{"collection":"scripture-revelation","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_20236/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_20236","id":"gutenberg_20236","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/20236","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Humour","Category: Novels","Domestic relations -- Biblical teaching -- Humor","Sex role -- Biblical teaching -- Humor","Women in the Bible -- Humor"],"text":"E-text prepared by Marilynda Fraser-Cunliffe, Diane Monico, and the\nProject Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team\n(https://www.pgdp.net/c/). Special thanks to Legacy Books II, Louisville,\nKY, for generously providing the vignette on pg. 13.\n\n\n\nNote: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this\n      file which includes the original illustrations.\n      See 20236-h.htm or 20236-h.zip:\n      (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/0/2/3/20236/20236-h/20236-h.htm)\n      or\n      (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/0/2/3/20236/20236-h.zip)\n\n\n\n\n\nFAIR TO LOOK UPON\n\nby\n\nMARY BELLE FREELEY\n\nWith Original Illustrations by W. L. Dodge\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n[Illustration: \"I HUMMED A GAY LITTLE TUNE FOR HIS BENEFIT.\"]\n\n\n\nChicago\nMorrill, Higgins & Co.\nCopyright:\nMorrill, Higgins & Co.\n1892\n\n\n\n\nCONTENTS.\n\n\nA RIPPLE OF DISSENSION AND WHAT CAME OF IT,           11\n\nTHE STORY OF EVE,                                     19\n\nTHE ABRAHAM-HAGAR AFFAIR,                             29\n\nISAAC'S WIFE,                                         47\n\nA WOMAN'S MONUMENT,                                   67\n\nANOTHER OF THE WOMEN OF OLD,                          83\n\nALL NAUGHTY, BUT FAIR,                                97\n\nSTORY OF SOME WOMEN AND A BABY,                      107\n\nANOTHER OF \"THE MISTAKES OF MOSES,\"                  123\n\nSOME MANAGING WOMEN,                                 135\n\nANOTHER GROUP OF THEM,                               151\n\nTHE FAMOUS WIDOW OF MOAB,                            163\n\nHE GAVE IT UP TOO,                                   175\n\n\n\n\nILLUSTRATIONS.\n\n\nI hummed a gay little tune for his benefit,            _Frontispiece_.\n\nHe held my milk-white hand in his,                             13\n\nOur first parents,                                             17\n\nWhile Adam was idly, lazily sunning himself in the garden,     25\n\nThe Serpent did tempt me,                                      28\n\nAnd the men watched to see her go by,                          33\n\nAnd the woman was taken into Pharaoh's house,                  37\n\nAbraham entertaining the three angels,                         41\n\nAnd he sent Hagar and Ishmael out into the wilderness,         43\n\nAnd Abraham went down to Egypt,                                44\n\nLet me, I pray thee, drink a little water of thy pitcher,      55\n\nI will go,                                                     58\n\nTwo little boys played marbles,                                59\n\nEsau cheated out of his blessing,                              62\n\nAnd Rebekah was--a woman,                                      64\n\nAnd there came two angels to Sodom,                            69\n\nAnd Lot went out and tried to pacify them,                     71\n\nLot's wife looked back,                                        75\n\nLook not behind thee,                                          80\n\nJacob kissed Rachel and lifted up his voice and wept,          87\n\nAnd Jacob served seven years for Rachel,                       89\n\nShe hoped he would excuse her for not arising,                 94\n\nPut up his hands in welcome and said \"Ah, goo! ah goo!\"       115\n\nAnd every kiss strengthened her determination,                119\n\nThey clasped hands lingeringly and said a soft good night,    129\n\nAlas, my lord, I beseech thee,                                132\n\nWhat would'st thou?                                           139\n\nShe let them down from the window of her house,               143\n\nShe smote the nail into his temples,                          145\n\nCast a piece of a millstone upon Abimelech's head,            147\n\nAnd she betrayed him,                                         149\n\nTurned her pretty head aside and blushed,                     170\n\nAnd Boaz and Ruth were married,                               173\n\nAnd I said--                                                  180\n\n\n\n\n\nA RIPPLE OF DISSENSION\nAND WHAT CAME OF IT.\n\n\n\n\n[Illustration: (He held my milk-white hand in his.)]\n\n\nA RIPPLE OF DISSENSION AND WHAT CAME OF IT.\n\n\nI was about to be married. My numerous charms and attractions had won\nthe affections of a young man who was equally charming with myself.\n\nWe were sitting on a luxurious divan and he held my milk-white hand in\nhis. I do not make that statement as a startling announcement of an\nunusual occurrence, but simply as a matter of fact.\n\nWe had been conversing about the culinary and domestic arrangements of\nour future home when matrimony had made us \"one flesh;\" or, to use\nEnglish, we had been wondering what under the canopy a good cooking\nstove would cost, when he asked suddenly and irrelevantly,\n\n\"And you will love me, always?\"\n\n\"Of course,\" said I, a little impatiently; for when one is deep in a\nmathematical problem such a question is a little annoying.\n\n\"And you will honor me always?\" he next inquired.\n\n\"As long as you deserve to be honored,\" I replied, with the habitual\ngood sense of my age and sex, mentally wondering if granite-ware\nstewpans went with a cooking stove.\n\n\"And you will obey me?\" he queried next, in a tone that plainly\nindicated that I'd have to. I left the mathematical problem for future\nsolution and said, hesitatingly:\n\n\"Yes--if--I--can.\"\n\n\"If you can?\" he said, in sternly questioning tones; and a cloud no\nbigger than a man's hand appeared upon the heaven of our love.\n\n\"I don't believe a woman ever lived who ever obeyed any one--God,\nangels, or men,\" I cried.\n\n\"You are a traitor. You slander your sex,\" he exclaimed, aghast.\n\n\"I deny the charge,\" I replied, springing to my feet, with all the\nspirit of the above-mentioned age and sex. \"By that assertion I only\nadd glory to their fame.\" He looked at me for a little while, too\nsurprised to speak, and then said, in sarcastic tones:\n\n\"Consider our wedding postponed until you have had a little time to\nstudy your Bible. Good night.\"\n\n\"'Study your Bible!' That is what everybody says when they want to\nprove any theory, creed, ism, or anything. I shall study my Bible\ndiligently. Good night,\" I replied, thinking it was not such very bad\nadvice after all; and then I hummed a gay little tune for his benefit\nuntil I heard the hall door close.\n\nAnd I have studied my Bible with the following result.\n\n\n\n\n[Illustration: (Our first parents.)]\n\n\n\n\nTHE STORY OF EVE.\n\n\n\n\nTHE STORY OF EVE.\n\n\nAway back when Adam was a young man--now I know that Adam is rather an\nancient subject, but you need not elevate your eyebrows in scorn, for\nyou will be ancient yourself sometime--he found himself in Eden one\nday; he did not know why, but we do, don't we?\n\nHe was there because Eve was to come, and it was a foregone conclusion\neven in that early age that when she did appear she would want some\none to hold her bouquet, open the door for her, button her gloves,\ntell her she was pretty and sweet and \"I never saw a woman like you\nbefore,\" you know.\n\nHer arrival was the greatest event the world has ever known, and the\ngrandest preparations were made for it.\n\nA blue sky arched gloriously over the earth, and sun, moon and stars\nflashed and circled into space, silvery rivers ran cool and slow\nthrough scented valleys, the trees threw cooling shadows on the fresh,\ndamp grass, the birds sang in the rosy dawn, the flowers blushed in\nodorous silence and yet it was all incomplete, and Adam wandered\nrestlessly around like a man who has lost his collar button.\n\nBut suddenly a great hush of expectancy fell upon the world. Not a\nbird fluttered its feathers, the flowers bowed their heads, the winds\nand the waters listening ceased their flowing and their blowing, the\nradiant moonshine mingled its light with the pale pink dawn and a\nmillion stars paled their eternal fires, as Eve, the first woman,\nstood in Eden.\n\nAnd the world was young and beautiful. The first flush and bloom was\non the mountains and the valleys, the birds were thrilled by the\nsweetness of their own songs, the waves broke into little murmurs of\ndelight at their own liquid beauty, the stars of heaven and the\nunfading blue were above Adam's head--and yet he wasn't satisfied.\nLong he stood idly in the brightening dawn wondering why the days were\nso long and why there were so many of them, when suddenly out from the\nswinging vines and the swaying foliage Eve came forth.\n\nAnd though there was a vacant look on her lovely face (for her baby\nsoul had not yet awakened) Adam saw that her lips were red and her\narm white and rounded and he whistled a soft, low whistle with a sort\nof \"O-won't-you-stop-a-moment?\" cadence in the music, and Eve looked\nup; and I think at that moment he plucked a flower and offered it to\nher; and of course she did not understand it all, but Nature, not\nintelligence, asserted her power, and she reached out her hand and\ntook the rose--and then for the first time in the world a woman\nblushed and smiled; and I suspect it was at that very moment that \"the\nmorning stars first sang together.\"\n\nWoman has never been obedient. She has always had the germ of the\nruler and autocrat in her soul. It was born when Eve first looked with\nlonging eyes at the apple swinging in the sunlight.\n\nWhile Adam was idly, lazily sunning himself in the garden was Eve\ncontented to smell the fragrance of the violets and bask in the\nstarlight of a new world? Oh no! She was quietly wandering around\nsearching for the Serpent, and when she found him she smiled upon him\nand he thought the world grew brighter; then she laughed and his\nsubjugation was complete; and then the naughty creature, without\nwaiting for an introduction, led him to the famous apple tree, and\nstanding on her tip-toes, reached up her hands and said with a\nsoul-subduing little pout:\n\n\"See, I want that apple, but I can't reach it. Won't you please find a\nclub and knock it off for me?\" and she looked out of the corner of her\neye and blushed divinely.\n\nNow this Serpent represented, so it has always been believed, a very\nshrewd person. He saw that this woman had no garments, and that after\nshe had eaten this fruit she would know better, and delight in clothes\never after. So he gave her the apple.\n\nAlmost instantly after she had eaten some, not because she\nparticularly liked apples, or had any idea of their adaptability in\nthe way of pies, sauce or cider, but because she wanted to \"be as gods\nknowing good and evil,\" as the Serpent said she would. Discontent with\nher wardrobe crept into her heart and ambition for something better\nsprang to life.\n\n[Illustration: \"WHILE ADAM WAS IDLY, LAZILY SUNNING HIMSELF IN THE\nGARDEN.\"]\n\nIn the distance stood Adam. With a thrill of rapture she beheld him,\nher aroused soul flashed from her eyes and love was born, and she\nran toward him through the flowers, pausing on the river's brink to\nrest, for weariness had touched her limbs.\n\nShe watched the waters running south out of the garden, and like one\ncoming out of a dim, sweet twilight into a blaze of glory she looked\nand wondered \"why\" it ran that way, and lo! Thought blossomed like a\nrose, and generosity laughed in the sunshine when she put the apple in\nAdam's hand; and Adam, with the only woman in the world beside him,\nand the first free lunch before him, forgot all about God and His\ncommands and \"did eat,\" and the results prove that free lunches always\ndid demoralize men--and always will. And modesty blushed rosy red when\nAdam put the apple to his lips, and invention and ingenuity, new-born,\nrushed to the rescue, and they gathered the fig leaves.\n\nThen memory like a demon whispered in her ear: \"The day that ye eat\nthereof ye shall surely die.\" She glanced at Adam and deadly fear\nchilled the joyous blood in her veins. Then she argued: \"He will be\nless angry with me, a woman, and His vengeance will fall less heavily\non me than on the man to whom His command was given;\" and lo! Reason\nrose like a star on the waves of life, and shoulder to shoulder\nwomanly devotion and heroism that fears neither God nor death in\ndefense of its loved ones entered her soul, and she instructed Adam to\nsay: \"The woman tempted me,\" and deception trembled on her lips when\nshe cried: \"The serpent did tempt me,\" and the tears of regret and\nremorse watered the seeds of deception and they grew so luxuriously\nthat women have always had that same way of getting out of scrapes\never since.\n\nYet to Eve belongs the honor of never having obeyed any one--when it\ninterfered with progress, advancement and intelligence--neither God,\nangels nor men.\n\nThe women of the nineteenth century make a profound salaam of\nadmiration and respect to Eve, in whom they recognize the first\ncourageous, undaunted pioneer woman of the world.\n\n[Illustration: (The Serpent did tempt me.)]\n\n\n\n\nTHE ABRAHAM-HAGAR AFFAIR.\n\n\n\n\nTHE ABRAHAM-HAGAR AFFAIR.\n\n\n\"And there was a famine in the land; and Abraham went down to Egypt to\nsojourn there.\"\n\nYou see Abraham was that charming kind of man--a man with his pockets\nfull of shekels, for \"he was very rich in cattle, in silver and in\ngold.\" So, as provisions grew short in Canaan, and as in those days\nwhen men went on a pleasure trip they took their wives with them,\nSarah accompanied him to Egypt.\n\nUp to this time husbands had only been obedient, but in this age they\nbegan to be complimentary, and as Sarah and Abraham were about\nentering Egypt, he said to her, \"Behold now, I know that thou art a\nfair woman to look upon,\" and even if it is the first compliment on\nrecord, we must admit, even at this late day, that Abraham was far\nadvanced in the art of flattery.\n\nNow Sarah was the pioneer, champion, incomparable coquette of the\nancient world, and as such deserves our earnest attention.\n\nWe gather from the following events that Abraham realized her\nunequaled proclivities for getting in with kings, landlords and other\nmagnates of the countries through which she was pleasuring, and so he\ntold her to pass herself off as his sister; and because she believed\nit would enhance her chances of having a good time, and as it was\neasy, natural and agreeable, she did it, and not because she had any\nidea of merely obeying her husband.\n\nAbraham wanted their marriage kept secret because, in those days, when\na lover-king wished to get rid of an obnoxious husband, he hypnotized\nhim into eternal silence by having him used as a target for a sling, a\nspear or javelin, instead of causing an appeal to the divorce courts,\nas they do in this civilized and enlightened generation. And I believe\nthat, after all, the old way is the better one, for when men and women\ndie, they are dead, but when they are only divorced they are awfully\nalive sometimes.\n\n[Illustration: \"AND THE MEN WATCHED TO SEE HER GO BY.\"]\n\nAnd it came to pass, when they arrived in Egypt, the Egyptians \"beheld\nthe woman that she was very fair,\" and the men watched on the street\ncorners to see her go by; and she passed herself as a giddy maiden\nwith such unrivaled success that she gained a notoriety that would\nhave made the fortune of a modern actress, and the princes of Pharaoh\ncommended her wit, beauty and grace to the king, \"and the woman was\ntaken into Pharaoh's house.\"\n\nThe attentive reader will observe that Holy Writ, in speaking of a\nwoman, never deigns to say that she is virtuous, industrious,\nobedient, or a good cook, but seems to ignore everything but the fact\nthat \"she was fair to look upon.\"\n\nThat was all that seemed to be required of the \"holy women of old.\"\n\nAnd Pharaoh \"entreated Abraham well for Sarah's sake\" (you notice they\ndid everything to please the ladies in those days), and loaded him\nwith riches, presents and honors; and Pharaoh's wives and sub-wives\nand cadet wives didn't like it. And the Secretary of the Treasury, the\nPrime Minister and the High Lord Chamberlain of the Bedchamber didn't\nlike it. The neighbors began to talk openly; the scandal \"smelled to\nheaven;\" and the Lord Himself had to interfere to head the fair Sarah\noff, and He \"plagued Pharaoh and his house with great plagues, because\nof Sarah, Abraham's wife.\"\n\nAnd then--after the preliminary amorous clasping of hands, the little\ncaressing attentions, the lingering kisses; after the fiery\nexpectation and the rapture of possession, after all this came--as it\nalways does--the tragedy of satiety and separation.\n\n\"And Abraham went up out of Egypt, he, and his wife and all that he\nhad.\"\n\n[Illustration: \"AND THE WOMAN WAS TAKEN INTO PHARAOH'S HOUSE.\"]\n\nYet Peter, in speaking of the duties of wives, has the temerity to\nrefer to the \"holy women of old,\" and holds Sarah up as a bright and\nshining example for us to follow, saying, \"even as Sarah obeyed\nAbraham, calling him lord.\" But we won't lay this up against Peter,\nfor it is a telling fact (and shows the predicament he was in) that he\nhad to go back nearly two thousand years to find an obedient woman.\nThere were evidently none in his day, but as he wished to make his\nteaching effective and submit some proof to clinch his argument, he\nwent back to Sarah and said, \"even as Sarah obeyed Abraham,\" which\nshows he had never gotten at the real facts in the lovely Sarah's\ncareer, or else was misrepresenting Sarah to carry his point in favor\nof the men.\n\nA careful perusal of my Bible convinces me that the \"holy women of\nold,\" as Peter dubs them, were all afflicted with a chronic\ndetermination to have their own way--and they had it.\n\nBut the men were always obedient to the women, and each one \"hearkened\nunto the voice of his wife\" and also obeyed God and the angels.\n\nAt this point in the history of the affable Sarah and the dutiful\nAbraham we come to the Abraham-Hagar case, and find the hired-girl\nquestion already agitating society.\n\nAnd the historian tells us that Sarah told Abraham that he could have\nHagar for his very own, and then the narrator naively remarks, \"And\nAbraham hearkened unto the voice of his wife.\"\n\nBut of course this is a vile slander against Sarah, and, at this late\nday, I rise to refute the charge.\n\nProbably some of Abraham's political friends, when the disgrace broke\nforth in all its rosy glory, trumped up this story about Sarah's\nconsent to save his reputation. But Sarah never did anything of the\nkind, as her subsequent actions prove. It isn't human nature; it isn't\nwifely nature; and although Sarah was a little gay-hearted herself,\nshe wasn't going to stand any such nonsense--to speak lightly--from\nAbraham, and when she discovered his intimacy with the hired girl she\nquietly called him into the tent, and in less than ten seconds she\nmade his life a howling wilderness. I don't know exactly what she said\n(as I wasn't there), but it ended, as such scenes usually do end, by\nthe dear man repenting. For, since he is found out, what else can a\nman do? He said he was sorely tempted, no doubt, and so forth and so\non to the end of the chapter, and said: \"Thy maid is in thy hands; do\nunto her as it pleaseth thee.\" And \"Sarah dealt hardly with her, and\nshe fled from her face.\" But she came back, because you remember she\nmet an angel in the wilderness, and he told her to return. Nice advice\nfrom an angel, wasn't it?\n\n[Illustration: (Abraham entertaining the three angels.)]\n\nThe next scene in which the lovely Sarah distinguishes herself, and\nnobly sustains her record for disobedience and a determination to\nfollow the dictates of her own sweet will, was when Abraham\nentertained the three angels.\n\nNow hobnobbing with angels wasn't an every-day affair, even in that\nage when angels were more plentiful than they are now.\n\nAnd Abraham was naturally a little excited, and he \"hastened into the\ntent unto Sarah,\" and said: \"Make ready quickly three measures of fine\nmeal, knead it, and make cakes upon the hearth;\" and he gave orders to\na young man to kill a calf, etc. And after a while the supper was\nserved, with all the delicacies the rich and great could afford, and\neverything appeared that he had ordered--except Sarah's cakes. They\nwere simply and inexplicably _non est_.\n\nOf course it was a pretty shabby thing for a woman to go back on her\nhusband in his hour of need, and when there were angels in the house\ntoo; but she did it, thereby sustaining her reputation for crookedness\nand general contrariness as a wife.\n\nAnd yet it has always been preached to us that we should obey our\nhusbands \"even as Sarah obeyed Abraham.\" Well, we're willing, since\nall she had to do was to look pretty, be agreeable, and do exactly as\nshe pleased.\n\nBut the very fact that Sarah has been held up as an example for us to\nfollow proves that the men had not read up her record intelligently,\nor else in their extremity they were presuming on our ignorance while\ntrying to enforce order and submission.\n\nBut that was not the worst of it. When she heard the angel tell\nAbraham that she should have a son she ridiculed the idea.\n\nShe had the germ of the infidel in her heart, and lacked Abraham's\ncredulity, and would not believe anything, even if an angel did say\nso, unless it was backed up by reason and common sense, and so she\nlaughed behind their backs.\n\nNow it appears that angels object to being ridiculed as well as other\nfolk, and when they heard her giggling they demanded to know the\nreason of Abraham. It was exceedingly naughty for her to place her\nhusband in such a predicament, and when she found she was getting the\nwhole family into an uproar she denied the charge, which shows that to\nher other charming and wifely qualities she added the art of\nequivocating.\n\n[Illustration: (And he sent Hagar and Ishmael out into the\nwilderness.)]\n\nAfter that Abraham \"sojourned in Gerar,\" and again the seductive Sarah\ncharmed the great king, and again the Lord had to interfere and settle\nthe affair.\n\nWhen Isaac was born Sarah was more exacting and jealous than ever of\nHagar, and said to Abraham: \"Cast out this bond-woman and her son; for\nthe son of this bond-woman shall not be heir with my son.\"\n\n[Illustration: (And Abraham went down to Egypt.)]\n\n\"And the thing was very grievous in Abraham's sight,\" but he\n\"hearkened unto the voice of his wife,\" like the dutiful and obedient\nhusband he was, and he sent Hagar and Ishmael out into the wilderness.\nAnd even to this day the women who are guilty of Hagar's crime are\nremorselessly sent out into the wilderness of desertion, despair and\ndisgrace--and it is right and just!\n\nWe are told that \"fashions change;\" but Sarah inaugurated a fashion\nthat wives have followed to this day, and will follow till the ocean\nof eternity shall sweep the island of Time into oblivion.\n\nAnd so endeth the chapter of the second prominent woman of \"Holy\nWrit.\"\n\nAnd Abraham was always \"obedient,\" and \"hearkened unto the voice of\nhis wife;\" and Sarah was a lawless, crafty, coquettish--but never\nobedient woman.\n\n\n\n\nISAAC'S WIFE.\n\n\n\n\nISAAC'S WIFE.\n\n\nAnd Abraham said unto his servant, \"Thou shalt go unto my country and\nto my kindred, and take a wife unto my son Isaac.\"\n\nBut the servant, who was evidently a student of female character and\nknew\n\n    \"That when a woman will, she will,\n        You may depend on it;\n    And when she won't, she won't,\n        And there's an end on it;\"\n\nsaid: \"Peradventure, the woman will not be willing to follow me unto\nthis land.\"\n\nThen Abraham, who was a connoisseur in feminine ethics (as he\nnaturally would be, having had such able instructors as Sarah and\nHagar) and realized the utter futility of attempting to persuade,\nbribe or induce a woman to do anything she objected to doing, said:\n\n\"And if the woman will not be willing to follow thee, then thou shalt\nbe clear from this mine oath.\"\n\nSo the servant departed and \"went to Mesopotamia unto the city of\nNahor.\"\n\nNow it seems in those days the girls of Nahor went outside the city\ngates every evening, according to Oriental custom, to draw water from\na well, and the artful servant of Abraham tarried at the well at\nsunset, for he knew the girls would be along presently.\n\nIt was a lovely eventide. The wind touched caressingly the few dainty\nflowers drooping their heads in sleepy fragrance, the birds twittered\nsoft words of love to their nestling mates, the departing god of day\nlavished in reckless abandon his wealth of colors; piled crimson\nmountains red as his ardent love in the western sky, and robed high\nheaven in golden glory that his sweetheart--the earth--reveling in and\nremembering the grandeur of his passion and the splendor of his\ndeparture, might not love his silver-armored rival of the night.\n\nAbout this time the maidens tripped down to the well, where the shrewd\nservant stood as the \"daughters of the men of the city came out to\ndraw water,\" and prayed:\n\n\"And let it come to pass that the damsel to whom I shall say, 'Let\ndown thy pitcher, I pray thee, that I may drink;' and she shall say,\n'Drink,' may be the one I am looking for;\" or words to that effect.\n\nThe words had hardly passed his lips ere Rebekah, with the color\nsnatched from the roses in her cheeks and the grace of untrammeled\nfreedom in her step, skipped down to the well.\n\nAnd Rebekah \"was very fair to look upon.\" Of course. In relating the\nhistory of these examples who have been held up since time immemorial\nfor us to follow, the writers of \"Holy Writ\" never expatiate upon\ntheir virtue, industry, domesticity, constancy or love, but we are\nsimply and briefly told they were \"fair to look upon,\" and the natural\nlogical inference is that we shall \"go and do likewise.\"\n\nBelonging to one of the wealthiest and most influential families of\nNahor, of course Rebekah's practiced eye saw at a glance that the\nhandsome fellow waiting at the well and looking the girls over was a\nperson of rank and importance; for it is only a logical conclusion\nthat coming from such a master and bound upon such an errand, he was\nsurrounded by all the trappings and signs of wealth and luxury that\nthe times afforded.\n\nAnd the maidens of Nahor went outside the city gates partly for the\nsame purpose, I suppose, as that for which the girls of other places\ngo to the parks and matinees nowadays, for it seems to have been a\nnotorious fact that had even spread to other countries, that the girls\nof Nahor came down to the well in the blushing sunset, and that too,\nwithout chaperon or duenna. And I suppose the young men went down too,\nto flirt with the charming damsels, from the fact that the servant of\nAbraham tarried there.\n\nAnd Rebekah, stooping gracefully, filled her pitcher, swung it lightly\nto her shoulder--and as the woman sometimes takes the initiative in an\naffair of this kind--smiled upon the willing and ready-looking fellow;\nnot exactly at him, but as it were in his direction, you know; and he\ncaught the faint glint of sunshine on her lips, and then--but in the\nwitching hour when the twilight and sunlight kiss and part, after the\nsmile and look of recognition everyone knows what happens.\n\nAnd he ran to her and said with the pleasing courtesy of a man of the\nworld:\n\n\"Let me, I pray thee, drink a little water of thy pitcher.\"\n\nThen with the tact of a finished coquette, in three little words she\nconveyed to him the flattering knowledge that she recognized in him an\nembassador of power, wealth and luxury, by saying:\n\n\"Drink, my Lord.\"\n\nAfter that they became acquainted in the most easy, off-hand manner,\nwithout an introduction, and yet we are told to follow the example of\nthese pioneers of the race who were always \"fair to look upon.\"\n\nI never in my life heard priest or people condemning her for forming\nthe acquaintance of a stranger without an introduction; she was called\none of the \"mothers in Israel,\" and even St. Paul, who was a regular\ncrank about the girls, classed her with the \"holy women of old,\" which\nproves he didn't know anything about her history or was playing upon\nthe ignorance of his hearers. She was a leader of the _ton_ in Israel,\nand if in those days they did not banish her from good society, why\nshould we censure the same conduct when we are so much more\ncivilized, enlightened and liberal in our views?\n\nAnd in an incredibly short space of time he adorned her with earrings\nand bracelets, and she invited him home with her, and he actually went\nand made it all right with her mother and big brother by making a\nprepossessing exhibition of piety, for you remember how he told them\n\"he bowed down his head and worshipped the Lord.\"\n\nHe told them of Isaac, in whose name he sued for Rebekah's fair hand.\nHe didn't say that Isaac was handsome, virtuous, talented or\nambitious, but he said, \"the Lord hath blessed my master and he is\nvery great; and he hath given him flocks and herds, and silver and\ngold, and maid servants and men servants, and camels and asses,\" and\nunto his son Isaac \"hath he given all that he hath,\" for this astute\nman of the world seemed to know that the surest and quickest way to\nwin a woman was to show her a golden pathway strewn with the gems of\npower, luxury and ambition.\n\nAnd the big brother did not pull out his watch, look at it in a\nbusiness-like way and say:\n\n[Illustration: \"LET ME, I PRAY THEE, DRINK A LITTLE WATER OF THY\nPITCHER.\"]\n\n\"Rebekah, pack your trunk and be ready to take the 6:40 fast express.\"\nAnd her mother did not smile and say, \"we're so delighted and honored,\nI'm sure. Of course she will go.\" Not at all. They knew better even in\nthose days than to try and coerce or coax a woman to do anything she\ndidn't want to do, and so they simply said:\n\n\"We will call the damsel and inquire at her mouth.\"\n\nThen the servant brought forth jewels of silver and jewels of gold,\nand raiment, and gave them to Rebekah; and he gave also to her brother\nand to her mother precious things, and then we are naively told that\nRebekah said:\n\n\"I will go.\"\n\nRebekah was a woman of decision and knew a good thing when she saw it,\nand so she did not wait to prepare a stunning trousseau or get out\nwedding cards and invitations fine enough to make all the girls of\nNahor sigh in envy and admiration, but she departed at once. Now Isaac\nwas of a poetical nature, and sought the solitude of the fields at\neventide to meditate. Like most young men who have a love affair on\nhand he wanted to be alone and dream dreams and see visions.\n\nAnd, as good luck would have it, just at this sentimental and\nopportune moment, Rebekah hove in sight.\n\nAnd Isaac lifted up his eyes and beheld her; a woman with heaven in\nher eyes, a mouth sweet enough to make a man forget everything but the\nroses of life, and a form seductive enough to tempt the very gods from\non high.\n\n[Illustration: (I will go.)]\n\nAnd she beheld a man, young and strong and handsome, the touch of\nwhose hand opened the gates of glory to her soul, \"and she became his\nwife, and he loved her,\" thereby putting himself on record as the\nfirst man in the world we have any sacred official notification of as\nhaving loved his wife.\n\nSo the days and months, brightened by smiles and tarnished by tears,\ndropped into the wreck-strewn, motionless ocean of the past, and in\nthe course of human events two little boys played marbles in the tent\nof Isaac, and Rebekah scored the rather doubtful distinction of going\non record as the first woman who ever doubled expectations and\npresented her husband with twins.\n\n[Illustration: (Two little boys played marbles.)]\n\nAt this period the fair Rebekah begins to get in her work as a\ndisobedient wife, a deceitful, intriguing woman and\nan-all-round-have-her-own-way variety of her sex.\n\n\"Isaac loved Esau, but Rebekah loved Jacob,\" and we conclude from\nthat, as well as from the actual facts in the case, that there were\ndomestic tornadoes, conjugal cyclones and general unpleasantness all\nround. About this time there was another famine in the land and Isaac\nand Rebekah (and others) went into the land of the Philistines to\ndwell, and of course Rebekah's beauty attracted universal attention,\nand the men of the place questioned Isaac about her and he replied\nthat she was his sister, as he said, \"lest the men of the place should\nkill me for Rebekah,\" because she _was_ fair to look upon.\n\nIn that age it appears when a man fell in love with a woman he killed\nher husband, instead of hoodwinking and outwitting him as they do in\nthis progressive era, but I suppose in spite of the awful chance of\nlosing her husband by some sudden and tragic death, Rebekah slyly and\nseductively smiled upon \"the men of the place\" from the fact that a\nlittle farther on we read that the King issued a mandate, saying:\n\n\"He that toucheth this man or his wife shall surely be put to death.\"\n\nThe King knew that Isaac was favored of the Lord, and he was afraid of\nsome swift and condign punishment if Isaac became offended by the\namorous attentions of any of his subjects to Rebekah, so he gave the\norder to the men.\n\nYou will readily discern by that command that he was a keen and\nintelligent student of female character, and knew there was no use or\nreason in appealing to her sense of justice, her obedience to, or\nrespect for law, or her regard for the \"eternal fitness of things\" in\na case of the affections, and so he appealed to the fear and obedience\nof the men, for he realized that no man's pleading, no King's command,\nno threats from heaven or fears of hell can stop a woman's coquetry.\n\nA little farther on Esau went the way of all young men and married,\nand worse than that he married Judith the daughter of a Hittite,\n\"which was a grief of mind unto Rebekah and Isaac.\"\n\nWe know that one of Rebekah's strongest points was putting herself on\nrecord for doing something that no woman ever did before that we have\nany authorized statement of, and she did it in this case by being the\nfirst woman who hated her daughter-in-law.\n\n[Illustration: (Esau cheated out of his blessing.)]\n\nAs we read on we find she was not the meek, submissive and obedient\nwife we are told women should be.\n\nShe systematically and continually had her own way, in spite of\nhusband, sons, kings, men, God or angels.\n\n[Illustration: \"AND REBEKAH WAS--A WOMAN.\"]\n\nWe discover that by a succession of deceptions, tricks and chicanery\nshe cheated Esau out of his blessing, obtained it for Jacob, and\ndeceived and deluded her dying husband, all at one fell swoop.\n\nIt is but just to Jacob to say that he objected to putting himself in\nhis brother's place, but Rebekah said, \"only obey my voice,\" and he\nobeyed--of course.\n\nThe men were always obedient, as the Bible proves conclusively. They\nobeyed everybody and anybody--kings, mothers, wives, sweethearts and\ncourtesans.\n\nBut where can we find any evidence of the vaunted obedience of woman?\n\nNot among the prominent women of the Bible at least.\n\nRebekah influenced her husband in all matters, advanced one son's\ninterests and balked another's aims, prospects and ambitions. In short\nshe played her cards with such consummate skill that she captured\neverything she cared to take.\n\nJacob was obedient, complimentary, submissive and loving and Rebekah\nwas--a woman.\n\n\n\n\nA WOMAN'S MONUMENT.\n\n\n\n\nA WOMAN'S MONUMENT.\n\n\n[Illustration: (And there came two angels to Sodom.)]\n\n\"And there came two angels to Sodom, at even.\"\n\nNow Lot and his wife were residents of Sodom, and they entertained in\nthe most courteous and hospitable manner the angels who were the\nadvance guards of the destruction that was about to sweep the cities\nof Sodom and Gomorrah into oblivion, leaving only a blazing ash-strewn\ntradition to scare the slumbers of the wicked, and stalk a warning\nspecter down the paths of iniquity through unborn ages.\n\nAnd the softening twilight fell upon the doomed but unconscious\ncities. Unpitying Nature smiled joyously. The cruel sun, possibly\nknowing the secret of the angels, gayly flaunted his myriad colors,\nand disappeared in a blaze of glory without wasting one regret upon\nthe wicked cities he would see no more forever.\n\nNo angelic hand wrote in blazing letters one word of warning across\nthe star-gemmed scroll of heaven; but the song rung out on the evening\nbreezes, laughter rose and fell and the red wine flowed; women danced\nlightly on the brink of destruction and men jested on the edge of the\ngrave.\n\nAnd yet some rumor of these angels and their errand must have reached\nthe fated cities, for after Lot had dined and wined them before they\nretired, \"the men of the city, even the men of Sodom, compassed the\nhouse round, both old and young, all the people from every quarter.\"\n\nAnd Lot went out and tried to pacify them, but his eloquence and his\npleading were in vain, and they said, \"Stand back.\" And they said\nagain, \"This one fellow came in to sojourn, and he will needs be a\njudge.\"\n\n[Illustration: \"AND LOT WENT OUT AND TRIED TO PACIFY THEM.\"]\n\nAnd I imagine there was a great tumult and confusion, angry words,\nflashing eyes and an ominous surging to and fro, \"and they pressed\nsore upon the man, even Lot,\" but still he pleaded the defense of the\nangels, and meanly offered to bring out his two young daughters and\ngive to the howling mob--but the passion that glowed in the eyes and\ntrembled in the voices of the raging throng was not a passion to be\nallayed by the clasp of a woman's hand, the flash of her azure eye, or\nthe touch of her lips; and besides, that boisterous, angry crowd\nevidently did not believe in the efficacy of vicarious atonement and\nthey flouted the offer. The uproar increased, curses and maledictions\nrung out, the demand for the men grew louder and louder, and at this\nperilous moment the angels \"put forth their hand and pulled Lot into\nthe house to them, and shut to the door,\" and \"They smote the men that\nwere at the door of the house with blindness, both small and great: so\nthat they wearied themselves to find the door.\"\n\nAnd in that crushing moment when eternal darkness fell upon the\nmultitude the cries of anger and revenge died away, and such a moan\nof anguish and despair burst upon the affrighted night that the very\nstars in heaven trembled.\n\nThen the angels confided to Lot their dread secret and told him to\nwarn all his relatives to leave the city with him, and he went out and\ntold his sons-in-law of the impending calamity, and he \"seemed as one\nthat mocked unto his sons-in-law.\"\n\nThe morning came blue-eyed and blushing, and the angels hastened Lot\nand his wife, and hurried them out of the city, saying, \"Escape for\nthy life: look not behind thee, neither stay thou in all the plains:\nescape to the mountains, lest thou be consumed.\"\n\nNow if there were any more disreputable people in the cities than\nLot's two young daughters, we don't wonder that the vengeance of a\njust God sent a blasting storm of bursting flames to lick with their\nfiery tongues these wicked cities from the face of the earth. What\ndoes arouse our wonder is that those fair girls with the devil's\ninstincts smouldering in their hearts should be allowed to escape the\ngeneral baking. But excuse us; our business is to state facts and not\nto wonder or surmise.\n\n[Illustration: (Lot's wife looked back.)]\n\nFrom subsequent facts we suppose that Lot's wife sadly, perhaps\nrebelliously, lingered, for we find the angels saying again:\n\n\"Haste thee, escape thither; for I cannot do anything till thou come\nthither,\" and they escaped to the city of Zoar, \"and the sun was risen\nupon the face of the earth when Lot entered into Zoar.\"\n\n\"Then the Lord rained upon Sodom and Gomorrah brimstone and fire from\nthe Lord out of heaven.\"\n\nBut before the end Lot's \"wife looked back from behind him and she\nbecame a pillar of salt.\"\n\nAll the information we have of Mrs. Lot is exceedingly meager; only\none short sentence and two little clauses in other sentences; and yet\nno figure of history, no creation of a poet's dream or artist's brush\nsince the world, wrapped in the laces of the twilight and the mists,\nand rocked in the cradle of the first early morning of life, until the\npresent day, old in experience, wrinkled with care, heart-sick with\ntoo much knowledge and laughing without mirth, stands out more\nclearly before the world than Lot's wife--and why?\n\nBecause it has been supposed that she was very naughty.\n\nIn this world it is the wicked folks who get the glory and the\neverlasting fame; the good people get the snubs, the crumbs, the\neternal oblivion.\n\nThe whole history of Lot's wife lies in the fact that she was told by\nthe angel of the Lord to do one thing, and she--didn't do it.\n\nBut that is characteristic of the women of old; they systematically\ndidn't do it if they were told to, and systematically did do it if\nthey were told not to.\n\nAnd Madam Lot \"became a pillar of salt,\" because of her disobedience,\nand has stood through the centuries a warning statue to naughty\nfemales; yes, more than that, for she has seemed a criminal whom just\nvengeance caught in the very act and turned into a pillar of salt,\nstanding in the plain near Sodom, against a background of shame, crime\nand punishment, that the eyes of the world of women might look upon\nforever, and be afraid.\n\nBut in this day and age we are beginning to see that in Lot's wife it\nwas a case of mistaken identity, and instead of being a criminal she\nwas a great and good woman, and although the \"pillar of salt\"\ncommemorates an act of dire disobedience, it also extols a loving\nheart and a brave act.\n\nJust imagine her position. She was leaving her home, around which a\nwoman's heart clings as the vine clings to the oak, her children, her\nfriends; breaking the ties that years of association and friendship\nhad woven about her in chains of gold, and leaving them to a terrible\nfate. But stronger than all these gossamer, yet almost unbreakable\nthreads, was the love she bore her husband; a love so intense, so deep\nthat it made her obey a command of God's against which every instinct,\npassion and emotion of her nature rebelled.\n\nHe was going and her daughters were going with him, and womanlike she\nforsook everything to follow him--the man she loved; the man whose\nfrown could make her heart sore as the wounds of death and agony, and\nher heaven dark with the clouds of desolation and despair; or whose\ngentle smile or caressing touch could sweep the mists of doubt and\nuncertainty from her mind, even as June kisses make June roses\nblossom, her weary eye glow with the light that love alone can kindle,\nand clothe rough labor in robes of splendor.\n\nSoftly the dawn awoke, gayly fell the sunlight on the doomed cities,\nand joyously the breezes swept the plains round about Sodom and\nGomorrah.\n\nAnd Lot and his wife and daughters obeyed the command: \"Escape for thy\nlife; look not behind thee, neither stay thou in all the plains;\nescape to the mountains lest thou be consumed.\"\n\nAnd now with frantic haste Lot's wife urges them on; she even leads\nthe way in her mad desire for their escape, encouraging them by word,\nlook and action. And while her heart is a battle-ground where a\ndesperate conflict is raging, there is no hint of disobedience or\nrebellion in her eyes, no lagging in her footstep, no tears for love,\nno sighs for friendship, no backward glance of compassion toward the\nwicked but dear city.\n\nAnd now they have come a long way--and suddenly the sunshine grows\ndark, the wind falls, flutters, dies away; then comes the ominous\nhush that foretells the bursting storm.\n\nAnd this woman knows that her daughters and her husband, the lover of\nher youth and the lover of later years, in short the one loved lover\nof her life, is safe; safe from the tempest of destruction, safe from\nthe wrath of God. A wave of joy floods her heart at the thought. No\nharm can touch them; she revels in that assurance for a moment--and\nthen she forgets them.\n\nThe white-capped breakers of disobedience against the cruel command\n\"look not behind thee\" sweep with crushing force across her soul; the\nunjust command that stifles compassion. All the angels and demons, the\njoys and sorrows of life, urge her to turn back; love of children,\nfriendship of old neighbors, regret for the joys that have fled,\nremorse for the wicked deeds she has done, the unkind words she has\nspoken, a blind unreasoning rebellion against the fate that has\novertaken her friends and home, fight against God's command. And in\nthat awful moment when the furious winds strike her like angry hands,\nwhen Fear levels his glittering dagger at her heart, Death holds his\ngleaming sword before her eyes, the heavens disappear, hell sits\nenthroned in fiery flames upon the clouds; above the deafening roar of\nthe maddened tempest the crashing thunder that made the very dead\ntremble in the corruption of their graves, and the awful surging of\nthe blazing rain, she heard God's command ringing out \"Look not behind\nthee.\"\n\n[Illustration: (Look not behind thee.)]\n\nFor an instant she paused to cast an ineffable smile of love upon the\ncherished ones at her side, and then before the eyes of unborn\nmillions, while all the hosts of heaven and even God himself stood\nappalled at her daring, she slowly and deliberately turned and looked\nback; and that one glance showed her a sight that froze her into a\nbeautiful statue of disobedience, love and compassion.\n\nShe was loving, tender, daring--but disobedient!\n\nOh, that we might find one woman in the Old Testament meek and humble,\nto whom we could pin a faith, not born of teaching and preaching and\ngeneral belief, that such a thing as a submissive, obedient, tractable\nwoman or wife ever did exist.\n\n\n\n\nANOTHER OF THE WOMEN OF OLD.\n\n\n\n\nANOTHER OF THE WOMEN OF OLD.\n\n\nAt the command of his mother, let it be remembered, and not because he\nhad any particular desire to do so himself, Jacob left home and\ndeparted unto the land of his mother's people, where she told him to\nseek a wife.\n\nThe life of many men of the Old Testament (after they have reached\nman's estate, I mean) begins with a love affair, and I infer from\nthat, that the Bible means to teach the lesson that to love is the\nfirst and best business of life, as well as the most entertaining and\npleasant thing that this world ever did or ever will have to offer.\n\nAnd Jacob reached the land of Laban, his mother's brother, and stopped\nby a well where the flocks were watered. This is the second well which\nfigures conspicuously in a love story of the Bible, and we imagine\nthey were the trysting places of the ancient young lovers.\n\nWhile Jacob was loitering and gossiping with the young men he found\nthere, \"and while he yet spake with them, Rachel came with her\nfather's sheep; for she kept them.\"\n\nNow \"Rachel was beauteous and well favored,\" and of course Jacob saw\nall this at a glance, for a man never yet needed a telescope and a\nweek's time to decide whether a woman possessed the elements which\nconstituted beauty in his mind or not, and so Jacob gallantly rolled\nthe stone away from the well and watered the flock of Laban, and then,\nwith all the boldness which characterized his future notorious career,\nhe \"kissed Rachel, and lifted up his voice and wept.\"\n\nAs there could hardly be anything but pleasure in kissing a lovely\nmaiden, we naturally infer that Jacob was very emotional and was\ncrying for effect, and that Rachel, with the consummate tact that all\nthe women of the Bible displayed when managing the men, perfectly\nunderstood this, and had as little respect for him at the moment as\nmost women have for a tearful man. A man like Jacob cries easily, and\nwhen he thus \"lifted up his voice and wept,\" it is to be hoped the\ngirl entirely understood him.\n\nAnd Jacob's kiss is the first one that love ever pressed upon the lips\nof a blushing maid--at least it is the first one that is\nauthoritatively recorded.\n\nAt that time Jacob started a fashion that \"custom cannot stale,\" a\nfashion that while time lasts shall be as cheap as roses, laughter and\nsunshine, as thrilling as wine, as sweet as innocence and as new as\nlove, a fashion that wealth, time or country cannot monopolize, and\none that is as sweet to the beggar, and sweeter too, than to the king.\n\n[Illustration: (Jacob kissed Rachel and lifted up his voice and\nwept.)]\n\nAt the end of one short month we find him so desperately enamored\nthat he said to Laban, Rachel's father: \"I will serve thee seven years\nfor thy younger daughter;\" and the old gentleman, seeing an\nopportunity to get a hired man cheap, consented.\n\n\"And Jacob served seven years for Rachel, and they seemed unto him but\na few days for the love he had to her.\"\n\nWhat a world of devotion that one sentence reveals. As we read that we\nforget all about the prosaic age in which we live; forget the modern\nI'll-give-you-a-brown-stone-front-and-diamonds-in-exchange-for-your-\nyouth-and-beauty-love, and believe in the kind that makes a man a god\nand a woman an angel, and we imagine that an affection so intense and\ndeep that it could make seven weary years of labor \"seem but a few\ndays\" must be as constant as the flowing tide, as steadfast as the\nstars--and then after a while we are desperately, despairingly sorry\nthat we have read any further than that verse because we are so sadly\ndisillusioned.\n\n[Illustration: \"AND JACOB SERVED SEVEN YEARS FOR RACHEL.\"]\n\nFor a little further on we find that Jacob wasn't as shrewd about\ngetting married as he was about breeding cattle that were\nring-streaked and grizzled, and so Laban, with the cunning of a\nmodern politician, palmed off his daughter Leah on Jacob as a bride.\nBut the next morning, when he discovered the trick, there were\nprobably matinees, side-shows and circuses in the tent of Laban, and\nfinally the upshot of the whole affair was that he agreed to serve\nseven years more for Rachel, and then married her also. Far be it from\nme to disparage Jacob's love, but we cannot help but notice that we\nhave no inspired statement saying that the seven years he served for\nRachel, after he had married her, \"seemed but a few days for the love\nhe had to her.\"\n\nBut we can't censure him for that, for as we read we discover that in\nhis earnest and constant endeavor to save his precious person he had\nno time to nurture his love. For the two wives, the two sisters, were\nmadly jealous of each other of course (and we can't blame them either,\nfor there never was a man so great that he could be divided between\ntwo wives, several handmaids and more concubines, and be enough of him\nto go around satisfactorily) and they made his life a howling\nwilderness.\n\nLeah, poor thing, longed for her fraudulent husband's love, and he\nhated her. Rachel \"envied her sister,\" and \"Jacob's anger was kindled\nagainst Rachel,\" and altogether the picture of their home is not very\nenticing, and having gotten thus far we are more than ever convinced\nthat we do not want to follow the example of the \"holy women\" of old,\nas Peter complimentarily, but ignorantly, calls them.\n\nAnd Rachel and Leah, in order to spite and humble each other, each\ngave her maid \"to Jacob to wife\" and strange as it may seem, he\naccepted them both. It was like him.\n\nNow about this time Leah's son \"found mandrakes in the field\" and\nbrought them to his mother. We suppose Rachel had a sweet tooth from\nthe fact that a little further on we find her offering to sell her\nhusband for one night to Leah, for some mandrakes, whatever they were;\nand we notice that women held their husbands rather cheap in those\ngood old days.\n\nYou see Rachel and Leah made Jacob a thing of barter and sale and\n(without consulting his desires) Leah consummated the bargain, and she\nwent out toward the field when the harvest was progressing, and met\nJacob as he came from his work tired and dusty, and informed him he\nmust come with her, \"For surely I have hired thee with my son's\nmandrakes,\" and he did not resent the insulting idea that he had been\n\"hired,\" but like all the other distractingly obedient men of the\nBible--he went.\n\nRachel next distinguishes herself as a disobedient daughter and\nheadstrong wife by \"stealing her father's gods\" without consulting or\nconfiding in her husband, for we read that \"Jacob knew not that Rachel\nhad stolen them.\"\n\nAnd Laban, Rachel's father, and Jacob had a lively altercation, and\nthey said exceedingly naughty things to each other in loud voices, but\nat last they came to an agreement, and Laban said he would give up his\nchildren, grandchildren and cattle, but he was bound to have his\n\"gods\" or know the reason why. The entire story is a curious mixture\nof heathenism and belief in one God.\n\nThen Jacob rose in all the confidence of perfect innocence and told\nhim he might search the whole camp for all he cared, and he added in\nhis outraged dignity, \"with whomsoever thou findest thy gods, let him\nnot live.\"\n\nYou will observe by that that it was a terrible crime to steal \"gods,\"\nand as it is the first offense of the kind on record, you can infer\nwhat a reckless, ungovernable female Rachel must have been to do so\ndreadful an act.\n\n[Illustration: (She hoped he would excuse her for not arising.)]\n\nWell, Laban went like a cyclone \"unto Jacob's tent\" (notice what\nhumiliation and disgrace Rachel subjected her husband to, and what a\nscandal it must have raised in the neighborhood), and into Leah's tent\nand into the two maid-servants' tents; but he found them not. Then he\nentered into Rachel's tent.\n\nNow she had hidden the precious little images in the camel's furniture\nand sat upon them, and she said she didn't feel very well this\nmorning, papa dear, or words to that effect, and she hoped he would\nexcuse her for not arising; and she probably smiled sweetly, put her\narm around his neck, and finally did him up completely by kissing him\ntenderly; and of course, as in those days men never dreamed of asking\na woman to do anything she didn't want to do, papa dear did not insist\nupon her arising, and so missed his sole and only chance of getting\nhis \"gods.\"\n\nIt was a very serious and perhaps terrible loss to her father, and we\ncan gather no idea from the scripture why she did it unless out of\npure spite, or else she wanted to use them as bric-a-brac in the new\nhome to which she was going.\n\nIn the history of the \"beauteous and well-favored\" Rachel and the\n\"tender-eyed\" Leah, we find hatred, deadly jealousy, anger, strife,\ndissensions and envy, but none of the forbearance, self-sacrifice,\nobedience, meekness and submission that we have been taught that the\nladies of the Old Testament possessed, and we are almost sorry that we\ndidn't take the preacher's \"say so\" for it, instead of studying the\nBible diligently and intelligently for ourselves.\n\n\n\n\nALL NAUGHTY, BUT FAIR.\n\n\n\n\nALL NAUGHTY, BUT FAIR.\n\n\nThe next young lady whom the Old Testament presents for our admiration\nand edification is Dinah, the daughter of Jacob and Leah, who set the\npassionate but agonizing style of \"loving not wisely, but too well,\"\nand brought about one of the shrewdest military stratagems that was\never perpetrated, a terrible massacre, and the slavery of many\ninnocent women and children.\n\nSeveral other ladies are mentioned casually and then we come to Tamar,\nwhose father-in-law, Judah, had broken his solemn promise and\ndefrauded her of her rights. And did she submissively consent to be\ndeprived of her just dues? Not at all. She simply disguised herself,\nand by deception and a thorough knowledge of man's nature, mixed up\nwith a shrewd business tact, completely out-generaled her dear\npapa-in-law, gained her revenge, and by a sagacious artifice protected\nherself from the possible consequences of her folly and from future\npunishment by persuading Judah to give her, as a pledge of his good\nfaith, \"his signet and bracelets and staff.\" In short, she was the\noriginal pawn-broker of the world; and Judah left his treasures \"in\nescrow\" until he could redeem them by delivering her a kid in\nliquidation of his debt.\n\nAnd for many days the sun blazed and faded, the stars sparkled and\npaled, and the moon rode high in silvery radiance; the winds and birds\nand flowers blushed and sang and sighed, and in due course of time\nJudah sent a kid to redeem his valuables, but alas! Tamar had slipped\naway and left no trace by which she could be identified, and Judah,\nwho had broken his pledge, was left in suspense.\n\nBut finally the time of retribution came, as come it does and must to\nevery possessor of a pawn ticket. The days, those bright beads on the\nrosary of time, were counted one by one and shadows began to gather\nabout the fair name of Tamar. Then the whispers of suspicion grew to\npealing thunders of scandal which reached and shocked the good Judah,\nand he rose up in his moral rectitude and righteous indignation at\nsuch depravity and cried: \"Bring her forth and let her be burnt.\"\n\nBut my lady, with a woman's wit, had foreseen this possible\ndenouncement and punishment, and prepared for it, and she quietly sent\nthe articles he had left in pawn, and humbled him to the very dust\nwith her message.\n\n\"Discern, I pray thee, whose are these, the signet and bracelets and\nstaff?\" And I will add here that there was no fire, because Tamar\nskillfully avoided being the fuel.\n\nI do not relate the above to harrow up your feelings, but simply to\nshow you the stuff the women of the Old Testament were made of.\n\nAbout this time the matchless Joseph appears upon the stage of the Old\nTestament as the monument of masculine virtue, and lo! the woman in\nthe case enters upon the scene in the shape of Potiphar's wife, and\nplays her part in the comedy or tragedy--as you happen to look at\nit--in Joseph's life.\n\nShe doesn't come before the public with a burst of melody, a blaze of\nlight and the enticing music of applause, but she enters softly,\nquietly she \"casts her eyes upon Joseph\" and she sees he is \"a goodly\nperson and well favored\"--and the mischief is done. She lavished her\nwealth in all the follies, fashions and pleasures of her time to\nattract him; she met him in the hall, gave him roses in the garden,\nsmiled at him from the doorway. When she slept she dreamed sweet\ndreams of kisses and soft hand-clasps. When she lifted her gaze to the\nstars, 'twas his eyes she saw there. When she walked by the river's\nside, the rippling waters were no sweeter than his voice. When the\nsummer wind, perfume-laden, fanned her face she fancied 'twas his warm\nbreath on her cheek. Then she forgot husband and duty, heaven and\nhell, and she listened for his footsteps, lingered for his coming,\nwatched and waited for his smile--and all in vain.\n\nAnd Joseph, who loved this woman with an incomparable love; this woman\nwho from the eminence of her wealth, rank and beauty, in the utter\nabandonment of her passion cast herself at his feet, Joseph was man\nenough to bend and sway and falter before her temptations, but for\nfriendship's sake, for honor's sake, for the sake of her he loved,\ndivine enough to resist them.\n\nOut from among the seductive fables and shocking facts of history\nJoseph stands forth a shining example as the first man, and perhaps\nthe last, who loved a woman so well that he refused her outstretched\narms, declined the kisses from her lips, rejected the reckless\ninvitation in her eyes, and saved her from himself. Who loved with a\npassion so tender and deep that, unlike all other men, he refused to\nmake her he loved a victim on the altar of his passions, but would\nhave enshrined her there a goddess, \"pure as ice and chaste as snow.\"\n\nMen have always sacrificed women \"who loved not wisely, but too well\"\nupon the altar of their own selfishness, but Joseph saved her and\ntaught the world what true love is.\n\nThe facts of history stab our faith in man's love, woman's constancy,\nfriendship, honor and truth, but Joseph's peerless example revives it,\nand we feel that there are characters that are incorruptible, honesty\nthat is unassailable, virtue that is impregnable and friendship that\nis undying. He shines out from among the other characters of the Old\nTestament as distinctly and clearly as a star breaking through the\nsullen clouds of heaven, as a lily blowing and floating above the\ngreen scum and sluggish waters, as a rose blooming in a wilderness.\nThank the Lord for Joseph!\n\nBut Potiphar's wife, womanlike, scorned a love that would make her an\nangel instead of a victim, and by a succession of plausible, neat\nlittle lies, gained her husband's ear, had Joseph cast into prison,\nand teaches us that, indeed, \"Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.\"\n\nBut what we wanted to say was, that she was a faithless wife, a\nreckless lover, a revengeful and unforgiving woman, since Joseph was\nleft to languish in captivity for two long years, without any effort\non her part, as far as we can learn or infer, to accomplish his\nrelease.\n\nAt this period in the history of the Jews a new king arose in Egypt,\nand fearing the great number of the Jews, he \"set over them\ntask-masters, to afflict them with their burdens;\" \"but the more they\nafflicted them the more they multiplied and grew.\"\n\nThen the king, in the usual arrogance of power, ignorantly supposing\nthat women were obedient and never dreaming they would dare to\ndisregard the commands of royalty, spoke to the Hebrew midwives, and\nin the easy, off-hand manner that kings had in those days, told them\nto kill all the boy babies that came to the Jews, but to save the girl\nbabies alive.\n\nAnd did they do it? Not at all! They simply looked at each other,\nlaughed at the king, and utterly ignored his commands, and then when\nmajesty in dread power called them to account, with a shrewdness\ncharacteristic of the females of the Old Testament they invented a\nplausible excuse, baffled the king, shielded the Jews and saved\nthemselves.\n\n\n\n\nSTORY OF SOME WOMEN AND A BABY.\n\n\n\n\nSTORY OF SOME WOMEN AND A BABY.\n\n\nSo the king was balked by the Hebrew midwives and the Jews continued\nto \"increase abundantly and multiplied, and waxed exceeding mighty;\nand the land was filled with them.\"\n\nAnd the king, fearing the multitude of the Jews, again pitted himself\nagainst the fecundity and rebellion of the women, and issued the cruel\nbut famous command:\n\n\"And Pharaoh charged all the people, saying, Every son that is born ye\nshall cast into the river, and every daughter ye shall save alive.\"\n\nAnd shortly after that, one night when all the Egyptians slept, and\nonly the stars, the moon and the winds were awake, in the silence and\nthe silvery gloom, a baby boy came to a daughter of Levi, and \"when\nshe saw him that he was a goodly child\" she quietly determined that no\nmurderous hand should ever toss him in the rolling river, or check the\nbreath on his sweet lips; \"and she hid him three months.\"\n\nI don't know how she did it, but perhaps when he was crying with all a\nbaby's vigor for his supper the embryo diplomat in his heart shrewdly\ncaught the meaning in his mother's warning \"hush, sh!\" and, king and\ntyrant tho' he was, he knew \"that there was a greater than he,\" and\nstilled his cries. Perhaps when the colic gripped his vitals he bore\nthe pain in unflinching silence, if he heard an Egyptian footstep near\nthe door. Perhaps he stopped his gooing and cooing in his hidden nest,\nand held his very breath in fear, when he heard an Egyptian voice in\nthe house.\n\nAnd all these three months he had been growing plump, and strong and\nhealthy, and I suppose he became a little reckless, or perchance he\nbegan to think he knew more than his mother did about it, and wouldn't\nkeep still. Anyway, whatever was the matter I don't know, but there\ncame a day when \"she could no longer hide him,\" and then she laid a\nplot to baffle the king, defeat death and save the child.\n\nBeing an ambitious woman as well as a loving mother, she was not\ncontent that he should be as other children, forced \"to serve with\nrigor\" and his life made \"bitter with hard bondage in mortar and\nbrick and in all manner of service of the field.\" I presume she\nthought he was a little more beautiful and more clever than any child\nthat ever lived before, for we all do that when a baby comes without\nan invitation and often against our most urgent wishes, and nestling\nin our arms says, without uttering a word: \"I've come to stay and I\nwant my supper; I'm hungry, for the journey has been long and\ndark--and why don't you make haste?\"\n\nPerhaps she had caught the fire of the future statesman in his dark\neye; perhaps she had heard the ring of sublimity in the melodious\nvoice that afterward said \"Honor thy father and thy mother.\" Perhaps\nshe had seen the shrewdness of the future great diplomat in his\nmaneuvers to have his baby way, and being a bright woman she set her\nwits to work to defy the king, defeat his law and elude the cruel\nvigilance of the Egyptian spies; and she conceived a plot which for\nboldness of thought and shrewdness of execution stands unsurpassed.\nShe would not save him to live the toilsome, slavish life of the Jews.\nShe sighed for all the advantages of the Egyptians. She lifted her\nambitious eyes to the royal household itself, and in spite of the\naccident of birth, in spite of king and law and hatred, in spite of\nthe fatal fact that he was a dark-eyed, dark-haired Jew, she vowed he\nshould mingle with royal nabobs, laugh and thrive and prosper under\nthe very eye of his enemy the king, be clothed in purple and fine\nlinen, skilled in all the arts and learned in all the sciences of the\nEgyptians; and she was clever enough to see at a glance that in this\nalmost hopeless scheme she must have accomplices.\n\nAnd where did she turn for aid? To her husband, as a meek, submissive\nand obedient woman naturally would? Not at all. Perhaps she doubted\nthe intelligence of his assistance. Perhaps she had no faith in his\ncourage for the undertaking. Perhaps she did not believe he could keep\na secret; at any rate she refused to confide in him. I suppose, as no\nmention is made of it, she utterly ignored him, scorned to ask his\nadvice, and planned to dispose of his child without telling him of it,\nmuch less asking his permission.\n\nBut where did she turn for aid? Did she clothe herself in the gayest\ncostume of the Jews, and, conscious of her beauty, try with smiles\nand coquetry and caressing touch to beguile the King? No. Did she\nsteal into the tent of his greatest general and kneeling at his feet\nseek to bribe him with her love? No. She simply and utterly ignored\nthe men, and selected the King's own daughter as the instrument to\nexecute her design. She knew the royal girl came down to the river to\nbathe, and trusting in her baby's great gift of unrivaled beauty and\nthe woman's compassion, she planned a dramatic surprise for her.\n\n\"And when she could not longer hide him, she took him an ark of\nbulrushes, and daubed it with slime and pitch and put the child\ntherein. And she laid it among the flags by the river's brink.\" But\nbefore she put him in it she bathed him in perfumed water to make him\nsweet, put on his prettiest dress, tied up his short sleeves with\nsomething that just matched the color in his cheeks, and borrowed a\ngolden chain of an Egyptian woman to clasp about his milk-white neck.\nThen she lined the ark with roses, laid a little pillow in the bottom,\nput the baby softly in, partly closed the top to shield him from too\nmuch light and air, and laid it among the flags by the river's brink;\nand then the cleverness that had designed the scheme and the bravery\nthat had executed it so far, was overwhelmed by a mother's love and\nshe fled, and hid herself among the foliage and the reeds, too\nfrightened to watch the result; \"but his sister stood afar off to wit\nwhat would be done to him.\"\n\nAnd the baby had a nice time while he waited, for the wind with\nnoiseless feet and invisible hands came and softly rocked the cradle\nto and fro; the sunbeams sent a bright ray and put golden bracelets on\nhis wrists, which with the true instinct of human nature he tried to\ncatch and hold, and the birds coming down to wash in the rippling\nwaters peeped into the cradle, and, enraptured with the pretty sight,\nforgot to bathe, but stopped to sing.\n\nAnd the King's daughter and her maidens came laughing and singing down\nto the river's brink to bathe, as was their custom--a custom which\nbaby's mother knew about and took advantage of.\n\n[Illustration: \"PUT UP HIS HANDS IN WELCOME AND SAID 'AH, GOO! AH,\nGOO!'\"]\n\nAnd the girls spied the basket and wondered what it was, and finally\nthe royal damsel \"sent her maid to fetch it.\" And Pharaoh's\ndaughter opened it and \"she saw the child,\" and the girls crowded\naround and gazed in silent admiration. Then the baby, who never before\nhad seen the purple and fine linen of majesty or the sparkling jewels\nof wealth, knowing this was the opportunity of his life put up his\nhands in welcome and said in the universal language of babyhood, \"Ah,\ngoo! ah, goo!\" He was a worthy child of a great mother, and the minute\nhe was left to himself he came before the footlights and with one word\ncaptivated his audience, and a storm of kisses fell upon his lips and\nneck and arms. And when the girls ceased lest they should kiss him to\ndeath, he looked at them a minute, and then he opened his mouth and\nlaughed a little soft, gurgling laugh; a laugh so sweet that I'm sure\neven the terrible God of the Jews must have smiled had he heard it.\n\nHe didn't laugh because he felt particularly funny, but because the\nlittle diplomat, bent on conquest, wanted to show a tiny tooth that\ncame into his mouth one day, he didn't know how.\n\nHe had never seen it himself, but he knew it was there and was a\ntreasure, for one time in the dead of the night when all his dread\nenemies, the Egyptians, were fast asleep, and the wind howled and the\nrain beat upon the roof, his mother brought his father to his hiding\nplace and holding the light high up above his head, she touched him\nlightly under the chin and said: \"Laugh, now, and show papa baby's\ntooth.\" Then he did as he was told and his father looked long and\ncarefully and then laughed too, kissed him and went away.\n\nWhen the girls saw it they all smiled and kissed him too.\n\nAbout this time he wanted his mother and \"the babe wept.\"\n\nWhen the king's daughter saw his red lips quivering and the tears\nhanging on his long, curling lashes, love and compassion filled her\nheart, and thinking of her father's wicked command: \"Every son that is\nborn ye shall cast into the river,\" she said, sadly, \"this is one of\nthe Hebrews' children.\"\n\nThen his sister--I suppose it was the same one who had \"stood afar off\nto wit what would be done to him\" and who had approached--said, \"Shall\nI go and call to thee a nurse of the Hebrew women, that she may nurse\nthe child for thee?\"\n\n\"And Pharaoh's daughter said to her, 'Go.' And the maid went and\ncalled the child's mother.\"\n\n\"And Pharaoh's daughter said unto her, 'Take this child away and nurse\nit for me and I will give thee thy wages.' And the woman took the\nchild and nursed it.\" Wasn't that the sublimest conquering of ambition\nand crime by love ever known?\n\n[Illustration: (And every kiss strengthened her determination.)]\n\nI suppose the King's daughter went every day to see the little\nblack-eyed beauty and kiss his rosy lips, his soft white neck, his\ndimpled arms; and every kiss strengthened her determination to defy\nthe King, her father and the law, and save this baby for her own.\n\nI don't know how she managed it, but somehow she overcame all\nobstacles, and they were many and great there is no doubt, and \"he\nbecame her son,\" and the future lawgiver of the Jews, and the world\nwas saved.\n\nAnd so after all we owe the ten commandments to a Jewish woman's wit,\nstrategy and love, and an Egyptian woman's compassion and\ndisobedience, for the stern command that \"Every son that is born ye\nshall cast into the river\" was not given to the army, the navy or the\nchurch, to one man or woman, to doctors or midwives, but to \"all the\npeople,\" and in this affair there were a number of women, who all\nconnived to foil the \"powers that be\" and refused to do the King's\nbidding. First there was the mother of Moses and the sister, the\nKing's daughter, her maid and \"her maidens\" who came down to the\nriver's brink with her, at least two of them and perhaps twenty.\n\nI fail to find in their example any of the vaunted submission,\nobedience and docility we have been taught by those who did not read\ntheir Bible intelligently, or took some other person's \"say-so\" for\nit, and which are the vaunted characteristics of all these women.\n\nThey just simply scorned all the men and the laws whenever they did\nnot suit their ideas of right and justice, and proceeded to have their\nown way in spite of everything.\n\n\n\n\nANOTHER OF \"THE MISTAKES OF MOSES.\"\n\n\n\n\nANOTHER OF \"THE MISTAKES OF MOSES.\"\n\n\n\"And it came to pass in those days, when Moses was grown, that he went\nout unto his brethren and looked on their burdens, and he spied an\nEgyptian smiting an Hebrew, one of his brethren.\n\n\"And he looked this way and that way, and when he saw that there was\nno man, he slew the Egyptian, and hid him in the sand.\"\n\nYet we are told a little farther on \"Now the man Moses was very meek,\nabove all the men which were upon the face of the earth.\" But we\nhaven't anything to do with his meekness, and only mention the murder\nbecause thereby hangs the tale of Moses' first love affair.\n\n\"Murder will out,\" and so in due course of time the King heard about\nit and \"sought to slay Moses.\" \"But Moses fled from the face of\nPharaoh, and dwelt in the land of Midian, and he sat down by a well.\"\n\nNow when we read about the young men of the Bible hanging around a\n\"well\" we know what is going to happen. There is romance in the air\nand a love affair soon develops, for that seems to have been love's\ntrysting place. And I suppose he neglected no artifice of the toilet\nthat might enchance his personal charms, that he donned the most\ncostly and elegant of his Egyptian costumes, flung himself in courtly\nindolence upon the sand, and waited and watched eagerly for the rich\ngirls to come down to the well to water their father's flocks, just as\none watches in the twilight for the first star to sparkle in the azure\noverhead, for the first sunbeam of the morning or the first rose of\nJune.\n\n\"Now the priest of Midian had seven daughters, and they came and drew\nwater and filled the troughs to water their father's flock. And the\nshepherds came and drove them away, but Moses stood up and helped\nthem, and watered their flock.\"\n\nAnd who can blame Moses if he happened to wear his best raiment?\nEverything and everybody knows, and always has known, that love loves\nthe beautiful; and each one according to his light takes advantage of\nthe fact. So the wild maiden, when love with magic finger touches her\nquivering heart, stains her teeth a blacker black, hangs more beads\nand shells about her dirty neck and ankles, and practices all her rude\narts of coquetry. And her savage lover, charmed with her charms,\nsticks the gayest feathers in his hair, rubs a more liberal supply of\ngrease upon his polished, shiny skin, and makes himself brave with all\nhis weapons of war. So the birds only seek love's trysting place in\nthe springtime when their plumage is the most brilliant and their\nsongs the sweetest, and the fishes when their colors are the\nbrightest. And the woman of our day and generation, when love's arrow\n\"tipped with a jewel and shot from a golden string\" pierces her vital\norgan, wears her dress a little more decollete, bangs her hair more\nbangy, clasps more diamonds round her throat, dispenses with sleeves\naltogether, smiles her sweetest smile and laughs her gayest laugh. And\nhe, the modern man, caught in the snare, buys the shiniest stovepipe\nhat and nobbiest cane, dons his gaudiest neck-tie and widest\ntrousers--and after all, beasts and birds and fishes, savage and\ncivilized, we are all alike and ruled by the same instinct and\npassion, and \"why should the spirit of mortal be proud?\"\n\nI presume Zipporah, one of the priest's daughters, had heard about the\nelegant and courtly Egyptian who was in the neighborhood, and she no\ndoubt adorned herself with all her jewels, wore the finest finery in\nher wardrobe and wreathed her lips in smiles; for she knew that love\nlives and thrives on smiles and roses, coquetry and gallantry, on\nlaughter and sweet glances, and faints and dies on frowns, neglect and\nangry words; and so she tripped down to the well, bent on conquest.\nThen she flung back the drapery to show her dimpled arms, and drawing\nwater filled the trough; then the \"shepherds came and drove them away;\nbut Moses stood up and helped them, and watered their flocks.\" Was he\nnot gallant, and a striking contrast to the ugly shepherds?\n\nAnd of course Moses told her that it almost broke his heart to see her\nperforming such menial labor, and all such sweet fictitious stuff, and\nshe glanced at him admiringly from under her long, curling lashes, and\nthe \"rebel rose hue dyed her cheek,\" and he told her about the great\ncourt where he had been reared, and she whispered that her papa was\nthe rich priest of Midian; then they clasped hands lingeringly and\nsaid a soft good-night.\n\nIt seems the old gentleman kept a pretty close watch on his girls--and\nhe doubtless had a steady job--for he asked them how it happened that\nthey had returned so soon. And Zipporah put her arms around his neck,\nand placing her cheek against his told him all about the gallant and\ncourteous stranger. Having an eye to business--as behooves a father\nwith seven daughters on his hands--he didn't let this eligible young\nperson slip, but sent and invited him to his house and deluged him\nwith hospitality and kindness--and Moses and Zipporah were married\n\"and Moses was content to dwell with the man.\"\n\n[Illustration: (They clasped hands lingeringly and said a soft good\nnight.)]\n\nBut after a while, first soft and low and then in trumpet tones,\nambition whispered in his ear that he could deliver the Hebrews from\ntheir enemies. \"And Moses took his wife and sons and set them upon an\nass, and he returned to the land of Egypt.\"\n\nAnd I suppose, though time was young and wore roses then, the days\npassed slowly to Zipporah and she grew tired of Moses and the Lord,\ntired of the rod that turned into a serpent, of the strife and the\nbondage and the river of blood; tired of the frogs and the lice and\nthe swarms of flies; disgusted with the murrain of beasts and the\nboils and terrified at the thunder and fire and rain of hail and all\nthe horrors of Egypt, and like the woman of to-day, when things get\ntoo awfully unpleasant, she made it uncomfortable for Moses, and \"he\nsent her back\" to her father's house and she took her two sons with\nher.\n\nAfterward when Moses became famous and illustrious she returned to him\nwithout asking his consent, or even notifying him of her intention, as\nfar as we can learn from the official records.\n\nShe took her father, the priest Jethro, along to look after her and\ntake care of her baggage I suppose, and we imagine he didn't relish\nthe task much, for we hear him saying, rather apologetically we think,\n\"I, thy father-in-law Jethro, am come unto thee, and thy wife, and her\ntwo sons with her.\"\n\nI fancy Moses knew the condition of a man who was in the clutches of a\nwoman, and that woman his wife, so he forgave the old man, for he had\nexperience himself, \"and went out to meet his father-in-law, and did\nobeisance, and kissed him; and they asked each other of their\nwelfare.\" But there isn't any record that he kissed his wife, or even\nshook hands with her, and we infer that their domestic heaven was not\nall blue and cloudless.\n\nMiriam, although a prophetess and a sister of Aaron, was't very\nangelic, at least the glimpses we catch of her don't impress us with\nthe fact that she was. When the seashore was strewn with the dead,\nwhite faces of the drowned Egyptians, and the waves were flecked with\ntheir pallor and dashed their helpless arms about, Miriam \"took a\ntimbrel in her hand: and all the woman went out after her with\ntimbrels and with dances.\" And Miriam answered them, \"Sing ye to the\nLord, for he hath triumphed gloriously: the horse and his rider hath\nhe thrown into the sea.\"\n\n[Illustration: (Alas, my lord, I beseech thee.)]\n\nNow this may have been natural and all right for the times, only you\nknow it don't look well when compared with the action of our women of\nto-day, who drop tears and roses on the graves of their enemies.\n\nFurther on we find Miriam, womanlike, talking about Moses because he\nhad married an Ethiopian woman, and saying seditiously to Aaron, \"Hath\nthe Lord indeed spoken only by Moses? hath he not spoken also by us?\"\n\nAnd the Lord heard it and his anger \"was kindled against them,\" and my\nlady \"became leprous, white as snow.\"\n\nAs she was the one punished for daring to talk rebellion against\nMoses, God's chosen one, we suppose she was the ringleader and\ninstigator, and Aaron was only the tool in this plot that budded but\nnever bloomed.\n\n\"And Aaron looked upon Miriam, and behold, she was leprous,\" and of\ncourse she threw her arms around his neck and with streaming eyes\nbesought his aid, and Aaron turned the smoothly flowing river of his\neloquence into resistless words of appeal and said unto Moses, while\nMiriam knelt at his feet: \"Alas, my Lord, I beseech thee, lay not the\nsin upon us,\" and \"let her not be as one dead;\" and Moses, moved, as\nmen have always been moved, by woman's tears, \"cried unto the Lord,\nsaying, Heal her now, O, God I beseech thee,\" and after seven days the\ncurse was removed.\n\n\n\n\nSOME MANAGING WOMEN.\n\n\n\n\nSOME MANAGING WOMEN.\n\n\nThe women of the Old Testament always wanted something, and it is a\nnoticeable fact that they always asked for it--and got it too.\n\nSo the daughters of Zelophehad had a grievance, and they didn't go\namong the neighbors bewailing their hard lot, they didn't sit and wish\nfrom morning till night that something would turn up to help them, or\nsigh their lives away in secret, but they put on their most radiant\nattire and jauntiest veils and \"stood before Moses, and before\nEleazar the priest, and before the princes and all the congregation,\"\nand demanded their father's possessions, and even argued the\nquestion reasonably and logically. There was not any of the St.\nPaul-women-should-not-speak-in-meeting doctrine about the Biblical\nwomen of those elder days.\n\nThey didn't endeavor to persuade Moses' wife to influence her husband\nto use his power in their behalf. They did not retain the services of\nAaron, the finest orator of the day, to plead their cause, but they\ndid their own talking, and they got what they asked for--their\nfather's possessions--and husbands thrown in without extra charge.\nBeing clever as well as ambitious women, they probably foresaw that\nhusbands would follow after the inheritance, and although they would\nnot ask for lords and masters of course, they had their eyes on them\njust the same. As there were several of them, all unmarried, they were\nno doubt _not_ \"fair to look upon,\" so they laid a little plot to\nsecure husbands. And they succeeded and were happy, for marriage was\nthe aim and end of a woman's existence then, and there was a better\nmarket and more of a demand for husbands than in these modern days.\n\nWe only catch a glimpse of one woman named Achsah, but that is enough\nto show us that she possessed the prevailing and prominent\ncharacteristic of all the other \"holy women.\"--she wanted something.\n\nAfter she had married her warrior lover, who conquered Kirpathsepher\nfor her sweet sake, the very first thing we find is that \"she moved\nhim to ask of her father a field.\" Now naturally a young man would\ndislike to approach his father-in-law upon such a delicate subject,\nand so soon too, but _she_ asked him and he obeyed--like all the men\nof the Old Testament.\n\nAnd even then she was not satisfied; but of course she embraced her\nfather and kissed him, and told him he was the most indulgent father\nin the whole wide world.\n\nNow Caleb no doubt had had dozens of love affairs, and experience had\nmade him a connoisseur of female character, and understanding all\ntheir little scheming ways and little designing tricks, without\nbeating around the bush at all he came to business at once and asked,\n\n\"What would'st thou?\"\n\n[Illustration: (What would'st thou?)]\n\n\"Give me a blessing; for thou hast given me a south land, give me also\nsprings of water,\" she said.\n\nSprings of water were a bonanza in those days--something like a gold\nor silver mine to us moderns--but she had requested it and of course\nhe could not refuse, \"and he gave her the upper springs and the nether\nsprings.\"\n\nAnd it came to pass that Joshua sent two men, two spies, saying, \"Go\nview the land, even Jericho,\" and I suppose they disguised themselves\nand went by secret ways; anyway they eluded the vigilance of their\nenemies and entered the city, even Jericho, and let me whisper it in\nyour ear, they went to see a woman named Rahab--and she wasn't a very\nnice woman either--and \"lodged there.\"\n\nBut their visit leaked out, as such things always do and always will,\nthough the stars should pale their fires to shield them, the moon\nwithdraw behind the clouds to hide their shadows, the rain pour and\nthe thunder crash to drown their footsteps. Perhaps the children told\nthe neighbors, perhaps the hired girl whispered to her friend, perhaps\nsome jealous watching lover told of it, but at any rate we read:\n\n\"And it was told to the King of Jericho, saying: Behold there came two\nmen in hither to-night of the children of Israel, to search out the\ncountry.\"\n\n\"And the King of Jericho sent unto Rahab, saying: Bring forth the men\nthat are come to thee, which are entered into thy house: for they be\ncome to search all the country.\"\n\nNow does one suppose for a moment that she obeyed the mandate of the\nKing? Of course not, if one is a student of the Bible, but if one is\nnot, I'll just say that she took them up through the skylight and hid\nthem, piling flax over them, and then she said innocently and\nconvincingly to the King's officers:\n\n\"There came two men unto me, but I wist not whence they were: And it\ncame to pass about the time of shutting of the gate, when it was dark,\nthat the men went out: pursue after them quickly; for ye shall\novertake them.\"\n\nThen she went up on the roof and talked to the men like a lawyer. I\nnotice that these old women--I mean women of old--were all good\ntalkers, and they didn't speak like meek, passive, submissive girls\nwrought up to sudden action by wrong, indignation or revenge, but they\nspoke with a freedom, vigor and fluency that betokened everyday\npractice.\n\nSt. Paul says that woman should \"Keep silence,\" and that \"they are\ncommanded to be under obedience,\" but he evidently had some\nremarkable ideas upon this and other topics. Perhaps he never had read\nthe official records, and we know he was never married, and so we\ndon't censure him so much for his ignorance of female character,\nhaving never had a wife, or, so far as we know, a love affair, for\nwhat does a man born blind know about the sunshine, or the lightning's\nawful flash, or one born deaf know of the pealing, clashing thunder?\n\nThe women of his day were no doubt obstreperous and extravagant, and\nhence his famous but perfectly ineffectual teaching that they should\nnot \"broider their hair, or wear gold or silver or costly array,\" and\nthat they shouldn't talk in meeting, and if they wanted to know\nanything, ask their husbands, and drink of their intellectual\nsuperiority. But to return.\n\nSo Rahab made the spies swear that when the doom of destruction fell\nupon Jericho, she and her father and mother and all her\nrelations-in-law should be saved, and then she let them down from the\nwindow of her house, which was very conveniently built upon the town\nwall, with a scarlet rope.\n\nSo you see, by deceit, strategy, disobedience and a succession of neat\nlittle lies, she thwarted the King, betrayed the city, and saved her\nown precious self all at one fell swoop.\n\n[Illustration: (She let them down from the window of her house.)]\n\nWhen the walls of Jericho fell and childhood in its innocence,\nambitious manhood, fiery youth, despairing maidens and loving mothers,\nwere swept by maddening flames and glittering swords into the oblivion\ncalled death, from whose silent gloom no smile or tear, no laughter or\nwail, ever yet has come, then Rahab and all that she had was saved.\nShe had asked it, and schemed for it, and of course she did not fail.\n\nNext we come to Deborah, a prophetess, who judged Israel at that time,\nand from the little that is said of her husband, we infer she was the\nhead of the house and ruled him besides attending to her professional\nduties.\n\nWell, Deborah sent for Barak and commanded him to meet \"Sisera, the\ncaptain of Jabin's army,\" in battle array. But he was afraid, and to\ninspire him by her courageous example she went with him to the field\nof battle, and every man of Jabin's host \"fell upon the edge of the\nsword; and there was not a man left.\" But Sisera \"fled away on his\nfeet\" to Jael, the wife of his friend. Sisera, like another defeated\ngeneral, had lost his horse.\n\nAnd she went out to meet him, and gained his entire confidence by\nsmiles and deception, and took him into her tent and gave him milk to\ndrink, covered him with a mantle, and said in her sweetest tones,\n\"Fear not.\" Then when he slept the sleep of perfect exhaustion, defeat\nand despair, she \"took a nail of the tent, and a hammer in her hand,\"\nand softly, with bated breath and step that often paused and ear that\nbent to listen, she approached him, and then--quicker than the\nlightning's flash or tiger's spring \"she smote the nail into his\ntemples, and fastened it into the ground: and he was fast asleep and\nweary. So he died.\"\n\nNice way for a woman to treat her husband's friend, wasn't it?\n\n[Illustration: (She smote the nail into his temples.)]\n\nAbimelech killed seventy of his brothers to become King, and after\nwars and battles too numerous to mention he came to \"Thebez, and\nencamped against Thebez, and took it.\" But there was a strong and\nmighty tower in the city and a thousand men and women, stained with\nblood, expecting no mercy, but defiant to the last, fled there for a\nfew hours of safety.\n\n\"And Abimelech came unto the tower and fought against it, and went\nhard unto the door of the tower to burn it with fire.\"\n\nAnd all the men stood aghast, helpless and despairing, waiting a\nterrible death. Then a woman with a vision of blood and moans, dying\nmen and ravished women before her, with a courage born of desperation\nand a wit sharpened with intense fear, boldly stepped to the window\nledge, and in the glare of bursting flames and the sound of dying\ngroans \"cast a piece of a millstone upon Abimelech's head, and all to\nbreak his skull.\"\n\n\"Then he called hastily unto the young man his armour-bearer, and said\nunto him, Draw thy sword, and slay me, that men say not of me, A woman\nslew me. And his young man thrust him through, and he died,\" as a man\nnaturally would who had been hit on the head with a millstone and\npierced through with a sword; and every one in the tower was saved.\n\nI'm not telling you this to harrow up your feelings, but just to show\nyou that the holy women of old were not such nonentities as some of\nus have supposed.\n\n[Illustration: (Cast a piece of a millstone upon Abimelech's head.)]\n\nAnd time, undelayed by the roses of June or the snows of winter, by\nsunshine or starshine, by laughter or sighs, by birth or death,\nhurried on and the Jews fought and triumphed, bled and died \"and did\nevil, and the Lord delivered them into the hands of the Philistines.\"\nAnd after a while Samson was born, and what do you suppose he did\njust as soon as he became a man? Why he went down to Timnath and fell\ndeeply, desperately, madly, in love with a Philistine girl, and he\nwent straight home and told his father and mother about it and they\ndid not approve of it--they never do, it seems--but he was determined\nto have her, for there was not another female for him in the whole\nwide world--they all think that for the time being--and of course he\nmarried her. Then he made a seven-day feast, and unfortunately he\namused the company with a riddle. Of course his wife was dying to know\nthe answer, and her people threatened her if she did not find it out,\nand altogether it was a lively discussion, and she made his life a\nburden and a delusion and she wept before him and said:\n\n\"Thou dost but hate me and lovest me not; thou hast put forth a riddle\nunto the children of my people and hast not told it to me.\" And Samson\ndeclared he hadn't told it to his father or mother or any living soul\nand swore he would not tell _her_--but he did. For \"she wept before\nhim the seven days while the feast lasted,\" and on the seventh day,\nexhausted by her upbraidings, deluged by her tears and wearied by her\neverlasting persistence, he whispered it in her ear, and she told the\nchildren of her people.\n\nIt is safe to conclude that Samson was angry, and the wedding feast\nbroke up in confusion and dismay, and he went and killed thirty\npeople, and the woman who had \"pleased him well\" he repudiated with\nsuch dispatch that it suggests Idaho and the modern man, and \"Samson's\nwife was given to his companion, whom he had used as a friend.\" The\nviews we get of married life and the domestic relations in the Old\nTestament make us almost think that marriage was a failure--in those\ndays.\n\n[Illustration: (And she betrayed him.)]\n\nThen Samson, after a little affair which I do not care to dwell upon\nwith a woman of Gaza, who was no better than she should have been,\nfell blindly in love with Delilah. And, being in love, he profited not\nby his late experience (what man or woman ever does who is in love?)\nand again he told the dearest secret of his heart to a woman, because,\nforsooth, \"she pressed him daily with her words, and urged him, so\nthat his soul was vexed unto death.\" And then with her fine arms\naround his neck and her kisses on his lips, he fell asleep on her\nknees--and she betrayed him.\n\n\n\n\nANOTHER GROUP OF THEM.\n\n\n\n\nANOTHER GROUP OF THEM.\n\n\nThe great array of the Philistines \"came and pitched in Shunem, and\nSaul gathered all Israel together, and they pitched in Gilboa,\" and\nunseen by any of the mighty hosts death and rapine, treachery, revenge\nand murder, smilingly waited for the desperate battle.\n\nThen Saul, gazing upon the great army of his enemies and terrified at\nthe countless thousands, thought he would like to have his fortune\ntold and said, \"Seek me a woman that hath a familiar spirit,\" and they\ntook him to the witch of Endor, and Saul prayed her to materialize\nSamuel for his especial benefit. And did she do it? Not at all, or at\nleast not until she had made her own conditions. \"And Saul sware to\nher by the Lord, saying: as the Lord liveth, there shall no punishment\nhappen to you for this thing.\" And then having brought the King to\nterms, by cunning hocus-pocus she summoned Samuel from the cold, cold\ngrave. First there was a hush, then a sweeping in of chill, damp air,\na scent of decay, the shaking out of a shroud that never rustled, a\nrush of silent footsteps, and suddenly the door untouched swung\nnoiselessly open and Samuel, with the old regal air, but with the\nsavor of death clothing him like a mantle, and the mildew of death on\nhis brow, stood before them.\n\nYou will observe he was far too courteous a ghost to censure a\nwoman--who really was the one who deserved it, since she had wrought\nthe mischief--but said sternly to Saul:\n\n\"Why hast thou disquieted me, to bring me up?\"\n\nThe inference is that after all his triumphs and defeats, his loves\nand illusions, his glory and fall, he was taking the sweet and silent\nrest of utter oblivion, and very naturally he did not like to be\ndisturbed, and so he told Saul some things that very nearly scared the\nlingering hope out of him, and almost reduced him to a condition where\nhe himself was a fit candidate for a companionship with Samuel. Then\nsuddenly the air grew warmer and fresher, the birds began to twitter\nin the first faint flush of the morning, and looking around one could\nnot see Samuel any more.\n\nThen the witch of Endor wanted Saul to take some refreshment, \"But he\nrefused and said, I will not eat.\"\n\nBut the woman did not pay any attention to his refusal, but killed a\ncalf and cooked it, and made some biscuits \"and she brought it before\nSaul, and before his servants, and they did eat\" of course, since she\nsmilingly invited them to.\n\nWe suppose Saul's wife--at least one of them--was a lady who carried\nthings with a high hand, ruled the servants, nagged her husband,\ndelivered curtain lectures by the hour, scolded him to sleep and then\nscolded him awake again.\n\n    \"And whipped the children, and fed the fowls,\n    And made his home resound with howls;\"\n\nsince we hear him saying to his son Jonathan, \"Thou son of the\nperverse, rebellious woman.\"\n\nAnd behold Saul and David were the firmest friends, and every act of\nDavid's pleased Saul, and every smile delighted him, and Saul honored,\ntrusted and advanced him, until the women came to have a hand in the\naffair and then all was changed.\n\nIt seems that no one had noticed, or dared to give voice to the\nthought, that David was becoming a dangerous rival of the great King,\nuntil the women, with keen penetration, looking upon the handsome\nDavid, saw there was a greater one than Saul. And so one day when\nDavid returned from a great slaughter of the Philistines, the girls\ncame and danced and sung and waved their white hands and smiled, and\ndespite the probable indignation of the King at the open preference\nand approval of the young man, they played and said, \"Saul hath slain\nhis thousands, and David his ten thousands.\"\n\nAnd Saul was jealous and \"very wroth\" and--well, that ended that\nfriendship, and it wasn't the last time that women's smiles and\nhoneyed words of praise have blighted the friendship between men\n\"whose souls were knit together.\"\n\nAnd there was a woman whose name was Bath-sheba, and she was very\nbeautiful. Her midnight hair curled softly away from her snowy brow,\nher long black lashes hiding her love-lit eyes swept her rosy cheeks,\nand her light step dashed the dew from the grass in the garden, while\nthe blossoms fell from the boughs to kiss her shoulders as she passed.\n\nAnd one eventide, David, walking upon the roof of his palace, saw her\nbathing. And the last red rays of the sinking sun touched her softly\nand changed her into a perfect statue of warm pink marble, and David's\nsoul was ravished by her beauty; and with the impetuosity of a king\nand the reckless passion of a lover he sought to beguile her. And\nBath-sheba, flattered by the preference of the mighty King, allured by\nimperial grandeur and enticed by royal appeals, tried to forget the\nhusband, who was off to the wars and away, and who had in the first\nflush of youth won her by his love, his \"brow of truth\" and a soul\nuntouched by sin--but the King--the King, the pomp and the power!\n\nAmbition was roused in her heart and she wanted to be clothed in the\npurple and fine linen of majesty, and to wear a jeweled crown upon her\nbrow. And so she forgot a husband's love, a wife's honor, a woman's\nvirtue, and while angels wept and devils laughed, the memory of Uriah\nvanished from her mind as a star vanishes before the fire-bursting\nstorm-cloud.\n\nThen black-browed conspiracy and red-handed murder, the boon\ncompanions of unholy love, whispered in their ears; and though a\nvision of Uriah often rose unbidden and unwelcome before her, it was\ndimmed and obscured by the glitter of jewels and the gleam of costly\narray, that should yet flash upon her arms and throat and clothe her\nlimbs.\n\nSo David sent for Uriah (we presume with the consent, perhaps at the\ninstigation of Bath-sheba, for there is no wickedness like the\nwickedness of an ambitious, faithless wife), honored and feasted him,\nand the favored young man, happily unconscious of his wife's\ntreachery, perhaps dreaming bright waking dreams of the wealth, fame\nand power he would win to lay at Bath-sheba's feet, felt himself\nhonored by being made a special envoy to carry a letter from the King\nto his greatest general, Joab--and in it the King wrote:\n\n\"Set ye Uriah in the fore-front of the hottest battle, and retire ye\nfrom him, that he may be smitten and die;\" and Joab \"assigned Uriah\nunto a place where he knew the valiant men were,\" and he was smitten\nand died.\n\nAnd David and Bath-sheba were married, but surely, as they stood by\nthe cradle of the little boy who died, the cold hands of the valiant,\nbetrayed Uriah must often have pushed them asunder, and a dark shadow\nborn of their guilty hearts must have passed between them and the\nchild. Perhaps when the feast was the gayest a battle field rose\nbefore them, and when the music was the loudest and the sweetest,\nthrilling through it, they heard a dying moan.\n\nWhen Joab wanted to reconcile David to Absalom, he wished a mediator\nwith wit, tact and delicacy; with the eloquence of an orator and the\nsubtle flattery of a Decius Brutus, and whom did he choose? A man? No:\nHe sent for \"a wise woman,\" and we read that he instructed her what to\ndo, but judging from other women we are sure she instructed\nhim--anyway she went to the King, and she talked like a lawyer, she\nplead with eloquence, she confessed charmingly, and she flattered with\nthe cunning of her sex, saying, \"for as an angel of God, so is my Lord\nthe King to discern good and bad,\" and \"my Lord is wise, according to\nthe wisdom of an angel of God,\" which you will admit was putting it\npretty strong. But then, men who didn't work for their living in those\ndays were used to strong language--of praise. Perhaps it is\nsuperfluous for me to add that the \"wise woman\" accomplished her\nmission.\n\nWe are told in poetic language that David \"was ruddy, and withal of a\nbeautiful countenance, and goodly to look to,\" and perhaps that was\nthe chief reason (although women always adored a man of valor,\nintelligence and strength) that \"Michal, Saul's daughter, loved\nDavid,\" and thus gave him the proud distinction of being the first man\nwho was ever loved by a woman--at least the first one we have any\nauthentic, official record of.\n\nOnce upon a time David had prepared to wipe Nabal, who was a very rich\nman, and his followers, from the very face of the earth, because a\nyoung man \"told Abigail, Nabal's wife, saying, Behold, David sent\nmessengers out of the wilderness, to salute our master, and he railed\non them.\"\n\nNabal was a churlish miser and little to be trusted, and it seems\nAbigail, who \"was a woman of good understanding and of a beautiful\ncountenance,\" had heard nothing of this little affair, but she was\nequal to the emergency and she at once prepared many presents of wine,\nand figs, and raisins and other good things, and made haste to go out\nand meet David, and if possible avert the impending calamity. \"And\nshe said unto her servants, Go on before me; behold I come after you.\nBut she told not her husband,\" which shows conclusively that although\nhe was \"churlish and evil in his doings\" she was not under his\ndominion to any great extent, or afraid of his anger, for she took\nthings in her own hands and ran the government to suit herself, for\nthe time being at least.\n\nSo she met David, made a telling speech, pleaded eloquently, flattered\nskillfully, and David, who never could withstand the beauty and\noratory of another man's wife, granted her every request, as he\nhimself confessed and said (I notice David always got particularly\npious when he was going to do or had done anything particularly mean)\nto Abigail:\n\n\"Blessed be the Lord God of Israel which sent thee this day to meet\nme: and blessed be thy advice.\"\n\nI don't know what kind of a bargain they had made, but it sounds a\nlittle queer to hear him saying to her, \"go up in peace to thine\nhouse; see, I have hearkened to thy voice and have accepted thy\nperson.\"\n\nAbigail returned home and found her husband had been having a gay time\nwhile she was away, and \"his heart was merry within him, for he was\nvery drunken,\" so she waited till the morning \"when the wine had gone\nout of Nabal,\" as it is quaintly put, and then she \"told him these\nthings,\" but as there was nothing but good news in \"these things\" she\nmust have told him something else that is not recorded, for \"his heart\ndied within him, and he became as stone.\"\n\nNow, I wouldn't cast a suspicion on Abigail for any consideration, but\nit does seem a little strange that ten days after her memorable\nmeeting with the handsome and musical David, \"the Lord smote Nabal\nthat he died.\"\n\n\"And David sent and communed with Abigail, to take her to him to\nwife.\"\n\nI simply mention this little romance to prove that there was no\nevidence of obedience in Abigail's conjugal relations.\n\n\n\n\nTHE FAMOUS WIDOW OF MOAB.\n\n\n\n\nTHE FAMOUS WIDOW OF MOAB.\n\n\nAnd Naomi, weary of the land of Moab, in the shadows of whose\nmountains, guarded by the angel of eternal sleep, lay the graves of\nher husband and sons, longed in her loneliness for the friends and\nassociations of her youth. Her heart turned back to the old house at\nhome, where there is always more sunshine and starshine, softer\nbreezes and sweeter bird-songs, more silvery streams and fragrant\nflowers, than in any other clime, and she was about to take her\ndeparture for the \"land of Judah.\"\n\nNow it seems that Naomi was a very loveable elderly lady, since her\ndaughter-in-law seemed to like her very much, though I haven't the\nslightest idea that Ruth was really so madly in love with her as we\nhave been taught to believe.\n\nIt appears that back in the \"land of Judah,\" Naomi had a kinsman of\nher husband's, \"a mighty man of wealth of the family of Elimelech; and\nhis name was Boaz.\"\n\nYou know it is true that when we go to live in a strange country, we\ntell our new acquaintances, incidentally and casually, perhaps, but we\ntell them just the same, about our wealthy and famous relatives, while\nthe names of those who were hanged because they may have loved horse\nflesh \"not wisely but too well,\" were arrested for gambling, eloped\nwith some other woman's husband, or made garden on shares for the\nneighbors, are kept locked in our hearts as too sacred to mention to\ncurious ears. Of course Naomi was no exception, and so Ruth had often\nlistened, spellbound, to Naomi's description of this \"mighty man of\nwealth;\" of his fields undulating in golden waves, far and near; of\nthe springs that gushed and sparkled and flowed down the hillsides; of\nthe shining streams idly wandering in his verdant valleys, whose blue\nwaves rose to caress the flowers on the bank that dipped to be kissed;\nof his costly array, his men servants and maid servants and all the\nshow and grandeur that was his.\n\nSo Ruth went down to the river one day and gazed at her own reflection\nin the liquid depths, took an honest inventory of her charms, and the\npride and confidence of the embryo conqueror thrilled her veins, the\nrose hue of triumph dyed her dark cheek, and knowing that Boaz was,\naccording to the law of the Jews, her future husband--if she could\nplease him--she went back and said to Naomi with the inherent\neloquence of a brilliant widow bent on conquest:\n\n\"Entreat me not to leave thee, or return from following after thee;\nfor whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will\nlodge; thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God:\n\n\"Where thou diest, will I die, and there will I be buried. The Lord do\nso to me, and more also, if aught but death part thee and me.\"\n\nAnd Naomi, the dear old lady, was very much flattered and had perfect\nconfidence in her daughter-in-law's professions, and so do we also\nbelieve her words--that is, moderately.\n\nWhen she says, \"thy people shall be _my_ people,\" we believe she meant\nit--as far as Boaz was concerned at least; but when she adds \"thy God\nshall be my God\"--well, we have known many people who were quite pious\nwhen they were about to do something they wished to cover up, and\ntheir prayers were a little more fervent at that time, just to throw\npeople off the track, so to speak. And Ruth had decided to capture\nBoaz's heart with her midnight eyes, wear his gems upon her breast,\nand plunge both hands deep down in his golden shekels. But of course\nshe didn't intend to confide this dead secret to a garrulous old lady,\nand have it reach the ears of the mighty man of wealth perhaps, for\nthe cunning, witty, pretty widow knew that a man never likes to be\ncaught.\n\nSo one day she (with Naomi) arrived at Bethlehem with a half a dozen\nthings in her favor, any one of which would have made her noted, at\nleast.\n\nShe had youth (she was not more than twenty-eight perhaps) the divine\ngift of beauty, the luck of being a stranger, the advantage of being a\nwidow, the prestige of a convert, and the novel notoriety of being the\nfirst woman in the world who ever was in love with her mother-in-law.\n\nIs it any wonder \"that all the city was moved about them?\"\n\nWell, no doubt Ruth found out all she wanted to know about Boaz,\nlearned his habits and characteristics, made all the inquiries she\nwished in a way that \"was childlike and bland,\" and at last having\nher arsenal well armored with the big guns of wit and beauty and\ngarrisoned by facts and observations and the experience of an ex-wife,\nshe was ready for Love's war, where the bullets are soft glances, the\nsword thrusts kisses and the dungeon of the captive is the bridal\nchamber, and she went to her mamma-in-law and said sweetly, \"let me go\nnow to the field and glean ears of corn after him (you see she\nadmitted she was after him) in whose sight I shall find grace.\"\n\n\"And she went, and came, and gleaned in the field after the reapers;\nand her hap was to light on a part of the field belonging unto Boaz.\"\nWonderful, wasn't it, that it was her \"hap\" to light on a part of the\nfield belonging to Boaz?\n\nAnd lo, in the morning ere the sun was half way up the blue sky, Boaz\ncame into the barley field and his eyes fell upon the beauteous Ruth\ngleaning with the reapers, and delighted at the sight, he called the\ngeneral manager and said:\n\n\"Whose damsel is this?\" And he answered and said: \"It is the Moabitish\nmaiden that came back with Naomi out of the country of Moab.\"\n\n[Illustration: (Turned her pretty head aside and blushed.)]\n\nIt seems Boaz had never seen her before, although her fame had reached\nhis ears, and he spoke to her softly and kindly, praised her for her\ndevotion to her mother-in-law (you see that captured his fancy and\nadmiration, as it has every one's since), and then she smiled and\nthanked him very ardently, and then the wily widow turned her pretty\nhead aside and blushed. And Boaz, who had never heard the advice to\n\"beware of the vidders,\" was taken in and done for in that one short\ninterview. He hung around the fields, deserted the city, cared naught\nfor its pleasures, forgot the dames of high degree, and lingered for\nhours among the reapers to catch a glance from her dark eye, or a\nsmile from her ruby lips, and I suppose they sometimes rested in the\nshade and talked sweet nonsense, or sat in the intoxicating silence\nwhen love speaks unutterable things to the heart alone, and the \"old\nsweet story was told again\" in the harvest field near Bethlehem.\n\n\"Boaz commanded his young men saying, Let her glean even among the\nsheaves, and reproach her not: And let fall also some of the handfuls\nof purpose for her, and leave them, and rebuke her not.\"\n\nHaving alighted upon an easy task, Ruth knew it. \"So she kept fast by\nthe maidens of Boaz to glean unto the end of barley harvest and of\nwheat harvest: and dwelt with her mother-in-law.\"\n\nAnd yet it seems the gentleman did not propose. So Naomi and Ruth\ntalked it over together, for by this time his infatuation was the talk\nof the city, and sentimental, romantic old Naomi, who must have been a\ncharming woman in her day, was interested in this love affair. For no\nmatter how old a woman or man may be, the perennial stream of love and\nsentiment flows on in the heart, although hid 'neath white hairs and\nwrinkles, and bound by the wintry shackles of age and custom; still it\nis there, and often breaks the icy barriers of the years and betrays\nitself by a late marriage, or in the matchmaking proclivities of all\nelderly women.\n\nAnd Naomi gave Ruth some instructions which we blush to think of, but\nshe followed them implicitly. And the middle-aged Boaz was caught. We\nsuppose he was forty-five or fifty from the fact that he called Ruth\n\"my daughter,\" and commended her because she didn't run after the\ngilded youths of society, but preferred him above them all. And Boaz\nand Ruth were married, and like most marriages between widows and old\nbachelors it proved a happy one.\n\nBut Ruth's shrewd scheming and successful venture as related in the\ninspired records confirms our belief that it was Boaz the \"mighty man\nof wealth,\" and not Naomi's love or Naomi's God that induced Ruth to\nemigrate to the city of Bethlehem.\n\n[Illustration: (And Boaz and Ruth were married.)]\n\nWe are told that Jezebel, unknown to her husband, \"wrote letters in\nher husband's name and sealed them with his seals,\" and had a man\nstoned to death without his knowledge, not the man's, but her\nhusband's.\n\nThat doesn't look as if she were ruled over much, does it?\n\nThe sacred history says, speaking of Hagar and Ishmael, \"and his\nmother took him a wife out of Egypt\" which means that she selected the\ngirl and told him to marry her--and he obeyed. And we find that\nSolomon gave to the queen of Sheba \"whatsoever she asked,\" which is an\nexample of generosity we would recommend to the men of to-day.\n\n\n\n\nHE GAVE IT UP TOO.\n\n\n\n\nHE GAVE IT UP TOO.\n\n\nI had reached this point in my study of the Bible, when one evening,\njust as I had seated myself to begin work and was idly sharpening my\npencil, the door bell rang.\n\nI had not seen my lover for weeks; not since he had so sarcastically\nadvised me to peruse the Scriptures. I had waited for his coming, but\nin vain; the mail brought no letter; he sent no word by friend or foe.\nAnd I made no sign. His had been the fault and his should be the\nreparation, and so a profound silence fell like a pall between us.\n\nBut love, the god of gods, strung the invisible wires of mental\ntelegraphy between our hearts, and over the mystic, unseen lines our\nthoughts, bright as hope, dark as sin, lighter than the thistle down,\nheavily charged with the electricity of doubt and trust, faith and\nfear, love and longing, flew noiselessly back and forth through the\nstillness and drew us unconsciously together; and so it happened that\nhe stood upon the doorstep and pulled the bell.\n\nThere was always a triumphant peal to his ring that seemed to say to\nmy heart, \"Lo, the conquering hero comes.\" And now that vital organ\nbounded gladly in my breast, then stood still; my pulses throbbed with\ndelight and triumph. Ten minutes before I would have thrown the world\naway, if it had been mine, for one smile from his lips, but now--I\nseized my pencil and wrote rapidly on the tablet on my knee as he\nentered the hall, came into the room, and stood beside me, then with a\nlittle start I looked up and exclaimed in feigned surprise:\n\n\"You here?\"\n\n\"I think I am,\" he said, \"but if you want me to, I'll look in the\nmirror to make sure.\" And then we both laughed, for 'tis so easy to\nlaugh when one is happy and all the world is gay.\n\n\"Well,\" said he, sitting down beside me, clasping my hand in his as\nlovers sometimes do, and taking up the conversation where it had been\ndropped weeks and weeks before, \"they say you can buy a good cooking\nstove for forty dollars--and I've had my salary raised ten dollars a\nmonth.\"\n\nThen I smiled and he said abruptly:\n\n\"When are you going to marry me?\"\n\n\"I haven't completed my study of the Bible yet, and I don't think I\ncould be submissive, and----\"\n\n\"Oh, fiddlesticks!\" he exclaimed, impolitely interrupting me, \"I don't\nwant you to be submissive; I just want you to love me and--and--boss\nme,\" he added, in the very depth of repentance.\n\n\"But you demanded obedience,\" I insisted.\n\n\"I was foolish then,\" he said softly, \"but absence from you and\nsilence has taught me wisdom. When I left you and you made no sign,\nsent no word of recall, left the dread quiet unbroken, I told myself\nthat you cared nothing for me, and I tried desperately to fall in love\nwith some other girl, but they were all 'flat, stale and unprofitable'\ncompared to you. There was no light in their eyes, no roses on their\ncheeks, no pleasure in their presence, no rapture in their\ntouch--and--Oh, hang it! you know I can't talk, but I love you, and as\nlong as cooking stoves and marriage licenses are so cheap and\nministers are so plenty what's the matter with having a wedding\nto-morrow?\"\n\nAnd I said--but never mind what I said.\n\n[Illustration: (And I said--)]\n\n\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n\n\nTranscriber's note:\n\nVignette titles from the List of Illustrations are shown in parentheses.\nCaptioned illustrations are shown in ALL CAPITALS.","title":"Fair to Look Upon","tradition":"scripture-revelation","translated_text":null,"word_count":20750}