{"collection":"scripture-revelation","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_48872/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_48872","id":"gutenberg_48872","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/48872","summary":null,"tags":["Bible -- Biography","Category: Biographies","Category: History - Religious","Category: Religion/Spirituality","Women in the Bible -- Biography"],"text":"Transcriber's Note: Italic text is denoted by _underscores_.\n\nSmall capital text has been replaced with all capitals.\n\nMinor typographical and punctuation errors have been corrected\nwithout note. Irregularities and inconsistencies in the text have\nbeen retained as printed.\n\nMismatched quotes are not fixed if it's not sufficiently clear where\nthe missing quote should be placed.\n\nThe cover for the eBook version of this book was created by the\ntranscriber and is placed in the public domain.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n[Illustration: Mary the Mother of our Lord]\n\n\n\n\n  WOMAN\n  IN\n  SACRED HISTORY:\n\n  A SERIES OF SKETCHES\n  _DRAWN FROM SCRIPTURAL, HISTORICAL, AND LEGENDARY SOURCES_.\n\n  BY\n  HARRIET BEECHER STOWE.\n\n  Illustrated with Sixteen Chromo-Lithographs,\n\n  AFTER PAINTINGS BY RAPHAEL, BATONI, HORACE VERNET, GOODALL,\n  LANDELLE, KOEHLER, PORTA\u00cbLS, VERNET-LECOMTE, BAADER, MERLE,\n  AND BOULANGER: PRINTED BY MONROCQ, FROM STONES EXECUTED BY\n  JEHENNE, PARIS.\n\n  [Illustration: logo]\n\n  NEW YORK:\n  J. B. FORD AND COMPANY.\n  1874.\n\n\n\n\n  Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1873,\n  BY J. B. FORD AND COMPANY,\n  in the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington.\n\n\n\n\nCONTENTS.\n\n\nINTRODUCTION.\n\n\nI. WOMEN OF THE PATRIARCHAL AGES.\n\n  1. SARAH THE PRINCESS.\n\n  2. HAGAR THE SLAVE.\n\n  3. REBEKAH THE BRIDE.\n\n  4. LEAH AND RACHEL.\n\n\nII. WOMEN OF THE NATIONAL PERIOD.\n\n   5. MIRIAM, SISTER OF MOSES.\n\n   6. DEBORAH THE PROPHETESS.\n\n   7. DELILAH THE DESTROYER.\n\n   8. JEPHTHA'S DAUGHTER.\n\n   9. HANNAH THE PRAYING MOTHER.\n\n  10. RUTH THE MOABITESS.\n\n  11. THE WITCH OF ENDOR.\n\n  12. QUEEN ESTHER.\n\n  13. JUDITH THE DELIVERER.\n\n\nIII. WOMEN OF THE CHRISTIAN ERA.\n\n  14. THE MYTHICAL MADONNA.\n\n  15. MARY THE MOTHER OF JESUS.\n\n  16. THE DAUGHTER OF HERODIAS.\n\n  17. THE WOMAN OF SAMARIA.\n\n  18. MARY MAGDALENE.\n\n  19. MARTHA AND MARY.\n\n\n\n\nTHE ILLUSTRATIONS\n\nOF THIS VOLUME.\n\n\nThe notable characters among the women of Bible history present so\nattractive and variable a theme for pictorial representation, that\nthey have been several times grouped in book form, both in Europe\nand America, within the past twenty years. The freshness of the\npresent publication, therefore, consists not in the subject but in\nits mode of treatment.\n\nIn seeking material to illustrate Mrs. Stowe's interesting sketches,\ntwo purposes have been kept in view: first, the securing of a\nseries of pictures which, by a judicious selection among different\nschools and epochs of art, might give a more original and less\nconventional presentation of the characters than could be had were\nall the illustrations conceived by the same mind, or executed\nby the same hand; and, secondly, the choice of such pictorial\nsubjects as were well adapted to reproduction in colors, so as to\nrepresent as perfectly as possible, by the rapidly maturing art of\nchromo-lithography, the real ideas of the painters. The guiding\nprinciples of selection have been _aptness of design_ and a rich\n_variety of effect_.\n\nIt will be seen that, in pursuit of this purpose, some pictures\nof world-wide renown have been here reproduced in whole or in\npart,--the desirable being always limited by the practicable;\nexamples of these are the beautiful \"Magdalen\" of BATONI, and the\nmain portion of that most wonderful of all pictures, the \"Sistine\nMadonna\" of RAPHAEL. The only possible excuse for mutilating this\nglorious design is the desire to give some slight idea of its\ncolor-effect to thousands who have known it only through engravings,\nand who could never know it otherwise, unless in some such way as\nthis. Among our illustrations are copies of celebrated paintings\nof more modern date, by the great painters of France, Germany, and\nEngland;--such as PAUL DELAROCHE'S graceful scene on the Nile, where\nMiriam watches little Moses, exposed in the bullrushes; HORACE\nVERNET'S terrible \"Judith\"; BAADER'S remorseless \"Delilah\"; and\nGOODALL'S lovely picture of \"Mary, the Mother of Our Lord,\" with\nher offering of two doves in the Temple. Of still another class\nare those which have been adapted, because of their appositeness,\nto illustrate subjects which they were not originally painted\nfor: of these, LANDELLE'S \"Fellah Woman,\" well shows the Oriental\nstyle and youthful sweetness of \"Rebekah\" at the fountain, and the\n\"Dancing-Girl\" of VERNET-LECOMTE may fairly represent the costume\nand beauty of Salome, the \"Daughter of Herodias.\" In addition to\nthese varieties, the sixteen plates include several which were\ndesigned and painted expressly for this work. One of the most\npleasing is \"Ruth,\" by DEVEDEUX of Paris. It is accounted also a\npeculiar advantage that the \"Queen Esther\" and the \"Martha and\nMary\"--two very striking and effective pictures--are from the studio\nof BOULANGER, who shares with G\u00e9rome the highest eminence as a\ndelineator of the peculiar and beautiful features of the Orient.\n\nIn order to give some idea of the care taken in the reproduction of\nthese subjects, it may be stated that (except where the original\npaintings themselves were accessible) in every case an accurate copy\nin oils was painted by a skillful artist, and this, together with\nphotographs from the original pictures, the best impressions of\nthe best engravings, etc., formed the basis on which Jehenne, the\nartist-lithographer, founded his conscientious work. Each subject\nis produced by a series of color-printings, the average number of\nstones to each picture being fifteen. The delicacy and difficulty of\nthis art may be the better appreciated by remembering that, while\nthe painter has always at hand his palette, with its numberless\npigments of color and shades of color, for the patient elaboration\nof the picture, the lithographer has to analyze the work which\nhas thus grown up by infinite touches under the painter's brush,\nand must study to concentrate as much as possible the effects of\neach single color in a single stone,--which can print or touch the\npicture but once. The final effect is of course produced by the\nsuperposition of colors and shades of color one upon another; but\nthe art which can thus transfer the painter's minute and painful\ntoil to the breadth and rapidity of mechanical reproduction, making\naccessible to thousands the designs in form and ideas in color of\nthe creating genius, instead of leaving them imprisoned in the\nsingle copy which only the rich purchaser may possess,--this is also\na true art, and claims the recognition of true lovers of art.\n\nBelow is given a descriptive list of the subjects, pictures, and\nartists of the illustrations in the present publication.\n\n\nNo. I. _Mary, the Mother of our Lord._ FRED. GOODALL (England, b.\n1822).\n\nThis presentation of the Virgin, going into the temple with her\noffering of two doves, is one of the most delicate and beautiful\nof the entire series. The exceeding simplicity of design and of\ncoloring gives it an effect of purity, while the face is tender,\nthoughtful, and in every way attractive. The softness of the drapery\nand the gentle gradations of light are especial features.\n\nII. _Hagar and Ishmael._ CHRISTIAN KOEHLER (Werben, Germany, b.\n1809; d. 1861).\n\nThis picture is strong and expressive rather than attractive. The\ndepth of the greenish-blue sky and the barrenness of the indicated\nlandscape give an intensity to the desolateness of the mother,\nclasping the form of her sturdy and unconscious little outcast son.\nThe original painting is now in the Civic Gallery, at D\u00fcsseldorf, on\nthe Rhine. It was painted at Leinwald in 1843.\n\nIII. _Rebekah._ CHARLES LANDELLE (Laval, France, b. 1815).\n\nThis is one of those charming subjects which the enterprise and\ngraceful art of the French have brought from the Orient. The\noriginal painting (1866) is entitled \"Femme Fellah,\" and represents\none of the women of the Nubian tribe of Fellahs, resting at the well\nbefore taking up the earthen jar which she has just filled with\nwater. This lovely face and figure may well be used to illustrate\nthe maidenly grace of \"Rebekah at the Fountain.\"\n\nIV. _Leah and Rachel._ JEAN FRAN\u00c7OIS PORTA\u00cbLS (Vilvorde, Belgium, b.\n1820).\n\nLeah the \"tender-eyed\" became the wife of Jacob seven years before\nhe attained the hand of his chosen love, Rachel the \"beautiful.\" And\nwith this, the picture must tell its own story.\n\nV. _Miriam and Moses._ PAUL DELAROCHE (France, b. 1797; d. 1856).\n\nThis is one of the most famous designs of one of the most fertile\nartists of France. The original painting has been often engraved,\nbut its freshness and beauty are best shown by reproducing its soft\nand delicate coloring. The careful sister, watching through the\nrushes, and the indistinct form of the mother on the bank above, are\nin exquisite contrast to the quietude of the babe in his basket on\nthe waters of the placid Nile.\n\nVI. _Deborah._ CHARLES LANDELLE (Laval, France, b. 1815).\n\nThis is one of the adaptations spoken of above. The original\npainting represents Velleda, the Prophetess of the Gallic Druids.\nThe grand form, noble face, and inspired attitude of the original\nfigure have been scrupulously retained, the background only being\nsomewhat modified, the better to suggest the _locale_ of the\nIsraelitish prophetess.\n\nVII. _Delilah._ LOUIS MARIE BAADER (Lannion, France).\n\nA most ungrateful and ungracious subject, but one portrayed with\nsingular strength and concentration of purpose, amid a studious\ninterest of detail, in this effective picture. The cold, hard look\nof the face, and the unrelenting will expressed by the slender but\nsteady arm and the supporting hand, half buried in the cushion,\ninstantly attract attention, while the harmonious variety of color\nin the accessory draperies and furniture of the strange apartment\nsupports the interest of the central figure without detracting from\nits power.\n\nVIII. _Jephtha's Daughter._ HUGUES MERLE. (St. Marcelin, France).\n\nThis illustration of the stern chieftain's daughter among the\nmountains with her companions, bewailing the desolate fate to which\nshe was devoted, is an adaptation from one of MERLE'S beautiful\npictures. This artist is noted for his success in depicting young\ngirls and children. The general expression of face, figure, and\nsurroundings, mark the aptness of this design for its present use.\n\nIX. _Ruth._ LOUIS DEVEDEUX (Paris, France).\n\nThe author of this charming fancy of the gentle and faithful\nMoabite, which was painted for this volume, is one of the rising and\nalready recognized painters of France, having taken several medals\nunder the severe critical awards of the French annual _Salon_. The\ntender grace and modesty of both face and figure are enhanced by the\ndelicacy of the color.\n\nX. _Queen Esther._ HENRI-ALEXANDRE ERNEST BOULANGER (Paris, France,\nb. 1815).\n\nHaving just returned from one of his trips to the Orient, whither\nhe had gone with his brilliant _confr\u00e8re_ G\u00c9ROME, to refill his\nportfolio with new faces and costumes and scenes, to be wrought up\ninto new pictures, MONS. BOULANGER was fortunately able to respond\npromptly to the demand for two original designs and paintings for\nthe present work. \"Queen Esther\" is one of these. The proud and\nserene beauty of the face, the dignity of the form and bearing, and\nthe simple richness of the costume make this a notable picture. And,\nalthough the background is devoid of everything save the sombre\nshadow which gives relief to the figure, the imagination easily\nsupplies the haughty king, the throng of courtiers, and the crowd of\nsuppliant Jews behind their queen.\n\nXI. _Judith._ HORACE VERNET (France, b. 1789; d. 1863).\n\nArtists have always been fond of this strong subject, but none have\nso well succeeded in rendering the beauty of the intrepid Jewess,\ncombined with her resolution and force of character. The horror of\nthe old woman, who holds the dreadful basket to receive the head,\nis finely contrasted with the superb sternness of Judith's face and\naction, just as the illuminated, gorgeous tapestry of the tyrant's\ntent is rebuked by the quiet sky and the steady shining of the\nstars. It is a grand composition, and most effective in coloring.\n\nXII. _The Sistine Madonna._ RAPHAEL SANZIO (Urbino, Italy, b. 1483;\nd. 1520).\n\nOriginally painted as an altar-piece for the Sistine Chapel, in the\nVatican at Rome (whence its name), this grand picture is now in the\nDresden Gallery. The painting has, below the Virgin's figure, to\nthe right and left, the kneeling figures of Saint Barbara and Pope\nGregory the Sixth, under whose reign both the chapel and the picture\nwere produced. The halo about the Virgin and Infant is filled with\nindistinct cherub faces, and at the very bottom, apart from the\nmain design, are the two cherubs which appear in the plate. The\noriginal design is necessarily shorn of many of these details in the\ncombination given, but the more important portions of the painting\nare well shown.\n\nXIII. _The Daughter of Herodias._ EMIL VERNET-LECOMTE (Paris,\nFrance, b. 1821).\n\nAs stated in the remarks prefatory to this list, the plate taken\nto represent the Oriental type of beauty, and one at least of the\ncostumes of her class, is LECOMTE'S \"L'Alm\u00e9e\" (Dancing-Girl).\nTravelers in the East find by investigation so little change of\ndress or manners, boats, houses, tools, instruments, or modes of\nlife in any form, from those of twenty centuries ago, that we need\nnot go far astray in taking a dancing-girl of the present day in\nthat ancient land, to suggest the dress which the daughter of\nHerodias possibly assumed, in order to please the puissant king\nand gain by his favor the request of her revengeful mother. The\nplate presents also, from the simple view-point of art, a pleasing\npicture. (Original painted in 1866.)\n\nXIV. _The Woman of Samaria._ EMIL VERNET-LECOMTE (Paris, France, b.\n1821).\n\nThis is another of that artist's admirable Eastern subjects, and\nhas been deemed a singularly apposite illustration of the woman at\nthe well, to whom Jesus talked. The easy poise of the figure, the\nsteadiness of the head and right hand, and the strength of the face,\nindicate the self-reliance and confidence of a woman who had seen\nmuch of life; while the listless forgetfulness of the left hand,\nholding the water-jar, and the earnest gaze of the eyes show the\nawakened mind and fixed attention of the listener.\n\nXV. _Mary Magdalene._ POMPEO GIROLAMO BATONI (Lucca, Italy, b. 1708;\nd. 1781).\n\nThis beautiful design and admirable piece of color is one of the\npictures that the world keeps alive in constant reproduction. It\nis one of the few paintings which fairly compete with the masters\nof the sixteenth century on their own ground; for, though it is a\npicture of the eighteenth century, painted during the decadence of\nEuropean, and especially of Italian art, it is very much after the\nstyle of the older artists, and is brought into direct comparison\nwith the similar expression of this subject by Correggio, in the\nsame gallery at Dresden. Every student knows that it easily holds\nits own in the competition, if, indeed, it does not bear away the\npalm.\n\nXVI. _Martha and Mary._ HENRI-ALEXANDRE ERNEST BOULANGER (Paris,\nFrance, b. 1815).\n\nOf the entire list of illustrations taken from modern paintings,\nperhaps no one is more thoroughly original and effective than this;\nthe hand of a master is to be seen in every line. The rich beauty\nand spirited action of Martha, the serene repose of Mary's figure,\nthe sweetness of her face and the quietude of her look under the\nfiery reproaches of the elder sister, the characteristic contrast\nof color in the dresses of the two, the suggested coolness of the\nvine-embowered porch, and the general harmony of line, design, and\ncolor, are well worthy of observation. The fact that it was designed\nfor this volume by the great Orientalist gives to the picture an\nespecial value and interest.\n\n\n\n\nWOMAN IN SACRED HISTORY.\n\n\n\n\nINTRODUCTION.\n\n\nThe object of the following pages will be to show, in a series of\nbiographical sketches, a history of WOMANHOOD UNDER DIVINE CULTURE,\ntending toward the development of that high ideal of woman which we\nfind in modern Christian countries.\n\nAll the characters comprised in these sketches belong to one\nnationality. They are of that mysterious and ancient race whose\nrecords begin with the dawn of history; who, for centuries, have\nbeen sifted like seed through all the nations of the earth, without\nlosing either their national spirit or their wonderful physical and\nmental vigor.\n\nBy this nation the Scriptures, which we reverence, were written and\npreserved. From it came all the precepts and teachings by which our\nlives are guided in things highest and holiest; from it came He who\nis at once the highest Ideal of human perfection and the clearest\nrevelation of the Divine.\n\nWe are taught that the Creator revealed himself to man, not at\nonce, but by a _system_ progressively developing from age to age.\nSelecting one man, he made of his posterity a sacerdotal nation,\nthrough which should gradually unfold a religious literature, and\nfrom which should come a succession of religious teachers, and the\nfinal development, through Jesus, of a religion whose ultimate\ntriumphs should bring complete blessedness to the race.\n\nIn tracing the Bible narrative from the beginning, it is interesting\nto mark the effect of this great movement in its relation to women.\nThe characters we have selected will be arranged for this purpose\nin a series, under the following divisions:--\n\n    I. WOMEN OF THE PATRIARCHAL AGES.\n   II. WOMEN OF THE NATIONAL PERIOD.\n  III. WOMEN OF THE CHRISTIAN PERIOD.\n\nWe understand by the patriarchal period the interval between the\ncalling of Abraham and the public mission of Moses. The pictures of\nlife at this time are interesting, because they give the clearest\nidea of what we may call the raw material on which the educational\nsystem of the Divine Being began to work. We find here a state of\nsociety the elements of which are in some respects peculiarly simple\nand healthful, and in others exhibiting the imperfections of the\nearth's childhood. Family affection appears to be the strongest\nforce in it, yet it is family affection with the defects of an\nuntaught, untrained morality. Polygamy, with its well-known evils,\nwas universal in the world. Society was broken into roving tribes,\nand life was a constant battle, in which artifice and deception were\nthe only refuge of the quiet and peace-loving spirit. Even within\nthe bounds of the family, we continually find fraud, artifice, and\ndeception. Men and women, in that age of the world, seem to have\npracticed deceit and spoken lies, as children do, from immaturity\nand want of deep reflection. A certain childhood of nature, however,\nis the redeeming charm in all these pictures. There is an honest\nsimplicity in the narrative, which refreshes us like the talk of\nchildren.\n\nWe have been so long in the habit of hearing the Bible read in\nsolemn, measured tones, in the hush of churches, that we are apt to\nforget that these men and women were really flesh and blood, of the\nsame human nature with ourselves. A factitious solemnity invests\na Bible name, and some good people seem to feel embarassed by the\nobligation to justify all the proceedings of patriarchs and prophets\nby the advanced rules of Christian morality. In this respect, the\nmodern fashion of treating the personages of sacred story with the\nsame freedom of inquiry as the characters of any other history has\nits advantages. It takes them out of a false, unnatural light,\nwhere they lose all hold on our sympathies, and brings them before\nus as real human beings. Read in this way, the ancient sacred\nhistory is the purest naturalism, under the benevolent guidance of\nthe watchful Father of Nations.\n\nPascal very wisely says, \"The whole succession of men during the\nlong course of ages ought to be considered as a single man, who\nexists and learns from age to age.\" Considered in this light, it\nis no more difficult to conceive of an infinite Father tolerating\nan imperfect childhood of morals in the whole human race, than in\neach individual of that race. The patriarchs are to be viewed as\nthe first pupils in the great training-school whence the world's\nteachers in morals were to come, and they are shown to us in all\nthe crudity of early pupilage. The great virtue of which they\nare presented as the pattern is the virtue of the child and the\nscholar--FAITH.\n\nFaith, the only true reason for weak and undeveloped natures,\nwas theirs, and as the apostle says, \"it was counted to them for\nrighteousness.\" However imperfect and uncultured one may be, if he\nhas implicit trust in an infallible teacher, he is in the way of all\nattainment.\n\nThe faith of which Abraham is presented as the example is not the\nblind, ignorant superstition of the savage. Not a fetish, not a\nselfish trust in a Patron Deity for securing personal advantages,\nbut an enlightened, boundless trust in the Supreme power, wisdom,\nand rectitude. \"The Judge of all the earth will _do right_.\" In\nthis belief, Abraham trusts him absolutely. To him he is willing to\nsurrender the deepest and dearest hopes of his life, and sacrifice\neven the son in whom center all the nerves of joy and hope,\n\"accounting,\" as the Apostle tells us, \"that God was able to raise\nhim from the dead.\"\n\nNor was this faith bounded by the horizon of this life. We are\ninformed by the Apostle Paul, who certainly well understood the\ntraditions of his nation, that Abraham looked forward to the same\nheavenly home which cheers the heart of the Christian. \"By faith\nAbraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should\nafter receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not\nknowing whither he went. By faith he sojourned in the land of\npromise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac\nand Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise: _for he looked\nfor a city that hath foundations_, whose builder and maker is God.\nThey--the patriarchs--desired a better country, even an heavenly:\nwherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God.\" (Heb. xi.\n8-10, 16.)\n\nWe are further told that this faith passed as a legacy through the\npatriarchal families to the time of Moses, and that the inspiring\nmotive of his life was the invisible God and the future world beyond\nthe grave. \"By faith Moses, when he was come to years, refused to\nbe called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to suffer\naffliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of\nsin for a season; esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches\nthan the treasures of Egypt, for he had respect unto the recompense\nof reward. By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of\nthe great king; for he endured as seeing him who is invisible.\"\n(Heb. xi. 24-27.) It has been blindly asserted that the hope of a\nfuture life was no part of the working force in the lives of these\nancient patriarchs. Certainly, no one ever sacrificed more brilliant\nprospects of things seen and temporal, for the sake of things unseen\nand eternal, than Moses.\n\nFinally, one remarkable characteristic of all these old patriarchs\nwas the warmth of their affections. Differing in degree as to\nmoral worth, they were all _affectionate_ men. So, after all that\nChristianity has done for us, after all the world's growth and\nprogress, we find no pictures of love in family life more delicate\nand tender than are given in these patriarchal stories. No husband\ncould be more loyally devoted to a wife than Abraham; no lover\nexhibit less of the eagerness of selfish passion and more of\nenduring devotion than Jacob, who counted seven years of servitude\nas nothing, for the love he bare his Rachael; and, for a picture of\nparental tenderness, the story of Joseph stands alone and unequalled\nin human literature.\n\nIn the patriarchal families, as here given, women seem to have\nreigned as queens of the interior. Even when polygamy was\npracticed, the monogamic affection was still predominant. In the\ncase of Abraham and Jacob, it appears to have been from no wandering\nof the affections, but from a desire of offspring, or the tyranny of\ncustom, that a second wife was imposed.\n\nFemale chastity was jealously guarded. When a young prince seduced\nDinah, the daughter of Jacob, although offering honorable marriage,\nwith any amount of dowry, the vengeance of the brothers could only\nbe appeased by blood; and the history of Joseph shows that purity\nwas regarded as a virtue in man as well as in woman. Such, then,\nwas the patriarchal stock,--the seed-form of the great and chosen\nnation. Let us now glance at the influences which nourished it\nthrough the grand growth of the prophetic or national period, up to\nthe time of its consummate blossom and fruit in the Christian era.\n\nMoses was the great lawgiver to mold this people into a nation.\nHis institutes formed a race of men whose vital force has outlived\nconquest, persecution, dispersion, and every possible cause\nwhich could operate to destroy a nationality; so that, even to\nour time, talent and genius spring forth from the unwasted vigor\nof these sons and daughters of Abraham. The remarkable vigor\nand vitality of the Jewish race, their power of adaptation to\nevery climate, and of bearing up under the most oppressive and\ndisadvantageous circumstances, have attracted the attention of the\nFrench government, and two successive commissions of inquiry, with\nintervals of three or four years between, have been instituted, \"on\nthe causes of the health and longevity of the Jewish race.\"\n\nIn the \"Israelite\" of February 9, 1866, we have, on this subject,\nthe report of M. Legoyt, chief of a division of the ministry of\ncommerce and public works, one of the first statisticians of France.\nHe says: \"We have seen that all the documents put together are\naffirmative of an exceptional vitality of the Jews. How can this\nphenomenon be explained? Dietrici, after having demonstrated its\nexistence in Prussia, thinks it is to be attributed to greater\ntemperance, a better regulated life, and purer morals. This is\nlikewise the opinion of Drs. Neufville, Glatter, and Meyer. Cases\nof drunkenness, says Dietrici, frequent among the Christians, occur\nvery rarely among the Jews. This regularity and discipline, and\ngreater self-control, of Jewish life is confirmed by the criminal\nstatistics of Prussia, which show fewer Jews condemned for crime.\"\n\nM. Legoyt goes on to account for this longevity and exceptional\nvitality of the Jews by the facts of their family life: that early\nmarriages are more common; that great care is taken to provide for\nthe exigencies of marriage; that there are fewer children born, and\nthus they are better cared for; that family feeling is more strongly\ndeveloped than in other races; that the Jewish mother is the nurse\nof her own infant, and that great care and tenderness are bestowed\non young children.\n\nIt is evident that the sanitary prescriptions of the Mosaic law\nhave an important bearing on the health. If we examine these laws\nof Moses, we shall find that they consist largely in dietetic and\nsanitary regulations, in directions for detecting those diseases\nwhich vitiate the blood, and removing the subjects of them from\ncontact with their fellows.\n\nBut the greatest peculiarity of the institutes of Moses is their\ncare of family life. They differed from the laws of all other\nancient nations by making the family the central point of the state.\nIn Rome and Greece, and in antiquity generally, the ruling purpose\nwas war and conquest. War was the normal condition of the ancient\nworld. The state was for the most part a camp under martial law, and\nthe interests of the family fared hardly. The laws of Moses, on the\ncontrary, contemplated a peaceful community of land-holders, devoted\nto agriculture and domestic life. The land of Canaan was divided\ninto homesteads; the homestead was inalienable in families, and\ncould be sold only for fifty years, when it reverted again to the\noriginal heirs. All these regulations gave a quality of stability\nand perpetuity to the family. We have also some striking laws which\nshow how, when brought into immediate comparison, family life is\nalways considered the first; for instance, see Deuteronomy xxiv.\n5: \"When a man hath taken a new wife he shall not go out to war,\nneither shall he be charged with any business; but he shall be free\nat home one year, and shall cheer up his wife which he hath taken.\"\nWhat can more strongly show the delicate care of woman, and the high\nregard paid to the family, than this? It was more important to be a\ngood husband and make his wife happy than to win military glory or\nperform public service of any kind.\n\nThe same regard for family life is shown, in placing the father and\nthe mother as joint objects of honor and veneration, in the Ten\nCommandments: \"Honor thy father and thy mother, that thy days may\nbe long in the land that the Lord thy God giveth thee.\" Among the\nGreeks, the wife was a nonentity, living in the seclusion of the\nwomen's apartments, and never associated publicly with her husband\nas an equal. In Rome, the father was all in all in the family, and\nheld the sole power of life and death over his wife and children.\nAmong the Jews, the wife was the co-equal queen of the home, and was\nequally honored and obeyed with her husband. Lest there should be\nany doubt as to the position of the mother, the command is solemnly\nreiterated, and the mother placed first in order: \"And the Lord\nspake to Moses, speak unto the children of Israel and say unto them,\nYe shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy. Ye shall fear\nevery man his MOTHER and his father. I am the Lord.\" (Lev. xix.\n3.) How solemn is the halo of exaltation around the mother in this\npassage, opened with all the authority of God,--calling to highest\nholiness, and then exalting the mother and the father as, next to\nGod, objects of reverence!\n\nFamily government was backed by all the authority of the state,\nbut the power of life and death was not left in the parents'\nhands. If a son proved stubborn and rebellious, utterly refusing\ndomestic discipline, then the father and the mother were to unite\nin bringing him before the civil magistrates, who condemned him to\ndeath. But the _mother_ must appear and testify, before the legal\nact was accomplished, and thus the power of restraining the stronger\npassions of the man was left with her.\n\nThe laws of Moses also teach a degree of delicacy and consideration,\nin the treatment of women taken captives in war, that was\nunparalleled in those ages. With one consent, in all other ancient\nnations, the captive woman was a slave, with no protection for\nchastity. Compare with this the spirit of the law of Moses: \"If\nthou seest among thy captives a beautiful woman, and hast a desire\nunto her that thou wouldst have her to wife, then thou shalt bring\nher to thy house, and she shall remain in thy house and bewail her\nfather and mother a full month; and after that thou shalt go in\nunto her and be her husband, and she shall be thy wife.\" Here is\nconsideration, regard to womanly feeling, and an opportunity for\nseeking the affection of the captive by kindness. The law adds,\nfurthermore, that if the man change his mind, and do not wish to\nmarry her after this time for closer acquaintance, then he shall\ngive her her liberty, and allow her to go where she pleases: \"Thou\nshalt not sell her at all for money, thou shalt not make merchandise\nof her, because thou hast humbled her.\"\n\nThe laws of Moses did not forbid polygamy, but they secured to the\nsecondary wives such respect and attention as made the maintenance\nof many of them a matter of serious difficulty. Everywhere we find\nMoses interposing some guard to the helplessness of the woman,\nsoftening and moderating the harsh customs of ancient society in\nher favor. Men were not allowed to hold women-servants merely for\nthe gratification of a temporary passion, without assuming the\nobligations of a husband. Thus we find the following restraint on\nthe custom of buying a handmaid or concubine: \"If a man sell his\ndaughter to be a maid-servant, she shall not go out to work as\nthe men-servants do, and, if she please not her master which hath\nbetrothed her to himself, then shall he let her be redeemed; he\nshall have no power to sell her unto a stranger, seeing he hath\ndealt deceitfully with her. And if he have betrothed her to his\nson, he shall deal with her as a daughter. And if he take another\nwife, her food and her raiment, and her duty of marriage shall he\nnot diminish. And if he do not these three things unto her, then\nshall she go out free without money.\" (Ex. xxi. 7.) This law, in\nfact, gave to every concubine the rights and immunities of a legal\nwife, and in default of its provisions she recovered her liberty.\nThus, also, we find a man is forbidden to take two sisters to wife,\nand the feelings of the first wife are expressly mentioned as the\nreason: \"Thou shalt not take unto thy wife her sister to vex her\nduring her lifetime.\"\n\nIn the same manner it was forbidden to allow personal favoritism\nto influence the legal rights of succession belonging to children\nof different wives. (Deut. xxi. 15.) \"If a man have two wives, one\nbeloved and the other hated, and they have both borne him children,\nand if the firstborn son be hers that is hated, then, when he\nmaketh his sons to inherit, he may not make the son of the beloved\nfirstborn, but he shall acknowledge the son of the hated for the\nfirstborn.\"\n\nIf a man slandered the chastity of his wife before marriage, she\nor her relations had a right to bring him before a tribunal of the\nelders, and, failing to substantiate his accusations, he was heavily\nfined and the right of divorce taken from him.\n\nBy thus hedging in polygamy with the restraints of serious\nobligations and duties, and making every concubine a wife, entitled\nto claim all the privileges of a wife, Moses prepared the way for\nits gradual extinction. For since it could not be a mere temporary\nconnection involving no duty on the man's part, since he could\nnot sell or make merchandise of the slave when he was tired of\nher, since the children had a legal claim to support,--it became a\nserious matter to increase the number of wives. The kings of Israel\nwere expressly forbidden to multiply wives; and the disobedience\nof Solomon, who followed the custom of Oriental sovereigns, is\nmentioned with special reprobation, as calling down the judgments of\nGod upon his house.\n\nThe result of all this was, that in the course of time polygamy fell\ninto disuse among the Jews; and, after the Babylonian captivity,\nwhen a more strenuous observance of the laws of Moses was enforced,\nit almost entirely ceased.[1] In the time of Christ and the\nApostles, the Jews had become substantially a monogamic nation.\n\n  [1] Michaelis, Laws of Moses, III. 5, \u00a7 95.\n\nAnother peculiarity in the laws of Moses is the equality of the\ntreatment of man and woman. Among other nations, adultery was\npunished severely in the wife, and lightly, if at all, in the\nhusband. According to the Jewish law, it was punished by the death\nof both parties. If a man seduced a girl, he was obliged to marry\nher; and forcible violation was punished by death.\n\nWhile in many other nations, prostitution, in one form or other,\nformed part of the services of the temple and the revenues of the\nstate, it was enacted that the wages of such iniquity should not\nbe received into the treasury of the Lord; and, finally, it was\nenjoined that there should be no prostitute among the daughters of\nIsrael. (Deut. xxiii. 17, 18.)\n\nIn all that relates to the details of family life, the laws of Moses\nrequired great temperance and government of the passions; and,\nundoubtedly, these various restraints and religious barriers raised\nby the ceremonial law around the wife and mother are one great\nreason of the vigor of the Jewish women and the uncorrupted vitality\nof the race.\n\nThe law of Moses on divorce, though expressly spoken of by Christ\nas only a concession or adaptation to a low state of society, still\nwas, in its day, on the side of protection to women. A man could\nnot put his wife out of doors at any caprice of changing passion: a\nlegal formality was required, which would, in those times, require\nthe intervention of a Levite to secure the correctness of the\ninstrument. This would bring the matter under the cognizance of\nlegal authority, and tend to check the rash exercise of the right\nby the husband. The final result of all this legislation, enforced\nfrom age to age by Divine judgments, and by the warning voices of\nsuccessive prophets, was, that the Jewish race, instead of sinking\ninto licentiousness, and losing stamina and vigor, as all the other\nancient nations did, became essentially a chaste and vigorous\npeople, and is so to this day.\n\nThe comparison of the literature of any ancient nation with that of\nthe Jews strikingly demonstrates this. The uncleanness and obscenity\nof much of the Greek and Roman literature is in wonderful contrast\nto the Jewish writings in the Bible and Apocrypha, where vice is\nnever made either ludicrous or attractive, but mentioned only with\nhorror and reprobation.\n\nIf we consider now the variety, the elevation, and the number of\nfemale characters in sacred history, and look to the corresponding\nrecords of other nations, we shall see the results of this culture\nof women. The nobler, the heroic elements were developed among the\nJewish women by the sacredness and respect which attached to family\nlife. The veneration which surrounded motherhood, and the mystic\ntradition coming down through the ages that some Jud\u00e6an mother\nshould give birth to the great Saviour and Regenerator of mankind,\nconsecrated family life with a devout poetry of emotion. Every\ncradle was hallowed by the thought of that blessed child who should\nbe the hope of the world.\n\nAnother cause of elevation of character among Jewish women was their\nequal liability to receive the prophetic impulse. A prophet was,\nby virtue of his inspiration, a public teacher, and the leader of\nthe nation,--kings and magistrates listened to his voice; and this\ncrowning glory was from time to time bestowed on women.\n\nWe are informed in 2 Kings xxii. 14, that in the reign of King\nJosiah, when a crisis of great importance arose with respect to\nthe destiny of the nation, the king sent a deputation of the chief\npriests and scribes to inquire of the word of the Lord from Huldah\nthe prophetess, and that they received her word as the highest\nauthority. This was while the prophet Jeremiah was yet a young man.\n\nThe prophetess was always a poetess, and some of the earliest\nrecords of female poetry in the world are of this kind. A lofty\nenthusiasm of patriotism also distinguishes the Jewish women, and\nin more than one case in the following sketches we shall see them\nthe deliverers of their country. Corresponding to these noble women\nof sacred history, what examples have we in polished Greece? The\nonly women who were allowed mental culture--who studied, wrote, and\nenjoyed the society of philosophers and of learned men--were the\ncourtesans. For chaste wives and mothers there was no career and no\nrecord.\n\nIn the Roman state we see the influence upon woman of a graver style\nof manhood and a more equal liberty in the customs of society. In\nRome there were sacred women, devoted to religion, and venerated\naccordingly. They differed, however, from the inspired women of\nJewish history in being entirely removed from the experiences of\nfamily life. The vestal virgins were bound by cruel penalties\nto a life of celibacy. So far as we know, there is not a Jewish\nprophetess who is not also a wife, and the motherly character is\nput forward as constituting a claim to fitness in public life. \"I,\nDeborah, arose a mother in Israel.\" That pure ideal of a sacred\nwoman springing from the bosom of the family, at once wife, mother,\npoetess, leader, inspirer, prophetess, is peculiar to sacred\nhistory.\n\n\n\n\nWOMEN OF THE PATRIARCHAL AGES.\n\n\n\n\nSARAH THE PRINCESS.\n\n\nOne woman in the Christian dispensation has received a special\ncrown of honor. Sarah, the wife of Abraham, mother of the Jewish\nnation, is to this day an object of traditional respect and homage\nin the Christian Church. Her name occurs in the marriage service as\nan example for the Christian wife, who is exhorted to meekness and\nobedience by St. Peter, \"Even as Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him\nlord; whose daughters ye are, so long as ye do well, and are not\nsubject to a slavish fear.\"\n\nIn turning to the narrative of the Old Testament, however, we\nare led to feel that in setting Sarah before wives as a model\nof conjugal behavior, no very alarming amount of subjection or\nsubmission is implied.\n\nThe name Sarah means \"princess\"; and from the Bible story we\ninfer that, crowned with the power of eminent beauty, and fully\nunderstanding the sovereignty it gave her over man, Sarah was\nvirtually empress and mistress of the man she called \"lord.\" She\nwas a woman who understood herself and him, and was too wise to\ndispute the title when she possessed the reality of sway; and while\nshe called Abraham \"lord,\" it is quite apparent from certain little\ndramatic incidents that she expected him to use his authority in the\nline of her wishes.\n\nIn going back to these Old Testament stories, one feels a ceaseless\nadmiration of the artless simplicity of the primitive period of\nwhich they are the only memorial. The dew of earth's early morning\nlies on it, sparkling and undried; and the men and women speak out\ntheir hearts with the simplicity of little children.\n\nIn Abraham we see the man whom God designed to be the father of\na great sacerdotal nation; through whom, in the fullness of time,\nshould come the most perfect revelation of himself to man, by Jesus\nChrist. In choosing the man to found such a nation, the Divine\nBeing rejected the stormy and forcible characters which command\nthe admiration of rude men in early ages, and chose one of gentler\nelements.\n\nAbraham was distinguished for a loving heart, a tender domestic\nnature, great reverence, patience, and fidelity, a childlike\nsimplicity of faith, and a dignified self-possession. Yet he was not\ndeficient in energy or courage when the event called for them. When\nthe warring tribes of the neighborhood had swept his kinsman, Lot,\ninto captivity, Abraham came promptly to the rescue, and, with his\nthree hundred trained servants, pursued, vanquished, and rescued.\nThough he loved not battle, when roused for a good cause he fought\nto some purpose.\n\nOver the heart of such a man, a beautiful, queenly woman held\ndespotic sway. Traveling with her into the dominions of foreign\nprinces, he is possessed by one harassing fear. The beauty of this\nwoman,--will it not draw the admiration of marauding powers? And\nshall I not be murdered, or have her torn from me? And so, twice,\nAbraham resorts to the stratagem of concealing their real relation,\nand speaking of her as his sister. The Rabbinic traditions elaborate\nthis story with much splendor of imagery. According to them, Abraham\nbeing obliged by famine to sojourn in Egypt, rested some days by the\nriver Nile; and as he and Sarah walked by the banks of the river,\nand he beheld her wonderful beauty reflected in the water, he was\noverwhelmed with fear lest she should be taken from him, or that he\nshould be slain for her sake. So he persuaded her to pass as his\nsister; for, as he says, \"she was the daughter of my father, but\nnot of my mother.\" The legend goes on to say, that, as a further\nprecaution, he had her placed in a chest to cross the frontier; and\nwhen the custom-house officers met them, he offered to pay for the\nbox whatever they might ask, to pass it free.\n\n\"Does it contain silks?\" asked the officers.\n\n\"I will pay the tenth as of silk,\" he replied.\n\n\"Does it contain silver?\" they inquired.\n\n\"I will pay for it as silver,\" answered Abraham.\n\n\"Nay, then, it must contain gold.\"\n\n\"I will pay for it as gold.\"\n\n\"May be it contains most costly gems.\"\n\n\"I will pay for it as gems,\" he persisted.\n\nIn the struggle the box was broken open, and in it was seated a\nbeautiful woman whose countenance illumined all Egypt. The news\nreached the ears of Pharaoh, and he sent and took her.\n\nIn comparing these Rabinnic traditions with the Bible, one is\nimmediately struck with the difference in quality,--the dignified\nsimplicity of the sacred narrative contrasts forcibly with the\nfantastic elaborations of tradition.\n\nThe Rabbinic and Alcoranic stories are valuable, however, as showing\nhow profound an impression the personality of these characters had\nleft on mankind. The great characters of the Biblical story, though\nin themselves simple, seemed, like the sun, to raise around them\nmany-colored and vaporous clouds of myth and story. The warmth of\ntheir humanity kept them enwreathed in a changing mist of human\nsympathies.\n\nThe falsehoods which Abraham tells are to be estimated not by the\nmodern, but by the ancient standard. In the earlier days of the\nworld, when physical force ruled, when the earth was covered with\nwarring tribes, skill in deception was counted as one of the forms\nof wisdom. \"The crafty Ulysses\" is spoken of with honor through the\n\"Odyssey\" for his skill in dissembling; and the Lacedemonian youth\nwere punished, not for stealing or lying, but for performing these\nnecessary operations in a bungling, unskillful manner.\n\nIn a day when it was rather a matter of course for a prince to help\nhimself to a handsome woman wherever he could find her, and kill\nher husband if he made any objections, a weaker party entering the\ndominions of a powerful prince was under the laws of war.\n\nIn our nineteenth century we have not yet grown to such maturity\nas not to consider false statements and stratagem as legitimate\nwar policy in dealing with an enemy. Abraham's _ruse_ is not,\ntherefore, so very far behind even the practice of modern\nChristians. That he should have employed the same fruitless\nstratagem twice, seems to show that species of infatuation on the\none subject of a beloved woman, which has been the \"last infirmity\"\nof some otherwise strong and noble men,--wise everywhere else, but\nweak there.\n\nThe Rabbinic legends represent Sarah as being an object of ardent\nadmiration to Pharaoh, who pressed his suit with such vehemence\nthat she cried to God for deliverance, and told the king that she\nwas a married woman. Then--according to this representation--he\nsent her away with gifts, and even extended his complacency so far\nas to present her with his daughter Hagar as a handmaid,--a legend\nsavoring more of national pride than of probability.\n\nIn the few incidents related of Sarah she does not impress us as\nanything more than the beautiful princess of a nomadic tribe, with\nmany virtues and the failings that usually attend beauty and power.\n\nWith all her advantages of person and station, Sarah still wanted\nwhat every woman of antiquity considered the crowning glory of\nwomanhood. She was childless. By an expedient common in those early\ndays, she gives her slave as second wife to her husband, whose child\nshall be her own. The Rabbinic tradition says that up to this time\nHagar had been tenderly beloved by Sarah. The prospect, however, of\nbeing mother to the heir of the family seems to have turned the head\nof the handmaid, and broken the bonds of friendship between them.\n\nIn its usual na\u00efve way, the Bible narrative represents Sarah as\nscolding her patient husband for the results which came from\nfollowing her own advice. Thus she complains, in view of Hagar's\ninsolence: \"My wrong be upon thee. I have given my maid unto thy\nbosom, and when she saw that she had conceived, I was despised in\nher eyes. The Lord judge between thee and me.\"\n\nWe see here the eager, impulsive, hot-hearted woman, accustomed to\nindulgence, impatient of trouble, and perfectly certain that she is\nin the right, and that the Lord himself must think so. Abraham, as a\nwell-bred husband, answers pacifically: \"Behold, thy maid is in thy\nhand, to do as pleaseth thee.\" And so it pleased Sarah to deal so\nhardly with her maid that she fled to the wilderness.\n\nFinally, the domestic broil adjusts itself. The Divine Father, who\nwatches alike over all his creatures, sends back the impetuous slave\nfrom the wilderness, exhorted to patience, and comforted with a\npromise of a future for her son.\n\nThen comes the beautiful idyl of the three angels, who announce\nthe future birth of the long-desired heir. We could wish all our\nreaders, who may have fallen out of the way of reading the Old\nTestament, to turn again to the eighteenth chapter of Genesis, and\nsee the simple picture of those olden days. Notice the beautiful\nhospitality of reception. The Emir rushes himself to his herd to\nchoose the fatted calf, and commands the princess to make ready the\nmeal, and knead the cakes. Then comes the repast. The announcement\nof the promised blessing, at which Sarah laughs in incredulous\nsurprise; the grave rebuke of the angels, and Sarah's white lie,\nwith the angel's steady answer,--are all so many characteristic\npoints of the story. Sarah, in all these incidents, is, with a few\ntouches, made as real flesh and blood as any woman in the pages\nof Shakespeare,--not a saint, but an average mortal, with all the\nfoibles, weaknesses, and variabilities that pertain to womanhood,\nand to womanhood in an early age of imperfectly developed morals.\n\nWe infer from the general drift of the story, that Sarah, like most\nwarm-hearted and passionate women, was, in the main, a kindly,\nmotherly creature, and that, when her maid returned and submitted,\nshe was reconciled to her. At all events, we find that the son of\nthe bondwoman was born and nurtured under her roof, along with her\nown son Isaac. It is in keeping with our conception of Sarah, that\nshe should at times have overwhelmed Hagar with kindness, and helped\nher through the trials of motherhood, and petted the little Ishmael\ntill he grew too saucy to be endured.\n\nThe Jewish mother nursed her child three years. The weaning was\nmade a great _f\u00eate_, and Sarah's maternal exultation at this crisis\nof her life, displayed itself in festal preparations. We hear her\nsaying: \"God hath made me to laugh, so that all that hear will\nlaugh with me. Who would have said unto Abraham that Sarah should\nhave given children suck? for I have borne him a son in his old age.\"\n\nIn the height of this triumph, she saw the son of the Egyptian woman\nmocking, and all the hot blood of the woman, mother, and princess\nflushed up, and she said to her husband: \"Cast out this bondwoman\nand her son; for the son of this bondwoman shall not be heir with my\nson, even with Isaac.\"\n\nWe are told \"the thing was very grievous in Abraham's sight because\nof his son.\" But a higher power confirms the hasty, instinctive\nimpulse of the mother. The God of nations saw in each of these\ninfant boys the seed-forms of a race with a history and destiny\napart from each other, and Abraham is comforted with the thought\nthat a fatherly watch will be kept over both.\n\nLast of all we come to the simple and touching announcement of the\ndeath of this woman, so truly loved to the last. \"And Sarah was a\nhundred and seven and twenty years old: these were the years of the\nlife of Sarah. And Sarah died in Kirjath-arba; the same is Hebron\nin the land of Canaan; and Abraham came to mourn for Sarah, and to\nweep for her.\" It is a significant token of the magnificent physical\nvigor with which that early age was endowed, that now, for the first\ntime, the stroke of death has fallen on the family of Abraham, and\nhe is forced to seek a burial-place. Sarah, the beautiful princess,\nthe crowned mother of a great nation, the beloved wife, is dead; and\nAbraham, constant lover in age as youth, lays her away with tears.\nTo him she is ever young; for love confers on its object eternal\nyouth.\n\nA beautiful and peculiar passage in the history describes the\nparticulars of the purchase of this burial-place. All that love can\ngive to the fairest, most beautiful, and dearest is a tomb; and\nAbraham refuses to take as a gift from the nobles of the land so\nsacred a spot. It must be wholly his own, bought with his own money.\nThe sepulchre of Machpelah, from the hour it was consecrated by the\nlast sleep of the mother of the tribe, became the calm and sacred\nresting-place to which the eyes of children's children turned. So\nJacob, her grandson, in his dying hour, remembered it:--\n\n\"Bury me with my fathers in the cave that is in the field of Ephron\nthe Hittite. There they buried Abraham and Sarah his wife; there\nthey buried Isaac and Rebekah his wife, and there I buried Leah.\"\n\nTwo powerful and peculiar nations still regard this sepulchre with\nveneration, and cherish with reverence the memory of Sarah the\nPrincess.\n\n[Illustration: HAGAR THE SLAVE]\n\n\n\n\nHAGAR THE SLAVE.\n\n\nA striking pendant to the picture of Sarah the Princess is that of\nHagar the Slave.\n\nIn the Bible narrative she is called simply Hagar the Egyptian;\nand as Abraham sojourned some time in the land of Egypt, we are\nto suppose that this acquisition to the family was then made.\nSlavery, in the early patriarchal period, had few of the horrors\nwhich beset it in more modern days. The condition of a slave more\nnearly resembled that of the child of the house than that of a\nmodern servant. The slave was looked upon, in default of children,\nas his master's heir, as was the case with Eliezer of Damascus, the\nconfidential servant of Abraham; the latter, when speaking to God\nof his childless condition says: \"Lo! one born in my house is mine\nheir.\" In like manner there is a strong probability in the legend\nwhich represents Hagar as having been the confidential handmaid of\nSarah, and treated by her with peculiar tenderness.\n\nWhen the fear of being childless seized upon her, Sarah was willing\nto exalt one, who was as a second self to her, to the rank of\nan inferior wife, according to the customs of those early days;\nintending to adopt and treat as her own the child of her handmaid.\nBut when the bondwoman found herself thus exalted, and when the\ncrowning honor of prospective motherhood was conferred upon her,\nher ardent tropical blood boiled over in unseemly exultation,--\"her\nmistress was despised in her eyes.\"\n\nProbably under the flapping curtains of the pastoral tent, as under\nthe silken hangings of palaces, there were to be found flatterers\nand mischief-makers ready to fill the weak, credulous ear with their\nsuggestions. Hagar was about to become mother of the prince and heir\nof the tribe; her son one day should be their chief and ruler, while\nSarah, childless and uncrowned, should sink to a secondary rank.\nWhy should she obey the commands of Sarah?\n\nOur idea of Sarah is that of a warm-hearted, generous, bountiful\nwoman, with an intense sense of personal dignity and personal\nrights,--just the woman to feel herself beyond measure outraged\nby this unexpected result of what she must have looked upon as\nunexampled favor. In place of a grateful, devoted creature,\nidentified with her interests, whose child should be to her as her\nown child, she finds herself confronted with an imperious rival, who\nlays claim to her place and position.\n\nThe struggle was one that has been witnessed many a time since in\nfamilies so constituted, and with such false elements. Abraham,\npeace-loving and quiet, stands neutral; confident, as many men are,\nof the general ability of the female sex, by inscrutable ways and\nmethods of their own, to find their way out of the troubles they\nbring themselves into. Probably he saw wrong on both sides; yet\nHagar, as the dependent, who owed all the elevation on which she\nprided herself to the good-will of her mistress, was certainly the\nmore in fault of the two; and so he dismisses the subject with: \"Thy\nmaid is in thy hand; do with her as pleaseth thee.\"\n\nThe next we hear of the proud, hot-hearted, ungoverned slave-girl,\nis her flight to the wilderness in a tumult of indignation and\ngrief, doubtless after bitter words and hard usage from the once\nindulgent mistress. But now comes into the history the presence of\nthe Father God, in whose eye all human beings are equal, and who\nlooks down on the boiling strifes and hot passions of us all below,\nas a mother on the quarrels of little children in the nursery.\nFor this was the world's infancy, and each character in the drama\nrepresented a future nation for whom the All-Father was caring.\n\nSo when the violent, desolate creature had sobbed herself weary in\nthe lonesome desert, the story says: \"And the angel of the Lord\nfound her by a fountain of water, in the way to Shur. And he said,\nHagar, Sarah's maid, whence camest thou? and whither wilt thou go?\nAnd she said, I flee from the face of my mistress, Sarah.\"\n\nIn this calm question there is a reminder of duty violated, and in\nthe submissive answer is an acknowledgment of that duty. The angel\ncalls her \"Sarah's maid,\" and she replies, \"my mistress, Sarah.\"\n\n\"And the angel of the Lord said unto her, Return to thy mistress,\nand submit thyself under her hands.\" Then, as with awe and\nsubmission she rises to go, she is comforted with promises of\ngracious tenderness. The All-Father does not take part with her in\nher rebellious pride, nor in her haughty desire to usurp the station\nand honors of her mistress, and yet he has sympathy for that strong,\nawakening feeling of motherhood which makes the wild girl of the\ndesert begin at once to crave station and place on earth for the\nson she is to bring into it. So the story goes on: \"And the angel\nof the Lord said unto her, I will multiply thy seed exceedingly,\nthat it shall not be numbered for multitude. And the angel of the\nLord said unto her, Behold, thou art with child, and shalt bear a\nson, and shalt call his name Ishmael, because the Lord hath heard\nthy affliction. And he will be a wild man; his hand will be against\nevery man, and every man's hand against him; and he shall dwell in\nthe presence of all his brethren. And she called the name of the\nLord that spake unto her, Thou God seest me: for she said, Have I\nalso here looked after him that seeth me?\"\n\nThis little story is so universally and beautifully significant of\nour every-day human experience, that it has almost the force of an\nallegory.\n\nWho of us has not yielded to despairing grief, while flowing by us\nwere unnoticed sources of consolation? The angel did not _create_\nthe spring in the desert: it was there all the while, but Hagar was\nblinded by her tears. She was not seeking God, but he was seeking\nher. How often may we, all of us, in the upliftings and deliverances\nof our life, say as she did, \"Have I here looked after him that\nseeth me?\"\n\nThe narrative adds, \"Wherefore the spring was called _The Well of\nHim that Liveth and Seeth Me_.\"\n\nThat spring is still flowing by our daily path.\n\nSo, quieted and subdued and comforted, Hagar returns to her\nmistress and her home, and we infer from the story, that, with\nsubmission on her part, kindness and bounty returned on the part of\nher mistress. She again becomes a member of the family. Her son is\nborn, and grows up for twelve years under the shadow of Abraham's\ntent, and evidently, from the narrative, is fondly beloved by his\nfather, and indulgently treated by his foster-mother.\n\nIn an hour of confidential nearness the Divine Father announces to\nAbraham that a son shall be given him by the wife of his heart.\n\n\"As for Sarah, thy wife, I will bless her, and give thee a son of\nher, and she shall be a mother of nations; kings of people shall be\nof her. Then Abraham fell upon his face and laughed, and said in\nhis heart: Shall a child be born to him that is an hundred years\nold, and shall Sarah, that is ninety years old, bear?\" Yet, in this\nmoment of triumphant joy, his heart yearns after Ishmael; \"And\nAbraham said unto God: O that Ishmael might live before thee!\" And\nthe Divine answer is: \"As for Ishmael, I have heard thee. Behold, I\nhave blessed him, and will make him fruitful, and will multiply him\nexceedingly; twelve princes shall he beget, and I will make him a\ngreat nation.\"\n\nBut now comes the hour long waited for, of Sarah's triumph,--the\nfulfillment of the desires of her life. A generous heart would have\nsympathized in her triumph. A mother who had known the blessedness\nof motherhood would have rejoiced when the mistress who had done\nso much for her was made so joyful. If her own son be not the heir\nin succession, yet an assured future is promised to him. But the\ndark woman and her wild son are of untamable elements. They can no\nmore become one in spirit with the patriarchal family, than oil can\nmix with water. When the weaning feast is made, and all surround\nthe little Isaac, when the mother's heart overflows with joy, she\nsees the graceless Ishmael mocking; and instantly, with a woman's\nlightning prescience, she perceives the dangers, the impossibilities\nof longer keeping these aliens under the same roof,--the feuds, the\njealousies, the fierce quarrels of the future.\n\n\"Cast out this bondwoman and her son,\" she says, with the air of\none accustomed to command and decide; \"for the son of this bondwoman\nshall not be heir with my son, even with Isaac.\"\n\nIt appears that Abraham had set his heart on the boy, and had hoped\nto be able to keep both in one family, and divide his inheritance\nbetween them; but it was otherwise decreed. \"And God said to\nAbraham, Let it not be grievous in thy sight, because of the lad and\nbecause of thy bondwoman: in all that Sarah hath said unto thee,\nhearken unto her voice; for in Isaac shall thy seed be called. And\nalso of the son of the bondwoman will I make a nation, because he is\nthy seed. And Abraham arose up early, and took bread and a bottle of\nwater and gave it to Hagar, putting it on her shoulder, and sent her\naway with the child; and she departed and wandered in the wilderness\nof Beersheba.\" Probably she was on the road towards Egypt. \"And the\nwater was all spent in the bottle, and she cast the child under one\nof the shrubs; and she went away and sat her down over against him\na good way off, as it were a bow-shot, for she said, Let me not see\nthe death of the child; and she lifted up her voice and wept.\"\n\nPoor, fiery, impatient creature!--moaning like a wounded\nleopardess,--apparently with no heart to remember the kindly Power\nthat once before helped her in her sorrows; but the story goes on:\n\"And God heard the voice of the lad; and the angel of the Lord\ncalled to Hagar out of heaven, and said unto her, What aileth thee,\nHagar? Fear not, for God hath heard the voice of the lad where he\nis. Arise, lift up the lad, and hold him in thy hand; for I will\nmake of him a great nation. And God opened her eyes, and she saw a\nwell of water; and she went and filled the bottle with water and\ngave the lad drink. And God was with the lad, and he grew, and\ndwelt in the wilderness and became an archer. And he dwelt in the\nwilderness of Paran; and his mother took him a wife out of the land\nof Egypt.\"\n\nIn all this story, nothing impresses us so much as the absence of\nall modern technical or theological ideas respecting the God who is\nrepresented here as sowing the seed of nations with a wise foresight\nof the future. As a skillful husbandman, bent on perfecting a\ncertain seed, separates it from all others, and grows it by itself,\nso the Bible tells us that God selected a certain stock to be\ntrained and cultivated into the sacerdotal race, through which\nshould come his choicest revelations to man. Of this race in its\nfinal outcome and perfected flowering was to spring forth Jesus,\nspoken of as the BRANCH of this sacred tree. For the formation of\nthis race, we see a constant choice of the gentler and quieter\nelements of blood and character, and the persistent rejection of\nthat which is wild, fierce, and ungovernable. Yet it is with no fond\npartiality for the one, or antipathy to the other, that the Father\nof both thus decides. The thoughtful, patient, meditative Isaac is\nchosen; the wild, hot-blooded, impetuous Ishmael is rejected,--not\nas in themselves better or worse, but as in relation to their\nadaptation to a great purpose of future good to mankind. The ear of\nthe All-Father is as near to the cry of the passionate, hot-tempered\nslave, and the moans of the wild, untamable boy, as to those of the\npatriarch. We are told that God was with Ishmael in his wild growth\nas a hunter in the desert,--his protector from harm, the guardian of\nhis growing family, according to the promise made to Abraham.\n\nWhen the aged patriarch is gathered to his fathers at the age of a\nhundred and seventy-five years, it is recorded: \"And Abraham gave up\nthe ghost in a good old age, an old man and full of years; and his\nsons, Isaac and Ishmael, buried him in the cave of Machpelah, in the\nfield that Abraham purchased of the sons of Heth; there was Abraham\nburied, and Sarah his wife.\"\n\nThe subsequent history of the nation which Ishmael founded, shows\nthat the promises of God were faithfully kept.\n\nThe Arab race has ever been a strongly marked people. They have been\nworshipers of the one God, and, at one time, under the califs, rose\nto a superiority in art, science, and literature beyond that of\nso-called Christian nations.\n\nThe race of Ishmael is yet as vigorous and as peculiar, and as\nlikely to perpetuate itself, as the race of Isaac and Jacob; and as\nGod was near to the cries and needs of the wild mother of the race\nand her wild offspring, so, doubtless, he has heard the prayer that\nhas gone up from many an Arab tent in the desert.\n\nThe besetting sin of a select people is the growth of a spirit of\nhaughty self-sufficiency among them. In time the Jews came to look\nupon themselves as God's only favorites, and upon all other nations\nas outcasts. It is this spirit that is rebuked by the prophet Amos\n(ix.) when, denouncing the recreant children of Israel, he says,\nin the name of the Lord: \"Are ye not as children of the Ethiopians\nunto me, O children of Israel? saith the Lord. Have not I brought up\nIsrael out of the land of Egypt? and the Philistines from Caphtor,\nand the Syrians from Kir?\"\n\nThere is a deep comfort in this record of God's goodness to a poor,\nblinded, darkened, passionate slave-woman, nowise a model for\nimitation, yet tenderly watched over and succored and cared for in\nher needs. The Father unsought is ever seeking. He who said, \"What\naileth thee, Hagar?\" is he who, in later times, said that he came\nto seek and to save the lost. Not to the saintly and the righteous\nonly, or mostly, but to the wayward, the sinful, the desperate, the\ndespairing, to those whose troubles come of their own folly and\ntheir own sin, is the angel sent to console, to promise, to open the\nblind eyes upon the fountain which is ever near us in life's desert,\nthough we cannot perceive it.\n\n[Illustration: REBEKAH THE BRIDE]\n\n\n\n\nREBEKAH THE BRIDE.\n\n\nIn the pictures which the Bible opens to us of the domestic life\nof the patriarchal ages, we have one perfectly characteristic and\nbeautiful idyl of a wooing and wedding, according to the customs\nof those days. In its sweetness and sacred simplicity, it is a\nmarvelous contrast to the wedding of our modern fashionable life.\n\nSarah, the beautiful and beloved, has been laid away in the dust,\nand Isaac, the cherished son, is now forty years old. Forty years\nis yet early youth, by the slow old clock of the golden ages, when\nthe thread of mortal life ran out to a hundred and seventy-five or\neighty years. Abraham has nearly reached that far period, and his\nsun of life is dipping downwards toward the evening horizon. He has\nbut one care remaining,--to settle his son Isaac in life before he\nis gathered to his fathers.\n\nThe scene in which Abraham discusses the subject with his head\nservant sheds a peculiar light on the domestic and family relations\nof those days. \"And Abraham said unto his eldest servant of his\nhouse, that ruled over all that he had, Put, I pray thee, thy hand\nunder my thigh: and I will make thee swear by the Lord, the God of\nheaven, and the God of the earth, that thou shalt not take a wife\nunto my son of the daughters of the Canaanites, among whom I dwell:\nbut thou shalt go unto my country, and to my kindred, and take a\nwife unto my son Isaac. And the servant said unto him, Peradventure\nthe woman will not be willing to follow me unto this land: must I\nneeds bring thy son again unto the land from whence thou camest? And\nAbraham said unto him, Beware that thou bring not my son thither\nagain. The Lord God of heaven, which took me from my father's house,\nand from the land of my kindred, and which spake unto me, and sware\nunto me, saying, Unto thy seed will I give this land; he shall send\nhis angel before thee, and thou shalt take a wife unto my son from\nthence. And if the woman will not be willing to follow thee, then\nthou shalt be clear from this my oath: only bring not my son thither\nagain.\"\n\nHere it is remarkable that the servant is addressed as the legal\nguardian of the son. Abraham does not caution Isaac as to whom he\nshould marry, but cautions the old servant of the house concerning\nthe woman to whom he should marry Isaac. It is apparently understood\nthat, in case of Abraham's death, the regency in the family falls\ninto the hands of this servant.\n\nThe picture of the preparations made for this embassy denotes a\nprincely station and great wealth. \"And the servant took ten camels\nof the camels of his master, and departed; for all the goods of his\nmaster were in his hand; and he arose, and went to Mesopotamia, unto\nthe city of Nahor.\"\n\nNow comes a quaint and beautiful picture of the manners of those\npastoral days. \"And he made his camels to kneel down without the\ncity by a well of water, at the time of the evening, even the time\nthat women go out to draw water.\"\n\nNext, we have a specimen of the kind of prayer which obtained in\nthose simple times, when men felt as near to God as a child does to\nits mother. Kneeling, uncovered, in the evening light, the gray old\nserving-man thus talks to the invisible Protector:--\"O Lord God of\nmy master Abraham, I pray thee, send me good speed this day, and\nshow kindness unto my master Abraham. Behold, I stand here by the\nwell of water; and the daughters of the men of the city come out\nto draw water: and let it come to pass that the damsel to whom I\nshall say, Let down thy pitcher, I pray thee, that I may drink; and\nshe shall say, Drink, and I will give thy camels drink also: let\nthe same be she that thou hast appointed for thy servant Isaac; and\nthereby shall I know that thou hast showed kindness unto my master.\"\n\nThis is prayer. Not a formal, ceremonious state address to a\nmonarch, but the talk of the child with his father, asking simply\nand directly for what is wanted here and now. And the request was\nspeedily granted, for thus the story goes on: \"And it came to pass,\nbefore he had done speaking, that, behold, Rebekah came out, who\nwas born to Bethuel, son of Milcah, the wife of Nahor, Abraham's\nbrother.\" It is noticeable, how strong is the sensibility to womanly\nbeauty in this narrative. This young Rebekah is thus announced:\n\"And the damsel was very fair to look upon, and a virgin, and she\nwent down to the well, and filled her pitcher, and came up.\" Drawn\nby the bright eyes and fair face, the old servant hastens to apply\nthe test, doubtless hoping that this lovely creature is the one\nappointed for his young master. \"And the servant ran to meet her,\nand said, Let me, I pray thee, drink a little water of thy pitcher.\nAnd she said, Drink, my lord: and she hastened, and let down her\npitcher upon her hand, and gave him drink.\" She gave with a will,\nwith a grace and readiness that overflowed the request; and then it\nis added: \"And when she had done giving him drink, she said, I will\ndraw water for thy camels also, until they have done drinking. And\nshe hasted and emptied her pitcher into the trough, and ran again\nunto the well to draw water, and drew for all his camels.\" Let us\nfancy ten camels, all on their knees in a row, at the trough, with\ntheir long necks, and patient, careworn faces, while the pretty\nyoung Jewess, with cheerful alacrity, is dashing down the water from\nher pitcher, filling and emptying in quick succession, apparently\nmaking nothing of the toil; the gray-haired old servant looking on\nin devout recognition of the answer to his prayer, for the story\nsays: \"And the man wondering at her, held his peace, to wit [know]\nwhether the Lord had made his journey prosperous or not.\"\n\nThere was wise penetration into life and the essentials of wedded\nhappiness in this prayer of the old servant. What he asked for his\nyoung master was not beauty or talent, but a ready and unfailing\noutflow of sympathy and kindness. He sought not merely for a\ngentle nature, a kind heart, but for a heart so rich in kindness\nthat it should run even beyond what was asked, and be ready to\nanticipate the request with new devices of helpfulness. The lively,\nlight-hearted kindness that could not be content with waiting on the\nthirsty old man, but with cheerful alacrity took upon herself the\ncare of all the ten camels, this was a gift beyond that of beauty;\nyet when it came in the person of a maiden exceedingly fair to look\nupon, no marvel that the old man wondered joyously at his success.\n\nWhen the camels had done drinking, he produced from his treasury a\ngolden earring and bracelets, with which he adorned the maiden. \"And\nhe said to her, Whose daughter art thou? tell me, I pray thee; is\nthere room in thy father's house for us to lodge in? And she said\nunto him, I am the daughter of Bethuel the son of Milcah, which she\nbare to Nahor. She said, moreover, unto him, We have both straw and\nprovender enough, and room to lodge in. And the man bowed down his\nhead, and worshiped the Lord. And he said, Blessed be the Lord God\nof my master Abraham, who hath not left destitute my master of his\nmercy and his truth: I being in the way, the Lord led me to the\nhouse of my master's brethren.\"\n\nWe may imagine the gay delight with which the pretty maiden ran to\nexhibit the gifts of jewelry that had thus unexpectedly descended\nupon her. Laban, her brother, does not prove either a generous or\nhospitable person in the outcome of the story; but the ambassador\nof a princely relative, traveling with a caravan of ten camels, and\nshowering gold and jewels, makes his own welcome. The narrative\nproceeds:--\"And it came to pass when he saw the earring, and the\nbracelets upon his sister's hands, and when he heard the words of\nRebekah his sister, saying, Thus spake the man unto me; that he came\nunto the man; and, behold, he stood by the camels at the well. And\nhe said, Come in, thou blessed of the Lord; wherefore standest thou\nwithout? for I have prepared the house, and room for the camels. And\nthe man came into the house: and he ungirded the camels, and gave\nstraw and provender for the camels, and water to wash his feet, and\nthe men's feet that were with him. And there was set meat before him\nto eat: but he said, I will not eat, till I have told my errand. And\nhe said, Speak on. And he said, I am Abraham's servant, and the Lord\nhath blessed my master greatly, and he is become great: and he hath\ngiven him flocks, and herds, and silver, and gold, and men-servants,\nand maid-servants, and camels, and asses.\"\n\nAfter this exordium he goes on to tell the whole story of his oath\nto his master, and the purport of his journey; of the prayer that he\nhad uttered at the well, and of its fulfillment in a generous-minded\nand beautiful young maiden; and thus he ends his story: \"And I bowed\ndown my head, and worshiped the Lord, and blessed the Lord God of\nmy master Abraham, which hath led me in the right way to take my\nmaster's brother's daughter unto his son. And now, if ye will deal\nkindly and truly with my master, tell me: and if not, tell me; that\nI may turn to the right hand or to the left. Then Laban and Bethuel\nanswered and said, The thing proceedeth from the Lord: we cannot\nspeak unto thee bad or good. Behold, Rebekah is before thee; take\nher, and go, and let her be thy master's son's wife, as the Lord\nhath spoken. And it came to pass, that when Abraham's servant heard\ntheir words, he worshiped the Lord, bowing himself to the earth.\"\n\nAnd now comes a scene most captivating to female curiosity. Even in\npatriarchal times the bridegroom, it seems, provided a _corbeille\nde mariage_; for we are told: \"And the servant brought forth\njewels of silver, and jewels of gold, and raiment, and gave them\nto Rebekah; he gave also to her brother and to her mother precious\nthings.\" The scene of examining jewelry and garments and rich\nstuffs in the family party would have made no mean subject for a\npainter. No wonder such a suitor, sending such gifts, found welcome\nentertainment. So the story goes on: \"And they did eat and drink,\nhe and the men that were with him, and tarried all night; and they\nrose up in the morning; and he said, Send me away unto my master.\nAnd her brother and her mother said, Let the damsel abide with us a\nfew days, at the least ten, and after that she shall go. And he said\nunto them, Hinder me not, seeing the Lord hath prospered my way;\nsend me away, that I may go to my master. And they said, We will\ncall the damsel and inquire at her mouth. And they called Rebekah,\nand said unto her, Wilt thou go with this man? And she said, I will\ngo. And they sent away Rebekah their sister, and her nurse, and\nAbraham's servant and his men. And they blessed Rebekah, and said\nunto her, Thou art our sister; be thou the mother of thousands of\nmillions, and let thy seed possess the gate of those which hate\nthem.\" The idea of being a mother of nations gives a sort of dignity\nto the married life of these patriarchal women,--it was the motherly\ninstinct made sublime.\n\nThus far, this wooing seems to have been conceived and conducted\nin that simple religious spirit recognized in the words of the old\nprayer: \"Grant that all our works may be begun, continued, and ended\nin thee.\" The Father of Nations has been a never-failing presence in\nevery scene.\n\nThe expectant bridegroom seems to have been a youth of a pensive,\ndreamy, meditative nature. Brought up with the strictest notions of\nfilial submission, he waits to receive his wife dutifully from his\nfather's hand. Yet, as the caravan nears the encampment, he walks\nforth to meet them. \"And Isaac went out to meditate in the field at\nthe eventide: and he lifted up his eyes, and saw, and, behold, the\ncamels were coming. And Rebekah lifted up her eyes, and when she saw\nIsaac, she lighted off the camel. For she had said unto the servant,\nWhat man is this that walketh in the field to meet us? And the\nservant had said, It is my master: therefore she took a veil, and\ncovered herself.\"\n\nIn the little that is said of Rebekah, we see always that alert\nreadiness, prompt to see and do what is to be done at the moment. No\ndreamer is she, but a lively and wide-awake young woman, who knows\nher own mind exactly, and has the fit word and fit action ready for\neach short turn in life. She was quick, cheerful, and energetic in\nhospitality. She was prompt and unhesitating in her resolve; and\nyet, at the moment of meeting, she knew the value and the propriety\nof the _veil_. She covered herself, that she might not unsought be\nwon.\n\nWith a little touch of pathos, the story ends: \"And Isaac brought\nher into his mother Sarah's tent, and took Rebekah, and she became\nhis wife; and he loved her: and Isaac was comforted after his\nmother's death.\" We see here one of those delicate and tender\nnatures that find repose first in the love of a mother, and, when\nthat stay is withdrawn, lean upon a beloved wife.\n\nSo ideally pure, and sweet, and tenderly religious has been the\nwhole inception and carrying on and termination of this wedding,\nthat Isaac and Rebekah have been remembered in the wedding ritual\nof the catholic Christian churches as models of a holy marriage\naccording to the Divine will. \"Send thy blessing upon these thy\nservants, this man and this woman, whom we bless in thy name; that\nas Isaac and Rebekah lived faithfully together, so these persons may\nsurely perform and keep the vow and covenant between them.\"\n\nIn the subsequent history of the family, the dramatic individuality\nof the characters is kept up: Isaac is the gentle, thoughtful,\nmisty dreamer, lost in sentiment and contemplation; and Rebekah the\nforward, cheerful, self-confident manager of external things. We\ncan fancy it as one of the households where all went as the mother\nsaid. In fact, in mature life, we see these prompt and managing\ntraits, leading the matron to domestic artifices which could only\nbe justified to herself by her firm belief that the end pursued was\ngood enough to sanctify the means. Energetic, lively, self-trustful\nyoung women do sometimes form just such managing and diplomatic\nmatrons.\n\nIsaac, the husband, always dreamy and meditative, becomes old and\ndoting; conceives an inordinate partiality for the turbulent son\nEsau, whose skill in hunting supplies his table with the meat he\nloves. Rebekah has heard the prophetic legend, that Jacob, the\nyounger son, is the chosen one to perpetuate the sacred race; and\nJacob, the tender, the care-taking, the domestic, is the idol of her\nheart.\n\nNow, there are some sorts of women that, if convinced there was such\na Divine oracle or purpose in relation to a favorite son, would\nhave rested upon it in quiet faith, and left Providence to work out\nits ends in its own way and time. Not so Rebekah. The same restless\nactivity of helpfulness that led her to offer water to all the\ncamels, when asked to give drink for the servant, now led her to\ncome to the assistance of Providence. She proposes to Jacob to make\nthe oracle sure, and obtain the patriarchal blessing by stratagem.\nWhen Jacob expresses a humble doubt whether such an artifice may not\ndefeat itself and bring on him the curse rather than the blessing of\nhis father, the mother characteristically answers: \"Upon me be the\ncurse, my son: only obey my voice.\" Pages of description could not\nset a character before us more sharply and distinctly than this one\nincident, and nothing can show more dramatically in whose hands was\nthe ruling power in that family.\n\nThe managing, self-reliant Rebekah, ready to do her full share in\nevery emergency, and to run before every occasion with her busy\nplannings, is not a character of patriarchal ages merely. Every age\nhas repeated it, and our own is no exception. There are not wanting\namong us cheerful, self-confident, domestic managers, who might take\na lesson from the troubles that befell the good-hearted, but too\nbusy and officious Rebekah, in consequence of the success of her own\nschemes. The account of this belongs to our next chapter.\n\n[Illustration: LEAH AND RACHEL]\n\n\n\n\nLEAH AND RACHEL.\n\n\nIn the earlier portions of the Old Testament we have, very\ncuriously, the history of the deliberate formation of an influential\nrace, to which was given a most important mission in the world's\nhistory. The principle of _selection_, much talked of now in\nscience, is the principle which is represented in the patriarchal\nhistory as operating under a direct Divine guidance. From the\ncalling of Abraham, there seems to have been this continued\nwatchfulness in selecting the party through whom the chosen race was\nto be continued. Every marriage thus far is divinely appointed and\nguided. While the Fatherly providence and nurture is not withdrawn\nfrom the rejected ones, still the greatest care is exercised to\nseparate from them the chosen. The latter are selected apparently\nnot so much for moral excellence in itself considered, as for\nexcellence in relation to stock. The peaceable, domestic, prudent,\nand conservative elements are uniformly chosen, in preference to the\nwarlike and violent characteristics of the age.\n\nThe marriage of Isaac and Rebekah was more like the type of a\nChristian marriage than any other on record. No other wife shared\na place in his heart and home; and, even to old age, Isaac knew\nno other than the bride of his youth. From this union sprang twin\nboys; between whom, as is often the case, there was a remarkable\ndifference. The physical energy and fire all seemed to go to\none, the gentler and more quiet traits to the other. Esau was\nthe wild huntsman, the ranger of the mountains, delighting in\nforce,--precisely adapted to become the chief of a predatory tribe.\nJacob, the patient, the prudent, the submissive, was the home child,\nthe darling of his mother. Now, with every constitutional excellency\nand virtue is inevitably connected, in our imperfect humanity, the\nliability to a fault. The peace-loving and prudent, averse to\nstrife, are liable to sins of artifice and deception, as stronger\nnatures are to those of force and violence. Probably, in the calm\neye of Him who sees things just as they are, the one kind of fault\nis no worse than the other. At all events, the sacred narrative is\na daguerreotype of character; it reflects every trait and every\nimperfection without comment. The mild and dreamy Isaac, to save his\nwife from a rapacious king, undertakes to practice the same artifice\nthat his father used before him, saying, \"She is my sister\"; and the\nsame evil consequence ensues. The lesson of artifice once taught\nin the family, the evil spreads. Rebekah, when Isaac is old and\ndoting, commands Jacob to personate his older brother, and thus\ngain the patriarchal blessing, which in those days had the force\nof a last will and testament in our times. Yet, through all the\nfaults and errors of the mere human actors runs the thread of a\nDivine guidance. Before the birth of Jacob it was predicted that\nhe should be the chosen head of the forming nation; and by his\nmother's artifice, and his own participation in it, that prediction\nis fulfilled. Yet the natural punishment of the action follows. Esau\nis alienated, and meditates murder in his heart; and Jacob, though\nthe mother's darling, is driven out from his home a hunted fugitive,\nparted from her for life. He starts on foot to find his way to\nPadan-Aram, to his father's kindred, there to seek and meet and woo\nthe wife appointed for him.\n\nIt is here that the history of the patriarch Jacob becomes\nimmediately helpful to all men in all ages. And its usefulness\nconsists in just this,--that Jacob, at this time in his life, was no\nsaint or hero. He was not a person distinguished either by intellect\nor by high moral attainment, but simply such a raw, unformed lad\nas life is constantly casting adrift from the shelter of homes.\nHe is no better and no worse than the multitude of boys, partly\ngood and partly bad, who, for one reason or another, are forced to\nleave their mothers and their fathers; to take staff in hand and\nstart out on the great life-journey alone. He had been religiously\nbrought up; he knew that his father and his mother had a God,--the\nInvisible God of Abraham and Isaac; but then, other gods and lords\nmany were worshiped in the tribes around him, and how did he know,\nafter all, which was the right one? He wanders on over the wide,\nlonesome Syrian plains, till dark night comes on, and he finds\nhimself all alone, an atom in the great silent creation,--alone,\nas many a sailor-boy has found himself on the deck of his ship, or\nhunter, in the deep recesses of the forest. The desolate lad gathers\na heap of stones for a pillow and lies down to sleep. Nothing could\nbe more sorrowfully helpless than this picture; the representative\nportrait of many a mother's boy to-day, and in all days. We cannot\nsuppose that he prayed or commended his soul to God. We are told\ndistinctly that he did not even remember that God was in that place.\nHe lies down, helpless and forlorn, on his cold stone pillow, and\nsinks, overcome with fatigue, to prayerless slumber. And now, in\nhis dreams, a glorious light appears; a luminous path opens upward\nto the skies,--angels are passing to and fro upon it, and above, in\nbright benignity, stands a visible form, and says: \"I am the Lord\nGod of Abraham thy father, and the God of Isaac: the land whereon\nthou liest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed; and thy seed\nshall be as the dust of the earth; and thou shalt spread abroad\nto the west, and to the east, and to the north, and to the south;\nand in thee and in thy seed shall all the families of the earth be\nblessed. And, behold, I am with thee, and will keep thee in all\nplaces whither thou goest, and will bring thee again unto this land;\nfor I will not leave thee, until I have done that which I have\nspoken to thee of. And Jacob awaked out of his sleep, and he said,\nSurely the Lord is in this place; and I knew it not. And he was\nafraid, and said, How dreadful is this place! This is none other but\nthe house of God, and this is the gate of heaven. And Jacob arose\nup early in the morning, and took the stone that he had put for his\npillow, and set it up for a pillar, and poured oil upon the top of\nit. And Jacob vowed a vow, saying, If God will be with me, and will\nkeep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat, and\nraiment to put on, so that I come again to my father's house in\npeace, then shall the Lord be my God: and this stone, which I have\nset for a pillar, shall be God's house: and of all that Thou shalt\ngive me I will surely give the tenth unto thee.\"\n\nIn one night how much is born in that soul! The sentiment of\nreverence, awe of the Divine,--a conviction of the reality of God\nand an invisible world,--and the beginning of that great experiment\nby which man learns practically that God is his father. For, in\nthe outset, every human being's consciousness of God must be just\nof this sort. Have I a Father in heaven? Does he care for me? Will\nhe help me? Questions that each man can only answer as Jacob did,\nby casting himself upon God in a matter-of-fact, practical way in\nthe exigencies of this present life. And this history is the more\nvaluable because it takes man in his earlier stages of imperfection.\nWe are apt to feel that it might be safe for Paul, or Isaiah, or\nother great saints, to expect God to befriend them; but here a poor,\nuntaught shepherd boy, who is not religious, avows that, up to this\ntime, he has had no sense of God; and yet between him and heaven\nthere is a pathway, and about him in his loneliness are ministering\nspirits; and the God of Abraham and of Isaac is ready to become\nhis friend. In an important sense, this night dream, this gracious\npromise of God to Jacob, are not merely for him, but for all erring,\nhelpless, suffering sons of men. In the fatherly God thus revealed\nto the patriarch, we see the first fruits of the promise that\nthrough him all nations should be blessed.\n\nThe next step of the drama shows us a scene of sylvan simplicity.\nAbout the old well in Haran, shepherds are waiting with their\nflocks, when the stripling approaches: \"And Jacob said unto them,\nMy brethren, whence be ye? And they said, Of Haran are we. And he\nsaid unto them, Know ye Laban the son of Nahor? And they said, We\nknow him. And he said unto them, Is he well? And they said, He is\nwell: and, behold, Rachel his daughter cometh with the sheep. And\nhe said, Lo, it is yet high day, neither is it time that the cattle\nshould be gathered together. Water ye the sheep, and go and feed\nthem. And they said, We cannot, until all the flocks be gathered\ntogether, and till they roll the stone from the well's mouth; then\nwe water the sheep. And while he yet spake with them Rachel came\nwith her father's sheep; for she kept them. And it came to pass,\nwhen Jacob saw Rachel, the daughter of Laban, his mother's brother,\nand the sheep of Laban, his mother's brother, that Jacob went near,\nand rolled the stone from the well's mouth, and watered the flock of\nLaban, his mother's brother. And Jacob kissed Rachel, and lifted up\nhis voice, and wept; and Jacob told Rachel that he was her father's\nbrother, and that he was Rebekah's son: and she ran and told her\nfather. And it came to pass, when Laban heard the tidings of Jacob,\nhis sister's son, that he ran to meet him, and embraced him, and\nkissed him, and brought him to his house.\"\n\nIn the story of Isaac, we have the bridegroom who is simply the\nsubmissive recipient of a wife at his father's hands; in that of\nJacob, we have the story of love at first sight. The wanderer,\nexiled from home, gives up his heart at once to the keeping of his\nbeautiful shepherdess cousin, and so, when the terms of service\nare fixed with the uncle, the narrative says: \"And Laban had two\ndaughters; the name of the elder was Leah, and the name of the\nyounger was Rachel. Leah was tender-eyed; but Rachel was beautiful\nand well-favored. And Jacob loved Rachel, and said, I will serve\nthee seven years for Rachel, thy younger daughter. And Jacob served\nseven years for Rachel, and they seemed unto him but a few days, for\nthe love he had to her.\"\n\nBut when the wedding comes, in the darkness and secrecy of the night\na false bride is imposed on the lover. And Jacob awoke, and behold\nit was Leah. Not the last man was he who has awakened, after the\nbridal, to find his wife was not the woman he had taken her to be.\nBut the beloved one is given as a second choice, and seven years\nmore of service are imposed as her price.\n\nThe characteristics of these two sisters, Leah and Rachel, are less\nvividly given than those of any of the patriarchal women. Sarah,\nHagar, and Rebekah are all sharply defined characters, in and of\nthemselves; but of Leah and Rachel almost all that can be said is\nthat they were Jacob's wives, and mothers of the twelve tribes of\nIsrael.\n\nThe character of their father Laban was narrow, shrewd, and hard,\ndevoid of any generous or interesting trait, and the daughters\nappear to have grown up under a narrowing and repressing influence.\nWhat we learn of them in the story shows the envies, the jealousies,\nthe bickerings and heart-burnings of poorly developed natures. Leah,\nthe less beloved one, exults over her handsomer and more favored\nsister because she has been made a fruitful mother, while to Rachel\nthe gift of children is denied. Rachel murmurs and pines, and\nsays to her husband, \"Give me children, or I die.\" The desire for\noffspring in those days seemed to be an agony. To be childless, was\ndisgrace and misery unspeakable. At last, however, Rachel becomes a\nmother and gives birth to Joseph, the best-beloved of his father.\nThe narrative somehow suggests that charm of personal beauty and\nmanner which makes Rachel the beloved one, and her child dearer than\nall the rest. How many such women there are, pretty and charming,\nand holding men's hearts like a fortress, of whom a biographer could\nsay nothing only that they were much beloved!\n\nWhen Jacob flees from Laban with his family, we find Rachel secretly\ntaking away the images which her father had kept as household gods.\nThe art by which she takes them, the effrontery with which she\ndenies the possession of them, when her father comes to search for\nthem, shows that she had little moral elevation. The belief in the\nGod of her husband probably was mixed up confusedly in her childish\nmind with the gods of her father. Not unfrequently in those dim\nages, people seemed to alternate from one to the other, as occasions\nvaried. Yet she seems to have held her husband's affections to the\nlast; and when, in giving birth to her last son, she died, this son\nbecame the darling of his father's old age. The sacred poet has made\nthe name of this beloved wife a proverb, to express the strength of\nthe motherly instinct, and \"Rachel weeping for her children\" is a\nline that immortalizes her name to all time.\n\nWhatever be the faults of these patriarchal women, it must be\nconfessed that the ardent desire of motherhood which inspired them\nis far nobler than the selfish, unwomanly spirit of modern times,\nwhich regards children only as an encumbrance and a burden. The\nmotherly yearning and motherly spirit give a certain dignity to\nthese women of primitive ages, which atones for many faults of\nimperfect development.\n\nTwenty-one years elapse, and Jacob, a man of substance, father\nof a family of twelve children, with flocks and herds to form a\nnumerous caravan, leaves the service of his hard master to go back\nto his father. The story shows the same traits in the man as in the\nlad. He is the gentle, affectionate, prudent, kindly, care-taking\nfamily-man, faithful in duty, and evading oppression by quiet skill\nrather than meeting it with active opposition. He has become rich,\nin spite of every effort of an aggressive master to prevent it.\n\nWhen leaving Laban's service, he thus appeals to him: \"These twenty\nyears have I been with thee: thy ewes and thy she-goats have not\ncast their young, and the rams of thy flock have I not eaten. That\nwhich was torn of beasts I brought not unto thee; I bare the loss of\nit. Thus was I: in the day the drought consumed me, and the frost\nby night, and my sleep departed from mine eyes. Thus have I been\ntwenty years in thy house. I served thee fourteen years for thy two\ndaughters, and six years for thy cattle; and thou hast changed my\nwages ten times. Except the God of my father, the God of Abraham,\nand the fear of Isaac, had been with me, surely thou hadst sent me\naway now empty. God hath seen my affliction and the labor of my\nhands, and rebuked thee yesternight.\"\n\nTo the last of the history of Jacob, we see the same man,--careful,\npatient, faithful, somewhat despondent, wrapped up in family ties\nand cares, and needing at every step to lean on a superior power.\nAnd the Father on whom he seeks to lean is never wanting to him, as\nhe will never be to any of us, however weak, or faulty, or blind. As\nthe caravan nears home, news is brought that Esau, with an army of\nhorsemen, is galloping to meet him. Then says the record: \"Jacob was\ngreatly afraid and distressed: and Jacob said, O God of my father\nAbraham, the God of my father Isaac, the Lord which saidst unto me,\nReturn unto thy country and to thy kindred, and I will deal well\nwith thee: I am not worthy of the least of all the mercies and of\nall the truth which thou hast showed unto thy servant: for with\nmy staff I passed over this Jordan; and now I am become two bands.\nDeliver me, I pray thee, from the hand of my brother, from the hand\nof Esau; for I fear him, lest he will come and smite me, and the\nmother with the children. And thou saidst, I will surely do thee\ngood, and make thy seed as the sand of the sea, which cannot be\nnumbered for multitude.\" The prayer is not in vain. That night a\nmysterious stranger meets Jacob in the twilight shadows of morning.\nHe seeks to detain him; but, as afterwards, when the disciples met\nan unknown Friend on the way to Emmaus, he made as though he would\ngo farther. So now this stranger struggles in the embrace of the\npatriarch. Who, then, is this?--is it the Divine One? The thought\nthrills through the soul as Jacob strives to detain him. There is\nsomething wildly poetic in the legend. \"And he said, Let me go,\nfor the day breaketh. And he said, I will not let thee go, except\nthou bless me. And he said unto him, What is thy name? And he said,\nJacob. And he said, Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but\nIsrael: for as a prince hast thou power with God and with men, and\nhast prevailed. And Jacob asked him: Tell me, I pray thee, thy name.\nAnd he said, Wherefore dost thou ask after my name? And he blessed\nhim there. And Jacob called the name of the place Peniel, for he\nsaid, I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved.\"\nGod's love to man, the power of man's weakness and sorrow over the\nFather-heart, were never more beautifully shown than in this sacred\nidyl. The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; the God of the weak,\nthe sinful, the despondent, the defenceless; the helper of the\nhelpless,--He is the God of this sacred story; and so long as man is\nerring, and consciously frail, so long as he needs an ever-present\nand ever-loving Friend and Helper, so long will this story of Jacob\nbe dear to the human heart.\n\n\n\n\nWOMEN OF THE NATIONAL PERIOD.\n\n[Illustration: MIRIAM AND MOSES]\n\n\n\n\nMIRIAM, SISTER OF MOSES.\n\n\nIt has been remarked by Montalembert that almost all the great\nleading men in history have been intimately associated with superior\nwomen. If we look on Moses in a merely human light, and judge him\nby what he accomplished, as we do other historic characters, he\nis in certain respects the greatest man of antiquity. The works\nof the legislators, kings, and conquerors of ancient history were\nperishable. Their cities have crumbled, their governments and\ncommonwealths have dissolved as waves of the sea. Moses alone\nfounded a nation that still lives with an imperishable vitality,--a\npeople whose religious literature still expresses the highest\naspirations of the most cultivated nations of the earth.\n\nHis advent, therefore, forms an era in the history of humanity, and\nthe very opening of his career presents us with pictures of imposing\nand venerable female characters. The mother of Moses is mentioned,\nin the epistle to the Hebrews, as one of those worthies of ancient\ntime, who triumphed over things seen by the power of a sublime\nfaith in the invisible God and his promises. The very name of the\nmother (Exodus vi. 20), Jochebed,--\"the glory of Jehovah,\"--shows\nthat a deep spirit of religious enthusiasm and trust was the\nprevailing impulse in the family. She was of that moral organization\nwhence, through the laws of descent, might spring the prophet and\nprophetess. By _faith_ she refused to obey the cruel order of the\nking, and for three months hid the beautiful child.\n\nAnd here comes in the image of the first, and one of the most\nrevered, of the race of Hebrew prophetesses, Miriam, the elder\nsister of Moses. According to the Rabbinic tradition, the gift of\nprophecy descended upon her even in childhood. The story is that\nMiriam's mother, Jochebed, was one of the midwives to whom Pharaoh\ngave the command to destroy the children, and that when the child\nMiriam heard it, being then only five years old, her face flushed\nscarlet, and she said in anger: \"Woe to this man! God will punish\nhim for his evil deeds.\" After this the tradition says that when the\ndecree went forth for the destruction of every male child, Amram\nseparated himself from his wife Jochebed, lest he should bring on\nher the anguish of fruitless motherhood. After three years, the\nspirit of prophecy came on Miriam as she sat in the house, and\nshe cried out suddenly: \"My parents shall have another son, who\nshall deliver Israel out of the hands of the Egyptians.\" The angel\nGabriel guided Amram back to find his wife, whom he found blooming\nin all the beauty of youth, though more than a hundred years old.\nWhen she found herself with child, she feared that it might prove a\nboy, to be cruelly slain. Then the Eternal One spake in a dream to\nthe father, bidding him be of good cheer, for he would protect the\nchild, and all nations should hold him in honor.\n\nThe tradition goes on to say that the boy was born without pain, and\nthat when he was born the whole house was filled with a light as of\nbright sunshine. The mother's anxiety was increased when she saw the\nbeauty of the child, who was lovely as an angel of God. The parents\ncalled him Tobias, \"God is good,\" to express their thankfulness,\nand Amram kissed Miriam on the brow and said: \"Now know I that thy\nprophecy is come true.\"\n\nIn contrast to this ornate narrative is the grave and chaste\nsimplicity of the Scripture story. It is all comprised in two or\nthree verses of the second chapter of Exodus. \"And there went a man\nof the house of Levi, and took to wife a daughter of Levi. And the\nwoman conceived, and bare a son: and when she saw him that he was a\ngoodly child she hid him three months. And when she could no longer\nhide him, she took for him an ark of bulrushes, and daubed it with\nslime and with pitch, and put the child therein and laid it in the\nflags by the river's brink. And his sister stood afar off to see\nwhat would be done to him. And the daughter of Pharaoh came down to\nwash herself at the river; and her maidens walked along the river's\nside: and when she saw the ark among the flags, she sent her maid\nto fetch it. And when she had opened it, she saw the child: and\nbehold, the babe wept. And she had compassion on him and said: This\nis one of the Hebrew children. Then said his sister to Pharaoh's\ndaughter, Shall I go and call to thee a nurse of the Hebrew women,\nthat she may nurse the child for thee? And Pharaoh's daughter said\nunto her, Go. And the maid went and called the child's mother. And\nPharaoh's daughter said, Take this child away, and nurse it for me,\nand I will give thee thy wages; and the woman took the child and\nnursed it. And the child grew, and she brought him unto Pharaoh's\ndaughter, and she called his name Moses: and she said, Because I\ndrew him out of the water.\"\n\nTo this, we may add the account which St. Stephen gives when\nstanding before the Jewish council. \"In which time Moses was born,\nwho was exceeding fair,[2] and nourished up in his father's house\nthree months. And when he was cast out, Pharaoh's daughter took him\nup and nourished him for her own son. And Moses was learned in all\nthe wisdom of the Egyptians, and was mighty in words and deeds.\"\n\n  [2] The marginal translation reads \"fair to God.\"\n\nSuch are the extremely brief notices of a great event and of a group\nof characters whose influence on mankind every one of us feels\nto-day. For, the Jewish nation, in being chosen of God to be a\nsacerdotal race, was to pass through a history which should embody\nstruggles, oppressions, agonies, victories, and deliverances, such\nas should represent to all time the sorrows and joys, the trials\nand hopes, of humanity. To this day, the events of Jewish history\nso well express universal experiences, that its literature in all\nlanguages, and under all difference of climate and custom, has an\nimperishable hold on the human heart. It has been well said that\nnations struggling for liberty against powerful oppressors flee as\ninstinctively to the Old Testament as they do to mountain ranges.\nThe American slave universally called his bondage Egypt, and read\nthe history of the ten plagues and the crossing of the Red Sea\nas parts of his own experience. In the dark days of slavery, the\nhistory of Moses was sung at night, and by stealth, on plantations,\nwith solemn rhythmic movements, reminding one of old Egyptian times.\nIt was the Marseillaise of a rude people, forbidden by the master,\nand all the dearer to the slave.\n\nWe must take the full force of the anguish, the ignominy, the\noppression of slavery acting on noble and sensitive natures,\nelevated by faith in a high national destiny, and looking with\nearnestness and prayer for its evolution, in order to get a full\nidea of the character of Miriam. Such periods produce children with\nthat highly exalted organization which is predisposed to receive the\nprophetic impulse. The Rabbinic traditions with regard to Miriam,\nwhich we have added, are detailed at length by Josephus in his\nhistory, and show how strong is the impression which the personality\nof this woman made on those of her time, in connection with the life\nof their great lawgiver.\n\nThe Bible account of the birth and preservation of Moses has the\nusual quality of Scripture narratives; it is very brief and very\nstimulating to the imagination. Who of us has not seen in childhood\nthe old Nile with its reeds and rushes, its background of temples\nand pyramids? We have shared the tremors of the mother and sister\nwhile the little one was launched in the frail ark. Probably some\nreport of the kindness of the Princess had inspired a trembling\nhope. The mother dares not stay to guard her treasure, lest she\ndraw cruel eyes upon it; but the little Miriam, as a child playing\namong the tall reeds, can remain on the watch without attracting\nattention. In the scene where the helpless stranger is discovered\nby the Princess, we have, in the movements of the sister, all the\ncharacteristics, in miniature, of the future leader of Israel.\nPrompt, fearless, with an instantaneous instinct as to the right\nthing to be done at the critical moment, we can see the little\nHebrew maid press forward amid the throng surrounding the alarmed\nand crying child. The tradition is that an Egyptian woman, at the\ncommand of the Princess, tried to quiet him at her breast, and that\nthe young prophet indignantly rejected the attempt,--a statement\nwhich we who know babies, whether prophetic or otherwise, may deem\nhighly probable. Then spoke up the little Miriam: \"Shall I go and\ncall thee a nurse of the Hebrew women, that she may nurse the child\nfor thee?\" This was a bold proposal, but it succeeded. Perhaps the\nsmall speaker had some of the wonderful beauty of her infant brother\nto set off her words: at all events, the Princess seems at once to\nhave trusted her with the commission. We may readily believe the\nlittle feet had not far to go. The child comes back to his mother's\nbosom as a royal ward.\n\nWe see here in the child Miriam great self-poise and\nself-confidence. She is not afraid of royalty, and, though of an\nenslaved and despised race, is ready to make suggestions to a queen.\nThese are the traits of a natural leader, and we shall see them\nreappearing later in the history of Miriam. It was customary among\nthe Oriental races to prolong the period of nursing two or three\nyears, and Moses was thus in the care of his mother and elder sister\nfor a long time.\n\nJosephus gives the tradition current among the Jews, that the child\nwas a wonderfully attractive one,--so beautiful, that every one who\nbeheld him turned to look at him. The mother and sister looked upon\nhim as the visible pledge of God's mercy to their suffering people,\nas well as the visible answer to prayer. The God of Abraham, and\nIsaac, and Jacob, in whose hand are all hearts, had made a refuge\nfor the young Deliverer in the very family of the destroying tyrant!\n\nThe intercourse thus established between the court of Pharaoh and\nthese two women must have materially advanced their position. We\nsee in the Princess indications of a gracious and affable nature,\nand in Miriam a quick readiness to turn every favorable indication\nto good account. It is, therefore, quite probable that Miriam may\nhave shared the liberal patronage of the Princess. Evidently she\ncontinued to influence the mind of her brother after he had gone\ninto the family of Pharaoh, since we see her publicly associated\nwith him at the great period of the national deliverance.\n\nIn the history of Moses, and in his laws and institutes, we see\na peculiar and almost feminine tenderness and consideration for\nwhatever is helpless and defenceless. Perhaps the history of his own\nlife,--the story of the forlorn helplessness of his own cradle,\nand the anguish of his mother and sister,--operating on a large\nand generous nature, produced this result. For example, among the\nlaws of the great lawgiver, we find one which forbids the caging\nof a free bird (Deut. xxii. 6, 7); thus it was allowed to take the\nyoung who might easily be reconciled to captivity, but forbidden to\ntake those accustomed to freedom. Whoever has seen the miserable\nstruggles of a free bird brought suddenly into captivity, can\nappreciate the compassionateness of the man who made such a law for\na great people. In the same spirit another law forbids the muzzling\nof the ox when he treads the grain, and commands every man to stop\nand help an overburdened ass that falls beneath his load; and it\nparticularly adds, that the ass of an enemy shall be helped, no\nmatter how great the unwillingness.\n\nIn fact, the strongest impulse in the character of Moses appears to\nhave been that of protective justice, with regard to every helpless\nand down-trodden class. The laws of Moses, if carefully examined,\nare a phenomenon,--an exception to the laws of either ancient or\nmodern nations in the care they exercised over women, widows,\norphans, paupers, foreigners, servants, and dumb animals. Of all the\nso-called Christian nations there is none but could advantageously\ntake a lesson in legislation from them. There is a plaintive,\npathetic tone of compassion in their very language, which seems to\nhave been learned only of superhuman tenderness. Not the gentlest\nwords of Jesus are more compassionate in their spirit than many of\nthese laws of Moses. Some of them sound more like the pleadings of\na mother than the voice of legal statutes. For example: \"If thou\nlend money to any that is poor by thee, thou shalt not lay upon\nhim usury. If thou at all take thy neighbor's garment to pledge,\nthou shalt deliver it unto him by that the sun goeth down, for that\nis his covering, it is his raiment for his skin; wherein shall he\nsleep? and it shall come to pass that when he crieth unto me I will\nhear, for I am gracious.\" \"Thou shalt not oppress a hired servant\nthat is poor and needy, whether he be of thine own brethren or of\nstrangers that are within thy gates. At his day shalt thou give him\nhis wages, neither shall the sun go down upon it, for he is poor\nand setteth his heart upon it, lest he cry unto the Lord against\nthee.\" \"Thou shalt not pervert the judgment of the stranger nor of\nthe fatherless, nor take the widow's raiment as pledge; thou shalt\nremember that thou wast a bondman in Egypt, and the Lord thy God\nredeemed thee, therefore I command thee to do this thing.\" \"When\nthou cuttest down thy harvest and hast forgot a sheaf in the field,\nthou shalt not go again to fetch it, it shall be for the stranger,\nthe fatherless, and the widow. When thou beatest thine olive-tree,\nthou shalt not go over it again; when thou gatherest the grapes of\nthy vineyard, thou shalt not glean it afterward, it shall be for the\nstranger, the fatherless, and the widow.\"\n\nIn all this, we see how deep was the impression made on the mind\nof Moses by the enslaved and helpless condition of his people. He\nhad felt for the struggles of the enslaved, and it made him tender\nto the wild bird of the desert beating against its cage, to the\noverloaded ass fainting under his burden, to the hungry ox toiling\nto procure food which he was restricted from enjoying.\n\nOf the period including the time that Moses left his mother and\nsister to dwell in the palace of the Pharaohs, and receive the\neducation of an Egyptian prince, we have no record in the sacred\nnarrative, except the declaration of Stephen in the book of Acts,\nthat he was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and mighty\nin word and deed.\n\nIn Smith's Dictionary of the Bible there is a brief _r\u00e9sum\u00e9_ of what\nis said by ancient authors of this period of his life. According\nto Strabo, he was educated at Heliopolis, and grew up there as a\npriest, under his Egyptian name of Osariph. According to Philo,\nhe was taught the whole range of Greek, Chaldee, and Assyrian\nliterature. From the Egyptians, especially, he learned mathematics,\nto train his mind for the unprejudiced reception of truth. He\ninvented boats, engines for building, instruments of war and of\nhydraulics, and also understood hieroglyphics and mensuration of\nland. He taught Orpheus, and is thence called by the Greeks Mus\u00e6us,\nand by the Egyptians Hermes. According to Josephus, he was sent as\ngeneral of the Egyptian army on an expedition against Ethiopia.\nHe got rid of the serpents, in the countries through which he was\nto march, by turning basketfuls of ibises upon them. Tharbis,\nthe daughter of the King of Ethiopia, fell in love with him, and\ninduced her father to surrender to him; and he returned in triumph\nwith her to Egypt as his wife, and founded the city of Hermopolis\nto celebrate his victory. We see here, that if Moses remained true\nto the teachings of his mother and sister, and the simple faith\nof Israel, it was not for want of the broadest culture the world\nafforded. Egypt was the cradle of arts and letters, and the learned\nmen of Greece traveled there to study the mysteries which were\nconcealed under her hieroglyphics. Moses was a priest of Egypt in\nvirtue of being a prince of a royal house. According to the Egyptian\ntradition, although a priest of Heliopolis, he always performed his\ndevotions outside the walls of the city, in the open air, turned\ntowards the sunrising. According to the language of St. Paul, \"he\nendured as seeing Him that is invisible.\"\n\nIn Wilkinson's \"Egypt,\" we have some interesting suggestions as\nto the life and training of the Egyptian priest, which go far to\nshow what manner of education must have been given to Moses. The\nutmost purity of person was enjoined. Daily and nightly bathing\nof the whole person, a dress of pure linen, great exactness as to\nfood, with strict dietetic regulations, were also a part of the\ntraining. The Egyptians were the fountains of physiological and\nmedical knowledge to the nations of antiquity, and undoubtedly\nthese studies were a part of the \"wisdom\" of the priests. Moses\nmust also have passed through the lesser and the greater initiation\ninto the mysteries of Egypt; in which were taught the unity of God,\nthe immortality of the soul, and the retributions of a future life.\nThus he had an opportunity of comparing that portion of the Divine\nteaching and traditions which had descended through Egypt, with the\npure stream which had flowed down through the patriarchal families.\n\nIt thus appears that the Divine Being, in choosing the teacher and\nlawgiver to form his chosen nation, did not disdain the existing\nwisdom of the world up to that time. Moses had before him the\nresults of all the world's experience in thought and culture. Egypt\nwas the best there was to know, and he knew Egypt thoroughly. While,\nhowever, he often took suggestions from the ritual and philosophy\nof the Egyptians, the general bent of his institutes in reference to\nthem was jealous and antagonistic.\n\nAt the end of such a training and such varied experience,--as\npriest, as general, as conqueror,--Moses returns to Egypt and\nmeets again his sister, in whose heart the prophetic fire is still\nburning; and the sight of the oppression and misery of his people\nleads him to seek to interpose for their deliverance. The first\nact is the simple, unadvised movement of indignation at injustice;\nhe sees a Hebrew slave writhing under the lash of an Egyptian; he\nkills the tyrant and delivers the slave. He next tries to rouse a\nnational spirit of union among his people, and separates two who are\nfighting, with the words, \"Ye are brethren, and should not contend.\"\nSt. Stephen further interprets the heart of Moses at this crisis:\n\"For he supposed that his brethren would have understood how that\nGod by his hand would deliver them: but they understood not. But he\nthat did his neighbor wrong thrust him away, saying, Who made thee\na ruler and a judge over us? Wilt thou kill me as thou didst the\nEgyptian yesterday?\" (Acts vii. 25, 27, 28.) According to Josephus,\nthere were at this time envious and jealous plots hatching against\nMoses in the court of Pharaoh, and his life was threatened.\n\nHe fled to the land of Midian, where, with characteristic chivalry,\nhis first act was to interfere for the protection of some women\nwho were prevented by the brutality of the shepherd herdsmen from\nwatering their flocks.\n\nStill we see in him the protector of the weak and defenseless. In\nthis case his interference procures for him the gratitude of the\npriest of the shepherd tribe, and the exiled Egyptian prince becomes\na shepherd in the wilderness of Midian. He marries and settles down,\napparently content with the life of a simple herdsman. This seems\nto have been one of those refluent tides to which natures of great\nsensibility are liable, after a short experience of the realities\nof life. At once ardent and tender, Moses had been ready to cast in\nhis fortunes with his oppressed and suffering people; but he found\nthem unwilling to listen to him, and unworthy of freedom. His\nheart sinks,--the grandeur of courts, military renown, the wisdom\nof Egypt, are all less in his eyes than even the reproach of a good\ncause; but he feels himself powerless and alone, rejected by the\nvery people whom he came to serve. Like the Greater Prophet of whom\nhe was the type, \"He came unto his own, and his own received him\nnot.\"\n\nIn sinking of heart and despair, the solitude of the wilderness, its\nloneliness and stern simplicity, are a refuge and rest to him. In\nthe great calm of nature he draws near to Him who is invisible. What\nis most peculiar in the character of Moses, with all his advantages\nof beauty, rank, station, education, and military success, is a\nsingular absence of self-esteem and self-reliance. When the God of\nhis fathers appears in flaming fire and commissions him to go and\nlead forth his oppressed people, Moses shrinks from the position,\nand prays that it may be given to another. He is not eloquent; he\nsays, he is of stammering speech and a slow tongue, and he prays the\nLord to choose another. How often it happens that the work of the\nworld is thus put upon men who shrink from it,--not from indolence,\nbut from an exalted ideality, a high conception of the work to be\ndone! Moses was dumb and stammering with low-minded, vulgar-natured\nmen, as men who live high up in the radiant air of the nobler\nfeelings often are. How bring his great thoughts and purer feelings\ndown to their conceptions? He must have a spokesman, and evidently\nregards his brother Aaron as better fitted to take the lead than\nhimself.\n\nAaron seems to be a specimen of that class of men--facile,\nsympathetic, easily moved, and with a ready gift of words--whom\ngreater natures often admire for a facility and fluency which\ntheir very greatness denies to them. And yet it is this Aaron who,\nwhen Moses had been more than a month absent on the mount, was\ncarried away by the demand of the people to make them a visible\ngod; and who, if his brother had not cast himself down in agony of\nintercession, would have been swept away by the Divine anger.\n\nIn the great scene of the national deliverance, after the passage\nof the Red Sea, behold Moses and Miriam once more reunited in a\ngrand act of national triumph! A solemn procession goes forth on\nthe shores of the sea, and Moses leads the psalm of thanksgiving.\n\"And Miriam the prophetess, the sister of Aaron, took a timbrel in\nher hand; and all the women went out after her with timbrels and\nwith dances. And Miriam answered them, saying, Sing ye to the Lord,\nfor he hath triumphed gloriously; the horse and his rider hath he\nthrown into the sea.\" The solemn union of man and woman in this\ngreat public act of worship and thanksgiving, which inaugurated a\nfree nation, is indicative of the equality given to women by the\nDivine Being in all that pertains to the spiritual and immortal. \"On\nyour sons and _your daughters_,\" says the prophet Joel, \"I will pour\nout of my spirit, and _they_ shall prophesy\"; and the same passage\nis quoted by St. Peter as expressive of the genius of the opening\nChristian dispensation. Thus we find at the opening of the Mosaic,\nas well as the Christian dispensation, this announcement of the\nequality of the sexes in their spiritual nature.\n\nMany circumstances make it probable that as Moses and Miriam\nunitedly led the devotions of the people on this most solemn of\nnational festivals, so they continued to be united in administrative\nstation during that important period when the national code of laws\nand religious ritual were being crystallized and consolidated. We\ninfer from a passage in the prophet Micah,[3] that it was not in\nmere brotherly fondness that Moses would have consulted this sister,\nwho had been to him as a mother, but that she was understood to be\none of the divinely appointed leaders of the people, and that he was\nthus justified in leaning upon her for counsel.\n\n  [3] Micah, who prophesied in the reign of Hezekiah, represents the\n  Divine Being as thus addressing his people: \"I brought thee up\n  out of the land of Egypt; I sent before thee _Moses and Aaron and\n  Miriam_\" (Micah vi. 4). This is an indorsement more direct than any\n  other prophetess ever received.\n\nMoses was distinguished above all men we read of in history by a\nsingular absence of egoism. He was like a mother in the midst of the\ngreat people whose sins, infirmities, and sorrows he bore upon his\nheart with scarcely a consciousness of self. He had no personal\ninterests. He was a man so lowly and gentle of demeanor that all\nhis associates felt free to advise him. Thus his father-in-law,\nJethro, visiting him in the wilderness, expresses himself with\nperfect freedom in regard to the excessive toil he is undergoing\nin the care of the people, and suggests the appointment of elders\nwho should share the work of management. The eighteenth chapter\nof Exodus is a beautiful picture of the character and demeanor\nof Moses towards his father-in-law, and of his meek readiness to\ntake advice. It appears that in all the long, laborious journey\nthrough the wilderness, Moses felt the burden and the responsibility\naltogether more than the honor, and there is a despairing freedom\nin the complaints he sometimes pours out to his God. Thus in one\nof the periods of national discontent, when the people were all\n\"weeping and murmuring every man in his tent door,\" Moses says,\n\"Wherefore hast thou afflicted thy servant? and why have I not found\nfavor in thine eyes, that thou layest the burden of all this people\nupon me? Have I conceived all this people,--have I begotten them,\nthat thou shouldst say, Carry them in thy bosom as a nursing father\nbeareth the sucking child, unto the land which thou swarest unto\ntheir fathers? I am not able to bear all this people alone, because\nit is too heavy for me. And if thou deal thus with me, kill me, I\npray thee, out of hand, if I have found favor in thy sight; and\nlet me not see my wretchedness.\" The answer to this prayer is the\nappointment of seventy elders, under the care of God, to be sharers\nin the responsibilities of Moses. This division of responsibility\nseems to have relieved Moses, and he had not a thought of divided\nhonor, though it at once occurred to others with regard to him.\nWhen the gift of prophecy descended upon some of these seventy\nelders, it seems to have been imagined by some that this honor would\ntake from the dignity of Moses; and we are told (Num. xi. 28, 29),\n\"Joshua, the son of Nun, the servant of Moses, one of his young\nmen, answered and said, My lord Moses, forbid them. And Moses said\nunto him, Enviest thou for my sake? Would God that all the Lord's\npeople were prophets!\" If now we consider this singular meekness\nand unselfishness of Moses, we may easily see how it might be a\ntemptation to an ambitious, self-asserting spirit to cross beyond\nthe proper limit of advice and counsel into that of tyrannical\ndictation.\n\nWe have seen, in the few scenes where Miriam has appeared, that she\nhad a peculiar, prompt self-assertion and ready positiveness which\nmade leadership a necessity and a pleasure to her. She was a woman\nto court rather than shrink from responsibility, and to feel to the\nfull all the personal dignity and glory which her rank and position\ngave her; and, accordingly, the sacred narrative, which conceals no\nfault, informs us how gradually these unwatched traits grew up into\nthe very worst form of selfish ambition. After all the trials and\nsorrows of Moses, all the cabals and murmurings that wearied his\nsoul and made him feel that life was a burden to him, we come at\nlast to the severest trial of his life, when the sister and brother\non whom he had leaned joined against him. The whole incident,\nrecorded in Numbers xii., is most painful and most singular. \"And\nMiriam and Aaron spake against Moses on account of an Ethiopian\nwoman whom he had married.\" This is after the visit of his Midianite\nfather-in-law, Jethro, who brought back to Moses his wife and two\nsons, from whom he had been long separated. It is supposed by some\nthat this \"woman of Cush\" is the person referred to. If Moses had to\nthis time been without a wife, he had been entirely devoted to his\nsister. Now another female influence comes in,--the wife of Moses\nmay have felt disposed to assert her position among the women of\nIsrael, and thus a broil may have arisen. One can easily imagine\nsubjects of contention, and great vivacity of dissent, and the\nauthority of Moses would naturally be referred to as the supreme one.\n\nMiriam and Aaron join together to repudiate that authority, and set\nthemselves up as equals. \"And they said, Hath the Lord indeed spoken\n_only_ by Moses? Hath he not spoken also by _us_? And the Lord heard\nit. And the Lord spake suddenly to Moses and Aaron and Miriam, Come\nout ye three unto the tabernacle of the congregation. And they three\ncame out. And the Lord came down in the pillar of cloud, and stood\nin the door of the tabernacle, and called forth Moses and Aaron\nand Miriam, and he said: Hear now my words. If there be a prophet\namong you, I the Lord will make myself known unto him in a vision,\nand will speak unto him in a dream. My servant Moses is not so, who\nis faithful in all my house. With him I will speak mouth to mouth,\neven apparently, and not in dark speeches, and the similitude of the\nLord shall he behold. Wherefore, then, were ye not afraid to speak\nagainst my servant Moses? And the anger of the Lord was kindled,\nand the Lord departed from them, and the cloud departed from the\ntabernacle; and behold Miriam became leprous, white as snow; and\nAaron looked upon Miriam, and behold she was leprous. And Aaron\nsaid to Moses, Alas, my lord, lay not this sin upon us, wherein we\nhave done foolishly and wherein we have sinned. Let her not be as\none dead, of whom the flesh is half consumed when he cometh out\nof his mother's womb. And Moses cried unto the Lord, saying, Heal\nher now, O Lord, I beseech thee.\" The answer given to Moses draws\na strong simile from the customs of those desert tribes where the\nfather holds almost the sacred place of a god in the family. If her\nown father had expressed towards her the utmost extreme of mingled\nindignation and loathing at her conduct, would she not be ashamed\nfor a while! And the command is given that she be shut out from the\ncamp for seven days.\n\nIt is evidence of the high position held by this woman, that the\nwhole camp of Israel waited during those seven days, while she was\nsuffering under this terrible rebuke. The severity of the rebuke and\npunishment which fell upon Miriam seems at first sight excessive.\nBut we shall notice, in the whole line of the traditions with\nrespect to the prophetic office, the most complete unselfishness is\nabsolutely required. To use the prophetic gift in any manner for\npersonal ambition or aggrandizement, was sacrilege. The prophet must\nbe totally, absolutely without self. His divine gifts must never be\nused for any personal and individual purpose, even for the relief\nof utmost want. Thus the great prophets, Elijah and Elisha, gifted\nwith miraculous power, wandered hungry in the desert, and waited to\nbe fed by God. Thus Jesus, the Head of all the Prophets, when after\nwandering forty days he was an hungered, refused the suggestion to\nfeed himself by his own miraculous power, and also the suggestion to\nglorify himself by a public display of that power.\n\nMiriam, as we have seen, had naturally a great many of those\npersonal traits which easily degenerate into selfish ambition. She\nwas self-confident, energetic, and self-asserting by nature, and she\nhad been associating with a brother whose peculiar unselfishness\nand disposition to prefer others in honor before himself had given\nfull scope to her love of dictation. Undoubtedly, in most things her\ninfluence and her advice had been good, and there had been, in her\nleadership among the women of Israel, much that was valuable and\nadmirable. But one of the most fearful possibilities in our human\nexperience is the silent manner in which the divine essence exhales\nfrom our virtues and they become first faults and afterward sins.\nSacred enthusiasms, solemn and awful trusts for noble purposes,\nmay, before we know it, degenerate into mere sordid implements of\npersonal ambition. In the solemn drama that has been represented in\nScripture, the punishment that falls on the prophetess symbolizes\nthis corruption. God departs from the selfish and self-seeking soul,\nand, with God, all spiritual life. The living, life-giving, inspired\nprophetess becomes a corrupt and corrupting leper. Such was the\nawful lesson spoken in this symbol of leprosy; and, while the gifted\nleader of Israel waited without the camp, the nation pondered it in\nsilence.\n\nOne cannot but wonder at the apparent disproportion of the\npunishment upon Aaron. Yet, by careful observation, we shall find\nit to be a general fact in the Divine dealings, that the sins of\nweakness are less severely visited than the sins of strength.\nAaron's was evidently one of those weak and yielding natures that\nare taken possession of by stronger ones, as absolutely as a child\nis by a grown man. His was one of those sympathetic organizations\nwhich cannot resist the force of stronger wills. All his sins are\nthe sins of this kind of temperament. To suffer bitterly, and\nto repent deeply, is also essential to this nature; and in the\npunishment which fell on the sister who had tempted him, Aaron was\nmore punished than in anything that could have befallen himself.\nThere is utter anguish and misery in the cry which he utters when he\nsees his sister thus stricken.\n\nThere seems to have been a deep purpose in thus appointing to the\npriestly office a man peculiarly liable to the sins and errors of\nan excess of sympathy. The apostle says, that the proper idea of a\npriest was one \"who could have compassion on the ignorant, and on\nthem that are out of the way, for that he also is compassed with\ninfirmity.\" Among men such humility is only acquired by bitter\nfailures. At the same time a nature so soft and yielding could not\nbe smitten like a stronger one without being utterly destroyed.\nAaron appears to have been so really crushed and humbled by the\nblow which struck his sister that he suffered all of which he was\ncapable. The whole office of the priest was one of confession and\nhumiliation. In every symbol and every ceremony he expressed a sense\nof utmost unworthiness and need of a great expiation. It seems,\ntherefore, in sympathy with the great and merciful design of such\nan office, that for its first incumbent should be chosen a man\nrepresenting the infirmity rather than the strength of humanity.\nOur own experience in human nature is, that those who err from\ntoo sympathetic an organization, and a weak facility in receiving\nimpressions from others, may yet have great hold on the affections\nof men, and be the most merciful counsellors of the sinful and\ntempted.\n\nThe great Leader of Israel, who proclaimed his name through Moses\nas forgiving iniquity, transgression, and sin, evidently fully\nforgave and restored both Miriam and Aaron, since he remained in the\npriestly office, and she is subsequently mentioned in Holy Writ as\nan ordained prophetess.\n\nAfter this scene in the desert we lose sight of Miriam entirely,\nand are only reminded of her in one significant passage, where it\nis said to Israel, \"Remember what the Lord thy God did to Miriam by\nthe way, after ye were come forth from Egypt\" (Deut. xxiv. 9). Her\ndeath is recorded, Numbers xx. 1. Josephus gives an account of her\nfuneral obsequies, which were celebrated in the most solemn manner\nfor thirty days; the same honor was shown to a woman endowed with\nthe prophetic commission that was given to her brothers; and not\nonly so, but, as late as the time of St. Jerome, the tomb of Miriam\nwas shown as an object of veneration.\n\nOne thing in respect to the sacred and prophetic women of the\nJewish race is peculiar. They were uniformly, so far as appears,\nmarried women and mothers of families, and not like the vestal\nvirgins of antiquity, set apart from the usual family duties of\nwomen. Josephus mentions familiarly the husband of Miriam as\nbeing Hur, the well-known companion and assistant of Moses on a\ncertain public occasion. He also refers to Bezaleel, one of the\narchitects who assisted in the erection of the tabernacle, as her\ngrandson. We shall find, by subsequent examination of the lives of\nprophetic women who were called to be leaders in Israel, that they\ncame from the bosom of the family, and were literally, as well as\nmetaphorically, mothers in Israel. In the same year that Miriam\ndied, Aaron, her brother, was also laid to rest, and, of the three,\nMoses remained alone.\n\nIt is remarkable that while Jewish tradition regarded Miriam\nwith such veneration, while we see her spoken of in Holy Writ as\na divinely appointed leader, yet there are none of her writings\ntransmitted to us, as in the case of other and less revered\nprophetesses. The record of her fault and its punishment is given\nwith the frankness with which the Bible narrates the failings of\nthe very best; and, after that, nothing further is said. But it is\nevident that that one fault neither shook her brother's love nor\nthe regard of the nation for her. Josephus expressly mentions that\nthe solemn funeral honors which were shown her, and which held the\nnation as mourners for thirty days, were ordered and conducted by\nMoses, who thus expressed his love and veneration for the sister who\nwatched his infancy and shared his labors. The national reverence\nfor Miriam is shown in the Rabbinic tradition, that, on account of\nher courage and devotion in saving her brother's life at the Nile, a\nspring of living water, of which the people drank, always followed\nher footsteps through her wanderings in the wilderness. On her\ndeath the spring became dry. No more touching proof of a nation's\naffectionate memory can be given than a legend like this. Is it not\nin a measure true of every noble, motherly woman?\n\nYet, like many of her sex who have watched the cradle of great\nmen, and been their guardians in infancy and their confidential\ncounsellors in maturity, Miriam is known by _Moses_ more than by\nherself.\n\nAs sunshine reappears in the forms of the plants and flowers it\nhas stimulated into existence, so much of the power of noble women\nappears, not in themselves, but in the men who are gradually molded\nand modified by them. It was a worthy mission of a prophetess to\nform a lawgiver. We cannot but feel that from the motherly heart\nof this sister, associated with him in the prophetic office, Moses\nmust have gained much of that peculiar knowledge of the needs and\nwants and feelings of women which in so many instances shaped his\nadministration.\n\nThe law which protected the children of an unbeloved wife from\na husband's partiality, the law which secured so much delicacy\nand consideration to a captive woman, the law which secured\nthe marriage-rights of the purchased slave and forbade making\nmerchandise of her, the law which gave to the newly married wife\nthe whole of the first year of her husband's time and attention,\nare specimens of what we mean when we say that the influence of a\nnoble-hearted woman passed into the laws of Moses. No man could be\nmore chivalric or more ready to protect, but it required a woman's\nheart to show where protection was most needed, and we see in all\nthese minute guardings of family life why the Divine Being speaks\nof a woman as being divinely associated with the great lawgiver: \"I\nsent before you Moses and Aaron and Miriam.\"\n\nThus a noble womanly influence passed through Moses into permanent\ninstitutions. The nation identified her with the MAN who was their\nglory, and Miriam became immortal in Moses.\n\n[Illustration: DEBORAH THE PROPHETESS]\n\n\n\n\nDEBORAH THE PROPHETESS.\n\n\nThe Book of Judges is the record of a period which may be called\nthe Dark Ages of the Jewish Church, even as the medi\u00e6val days were\ncalled the Dark Ages of Christianity. In both cases, a new system of\npurity and righteousness, wholly in advance of anything the world\nhad ever before known, had been inaugurated by the visible power\nof God,--the system of Moses, and the system of Christ. But these\npure systems seem, in each case, to have been allowed to struggle\ntheir own way through the mass of human ignorance and sin. The\nideal policy of Moses was that of an ultra-democratic community,\nso arranged that perforce there must be liberty, fraternity, and\nequality. There was no chance for overgrown riches or abject\npoverty. Landed property was equally divided in the outset, and a\nhomestead allowed to each family. Real estate could not be alienated\nfrom a family for more than a generation; after that period, it\nreturned again to its original possessor. The supreme law of the\nland was love. Love, first, to the God and Father, the invisible\nhead of all; and secondly, towards the neighbor, whether a Jewish\nbrother or a foreigner and stranger. The poor, the weak, the\nenslaved, the old, the deaf, the blind, were protected by solemn\nand specific enactments. The person of woman was hedged about by\nrestraints and ordinances which raised her above the degradation of\nsensuality to the honored position of wife and mother. Motherhood\nwas exalted into special honor, and named as equal with fatherhood\nin the eye of God. \"Ye shall fear every man _his mother_ and his\nfather, and keep my Sabbaths: I am the Lord.\" (Lev. xix. 3.)\n\nRefinement of feeling, personal cleanliness, self-restraint, order,\nand purity were taught by a system of ordinances and observances,\nwhich were intertwined through all the affairs of life, so that\nthe Jew who lived up to his law must of necessity rise to a noble\nmanhood. But this system, so ideally perfect, encountered an age\nof darkness. Like all beautiful ideals, the theocratic republic\nof Moses suffered under the handling of coarse human fingers.\nWithout printed books or printing, or any of the thousand modern\nmeans of perpetuating ideas, the Jews were constantly tempted to\nlapse into the customs of the heathen tribes around. The question\nwhether Jehovah or Baal were God was kept open for discussion, and\nsometimes, for long periods, idolatry prevailed. Then came the\nsubjugation and the miseries of a foreign yoke, and the words of\nMoses were fulfilled: \"Because thou servedst not the Lord thy God,\nwith joyfulness, and with gladness of heart, for the abundance of\nall things, therefore shalt thou serve the enemy whom the Lord shall\nsend against thee, in hunger and in thirst, and in nakedness, and\nin want of all things; and he shall put a yoke of iron on thy neck,\ntill he have destroyed thee.\"\n\nThe history of the Jewish nation, in the Book of Judges, presents\na succession of these periods of oppression, and of deliverance by\na series of divinely inspired leaders, sent in answer to repentant\nprayers. It is entirely in keeping with the whole character of the\nMosaic institutions, and the customs of the Jewish people, that one\nof these inspired deliverers should be a woman. We are not surprised\nat the familiar manner in which it is announced, as a thing quite in\nthe natural order, that the chief magistrate of the Jewish nation,\nfor the time being, was a woman divinely ordained and gifted. Thus\nthe story is introduced:--\n\n\"And the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord when\nEhud was dead, and the Lord sold them into the hands of Jabin, King\nof Canaan, that reigned in Hasor, the captain of whose host was\nSisera, which dwelt in Harosheth of the Gentiles. And the children\nof Israel cried unto the Lord; for he had nine hundred chariots of\niron, and twenty years he mightily oppressed the children of Israel.\nAnd Deborah, the prophetess, the wife of Lapidoth, she judged Israel\nat that time. And she dwelt under the palm-tree of Deborah, between\nRamah and Bethel, in Mount Ephraim, and the children of Israel came\nup to her for judgment. And she sent and called Barak, the son of\nAbinoam, and said unto him: Hath not the Lord God of Israel said, Go\ndraw towards Mount Tabor, and take with thee ten thousand men of the\nchildren of Zebulun and the children of Naphtali? And I will draw\nunto thee, at the river Kishon, Sisera, the captain of Jabin's army,\nwith his chariots and his multitude, and I will deliver him into thy\nhands. And Barak said: If _thou_ wilt go with me, I will go; but if\nthou wilt not go with me, I will not go. And she said: I will surely\ngo with thee; notwithstanding, the journey that thou takest shall\nnot be for thine honor, for the Lord shall sell Sisera into the hand\nof a woman.\"\n\nIn all this we have a picture of the reverence and confidence with\nwhich, in those days, the inspired woman was regarded. The palm-tree\nwhich shaded her house becomes a historical monument, and is spoken\nof as a well-known object. The warlike leader of the nation comes\nto her submissively, listens to her message as to a divine oracle,\nand obeys. He dares not go up to battle without her, but if she will\ngo he will follow her. The prophetess is a wife, but her husband\nis known to posterity only through her. Deborah was the wife of\nLapidoth, and therefore Lapidoth is had in remembrance even down to\nour nineteenth century.\n\nThis class of prophetic and inspired women appear to have been\nthe poets of their time. They were, doubtless, possessed of that\nfine ethereal organization, fit to rise into the higher regions\nof ecstasy, wherein the most exalted impressions and enthusiasms\nspring, as birds under tropic sunshine. The Jewish woman was\nintensely patriotic. She was a living, breathing impersonation\nof the spirit of her nation; and the hymn of victory chanted by\nDeborah, after the issue of the conflict, is one of the most\nspirited specimens of antique poetry. In order to sympathize with\nit fully, we must think of the condition of woman in those days,\nwhen under the heel of the oppressor. The barriers and protections\nwhich the laws of Moses threw around the Jewish women inspired in\nthem a sense of self-respect and personal dignity which rendered the\nbrutal outrages inflicted upon captives yet more intolerable. The\nlaw of Moses commanded the Jewish warrior who took a captive woman\nto respect her person and her womanhood. If he desired her, it must\nbe as a lawful wife; and even as a husband he must not force himself\nat once upon her. He must bring her to his house, and allow her a\nmonth to reconcile herself to her captivity, before he took her to\nhimself. But among the nations around, woman was the prey of whoever\ncould seize and appropriate her.\n\nThe killing of Sisera by Jael has been exclaimed over by modern\nsentimentalists as something very shocking. But let us remember how\nthe civilized world felt when, not long since, the Austrian tyrant\nHeynau outraged noble Hungarian and Italian women, subjecting them\nto brutal stripes and indignities. When the civilized world heard\nthat he had been lynched by the brewers of London,--cuffed, and\npommeled, and rolled in the dust--shouts of universal applause went\nup, and the verdict of society was, \"Served him right.\" Deborah\nsaw, in the tyrant thus overthrown, the ravisher and brutal tyrant\nof helpless women, and she extolled the spirit by which Jael had\nentrapped the ferocious beast, whom her woman's weakness could not\notherwise have subdued.\n\nThere is a beautiful commentary on the song of Deborah in Herder's\n\"Spirit of Hebrew Poetry.\" He gives a charming translation, to\nwhich we refer any one who wishes to study the oldest poem by a\nfemale author on record. The verse ascribed to Miriam seems to have\nbeen only the chorus of the song of Moses, and, for aught that\nappears, may have been composed by him; but this song of Deborah is\nof herself alone. It is one of the noblest expressions of devout\npatriotism in literature.\n\nWe subjoin a version of this poem, in which we have modified, in\naccordance with Herder, some passages of our ordinary translation.\n\n    \"Praise ye Jehovah for the avenging of Israel,\n    When the people willingly offered themselves.\n    Hear, O ye kings; give ear, O ye princes.\n    I will sing praise to Jehovah;\n    I will praise Jehovah, God of Israel.\n    Jehovah, when thou wentest out from Seir,\n    When thou marchedst from Edom,\n    The earth trembled and the heavens dropped,\n    The clouds also poured down water.\"\n\nThe song now changes, to picture the miseries of an enslaved people,\nwho were deprived of arms and weapons, and exposed at any hour and\nmoment to the incursions of robbers and murderers:--\n\n    \"In the days of Shamgar, the son of Anath,\n    In the days of Jael,\n    The highways were unoccupied,\n    And travelers walked through by-ways.\n    The inhabitants ceased from the villages,\n    Till I, Deborah, arose.\n    I arose a mother in Israel.\n    They went after strange gods;\n    Then came the war to their gates.\n    Was there then a shield or a spear\n    Among forty thousand in Israel?\"\n\nThe theme then changes, to celebrate those whose patriotic bravery\nhad redeemed their country:--\n\n    \"My heart throbs to the governors of Israel\n    That offered themselves willingly among the people.\n              Bless ye Jehovah!\n    Speak, ye that ride on white asses,\n    Ye that sit in judgment, and ye that walk by the way,\n    They that are delivered from the noise of archers\n    In the place of drawing water,\n    There shall they rehearse the righteous acts of Jehovah,\n    His righteous acts towards the inhabitants of the villages.\n    Then shall the people go down to the gates.\n    Awake! awake! Deborah,\n    Awake! awake! utter a song!\n    Arise, Barak, and lead captivity captive,\n    Thou son of Abinoam!\"\n\nAfter this, another change: she reviews, with all a woman's fiery\neloquence, the course which the tribes have taken in the contest,\ngiving praise to the few courageous, self-sacrificing patriots, and\ncasting arrows of satire and scorn on the cowardly and selfish. For\nthen, as in our modern times, there were all sorts of men. There\nwere those of the brave, imprudent, generous, \"do-or-die\" stamp,\nand there were the selfish conservatives, who only waited and\ntalked. So she says:--\n\n    \"It was but a small remnant that went forth against the mighty.\n    The people of Jehovah went with me against the mighty.\n    The march began with Ephraim,\n    The root of the army was from him;\n    With him didst thou come, Benjamin!\n    Out of Machir came down the leaders;\n    Out of Zebulun the marshals of forces;\n    And the princes of Issachar were with Deborah.\n    Issachar, the life-guard of Barak,\n    Sprang like a hind into the battle-field!\"\n\nIt appears that the tribe of Reuben had only been roused so far as\nto _talk_ about the matter. They had been brought up to the point of\nan animated discussion whether they should help or not. The poetess\nthus jeers at them:--\n\n    \"By the brooks of Reuben there were great talkings and inquiries.\n    Why abodest thou in thy sheepfolds, Reuben?\n    Was it to hear the bleating of the flocks?\n    By the brooks of Reuben were great talks [but nothing more].\n    Gilead, too, abode beyond Jordan;\n    And why did Dan remain in his ships?\n    Asher stayed on the sea-shore and remained in his harbor.\n    Zebulun and Naphtali risked their lives unto the death\n    In the high places of the field of battle.\"\n\nNow comes the description of the battle. It appears that a sudden\nand violent rain-storm and an inundation helped to rout the enemy\nand gain the victory; and the poetess breaks forth:--\n\n    \"The kings came and fought;\n    The kings of Canaan in Taanach, by the waters of Megiddo;\n    They brought away no treasure.\n    They fought; from heaven the stars in their courses\n    They fought against Sisera.\n    The river Kishon swept them down,\n    That ancient river, Kishon.\n    O my soul! walk forth with strength!\n    Then was the rattling of hoofs of horses!\n    They rushed back,--the horses of the mighty.\"\n\nAnd now the solemn sound of a prophetic curse:--\n\n    \"Curse ye Meroz, saith the angel of Jehovah,\n    Curse ye bitterly the inhabitants thereof,\n    Because they came not to the help of Jehovah,\n    To the help of Jehovah against the mighty!\"\n\nThen follows a burst of blessing on the woman who had slain the\noppressor; in which we must remember, it is a woman driven to the\nlast extreme of indignation at outrages practiced on her sex that\nthus rejoices. When the tiger who has slain helpless women and\nchildren is tracked to his lair, snared, and caught, a shout of\nexultation goes up; and there are men so cruel and brutal that even\nhumanity rejoices in their destruction. There is something repulsive\nin the thought of the artifice and treachery that beguiled and\nbetrayed the brigand chief. But woman cannot meet her destroyer in\nopen, hand-to-hand conflict. She is thrown perforce on the weapons\nof physical weakness; and Deborah exults in the success of the\nartifice with all the warmth of her indignant soul.\n\n    \"Blessed above women be Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite!\n    Blessed shall she be above women in the tent!\n    He asked water and she gave him milk;\n    She brought forth butter in a lordly dish.\n    She put her hand to the nail,\n    Her right hand to the workman's hammer.\n    With the hammer she smote Sisera,\n    She smote off his head.\n    When she had stricken through his temple,\n    At her feet he bowed, he fell, he lay prostrate.\n    At her feet he bowed, he fell.\n    Where he bowed, there he fell down dead!\"\n\nThe outrages on wives, mothers, and little children, during twenty\nyears of oppression, gives energy to this blessing on the woman who\ndared to deliver.\n\nBy an exquisite touch of the poetess, we are reminded what must have\nbeen the fate of all Jud\u00e6an women except for this nail of Jael.\n\n    \"The mother of Sisera looked out at a window.\n    She cried through the lattice,\n    Why delay the wheels of his chariot?\n    Why tarries the rattle of his horse-hoofs?\n    Her wise ladies answered: yea, she spake herself.\n    Have they not won? Have they not divided the prey?\n    To every man a virgin or two;\n    To Sisera a prey of divers colors, of divers colors and gold\n        embroidery,\n    Meet for the necks of them that take the spoil.\"\n\nIn the reckoning of this haughty princess, a noble Jud\u00e6an lady,\nwith her gold embroideries and raiment of needle-work, is only an\nornament meet for the neck of the conqueror,--a toy, to be paraded\nin triumph. The song now rises with one grand, solemn swell, like\nthe roll of waves on the sea-shore:--\n\n    \"So let all thine enemies perish, O Jehovah!\n    But let them that love thee shine forth as the sun in his strength.\"\n\nAnd as this song dies away, so passes all mention of Deborah. No\nother fragment of poetry or song from her has come down from her\nage to us. This one song, like a rare fragment of some deep-sea\nflower, broken off by a storm of waters, has floated up to tell\nof her. We shall see, as we follow down the line of history, that\nwomen of this lofty poetic inspiration were the natural product of\nthe Jewish laws and institutions. They grew out of them, as certain\nflowers grow out of certain soils. To this class belonged Hannah,\nthe mother of Samuel, and Huldah, the prophetess, and, in the\nfullness of time, Mary, the mother of Jesus, whose _Magnificat_ was\nthe earliest flower of the Christian era. Mary was prophetess and\npoet, the last and greatest of a long and noble line of women, in\nwhom the finer feminine nature had been kindled into a divine medium\nof inspiration, and burst forth in poetry and song as in a natural\nlanguage.\n\n[Illustration: DELILAH THE DESTROYER]\n\n\n\n\nDELILAH THE DESTROYER.\n\n\nThe pictures of womanhood in the Bible are not confined to subjects\nof the better class.\n\nThere is always a shadow to light; and shadows are deep, intense,\nin proportion as light is vivid. There is in bad women a terrible\nenergy of evil which lies over against the angelic and prophetic\npower given to them, as Hell against Heaven.\n\nIn the long struggles of the Divine Lawgiver with the idolatrous\ntendencies of man, the evil as well as the good influence of\nwoman is recognized. There are a few representations of loathsome\nvice and impurity left in the sacred records, to show how utterly\nand hopelessly corrupt the nations had become whom the Jews were\ncommanded to exterminate. Incurable licentiousness and unnatural\nvice had destroyed the family state, transformed religious services\ninto orgies of lust, and made woman a corrupter, instead of a\nsaviour. The idolatrous temples and groves and high places against\nwhich the prophets continually thunder were scenes of abominable\nvice and demoralization.\n\nNo danger of the Jewish race is more insisted on in sacred history\nand literature than the bad power of bad women, and the weakness of\nmen in their hands. Whenever idolatry is introduced among them it is\nalways largely owing to the arts and devices of heathen women.\n\nThe story of Samson seems to have been specially arranged as a\nwarning in this regard. It is a picture drawn in such exaggerated\ncolors and proportions that it might strike the lowest mind and be\nunderstood by the dullest. As we have spoken of the period of the\nJudges as corresponding to the Dark Ages of Christianity, so the\nstory of Samson corresponds in some points with the medi\u00e6val history\nof St. Christopher. In both is presented the idea of a rugged\nanimal nature, the impersonation of physical strength, without\nmuch moral element, but seized on and used by a divine impulse for\na beneficent purpose. Samson had strength, and he used it to keep\nalive this sacerdotal nation, this race from whom were to spring the\nfuture apostles and prophets and teachers of our Christianity.\n\nLike some unknown plant of rare flower and fruit, cast out to\nstruggle in ungenial soil, nipped, stunted, browsed down by cattle,\ntrodden down by wild beasts, the Jewish race, in the times of the\nBook of Judges showed no capability of producing such men as Isaiah\nand Paul and John, much less Jesus. Yet, humanly speaking, in this\nstock, now struggling for bare national existence, and constantly\nin danger of being trampled out, was contained the capacity of\nunfolding, through Divine culture, such heavenly blossoms as Jesus\nand his apostles.\n\nIn fact, then, the Christian religion, with all its possibilities\nof hope and happiness for the human race, lay at this period\ngerminant, in seed form, in a crushed and struggling race. Hence the\nhistory of Samson; hence the reason why he who possessed scarcely\na moral element of character is spoken of as under the guidance\nof the Spirit of the Lord. A blind impulse inspired him to fight\nfor the protection of his nation against the barbarous tribes that\nthreatened their destruction, and with this impulse came rushing\nfloods of preternatural strength. With the history of this inspired\ngiant is entwined that of a woman whose name has come to stand as\na generic term for a class,--Delilah! It is astonishing with what\nwonderful dramatic vigor a few verses create before us this woman so\nvividly and so perfectly that she has been recognized from age to\nage.\n\nDelilah! not the frail sinner falling through too much love; not the\nweak, downtrodden woman, the prey of man's superior force; but the\nterrible creature, artful and powerful, who triumphs over man, and\nuses man's passions for her own ends, without an answering throb of\npassion. As the strength of Samson lies in his hair, so the strength\nof Delilah lies in her hardness of heart. If she could love, her\npower would depart from her. Love brings weakness and tears that\nmake the hand tremble and the eye dim. But she who cannot love\nis guarded at all points; _her_ hand never trembles, and no soft,\nfond weakness dims her eye so that she cannot see the exact spot\nwhere to strike. Delilah has her wants,--she wants money, she wants\npower,--and men are her instruments; she will make them her slaves\nto do her pleasure.\n\nSamson, like the great class of men in whom physical strength\npredominates, appears to have been constitutionally good-natured and\npersuadable, with a heart particularly soft towards woman. He first\nfalls in love with a Philistine woman whom he sees, surrendering\nalmost without parley. His love is animal passion, with good-natured\nsoftness of temper; it is inconsiderate, insisting on immediate\ngratification. Though a Nazarite, vowed to the service of the Lord,\nyet happening to see this woman, he says forthwith: \"I have seen a\nwoman in Timnath, of the daughters of the Philistines; therefore\nget her for me for a wife. Then said his father and his mother, Is\nthere never a woman of the daughters of thy people, that thou goest\nto take a Philistine woman to wife? But he said, Get her for me; for\nshe pleaseth me well.\"\n\nShe is got; and then we find the strong man, through his passion\nfor her, becoming the victim of the Philistines. He puts out a\nriddle for them to guess. \"And they said to Samson's wife, Entice\nthy husband that he may declare unto us the riddle. And Samson's\nwife wept before him, and said, Thou dost but hate me, and lovest\nme not: thou hast put forth a riddle unto the children of my people\nand hast not told me. And she wept before him seven days, and on the\nseventh day he told her.\" A picture this of what has been done in\nkings' palaces and poor men's hovels ever since,--man's strength was\novercome and made the tool of woman's weakness.\n\nWe have now a record of the way this wife was taken from him, and\nof the war he declared against the Philistines, and of exploits\nwhich caused him to be regarded as the champion of his nation by the\nHebrews, and as a terror by his enemies. He holds them in check, and\ndefends his people, through a course of years; and could he have\nruled his own passions, he might have died victorious. The charms of\na Philistine woman were stronger over the strong man than all the\nspears or swords of his enemies.\n\nThe rest of the story reads like an allegory, so exactly does it\ndescribe that unworthy subservience of man to his own passions,\nwherein bad women in all ages have fastened poisonous roots of\npower. The man is deceived and betrayed, with his eyes open, by a\nwoman whom he does not respect, and who he can see is betraying him.\nThe story is for all time. The temptress says: \"How canst thou say,\nI love thee, when thy heart is not with me? Thou hast mocked me\nthese three times, and hast not told me wherein thy great strength\nlieth. And it came to pass when she pressed him daily with her\nwords, and urged him so that his soul was vexed to death, that he\ntold her all his heart.\" Then Delilah runs at once to her employers.\n\"She sent and called the lords of the Philistines, saying, Come up\nthis once, he hath told me all his heart. And she made him sleep\nupon her knees; and called for a man, and bade him shave off the\nseven locks, and his strength went from him. And she said, The\nPhilistines be upon thee, Samson, and he awoke and said, I will go\nout and shake myself, as at other times, and he wist not that the\nLord was departed from him. But the Philistines took him, and put on\nhim fetters of brass, and he did grind in their prison house.\"\n\nThus ignobly ends the career of a deliverer whose birth was promised\nto his parents by an angel, who was vowed to God, and had the gift\nof strength to redeem a nation. Under the wiles of an evil woman he\nlost all, and sunk lower than any slave into irredeemable servitude.\n\nThe legends of ancient history have their parallels. Hercules,\nthe deliverer, made the scoff and slave of Omphale, and Antony,\nbecome the tool and scorn of Cleopatra, are but repetitions of the\nsame story. Samson victorious, all-powerful, carrying the gates\nof Gaza on his back, the hope of his countrymen and the terror of\nhis enemies; and Samson shorn, degraded, bound, eyeless, grinding\nin the prison-house of those he might have subdued,--such was the\nlesson given to the Jews of the power of the evil woman. And the\nstory which has repeated itself from age to age, is repeating itself\nto-day. There are women on whose knees men sleep, to awaken shorn\nof manliness, to be seized, bound, blinded, and made to grind in\nunmanly servitude forever.\n\n    \"She hath cast down many wounded,\n    Yea, many strong men hath she slain;\n    Her house is the way to Hell,\n    Going down to the chambers of Death.\"\n\n[Illustration: JEPHTHA'S DAUGHTER]\n\n\n\n\nJEPHTHA'S DAUGHTER.\n\n\nThis story, which has furnished so many themes for the poet and\nartist, belongs, like that of Samson, to the stormy and unsettled\nperiod of Jewish history which is covered by the Book of Judges.\n\nJephtha, an illegitimate son, is cast out by his brethren, goes off\ninto a kind of border-land, and becomes, in that turbulent period, a\nleader of a somewhat powerful tribe.\n\nThese times of the Judges remind us forcibly, in some respects, of\nthe chivalric ages. There was the same opportunity for an individual\nto rise to power by personal valor, and become an organizer and\nleader in society. A brave man was a nucleus around whom gathered\nothers less brave, seeking protection, and the individual in time\nbecame a chieftain. The bravery of Jephtha was so great, and his\npower and consideration became such, that when his native land was\ninvaded by the Ammonites, he was sent for by a solemn assembly of\nhis people, and appointed their chief. Jephtha appears, from the\nstory, to have been a straightforward, brave, generous, God-fearing\nman.\n\nThe story of his vow is briefly told. \"And Jephtha vowed a vow unto\nthe Lord and said, If thou wilt without fail deliver the children\nof Ammon into my hands, then it shall be that whatsoever cometh\nfirst out of my door to meet me, when I return, shall be the Lord's,\nand I will offer it as a whole offering unto the Lord.\" The vow\nwas recorded, a great victory was given, and the record says, \"And\nJephtha came to Mizpah, unto his house, and behold, his daughter\ncame out to meet him with timbrels. She was his only child, and\nbeside her he had neither son nor daughter. And it came to pass,\nwhen he saw her, that he rent his clothes, and said, Alas! my\ndaughter, thou hast brought me very low; for I have opened my mouth\nto the Lord, and cannot go back. And she said, My father, if thou\nhast opened thy mouth to the Lord, do to me according to that which\nhath proceeded out of thy mouth; forasmuch as the Lord hath taken\nvengeance for thee of thine enemies, even the children of Ammon.\nAnd she said unto her father, Let this thing be done for me: Let\nme alone two months, that I may go up and down upon the mountains\nto bewail my virginity, I and my fellows. And he said, Go. And he\nsent her away for two months, and she went with her companions and\nbewailed her virginity upon the mountains. And it came to pass at\nthe end of two months, that she returned to her father, who did with\nher according to his vow.\"\n\nAnd what was that? The popular version generally has been that\nJephtha killed his daughter, and offered her a burnt sacrifice.\nJosephus puts this interpretation upon it, saying that \"he\noffered such an oblation as was neither conformable to the law\nnor acceptable to God; not weighing with himself what opinion the\nhearers would have of such a practice.\" A large and very learned and\nrespectable body of commentators among the Jews, both ancient and\nmodern, deny this interpretation, and, as appears to us, for the\nbest of reasons.\n\nJephtha was a Jew, and human sacrifice was above all things\nabhorrent to the Jewish law and to the whole national feeling. There\nis full evidence, in other pictures of life and manners given in\nthe Book of Judges, that in spite of the turbulence of the times,\nthere were in the country many noble, God-fearing men and women who\nintelligently understood and practiced the wise and merciful system\nof Moses.\n\nGranting that Jephtha, living in the heathen border-land, had\nmingled degrading superstitions with his faith, it seems improbable\nthat such men as Boaz, the husband of Ruth, Elkanah, the husband of\nHannah, Manoah and his wife, the parents of Samson, and the kind\nof people with whom they associated, could have accepted, as Judge\nof Israel, a man whom their laws would regard as guilty of such a\ncrime. Besides, the Jewish law contained direct provisions for such\nvows. In three or four places in the Jewish law, it is expressly\nstated that where a human being comes into the position of a whole\noffering to God, the life of that human being is not to be taken;\nand a process of substitution and redemption is pointed out. Thus\nthe first-born of all animals and the first-born of all men were\nalike commanded to be made whole offerings to the Lord: the animals\nwere slain and burnt, but the human being was redeemed. No one can\ndeny that all these considerations establish a strong probability.\n\nFinally, when historians and commentators are divided as to a\nfact, we are never far out of the way in taking that solution\nwhich is most honorable to our common human nature, and the most\nin accordance with our natural wishes. We suppose, therefore, that\nthe daughter of Jephtha was simply taken from the ordinary life of\nwoman, and made an offering to the Lord. She could be no man's wife;\nand with the feelings which were had in those days as to marriage,\nsuch a lot was to be lamented as the cutting off of all earthly\nhopes. It put an end to the house of Jephtha, as besides her he had\nno son or daughter, and it accounts for the language with which\nthe account closes, \"She knew not a man,\"--a wholly unnecessary\nstatement, if it be meant to say that she was killed. The more we\nreflect upon it, the more probable it seems that this is the right\nview of the matter.\n\nThe existence from early times among the Jews of an order of women\nwho renounced the usual joys and privileges of the family state,\nto devote themselves to religious and charitable duties, is often\nasserted. Walter Scott, a learned authority as to antiquities, and\none who seldom made a representation without examination, makes\nRebecca, in Ivanhoe, declare to Rowena that from earliest times such\nan order of women had existed among her people, and to them she\npurposes to belong.\n\nWe cannot leave the subject without pausing to wonder at the\nexquisite manner in which the historian, whoever he was, has set\nbefore us a high and lovely ideal of womanhood in this Jud\u00e6an girl.\nThere is but a sentence, yet what calmness, what high-mindedness,\nwhat unselfish patriotism, are in the words! \"My father, if thou\nhast opened thy mouth to the Lord, do to me according to thy\npromise, forasmuch as the Lord hath taken vengeance on thine\nenemies, the children of Ammon.\"\n\nWhatever it was to which she so calmly acceded, it was to her the\ndeath of all earthly hope, calmly accepted in the very flush and\nmorning tide of victory. How heroic the soul that could meet so\nsudden a reverse with so unmoved a spirit!\n\n\n\n\nHANNAH THE PRAYING MOTHER.\n\n\nThe story of Hannah is a purely domestic one, and is most valuable\nin unveiling the intimate and trustful life of faith that existed\nbetween the Jehovah revealed in the Old Testament and each separate\nsoul, however retired and humble. It is not God the Lawgiver and\nKing, but, if we may so speak, God in his private and confidential\nrelations to the individual. The story opens briefly, after the\nfashion of the Bible, whose brevity in words is such a contrast to\nthe tediousness of most professed sacred books.\n\n\"There was a man,\" says the record, \"named Elkanah, and he had two\nwives; and the name of the one was Hannah, and the name of the\nother Peninnah, and Peninnah had children, but Hannah had none.\"\nHannah, from the story, appears to have had one of those intense\nnatures, all nerve and sensibility, on which every trouble lies with\ndouble weight. The lack of children in an age when motherhood was\nconsidered the essential glory of woman, was to her the climax of\nanguish and mortification. Nor was there wanting the added burden\nof an unfriendly party to notice and to inflame the hidden wound by\nstinging commentaries; for we are told that \"her adversary provoked\nher sore, to make her fret.\" And thus, year by year, as the family\nwent up to the sacred feast at Shiloh, and other exultant mothers\ndisplayed their fair sons and daughters, the sacred feast was turned\ninto gall for the unblest one, and we are told that Hannah \"wept and\ndid not eat.\" \"Then said Elkanah unto her, Hannah, why weepest thou?\nand why eatest thou not? and why is thy heart grieved? Am I not\nbetter to thee than ten sons?\"\n\nHannah was one of a class of women in whom genius and a poetic\nnature are struggling with a vague intensity, giving the keenest\nedge to desire and to disappointment. All Jud\u00e6an women desire\nchildren, but Hannah had that vivid sense of nationality, that\nidentification of self with the sublime future of her people, that\nmade it bitter to be excluded from all share in those hopes and\njoys of motherhood from which the earth's deliverer was to spring.\nShe desired a son, as poets desire song, as an expression of all\nthat was heroic and unexpressed in herself, and as a tribute to the\nfuture glories of her people. A poet stricken with paralysis might\nsuffer as she suffered. But it was a kind and degree of sorrow, the\nresult of an exceptional nature, which few could comprehend. To some\nit would afford occasion only for vulgar jests. Even her husband,\ndevoted as he was, wondered at rather than sympathised with it.\n\nIt appears that there rose at last one of those flood-tides of\nfeeling when the soul cries out for relief, and _must_ have a\nHelper; and Hannah bethought her of the words of Moses, \"What nation\nis there that hath their God _so nigh_ unto them as the Lord our\nGod is unto us, for all that we call unto him for?\" It is precisely\nfor such sorrows--intimate, private, personal, and not to be\ncomprehended fully by any earthly friend--that an All-seeing, loving\nFather is needed. And Hannah followed the teachings of her religion\nwhen she resolved to make a confidant of her God, and ask of him the\nblessing her soul fainted for. She chose the sacred feast at Shiloh\nfor the interview with the gracious Helper; and, after the festival,\nremained alone in the holy place in an ecstasy of fervent prayer.\nThe narrative says: \"And she was in bitterness of soul and prayed\nunto the Lord and wept sore. And she vowed a vow and said, O Lord of\nHosts, if thou wilt indeed look on the affliction of thine handmaid,\nand remember me, and not forget thine handmaid, but will give unto\nthine handmaid a man-child, then will I give him unto the Lord all\nthe days of his life. And it came to pass as she continued praying\nbefore the Lord, that Eli marked her mouth. Now Hannah she spake\nin her heart, only her lips moved, but her voice was not heard;\ntherefore Eli thought she had been drunken.\"\n\nHe--dear, kind-hearted, blundering old priest--reproved her with\nabout as much tact as many similar, well-meaning, obtuse people use\nnowadays in the management of natures whose heights and depths they\ncannot comprehend. Hannah meekly answers: \"No, my lord, I am a woman\nof a sorrowful spirit; I have drunk neither wine nor strong drink,\nbut have poured out my soul before the Lord. Count not thy handmaid\nfor a daughter of Belial, for out of the abundance of my complaint\nand grief have I spoken hitherto. Then Eli answered and said, Go in\npeace, the God of Israel grant thee thy petition thou hast asked of\nhim. And she said, Let thine handmaid find grace in thy sight. So\nthe woman went her way and did eat, and her countenance was no more\nsad.\"\n\nThis experience illustrates that kind of prevailing prayer that\ncomes when the soul, roused to the full intensity of its being by\nthe pressure of some anguish, pours itself out like a wave into the\nbosom of its God. The very outgush is a relief; there is healing in\nthe very act of self-abandonment, as the whole soul casts itself\non God. And though there be no present fulfillment, yet, in point\nof fact, peace and rest come to the spirit. Hannah had no voice\nof promise, no external sign, only the recorded promise of God to\nhear prayer; but the prayer brought relief. All the agony of desire\npassed away. Her countenance was no more sad. In due time, the\nvisible answer came. Hannah was made the happy mother of a son, whom\nshe called Samuel, or \"Asked of God.\"\n\nThis year, when the family went up to Shiloh, Hannah remained with\nher infant; for she said to her husband, \"I will not go up until\nthe child be weaned; and then will I bring him that he may appear\nbefore the Lord, and there abide forever.\" The period of weaning\nwas of a much later date among Jewish women than in modern times;\nand we may imagine the little Samuel three or four years old when\nhis mother prepares, with all solemnity, to carry him and present\nhim in the temple as her offering to God. \"And when she had weaned\nhim she took him up with her, with three bullocks, and one ephah of\nflour, and a bottle of wine, and brought him unto the house of the\nLord in Shiloh; and the child was young. And they slew a bullock,\nand brought the child to Eli. And she said, O my lord, as thy soul\nliveth, my lord, I am the woman that stood by thee here praying\nunto the Lord. For this child I prayed, and the Lord hath given me\nmy petition which I asked of him. Therefore also have I lent him to\nthe Lord; as long as he liveth he shall be lent to the Lord. And she\nworshiped the Lord there.\"\n\nAnd now the depths of this silent woman's soul break forth into\na song of praise and thanksgiving. Hannah rises before us as the\ninspired poetess, and her song bears a striking resemblance in theme\nand in cast of thought to that of Mary the mother of Jesus, years\nafter. Indeed, there is in the whole history of this sacred and\nconsecrated child, a foreshadowing of that more celestial flower of\nNazareth that should yet arise from the Jud\u00e6an stock. This idea of\na future Messiah and King permeated every pious soul in the nation,\nand gave a solemn intensity to the usual rejoicings of motherhood;\nfor who knew whether the auspicious child might not spring from\nher lineage! We see, in the last verse of this poem, that Hannah's\nthoughts in her hour of joy fix themselves on the glorious future of\nthe coming King and Anointed One as the climax of her joy.\n\nIt will be interesting to compare this song of Hannah with that of\nMary, and notice how completely the ideas of the earlier mother\nhad melted and transfused themselves into the heart of Mary. Years\nafter, when the gathering forces of the Church and State were\nbeginning to muster themselves against Martin Luther, and he stood\nas one man against a world, he took refuge in this song of the happy\nwoman; printed it as a tract, with pointed commentaries, and spread\nit all over Europe; and in thousands of hamlets hearts were beating\nto the heroic words of the Jud\u00e6an mother:--\n\n    \"My heart rejoiceth in Jehovah,\n    My horn is exalted in Jehovah;\n    My speech shall flow out over my enemies,\n    Because I rejoice in thy salvation.\n    There is none holy as Jehovah:\n    For there is none beside thee:\n    Neither is there any rock like our God.\n    Talk no more so exceeding proudly;\n    Let not arrogance come out of thy mouth:\n    For Jehovah is a God of knowledge,\n    By him are actions weighed.\n    The bows of mighty men are broken,\n    But the weak are girded with strength.\n    The rich have hired out for bread;\n    But the hungry cease from want.\n    The barren woman hath borne seven;\n    The fruitful one hath grown feeble.\n    Jehovah killeth and maketh alive;\n    He bringeth down to the grave and bringeth up.\n    Jehovah maketh poor and maketh rich;\n    He bringeth low, and lifteth up.\n    He raiseth the poor out of the dust,\n    He lifteth the beggar from the dunghill,\n    To set them among princes,\n    To make them inherit the throne of glory;\n    For the pillars of the earth are Jehovah's,\n    He hath set the world upon them.\n    He will keep the feet of his saints,\n    The wicked shall be silent in darkness;\n    For by strength no man shall prevail.\n    The adversaries of Jehovah shall be broken to pieces;\n    Out of heaven shall he thunder upon them.\n    Jehovah shall judge the ends of the earth;\n    He shall give strength unto his King,\n    And exalt the horn of his Anointed.\"\n\nThis song shows the fire, the depth, the fervency of the nature of\nthis woman, capable of rising to the sublimest conceptions. It is\nthe ecstasy of the triumph of conscious weakness in an omnipotent\nprotector. Through her own experience, as it is with every true\nsoul, she passes to the experience of universal humanity; in her\nDeliverer she sees the Deliverer and Helper of all the helpless and\ndesolate; and thus, through the gate of personal experience, she\ncomes to a wide sympathy with all who live. She loves her God, not\nmainly and only for what he is to her, but for what he is to all.\nHow high and splendid were these conceptions and experiences that\nvisited and hallowed the life of the simple and lowly Jewish woman\nin those rugged and unsettled periods, and what beautiful glimpses\ndo we get of the good and honest-hearted people that lived at that\ntime in Palestine, and went up yearly to worship at Shiloh!\n\nAfter this we have a few more touches in this beautiful story. The\nlittle one remained in the temple; for it is said, \"And Samuel\nministered before the Lord, being a child, girded with a linen\nephod. Moreover, his mother made him a little coat and brought it to\nhim from year to year, when she came up with her husband to offer\nthe yearly sacrifice.\" How the little one was cared for the story\ndoes not say. In some passages of the Bible, we have intimations\nof an order of consecrated women who devoted themselves to the\nministries of the temple, like Anna the prophetess, \"who departed\nnot from the temple, but served God with fasting and prayer, night\nand day.\" Doubtless from the hands of such were motherly ministries.\nOne rejoices to hear that the Gracious Giver blessed this mother\nabundantly more than she asked or thought; for we are told that a\nfamily of three sons and two daughters were given to her.\n\nWe cannot forbear to add to this story that of the sacred little\none, who grew fair as the sheltered lily in the house of God. Child\nof prayer, born in the very ardor and ecstasy of a soul uplifted\nto God, his very nature seemed heavenly, and the benignant Father\nearly revealed himself to him, choosing him as a medium for divine\nmessages. One of the most thrilling and poetic passages in the Bible\ndescribes the first call of the Divine One to the consecrated child.\nThe lamps burning in the holy place; the little one lying down to\nsleep; the mysterious voice calling him; his innocent wonder, and\nthe slow perception of old Eli of the true significance of the\nevent,--all these form a beautiful introduction to the life of the\nlast and most favored of those prophetic magistrates who interpreted\nto the Jewish people the will of God. Samuel was the last of the\nJudges,--the strongest, the purest, and most blameless,--the worthy\nson of such a mother.\n\n[Illustration: RUTH]\n\n\n\n\nRUTH THE MOABITESS.\n\n\nThe story of Ruth is a beautiful idyl of domestic life, opening to\nus in the barbarous period of the _Judges_. In reading some of the\nlatter chapters of that book, one might almost think that the system\nof Moses had proved a failure, and that the nation was lapsing back\ninto the savage state of the heathen world around them; just as,\nin reading the history of the raids and feuds of the Middle Ages,\none might consider Christianity a failure. But in both cases there\nwere nooks and dells embosomed in the wild roughness of unsettled\nsociety, where good and honest hearts put forth blossoms of immortal\nsweetness and perfume. This history of Ruth unveils to us pictures\nof the best people and the best sort of life that were formed by the\nlaws and institutes of Moses,--a life pastoral, simple, sincere,\nreverential, and benevolent.\n\nThe story is on this wise: A famine took place in the land of Judah,\nand a man named Elimelech went with his wife and two sons to sojourn\nin the land of Moab. The sons took each of them a wife of the\ndaughters of Moab, and they dwelt there about ten years. After that,\nthe man and both the sons died, and the mother, with her two widowed\nyoung daughters, prepared to return to her kindred. Here the scene\nof the little drama opens.\n\nThe mother, Naomi, comes to our view, a kind-hearted, commonplace\nwoman, without any strong religious faith or possibility of heroic\nexaltation,--just one of those women who see the hard, literal\nside of a trial, ungilded by any faith or hope. We can fancy her\ndiscouraged and mournful air, and hear the melancholy croak in\nher voice as she talks to her daughters, when they profess their\ndevotion to her, and their purpose to share her fortunes and go with\nher to the land of Israel.\n\n\"Turn again, my daughters; why will ye go with me? Are there yet any\nmore sons in my womb, that they may be your husbands? Turn again, my\ndaughters, go your way, for I am too old to have an husband. If I\nshould say that I have hope to-night that I should have an husband,\nand bear sons, would ye tarry for them till they were grown? Would\nye stay from having husbands? Nay, my daughters, it grieveth me for\nyour sake that the hand of the Lord hath gone out against me.\"\n\nThis pre-eminently literal view of the situation seemed to strike\none of the daughters as not to be gainsaid; for we read: \"And\nthey lifted up their voices and wept again, and Orpah kissed her\nmother-in-law, but Ruth clave unto her.\"\n\nAll the world through, from that time to this, have been these two\nclasses of friends. The one weep, and kiss, and leave us to our\nfate, and go to seek their own fortunes. There are plenty of that\nsort every day. But the other are one with us for life or death.\n\nThe literal-minded, sorrowful old woman has no thought of inspiring\nsuch devotion. Orpah, in her mind, has done the sensible and only\nthing in leaving her, and she says to Ruth: \"Behold, thy sister has\nreturned unto her people and unto her gods; return thou after thy\nsister-in-law.\"\n\nWe see in this verse how devoid of religious faith is the mother. In\na matter-of-course tone she speaks of Orpah having gone back to her\ngods, and recommends Ruth to do the like. And now the fair, sweet\nRuth breaks forth in an unconscious poetry of affection, which has\nbeen consecrated as the language of true love ever since: \"Entreat\nme not to leave thee, or to return from following after thee; for\nwhither thou goest I will go, and where thou lodgest I will lodge:\nthy people shall be my people, and thy God my God. Where thou diest\nI will die, and there will I be buried: the Lord do so to me, and\nmore also, if aught but death part thee and me.\"\n\nTroth-plight of fondest lovers, marriage-vows straitest and most\ndevoted, can have no love-language beyond this; it is the very\ncrystallized and diamond essence of constancy and devotion. It\nis thus that minds which have an unconscious power of enthusiasm\nsurprise and dominate their literal fellow-pilgrims. It is as if\nsome silent dun-colored bird had broken out into wondrous ecstasies\nof silver song. Naomi looked on her daughter, and the narrative\nsays, \"When she saw that she was steadfastly minded to go with her,\nthen she left speaking to her.\" But Ruth is ignorant of the beauty\nof her own nature; for Love never knows herself or looks in a mirror\nto ask if she be fair; and though her superior moral and emotive\nstrength prevail over the lower nature of the mother, it is with a\nsweet, unconscious, yielding obedience that she follows her.\n\nWhen they came back to their kindred, the scene is touchingly\ndescribed. In her youth the mother had been gay and radiant, as\nher name, Naomi, \"pleasant,\" signifies. \"And it came to pass that\nwhen they came in, all the village was moved about them, and they\nsaid: Is this Naomi? And she said: \"Call me not Naomi, call me Marah\n[bitterness]; for the Almighty hath dealt very bitterly with me. I\nwent out full, and the Lord hath brought me again empty. Why then\ncall ye me Naomi, seeing the Lord hath testified against me, and the\nAlmighty hath afflicted me?\"\n\nWe see here a common phase of a low order of religion. Naomi does\nnot rebel at the Divine decree. She thinks that she is bitterly\ndealt with, but that there is no use in complaining, because it is\nthe _Almighty_ that has done it. It does not even occur to her that\nin going away from the land of true religion, and encouraging her\nsons to form marriages in a heathen land, she had done anything to\nmake this affliction needful; and yet the whole story shows that but\nfor this stroke the whole family would have settled down contentedly\namong the Moabites, and given up country and religion and God. There\nare many nowadays to whom just such afflictions are as needful, and\nto whom they seem as bitter and inexplicable.\n\nThe next scene shows us the barley-field of the rich proprietor,--\"a\nmighty man, a man of wealth,\" the narrative calls him. Young men\nand maidens, a goodly company, are reaping, binding, and gathering.\nIn the shade are the parched corn and sour wine, and other\nprovisions set forth for the noontide rest and repast.\n\nThe gracious proprietor, a noble-minded, gentle old man, now comes\nupon the scene. \"And behold, Boaz came from Bethlehem, and said to\nthe reapers, The Lord be with you; and they answered, The Lord bless\nthee.\" The religious spirit of the master spread itself through all\nhis hands, and the blessing that he breathes upon them was returned\nto him. The sacred simplicity of the scene is beyond praise.\n\nHe inquires of his men the history of this fair one who modestly\nfollows the reapers, and, finding who she is, says: \"Hearest thou,\nmy daughter, go not to glean in any other field, but abide here with\nmy maidens. Let thine eyes be upon the field that they reap, and go\nafter them: have I not charged the young men not to touch thee? and\nwhen thou art athirst, go to the vessels and drink of that that the\nyoung men have drawn.\" Then she bowed herself and said: \"Why have I\nfound grace in thine eyes, that thou shouldst take knowledge of me,\nseeing I am a stranger?\" And he said: \"It hath been fully shown unto\nme all that thou hast done to thy mother-in-law since the death of\nthy husband; how thou hast left thy father and thy mother, and the\nland of thy nativity, and art come to a people that thou knewest not\nheretofore. The Lord recompense thy work, and a full reward be given\nthee of the God of Israel, under whose wings thou art come to trust.\"\n\nWe have afterwards the picture of the young gleaner made at home at\nthe noontide repast, where the rich proprietor sat with his servants\nin parental equality,--\"And she sat beside the reapers, and he did\nreach her parched corn, and she did eat and was sufficed.\"\n\nThere is a delicacy in the feeling inspired by the timid, modest\nstranger, which is expressed in the orders given by Boaz to the\nyoung men. \"And it came to pass when she rose to glean, that Boaz\ncommanded his young men, saying: Let her glean even among the\nsheaves, and reproach her not; and let fall also some handfuls of\npurpose for her, that she may glean them, and rebuke her not.\"\n\nGleaning, by the institutes of Moses, was one of the allotted\nprivileges of the poor. It was a beautiful feature of that system\nthat consideration for the poor was interwoven with all the acts of\ncommon life. The language of the laws of Moses reminded the rich\nthat they were of one family with the poor. \"Thou shalt not harden\nthy heart nor shut thy hand from thy _poor brother_. Thou shalt\nsurely give to him, and thy heart shall not be grieved when thou\ngivest, because for this the Lord thy God shall bless thee.\" \"And\nwhen ye reap the harvest of your land thou shalt not wholly reap\nthe corners of the field, neither shalt thou gather the gleanings\nof thy harvest; and thou shalt not glean thy vineyard, neither\nshalt thou gather every grape of thy vineyard; thou shalt leave\nthem for the poor and the stranger. I am the Lord.\" This provision\nfor the unfortunate operated both ways. It taught consideration and\nthoughtfulness to the rich, and industry and self-respect to the\npoor. They were not humbled as paupers. They were not to be beggars,\nbut gleaners, and a fair field for self-respecting labor was opened\nto them. In the spirit of these generous laws the rich proprietor\nveils his patronage of the humble maid. Ruth was to be abundantly\nhelped, as it were, by a series of fortunate accidents.\n\nWe see in the character of Boaz the high-minded, chivalrous\ngentleman, devout in his religion Godward, and considerately\nthoughtful of his neighbor; especially mindful of the weak and\nhelpless and unprotected. It was the working out, in one happy\ninstance, of the ideal of manhood the system of Moses was designed\nto create.\n\nAnd now the little romance goes on to a happy termination. The\nfair gleaner returns home artlessly triumphant with the avails of\nher day's toil, and tells her mother of the kind patronage she\nhas received. At once, on hearing the name, the prudent mother\nrecognizes the near kinsman of the family, bound, by the law of\nMoses and the custom of the land, to become the husband and\nprotector of her daughter. In the eye of Jewish law and Jewish\ncustom Ruth already belonged to Boaz, and had a right to claim the\nposition and protection of a wife. The system of Moses solved the\nproblem of woman by allotting to every woman a man as a protector.\nA widow had her son to stand for her; but if a widow were left\nwithout a son, then the nearest kinsman of the former husband\nwas bound to take her to wife. The manner in which Naomi directs\nthe simple-minded and obedient daughter to throw herself on the\nprotection of her rich kinsman is so far removed from all our modern\nideas of propriety that it cannot be judged by them. She is directed\nto seek the threshing-floor at night, to lie down at his feet, and\ndraw over her his mantle; thus, in the symbolic language of the\ntimes, asserting her humble right to the protection of a wife. Ruth\nis shown to us as one of those artless, confiding natures that see\nno evil in what is purely and rightly intended. It is enough for\nher, a stranger, to understand that her mother, an honored Jud\u00e6an\nmatron, would command nothing which was not considered decorous and\nproper among her people. She obeys without a question. In the same\nspirit of sacred simplicity in which the action was performed it was\nreceived. There is a tender dignity and a chivalrous delicacy in the\nmanner in which the bold yet humble advance is accepted.\n\n\"And Boaz awoke, and, behold, a woman lay at his feet. And he said,\nWho art thou? And she said, I am Ruth, thy handmaid. Spread thy\nskirt over me, for thou art my near kinsman. And he said, Blessed\nart thou of the Lord, my daughter, for thou hast shown more kindness\nat the end than in the beginning, inasmuch as thou followedst not\nthe young men, poor or rich. And now, my daughter, fear not; I will\ndo for thee all that thou requirest, for all the city of my people\ndoth know that thou art a virtuous woman.\"\n\nThe very crucial test of gentlemanly delicacy and honor is\nthe manner in which it knows how to receive an ingenuous and\nsimple-hearted act of confidence. As in the fields Boaz did not\nostentatiously urge alms upon the timid maiden, but suffered her\nto have the pleasure of gleaning for herself, so now he treats this\nact by which she throws herself upon his protection as an honor\ndone to him, for which he is bound to be grateful. He hastens to\nassure her that he is her debtor for the preference she shows him.\nThat courtesy and chivalric feeling for woman which was so strong a\nfeature in the character of Moses, and which is embodied in so many\nof his laws and institutes, comes out in this fine Hebrew gentleman\nas perfectly, but with more simplicity, than in the Sir Charles\nGrandison of the eighteenth century. And so, at last, the lovely\nstranger, Ruth the Moabitess, becomes the wife of the rich landed\nproprietor, with the universal consent of all the people. \"And\nall the people that were in the gates and the elders said, We are\nwitnesses. The Lord make this woman that is come into thy house like\nRachel and like Leah, which two did build the house of Israel.\"\n\nFrom this marriage of the chivalrous, pious old man with the devoted\nand loving Ruth the Moabitess, sprang an auspicious lineage. The\nhouse of David, the holy maiden of Jud\u00e6a and her son, whom all\nnations call blessed, were the illustrious seed of this wedding.\nIn the scene at the birth of the first son of Ruth, we have a fine\npicture of the manners of those days. \"And the women said unto\nNaomi, Blessed be the Lord which hath not left thee this day without\na kinsman, that his name may be famous in Israel. And he shall be\nunto thee a restorer of thy life and a nourisher of thy old age:\nfor thy daughter-in-law, which loveth thee, and is better to thee\nthan seven sons, hath borne him. And Naomi took the child and\nlaid it in her bosom, and became nurse unto it. And the women her\nneighbors gave it a name, saying, There is a son born to Naomi, and\nthey called his name Obed; he is the father of Jesse, the father of\nDavid.\"\n\nIn all this we see how strong is the impression which the _loving_\nnature of Ruth makes in the narrative. From the union of this\nwoman so tender and true, and this man so gracious and noble and\nchivalric, comes the great heart-poet of the world. No other songs\nhave been so dear to mankind, so cherished in the heart of high and\nlow, rich and poor, in every nation and language, as these Psalms of\nDavid.\n\n    \"It is that music to whose tone\n      The common pulse of man keeps time,\n    In cot or castle's mirth or moan,\n      In cold or fervid clime.\"\n\nIn the tender friendship of David for Jonathan, we see again the\nloving constancy of Ruth in a manly form,--the love between soul\nand soul, which was \"wonderful, passing the love of women.\" In the\nideal which we form of Mary, the mother of Jesus, lowly, modest,\npious, constant, rich in the power of love and in a simple, trustful\nfaith, we see the transmission of family traits through generations.\nDante, in his \"Paradise,\" places Ruth among the holy women who sit\nat the feet of the glorified Madonna. The Providence that called a\nMoabitish ancestress into that golden line whence should spring the\nMessiah was a sort of morning star of intimation that He should be\nof no limited nationality; that he was to be the Son of Man, the\nLord and brother of all mankind.\n\n\n\n\nTHE WITCH OF ENDOR.\n\n\nWhat was a witch, according to the law of Moses, and why was\nwitchcraft a capital offense? A witch was the dark shadow of a\nprophetess.\n\nA prophetess was a holy woman drawing near to the spiritual world\nby means of faith and prayer, and thus inspired by God with a\nknowledge beyond the ordinary power of mortals. Her prophecies and\nher guidance were all from the only true source of knowledge; the\nspirits that attended her were true and heavenly spirits, and she\nbecame a medium by whom the will of God and the perplexed path of\nduty were made plain to others. A witch, on the contrary, was one\nwho sought knowledge of the future, not from the one supreme God,\nbut through all those magical charms, incantations, and ceremonies\nby which the spirits of the dead were sought for interference in the\naffairs of men. The guilt and the folly of seeking these consisted\nin the fact that there was another and a legitimate supply for that\ncraving of the human heart.\n\nMan is consciously weak, helpless, burdened with desires and fears\nwhich he knows not how to supply or allay. Moses distinctly stated\nto the Jews that their GOD was \"_nigh_ unto them for ALL they\nshould call upon him for.\" The examples of holy men and women in\nsacred history show that, even for private and personal griefs,\nand intimate sorrows and perplexities, there was immediate access\nto the gracious Jehovah, there were direct answers to prayer. Had\nHannah, in her childless longings and misery, sought a woman who had\na familiar spirit, she would have broken the law of the land, and\ncommitted an act of rebellion against her King and Father. But she\nwent directly to God, and became a joyful mother.\n\nBesides the personal access of the individual by prayer, there\nwere always holy mediums raised up from time to time in the nation,\nwho were lawful and appointed sources of counsel and aid. There\nwere always the prophet and prophetess, through whom there was\neven nearer access to the guardian God, and we repeatedly read of\napplication made to these sources in case of sickness or sorrow or\nperplexity. The high-priest, by virtue of his office, was held to\npossess this power. Exactly what the Urim and Thummim were, the\nlearned do not seem to agree; it is sufficient to know that they\nwere in some way the instruments of a lawful mode appointed by God,\nthrough which questions asked of the high-priest might be answered,\nand guidance given in perplexing cases.\n\nAnd now, on the other hand, as to the _witch_, and how her unlawful\nprocesses were carried on, we get more help from one vivid, graphic\npicture than by all the researches of arch\u00e6ologists. We therefore\ngive entire the singular and poetic story in the First Book of\nSamuel.\n\n\"Now Samuel was dead, and all Israel had lamented him, and buried\nhim in Ramah, even in his own city. And Saul had put away those\nthat had familiar spirits, and the wizards, out of the land. And\nthe Philistines gathered themselves together, and came and pitched\nin Shunem: and Saul gathered all Israel together, and they pitched\nin Gilboa. And when Saul saw the host of the Philistines, he was\nafraid, and his heart greatly trembled. And when Saul inquired of\nthe Lord, the Lord answered him not, neither by dreams, nor by Urim,\nnor by prophets. Then said Saul unto his servants, Seek me a woman\nthat hath a familiar spirit, that I may go to her, and inquire of\nher. And his servants said to him, Behold, there is a woman that\nhath a familiar spirit at Endor. And Saul disguised himself, and\nput on other raiment, and he went, and two men with him, and they\ncame to the woman by night: and he said, I pray thee, divine unto me\nby the familiar spirit, and bring me him up whom I shall name unto\nthee. And the woman said unto him, Behold, thou knowest what Saul\nhath done, how he hath cut off those that have familiar spirits,\nand the wizards, out of the land: wherefore then layest thou a\nsnare for my life, to cause me to die? And Saul sware to her by\nthe Lord, saying, As the Lord liveth, there shall no punishment\nhappen to thee for this thing. Then said the woman, Whom shall I\nbring up unto thee? And he said, Bring me up Samuel. And when the\nwoman saw Samuel, she cried with a loud voice: and the woman spake\nto Saul, saying, Why hast thou deceived me? for thou art Saul. And\nthe king said unto her, Be not afraid; for what sawest thou? And\nthe woman said unto Saul, I saw gods ascending out of the earth.\nAnd he said unto her, What form is he of? And she said, An old man\ncometh up; and he is covered with a mantle. And Saul perceived that\nit was Samuel, and he stooped with his face to the ground, and\nbowed himself. And Samuel said to Saul, Why hast thou disquieted\nme, to bring me up? And Saul answered, I am sore distressed; for\nthe Philistines make war against me, and God is departed from me,\nand answereth me no more, neither by prophets, nor by dreams:\ntherefore I have called thee, that thou mayest make known unto me\nwhat I shall do. Then said Samuel, Wherefore then dost thou ask\nof me, seeing the Lord is departed from thee, and is become thine\nenemy? And the Lord hath done to him, as he spake by me: for the\nLord hath rent the kingdom out of thine hand, and given it to thy\nneighbor, even to David: Because thou obeyedst not the voice of the\nLord, nor executedst his fierce wrath upon Amalek, therefore hath\nthe Lord done this thing unto thee this day. Moreover the Lord will\nalso deliver Israel with thee into the hand of the Philistines: and\nto-morrow shalt thou and thy sons be with me: the Lord also shall\ndeliver the host of Israel into the hand of the Philistines. Then\nSaul fell straightway all along on the earth, and was sore afraid,\nbecause of the words of Samuel: and there was no strength in him;\nfor he had eaten no bread all the day, nor all the night. And the\nwoman came unto Saul, and saw that he was sore troubled, and said\nunto him, Behold, thine handmaid hath obeyed thy voice, and I have\nput my life in my hand, and have hearkened unto thy words which\nthou spakest unto me: now therefore, I pray thee, hearken thou also\nunto the voice of thine handmaid, and let me set a morsel of bread\nbefore thee; and eat, that thou mayest have strength, when thou\ngoest on thy way. But he refused, and said, I will not eat. But his\nservants, together with the woman, compelled him, and he hearkened\nunto their voice. So he arose from the earth, and sat upon the bed.\nAnd the woman had a fat calf in the house, and she hasted, and\nkilled it, and took flour, and kneaded it, and did bake unleavened\nbread thereof. And she brought it before Saul, and before his\nservants; and they did eat. Then they rose up, and went away that\nnight.\"\n\nWe do not need to inquire what a witch was, or why she was\nforbidden, further than this story shows. She is placed here as\nexactly the contrary alternative to God, in the wants and sorrows\nof life. The whole tenor of instruction to the Jews was, that there\nwas no Divine anger that might not be appeased and turned away by\ndeep, heartfelt repentance and amendment. In the GREAT NAME revealed\nto Moses, the Jehovah declares himself \"merciful and gracious, slow\nto anger, of great kindness, forgiving iniquity, transgression, and\nsin,\"--there is but a single clause added on the side of admonitory\nterror,--\"who will by no means clear the guilty.\" A favorite mode\nin which the guardian God is represented as speaking is that he\n\"repenteth of the evil\" he thought to do, in response to penitent\nprayer.\n\nSaul had broken with his God on the score of an intense self-will,\nand he did not repent. The prophet Samuel had announced wrath, and\nthreatened final rejection, but no humiliation and no penitence\nfollowed. In this mood of mind, when his fear came as desolation,\nall the avenues of knowledge or aid which belonged to God's children\nwere closed upon him, and he voluntarily put himself in the hands of\nthose powers which were his declared enemies.\n\nThe scene as given is so exactly like what is occurring in our\nday, like incidents that so many among us have the best reason for\nknowing to be objectively facts of daily occurrence, that there\nis no reason to encumber it with notes and comments as to the\nprobability of the account. The woman was a medium who had the power\nof calling up the spirits of the dead at the desire of those who\ncame to her. She is not represented at all as a witch after the\nShakespearean style. There is no \"eye of newt and toe of frog,\"\nno caldron or grimaces to appall. From all that appears, she was\na soft-hearted, kindly, cowardly creature, turning a penny as she\ncould, in a way forbidden by the laws of the land; quite ready to\nmake up by artifice for any lack of reality; who cast her line into\nthe infinite shadows, and was somewhat appalled by what it brought\nup.\n\nThere is a tone of reproof in the voice of the departed friend: \"Why\nhast thou _disquieted_ me, to bring me up?\" And when Saul says, \"God\nhath forsaken us, and will not answer,\" the reproving shade replies,\n\"Wherefore come to _me_, seeing God hath become thine enemy?\" In all\nthis is the voice of the true and loyal prophet, who from a child\nhad sought God, and God alone, in every emergency, and ever found\nhim true and faithful.\n\nThis story has its parallel in our days. In our times there is a God\nand Father always nigh to those who diligently seek him. There is\ncommunion with spirits through Jesus, the great High-Priest. There\nare promises of guidance in difficulties and support under trials to\nall who come to God by Him.\n\nIn our days, too, there are those who propose, for the relief of\nhuman perplexities and the balm for human sorrows, a recourse to\nthose who have familiar spirits, and profess to call back to us\nthose who are at rest with God.\n\nNow, while there is no objection to a strict philosophical\ninvestigation and analysis and record of these phenomena considered\nas psychological facts, while, in fact, such investigation is loudly\ncalled for as the best remedy for superstition, there is great\ndanger to the mind and moral sense in _seeking them as guides in our\nperplexities or comforters in our sorrows_. And the danger is just\nthis, that they take the place of that communion with God and that\nfilial intercourse with him which is alone the true source of light\nand comfort. Most especially, to those whose souls are weakened by\nthe anguish of some great bereavement, is the seeking of those that\nhave familiar spirits to be dreaded. Who could bear to expose to\nthe eye of a paid medium the sanctuary of our most sacred love and\nsorrow? and how fearful is the thought that some wandering spirit,\nin the voice and with the tone and manner of those dearest to us,\nmay lead us astray to trust in those who are not God!\n\nThe most dangerous feature we know of in these professed\nspirit-messages is their constant tendency to place themselves\nbefore our minds as our refuge and confidence rather than God. \"Seek\nus, trust us, believe in us, rely on us,\"--such is always the voice\nthat comes from them.\n\nIn Isaiah viii. 19, the prophet describes a time of great affliction\nand sorrow coming upon the Jews, when they would be driven to seek\nsupernatural aid. He says: \"And when they shall say unto you, Seek\nunto them that have familiar spirits, and to wizards that peep and\nmutter; should not a nation seek unto their God? should the living\nseek unto the dead? To the law, and to the testimony; if they speak\nnot according to this word, there is no light in them.\" The prophet\ngoes on to say that those who thus turn from God to these sources\nof comfort \"shall be hardly bestead and hungry, and shall fret\nthemselves.\"\n\nAll our observation of those who have sought to these sources of\ncomfort has been that they fall into just this restless hunger of\nmind, an appetite forever growing and never satisfied; and as their\nsteps go farther and farther from the true source of all comfort,\nthe hunger and thirst increase. How much more beautiful, safe,\nand sure that good old way of trust in God! The writer has had a\nsomewhat large observation of the very best and most remarkable\nphenomena of that which is claimed to be spirit communion; she\ndoes not doubt the reality of many very remarkable appearances\nand occurrences; she has only respectful and tender sympathy for\nthose whose heart-sorrows they have consoled. But when this way\nof guidance and consolation is put in the place of that direct\nfilial access to God through Jesus which the Bible reveals, it\nmust be looked upon as the most illusive and insidious of dangers.\nThe phenomena, whatever they are, belong to forces too little\nunderstood, to laws too much unknown, that we should trust ourselves\nto them in the most delicate, critical, and sacred wants of our life.\n\nBetter than all is the way spoken of by Jesus when he, the\nComforter, Guide, Teacher, Friend, will manifest himself to the\nfaithful soul as he does not to the world: \"If a man love me, he\nwill keep my words, and my Father will love him, and we will come\nand make our abode with him.\"\n\n[Illustration: ESTHER THE QUEEN]\n\n\n\n\nQUEEN ESTHER.\n\n\nThe story of Esther belongs to that dark period in Jewish history\nwhen the national institutions were to all human view destroyed. The\nJews were scattered up and down through the provinces captives and\nslaves, with no rights but what their conquerors might choose to\ngive them. Without a temple, without an altar, without a priesthood,\nthey could only cling to their religion as a memory of the past, and\nwith some dim hopes for the future. In this depressed state, there\nwas a conspiracy, armed by the regal power, to exterminate the whole\nrace, and this terrible danger was averted by the beauty and grace,\nthe courage and prudence, of one woman. The portrait of this heroine\ncomes to us in a flush of Oriental splendor. Her story reads like a\nromance, yet her memory, in our very prosaic days, is embalmed as a\nreality, by a yearly festival devoted to it. Every year the festival\nof Purim in every land and country whither the Jews are scattered,\nreminds the world that the romance has been a reality, and the woman\nwhose beauty and fascination were the moving power in it was no\ncreation of fancy.\n\nThe style of the book of Esther is peculiar. It has been held by\nlearned Jews to be a compilation made by Mordecai from the Persian\nannals. The name of Jehovah nowhere occurs in it, although frequent\nmention is made of fasting and prayer. The king Ahasuerus is\nsupposed by the best informed to be the Xerxes of Herodotus, and\nthe time of the story previous to the celebrated expedition of that\nmonarch against Greece. The hundred and twenty-seven provinces over\nwhich he reigned are picturesquely set forth by Herodotus in his\ncelebrated description of the marshaling of this great army. The\nvanity, ostentation, childish passionateness, and disregard of human\nlife ascribed to the king in this story are strikingly like other\nincidents related by Herodotus.\n\nWhen a father came to him imploring that he would spare one of his\nsons from going to the war, Xerxes immediately commanded the young\nman to be slain and divided, and the wretched father was obliged to\nmarch between the mangled remains. This was to illustrate forcibly\nthat no human being had any rights but the king, and that it was\npresumptuous even to wish to retain anything from his service.\n\nThe armies of Xerxes were not _led_ to battle by leaders in front,\nbut driven from behind with whips like cattle. When the king's\nbridge of boats across the Hellespont was destroyed by a storm, he\nfell into a fury, and ordered the sea to be chastised with stripes,\nand fetters to be thrown into it, with the admonition, \"O thou\nsalt and bitter water, it is thus that thy master chastises thy\ninsolence!\" We have the picture, in Herodotus, of the king seated\nat ease on his royal throne, on an eminence, beholding the various\nranks of his army as they were driven like so many bullocks into\nbattle. When the battle went against him, he would leap from his\nthrone in furies of impotent rage.\n\nIt is at the court of this monarch, proud, vain, passionate, and\nostentatious, that the story opens, with a sort of dazzle of Eastern\nsplendor. \"Now it came to pass, in the days of Ahasuerus, which\nreigned from India even unto Ethiopia, over an hundred and twenty\nand seven provinces, that in those days, when King Ahasuerus sat on\nthe throne of his kingdom, which was in Shushan the palace, in the\nthird year of his reign, he made a feast unto all his princes and\nhis servants; the powers of Persia and Media, the nobles and princes\nof the provinces, being before him: when he showed them the riches\nof his glorious kingdom and the honor of his excellent majesty.\"\n\nOn the last seven days of the feast the royal palace is thrown open\nto the populace of Shushan. The writer goes on to amplify and give\nparticulars: In the courts of the king's garden were couches of\ngold and silver, on a pavement of colored marbles, with hangings\nof white, green, and blue, fastened by cords of purple and fine\nlinen to silver rings in marble pillars. There was wine poured\nforth in costly goblets of very quaint and rare device. Vashti,\nthe queen, at the same time made a feast to all the women in the\nroyal house which belonged to the king. In the year 1819 Sir Robert\nKer Porter visited and explored the ruins of this city of Shushan.\nHis travels were printed for private circulation, and are rare and\ncostly. They contain elegant drawings and restorations of the palace\nat Persepolis which would well illustrate this story, and give an\nidea of the architectural splendor of the scenery of the drama here\npresented.\n\nOf Shushan itself,--otherwise Susa,--he gives only one or two\ndrawings of fragmentary ruins. The \"satyrs have long danced and the\nbitterns cried\" in these halls then so gay and glorious, though\nlittle did the king then dream of that.\n\nAt the close of the long revel, when the king was inflated to the\nvery ultimatum of ostentatious vanity, he resolves, as a last\nglorification of self, to exhibit the unveiled beauty of his Queen\nVashti to all the princes and lords of his empire.\n\nNow, if we consider the abject condition of all _men_ in that day\nbefore the king, we shall stand amazed that there was a woman found\nat the head of the Persian empire that dared to disobey the command\neven of a drunken monarch. It is true that the thing required was,\naccording to Oriental customs, an indecency as great as if a modern\nhusband should propose to his wife to exhibit her naked person.\nVashti was reduced to the place where a woman deliberately chooses\ndeath before dishonor. The _na\u00efve_ account of the counsel of the\nking and princes about this first stand for woman's rights--their\nfear that the example might infect other wives with a like spirit,\nand weaken the authority of husbands--is certainly a most delightful\nspecimen of ancient simplicity. It shows us that the male sex, with\nall their force of physical mastery, hold everywhere, even in the\nundeveloped states of civilization, an almost even-handed conflict\nwith those subtler and more ethereal forces which are ever at the\ndisposal of women. It appears that the chief councilors and mighty\nmen of Persia could scarcely hold their own with their wives, and\nfelt as if the least toleration would set them all out into open\nrebellion. So Vashti is deposed, _nem. con._, by the concurrent\nvoice of all the princes of the Medes and Persians.\n\nThen comes the account of the steps taken to secure another queen.\nAll the beautiful virgins through all the hundred and twenty-seven\nprovinces are caught, caged, and sent traveling towards Shushan,\nand delivered over to the keeping of the chief eunuch, like so many\nbirds and butterflies, waiting their turn to be sent in to the\nking. Among them all a Jewish maiden, of an enslaved, oppressed\nrace, is the favored one. Before all the beauties of the provinces\nEsther is preferred, and the crown royal is set upon her head. What\ncharmed about Esther was, perhaps, the reflection of a soul from her\nbeautiful face. Every one of the best class of Jewish women felt\nsecretly exalted by her conception of the dignity of her nation as\nchosen by the one true God, and destined to bring into the world\nthe great prince and Messiah who should reign over the earth.\nThese religious ideas inspired in them a lofty and heroic cast of\nmind that even captivity could not subdue. At all events there was\nsomething about Esther that gave her a power to charm and fix the\npassions of this voluptuous and ostentatious monarch. Esther is the\nadopted daughter of her kinsman Mordecai, and the narrative says\nthat \"Esther did the commandment of Mordecai, like as when she was\nbrought up with him.\" At his command she forbears to declare her\nnationality and lineage, and Mordecai refrains from any connection\nwith her that would compromise her as related to an obscure captive,\nthough the story says he walked every day before the court of the\nwoman's house to know how Esther did, and what should become of her.\n\nIn these walks around the palace he overhears a conspiracy of two\nchamberlains to murder the king, and acquaints Esther of the danger.\nThe conspirators are executed, and the record passes into the\nPersian annals with the name of Mordecai the Jew, but no particular\nhonor or reward is accorded to him at that time. Meanwhile, a\nforeign adventurer named Haman rises suddenly to influence and\npower, and becomes prime minister to the king. This story is a sort\nof door, opening into the interior of a despotic court, showing the\nstrange and sudden reverses of fortune which attended that phase of\nhuman existence. Haman, inflated with self-consequence, as upstart\nadventurers generally are, is enraged at Mordecai for neglecting to\nprostrate himself before him as the other hangers-on of the court\ndo. Safe in his near relationship to the queen, Mordecai appears to\nhave felt himself free to indulge in the expensive and dangerous\nluxury of quiet contempt for the all-powerful favorite of the king.\n\nIt is most astounding next to read how Haman, having resolved to\ntake vengeance on Mordecai by exterminating his whole nation, thus\nglibly and easily wins over the king to his scheme. \"There is a\nnation,\" he says, \"scattered abroad throughout all the provinces\nof the king's kingdom, and their laws are diverse from all people,\nneither keep they the king's laws, therefore it is not for the\nking's profit to suffer them.\" \"If it please the king let it be\nwritten that they may be destroyed, and I will pay ten thousand\ntalents of silver to the hands of them that have the charge of the\nbusiness, to bring it into the king's treasury.\"\n\nIt is fashionable in our times to speak of the contempt and\ndisregard shown to women in this period of the world among Oriental\nraces, but this one incident shows that women were held no cheaper\nthan men. _Human beings_ were cheap. The massacre of hundreds\nof thousands was negotiated in an easy, off-hand way, just as a\ngardener ordains exterminating sulphur for the green bugs on his\nplants. The king answered to Haman, \"The silver is given thee, and\nthe people also, to do as seemeth to thee good.\"\n\nThen, says the story, \"the king's scribes were called on the\nthirteenth day of the first month, and there was written according\nto all that Haman had commanded, and the letters were sent by post\ninto all the provinces, to destroy and to kill and cause to perish\nall Jews, both old and young, little children and women, in one day,\nof the twelfth month, which is the month Adar, to take the spoil of\nthem for a prey. The posts went out, being hastened by the king's\ncommandment, _and the king and Haman sat down to drink, but the\ncity of Shushan was perplexed_.\" And when Mordecai heard this he\nrent his clothes and put on sackcloth with ashes, and went into the\nmidst of the city, and came even before the king's gate, for none\nmight enter into the king's gate clothed in sackcloth. The Oriental\nmonarch was supposed to dwell in eternal bliss and joyfulness: no\nsight or sound of human suffering or weakness or pain must disturb\nthe tranquility of his court; he must not even suspect the existence\nof such a thing as sorrow.\n\nFar in the luxurious repose of the women's apartments, sunk upon\nembroidered cushions, listening to the warbling of birds and the\nplash of fountains, Esther the queen knew nothing of the decree\nthat had gone forth against her people. The report was brought her\nby her chamberlain that her kinsman was in sackcloth, and she sent\nto take it away and clothe him with costly garments, but he refused\nthe attention and persisted in his mourning. Then the queen sent her\nchief chamberlain to inquire what was the cause of his distress,\nand Mordecai sent a copy of the decree, with a full account of how\nand by whom it had been obtained, and charging her to go and make\nsupplication to the king for her people. Esther returned answer:\n\"All the king's servants do know that whosoever, man or woman, shall\ncome in to the king in the inner court, who is not called, there is\none law to put them to death, except those to whom the king shall\nhold out the golden scepter that he may live, but I have not been\ncalled to appear before the king for thirty days.\"\n\nWe have here the first thoughts of a woman naturally humble and\ntimid, knowing herself one of the outlawed race, and fearing,\nfrom the long silence of the king, that his heart may have been\nset against her by the enemies of her people. Mordecai sent in\nreply to this a sterner message; \"Think not with thyself that thou\nshalt escape in the king's house more than all the Jews. For if\nthou altogether holdest thy peace at this time, then shall there\nenlargement and deliverance arise to the Jews from another quarter,\nbut thou and thy father's house shall be cut off; and who knoweth\nwhether thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as this?\" And\nEsther sends this reply: \"Go, gather together all the Jews that are\nin Shushan, and fast ye for me; neither eat nor drink for three\ndays, night or day; and I and my maidens will fast likewise. And so\nI will go in unto the king, which is not according to law; and if I\nperish, I perish.\"\n\nThere are certain apochryphal additions to the book of Esther, which\nare supposed to be the efforts of some romancer in enlarging upon\na historic theme. In it is given at length a prayer of Mordecai in\nthis distress, and a detailed account of the visit of Esther to the\nking. The writer says, that, though she carried a smiling face,\n\"her heart was in anguish for fear,\" and she fell fainting upon the\nshoulder of her maid. Our own account is briefer, and relates simply\nhow the king saw Esther the queen standing in the court, and she\nobtained favor in his eyes, and he held out the golden scepter, and\nsaid to her, \"What wilt thou, Queen Esther, what is thy request? and\nit shall be given thee, even to half of the kingdom.\" Too prudent to\nenter at once into a discussion of the grand subject, Esther seeks\nan occasion to study the king and Haman together more nearly, and\nher request is only that the king and Haman would come that day to a\nprivate banquet in the queen's apartments. It was done, and the king\nand Haman both came.\n\nAt the banquet her fascinations again draw from the king the\npermission to make known any request of her heart, and it shall\nbe given, even to half of his kingdom. Still delaying the final\nissue, Esther asks that both the king and his minister may come to a\nsecond banquet on the morrow. Haman appears to have been excessively\nflattered at this attention from the queen, of whose nationality\nhe was profoundly ignorant; but as he passed by and saw Mordecai\nin his old seat in the king's gate, \"that he stood not up neither\nmoved for him,\" he was full of indignation. He goes home to his\ndomestic circle, and amplifies the account of his court successes\nand glories, and that even the queen has distinguished him with an\ninvitation which was shared by no one but the king. Yet, he says, in\nthe end, all this availeth me nothing, so long as I see Mordecai the\nJew sitting in the king's gate. His wife is fruitful in resources.\n\"Erect a gibbet,\" she says, \"and to-morrow speak to the king, and\nhave Mordecai hanged, and go thou merrily to the banquet.\" And the\nthing pleased Haman, and he caused the gallows to be made.\n\nOn that night the king could not sleep, and calls an attendant,\nby way of opiate, to read the prosy and verbose records of his\nkingdom,--probably having often found this a sovereign expedient for\ninducing drowsiness. Then, by accident, his ear catches the account\nof the conspiracy which had been averted by Mordecai. \"What honor\nhath been shown this man?\" he inquires; and his servants answered,\nThere is nothing done for him. The king's mind runs upon the\nsubject, and early in the morning, perceiving Haman standing as an\napplicant in the outer court, he calls to have him admitted. Haman\ncame, with his mind full of the gallows and Mordecai. The king's\nmind was full, also, of Mordecai, and he had the advantage of the\nright of speaking first. In the enigmatic style sometimes employed\nby Oriental monarchs, he inquires, \"What shall be done with the man\nwhom the king delighteth to honor?\" Haman, thinking this the preface\nto some new honor to himself, proposes a scheme. The man whom the\nking delights to honor shall be clothed in the king's royal robes,\nwear the king's crown, be mounted on the king's horse, and thus\nbe led through the streets by one of the king's chief councilors,\nproclaiming, \"This is the man whom the king delighteth to honor.\"\n\"Then said the king: Make haste, and do even so as thou hast said\nunto Mordecai the Jew that sitteth in the king's gate. Let nothing\nfail of all that thou hast spoken.\" And Haman, without daring to\nremonstrate, goes forth and fulfills the king's command, with what\ngrace and willingness may be imagined.\n\nIt is evident from the narrative that the king had not even taken\nthe trouble to inquire the name of the people he had given up to\nextermination any more than he had troubled himself to reward the\nman who had saved his life. In both cases he goes on blindly, and\nis indebted to mere chance for his discoveries. We see in all this\nthe same passionate, childish nature that is recorded of Xerxes by\nHerodotus when he scourged the sea for destroying his bridge of\nboats. When Haman comes back to his house after his humiliating\npublic exposure, his wife comforts him after a fashion that has not\npassed out of use with her. \"If that Mordecai,\" she says, \"is of the\nseed of the Jews before whom thou hast begun to fall, thou shalt not\nprevail against him, but shall surely fall before him.\"\n\nAnd now Haman and the king and Esther are once more in a secluded\napartment, banqueting together. Again the king says to her, \"What\nis thy request, Esther?\" The hour of full discovery is now come.\nEsther answers: \"If I have found favor in thy sight, O king, and if\nit please the king, let _my life_ be given me at my petition, and\nmy people at my request. For we are sold, I and my people, to be\nslain and to perish. If we had only been sold to slavery, I had held\nmy tongue.\" Then the king breaks forth, \"Who is he, and where is\nhe that durst presume in his heart to do so?\" And Esther answered,\n\"The adversary and enemy _is this wicked Haman_!\" Then Haman was\nafraid before the king and queen, and he had the best reason to be\nso. The king, like an angry lion, rose up in a fury and rushed out\ninto the gardens. Probably at this moment he perceived the net into\nwhich he had been drawn by his favorite. He has sent orders for\nthe destruction of this people, to whom his wife belongs, and for\nwhom she intercedes. Of course he never thinks of blaming himself.\nThe use of prime ministers was as well understood in those days\nas now, and Haman must take the consequences as soon as the king\ncan get voice to speak it. Haman, white with abject terror, falls\nfainting at the feet of Esther upon the couch where she rests, and\nas the king comes raging back from the gardens he sees him there.\n\"What! will he force our queen also in our very presence?\" he says.\nAnd as the word went out of the king's mouth, they covered Haman's\nface. All is over with him, and an alert attendant says: \"Behold\nthe gallows, fifty cubits high, that he made to hang Mordecai, the\nsaviour of the king's life.\" Then said the king, \"Hang him thereon.\"\n\nThus dramatically comes the story to a crisis. Mordecai becomes\nprime minister. The message of the king goes everywhere, empowering\nthe Jews to stand for their life, and all the governors of provinces\nto protect them. And so it ends in leaving the nation powerful in\nall lands, under the protection of a queen and prime minister of\ntheir own nation.\n\nThe book of Esther was forthwith written and sent to the Jews in\nall countries of the earth, as a means of establishing a yearly\ncommemorative festival called Purim, from the word \"Pur,\" or \"The\nlot.\" The festival was appointed, we are told, by the joint\nauthority of Mordecai the Jew and Esther the queen. And to this\nday we Gentiles in New York or Boston, at the time of Purim, may\ngo into the synagogue and hear this book of Esther chanted in the\nHebrew, and hear the hearty curses which are heaped, with thumps of\nhammers and of fists, upon the heads of Haman and his sons whenever\ntheir names occur in the story,--a strange fragment of ancient\ntradition floated down to our modern times. The palace of Shushan,\nwith its hangings of green and blue and purple, its silver couches,\nits stir and hum of busy life, is now a moldering ruin; but the\nfair woman that once trod its halls is remembered and honored in a\nnation's heart. It is a curious fact that the romantic history of\nEsther has twice had its parallel since the Christian era, as the\nfollowing incident, from Schudt's \"Memorabilia of the Jews,\"[4]\nwitnesses. In this rare and curious work--4th book, 13th chapter--he\nsays: \"Casimir the Great, of Poland, in 1431, fell in love with a\nbeautiful Jewess named Esther, whom he married and raised to the\nthrone of Poland. He had by her two sons and several daughters.\nHis love for her was so great that he allowed the daughters to be\nbrought up in their mother's religion.\" Also it is related that\nAlphonso VIII., king of Spain, took to himself a beautiful Jewess as\na wife. On account of her he gave such privileges to the Jews that\nshe became an object of jealousy to the nobles, and was assassinated.\n\n  [4] J\u00fcdische Merkw\u00fcrdigkeiten. Frankfort and Leipsic, 1714.\n\nThe book of Esther fills an important place in the sacred canon, as\nshowing the Divine care and protection extended over the sacred race\nin the period of their deepest depression. The beauty and grace of a\nwoman were the means of preserving the seed from which the great Son\nof Man and desire of all nations, should come. Esther held in her\nfair hand the golden chain at the end of which we see the Mother of\nJesus. The \"Prayer of Esther\" is a composition ascribed to her, and\nstill in honored use among the solemn services of the synagogue.\n\n[Illustration: JUDITH THE DELIVERER]\n\n\n\n\nJUDITH THE DELIVERER.\n\n\nNo female type of character has given more brilliant inspiration\nto the artist or been made more glowingly alive on canvas than\nJudith. Her story, however, is set down by competent scholars\nas a work of fiction. The incidents recorded in it have so many\nanachronisms as to time and place, the historical characters\nintroduced are in combinations and relations so interfering with\nauthentic history, that such authorities as Professor Winer,[5] of\nLeipsic, and others, do not hesitate to assign it to the realm of\nromance. This Apocryphal book is, in fact, one of the few sparse\nblossoms of \u00e6sthetic literature among the Jewish nation. It is a\nstory ages before the time of the tales of the _Decameron_, but as\npurely a romance. Considered in this light, it is nobly done and\nof remarkable beauty. The character of Judith is a striking and\npicturesque creation, of which any modern artist might be proud. It\nillustrates quite as powerfully as a true story the lofty and heroic\ntype of womanhood which was the result of the Mosaic institutions,\nand the reverence in which such women were held by the highest\nauthorities of the nation.\n\n  [5] Winer's Bible Dictionary, art. _Judith_.\n\nThe author begins with the account of a destructive and terrible war\nwhich is being waged on the Jewish nation for refusing to serve in\nthe armies of one Nabuchodonosor, king of Assyria, in an attack on\nthe king of the Medes and Persians. All the names of this so-called\nwar, and all the events as narrated, are out of joint with received\nhistory, and clearly as much creations of the writer's fancy as the\nArabian Nights. It is stated that the Jews had just returned from\nthe Babylonian captivity, and brought back their sacred vessels,\nand restored their temple worship after the long defilement of\nheathen servitude. But it is a matter of undisputed history that\nNabuchodonosor was the king who carried the nation into captivity,\nand no other monarch of the name is known to history who performed\ndeeds at all like those here narrated.\n\nThe story goes on to state how, to punish the Jews for not becoming\nhis soldiers in the war, this king sent his chief commander,\nHolofernes, to carry destruction over their country. The mighty army\nof this general, and its ravages over the surrounding country, are\nset forth with an Oriental luxury of amplification. They come at\nlast and straitly besiege the city of Bethulia. Whether this is a\nfictitious name for a real city, or whether it is a supposititious\ncity, the creation of the author's imagination, critics are not\nfully decided; the story is just as pretty on one hypothesis as the\nother. The water being cut off, the people, suffering and dying of\nthirst, beset the chief-priests and elders to surrender the city to\nsave their lives. Ozias, the chief ruler, temporizes, recommends\nfive days of prayer; if before that time the God of Israel does not\ninterpose, he promises to surrender.\n\nAnd now the romance puts its heroine on the stage. After tracing her\nfamily and descent, it introduces her in these quaint words: \"Now\nJudith was a widow in her house three years and four months. And she\nmade her tent on the top of the house, put on sackcloth, and wore\nher widow's apparel; and she fasted all the days of her widowhood,\nsave the eves of the Sabbaths, the Sabbaths, and the new moons and\nsolemn feast-days of Israel. She was also of goodly countenance,\nand beautiful to behold, and her husband, Manasses, had left her\ngold and silver, and man-servants and maid-servants, and cattle, and\nlands; and she remained upon them. And there was none gave her an\nill word, for she feared God greatly.\"\n\nIt is a striking exemplification of the elevated position which\nwomen held in the Jewish nation that a romance writer should\nintroduce the incident that follows. Judith, hearing of the promise\nof the chief-ruler to surrender the city, sends her maid to call the\ngovernor and the chief men of the city, and they came unto her. And\nshe said: \"Hear now, O ye governors of the inhabitants of Bethulia,\nfor the words that you have spoken are not right touching this oath,\nthat you have promised to deliver the city to our enemies, unless\nwithin these days the Lord turn and help you. And now, who are ye\nthat have tempted God this day, to stand in the stead of God to the\nchildren of men?\"\n\nShe goes on to tell them that they have no right to say that unless\nGod interfere for them before a certain time they will give up a\nsacred charge which has been entrusted to them to maintain; but it\nis rather their duty to stand at their posts and defend their city,\nwithout making conditions with him as to when or how he should help\nthem. She says to them: \"And now, try the Lord Almighty, and ye\nshall never know anything. For ye cannot find the depth of the heart\nof a man, neither can ye perceive what he thinketh; how, then, can\nye search out God, that hath made all things, and comprehend his\npurposes? Nay, my brethren, provoke not the Lord our God to anger;\nfor if he will not help within five days, he hath power to help us\nwhen he will, even every day. Do not bind the counsel of the Lord,\nfor God is not a man that he may be threatened. Therefore, let us\nwait for salvation from him, and call upon him, and he will hear, if\nit please him.\"\n\nShe then shows them the disgrace and dishonor which will come\nupon them if they betray their trust, and they allow the sacred\ninheritance to be defiled and destroyed, and ends with a heroic\nexhortation: \"Now, therefore, O brethren, let us show an example to\nour brethren, because their hearts depend on us, and the sanctuary\nand the house and the altar rest on us.\"\n\nThe governor and elders receive this message with respectful\ndeference, apologize for yielding to the urgency of the people, who\nwere mad with the sufferings of thirst, and compelled them to make\nthis promise, and adds: \"Therefore, pray thou for us, for thou art a\ngoodly woman, and the Lord will send us rain, and fill our cisterns\nthat we thirst no more.\" At this moment Judith receives a sudden\nflash of heroic inspiration, and announces to them, that, if they\nwill send her forth without the city that night, the Lord will visit\nIsrael by her hand. She adds that they must not inquire further\nof her purpose, until the design she has in view be finished. The\nmagistrates, confiding implicitly in her, agree to forward her plan\nblindly.\n\nThe story now introduces us to the private oratory, where Judith\npours out her heart before God. So says the narrative: \"Then Judith\nfell on her face, and put ashes on her head, and uncovered the\nsackcloth wherewith she was clothed, and about the time that the\nincense of that evening was offered in Jerusalem in the house of the\nLord, Judith cried with a loud voice to the Lord.\"\n\nThe prayer of Judith is eloquent in its fervent simplicity, and\nbreathes that intense confidence in God as the refuge of the\nhelpless, which is characteristic of Jewish literature. \"Behold,\"\nshe says, \"the Assyrians are multiplied in their power, and are\nexalted with horse and man; they glory in the strength of their\nfootmen; they trust in shield and spear and bow, and know not that\nthou art the Lord that breakest battles. The Lord is thy name.\nThrow down their strength in thy power, and bring down their force\nin thy wrath, for they have purposed to defile thy sanctuary, and\nto pollute the tabernacle where thy glorious name resteth, and to\ncast down with sword the home of thy altar. Behold their pride.\nSend thy wrath upon their heads, and give unto me, which am a\nwidow, the power that I have conceived. For thy power standeth not\nin multitude, nor thy might in strong men; for thou art the God of\nthe afflicted, thou art an helper of the oppressed, an upholder of\nthe weak, a protector of the forlorn, a saviour of them that are\nwithout hope. I pray thee, I pray thee, O God of my father, King of\nevery creature! hear my prayer, and make my speech and deceit to\nbe their wound and stripe, who have purposed cruel things against\nthy covenant, and thy hallowed house, and against the house of the\npossession of thy children.\"\n\nWhen she had thus prayed, the story goes on to say she called her\nmaid, and, laying aside the garments of her widowhood, dressed\nherself in the utmost splendor, adorning herself with jewels, and\npracticing every art of the toilet to set off her beauty. Thus\nattired, she with her maid went forth from the city towards the\nAssyrian army, meaning to be taken prisoner. As she designed, she\nwas met by the outguards of the army, and carried at once to the\ntent of their general, professing that she had come to show him a\nway whereby he could go in and win all the hill country without loss\nof a man. The sensation produced by her entrance into the camp is\nwell given: \"Then there was a concourse through all the camp, for\nher coming was noised among the tents, and they came about her as\nshe stood waiting without the tent of Holofernes; and they wondered\nat her beauty, and admired the children of Israel because of her,\nand every one said to his neighbors, Who would despise this people\nthat have among them such women?\"\n\nThe story next gives the scene where Holofernes, dazzled by her\nbeauty and enchanted by her manners, becomes entirely subject to\nher will, receives and entertains her as a sovereign princess.\nShe easily persuades him to believe the story she tells him. This\npeople, she says, are under the protection of their God so long as\nthey do not violate the rules of their religion, but, under the\npressure of famine, they are about to eat of forbidden articles\nand to consume the sacred offerings due to the temple. Then their\nGod will turn against them and deliver them into his hands. She\nwill remain with him, and go forth from time to time; and when the\nsacrilege is accomplished, she will let him know that the hour to\nfall upon them is come.\n\nSo Judith is installed in state and all honor near the court of the\ncommander, and enjoys to the full the right to exercise the rites\nof her national religion,--nay, the infatuated Holofernes goes so\nfar as to promise her that, in the event of her succeeding in her\npromises, he will himself adopt the God of Israel for his God. After\na day or two spent in this way, in which she goes forth every night\nfor prayer and ablutions at the fountain, there comes the attempt to\ndraw her into the harem of the general. Holofernes, in conference\nwith Bagoas, the chief of his eunuchs, seems to think that the\nbeautiful Jud\u00e6an woman would laugh him to scorn if he suffered such\nan opportunity to pass unimproved. Accordingly a private banquet is\narranged, and the chief of the eunuchs carries the invitation in\ntrue Oriental style, as follows: \"Let not this fair damsel fear to\ncome unto my lord, and to be honored in his presence, and to drink\nwine and be merry, and to be made this day as one of the Assyrians\nthat serve in the house of Nabuchodonosor.\" Judith graciously\naccepts the invitation, decks herself with all her jewelry, and\ncomes to the banquet and ravishes the heart of the commandant with\nher smiles. Excited and flattered, he drinks, it is said, more wine\nthan ever he drunk before; so that, at the close of the feast, when\nthe servants departed and Judith was left alone in the tent with\nhim, he was lying dead drunk with wine on the cushions of his divan.\n\nThe rest is told in the story: \"Then all went out and there was\nnone left in the bedchamber, neither little nor great. Then Judith,\nstanding by the bed, said in her heart, O Lord God of all power,\nlook, at this present, on the work of my hands for the exaltation\nof Jerusalem. For now is the time to help thy inheritance and to\nexecute my enterprise to the destruction of the enemies that are\nrisen up against us. Then came she to the pillow of the couch, and\ntook down the fauchion from thence, and approached his bed, and took\nhold of the hair of his head, and said, Strengthen me, O Lord God\nof Israel, this day, and she smote twice upon his neck with all her\nmight, and she took away his head from him and went forth.\"\n\nShe returns to the city in the dim gray of the morning, bearing her\ntrophy and the canopy and hangings of the bed whereon the enemy lay:\n\"Then called Judith afar off to the watchmen, Open now the gates,\nfor God, even our God, is with us to show his power yet in Israel\nand his strength against the enemy.\" A hasty midnight summons brings\ntogether the elders of the city. A fire is kindled, and they gather\nround her, as, radiant with triumphant excitement, she breaks forth\nin triumph: \"Praise, praise, praise God, praise God, I say, for he\nhas not taken away his mercy from the house of Israel, but hath\ndestroyed the enemy by my hand this night.\" And she took the head\nout of the bag and showed it to them, and said: \"Behold the head\nof Holofernes, the chief captain of the army of Assur, and behold\nthe canopy where he did lie in his drunkenness, and the Lord hath\nsmitten him by the hand of a woman. As the Lord liveth, who hath\nkept me in my way that I went, my countenance hath deceived him to\nhis destruction, yet he hath not committed sin with me to defile and\nshame me.\"\n\nThen Ozias said, \"O daughter, blessed art thou among all the women\nof the earth, and blessed be the Lord God which created the heavens\nand the earth, which hath directed thee to the cutting off of the\nhead of our chief enemy. For this thy confidence shall not depart\nfrom the hearts of men which remember the power of God forever. And\nGod turn these things for a perpetual praise, because thou hast not\nspared thy life for the affliction of our nation, but hast avenged\nour ruin, walking in a straight way before our God. And all the\npeople said, Amen, so be it.\"\n\nThe sequel of the story is, that the inspired prophetess directs\nher citizens to rush down upon the army in the first confusion of\nthe loss of its general; and, this advice being followed, a general\npanic and rout of the hostile army follows, and the whole camp is\ntaken and spoiled.\n\nThe story ends with a solemn procession of thanksgiving and worship,\nthe men wreathed with flowers around their armor, and headed by\nJudith crowned with a garland of olive leaves, and leading forth a\nsolemn rhythmic dance while she sings a hymn of victory. This song\nof Judith, evidently modeled on the victorious anthem of Deborah\nunder the same circumstances, is less vigorous and fiery, but more\npolished and finished. Had it stood _alone_, it had been thought an\nunrivalled composition of its kind. The animus of it is, in some\nrespects, the same with that of the song of Hannah,--it exults in\nthe might of God as the protector of the weak and helpless. There\nis an intensely feminine exultation in the consciousness that she,\nthough weak as a woman, has been made the means of overcoming this\nstrength:--\n\n    \"Assur came from the mountains of the north,\n    He came with ten thousands of armies.\n    The multitudes thereof stopped the torrents.\n    Their horsemen covered the hills.\n    He bragged that he would burn up my border,\n    That he would kill my young men with the sword,\n    That he would dash the sucking children against the ground,\n    And make the children a prey and the virgins a spoil;\n    But the Almighty Lord hath disappointed him by the hand of a woman!\n    The mighty one did not fall by young men,\n    Neither did the sons of Titans set upon him,\n    Nor did high giants set upon him;\n    But Judith, the daughter of Merari, weakened him with her beauty.\n    For the exaltation of the oppressed in Israel\n    She put off her garments of widowhood,\n    She anointed herself with ointment,\n    She bound her hair with a fillet,\n    She took a linen garment to deceive him;\n    Her sandals ravished his eyes,\n    Her beauty took his mind prisoner,\n    So the fauchion passed through his neck.\n    I will sing unto my God a new song:\n    O Lord, thou art great and glorious,\n    Wonderful in strength and invincible.\n    Let all creatures praise thee,\n    For thou speakest and they were made,\n    Thou sentest thy spirit and created them.\n    There is none can resist thy voice;\n    The mountains shall be moved from their foundations,\n    The rocks shall melt like wax at thy presence,\n    Yet art thou merciful to them that fear thee,\n    For all sacrifice is too little for a sweet savor unto thee,\n    All the fat is not enough for burnt-offerings;\n    But he that feareth the Lord is great at all times.\"\n\nHow magnificent is the conception of the woman here given! Lowly,\ndevout, given up to loving memories of family life, yet capable in\nthe hour of danger of rising to the highest inspirations of power.\nPoetess, prophetess, inspirer, leader, by the strength of that power\nby which the helpless hold the hand of Almighty God and triumph in\nhis strength, she becomes the deliverer of her people.\n\n\n\n\nWOMEN OF THE CHRISTIAN ERA.\n\n[Illustration: THE SISTINE MADONNA]\n\n\n\n\nMARY THE MYTHICAL MADONNA.\n\n\nNo woman that ever lived on the face of the earth has been an\nobject of such wonder, admiration, and worship as Mary the mother\nof Jesus. Around her poetry, painting, and music have raised clouds\nof ever-shifting colors, splendid as those around the setting sun.\nExalted above earth, she has been shown to us as a goddess, yet\na goddess of a type wholly new. She is not Venus, not Minerva,\nnot Ceres, nor Vesta. No goddess of classic antiquity or of any\nother mythology at all resembles that ideal being whom Christian\nart and poetry present to us in Mary. Neither is she like all of\nthem united. She differs from them as Christian art differs from\nclassical, wholly and entirely. Other goddesses have been worshiped\nfor beauty, for grace, for power. Mary has been the Goddess of\nPoverty and Sorrow, of Pity and Mercy; and as suffering is about the\nonly certain thing in human destiny, she has numbered her adorers\nin every land and climate and nation. In Mary, womanhood, in its\nhighest and tenderest development of the MOTHER, has been the\nobject of worship. Motherhood with large capacities of sorrow, with\nthe memory of bitter sufferings, with sympathies large enough to\nembrace every anguish of humanity!--such an object of veneration has\ninconceivable power.\n\nThe art history that has gradually grown up around the personality\nof the Madonna is entirely mythical. It is a long poem, recorded in\nmany a legend or tradition, and one which one may see represented,\nscene after scene, in many a shrine and church and monastery devoted\nto her honor.\n\nAccording to these apocryphal accounts, the marvels begin before\nher birth. Her parents, Joachim and Anna, of the royal race of\nDavid, are childless, and bitterly grieved on this account. On a\ngreat festival-day, when Joachim brings a double offering to the\nLord, he is rejected by the priest, saying, \"It is not lawful for\nthee to bring thine offering, since thou hast not begotten issue in\nIsrael.\" And Joachim was exceedingly sorrowful, and went away into\nthe wilderness, and fasted forty days and forty nights, and said,\n\"Until the Lord my God look upon mine affliction, my only meat shall\nbe prayer.\" Then follows a long account of the affliction of Anna,\nand how she sat down under a laurel-tree in the garden, and bemoaned\nherself and prayed. \"And behold, the angel of the Lord stood by\nher, and said, Anna, thy prayer is heard; thou shalt bring forth,\nand thy child shall be blessed through the whole world. See, also,\nthy husband Joachim is coming with his shepherds, for an angel hath\ncomforted him also. And Anna went forth to meet her husband, and\nJoachim came from the pasture, and they met at the golden gate, and\nAnna ran and embraced her husband, and said, Now know I that the\nLord hath blessed me.\"\n\nThen comes the birth of the auspicious infant, with all manner of\nsigns of good omen. \"And when the child was three years old, Joachim\nsaid: Let us invite the daughters of Israel, that they may each take\na taper and a lamp, and attend on her, that the child may not turn\nback from the temple of the Lord. And being come to the temple, they\nplaced her on the first step, and she ascended all the steps to the\naltar, and the high-priest received her there, and kissed her and\nblessed her, saying, Mary, the Lord hath magnified thy name to all\ngenerations; in thee shall all nations of the earth be blessed.\"\n\nA magnificent picture by Titian, in the Academy at Venice,\nrepresents this scene. Everything about it is in gorgeous style,\nexcept the little Mary, who is a very literal, earthly, chubby bit\nof flesh and blood, and not in the least celestial. In the Church\nof Santa Maria della Salute in Venice, however, the child Mary,\ngoing up the temple steps, is a perfect little angel with a cloud\nof golden hair. Then we have flocks of pictures representing the\nsacred girlhood of Mary. She is vowed to the temple service, and\nspins and weaves and embroiders the purple and fine linen for\nsacerdotal purposes. She is represented as looked upon with awe and\nveneration by all the holy women who remain in the courts of the\nLord, especially by the prophetess Anna, who declares to her her\nhigh destiny. It is recorded that her life was sustained by the\nministry of angels, who daily visited and brought to her the bread\nof Paradise and the water of the River of Life. It is the tradition\nof the Greek Church that Mary alone of all her sex was allowed to\nenter the Holy of Holies, and pray before the ark of the covenant.\n\nIn her fourteenth year the priest announced to her that it was time\nfor her to be given in marriage, but she declared that she had vowed\na life of virginity, and declined. But the high-priest told her that\nhe had received a message from the Lord, and so she submitted. Then\nthe high-priest inquired of the Lord, and was bid to order all the\nwidowers of the people to come, each with his rod in his hand, that\nthe Lord might choose one by a sign. And Joseph the carpenter came\nwith the rest, and presented his rod, and lo! a white dove flew from\nit, and settled upon his head. According to St. Jerome, however,\nthe tradition has another version. The rods of the candidates were\nplaced in the temple over night, and lo! in the morning Joseph's rod\nhad burst forth in leaves and flowers. The painting by Raphael, in\nthe Brera at Milan, as fresh in color now as if but of yesterday,\ngives the medi\u00e6val conception of that wedding.\n\nThen come pictures of the wonderful Annunciation, thick as lilies\nin a meadow. The angel rainbow-wings, bedropped with gold, drift\nnoiselessly like a cloud into the oratory where the holy virgin\nis in prayer, and bring her the wonderful story. The visitation\nto her cousin Elizabeth, the birth of the infant Jesus, the visit\nof the shepherds, the adoration of the Magi, come to our minds\nwith a confused and dazzling memory of all that human art can do,\nwith splendor of colors and richness of fancy, to embellish the\ntheme. The presentation in the temple, the flight into Egypt, the\nrepose by the way, the home-life at Nazareth, each has its clusters\nof mythical stories that must be understood to read aright the\npaintings that tell them. We behold angels bending the branches of\nthe trees to give the sacred wanderers fruit,--angels everywhere\nministering about the simple offices of life, pouring water to wash\nthe infant, holding the napkin, playing around him. Then come the\ndarker scenes of the passion, the Via Dolorosa, the station by the\ncross, the sepulchers, in which all of pathos that human art can\nproduce has been employed to celebrate the memory of that mother's\nsorrows.\n\nThere is a very ancient tradition spoken of by St. Ambrose, in the\nfourth century, as being then generally believed, that Christ, after\nhis resurrection, appeared first to his mother,--she, who had his\nlast cares for anything earthly, was first to welcome his victory\nover death. The story as given by Mrs. Jameson, in her \"Legends\nof the Madonna,\" is, that Mary, when all was finished, retired to\nher solitude to pray, and wait for the promised resurrection; and\nwhile she prayed, with the open volume of the prophecies before her,\na company of angels entered, waving their palms and singing, and\nthen came Jesus, in white, having in his left hand the standard of\nthe cross as one just returned from Hades, victorious over sin and\ndeath, and with him came patriarchs and prophets and holy saints\nof old. But the mother was not comforted till she heard the voice\nof her son. Then he raised his hand and blessed her, and said,\n\"I salute thee, O my mother,\" and she fell upon his neck weeping\ntears of joy. Then he bade her be comforted, and weep no more, for\nthe pain of death had passed away, and the gates of hell had not\nprevailed against him; and she thanked him, meekly, on her knees,\nthat he had been pleased to bring redemption to man and make her the\nhumble instrument of his mercy. This legend has something in it so\ngrateful to human sympathies, that the heart involuntarily believes\nit. Though the sacred record is silent, we may believe that He, who\nloved his own unto the end, did not forget his mother in her hour of\ndeepest anguish.\n\nAfter the resurrection, the only mention made of Mary by the\nEvangelists is an incidental one in the first part of Acts. She is\nspoken of as remaining in prayer with the small band of Christian\ndisciples, waiting for the promised Spirit which descended upon\nthe day of Pentecost. After this she fades from our view entirely.\nAccording to the mythical history, however, her career of wonder\nand glory is only begun. Imagination blossoms and runs wild in a\ntropical landscape of poetic glories.\n\nMary is now the mother of the Christian Church. Before departing on\ntheir divine missions, the apostles come and solicit her blessing.\nThe apocryphal books detail, at length, the circumstances of her\ndeath and burial, and the ascension of her glorified body to heaven,\ncommonly called the Assumption. We make a few extracts: \"And on\na certain day the heart of Mary was filled with an inexpressible\nlonging to behold her divine son, and she wept abundantly; and, lo,\nan angel appeared before her, clothed in light as in a garment, and\nhe saluted her, and said, Hail, O Mary! blessed be he that giveth\nsalvation to Israel! I bring thee here a palm branch, gathered in\nParadise; command that it be carried before thy bier on the day\nof thy death, for in three days thy soul shall leave thy body and\nthou shalt enter Paradise, where thy son awaits thy coming.\" Mary\nrequested, in reply, three things,--the name of the angel; that she\nmight once more see the apostles before her departure; and that on\nleaving the body no evil spirit should have power to affright her\nsoul. The angel declared his name to be the Great and Wonderful,\npromised the reunion of the apostles around her dying bed, and\nassured her against the powers of darkness. \"And having said these\nwords, the angel departed into heaven; and, lo, the palm branch\nwhich he had left shed light in every leaf, and sparkled as the\nstars of the morning. Then Mary lighted the lamps and prepared\nher bed, and waited for the hour to come. And in the same instant\nJohn, who was preaching in Ephesus, and Peter, who was preaching at\nAntioch, and all the other apostles, who were dispersed in different\nparts of the world, were suddenly caught up by a miraculous power,\nand found themselves before the habitation of Mary. When Mary saw\nthem all around her, she blessed and thanked the Lord, and placed\nin the hands of St. John the shining palm, and desired that he\nshould bear it at the time of her burial.\"\n\nIt is then recorded that at the third hour of the night there came\na sound as of a rushing mighty wind upon the house, and the chamber\nwas filled with a heavenly odor, and Jesus himself appeared with a\ngreat train of patriarchs and prophets, who surrounded the dying\nbed, singing hymns of joy; and Jesus said to his mother, \"Arise,\nmy beloved, mine elect, come with me from Lebanon, mine espoused,\nand receive the crown prepared for thee.\" And Mary answered, \"My\nheart is ready; in the book is it written of me, Lo, I come to do\nthy will.\" Then amid songs of angels, the soul of Mary left her\nbody and passed to the arms of Jesus. A beautiful little picture\nby Fra Angelico represents this scene. The soul of Mary is seen as\nan infant in the arms of Jesus, who looks down on it with heavenly\ntenderness. The lifeless form, as it lies surrounded by the weeping\napostles, has that sacred and touching beauty that so often seals\nwith the seal of Heaven the face of the dead. It is a picture\npainted by the heart, and worthy to be remembered for a lifetime.\n\nThen follows an account of the funeral, and where the body was laid;\nbut, like that of Jesus, it was not destined to see corruption,\nand on the morning of the third day she rose in immortal youth\nand beauty, and ascended to heaven amid troops of angels, blowing\ntheir silver trumpets and singing as they rose, \"Who is she that\nriseth fair as the moon, clear as the sun, terrible as an army with\nbanners?\" The legend goes on to say that Thomas was not present,\nand that when he arrived he refused to believe in her resurrection,\nand desired that her tomb should be opened; and when it was opened,\nit was found full of lilies and roses. Then Thomas, looking up to\nheaven, beheld her in glory, and she, for the assurance of his\nfaith, threw down to him her girdle.\n\nThus far the legends.[6] One may stand in the Academy in Venice and\nsee the scene of Mary's ascension in the great picture of Titian,\nwhich seems to lift one off one's feet, and fairly draw one upward\nin its glory of color and its ecstasy of triumphant joy. It is a\ncharming feature in this picture that the holy mother is represented\nas borne up by myriads of lovely little children. Such a picture is\na vivid rendering to the eye of the spirit of the age which produced\nit.\n\n  [6] The sources from which these are drawn are the apocryphal books\n  of the New Testament.\n\nOnce started, the current of enthusiasm for the Madonna passed all\nbounds, and absorbed into itself all that belonged to the Saviour\nof mankind. All the pity, the mercy, the sympathy, of Jesus were\nforgotten and overshadowed in the image of this divine mother.\nChrist, to the mind of the Middle Ages, was only the awful Judge,\nwhom Michael Angelo painted in his terrific picture grasping\nthunderbolts, and dealing damnation on the lost, while his pitiful\nmother hides her eyes from the sight.\n\nDr. Pusey, in his \"Eirenicon,\" traces the march of mariolatry\nthrough all the countries of the world. He shows how to Mary\nhave been ascribed, one after another, all the divine attributes\nand offices. How she is represented commanding her son in heaven\nwith the authority of a mother; and how he is held to owe to her\nsubmissive obedience. How she, being identified with him in all\nthat he is and does, is received with him in the sacrament, and\nis manifest in the real presence. In short, how, by the enormous\ngrowth of an idea, there comes to be at last _no God but Mary_.\nMartin Luther describes, in his early experiences, how completely\nthe idea of the true Redeemer was hidden from his mind by this style\nof representation; that in the ceremony of the mass he trembled,\nand his knees sunk under him for fear, on account of the presence\nof Christ the Judge of the earth. When we look back to the earlier\necclesiastical history, we find no trace of all this peculiar\nveneration. None of the Apocryphal Gospels have higher antiquity\nthan the third or fourth century.\n\nIn Smith's Dictionary of the Bible, article _Mary_, this question is\nsettled by a comprehensive statement.[7] \"What,\" the writer says,\n\"was the origin of this _cultus_? Certainly not the Bible. There is\nnot a word there from which it could be inferred, nor in the creeds,\nnor in the fathers of the first five centuries. We may trace every\npage they have left us, and we shall find nothing of the kind. There\nis nothing of the sort in the supposed works of Hermas and Barnabas,\nnor in the real works of Clement, Ignatius, and Polycarp; that is,\nthe doctrine is not to be found in the first century. There is\nnothing in Justin Martyr, Tatian, Anathagoras, Theophilus, Clement\nof Alexandria, Tertullian; that is to say, nothing in the second\ncentury.\"\n\n  [7] The article is by Rev. F. Meyrick, M. A., one of her Majesty's\n  inspectors of schools, late fellow and tutor of Trinity College,\n  Oxford.\n\nIn the same manner he reviews the authors of the third, the fourth,\nthe fifth century, and shows that there are no traces of this\nstyle of feeling. Moreover, he cites passages from the Christian\nfathers of the first three or four centuries, where Mary is as\nfreely spoken of and criticised, and represented subject to sins of\ninfirmity, as other Christians. Tertullian speaks of her \"unbelief.\"\nOrigen interprets the sword that should pierce through her heart\nas \"unbelief\"; and in the fourth century, St. Basil gives the same\ninterpretation; in the fifth century, St. Chrysostom accuses her of\nexcessive ambition and foolish arrogance and vainglory, in wishing\nto speak with Jesus while engaged in public ministries. Several\nothers are quoted, commenting upon her in a manner that must be\npainful to the sensibility of even those who never cherished for\nher a superstitious veneration. No person of delicate appreciation\nof character can read the brief narrative of the New Testament and\nnot feel that such comments do great injustice to the noblest and\nloveliest among women.\n\nThe character of Mary has suffered by reaction from the idolatrous\nand fulsome adoration which has been bestowed on her. In the height\nof the controversy between Protestants and the Romish church there\nhas been a tendency to the side of unjust depreciation on the part\nof the former to make up for the unscriptural excesses of the\nlatter. What, then, was the true character of Mary, highly favored,\nand blessed among women? It can only be _inferred_ by the most\ndelicate analysis of the little that the Scripture has given; this\nwe reserve for another article.\n\n\n\n\nMARY THE MOTHER OF JESUS.\n\n\nFrom out the cloudy ecstasies of poetry, painting, and religious\nromance, we grope our way back to the simple story of the New\nTestament, to find, if possible, by careful study, the lineaments of\nthe real Mary the mother of our Lord. Who and what really was _the\nwoman_ highly favored over all on earth, chosen by God to be the\nmother of the Redeemer of the world? It is our impression that the\ntrue character will be found more sweet, more strong, more wonderful\nin its perfect naturalness and humanity, than the idealized,\nsuperangelic being which has been gradually created by poetry and\nart.\n\nThat the Divine Being, in choosing a woman to be the mother, the\neducator, and for thirty years the most intimate friend, of his son,\nshould have selected one of rare and peculiar excellences seems only\nprobable. It was from her that the holy child, who was to increase\nin wisdom and in stature, was to learn from day to day the constant\nand needed lessons of inexperienced infancy and childhood. Her\nlips taught him human language; her lessons taught him to read the\nsacred records of the law and the prophets, and the sacred poetry\nof the psalms; to her he was \"subject,\" when the ardor of childhood\nexpanding into youth led him to quit her side and spend his time\nin the temple at the feet of the Doctors of the Law; with her he\nlived in constant communion during those silent and hidden years of\nhis youth that preceded his mission. A woman so near to Christ, so\nidentified with him in the largest part of his life, cannot but be\na subject of the deepest and most absorbing study to the Christian\nheart. And yet there is in regard to this most interesting subject\nan utter silence of any authentic tradition, so far as we have\nstudied, of the first two or three centuries. There is nothing\nrelated by St. John, with whom Mary lived as with a son after the\nSaviour's death, except the very brief notices in his Gospel. Upon\nthis subject, as upon that other topic so exciting to the mere human\nheart, the personal appearance of Jesus, there is a reticence that\nimpresses us like a divine decree of secrecy.\n\nIn all that concerns the peculiarly human relations of Jesus, the\nprinciple that animated his apostles after the descent of the Holy\nSpirit was, \"Yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet\nnow, henceforth, know we him no more.\" His family life with his\nmother would doubtless have opened lovely pages; but it must remain\nsealed up among those many things spoken of by St. John, which, if\nthey were recorded, the \"world itself could not contain the books\nthat should be written.\" All that we have, then, to build upon is\nthe brief account given in the Gospels. The first two chapters of\nSt. Matthew and the first two chapters of St. Luke are our only\ndata, except one or two very brief notices in St. John, and one\nslight mention in the Acts.\n\nIn part, our conception of the character of Mary may receive light\nfrom her nationality. A fine human being is never the product of one\ngeneration, but rather the outcome of a growth of ages. Mary was\nthe offspring and flower of a race selected, centuries before, from\nthe finest physical stock of the world, watched over, trained, and\ncultured, by Divine oversight, in accordance with every physical\nand mental law for the production of sound and vigorous mental and\nbodily conditions. Her blood came to her in a channel of descent\nover which the laws of Moses had established a watchful care; a race\nwhere marriage had been made sacred, family life a vital point, and\nmotherhood invested by Divine command with an especial sanctity.\nAs Mary was in a certain sense a product of the institutes of\nMoses, so it is an interesting coincidence that she bore the name\nof his sister, the first and most honored of the line of Hebrew\nprophetesses,--Mary being the Latin version of the Hebrew Miriam.\nShe had also, as we read, a sister, the wife of Cleopas, who bore\nthe same name,--a custom not infrequent in Jewish families. It\nis suggested, that, Miriam being a sacred name and held in high\ntraditionary honor, mothers gave it to their daughters, as now in\nSpain they call them after the Madonna as a sign of good omen.\n\nThere is evidence that Mary had not only the sacred name of the\nfirst great prophetess, but that she inherited, in the line of\ndescent, the poetic and prophetic temperament. She was of the\nroyal line of David, and poetic visions and capabilities of high\nenthusiasm were in her very lineage. The traditions of the holy and\nnoble women of her country's history were all open to her as sources\nof inspiration. Miriam, leading the song of national rejoicing on\nthe shore of the Red Sea; Deborah, mother, judge, inspirer, leader,\nand poet of her nation; Hannah, the mother who won so noble a son\nof Heaven by prayer; the daughter of Jephtha, ready to sacrifice\nherself to her country; Huldah, the prophetess, the interpreter of\nGod's will to kings; Queen Esther, risking her life for her people;\nand Judith, the beautiful and chaste deliverer of her nation,--these\nwere the spiritual forerunners of Mary, the ideals with whom her\nyouthful thoughts must have been familiar.\n\nThe one hymn of Mary's composition which has found place in the\nsacred records pictures in a striking manner the exalted and poetic\nside of her nature. It has been compared with the song of Hannah\nthe mother of Samuel, and has been spoken of as taken from it. But\nthere is only that resemblance which sympathy of temperament and a\nconstant contemplation of the same class of religious ideas would\nproduce. It was the exaltation of a noble nature expressing itself\nin the form and imagery supplied by the traditions and history of\nher nation. We are reminded that Mary was a daughter of David by\ncertain tones in her magnificent hymn, which remind us of many of\nthe Psalms of that great heart-poet.\n\nBeing of royal lineage, Mary undoubtedly cherished in her bosom the\ntraditions of her house with that secret fervor which belongs to\nenthusiastic natures. We are to suppose her, like all Jud\u00e6an women,\nintensely national in her feelings. She identified herself with her\ncountry's destiny, lived its life, suffered in its sufferings,\nand waited and prayed for its deliverance and glories. This was a\ntime of her nation's deep humiliation. The throne and scepter had\npassed from Judah. Conquered, trodden down, and oppressed, the\nsacred land was under the rule of Pagan Rome; Herod, the appointed\nsovereign, was a blaspheming, brutal tyrant, using all his power to\nhumiliate and oppress; and we may imagine Mary as one of the small\ncompany of silent mourners, like Simeon, and Anna the prophetess,\nwho pondered the Scriptures and \"looked for salvation in Israel.\"\nShe was betrothed to her cousin Joseph, who was, like herself, of\nthe royal lineage. He was a carpenter, in accordance with that\nexcellent custom of the Jewish law which required every man to be\ntaught a mechanical trade. They were in humble circumstances, and\ndwelt in a village proverbial for the meanness and poverty of its\ninhabitants. We can imagine them as _in_, but not _of_, the sordid\nand vulgar world of Nazareth, living their life of faith and prayer,\nof mournful memories of past national glory, and longing hopes for\nthe future.\n\nThe account of the visitation of the angel to Mary is given by St.\nLuke, and by him alone. His Gospel was written later than those of\nMatthew and Mark, and designed for the Greek churches, and it seems\nbut natural that in preparing himself to write upon this theme\nhe should seek information from Mary herself, the fountain-head.\nBiblical critics discover traces of this communication in the\ndifferent style of these first two chapters of St. Luke. While the\nrest of the book is written in pure classic Greek, this is full\nof Hebraisms, and has all the marks of being translated from the\nSyro-Chaldaic tongue, which was the popular dialect of Palestine,\nand in which Mary must have given her narrative.\n\nLet us now look at the simple record. \"And in the sixth month\nthe angel Gabriel was sent from God unto a city of Galilee named\nNazareth, to a virgin espoused to a man named Joseph, of the house\nof David, and the virgin's name was Mary. And the angel came in unto\nher and said, Hail, highly favored! the Lord is with thee; blessed\nart thou among women! And when she saw him she was troubled at his\nsaying, and cast in her mind what manner of salutation this should\nbe.\"\n\nAll these incidents, in their very nature, could be known to Mary\nalone. She was in solitude, without a human witness; from her the\nwhole detail must have come. It gives not only the interview, but\nthe passing thoughts and emotions of her mind; she was agitated,\nand cast about what this should mean. We see in all this that\nserious, calm, and balanced nature which was characteristic of Mary.\nHabitually living in the contemplation of that spirit-world revealed\nin the Scriptures, it was no very startling thing to her to see an\nangel standing by,--her thoughts had walked among the angels too\nlong for that; but his enthusiastic words of promise and blessing\nagitated her soul.\n\n\"And the angel said unto her, Fear not, Mary, for thou hast found\nfavor with God, and behold thou shalt conceive in thy womb and bring\nforth a son and shalt call his name Jesus. He shall be great, and\nshall be called the Son of the Highest, and the Lord God shall give\nunto him the throne of his father[8] David, and he shall reign over\nthe house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there shall be no\nend.\"\n\n  [8] It is remarkable that in this interview the angel, in the same\n  connection, informs Mary that her son shall have no human father,\n  and that David shall be his ancestor. The inference is clear that\n  Mary is herself of the house of David. Coincident with this we find\n  a genealogy of Jesus in this Gospel of Luke differing entirely\n  from the genealogy in Matthew. Very able critics have therefore\n  contended that, as Luke evidently received his account from Mary,\n  the genealogy he gives is that of _her_ ancestry, and that the\n  \"_Heli_\" who is mentioned in Luke as the ancestor of Jesus was his\n  grandfather, the father of Mary. Very skillful and able Biblical\n  critics have supported this view, among whom are Paulus, Spanheim,\n  and Lightfoot. The latter goes the length of saying that there\n  are no difficulties in these genealogies but what have been made\n  by commentators. In Lightfoot, notes in Luke, third chapter, the\n  argument is given at length, and he adds testimonies to show that\n  Mary was called the daughter of Heli by the early Jewish Rabbins,\n  who traduced her for her pretensions in reference to her son. He\n  quotes three passages from different Rabbins in the Jerusalem\n  Talmud, or \"Chigagah,\" folio 77. 4, where this Mary, mother of\n  Jesus, is denounced as the \"daughter of _Heli_ and mother of a\n  pretender.\"\n\nA weaker woman would have been dazzled and overcome by such a\nvision,--appealing to all her personal ambition,--and her pride of\nnation and her religious enthusiasm telling her that she had drawn\nthe prize which had been the high ideal of every Jewish woman from\nthe beginning of time. But Mary faces the great announcement with a\ncountenance of calm inquiry. \"Then said Mary to the angel, How shall\nthis be, seeing I am yet a virgin?\" And the angel answered and said\nunto her, \"The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee; the power of the\nHighest shall overshadow thee; therefore, also, that holy progeny\nwhich shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God; and\nbehold, also, thy cousin Elisabeth, she also hath conceived a son\nin her old age; and this is the sixth month with her who was called\nbarren. For with God nothing shall be impossible.\"\n\nIn this announcement a Jewish betrothed woman must have seen a\nfuture of danger to her reputation and her life; for who would\nbelieve a story of which there was no mortal witness? But Mary\naccepted the high destiny and the fearful danger with an entire\nsurrender of herself into God's hands. Her reply is not one of\nexultation, but of submission. \"Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be\nit unto me according to his word.\"\n\nThe next step taken by Mary is in accordance with the calmest\npractical good sense, and displays an energy and a control over\nother minds which must have been uncommon. She resolves to visit\nher cousin Elisabeth in the mountain country. The place is supposed\nto have been near Hebron, and involved a journey of some twenty\nmiles through a rugged country. For a young maiden to find means of\nperforming this journey, which involved attendance and protection,\nwithout telling the reason for which she resolved upon it, seems to\nshow that Mary had that kind of character which inspires confidence,\nand leads those around her to feel that a thing is right and proper\nbecause she has determined it.\n\nThe scene of the visitation as given in St. Luke shows the height\nabove common thought and emotion on which these holy women moved.\nElisabeth, filled with inspired ardor, spoke out with a loud voice\nand said, \"Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit\nof thy womb. And whence is this to me, that the mother of my Lord\nshould come to me? And blessed be she that believed: for there shall\nbe a performance of those things which have been promised of the\nLord.\" Then the prophetic fire fell upon Mary, and she broke forth\ninto the immortal psalm which the Church still cherishes as the\nfirst hymn of the new dispensation.\n\n    \"My soul doth magnify the Lord;\n    My spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour,\n    For he hath regarded the low estate of his handmaid;\n    For, behold, henceforth all generations shall call me blessed!\n    For he that is mighty hath done great things to me,\n    And holy is his name,\n    And his mercy is on them that fear him\n    From generation to generation.\n    He hath showed strength with his arm;\n    He hath scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts,\n    He hath put down the mighty from their seats\n    And exalted them of low degree,\n    He hath filled the hungry with good things\n    And the rich hath he sent empty away,\n    He hath holpen his servant Israel\n    In remembrance of his mercy,\n    As he spake to our fathers,\n    To Abraham and his seed forever.\"\n\nIn these words we see, as in the song of Hannah, the exaltation of a\npurely unselfish spirit, whose personal experiences merge themselves\nin those of universal humanity. One line alone expresses her intense\nsense of the honor done her, and all the rest is exultation in her\nGod as the helper of the poor, the neglected, the despised and\nforgotten, and the Saviour of her oppressed country. No legend of\nangel ministrations or myths of miracle can so glorify Mary in our\neyes as this simple picture of her pure and lofty unselfishness of\nspirit.\n\nWe are told that this sacred visit lasted three months. A mythical\nlegend speaks of a large garden, pertaining to the priests' house,\nwhere Mary was wont to walk for meditation and prayer, and that,\nbending one day over a flower, beautiful, but devoid of fragrance,\nshe touched it and thenceforth it became endowed with a sweet\nperfume. The myth is a lovely allegory of the best power of a true\nand noble Christian woman.\n\nOn returning to Nazareth, Mary confronted the danger which beset\nher situation with the peculiar, silent steadfastness which\ncharacterized her. From the brief narrative of Matthew, which\nmainly respects the feelings of Joseph, we infer that Mary made no\neffort at self-justification, but calmly resigned herself to the\nvindication of God in his own time and way. As the private feelings\nof Mary are recorded only by Luke, and the private experiences\nof Joseph by Matthew, it is to be supposed that the narrative is\nderived from these two sources.\n\nWe have no other characteristic incident of Mary's conduct; nothing\nthat she said or did during the next eventful scenes of her life.\nThe journey to Bethlehem, the birth-of Jesus, the visit of the\nshepherds and of the magi, full of the loveliest poetic suggestion,\nare all silent shrines so far as utterance or action of hers is\ngiven to us. That she was peculiarly a silent woman is inferred from\nthe only mention of her, in particular, by St. Luke when recording\nthese wonderful scenes. When the shepherds, sent by angelic\nvisitors, came to Bethlehem, we are told, \"And they came with haste,\nand found Joseph and Mary, and the babe lying in a manger; and when\nthey had seen it they made known abroad the saying which was told\nthem concerning this child. And all that heard it wondered. _But\nMary kept all these things and pondered them in her heart._\" She is\none of those women who are remarkable for the things they do _not_\nsay.\n\nWe next find her at Jerusalem, going with her husband to present\nher first-born son in the Temple, and to offer the humble sacrifice\nappointed for the poor. A modern English painting represents her\nas sheltering in her bosom the two innocent white doves destined\nto bloody death, emblems of the fate of the holy child whom she\npresented. Here the sacred story gives an interesting incident.\n\nWe catch a glimpse at one of the last of the Hebrew prophetesses in\nthe form of Anna, of whom the narrative says, \"She was of great age,\nand had lived with an husband seven years from her virginity, and\nshe was a widow of about fourscore and four years, which departed\nnot from the Temple, but served God with fasting and prayer day and\nnight.\" She came in and welcomed the holy child. We are introduced\nalso to the last of the prophets. \"And behold there was a man in\nJerusalem named Simeon, and the same was just and devout, waiting\nfor the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Ghost was upon him, and\nit was revealed unto him by the Holy Ghost that he should not see\ndeath before he had seen the Lord's Messiah. And he came by the\nSpirit into the Temple; and when the parents brought in the child\nJesus, to do for him according to the custom of the law, then took\nhe him up in his arms and blessed God and said:--\n\n    \"Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace,\n    For mine eyes have seen thy salvation\n    Which thou hast prepared before the face of all people,\n    A light to lighten the Gentiles and the glory of thy people Israel.\"\n\nAnd Joseph and his mother marveled at the things which were spoken\nof him. The contrast between the helpless babe and the magnificence\nof his promised destiny kept them in a state of constant\nastonishment. And Simeon blessed them, and said unto Mary his\nmother, \"Behold this child is set for the fall and the rising again\nof many in Israel, and for a sign that shall be spoken against. Yea,\na sword shall pierce through thine own soul also, that the thoughts\nof many hearts may be revealed.\"\n\nThis prophecy must have been a strange enigma to Mary. According to\nthe prediction of the angel, her son was to be a triumphant king, to\nreign on the throne of his father David, to restore the old national\nprestige, and to make his people rulers over the whole earth. The\ngreat truth that the kingdom was not of this world, and the dominion\na moral victory; that it was to be won through rejection, betrayal,\ndenial, torture, and shameful death; that the Jewish nation were\nto be finally uprooted and scattered,--all this was as much hidden\nfrom the eyes of Mary as from those of the whole nation. The gradual\nunveiling of this mystery was to test every character connected\nwith it by the severest wrench of trial. The latent worldliness and\npride of many, seemingly good, would be disclosed, and even the\npure mother would be pierced to the very heart with the anguish of\ndisappointed hopes. Such was the prophecy of which the life of Mary\nwas a long fulfillment. The slow perplexity of finding an entirely\ndifferent destiny for her son from the brilliant one foretold\nin prophetic symbols was to increase from year to year, till it\nculminated at the foot of the cross.\n\nThe next we see of Mary is the scene in the Temple where she seeks\nher son. It shows the social and cheerful nature of the boy, and\nthe love in which he was held, that she should have missed him a\nwhole day from her side without alarm, supposing that he was with\nthe other children of the great family caravans traveling festively\nhomeward from Jerusalem. Not finding him, she returns alarmed to\nJerusalem, and, after three days of fruitless search, finds him\nsitting in the school of the doctors of the Temple. Her agitation\nand suppressed alarm betray themselves in her earnest and grieved\nwords: \"Son, why hast thou dealt thus with us? behold thy father\nand I have sought thee sorrowing.\" The answer of Jesus was given\nwith an unconscious artlessness, as a child of heaven might speak.\n\"Why did you seek me? Did you not know I would be at my Father's\nhouse?\"[9] This was doubtless one of those peculiar outflashings of\nan inward light which sometimes break unconsciously from childhood,\nand it is said, \"They understood not the saying.\" It was but a gleam\nof the higher nature, and it was gone in a moment; for it is said\nimmediately after that he went down with them unto Nazareth, and was\nsubject to them; but, it is added significantly, \"his mother kept\nall these sayings and pondered them in her heart.\" Then came twenty\nyears of obscurity and silence, when Jesus lived the plain, literal\nlife of a village mechanic. \"Is not this the carpenter, the son of\nMary?\" they said of him when he appeared in the synagogue of his\nnative village.\n\n  [9] This is said by able critics to be the sense of the original.\n\nHow unaccountable to Mary must have appeared that silence! It was as\nif God had forgotten his promises. The son of her cousin Elisabeth,\ntoo, grew up and lived the life of an anchorite in the desert. It\nappears from his testimony afterwards that he kept up no personal\nacquaintance with Jesus, and \"knew him not,\" so that a sign from\nheaven was necessary to enable him to recognize the Messiah.\n\nFrom the specimens of the village gossip at the time of Christ's\nfirst public teaching in Nazareth, it appears that neither in the\nmother of Christ nor in Christ himself had his townsfolk seen\nanything to excite expectation. In his last prayer Jesus says to\nhis Father, \"O righteous Father, the world hath not _known_ thee.\"\nIn like manner Nazareth _knew_ not Mary and Jesus. \"He was in the\nworld, and the world was made by him, and the world _knew_ him not.\"\n\nAt last comes the call of John the Baptist; the wave of popular\nfeeling rises, and Jesus leaves his mother to go to his baptism,\nhis great initiation. The descending Spirit, the voice from heaven,\nordain him to his work, but immediately the prophetic impulse drives\nhim from the habitation of man, and for more than a month he wanders\nin the wilderness, on the borders of that spirit-land where he\nencountered the temptations that were to fit him for his work. We\nshall see that the whole drift of these temptations was, that he\nshould use his miraculous powers and gifts for personal ends: he\nshould create bread to satisfy the pangs of his own hunger, instead\nof waiting on the providence of God; he should cast himself from\nthe pinnacles of the Temple, that he might be upborne by angels and\nso descend among the assembled multitude with the pomp and splendor\nbefitting his station; instead of the toilsome way of a religious\nteacher, laboring for success through the slowly developing\nspiritual life of individuals, he should seek the kingdoms of the\nworld and the glory of them, and spread his religion by their\npower. But, in all the past traditions of the prophetic office, the\n_supernatural power_ was always regarded as a sacred deposit never\nto be used by its possessor for any private feeling or personal end.\nElijah fasted forty days in his wanderings without using this gift\nto supply his own wants; and Jesus, the greatest of the prophets,\nwas the most utterly and thoroughly possessed with the unselfish\nspirit of the holy office, and repelled from him with indignation\nevery suggestion of the tempter.\n\nWhen he returned from his seclusion in the desert, we find him once\nmore in his mother's society, and we see them united in the episode\nof the marriage at Cana. His mother's mind is, doubtless, full of\nthe mysterious change that has passed upon her son and of triumph\nin his high calling. She knows that he has received the gift of\nmiraculous power, though as yet he has never used it. It was most\nhuman, and most natural, and quite innocent, that after so many\nyears of patient waiting she should wish to see this bright career\nof miracles begin. His family also might have felt some of the\neagerness of family pride in the display of his gifts.\n\nWhen, therefore, by an accident, the wedding festivities are at a\nstand, Mary turns to her son with the habit of a mother who has\nfelt for years that she owned all that her son could do, and of a\nJewish mother who had always commanded his reverence. She thinks, to\nherself, that he has the power of working miracles, and here is an\nopportunity to display it. She does not directly ask, but there is\nsuggestion in the very manner in which she looks to him and says,\n\"They have no wine.\" Immediately from him, usually so tender and\nyielding, comes an abrupt repulse, \"Woman,[10] what have I to do\nwith thee? mine hour is not yet come.\" What sacred vital spot has\nshe touched unaware with her maternal hand? It is, although she\nknows it not, the very one which had been touched before by the\nEnemy in the wilderness.\n\n  [10] The address \"woman\" sounds abrupt and harsh, but in the\n  original language it was a term of respect. Our Lord, in his dying\n  moments, used the same form to his mother,--\"Woman, behold thy son.\"\n\nThis sacred, mysterious, awful gift of miracles was not his to\nuse for any personal feeling or desire, not to gratify a mother's\ninnocent ambition, or to please the family pride of kindred; and\nthere is the earnestness of a sense of danger in the manner in which\nhe throws off the suggestion, the same abrupt earnestness with which\nhe afterwards rebuked Peter when he pleaded with him to avoid the\nreproaches and sufferings which lay in his path.\n\nThe whole of this story is not told in full, but it is evident that\nthe understanding between Jesus and his mother was so immediate,\nthat, though he had reproved her for making the suggestion, she\nwas still uncertain whether he might not yet see it consistent to\nperform the miracle, and so, at once, leaving it to him in meek\nsubmission, she said to the servants standing by, \"Whatsoever he\nsaith unto you do it.\" This tone to the servants, assumed by Mary,\nshows the scene to have occurred in the family of a kinsman, where\nshe felt herself in the position of directress.\n\nAfter an interval of some time, Jesus commands the servants to fill\nthe watering-pots with water, and performs the desired miracle.\nWe cannot enter into the secret sanctuary of that divine mind,\nnor know exactly what Jesus meant by saying \"Mine hour is not yet\ncome\"; it was a phrase of frequent occurrence with him when asked\nto take steps in his life. Probably it was some inward voice or\ncall by which he felt the Divine will moving with his own, and he\nwaited after the suggestion of Mary till this became clear to him.\nWhat he might not do from partial affection, he might do at the\nDivine motion, as sanctioning that holy state of marriage which the\nJewish law had done so much to make sacred. The first miracle of the\nChristian dispensation was wrought in honor of the family state,\nwhich the Mosaic dispensation had done so much to establish and\nconfirm.\n\nThe trials of Mary as a mother were still further complicated by the\nunbelief of her other children in the divine mission of Jesus. His\nbrethren had the usual worldly view of who and what the Messiah was\nto be. He was to come as a conquering king, with pomp of armies, and\nreign in Jerusalem. This silent, prayerful brother of theirs, who\nhas done nothing but work at his trade, wander in the wilderness\nand pray and preach, even though gifted with miraculous power, does\nnot seem in the least to them like a king and conqueror. He may be\na prophet, but as the great Messiah they cannot believe in him.\nThey fear, in fact, that he is losing his senses in wild, fanatical\nexpectation.\n\nWe have a scene given by St. John where his brethren urge him, if\nhe is the Messiah and has divine power, to go up to Jerusalem and\nmake a show of it at once. The feast of tabernacles is at hand,\nand his brethren say to him, \"Depart hence and go into Jud\u00e6a, that\nthy disciples may see the works that thou doest. If thou do these\nthings, _show thyself to the world_. For neither did his brethren\nbelieve on him. Then said Jesus, My time is not yet come; but your\ntime is always ready. The world cannot hate you, but me it hateth\nbecause I testify of it that the works thereof are evil. Go ye up to\nthis feast. I go not up yet, for my time is not yet full come.\"\n\nTo the practical worldly eye, Jesus was wasting his time and\nenergies. If he was to set up a kingdom, why not go to Jerusalem,\nwork splendid miracles, enlist the chief-priests and scribes, rouse\nthe national spirit, unfurl the standard, and conquer? Instead of\nthat he begins his ministry by choosing two or three poor men as\ndisciples, and going on foot from village to village preaching\nrepentance. He is simply doing the work of a home missionary. True,\nthere come reports of splendid miracles, but they are wrought in\nobscure places among very poor people, and apparently with no motive\nbut the impulse of compassion and love to the suffering. Then he\nis exhausting himself in labors, he is thronged by the crowds of\nthe poor and sorrowful, till he has no time so much as to eat. His\nbrethren, taking the strong, coarse, worldly view of the matter,\nthink he is destroying himself, and that he ought to be taken home\nby his friends with friendly violence till he recover the balance\nof his mind; as it is said by one Evangelist, \"They went out to\nlay hands on him, for they said, He is beside himself.\" Thus the\nprophecy is fulfilling: he is a sign that is spoken against; the\nthoughts of many hearts are being revealed through him, and the\nsword is piercing deeper and deeper every day into the heart of his\nmother. Her heart of heart is touched,--in this son is her life; she\nis filled with anxiety, she longs to go to him,--they need not lay\nhands on him; _she_ will speak to him,--he who always loved her\nvoice, and for so many years has been subject to her, will surely\ncome back with _her_. In this hour of her life Mary is the type\nof the trial through which all mothers must pass at the time when\nthey are called on to resign a son to his destiny in the world, and\nto feel that he is theirs no more; that henceforth he belongs to\nanother life, other duties and affections, than theirs. Without this\nexperience of sorrow Mary would have been less dear to the heart of\nmortal woman and mother.\n\nJesus, meanwhile, is surrounded by an eager crowd to whom he is\nteaching the way to God. He is in that current of joy above all joy\nwhere he can see the new immortal life springing up under his touch;\nhe feels in himself the ecstasy of that spiritual vigor which he is\nawakening in all around him; he is comforting the mourner, opening\nthe eyes of the spiritually blind, and lighting the fire of heavenly\nlove in cold and comfortless hearts. Love without bounds, the love\nof the shepherd and bishop of souls, flows from him to the poor whom\nhe is enriching. The ecstatic moment is interrupted by a message:\n\"Thy mother and thy brethren stand without, desiring to speak with\nthee.\" With a burst of heavenly love he spreads his arms towards the\nsouls whom he is guiding, and says, \"Who is my mother and who are\nmy brethren? My mother and my brethren are _these_ that hear the\nWord of God and do it; for whosoever will do the will of my Father\nin heaven, the same is my brother and sister and mother.\" As well\nattempt to imprison the light of the joyous sun in one dwelling as\nto bound the infinite love of Jesus by one family!\n\nThere was an undoubted purpose in the record of these two places\nwhere Jesus so positively declares that he had risen to a sphere\nwith which his maternal relations had nothing to do. They were set\nas a warning and a protest, in advance, against that idolatry of the\nwoman and mother the advent of which he must have foreseen.\n\nIn the same manner we learn that, while he was teaching, a woman\ncried out in enthusiasm, \"Blessed be the womb that bore thee, and\nthe paps that thou hast sucked.\" But he answered, \"Yea, rather,\nblessed are they that hear the Word of God and do it.\" In the same\ngrave spirit of serious admonition he checked the delight of his\ndisciples when they exulted in miraculous gifts. \"Lord, even the\ndevils were subject unto us.\" \"Rejoice not that the devils are\nsubject to you, but rather rejoice that your names are written in\nheaven.\"\n\nUndoubtedly an hour was found to console and quiet the fears of his\nmother so far as in the nature of the case they could be consoled.\nBut the radical difficulty, with her as with his own disciples, lay\nin the fixed and rooted idea of the temporal Messianic kingdom.\nThere was an awful depth of sorrow before them, to which every\nday was bringing them nearer. It was pathetic to see how Jesus\nwas moving daily among friends that he loved and to whom he\nknew that his career was to be one of the bitterest anguish and\ndisappointment. He tried in the plainest words to tell them the\nscenes of his forthcoming trial, rejection, suffering, death, and\nresurrection,--words so plain that we wonder any one could hear them\nand not understand,--and yet it is written, \"They understood not his\nsaying. They questioned one with another what the rising from the\ndead should mean.\" They discussed offices and stations in the new\nkingdom, and contended who should be greatest. When the mother of\nJames and John asked the place of honor for her sons, he looked at\nher with a pathetic patience.\n\n\"Ye know not what ye ask. Can ye drink of the cup that I shall\ndrink? Can ye be baptized with my baptism? They said, We are able.\"\nHe answered, with the scenes of the cross in view, \"Ye shall,\nindeed, drink of the cup I shall drink, and be baptized with my\nbaptism; but to sit on my right hand and my left is not mine to\ngive. It shall be given to them for whom it is prepared of my\nFather.\"\n\nWe see no more of Mary till we meet her again standing with the\nbeloved John at the foot of the cross. The supreme hour is come; the\nsword has gone to the depths! All that she hoped is blasted, and\nall that she feared is come! In this hour, when faith and hope were\nboth darkened, Mary stood by the power of love. _She stood by the\ncross!_ The words are characteristic and wonderful. We see still the\nsame intense, outwardly collected woman who met the salutation of\nthe angel with calm inquiry, and accepted glory and danger with such\nself-surrender,--silent, firm, sustained in her anguish as in her\njoy! After years of waiting and hope deferred, after such glorious\nmiracles, such mighty deeds and words, such evident tokens of God's\napproval, she sees her son forsaken by God and man. To hers as to no\nother mortal ears must have sounded that death-cry, \"My God, my God,\nwhy hast _thou_ forsaken me?\"\n\nBut through all, Mary _stood_; she did not faint or fall,--she was\nresolved to drink of HIS cup to the last bitter dregs. Though the\nwhole world turn against him, though God himself seems to forsake\nhim, she will stand by him, she will love him, she will adore him\ntill death, and after, and forever!\n\nThe dying words of Jesus have been collected and arranged by the\nChurch in a rosary,--pearls brought up from the depths of a profound\nagony, and of precious value in all sorrow. Of those seven last\nwords it is remarkable what a proportion were words for other than\nhimself. The first sharp pang of torture wrung from him the prayer,\n\"Father, forgive them; they know not what they do.\" The second word\nwas of pardon and comfort to the penitent thief. The third the\ncommendation of his mother to his beloved friend.\n\nIf any mortal creature might be said to have entered into the\nsufferings of the great atonement with Jesus, it was his mother in\nthose last hours. Never has sorrow presented itself in a form so\nvenerable. Here is a depth of anguish which inspires awe as well\nas tenderness. The magnificent \"Stabat Mater,\" in which the Church\ncommemorates Mary's agony, is an outburst with which no feeling\nheart can refuse sympathy. We rejoice when again we meet her, after\nthe resurrection, in the company of all the faithful, waiting to\nreceive that promised illumination of the Holy Spirit which solved\nevery mystery and made every doubt clear.\n\nIn all this history we see the picture of a woman belonging to that\nrare and beautiful class who approach the nearest to our ideal of\nangelic excellence. We see a woman in whom the genius and fire of\nthe poet and prophetess is tempered by a calm and equable balance\nof the intellect; a woman not only to feel deeply, but to examine\ncalmly and come to just results, and to act with energy befitting\nevery occasion. Hers are the powers which might, in the providence\nof God, have had a public mission, but they are all concentrated in\nthe nobler, yet secret mission of the mother. She lived and acted\nin her son, not in herself. There seems to be evidence that both\nJesus and his mother had that constitutional delicacy and refinement\nthat made solitude and privacy peculiarly dear, and the hurry and\nbustle and inevitable vulgarities of a public career a trial. Mary\nnever seems to have sought to present herself as a public teacher;\nand in the one instance when she sought her son in public, it was\nfrom the tremulous anxiety of a mother's affection rather than the\nself-assertion of a mother's pride. In short, Mary is presented to\nus as the mother, and the mother alone, seeking no other sphere.\nLike a true mother she passed out of self into her son, and the life\nthat she lived was in him; and in this sacred self-abnegation she\nmust forever remain, the one ideal type of perfect motherhood.\n\nThis entire absence of self-seeking and self-assertion is the\ncrowning perfection of Mary's character. The steadiness, the silent\nreticence, with which she held herself subject to God's will,\nwaiting calmly on his Providence, never by a hasty word or an\nimprudent action marring the divine order or seeking to place self\nin the foreground, is an example which we may all take reverently to\nour own bosoms.\n\nWe may not adore, but we may love her. She herself would not that\nwe turn from her Son to invoke her; but we may tenderly rejoice in\nthe feeling so common in the primitive Church, that in drawing near\nto Jesus we draw near to all the holy who were dear to him, and so\nto her, the most blessed among women. We long to know more of this\nhidden life of Mary on earth, but it is a comfort to remember that\nthese splendid souls with whom the Bible makes us acquainted are\nneither dead nor lost. If we \"hear the Word of God and do it,\" we\nmay hope some day to rise to the world where we shall find them, and\nask of them all those untold things which our hearts yearn to know.\n\n[Illustration: THE DAUGHTER OF HERODIAS]\n\n\n\n\nTHE DAUGHTER OF HERODIAS.\n\n\nIn the great drama of the history of Jesus many subordinate figures\nmove across the stage, indicated with more or less power by the\nunconscious and artless simplicity of the narrative. Among these\nis the daughter of Herodias, whose story has often been a favorite\nsubject among artists as giving an opportunity of painting female\nbeauty and fascination in affinity with the deepest and most\ndreadful tragedy.\n\nSalome was the daughter of Herodias, who was a woman of unbridled\npassions and corrupt will. This Herodias had eloped from her husband\nPhilip, son of Herod the Great, to marry her step-uncle, Herod\nAntipas, who forsook for her his lawful wife, the daughter of the\nking of Arabia. Herod appears in the story of the Gospels as a man\nwith just enough conscience and aspiration after good to keep him\nalways uneasy, but not enough to restrain from evil.\n\nWhen the ministry of John powerfully excited the public mind, we are\ntold by St. Mark that \"Herod feared John, knowing that he was a just\nman and holy, and he observed him, and when he heard him he did many\nthings and heard him gladly.\"\n\nThe Jewish religion strongly cultivated conscience and a belief\nin the rewards and punishments of a future life, and the style of\nJohn's preaching was awful and monitory. \"Behold the axe is laid\nat the root of the tree, and whatsoever tree doth not bring forth\ngood fruit shall be hewn down and cast into the fire.\" There was\nno indulgence for royal trees; no concession to the divine right\nof kings to do evil. John was a prophet in the spirit and power of\nElijah; he dwelt in the desert, he despised the power and splendor\nof courts, and appeared before kings as God's messenger, to declare\nhis will and pronounce sentence of wrath on the disobedient. So\nwithout scruple he denounced the adulterous connection of his royal\nhearer, and demanded that Herod should put away the guilty woman as\nthe only condition of salvation. Herod replied, as kings have been\nin the habit of replying to such inconvenient personal application\nof God's laws: he shut John up in prison. It is said in St. Mark\nthat Herodias had a quarrel against him, and would have killed him,\nbut she could not. The intensity of a woman's hatred looks out\nthrough this chink of the story as the secret exciting power to the\nman's slower passions. She would have had him killed had she been\nable to have her way; she can only compass his imprisonment for the\npresent, and she trusts to female importunities and blandishments to\nfinish the vengeance. The hour of opportunity comes. We are told in\nthe record: \"And when a convenient day came, Herod on his birthday\nmade a supper to his lords and high captains and chief estates of\nGalilee.\"\n\nOne of the entertainments of the evening was the wonderful dancing\nof Salome, the daughter of his paramour. We have heard in the annals\nof the modern theatre into what inconsiderate transports of rapture\ncrowned heads and chief captains and mighty men of valor have been\nthrown by the dancing of some enthroned queen of the ballet; and one\ndoes not feel it incredible, therefore, that Herod, who appeared to\nbe nervously susceptible to all kinds of influences, said to the\nenchantress, \"Ask me whatsoever thou wilt, and I will give it thee;\nand he sware unto her after the pattern of Ahasuerus to Esther,\nsaying, Whatsoever thou shalt ask of me I will give it thee, to the\nhalf of my kingdom.\" And now the royal tigress, who has arranged\nthis snare and watched the king's entrance into the toils, prepares\nto draw the noose. Salome goes to her mother and says, \"What shall I\nask?\" The answer is ready. Herodias said, with perfect explicitness,\n\"Ask for the head of John the Baptist.\" So the graceful creature\ntrips back into the glittering court circle, and, bowing her\nflower-like head, says in the sweetest tones, \"Give me here John the\nBaptist's head in a charger.\"\n\nThe narrative says very artlessly, \"And the king was sorry, but\nfor his oath's sake, and for the sake of them that sat with him at\nmeat, he would not refuse her, and immediately the king sent an\nexecutioner and commanded his head to be brought, and he went and\nbeheaded him in prison!\"\n\nWhat wonderful contrasted types of womanhood the Gospel history\ngives! We see such august and noble forms as Elisabeth, the mother\nof the Baptist, and Mary, the mother of Jesus, alongside of this\nhaughty royal adulteress and her beautiful daughter. The good were\nthe lower, and the bad the higher class of that day. Vice was\nenthroned and triumphant, while virtue walked obscure by hedges and\nbyways; a dancing girl had power to take away the noblest life in\nJud\u00e6a, next to that which was afterward taken on Calvary.\n\nNo throb of remorse that we know of ever visited these women, but of\nHerod we are told that when afterwards he heard of the preaching and\nmighty works of Jesus, he said, \"It is John the Baptist that I slew.\nHe is risen from the dead, therefore mighty works do show forth\nthemselves in him.\"\n\nIn the last scenes of our Lord's life we meet again this credulous,\nsuperstitious, bad man. Pilate, embarrassed by a prisoner who\nalarmed his fears and whom he was troubled to dispose of, sent Jesus\nto Herod. Thus we see the licentious tool and slave of a bad woman\nhas successively before his judgment-seat the two greatest men of\nhis age and of all ages. It is said Herod received Jesus gladly,\nfor he had a long time been desirous to see him, for he hoped some\nmiracle would be done by him. But he was precisely of the class of\nwhom our Lord spoke when he said, \"An adulterous generation seeketh\na sign, and there shall no sign be given them.\" God has no answer to\ngive to wicked, unrepentant curiosity, and though Herod questioned\nJesus in many words he answered him nothing. Then we are told,\n\"Herod with his men of war set Jesus at naught, and mocked him, and\narrayed him in a gorgeous robe, and sent him again to Pilate.\" And\nthis was how the great ones of the earth received their Lord.\n\n[Illustration: THE WOMAN OF SAMARIA]\n\n\n\n\nTHE WOMAN OF SAMARIA.\n\n\nWe are struck, in the history of our Lord, with the _unworldliness_\nof his manner of living his daily life and fulfilling his great\ncommission. It is emphatically true, in the history of Jesus, that\nhis ways are not as our ways, and his thoughts as our thoughts.\nHe did not choose the disciples of his first ministry as worldly\nwisdom would have chosen them. Though men of good and honest hearts,\nthey were neither the most cultured nor the most influential of his\nnation. We should have said that men of the standing of Joseph of\nArimathea or Nicodemus were preferable, other things being equal, to\nPeter the fisherman or Matthew the tax-gatherer; but Jesus thought\notherwise.\n\nAnd furthermore, he sometimes selected those apparently most\nunlikely to further his ends. Thus, when he had a mission of mercy\nin view for Samaria, he called to the work a woman; not such as we\nshould suppose a divine teacher would choose,--not a pre-eminently\nintellectual or a very good woman,--but, on the contrary, one of\na careless life and loose morals and little culture. The history\nof this person, of the way in which he sought her acquaintance,\narrested her attention, gained access to her heart, and made of\nher a missionary to draw the attention of her people to him, is\nwonderfully given by St. John. We have the image of a woman--such\nas many are, social, good-humored, talkative, and utterly without\nany high moral sense--approaching the well, where she sees this\nweary Jew reclining to rest himself. He introduces himself to her\nacquaintance by asking a favor,--the readiest way to open the heart\nof a woman of that class. She is evidently surprised that he will\nspeak to her, being a Jew, and she a daughter of a despised and\nhated race. \"How is it,\" she says, \"that thou, a Jew, askest drink\nof me, a woman of Samaria?\" Jesus now answers her in that symbolic\nand poetic strain which was familiar with him: \"If thou knewest\nthe gift of God, and who this is that asketh drink of thee, thou\nwouldst ask of him, and he would give thee living water.\" The woman\nsees in this only the occasion for a lively rejoinder. \"Sir, thou\nhast nothing to draw with, and the well is deep; from whence then\nhast thou that living water?\" With that same mysterious air, as if\nspeaking unconsciously from out some higher sphere, he answers,\n\"Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again; but whosoever\nshall drink of the water that I shall give, shall never thirst.\nThe water that I shall give shall be a well in him springing up to\neverlasting life.\"\n\nImpressed strangely by the words of the mysterious stranger, she\nanswers confusedly, \"Sir, give me this water, that I thirst not,\nneither come hither to draw.\" There is a feeble attempt at a jest\nstruggling with the awe which is growing upon her. Jesus now touches\nthe vital spot in her life. \"Go, call thy husband and come hither.\"\nShe said, \"I have no husband.\" He answers, \"Well hast thou said I\nhave no husband; thou hast had five husbands, and he thou now hast\nis not thy husband; in that saidst thou truly.\"\n\nThe stern, grave chastity of the Jew, his reverence for marriage,\nstrike coldly on the light-minded woman accustomed to the easy\ntolerance of a low state of society. She is abashed, and hastily\nseeks to change the subject: \"Sir, I see thou art a prophet\"; and\nthen she introduces the controverted point of the two liturgies and\ntemples of Samaria and Jerusalem,--not the first nor the last was\nshe of those who seek relief from conscience by discussing doctrinal\ndogmas. Then, to our astonishment, Jesus proceeds to declare to\nthis woman of light mind and loose morality the sublime doctrines\nof spiritual worship, to predict the new era which is dawning on\nthe world: \"Woman, believe me, the hour cometh when neither in this\nmountain nor yet in Jerusalem shall ye worship the Father. The hour\ncometh and now is when the true worshiper shall worship the Father\nin spirit and in truth, for the Father seeketh such to worship\nhim. God is a spirit, and they that worship him must worship him\nin spirit and in truth.\" Then, in a sort of confused awe at his\nearnestness, the woman says, \"I know that Messiah shall come, and\nwhen he is come he will tell us all things. Jesus saith unto her, I\nthat speak unto thee am he.\"\n\nAt this moment the disciples returned. With their national\nprejudices, it was very astonishing, as they drew nigh, to see that\ntheir master was in close and earnest conversation with a Samaritan\nwoman. Nevertheless, when the higher and godlike in Jesus was in\na state of incandescence, the light and fire were such as to awe\nthem. They saw that he was in an exalted mood, which they dared not\nquestion. All the infinite love of the Saviour, the shepherd of\nsouls, was awaking within him; the soul whom he has inspired with a\nnew and holy calling is leaving him on a mission that is to bring\ncrowds to his love. The disciples pray him to eat, but he is no\nlonger hungry, no longer thirsty, no longer weary; he exults in the\ngifts that he is ready to give, and the hearts that are opening to\nreceive.\n\nThe disciples pray him, \"Master, eat.\" He said, \"I have meat to eat\nthat ye know not of.\" They question in an undertone, \"Hath any one\nbrought him aught to eat?\" He answers, \"My meat and my drink is to\ndo the will of Him that sent me, and to finish his work.\" Then,\npointing towards the city, he speaks impassioned words of a harvest\nwhich is at hand; and they wonder.\n\nBut meanwhile the woman, with the eagerness and bright, social\nreadiness which characterize her, is calling to her townsmen, \"Come,\nsee a man that told me all that ever I did. Is not this the Christ?\"\n\nWhat followed on this? A crowd press out to see the wonder. Jesus\nis invited as an honored guest; he spends two days in the city, and\ngathers a band of disciples.\n\nAfter the resurrection of Jesus, we find further fruits of the\nharvest sown by a chance interview of Jesus with this woman. In the\neighth of Acts we read of the ingathering of a church in a city of\nSamaria, where it is said that \"the people, with one accord, gave\nheed to the things spoken by Philip, and there was great joy in that\ncity.\"\n\nOne thing in this story impresses us strongly,--the power which\nJesus had to touch the divinest capabilities in the unlikeliest\nsubjects. He struck at once and directly for what was highest and\nnoblest in souls where it lay most hidden. As physician of souls he\nappealed directly to the vital moral force, and it acted under his\ntouch. He saw the higher nature in this woman, and as one might draw\na magnet over a heap of rubbish and bring out pure metal, so he from\nthis careless, light-minded, good-natured, unprincipled creature,\nbrought out the suppressed and hidden yearning for a better and\nhigher life. She had no prejudices to keep, no station to preserve;\nshe was even to her own low moral sense consciously a sinner, and\nshe was ready at the kind and powerful appeal to leave all and\nfollow him.\n\nWe have no further history of her. She is living now somewhere; but\nwherever she may be, we may be quite sure she never has forgotten\nthe conversation at the well in Samaria, and the man who \"told her\nall that ever she did.\"\n\n[Illustration: MARY MAGDALENE]\n\n\n\n\nMARY MAGDALENE.\n\n\nOne of the most splendid ornaments of the Dresden Gallery is the\nMagdalen of Batoni. The subject has been a favorite among artists,\nand one sees, in a tour of the various collections of Europe,\nMagdalens by every painter, in every conceivable style. By far the\ngreater part of them deal only with the material aspects of the\nsubject. The exquisite pathos of the story, the passionate anguish\nand despair of the penitent, the refinement and dignity of Divine\ntenderness, are often lost sight of in mere physical accessories.\nMany artists seem to have seen in the subject only a chance to\npaint a voluptuously beautiful woman in tears. Titian appears\nto have felt in this wonderful story nothing but the beauty of\nthe woman's _hair_, and gives us a picture of the most glorious\ntresses that heart could conceive, perfectly veiling and clothing a\nvery common-place weeping woman. Correggio made of the study only\na charming effect of light and shade and color. A fat, pretty,\ncomfortable little body lying on the ground reading, is about the\nwhole that he sees in the subject.\n\nBatoni, on the contrary, seems, by some strange inspiration, to set\nbefore us one of the highest, noblest class of women,--a creature\nso calm, so high, so pure, that we ask involuntarily, How could\nsuch a woman ever have fallen? The answer is ready. There is a\nclass of women who fall through what is highest in them, through\nthe noblest capability of a human being,--utter self-sacrificing\nlove. True, we cannot flatter ourselves that these instances are\nuniversal, but they do exist. Many women fall through the weakness\nof self-indulgent passion, many from love of luxury, many from\nvanity and pride, too many from the mere coercion of hard necessity;\nbut among the sad, unblest crowd there is a class who are the\nvictims of sovereign power to forgive sins and dispense favors.\nThe repentant Magdalene became henceforth one of the characteristic\nfigures in the history of the Christian Church. Mary Magdalene\nbecame eventually a prominent figure in the mythic legends of\nthe medi\u00e6val mythology. A long history of missionary labors and\nenthusiastic preaching of the gospel in distant regions of the earth\nis ascribed to her. Churches arose that bore her name, hymns were\naddressed to her. Even the reforming Savonarola addresses one of\nhis spiritual canticles to St. Mary Magdalene. The various pictures\nof her which occur in every part of Europe are a proof of the\ninterest which these legends inspired. The most of them are wild and\npoetic, and exhibit a striking contrast to the concise brevity and\nsimplicity of the New Testament story.\n\nThe mythic legends make up a romance in which Mary the sister of\nMartha and Mary Magdalene the sinner are oddly considered as the\nsame person. It is sufficient to read the chapter in St. John which\ngives an account of the raising of Lazarus, to perceive that such a\nconfusion is absurd. Mary and Martha there appear as belonging to\na family in good standing, to which many flocked with expressions\nof condolence and respect in time of affliction. And afterwards,\nin that grateful feast made for the restoration of their brother,\nwe read that so many flocked to the house that the jealousy of\nthe chief priests was excited. All these incidents, representing\na family of respectability, are entirely inconsistent with any\nsuch supposition. But while we repudiate this extravagance of\nthe tradition, there does seem ground for identifying the Mary\nMagdalene, who was one of the most devoted followers of our Lord,\nwith the forgiven sinner of this narrative. We read of a company\nof women who followed Jesus and ministered to him. In the eighth\nchapter of Luke he is said to be accompanied by \"certain women\nwhich had been healed of evil spirits and infirmities,\" among whom\nis mentioned \"Mary called Magdalene,\" as having been a victim of\ndemoniacal possession. Some women of rank and fortune also are\nmentioned as members of the same company: \"Joanna the wife of Chusa,\nHerod's steward, and Susanna, and many others who ministered to him\nof their substance.\" A modern commentator thinks it improbable that\nMary Magdalene could be identified with the \"sinner\" spoken of by\nSt. Luke, because women of standing like Joanna and Susanna would\nnot have received one of her class to their company. We ask why\nnot? If Jesus had received her, had forgiven and saved her; if _he_\nacknowledged previously her grateful ministrations,--is it likely\nthat they would reject her? It was the very peculiarity and glory\nof the new kingdom that it had a better future for sinners, and for\nsinful woman as well as sinful man. Jesus did not hesitate to say\nto the proud and prejudiced religious aristocracy of his day, \"The\npublicans and harlots go into the kingdom of heaven before you.\" We\ncannot doubt that the loving Christian women who ministered to Jesus\nreceived this penitent sister as a soul absolved and purified by the\nsovereign word of their Lord, and henceforth there was for her a\nfull scope for that ardent, self-devoting power of her nature which\nhad been her ruin, and was now to become her salvation.\n\nSome commentators seem to think that the dreadful demoniacal\npossession which was spoken of in Mary Magdalene proves her not to\nhave been identical with the woman of St. Luke. But on the contrary,\nit would seem exactly to account for actions of a strange and\nunaccountable wickedness, for a notoriety in crime that went far to\nlead the Pharisees to feel that her very touch was pollution. The\nstory is symbolic of what is too often seen in the fall of woman. A\nnoble and beautiful nature wrecked through inconsiderate prodigality\nof love, deceived, betrayed, ruined, often drifts like a shipwrecked\nbark into the power of evil spirits. Rage, despair, revenge,\ncruelty, take possession of the crushed ruin that should have been\nthe home of the sweetest affections. We are not told when or where\nthe healing word was spoken that drove the cruel fiends from Mary's\nsoul. Perhaps before she entered the halls of the Pharisee, while\nlistening to the preaching of Jesus, the madness and despair had\nleft her. We can believe that in his higher moods virtue went from\nhim, and there was around him a holy and cleansing atmosphere from\nwhich all evil fled away,--a serene and healing purity which calmed\nthe throbbing fever of passion and gave the soul once more the image\nof its better self.\n\nWe see in the manner in which Mary found her way to the feet of\nJesus the directness and vehemence, the uncalculating self-sacrifice\nand self-abandon, of one of those natures which, when they move,\nmove with a rush of undivided impulse; which, when they love, trust\nall, believe all, and are ready to sacrifice all. As once she had\nlost herself in this self-abandonment, so now at the feet of her God\nshe gains all by the same power of self-surrender.\n\nWe do not meet Mary Magdalene again till we find her at the foot\nof the cross, sharing the last anguish of our Lord and his mother.\nWe find her watching the sepulcher, preparing sweet spices for\nembalming. In the dim gray of the resurrection morning she is there\nagain, only to find the sepulcher open and the beloved form gone.\nEverything in this last scene is in consistency with the idea of\nthe passionate self-devotion of a nature whose sole life is in its\nlove. The disciples, when they found not the body, went away; but\nMary stood without at the sepulcher weeping, and as she wept she\nstooped down and looked into the sepulcher. The angels said to her,\n\"Woman, why weepest thou? She answered, Because they have taken away\nmy Lord, and I know not where they have laid him.\" She then turns\nand sees through her tears dimly the form of a man standing there.\n\"Jesus saith unto her, Woman, why weepest thou? whom seekest thou?\nShe, supposing him to be the gardener, saith unto him, Sir, if thou\nhave borne him hence, tell me where thou hast laid him, and I will\ngo and take him away. Jesus saith unto her, Mary! She turned herself\nand said unto him, Rabboni,--Master!\"\n\nIn all this we see the characteristic devotion and energy of her who\nloved much because she was forgiven much. It was the peculiarity\nof Jesus that he saw the precious capability of every nature, even\nin the very dust of defilement. The power of devoted love is the\ncrown-jewel of the soul, and Jesus had the eye to see where it\nlay trampled in the mire, and the strong hand to bring it forth\npurified and brightened. It is the deepest malignity of Satan to\ndegrade and ruin souls through love. It is the glory of Christ,\nthrough love, to redeem and restore.\n\nIn the history of Christ as a teacher, it is remarkable, that, while\nhe was an object of enthusiastic devotion to so many women, while\na band of them followed his preaching and ministered to his wants\nand those of his disciples, yet there was about him something so\nentirely unworldly, so sacredly high and pure, that even the very\nsuggestion of scandal in this regard is not to be found in the\nbitterest vituperations of his enemies of the first two centuries.\n\nIf we compare Jesus with Socrates, the moral teacher most frequently\nspoken of as approaching him, we shall see a wonderful contrast.\nSocrates associated with courtesans, without passion and without\nreproof, in a spirit of half-sarcastic, philosophic tolerance. No\nquickening of the soul of woman, no call to a higher life, came from\nhim. Jesus is stern and grave in his teachings of personal purity,\nsevere in his requirements. He was as intolerant to sin as he was\nmerciful to penitence. He did not extenuate the sins he forgave.\nHe declared the sins of Mary to be _many_, in the same breath that\nhe pronounced her pardon. He said to the adulterous woman whom he\nprotected, \"Go, sin no more.\" The penitents who joined the company\nof his disciples were so raised above their former selves, that,\ninstead of being the shame, they were the glory of the new kingdom.\nSt. Paul says to the first Christians, speaking of the adulterous\nand impure, \"Such were some of you, but ye are washed, but ye are\nsanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and\nby the Spirit of God.\"\n\nThe tradition of the Church that Mary Magdalene was an enthusiastic\npreacher of Jesus seems in keeping with all we know of the strength\nand fervor of her character. Such love must find expression, and\nwe are told that when the first persecution scattered the little\nchurch at Jerusalem, \"they that were scattered went everywhere,\npreaching the word.\" Some of the most effective preaching of\nChrist is that of those who testify in their own person of a great\nsalvation. \"He can save to the uttermost, for he has saved ME,\" is\na testimony that often goes more straight to the heart than all the\narguments of learning. Christianity had this peculiarity over all\nother systems, that it not only forgave the past, but made of its\nbitter experiences a healing medicine; so that those who had sinned\ndeepest might have therefrom a greater redeeming power. \"When thou\nart converted, strengthen thy brethren,\" was the watchword of the\npenitent.\n\nThe wonderful mind of Goethe has seized upon and embodied this\npeculiarity of Christianity in his great poem of Faust. The first\npart shows the Devil making of the sweetest and noblest affection of\nthe confiding Margaret a cruel poison to corrupt both body and soul.\nWe see her driven to crime, remorse, shame, despair,--all human\nforms and forces of society united to condemn her, when with a last\ncry she stretches her poor hands to heaven and says, \"Judgment of\nGod, I commend myself to you\"; and then falls a voice from heaven,\n\"She is judged; she is saved.\"\n\nIn the second part we see the world-worn, weary Faust passing\nthrough the classic mythology, vainly seeking rest and finding\nnone; he seeks rest in a life of benevolence to man, but fiends\nof darkness conflict with his best aspirations, and dog his steps\nthrough life, and in his dying hour gather round to seize his soul\nand carry it to perdition. But around him is a shining band. Mary\nthe mother of Jesus, with a company of purified penitents, encircle\nhim, and his soul passes, in infantine weakness, to the guardian\narms of Margaret,--once a lost and ruined woman, now a strong and\npitiful angel,--who, like a tender mother, leads the new-born soul\nto look upon the glories of heaven, while angel-voices sing of the\nvictory of good over evil:--\n\n    \"All that is transient\n    Is but a parable;\n    The unattainable\n    Here is made real.\n    The indescribable\n    Here is accomplished;\n    The eternal womanly\n    Draws us upward and onward.\"\n\n[Illustration: MARTHA AND MARY]\n\n\n\n\nMARTHA AND MARY.\n\n\nThe dramatic power of the brief Bible narratives is one of their\nmost wonderful characteristics. By a few incidents, a word here and\nthere, they create a vivid image of a personality that afterwards\nnever dies from our memory. The women of Shakespeare have been set\nupon the stage with all the accessories of dress, scenery, and the\ninterpreting power of fine acting, and yet the vividness of their\npersonality has not been equal to that of the women of the Bible.\n\nMary and Martha, the two sisters of Bethany, have had for ages a\nname and a living power in the Church. Thousands of hearts have\nthrobbed with theirs; thousands have wept sympathetic tears in their\nsorrows and rejoiced in their joy. By a few simple touches in the\nnarrative they are so delicately and justly discriminated that they\nstand for the representatives of two distinct classes. Some of the\nancient Christian writers considered them as types of the active\nand the contemplative aspects of religion. Martha is viewed as\nthe secular Christian, serving God in and through the channels of\nworldly business, and Mary as the more peculiarly religious person,\ndevoted to a life of holy meditation and the researches of heavenly\ntruth. The two were equally the friends of Jesus. Apparently, the\ntwo sisters with one brother were an orphan family, united by the\nstrongest mutual affection, and affording a circle peculiarly\ncongenial to the Master.\n\nThey inhabited a rural home just outside of Jerusalem; and it seems\nthat here, after the labors of a day spent in teaching in the\ncity, our Lord found at evening a home-like retreat where he could\nenjoy perfect quiet and perfect love. It would seem, from many\ntouches in the Gospel narrative, as if Jesus, amid the labors and\napplauses and successes of a public life, yearned for privacy and\ndomesticity,--for that home love which he persistently renounced, to\ngive himself wholly to mankind. There is a shade of pathos in his\nanswer to one who proposed to be his disciple and dwell with him:\n\"Foxes have holes; the birds of the air have nests; but the Son of\nMan hath not where to lay his head.\" This little orphan circle, with\ntheir quiet home, were thus especially dear to him, and it appears\nthat this was his refuge during that last week of his life, when he\nknew that every day was bringing him nearer to the final anguish.\n\nIt is wonderful how sharply and truly, in a narrative so brief,\nthe characters of Martha and Mary are individualized. Martha, in\nher Jud\u00e6an dress and surroundings, is, after all, exactly such a\ngood woman as is often seen in our modern life,--a woman primarily\nendowed with the faculties necessary for getting on in the\nworld, yet sincerely religious. She is energetic, business-like,\nmatter-of-fact, strictly orthodox, and always ready for every\nemergency. She lives in the present life strongly and intensely, and\nher religion exhibits itself through regular forms and agencies.\nShe believes in the future life orthodoxly, and is always prompt\nto confess its superior importance as a matter of doctrine, though\nprone to make material things the first in practice. Many such\nwomen there are in the high places of the Christian Church, and\nmuch good they do. They manage fairs, they dress churches, they\nget up religious festivals, their names are on committees, they\nare known at celebrations. They rule their own homes with activity\nand diligence, and they are justly honored by all who know them.\nNow, nothing is more remarkable in the history of Jesus than the\ncatholicity of his appreciation of character. He never found fault\nwith natural organization, or expected all people to be of one\npattern. He did not break with Thomas for being naturally a cautious\ndoubter, or Peter for being a precipitate believer; and it is\nspecially recorded in the history of this family that Jesus loved\nMartha. He understood her, he appreciated her worth, and he loved\nher.\n\nIn Mary we see the type of those deeper and more sensitive natures\nwho ever aspire above and beyond the material and temporal to the\neternal and divine; souls that are seeking and inquiring with a\nrestlessness that no earthly thing can satisfy, who can find no\npeace until they find it in union with God.\n\nIn St. Luke we have a record of the manner in which the first\nacquaintance with this family was formed. This historian says:\n\"A woman named Martha received him at her house.\" Evidently the\ndecisive and salient power of her nature caused her to be regarded\nas mistress of the family. There was a grown-up brother in the\nfamily; but this house is not called the house of Lazarus, but the\nhouse of Martha,--a form of speaking the more remarkable from the\ngreat superiority or leadership which ancient customs awarded to the\nmale sex. But Martha was one of those natural leaders whom everybody\ninstinctively thinks of as the head of any house they may happen to\nbelong to. Her tone toward Mary is authoritative. The Mary-nature\nis a nature apt to appear to disadvantage in physical things. It\nis often puzzled, and unskilled, and unready in the details and\nemergencies of a life like ours, which so little meets its deepest\nfeelings and most importunate wants. It acquires skill in earthly\nthings only as a matter of discipline and conscience, but is always\nyearning above them to something higher and divine. A delicacy\nof moral nature suggests to such a person a thousand scruples\nof conscientious inquiry in every turn of life, which embarrass\ndirectness of action. To the Martha-nature, practical, direct, and\nprosaic, all these doubts, scruples, hesitations, and unreadinesses\nappear only as pitiable weaknesses.\n\nAgain, Martha's nature attaches a vast importance to many things\nwhich, in the view of Mary, are so fleeting and perishable, and have\nso little to do with the deeper immortal wants of the soul, that it\nis difficult for her even to remember and keep them in sight. The\nrequirements of etiquette, the changes and details of fashion, the\nthousand particulars which pertain to keeping up a certain footing\nin society and a certain position in the world,--all these Martha\nhas at her fingers' ends. They are the breath of her nostrils, while\nMary is always forgetting, overlooking, and transgressing them.\nMany a Mary has escaped into a convent, or joined a sisterhood, or\nworn the plain dress of the Quaker, in order that she might escape\nfrom the exaction of the Marthas of her day, \"careful [or, more\nliterally, _full of care_] and troubled about many things.\"\n\nIt appears that in her way Martha was a religious woman, a sincere\nmember of the Jewish Church, and an intense believer. The preaching\nof Christ was the great religious phenomenon of the times, and\nMartha, Mary, and Lazarus joined the crowd who witnessed his\nmiracles and listened to his words. Both women accepted his message\nand believed his Messiahship,--Martha, from the witness of his\nsplendid miracles; Mary, from the deep accord of her heart with\nthe wonderful words he had uttered. To Martha he was the King that\nshould reign in splendor at Jerusalem, and raise their nation to an\nuntold height of glory; to Mary he was the answer to the eternal\nquestion,--the Way, the Truth, the Life, for which she had been\nalways longing.\n\nAmong many who urge and press hospitality, Martha's invitation\nprevails. A proud home is that, when Jesus follows her,--her prize,\nher captive. The woman in our day who has captured in her net of\nhospitalities the orator, the poet, the warrior,--the star of all\neyes, the central point of all curiosity, desire, and regard,--can\nbest appreciate Martha's joy. She will make an entertainment\nthat will do credit to the occasion. She revolves prodigies of\nhospitality. She invites guests to whom her acquisition shall\nbe duly exhibited, and all is hurry, bustle, and commotion. But\nMary follows him, silent, with a fluttering heart. His teaching\nhas aroused the divine longing, the immortal pain, to a throbbing\nintensity; a sweet presentiment fills her soul, that she is near One\nthrough whom the way into the Holiest is open, and now is the hour.\nShe neither hears nor sees the bustle of preparation; but apart,\nwhere the Master has seated himself, she sits down at his feet, and\nher eyes, more than her voice, address to him that question and\nthat prayer which are _the_ question and the _one great reality_ of\nall this fleeting, mortal life.\n\nThe question is answered; the prayer is granted. At his feet she\nbecomes spiritually clairvoyant. The way to God becomes clear and\nopen. Her soul springs toward the light; is embraced by the peace of\nGod, that passeth understanding. It is a soul-crisis, and the Master\nsees that in that hour his breath has unfolded into blossom buds\nthat had been struggling in darkness. Mary has received in her bosom\nthe \"white stone with the new name, which no man knoweth save him\nthat receiveth it,\" and of which Jesus only is the giver. As Master\nand disciple sit in that calm and sweet accord, in which giver and\nreceiver are alike blessed, suddenly Martha appears and breaks into\nthe interview, in a characteristically imperative sentence: \"Lord,\ndost thou not care that my sister hath left me to serve alone? Bid\nher, therefore, that she help me.\"\n\nNothing could more energetically indicate Martha's character than\nthis sentence. It shows her blunt sincerity, her conscientious,\nmatter-of-fact worldliness, and her dictatorial positiveness.\nEvidently, here is a person accustomed to having her own way and\nbearing down all about her; a person who believes in herself without\na doubt, and is so positive that her way is the only right one that\nshe cannot but be amazed that the Master has not at once seen as\nshe does. To be sure, this is in her view the Christ, the Son of\nGod, the King of Israel, the human being whom in her deepest heart\nshe reverences; but no matter, she is so positive that she is right\nthat she does not hesitate to say her say, and make her complaint\nof him as well as of her sister. People like Martha often arraign\nand question the very Providence of God itself when it stands in\nthe way of their own plans. Martha is sure of her ground. Here is\nthe Messiah, the King of Israel, at her house, and she is getting\nup an entertainment worthy of him, slaving herself to death for\nhim, and he takes no notice, and most inconsiderately allows her\ndreamy sister to sit listening to him, instead of joining in the\npreparation.\n\nThe reply of Jesus went, as his replies were wont to do, to the very\nroot-fault of Martha's life, the fault of all such natures: \"Martha,\nMartha! thou art careful and troubled about many things, but _one_\nthing is needful, and Mary hath chosen that good part which shall\nnot be taken from her.\" The Master's words evidently recognize\nthat in that critical hour Mary had passed a boundary in her soul\nhistory, and made an attainment of priceless value. She had gained\nsomething that could never be taken from her; and she had gained it\nby that single-hearted devotion to spiritual things which made her\nprompt to know and seize the hour of opportunity.\n\nThe brief narrative there intermits; we are not told how Martha\nreplied, or what are the results of this plain, tender faithfulness\nof reproof. The Saviour, be it observed, did not blame Martha for\nher nature. He did not blame her for not being Mary; but he did\nblame her for not restraining and governing her own nature and\nkeeping it in due subjection to higher considerations. A being\nof brighter worlds, he stood looking on Martha's life,--on her\nactivities and bustle and care; and to him how sorrowfully worthless\nthe greater part of them appeared! To him they were mere toys and\nplaythings, such as a child is allowed to play with in the earlier,\nundeveloped hours of existence; not to be harshly condemned, but\nstill utterly fleeting and worthless in the face of the tremendous\neternal realities, the glories and the dangers of the eternal state.\n\nIt must be said here that all we know of our Lord leads us to\nfeel that he was not encouraging and defending in Mary a selfish,\nsentimental indulgence in her own cherished emotions and affections,\nleaving the burden of necessary care on a sister who would have been\nequally glad to sit at Jesus's feet. That was not his reading of\nthe situation. It was that Martha, engrossed in a thousand cares,\nburdened herself with a weight of perplexities of which there was no\nneed, and found no time and had no heart to come to him and speak of\nthe _only_, the _one_ thing that endures beyond the present world.\nTo how many hearts does this reproof apply? How many who call\nthemselves Christians are weary, wasted, worn, drained of life,\ninjured in health, fretted in temper, by a class of anxieties so\npurely worldly that they can never bring them to Jesus, or if they\ndo, would meet first and foremost his tender reproof, \"Thou art\ncareful and troubled about many things; there is but _one_ thing\nreally needful. Seek that good part which shall never be taken away.\"\n\nWhat fruit this rebuke bore will appear as we further pursue the\nhistory of the sister. The subsequent story shows that Martha was\na brave, sincere, good woman, capable of yielding to reproof and\nacknowledging a fault. There is precious material in such, if only\ntheir powers be turned to the highest and best things.\n\nIt is an interesting thought that the human affection of Jesus for\none family has been made the means of leaving on record the most\nconsoling experience for the sorrows of bereavement that sacred\nliterature affords. Viewed merely on the natural side, the intensity\nof human affections and the frightful possibilities of suffering\ninvolved in their very sweetness present a fearful prospect when\ncompared with that stony inflexibility of natural law, which goes\nforth crushing, bruising, lacerating, without the least apparent\nfeeling for human agony.\n\nThe God of nature appears silent, unalterable, unsympathetic,\npursuing general good without a throb of pity for individual\nsuffering; and that suffering is so unspeakable, so terrible! Close\nshadowing every bridal, every cradle, is this awful possibility\nof death that may come at any moment, unannounced and inevitable.\nThe joy of this hour may become the bitterness of the next; the\nring, the curl of hair, the locket, the picture, that to-day are a\ntreasure of hope and happiness, to-morrow may be only weapons of\nbitterness that stab at every view. The silent inflexibility of God\nin upholding laws that work out such terrible agonies and suffering\nis something against which the human heart moans and chafes\nthrough all ancient literature. \"The gods envy the happy,\" was the\nconstruction put upon the problem of life as the old sages viewed\nit.\n\nBut in this second scene of the story of the sisters of Bethany\nwe have that view of God which is the only one powerful enough to\nsoothe and control the despair of the stricken heart. It says to us\nthat behind this seeming inflexibility, this mighty and most needful\nupholding of law, is a throbbing, sympathizing heart,--bearing with\nus the sorrow of this struggling period of existence, and pointing\nto a perfect fulfillment in the future.\n\nThe story opens most remarkably. In the absence of the Master, the\nbrother is stricken down with deadly disease. Forthwith a hasty\nmessenger is dispatched to Jesus. \"Lord, he whom thou lovest is\nsick.\" Here is no prayer expressed; but human language could not be\nmore full of all the elements of the best kind of prayer. It is the\nprayer of perfect trust,--the prayer of love that has no shadow of\ndoubt. If only we let Jesus know we are in trouble, we are helped.\nWe need not ask, we need only say, \"He whom thou lovest is sick,\"\nand he will understand, and the work will be done. We are safe with\nhim.\n\nThen comes the seeming contradiction--the trial of faith--that\ngives this story such a value: \"Now Jesus loved Martha and her\nsister and Lazarus. When, _therefore_, he heard that he was sick,\nhe abode two days in the same place where he was.\" Because he loved\nthem, he delayed; because he loved them, he resisted that most\ntouching appeal that heart can make,--the appeal of utter trust. We\ncan imagine the wonder, the anguish, the conflict of spirit, when\ndeath at last shut the door in the face of their prayers. Had God\nforgotten to be gracious? Had he in anger shut up his tender mercy?\nDid not Jesus love them? Had he not power to heal? Why then had he\nsuffered this? Ah! this is exactly the strait in which thousands of\nChrist's own beloved ones must stand in the future; and Mary and\nMartha, unconsciously to themselves, were suffering with Christ in\nthe great work of human consolation. Their distress and anguish and\nsorrow were necessary to work out a great experience of God's love,\nwhere multitudes of anguished hearts have laid themselves down as on\na pillow of repose, and have been comforted.\n\nSomething--of this is shadowed in the Master's words: \"This sickness\nis not unto death, but for the glory of God,--that the Son of God\nmight be glorified thereby.\" What was that glory of God? Not most\nhis natural power, but his sympathetic tenderness, his loving heart.\nWhat is the glory of the Son of God? Not the mere display of power,\nbut power used to console, in manifesting to the world that this\ncruel _death_--the shadow that haunts all human life, that appalls\nand terrifies, that scatters anguish and despair--is _not_ death,\nbut the gateway of a brighter life, in which Jesus shall restore\nlove to love, in eternal reunion.\n\nIn the scene with the sisters before the Saviour arrives, we are\nstruck with the consideration in which the family is held. This\nhouse is thronged with sympathizing friends, and, as appears from\nsome incidents afterwards, friends among the higher classes of the\nnation. Martha hears of the approach of Jesus, and goes forth to\nmeet him.\n\nIn all the scene which follows we are impressed with the dignity\nand worth of Martha's character. We see in the scene of sorrow that\nMartha has been the strong, practical woman, on whom all rely in\nthe hour of sickness, and whose energy is equal to any emergency.\nWe see her unsubdued by emotion, ready to go forth to receive\nJesus, and prompt to meet the issues of the moment. We see, too,\nthat the appreciation of the worth of her character, which had led\nhim to admonish her against the materialistic tendencies of such\na nature, was justified by the fruits of that rebuke. Martha had\ngrown more spiritual by intercourse with the Master, and as she\nfalls at Jesus's feet, the half-complaint which her sorrow wrings\nfrom her is here merged in the expression of her faith: \"Lord,\nif thou hadst been here my brother had not died; but I know that\neven now, whatsoever thou wilt ask of God, God will give it to\nthee. Jesus saith unto her, Thy brother shall rise again.\" Like\nevery well-trained religious Jew of her day, Martha was versed in\nthe doctrine of the general resurrection. That this belief was\na more actively operating motive with the ancient Jewish than\nwith the modern Christian Church of our day, is attested by the\naffecting history of the martyrdom of the mother and her seven sons\nin the Book of Maccabees. Martha therefore makes prompt answer,\n\"I know that he shall rise again in the resurrection at the last\nday.\" Jesus answered her in words which no mere mortal could\nhave uttered,--words of a divine fullness of meaning,--\"I am the\nResurrection and the Life: he that believeth in me, though dead,\nshall live, and whosoever believeth in me is immortal.\"\n\nIn these words he claims to be the great source of Life,--the\nabsolute Lord and Controller of all that relates to life, death, and\neternity; and he makes the appeal to Martha's faith: \"Believest thou\nthis?\" \"Yea, Lord,\" she responds, \"I believe thou art the Christ of\nGod that should come into the world.\" And then she runs and calls\nher sister secretly, saying, \"The Master is come and calleth for\nthee.\" As a majestic symphony modulates into a tender and pathetic\nminor passage, so the tone of the narrative here changes to the most\nexquisite pathos. Mary, attended by her weeping friends, comes and\nfalls at Jesus's feet, and sobs out: \"Lord, if thou hadst been here\nmy brother had not died!\"\n\nIt indicates the delicate sense of character which ever marked\nthe intercourse of our Lord, that to this helpless, heart-broken\nchild prostrate at his feet he addresses no appeal to reason or\nfaith. He felt within himself the overwhelming power of that tide\nof emotion which for the time bore down both reason and faith in\nhelpless anguish. With such sorrow there was no arguing, and Jesus\ndid not attempt argument; for the story goes on: \"When Jesus saw her\nweeping, and the Jews also weeping that came with her, he groaned in\nspirit and was troubled; and he said, Where have ye laid him? And\nthey said, Lord, come and see. Jesus wept.\" Those tears interpreted\nfor all time God's silence and apparent indifference to human\nsuffering; and wherever Christ is worshiped as the brightness of\nthe Father's glory and the express image of his person, they bear\nwitness that the God who upholds the laws that wound and divide\nhuman affections still feels with us the sorrow which he permits.\n\"In all our afflictions he is afflicted.\"\n\nAnd now came the sublime and solemn scene when he who had claimed to\nbe Resurrection and Life made good his claim. Standing by the grave\nhe called, as he shall one day call to all the dead: \"Lazarus, come\nforth!\" And here the curtain drops over the scene of restoration.\n\nWe do not see this family circle again till just before the final\nscene of the great tragedy of Christ's life. The hour was at hand,\nof suffering, betrayal, rejection, denial, shame, agony, and death;\nand with the shadow of this awful cloud over his mind, Jesus comes\nfor the last time to Jerusalem. To the eye of the thoughtless,\nJesus was never so popular, so beloved, as at the moment when he\nentered the last week of his life at Jerusalem. Palm branches and\nflowers strewed his way, hosannas greeted him on every side, and\nthe chief-priests and scribes said, \"Perceive ye how ye prevail\nnothing? Behold the world is gone after him!\" But the mind of Jesus\nwas wrapped in that awful shade of the events that were so soon to\nfollow.\n\nHe passes out, after his first day in Jerusalem, to Bethany, and\ntakes refuge in this dear circle. There they make him a feast,\nand Martha served, but Lazarus, as a restored treasure, sits at\nthe table. Then took Mary a pound of ointment, very precious, and\nanointed the head of Jesus, and anointed his feet with the ointment,\nand wiped them with her hair.\n\nThere is something in the action that marks the poetic and sensitive\nnature of Mary. Her heart was overburdened with gratitude and love.\nShe longed to give something, and how little was there that she\ncould give! She buys the most rare, the most costly of perfumes,\nbreaks the vase, and sheds it upon his head. Could she have put\nher whole life, her whole existence, into that fleeting perfume\nand poured it out for him, she gladly would have done it. That was\nwhat the action said, and what Jesus understood. Forthwith comes\nthe criticism of Judas: \"What a waste! It were better to give the\nmoney to the poor than to expend it in mere sentimentalism.\" Jesus\ndefended her with all the warmth of his nature, in words tinged with\nthe presentiment of his approaching doom: \"Let her alone; she is\ncome aforehand to anoint my body for the burial.\" Then, as if deeply\ntouched with the reality of that love which thus devoted itself to\nhim, he adds, \"Wheresoever this Gospel shall be preached throughout\nthe world, there shall what this woman hath done be had in\nremembrance.\" The value set upon pure love, upon that unconsidering\ndevotion which gives its best and utmost freely and wholly, is\nexpressed in these words. A loving God seeks love; and he who thus\nspoke is he who afterward, when he appeared in glory, declared his\nabhorrence of lukewarmness in his followers: \"I would thou wert cold\nor hot; because thou art lukewarm I will spew thee out of my mouth.\"\nIt is significant of the change which had passed upon Martha that no\ncriticism of Mary's action in this case came from her. There might\nhave been a time when this inconsiderate devotion of a poetic nature\nwould have annoyed her and called out remonstrance. In her silence\nwe feel a sympathetic acquiescence.\n\nAfter this scene we meet the family no more. Doubtless the\nthree were among the early watchers upon the resurrection\nmorning;--doubtless they were of the number among whom Jesus stood\nafter the resurrection, saying, \"Peace be unto you\";--doubtless they\nwere of those who went out with him to the Mount of Olives when he\nwas taken up into heaven; and doubtless they are now with him in\nglory: for it is an affecting thought that no human personality is\never lost or to be lost. In the future ages it may be our happiness\nto see and know those whose history has touched our hearts so deeply.\n\nOne lesson from this history we pray may be taken into every\nmourning heart. The Apostle says that Jesus upholds all things by\nthe word of his power. The laws by which accident, sickness, loss,\nand death are constantly bringing despair and sorrow to sensitive\nhearts, are upheld by that same Jesus who wept at the grave of\nLazarus, and who is declared to be Jesus Christ, the same yesterday\nand forever. When we see the exceeding preciousness of human love\nin his eyes, and realize his sympathetic nature, and then remember\nthat he is RESURRECTION AND LIFE, can we not trust him with our\nbest beloved, and look to him for that hour of reunion which he has\npromised?\n\nThe doctrine of the resurrection of the body is a precious\nconcession to human weakness and human love. How dear the outward\nform of our child,--how distressing to think we shall never see it\nagain! But Christ promises we shall. Here is a mystery. St. Paul\nsays, that as the seed buried in the earth is to the new plant or\nflower, so is our present mortal body to the new immortal one that\nshall spring from it. It shall be our friend, our child, familiar to\nus with all that mysterious charm of personal identity, yet clothed\nwith the life and beauty of the skies; and then the Lord God will\nwipe away all tears from all faces.\n\n\nTHE END.\n\n\nCambridge: Electrotyped and Printed by Welch, Bigelow, & Co.","title":"Woman in Sacred History: A Series of Sketches Drawn from Scriptural, Historical, and Legendary Sources","tradition":"scripture-revelation","translated_text":null,"word_count":63890}