 
 southern caravan came in the spring, and 
 it was therefore late in the season when, in 
 the familiar words of Solomon, " the winter 
 is past the rain over and gone ; the flowers 
 appear on the earth ; the time of the sing- 
 ing of birds is come, and the voice of the 
 turtle dove is heard in the land. The fig- 
 tree putteth forth her green figs, and the 
 vines with the tender grape, give a good 
 smell." It is probable that the King went 
 forth some distance to meet his royal visi- 
 tor, and if so, it may explain the words in
 
 166 QUEEN OF SHEBA. 
 
 his song : "Who is this that cometh out of 
 the wilderness like pillars of smoke, per- 
 fumed with myrrh and frankincense, with 
 all powders of the merchant ?" 
 
 Thus did the queen of the South come 
 from the uttermost parts of the earth, to 
 hear the wisdom of Solomon. She came 
 to the Mount of Olives, and as she passed 
 it by the same road so often travelled by our 
 Saviour on his way to Bethany, the prospect 
 of Jerusalem, throned on its hills, broke in 
 beauty upon her sight. There, in full view, 
 like a scene of magic, was the temple- 
 front, its porch, or tower, rising two hun- 
 dred feet above the top of Mount Sion ; 
 there were Solomon's palace, the Queen's 
 palace, the house of the forest of Lebanon, 
 the porch of judgment ; and both temple 
 and palace, porch and pinnacle, so glittering 
 with gold, so studded with pillars, rich in 
 carvings of cherubim, lions, palm-trees, and
 
 QUEEN OF SHEBA. 167 
 
 flowers, varied with the purple, yellow and 
 white of cedar and fir, that the whole re- 
 sembled a scene which outrivals the gor- 
 geous wealth of the East a scene which 
 this queen was never to behold an Ameri- 
 can forest in the splendors of October. 
 Gazing at the glories of Mount Sion, she 
 crossed the brook Kedron, and was received 
 at the palace with royal honors. 
 
 The main incidents during the visit are 
 given in the sacred narratives. The high- 
 born guest saw the arrangements of the 
 palace; the royal table, to supply which 
 for one day, required thirty oxen and two 
 hundred sheep, besides deer and fowl ; the 
 two hundred targets, and three hundred 
 shields, and various vessels, all of gold ; the 
 ivory throne, with its twelve carved lions ; 
 the thousand chariots and twelve thousand 
 horsemen; the gardens of spikenard and 
 saffron, pomegranates and cinnamon ; the
 
 168 QUEEN OF SHEBA. 
 
 " orchards planted with all kinds of fruit," 
 and beautiful with " fountains and pools 
 of water;" and the massive stone walls, 
 built up from the valleys to support the 
 temple, some of the immense blocks re- 
 maining to this day. She heard the singers 
 and the " musical instruments of all sorts." 
 To the temple, she was not admitted ; but 
 we are told that she saw the ascent by 
 which the king went up thither ; and pos- 
 sibly, through the gates and doors, she may 
 have distantly seen the brazen sea, and the 
 glory of the Lord, filling the holy place. 
 
 Above all, she heard the wisdom of Sol- 
 omon. From his own lips she heard some 
 of those " three thousand proverbs, and a 
 thousand and five songs," spoken of by the 
 sacred writer. She put all her hard ques- 
 tions communed of all that was in her 
 heart. Doubtless the conversation was not 
 made up of wit and dalliance, and the com-
 
 QUEEN OF SHEBA. 169 
 
 pliments of courtesy; nor did they talk 
 alone of fashion, idle news, and the weather. 
 The king was not obliged to treat her as an 
 unthinking being, but rather driven to ex- 
 ert all his intellect to answer her inquiries 
 into the great matters of law, history, sci- 
 ence, and religion. Such a journey was 
 not undertaken for nothing. The Redeemer 
 had declared expressly that she " came to 
 hear wisdom" would that this was more 
 often the object of travel and of conversation. 
 How long she remained is not stated. 
 If, as already assumed, she came with the 
 great merchant caravan, she may have staid 
 two months in Canaan, and may have vis- 
 ited other places. "She turned, and went 
 to her own country." That her visit re- 
 sulted in good to her nation, as well as to 
 herself, we have some evidence. We find, 
 from history, that one hundred and sixty- 
 seven years before Christ, the patriotic and
 
 170 QUEEN OF SHEBA. 
 
 pious Maccabees propagated a pure religion 
 more readily in Sheba than elsewhere, and 
 that the people were morally superior to 
 the rest of the Arabians. Thus, more than 
 eight hundred years after the death of this 
 queen, there was a happy state of things in 
 her country, which, it is fair to suppose, 
 originated in her wisdom, energy and piety. 
 It is the crowning praise of this crowned 
 woman, that, in all probability, she faith- 
 fully discharged the high duties of her 
 sphere, benevolently communicated her 
 knowledge to her subjects, and fulfilled the 
 mission of her life. 
 
 Aside from her energy, the two grand 
 features of the character of Queen Balkis, 
 as developed in the inspired history, are 
 her mental activity and religious inclina- 
 tion. Like the two immense columns of 
 brass, ornamented with pomegranates and 
 chain-work, that stood in front of Solomon's
 
 QUEEN OF SHEBA. 171 
 
 temple, these intellectual and spiritual ten- 
 dencies were the noble pillars of her char- 
 acter, around which all her lighter graces 
 of soul were wreathed. These capabilities, 
 diligently cultivated, prepared her to fulfil 
 the lofty purpose of her existence. And it 
 is in the power of every high-minded wo- 
 man to be a queen, and wield a sceptre of 
 influence as potent as the literal sceptre of 
 the sovereign of Happy Arabia. Nor has 
 the young American woman now to come 
 from the ends of the earth, to hear the wis- 
 dom of the wise. All knowledge is within 
 her reach, and she is raised to the dignity 
 of the equal and companion of man. Nor 
 is there any danger that, under a true cul- 
 tivation, she will neglect more appropriate 
 duties in higher aspirations. Woman's 
 sphere is just that circle of influence which 
 she can fill without the neglect of her 
 special offices, though it be a world blessed
 
 172 QUEEN OF SHEBA. 
 
 by her benevolent aid, or instructed or de- 
 lighted by her thought. And to fill this, 
 her powers need not be obtrusively ex- 
 erted; her authority, whether asserted or 
 not, will be in exact proportion to her in- 
 telligence and moral force of character ; and 
 a silent but powerful influence will neces- 
 sarily go out from her, as the Arabian 
 queen, perfumed with myrrh and frankin- 
 cense, and bearing costly spices, everywhere 
 on her journey made the desert air rejoice 
 in the balmy breath.
 
 JEZEBEL was a Sidonian princess of com- 
 manding figure, vigorous intellect, and de- 
 praved heart. Like Delilah, she was a vo- 
 luptuary and an idolater. 
 
 Ahab, king of Israel, a man of weak mind 
 and utterly destitute of moral principle, 
 from a motive of policy similar to that which 
 controls matrimonial alliances among the 
 sovereigns of Europe, or influenced by her 
 personal attractions, made her his queen.
 
 174 JEZEBEL. 
 
 Her genius soon gave her the ascendency 
 over him and in the cabinet of his king- 
 dom. In the temples of Ashtaroth and 
 Baal, she had bowed with the enthusiasm 
 of a devotee. She kissed the hideous im- 
 ages of her gods with burning lip, and 
 breathed their names with the reverence 
 and consecration of a martyr. And when 
 she rode to the capital of Israel, and saw 
 on the hills and house-tops no altars but 
 those of the golden calves of Dan and Beth- 
 el, symbolical of the Living God, with the 
 silent energy of an independent spirit, con- 
 scious of its power to rule, her purpose 
 was formed to revolutionize the ancient re- 
 ligion of the Hebrews, and in the very 
 Tabernacle of the Shekinah, kindle the 
 flame of sacrifice to the sun-god Baal. 
 
 The festivity and civic display attending 
 her reception at court passed by, the accla- 
 mations of the people ceased, and her work
 
 JEZEBEL. 175 
 
 was begun this resolute propagandist of 
 idolatry, who resembles Lady Macbeth in 
 the great and revolting qualities of her char- 
 acter, was imbued with the sentiment of 
 the invocation of that illustrious homicide. 
 
 " Come, come, you spirits, 
 
 That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here ; 
 And fill me from the crown to the toe, top-full 
 Of direst cruelty ! make thick my blood, 
 Stop up the access and passage to remorse ; 
 That no compunctious visitings of nature 
 Shake my fell purpose, or keep peace between 
 The effect and it." 
 
 The prophets were the first victims of 
 her malignant cruelty, and were slaughtered 
 till only a hundred were left, who were 
 concealed by the good Obadiah, governor 
 of the royal household. From the fact that 
 no more mention is made of them, it is evi- 
 dent they were at length dragged forth by 
 the executioners of her hostility to the wor- 
 ship of Jehovah, although its celestial glory 
 was already gone, and its hallowed rites
 
 176 JE7EBEL. 
 
 had given place to the forms of prevailing 
 superstition. 
 
 Elijah, gifted and fearless, was especially 
 the object of Jezebel's hatred. lie lived 
 awhile by the brook Cherith, near Jordan, 
 a solitary hermit, mysteriously fed by ra- 
 vens, till the approaching footsteps of the 
 messengers of death perilled his life. The 
 Lord then sent him to the house of a poor 
 widow in Zidon, whose table he miraculously 
 supplied, and raised her only son from the 
 dead. One day, when Obadiah, by the 
 command of Ahab, was surveying the 
 land to find a gushing spring or green spot 
 for the flocks perishing in the famine with 
 which God had cursed the nation, Elijah 
 met him, and told him to inform the king 
 of his abode. 
 
 The monarch, goaded on by the unwast- 
 ing zeal of the queen, went forth to slay 
 his enemy. But the prophet hurled back
 
 JEZEBEL. 177 
 
 his bitter reproaches, until he stood pale 
 and cowering beneath the eagle eye of his 
 accuser ; and then proposed to go with him 
 to Mount Carrnel, where, in the presence 
 of his pagan priesthood, the authority of 
 Baal against that of God should be fairly 
 and finally tested. Like the dark waves 
 which clasp the summit they are submerg- 
 ing, the thousands of Israel crowded up the 
 lofty mountain to behold the scene for 
 fire from Heaven was to descend on the 
 altar of the Lord, or his homage be trans- 
 ferred forever to the idols of Jezebel. 
 
 The four hundred and fifty priests erected 
 their altar, and called on Baal till their 
 cries were one wild shriek, and cut their 
 flesh till the trenches ran with blood ; but 
 there came no consuming shaft from the 
 skies no voice of approval stilled the 
 wailings of the frantic worshippers. Then 
 Elijah built the despised altar of Jehovah,
 
 178 JEZEBEL. 
 
 laid the slain victims thereon, and flooding 
 the whole with water, gathered the excited 
 throng around it. The god of the sun 
 had given no answer but the steady blzae 
 which withered the fields and made the 
 starving millions living skeletons. Now in 
 lonely majesty the hunted prophet knelt 
 in prayer, " and lo, fire from the cloudless 
 heavens fell like falling lightning, and the 
 bullock smoked amid the water that flooded 
 it, and a swift vapor rose from the top of 
 Carmel, and all was over." Then arose 
 the swelling shout, " The Lord he is the 
 God ; Jehovah he is God !" The prophets 
 of Baal were massacred in the valley below, 
 turning the waters of Kishon in to a crimson 
 flood. The people dispersed in the silence 
 of an unearthly fear, and Elijah went 
 back to the brow of Carmel to pray for 
 rain. 
 
 While Ahab tarried for refreshment, the
 
 JEZEBEL. 179 
 
 march of the tempest came to the prophet's 
 listening ear, and he sent his servant to 
 hasten the king's night to Jezreel. Elijah, 
 strengthened by the might of the Lord, 
 wrapped his mantle about him, and girded 
 his lions, while the wrathful clouds black- 
 ened above his dauntless form like a de- 
 scending robe becoming his dignity, and 
 ran before the foaming steeds of Ahab, to 
 the gates of the city. 
 
 He thought Jezebel could not fail to be- 
 lieve now the king had bowed before the 
 God of Israel, and been dazzled with the 
 glance of his omniscient eye. She listened 
 proudly and unmoved to the story of her 
 trembling lord, then sent a messenger to 
 Elijah, threatening with an oath, to mingle 
 with the corpses of her priests, his own 
 body, before the evening of another day. 
 He fled to Beersheba, and his unrelent- 
 ing persecutor, bewailing the dead, effaced
 
 180 JEZEBEL. 
 
 with raillery and scorn from the heart of 
 Ahab, any impression the miracle may have 
 made, chiding him till he was ready to sue 
 for pardon, for his weakness on Mount 
 Carmel. 
 
 And soon after, when he wanted the vine- 
 yard of Naboth, a citizen, to extend his 
 gardens, but could not prevail on him to part 
 with the ancestral possession, he went in 
 tears to the palace, and throwing himself 
 on his couch refused to eat. Jezebel heard 
 his complaint, and gazing upon him with a 
 glow of indignation, and the fierce passions 
 of a tigress, she said contemptuously, " Dost 
 thou not govern the kingdom of Israel? 
 Arise, and eat bread, and let thy heart be 
 merry : / will give thee the vineyard of 
 Naboth, the Jelzeelite." Faithful to her 
 promise, she wrote letters in the name of 
 Ahab, and with the royal seal, sent them 
 to the elders of the city and the nobles,
 
 JEZEBEL. 181 
 
 commanding them to proclaim a fast, and 
 arraign Naboth for blasphemy against 
 "God and the King." False witnesses 
 were suborned, and the mock trial soon 
 closed. The victim was taken out of the 
 city and stoned to death. The remorseless 
 queen then told the king to confiscate the 
 vineyard, for the owner would trouble him 
 no more. He went down accordingly, but 
 while walking over the grounds, Elijah 
 crossed his path, forewarning him of his 
 death, on the very spot where Naboth died 
 at the hands of a lawless mob. Conscience, 
 though it slumbered deeply, always awoke 
 at the sound of Elijah's voice and he ex- 
 claimed in blended anger and anguish, 
 "Hast thou found me, O mine enemy?" 
 Then followed a terrible prediction of the 
 entire destruction of his family, and the 
 tragical end of Jezebel. 
 
 Ahab was fatally wounded not long after-
 
 182 JEZEBEL. 
 
 wards in a battle with the Assyrians, and 
 died ; the prophet ascended in a chariot of 
 fire to glory, and his mantle with " a double 
 portion of his spirit," fell on his companion 
 Elisha, who was to be an actor in the last 
 scene of this doomed dynasty. He anoint- 
 ed Jehu, a captain in the army of the king, 
 to execute the hastening vengeance of God. 
 The host rallied around his standard, and 
 blew their trumpets in joyful acclamation, 
 while he led them on towards the walls of 
 the capital. Meeting Joram son of Jezebel 
 the reigning sovereign, and Ahaziah her 
 grandson, king of Juclah, who came forth 
 in their alarm at the sight of that war-cloud, 
 sweeping as on the wings of a hurricane 
 along the hills, he pierced the former with 
 an arrow, and throwing the body into the 
 vineyard of Naboth, slew the other in his 
 chariot, and dashed on to the open gate of 
 Jezreel. The shouts of the populace, and
 
 JEZEBEL. 183 
 
 the rushing of chariot-wheels, reached the 
 chamber of the queen. 
 
 No time was demanded, no weeping for 
 the slain disturbed her Satanic self-com- 
 mand. Painting her face, and splendidly 
 attired, "she looked out at the window," 
 and calling to Jehu, reminded him of the 
 fate of Zimri the conspirator against Elah, 
 who perished in the flames of the palace, 
 his own hand kindled. Jehu looked up 
 and cried to the eunuchs, " Who is on my 
 side ?" The quick reply w r as the descend- 
 ing form of Jezebel, mangled on the project- 
 ing wall, and sprinkling the horses with 
 blood. He then drove over this dying 
 daughter of a king, and queen of Israel, 
 stern, sullen and daring to the last, till the 
 hoofs of his steed were red with tram- 
 pled dead. 
 
 Entering now the desolate palace-hall, 
 he told the throng to go and " see this curs-
 
 181 JEZEBEL. 
 
 ed woman, and bury her, for she is a 
 king's daughter." But in accordance with 
 prophecy, they found only the fragments of 
 Jezebel's body left by the dogs. Jehu 
 continued his work of slaughter till the 
 idolatrous race was extinct, and the dis- 
 honor cast on the name of Jehovah was 
 wiped out with the blood of a whole gen- 
 eration. 
 
 Woman may be grateful for the seclusion 
 that brings with it the culture of her sym- 
 pathies and moral sensibilities; and that 
 she is excluded from manifold temptations 
 that crowd the pathway of man, whose rest- 
 less eye turns ever to the height, however 
 distant, whereon stands the temple of Mars, 
 Jupiter, or Mammon ; inviting him to come 
 with the sacrifice of principle and the hope 
 of Heaven, and take 
 
 " The wreath of glory that shall burn 
 And rend hU temples in return."
 
 JEZEBEL. 185 
 
 For with the same opportunity and urgen- 
 cy of motive, she would oftener enroll her 
 name among the great, whose power blast- 
 ed where it fell, and whose fame rose with 
 the commission of gigantic crimes.
 
 THE family of Ahab is among the most- 
 impressive illustrations in history, of ma- 
 ternal influence for evil on the character of 
 offspring. The nefarious Jezebel not only 
 gave birth to Athaliah, but laid a shaping 
 hand on her destiny ; and evidently with a 
 sibyl's enthusiasm, opened before her youth- 
 ful feet the very descmsusAverni in the mys- 
 teries of crime, hitherto unknown in royal 
 annals. We have no biography of her
 
 188 ATHALIAH. 
 
 early years ; lier career of dissipation and 
 bursts of passion while a maiden, with- 
 in the magnificent walls of her father's 
 palace. 
 
 The pious Jehosaphat, who reigned in 
 Judah, strangely sought her hand for his 
 son Jehoram. No other motive can be im- 
 agined than the policy of kings, who live 
 in jealousy or fear of each other. And 
 when her husband, yet a youth, took the 
 sceptre, she threw around him the magical 
 power of her wiles, and put forth the 
 guiding energy of genius a force, which 
 under the mad rule of passions, like the 
 sun-chariot in Phaeton's hand, makes ever 
 a brilliant, disastrous and brief career ; and, 
 
 " Self-stung, self-deified," 
 
 is overtaken by the retributive thunder- 
 bolt, at last. 
 
 One after another, Jehoram's five breth-
 
 ATHALIAH. 189 
 
 ren, who held posts of honor in the king- 
 dom, and others of the nobility, disappeared 
 suddenly under the assassin's stroke, or 
 poison administered by Athaliah, until he 
 sat in solitary and sullen authority, on a 
 throne behind which was " a power greater 
 than itself." 
 
 INaboth's history had furnished a prece- 
 dent the queen was not unwilling to follow, 
 and the tragedies in both branches of an 
 impious line, remind us of the Borgia fami- 
 ly of modern history T who have written 
 their names in blood, on the ecclesiastical 
 and civil records of Italy. The king was 
 smitten with disease, and after lingering for 
 two years, till a loathsome spectacle to his 
 friends, died, and left the crown to Ahaziah. 
 
 This son, unlike his predecessor, was not 
 involved in the suicidal war with a con- 
 science made tender by the piety of a fa- 
 ther, but with pliant docility listening to 
 9* 
 

 
 190 ATHALIAH. 
 
 the dark counsels of Athaliali, was striding 
 onward in power that spared neither Jew- 
 ish altar, nor the form of a rival, when, 
 during a visit to Joram, he was slain at 
 Jehu's command, with the retinue that 
 escorted him to Jezreel. 
 
 This gradual extinction of her family 
 did not move the lion heart of Athaliah. 
 She resolved, with demoniac ambition, to 
 strew around the summit of dreaded pre- 
 eminence, the slain " seed royal," from the 
 infant to the manliest youth ; and firmly 
 hold a sceptre dripping with the life cur- 
 rent of her own household. The order 
 was given, and, as she thought, the massa- 
 cre complete, and, a gloomy despot, she 
 could repose upon a throne whose shadow 
 would terrify, while the sword that guarded 
 it would cut for her a pathway whither a 
 sublimely desperate will might guide her 
 footsteps.
 
 ATHALIAH. 191 
 
 But she had a daughter, not yet insensi- 
 ble to human helplessness and the voice of 
 love. Among the bodies of her brother's 
 sons, which lay heaped together for inter- 
 ment, Jehosheba discovered the infant Jo- 
 ash, gasping for life, and secretly conveyed 
 him to her chamber. For six years the 
 child was hidden, and Athaliah reigned 
 without a rival in the holy city. 
 
 At the expiration of that period, Jehoi- 
 ada the priest, observing that the people 
 were ripe for revolution, conferred with the 
 centurions, captains and guards, and obtain- 
 ing from them an oath of fidelity to his 
 cause, showed them Joash in the house of 
 the Lord. They had supposed the royal 
 line extinct, and when they looked on the 
 boy, who returned their caressing with 
 shrinking wonder, old associations were 
 revived, and many a veteran, who remem- 
 bered the glorious days departed long ago.
 
 192 ATIIALIAH. 
 
 felt the quickening pulsations of slumbering 
 loyalty, and his brow began to glow with 
 an enthusiasm which seemed to have van- 
 ished forever. 
 
 The venerable priest then stationed the 
 battalions at the principal gates of the Tem- 
 ple, and around the king, who stood in the 
 bloom of his boyhood, half unconscious what 
 all this preparation meant, encircled by a 
 wall of men and gleaming weapons. Pla- 
 cing the crown upon his head, and the law 
 of God in his hand, he poured on that fair 
 forehead, the anointing-oil. Then the mul- 
 titude "clapped their hands, and said, God 
 save the king!" till the arches of the sa- 
 cred edifice echoed back the acclamation, 
 and the lofty columns rocked before the 
 steady tramp of thousands, rushing to this 
 scene of coronation. 
 
 The jubilant trumpets, and the deepen- 
 ing shouts caught the ear of Athaliah, and
 
 ATHALIAH. 193 
 
 she hastened to the house of God. When 
 she saw the splendid array and the surging 
 waves of excited men, and the youth 
 crowned in the midst of them, while " God 
 save the king" rolled in a deafening chorus 
 to the swell of trumpet blasts, her fallen 
 glance read the truth that sealed her doom 
 and as a last struggle, she rent her flowing 
 robes, and shouted, " Treason ! Treason !" 
 
 But none flew to the rescue of the fran- 
 tic queen. " Have her forth," cried Jehoi- 
 ada, "without the ranges; and him that 
 followeth her kill with the sword." The 
 command was obeyed, and her body lay in 
 the highway to the palace, trodden in the 
 soil by the horsemen, who but a few hours 
 before quailed before her eye of flame. 
 Mother and daughter, alike in unblushing 
 impiety which vaulted to the stars, perished 
 equally wretched in their hurried and hope- 
 less departure from a world they made
 
 194 ATH ALLAH. 
 
 more desolate, to an albode where Justice 
 completes his work. 
 
 To what a towering greatness in guilt 
 the intelligent creatures of God may attain ! 
 Those whom poets call angels, and who 
 may be so amid the suffering 
 
 "On life's broad field of battle," 
 
 become sirens on the shoals of ruin, or 
 quaff with a smile of glorying the wine- 
 cup of unmingled depravity. 
 
 And through all the history of the He- 
 brew nation, the lesson is enforced which Je- 
 hovah taught by the prophet, "In my wrath 
 I gave them a king" as if monarchy were 
 a dernier re-wort when the dignity of self- 
 government was gone, and His image so 
 nearly effaced from free intelligences, that 
 the sovereignty is insufficient, which, " like 
 the atmosphere we breathe, is felt only by 
 resistance."
 
 THE reflective reader of Scripture feels 
 perhaps more deeply than the most logical 
 array of argument, the inherent evidence of 
 its inspiration. There is a singular and 
 unequalled impartiality in its developments 
 of character. Amid the atrocious adven- 
 tures of kings, and the conspiracies of sub- 
 jects idolatry, war and pestilence are ex- 
 hibitions of unblemished authority, pure de- 
 votion, and glimpses of domestic fidelity and
 
 196 THE SHUNAMITE. 
 
 joy, which stamp the narrative with the seal 
 of a faithful record. True to all experience 
 is the picture drawn by the Holy Ghost, of 
 earth and the immortal dwellers upon its 
 surface. While that affirms a perfect crea- 
 tion and disastrous ruin, every observant eye 
 beholds on all sides, strewn the fragments 
 
 " Of a temple once complete." 
 
 It was during the reign of Ahab, that the 
 Shunamite, whose name with the " poor 
 widow's" is unknown, left by her philan- 
 thropic deeds an imperishable memorial of 
 her virtue. 
 
 Shunem was a city in the valley of Es- 
 drelon, whose extensive plains were the 
 scene of the most fearful conflicts in Jewish 
 warfare, till its soil was moistened with 
 blood ; and the billows of waving grain, as 
 on the field of Waterloo in modern time, 
 told where the ridffes of the dead had
 
 THE SHUNAMITK 197 
 
 mouldered. Before this wealthy town, 
 Saul encamped with his army on the eve 
 of his last great battle. 
 
 It was, therefore, often the asylum of 
 wounded and dying w r arriors of bordering 
 nations ; and its inhabitants had every op- 
 portunity for the exercise of mercy and 
 kindness to the suffering. Among those 
 who sought occasion for doing good, in the 
 expansive spirit of pure benevolence, was 
 a woman of fortune and influence. She 
 met Elisha one day on his way to Mount 
 Carmel, and gave him a pressing invitation 
 to share the hospitality of her dwelling. 
 
 He accepted, and during the interview, 
 there was awakened a religious sympathy 
 and friendship, which continued ever after. 
 In his travels through Shunem, he made 
 her house his home. 
 
 Observing that the man of God was medi- 
 tative and spiritual, with the consent of her
 
 198 THE SHUNAMITE. 
 
 liusband, slie furnished a little chamber ex- 
 pressly for Ms accommodation. By an Ori- 
 ental scat, she placed a lamp that would 
 burn all night ; still a custom -in the east 
 when a guest is received with flattering at- 
 tention. An English traveller not many 
 years ago was thus entertained at the house 
 of a Jew in Asia Minor. 
 
 That cheerful seclusion became dear to 
 Elisha ; and his raptures while prophetic 
 visions made its walls a diorama of the fu- 
 ture, will be known only, 
 
 " When pictured on the eternal wall, 
 The past shall reappear." 
 
 It was after a day of weariness of frame 
 and of heart, he reached at eventide his fa- 
 vorite attic. The Shunamite heard his foot- 
 steps, and supplied his table, anticipating 
 with wakeful interest all his wants. The 
 next morning, contemplating her unwea- 
 ried kindness, lie was touched by the recol-
 
 THE SHUNAMITE. 199 
 
 lection of so disinterested love towards a 
 homeless seer, and told his faithful servant 
 to call her. He inquired what he could do 
 for her in return. 
 
 The miracles he had wrought, made him 
 a favorite at the royal court, and he offered 
 to use his influence with the king and the 
 captain of his host, in her behalf. He 
 doubtless referred to an honorable position 
 in the palace, or military aid and glory if 
 desired, for her husband. 
 
 The reply displays her beautiful con- 
 tentment with retirement "I dwell among 
 my people ;" the cordialities of social life and 
 the amenities of home, were all within the 
 bright circle, ambition had drawn on " the 
 sands of time." Thwarted in his purpose, 
 Elisha consulted Gehazi, who suggested 
 that no offspring beguiled the hours of the 
 lonely Shunamite. He knew T how the hope 
 of forming at least a link in the lineage of
 
 200 THE SHUNAMITE. 
 
 the Messiah, to a Jewish wife, made a 
 childless marriage doubly desolate. The 
 prophet again sent for her, and moved 
 by the unerring spirit, promised her a 
 son. In the rush of emotion the announce- 
 ment excited, and feeling the improbabil- 
 ity of the event, she entreated Elisha not 
 to mock her tears, for that hope had with- 
 ered long ago. 
 
 He calmed her agitation, and renewed 
 the promise. The child was born and grew 
 up an idol by her side. Upon a summer 
 day, he rambled into the harvest fields, 
 where his father was at work with the 
 reapers. His pastime among the sheaves, 
 and his blithesome laugh, made the old man 
 forgetful of his toil. Often p'ausing over 
 the gathered grain, he watched the lad, 
 while a smile passed like a gleam of light 
 over his tranquil features. 
 
 But the sun blazed in a cloudless sky,
 
 THE SHUNAMITE. 201. 
 
 and beat on that tender brow, till it drooped 
 as a stricken flower. His brain was on fire 
 with pain, and passing his forehead with 
 his little hands, he looked into his father's 
 face and cried piteously, " My head, iny 
 head." He was carried to his mother, but 
 nothing could revive his sinking form or 
 retain the suffering spirit. At noontide he 
 laid his head, like a wounded bird nestling 
 under the maternal wing, upon her bleed- 
 ing bosom, and died. She gazed awhile on 
 the expressionless eye, and the face yet 
 beautiful, over which the death-pallor was 
 stealing, and then her thoughts flew to the 
 man of God. 
 
 She went to Elisha's chamber, laid the 
 corpse on his bed, closing the door gently, 
 as if she might disturb that strange slumber, 
 requested her husband to send immediately 
 a young man and an ass. But he had given 
 
 up for burial his dead boy, and thought her 
 9*
 
 202 THE SHUNAMITE. 
 
 frantic grief had shaped this wild purpose 
 of finding the prophet. With surprising 
 self-command, she replied, "It shall be well," 
 and vaulting into the saddle, bade her at- 
 tendant to drive the animal to the top of 
 his speed. 
 
 Elisha was on the summit of Carmel 
 the highest promontory on the coast of Pal- 
 estine. It is mantled with foliage from its 
 crown of whispering pines and lofty oaks, to 
 the olive and laurel girdling its slopes with 
 fruit and evergreen. Adown its sides, a 
 multitude of crystal streams dance be- 
 neath interlocking boughs, to the sweeping 
 Kishon, marching to the blue Mediterra- 
 nean. It has a thousand caves, which have 
 ever been the abode of prophet, recluse and 
 monk. From its top, the view of the bay 
 of Acre, with its fruitful shores the blue 
 peaks of Lebanon, and the White Cape, is 
 enchanting.
 
 THE SHUNAMITE. 203 
 
 Tlie seer was looking off on this land- 
 scape spreading away on every side, in 
 which the grand and picturesque view inin- 
 gied in endless variety, and waiting for reve- 
 lations from the fearful dome above to a be- 
 wildered world, when he beheld in the haze 
 of a distant vale the hastening Shunamite. 
 lie told Gehazi to go clown and meet her, 
 and inquire if it were w r ell with her family. 
 With tearful resignation, she answered, "It 
 is well" and pressed upward to the eminence 
 where Elisha sat. The servant deeming 
 her an irreverent intruder on the hallowed 
 solitude, held her back, till at Elisha's com- 
 mand, she was suffered to clasp his robe in 
 anguish. 
 
 God, for some reason, had not informed 
 the prophet of that domestic calamity. 
 With what delicacy and force she made 
 known her affliction said nothing of the 
 
 O 
 
 child's sickness and death, but reminded
 
 THE SHUNAMITE, 
 
 him that when she desired the blessing it 
 was with a request that he would not de- 
 ceive her as if it were more cruel than 
 neglect, to press the cup of joy to her lips, 
 and dash it aside to relight the star of 
 hope upon her solitary way, then blot it 
 out forever. 
 
 Elisha understood the sad import of the 
 appeal, and bade Gehazi go and lay his 
 staff upon the face of the sleeper. But a 
 mother was not so put off. She clung to 
 Elisha, saying, " As the Lord liveth, and 
 as thy soul liveth, / will not leave ihee /" 
 The servant, proud of the honor, ran and 
 laid the staff on the dead but there was 
 no stirring amid the chords of the pulseless 
 frame no voice answered to his call. 
 
 The prophet entered the chamber alone, 
 " and shut the door upon the twain" the 
 living and the dead. He knelt in prayer, 
 then rose and stretched himself on the body.
 
 THE SHUNAMITE. 205 
 
 Warmth returned faintly, and in his men- 
 tal agitation, lie strode with hurried step 
 through the silent apartments of that house 
 of mourning. Once more he embraced the 
 corpse, and the luminous eye opened sweet- 
 ly upon him, as when he turned in hither 
 for reposing from the dust of travel, and 
 met upon the threshold the laughing boy. 
 The Shunamite was called, and when she 
 saw again the wonted smile, and heard 
 again the music of a harp that seemed 
 unstrung forever, utterance was not equal 
 to her full heart, and she sank at Eli- 
 sha's feet. Then taking up her son with 
 a clasping energy of fondness, none could 
 know, unless like her they emerged from 
 the shadows of the tomb, snatching from 
 death's skeleton hand a loved one, she has- 
 tened to her husband ; and Elisha went on 
 his prophetic mission. 
 
 Years after, famine drove the Shunamite
 
 206 THE SHUNAMITE. 
 
 to a foreign land. When she came back, 
 her possessions were gone, strangers had ef- 
 faced her title, and she was penniless. Just 
 at this point of despair, Gehazi was conver- 
 sing with the king respecting Elisha's mir- 
 acles, and particularly the restoration of 
 the dead in Shunem. When the houseless 
 widow was proved by that servant to be 
 the same for whom the marvellous deed 
 was done, the monarch sent officers to re- 
 store her fortune ; rendering at last through 
 the prophet's popularity, the aid he appre- 
 hended she might need, when his gratitude 
 was struggling to find expression. 
 
 Here we have the history of another 
 noble mother, to whom the honor of God 
 in daily life, and in the gift of offspring, was 
 the central thought the sublime principle 
 of action, and sustaining power beneath the 
 beatings of the storm that darkened her 
 future.
 
 THE SHUXAMITK 207 
 
 And so God takes care of his trusting 
 ones, who hold on to his extended hand 
 when the surges rise, and the heavens are 
 wild with the meeting clouds. It is then he 
 often whispers peace, and the gloom is bro- 
 ken by gushing radiance from the rifted 
 folds of the tempest and the melody of a 
 purer sphere fills the sky arching lovingly 
 life's slumbering sea.
 
 THE greatest events in human history 
 awaken the least interest, because of their 
 " quiet might." Men look at startling re- 
 sults, but lose sight of the sublime force of 
 a cause which attracted no eye but God's. 
 They behold the flying timbers and flaming 
 ruins of a conflagration, but forget that the 
 fearful power was concealed in a rising- 
 spark. A noble mind is wrecked, and many 
 weep, but do not know that the blast which
 
 210 ESTHER. 
 
 stranded the bark, was once the gentle 
 breath of maternal influence, unhallowed 
 by piety. So the splendid career of a hero 
 and patriot, like Mordecai, Moses, or Wash- 
 ington, is less glorious than the simple de- 
 cision made amid the conflicting emotions 
 of youthful aspiration, to honor God and 
 serve a struggling country. 
 
 Jehovah illustrates this principle in all 
 his administration. What to Elijah on the 
 solemn mount was the sweep of the hurri- 
 cane, rending the cliffs and tossing rocks 
 like withered leaves in air the thunder of 
 the earthquake's march the blinding glow 
 of the mantling flame compared to the 
 " still small voice" that thrilled on his ear, 
 so full of God ! It is not strange that there 
 is to be a reckoning for " idle words" even, 
 for they have shaken the world, and their 
 echo will never die away. 
 
 The story of Esther, without an allu-
 
 ESTHER. 211 
 
 sion to the fact, is a most beautiful illustra- 
 tion of this shaping of destiny by the in- 
 terpretation of particular providence, in the 
 commonest incidents of life. His church is 
 saved from extinction, by events which ap- 
 pear accidental, and might not have hap- 
 pened for anything we can trace. The 
 whole book is like a transparency hung be- 
 fore the pavilion of the Almighty, through 
 which his counsels shine, and his unerring 
 hand is visible. 
 
 Esther lived quietly with her kinsman 
 Mordecai, who remained in Persia, when 
 many of the captive Jews, during the reign 
 of Cyrus, returned to their own land. Ahas- 
 uerus the king, to commemorate his victo- 
 ries and prosperous administration, extend- 
 ing from India to Ethiopia, and embracing a 
 hundred and twenty-seven provinces, made 
 a magnificent festival which continued six 
 months. This was to display his power
 
 212 ESTHER. 
 
 and wealth, before the nobility of his realm, 
 and representatives from the conquered 
 provinces of his spreading empire. At the 
 expiration of this brilliant entertainment, 
 he gave the common people, without dis- 
 tinction, a feast of seven days, in the court 
 of his palace. The rich canopy and gor- 
 geous curtains, with their fastenings the 
 tall columns, the golden couches, and tes- 
 sellated floors are described as " white, 
 green and blue hangings, fastened with 
 cords of fine linen and purple to silver 
 rings, and pillars of marble : the beds were 
 of gold and silver, upon a pavement of red, 
 and blue, and black, and white marble." 
 
 Of this grandeur, amid the ashes strewn 
 by wasting ages, are imposing remains. 
 Modern travellers pause before " the vast, 
 solitary, mutilated columns of the magnifi- 
 cent colonnades," where youth and beauty 
 graced the harems of Persian monarchs.
 
 ESTHER. ' 213 
 
 Upon this occasion, the queen had a pri- 
 vate pavilion for her female guests. But 
 during the successive days of dissipation, 
 the mirth waxed loud in the apartments 
 of the king. The flashing goblet circulated 
 freely, and his brain became wild with 
 " wine and wassail." As the crowning 
 display of his glory, Vashti in her jewelled 
 robes and diadem, must grace the banquet. 
 The command was issued, and the messen- 
 ger sent. This mandate, requiring what at 
 any time was contrary to custom, the ap- 
 pearance of woman, unveiled, in an as- 
 semblage of men, now when revelry and 
 riot betrayed the royal intoxication, over- 
 whelmed the queen with surprise. A 
 thousand wondering and beaming eyes were 
 upon her, during the brief pause before an- 
 swering the summons. Her proud refusal 
 to appear, roused the fury of Ahasuerus, 
 already mad with excitement. It would
 
 214 ' ESTHER. 
 
 not answer to pass by the indignity, for a 
 hundred ^and twenty-seven provinces were 
 represented at his court, and the news of 
 his sullied honor would reach every dwel- 
 ling in his realm, and curl the lip of the serf 
 with scorn. The nobles fanned the flame 
 of his indignation. Unless a withering re- 
 buke were administered, their authority as 
 husbands would be gone, and the caprice of 
 woman make every family a scene of daily 
 revolution. 
 
 Vashti was divorced and to provide for 
 the emergency, his courtiers suggested that 
 he should collect in his harem, all the 
 beautiful virgins of the land, and choose 
 him a wife. Among these was Hadassah, 
 the adopted daughter of Mordecai. He 
 urged her to enter her name among the 
 rivals for kingly favor. It was not ambi- 
 tion merely that moved Mordecai. He had 
 been meditating upon the unfolding provi-
 
 ESTHER. 215 
 
 dence of God toward his scattered nation, 
 and felt that there was deeper meaning in 
 passing events than the pleasures and anger 
 of his sovereign. Arrayed richly as circum- 
 stances would permit, the beautiful Jewess, 
 concealing her lineage, joined the youthful 
 procession that entered the audience cham- 
 ber of Ahasuerus, where he sat in state, 
 to look along the rank of female beauty, 
 floating like a vision before him. 
 
 " The character of Esther is here exhib- 
 ited at the outset ; for when she went into 
 the presence of the king, for his inspection, 
 instead of asking for gifts as allowed by 
 him, and as the others did, she took only 
 what the chamberlain gave her. Of exqui- 
 site form and faultless features, her rare 
 beauty at once captivated the king, and he 
 made her his wife. 
 
 " Mordecai always reminds one of Ham- 
 let. Of a noble heart, grand intellect, and
 
 216 ESTHER. 
 
 unwavering integrity, there was nevertheless 
 an air of severity about him a haughty, 
 unbending spirit ; which with his high sense 
 of honor, and scorn of meanness, would 
 prompt him to lead an isolated life. I have 
 sometimes thought that even he had not 
 been able to resist the fascinations of his 
 young and beautiful cousin, and that the ef- 
 fort to conceal his feelings had given a great- 
 er severity to his manner than he naturally 
 possessed. Too noble, however, to sacrifice 
 such a beautiful being by uniting her fate 
 with his own, when a throne was offered her ; 
 or perceiving that the lovely and gentle 
 being he had seen ripen into faultless woman- 
 hood, could never return his love indeed 
 could cherish no feeling but that of a fond 
 daughter, he crushed by his strong will his 
 fruitless passion. In no other way can I ac- 
 count for the life he led, lingering forever 
 around the palace gates, where now and then
 
 ESTHER. 217 
 
 he might get a glimpse of her who had been 
 the light of his soul, the one bright bird 
 which had cheered his exile's home. That 
 home he wished no longer to see, and day 
 after day he took his old station at the gates 
 of Shushan, and looked upon the magnifi- 
 cent walls that divided him from all that 
 had made life desirable. It seems also as 
 if some latent fear that Haman, the favorite 
 of the king younger than his master and of 
 vast ambition, might attempt to exert too 
 great an influence over his cousin, must 
 have prompted him to treat the latter with 
 disrespect, and refuse him that homage 
 which was his due. No reason is given for 
 the hostility he manifested, and which he 
 must have known would end in his own 
 destruction. Whenever Haman with his 
 retinue came from the palace, all paid him 
 the reverence due to the king's favorite but 
 Mordecai, who sat like a statue, not even 
 
 10
 
 218 ESTHER. 
 
 turning his head to notice him. He acted 
 like one tired of life, and at length succeeded 
 in arousing the deadly hostility of the haugh- 
 ty minister. The latter however, scorning 
 to be revenged on one man, and he a person 
 of low birth, persuaded the king to decree 
 the slaughter of all the Jews in his realm. 
 The news fell like a thunderbolt on Mor- 
 decai. Sullen, proud, and indifferent to his 
 own fate, he had defied his enemy to do his 
 worst ; but such a savage vengeance had 
 never entered his mind. It was too late how- 
 ever to regret his behavior. Right or wrong 
 he had been the cause of the bloody sen- 
 tence, and he roused himself to avert the 
 awful catastrophe. With rent garments, 
 and sackcloth on his head, he travelled the 
 city with a loud and bitter cry, and his voice 
 rang even over the walls of the palace, in 
 tones that startled its slumbering inmates. 
 " It was told Esther, and she ordered gar-
 
 ESTHER. 219 
 
 ments to be given him, but lie refused to re- 
 ceive them, and sent back a copy of the 
 king's decree, respecting the massacre of 
 the Jews, and bade her go in, and supplicate 
 him to remit the sentence. She replied 
 that it was certain death to enter the king's 
 presence unbidden, unless he chose to hold 
 out his sceptre ; and that for a whole month 
 he had not requested to see her. Her stern 
 cousin, however, unmoved by the danger to 
 herself, and thinking only of his people, re- 
 plied haughtily that she might do as she 
 (those if she preferred to save herself, de- 
 livery would come to the Jews from some 
 other quarter, but she should die. 
 
 k ' From this moment the character of Es- 
 ther unfolds itself. It was only a passing 
 weakness that prompted her to put in a 
 word for her own life, and she at once rose 
 to the dignity of a martyr. The blood of 
 the proud and heroic Mordecai flowed in her
 
 220 ESTHER. 
 
 veins, and she said, ' Go tell my cousin to 
 assemble all the Jews in Shushan, and fast 
 three days and three nights, neither eating 
 nor drinking ; I and my maidens will do the 
 same, and in the third day I will go before 
 the king, and if I perish, I perisli? Noble 
 and brave heart ! death a violent death 
 is terrible, but thou art equal to it ! 
 
 "There, in that magnificent apartment, 
 filled with perfume, and where the soften- 
 ed light, stealing through the gorgeous win- 
 dows by day, and shed from golden lamps by 
 night on marble columns and golden-cover- 
 ed couches, makes a scene of enchantment, 
 behold Esther, with her royal apparel 
 thrown aside, kneeling on the tessellated 
 floor. There she has been two days and 
 nights, neither eating nor drinking, while 
 hunger, and thirst, and mental agony, have 
 made fearful inroads on her beauty. Her 
 cheeks are sunken and haggard her large
 
 ESTHER. 221 
 
 and lustrous eyes dim with, weeping, and her 
 lips parched and dry, yet ever moving in in- 
 ward prayer. Mental and physical suffer- 
 ing have crushed her young heart within 
 her, and now the hour of her destiny is ap- 
 proaching. Ah! who can tell the despe- 
 rate effort it required to prepare for that 
 terrible interview. Never before did it be- 
 come her to look so fascinating as then ; 
 and removing with tremulous anxiety the 
 traces of her suffering, she decked herself in 
 the most becoming apparel she could select. 
 Her long black tresses were never before so 
 carefully braided over her polished forehead, 
 and never before did she put forth such an 
 effort to enhance every charm, and make 
 her beauty irresistible to the king. At 
 length, fully arrayed and looking more like 
 a goddess dropped from the clouds, than a 
 being of clay, she stole tremblingly towards 
 the king's chamber. Stopping a moment at
 
 222 ESTHER. 
 
 the "threshold to swallow down the choking 
 sensation that almost suffocated her, and to 
 gather her failing strength, she passed slow- 
 ly into the room, while her maidens stood 
 breathless without, listening, and waiting 
 with -the intensest anxiety the issue. Hear- 
 ing a slight rustling, the king, with a sudden 
 frown, looked up to see who was so sick 
 of life as to dare to come unbidden in his 
 presence, and lo ! Esther stood speechless 
 before him. Her long fastings and watch- 
 ings had taken the color from her cheeks, 
 but had given a greater transparency in its 
 place, and as she stood, half shrinking, with 
 the shadow of profound melancholy on her 
 pallid, but indescribably beautiful counte- 
 nance, her pencilled brow slightly contracted 
 in the intensity of her excitement her long 
 lashes dripping in tears, and lips trembling 
 with agitation ; she was though silent in 
 herself an appeal that a heart of stone could
 
 ESTHER. 223 
 
 not resist. The monarch gazed long and 
 silently on her, as she stood waiting her 
 doom. Shall she die ? No ; the golden 
 sceptre slowly rises and points to her. The 
 beautiful intruder is welcome, and sinks 
 like a snow-wreath at his feet. Never be- 
 fore did the monarch gaze on such trans- 
 cendent loveliness; and spell-bound and 
 conquered by it he said in a gentle voice : 
 What wilt thou, Queen Esther ? What 
 is thy request ? it shall be granted thee, 
 even to the half of my kingdom /" 
 
 "Woman-like, she did not wish to risk the 
 influence she had suddenly gained, by ask- 
 ing the destruction of his favorite, and the 
 reversion of his unalterable decree y and so 
 she prayed only that he and Hainan might 
 banquet with her the next day. She had 
 thrown her fetters over him, and was deter- 
 mined to fascinate him still more deeply be- 
 fore she ventured on so bold a movement.
 
 224 ESTHER. 
 
 At the banquet lie again asked her what 
 she desired, for he well knew that it was 
 no ordinary matter that had induced her to 
 peril her life by entering unbidden, his pres- 
 ence. She invited him to a second feast, 
 and at that to a third. But the night pre- 
 vious to the last, the king could not sleep, 
 and after tossing awhile on his troubled 
 couch, he called for the record of the court, 
 and there found that Mordecai had a short 
 time before informed him through the queen, 
 of an attempt to assassinate him, and no re- 
 ward been bestowed. The next day, there- 
 fore, he made Hainan perform the humili- 
 ating office of leading his enemy in triumph 
 through the streets, proclaiming before him, 
 " This is the man whom the king delighteth 
 to honor." As he passed by the gallows 
 he had the day before erected for that very 
 man, a shudder crept through his frame, and 
 the first omen of coming evil cast its shadow 
 on his spirit.
 
 ESTHER. 225 
 
 "The way was now clear to Esther, and 
 so the next day, at the banquet, as the king 
 repeated his former offer, she, reclining on 
 the couch, her chiselled form and ravishing 
 beauty inflaming the ardent monarch with 
 love and desire, said in pleading accents, " I 
 ask, O king, for my life, and that of my peo- 
 ple. If we had all been sold as bondmen 
 and bondwomen, I had held my tongue, 
 great as the evil would have been to thee." 
 The king started, as if stung by an adder, 
 and with a brow dark as wrath, and a voice 
 that sent Haman to his feet, exclaimed: 
 "Thy life ! my queen ? WJio is he ? where 
 is he that dare even think such a thought 
 in his heart ?" He who strikes at thy life, 
 radiant creature, plants his presumptuous 
 blow on his monarch's bosom. "That Irian" 
 said the lovely pleader, " is the wicked Ha- 
 inan" Darting one look of vengeance on 
 
 the petrified favorite, he strode forth into 
 10*
 
 226 ESTHER. 
 
 the garden to control his boiling passions. 
 Hainan saw at once that his only hope now 
 was, in moving the sympathies of the queen 
 in his behalf; and approaching her, he be- 
 gan to plead most piteously for his life. In 
 his agony he fell on the couch where she 
 lay, and while in this position, the king re- 
 turned. ' What !' he exclaimed, ' will he 
 violate the queen here in my own palace !' 
 Nothing more was said : no order was giv- 
 en. The look and voice of .terrible wrath 
 in which this was said, were sufficient. 
 The attendants simply spread a cloth over 
 Hainan's face, and not a word was spoken. 
 Those who came in, when they saw the cov- 
 ered countenance, knew the import. It was 
 the sentence of death. The vaunting favor- 
 
 o 
 
 ite himself dare not remove it he must die, 
 and the quicker the agony is over, the bet- 
 ter. In a few hours he was swinging on 
 the gallows he had erected for Mordecai.
 
 ESTHER. 227 
 
 "After this, the queen's power was su- 
 preme everything she asked was granted. 
 To please her, he let his palace flow in the 
 blood of five hundred of his subjects, whom 
 the Jews slew in self-defence. For her he 
 hung Hainan's ten sons on the gallows/ 
 where the father had suffered before them. 
 For her he made Mordecai prime minister, 
 and lavished boundless favors on the hither- 
 to oppressed Hebrews. And right worthy 
 was she of all he did for her. Lovely in 
 character as she was in person, her sudden 
 elevation did not make her vain, nor her 
 power haughty. The same gentle, pure, 
 and noble creature when queen, as when 
 living in the lowly habitation of her cousin 
 generous, disinterested, and ready to die 
 for others, she is one of the loveliest char- 
 acters furnished in the annals of history." 
 
 After Esther, in the changing fortunes of 
 Israel, till the Saviour's advent, but little
 
 225 ESTHER. 
 
 reference is made to woman. The wife of 
 Job, unsubdued by the terrible calamity 
 that swept away her fortune and children, 
 was his tempter in the darkest hour of his 
 affliction. David, in his Psalms of surpri- 
 sing sweetness and sublimity, alludes to the 
 virtues of "mothers in Israel" and Sol- 
 omon graphically delineates the character 
 of the wife who " is from God." The pro- 
 phets, in their lofty strains of prediction, 
 and warning, and encouragement, make 
 mention of her mission in coming scenes 
 her sufferings in national distress, when off- 
 spring shall clasp their parental knees in the 
 agony of famine, " and pour out their souls 
 in their mother's bosom." With rapture 
 they follow her angel form in the rising glory 
 of Zion the mystery of redemption, and 
 the approaching peace of millennial rest, 
 when the harmonies of earth shall blend 
 once more with the melodies of Heaven !
 
 FKOM the single promise that sent a i ay 
 of hope through the gloom of man's forsa- 
 ken spirit in paradise, falling as the return- 
 ing smile of God on nature reeling under his 
 curse, to the last message of a dying prophet, 
 the whole tide of events converged toward 
 agr and consummation ; a full manifestation 
 of the grace which suspended the penalty > 
 of violated law. " God put forth his agen- 
 cies, and calmly waited four thousand years
 
 230 ELIZABETH. 
 
 for tlie accomplishment of his designs of 
 mercy." 
 
 It was a faint spreading of dawn that 
 cheered the pathway of Eve ; but the in- 
 creasing radiance gilded the horizon of Pal- 
 estine, bathing the heights on which the 
 seers bowed in rapture, till last of all Mala- 
 chi poured forth his impassioned eloquence 
 against Israel, and slept with his fathers. 
 
 Then followed four hundred years of 
 trial and struggle ; the people could only 
 look back on the long track of wandering, 
 rebuke and concentrating light pointing on- 
 ward to a future whose shadows were lift- 
 ing, and thus become able to bear the com- 
 ing sun, and welcome its illumination. 
 
 Among those who were expecting a sub- 
 lime manifestation of love in the advent of 
 Messiah, was Zacharias, a venerable priest 
 at Jerusalem, whose wife, a descendant of 
 Aaron, was a woman of elevated piety.
 
 ELIZABETR 231 
 
 They were now aged and childless. One 
 evening as the fading light burnished the 
 temple-columns, and streamed through the 
 lofty windows upon the Mercy Seat, the 
 Cherubim overshadowing it, and the golden 
 altar, he passed thoughtfully through the 
 multitude that crowded the gates of the 
 sacred structure. His form disappeared in 
 the Holy Place, and arrayed in his sacerdo- 
 tal robes, he stood before the altar of incense, 
 while the throng pressed into the porch 
 to worship. Their prayer arose like the 
 murmur of the ocean, but he was all alone by 
 the flame of sacrifice, interceding for them. 
 Suddenly he heard the rustling of wings, 
 and on the oblation there came a glow more 
 intense than the fire of his offering, and by 
 his side he beheld an angel of the Lord in 
 white apparel, with his face of celestial 
 beauty beaming full upon him. He was 
 troubled, and trembling with alarm would
 
 232 ELIZABETH. 
 
 have shrunk away from the presence of 
 Gabriel, but the tones of his gentle voice 
 dispelled the rising fear, and he restored the 
 calmness of faith. He listened with doubt- 
 ing surprise to the tidings, " Thy wife Eliz- 
 abeth shall bear thee a son." Ah ! he had 
 prayed for the blessing in former years, and 
 cherished the hope until it turned to ashes 
 in his sad heart, while Elizabeth had made 
 supplication till prayer seemed a mockery. 
 He could not believe without a miraculous 
 token, and this was added. But it was as 
 though the offending lips were smitten by 
 an unseen hand, for the angel left him speecli- 
 less, and returned to the throne of God. 
 
 Zacharias turned away from the dying 
 flame of his offering, and waving his hand 
 to the people who had wondered at his 
 long absence, went in silence to his dwel- 
 ling. Elizabeth could not doubt the fulfil- 
 ment of a promise which was expressed
 
 ELIZABETH. 233 
 
 in tears and voiceless sighs, themselves a 
 warning, not to limit the power of the In- 
 finite One. 
 
 And then it was her pleasant employment 
 to beguile the loneliness of her husband, 
 who for her sake wore the seal of divine 
 displeasure with cheerful piety, and affec- 
 tion which flowed with new and gathering 
 strength in the deeper channel of maternal 
 solicitude for a son connected with whose 
 birth was " so exceeding great and precious 
 promises." 
 
 But the scenes of that home are unre- 
 corded, excepting a visit from her cousin 
 Mary, the mother of Christ ; an interview 
 inexpressibly solemn and touching. The 
 Holy Ghost was the companion of Eliza- 
 beth, and Mary carried a treasure which 
 was the theme of ceaseless halleluiahs in 
 Heaven. There was no jealousy, no glory- 
 ing but in the Lord.
 
 234 ELIZABETH. 
 
 The salutation which welcomed the vir- 
 gin indicates both humility of spirit and the 
 strength of natural love ; " And whence is 
 it that the mother of my Lord should come 
 to me ?" Mary replied in a devotional 
 rhapsody, to Him who " putteth down the 
 mighty in their seats, and exalteth them of 
 low degree." Three months were passed 
 in delightful companionship. Their long 
 conversations concerning " the consolation 
 of Israel" their hours of prayer around 
 the domestic altar their deep study of 
 prophecy with the mute and subdued Zach- 
 arias, have no place in the memorials of 
 earth ; for none cared for these while tran- 
 spiring in the " hill country of Juda." 
 
 The streets of Jerusalem echoed the 
 tramp of Roman soldiery, and the haughty 
 Pharisees swept the pavement with their 
 phylactered robes of ceremonial sanctity. 
 The busy world moved thoughtlessly on
 
 ELIZABETH. 235 
 
 around these solitary women, while angels 
 were on the wing for their protection, and 
 if their safety required it, a chariot of fire 
 would have descended to the green summits 
 that girded the city. At length Mary 
 sought again the retirement of her own habi- 
 tation, and Elizabeth gave birth to a son. 
 Amid the rejoicings of friends, the child 
 was named Zacharias after his father. His 
 mother insisted on calling him John, accord- 
 ins: to Gabriel's command. The matter 
 
 o 
 
 was then referred to the aged and silent 
 priest who was looking on ; and he wrote 
 with a stile on the waxen table, " He shall 
 be called John." The people were amazed 
 at this deviation from national custom. 
 While gazing inquiringly upon him, his 
 speech was restored, and he praised God 
 until his humble dwelling seemed bursting 
 with the swelling anthem. Then followed 
 a burning strain of prophecy, running from
 
 236 ELIZABElfe. 
 
 the earliest predictions of Messiah, to the 
 gathering of the Gentiles under his glory, 
 mounting upward to " the rest which re- 
 mains for the people of God." 
 
 The boyhood of John is mentioned no far- 
 ther than that " he grew and waxed strong 
 in spirit," but beneath his supernatural en- 
 dowments and the greatness of his heraldic 
 career, the maternal influence is clearly dis- 
 cernible in his lofty character. It is trace- 
 able as the waters of a stream by the lines of 
 their coloring, long after they have entered 
 the sea. Y 7 e need no farther testimony that 
 he neither had nor needed the angel of tra- 
 dition to guard his early slumbers and guide 
 his juvenile feet, than the saintly and gifted 
 Elizabeth. He repeated the sentiments 
 and nearly the language of that mother 
 when he saw the majestic form of Jesus ap- 
 proaching him for baptism " coniest thou 
 to me ?" Her joy as a mother was lost in
 
 ELIZABETH. 237 
 
 that of his sacred mission, as tlie Saviour's 
 herald awakened ; so John exclaimed when 
 he saw and- listened to Christ, " This my 
 joy is fulfilled." 
 
 In all his ministry, it is beautifully mani- 
 fest " that this ' burning and shining light' 
 was kindled under the maternal wing at 
 Hebron, as well as fanned into brilliancy 
 by the wings of inspiration in the wilder- 
 ness, that it might be a herald-star of the 
 Sun of Kighteousness."
 
 GABRIEL figures so conspicuously in ce- 
 lestial vision, that the mind naturally takes 
 the impression, he is a favorite angel in 
 the erpbassage of Heaven to earth. He ap- 
 peared twice to Daniel talked with Zach- 
 arias while engaged in the temple ser- 
 vice at evening, and not long afterward, 
 " was sent from God to a city of Galilee, 
 named Nazareth," to Mary. When he en- 
 tered her lonely dwelling, he shouted in the
 
 240 THE VIRGIN MARY. 
 
 transport of Ms own full heart, " Hail tliou 
 that art highly favored, the Lord, is with 
 thee : blessed art thou among women !" 
 That bright form, and the startling saluta- 
 tion excited her fears, and she waited trem- 
 blingly for a farther disclosure. " Fear 
 not, Mary," broke the silence and suspense 
 of the scene, and in glowing language he 
 announced to her the honor which could be 
 sdven to but one woman in the universe 
 
 o 
 
 that of becoming the mother of " the Lord 
 of Glory, the Prince of peace," in his hu- 
 manity. 
 
 And here Mary forms a sublime contrast 
 with Sarah and even the good old Zacha- 
 rias, when visited by angels. There was 
 no utterance of unbelief, no smile of incre- 
 dulity, althpugh there seemed to be an im- 
 possibility of fulfilment, without sinking 
 hopelessly her reputation, and perhaps her 
 untimely removal to a grave of infamy.
 
 THE VIRGIN MARY. 241 
 
 For she was betrothed to Joseph, a worthy 
 young man, and the appearance of infidelity 
 would alienate him and expose her to the 
 penalty of violated Law. Her sensitive 
 spirit simply inquired, "How shall this 
 be ?" and Gabriel replied, " The Holy Ghost 
 shall come upon thee, and the power of the 
 Highest shall overshadow thee, and the 
 holy thing which shall be born of thee shall 
 be called the Son of God : For with God 
 nothing shall be impossible." All was yet 
 folded in mystery like one entering the 
 " dark valley," she could lean alone on the 
 Almighty, and walk trustingly under the 
 cover of his wings. 
 
 Never in Heaven or in time, was there 
 sweeter resignation a more hopeful conse- 
 cration amid unexplained difficulties, deep 
 as human degradation, and wonders rising 
 like vast shadows to the " clouds and dark- 
 ness that environ the Throne." Fixing 
 11
 
 242 THE VIRGIN MARY. 
 
 her gentle eye on the angel, she said, " Be- 
 hold the handmaid of the Lord ; be it 
 unto me according to thy word." There 
 was a solemn stillness of that maiden's 
 heart, and a thrill of unutterable joy when 
 the struggle was over, and she felt that her 
 destiny was so nearly linked with the pre- 
 dicted Messiah. And as Gabriel departed 
 from her for the skies, his last look toward 
 the kneeling virgin, must have been full of 
 tenderness and admiring love. We know 
 not the interest and the high converse in 
 glory as often as the messenger re-entered 
 the unfolding gates, and repeated to the ser- 
 aphim the story of his mission then swept 
 his lyre and sang " Alleluiah !" But 
 Avhat a murmur of wonder, and strange 
 suspense passed over that throng, when 
 their King laid down his sceptre, and his 
 crown, and putting off the unsullied robes 
 he had worn before a worshipper bowed at
 
 THE VIRGIN MARY. 243 
 
 Ms feet, deserted the burning Throne for 
 the form of Mary, and the helplessness of 
 infancy in a world of enemies, and of gloom. 
 
 Mary was bewildered with the strange 
 and crowding events of her hitherto quiet 
 life in Nazareth, and turned her sympathy 
 to her cousin Elizabeth, who was mature in 
 holy experience, and, as the angel had said, 
 soon to be the mother of Messiah's gifted 
 herald breaking the silence of centuries 
 by the " voice of one crying in the wilder- 
 ness, prepare ye the way of the Lord !" 
 She received a joyful welcome and the 
 months passed on, to those humble dwel- 
 lers in Hebron, with the solemn march of 
 ages for four thousand years flung their 
 light and shadow upon them ; they closed 
 the long drama of preparation, and opened 
 upon the world the glories of a new life, 
 " and immortality." 
 
 And now came Joseph's trial. When he
 
 244 THE VIRGIN MART. 
 
 perceived that Mary would be a mother, 
 his first thought was to set aside tl^ en- 
 gagement, and leave her without exposure, 
 to seclusion. But while hesitating amid the 
 conflicting emotions exerted by his affection, 
 which clung to apparently an unworthy ob- 
 ject, and his honor involved in the result, 
 Gabriel came to him in his restless slum- 
 bers and bade him dismiss his fears, and as 
 a son of David, in accordance with proph- 
 ecy, become the reputed father of Emanuel. 
 Joseph arose from his repose, and with re- 
 stored confidence and love, sought Mary 
 and made her his wife. 
 
 Here the infidel may curl his impious 
 lip, and in the affected majesty of reason 
 and purity, lift his hand to blot out the hope 
 of a weeping world ; but not until he can 
 stay the woful ravages of sin, hush the cry 
 of the soul for a Redeemer, and offer rest to 
 the weary and sorrowing, can he mantle
 
 THE VIRGIN MARY. 245 
 
 with shame these touching miracles, that 
 heralded the advent of " God manifest in 
 the flesh." 
 
 " Actions are the glorious oratory of 
 God !" and he speaks more eloquently and 
 loudly in the incidents on which he hinges 
 his designs, than in the roll of all his gath- 
 ered thunders, or the roar of ocean rising 
 in wrath at his whisper. 
 
 The Roman Emperor Augustus, just at 
 this time, after a delay of twenty years, com- 
 manded that a census of the population of 
 his vast empire be taken, and " each person 
 be enrolled in the chief city of his family or 
 tribe." This edict sent Mary and her hus- 
 band to Bethlehem, the capital of the Da- 
 vidic family. 
 
 Upon their arrival, the inns were full, 
 and no place offered them but a manger, 
 among the beasts of the stall. The night 
 came do\vn, and the hum of the little city
 
 246 THE VIRGIN MARY. 
 
 ceased the money-changers slept in their 
 goodly dwellings, and even the shelterless 
 found rest beneath the mild sky of Judea. 
 Peace brooded over the earth from whose 
 bosom contending armies had retired the 
 preparatory work was finished ; the still 
 hour of midnight came on, and the friend- 
 less Mary gave birth to a SAVIOUE ! 
 
 On the slopes of surrounding hills, shep- 
 herds kept the nightly watch of their folded 
 flocks. They sat in musing mood, or gaz- 
 ing at the flashing spheres above, when 
 the air grew luminous about them, and an 
 Angel swept down the starry road in a flood 
 of radiance that streamed from the opening 
 sky, till the green pastures glowed like the 
 very pavement of Heaven, and the faces 
 of those watchers were white as marble, 
 while they shook like Belteshazzar before 
 the mystic hand that wrote his doom. 
 
 This angel, doubtless Gabriel, who said
 
 THE VIRGIN MARY. 247 
 
 to Mary, "Fear not," with the same lan- 
 guage broke the silence, and Vith the 
 " Good tidings of great joy" upon his lips, 
 pointing to Bethlehem which lay in the 
 shadow of distance, told the wandering 
 shepherds they would " Find the babe 
 wrapped in swaddling clothes, and lying 
 in a manger." Then suddenly a multitude 
 of the heavenly host thronged the illumined 
 sky, and poured their melody along the hills 
 until they took up the swelling anthem and 
 sent it back to the "Eternal City," and 
 then again with the new notes of gratula- 
 tion the song of jubilee rolled down upon 
 the brightening summits. 
 
 It is not strange, that the sinless choir 
 who had sung together with " the morning 
 stars" when the world hung in unmarred 
 perfection, in the dawn of creation, and 
 who walked in the beautiful garden who 
 held their harps in sadness when the frown
 
 248 THE VIRGIN MART. 
 
 of God darkened upon the sphere, he pro- 
 nounced " very good," and his curse with- 
 ered even the flowers upon its scathed and 
 riven bosom, while the centuries wore 
 away amid tears and blasphemy ; that they 
 should strain every string, and in their lof- 
 tiest harmonies, lift the halleluiah " Glory 
 to God in the highest, and on earth, peace 
 and good will toward men." 
 
 Those glittering ranks returned to Para- 
 dise, and the melody died away on the ear 
 of the shepherds hastening to Bethlehem. 
 They bent adoringly over the child, and re- 
 peated the burden of that song. Mary, medi- 
 tative and retiring, silently pondered the 
 marvellous sayings that flew with the morn- 
 ing light from lip to lip of the gathering 
 crowd. Sh&named the infant JESUS, and ac- 
 cording to the Mosaic ritual, passed the days 
 of symbolical purification, and went up to the 
 Temple with her sacrifice of turtle-doves.
 
 THE VIRGIN MARY. 249 
 
 Here she found aged Simeon, waiting for 
 " the consolation of Israel," and filled with 
 the Holy Ghost, he took the babe in his arms, 
 and raising his fading eyes toward Heaven 
 he " blessed God, and said, Lord, now lettest 
 thou thy servant depart in peace." 
 
 He spoke of the Saviour's mission in a 
 higher sense than Joseph or Mary could 
 understand, and turning to her, alluded to 
 " the contradiction of sinners" that Son 
 would endure, and to his fearful martyr- 
 dom, in words although dimly apprehended, 
 that must have conveyed a mournful mean- 
 ing to her anxious heart, "Yea a sword 
 shall pierce through thy soul also." Anna, 
 a prophetess eighty years old, also came in 
 and joined Simeon in his devout ascription. 
 And the infant Christ understood it all, 
 and needing not the homage of men or of 
 angels, he permitted Mary to caress him 
 as fondly as ever a mother clasped the treas. 
 
 19*
 
 250 THE VIRGIN MARY. 
 
 ure of offspring to her breast. " One would 
 like if he could, to lift the veil that hangs 
 over the experience of Mary ; and to learn 
 of her who had the maternal care and guid- 
 ance of the holy child Jesus ; and to know 
 what was the precise complexion of that 
 moral dawn, which preceded the pure and 
 perfect effulgence that shone forth on the 
 history of his riper years ; and to be told 
 how richly all her tenderness was repaid, by 
 smiles more lovely than ever before played 
 on the infant countenance, and in his hours 
 of anguish by such calm and unruffled se- 
 rene as not one cry of impatience, and one 
 moment of fretfulness, ever broke in upon." 
 During the stay at Bethlehem, the magi, 
 led by a star, journeyed from the East to 
 Jerusalem, inquiring for the Messiah, of 
 whose predicted appearance they had heard 
 from travelling Jews. Thence visiting the 
 infant Saviour, they offered with their horn-
 
 THE VIRGIN MART. 251 
 
 age, the frankincense of Araby, and gifts 
 of gold. Disregarding Herod's command to 
 bring him word if Christ were found, they 
 returned by another way. Herod, a san- 
 guinary and heartless tyrant, was enraged 
 at the insult, and commanded the slaughter 
 of innocents, to destroy the future " King of 
 the Jews." Oh ! who can tell Mary's grief 
 as their wail fell on her ear, and her agony of 
 fear while flying from the dripping sword, 
 to a strange land ? 
 
 Upon the death of the royal infanticide, 
 the hunted family retired again to Naza- 
 reth, their old place of residence. There 
 Mary lived quietly, while Jesus grew up to 
 youth, " waxing strong in spirit, and filled 
 with wisdom." And who can doubt that 
 in his humanity under the training of so 
 pure a mother, whose intellectual power 
 was exhibited in her splendid magnificat 
 when she met Elizabeth, he was regarded as
 
 252 THE VIRGIN MARY. 
 
 a rare example of early piety, and that mo- 
 ther was the more admired and loved for the 
 Son's sake. His manner always amiable 
 his language never breathing an unhallowed 
 thought, or wayward impulse, or even the 
 levity of juvenile pastimes, could not fail 
 to impress his companions, and win their 
 warmest affection, and the admiration of 
 the Nazarines who frequented the lowly 
 habitation of Joseph. When he was twelve 
 years old, the family went, according to na- 
 tional custom, to the Holy City to keep the 
 annual festival of the Passover. They wor- 
 shipped with wonted solemnity, and offered 
 their oblations. 
 
 Returning in company with others to 
 their own country, they had journeyed all 
 day from Jerusalem without missing the 
 Saviour, who unobserved went back to the 
 Temple. The parents were troubled, and 
 hastened to seek for the lost one in the
 
 THE VIRGIN MART. 253 
 
 streets of the crowded city. After three 
 days of fruitless effort, at last they entered 
 the consecrated edifice, where lingered the 
 proud Pharisee, and the strangers who came 
 to admire the splendid sanctuary of the 
 Most High. And there, in the midst of ven- 
 erable doctors, with the open Law and 
 Prophets before them, sat Jesus, silencing 
 their wise interpretations, by his greater 
 wisdom. The sight amazed his weary 
 and anxious parents, to whom there evi- 
 dently seemed a change in his docile nature, 
 distinguished for obedience, which ever be- 
 fore anticipated their request. There is a 
 tone of rebuke in Mary's questioning, which 
 has all the fulness of a mother's love 
 " Son, why hast thou thus dealt with us ? 
 behold thy father and I have sought thee 
 sorrowing." His reply was the first hint 
 of Divine commission and Deity to them 
 "Wist ye not that I must go about
 
 254 THE VIRGIN MARY. 
 
 my Father's business?" This was above 
 their comprehension, for they had regarded 
 him simply as Messiah appointed by Je- 
 hovah, and committed to their care for the 
 deliverance from Roman dominion, of their 
 captive nation. 
 
 But Mary was deeply and devoutly con- 
 templative. Jesus went with them to Naz- 
 areth, and was again a beautiful example 
 of subjection, while she dwelt in earnest 
 thought, upon the import of his words, and 
 the God-like spirituality of his life. In the 
 maturity of youth, he entered on his work, 
 but did not forget his mother. And soon 
 after, we find them with the disciples at a 
 marriage festival in Cana, where the Sa- 
 viour evidently mingled with his friends in 
 the cheerful intercourse of such an occasion. 
 
 From some oversight or want of means, 
 there was no wine for the guests. Mary 
 had witnessed miracles enough to know
 
 THE VIRGIN MART. 255 
 
 his word could supply them and calling 
 him aside, suggested the exercise of his pow- 
 er. His answer to the superficial readers 
 of the narration seems harsh " Woman, 
 what have I to do with thee, mine hour is 
 not yet come." But the form of address 
 was common, and perfectly respectful. It 
 is as if he had said, while his beaming eye 
 and benign countenance were eloquent with 
 affection, " Mother, why anticipate and di- 
 rect in my designs I know my mission 
 and every step of its fulfilment." Mary 
 evidently became weary of travel in follow- 
 ing her Son, and would have him retire 
 from his public activity ; for while he was in 
 the synagogue at Capernaum, she waited 
 at the door, while a messenger called him. 
 The result of the entreaty is not recorded, 
 but he tenderly employed the incident to 
 express his higher and living union with his 
 people that relation which should abide,
 
 256 THE VIRGIN MART. 
 
 when human associations have vanished, 
 and " earth, like a pebble, is sunk in the 
 ocean of a past eternity." 
 
 She was in the train that accompanied 
 the Saviour to Jerusalem, before his mar- 
 tyrdom but all unconscious of the weight 
 of sorrow under which his mighty heart 
 was sinking. 
 
 We do not know where she was when 
 the stars looked down upon his wrestling 
 in Gethsemane, while the crimson dew of 
 his agony started from every pore when 
 he received unresistingly the traitor's kiss, 
 and high-priest's buffeting when in the 
 hall, where justice was a mockery, and in- 
 sult the sentence of condemnation and 
 when he bore up the rugged summit the 
 instrument of torture, till crushed by its 
 weight but we find that mother beside the 
 Cross, while the warm blood was gushing 
 from the sacred form she cradled in infancy,
 
 THE VIRGIN MARY. 257 
 
 and without a cheering voice, he trod the 
 wine-press of his Father's wrath. She be- 
 held the drooping head the brow wrung 
 with anguish, and the quivering lips. She 
 listened to the cry, while hell was in sus- 
 pense, and Heaven bent with wonder over 
 the scene, " My God ! My God ! why hast 
 thou forsaken me ?" 
 
 Mary could offer no relief, and her ma- 
 ternal solicitude would not permit a with- 
 drawal from the Mount of Crucifixion. 
 Oh ! the suffering of that loving spirit, when 
 not only her Son was expiring in unuttera- 
 ble agonies, but the hope of his followers, 
 was going out in rayless midnight. By her 
 side was the youthful John, sympathizing 
 with his Master, and weeping with Mary. 
 The eye of the Sufferer, though the penalty 
 of eternal Law was tearing its way through 
 his sinless bosom, and he sustained alone 
 a world's redemption, rested upon her he
 
 258 THE VIRGIN MARY. 
 
 loved before lie took up his abode with her ; 
 and pointing to John, he said with dying 
 affection, " Woman, behold thy Son !" 
 
 Those accents and that last look express- 
 ed it all. It was saying amid the throes of 
 agony unknown, to man, " My mother, I 
 must leave you, but he shall cheer your 
 mournful years give him my place as son, 
 in your holy love." Turning to the Belov- 
 ed Disciple, he said, " Behold thy mother !" 
 It would seem from the words " that very 
 hour," that John immediately obeyed, and 
 induced her to leave the scene of deepening 
 and accumulating horrors. 
 
 Who could fathom her grief when she 
 heard of that death amid taunts and sneers, 
 the rocking earth and blackening skies ; 
 and finally of his unattended burial. And 
 oh ! how her drooping spirit smiled out 
 through tears of joy, when the news of his
 
 THE VIRGIN MARY. 259 
 
 resurrection spread, and once more she be- 
 held the immaculate Jesus ! 
 
 We next hear of Mary when returning 
 from Mount Olivet, from whose shining top 
 the Saviour ascended to the Throne of his 
 Glory in a chariot of cloud, the disciples 
 joined the circle of prayer in the " upper 
 room" at Jerusalem. She was there be- 
 fore the Mercy Seat, drawn thither by the 
 clearer rays of Divinity from the Son of 
 God, that taught her how to pray. 
 
 That Mary was a maiden of remarkable 
 loveliness, is inferable from her selection by 
 Jehovah as the mother of his " Only-begot- 
 ten and well-beloved Son." Her maternal 
 character is without a blemish ; " Blessed 
 art thou among women!" is the epitaph 
 every devout heart would inscribe on her 
 tomb.
 
 TURISTESTG from the scenes and biography 
 of the Old Dispensation to those of the New, 
 is like going from a planet where moonlight 
 only brightened on the landscape, forest and 
 flood ; where mysterious shadows swept 
 along the rustling woods of the mountain- 
 side, and strange voices haunted the air, and 
 where even the noblest characters were in- 
 vested with a romantic interest ; to a sphere 
 where the glad light of morning floods the
 
 262 MARTHA AND MARY. 
 
 plains, and the clear accents of truth and 
 hope greet the ear, while rejoicing woman 
 leaning on the beating heart of man, her 
 brow calm and beautiful in the dignity of 
 a faith which looks steadily into the portal 
 of a better life, breathes a sympathy warm 
 and gushing for the sorrows of a common 
 humanity. 
 
 Christ poured this new effulgence on the 
 paths of men, and taught a philanthropy 
 expansive as his own infinite benevolence. 
 The Divinity of the Redeemer was veiled 
 in a nature that could sympathize with all 
 that was lovely, tender, joyous, or mourn- 
 ful, in the fallen ones he came to save. 
 Though sinless, he was a man of sorrows, 
 and found those in the circle of his follow- 
 ers, with whom he enjoyed that near attach- 
 ment, and familiar interchange of thought 
 and feeling peculiar to the intimacies and 
 fellowship of kindred spirits.
 
 MARTHA AND MARY. 263 
 
 The family of Bethany Martha, Mary, 
 and Lazarus, an only brother, were among 
 those cherished friends of the Saviour. 
 
 9 
 
 They were evidently orphans, and all deep- 
 ly devout. He often sat at their table, and 
 communed with them in the unchecked 
 gushings of his great and oft over-burdened 
 heart. While pursuing his ministry in the 
 region about Jerusalem, not unfrequently 
 after the toil and travel of the day, the scorn 
 of enemies, and misunderstanding of doubt- 
 ing disciples, he sought this peaceful home, 
 to refresh his drooping spirit with the cheer- 
 ing cordialities of friendship, pure as it was 
 changeless. There, looking upon Olivet, in 
 whose solemn shades he Avas wont to pray, 
 and with doomed Salem, whose far-off 
 murmur was heard by him, pressing upon 
 his soul, he sat at the twilight hour, while 
 they washed his weary feet, and bathed his 
 throbbing temples. And then with an eye
 
 264 MARTHA AND MARY. 
 
 radiant as a star, and a smile of unearthly 
 sweetness, he discoursed to them of his 
 works of mercy, and his glorious kingdom, 
 destined to restore to earth her primal bles- 
 sedness and peace. 
 
 It was well they had not a full disclosure 
 of his ineffable majesty, for they could not 
 in their awful reverence, have admitted him 
 into all the secrecies of personal regard, and 
 leaned on his breast in unshrinking trust. 
 Oh ! what a guest was Inimanuel ! The 
 Wonderful, the Counsellor the Almighty, 
 bestowing the fulness of his love on the 
 creatures of his power, and opening to them 
 the depths of his heart. 
 
 The first domestic scene narrated, illus- 
 trates the contrast of character in the two 
 sisters. The Saviour had accepted the 
 invitation of the elder sister, Martha, to 
 become an inmate of their humble dwel- 
 ling. She was active aud impulsive, ma-
 
 MARTHA AND MART. 265 
 
 king haste to spread a repast worthy of her 
 Lord. Mary, thoughtful and inquiring, sat 
 at the feet of Christ to hear his " gracious 
 words," forgetful of the domestic duties 
 which absorbed Martha's attention. She 
 was of calmer temperament, and would 
 have made a recluse of elevated, devotional 
 spirit one of that saintly few, whose souls 
 are " as when the waters of a lake are suf- 
 fered to deposit their feculence, and to be- 
 come as pure as the ether itself ; so that 
 they not only reflect from their surface the 
 splendor of Heaven, but allow the curious 
 eye to gaze delighted upon the decorated 
 grottos and sparkling caverns of the depth 
 beneath." 
 
 She was riveted to her seat by the ac- 
 cent of Him who " spake as never man 
 spake." Martha was touched by this neg- 
 lect, and in her sudden irritation, reproached 
 
 Jesus for permitting her to cast the entire 
 12
 
 266 MARTHA AND MART. 
 
 burden of household cares upon another. 
 Oh ! there is the mildness and majesty of a 
 God in the kind reproof: "Martha, Mar- 
 tha, thou art careful and troubled about 
 many things ; but one thing is needful ; and 
 Mary hath chosen that good part which 
 shall not be taken from her." 
 
 But that domestic group soon after passed 
 under the cloud of affliction. The brother, 
 their dependence and. constant companion, 
 was smitten down by disease, and wasting 
 before its ravages, while Jesus was far away 
 preaching to the multitudes of Bethabara. 
 Therefore the sisters sent unto him saying : 
 " Lord, behold he whom thou lovest is sick." 
 
 Though he knew it all before the mes- 
 senger came, and was a deeply interested 
 spectator of that distant chamber of suffer- 
 ing, he did not hasten hither, but tarried 
 two days longer. In this way he always 
 answers prayer he takes his own time,
 
 MARTHA AND MART. 267 
 
 and though he may seem to disappoint, he 
 sends the blessing just when it will accom- 
 plish the highest good for the petitioner, and 
 advance his own glory. Accompanied by 
 his disciples, who marvelled at his strange 
 language concerning the now departed Laz- 
 arus, for whose sake he was about to expose 
 himself to the rage of his foes, the Saviour 
 journeyed toward Bethany. Soon as Mar- 
 tha heard of his approach, she went forth 
 in her tears to meet him, while Mary in her 
 excessive grief, sat in the desolate dwelling, 
 unconscious of passing scenes, and unheed- 
 ing the footsteps of those who came to fling 
 a ray of comfort athwart the gloom, of be- 
 reavement. 
 
 In this touching incident, is again devel- 
 oped the differing shades of character in 
 these lovely maidens. The quiet earnest- 
 ness of Mary, makes her a mourner of 
 inapproachable and sublime sorrow like
 
 268 MARTHA AND MARY. 
 
 a monument, solemn and voiceless, bear- 
 ing only the inscription of the dead on its 
 breast. She was one who felt that 
 
 " With silence only as their benediction, 
 
 God's angels come 
 
 Where in the shadow of a great affliction 
 The soul sits dumb 1" 
 
 But Martha, with hurried step, sought 
 the highway Jesus was travelling, and look- 
 ing into his placid face, with the commin- 
 gling emotions of sorrow over blasted hope 
 and unabated affection, she said, " If thou 
 hadst been here, my brother had not died." 
 He replied with a tone of authority, " Thy 
 brother shall rise again." Doubtful of ttye 
 import of this calm assurance, yet confiding 
 in his power, she hastened to call the discon- 
 solate Mary. At the mention of his name, 
 she also ran to embrace him, and in the 
 tones of bleeding love, used the same lan- 
 guage of disappointment which just before 
 stirred the soul of her returning Lord.
 
 MARTHA AND MARY. 269 
 
 The crowd who had gathered to extend 
 their condolence, thought the mourners had 
 gone to the tomb to weep in solitude, and 
 they followed in the distance ; for their sym- 
 pathies had become excited, and tears fell 
 like rain. When Jesus beheld the scene 
 of lamentation, " He groaned in spirit and 
 was troubled." Oh! what internal agita- 
 tion was there how that bosom in which 
 the faintest shadow of sin had never dim- 
 med the unsullied light of moral excellence, 
 was tossed with emotion, and what a " mas- 
 tery of love" found utterance ; when he 
 said, " Where have ye laid him ? " " Lord, 
 come and see," was the hopeful reply, as 
 they turned in their grief to the sepulchre, 
 which enshrined the decaying form of Laz- 
 arus. Bending over it, "Jesus wept." 
 The Jews marvelled at his strong love for 
 the sleeper, while he lifted his fervent 
 prayer. Then, with a voice so loud it rang
 
 270 MARTHA AND MARY. 
 
 through the hopeless chamber of death, and 
 over the bright tops of the celestial hills, he 
 cried, " Lazarus, come forth !" and the mo- 
 tionless heart grew warm and stirred, the 
 color mantled the bandaged cheek, and the 
 light of a living soul was rekindled beneath 
 the parted lids ! The buried friend of Christ 
 again beheld Him, and loosed from the ha- 
 biliments of the grave, greeted with wonted 
 tenderness, the astonished yet joyful sisters. 
 
 The gratitude, the raptures, and frequent 
 interviews with the Son of God which fol- 
 lowed, are lost with the countless words 
 of wisdom, and acts of mercy in the unwrit- 
 ten history of Him who wasted no moments, 
 and neglected no sufferer that crossed his 
 path. - 
 
 A few days before the last passover, 
 the Saviour went again to Bethany, with 
 a company of disciples. The family on 
 which he seemed to lavish his love and
 
 MARTHA AND MART. 271 
 
 confidence, gave him a supper. Lazarus 
 sat by his side, while Martha, with charac- 
 teristic vivacity, and generous hospitality, 
 prepared the feast ; but Mary in her own 
 beautiful sensibility, and depth of feeling, 
 noiseless as the tide that lies tranquilly in 
 its unsounded caves, was reclining by the 
 feet of Jesus. She poured upon them pre- 
 cious ointment, till the perfume filled the 
 apartment, and wiped those sacred limbs 
 with the flowing ringlets of her raven hair. 
 It was the occasion of bringing out the 
 sordid and selfish spirit of Judas, who com- 
 plained of Mary's extravagance. The un- 
 relenting malignity of his open enemies was 
 also awakened by the presence of the bro- 
 ther, He had recalled from the realm of the 
 dead. Oh ! who can doubt the truthfulness 
 of this simple story, when at no point can 
 we pause and say, nature is not here ; or 
 who can question the strength and mad-
 
 272 MARTHA AND MART. 
 
 ness of that depravity wliicli could invade 
 the sweet solemnities of such a scene ? 
 
 It was the last visit of the Redeemer to 
 Bethany that anointing was for his burial 
 and he went to the " City of his tears," 
 to be the martyr of a world and a specta- 
 cle of wonder to the universe he made, and 
 which a breath of his power could sweep 
 away like the gossamer web woven in the 
 dew of morning. 
 
 Among the many lessons of this biogra- 
 phy, no one is more impressive than the law 
 of kindness and charity, seen in all the nar- 
 rative and enforced by the rebuke of Christ 
 to Martha. She was a Christian, ever ac- 
 tive, and prompt to do the external duties 
 of religion. Because Mary was of a dif- 
 ferent temperament, and more retiring, she 
 judged her harshly, and the Redeemer who 
 would not send her away from his feet. 
 
 And so it often happens that a Godly
 
 MARTHA AND MARY. 273 
 
 person, uniform and serious in character, 
 will condemn another whose animal spirits 
 as naturally run high, and whose impul- 
 ses are like the rushing wave. There 
 is no apology for a sacrifice of principle 
 but let none sit self-complacently in judg- 
 ment upon a fellow- worm, when God by 
 his forming hand, has emphatically " made 
 them to differ" but learn of Him who was 
 meek and lowly of heart, by a frown of 
 displeasure or a cruel word, never to " break 
 the bruised reed, or quench the smoking 
 flax ;" for life is formed of trifles, and their 
 imperishable influence and value, will ap- 
 pear in the grand summing up of the final 
 
 Judgment. 
 
 12*
 
 CHRIST ascended from Olivet, the Mount 
 of his prayer, and with uplifted hands left 
 upon the disciples who gazed after his lov- 
 ed and vanishing form, a benediction per- 
 petual as his militant church. They went 
 forth in the stern heroism of primitive apos- 
 tleship through the valleys of Judea, and to 
 the cities that dotted them, and gemmed the 
 shores of distant seas. 
 
 Among these beacon-points of the Gospel,
 
 276 DORCAS. 
 
 was Joppa, or anciently Yaffa, on a prom- 
 ontory of the Mediterranean coast, forty 
 miles from Jerusalem. It was an ancient 
 city, associated with the names of ^Eolus, 
 and Andromeda of classical fiction it is 
 mentioned by Joshua, and was the port to 
 which the cedars of Lebanon and treasures 
 of kings were floated for the first and sec- 
 ond Temples of the Holy City. Here 
 Jonah embarked when he thought "on 
 the wings of the morning," to flee from 
 the hand of God. Juda Maccabeus, to 
 avenge a broken treaty, drove two hundred 
 Jews from its heights into the sea, and made 
 a conflagration of the shipping, that like an 
 opening volcano, illumined the wide grave 
 that swept over them. And even Napo- 
 leon's legions in later time thundered be- 
 fore its gates. 
 
 But all these events recede into the dim- 
 ness of eclipse, around the scenes which
 
 DORCAS. 277 
 
 have transpired in the dwelling of Tabitha, 
 and which shall survive the cenotaphs of 
 royal heroes as they successively moulder, 
 written in the history and blending with 
 the converse of Heaven. 
 
 She was a pious woman, and distinguish, 
 ed especially for an expansive and active 
 benevolence a deep and genial sympathy 
 for the " fatherless and the widow in their 
 affliction." She may have been bereft of a 
 husband, and in the sad discipline of domes- 
 tic calamities prepared for that sublimest 
 effort of an immortal, doing good in a world 
 where the funeral knell never ceases to roll 
 its fearful cadence on the reluctant ear of 
 the living, and tears fall more constantly 
 than the nightly dew and where hearts 
 are breaking, and spiritual victories gained 
 and battles lost, invested with an interest 
 compared with which, a falling throne and 
 vanishing empire, are no more than the shiv-
 
 278 DORCAS. 
 
 ered toy and bursting bauble on the play- 
 ground of childhood. Or she may have 
 preferred like Hannah, of recent memory, 
 the disencumbered activity of single life, 
 and stood in vestal loveliness beside the 
 altar of devotion to her risen Redeemer, 
 whose voice of love seemed yet to linger in 
 the air of Palestine. 
 
 Whatever her condition, it is enough to 
 know that she bent all her energies to imi- 
 tate the faultless model of philanthropy, 
 and extend the glory of His name by illus- 
 trating the transcendent excellence of Chris- 
 tian character. 
 
 But in the midst of usefulness, death 
 calls for the saint. It could not be other- 
 wise than that she marked his approach 
 with a smile, and went down untrembling- 
 ly into the valley of gloom. The corpse 
 was laid out in " an upper chamber," and 
 from the hovels of the poor, and dwell-
 
 DORCAS. 279 
 
 ings of the rich, canie the mourners to weep 
 together, and look once more on the face it 
 had been so pleasant to meet when upon 
 her errands of mercy. Their thoughts turn- 
 ed to Peter, whose faith and intellectual 
 energy won confidence, and maintained an 
 influence unquestioned, among the disciples 
 of Jesus. 
 
 Two messengers hastened to Lydda, in- 
 formed him of their irreparable loss, and re- 
 quested him, without delay, to return with 
 them to the house of mourning. When 
 Peter entered the room, and saw the weep- 
 ing widows Tabitha had comforted and 
 clothed, encircling the dead, and also the 
 garments she had made for the destitute ; 
 impressed by the spirit, he felt that her work 
 was not done the struggling church could 
 not spare the shining light. 
 
 He sent the unwilling group from the 
 apartment in wondering silence, and knelt
 
 280 DORCAS. 
 
 "by the pale sleeper. It was not needful 
 that his petition should be long, for it was 
 the " fervent, effectual prayer of the right- 
 eous man." Then looking upon the marble 
 brow, he said, " Tabitha, arise !" The eye 
 opened with its wonted lustre, and when 
 she saw the noble apostle, she began to rise. 
 Peter extended his hand, and calling to "the 
 saints and widows," presented her again 
 to their cordial greeting, while the news 
 spread through the streets of Joppa. The 
 skeptical were convinced, and many who 
 had scorned the Nazarene, were added to 
 the number of true believers. 
 
 In Scripture, there is a uniform simplicity 
 and beauty, which dwells upon no scene 
 however inviting, if unimportant to the 
 great design of Revelation. Mystery rests 
 on the interval between the death and res- 
 urrection of those restored to life upon the 
 inquiry whether they brought any tidings
 
 DORCAS. 281 
 
 from the unseen land, and their final depart- 
 ure from earth. 
 
 In reviewing the sacred annals of the 
 past, we find that woman has often laid her 
 hand on the springs of a world's destiny, 
 coiled in decisive events ; and from her 
 sanctified genius, have streamed the radi- 
 ating lines of redeeming influence over the 
 world. But it is in the circle of home, she 
 puts forth a power exceeding all other hu- 
 man agency. As a maiden, she can elevate 
 and refine a brother, or strengthen upon 
 him a taste for exciting pleasures, which 
 shall hurry him away from the moorings of 
 manly principle and promise, into the broad 
 sweep of the current which descends at 
 length into the abyss of moral ruin in time, 
 blending its roar with the dash of those bil- 
 lows which have no shore, and whose ship- 
 wrecked victims find no oblivious grave. In 
 the social relation, results are the same.
 
 282 DORCAS. 
 
 As a wife, it is her's to make the domes- 
 tic scene attractive and benign in its influ- 
 ence upon Mm whose happiness, and often 
 destiny forever, is at her disposal under 
 God. They are in one bark on the sea of 
 life and though he may be unskillful or er- 
 ring, and sink her treasure of hope and joy, 
 yet if she be true and holy, the barge will 
 founder long before it goes darkly down, 
 and she will disappear with the wreck 
 like an angel of the troubled waters, to rise 
 again with a martyr's wreath, and a song 
 of victory. 
 
 As a mother, she leaves the moulding 
 impress of her hand on her oifspring, as the 
 potter on the clay, he shapes to honor or 
 dishonor. A pious and consistent mother 
 always in the final issue has her reward. 
 Nowhere does the terrific law, " as a man 
 soweth, so shall he also reap," come in 
 with more certain consequences than in
 
 DORCAS. 283 
 
 this relation. She may breathe her hal- 
 lowed counsel in a reluctant ear baptize 
 a brow of shame with her tears, and lift 
 her prayer with breaking heart over the 
 couch of the thoughtless sleeper ; but 
 around that son, is flung a spell the song 
 of revelry and the shout of blasphemy can 
 never break. He will be haunted through 
 the thousand-path ed labyrinth of sin, with 
 an invisible presence, before whose gentle 
 accents and heavenly face he will bow and 
 weep. And though she go to the grave 
 mourning for the wanderer, he shall come 
 to the green mound in after life and make 
 it the shrine of penitence and altar of con- 
 secration to God. 
 
 And silently as the morning light, her 
 influence goes forth everywhere; as it 
 once marred, so is it to be mighty in re- 
 storing the glorious image of the Deity to 
 man.
 
 284 DORCAS. 
 
 " Oh ! if now, 
 
 Woman would b'ft her noble wand she bore 
 
 In Paradise so transcendent, and which still she wears 
 
 Half-hidden though not powerless, and again 
 
 Wave its magic power o'er pilgrim man, 
 
 How would she win him from apostasy, 
 
 Lure back the world from its dim path of woe, 
 
 And open a new Eden on our years."
 
 LIST OF BOOKS 
 
 RECENTLY PUBLISHED BY 
 
 DERBY & MILLER, 
 
 AUBURN, K Y. 
 
 The Life of John Quincy Adams, Sixth President 
 of the United States, by Hon. Win. H. Seward, U. S. S., 
 with a portrait on steel, 1 2mo. muslin, gilt backs. 
 
 *.* 20,000 copies of this popular work have been sold by agents, in the short 
 space of eight months. 
 
 There is, indeed, so much to admire throughout the whole work, that were we to 
 enter into anything like an elaborate review, it would require more space than we 
 san spare. * The Life and Public Services of such 
 
 a man as John Quincy Adams, furnish the very material for such a pen as Gov. 
 Seward's, and we find evidences of his own brilliant intellect impressed upon almost 
 every page and sentence. Preserving the connection of events with almost mathe- 
 matical nicety, at the same time avoiding everything tedious and prolix. As a 
 writer, it may be doubted whether Gov. Seward has any superiors. * 
 
 Philadelphia News, {Whig.) 
 
 It would be a task of no ordinary difficulty for a contemporary, one who has 
 mingled in the strife and arena of his times, to write an impartial Life of so peculiar 
 and prominent an actor (for half a century) as Mr. Adams. * * Gov. 
 
 Seward has attempted it, and succeeded in producing an interesting work, character- 
 ized by ability and eloquence. * * We consider it worthy of public 
 attention. Albany Argus, (Dem.) 
 
 We have read this volume with great satisfaction, and hasten to express our 
 thanks to the author ; not merely for the pleasures afforded us, but for the ser- 
 vices rendered humanity. * * __ * Louisville Examiner, 
 Anti-Slavery.
 
 BOOKS RECENTLY PUBLISHED BY DERBY & MILLER. 
 
 SEWARD'S LIFE OF JOHN Q. ADAMS. 
 
 * We are glad to see a pretty full account of Mr. Adams' Anti-Slavery 
 efforts in Congress have been given ; for, great as his public services were during a 
 long life, his greatest fame with the present and future generations, will rest upon 
 his efforts to break down the Slave power. The great men who eulogized Mr. 
 Adams in Congress and elsewhere, generally passed silently over this part of his 
 life, as if it was something not very creditable to him, and to be talked about as little 
 as possible. Mr. Seward has taken a better view of the subject. We can recom- 
 mend this biography as being a clear and concise history of Mr. Adams' life. * 
 
 * * Lowell Republican, (Free Soil.) 
 
 It is a work well written, prepared evidently with care, conveys an excellent idea 
 of the life and services of that distinguished patriot and statesman. It is well 
 adapted for popular reading, and comes within the means of every citizen. * * 
 And possessing, as it does, a fund of historical and biographical information, of the 
 most interesting description, it will be a desirable book for the library and a welcome 
 companion to any man who cherishes a respect for the memory of Adams. * 
 
 * Boston Journal. 
 
 * We have read it and are delighted with the good taste and discrimina- 
 tion with which facts and cotemporary events are brought in to show forth the 
 noble and manly stand of John Quincy Adams. Next to our national pride, that we 
 have such great and good men to adorn the pages of our history, we should glory in 
 having authors like Wm. II. Seward, to chronicle their lives and their deeds. * 
 
 * Massachusetts Eagle. 
 
 The association of such names as Adams and Soward, one as the subject of the 
 biography, and the other as the biographer, must give to this work an interest which 
 rarely attaches to anything emanating from an American pen. * * * 
 
 Washington Advocate. 
 
 We would recommend this work to every class of mind to the vicious, that they 
 way be benefited by the contrast to the virtuous, that they may be incited to siijl 
 higher attainments to the patriot, that the love of country may be renewed in his 
 bosom to the Christian, that he may see how to honor God in exalted positions 
 to the young, that they may drink from the pure rill of patriotism, an'l learn to 
 cherish and protect their privileges and lastly to the old, that they may yet once 
 more read the lessons of wisdom, as they distilled from the lips of him who was a 
 Nestor among statesmen. Wisconsin Chronicle. 
 
 This volume has been now but a few months before the public, during which we 
 understand that some 20,000 copies have been circulated. The fact is sufficient to 
 show that the deceased statesman has found a worthy biographer. Designed for 
 popular use, and prepared from the materials existing in public documents arid 
 journals, it is a book, nevertheless, that cannot fail to be read with interest by the 
 scholar as well as the masses. The writer seems imbued with a sincere reverence 
 for the great man whose career he chronicles, and depicts its various eventful 
 incidents with spirit and fidelity. There is no book that we now remember, which 
 presents in the same compass so much that is interesting in our history, during the 
 period of which it treats. Washington Republic.
 
 BOOKS RECENTLY PUBLISHED BY DERBY & MILLER. 
 
 The Lives of Mary and Martha, mother and 
 wife of Washington : by Margaret C. Conkling, 
 with a steel portrait, 18mo, scarlet cloth. 
 
 Miss CONKLING, who is a daughter ef Judge Conkling of Auburn is favorahiv 
 ^ ^ a lh lH aU ^ 0r f H f r r r>s translation of Florian's HistoT of ? the Moors 
 of Spam." She also wrote " Isabel, or the Trials of the Heart." In The DrenaraZn 
 of the pretty little volume she has done a praiseworthy deed and we Lpe she "m 
 receive the reward she merits. She has taught us in the work 
 
 how divine a thing 
 A woman may be made." 
 
 .h^.,^^15 f! wif< ? of Washington were, in many respects, mode) women, and 
 awn ofthT Amerl( V a . wl11 d we to smdy their chiracter - which is finely 
 drawn on these pages. Literary Messenger. 
 
 This beautifully printed and elegantly bound little work, reflecting the highest 
 credit upon the skill and task of the publishers, contains biographical sketches of 
 Mary, the mother, and Martha, the wife of the Father of his country. It is a most 
 valuable contribution to the history of the American people, embracin" not only the 
 great public events of the century during which the subjects lived, but those pictures 
 31 home life, and that exhibition of social manners and customs, which constitute 
 the most important part of life, but which, from the fact of their apparent triviality 
 and intangibility, the historian generally passes over. The authoress evidently 
 sympathises earnestly with her subject, and feels that in the exhibition of those 
 womanly virtues which characterized the heroines of her narrative she makes the 
 most eloquent plea in favor of the dignity of her sex. It is dedicated to Mrs. WM 
 H. SEWARD, and contains a finely executed engraving of the wife of Washington 
 We cordially commend it to the public, and most especially our lady readers 
 Syracuse Journal. 
 
 This acceptable and well written volume goes forth upon a happy mission, 
 " To teach us how divine a thing 
 A woman may be made," 
 
 by unfolding those charms of characte* which belong to the mother and wife of the 
 hero of the Land of the Free ; and in the companionship of which, while they illus- 
 trated the watchful tenderness of a mother, and the confiding affections of a wife, 
 is shown those influences which made up the moral sentiments of a man, whose 
 moral grandeur will be felt in all that is future in government or divine in 
 philosophy ; and one whose name is adored by all nations, as the leader of man in 
 in the progress of government, to that perfection of human rights where all enjoy 
 liberty and equality. To say that Miss Conkling has fulfilled the task she says a 
 " too partial friendship has assigned her " faultlessly, would perhaps be too 
 unmeasured praise, for perfection is seldom attained; but it will not be denied but 
 that her biographies are traced in the chaste elegances that belong to the finished 
 periods of a refined style, which fascinates the reader with what she has thus contri- 
 buted to our national literature. 
 
 The design of the volume is, to picture a mother fitting the " Father of his 
 Country " in a light full of the inexhaustible nobleness of woman's nature, and yet 
 as possessing that subdued and quiet simplicity, where Truth becomes the Hope on 
 which Faith looks at the future with a smile. The mother of Washington was 
 tried in a school of practice where frugal habits and active industry were combined 
 with the proverbial excellences of those Virginia matrons, who were worthy mothers 
 of such men as Washington, Jefferson, Marshall, and Henry. Miss C. has pictured 
 with fidelity and elegance, her views of this remarkable woman ; not less beauti- 
 fully has she sketched the character of Martha, the wife ; following her from her 
 brilliant manners as the Virginia belle, through the various phases of her life, she 
 gives a rapid but comprehensive view of those characteristics which make up the 
 quiet refinement of manners native to her, and which ever gave her the reputation 
 of an accomplished wife and lady. And with peculiar delicacy Miss Conkling has 
 portrayed the thousand virtues with which she embellished a home ; her amiable 
 disposition and winning manners made the happiest to the purest and best of all 
 men fame has chosen for its noblest achievments. Syracuse Star.
 
 BOOKS RECENTLY PUBLISHED BY DERBY & MILLER. 
 
 The American Fruit Culturist : By J. J. Thomas; 
 containing directions for the propagation and culture of 
 Fruit Trees, in the Nursery, Orchard, and Garden; with 
 descriptions of the principal American and Foreign varieties 
 cultivated in the United States: with 300 accurate illustra- 
 tions. 1 volume, of over 400 pages, 12mo. $1,00 
 
 A cheaper, but equally valuable book with Downing's was wanted by the great 
 mass. Just such a work has Mr Thomas given us. We consider it an invaluable 
 addition to our agricultural libraries. Wool Grower. 
 
 We predict for it a very rapid sale ; it should be in the hands of every fruit grower 
 and especially every nurseryman. It is a very cheap book for its price. Ohio 
 Cultivator. 
 
 It is a most valuable work to all engaged in the culture of fruit trees. Utica 
 Herald. 
 
 It is a book of great value. Genesee Farmer. 
 
 Among all the writers on fruits, we do not know of one who is Mr. Thomas' 
 superior, if his equal, in condensing important matter. He gets right at the pith of 
 the thing he gives you that which you wish to know at once ; stripped of all use- 
 less talk and twattle. No man has a keener eye for the best ways of doing things. 
 Hence we always look into his writings with the assurance that we shall find some- 
 thing new, or some improvements on the old ; and we are seldom disappointed. 
 This book is no exception. It is full. There is no vacant space in it. It is like a 
 fresh egg all good, and packed to the shell full. Prairie Farmer. 
 
 In the volume before us we have the result of the author's experience and obser- 
 vations, continued with untiring perseverance for many years, in language at once 
 concise and perspicuous. Albany Cultivator. 
 
 We can say with confidence to our readers, that if you need a book to instruct you 
 in the modes of growing trees, &c., from the first start, the systems of pruning, etc., 
 etc., you will find the American Fruit Culturist an extremely valuable work. The 
 million who purchase it, will find matter adapted to their wants, superior to any 
 work as yet published. Cleveland Herald. 
 
 For sale in New York by M. H. NEWMAN & CO. and C. M. SAXTON. 
 Boston, B. B. MUSSEY <fe CO. Philadelphia, THOMAS, COWPERTHWAITE & 
 CO. 
 
 BsF" Copies in paper covers Bent by mail, free of expense, on receipt of $1,00 
 post paid. Direct to DERBY & MILLER, 
 
 Auburn, N. T.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 * * 
 
 

 
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