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Full text of "The women in the Bible : delineated in a series of sketches of prominent females mentioned in Holy Scripture"

s 

7ST 



CAVEN LIBRARY 
KICK COLLEGE 



THE 



WOMEN OF THE BIBLE ; 



DELINEATED IN A SERIES OF 



SKETCHES OF PROMINENT FEMALES 



MENTIONED IN 



HOLY SCRIPTURE. 



BY CLERGYMEN OF THE UNITED STATES. 



ILLUSTRATED BY EIGHTEEN CHARACTERISTIC STEEL ENGRAVINC+a 



EDITED BY 

THE REV. J. M. WATNWRKiHT, U 1>. 



NEW-YORK : 
D. APPLETON & COMPANY, -200 BROADWAY. 



PHILADELPHIA: 
GEO. S. APPLETON, 164 CIIESNUT-STREET. 



M.DCCC.L. 



CAVEN ItBRAPu 

KNOX COLLECE 

TORONTO 



Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1848, by 

D. APPLETON & COMPANY, 
In the Clerk s Office of the District Court for the Southern District of New- York. 



TO 

THOUGHTFUL READERS, 

MEN AS WELL AS WOMEN, 

THE ONE BEING INTERESTED EQUALLY V/ITH THE OTHER 

IN 

WHAT CONSTITUTES THE CHARACTER 
OF 

MOTHER, WIFE, DAUGHTER, SISTER, 

THIS 

BOOK OF FEMALE PORTRAITS, 

DRAWN FROM 
THE HIGHEST AND HOLIEST RECORD OF LIFE, 

3s JlriiirntrL 



ADDRESS OF THE PUBLISHERS. 

To this volume it has been the hope and the design of the Publishers 
to give a permanent value. The source from which its subject-matter lias 
been derived, and the distinguished persons whom they have been so greatly 
favored as to interest in its composition, will, they doubt not, secure this 
result. The range of choice amongst the individual subjects adapted for 
illustration was indeed very wide, and not one but many volumes might 
easily be written upon the Women of the Bible. A selection therefore was 
indispensable, and it has been made with a view to variety as well as inte 
rest of character. Not the pure and holy alone have been selected for 
delineation those whose memory has been embalmed and will be fragrant 
to the end of time, and whose name must ever suggest to the imagination 
a form of grace and loveliness, and an expression radiant with virtue but 
also some few from amongst the depraved and abandoned, and whose 
memory is consigned to perpetual execration, have been brought forward 
for contemplation. 

The Publishers therefore have the satisfaction of feeling that they have 
opened to the public view, as it were, a gallery of portraits, where the 



viii ADDRESS. 

spectator, in walking through, will be sometimes delighted, and sometimes 
moved by an opposite sentiment ; but in both cases he will receive the 
pleasure that arises from the view of forceful and truthful delineation, and 
where he can hardly fail of obtaining moral improvement, and oftentimes of 
the better privilege of imbibing religious sentiment through the exhibition 
of pictures which allure to virtue and repel from vice. No labor or expense 
has been spared in preparing the volume to become as little unworthy as 
possible of being an humble associate of the Holy Bible. 

In conclusion, the Publishers take this opportunity to express their grati 
tude for the valuable and essential assistance they have received in the 
literary and editorial departments, and also their hope that the enterprise 
may receive that patronage which it will be found intrinsically to deserve. 



CONTENTS. 



SUBJECT. 

HAGAR 

REBEKAH . . . . . 

RACHEL 

POTIPHAR S WIFE . 
PHARAOH S DAUGHTER . 

DEBORAH 

JEPHTHAH S DAUGHTER . 

DELILAH 

RUTH 

HANNAH 

ABIGAIL 

THE QUEEN OF SIIEBA 

JEZEBEL 

ATHALIAH .... 

ESTHER 

SARA, WIFE OF TOBIAS 

JUDITH 

THE MOTHER IN MACCABEES 



REV. WM. B. SPRAGUE, D. D. . . 13 

REV. S. COOKE .... 23 

RT. REV. BISHOP BURGESS, D. D. . .31 

REV. WM. A. MUHLENBURG, D. D. . 41 

RT. REV. BISHOP DOANE, D. D., LL. D. . 4~ 

REV. GEORGE B. CHEEVER, D. D. . 53 

REV. THOMAS DE AVITT, D. D. . . 59 

REV. J. M. WAINWRIGHT, D. D. . 79 

REV. E. Y. HIGBEE, D. D. . .97 

REV. THOMAS VERMILYE, D. D. . 109 

REV. FRANCIS VINTON, D. D. . .117 

RT. REV. BISHOP McILVAINE, D. D. . 131 

REV. GEORGE POTTS, D.D. . . .143 

REV. THOMAS COIT, D. D. . . Ifil 

REV. THOMAS ATKINSON, D. D. . . 173 

REV. GURDON S. COIT, D.D. . 187 

REV. W. INGRAHAM KIP, D.D. . . 195 

REV. J. M. WAINWRIGHT, D D. 209 



LIST OF PLATES 



FROM DRAWINGS BY G. STAAHL. 



I. HAGAR . . . . . W. H. EGLETON*. 

ir. REBEKAH . . . . . . w. J. EDWARDS. 

in. RACHEL .... ... w. j. EDWARDS. 

iv. POTIPHAR S WIFE . w. n. SIIOTE. 

v. PHARAOH S DAUGHTER . . . w . IIO LT,. 

vi. DEBORAH . ....... w. H. SHOTE. 

vii. JEPHTHAH S DAUGHTER .... w. n. EGLETOX. 

vin. DELILAH . w . n. SHOTE. 

ix. RUTH . . ....... w. n. SHOTE. 

x. HANNAH . . B. EYLES. 

xi. ABIGAIL F . HOLL. 

xii. THE QUEEN OF SHEBA w. j. EDWARDS. 

XIII. JEZEBEL ........ W. J. EDWARDS. 

xiv. ATHALIAH ........ . j. BR nvx. 

xv. ESTHER .... . H. ROBINSON. 

xvi. SARA, WIFE OF TOBIAS .... . w. HOLL. 

xvn. JUDITH . . . w. n. SHOTE. 

xvm. THE MOTHER IN MACCABEES F. iroi.r.. 



HAGAR. 

WHO that has ever read the story of Hagar, has not felt himself 
enchained by its almost matchless attractions? The incidents of 
which it is composed, can any thing be more touching and beautiful, 
more illustrative of the simplicity of the patriarchal age, or of the 
strangely diversified operations of human nature, or of the movements 
of a wise and wonder-working Providence ? And the materials are 
moulded with admirable skill and effect. Throughout the whole 
narrative, it is nature herself speaking with inimitable grace and 
tenderness. And herein consists the charm of Scripture narratives 
generally: there is an unstudied ease about them, which no words can 
describe and no art can counterfeit. Among the manifold evidences 
that the Bible is the product of divine inspiration, this is not to be 
overlooked that the pictures of characters and scenes which it pre 
sents far transcend the highest human skill ; so that we are forced to 
the conclusion that they must have been sketched by a divine hand, 
and with colors which Heaven alone can supply. 

It is not necessary for the present purpose to attempt a connected 
narrative of the life of this extraordinary person. I propose to con 
template her simply at one point, and that perhaps the point of 
greatest interest in her history; I mean at the moment of her 
having laid her son down under a tree, as she supposed, to die for the 
3 



14 THE WOMEN OF THE BIBLE. 

want of water, when the voice from Heaven was just about to speak 
words of consolation to her, and her eyes were almost in the act of 
being opened to behold the relief which Providence had provided. A 
little reflection will show that her condition at this critical moment was 
the result of a singular combination of influences, affecting several 
individuals beside herself, while there was also bound up in it the 
germ, not only of her own future history, but of the history of no 
inconsiderable portion of the race. 

Hagar, at the period referred to, was in the depths of sorrow, 
while yet she was on the eve of being cheered by the most welcome 
and grateful revelation. The suffering and the relief, then, are the two 
points which here claim our consideration. 

THE SUFFERING. 

That it must have been intense suffering, no one can doubt who 
considers either the demonstrations by which it was attended or the 
causes in which it originated. There is nothing recorded of her, 
either before or after this event, that would suggest even the proba 
bility that she was deficient in natural fortitude, or that she would, 
under any circumstances, make an unreal display of grief: on the 
contrary, there were some things in her conduct in Abraham s house 
that indicated rather a hardy and even insolent spirit ; and it is reason 
able to suppose that she had, to say the least, the ordinary ability to 
meet difficulties of any kind with calmness and firmness. And yet we 
find her overwhelmed with emotion: the language of the inspired 
record is that she " lifted up her voice and wept." And is it any 
wonder that she should have done this, in view of the sad and strange 
condition into which she had fallen ? No doubt the immediate cause 
of her grief was the fact that she supposed her son was dying at a 



HAGAR. 15 

little distance from her; dying for the mere want of water, which it 
was not in her power to furnish. Every mother who has lost a son at 
the age of fifteen or sixteen, under any circumstances, has been con 
scious of a deep wound in her heart ; and though she may afterwards 
regain her spirits, and seem to the world as before, yet that wound 
will never be so entirely healed to her dying day, but that recollection 
will often set it to bleeding afresh. But in the case of this mother, 
there were ingredients in her cup of sorrow which few mothers have 
ever known. She was alone with her child in the wilderness, and had 
become bewildered and lost her way. The bottle of water with which 
her master had provided her was exhausted ; and her son, wearied 
with the journey, and having nothing to sustain or refresh him, found 
it impossible to proceed any farther. She was beyond the reach of 
all human help, and there was no ear but that of God on which her 
supplicatory voice could fall. Sad would it have been for her to 
have stood by the death-bed of her child, with all the grateful appli 
ances that friendship and sympathy could furnish ; but to have laid 
him down to die alone, to die for want of that of which she knew 
there was an abundance somewhere, and then to go on her way a 
solitary wanderer, reflecting that she should see the face of her beloved 
child no more, surely it must have been among the bitterest experi 
ences incident to bereavement. She did for him the best that she 
could : not doubting that he must die, and die soon, she could not bear 
to witness the final scene ; but she laid him beneath the shade of a 
tree, the best alleviation to his sufferings that she could provide; 
and then went and seated herself at a little distance, in what seemed 
to her like the shadow of death, to struggle with her maternal sensi 
bilities. Surely the most stoical could not chide the deep grief of a 
mother on losing a son, especially under such trying circumstances. 
But there were yet other circumstances that served to increase the 



16 THE WOMEN OF THE BIBLE. 

anguish of her spirit. There can be little doubt that the affliction 
took her by surprise. If we can anticipate any particular afflictive 
dispensation, we have time to prepare for it ; to surrender our minds 
to the special contemplation of those truths which are fitted to inspire 
a calm and filial resignation, and thus abate the violence of the shock 
or prevent it altogether. The mother who sees her child gradually 
sinking under the power of an insidious but fatal malady, has an oppor 
tunity to discipline her spirit to meet with composure the final issue ; 
but the mother who sees her child stricken in a moment with a malig 
nant disease, and, in a few brief hours, placed by death beyond the 
reach of maternal kindness, oh, she finds the path from the heights of 
prosperity, as it may be, to the depths of adversity, so very short, that 
it is more than probable that she will be overwhelmed by the sad 
transition. There is nothing in the narrative that would seem to indi 
cate that Hagar had apprehended any untoward event in connection 
with her journey ; least of all, that she had anticipated any thing like 
what actually occurred. She knew that she was setting off on a jour 
ney under somewhat peculiar circumstances ; but probably she thought 
of nothing but that she should be carried safely and mercifully through 
it. She knew that she was not provided with any considerable quan 
tity of water; but she doubted not that she should be able to obtain, 
as often as she needed it, a fresh supply. She knew that she had to 
make her way through a wilderness ; but there is no reason to believe 
that she expected to lose her way, and be thrown into an attitude of 
hopeless uncertainty. She knew that her son was to accompany her ; 
but she might reasonably expect to be entertained and cheered by his 
conversation, rather than be obliged to lay him down to die. In short, 
we have every reason to believe that sad disappointment was one of 
the bitter ingredients in her cup ; that when she stood there sorrow 
ing for her beloved child, she experienced that which not only had 



HAGAR. 17 

never entered her thoughts, but for which she had made no adequate 
preparation. 

It is the dictate of true wisdom to be always prepared for affliction. 
We live in a world of perpetual vicissitude. No sun can rise upon us 
so brightly, but that it may set in a cloud, or even in a storm. No 
earthly hopes can be so well founded, no earthly possessions so secure, 
but that they may be blown away by a single blast of calamity. We 
may not be able to anticipate the particular trials that are in store for 
us ; but trials of some kind or other we may regard as inevitable. 
We may not be able to calculate the precise periods when desolation 
and sorrow shall hang upon our footsteps ; but that such periods will 
occur, is as certain as the ordinance of Heaven can render it. Surely, 
then, the only wisdom, the only safety, consists in being always ready 
to bear the rod. A principle of true religion in the heart, kept in 
habitual and vigorous operation, is the appropriate preparation for 
affliction in every form. Only let the great truths which Christianity 
presents have a firm lodgment in the mind, let them be rendered real 
and practical through the influence of a lively faith, and the floods 
may rise and the storms beat, the sun may be turned into darkness 
and the moon into blood, and still nothing will have happened but 
what can be met with an undisturbed tranquillity. Yes, Christianity, 
all-glorious Christianity, furnishes an antidote to every sorrow ; and 
if it is ever unavailing, the only reason is, that it is not suitably 
applied. 

There was yet another characteristic of Hagar s grief that served 
greatly to increase its intensity or rather it may be said to have 
constituted its stins : I refer to the fact that it was to some extent 

O 

retributive grief; and the remark applies as well to her son as to her 
self. Hagar s conduct in Abraham s family, at a preceding period, 
had been far from being exemplary ; she seems to have manifested an 



18 THE WOMEN OF THE BIBLE. 

arrogant and supercilious spirit, which was utterly inconsistent with 
her humble station; and her mistress never forgot this amidst all 
subsequent changes. Ishmael, too, had conducted himself towards 
Isaac in a most unworthy manner ; insomuch that Sarah refused any 
longer to tolerate his presence. Both the mother and the child, there 
fore, notwithstanding they may have felt that they had been to some 
extent cruelly dealt by, could not but feel that they had been the cul 
pable instruments of their own sufferings ; and nothing appears but 
that if they had behaved themselves discreetly, they might have 
remained unmolested in the house of their master. That Sarah, in 
consideration of the peculiar circumstances, may have been predis 
posed to fault-finding, seems more than probable ; but there is no 
reason to believe that she would have ever meditated the design of 
their expulsion from the family, had it not been for the insolent treat 
ment which both herself and her son received at their hands. 

It will be found, in respect to a large part of the afflictions which 
mankind suffer, that, either directly or indirectly, they bring them 
upon themselves. How common is it for persons to make enemies in 
the same way that Hagar and Ishmael did ; and as a remoter conse 
quence, to bring upon themselves a train of the most serious evils. 
An unkind action, an indiscreet word, a haughty look, may leave a 
sting behind, whose poison no subsequent acts can ever neutralize. 
And when the poison begins to make itself felt in its manifold opera 
tions of evil, then begins an inward scrutiny in respect to the cause ; 
and conscience, in an honest and earnest ministration, throws it into 
the light of noonday. There is nothing like trouble to put conscience 
at its appropriate work ; especially where the evil experienced is the 
result of evil committed. Joseph s brethren, while they continued in 
prosperity, seem to have escaped the visitations of remorse ; but when 
the night-clouds of adversity gathered around them, and every thing 



HAGAR. 19 

seemed ominous of disaster and ruin, the ghosts of their misdeeds 
came trooping before their imaginations, and one of their first reflec 
tions was, " We are verily guilty concerning our brother." Oh ! 
there is no grief but what can be well enough borne if remorse be not 
one of its elements ; but if with the burden that oppresses us we are 
obliged to associate the recollection of our own corrupt dispositions 
or evil doings, then what might otherwise seem light, becomes intole 
rable. Let every one keep a conscience void of offence in every 
thing ; and then his spirit may sustain itself in joyful serenity, even 
though he should be called to lay himself down in a wilderness to die, 
or to sit by in gloomy solitude, and watch the last exercises of a friend 
in his passage through the dark valley. 

No one can adequately appreciate the importance of a good con 
science as an element of manly and vigorous endurance. Let the 
records of martyrdom speak ; from Stephen down to the last disciple 
that has sealed his testimony with his blood. Those men, so strong 
and glorious in suffering, Were not haunted by unforgiven crimes : 
conscience witnessed to their sincerity, their integrity, their unyielding 
devotion to the best of masters ; and under this all-sustaining influ 
ence they could march calmly and triumphantly into the fire. We 
may not be called upon to offer up our lives at the altar of our reli 
gion ; but so long as we continue in the world we shall be heirs of 
calamity, and no one can tell how bitter may be the sufferings that 
are ordained for us. As we would find the most effectual alleviation 
to our woe, let us take heed that we suffer with a good conscience ; 
let us see to it, not only that our trials do not originate immediately 
in our own misconduct, but that our character in every respect be 
such as to furnish no ground for inward accusations. 

It was a bitter cup that was put into the hands of this unfortunate 
woman, and not the less but the more bitter, because she had to share 



20 THE WOMEN OF THE BIBLE. 

it with her own child. But this is but one side of the picture : from 
the suffering it is grateful to turn to 



THE RELIEF. 



There lies Ishmael under a shrub, where he has been placed by his 
mother to die. There sits Hagar, with a mother s heart beating, as 
she supposes, to the agonies of her dying child. The sobs of the 
mother and the cries of her son seem to be wasted upon the desert 
air. Perhaps they are within the sound of each other s voices ; but 
they look not upon each other, because the mother s eye suffused with 
tears, the mother s heart bursting with anguish, cannot endure the 
appalling spectacle ; and though it is not stated in the narrative, pos 
sibly the son might have chosen to die without being an eye-witness 
to the struggles of maternal affection. The case has now become an 
extreme one, and is every way ripe for God s gracious interposition. 
The voice of the suffering child, though it reached no human ear, 
unless it was the ear of his despairing and wretched mother, was heard 
in Heaven ; and God s commissioned angel took the case into his own 
hands : and he not only assured the mother that her son s life should 
be preserved, and that he should be the germ of a great nation, but he 
showed her a refreshing spring almost by her side, from which his 
wants might be, actually were, supplied. It was just at the moment 
when the darkness seemed the deepest and the most portentous, that 
light burst upon her path and joy kindled in her soul. God saw and 
pitied his poor sorrowing creatures; but he suffered them to be 
reduced to a state that seemed not only helpless, but hopeless, before 
the source of relief was discovered to them. 

And thus God often deals even with his own children ; especially 
when they are subjected to chastisement for great and signal delin- 



HAGAR. 21 

quencies. He suffers them not only to lose their way in the wilder 
ness, but to remain there long enough to make them sensible how 
dreary and desolate a place they are in ; long enough to impress 
them with their inability to effect their own deliverance. When they 
are first carried thither, they may perhaps be insensible how sad their 
condition is ; and they may rely with confidence on their own unas 
sisted strength to bring them out of it ; but as the days, or perhaps 
weeks and months pass off, they find the burden upon their spirits 
grows heavier and heavier, till at length it becomes well nigh insup 
portable. And then they lift up the voice of lamentation, and cry for 
help ; and perhaps, by some most unexpected divine ministration, the 
help which they need is afforded. It comes not, however, until the 
requisite preparation is made in their being rebuked into an humble 
and dependent spirit. Or if there be apparent relief, while another 
spirit is predominant, the result will show that it was deceptive, and 
had in it the elements of ultimate dissatisfaction. 

In the case contemplated in this affecting narrative, the relief was 
strictly miraculous ; for it is not now, and was not even then, accord 
ing to the common course of nature, that man or woman should be 

O * 

found in colloquy with an angel. But we are expressly informed that 
" the angel of the Lord called to Hagar out of Heaven," and bade her 
take courage in that hour of her calamity, and indicated to her the 
source of relief, and added some most encouraging words in respect 
to the future. Miraculous interpositions for the relief of human woe 
arc not indeed now to be looked for; but who that notices the 
gracious dealings of our Heavenly Father with his children, is not 
ready to testify that he not unfrequently stretches out his arm for 
their protection or defence or consolation, in so signal a manner as to 
be a matter of grateful surprise to those who are witnesses, as well as 
to him who is the subject, of the interposition. Infinite wisdom and 

4 



22 THE WOMEN OF THE BIBLE. 

Almighty power are not straitened in respect to the accomplishment 
of any purpose ; and there is no darkness so deep but that Heaven 
may find means of dissipating it in a moment, no cup so bitter, but 
that, by some new ingredient graciously infused into it, it may become 
a cup of joy. Let any Christian, especially any one who has had 
long experience in the religious life, nay, let any one who is a 
stranger to the quickening power of Christianity, review the path 
by which he has been led, and he will find that he has been the 
subject of many signal deliverances and preservations ; and that, but 
for the ever-watchful Eye and the ever-active Hand, he would not 
have continued in this world of danger and calamity to this day. 

I may not conclude these remarks without adverting to the fact 
that the events recorded in this narrative have a high typical refer 
ence, and connect themselves in their consequences with the history 
of not a small portion of the human race. In this most simple and 
touching tale, on the face of which appears little else than a case of 
deep suffering relieved by an unlooked-for visitation of mercy, were 
hid the elements of a nation s destiny through a long course of ages. 
And thus it is always: "God moves in a mysterious way." The 
scheme of universal Providence is too deep for any mortal line to 
fathom. Events are continually occurring that seem to us of small 
moment; and yet, when contemplated in their connections, they are 
seen to have an importance that outruns all human calculation. Let 
man sink into the dust, when he attempts to scan the mighty works 
of the Ruler of the world ! 



EEBEKAH. 

THE patriarchal history is one which holds a peculiar place in 
the annals of the world. It tells of a life so hidden in the distant 
past, that no other history reaches it ; while even tradition but faintly 
whispers what it dares to utter concerning the strange people and 
the far-off times. The reader who seeks for proof and explanation, 
aside from the narrative itself, finds no second witness to the facts, 
and no contemporaneous record to throw its light upon the dark 
sayings of this. It is true, indeed, that the manners and customs of 
their descendants explain many things which Moses has recorded 
concerning the Patriarchs ; while in the same manner we verify many 
of his statements. A ray from times nearer to our own is thus cast 
back into the dimness, and we discern that which before was unseen. 
But this light does not reach into the deeper places ; the narrative 
has yet its mysteries ; and to them there is no clue beyond the narra 
tive itself. It is therefore manifest that we read this ancient story of 
an ancient people with but a partial appreciation of many of its 
statements ; much of its power is hidden, because much of its truth 
is unknown. This remark applies as well to its details of social and 
family life, as to the greater events which concerned nations and the 
world itself. 

At the same time we have an earnest sympathy with this people 



24 



THE WOMEN OF THE BIBLE. 



of a distant age ; the bond of a common nature holds us, and we feel 
that, in a sense full of meaning, we were in them. The scenes and the 
characters which compose the history are consequently deeply inter 
esting to us; the movements of the social life, as well as the sweep 
of Bander events, stir us in the recital as powerfully as if the chasm 

to 

between us were no broader than one generation. 

Among these characters to whom we have just alluded, Rebekah 

the daughter of Bethuel the wife of Isaac the mother of Jacob 

holds a prominent place. She becomes an actor in these wonder 
ful scenes in the freshness of her womanhood ; nor does she pass 
away until she has imparted something of her own character to the 
scenes themselves, and made her life a part of the life of the people, 
after she was dead. We read that Isaac was the child of Abraham s 
old age : for him many prayers had been offered, even before he was 
born ; the gift of life to him was a miracle, and wonders made up his 
story as he grew into manhood. The feelings with which the Pa 
triarch regarded his son were of a kind to which words can give no 
expression ; they belonged to that class of thoughts which are above 
language as deep and as voiceless as the soul. As he felt the palsy 
of age creeping through his own frame, and was thereby reminded 
that for him days would soon have an end, his thoughts naturally 
centred upon his son the years through which he was to live, and 
the things with which he must struggle, after the father had passed 
away. He doubted not that Isaac was the child of God, and that 
God had a work for him to do, which he would not fail to accom 
plish ; but with a nice discernment of the relation between the 
Creator s purposes and human effort, he felt that he also had a pa 
rent s duty to perform, in shaping the life and the character of his 
son. Isaac had reached the age of about forty years ; the time had 
come for him to enter upon another of the periods of existence, by 



R E B E K A H . 25 

taking to himself a wife ; while the father had lived Ions; enough to 

O O O 

understand that this step involved interests of the highest character. 
He knew that it would influence powerfully the future life of his son, 
and perhaps decide whether that future was to be one of happiness 
and usefulness, or one of misery and shame. Doubtless there would 
have been quite as much happiness in the world, had the fathers of 
later days given more prominence to the thoughts which at this time 
ruled the conduct of the Patriarch. He was especially desirous that 
his son should not marry one of the daughters of the Canaanites ; for 
they had corrupted the true religion, and upon them rested the curse 
of the Almighty. Here again was Abraham wiser than the men of 
this generation ; in his view, religious considerations were of some 
importance in deciding a question of this kind. He perceived how 
directly they would influence his son, and shape him for a"higher or a 
lower place in the great work which God was doing through the 
agency of man. The Patriarch had a servant in whom he confided, 
and who to the virtue of honesty added mental strength and deep reli 
gious faith. To him he intrusted (according to the custom of the 
times, and doubtless with the consent of Isaac) the most important 
and delicate work of selecting a wife for his son. The servant, how 
ever, had his charge from the Patriarch, and the promise of aid from 
One greater than man. He was to go into the land of Mesopotamia 
the land where Abraham dwelt for a time with his father, and 
where many of his kindred had then a home. Accordingly, the 
servant took ten camels of his master, and departed for the land of 
which Abraham had spoken. As he drew near unto a city then 
called Nahor, he paused at a w r ell just without the city, and there the 
camels kneeled down to rest. The sun had fallen below the horizon, 
and that period (so delightful" in the warmer seasons of the warmer 
countries) when twilight begins to dim the heated face of day, was 



26 THE WOMEN OF THE BIBLE. 

the period when the servant was by the well. Nor was he there 
without knowledge or design. He knew that at the time of evening, 
the women would come forth from the city to draw water. We infer 
that these wells were the common meeting-places for this class of the 
population : here they gathered in the cool of the day, dressed in 
their best attire, and wearing the ornaments which were peculiar to 
the times and people. Of all this the servant of Abraham was of 
course aware ; and when he had arranged his camels near the well, 
this servant of a Master greater than Abraham addressed a word to 
that greater Lord. He prayed that God would there show to him the 
person who was to be the wife of Isaac, and give signs whereby she 
might be known. The shadows of the evening began to creep down 
the distant hills, and forth from the city came the daughters who were 
wont to gather at the well. There was one upon whom the eye of 
the servant rested, as in her youth and beauty she came bounding 
towards the fountain to execute her twilight task. The narrative 
which details these events is so compressed, that a single expression 
takes the place and does the work of a minute description. Hence, 
the most that is said of the personal appearance of the maiden is, 
that " she was very fair to look upon ;" but this, in Scripture history, 
is saying much. It is a strong assertion of the extraordinary beauty 
with which nature had endowed her. She was one of those forms of 
life which have a light and glory of their own, and which, even in the 
midst of a multitude, shine like a costly stone set about with gems of 
inferior magnitude and brilliancy. In a like setting may this maiden 
have appeared, supposing her to have been but one of many who at 
that time thronged to the waters ; while the eye of the servant, once 
resting upon her, was fixed there by the strange magic of her beauty. 
To him, at least, there was but one damsel at the well ; and the 
thought which for the moment seems to have possessed him was, 



RE BE K AH. 27 

that Isaac could find no fault with him should he return with such a 
prize. But higher thoughts were soon to take the place of this. The 
maiden by her acts began to assume the very character and office 
which were prophetic of the future ; and as, with touching simplicity 
and benevolence, she filled out the signs for which the servant had 
prayed, her loveliness took a nobler cast. This was the moment 
when to the beauty of nature was added the beauty of religion ; and 
as she stood in the twilight, with these signs of grace upon her the 
chosen of the Lord every line, and hue, and feature, assumed a 
more perfect form, and had a more transcendent power. The reli 
gious element began thus early to impart depth and richness to 
female life ; not merely to the character, but to the person to the 
graces of the body, as well as to the higher life of the soul. It is this 
which gives a meaning to loveliness, that lifts it above the range of 
the passions, and makes it the image of the purer beings of a purer 
world. 

We cannot dwell upon the interview of the servant with Rebekah. 
She soon returned to her mother, and told of that which had happened 
at the well. Her brother, when he had heard her story, and seen the 
ornaments which had been given to his sister, went forth to the man, 
and invited him to share their home. He came. In due time meat 
was set before him; and then, ere he tasted it, he told with that 
wondering family as listeners of that for which he had come, and 
that which had happened unto him. It was a solemn scene one 
of those scenes in the history of the great work of redemption, in 
which the details of daily life blend strangely with the plans of God. 
The mother and the brother heard the story of the stranger; and 
when he asked for the daughter and the sister, that he might take 
her to the home of his master, there was faith enough under that roof 
to meet the requisition. They saw therein the hand of God, and 



28 THE WOMEN OF THE BIBLE. 

they wished not to place themselves between the Almighty and his 
purposes. Rebekah, too, had faith ; and from that moment the life 
of this beautiful girl turned from its old path, and she was no more 
seen with her pitcher at the well. Her companions missed her in the 
twilight walk and gathering ; and if from time to time they heard of 
this absent one, they heard of her in connection with events which 
were shaping the world s history, and had wrapped within them the 
world s promise and hope. The morning of the day after the servant 
met her, her kindred gathered to say farewell to one thus early called 
of God. The camels and the men, her nurse and her damsels, were 
at the door ; and, amid the voice of blessing and of weeping, she 
departed for the distant land. The record does not describe the 
journey. In due time they came near the place where Isaac dwelt ; 
and Isaac, while in the field, lifted up his eyes, and saw in the distance 
the returning company. It was about the same hour of the day in 
which the servant first met Rebekah at the well ; and when in answer 
to her question, " What man is this that walketh in the field to meet 
us ?" the servant said, " It is my master," " she lighted off the 
camel," and " took a veil, and covered herself." They had never 
met ; and as God had already told them both how the currents of 
their lives were to blend into one stream, and flow on together to 
eternity can we wonder if a feeling deeper than maiden modesty 
inclined Rebekah to shrink from what her eyes were to behold ? Nor 
can we say that Isaac was uninfluenced by the same feeling. It was 
one of those moments when the mighty interests which hang upon 
the disclosure incline us to draw back from the revelation ; when the 
cast is so full of destiny, that, with all our desire to know the future, 
we are appalled by the magnitude of the certainties themselves, and 
desire to put them from us for a little time. The nerve that has 
faced death in many forms, without the yielding of a muscle, has, 



R E B E K A H . 29 

when brought up to this line of which we are speaking, felt the shock 
of fear, and trembled upon that verge like a timid child. Twas 
because that hour was to utter prophecies concerning the whole 
future life, and forewarn of happiness or of misery in the years to 
come. Upon this line of uncertainty, then, stood the maiden and the 
son of Abraham. But it was soon passed. They met and the 
meeting was for life. Of the forms by which that union was solem 
nized we have no account. It may be that God himself was the 
Priest, and that God too was the maiden s friend, when alone, in the 
strange country, she gave her hand to the man. The union had a 
double seal : the bond became part, not only of the things of earth, 
but also of the things of heaven ; and the two were made one under 
the shadow of a blessing greater than that of Abraham s. The 
event itself was a part of the plan of redemption ; and that which 
was outward in the scene, did but enwrap another life, which was full 
of power and glory, because full of God. 

We have not space to pursue the history. The engraving which 
these words are designed to accompany, seems silently to protest 
against our dwelling upon the years when furrows came to the 
cheeks, and dimness to the eyes, of that maiden by the well. Indeed, 
the record itself is by no means full in its account of her future life. 
The birth of Esau and Jacob, about twenty years after the marriage 
the dwelling in the land of the Philistines the love of Rebekah 
for her youngest son the means by which she secured for him the 
blessing of his father are the prominent incidents. The narrative 
soon leaves the parents and passes to the children, who in their turn 
became parts of that on-rushing plan of love which swept through the 
generations, and at last found its completion in the birth of Him 
whose cradle was a manger in Bethlehem. 

Isaac is thought to have been the only Patriarch who had not 



30 



THE WOMEN OF THE BIBLE 



a plurality of wives. This fact leads us to infer that his domestic life 
was one of uncommon purity and happiness ; and for this cause the 
names of Isaac and Rebekah have found an honored place in the 
marriage service of the Episcopal Church of these United States. 
Supporting one another, they met life in all its changes ; nor had the 
one a joy or a sorrow, to which the other did not answer with a smile 
or with a tear. We assume, without attempting to prove, that certain 
statements in the record do not conflict with this idea. Rebekah 
lived until the weight of many years was upon her years not with 
out their trials as well as joys ; and having done the work of God, 
she passed from the things seen and temporal, into the higher realities 
of the things unseen and eternal. 

Her story is not without its points of instruction. While it has 
features which can never be applied to common life, it at the same 
time presents the marriage relation in its highest form and influence. 
Its character as a divine institution its religious uses and power 
its bearings upon the future of this life, and that greater future whose 
spreadings are beyond the grave are among the points which meet 
us, either in the form of direct statement or of obvious implication. 
May its lessons be heeded by the sons and daughters of our land. 
Marriage is an event upon which the life turns ; and if, in the settlement 
of such a question, religious considerations are entirely put aside 
the religious tastes, and habits, and character of the parties not 
considered the approbation of God made of no account kindred 
unadvised and unheeded, if things lower than these are to rule the 
decision, let there be no complaints if the bond becomes a scourge, 
and the scourge a living serpent, whose coil makes life awful, and 
from whose sting there is no refuge but in death. 




, /. .,: 



EACHEL. 

THE beloved wife of the Patriarch Israel, the mother of Joseph 
and of Benjamin, appears but for a little while and by glimpses in the 
Mosaic history. Her first meeting with the exile by the well, in 
Padan-aram, her espousal, her participation in his flight, and her early 
death, are almost all which is told of Rachel. Still, the image is 
wonderfully distinct, and surpassingly lovely. It left its impress firmly 
fixed upon the memory of that nation, of which three powerful tribes 
were her descendants. When the Hebrews spoke of youthful beauty, 
of conjugal devotion, of maternal tenderness, or of sweetness too soon 
removed, they recalled Rachel, with the flock of her father ; Rachel, 
with whom and for whose sake fourteen toilsome years of Jacob sped 
by so lightly ; Rachel, the mother of the dear children of his age ; 
Rachel, as she gave her last-born his mournful name, and died close 
by the city of David. 

In that ancient country between the Euphrates and the Tigris, 
Haran or Harran is still the abode of Arab shepherds. Through a 
sandy plain a small river glides towards the Euphrates ; and it was 
the existence of these little streams which made the spot a home of 
old for the pastoral kindred of Abraham. A hundred miles eastward 
from Aleppo, and about as far westward from the site of the ancient 
Nisibis, it can hardly be less than four hundred northeastward from 



32 THE WOMEN OF THE BIBLE. 

the southern part of Palestine, from which Jacob had accomplished 
his weary journey. For weeks he must have travelled under the 
burning sun, " with his staff in his hand," when he " came into the 
land of the people of the East." 

It is certain that Jacob was guided on this journey by a special 
Providence, if there be any Providence that ought to be called special. 
Or rather, it is certain that in his vision he was instructed in that 
mystery of Providence, which always attends and guards the path of 
the servants of God. Angels ascended and descended around him ; 
they were with him when he lay down at Bethel on his departure ; 
they met him at Mahanaim on his return ; and undoubtedly they led 
or accompanied his steps to Haran. The thought that in the most 
important as well as the most delicate transaction of life, a good man 
does not move apart from unseen guidance, is no idle fancy. What 
ever may be said of the rash, the passionate, or the selfish, when they 
hasten on without prayer or deep tenderness, we know that marriages 
like those of Isaac and Jacob are indeed " made in heaven." 

All things concurred to form the graceful picture of opening affec 
tion. In the afternoon, while " it was yet high day," Jacob reached 
the well, where the shepherds waited with their flocks. He learned 
that he was near Haran ; that his kinsman whom he sought was in 
health ; and that one of those daughters of Laban, from whom he had 
been charged to choose, would presently be there. The beautiful 
shepherdess came near, even while they were speaking ; and Jacob, 
with the gentle courtesy which is no mere growth of the age of 
Christian chivalry, but is as old as manly dignity and honorable love, 
hastened to roll the stone away, and water her flock, before he told 
his name and lineage. In those patriarchal times and lands, such an 
act was a pledge of truth and kindness ; there was no more peril or 
fear from the stranger; he "kissed Rachel, and lifted up his voice 



RACHEL. 33 

and wept," while he assured her that he was her cousin, the son of 
that Rebekah, for whom the steward of Abraham had come, with 
camels and jewels, and almost with the pomp of an ambassador. 

Not thus came Jacob, a solitary wanderer, fleeing from his angry 
brother, with no other wealth or defence but the staff with which he 
had passed over Jordan. Laban, a worldly, calculating man, received 
him accordingly with kindness, but with prudent kindness ; as " his 
bone and his flesh," but as one who, in need as he saw him, and fur 
nished as he soon found him to be, with abundant sagacity and skill, 
might do him excellent service. The love of Jacob for Rachel, the 

O 

constant and fervent affection which had begun at the first interview, 
was the chain which bound him to the tasks imposed by Laban. It 
was a delightful chain ; for the seven years of toil which the rigid 
father exacted from the portionless exile, " seemed unto him but a 
few days, for the love he had to her*" The daily sight of her as he 
saw her at first amongst the flocks which he now tended, made the 
months pass like a happy dream ; and Jacob forgot the revengeful 
wrath of Esau, and was forgotten. 

The involuntary polygamy of Jacob brought some of the ills which 
attend on that unsuitable, but then unforbidden arrangement. Not 
all the meek piety of Leah nor the attractive sweetness of Rachel 
could quite prevent the breach of sisterly kindness. One was the 
favored mother, the other the chosen spouse ; a righteous Providence 
balanced their happiness by their disappointments. The traits of the 
disposition of Rachel, which can be drawn from the history, seem 
such as are not seldom observed in union with the perilous gift of 
youthful beauty. Admiration, without necessarily tarnishing the 
essential excellence of the heart, yet often produces a certain self- 
indulgence. The lighter tempers, which so easily run into folly, even 
wear a kind of gracefulness, and arc not held in firm restraint. Some- 



34 THE WOMEN OF THE BIBLE. 

thing is then felt to be wanting to the moral and religious strength of 
the soul ; that something which is the growth of humiliation or self- 
denial. Even after later discipline, the first weakness may remain ; 
and thus it was with Rachel. In the few sayings and actions which 
arc related of her, there is an impatience, an ill-checked eagerness, a 
want of tenderness of conscience, and a partial reliance even on the 
superstitions that had glided in amongst the Mesopotamian Patriarchs. 
Through their respective trials, the character of the elder sister shines 
with a calmer religiousness ; but the faults of the younger, though 
they had been greater than they were, could not transfer the heart of 
him who loved her from the first, and loved her to the end. 

It is a sufficient proof that the holiest pledges ought never to be 
given without the warmest and most spontaneous affection. The 
deceit of Laban cannot be repeated ; but the happiness of more than 
one may be fatally bartered, when a Leah is accepted instead of a 
Rachel, by a heart less true to itself than that of Jacob. He, while 
he discharged the office of a faithful father to his elder sons, yet so 
delighted in the youngest of all as to stir their envy. It was not 
merely that Joseph was the son of his age, but that he was the son of 
Rachel ; and as he inherited her beauty, so perhaps his gentle and 
forgiving temper was visible through her transient impatience. With 
all the difficulties of such a state, the household of Jacob, while she 
lived, seems to have been one of harmony. 

The time came when Rachel and Leah must leave father and 
mother, to share the lot of the returning heir of Canaan. After an 
absence of more than twenty years, he fled, with all the wealth which 
his diligence and skill had won; and they could not but justify both 
his departure and his secrecy. They removed their tents, much as 
an Arabian family changes its abode at this day from valley to valley. 
Rachel took with her the tcraphim of Laban ; and concealed them, at 



RACHEL. 35 

the expense of truth, both from him and from her husband. Possibly, 
she wished to prevent the Idolatry of her father. Possibly, she took 
them for the gold or silver, and deemed it but a part of the payment 
due for the long services of Jacob. But, more probably she was not 
quite emancipated from all regard for those gods whom the fathers of 
the Hebrews had worshipped " on the other side of the flood." Some 
remnant of such superstition, in that age, must not destroy our belief 
in the piety of Rachel. The second commandment had not yet been 
proclaimed from Mount Slnal. Her deceit, too, like those of Abra 
ham, of Isaac, and of her own Jacob, is to be construed under the 
recollection that civil or ecclesiastical society as yet existed but 
imperfectly ; that the obligation of truth, which rests upon the prin 
ciple that, in all society, we are members one of another, was therefore 
imperfectly felt ; that it lacked the clearness of the revealed law ; and 
that, without that law, craft was the obvious defence of weakness 
against violence. These reflections may make us more lenient 
towards those actions of the Patriarchs which, had they lived under 
our completer revelation, would never have marred their high integ 
rity. 

At the ford of the brook of Jabbok, we once more catch the form 
of Rachel. She leads her young first-born by the hand ; and they, as 
the weakest and the most tenderly beloved, are the last of the train ; 
for, in the front is the host of Esau, and Jacob has gone before to 
expose himself first to the anger of his offended brother. But Esau 
has had no heart for vengeance ; he has fallen on the neck of the 
companion of his childhood ; and they have wept together. The 
train passes on before him ; the handmaidens and their children 
approach and bow; and Leah and her stripling sons; and last of all, 
Rachel and Joseph. What happier emotions ever softened the heart 
of man, than those of Esau, when he looked back on the fair proces- 



36 THE WOMEN OF THE BIBLE. 

sion after it had passed by, and as the beauty of Rachel and her 
sweet boy receded from his sight, rejoiced and blessed God that he 
had been able to forgive ! 

Only one of the sons of Jacob was born in the land of promise. 
It was that one whose birth was purchased by the life of his mother. 
But a little time had passed since the return of the patriarchal family, 
when Jacob w r as commanded to go up to Bethel, the spot where, when 
he fled, he planted his stony pillow as an altar. Before he took his 
journey towards that spot, he determined to purify his household from 
all traces of the errors which they might have learned in Mesopo 
tamia. At Bethel, he had vowed himself to the one true God, when 
he went into exile ; and now, returning to plant the altar of his 
prosperity on the same site, he desired to bring with him, pure and 
undefiled, those whom the Lord had given him. It is interesting to 
remember that one of the last acts of the life of Rachel must have 
been her participation in this solemnity. The images and ornamental 
amulets, all things which could be abused for idolatrous ends, were 
buried under the venerable oak in Shechem ; and Jacob and his 
household went up to Bethel, and there, a second time, he talked 
with God. 

At Bethel, the aged nurse of the mother of Jacob, a person now 
attached to his household, closed her long life, and was buried under 
an oak ; which, in the affectionate regard of patriarchal days for such 
relations, bore afterwards the name of " the oak of weeping." When 
the solemn rites for which they had gone up to Bethel were finished, 
they journeyed towards the south. Their road must have led them 
near the mountain of Moriah, the ancient seat of Melchizedek, the 
future city of the Holy One of Israel. They passed the ridge from 
which Jerusalem is seen to the north, and to the south the smiling 
valley of " Bethlehem the fruitful." The last prospect on which the 



RACHEL. 37 

eye of Rachel rested, was that which first met the infant sight of 
David, and that on which angels looked down when they sang, 
" Glory to God in the highest ; peace on earth, good will to men." 
She died fast by the valley where Jesus was born. 

There is no death like the death of the mother who dies that her 
child may live. That struggle of hopes and fears, of the brightest 
and tenderest hopes with the most fatal fears ; that struggle which, 
after a few hours, must close in such light and gladness, or in such 
blackness of sorrow, was seen at Bethlehem, at the couch of Rachel. 
The husband of her youth, after long toil and patience, had reached 
his own land ; had offered his sacrifices of thanksgiving ; had renewed 
his dedication ; had been reconciled to his hostile brother ; had sanc 
tified his household ; and now stood, surrounded by eleven noble 
sons, and ready to welcome the twelfth -- sons, amongst whom the 
promises to the seed of Abraham were to be divided in the wonderful 
future. What was wanting to the joy of Israel ? In that very hour, 
he was to drink the bitterest cup, perhaps, of all which made his days 
seem, when so long after he recalled them, not few only, but evil. 
Such is the glory of man. The memory of Rachel was to be, to all 
the descendants of Jacob, the shadow that steals over the noonday 
the perpetual remembrancer of the conditions of all earthly happi 
ness. 

" Son of my sorrow," was the name which the dying mother left 
to him whom, as if doubly endeared by the precious price which had 
purchased his existence, the mourning father called the " son of his 
right hand." For, like a man who has parted with his own right 
hand, and goes on towards the grave maimed, and comparatively 
helpless, Jacob left the descent of Ephrath. But first he erected a 
pillar at the grave of Rachel ; which, centuries after, when the Penta 
teuch was written, bore her name, and drew the tears of her posterity. 

6 



38 THE WOMEN OF THE BIBLE. 

That pillar has crumbled into dust ; but a later monument still marks 
the spot. Rachel, from her grave, seems to look towards Bethlehem 
and the coasts thereof; and, when the cry of many mothers was 
heard over the slaughter of their innocents by the sword of Herod, it 
was " Rachel weeping for her children, and refusing to be comforted." 
Of Benjamin little is left to us, except that to him the affectionate 
fondness of his father clung, when the envy of his elder sons had 
deprived him of Joseph. But in Joseph all the beauty of the mother, 
without her faults, was reflected, and there it shines in the most 
touching, delightful, and evangelical of all the narratives of the Old 
Testament. If such was the son, who can forbear to think that he 
inherited much, besides the attractiveness of his person, from the 
mother ; much from her character, from her example, from her 
prayers, even when she could no longer teach him the service of that 
God whom he served from his childhood ! Who, remembering her 
early graces, and seeing them again in her first-born, can avoid 
admitting the thought of the poet- 

" Oh, unless those eyes deceive, 
I may, I must, I will believe 
That she whose charms so meekly glow, 
Is, what she only seemed below, 
An Angel in that glorious realm 

Where God alone is King !" 

But from this history, uniting as it does all the reality of common 
life with all the beauty of a kind of sacred romance, we must not 
pass without adoring those counsels which alone contemplate the end 
from the beginning. That Israel might be a peculiar and a ransomed 
people, the type of the redeemed Church of God, they must go into 



RACHEL. 39 

Egypt. The greatness of Joseph must invite them to share his 
fortunes ; and that greatness must be prepared through their envy. 
So only could he be the fit representative of One who, exalted at the 
right hand of the Majesty on high, is there the first-born among 
many brethren. The envy of the ten patriarchs must be provoked by 
the partiality of Jacob ; and the partiality of Jacob must be fostered 
by the dear memory of her whom in his youth he had chosen. From 
that first pastoral scene by the well in Padan-aram, to the triumphant 
passage of the two millions through the Red Sea ; and onward to the 
day when salvation should be of the Jews, and the word of the Lord 
should go forth from Jerusalem ; and still onward to the glories of 
the latter days and of eternity, all is one wondrous chain, in which 
no link could be wanting. When all the saints shall " stand in their 
lot at the end of the days," and " the tomb of Ephrath" shall give up 
its dead, we shall better understand how weakness and strength, 
affection and bitterness, the wrath of man and forgiving love, long life 
and early death, orphanage and parental tenderness, captivity and the 
splendor of thrones, all could be so fastened together that all should 
alike fulfil the one design of mercy, and should give glory to God 
and to the Lamb. 



POTIPHAR S WIFE. 

POTIPHAR S WIFE ! And what can be said of her ? What claims 
has she to a place in a portrait gallery like the present ? What was 
her distinction, that she has been chosen to appear among the remark 
able women of old ? You may well ask the question, gentle reader, 
but I cannot answer it : " the powers that be " have concluded to 
bring her forward. They have had her likeness taken, and so we 
must make the most of her. Where shall we find our material ? It 
would not be well to let fancy fill up the outlines of her story as we 
read it in the sacred page, and the story itself, in these days of 
delicacy " double refined," might not be thought altogether the thing. 

Potiphar s wife was a memorable woman indeed, but in no way 
remarkable. She will ever be remembered as a link in the mysterious 
chain of God s decrees, in which evil willingly, yet unwittingly, does 
its part. She was one of the myriad wheels in the infinite machinery 
of an all-controlling Providence ; and in that way was of importance 
in her unconscious relations, but of utter insignificance in herself. 
Hence, and hence only, her position in the Bible ; not because of 
any thing extraordinary in her conduct or character, but because of 
the extraordinary virtue she was the means undesignedly of calling 
into action, and on which such momentous consequences depended in 
the fortunes of the ancient Church. 



42 THE WOMEN OF THE BIBLE. 

She was memorable too for her great wickedness; but then it 
was wickedness of a very ordinary kind. She was not bad in any 
startling, or daring, or monstrous way, which might invest her with 
the interest of heroism : she but acted the part of thousands like her, 

if indeed there have been thousands to sustain the other part of the 

drama. To tempt a virtuous youth to persevere in her seductions 

when disappointed to resolve on revenge to bring the object of 

her vile passion into trouble, by charging upon him the guilt that lay 
wholly with herself all this, from beginning to end, was but a course 
of procedure quite familiar to persons of her description. There was 
nothing in it to individualize her nothing to make her stand out in 
bold relief in any of the niches of fame, or rather of infamy. She was 
simply the genus gcneralissimum of a miserable class of sinners. 

But her cunning was not that a marked feature in her cha 
racter ? Hardly, for it was no more than the universal tact at 
inventing falsehood : and who, among the dullest of the dull, is not 
equal to that ? The old serpent was the original falsifier ; of course 
his brood, of whatever species, will possess something of his charac 
teristic cunning. The father of liars generally endows his offspring 
with a portion of his wit. We indeed speak of stupid devils, but even 
these in the arts of fiction are often singularly smart. A genius for 
lying is perhaps the commonest gift of the wicked one the ordinary 
inspiration, we might call it, of the devil. 

The Egyptian adulteress, as she appears in the plate prefixed 
to this article, or rather this apology for an article, does not appear in 
a very fascinating form. The artist has refused her any of the 
winning charms of her sex. In this he deserves commendation. We 
naturally associate vice with uncomeliness : it is one of our moral 
instincts, which the creations of the painter or the poet ought never 
to violate ; their ideal should be ever loyal to virtue. And yet, on 



POTIPHAR S WIFE. 43 

the other hand, had the artist followed the Persian legends, which 
represent their Zuleika (the name they give this personage) as 
surpassingly beautiful, he would impliedly have done more justice to 
Joseph ; for if the original resembled his picture, if such was her 
wanton and vulgar mien, verily the young Hebrew was in no great 
peril of losing his heart. 

The oriental poets, we are told, also expatiate on the excellence 
and integrity of the incorruptible Israelite, whom, in point of personal 
attractions, they celebrate as the Adonis of the East for which 
they are not without support in sacred w r rit. While Tom Moore can 
only sneer at " Joseph s coldness," Mohammed makes his purity the 
theme of eloquent eulogium in one of the finest chapters of the Koran. 
Now, were that our subject, there would be something to descant 
upon ; for that was no commonplace goodness : there was true 
greatness there was heroism. Though Potiphar s wife was no 
heroine, Potiphar s steward was a hero. His was the stern excel 
lence which Greeks and Romans have extolled. When conscience 
alone casts a frown, to refuse the enticements of illicit love ; when 
the siren besets the ardor of youth with her witching song, for youth 
to turn its ardor to Heaven, and say, " How shall I do this great 
wickedness, and sin against God ?" when pleasure arrays her charms 
to the eye entrances the ear with her dulcet notes sheds her per 
fumes on the air, leading all the senses spell-bound; then for the 
soul, unmoved amid all, to see only "Him who is invisible" to hear 
distinctly the " still small voice within" -is a measure of the adamant 
virtue which makes martyrs and confessors. Alas ! for the times, 
when the continence of a Joseph might fail of admiration ; when chas 
tity, the pearl of the soul, is deemed an ornament only of the weaker 
sex ; when the boy, scarce outgrown his teens, must needs quench 
the grace of purity in mortal sin, to prove his claims to manliness ! 



44 THE WOMEN OF THE BIBLE. 

Away with the fashionable morals which bind a law of God, the 
dearest of all his laws to the commonwealth, on woman, but not on 
man ! A curse on the licentious literature which assumes as granted 
the profligate distinction ; which with its bold sentiments, and its 
scenes, rejecting the veil of modesty, stimulates the young of one 
sex to premature vice, and so defiles the imaginations of the other, 
that while their innocence is saved by the demands of society, they 
scarce have virgin souls. The pestilence infects our moral atmo 
sphere. It invades the domestic hearth. Aside of this very volume, 
on the centre-table of a Christian parlor, there may be lying the 
loose novel, or the foul journal perchance, too, gloated over by 
some reader, who shall affect to criticise remarks like these, as 
wanting in delicacy ! 



PHARAOH S DAUGHTER. 

Take this child away, and nurse it for me, and I will give thee thy wages. EXOD. ii. 9. 

IT is noon upon the Nile. A Hebrew woman wanders there, and 
weeps. She gathers of the bulrushes that wave upon its brink, and 
wets her burthen with her tears. It is Jochebed, Amram s wife, the 
mother of Miriam and of Aaron ; and, as yet, of one dearer than 
both, the secret child of silence and of sorrow. Pharaoh has charged 
his people, that every son, born of a Hebrew mother, shall be 
drowned. The goodly infant has been hid three months. The next 
day, inquisition will be made in every Hebrew house ; and even a 
mother s love will not suffice to save him. Alas, alas, Jochebed ! 

It is midnight on the Nile. A mourning mother weeps upon her 
babe. She has arrayed him in his choicest robe. She has lavished 
upon him the rarest of her store. She has fed him, for the last time, 
from her bursting breast. She has lulled him, for the last time, to his 
serene repose. She has imprinted her last kiss upon his brow. She 
has lent it the consecration of her tears. And, with a mother s trust, 
that so much innocence and so much loveliness cannot be quite 
forsaken of her God, she lays the frail and buoyant ark, which her 
own hands have framed, with blessings upon every joint, in the tall 
flags, beside the river s brink. Alas, alas, Jochebed ! 

7 



46 THE WOMEN OF THE BIBLE. 

It is morning on the Nile. Upon the river s side, a royal maiden 
loiters, with her virgin train. They lave their shrinking feet in the 
cool stream. They launch the sacred lotus on its wave. In frolic 
mirth, they toss its silver spray. The thoughtful princess, as she 
wanders by herself, descries the floating ark. She sends for it. She 
opens it. She sees the child. It weeps. She has a woman s heart, 
and it is melted at the infant s tears. She has a woman s heart, and 
it takes in, at once, the whole sad tale of Hebrew slavery and suffer 
ing. Alas, alas, Jochebed ! 

But, when was faith forsaken ? When were the sacred tears, with 
which a mother bathed her child, unnoticed of the Lord ? When 
were a mother s prayers not heard ? A sister s heart had yearned 
upon the babe. She saw the ark, where it was laid. She stood 
aside, to watch its fate ; and, when the royal maid had found and 
rescued it, she was at hand, with love s instinctive promptitude, to 
seek and find a nurse. " Then said his sister to Pharaoh s daughter, 
Shall I go, and call to thee a nurse of the Hebrew women, that she 
may nurse the child for thee ? And Pharaoh s daughter said to her, 
Go. And the maid went, and called the child s mother." Was ever 
poet s dream to equal this ? W T as ever mother s grief so turned to 
joy ? Was ever woman s heart so filled and overflowed with glad 
ness ? " And Pharaoh s daughter said unto her, Take this child 
away, and nurse it for me, and I will give thee thy wages. And the 
woman took the child" it is the child himself that makes the 
record, with a simplicity that only nature s self could be contented 
with, and art would overdo, and spoil " the woman took the child, 
and nursed it." Joy, joy to Jochebed ! 

What a lesson of the vicissitudes of life ! Amram and Jochebed 
were of the priestly line of Levi. Their lot was cast in the serene 
and guarded precincts of the house of God ; where, if on earth, 



PHARAOH S DAUGHTER. 47 

contentment should be found. Blessings had multiplied upon their 
love. The thoughtful Aaron and the joyous Miriam were as olive 
branches at their side, and soon another was to smile upon their joy. 
But Israel is too prosperous for Egypt. The blessings which God 
sends upon His captive children move the envy of their masters. 
They make their lives bitter with hard bondage ; and when they 
prosper still the more for their afflictions, the decree is passed that 
every man-child shall be slain. Then, with what new anxiety is 
nature s trial-hour expected ! Then, with what dread, that quickens 
every pulse into a nerve, the issue apprehended ! Then, what a pang, 
to crush the heart of father and of mother, the tidings, that should, 
else, be full of joy ! And what a record, that, of slavery and of shame ; 
" when she saw him, that he was a goodly child, she hid him three 
months." So little is man s estimate of life to be relied on. So do 
its choicest blessings become fountains, to the heart, of care, solici 
tude, and sorrow. 

What a lesson of the providence of God ! Behold that fragile 
ark, twined, by a woman s hand, of bulrushes, and daubed with slime 
and pitch. See it deposited among the flags, upon the river s brink. 
Think of the swellings of the Nile. Think of the prowling wolves 
and ravening hyenas. Think of the treacherous crocodile. Consider 
that the tenant of that frail receptacle, exposed to such variety of 
deaths, is an infant of but three months old. How speedy, how 
inevitable the destruction ! But, no ! It may not be. That sleeping 
child is God s deliverer, for captive Israel. And Noah was not safer, 
when his ark of gopher-wood was made the refuge of a race, than 
Moses, in his ark of bulrushes. And, by what wondrous means ! 
The footsteps of a royal princess, and her train, are turned, that 
moment, towards the guarded spot. The daughter of their oppressor 
becomes the saviour of the captive nation. Jochebed s son falls into 



48 THE WOMEN OF THE BIBLE. 

the only hands that could have rescued him from death. Her daugh 
ter is at hand, to shape the wonderful result. And the poor trembler, 
that had laid him in what seemed to be his coffin, is the same that, 
trembling even more, for love and joy, now takes him from his hiding- 
place, to nurse him for the daughter of a king. How can we ever 
doubt, with cases such as this before us, that every thing is possible 
with God ? What too small for His considerate mercy, or too great 
for His almighty power? He calleth the stars by their names. And 
yet, He numbereth every hair of every head. 

And what a lesson of the security of faith ! It was a bold 
venture, to disregard the king s commandment, and hide the child 
three months ; but it was made in faith, St. Paul has taught us, and 
so was safe. It was a bold venture, to commit a helpless infant, in a 
frail basket, to the waters of the Nile ; but it was done in faith, and 
it was safe. Nay, it was more than safe. Not only was it so, that 
Moses should be saved alive ; Jochebed, by the royal pleasure, made 
the nurse of her own son ; and joy and gladness shed upon the dark 
ened house of Amrarn. It was only so to speak, as men can see 
that Moses could be fully fitted for his high and sacred trust. How 
else could he be " learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians ?" How 
else could he achieve that glory, which St. Paul ascribes to him, of 
disinterested virtue, in refusing, when he came to years, " to be called 
the son of Pharaoh s daughter ?" How else could he set forth that 
noble pattern of unpurchasable patriotism, in " choosing rather to 
suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of 
sin for a season?" How else could he have reached that loftiest 
height of Christian perfectness, in " esteeming the reproach of Christ 
greater riches than the treasures of Egypt ;" as the Apostles, beaten 
for the Cross, "rejoiced that they were counted worthy to suffer 
shame for His name ?" The ventures of true faith are thus transcend- 



PHARAOH S DAUGHTER. 49 

ent triumphs. To suffer with Christ is to reign with Him. His Cross 
insures His crown. " Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee 
a crown of life." 

I might pursue, almost without a limit, my enumeration of the 
lessons, which this speaking scripture teaches. But your own hearts 
will suggest them : and God will bless your thoughtful meditations on 
His holy word, to the increase of wisdom and the furtherance of faith. 
In what remains, I rather dwell upon a single aspect of the story ; and 
briefly follow, to some portion of its just conclusions, the language of 
the text ; " Take this child away, and nurse it for me, and I will give 
thee thy wages." 

It suggests the helplessness of little children. Nothing living is so 
helpless as a little child. "It is crushed before the moth." The first 
thought that comes with it, anticipated long before, is that of the 
Egyptian Princess ; of a nurse, of watching, and of care. And how 
much it calls for ! And for how long ! To be fed ; to be tended ; to 
be cared for, in a thousand ways : awake, asleep, in sickness, in 
health. Is there a trust more sacred, is there an office more delicate, 
is there a responsibility more serious, than that which the word, 
nurse, implies and comprehends ? Happiest, and holiest, and surest 
of a blessing, when, like favored Jochebed, the mother is the nurse. 
And, for the wages, which the royal maiden promised ! If toil, and 
care, and pain, and watching, and anxiety, that never intermits, and 
cannot be relieved, or delegated, or divided, be the mark, what could 
be equal to the task ? While, if the heart be in it, and its life be love, 
what over-payment, in ten thousand ways, of all that love can prompt, 
and life can yield ! The rounding limb ; the opening feature ; the 
elastic spring ; new speculation in the eye ; new music in the dove- 
like cooing of the inarticulate voice ; new gleamings of the mind ; 
new openings to the heart; new glimpses of the spiritual and the 



50 THE WOMEN OF THE BIBLE. 

immortal. How gracious and benign the providential ordering, that 
makes "little children" types to us of Heaven; and draws us by 
them, as with cords of love, towards a purer and a better world ! 
" Verily, I say unto you, whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of 
God as a little child, he shall not enter therein." 

But full of tenderness, and high in sacred trust, as is the nurture 
of the infant, it is but the shadow of that which falls upon the heart 
of parents, teachers, pastors, in the training of the child. There 
cannot be a text more pregnant, more impressive, more exacting, than 
those words of holy Paul to the Ephesian parents : " bring them up 
in the nurture and admonition of the Lord." They tell us of the soul. 
They tell us of its fearful alienation from the God who made it. 
They tell us of the obstacles which hinder its return ; of the tenden 
cies within, by which it gravitates towards eternal ruin ; of the 
unseen foes, which from the cradle dog its track, and to the grave 
pursue their prey. They tell us that, as the harvest, so is the garner ; 
as the seed-time, so the harvest ; as the spring, so the full circle of 
the eternal year. And, if they left us thus, they would pronounce a 
blessing upon childlessness, and make the grave more gracious for 
our children than the cradle. But the divine Creator knows our 
frame, and cares for all its wants. He leaves us not uncomforted, in 
any of the trusts and trials which He lays upon our hearts. In every 
duty and in every danger of our lives, He meets us with His love. 
The " blessings of the breasts and of the womb " are blessings, which 
take in the soul, and go with it into eternity. None of His promises 
are more explicit than those which sanction the religious care of 
children. His praise of Abraham turns expressly on his domestic 
piety : " I know him, that he will command his children and his 
household after him ; and they shall keep the way of the Lord, to do 
justice and judgment." Nothing can be more positive than that 



PHARAOH S DAUGHTER. 51 

which he declares by Solomon ; " Train up a child in the way he 
should go ; and when he is old he will not depart from it." And the 
benign and gracious Saviour, while He won, by every charm and 
charity of love, the " little children " to Himself, opened a world of 
comfort and encouragement, to hearts of parents, and of teachers, and 
of pastors, in those mysterious words : " I say unto you, in heaven, 
their angels always do behold the face of my Father which is in 
heaven." 

The Christian parent, that desires salvation for his children, need 
not greatly fear. God has provided, in His Church, all needful helps 
and means, to gain, through grace, that great and gracious end. 
There stands the Font, with its regenerating wave, to wash him from 
his primal sin, and give him back, new-born, " of water and of the 
Spirit." There ever sounds, in tones of ancient piety, a mother s 
voice in her dear children s ears, the simple yet majestic Catechism. 
There, at the chancel-rail, the Pastor of the pastors waits, with hands 
outstretched, to hear the meek renewal of his infant vows, and sign 
him with the seal of the Divine and Holy Spirit, and commend him to 
the cares, and toils, and trials of the life that lies before him, with the 
blessing of the Holy One. There, in the bread and wine which He 
ordained and blessed, the Saviour gives Himself to every faithful 
heart. There, the life-giving word is ever vocal, with its lessons of 
truth, its counsels of wisdom, and its promises of peace. There, in a 
voice that rolls up, round and full, from the deep caverns of the past, 
the faith delivered once to the old saints is uttered, in the creeds, 
which martyrs moistened with their blood. There, in a ceaseless 
round, the prayers are offered, which have promise, from the gracious 
One, who comes wherever " two or three " are gathered in His name, 
of answer and fulfilment. And, from every consecrated stone, and 
every sacred spot, and every word of faith, and penitence, and praise, 



52 THE WOMEN OF THE BIBLE. 

as from His garment s hem, when in the flesh, virtue comes forth, to 
heal, to strengthen, and to bless, to all who kneel to Him, in meek, 
obedient faith. Only be faithful, my beloved brethren, in your use of 
these divine provisions, for the training of your children in the way in 
which they ought to go, and He will make His promise sure. Only 
bring up your children " in the nurture and admonition of the Lord," 
and He will take and own them, to be His forever. " Take this child 
away," He says, who gave it to you first, " and nurse it for me, 
and I will give thee thy wages." But you must nurse it for God, 
you must nurse it for immortality, you must nurse it for heaven. 
You must bring it up " in the nurture and admonition of the Lord." 

And, for myself, to whom so many parents have intrusted the 
nurslings of their love,* the Church still seems to say to me, with 
every lamb of Jesus, that is gathered here, to tend and feed, " Take 
this child away, and nurse it for me, and I will give thee thy wages." 
Wages, it may be, of toil ; wages, it may be, of care ; wages, it may 
be, of difficulty ; wages, it may be, of disappointment ; wages, it may 
be, of debt ; wages, it may be, of old age before the time ; wages, it 
may be, of an anticipated grave. But, welcome toil, and care, and 
difficulty, and disappointment, and debt, and old age, and the grave, 
so I can nurse these children, for the Lord ; and, when He comes 
again, to seek His lambs, and take them, to be with Him, in His 
heavenly Fold, can stand, and say, " Behold I, and the children which 
God hath given me !" 

ST. MARY S CHURCH, BURLINGTON, 
Eighth Sunday after Trinity, August 13, 1848. 

There are nearly three hundred children in training at St. Mary s Hall, and 
Burlington College ; besides the children of the Sunday School and Parish School. 



DEBORAH. 

DOUBTLESS, if Deborah had lived in our day, and been an Ameri 
can, the people would have elected her for President of the United 
States. There is such a madness in the world after military glory, 
that nothing but her piety and poetry, with her hatred of slavery, 
would have prevented her political success. 

And yet, the glory of Deborah was no part of it military, except 
that her course of conduct arose out of faith, which is essentially the 
main point in the character of a Christian warrior. She aroused and 
animated Barak to the fight, but led it not herself, and only reported 
the commands of God. Barak s faith, at first, seemed mainly to have 
been in Deborah ; Deborah s faith was in God. Barak relied upon 
her, almost as if she were in the place of God : " If thou wilt go with 
me, then I will go ; but if thou wilt not go with me, then I will not 
go." This was straightforward and decided, though looking a little 
like trusting in an arm of flesh. Perhaps, however, the cause of this 
may be found not in any deficiency of Barak s own faith in God, nor 
in any undue reliance upon Deborah ; but in the fact of her known 
vast influence over all Israel, as the Lord s acknowledged prophetess 
and constituted judge over the people, whom her presence would 
greatly encourage to gather together at Kedesh, to go out against the 
enemy. Barak probably felt that without the sanction and animating 

8 



54 THE WOMEN OF THE BIBLE. 

power of her co-operation, he would not have been able to gather his 
ten thousand men from Zabulon and Naphtali. So she left her tent 
beneath the palm-tree, and went down with Barak to Kedesh. There 
she probably remained in prayer, while he went forth with the men of 
Zabulon and Naphtali to the conflict. 

Barak relied upon Deborah, because he knew that God himself 
spake by her and guided her, and all Israel knew that in her dwelt 
the wisdom and Spirit of the Lord. Her office, in this case, was 
simply to communicate God s commands. And she did it with such 
an enthusiastic earnestness of determination to have them obeyed, 
that not only the command went from her, but the obedient impulse 
with it. She did it with a sublimity and energy of purpose and feel 
ing, a decision of character, a rapidity, heartiness, and power of faith, 
that made hers the animating mind, while Barak the warrior simply 
executed her plan for the conflict. It is good to see the mingled fire 
of piety and patriotism so pure and bright in her own soul, and the 
energetic impulse it communicated to others. It was the undoubting, 
unhesitating nature of her faith, the Lord had thus given her 
dominion over the mighty, combined with the inevitable influence 
which an imaginative and heroic mind would wield over common 
ones, that made her authority so absolute. When the time came for 
action, there could be no delay : " Up ! this is the day. Is not the 
Lord gone out before thee ? Arise, Barak, and lead thy captivity 
captive !" What an energetic, whirlwind style of prophetic enthu 
siasm and command ! Barak could not resist it, but went forth with 
his ten thousand men, no longer demanding the presence of Deborah, 
but relying upon that of God. And, in this reliance upon God, they 
gained a complete victory. The faith of Barak followed that of 
Deborah, being assured of God s presence through her. 

Now it is somewhat singular that among the names celebrated in 



DEBORAH. 55 

the eleventh chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews, we find that of 
Barak, but not that of Deborah. How are we to account for this ? 
We rather think it is because, in the case of Barak, the instance 
is a remarkable one of a mind " out of weakness made strong," by 
the power of faith sustaining it ; whereas, in the case of Deborah, 
the faith being that of a person a long while honored with direct 
communications from God, its particular exercise in that immediate 
juncture was not so very remarkable, although the degree of habitual 
faith in her may have been much greater than in Barak. Her whole 
life had been one of faith, so that she was a mother in Israel, and at a 
special crisis like this a great faith was demanded and expected in her 
as a matter of course : but with Barak it was different ; in him it was 
an extraordinary development. Deborah s natural endowments were 
greater than Barak s ; and her discipline for years having been that of 
such direct communion with God, it had been a shame indeed if she 
had not, at such a time as this, possessed and manifested a great 
faith. Of her it might be said that out of habitual faith she was made 
strong. Whereas, in the case of Barak, the example was that of a 
person perhaps naturally timid and distrustful, but now, out of that 
habitual weakness, raised to such a strength of faith, as made it a fit 
instance for tho^divine record. It was the grace and power of the 
Divine Spirit in a new and unexpected display. The development of 
character in both these cases is exceedingly natural and interesting. 

And now comes the great song of praise and triumph one of the 
sublimest pages of poetry within the compass of the Scriptures. It is 
the only war-song in existence that has the divine mingled with the 
human, the very deepest and sweetest spirit of grateful piety with the 
loftiest temper of patriotism and martial enthusiasm. Its sublime 
apostrophes, its bursts of feeling, its rapid and startling changes of 
thought, its lightning-like descriptions, its comprehensive historic 



56 THE WOMEN OF THE BIBLE. 

allusions, its questionings, its solemn adjurations, its benedictions, its 
grandeur of faith in God and gratitude to him, all make it one of the 
most extraordinary compositions in the Bible. If we should consider it 
as an effort of human genius, it would be unrivalled ; there is nothing 
to be compared with it in the world of literature. And how noble, 
how religious, how beautiful its close ! " So let all thine enemies 
perish, O Lord : but let them that love Him be as the sun when he 
goeth forth in his might !" 

The land had rest, after this, forty years; and probably before 
the revival of the spirit of devotion in the people had utterly ceased, 
Deborah was buried beneath the palm-tree, where the bones of the 
beloved nurse of Rebekah were resting. But the very next chapter 
begins with the old record of depravity : " And the children of Israel 
did evil in the sight of the Lord." Neither mothers nor fathers in 
Israel could create for another generation the spirit of obedience and 
love. 

The case of Deborah shows what strong faith and habitual deep 
piety in a single woman may do for the Church of God, and even for 
a whole nation. It may possibly do more, at the present period in 
the world s history, than ever before. It does not need an appoint 
ment to the office of a prophet, nor the exercise of public gifts, nor 
the commanding genius of a poet, but a patient, earnest, persever 
ing spirit of faith and prayer. The unseen interpositions of God in 
answer to prayer may be more and greater than those that are seen. 
They are not now chronicled as of old in a divine record, and thus 
made to shine out in the notice of all mankind, observable, unde 
niable ; nevertheless, they may be just as real as those recorded in 
the Scriptures, which are indeed but solitary examples of what God 
is constantly doing. Here and there the supernatural agencies by 
which God works are made visible, to keep the fire of our faith burn- 



DEBORAH. 57 

ing, and to prevent us from losing sight of God in common things. 
Faith and prayer may be answered daily, though the chain of connec 
tion between God and us may not be visible. When God, by his 
Spirit, abides remarkably in a holy soul, that soul, though its taber 
nacle may be as lowly as the poor widow s, who glided in and out 
with her two mites among the rich men at the Jewish treasury, 
occupies the place of a prophetess, and divine impulses from God 
may be communicated to her, and announced in her, in answer to 
prayer, as truly as in the case of the wife of Lapidoth. 



JEPHTHAH S DAUGHTER. 

THERE is a touching and fearful interest in the brief narrative 
connected with Jephthah s daughter. In the manner characteristic of 
Sacred Scripture, it gives a simple statement of facts and circum 
stances without ornament, or impassioned comments and appeals to 
excite attention or inspire interest. Leading facts alone are stated, 
and important points unfolded, while minuter incidents bearing upon 
the clearer development of character, and furnishing the links in the 
train of the drama, are passed over. Thus the mind of the reader is 
left to curious conjecture, and the spirit is drawn out under strong 
imaginative influence in seeking to supply what is withheld or con 
cealed. There is also in the facts recorded much that is anomalous, 
and singular, apparently inconsistent with, or not readily explained or 
illustrated by, the genius, rites, or institutions of the Hebrew econ 
omy. We therefore do not receive that help from the comparison of 
scripture with scripture, and other aids usually connected therewith, 
in solving the difficulties found in this historical passage. The ques 
tions, What was the precise nature of Jephthali s vow ? How was it 
fulfilled? &c., have exercised the critical acumen and skill of many 
of the learned in careful investigation and extended discussion, leaving 
the subject still within the province of mere probability. On this 
account it has been termed a crux criticorum. Cut amidst all the 



60 THE WOMEN OF THE BIBLE. 

uncertainty which may attend the interpretation of parts of the narra 
tive, there is enough to stamp importance upon it, and to invest it 
with peculiar interest. Important moral and spiritual lessons are 
involved in it. Painful as is the impression produced by the thought 
of the young, lovely, and only daughter sacrificed at the hands of her 
father in the fulfilment of a rash and unlawful vow, yet, under that 
impression, relief is at once borne home as we sympathize with the 
spirit and mark the conduct of the destined victim, and we acknow 
ledge Jephthah s daughter as one of the heroines of Scripture, in the 
best and most appropriate sense of the term. 

The facts simply set forth in the short narrative are these. 
Jephthah was the ninth Judge of Israel. He was the illegitimate son 
of Gilead of the tribe of Manasseh. After the death of his father, the 
lawful sons expelled him from his home, and he withdrew to the land 
of Tob, beyond the frontier of the Hebrew territories. It is evident 
that he had distinguished himself by daring, skill, and prowess in 
arms, so that men of varied fortunes resorted to him, and he engaged 
in border warfare, confining his aggressions to the borders of the 
small neighboring nations, who were in some degree considered as 
the natural enemies of Israel, when there was no actual war between 
them. The times and circumstances in which Jephthah lived, the 
influences under which he was placed in his early training and subse 
quent course, and the occupations in which he was engaged, should 
all be taken into account as we follow the train of the narrative. 
After the death of Jair, the Israelites fell into idolatry, and were 
punished by subjection to the Philistines on the west of Jordan, and 
to the Ammonites on the east. The oppression which they sustained 
for eighteen years became at length so heavy, that they were led, in 
deep humiliation, to return to the God of their fathers, who graciously 
gave them promise of deliverance from their affliction. The tribes 



JEPHTHAH S DAUGHTER. Gl 

beyond Jordan having resolved to oppose the Ammonites, Jephthah 
seems to occur to every one as the most appropriate leader. A 
deputation was accordingly sent to invite him to take the command. 
He first reproached them with their expulsion of him from his father s 
house ; but on their repeated entreaties he offered to be their leader, 
if they would submit to him as their chief after the wars should be 
ended, to which they assented. The Ammonites being assembled for 
one of those ravaging excursions by which they frequently desolated 
the land, he sent to them a formal complaint of the invasion, and a 
demand of the ground of their proceedings. Their answer was, that 
the land of the Israelites was theirs ; that it had originally belonged 
to them, from whom it had been taken by the Amorites, who had 
been dispossessed by the Israelites ; and on these grounds they 
claimed the restitution of their lands. Jephthah laid down the princi 
ple, which has been adopted in the practice and incorporated into the 
law of nations since, that the land belonged to the Israelites by the 
right of conquest from the actual possessors, and that they could not 
be expected to recognize any antecedent claims of former possessors 
for whom they had not acted, who had rendered them no assistance, 
and who had themselves showed hostility against the Israelites. But 
the Ammonites reasserted their claims, and on this issue they engaged 
in the conflict. Before engaging in battle with the Ammonites, 
Jephthah, in a most solemn manner, vowed a vow unto the Lord, to 
be fulfilled in the result of a victory granted to him over the enemy. 
This brings us to the affecting and thrilling incidents connected with 
Jephthah s daughter. We quote the passage from Scripture : 



" And Jephthah vowed a vow unto the Lord, and said, If thou shall without fail 
deliver the children of Ammon into my hands, then it shall be, that whatsoever cometh 
fortli of the doors of my house to meet me, when I return in peace from the children of 
9 



62 THE WOMEN OF THE BIBLE. 

Ammon, shall surely be the Lord s, and I will offer it up for a burnt-offering. So 
Jephthah passed over unto the children of Ammon, to fight against them, and the Lord 
delivered them into his hands. And he smote them from Aroer, even till thou come 
to Minnith, even twenty cities, and unto the plain of the vineyards, with a very great 
slaughter. Thus the children of Ammon were subdued before the children of Israel. 
And Jephthah came to Mizpeh unto his house, and behold, his daughter came out to 
meet him with timbrels and with dances : and she was his only child ; beside her he had 
neither son nor daughter. And it came to pass, when he saw her, that he rent his 
clothes, and said, Alas, my daughter ! thou hast brought me very low, and thou art one 
of them that trouble me ; for I have opened my mouth unto the Lord, and I cannot go 
back. And she said unto him, My father, if thou hast opened thy mouth unto the Lord, 
do to me according to that which hath proceeded out of thy mouth ; forasmuch as the 
Lord hath taken vengeance for thee of thine enemies, even of the children of Ammon. 
And she said unto her father, Let this thing be done for me : let me alone two months, 
that I may go up and down upon the mountains, and bewail my virginity, I and my 
fellows. And he said, Go. And he sent her away for two months: and she went with 
her companions, and bewailed her virginity upon the mountains. And it came to pass, 
at the end of two months, that she returned unto her father, who did with her according 
to his vow which he had vowed. And it was a custom in Israel, that the daughters of 
Israel went yearly to lament the daughter of Jephthah the Gileadite four days in a 
year/ JUDGES xi. 30-40. 



The first inquiry which arrests the attention of the mind respects 
the nature and import of Jephthah s vow. The general nature of a vow 
is that of a promissory oath, referring to future service and duty. 
Sometimes vows were of a more general character, and at other times 
more specific, in return for some benefit sought and received. They 
were very common under the Old Testament dispensation. In case 
of danger, difficulty, and distress, the pious at that period, in seeking 
protection and deliverance, offered vows unto God, that, if the desired 
benefits should be bestowed, certain services stipulated would be 
rendered. Thus Jacob, when he went forth an exile from his father s 



J E P H T H A H S DAUGHTER. 63 

house, after the remarkable vision of the ladder reaching from earth 
to heaven, vowed a vow, saying, " If God will be with me, and will 
keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat, and 
raiment to put on, so that I come again to my father s house in peace, 
then shall the Lord be my God, and the stone, which I have set up 
for a pillar, shall be God s house." Of this God particularly reminded 
Jacob on his return, when he delayed, and failed to erect the altar at 
Bethel as God s house. Hannah vowed unto the Lord, when she 
asked a child from the Lord, and fulfilled that vow when she brought 

O 

the child Samuel to the sanctuary, and said, " I have lent him to the 
Lord ; as long as he liveth, he shall be lent to the Lord." We find 
the Israelites nationally vowing, when supplicating for victory over 
the Canaanites, Num. xxi. 2. Those vows of a general nature, in 
which we feel and express our cordial and unreserved subjection to 
his service, while the divine claims are enforced and impressed by a 
consideration of his providential and gracious favors, are warranted 
and sustained by the relations we bear to God, and are interwoven 
with the exercise and culture of the spiritual life. In this view they 
are perpetuated under the gospel, and are the appropriate exercise of 
every Christian. Of such vows the Psalmist speaks when he says, 
" What shall I render unto the Lord for all his benefits toward me ? 
I will take the cup of salvation, and call upon the name of the Lord. 
I will pay my vows now unto the Lord in the presence of all his 
people." Psalm cxvi. 12-14. And again, "Thy vows are upon me, O 
God ; I will render praises unto thee, for thou hast delivered my soul 
from death. Wilt thou not deliver my feet from falling, that I may 
walk before God in the land of the living?" Psalm Ivi. 12, 13. The 
vows peculiarly recognizing and pledging certain defined and parti 
cular services in return for benefits sought and received, though not 
wholly to be discouraged, must be carefully guarded, and always be 



64 THE WOMEN OF THE BIBLE. 

regulated by the clearly revealed will of God in his word, and be 
entirely compatible with the fulfilment of the whole circle of Christian 
duties. In their more specific form, binding to a peculiar service, 
these vows appear to have been in a measure appropriate to the Old 
Testament dispensation, and suited to its genius and spirit. In the 
opening and progress of the gospel dispensation, more spiritual and 
expansive in its character, those vows characterize her which spring 
from the power of Christian faith and love, and pledge fidelity to all 
his service, as illustrated by his word and indicated by his providence. 
Specific vows of a stipulated return for providential benefits, unless 
most carefully formed and entertained, may bring a snare. The 
fulfilment may be rendered impracticable, perhaps unjustifiable, or 
may interfere with the harmonious adjustment and discharge of every 
Christian duty. Still, events in the providence of God will lead to 
the consideration and discharge of particular duties as an expression 
of gratitude. A superstitious mind, or an evil heart and conscience, 
may pervert such vows. The influence of the superstitious mind 
occurred in the case of Jephthah, and that of an evil heart and con 
science in the case of the forty Jews who had bound themselves by 
an oath not to eat or drink till they had killed Paul. 

There were vows peculiarly prescribed under the Levitical dis 
pensation, and interwoven with its ceremonial, typical, and temporary 
character. Many of them are specified, and rules for commutation of 
the articles vowed are laid down in the twenty-seventh chapter of 
Leviticus. Jephthah vowed that " whatsoever cometh forth of the 
doors of my house to meet me, shall surely be the Lord s, and I will 
offer it up for a burnt-offering." " The two principal forms of vow 
were the cherem and the neder. The former denoted that the person 
or thing vowed unto the Lord was accursed, and thus devoted unto 
him, and could not be redeemed, Lev. xxvii. 28, and answered to the 



JEPHTHAH S DAUGHTER. 65 

anathema of the Septuagint and New Testament. When it respected 
persons and animals of any kind, it implied that they were devoted to 
destruction ; but when it respected things, it implied that they were 
either to be utterly consumed by fire, or to be forever devoted to the 
Lord for religious purposes. In its application to persons, it appears 
to have been applied to heathen, aliens, &c. ; nor do we any where 
read that the father of a family was ever authorized thus to anathe 
matize any of his household. The utter destruction of Jericho, with 
all that it contained except Rahab, was a striking instance of the 
cherem. There was a second kind of vow, of a milder character, 
termed neder (the word used in the original for the vow of Jephthah), 
by which one engaged to perform a particular act of piety, as for 
instance to bring an offering to God, or otherwise to dedicate any 
thing to him. The objects of this sort of vow were various, as clean 
and unclean beasts, lands, the tithes of lands, houses, and the person 
of the vower himself, of all of which we have an account in the 
twenty-seventh chapter of Leviticus. These various objects, with 
the exception of clean beasts, might be redeemed by paying at the 
rates and conditions prescribed in that chapter." (Bush.) Thus 
we see that the vow of Jephthah (being a neder) might have been 
redeemed by paying thirty shekels of silver, the valuation of a 
female. 

Human sacrifices were expressly forbidden by the law of Moses, 
and emphatically declared an abomination in the sight of God, as 
found among the heathen. Deut. xii. 31: "Thou shalt not do so 
unto the Lord thy God ; for every abomination to the Lord which he 
hateth have they done unto their gods ; for even their sons and their 
daughters have they burnt in the fire to their gods." It was one of 
the grand reasons assigned for driving out the Canaanites, that, 
among other abominations, they offered their sons and daughters to 



66 THE WOMEN OF THE BIBLE. 

Moloch. Human sacrifices were as expressly forbidden by the letter 
of the law as they are contrary to its spirit. If the vow of Jephthah 
involved and implied a human sacrifice, it was in the face of the 
express precept of the law, while proviso was made for the redemp 
tion of a person devoted by a vow, at an estimated price. Such a 
vow was therefore in its very conception unlawful, and duty required 
it to be at once renounced and broken. Yet when we regard the 
history, circumstances, and character of Jephthah, we may readily 
suppose that he may have been drawn away from the proper study of 
the laws and statutes of Israel. He was born at a time of great 
degeneracy was brought up beyond Jordan, at a distance from the 
tabernacle and was in constant contact with heathen tribes, so that 
he would become familiar with their idolatrous practices. He had 
been engaged in the tumults and conflicts of partisan warfare 
employments little adapted to remove imbibed prejudices, or restrain 
and purify evil affections. Superstition blinds the understanding, 
perverts the affections, and often becomes the parent of a reckless 
and bloody fanaticism ; while genuine religion sheds light in the 
mind, opens the fountain of love within the soul, and brings every 
blind prejudice and evil affection under the control of truth and love. 
On the supposition that Jephthah vowed and offered a human sacri 
fice, it only stands marked as his sin. Scripture throughout gives a 
simple statement of actions, and leaves us to apply the test of the law 
and the testimony. 

The words of Jephthah s vow have given rise to critical inves 
tigations and to different interpretations, of which there are three 
principal ones. The first strictly follows the words of the present 
standard version : " whatsoever cometh forth of the doors of my 
house," &c., " shall be the Lord s, and I will offer it up for a burnt- 
offering." This has a general reference to whatever might come out 



JEPHTHAH S DAUGHTER. 67 

ot the door of his house, whether human or brute beings, and is the 
interpretation given by Josephus, and the larger proportion of Jewish 
and Christian writers of the highest authority. The second interpre 
tation adopts the rendering, " whosoever cometh," &c., " I will offer 
him [or her] up for a burnt-offering." This supposes Jephthah to 
have had a human sacrifice directly in view, and is adopted by the 
Septuagint and Vulgate versions. The third follows the rendering in 
the margin of our English Bibles : "whatsoever cometh forth of the 
doors of my house," &c., " shall be the Lord s, OR I will offer it up 
for a burnt-offering." Here the copulative particle and is changed 
into the disjunctive or a meaning which the original sometimes 
possesses, and which relieves us from the unpleasant supposition of a 
human sacrifice. The comparison of various criticisms and com 
ments does not leave the subject entirely without perplexity, and only 
gives to the solution adopted one of high probability. The inference 
upon the whole, to our mind, is in favor of the first translation, which 
states that whatever came out of the door of his house to meet him, 
should be the Lord s, and he would offer it up for a burnt-offering. 
When he met coming out of the door of his house a human being, 
and that his only, beloved daughter, disappointment, surprise, and 
overwhelming grief seized upon him ; yet he felt constrained to fulfil 
the letter of his vow, and declared that, having opened his mouth 
unto the Lord, he could not go back. The succinct account of the 
meeting of Jephthah with his daughter, his exclamation, and her 
response, all seem to Indicate this, and cannot be well understood 
without such a reference. Her asking for two months reprieve 
appears grounded on the supposed forfeiture of life. We do not read 
in the Old Testament of any custom or institution connected with 
consecration to God, to give plausibility to the supposition that this 
was the alternative in the third or last translation referred to. 



68 THE WOMEN OF THE BIBLE. 

This brings before us JEPIITHAH AND HIS DAUGHTER IN THE 

TRYING SCENE OF THEIR MEETING AFTER HIS TRIUMPHANT RETURN 

FROM THE SCENE OF HIS VICTORIES. The sacred writer says of her, 
with great simplicity and pathos, " she was his only child ; beside 
her he had neither son nor daughter." Parental affection has a 
tender and powerful influence in the heart of man beyond any other, 
and He who indited the Sacred Scriptures, and framed the spirit of 
man, has represented it in various ways and with emphatic point in 
his word. When this feeling is concentrated on an only child, fair 
and lovely, on whom repose the hopes of the family, it gains an 
intensity. How expressive is the appeal in the command given to 
Abraham to offer up his son Isaac ! " Take now thy son, thine only 
son Isaac, whom thou lovest" It caused every fibre in his heart to 
quiver, while he was brought to yield to this test of his faith and 
obedience. How does every sympathetic feeling respond to the 
reference to the young man of Nain, who was raised from the dead ! 
" He was the only son of his mother, and she was a widow" We 
may imagine this daughter of Jephthah, this only child, in the very 
bloom of youth, with every budding virtue, conveying delight and 
inspiring hope to her fond parent. From the bustling scenes of con 
flict he retires to his home, where this only daughter is the centre of 
delightful regard, and the minister of comfort and enjoyment, and 
where her gentle spirit has a soothing and moulding influence upon 
the stern spirit of the warrior. He is now called to lead the armies 
of Israel against the Ammonites, and conduct them to victory, and 
procure their secure possession of their inheritance in the land. The 
daughter, in remembrance of the annals of her kindred and country, 
in attachment to the ordinances of their faith and worship, feels the 
emotions of patriotism and piety blending with strong filial affection, 
in inspiring an intense interest in the impending conflict. The part- 






JEPHTHAH S DAUGHTER. 69 

scene is one with which " a stranger could not intermeddle." 

o ~ 

With mutual embraces they bid adieu, and blend their prayers before 
the throne in prospect of the contest now to be met. The warrior 
goes forth : and in preparing himself and his armies for the battle, 
asks success from God, stipulates a rash vow blindly made and 
adhered to, the fruit of which he gathered in bitterness of spirit. In 

the meantime she cherished him in every thought and feeling. From 


day to day she anxiously awaits intelligence as to the result. At 

length the tidings reach her that Jephthah and the armies of Israel 
are crowned with victory, and that the triumph, in the full defeat of 
the enemy, is complete. Her spirit bounds high with joy, and her 
loving heart overflows with gratitude. " As a bride decketh herself 
with ornaments," so she attires herself, and proceeds to meet her 
father, now approaching in his triumphal train, " with timbrels and 
with dances." He draws near, and she comes forth out of the door 
of his house to meet him. She is ready to rush into his arms, when, 
behold ! he stops a dark cloud lowers over his brow, not of excited 
anger, but of deep, poignant distress. It darkens, bewilders, distresses 
him. His sad vow, so blindly and rashly taken, rushes with subduing 
power into his mind ; it turns his spirit into the gall of bitterness, and 
the fountains of joy into overwhelming grief, while with harrowing 
emotion he determinately adheres, in strong superstitious regard, to 
his disastrous vow, and says, " I have opened my mouth unto the 
Lord, and I cannot go back." Who can imagine the emotions of 
father and daughter in that hour? They must have failed to find 
expression at first. The inspired writer only touches upon the lead 
ing incidents, but in such a manner as to bear us into the sympathy 
of the scene. Wlien Jephthah finds utterance, with what inimitable, 
natural, and forcible simplicity and pathos does he speak ! " Alas, 
my daughter ! thou hast brought rne very low, and thoti art one of 

10 



70 THE WOMEN OF THE BIBLE. 

them that trouble me." What a transition has taken place in a 
moment ! From the high exultation of military success, and the 
honors that crowd upon him, he is fallen very low in the humiliation 
of an embittered spirit, as he contemplates his lovely daughter, and 
remembers his vow. She who was the joy and rejoicing of his heart, 
becomes the occasion of his severest trouble and agony of spirit. 
The only relief which he should have embraced, by breaking his 
unlawful vow, he refuses, and, in a mistaken regard to religious Obli 
gation, says, " I have opened my mouth unto the Lord, and I cannot 
go back." How often are sudden transitions from the brightest sun 
shine of prosperity to the darkest gloom of adversity, from the highest 
elevation of joy to the deepest dejection of woe, realized in human 
life ! " Let us not be high-minded, but fear." Guided by the word 
and upheld by the Spirit of God, let us pass on our way, in prosperity 
rejoicing with trembling, and in adversity cherishing submission and 
hope. 

We turn to the daughter. A space must have intervened, in 
which, after explanations given, and the discipline of the kindled and 
swelling emotions which heaved her soul, she became calmed, and 
was enabled, in filial devotion and pious resignation, to reply to her 
troubled and agonized parent. What transpired during that inter 
vening space within her own bosom, and in that conference, we can 
but faintly imagine. But the storm of conflicting emotions that raged 
within is now past, and amid the freely flowing tears, indicating the 
tenderness and force of her feelings, there appears the rainbow of 
peace beaming forth in her countenance. It marks the inward seren 
ity of spirit in meek acquiescence and settled preparation for the lot 
which awaited her. In the portrait prefixed, the countenance exhibits 
a touching expression of such a spirit. She now responds, " My 
father, if thou hast opened thy mouth unto the Lord, do to me 





JEPHTHAH S DAUGHTER. 71 

according to that which hath proceeded out of thy mouth ; foras 
much as the Lord hath taken vengeance for thee of thine enemies, 
even of the children of Ammon." She gratefully acknowledges the 
blessing her father had asked, victory over Ammon ; views the vow 
connected with it as if owned and recorded in heaven ; with filial 
affection and devotion seeks to relieve his troubled spirit, and calmly 
resigns herself to her appointed lot, only asking a delay for two 
months. There is a moral heroism displayed in the meek endurance, 
the patient suffering, the ever active and unwearied sympathies in the 
domestic and social spheres of life, far more impressive and valuable 
than the active energy and fearless courage of men in the bustling 
pursuits and strifes of life. We view Jephthah s daughter, and think 
of the " lamb led to the slaughter." WILLIS beautifully alludes to 
this scene in the course of his poem on Jephthah s daughter : 

" A moment more, 

And he had reached his home ; when, lo ! there sprang 
One with a bounding footstep and a brow 
Of light, to meet him. Oh, how beautiful ! 
Her dark eyes flashing like a sunlit gem, 
And her luxuriant hair twas like the ssveep 
Of a swift wing in visions, He stood still, 
As if the sight had withered him. She threw 
Her arms about his neck. He heeded not. 
She called him Father ! and he answered not. 
She stood, and gazed upon him. Was he wroth ? 
There was no anger in that bloodshot eye. 
Had sickness seized him ? She unclasped his helm, 
And laid her white hands gently on his brow ; 
And the large veins felt hard and stiff like cords. 
The touch aroused him. He raised up his hands, 
And spake the name of God in agony. 





T2 THE WOMEN OF THE BIBLE 

She knew that he was stricken then, and rushed 

Again into his arms, and with a flood 

Of tears she could not bridle, sobbed a prayer 

That he would breathe his agony in words. 

He told her, and a momentary flush 

Shot o er her countenance ; and then the soul 

O Jephthah s daughter wakened ; and she stood 

Calmly and nobly up, and said t was well, 

And she would die." 

After a reprieve of two months, it is said " that she returned unto 
her father, who did with her according to his vow which he had 
vowed : and she knew no man. And it was a custom in Israel, that 
the daughters of Israel went yearly to lament the daughter of Jeph- 
thah the Gileadite four days in a year." There is much conflicting 
opinion whether Jephthah did, after the return of his daughter, 
actually offer her in sacrifice. Many, who hold to the belief that the 
vow was viewed on this occasion, and perhaps originally intended, to 
apply to a human sacrifice, and that Jephthah s daughter yielded to 
the vow thus interpreted, and prepared herself as a voluntary victim, 
still come to the conclusion that the sacrifice was not finally accom 
plished. The words, " he did with her according to his vow which he 
had vowed," may be rendered more indefinitely, " he did to her his 
vow," which does not determine the precise mode of its fulfilment- 
Nothing is said as to the circumstances of the sacrifice, but there is 
immediately added a reference to her virginity. Where it is said that 
" the daughters of Israel went yearly to lament the daughter of Jeph 
thah the Gileadite," the word translated lament may be correctly 
rendered " to talk with" as in the margin of our English Bible, or to 
condole with her ; as, in this alternative, it is supposed she was con 
signed to perpetual virginity deemed, particularly among the Jews, 



JEPHTIIAH S DAUGHTER. 73 

an affliction. It may be well conceived that, during the two interven 
ing months, the subject of Jephthah s vow must have been publicly 
known and become the topic of general interest and conversation. 
The priests and interpreters of the law would in such a case have 
pronounced its original unlawfulness, and have referred to the stipu 
lated price of redemption. After a perusal of the criticism and 
discussion on this passage, the conclusion we reach does not go 
beyond a prevailing strong probability ; and we must be content to 
leave it in this position, without the indulgence of curious and unpro 
fitable conjecture. Whether the sacrifice was finally accomplished or 
not, the tenor of the narrative decisively indicates that at the meeting 
of Jephthah arid his daughter, on his return from the victory, his vow 
was viewed by both as devoting her in sacrifice, and that in this view 
she yielded herself a submissive and willing victim. 

In perusing the narrative before us, our minds are led to recall 
the history of the trial of Abraham, in being required to offer in 
burnt-offering his only, his beloved son Isaac. There are points of 
similarity and coincidence in these cases which present themselves, 
particularly in the meek, submissive, and affectionately filial spirit of 
the devoted victims. But there was one prominent, marked point of 
contrast between them. Jephthah s vow was voluntarily assumed, 
and pledged in the ardor of his feelings and hopes, when he sought of 
God success in the impending conflict. It was rashly made, not 
guided by knowledge, and contrary to the express law of the God of 
Israel. A superstitious and false sense of religious obligation prompt 
ed him, at least for a time, to adhere to his cruel and unlawful vow. 
Well might he have been addressed in the name of God, "Who hath 
required this at your hands ?" On the contrary, the plain, explicit, 
and peremptory command of Jehovah was laid upon Abraham, and it 
proved a severe trial of his faith and feelings, before he yielded obe- 



74 THE WOMEN OF THE BIBLE. 

dience. " By faith Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac, 
accounting that God was able to raise him up even from the dead, 
from whence also he received him in a figure." Heb. xi. 17. Won 
drous and impressive scene on Mount Moriah, holding forth in typical 
vision the sacrifice on that very spot, CALVARY, in the fulness of time, 
where God provided his only and beloved Son as " a lamb for burnt- 
offering." On Mount Moriah it was said to Abraham, " In the mount 

o 

of the Lord it shall be seen." It was seen w r hen the Lamb of God, 
his only begotten Son, giving up the ghost, said, " IT is FINISHED !" 
And now the Christian, with unwavering faith and unfailing consola 
tion, resting on this finished work of redemption, embraces God in 
Christ as JEHOVAH JIREH, the Lord will provide. 

The legend in profane history relating to Agamemnon and his 
daughter Iphigenia, is in its leading circumstances assimilated to this 
history of Jephthah and his daughter. Agamemnon, it is said, having 
incurred the displeasure of Diana, applied to the oracle, and was 
directed to offer his daughter Iphigenia in sacrifice. It is generally 
stated, in the different accounts of the tradition, that, as she was 
brought to the altar for that purpose, she disappeared, and was taken 
away, and a stag substituted in her place. Singularly, the name of 
Iphigenia answers to that of Jephthah s daughter. Iphi is akin to 
Jephthah, and genia may signify born of, or a daughter. It is curious 
to trace many of the facts handed down traditionally among different 
heathen nations, varying perhaps in some circumstances, but evidently 
referring to the same substantially. 

A few hints only can be given on some of the instructions inter 
woven in this narrative. 

1. The contemplation of the times and circumstances in which 
Jephthah was placed, should lead us gratefully to value the signal 
privileges and advantages which we enjoy under the gospel. The light 



JEPHTHAH S DAUGHTER. 75 

which Jephthah enjoyed was but the dim twilight ray of an opening 
morning, and the spirit nurtured amid war and the rudeness of the 
times little fitted him to mark and improve these rays of light. Now 
the gospel, " which brings life and immortality to light," shines in 
meridian splendor. The types and shadows have received their 
fulfilment in the completion of the redeeming work of the Saviour, 
and the facts of Christianity are now matters of history. " Grace 
and truth came by Jesus Christ," while " the law came by Moses." 
Clear light now shines forth, and enlarged privileges and spiritual 
influence are extended without limitation. Paul speaks of the gospel 
dispensation as " the ministration of the Spirit," in contrast with the 
former as " a ministry of condemnation." " Blessed are our eyes, for 
they see w r hat kings and prophets desired to see, and yet saw not." 
" The day-spring from on high hath visited us, to give light to them 
who sit in darkness, to guide our feet into the way of peace." The 
gospel proclaims and brings " glory to God in the highest ; peace on 
earth, and good will towards men." It is the great mission of the 
Church of Christ to diffuse this gospel with its blessings, and establish 
through the earth that kingdom which is " righteousness, peace, and 
joy in the Holy Ghost." 

2. We learn from this narrative the sacredness of a solemn vow 
or promise, and at the same time the great care, deliberation, and discre 
tion with which it should be formed and offered. If a vow or promise 
is made which is contrary to the will of God, and therefore unlawful, 
it is void in itself, and duty requires it to be broken. But when it is 
not contrary to God s revealed will, it should be faithfully and strictly 
fulfilled at every sacrifice and hazard. It is one of the characteristics 
of him " who dwells in the tabernacle of the Most High, and abides 
in His holy hill," that he not only " speaks the truth in his heart," 
but also " sweareth to his own hurt, and changeth not." Solomon 



76 THE WOMEN OF THE BIBLE. 

very fitly says, in the fifth chapter of Ecclesiastes, " Be not rash with 
thy mouth, and let not thy heart be hasty to utter any thing before 
God. When thou vowest a vow unto God, defer not to pay it. 
Better is it that thou shouldest not vow, than that thou shouldest vow 
and not pay." 

3. In the spirit and conduct of Jephthah?s daughter, we find some of 
the dements which enter into the excellence and beauty of female charac 
ter. We see prominent in her an affectionate and dutiful filial spirit. 
Filial piety lays the most sure basis of character to be developed in 
other relations and in all circumstances of life. " Honor thy father 
and thy mother," is the only commandment which has special promise 
pertaining to this life. Hers was the " ornament of a meek and quiet 
spirit," which in the sight of God is " of great price," and should be 
so in the sight of man. Blended with it and springing from it was a 
moral heroism and self-sacrificing devotion. These and kindred 
elements of female character, combined, form a happy and strong 
influence in the circle of home and the whole sphere of society. 

4. The narrative impresses us not only with the endearment, but also 
with the momentous responsibility, of the parental relation. Children 
with the embryo of immortality are cast upon the affection, care, and 
fidelity of their parents, to seek and promote the life of their souls, to 
train them for Christ and heaven thus securing their best interest 
in this life, as well as that which is to come. Hannah vowed to lend 
her child to the Lord as long as he lived. God has graciously 
extended to us his promise, " I will be a God to thee and to thy seed 
after thee," signified and sealed in the precious baptismal ordinance 
of his Church. Casting our faith upon this promise, let us feel it our 
privilege to leave before him our vows to bring up our children in 
" the nurture and admonition of the Lord." Too many parents, alas ! 
yield their children to the full influence of the world, which stands, 



JEPHTHAH S DAUGHTER. 77 

Moloch-like, ready to draw them into its arms for the destruction of 
their souls. Be it our care so to watch over them by prayer and 
faith, and so to guide them by precept and example, that, under the 
Divine blessing, we may be prepared to meet our children among the 
redeemed of Christ in heaven, and in that heavenly recognition 
gratefully confess BEHOLD, HERE ARE WE, AND THE CHILDREN 

THOU HAST GIVEN US." 



11 



DELILAH. 

. . . the next I took to wife 
(O that I never had ! fond wish too late) 
Was in the vale of Sorec, Dalila, 
That specious monster, my accomplish d snare. 

MILTON S Samson Agonistes. 

THERE she stands the beautiful traitress " so fair, and yet so 
false !" Her witcheries have at last succeeded ; the strong man s 
secret has been enticed from him ; and, shorn of his strength, a 
handful of those who once by multitudes fled from him in dismay, 
have overcome him, fettered him, and carried him away. She yet 
remains upon the scene, meditating upon her bold and treacherous 
deed and its probable consequences. The complacent smile of suc 
cess overspreads her countenance the fatal shears by which the 
mystic locks have been severed, just returned to her by her accom 
plice, are still in her hand and the price of her treason in piles of 
gold lies by her side. But surely she must have been deceived in 
regard to the ultimate purpose of her seducers : she cannot have 
suspected what cruel punishment was in store for her victim that 
the eyes which an hour agone had gazed upon her in delighted love, 
and then, under the soothing influence of her caresses, as the head of 



80 THE WOMEN OF THE BIBLE. 

Samson lay pillowed upon her lap, had closed in soft confiding slum 
ber that those eyes were to be torn from their sockets, and their 
light quenched for ever, else, cold and mercenary as she is, some 
compunctious visi tings would have reached her heart, and she would 
begin to regret the success of her artifice, and would at least have 
been shedding a few transient tears over her lover s hapless fate. 

Doubtless then she acted under a delusion ; and when " the lords 
of the Philistines came up unto her, and said unto her, Entice him, 
and see wherein his great strength lieth, and by what means we may 
prevail against him, that we may bind him to afflict him," she 
supposed that this was the extent of the evil to which she would 
subject him bonds, and a temporary confinement, from which she 
could probably in the course of time prevail to release him. Had 
the open proposal been made to her that he was to be killed, or 
maimed for life, we cannot believe that the eleven hundred pieces of 
silver, five or even ten times told, would have tempted her ; otherwise 
might she not have permitted him to be slain, or his eyes to be thrust 
out in an instant, while under the influence of deep sleep ? No, it 
was only bodily restraint that she contemplated ; and to this perhaps 
she was reconciled, through fear that, restless and inconstant as he 
was, he might soon break away from her softer toils, and she lose 
him altogether. 

On this favorable supposition does Milton represent her as 
artfully reasoning out her apology, when, in his poetical drama 
upon this subject, he introduces Delilah as coming to the prison 
to visit the sightless victim of her treachery, and, if possible, to 
regain his confidence and affection. We will not quote the passage 
here, because as a sequel to this brief sketch, and as filling out its 
deficiencies in the delineation of female character, and moreover with 
the intent of bringing to the notice of some of our readers a poem by 



DELILAH. 81 

the great master of verse, constructed with exquisite and classical art, 
and clothed in language of great power and beauty, but almost lost 
sight of in the constant pouring flood of modern writers, we propose 
to insert the scene between Samson and Delilah. An able critic 
characterizes this scene as " drawn up with great judgment and par 
ticular beauty. One cannot conceive a more artful, soft, and persua 
sive eloquence than that which is put into the mouth of Delilah, nor 
is the part of Samson less to be admired for that stern and resolute 
firmness which runs through it. What also gives both parts a great 
additional beauty, is their forming a fine contrast with each other." 

But from this promised treat we must yet detain our readers, to 
listen to another supposition, as suggested by the artist s picture, and 
one which carries us back a little farther to a previous scene in the 
cruel drama. Delilah there stands out before us, not having yet 
succeeded in her treacherous design. She has been seduced to 
attempt it by the promise of a large reward. The five* Philistine 
lords are to give her each eleven hundred pieces of silver for the 
secret of Samson s strength. She has made three successive attempts 
to draw it from him, and he, by playful yet dextrous evasion, has 
escaped them all. 

Wonderful indeed is it that he did not begin to mistrust some evil 
intention as the cause of her pertinacious efforts ; but he is generous 
and confiding, he has the attributes of strength and courage, and 
these ever indispose their possessor to originate or cherish suspi 
cions. He imagines, doubtless, that she is only incited by her 
womanly curiosity. When, therefore, by long entreaties, repeated 
caresses, abundant tears and reproaches, and all the power of 
woman s artillery, against which the strongest defences of the heart 

* Judges iii. H. 



82 THE WOMEN OF THE BIBLE. 

and even the understanding of man have so often proved unavailing, 
she has at last triumphed, he commits to her the fatal knowledge, 
never for a moment supposing that with it goes his liberty and life. 
How succinctly and yet how graphically is all this related in the 
sacred narrative ! 

And she said unto him, How canst thou say, I love thee, when thine heart is not with 
me ? Thou hast mocked me these three times, and hast not told me wherein thy great 
strength lieth. And it came to pass, when she pressed him daily with her words, and 
urged him, so that his soul was vexed unto death, that he told her all his heart, and 
said unto her, There hath not come a razor upon mine head ; for I have been a Nazarite 
unto God from my mother s womb : if I be shaven, then my strength will go from me, 
and I shall become weak, and be like any other man. And when Delilah saw that he 
had told her all his heart, she sent and called for the lords of the Philistines, saying, 
Come up this once ; for he hath shewed me all his heart. Then the lords of the Philis 
tines came up unto her, and brought money in their hand. 

This, then, is the moment chosen by the artist. The lords of the 
Philistines have made their visit, the secret of Samson s strength has 
been communicated to them, and they have counted out to her, in 
golden coin, the equivalent of the five thousand five hundred pieces of 
silver she was to receive. Pleased with her success, and holding the 
ready instrument in her hand, she is plotting how she may best con 
trive the severance of the seven sacred locks of hair from the head 
of the yet resistless one, and she carries with her the smile of self- 
satisfaction to become the smile of hypocrisy, which shall win the 
deluded and doting Samson to recline himself and rest his fated 
head upon her knees. 

But we must now set aside the sketch which the artist s fancy has 
delineated, and direct our attention for a moment to the scriptural 
narrative. Of Delilah s parentage, and her history previous and sub- 



DELILAH. 83 

sequent to her connection with Samson, we know nothing. We are 
told simply that he loved this woman in the valley of Sorek. This 
valley was situated at the south of the territory of the tribe of Dan, 
and took its name from the brook which ran through it, and fell into 
the Mediterranean sea, near Ashkelon. It was on the borders, there 
fore, of the land of the Philistines. But whether Delilah was a 
woman of Israel, of the tribe of Dan, or of Philistine origin, is left in 
doubt. And it is equally uncertain whether she became the wife of 
Samson, or was connected with him only in the way of unlawful 
concubinage. Upon this point one of the older writers quaintly 
remarks, that if the former w r as the case, Samson made a most unfor 
tunate choice ; if the latter, he dearly paid for the indulgence of his 
criminal passion. The Jews generally, and especially Josephus, 
declare her to have been a Philistine, and a woman of abandoned 
character, thus shielding the reputation of the daughters of Israel at 
the expense of that of their hero. 

The supposition that she was a woman of Philistia we are 
inclined to adopt as being the most probable, for it would be hard 
to believe that a wife of Israel, how abandoned soever she might be, 
would thus betray her husband into the hands of her nation s bitterest 
enemies ; or that a daughter of Israel, if she could so far forget her 
sense of character, and despise the threatenings of the law, as to 
play the harlot, would yet crown her wickedness by so base an act 
of treachery. But that Delilah was other than the lawful wife of 
Samson, we are disinclined to believe ; not, however, from respect to 
any single trait of character which she exhibited. Artful, mercenary, 
and destitute of natural affection, she was fitted to be the prototype 
of her against whom Solomon utters the voice of warning : " For the 
lips of a strange woman drop as a honeycomb, and her mouth is 
smoother than oil : but her end is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a 



84 THE WOMEN OF THE BIBLE. 

two-edged sword, Her feet go down to death : her steps take hold 
on hell." Proverbs v. 3,4, 5. Samson, however, was a Judge in Israel, 
a Nazarite from his birth, and had some regard for his public charac 
ter and high responsibilities, and though a man of strong passions, and 
in danger of being led astray by some sudden impulse, as we know 
he was, in Gaza, yet it is not probable that he would consent to live 
for a lengthened space of time in open violation of the law of God. 

But our purpose is not an account of Samson, or a vindication of 
his character. Our subject is she whom his cruel and miserable end 
has brought out to an unenviable notoriety amongst the Women of 
the Bible. She was a wife, indeed, taken by one who should have 
been a man of God, and the deliverer of his nation, and who, had his 
choice been a wise and holy one, might have been aided in accom 
plishing this glorious purpose ; but she was a wife taken under the 
influence of headstrong passion from amongst an idolatrous and 
wicked people, and, therefore, became to her husband 

" That specious monster, his accomplished snare." 

Ere we conclude, therefore, can we refrain from uttering a word 
of reflection upon the immeasurable influence for good or for evil of 
the conjugal relation ? Upon this depends, in a great measure, the 
virtue as well as happiness of the two whom it binds together in the 
most sacred of earthly ties. With what careful circumspection, then, 
and what solemn sense of accountability should engagements be con 
templated involving such momentous consequences, and which, when 
ratified, are designed to terminate only with life ! Not without 
reason has the Almighty protected the conjugal relation with the 
strongest safeguards in its declared perpetuity and inviolability, and 
the Church provided that it shall be formed under the sanctifying 



DELILAH. 85 

influence of a holy rite. It is a religious service, and so sacred and 
so mysterious is it, so designed to communicate to man the purest 
and best blessings of which his fallen nature is susceptible, and 
sweetly and mercifully to help him " so to pass through things tem 
poral, that he finally lose not the things eternal," that the word of 
inspiration has made it the emblem of that union between heaven and 
earth, when Christ, as the bridegroom, so loved the Church, his 
bride, that he " gave himself for it," " that he might present it to 
himself a glorious Church, not having spot or wrinkle, or any such 
thing."* 

Is it not, then, a grievous wrong done to society, and a prime 
cause of many of the evils which infest it, and at the same time an 
awful jeopardizing of the present happiness and eternal salvation of at 
least two, and probably many more immortal beings, when the most 
sacred of all contracts is entered into without any thought of religious 
responsibility ? When the motives to it are fancy, or passion, or 
worldly interest, and these alone ? While this is the case, must not 
that which was designed to be the highest blessing to individual man, 
and to society at large, often prove to both a bane and a curse ? 
Would that the caution expressed in words replete with holy senti 
ment, as well as poetic beauty, could ever be heard and heeded ! 



Oh, happy lot, and hallowed even as the joy of angels, 

When the golden chain of godliness is entwined with the bands of love : 

The idol of thy heart is as thou, a probationary sojourner on earth ; 

Therefore be chary of her soul, for that is the jewel in her casket. 

Let her be a child of God, that she bring with her a blessing to thy house 

A blessing above riches, and leading contentment in its train : 

* Ephesians v. 27. 
12 



86 THE WOMEN OF THE BIBLE. 

Let her be an heir of heaven ; so shall she help thee on thy way ; 
For those who are one in faith, fight double-handed against evil. 
And at eventide kneel ye together, that your joy be not unhallowed ; 
Bride and bridegroom, pilgrims of life, henceforward to travel together, 
In this beginning of your journey, neglect not the favor of Heaven. 
Angels that are round you shall be glad those loving ministers of mercy ! 
And the richest blessings of your God shall be poured on his favored children. 

(M. F. Tupper.) 

A union thus formed, and thus cemented, is the harbinger of joy, 
that, without perverting inspired words, we may say, is " unspeakable 
and full of glory." 

But we must arrest a course of thought and reflection into which 
our subject seemed to invite us, and make good our promise, too long 
deferred, by filling up our meagre sketch with, or, rather say, by 
substituting for it, the well-drawn portrait by the master-hand. 

Chorus. But who is this, what thing of sea or land ? 
Female of sex it seems, 
That so bedeck d, ornate and gay, 
Comes this way sailing 
Like a stately ship 
Of Tarsus, bound for th isles 
Of Javan or Gadire 

With all her bravery on, and tackle trim, 
Sails fill d, and streamers waving, 
Courted by all the winds that hold them play, 
An amber scent of odorous perfume 
Her harbinger, a damsel train behind ? 
Some rich Philistian matron she may seem, 
And now at nearer view, no other certain 
Than Dalila thy wife. 



DELILAH. 87 

Samson. My wife, my traitress, let her not come near me. 

Chor. Yet on she moves, now stands and eyes thee fix d, 
About to have spoke, but now, with head declined, 
Like a fair flower surcharged with dew, she weeps, 
And words address d seem into tears dissolved, 
Wetting the borders of her silken veil ; 
But now again she makes address to speak. 

Dal. With doubtful feet and wavering resolution 
I came, still dreading thy displeasure, Samson, 
Which to have merited, without excuse, 
I cannot but acknowledge ; yet if tears 
May expiate (though the fact more evil drew 
In the perverse event than I foresaw) 
My penance hath not slacken d, though my pardon 
No way assured. But conjugal affection 
Prevailing over fear, and timorous doubt, 
Hath led me on, desirous to behold 
Once more thy face, and know of thy estate, 
If aught in my ability may serve 
To lighten what thou suffer st, and appease 
Thy mind with what amends is in my power, 
Though late, yet in some part to recompense 
My rash but more unfortunate misdeed. 

Sam. Out, out, hyena ; these are thy wonted arts, 
And arts of every woman false like thee, 
To break all faith, all vows, deceive, betray, 
Then, as repentant, to submit, beseech, 
And reconcilement move with feign d remorse, 
Confess, and promise wonders in her change, 
Not truly penitent, but chief to try 
Her husband, how far urged his patience bears, 
His virtue or weakness which way to assail : 
Then with more cautious and instructed skill 
Again transgresses, and again submits ; 



88 THE WOMEN OF THE BIBLE 

That wisest and best men, full oft beguiled, 
With goodness principled not to reject 
The penitent, but ever to forgive, 
Are drawn to wear out miserable days, 
Entangled with a pois nous bosom snake, 
If not by quick destruction soon cut off, 
As I by thee, to ages an example. 

Dal. Yet hear me, Samson ; not that I endeavor 
To lessen or extenuate my offence, 
But that on the other side if it be weigh d 
By itself, with aggravations not surcharged, 
Or else with just allowance counterpoised, 
I may, if possible, thy pardon find 
The easier towards me, or thy hatred less. 
First granting, as I do, it was a weakness 
In me, but incident to all our sex, 
Curiosity, inquisitive, importune 
Of secrets, then with like infirmity 
To publish them, both common female faults : 
Was it not weakness also to make known 
For importunity, that is for nought, 
Wherein consisted all thy strength and safety ? 
To what I did, thou show dst me first the way. 
But I to enemies reveal d, and should not : 
Nor should st thou have trusted that to woman s frailty 
Ere 1 to thee, thou to thyself wast cruel. 
Let weakness then with weakness come to parle 
So near related, or the same of kind, 
Thine forgive mine : that men may censure thine 
The gentler, if severely thou exact not 
More strength from me than in thyself was found. 
And what if love, which thou interpret st hate, 
The jealousy of love, powerful of sway 
In human hearts, nor less in mine tow rds thee, 



DELILAH. 89 



Caused what I did ? I saw thee mutable 

Of fancy, fear d lest one day thou would st leave me 

As her at Timna, sought by all means therefore 

How to endear, and hold thee to me firmest : 

No better way I saw than by importuning 

To learn thy secrets, get into my power 

Thy key of strength and safety : thou wilt say, 

Why then reveal d ? I was assured by those 

Who tempted me, that nothing was design d 

Against thee but safe custody and hold : 

That made for me ; I knew that liberty 

Would draw thee forth to perilous enterprises, 

While I at home sat full of cares and fears, 

Wailing thy absence in my widow d bed ; 

Here I should still enjoy thee day and night 

Mine and Love s prisoner, not the Philistines , 

Whole to myself, unhazarded abroad, 

Fearless at home of partners in my love. 

These reasons in love s law have pass d for good, 

Though fond and reasonless to some perhaps : 

And love hath oft, well meaning, wrought much woe, 

Yet always pity or pardon hath obtain d. 

Be not unlike all others, not austere 

As thou art strong, inflexible as steel. 

If thou in strength all mortals dost exceed, 

In uncompassionate anger do not so. 

Sam. How cunningly the sorceress displays 
Her own transgressions, to upbraid me mine ! 
That malice, not repentance, brought thee hither, 
By this appears : I gave, thou say st, th example, 
I led the way : bitter reproach, but true : 
I to myself was false ere thou to me : 
Such pardon therefore as I give my folly, 
Take to thy wicked deed ; which when thou seest 



90 THE WOMEN OF THE BIBLE. 

Impartial, self-severe, inexorable, 

Thou wilt renounce thy seeking, and much rather 

Confess it feign d : weakness is thy excuse, 

And I believe it, weakness to resist 

Philistian gold : if weakness may excuse, 

What murderer, what traitor, parricide, 

Incestuous, sacrilegious, but may plead it ? 

All wickedness is weakness : that plea therefore 

With God or man will gain thee no remission. 

But love constrain d thee ; call it furious rage 

To satisfy thy lust ; love seeks to have love ; 

My love how could st thou hope, who took st the way 

To raise in me inexpiable hate, 

Knowing, as needs I must, by thee betray d ? 

In vain thou striv st to cover shame with shame, 

Or by evasions thy crime uncover st more. 

Dal. Since thou determin st weakness for no plea 
In man or woman, though to thy own condemning, 
Hear what assaults I had, what snares besides, 
What sieges girt me round, ere I consented ; 
Which might have awed the best resolved of men, 
The constantest, to have yielded without blame. 
It was not gold, as to my charge thou lay st, 
That wrought with me ; thou know st the magistrates 
And princes of my country came in person, 
Solicited, commanded, threaten d, urged, 
Adjured by all the bonds of civil duty 
And of religion, press d how just it was, 
How honorable, how glorious, to entrap 
A common enemy, who had destroy d 
Such numbers of our nation ; and the priest 
Was not behind, but ever at my ear, 
Preaching how meritorious with the gods 
It would be to ensnare an irreligious 



DELILAH. 91 

Dishonorer of Dagon : what had I 

T oppose against such powerful arguments ? 

Only my love of thee held long debate, 

And combated in silence all these reasons 

With hard contest: at length that grounded maxim, 

So rife and celebrated in the mouths 

Of wisest men, that to the public good 

Private respects must yield, witli grave authority 

Took full possession of me and prevail d : 

Virtue, as I thought, truth, duty, so enjoining. 

Sain. I thought where all thy circling wiles would end ; 
In feign d religion, smooth hypocrisy. 
But had thy love, still odiously pretended, 
Been, as it ought, sincere, it would have taught thee 
Far other reasonings, brought forth other deeds. 
I before all the daughters of my tribe 
And. of my nation chose thee from among 
My enemies, loved thee, as too well thou knew st, 
Too well, unbosom d all my secrets to thee, 
Not out of levity, but overpovver d 
By thy request, who could deny thee nothing ; 
Yet now am judged an enemy. Why then 
Did st thou at first receive me for thy husband, 
Then, as since then, thy country s foe profess d ? 
Being once a wife, for me thou wast to leave 
Parents and country : nor was I their subject, 
Nor under their protection, but my own, 
Thou mine, not theirs : if aught against my life 
Thy country sought of thee, it sought unjustly 
Against the law of nature, law of nations, 
No more thy country, but an impious crew 
Of men conspiring to uphold their state 
By worse than hostile deeds, violating the ends 
For which our country is a name so dear ; 



92 THE WOMEN OF THE BIBLE. 

Not therefore to be obey d. But zeal moved thee ; 
To please thy gods thou didst it ; gods unable 
To acquit themselves and prosecute their foes 
But by ungodly deeds, the contradiction 
Of their own deity, gods cannot be ; 
Less therefore to be pleased, obey d, or fear d. 
These false pretexts and varnish d colors failing, 
Bare in thy guilt how foul must thou appear ! 

Dal. In argument with men, a woman ever 
Goes by the worse, whatever be her cause. 

Sam. For want of words no doubt, or lack of breath ; 
Witness when I was worried with thy peals. 

Dal. I was a fool, too rash, and quite mistaken 
In what I thought would have succeeded best. 
Let me obtain forgiveness of thee, Samson, 
Afford me place to show what recompense 
Tow rds thee I intend for what I have misdone, 
Misguided ; only what remains past cure 
Bear not too sensibly, nor still insist 
To afflict thyself in vain : though sight be lost, 
Life yet hath many solaces, enjoy d 
Where other senses want not their delights 
At home in leisure and domestic ease, 
Exempt from many a care and chance to which 
Eye-sight exposes daily men abroad. 
I to the lords will intercede, not doubting 
Their favorable ear, that I may fetch thee 
From forth this loathsome prison-house, to abide 
With me, where my redoubled love and care 
With nursing diligence, to me glad office, 
May ever tend about thee to old age 
With all things grateful cheer d, and so applied, 
That what by me thou hast lost thou least shall miss. 

Sam. No no, of my condition take no care : 



DELILAH. 93 

It fits not ; thou and I long since are twain : 

Nor think me so unwary or accursed, 

To bring my feet again into the snare 

Where once I have been caught ; I know thy trains 

Though dearly to my cost, thy gins and toils ; 

Thy fair enchanted cup, and warbling charms 

No more on me have power, their force is null d. 

So much of adder s wisdom I have learn d 

To fence my ear against thy sorceries. 

If in my flower of youth and strength, when all men 

Loved, honor d, fear d me, thou alone couldst hate me 

Thy husband, slight me, sell me, and forego me ; 

How wouldst thou use me now, blind, and thereby 

Deceivable, in most things as a child 

Helpless, thence easily contemn d, and scorn d, 

And last neglected ? How wouldst thou insult, 

When I must live uxorious to thy will 

In perfect thraldom, how again betray me, 

Bearing my words and doings to the lords 

To gloss upon, and, censuring, frown or smile ? 

This jail I count the house of liberty 

To thine, whose doors my feet shall never enter. 
Dal. Let me approach at least, and touch thy hand, 
Sam. Not for thy life, lest fierce remembrance wake 

My sudden rage to tear thee joint by joint. 

At distance I forgive thee, go with that, 

Bewail thy falsehood, and the pious works 

It hath brought forth to make thee memorable 

Among illustrious women, faithful wives : 

Cherish thy hasten d widowhood with the gold 

Of matrimonial treason : so farewell. 

Dal. I see thou art implacable, more deaf 

To prayers than winds and seas, yet winds to seas 

Are reconciled at length, and sea to shore : 
13 



94 THE WOMEN OF THE BIBLE 

Thy anger unappeasable, still rages, 

Eternal tempest never to be calm d. 

Why do I humble thus myself, and suing 

For peace, reap nothing but repulse and hate ? 

Bid go with evil omen and the brand 

Of infamy upon my name denounced ? 

To mix with thy concernments I desist 

Henceforth, nor too much disapprove my own. 

Fame if not double-faced is double-mouth d, 

And with contrary blast proclaims most deeds ; 

On both his wings, one black, the other white, 

Bears greatest names in his wild aery flight. 

My name perhaps among the circumcised 

In Dan, in Judah, and the bordering tribes, 

To all posterity may stand defamed, 

With malediction mention d, and the blot 

Of falsehood most unconjugal traduced. 

But in my country, where I most desire, 

In Ecron, Gaza, Ashbod, and in Gath, 

I shall be named among the famousest 

Of women, sung at solemn festivals, 

Living and dead recorded, who, to save 

Her country from a fierce destroyer, chose 

Above the faith of wedlock bands, my tomb 

With odors visited and annual flowers ; 

Not less renown d than in Mount Ephraim 

Jael, who with inhospitable guile 

Smote Sisera sleeping, through the temples nail d. 

Nor shall I count it heinous to enjoy 

The public marks of honor and reward 

Conferr d upon me for the piety 

Which to my country I was judged to have shown. 

At this whoever envies or repines, 

I leave him to his lot, and like my own. 



DELILAH. 95 



Cltor. She s gone, a manifest serpent by her sting 
Discover d in the end, till now conceal d. 

Sam. So let her go, God sent her to debase me, 
And aggravate my folly, who committed 
To such a viper his most sacred trust 
Of secrecy, my safety, and my life. 









ill 
$1 








RUTH. 

IN one of those day-dreams which happily sometimes cheat the 
every-day world of its inflictions upon the poor victim of its toil and 
care, transporting him any where, as it may happen in a day 
dream, I say, when I was wandering in Eastern lands, and meditating 
upon the wonders of Providence which had been manifested there, 
a soft, sweet strain of music fell suddenly upon my ear. Of youth, 
beauty, and innocence, sang a blithe and kindly voice, and of the 
heavenly love which, spreading its guardian hand over them, leads 
them surely, by the rough way or the smooth, to their refuge and 
their home. Well do I remember the words I will write them 
down : 



She stood breast high amid the com, 
Clasped by the golden light of morn, 
Like the sweet-heart of the sun 
Who many a glowing kiss had won, 

On her cheeks an autumn flush 
Deeply ripened; such a blush 
In the midst of brown was born, 
Like red poppies grown with corn. 



98 THE WOMEN OF THE BIBLE. 

Round her eyes her tresses fell 
Which were blackest none could tell ; 
But long lashes veiled a light 
Which had else been all too bright. 

And her hat, with shady brim, 
Made her tressy forehead dim ; 
There she stood, amid the stocks, 
Praising God with sweetest looks. 

Sure, I said, Heaven did not mean 
Where I reap thou shouldst but glean ; 
Lay thy sheaf adown, and come, 
Share my harvest and my home."* 

This was uttered by a wanderer and visionary like myself. He 
had, in his spirit-journey, just passed by the fields of Boaz, and to a 
single rapid glance at the graceful gleaner of the harvest, we seem to 
owe the burden of his song. How far it is a mere " fancy sketch," 
my readers will determine : if, however, they are not satisfied with it, 
let the light dream be dispelled, and let us go together and find the 
original, where she lives for all time as a model of the noblest self- 
devotion, and of unchanging, unfailing constancy to her duty and her 
love. 

Surely, not the least among the memorable women whose names 
are recorded in the Bible, is Ruth the Moabitess. We are told, in the 
sacred history, that " in the days when the Judges ruled [in Israel], 
there was a famine in the land. And a certain man of Bethlehem 



* Hood. 



RUTH. 99 

Judah went to sojourn in the country of Moab [a neighboring country 
beyond the Jordan], he and his wife and his two sons." We gather 
also from the narrative that this family went out from Bethlehem 
Judah rich. Evil, however, soon fell upon them, and they were 
brought down to the deepest sorrow and adversity. The head of the 
household died, and the woman her name was Naomi "was left, 
and her two sons." These sons, after the death of their father, 
" took them wives of the women of Moab : the name of the one was 
Orpah, and the name of the other Ruth." A few years passed away, 
and the two sons died also ; " and the woman was left of her two 
sons and her husband." To the anguish of these bereavements was 
added the loss of the wealth of this severely stricken family, as we 
learn from the sorrowful words of Naomi, after her return to her own 
country : " I went out full, and the Lord hath brought me home again 
empty." 

The husband and father had sinned in exposing his wife and 
children to the temptations of an idolatrous land for such was the 
land of Moab and he was quickly deprived, by death, of the guar 
dianship of those whom he had placed in the midst of danger. The 
fruits of his sin soon appeared in his children, for they married 
strange wives of the heathen, and on them also came the judgments 
of God. The wife and mother, no doubt, in going into the land of 
Moab, acted purely in obedience to her husband, and after his death 
was probably unable to restrain her sons, or to persuade them to 
return to their own country. She was not a willing partaker of their 
sins, and therefore did she find mercy at the hands of the Judge of all 
the earth. Though for a time the innocent was not without an appa 
rent share in the punishment of the guilty, and in the agouy of her 
broken spirit she spoke like one condemned of Heaven, " Call me 
Mara, for the Almighty hath dealt very bitterly with me .... Why call 



100 THE WOMEN OF THE BIBLE. 

ye me Naomi, seeing the Lord hath testified against me, and the 



Almighty -hath afflicted me?" yet in the end to Naomi, my pleasant, 
my kindly one, for so is the name interpreted, did comfort, and 
blessing, and honor, arise from the very evils namely, the sojourn 
in Moab and the marriage alliances with the women of the land 
whence had proceeded the transgression and the punishment of her 
husband and her sons. 

Orpah, one of the daughters-in-law of Naomi, was not converted 
from heathenism ; the other, Ruth, by the divine blessing upon her 
noble nature, became a proselyte of the true religion, and thereafter 
was an angel of heavenly consolation to the widowed, desolate heart 
of her mother. 

Naomi being * left of her two sons and her husband," resolved to 
return to her own country. Sad indeed was her condition in Moab, 
the land of strangers scarcely less so were her prospects when she 
turned her face homeward ; for what happy visions of home could 
hover above her path of widowhood, and poverty, and tears ? In the 
most gradual succession of the changes of the world in the gentlest 
decline from maturity to the grave the inevitable trial of the spirits 
of all flesh is hard enough to bear. When this trial comes by de 
grees during the slow lapse of time when lengthening years bring 
the failure of joy and hope, and the gathering together of sorrows, 
the mournful shadows still spreading and deepening into the cloud 
which finally settles down upon the green fields and glittering islands 
of life even then to the strong man "sufficient unto the day is the 
evil thereof." But to this afflicted woman the desolation of long years 
was accomplished as it were in one day. In mid-life, her home, with 
all its pleasant things, had perished : in the strange land where she 
dwelt, her only portion was the graves of her husband and her 
children ; in her native land, whither she was about to return, her 



RUTH. 101 

only possession would be, her own solitary burial-place. But in that 
hour of despair a ministering spirit, as it might be, from the imme 
diate presence of the Father of all Mercies, stood at her side, and 
gently breathed into the sinking, breaking heart, the eternal truth, " As 
thy day so shall thy strength be." " He defendeth the cause of the 
widow, even God in his holy habitation." Her two daughters-in-law, 
when told by Naomi of her intention to return to Bethlehem Judah, 
instantly declared that they would go with her. But against this she 
earnestly remonstrated, gratefully commending their faithfulness and 
affection yet representing to them the sacrifices they must make in 
leaving the land of their birth and kindred, where, being yet in their 
youth, many friends, many comforts, and the fulfilment of many 
hopes still awaited them while, if they should be the companions 
of her journey to her own land, she had no home, no hope, no one 
blessing of this world to offer ; they must share her lowly and sor 
rowful estate, her poverty, her widowhood, her living grave. " Turn 
again, my daughters, why will ye go with me ?" " Go, return each 
to her mother s house ; the Lord deal kindly with you, as ye have 
dealt with the dead, and with me." " It grieveth me much for your 
sakes that the hand of the Lord hath gone out against me." " And 
they lifted up their voice and wept, and Orpah kissed her mother-in- 
law, but Ruth clave unto her." 

Orpah was not destitute of affection for Naomi, nor of a desire 
to perform the duty she owed her. But after the first tumultuous 
moment of grief at the thought of parting, she began to regard the 
matter more reasonably, and decided, that the relation between Naomi 
and herself, being, humanly speaking, ended by the death of her 
husband, her duty both to the living and the dead, had been already 
fulfilled. She loved her kind and gentle mother-in-law, and would 
love her ever ; her best wishes would follow her j but for herself, it 

14 



102 THE WOMEN OF THE BIBLE. 

could not be required of her, even for the consolation of that poor 
widow, to leave her native land, and sacrifice thus early all the hopes 
of her future life. All this, no doubt, was very reasonable perhaps 
very amiable and to the present day it may find approval with the 
large class of ordinary human beings, of whom Orpah is a fit repre 
sentative. It were well, if, among those w r ho profess and call 
themselves Christians, no men or women of this type were to be 
found. They are, in a manner, affectionate, and not without occa 
sional displays of enthusiasm in their affections but, in the main, 
they hold the balance of affection and interest nicely adjusted. They 
ars conscientious to a degree in the matter of duty but in their 
diary a profit and loss account is carefully kept. In their love and 
their duty the most vigilant guard is maintained against the danger 
of extravagant impulses, and of being " righteous overmuch." Always 
at their command are the precise reasons for and against a specific 
charity and, as fearing that mercy may transcend her authority, 
they skilfully estimate and distinguish the merits and demerits of the 
miserable, weighing out with exactest hand bread to the hungry, and 
applying a scrupulous measure to the sufferings and tears of the 
widow and the fatherless. Under cover of all this righteous and 
benevolent dealing, their own temporal interests are sure not to be 
neglected, nor to lose the first place in their pious attention and care. 
" Orpah kissed her mother-in-law." Through a generous impulse, 
she had accompanied her a little way on her sad journey and then 
a calmer, more rational view of the reality of the barren pri grimage 
being taken, " she kissed her," bade her an affectionate farewell, 
turned back to " her people and her gods," and perhaps soon again 
" found rest in the house of her husband." 

" Orpah kissed her mother-in-law, but Ruth clave unto her." 
Ruth appears never once, in deciding to go with Naomi, to have 



RUTH. 103 

bestowed a thought upon an accurate adjustment of duty and inter 
est ; nor to have considered whether her feelings were extravagant 
or reasonable ; nor to have entertained any idea that she was making 
a sacrifice at all. She was not controlled by refined definitions of 
duty, nor by fears of the excess of an affection " heaven-born, and 
destined to the skies again." She knew that the widowed Naomi 
needed her kind support more than it was needed by any one else 
in the world ; and the love of her large yearning heart being her 
monitor and law, she said, in words never to be repented of or 
recalled, " Entreat me not to leave thee, or to return from following 
after thee ; for, whither thou goest I will go, and where thou lodgest 
I will lodge ; thy people shall be my people, arid thy God my God. 
Where thou diest I will die, and there will I be buried ; the Lord do 
so to me, and more also, if aught but death part thee and me." 

She acted not from any unwise and blind impulse and they 
greatly err who blame her for thus leaving the house of her kindred, 
and going into a strange country. Her lot of life had been cast long 
before. When she became the wife of the son of Naomi, his people, 
his family, and his God, became hers ; and could she now abandon all 
that was left on earth of that holy bond, his afflicted, childless mother, 
in the time of her utmost need ? Orpah might do this. She did it. 
Her selfish spirit regarded the family tie as now severed ; and as she 
turned back to her idols from the living God, whom she had in vain 
been taught to serve, so did she turn away from her earthly friends 
in their adversity, whom she had loved only with the most transient 
affection. Her character, as that of her class, had little substance in 
itself taking its tone and temper from things external, and varying 
with time and circumstance. Moved by no one strong principle or 
feeling which might give unity to her life except the selfish one, and 
this could not give the unity of a good life she defined her duties in 



104 THE WOMEN OF THE BIBLE. 

detail, as they occurred, according to the rule of the hour, and regu 
lated her affections by the cold letter of the law, interpreted in accom 
modation to any interest or allurement as it might happen. Such an 
one, if not liable to deep transgression, is incapable of any thing highly 
great or good ; and to expect from a source like this any uniform 
devotion, or any real devotion to virtue, is as if we should wait to hear 
a prolonged and perfect harmony from harp-strings played upon only 
by gusts of the fitful wind. In what beautiful and sublime contrast 
does Ruth stand before us ! At her marriage, the current of her life 
had received its direction ; and in a nature like hers, that direction 
was to be maintained for ever. In darkness and in light, in sunshine 
and in storm, in the wilderness and in the pleasant land, the pure 
bright tide of faith and love must flow onward through time to its 
ocean-home the truth and beatitude of Heaven. 

It is true that, according to the letter of the law, death had dis 
solved the tie which bound her to the husband of her youth ; but 
death had no power to take away his living image from her heart, 
nor to open her eyes to the misery and privation which the world 
might behold involved in her " cleaving " still to his family, nor her 
ears to the seductions of that new nuptial song which invited her to 
tarry in Moab. The marriage bond to her had been a law of 
liberty, because a law of love ; and this law survived the removal 
of the outward sanction its real object when the mortal husband 
faded away from all other human eyes into the grave living on, 
untouched by the spoiler s hand, and immortal as the spirit which 
enshrined it. And it is fit that Marriage the fountain of human 
charities, the foundation of families and states, and in one sense also 
of the Church of God should so be entered into, under the influence 
of an affection which may not change with the changes of time, and 
which death shall not extinguish. When Adam is represented by 



RUTH. 105 

Milton, after the sin of Eve, as meditating upon her probable death, 
by which " the love so dearly joined " must be broken, and the bowers 
and groves of Eden be changed for his lonely spirit into " wild woods 
forlorn," his words are a beautiful expression of the finest feelings of 
human nature. They illustrate what I have been saying, and must 
find an echo in the true heart of either man or woman 



loss of thee 



Would never from my heart : no, no ! I feel 
The link of Nature draw me : flesh of my flesh, 
Bone of my bone thou art, and from thy state 
Mine never shall be severed, bliss or woe." 



It is true that, -as the subject is presented by Milton, the sin 
of the woman is interposed between the conscience and the heart 
of her husband between his duty and his love; and bitter are the 
consequences, and in this respect most emphatic is the warning that 
is given. 

The entertaining of one principal idea, quickened by thought and 
feeling, made impulsive by enthusiasm, never allowed to depart, but 
becoming, as it were, a part of the soul, is one of the distinguishing 
marks of the highest grade of human character. It is a sign of the 
orator, the patriot, the hero, the apostle, the martyr of the spirit, 
whether of man or woman, alive to the noblest aims, and faithful unto 
the end, to every object of its devotion. When this bent of the 
strong nature has been received wisely, and so in the fear of God 
that it shall always be at one with conscience, it is the very ladder 
of the patriarch leading from earth to heaven, on which ministering 
angels are ever descending and ascending ; but otherwise what is 



JOG THE WOMEN OF THE BIBLE. 

powerful for good, becomes equally powerful for evil : " its ways go 
down to death, and its steps take hold on hell." 

The estate of marriage, when the constant love of this strong 
nature, in unity with wisdom and a good conscience, leads to it, 
how independent it is of the frowns of the world, and the ravages of 
time ! how full of beauty and truth, of liberty, and all-enduring happi 
ness ! On the other hand, when, in an unguarded hour, or through 
any evil habit, the counsels of wisdom and the will of God are dis 
regarded by one of the character I have described, passion leading 
captive the strong, and this estate is " entered into unadvisedly or 
lightly," how inevitable and how utter are misery and ruin ! What 
help can be given ? Who shall release the poor victim of an erring 
but undying love ? What human lawgiver, what minister of religion, 
what yearning parent, may open the doors of the household sanc 
tuary, or dare to stretch forth the hand to take the idol from the 
altar ? Too true to nature, and even to the noblest unsanctified 
nature, is the frightful representation by the German poet of a 
mother remonstrating on the subject of an unblest love with her 
almost maniac child : 



" Be calm, my child ; forget thy woe, 

And think of God and heaven : 
God, thy Redeemer, hath to thee 
Himself for bridegroom given. 



Oh, mother ! mother ! what is heaven ? 

Oh, mother ! what is hell ? 
To be with William that s my heaven; 

Without him that s my hell." 



RUTH. 107 

Afar from darkness and despair like this, walked Ruth, the 
Moabitess, in her journey to the strange land beyond the Jordan. 
All-controlling as was the affection by which she was led, it did not 
disturb the just balance of her character. Her conscience and her 
heart were at peace with each other, and her fidelity to her friends 
of the earth, living or dead, was sustained and made perfect by trust 
in her Father in Heaven. She went out from her native land " not 
knowing whither she went," but in faith and in hope. She had no 
inheritance in Bethlehem Judah. The husband of her early love 
would not meet her there, nor ever again on earth. But she would 
" cleave " to all that remained of the beloved. She would accom 
plish, with heart and hand, and in the fear of God, her work of 
charity. And, this being done, her desire should be fulfilled, of 
finding her home at last in that better country, even the heavenly, 
where the households of the faithful shall be gathered together again, 
beyond the reach of affliction or of death, and where " the work of 
thy hands shall be rewarded, saith the Lord God." 

How often is it seen in the dealings of Providence \vith mankind, 
that, even on earth, " the last becomes first and the first last." To 
the unselfish and unworldly, to them who pursue fervently and purely 
an elevated course of duty and love, regardless of temporal reward 
or loss, are frequently given honors and rewards far above even the 
range of their ambition, who have toiled only for time. " The poor 
hath he filled with good things, and the rich hath he sent empty 
away." When Ruth found her home with Naomi to be as she had 
anticipated, that of the poorest of the poor, and murmured not 
when she earnestly and cheerfully asked permission of her mother to 
go forth and earn their morsel of daily bread by the labor of her 
hands when the fair woman, who had been brought up delicately in 
the house of her mother, was gleaning in the harvest fields of Boaz, 



108 THE WOMEN OF THE BIBLE. 

among his handmaidens, the lowliest of them all uncomplaining, 
patient, beautiful in her youth more beautiful in her work of all- 
enduring love, even then, the all-seeing Heaven was preparing for 
her an honorable home upon the earth, and renown among the sons 
and daughters of men to the latest generation. The family of her 
husband, to whom she " clave " in their adversity, now " clave " unto 
her in their prosperity, and she found her portion with the wealthiest 
of them. Boaz, in whose fields she had gleaned, in ignorance of the 
relationship between them, upon discovering the kindred tie, instantly 
obeyed the divine law regulating the economy of families in the com 
monwealth of Israel, and married the widow of his deceased kinsman, 
"that the name of the dead might not be cut off from among his 
brethren, and from the gate of his place." And for Ruth hence 
forth " riches and plenteousness were in her house." She became 
the ancestress of mighty kings, and more glorious still her name 
is recorded for ever in the Book of God s Revelation, as one of that 
more than royal line, which terminated with the Virgin-Mother, and 
the Blessed Saviour of the World. 



HANNAH. 

THE character here presented is very different indeed from those 
of many of the women recorded in the Old Testament; and the 
narrative opens to our contemplation one of the most delightful and 
instructive passages to be found upon the inspired page. In several 
other instances we have the representation of lofty intellect, intense 
determination of will, and even martial daring and success : in which, 
however, our admiration is somewhat diminished by a strong feeling 
of incongruity between the deed performed and the sex of the actor. 
Here every thing is in entire harmony with the social position of the 
individual. Her conduct is marked throughout with feminine grace, 
and unfolds some of the finest affections that lodge in the female 
heart. Others appear and execute their brilliant parts upon the 
conspicuous stage of royalty. Here we are introduced to a retired, 
domestic scene, where the wife and the mother sanctifies the duties 
of those relations by fervent piety towards God. If Rachel betrays 
a wicked impatience to her husband under her calamity as a wife, 
Hannah, not less sensible of the same affliction, submissively offers 
her prayers and her vows unto the Lord. The mother of the 
Maccabees might exult in a progeny of heroes, the story of whose 
patriotism fires the imagination of their people. But the mother of 
Samuel was honored to bear a son, who became a prophet of the 
15 



110 THE WOMEN OF THE BIBLE. 

Lord, among the most eminent of all whom God ever called to that 

O 

holy office, or qualified to utter the lessons by which nations and 
ages were to be instructed. If we study the shading of her individual 
character, we shall find that the various womanly affections, deep 
and strong in her bosom, were blended in a peculiarly beautiful 
manner with high religious sentiments, and absolutely directed and 
controlled thereby. 

It is a little remarkable, that although we have descended with 
the current of the world s history through nearly three thousand 
years before we reach the period of our story, Hannah is the first 
woman directly presented in the attitude of prayer. We are not to 
suppose she was the first who prayed. Doubtless many of those 
holy women of old who trusted in God, and adorned themselves with 
a meek and quiet spirit, which in the sight of God is of great price, 
were frequent in this service. Many a wife, many a mother, many a 
daughter of sorrow found relief from anxieties, support under trial, 
grace to help in the time of need, while making known her requests 
by supplication. A practice so indispensable to the life and growth 
of religious affections, we cannot question was their solace and 
strength. And piety, in the graces and duties of which their sex 
has in all ages been conspicuous above the other, was made more 
pure in them, their faith more firm, their love more intense, their 
obedience more constant, through the influence of habitual devotion. 
Yet in the instance before us we have the first distinct mention of a 
woman engaged in such an act. 

The occasion of her prayer was this. Although a loving and 
tenderly beloved wife, and longing with natural desire for the blessing 
of offspring, she was still childless. But Peninnah bare children to 
Elkanah. Polygamy, which was contrary to the original ordinance 
of marriage, and which God for a season permitted among the Jews, 



HANNAH. Ill 

though he never sanctioned it, in this case wrought its usual evil 
effects, in domestic jealousies and discord and divisions. The fruitful 
Peninnah, envious of the superior favor Hannah had obtained in the 
affections of her husband, vented her anger by exulting over her rival, 
and provoked her sore because she had no children. This she did 
year by year ; and especially, it would seem, at the seasons when, 
w T ith devout zeal, Elkanah went up with his family to the house of 
the Lord. Even the time and the place of religious observance 
were not secure against her relentless malice. And Hannah s soul 
was overwhelmed, and " she wept and did not eat." With meek 
forbearance, however, she utters no complaint of her wrongs to 
her husband, not even when he reproves her sadness, but seeks 
opportunity to unburden her heart unto the Lord. Nor does she 
imprecate divine vengeance upon her persecutor, but asks that the 
Most High would look upon her affliction, and remove her reproach 
by giving to her a man-child ; whom she there vows, with exemplary 
piety, to " give unto the Lord all the days of his life." Such was 
the effect of her importunity upon her countenance and manner, 
while she spake in her heart and her voice was not heard, that Eli, 
with hasty judgment, rebukes her for drunkenness. With inimitable 
beauty does she vindicate herself from the injurious suspicion. " No, 
my lord ; I am a woman of a sorrowful spirit. I have drunk neither 
wine, nor strong drink, but I have poured out my soul before the 
Lord. Count not thine handmaid for a daughter of Belial ; for out of 
the abundance of my complaint and my grief, have I spoken hitherto." 
Having relieved her breaking heart by committing her cause unto 
God in humble prayer, Hannah returns with serenity to the sphere of 
her accustomed duties. In process of time her petition is granted. 
The Lord remembered her, and " she bare a son, and called his name 
Samuel, saying, Because I have asked him of the Lord." 



112 THE WOMEN OF THE BIBLE. 

Almost all that we know of Hannah is comprehended by the 
sacred writer within a short space, and relates more particularly to 
the birth and education of this son. When the fervently-sought 
blessing was obtained, she did not forget upon what condition she 
received him of the Lord. His infancy she cherished with sedulous 
care, herself performing all the duties which maternal affection and 
fidelity prompted. At the proper period he is brought to Eli, and 
thenceforth solemnly devoted to the service of the Temple, in fulfil 
ment of her recorded vow. " And the child Samuel grew on, and 
was in favor both with the Lord, and also with men." The mother s 
prayers and care were answered in the exemplary youth of her 
son : and his early promise was abundantly fulfilled in a long life of 
usefulness and renown. 

We may here pause and turn our thoughts to some useful prac 
tical reflections, which naturally arise out of this narrative. 

How inestimable a privilege is prayer ! How sweet a refuge, in 
the hour of adversity, is that throne of grace which our compas 
sionate Saviour has established in the merit of his own blood ! And 
how sustaining in trial the assurance that a perfect sympathy is felt 
with us by our Great High Priest, who having been in all points 
tempted like as we are, yet without sin, and having passed into the 
heavens, there wears our nature, feels our griefs, knows how to pity, 
and ever lives to make intercession for us ! Whatever is of moment 
sufficient to cause his children anxiety and distress, may be brought 
to him in prayer. No care, no pain, no burden that weighs down 
the spirit on earth, is beneath his notice in heaven. No age, no sex, 
nor condition, nor character, is forbidden to approach him. And 
when human ear cannot be made the depository of our woe, when 
no human bosom can sympathize with our peculiar sorrows, and no 
human power can aid us, " God is our refuge and strength, a very 



HANNAH. 113 

present help in trouble." He has commanded us to look up to him 
when all other resources fail. We need be under no apprehension 
that he will repulse us. " Let us therefore come boldly to the throne 
of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in every 
time of need." 

The propriety of prayer for temporal good is likewise apparent 
from this example. A large, perhaps the largest portion of our trials 
and wants in this valley of weeping, come more or less directly from 
our temporal relations. We touch the world at so many points, and 
are vulnerable through so many avenues ; the comforts of our inward 
spiritual life so much depend upon outward associations and circum 
stances, that if the vicissitudes of our earthly estate were excluded 
from the subjects of our supplications, the provision for our journey 
towards the promised rest would be defective indeed ; but very 
imperfectly adapted to man s actual condition and necessities. And 
this want of adaptation would furnish its enemies with one of the 
most plausible of all their objections against the heavenly origin of 
our religion. But we are not thus restricted. The Bible opens a 
rich treasury of temporal benefits while it bestows, and even in 
bestowing, spiritual gifts. In confers high present solace, while it 
prepares us for immortal joys. Even the natural affections it treats 
with marked tenderness. The warm, instinctive desires of the heart 
may be poured forth in submissive prayer before God. And whether 
he gives or withholds, he can cause us to rest satisfied with his ways. 
To woman, who must bear in silence many and sometimes peculiar 
afflictions her position necessarily imposes upon her, and whose 
strength to fulfil her ministry of love and goodness is eminently in 
her dependence on God, prayer is an especial privilege. And its 
efficacy to soothe the mind and banish its grief, how direct and 
certain ! Hannah came " in bitterness of soul, and prayed unto the 



114 THE WOMEN OF THE BIBLE. 

Lord and wept sore." A sadness was upon her spirit, so deep and 
subduing that it spread a sable hue over the whole scene of life, and 
blighted all her joys. But after she had made known her complaint, 
and left her cause with God, her heart was eased. "And the woman 
went her way and did eat, and her countenance was no more sad." 
"Is any among you afflicted, let him pray." 

BUT CHIEFLY, the narrative we are considering suggests impor 
tant reflections upon the subject of maternal duty. No relation in 
the world is more tender, none involves responsibilities more wide- 
reaching and momentous than this. And it is hardly within the 
power of language to exaggerate the influence which a mother s 
fidelity may exert over the disposition and life, the temporal pros 
perity, and the spiritual and eternal well-being of the object of her 
fond regard. To her care its utterly helpless infancy is committed. 
And Providence has so ordered, that in the strong workings of the 
maternal heart, the instinctive and irrepressible glow of its passion, 
its sleepless anxiety and self-sacrificing toil, which have made a mo 
ther s love the appropriate name for all that is gentle, and soothing, 
and unswerving and constant in human intercourse, a guardianship 
should be created to which the dependent charge may be safely 
intrusted. The purest delights are mingled with important duties to 
secure their performance. And the clear intention of God is violated, 
when, from indolence, or fashion, or love of pleasure, from any cause 
but absolute necessity, a mother resigns to servile hands the sacred 
office which the voice of nature proclaims belongs to herself. 

But the intellectual and moral life likewise are placed, in a very 
important sense, under her training as the instrument of their devel 
opment and direction. It has passed into a maxim, that the mother 
has more to do than the father in the formation of the character of 
their children. Almost as a matter of course in relation to eminent 



HANNAH. 115 

men, we inquire who and what was the mother. And if their peculiar 
physical and intellectual qualities may be thought to some extent to 
be inherited, yet the bringing out, and directing and confirming of 
what is good, the correcting or eradicating of what is evil, depends 
much, almost entirely, under the divine blessing, upon the mode of 
training. 

Education is the great plastic power. And the infant mind, with 
its wonderful endowments, its unfledged capabilities of thought and 
feeling, of bright imaginings or dreadful purposes, of pure affection 
or dark and stormy passion, is subjected to its forming agency. Like 
the softened wax it is susceptible of almost any impression. It is its 
property to receive impressions. It momentarily receives them from 
every object and influence around. How early the process com 
mences it may be difficult to determine much earlier, beyond a 
doubt, however, than is generally supposed. On the mother s bosom 
the bright eye observes and soon answers her meaning glance ; the 
ear turns to her voice and drinks in the tones of soft affection. In 
the nursery, its first school, the powers of attention and memory and 
imitation become daily more acute and active. Every thing enstamps 
its image. And even then and there a bias may be given which may 
decisively prevail in the character, and last through life. Over this 
whole period of the unfolding powers, more momentous in some 
respects than any that follows, the dominion of the mother is particu 
larly extended. To her it is almost exclusively given up, and her 
influence is almost absolute. The vine which, with luxuriant growth, 
shoots forth its tendrils to embrace surrounding objects for support, 
she is to prune and train ; its exuberant foliage must be wreathed 
into beautiful garlands, its fragrant blossoms must be ripened into 
fruitful clusters. With her is deposited the germ of character. And, 
so far as these depend upon the individuals who compose them, with 



116 THE WOMEN OF THE BIBLE 

her rests the happiness of future families, and the destinies of nations 
and of the world. Who will say that woman s mission is insignifi 
cant? that the mother s sphere, in real dignity, in holy influence, 
in wide and lasting usefulness, is inferior to any station, her employ 
ment beneath any occupation given to any mortal on the earth ? 

And what can rightly qualify her for her duty, and give the best 
promise that the child she rears shall be an honor and shall be 
honored ? What but the blessing of God unceasingly sought upon 
her labors, and the presence and power of pure religious principle ? 
" Lo, children are an heritage of the Lord." By solemn vows, and 
in the baptismal rite, should they be devoted, " lent unto the Lord as 
long as they live." From the early dawn of intelligent apprehension, 
these thoughts should be instilled into their minds : that God has a 
sovereign right over them, that his blessing alone can send pros 
perity, and that it is the highest honor, the most graceful ornament 
they can possess, to be found walking in his truth. By direct and 
unremitting endeavor should they be allured into the right paths. 
From a mother s lips the prattling tongue should be taught the 
language of prayer. A mother s example and precept should imbue 
the infant mind with religious ideas. A mother s hand should lead 
them early to the house of God. A mother s image should ever be 
blended with lessons of affectionate and fervent piety. It will throw 
round the heart a bond which temptation will not easily break 
through. It will summon natural affection to the aid of virtuous 
principle in the conflicts of life. A pious mother s memory will 
often become a shield against the fiery darts of the wicked one ; or 
recall the wanderer from the forsaken paths of holiness and peace. 
Nor will the influence be weakened, nor will it make heaven less 
attractive, to imagine, that a mother s will be the first glad spirit to 
w r elcome the child of vows and of prayers to those happy shores. 



ABIGAIL. 

THE story of Abigail reveals scenes in domestic life which, 
though common, we hope none of our readers may know by sad 
experience. It is the living picture of a conjugal union between a 
brutal man and a gentle wife. 

To illustrate her character, is little more than to evolve the 
Scripture narrative in 1 Samuel, chapters xxv. and xxx., and accord 
ingly we introduce our essay in the following words of the sacred 
history : 

" There was a man in Maon, whose possessions were in Carmel : and the man was 
very great, and he had three thousand sheep, and a thousand goats : and he was shearing 
his sheep in Carmel. Now the name of the man was NABAL, and the name of his wife 
ABIGAIL. She was a woman of good understanding, and of a beautiful countenance ; but 
the man was churlish and evil in his doings ; and he was of the house of Caleb." 

Nabal, then, was one of the great men of the land. He was 
distinguished for wealth and family. His ancestry, indeed, was the 
very noblest, though he was an unworthy scion of the illustrious 
stock. " He was of the house of Caleb." Caleb was he who, with 
Joshua, reported faithfully concerning the promised land, and to 
whom Moses sware on that day, saying, " Surely the land whereon 

16 



118 THE WOMEN OF THE BIBLE. 

thy feet have trodden shall be thine inheritance, and thy children s 
for ever, because thou hast wholly followed the Lord my God."* 
God fulfilled to Nabal that blessing of his forefather ; for " he owned 
a patrimony in Maon," one of the districts assigned by Joshua to 
Caleb and his posterity .f Though the husband of Abigail was of 
honorable lineage, yet, with the estate of Caleb, Nabal inherited 
none of his ancestor s nobility of character. 

Nabal s escutcheon was distinguished in another quarter : for it 
appears J that he sprang from the Kenite Hobab, or Jethro, a prince 
of Midian, and Moses father-in-law. He came also of Hemath, the 
father of the house of Rechab that Rechab whose posterity were 
forbidden to drink wine or to build houses, and whose reverent obe 
dience to their ancestor s injunction elicited the encomiums of God. 
Nabal disgraced his parentage in this line also, by his sensuality and 
drunkenness. In short, he is stigmatized as "a man of Belial," both 
* churlish " in his manners, and " evil in his doings." 

It was Abigail s misfortune to be wedded to this abandoned man. 
She could command, indeed, the luxuries of wealth, and was endowed 
with the advantages of high birth. But what compensation are these 
coveted insignia of worldly greatness to " a woman of good under 
standing," who shall purchase them at the cost of her domestic 
happiness ? With a husband whom she cannot but despise, her 
union is a bondage, and all the glitterings of earthly grandeur are 
but the phosphorescent exhibitions of splendid misery. 

The Scripture tells us nothing of the causes of this mismatched 
alliance, but only reveals the exemplary behavior of Abigail as a 

* Joshua xiv. 9. f Joshua xv. T,5. 

$ 1 Chron. ii. 55. Judges i. 16, iv. 11. Exod. ii. 16, iii. 1. 
Jeremiah xxxv. 2, xviii. 19. 



ABIGAIL. 119 

pious and devoted wife. Her merit, which distinguishes her as a 
heroine, also makes her illustrious as a spouse ; for her self-sacri 
fice, which, under happier circumstances, conjugal love might have 
prompted and made easy to perform, the higher motives of duty to 
her husband and to God inspired. 

In our frontispiece the artist s conception of Abigail s " beautiful 
countenance " is delineated. Let the reader pardon our attempt, if 
we fail to rival her engaging picture by transferring to our pages the 
Scripture portraiture of " her good understanding." The incidents 
of the story carry back the thoughts to a remote period of society. 
It was a crisis in the history of the elder Church. The curse was 
fallen on the house of Saul. Samuel was lately dead and buried. 
The bright prospects, promising peace and glory by the accession of 
David to the throne of Israel, were eclipsed by David s voluntary 
banishment. Though he had been chosen and anointed king, that 
pious man elected rather to be a fugitive from the royal occupant of 
the throne, and patiently to await God s providence to effect the 
transfer of the crown, than to stretch forth a sacrilegious hand 
against the Lord s anointed. He was wandering in the wilderness of 
Paran, gaining a precarious livelihood for himself and a band of 
devoted followers, with great hazard of his life. It was that period 
of dire want to which our blessed Lord refers,* when David, a hun 
gered, was nourished by Abimelech of the shewbread " which it 
was not lawful for him to eat, neither for them which were with him, 
but only for the priests." 

Among the many resorts of David and his men was Mount 
Carmel, where Nabal s flocks and herds were finding pasture. But, 
instead of helping themselves to Nabal s property to appease nature s 

* 1 Samuel xxi. 1-6. Matthew xii. 3, 4. 



120 THE WOMEN OF THE BIBLE. 

cravings for food, they touched nothing ; yea, according to the tes 
timony of Nabal s shepherds, " The men were very good to us. 
They were a wall to us by night and day : we were not hurt, neither 
missed we any thing." This is most honorable testimony to the 
probity of Jesse s son, ranking him withal among the highest of 
commanders, whose discipline restrained his followers from depreda 
tion, in spite of the urgencies of strong temptation. That it required 
a resolved will and a powerful hand to curb his men, while fretting 
under the spur of appetite, is made more evident by the account 
given of the persons who had joined him. They are described as a 
set of disorderly and reckless fellows -a kind of guerrilla band, but 
little better than banditti : " Every one that was in distress, and 
every one that was in debt, and every one that was discontented, 
gathered themselves unto him; and he became a captain over them."* 
Yet the virtue and authority of David both kept them within the 
bounds of honesty, and marshalled them as the protectors of Nabal s 
flocks. 

When, therefore, David heard in the wilderness that Nabal was 
come to shear his sheep in Carmel, he sent out ten young men as an 
embassage to the lordly proprietor, requesting him to furnish, out 
of his abundant store, a supply of food for their pressing hunger. 
Leaving Paran, the ambassadors journeyed up to Carmel, and accost 
ed Nabal with these courtly words : " Peace be both to thee, and 
peace be to thine house, and peace be unto all that thou hast. We 
greet thee in the name of David : Give, I pray thee, whatsoever 
cometh to thine hand unto thy servants and thy son David. When 
thy shepherds were with us we hurt them not, neither was there 
aught missing unto them all the while they were in Carmel. Ask thy 

* 1 Samuel xxii. 2. 



ABIGAIL. 121 

young men, and they will show thee. Wherefore let us find favor in 
thine eyes ; for we come in a good day." 

But Nabal answered David s messengers with scorn : " Who is 
David ?" said he in irony : " and who is the son of Jesse ? There be 
many servants now-a-days that break away every man from his 
master." And to barb this sarcasm, the proud churl continued, in the 
temper of a selfish and ungrateful niggard, saying, * Shall I then take 
my bread, and my water, and my flesh that I have slaughtered for my 
shearers, and give it unto men whom I know not whence they are ?" 
With such an irritating message, he sent away David s messengers as 
famished and destitute as they came. 

We must allow that it required surpassing virtue, and more than 
ordinary influences of Divine grace, even for David, when he heard 
the report of his servants, to repress the violence of his indignation. 
His men were starving, and yet were refused a portion of that meat 
which their valor had protected and their honesty had held inviolate. 
Besides, to injury was added insult. Nabal s reproachful insinuation, 
was not that deserving vengeance ? 

Now, among the saints of the earlier Church, none was capable of 
greater magnanimity than the persecuted son of Jesse. He had 
shown it towards Saul, only a few days previous, in the cave of 
Engeddi, and his generosity on that occasion had melted the hard 
heart of that wicked king. But the best of saints are sinful men. 
Mortals can brook all wrongs more easily than insult and contempt. 
Satan, too, shows his craftiness by surprising the citadel which would 
foil his slow approaches. Wherefore, David s anger, inflamed by 
treacherous pride and justified by beguiling sophistry, opened his 
heart to the demons, malice and revenge. 

" Comrades !" he exclaimed, " surely in vain have I kept all that 
this fellow hath in the wilderness, so that nothing was missing of all 



122 THE WOMEN OF THE BIBLE. 

that pertained unto him : and he hath requited me evil for good. So 
and more also do God unto the enemies of David, if I leave of all that 
pertain to him, by the morning light, any male alive ! Gird ye on 
every man his sword !"* Then they girded on every man his sword ; 
and David also girded on his sword. And there went up after David 
about four hundred men. 

What horrid passions raged in the breasts of those furious men, 
in that sudden march to Carmel ! " Death to Nabal and his house 
hold !" was the muttered watchword for that fearful night. And who 
shall be the assassin ! Alas for the reputation of Israel s best son ! 
Alas for human nature, fallen and debased ! David was meditating 
an outrage against his neighbor more flagrant than that he would 
avenge. Murder was in his heart, and theft besides. He was 
resolved to punish the owner and to spoil his goods, in the face 
of all his boasted honesty and honor in refraining from the tempta 
tion. His former virtues were about to be disparaged, shamed, and 
brought to nought, and immolated to false honor. Satan seemed 
about to triumph over the grace of God. The enemies of the Church 
and revilers of her saints were about to be furnished with one of the 
most signal arguments for their blasphemy. Such were, no doubt, 
the forebodings of the holy angels and the anticipations of the devil. 
Good creatures must have dreaded and evil ones hoped for the 
consequences which should issue from David s misconduct. 

But meanwhile the God of Israel was shielding his Anointed 
from overt crime, and magnifying the power of his effectual grace 
in converting the sinner s heart unto repentance. ABIGAIL was the 
chosen minister of this great work. Her name is become renowned 
in Holy Scripture, for her successful mediation in this awful crisis. 

* 1 Samuel xxv. 21, 22. 



ABIGAIL. 123 

Abigail was not present at the interview between her husband 
and the messengers. But " one of the young shepherds told her, 
saying, Behold David sent messengers out of the wilderness to salute 
our master, and he railed on them. But the men were very good to 
us, and we were not hurt, neither missed we any thing as long as we 
were conversant with them when we were in the fields. They were 
a wall unto us both by night and day, all the while we were with 
them keeping the sheep. Now therefore know and consider what 
thou wilt do : for evil is determined against our master and against 
all his household ; for he is such a son of Belial that a man cannot 
speak to him." 

She listened to these tidings, trembling at their import. Her 
husband was threatened with robbery and death, and his household 
was doomed to massacre. The fierce banditti were on their march, 
thirsting to revenge themselves. The valiant David, who once had 
braved and conquered Goliath of Gath, and delivered Israel in the 
name of the Lord of Hosts, was now possessed with an evil spirit, 
and rushing headlong for rapine and assassination. 

She was appealed to as a saviour. She was summoned to imme 
diate action to avert the accumulating evils ready to burst in woe 
upon all about her. What can she do in such a crisis ? How shall 
she save her husband, and his foes be spared from crime ? Shall she 
warn him of his peril, and urge him to flee away ? Flight was 
useless, and Nabal was too proud to seek the coward s refuge. 

Shall she incite him to arms ? 

This would augment the conflict, and bloodshed, and sin. War is 
no remedy for wrongs, but an aggravation of them. Neither was it 
probable that Nabal, with servants who despised him, could defend 
himself against a united band of four hundred desperate men like 
David and his warriors. 



124 THE WOMEN OF THE BIBLE. 

Never was danger more imminent. But it is on like occasions of 
emergency that talent and ability are best developed. With little 
time for forethought, the habits of the soul, formed and matured by 
the slow training of a lifetime, display themselves, and show forth 
what we denominate the person s character. As there never was 
greater need, so was there never a clearer demonstration of that 
" good understanding " by which Abigail is characterized in Holy 
Scripture. 

Although peace was the last result to be expected while a fool 
and a madman were the belligerents, yet Abigail despaired not to 
accomplish it, and to quench the conflagration in its very height and 
fury. Refraining, for the present, from acquainting her husband with 
her purpose, she undertook to be a mediator. She would use no 
artifice, but truth. She would offer no bribe, but the tribute of grati 
tude and justice. She would be governed by no base motive, but 
duty to her husband and the fear of God. There was no magic in 
her power, save the charm of self-sacrifice the persuasive majesty 
of the cross. Had Nabal deserved her love, she could have done no 
more for his deliverance and safety. 

Lading the beasts with an offering of food, " of loaves, and wine, 
and sheep ready dressed, corn and raisins and figs," and sending her 
messengers before her face, Abigail made haste to follow them. 
" And it was so, as she rode on the ass, that she came down by the 
covert of the hill, and behold David and his men came against her, 
and she met them. And when Abigail saw David, she hasted and 
lighted off the ass, and fell before David on her face, and bowed 
herself to the ground, and fell at his feet, and said, UPON ME, MY 

LORD, UPON ME LET THIS INIQUITY BE." 

In the frontispiece, our artist has delineated Abigail in this sup 
pliant attitude, offering herself a voluntary victim. 



ABIGAIL. 125 

Now let us listen to her eloquence, as a persuasive pleader to the 
affections and a stern preacher to the conscience. These are her 
memorable words : 



" Let thine handmaid speak in thine audience, and hear the words of thy hand 
maid. Let not my lord, I pray thee, regard this man of Belial, even Nabal : for as 
his name is, so is he. Nabal [a fool] is his name, and folly is with him : but I, 
thine handmaid, saw not the young men of my lord whom thou didst send. Now 
therefore, my lord, as the Lord liveth, and as thy soul liveth, seeing the Lord hath 
withholden thee from coming to shed blood, and from avenging thyself with thine 
own hand, now let thine enemies, and they that seek evil of my lord, be as Nabal. 
And now the blessing of this present which thine handmaid hath brought unto my 
lord, let it be given unto the young men that walk at the feet of my lord." 



In this argument, Abigail despoiled David of the pretext of neces 
sity, wherewith he might have attempted to justify his assault on 
Nabal s goods, 

But yet there remained the rankling thorn, the tormenting sore, 
the sense of insult. Nabal s taunting words, like a hot iron, had 
burnt deep wounds in David s bosom. Him, the deliverer and anoint 
ed king of the house of Israel, preferring persecution from the jealous 
Saul rather than be disloyal yea, choosing the precarious life of a 
forester and a fugitive, for conscience sake, awaiting the good plea 
sure of the Lord to give him the throne, even him a Nabal mocked 
and sneered at ! " Who is David ? Who is the son of Jesse ? 
There be many servants now-a-days that break away every man from 
his master." These bitter words were coals of fire in his heart. 
" That burning imputation must be quenched in the churl s blood." 
So spake the demon of revenge. So was he muttering still, when 
Abigail, the sweet exorcist, resumed her argument ; in which she 

17 



126 THE WOMEN OF THE BIBLE. 

combined the poetry and fire of enthusiasm, the artlessness of faith, 
the hatred of sin, a confidence, almost that of a prophet, in God s 
promises, and graced withal by self-abandonment and spiritual exalta 
tion, betokening such a singleness of heart, and earnestness, as aimed 
only at God s honor and David s greatest good. These beauties, 
it seems to us, she forcibly concentred in a masterful appeal, so full 
of truth and nature that art cannot match its eloquence, nor the best 
rhetoric do more than imitate it : 

" I pray thee, forgive the trespass of thine handmaid : for the Lord will certainly 
make my lord a sure house ; because my lord fighteth the battles of the Lord, and 
evil hath not been found in thee all thy days. Yet a man is risen to pursue thee 
and to seek thy soul ! But the soul of my lord shall be bound up in the bundle of 
life with the Lord thy God. And the souls of thine enemies, them shall he sling 
out, as out of the midst of a sling. And it shall come to pass, when the Lord shall 
have done to my lord according to all the good that He hath spoken concerning 
thee, and shall have appointed thee ruler over Israel, that this shall be no grief unto 
thee, nor offence of heart unto my lord, either that tlwu hast shed Nood causelessly, 
or that my lord hath avenged himself. But when the Lord shall have dealt well 
with my lord, then remember thine handmaid." 

Abigail ceased to speak, and her words were arrows from the 
quiver of the Almighty. And David said to Abigail, 

" Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, which sent thee this day to meet me. And 
blessed be thy advice, and blessed be thou, which hast kept me this day from com 
ing to shed blood, and from avenging myself with mine own hand ! For, in very 
deed, as the Lord God of Israel liveth, which hath kept me back from hurting thee, 
except thou hadst hasted, and come to meet me, surely there had not been left unto 
Nabal, by the morning light, any male alive. So David received of her hand that 
which she had brought him, and said unto her, Go up in peace to thine house ; see, 
I have hearkened to thy voice, and have accepted thy person." 



ABIGAIL. 1 :>? 

Thus Abigail appeased the wrath of her husband s enemy, and 
her mediation was, on the one hand, prospered. 

We now pass to contemplate her subsequent procedure. We 
have surmised the reasons that moved Abigail to conceal her pur 
posed conduct from her husband. Although, in general, a studious 
secrecy between man and wife is wrong, and suggests suspicion of 
misconduct, yet the circumstances of this case justified the prudence 
of her course. 

Yet she delayed not to acquaint Nabal with the tidings of her 
successful mediation. Had she informed him of her plan beforehand, 
the sequel proves it to be likely that the brutish man would, in his 
rage, have abused his lovely wife, and foiled the weapons she had 
prepared for his defence. 

But when David s enmity w r as quenched, and Nabal s life was 
spared, Abigail sought out her husband, and found him carousing at 
the table. For " behold, he held a feast, like the feast of a king. 
And his heart was merry within him, for he was very drunken." 
That fearful day she was called to encounter the worst passions of 
mankind, in every hideous shape. But she prudently withheld her 
information, and " told him nothing, less or more, until the morning 
light. But in the morning, when the wine was gone out of Nabal, 
and his wife had told him these things, it came to pass that his heart 
died within him, and he became as a stone." 

His rage, too full for utterance or a fiercer demonstration, brought 
on paralysis ; and " about ten days after, the Lord smote Nabal that 
he died." 

Such was the tragic end of this wicked man. Such was the 
righteous retribution of HIM who hath said, " Vengeance is mine ! 
I will repay." 

When David heard that Nabal was dead, he offered this pious 



128 THE WOMEN OF THE BIBLE. 

thanksgiving for a dispensation that rebuked his own sinful purposes 
of self-revenge and malice : " Blessed be the Lord, that hath pleaded 
the cause of my reproach from the hand of Nabal, and hath kept his 
servant from evil. For the Lord hath returned the wickedness of 
Nabal upon his own head." 

Thus the Divine hand severed the matrimonial ties between the 
mismatched pair, releasing the gentle and suffering Abigail from her 
thraldom to a coarse, brutal, and drunken husband. Nor was this 
all. Abigail became the wife of David. Afterwards she was taken 
captive by the Amalekites, and her life was put in jeopardy. But she 
was rescued by the prowess of her valiant husband, in one of his 
most brilliant and triumphant exploits. 

The Scripture reveals no more of Abigail s history, but leaves her 
the worthy and honored wife of the " sweet psalmist and shepherd of 
Israel." 

We conclude with a moral from our story, applicable to domestic 
life. 

If parents seek the happiness of their daughters, let them be 
solemnly cautioned not to wed them to men " churlish and wicked in 
their doings." There is no conceivable bondage harder to be borne 
by woman. By " the law of her husband," while he liveth, she is 
bound to obedience, and, of course, may become the victim of oppres 
sion and of suffering. The untold and withering grievances of her 
husband s surly temper, harsh words, bursts of passion, and habitual 
violence of demeanor, stretch the catalogue of woman s wrongs, 
calling for the exercise of every passive virtue in the wife, and invok 
ing the fullest gifts of Divine grace to aid her in her trial. Great 
wealth and venerable ancestry are no recompense for her husband s 
mental imbecility and moral baseness. A rich fool for a husband is a 
wife s disgrace ; a wicked one is her torment. 



ABIGAIL. 129 

Yet, if the irrevocable choice be made, and the marriage-vows be 
uttered, let the unfortunate woman learn patience, fidelity, and discre 
tion, from Nabal s wife. When a woman so acts, from duty to her 
lord, base, intemperate, and churlish though he be, as she would do 
from motives of respect and love to a faithful husband, she is a 
pattern of conjugal excellence and an exemplar for female imitation. 

Abigail was such a WOMAN and such a WIFE. 



THE QUEEN OF SHEBA. 

THE Queen of Sheba ! It is not merely by the narrative of the 
visit of that remarkable woman to the court of Solomon that the 
Scriptures have set her name on high, and given it a claim to the 
respectful notice of the Christian reader. Our blessed Lord has 
consecrated her memory in those impressive words : " The Queen 
of the South shall rise up in the judgment with this generation, and 
shall condemn it : for she came from the uttermost parts of the earth 
to hear the wisdom of Solomon ; and behold, a greater than Solomon 
is here."* 

The Queen of the South ! Uniting that title with the name of 
Sheba, which is the name of her dominion wherever else she is 
mentioned in the Scriptures, and adding to both the distance of her 
journey as given by the Saviour, "from the uttermost parts of the 
earth" we are materially assisted in ascertaining whence she came. 
Ethiopia, in Africa, has been supposed to have been her country. A 
tradition to that effect has been handed down among the Ethiopians 
as unquestionable. They assert that her throne was occupied for 
many generations by her posterity, and they have boasted the pos 
session of their names, and the order of their succession. Josephus 

* Matthew xii. 42. 



132 THE WOMEN OF THE BIBLE. 

seems to have looked for Sheba in the same quarter. He gives that 
name as the original name for the city which Cambyses, in honor of 
his sister, called Meroe, from whence, he says, the Queen of Sheba 
came. Meroe is sometimes embraced within the bounds of Ethiopia. 

But learned writers very generally concur in placing the Sheba of 
the Queen of the South in Arabia Felix, in its utmost south, where, 
bounded by the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean, the region might well 
be called " the uttermost parts of the earth," for though not so far 
from Jerusalem as Ethiopia, it was the outer boundary of the earth as 
then known in that direction. In no sense could the town of Meroe 
be considered as in the utmost parts of the earth, since many exten 
sive countries in Africa were known in the Saviour s day to be 
beyond it. Wherever else in the Scriptures the name of Sheba 
occurs, as pertaining to a country, it manifestly applies to Arabia, as 
in the sixtieth chapter of Isaiah : " All they from Sheba shall come ; 
and they shall bring gold and incense." In this place, the association 
of Sheba with Midian and Ephah, in the same verse, determines the 
Arabian locality. The presents brought by the Queen to Solomon, 
consisting of " an hundred and twenty talents of gold, and of spices 
very great store, and precious stones," teach her Arabian origin. 
Arabia Felix abounded in such things. The region of Ethiopia in 
which Meroe lay did not. 

The Queen of Sheba was not the only sovereign who had heard 
and been moved by the fame of the unparalleled wisdom with which 
God had endowed the King of Israel. " There came of all people 
to hear the wisdom of Solomon, from all kings of the earth, which had 
heard of his wisdom."* It is not said that kings themselves came ; 
but people from all kings that had heard of his fame. It was the 

* 1 Kings iv. 34. 



THE QUEEN OF SHEBA. 133 

distinguishing honor of Sheba s Queen, that she only of all of her 
rank was so in love with the wisdom which rumor had spoken of 
so widely, as to have zeal and devotedness to go in person, and hear 
and admire and learn. Other royal personages sent ambassadors. 
Wisdom at second hand could not content her mind. Her own ears 
must hear the man unto whom God had given the " wise and under 
standing heart." Others of equal rank were much nearer Jerusalem ; 
but, busied with the affairs of state, they could not come. She, 
dwelling in the utmost parts of the earth, had also her state affairs to 
think of, and might well have considered her sex and exposure to 
many dangers by the long way. But none of these things moved 
her. Such an opportunity of learning the wisdom which is from 
above might never occur again. It was worth all the cost and 
sacrifice and danger to be incurred in reaching it. She came ; and 
like the woman that came to Jesus, the true wisdom, and while the 
men of that generation were preparing his crucifixion poured the 
precious ointment upon his head, so, wheresoever the gospel shall 
be preached in the whole world, this pilgrimage of the Queen of 
the South shall be told for a memorial of her ; and her example, 
enshrined in the teaching of our Lord, shall be held up for the con 
demnation of those who suffer any hinderances to keep them from 
coming to learn of him, who " is the power and wisdom of God." 

There is decided reason to believe that the motive of the Queen 
of Sheba in coming to hear the wisdom of Solomon was of the most 
elevated kind ; that her object was the attainment of wisdom in its 
highest and most precious sense. The narrative in the book of 
Kings speaks of her having visited Solomon " to prove him with hard 
questions"* It has been too readily supposed from hence that her 

* l Kings x. l, 

18 



134 THE WOMEN OF THE BIBLE. 

errand was one of mere curiosity, or at best the attainment of mere 
secular knowledge. But hard questions need not be understood as 
merely curious or captious questions ; or as not belonging to the 
class of the most serious and spiritually important. They may have 
been exceedingly difficult to one of her light, and quite plain to the 
man who was taught of God. The being and attributes of the only 
true God ; what his will towards man ; wherewithal a sinner must 
come before him so as to be accepted of him ; what we must do to 
be saved ; these have always been hard questions for the reason of 
man, until enlightened by the revelation of God. Eminent philoso 
phers of ancient days confessed their inability to answer them. The 
Queen of Sheba could not have given stronger evidence of an 
elevated mind and an advanced spirit of true wisdom, than by taking 
her long journey exclusively to inquire of the wisdom of Solomon in 
those momentous subjects. Had her object been of a merely worldly 
kind, we do not believe the Saviour would have distinguished her 
example as he has set it before us in the words already quoted. If 
the Queen of the South is to rise up in the judgment against those 
who refused to avail themselves of the teaching of Jesus, it must 
have been heavenly teaching which she sought in going from the 
ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon. 

But let us not overlook an important passage, which seems to 
determine the religious character of that pilgrimage. We read that 
it was " when the Queen of Sheba heard of the fame of Solomon " 
concerning the name of the Lord, that " she came to prove him with 
hard questions." Hence it appears that it was not the fame of Solo 
mon for wisdom in general, but for wisdom " concerning the name 
of the Lord," his being and attributes and will ; it was the spiritual 
value of Solomon s wisdom that particularly arrested the mind of that 
royal lady, and suggested the hard questions which she travelled so 



THE QUEEN OF SHEBA. 135 

far to propose. It was the power of a religious motive, the urgency 
of spiritual and eternal interests, that made the difference between 
her course and that of all the other royal dignitaries to whom the 
same fame had reached. They sent representatives to hear and 
render homage. A deeper sense of her need of wisdom, of light to 
show the way of peace with God, constrained her to leave all, and 
go a dangerous road, and seek a strange land, that she might hear for 
herself what she must do. 

Who was the wisest man, any child who has learned the infant s 
catechism can tell. But who was the wisest woman ? Is there one 
among all the women of antiquity, who, considering her circum 
stances and privileges, can offer a stronger claim to that distinction 
than the Queen of Sheba ? We ask not what she learned at Jeru 
salem. " She communed with Solomon of all that was in her heart," 
and he " told her all her questions," and a ready mind to profit by 
such privileges she must have had, who had been at such cost to 
obtain them. But we refer to what she was when she set out from 
her distant home. Stronger evidence of a wise heart cannot be 
given than in her devoted earnestness to grow in wisdom. Wise, 
indeed, is that man or woman who has learned so much as to feel, as 
she manifestly did, that " Wisdom is the principal thing ;" " the mer 
chandise of it better than the merchandise of silver, and the gain 
thereof than fine gold ;" that " all the things thou canst desire are 
not to be compared unto her." 

" Whatsoever things were written aforetime, were written for our 
learning, that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures 
might have hope." Such was the object of the spirit of inspiration 
in placing on the pages of the Scriptures the narrative of the wise 
Queen of Sheba. The words of our Lord have made it a part of 
the New Testament teaching. " The Queen of the South shall rise 



136 THE WOMEN OF THE BIBLE. 

up in the judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it : for 
she came from the utmost parts of the earth to hear the wisdom of 
Solomon, and behold, a greater than Solomon is here." 

A greater than Solomon ! Yes, as Wisdom herself is greater 
than him whom wisdom has taught ; as the sun is greater than the 
planet shining in its light. As God, the fountain of all wisdom, is 
greater than man drinking at the stream. The wisdom of Solomon 
was great by comparison with that of other men. Compared with 
what angels know, or with what was to be known, it was as an 
infant s play with letters of which he knows not the use. Com 
pared with the fulness of God it dwindled to nothingness. The 
wisdom of Jesus depends on no comparison. "It pleased the Father 
that in him should all fulness dwell ;" so that " in him are hid all 
the treasures of wisdom and knowledge." He is the Light. All 
other lights are darkness but as they receive from him. And 
how freely does he communicate his wisdom, to make men wise 
unto salvation ! " Learn of me," is his call to all the ends of the 
earth, and his only condition is, " come and take my yoke upon 
you ;" while the precious reward of such pupilage is, what other 
teacher could never give "Ye shall find rest unto your souls;" 
rest to the weary and heavy laden, peace with God, entire deliver 
ance from the condemnation of his law, the sweet comfort of being 
justified freely by his grace, through the redemption that is in Christ 
Jesus. 

" A greater than Solomon is here" Solomon could teach the 
knowledge of wisdom, he could not make men wise. His light 
might show the way of life, it could not impart the will or the 
strength to go therein. It might enlighten, it could not sanctify. 
Christ is " made unto us wisdom." He makes the simple wise, by 
transforming them into his own likeness. They learn of him, and 



THE QUEEN OF SHEBA. 137 

are made like unto him while they learn. " We have the mind of 
Christ" could certain of old say who had been in his school. He 
is made unto those who learn of him, not wisdom only, but " right 
eousness, and sanctification, and redemption." These several con 
stituents of blessedness are never separated from wisdom, under his 
teaching. Wisdom from him is the will to go, as well as the under 
standing to know, the way of life ; it is a heart sanctified as well as 
a mind enlightened ; it is " the way, and the truth, and the life." 
Whoever comes to Jesus and sits at his feet, in the spirit of a meek 
and lowly heart, shall be able to testify, as did those officers whom the 
Jewish rulers sent to take him : " Never man spake like this man." 
Never did other teacher so constrain the heart, and hush the tumult 
of its passions, and bow down its pride, and pour consolation into a 
wounded spirit. It is a beautiful as well as a faithful account which 
he gives us of himself: " The Lord God hath given me the tongue 
of the learned, that I should know how to speak a word in season 
to him that is weary."* And though now we have reason to lament 
over this generation, as did the Saviour over that which heard his 
ministry, because it is so insensible to the privilege of having such a 
teacher in the midst of us, a day cometh when all the ends of the 
earth shall see and rejoice to partake in his salvation. " The 
abundance of the sea shall be converted unto him. The forces of 
the Gentiles shall come to him." " He shall come down as rain upon 
the mown grass ; as showers that water the earth." " All kings 
shall fall down before him, all nations shall serve him."t And it is 
interesting to note, in the glowing pictures which the pencil of inspi 
ration has drawn of the multitudes from all kindreds of the earth 
then gathering together unto the name of the Lord, how often and 

* Isaiah 1. 4. f Isaiah Ix. Psalm Ixxii. 



138 THE WOMEN OF THE BIBLE. 

particularly Sheba is mentioned. " All they from Sheba shall come." 
Like their queen of old, " they shall bring gold and incense ;" and 
as she testified that the half of the wisdom of Solomon had not been 
told her, and her heart exclaimed, " Happy are these thy servants, 
which stand continually before thee, and hear thy wisdom ;" so it is 
written, " All they of Sheba shall show forth the praises of the 
Lord." " To him shall be given of the gold of Sheba : prayer 
also shall be made for him continually, and daily shall he be 
praised."* 

It was a day of universal peace in the wide dominion of Solomon, 
when the Queen of Sheba came to hear his wisdom. The kingdom 
of Israel was at the height of its power and glory. It extended from 
Egypt to beyond the Euphrates. The temple was built in all its 
beauty and glory, and was a wonder of the world. The church of 
that dispensation had attained its most complete establishment ; all 
the divine appointments concerning it were most fully exhibited. 
Its worship was in its glory. So will it be in the days of Him who 
is to sit on the throne of his father David, when " all they of Sheba," 
with all kindreds and nations, shall flow unto him. " In his days shall 
the righteous flourish ; yea, and abundance of peace so long as the 
moon endureth." " He shall have dominion also from sea to sea, and 
from the river unto the ends of the earth*"t His glorious temple, 
the Church of the living God, built up of living stones, made alive by 
the power of his Spirit, and all joined together in one holy fellow 
ship unto Him, the living corner-stone, will then be attaining rapidly 
its perfect state as a holy Church, without blemish and without spot. 
It will be the wonder of men and angels ; its materials brought from 
all nations ; its amplitude embracing the breadth of the earth ; its 

* Isaiah Ix. 6. Psalm Ixxii. 15. f Psalm Ixxii. 



THE QUEEN OFSHEBA. 139 

height reaching into heaven ; its inward adorning the beauty of holi 
ness, the most fine gold of a pure and perfect love ; all the workman 
ship of God ; all his people composing its holy priesthood, and con 
tinually offering " spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus 
Christ." How will the wisdom of the Son of David, at once the 
corner-stone and architect, the High Priest, and the one only propitia 
tory sacrifice of that glorious temple, appear, when it shall be seen 
how, out of the shapeless and polluted and confused ruins of the nature 
of man, lying scattered over all the world and overgrown with the 
rankest growth of sin, that building of God, in all its perfect propor 
tion and golden purity and eternal strength, was raised, created in 
Christ Jesus ! Then shall it be seen, indeed, that a greater than 
Solomon is here, a wiser and mightier master-builder : as far greater 
as the spiritual house of God, the communion of saints made up of 
men redeemed from the dominion of sin and changed into the image 
of God, the house " not made with hands eternal in the heavens," is 
greater than the temple which Solomon built of the stones of Tyre, 
and the cedars of Libanus, and the gold of Ophir. In all its glory, 
that temple was not arrayed like God s sanctuary in the heart of any 
sinner, whom his grace hath created anew in Christ Jesus for the 
indwelling of his Spirit. 

It is written, that " when the Queen of Sheba had seen all Solo 
mon s wisdom there was no more spirit in her" In her amazement 
and admiration she was as one entranced. Much more were the 
three disciples of our Lord overcome, when upon the holy mount 
they saw his glory, " the glory as of the only begotten of the 
Father, full of grace and truth." 

The queen said to Solomon : " It was a true report that I heard 
in mine own land of thy acts and of thy wisdom. Howbeit, I believed 
not the words until I came, and mine eyes had seen it ; and behold, 



140 THE WOMEN OF THE BIBLE. 

the half was not told me." * How seldom does rumor fall below the 
reality, especially when it travels far, and creates universal wonder, 
and is repeated from mouth to mouth ! Such was the rumor that 
reached the Queen of the South. It must have been a wonderful 
report that persuaded her to such a journey. It was too much to be 
entirely believed ; but even the half of it had not been told. The 
words of fame could not convey a just idea of the marvellous truth. 
The wisdom of the king, whom God taught, must be seen to be 
known. Great things are spoken in the word of God, and in the 
messages of his ministers, concerning our Lord Jesus Christ, as a 
prince and a Saviour, full of grace ; mighty to save to the uttermost 
all that come unto God by him ; precious beyond degree to all that 
seek him. But " who believes our report, and to whom is the arm 
of the Lord revealed ?" And when a soul is persuaded to leave all 
and go to him, how far is his faith below the full reality of what the 
Saviour is, and has to give to all believers ; what a difference does he 
find between hearing of Jesus by the hearing of the ear, and having 
communion with Jesus in the faith of the heart ; between such know 
ledge of his excellence as comes by the most exalted accounts of 
those who have been with him, and the knowledge arising from per 
sonal proof and enjoyment of his wisdom and grace ! No words, no 
teaching of man, can enable us to know the grace of our Lord Jesus 
Christ. No teacher beneath himself is sufficient for these things. 
Jesus must be seen in the riches of his grace, to be known in the 
preciousness of his salvation. Whoever will take up his cross, and 
sit at his feet, and open his heart to the power of his truth, in meek 
ness and lowliness, receiving him as he offers himself to the sinner, 
shall testify that the thousandth part had not been told him of the 

* 1 Kings x. 6, 7. 



THE QUEEN OF SHEBA, 141 

excellence of his Saviour. But how much more when the believer 
shall have seen the King in the glory of the New Jerusalem above, 
and hath been permitted to commune with him, face to face, and to 
enter upon the possession of " the riches of the glory of his inherit 
ance in the saints," will he feel that his faith never reached but to 
the dim reflection of his Saviour s glory, that his ear never heard, 
nor did it ever enter into his heart to conceive what God hath pre 
pared for them that love him, 

But to reach that blissful communion, to be permitted that glo 
rious manifestation, we must, like the faithful apostle, " count all 
things but loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus 
our Lord ;" a spirit of devotedness must be in us, which will make 
us willing " to suffer the loss of all things, that we may be in Christ, 
and be found in him ;" we must leave the world as the Queen of 
Sheba left her home and throne ; and, like her, we must be strangers 
and pilgrims in the earth, seeking a better country, even an heavenly ; 
leaving all to follow Christ; counting not our lives dear unto us, 
that we may learn of him. And if this seems too heavy a cross to 
bear, too long a journey to take, too great a sacrifice to make for 
such reward, the Queen of the South shall rise up in the judgment 
and shall condemn us ; " for she came from the uttermost parts of 
the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and behold, a greater 
than Solomon is here." 



JEZEBEL. 

MODERN biography alone furnishes us with portraits, in which the 
minutest characteristics are given with elaborate detail. Without 
any such detail in the case of the " cursed woman " (2 Kings ix. 34) 
who is the subject of our brief memoir, we are obliged to complete 
her character as naturalists complete an imperfect skeleton of some 
remote age. The incidents in her history which have been handed 
down to us, though few, are sufficiently marked to decide at once to 
what species the monster remains belong : and further, the labor of 
restoration is rendered comparatively easy by the fact, that the race 
of Jezebel has constantly reappeared in history, nor is it even yet 
extinct. 

The daughter, the wife, and the mother of kings, we may before 
hand expect to find in her certain characteristics, which have ever 
since been too common in the regal families of the world, especially 
during those periods when royal prerogative was considered a divine 
gift which raised its possessor above human opinions and laws. 
Absolute power has ordinarily gone hand in hand with gigantic 
crime, dispensing as well with the laws of God as with the rights 
of man. What has been the history of morals in royal courts ? 
And if an improvement in this respect be visible in our days, do we 
not owe it to the increased purity and energy of popular opinion ? 



144 THE WOMEN OF THE BIBLE. 

" If," says an acute observer of the last century " if vast crimes are 
not now in fashion, it is only because despotism is generally exploded. 
Give human nature scope, and it can still be sublimely abominable."* 
We have only to consider, in addition, that the court of Zidon (a 
commercial city of Phoenicia on the coast of the Mediterranean, 
now called Saide, where were worshipped Baal or Bel, and Ashtoreth 
or Astarte, the eastern Venus), was the home of Jezebel, and we arc 
prepared to find that the princess whom the king of Israel married, 
proved to be neither a pure woman, a just ruler, or a good wife. 

Ahab, himself an evil-disposed man, may have wedded her for her 
beauty, or possibly from expediency, the motive of most royal mar 
riages. It is not likely that he foreknew the unscrupulous self-will 
which she afterwards manifested, and which made her not only the 
despot of the nation, but the master of her husband. But however 
that may be, this marriage was itself a great crime, for Jezebel was 
probably the first avowed pagan who had been raised to the throne of 
Israel. Not only did his own evil dispositions receive a powerful 
impetus from the influence of such a companion she corrupted the 
whole nation by her idolatries and witchcrafts. It was little more than 
a century since the sweet singer sat upon the throne of Israel, and less 
than half a century since Jeroboam carried the ten tribes into revolt. 
Ahab was the sixth in succession from Jeroboam, who, until the 
accession of Ahab, was spoken of as the model of royal wickedness. 
But Ahab, we are told, excelled all his predecessors. While the 
worst that could be said of them was thnt they walked in the steps of 
Jeroboam, of Ahab it is said that " he did evil in the sight of 
Jehovah above all that went before him," and, " as if it had been a 
light thing for him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam, he took to wife 

* Horace Walpole, than whom few better understood the history of royalty. 



JEZEBEL. 145 

Jezebel (as we would now say Izebel), the daughter of Ethbaal king 
of the Zidonians, and went and served Baal and worshipped him." 
This was his great crime, because it led to the open establishment 
of an idolatrous system which through her agency rivalled and in 
the end nearly exterminated the worship of Jehovah. Until now 
kings and people had contented themselves with that qualified form of 
idolatry, which consisted in paying certain honors to the two golden 
calves which Jeroboam had set up in Bethel and Dan, for the pur 
pose of drawing off the people from the temple at Jerusalem. These 
were not precisely idols, in the worst sense of that word, but rather 
symbolical representatives of the true God, Jehovah Elohim. Baal, 
however, was not a symbol but a rival of the God of Israel, and the 
establishment of his worship with its costly and depraving accompa 
niments, was a vast stride in the downward progress of the nation. 

Before we proceed to unfold the character of the corrupt woman 
who was .the chief agent in this monstrous revolution, a word or two 
may not be amiss in regard to that proclivity to idol-worship which 
seems to be a universal tendency of human beings. Those who live 
under the Christian light find it difficult to enter fully into the mental 
processes by which a people like the Hebrews, whose laws and insti 
tutes were so explicit, and whose previous history was one series of 
supernatural attestations of the grand truths of the Divine Unity, 
Spirituality, and Purity, were led away into the insane absurdities, to 
say nothing of the impious depravities, of polytheism. Undoubtedly 
the secret of all false worships, and of idolatry among the rest, is the 
reluctance of the fallen soul to be habitually brought into contact 
with the holy Spirit of Goodness, when presented in his full-orbed 
character, judicial as well as paternal. " Men like not to retain God 
in their knowledge," and yet must have some object of reverence 
to satisfy their ineradicable religious instincts. It is not at once, 



146 THE WOMEN OF THE BIBLE. 

but gradually, that they can abandon a spiritual system, and mate 
rialize and sensualize the grand ideal. First, under the plea of 
representing that ideal more impressively by means of visible sym 
bols, they choose some one or more of the objects of creation, the 
grandeur, beauty, or utility of which is supposed to make them 
suitable representatives of the attributes of the great Maker. Acting 
upon this principle, they can be at no loss for symbols for which of 
God s works does not come under the one or the other of these 
characters ? The sun, with all the host of heaven, the elements, and 
innumerable other objects, down to the calf, the onion, and even 
more ignoble idols of Egypt, were first introduced as symbols of the 
attributes of the Great Supreme. 

Without attempting to describe the whole process, let it be 
observed that the passage from this pantheism, which regards every 
thing in God and God in every thing, to polytheism, which ascribes a 
separate individuality to the objects of worship, is accomplished with 
comparative ease. They have a natural affinity. Without discarding 
the idea of a Supreme, it is only to suppose his will executed not 
directly but mediately by agents, themselves a lofty race of beings 
with appropriate functions. The honor paid to these is professedly 
subordinate, and not intended to degrade but rather to exalt the 
Supreme, just as a monarch is made more glorious by the extent of 
his court and the reverence paid to them. Only set the imagination 
free from the restraint of that grand truth which is the basis of all 
truths that "Jehovah our God is One Jehovah, and that there is 
none else" and the process of god-creating becomes fascinating, 
and well-nigh interminable. It cannot be denied that much inventive 
skill and poetic beauty have been employed in the peopling of every 
pantheon, and chiefly that of Greece. Jove, Supreme, Father of gods 
and men, retains a theoretic supremacy, sending forth and governing 



JEZEBEL. 147 

all things by the agency of minor deities, who severally take Heaven 
and Hell, and the Earth with its mountains, seas, rivers, woods, 
and fields, together with the various interests of man, under their 
special direction and patronage. No wonder that thirty thousand 
gods ultimately shared the homage of the Greeks. 

On the moral effects of such a theory when reduced to practice, 
it is not necessary to enlarge. The morals of polytheism have 
uniformly been even worse than its theoretic philosophy, if indeed it 
can be said to have aught of the latter. Without exception, all 
pagan mythologies demonstrate the truth, that in the act of degrading 
God man most effectually demoralizes himself. For one who will 
select for his worship the purer creations of the polytheistic fancy, 
there are tens of thousands who will choose the baser. What pan 
theon does not abound in gods many and lords many, stained with 
the vilest pollutions ? What human passion or appetite, what base 
function of the body, has not been dignified and a sanctioned indulg 
ence secured to it, by assigning to it some patron deity ? Is the 
worshipper likely to be purer than the god he worships ? 

The Phoenician mythology (traces of which are to be found to 
this day in the remains and superstitious usages of some parts of the 
British Isles, and which Jezebel was the means of establishing in 
Israel), was not an exception to the above remarks. The shrines of 
Bel or Baal smoked with the blood of human sacrifices, while the 
worship of Astarte or Astaroth the patron goddess of the Sidonians, 
may be best understood by referring to that of her compeer, the 
Cyprian Venus, and to the unutterable depravities which made one 
of the principal seats of her worship the groves of Daphne, near 
Corinth proverbial even in Greece. Doubtless the groves estab 
lished in Israel by Jezebel, were similar in character. 

To have permitted the gradual introduction of such gods to inter- 



148 THE WOMEN OF THE BIBLE. 

fere with and at last displace the worship of Jehovah, was indeed a 
token of deep depravity on the part of the Israelites. But let us be 
just to them. Are they singular in betraying this tendency to mate 
rialize and sensualize religion ? This conflict between the spiritual 
worship of the one exclusive God, and the worship of inferior deities 
-has it ceased even now under the bright sun of Christian truth? 
No : the disposition of the weak and guilty human soul to throw 
itself upon some patron guardianship, which shall not be so remote 
nor so holy as the Supreme Spirit, is visibly at work in the Christian 
church at this hour. This has multiplied intercessors and patrons of 
various powers and attractions, until the calendar is overloaded with 
them : from the virgin mother of our Lord, down to the last dead 
saint canonized by papal authority. The same subtle spirit runs 
through the Christian as through the Pagan polytheism, with this 
difference, that the objects of reverence in the former case have 
generally a purer character, and that the superstition which honors 
them as mediators and patrons, is therefore not quite so pernicious in 
its effects upon individual and social morals. Until, however, their 
shrines and images and rituals are abolished as an opprobrium to 
the glorious system which owns but " One God and one Mediator 
between God and man," we have little cause to wonder at the infat 
uation which in a less privileged era honored the golden calf of Jero 
boam, or bowed down to the idols established by Jezebel. 

We now return more immediately to the subject of our memoir. 
In the matter of her false gods, Jezebel appears to have been a 
thorough propagandist. Not content to worship them herself, not 
even content to seduce her husband to join her and openly to deny 
the God of Israel, she resolved with all the energy of her domi 
neering character, to extend their spiritual dominion over the whole 



JEZEBEL. t 149 

nation, to the final expulsion of the worship of Jehovah. The toler 
ance of polytheism has been vehemently praised, by some who hate 
the intolerance of Christian truth. And it is true that Greece and 
Rome willingly made room for the gods of every land. Athens 
erected an altar even to an " unknown god." But this liberality 
ceased the moment the claims of the true Jehovah were presented, 
and was succeeded by the fiery persecutions of the Emperors. 
Between congenial altars there need be no rivalry. But Jehovah 
must be God alone. " His glory will he riot give to another, neither 
his praise to graven images." Jezebel felt all the antipathy of an 
idolater to the exclusive claims of " Him that is higher than the 
highest." She declared a relentless war against his altars, and per 
suaded her husband to second her with the force of his authority. 
Her influence was that of a strong will over a will often rendered 
irresolute by the remaining power of conscience. Ahab was not 
ignorant of the history of his people. He knew that there was 
danger in the undertaking that Jehovah was to be feared; the 
greater his guilt for yielding to the fierce bigotry of this relentless 
woman. Their relative share of guilt in this matter is forcibly indi 
cated in the words of the historian : " there was none like unto Ahab, 
which did sell himself to work wickedness in the sight of Jehovah, 
whom Jezebel his wife stirred up." Had we the skill displayed by 
our great poet in. the interview between the hesitating Macbeth and 
his more ruthless partner, in which she stirs him up to the murder of 
his guest, we might tell how Jezebel employed all the blandishments 
of her sex, all that innate tact which belongs to the female character, 
to overcome the remaining scruples of her husband now per 
suading, now appealing to his pride and courage, now taunting him 
for his cowardice, until she succeeds in deadening his fear of the 
God of his fathers, even so far as to gain his consent to the murder 
20 



150 THE WOMEN OF THE BIBLE. 

of all the prophets of the Lord, because they stood in the way of 
her ambitious fanaticism. How many she put to death we are not 
informed ; but that it was a large number, may be safely inferred 
from the circumstance that a hundred prophets at least escaped her 
vengeance at the time, having been hidden in a cave by a faithful 
believer. These, too, subsequently disappeared by violence, until 
Elijah was left the sole survivor of the teachers of Israel. 

This devotion to her country s gods came so near to a complete 
triumph, that we learn that Elijah stood alone during the memorable 
scenes on Mount Carmel, while the false prophets, the minions of 
the wicked queen, who sustained them at her expense in every part 
of the land, numbered eight hundred and fifty. Her success with 
the people was corresponding. The eye of God, more keen than 
the eye of the desponding Elijah, could discover in all Israel, only 
7000 who had not been seduced or terrified into a complete or 
partial conformity to the royal example. Who can imagine the 
terror which must have pervaded the land before such a result could 
be reached ! Into how many households did her name carry alarm ! 
She too had armies at her command, to dragoon the unwilling, who 
could only worship Jehovah in secret glens and caves, as the per 
secuted since her day have done. 

The most striking evidence of the fear in which her cruel fanati 
cism was held, is afforded by the flight of Elijah himself into the 
wilderness. After the mighty portents of Mount Carmel, so graphi 
cally described in the eighteenth chapter of the first book of Kings, 
the sanguine prophet, confident that even Jezebel must coincide as 
Ahab appeared to do, in the judgment of the people on that occasion, 
that even she must join in their acclamation Jehovah, he is God! 
Jehovah, he is God! runs in haste to Jezreel, and waits to be 
summoned to re-establish the worship of the God of Israel. But 



JEZEBEL. 101 

instead of a summons, the infuriated woman, in contempt of the 
testimony of her husband who had been an eye-witness of the 
preceding marvels, sends him a message threatening death. Over 
powered by disappointment and fear, the prophet gives way to 
desponding unbelief and flies into the wilderness. 

Other incidents in the Scripture narrative, which afford a further 
insight into the depths of this evil character, now require notice. 
A woman who could thus brave the claims of Jehovah, was not 
likely to respect the rights of man. A single instance of the relent 
less energy with which she executed her purposes, is given in the 
case of a man whose property adjoined the palace grounds. With 
a respect for the rights of property which we are surprised to 
meet in a character like Ahab, the king proposes to secure it by 
barter or purchase. But Naboth declines, because it was against 
the laws of God for a man to alienate the possession of his 
fathers. In the struggle which took place between the king s cupi 
dity on the one hand, and on the other hand his conscience, or 
more probably his fear of exciting a popular commotion in Naboth s 
favor, he shows the pettishness of a sick child. His wife, full of 
contempt for his scruples, but desirous to gratify her tool, directs 
the chief men of the city to arraign the poor Naboth for treason 
against God and the king. The stratagem she planned, succeeded, 
and he is murdered under color of law. She then coolly bids the 
coward go and take possession of the vineyard which he had 
coveted but dared not grasp by his own act. What is it to her, 
that she has shed innocent blood, has added rapine to murder, and 
hypocritically covered her contempt of justice under the forms of 
law ? What is it to her that an orphaned family have beon driven 
from their now desecrated home ? We see her seated amidst her 
luxuries in the ivory house (1 Kings xxii. 39), her cruel heart 



152 THE WOMEN OF THE BIBLE. 

unmoved by the crimes she has thus committed against a defenceless 
man, to please her base partner in guilt. 

The vices arc said to run in companies. Remembering that 
the worship for which Jezebel had shown all the ardor of a devotee, 
was as lascivious as it was cruel, we shall not be doing her injustice 
if we interpret the language which is several times applied to her 
in the history, to mean that she was as great a disgrace to her 
sex in respect to modesty as in respect to gentleness and sensi 
bility. The temples of Bel and the groves of Astarte were not 
the schools in which to train a tender and chaste woman. It is 
true that the terms which describe personal impurity, have often in 
Scripture a figurative application to idolatry : but when the basest 
epithets which can be applied to woman are found attached to the 
name of Jezebel (as by Jehu, for example, himself no spotless 
character, 2 Kings ix. 22), we infer that more than her idolatries 
are meant, and that this wicked woman was as licentious as she 
was cruel. 

Jezebel was a mother. A mother ! sacred name ! The being 
who holds a plastic power for good or evil, how great ! Were all 
the mothers of the world upon the side of God and truth, how 
mighty the revolution that would follow ! But what could be ex 
pected of such a mother ? The tigress will breed tigers. Ahaziah 
and Joram, her sons and successors to the throne, were the genuine 
offspring of their mother. Her daughter Athaliah, who married the 
king of Judah, also inherited her ambition and cruelty. This wicked 
woman, after the untimely death of her husband and oldest son 
whom she had corrupted by her influence, resolved to retain the 
reins of power, and for that purpose ruthlessly murdered all her 
grandsons, with the exception of one who was concealed by his aunt ; 
and after enjoying her ill-gotten power for six years, she was herself 



JEZEBEL. 1 53 

brought to a violent end. The curse of the Lord is on the house 
of the wicked. 

We now approach the becoming termination of Jezebel s long 
career of iniquity. It appears that upon the occasion of Ahab s first 
visit to the grounds he had stolen from Naboth, it pleased Jehovah 
to warn him of the accursed end that awaited himself, his partner 
in crime, and his children. The great prophet who had so long 
haunted his steps, and whom he hated with all the violence of his 
cowardly nature, suddenly appeared before him to announce their 
doom. Upon the very spot where the dogs had licked the blood of 
Naboth, they should lick the blood of Ahab. Of his sons, him that 
died in the city the dogs should eat ; him that died in the field the 
birds of prey should eat. And of Jezebel, the dogs should eat her 
body by the wall of Jezreel, the royal residence. Not to dwell 
upon the verification of these threatenings in the case of the king and 
his sons, we confine ourselves to the case of the queen. While 
Ahab was terrified at the denunciation of Elijah, Jezebel scorns to 
clothe herself in weeds, after his example. Why should she be 
moved by the curse of a prophet whom she had driven into the 
wilderness by the very terror of her name, and the worship of whose 
God she had almost extirpated ? Bold from the beginning, she is 
bold to the end of her career of successes. But her time is come. 
The catastrophe occurred after the defeat of her second son Joram, 
who was slain by Jehu the agent chosen by Providence to execute his 
long-delayed vengeance. As soon as the battle was over, Jehu drove 
furiously with his hosts to take possession of the royal city. As he 
enters the gate in triumph, a bold sharp voice is heard above the 
noise of the multitude. It is the voice of Jezebel, not mourning for 
her son just slain, not imploring the forbearance of the conqueror. 
She has adorned her person after the fashion of the time, her eyes 



154 THE WOMEN OF THE BIBLE. 

painted, her head tired, as if she were still a sovereign. Her 
shrieking voice threatens Jehu with the fate of Zimri, who had been 

O 7 

slain for usurping the throne of his master (1 Kings xvi. 9). In a 
pure and high-principled woman, we might feel justified in admiring 
as a noble courage, what we must here condemn as the desperation 
of a ferocious animal. It was no sense of injustice, no trust in 
God, no conscience void of offence, no patient resolution which 
have made so many delicate and timid females, heroines in the hour 
of danger. It is the madness of humbled pride, defeated ambition, 
and revenge frantic because powerless. Hei 4 last resort is to bravado. 
Hers is the bravery of the mastiff. 

Jehu, who knew her well, " lifted up his face to the window" at 
which the infuriated woman stood, and shouted, " Who is on my 
side ? who ?" Two or three chamberlains looked forth, ready to 
propitiate the conqueror, who commanded them to cast her down. 
The result we give in the graphic words of the original narrative. 



" And they threw her down, and part of her blood was sprinkled on the wall, 
and on the horses. And he trode her under foot. And when he was come in he 
did eat and drink. And he said, Go, see now this cursed woman, and bury her : for 
she is a king s daughter. And they went to bury her : but they found no more of 
her than the skull, and the feet, and the palms of the hands. Wherefore they came 
again and told him. And he said, This is the word of Jehovah, which he spake by 
his servant Elijah the Tishbite, saying ; In the portion of Jezreel shall dogs eat the 
flesh of Jezebel : and the carcass of Jezebel shall be as dung upon the face of the 
field in the portion of Jezreel, so that none shall say, This is Jezebel." 



Our memoir might be made to point many a moral. It illus 
trates the fatal consequences of mating with unbelievers in the true 
God ; the vast influence of high station abused ; the unscrupulous 



JEZEBEL. 155 

nature of ambition ; the intolerance of idolatry ; and the indignant 
curse which sooner or later falls upon the house of the wicked. 
But we must pass by these and other lessons, and confine ourselves 
to the testimony it affords to the mighty transforming power which 
belongs to sin. By that power we have seen woman converted into 
a fiend. 

In compliment to woman, it has been said and we have no dis 
position to question its justice that " Intellect is of no sex." May 
it not be said with even less room for debate, that Sin is of no sex ? 
It is not our purpose to compare the sexes as to their constitutional 
differences, or attempt to decide which has contributed most largely 
to the benignant, and which to the malign influences, that are active 
in the movements of society. Least of all would we detract from 
the glory which really belongs to \voman when, under the control 
of pure moral sentiments, she devotes herself to the work for which 
her constitutional instincts qualify her. 



He is a parricide of his mother s name 

Who wrongs the praise of woman ; who dares write 

Libels on saints, or with foul ink requite 

The milk they lent us. 



We leave it to that class of " men of the world " who have no 
virtue themselves, to disparage the whole race of women. A host 
of mothers, wives, daughters, and sisters refute their slanders, by 
realizing the beautiful ideal of holy Scripture, in which the virtuous 
and calm affections enshrining themselves in her peculiar nature, 
predominate over those evil tendencies, in which woman, alas, is no 
less a sharer than man. 



156 THE WOMEN OF THE BIBLE. 

But, she too is a fallen being. She too has been poisoned by 
the common taint, and none of her instincts are so pure and strong 
as to have escaped beyond its reach. It is a wicked flattery that 
denies this fact. There is a dark as well as a bright side to the 
history of the sex. In acting their parts in public or private life, 
have they not (we will not say as often, but) as thoroughly 
displayed the power of pride, ambition, envy, vanity, jealousy, 
revenge, with their attendant meannesses, treacheries, and violence ? 
Have they not furnished their quota to the crowd of voluptuaries 
who worship at the shrine of Belial of the greedy who bow to 
Mammon, of the cruel who have surrounded the altars of Moloch ? 
There have been many Jezebels. The dark spots of history have 
received their hue almost as much from the crimes of the female 
great ones of the earth, as from those of the other sex who have 
often been merely their agents. And even in the less conspicuous 
theatres of human life even under the appliances of Christianity, 
who has not met with examples of all the passions in excessive 
forms, showing that the female soul may be converted into a noxious 
swamp, exhaling baneful vapors ? 

Indeed, energy of intellect and will, destitute of the control of 
principle, when found in the form of a beautiful woman, make her 
a being more to be dreaded than a wicked man, because by her 
sexual blandishments she subjugates his will through his passions, and 
is thus enabled to subsidize and direct his more rugged violence. 
Our Christian poet expresses the universal opinion, when he says, 
" A wicked woman is the worst of men." No man can go farther 
towards the extremes of impurity and even cruelty, than she who 
has shaken off the natural restraints of her sex. In ancient days 
women took a delighted part in witnessing the bloody combats of 
the gladiators ; and in modern times, those of the bull-fight, and by 



JEZEBEL. 157 

their presence and applause contributed mainly to stimulate those 
brutal exhibitions. Amid the scenes of revolution, women have often 
played the most fierce and bloody part. " If the women do not mix 
in it," whispered Mirabeau to the emissaries whom he was exciting 
to the first Parisian insurrection "there will be nothing done." The 
women of Paris, running at the head of the republican bands of the 
capital, were, in effect, the first to violate the palace, brandish their 
poniards over the bed of the queen ; and during her last melancholy 
journey to the scaffold, her own sex crowded round her to enjoy her 
misery, and heap upon her their obscene and brutal taunts. They 
carried on the end of their pikes the heads of the massacred body 
guards. Of all the agents of cruelty during that era of crime, whose 
convulsions like an earthquake revealed many hidden things, none 
excite our horror so much as the " Knitters of Robespierre," so called 
because, with the symbols of quiet domestic life in their hands, " they 
stood in crowds around the tribunals, followed the tumbrils, and sat 
on the very steps of the guillotine, to greet death, insult its victims, 
and glut their eyes with blood." Were these things possible only 
in that age ? As if to prove that poisoned waters may still flow 
from the fountain, we learn that w r omen have partaken in the 
ferocious excesses which have disgraced the same city during our 
own times. Yes, if it were just to give to the Graces and Muses, 
no less just was it to give to the Furies, a female form. 

Not to dwell longer upon such repulsive pictures, we return to the 
thought already expressed, that in no case does sin display its power 
so balefully as in causing the transformation of which these and 
kindred crimes are the fruits. It is indeed the crowning triumph of 
sin. And that it should be so regarded universally by the v> icked as 
well as the good among men, is a testimony to the high estimate 
universally attached to female excellence. Every man, be he of the 

21 



158 THE WOMEN OF THE BIBLE. 

vilest sort, agrees to the sentiment of our great poet, that " proper 
deformity shows not in fiend so horrid as in woman." Every, even 
the most unprincipled man, desires a modest and gentle woman for a 
mother, a wife, a daughter, or sister. Who, with a full knowledge 
of their characters, would, from love, mate with a Semiramis, a 
Herodias, a Catharine of Russia, a Brinvilliers ? The brutal Clau 
dius, himself a " mere composition of mud mixed with blood," could 
not endure the infamous Messalina for a wife : and Nero justified his 
parricide, because Agrippina his mother had become the scandal of 
her sex for her amours and murders. Before, therefore, she can 
attract the love and confidence of man, she must appear to him, as 
woman, full of the modesty, reserve, and tenderness, which seem to 
be hers by a sort of physical necessity. She must feign, if she do 
not feel, these qualities. " False face must hide what the false heart 
doth know." Cleopatra could not have subjugated the conqueror 
of the East, with all her wit and beauty, if she had from the first 
appeared before him in her real character for cruelty and licentious 
ness. When Catharine de Medicis first appeared at the French 
court, she came as a gentle, amiable, domestic woman ; nor was it 
until ambition had taken possession of her heart, that she became 
the Jezebel of modern times ; like her, remorseless in cruelty ; like 
her in antipathy to the worship of the true God, in the skill with 
which she subjugated the will of her husband and sons, and in the 
unflinching decision with which she pursued her objects. And (to 
turn again to our story for an illustration) Ahab, wicked as he was, 
was first the lover of a gentle, fascinating woman, before he became 
the pander and minion of a fury. The claws of the tigress were 
doubtless concealed under a soft, attractive covering, until her 
womanly skill had established her power. 

Our justification for having presented these revolting aspects of 



JEZEBEL. J 59 

the female character, must be their truthfulness, and the momentous 
lesson which they convey, viz., that society must not rely upon the 
merely constitutional qualities of the sex which was first in the trans 
gression, as sufficient preservatives against the power of a principle 
which has produced such results. She too has susceptibilities for that 
fatal influence, which, when it has conceived, bringeth forth sin ; and 
sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death in her no less than man. 
For her, as for man, the only security is to be sought in the regenera 
ting influences of the Spirit and the Word of Truth. The noblest 
specimens of womanhood are those who have received the second 
birth of Grace, and have learned the necessary lessons of Virtue at 
the feet of Mary s friend. Then, indeed, they are 

The common clay, ta en from the common earth, 
But wrought of God, and tempered by the tears 
Of angels, to the perfect form of woman. 

Otherwise, the fire of temptation may blacken if it does not destroy 
them. Why, then, should not youthful woman be taught to hearken 
to the ten thousand voices which convey the memorable moral, " Let 
her that thinketh that she standcth, take heed lest she fall ?" 



AT HAL I AH. 

" THE evil that men do lives after them," said the dramatist, 
so celebrated for his criticisms on human nature, when contemplating 
the history of thrones among the Romans. Had he lived in the times 
of the Jewish monarchies, he might have expressed his sentiment in 
even stronger terms. For never, perhaps, did the law of evil s trans 
mission receive a fuller demonstration than then. One can follow its 
dark pathway, as easily as the course of rivers upon maps. 

Athaliah, who forms our present subject, might astonish the 
cursory reader by her steady exhibition of merciless strength and 
violence. How, he might ask, can such marvels in iniquity be 
accounted for ? " Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she 
should not have compassion on the son of her womb ? " This seems 
to indicate the ultimate reach of a mother s inhumanity to her off 
spring. She can forget them, abandon them, and give herself up to 
an insane career of follies. But how can a mother s hand, coolly and 
deliberately, imbue itself in blood which was once her own ? This 
appears to be an enormity too prodigious for man s aptitude in crime, 
and impossible for the softer sex. Yet Athaliah is presented to us, 
upon the records of history, as the calculating and unicpcnting 
murderess of her own descendants. Whence caught she such diabo 
lical inspiration ? No one, says the adage, was ever extremely base 



162 THE WOMEN OF THE BIBLE. 

on a sudden. Hence we are curious about the philosophy of such 
capacities for deeds of darkness. Where did this most dauntless 
woman learn her fiendish lessons ? 

She was the granddaughter of Omri, who waded through slaugh 
ter to a throne which he never inherited. She was the daughter of 
Ahab, the legitimate successor of an unscrupulous father. Her 
mother was Jezebel, whose prolific ingenuity for mischief would 
make the name of Izabella, if common readers did but know its 
origin, as horrible as it now is classic the feminine, if there were 
such a thing, of Beelzebub itself. Under such auspices, Athaliah 
learned not merely how to reject all true religion, and thus set 
Heaven at defiance ; but, also, how to compass any ends her 
passions coveted without regard to means. The war which Jezebel 
proclaimed against the worship of the true God, and her ruthless 
extermination of his prophets, was an example which prepared her 
to treat the most sacred things with entire disdain. And the destruc 
tion of pious Naboth, through as base instrumentalities as were ever 
employed by the most presumptuous tyrant, taught her to use 
dependents as though machines of which sensibility and conscience 
could not be predicated. 

Thus equipped for the elevation and employments of a life of 
power and greatness, she was transferred from her father s roof to 
become a queen. Jehoshaphat king of Judah (it is one of the 
mysteries of his character, ordinarily under the influence of piety 
and judgment), instead of soliciting for his son a wife who adhered 
to the faith of those after God s own heart, sought an alliance with 
the idolatrous house of Ahab ; and, with many a parent who has 
regarded earthly prosperity rather than religious duty in so serious a 
connection, he wedded his family to sorrows which a prophet repre 
sents as " desperate." Athaliah was an apt scholar under (one can 



ATIIALIAH. 163 

hardly deny the fitness of the word, who compares the books of 
Kings and Chronicles with the history of Europe) the Jesuitical 
policy of her mother Jezebel ; and immediately made herself felt in 
the cabinet of her royal husband. It is said expressly, by the sacred 
chronicler, that " he walked in the ways of the kings of Israel, like 
as did the house of Ahab." Of course the inference is hardly 
avoidable, that the policy and administration of Jehoram were 
moulded under the plastic efficiency of his wife. But if there 
should be the least doubt that it was to her, mainly or only, that 
his departure from the footsteps of his ancestors is to be attributed, 
that doubt may be resolved at once, by reading the text which por 
trays her conduct towards her son after his father s death. " His 
mother was his counsellor to do wickedly," says the unflinching 
record ; and adds, that he yielded but too ready an ear to such a 
whisperer of sin and madness. 

And, now, mark the sway of this reckless adviser and its terrific 
consequences ! 

Jehoshaphat left no less than six sons besides Jehoram ; to whom, 
as the eldest, he gave the throne with undisputed sovereignty. 
These sons, who possessed wealth and eminence, and commanded 
fortresses, enjoyed none of their worldly monarch s confidence, bro 
ther though he were to them. His throne he well knew stood not 
upon the basis of his own worth of character. He relied not for its 
stability upon the Divine promises which had erected it, and which 
only could give it permanence. So he resorted to such earthly 
appliances as were at hand, and bid fair to subserve his wishes. 

And now we begin to perceive how evil germinates and spreads, 
like the contagion of a pestilence. She, who had seen N^both fall 
under the deadly circumvention of her mother, knew what to insti 
gate Jehoram to attempt, and how to aid him in the most remorseless 



164 THE WOMEN OF THE BIBLE. 

schemes. Accordingly, one after another of the king s brethren, 
" and divers also of the princes of Israel," melt away and disappear, 
by some dark and sudden casualties, until he enjoys that awful soli 
tude, which, says the acute Tacitus, a devastator calls security and 
peace. He sees his father s sons and their associates victims to 
his own ambition, and smiles with grim delight, as they are suc 
cessively withered under arts which a sorceress enables him to 
practise. Henceforth, he presumes he shall reign in undisturbed 
magnificence. And so he would have done, but that, while a bro 
ther s blood cries from the ground, there is an ear to hear its 
inexpiable wrongs, at a sanctuary " higher than the highest." 
The hand which can write iniquity upon the imperishable records, 
with an iron pen and a diamond s point, reached Jehoram when 
he was beginning to think he had exalted himself as the eagle, and 
set his nest among the stars. It smote him ; but with such charac 
teristic equity, that the eye of man even could see him writhe 
beneath it in hopeless anguish. Jehoram was two years dying, and 
went to his long home so slowly, yet so steadily, that, like Herod 
the Great when his last breath forsook his wretched body, it left 
him twice dead festering beforehand with the corruption of the 
grave. 

Surely such a spectacle might have indented a wrinkle or two 
upon a brow of brass, and caused an adamantine heart to feel, if 
nothing else, a few twinges of remorse. The throne, whose steps 
Athaliah had sought to cement with human blood, and the blood 
of those who ought to have been dearest to him who was one with 
her own self that throne, whose foundations had been so costly 
laid at such immense sacrifice and hazard for which every human 
tie had been sundered, and every Divine obligation scorned that 
throne was fleeing from her like a morning cloud, and all her earthly 



A TH ALT AH. 165 

hopes retreating with it. It was a moment for bitter regret, if not 
for sober repentance : to make the soul sick of the weary and 
disheartening toil of wickedness, if not resolved to amend its ways. 

But no. Repentance is a " strange work " for them, whose 
veins have become thoroughly poisoned with the " leprous dis- 
tilment " of iniquity. " Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the 
leopard his spots ? Then may ye also do good, that are accus 
tomed to do evil." Such is the matter of fact philosophy of a 
Hebrew sage, which the modern optimist, who talks of the secondary 
omnipotence of moral suasion, tries in vain to prove fallacious. 

Athaliah turned not from the couch of her doomed partner, 
saddened, disgusted, and remorseful, to hide her head in a cloister, 
and learn to lament the policy which had been arrested by such a 
frightful issue. Not at all. She but changed her subject, not her 
arts, not her determinations. She would still be mistress of Jeru 
salem, and perfect, by other hands, the plans which an inconvenient 
death had interrupted. 

Jehoram left a son capable of reigning, for he was two and forty 
years old when the sceptre fell from his father s hands. To this 
son she immediately addressed herself, with renovated wariness and 
duplicity. And she succeeded but too speedily and too well. It 
was easier, doubtless, to vanquish Ahaziah, than his father Jehoram ; 
for his pious grandfather had now long been dead, and had he 
lived, might have been shuffled off for a dotard, as the old coun 
sellors of state had been treated by Rehoboam. 

So the influence, and the successful influence of Athaliah, are 
matters of distinct and emphatic testimony. Ahaziah became his 
mother s willing pupil; and her baleful ascendency was still expe 
rienced, to the full, in the councils and undertakings of the kingdom 
of Judah. 

22 



166 THE WOMEN OF THE BIBLE. 

Jehoram was left to be uncared for in his loathsome grave. 
And, now, a new race was to be run in the career of power and 
splendor. Possibly, Athaliah, with less of title to the name, would 
have had more of the prerogatives and immunities of a queen than 
ever ; since the sacred historian seems to imply, that the son was, 
if any thing, more completely her tool than his pliant parent. 

But as Providence had thwarted her plans in the bud, by cutting 
off Jehoram in his prime, so now did it disappoint them in their 
bloom, when Ahaziah was about to wield the energies of govern 
ment with the promise of long prosperity. Ahaziah lived but a 
single year. He went down to Samaria to visit his cousin, the king 
of Israel, at that unpropitious moment, when the vials of predicted 
wrath were about to be emptied on the house of Ahab. His visit 
was most ill-timed ; and he was specially unfortunate, also, in the 
retinue which he took with him, to add doubtless to his personal 
grandeur. That retinue embraced the whole royal family of Judah, 
save his own infant children, who were left behind under the charge 
of Athaliah. Thus they all perished, by the hands of that thorough 
minister of retribution, Jehu the son of Nimshi, in one common 
massacre ; not a soul of them escaping to tell of their bloody and 
hapless fate. 

And now, assuredly, we say, Athaliah, with all her desperate 
propensities for evil, has a lesson taught her has scenes to look 
upon which must disarm her frenzied will, and reduce it, if not to 
submission, at least to something like capitulation with a contending 
Providence. Niobe, according to a graphic fable, turned into stone 
when she beheld the desolation of her family. Was there not 
enough in the catastrophe which had swept away the family of 
Athaliah, to petrify her soul with horror, and constrain her to believe, 
though with the faith of trembling devils, that sin is an evil and a 



ATHALIAH. 1G7 

bitter thing, which can turn wine into " the poison of dragons," 
and " the cruel venom of asps ?" 

Oh, behold her, rise up from the ghastly wreck around her, with 
the eye and the purpose of a restless demon, to make that wreck 
yet more terrible perfectly consummate that she might sit alone 
upon the funeral pile of royalty, an unquestioned, an unquestionable 
despot. " And when Athaliah, the mother of Ahaziah, saw that her 
son was dead, she arose and destroyed all the seed royal."* 

" All the seed royal," according to her comprehensive purpose, 
and the exact, business-like way in which, after her mother Jezebel, 
that peerless model at diabolical dispatch, she was accustomed to do 
up her work. Bone of her bone and flesh of her flesh though that 
seed royal were, the opportunity was too enticing for her to permit a 
solitary one to obstruct her way, while she was aiming, like a famous 
association of the present age, for the greater glory of something else 
in appearance, but for her own greater glory in reality. Blood was 
no more than water spilt upon the ground, to the inexorable ambition 
of her lion-heart. She could plant her throne upon the gory relics of 
her house, and then, as did Milton s Satan, hail the horrors that sur 
rounded her, with " a mind not to be changed by place or time." She 
could have looked upon Jerusalem in flames, and crumbling into ashes, 
and then dance like Nero over burning Rome ; so that her every 
opponent had been wrapped in the blaze, and vanished from her sight. 

And she seemed, at length, to have reached the summit of her 
unearthly aspirations. She had bowed down to the instigator of 
deeds of darkness, and he had given her a kingdom, and the glory of 
it, without abatement. She could now say in her heart, with apoca 
lyptic Babylon, " I sit a queen, and am no widow, and sha<l see no 

* 2 Kings xi. 1. That is, every male heir of the crown. 



168 THE WOMEN OF THE BIBLE. 

sorrow." For years of fear and woe her banners waved over the 
Holy City ; until the stricken land seemed, like its own Dead Sea, to 
have sunk into the lethargy of leaden slumber. 

But how often does the simplest intervention of Providence baffle 
our keenest foresight ! In the heap of dead, where Athaliah con 
fidently imagined " all the seed royal " lay, a single little one was 
missing; or, at least, was left there for a certain victim. Yet, by 
judicious and cautious tenderness, that child was rescued from the 
jaws of destruction, and reared to life and vigor. A Divine promise 
had given sacred pledge, that the seed of David should not fail ; and 
this forgotten infant had an Eye hovering over him, and an Arm 
encircling him, which would one day guide his footsteps safely to his 
ancestral throne. 

A daughter of Athaliah, little thought of no doubt for her very 
sex s sake, was, fortunately, not her mother s admirer or her coun 
terpart. That the palace might be w r ell rid of her, she had been 
permitted to marry the high priest ; and probably, under his tuition, 
she had learned something of the old-fashioned religion of better 
days, and of her duty to legitimate authority on earth, as well as in 
high heaven. Together, she and her husband succeeded in stealing 
one child from the heap of death, ere the tide of his little life had 
flowed aw r ay. They were favored in secreting and educating this 
lost heir of the crown ; and, at a proper time, under the auspices of 
religion, and surrounded, not for form s sake, with the weapons of 
war, he was introduced to the people, and greeted with the acclaim 
of loyal homage. 

Beyond question the daughter of Athaliah, and her husband the 
high priest, knew well with whom they had to do, and concerted all 
their arrangements with the adroitest skill. This is quite evident 
from the fact, that Athaliah was first aroused to a consciousness of 



ATHALIAH. 169 

the reality, by a shout which welcomed a descendant of David to his 
hereditary honors ; and even then, was so little suspicious of the 
formidable preparation of her opponents, as to rush upon the scene 
without a solitary guard. Either her fury had overpowered her, or 
her ordinary foresight had deserted her ; for she is found in the 
presence of a mighty multitude, who are glowing with loyalty and 
gladness, frantic with passion, and screaming treason ! treason ! as 
if every sword, within reach, would gleam to obey her call. The act 
was as fatal as it was rash. She was driven forth from the precincts 
of the Temple, where the solemn scene of recognizing the heir of the 
throne was acting ; and flying for safety to some obscure passages of 
the palace, \vas there cut down, and left weltering in her blood. 

In her miserable end she bore a singular resemblance to the model 
she had so faithfully copied, her heaven-daring mother. Jezebel was 
abandoned to the dogs, and Athaliah was left in a horse-path, to be 
trampled upon as offal. Both died queens ; yet without a hand to 
help, or an eye to pity them. As the votaries of the world generally 
do, they found even their sycophants abandon them in their straits ; 
so that we might easily fancy them repeating the bitter counsel of 
the fallen statesman, on his way to execution 

Where you are liberal of your loves and counsels, 
Be sure you be not loose ; for those you make friends, 
And give your hearts to, when they once perceive 
The least rub in your fortunes, fall away 
Like water from ye, never found again 
But where they mean to sink ye. 

In turning the eye back over this dismal story, to gather up some of 
the lessons which its review enforces, one is almost confounded at the 



170 THE WOMEN OF THE BIBLE. 

thought, that it is a woman who furnishes such a picture of unmixed 
and insatiable depravity.* It were doleful exhibition enough of man, 
and of the most reckless and audacious of his sex. But it belongs 
to the better portion of human nature, as we are accustomed to 
esteem it to its fairest, gentlest, most susceptible portion, as we 
allow with willingness, and not with the concession of mere courtesy. 

And how then can these things be ? How indeed is it, that Reve 
lation, elsewhere as well as here, presents us with such frightful 
manifestations of the capabilities of woman for iniquity? Sin begins 
on earth with her, and it reaches in her history a hideousness which 
might make one, like the abashed prophet, " black in the face " 
dark with the shadows of despair, as he contemplates human fates 
and fortunes. Is this to prove, that those polite imaginations, which 
affirm that if man cannot woman can redeem our fallen nature from 
the imputation of being utterly depraved, do nevertheless utterly 
mistake ? No, I am by no means anxious to extort such dreary infer 
ences ; and then ring changes on them, as is sometimes done with a 
kind of misanthropic triumph. But I think I can see a design in the 
very many and very marked examples of sinfulness in females, put 
upon those pages which never flatter, the pages of Revelation, that 
should arrest and fasten the attention of the most inconsiderate. 

It is this. If even those whom we might expect would transgress 
least frequently, and least criminally, can, when left to their own wills 
and resources, become such tremendous malefactors, then what hope 
is there for any one, who makes his own pleasure his law, and 
employs all the immunities within his sphere for individual gratifi 
cation ? And is this more, or less, than what the great multitude are 

* 2 Chron. xxiv. 7. Her very name (see the Hebrew) is made a synonym for wick 
edness itself. 



ATHALIAH. 171 

doing ? Who prays, morning by morning, " Give us this day our 
daily bread ;" as if " our daily bread " were all a man had a right to 
expect, or ask, at the hands of his chief Provider ? Who prays, 
" Lead us not into temptation ;" if temptation lie directly in the way 
of moneyed gains, or sensual enjoyments, and if the only loss to be 
dreaded be a little wear and tear of conscience, or a diminished part 
in that Book of Life, which will never be read, or opened even, on 
this side of the grave ? 

Aye, but all go not, very few indeed go to such direful lengths 
as an Athaliah ; and to put the bulk of the community upon her 
level is most gross injustice. All do not, objector ? Who told 
you so ? Who told you to measure sin by its outward heinousness, 
rather than by its inward pravity ? Is that the rule of God s book ? 
that the canon by which he will test and sentence obliquity in the 
awarding day ? 

On the contrary, are not the external manifestations of a crime, 
a secondary consideration in the eye of Him, who seeth not as man 
seeth ? Is it not His way to probe the depths of one s spirit, and to 
judge of an action by the part which motives, aims, feelings, and 
resolves take in its commission ? Look and see ! Covetousness is 
a small matter to our comprehension ; nay, is but an overdone virtue, 
so industrious and frugal are those who cherish it. Pride, as we 
understand it spiritual pride especially is quite a trifling mis 
chief; for it is hidden away in the recesses of a man s bosom, and 
he is afraid or ashamed to make it visible. But with God this 
covetousness is, to himself, the profoundest of dishonors ; it is abso 
lute idolatry ; it competes with himself for the mastery of the heart, 
and is therefore no better than downright atheism. And so with pride 
spiritual pride, most eminently. That is to God, like smoke assail 
ing the nostrils a livelong day a perfectly detestable annoyance. 



172 THE WOMEN OF THE BIBLE. 

Nay, it is the height of the soul s achievements in rebellion : it is the 
very condemnation of the infernal devil. (Isa. Ixv. 5. 1 Tim. iii. 6.) 

True, we see not, all around us, hands stained with blood like 
the hands of Athaliah. But if we could open human bosoms, how 
many hearts should we find there, unsoiled by covetousness, and 
pride, and spiritual arrogance how many, indeed, unpossessed with 
the demons of lust, vainglory, and hypocrisy ; of envy, hatred, 
malice, and all uncharitableness ? how many, which never knew the 
baleful dominion of those deceits, that the world, the flesh, and the 
devil abound in ? how many, which, pricked in their consciences 
by a Visitant, who can look where human eyes cannot, and rebuke 
as human tongues are not allowed to do, have driven that friendly 
monitor away, with hardness of heart and contempt of God s word 
and commandment? 

And if these things are so, then what is human nature to do, 
for itself, and by itself, if let alone ? and who has any right to expect 
a more hopeful end than Athaliah s, if he neither believes in Divine 
grace nor seeks it ? That is the great question, which such an 
example as hers brings home ; and, though I have many other 
lessons at hand, suggested by her story, I care not to mention them, 
if I can secure an audience for this. To believe in something better 
than himself; to fly for succor to something higher than himself; 
to resolve, in consecrated language, to be "born again," that is 
the grand lesson which every exhibition of the overturns of human 
nature left to itself inculcates ; and he who rises from the contem 
plation of a sinner s fate, with such a lesson graven on his heart, 
will have done one of the best day s works which the longest and 
the busiest life can boast. 



4/i. 



- .. 





ESTHER. 

AHASUERUS, whom the Greeks call Xerxes, had but recently 
ascended the throne of Persia, and was desirous to signalize the 
commencement of his reign by the unequalled magnificence of an 
entertainment which he gave to his nobles and princes. Although 
the received opinion recognizes Ahasuerus as being the same with 
Artaxerxes Longimanus, yet there are various considerations which 
seem to establish his identity with the Xerxes so memorable in pro 
fane history, because of the disastrous expedition he led into Greece. 
In the first place, the two names, Ahasuerus and Xerxes, when stript 
of their foreign terminations, may be resolved into the same Persian 
phrase, meaning Lion King. In the second place, every other Per 
sian monarch, probably coeval with this Ahasuerus, is mentioned by 
his historical name in Scripture, and Xerxes alone is not spoken of, 
unless he be Ahasuerus. And again, the historical Xerxes and the 
Scriptural Ahasuerus exhibit a remarkable coincidence of character ; 
each being in a high degree vain, frivolous, ductile, and at the same 
time haughty and cruel. The festival given by Ahasuerus was like 
what might have been expected from Xerxes, one of barbaric pomp 
and splendor, for it continued day by day for the period of six 
months. The riches of a kingdom which extended from India to 
Ethiopia, which embraced an hundred and twenty-seven provinces, 

23 



174 THE WOMEN OF THE BIBLE. 

which comprehended the treasures of Egypt, the accumulated stores 
of Lydia, and the wondrous wealth of Babylon, all these were in 
succession exhibited to an admiring court. But the ostentatious 
king would not confine his favors to one class of his subjects. He 
causes a feast to be prepared for the whole population of the royal 
city. They are entertained in a tent, in the garden of the palace, 
hung with rich curtains, furnished with couches of silver and gold, 
while the cups out of which they drink, are also of gold, and the 
pavement under their feet is of mosaic. 

The heart of the king swells with the thoughts of his own 
greatness, and is yet more inflamed by the wine which he has been 
drinking day after day. He forgets the proprieties of his country, 
and of his station, and contrary to all usage, and even to what was 
then considered decency, he commands his queen to come forth 
unveiled, that men may look on her face, and see that he excels all 
others, as much in the beauty of his wife, as in the extent of his 
dominions, and the profusion of his riches. But the queen is not 
less haughty than himself; she does not choose to be made a spec 
tacle to this promiscuous and inebriated multitude ; and she probably 
relies on those very charms, which he so much admires, and wishes 
others to admire, to save her from any ill consequences of her refusal. 
But she has over-estimated their influence. He loves her to be sure, 
but he loves his own dignity and authority still better, and he is 
enraged at such an act of contemptuous disobedience, witnessed by 
so many spectators. He inquires of his principal counsellors, what, 
according to la\v, should be done with so undutiful a wife, and so 
rebellious a subject. Either from courtly subserviency, or from 
sincere participation in the oriental feeling, as to the wide extent of 
marital authority, they recommend, and almost demand the repudia 
tion of the haughty queen, and his marriage with another, of more 



ESTHER. 175 

submissive temper. After some struggles with his affection for 
her, as it would appear, the king consents to this harsh counsel, and 
Vashti is cast down from her high place, and consigned to the 
obscurity, the seclusion, and monotonous misery, which, in the East, 
await a divorced wife. So much have a few rash words cost her ! 
Her station, her grandeur, her luxuries, perhaps her affections, all 
are sacrificed to a hasty word. Bitterly, we may well believe, did 
she lament her pride, when it was too late. But she experienced, 
\vhat we all, alas, in some painful manner learn, that a word spoken, 
an act performed, is a fountain opened up, which will flow on 
despite our efforts. A hasty word has cost many a woman her 
happiness, many a man his life. A hasty word has convulsed 
nations, and overthrown dynasties. Jephthah spoke such a word, and 
that word became a flame of fire, which consumed his young and 
innocent daughter, and his own peace, and blasted the triumphs of 
his nation. Rehoboam spoke such a word, and that breath of air 
had force to cleave asunder the throne which had been founded by 
the valor of David, and established by the wisdom of Solomon. 

Words, indeed, are things, and great and mighty things ; so great, 
so mighty, that our Saviour tells us that our All will in a very espe 
cial manner depend on them ; for that by our words we shall be 
justified, and by our words we shall be condemned. 

When Vashti had been removed, lest the affections of the king 
should return to her, which would have insured the ruin of all 
who had counselled her degradation, the ministers of Ahasuerus 
recommended that the most beautiful young maidens, from all his 
wide dominions, should be brought to the palace, that from among 
them he might select a wife worthy to occupy the vacant place 
in his heart and on his throne. The suggestion pleased the king, 
and was adopted. The loveliest maidens of Asia were brought 



176 THE WOMEN OF THE BIBLE. 

together and presented to the monarch ; but of all this dazzling 
array, none was so fair as the orphan Jewish girl, Hadassah. 
Among the rest she shone like a star, and the Persians there 
fore gave her the name of Esther. This superiority she could 
scarcely have owed to brighter eyes and rosier cheeks, or a more 
symmetrical form; for, among the hundred and twenty-seven pro 
vinces over which Ahasuerus reigned, were Georgia and Circas- 
sia. Whatever of loveliness dwells on alabaster brows, or amid 
raven tresses, or on gazelle-like shapes, this was seen, wherever 
the eye of the king rested. Nor was it merely the light of intellect, 
irradiating the countenance of the Jewish girl, which outshone 
the grosser charms of others, and won the heart of Ahasuerus. 
For his dominion extended over Asiatic Greece, and even among 
the islands of the ^Egean sea. Some, then, of those fair maidens 
before him, had breathed the native air of Homer, had dwelt where 
" burning Sappho loved and sung." All the charm, then, that the 
light of intellect can add to material beauty, they possessed. But 
to Hadassah belonged more exalted loveliness even than that of the 
mind : the beauty of the soul, a soul enriched with heavenly graces, 
meek, pure, self-renouncing, grateful to benefactors, humble in pros 
perity, venturous in the hour of danger, because ever reposing on 
the promises of God. Of all the maidens gathered in Shushan, 
Hadassah was probably the only worshipper of the true God. Edu 
cated as a daughter in the house of Mordecai, a wise and devout 
Israelite, she had learned from his lips those glorious truths, which 
were the heritage of her people, but of which the Gentile world 
was ignorant. She had worshipped no Baal, no Venus, no filthy 
god or goddess, the creation of man s depraved fancy ; and the very 
adoration of whom was itself a pollution as well as an impiety. 
From her very infancy she had bowed her knee to Jehovah ; that 



ESTHER. 177 

God who had made the heavens and the earth, whose name w r as 
Holy, whose nature was goodness, compared with whose purity the 
heavens themselves were not clean ; that God was her God. She 
could hear and read of the revelations which He had made of Him 
self, and of His will, in the wise and righteous laws which Moses 
had announced, in the sublime prophecies of Isaiah and Ezekiel, in 
the divine songs of David and of Asaph. In the history of her people 
she could trace His hand and learn His character. She could there 
see, how, under His government, righteousness exalteth a nation, 
while sin is a reproach and ruin to any people. This God she had 
been taught to fear, to love, to trust, and to obey. She stood, then, 
among the degraded idolaters, by whom she was surrounded, as a 
being of another race. 

" Oft converse with heavenly habitants 
Had cast a beam on the outward shape, 
The unpolluted temple of the mind, 
And turned it by degrees to the soul s essence." 

When, then, Esther was presented to the king, he loved her, 
above all the women, and she obtained grace and favor in his sight, 
more than all the virgins, so that he set the royal crown upon her 
head, and made her queen, instead of Vashti. But Mordecai, her 
kinsman, reaped none of the fruits of her good fortune. He sat still 
in the king s gate, perhaps as porter and guard more probably as 
magistrate and counsellor, for it was at the gates of the palace that 
justice was dispensed. But even if elevated to the judicial office, he 
did not owe this elevation to the queen, for he had expressly required 
her not to communicate the secret of his race and lineage. He 
seems, with wonderful sagacity, to have foreseen the dangers to 



178 THE WOMEN OF THE BIBLE. 

which the Jews would be exposed, in that arbitrary and ill-governed 
monarchy, and the protection which the queen s influence, unex 
pectedly exerted, might afford them; and for the welfare of his 
people, and the people of his God, this humble and holy man is con 
tent to sacrifice whatever aspirations he might himself have felt for 
power and greatness. Esther, on the other hand, shows her piety 
and humility in obeying her wise and venerable kinsman as implicitly, 
now that she is seated on the throne, as- formerly, when, at his foot 
stool, she drank in from his lips the words of truth and godliness. 
This comparatively humble place, at the same time, enables Mor- 
decai to perform a most important service for the king, which, in the 
wonderful providence of God, constitutes a necessary link in the 
chain of events that issues in the deliverance of his people. Two 
of the chamberlains, who guarded the door of the royal apartments, 
became, from some cause, incensed against the king, and plotted to 
put him to death. Mordecai, we know not how, becomes acquainted 
with their secret. The tradition of the Jews is, that they conversed 
with each other in a language which they supposed unknown to every 
one else, but with which Mordecai was acquainted concealing, as 
he did, under his plain exterior, the highest wisdom and the amplest 
knowledge. This dangerous conspiracy is disclosed by him to 
Esther, and in his name communicated by her to the king. The 
view which this transaction gives us of the interior of a despotic 
palace, may well make us content not to be the inhabitants of such a 
mansion, and may well make us rejoice that all such are fast disap 
pearing from the earth. We see here a man so powerful, that, at the 
solicitation of a worthless courtier, he is able to immolate the lives 
and confiscate the properties of millions of his most deserving sub 
jects, without cause, without inquiry, by a decree arbitrary in its 
origin, and at the same time irreversible in its nature ; and yet, with 



ESTHER. 179 

all this portentous power for evil, in other things so impotent that 
his own life lies at the mercy of two of his menial servants, and is 
only protected by the probity and wisdom of a stranger. And this 
appalling view of the miseries, the anxieties, and the perils of a 
despot, is confirmed by all that history, ancient and modern, teaches 
us on the subject ; by the Caligulas, the Neros, and the Domitians, 
by the Selims, the Amuraths, and the Mahomets, and, most remark 
ably, by the final catastrophe of this very Ahasuerus or Xerxes : for 
he fell, at length, by such a household plot as this of Bigthan and 
Teresh. He and his eldest son were put to death, and his whole 
family would have been exterminated, but for the treachery of one 
whom the traitor trusted. What wise man, then, would covet the 
power and pomp of an absolute monarch, held by such a tenure, 
where the reveller at the epicurean feast sees constantly hanging over 
him the naked sword suspended by a single hair ? Who would desire 
his palaces and his treasures, his jewels and his banquets, his obse 
quious beauties and his adoring people, while, in the midst of all, are 
such treachery and insecurity, such cares and perils ? A life like 
this may be compared to a ramble through a tropical forest, where 
vegetation grows with rank luxuriance, where rich fruits hang from 
the boughs, and gaudy flowers are flaunting in the air ; but the tiger 
lurks in the jungle, and the serpent glides through the grass, and the 
scorpion hides beneath the leaves. 

This imminent danger, from which Ahasuerus was so wonderfully 
rescued, seems to have produced no sedative or purifying influence 
on his character. He continues weak, frivolous, and cruel, as before. 
He adopts, as his favorite, one like himself, Hainan the Agagite, and 
advances him and sets his seat above all the princes that v> ere with 
him. As is the custom of courts, the favorite of the king becomes 
the observed of all observers, and those who seek their own pro- 



180 THE WOMEN OF THE BIBLE. 

motion, or are solicitous for their own safety, bow with idolatrous 
prostrations before this rising sun. But the mean and haughty soul 
of Hainan is not so much gratified by the adulation of the crowd, as 
it is vexed by the undisguised contempt of one sincere and upright 
man. Mordecai, either because he understands the true character of 
this wretch, and consequently considers it hypocrisy to offer him the 
outward marks of respect he is so far from feeling, or because the 
honors demanded for him partake of idolatry, and to render them 
would be an impiety for the one or the other of these reasons, or 
for some equally weighty, Mordecai will not either bow to him or do 
him reverence. The fellow-servants of the upright man are aston 
ished at such contumacy in one usually so humble and so wise. 
They first expostulate with him, and then, probably in self-defence, 
lest they might be considered as partaking of his crime by concealing 
it, they finally inform on him. The anger of Haman, when he learns 
that he is despised by this Jew, himself in his eyes so despicable, 
knows no bounds. In a heart capacious of such things, he meditates 
the widest and most savage revenge. It is not enough for him, that, 
for the affront he has received, one man shall perish. A whole nation 
must be offered up as sacrifices to his wounded pride. He goes then 
to the king, whose weak compliance he counted on, and representing 
the Jews as an unsocial and disloyal race, makes the audacious pro 
posal that the whole of them be destroyed offering a large sum of 
money to the royal treasury as a compensation for the loss of their 
taxes and tributes. The king, who presents in his character 
what is not unusual a conjunction of vices apparently opposite, 
facility of temper and hardness of heart, yields a ready assent to this 
infamous and ruinous proposal, although he will not exact the pur 
chase-money of the blood of his subjects, but permits it to be shed 
gratuitously. Their destruction would have at once been accom- 



ESTHER. 181 

plished, but for the overruling providence of God, acting on the 
superstition of Haman. He inquires, by lot, as to the most propi 
tious season for the completion of his enterprise, and he is directed 
to postpone it to the last month in the year the lots being cast in 
the first. Ample time is thus secured to counteract his devices, and 
new evidence is given that, " though the lot be cast in the lap, the 
whole disposing thereof is of the Lord." Having dispatched their 
bloody decree to the governors of every province and to the rulers 
of every people, the king and Haman calmly sit down to drink, 
evincing thereby the close connection between boundless cruelty to 
others and boundless indulgence to ourselves. 

When these things were made known to Mordecai, he was 
afflicted with the deepest grief, and rent his clothes, and put on sack 
cloth with ashes, and went out into the midst of the city, and cried 
with a loud and bitter cry. Esther, in the meantime, who, in the 
interior of the harem, had heard nothing of what was occurring, 
learned first, to her great surprise, of the marks of profound sorrow 
which Mordecai was exhibiting. She sends to inquire the cause, and 
he informs her of the exterminating decree that had been issued, and 
bids her use her influence with the king to save her people. She 
replies, that, by a general law, no one is permitted to approach the 
king, unless sent for, except at the peril of life ; and that she has no 
reason to believe she would be welcome to him, since for thirty days 
he had not called for her. Mordecai assures her, in reply, with 
heroic faith, that the people of God will certainly receive deliverance 
from some quarter or other, for the promises of the Most High 
cannot fail ; but that if she refuse to be the instrument of that deliv 
erance, then may she look for ruin to herself and her father s house ; 
and he bids her inquire whether it were not for this very crisis tha f 
she had been exalted to the royal dignity. Esther hesitates no 

24 



182 THE WOMEN OF THE BIBLE. 

longer, but asks that all the faithful in Chushan shall unite in fasting 
and prayer for her in this great danger, and announces that, having 
herself thus supplicated God, she will venture to approach the king 
with her request, and that if she perish in doing her duty, she can 
but perish. 

We see, in this high courage, the fruit of sincere faith and 
habitual devotion. We see that these graces can flourish, even in 
the uncongenial atmosphere of a court, under the baleful shadow 
of the power of a wicked husband and an idolatrous king ; that in 
every condition of life, if we are not wanting to ourselves, the grace 
of God will not be withheld from us ; and that, when humbly and 
earnestly sought, grace will be vouchsafed, not only to a Hannah, 
worshipping in God s own temple, or to a member of some Christian 
household, but to the wife of an Ahasuerus, to the servants of a Nar 
cissus or a Nero ; just as the blessed light of the sun is poured out 
on all the earth, not only kindling the mountain tops, and making the 
glad waves of the ocean to glisten, but cheering, likewise, the solitary 
captive in his dungeon, and illuminating the dark recesses where the 
laborer toils at his forge or his loom. 

With a countenance, then, chastened by abstinence, and exalted 
by devotion, with eyes more beautiful and expressive than ever, 
because of her consciousness of danger, and of the high purpose for 
which she encountered that danger, Esther presents herself before 
the king, and as soon as she is seen, her conquest is complete. Not 
only is she pardoned for approaching uncalled, but her request is 
granted before it is announced, whatever it may be, even to the 
half of the kingdom. Esther, with admirable prudence, will not then 
make known her petition. She seeks more thoroughly to ascer 
tain the feelings of Ahasuerus, and to propitiate his favor ; and she 
contents herself, for the present, with soliciting the king to come 



ESTHER. ] 83 

with Haman to a banquet she had prepared for them, promising on 
the morrow to declare her request. The heart of Haman was elated 
with the honor thus conferred on him, in being alone invited to a 
feast with the royal pair ; but neither this honor, nor his many 
dignities, nor his boundless riches, nor the multitude of his children, 
could give him any lasting content, while Mordecai still treated him 
with disdain, This fly in his ointment destroyed all its sweetness. 
He consults with his friends, and with his wife, what to do ; and 
they advise him to erect a gallows, fifty cubits high, and then go in 
boldly to the king, and ask that Mordecai be hanged. This is a 
slight and trivial request, compared with many the king has already 
granted, and there is no reason to suppose it will be refused. But 
Haman, like every other wicked man, has to deal with an adversary 
far more formidable than the one he sees before him. God is 
engaged in baffling his counsels, That very night the king could 
not sleep, and desires, by what was, perhaps, a most unusual caprice 
with him, that the chronicles of his kingdom should be read to him ; 
and the reader is guided to that part in which the service of Mor 
decai, in revealing the conspiracy of Bigthan and Teresh, is recorded. 

The king inquires what recompense had been made Mordecai 

\ 

for this, and finds there has been none. At that moment, it would 
seem, Haman, rising early, in his eagerness to dispatch Mordecai, 
had reached the court of the palace. Ahasuerus sends for him, as 
his favorite counsellor, and asks, " What shall be done for the man 
whom the king delights to honor?" Haman supposes this can be 
no other than himself, and immediately suggests all the honors which 
would be acceptable to a vain and frivolous mind like his own. 
To his amazement, the king, while he accepts his counsel, directs 
him to render all these honors to Mordecai. 

With a face clothed with smiles, and a heart burning with 



184 THE WOMEN OF THE BIBLE. 

anguish, he goes forth to perform the hated service ; and when it is 
clone, forgetful, it would seem, of his appointment at the royal 
banquet, he hastens home, devoured by rage and vexation. But he 
is sent for, and makes his appearance at the feast. Then, in his 
presence, when the king asks Esther her petition, she beseeches him 
to spare her life, and the life of her people. She informs him of 
the bloody and devastating decree which had issued, and which the 
king, it would almost appear, had forgotten, and she charges it on 
Haman, as its author. Both her hearers are amazed; neither had 
before suspected her to be a Jewess, and neither is at the moment 
prepared to answer. The king sees the matter in a new light. He 
finds that he has been made the tool of another, and that nothing 
is more conspicuous in the whole transaction than his own folly. 
He rises up and walks in the garden, to see what is to be done. 
Haman, with all the meanness of detected villany, begins to suppli 
cate the queen for his life ; but this only hastens and insures his 
ruin, for the king, on his return, affecting to misunderstand the pos 
ture in which he finds him, gives the signal for his immediate execu 
tion. The servants, who had that morning seen the gallows he had 
erected for Mordecai, with courtly alacrity in trampling on a fallen 
man, inform the king of this new offence, and he gives sentence, 
that, in expiation of all his crimes, Haman himself shall be hung 
thereon. 

The influence of Esther and Mordecai is now paramount, and 
it is fortunate for the kingdom that they desire to use it only for 
salutary purposes. The authority of the king, who is like wax, in 
receiving the impressions of the objects in contact with him, is now 
employed to prevent the massacre of the Jews, and to punish their 
assailants ; so that instead of the extinction of their nation, which 
seemed impending, it is strengthened, enlarged, and secured. 



ESTHER. 185 

From no part, perhaps, of Holy Scripture, is so deep an impres 
sion left on us of the far-seeing wisdom and majestic providence of 
Almighty God, as from this narrative of Esther. We see the threads 
of His designs, laid out at remote distances, and gradually brought 
together to form the web of events. The haughtiness of Vashti, 
the birth, the breeding, and the beauty of Esther the conspiracy 
of Bigthan and Teresh the wisdom of Mordecai the temporary 
forgetfulness of his services by the king the superstition of Haman, 
the disposal of the lots the wakefulness of Ahasuerus his 
unusual resource for the diversion of his mind the direction of 
the hand and the eye of the reader to that part of the chronicles of 
the kingdom in which the services of Mordecai were recorded 
the opportune arrival of Haman all these events, apparently slight 
and unconnected, yet wrought together to bring about the result 
appointed in the determinate counsel and purpose of God. It re 
markably illustrates what the sacred poet has sung : 

" God moves in a mysterious way, 

His wonders to perform ; 
He plants His footsteps in the sea, 
And rides upon the storm. 



Deep in unfathomable mines, 

With never-failing skill, 
He treasures up His bright designs 
And works His gracious will." 



SARA, WIFE OF TOBIAS. 

The maid is fair and wise. TOBIT vi. 12. 

WHY is she thus sad ? She stands beneath her father s roof, in 
the pride of youth and beauty. The splendor of " a city of Media " 
surrounds her. But her eye is averted and downcast. Her attitude 
is that of one plunged into the depths of troubled thoughts over 
whom some terrible calamity impends ; and yet the meek and gentle 
aspect of that sorrowing countenance seems to bespeak that she does 
not deserve to be a sufferer ! 

Our sympathy is deeply excited by the sight of youth clouded 
with sadness, of beauty stained by tears ; and nature prompts us to 
ask, What is the cause of her affliction? It is briefly this. She was 
the only daughter of her father indeed, his last surviving child, and 
as such, no doubt, the object of his tenderest affection, of his doting 
pride. He had looked to her as the solace of his old age, and exulted 
in the hope that from her would spring a noble race, to inherit his 
riches and perpetuate his line. She had accordingly married ; but 
one after another of seven husbands had been torn from her on the 
nuptial night. The morning had found them dead. And it is at this 
point of time that we contemplate her in the picture of the artist, 



188 THE WOMEN OF THE BIBLE. 

oppressed by this strange succession of misfortunes, and mournfully 
seeking, perhaps, for the causes of them. 

The history informs us that " Asmodeus, an evil spirit, had killed " 
her seven husbands. And this she may have believed ; for, in the 
age in which she lived, the agency of evil spirits was a matter of 
faith ; nor do the canonical Scriptures forbid us to entertain it. 

But, although she may not have been aware that an unseen enemy 
exercised so disastrous an influence over her destiny, she must have 
thought that some frightful fatality pursued her, from which she could 
never escape. And as we gaze on that sorrow-stricken face, the 
silent lips seem parting to exclaim, Why do I suffer these things ? 
Why is the cup of happiness so often dashed at my feet ? Why 
am I doomed to bring dishonor on my once spotless name, and my 
father s house ? Why does every thing I seek to love, perish at my 
approach ? 

But there is another reason for the expression of unutterable woe 
depicted on that faultless visage. She has not only to struggle 
inwardly under a sense of unprovoked and unaccountable calamity, 
but her singular domestic history cannot be kept concealed, and she 
is suspected of having occasioned the sudden deaths of her be 
trothed ! 

Is she, then, a murderess ? Are the bitter taunts of her " very 
abjects " merited ? Has she indeed " strangled her husbands?" Alas ! 
that fair exterior, whose loveliness is heightened by the aspect of 
grief in which it is shrouded, is no proof of her innocence ; nor 
can it be suggested, in her behalf, that the crime is too horrible for 
woman to be its perpetrator. There have been those as fair, and as 
richly endowed with intellectual treasures, as she, who have com 
mitted crimes as foul as that with which she has been charged. Aye ! 
beautiful and gifted woman ! There are no sins on the blood-stained 



SARA, WIFE OF TOBIAS. 189 

annals of our race, which Truth, the "recording angel," has not 
entered against thcc in " the chancery of heaven." Thine eye may 
beam with the softest rays of gentleness, and if it glistens with a tear, 
it may seem but a token of the pitying spirit that pervades and sanc 
tifies thine heart. Thy lips may have breathed the winged words of 
faith and tenderness ; yet, in thy calmest mood, and when the atmos 
phere of heaven seerns floating round thee, even then, for one on 
whom thou smilest, and who has garnered in his " heart of hearts " 
the vows of thy devotion, thou mayest have plotted some deadly 
scheme to destroy this infatuated worshipper of thy beauty ! 

The story of " Sara the daughter of Raguel " may be a fable ; 
but this part of it, certainly, is not incredible. Many a doting lover 
has expired in his bridal bed ; and she who shared it with him, w r hile 
the smile of innocence played upon her lips, may have drawn his 
breath with the subtle malignity of a fiend. And, then, hers may 
have been the tears most freely shed for him, her lamentations the 
loudest ; and her attendants may have pitied the woes of the living, 
more than the untimely fate of the dead, and numbered her among 
the brightest examples of devoted, but ill-starred affection ! 

But for her, whose story we contemplate, there need be no fears 
like these. This is the sorrowful aspect of one laboring under un 
founded distrust; not of a person ruminating over the triumphs of 
successful guilt, and who is proving, as thousands have also done, 
that its bitter fruit is torture of conscience and incurable remorse ! 
Look not, therefore, on the fair and wise being before you, reader, 
with disgust; but rather with the deepest sympathy. She is not 
criminal ; but her heart is smitten with a grief, than which none is 
more hard to bear she is wrongfully accused. See ! sho seems 
sinking beneath the weight of the suspicions with which she has 
been assailed. She is in the attitude of listening ; and, it may be, 

25 



J90 THE WOMEN OF THE BIBLE. 

the artist designed to represent her as still stunned with the cruel 
insults of her menials. They come to her ears with terrible distinct 
ness : " Dost thou not know," said they, " that thou hast strangled 
thine husbands ? Thou hast had already seven husbands, neither 
wast thou named after any of them. Wherefore dost thou beat us 
for them ? If they be dead, go thy ways after them ; let us never 
see of thee either son or daughter." 

What accusations, more formidable, could be pronounced against 
a woman, however depraved ! How utterly overwhelming to one 
conscious of her innocence ! Such a charge would have startled 
the callous soul of an Agrippina, or a Lucretia Borgia. It must 
well nigh have broken a heart, knowing it to be false, yet incapable 
of disproving it ; and feeling, as unfallen woman always feels, that 
even the breath of calumny tarnishes her fair fame for ever ! To be 
the object of evil surmise to her equals, would have been a sore 
trial ; but to be compelled to hear the revilings of " her father s 
maids," must have caused her unutterable anguish. This must have 
convinced her that the suspicion, which they had proclaimed in a 
tone so bold and unfeeling, had become universal, and that hence 
forth the finger of scorn would be pointed at her, even to her dying 
hour. 

Can we find the heart to blame her, if, under such circumstances, 
she turned her thoughts towards that last refuge of the miserable 
a self-sought grave ? And when we meditate on this instance of one, 
as pure as fair, endowed with wisdom and adorned with piety 
forced to the verge of despair by an accusation equally enormous 
and unfounded can we refuse to render at least a passing sigh of 
pity, to those most hapless of her sex, who, though they may not 
have been as blameless, have been hunted by the \vorld s untiring 
scorn, from one grade of infamy to another, till, in the frenzied 



SARA, WIFE OF TOBIAS. 191 

moment when their miseries reach their height, they touch the sacred 
ark of life with the unhallowed hand of suicide ! Possibly this may 
be disavowed, as morality insufficiently austere ; but let us think of 
Him who said, " He that is without sin among you, let him first 
cast a stone at her," and let us be forbearing. 

" Who made the heart, tis He alone 

Decidedly can try us ; 
He knows each chord its various tone, 

Each spring its various bias. 
Then at the balance let s be mute ; 

We never can adjust it ; 
What s done, we partly can compute, 

We know not what s resis ! " 

We know not, indeed, through what infernal arts the poor victim 
may have fallen ; by what hideous but groundless accusations she 
may have been driven, like Sara, to desperation ; nor with what 
sincerity that cry may have been uttered to the last, which is never 
unavailing when it comes from the depths of a broken and a contrite 
heart, " God be merciful to me a sinner !" 

And what saved " the daughter of Raguel " from this melancholy 
doom ? We can hardly wonder that " she thought to have strangled 
herself;" but what restrained her from this act of madness ! That 
principle, which is strongest in the most virtuous heart, and is rarely 
obliterated even from the worst filial affection ! Her grief, how 
ever poignant, was not selfish. Amid her own distress, she thought 
of the sorrows of a childless parent, and soliloquized in these plain 
tive terms : " I am the only daughter of my father ; and if I do this, 
it shall be a reproach to him, and I shall bring his old age with 
sorrow to the grave !" 



192 THE WOMEN OF THE BIBLE. 

How full of purity, how buoyant with sustaining strength, a 
daughter s love ! The remembrance of that fond parent, who had 
treasured up in her all his lingering hopes, woos her back to the path 
of duty ; and for his sake, she resolves to bear up against a fate, 
which even a father s unshaken confidence could scarcely make 
supportable. 

But religion also came to her timely aid. She betook herself to 
a resource, ever open to the most guilty as well as to the most holy. 
From the thought of her earthly father, she lifted her soul to Him 
that " sitteth in the heavens." She " set her eyes and her face 
towards the Lord her God," and yet, in the extremity of her anguish, 
can address no other prayer to Him than this ; " Take me out of the 
earth, that I may hear no more reproach." Invoking Him as the 
witness of her purity, and feeling that she would be safe with Him, 
and had no more to live for in a world where all her anticipations 
of happiness seemed for ever blasted, she utters the natural plaint 
of a crushed and hopeless spirit ; " Why should I live ?" But she 
defers her will to that of the Supreme ; and adds, with becoming 
resignation, " If it please not Thee that I should die, command some 
regard to be had of me, and pity taken of me, that I hear no more 
reproach !" 

Did ever a prayer, so humble and so earnest, ascend to " the 
Majesty of the Great God," unheard and unblest ? Nay, gentle 
sufferer ! The time has come when that deadly reproach shall no 
longer lacerate thee ! The " Great God," to whom thou hast 
appealed, has received thy petition ! arid henceforth all that we 
read of thee, is an inspiring record of the triumphs of courage under 
temptation the rich recompense of fidelity amid dishonor and dis 
tress ! Asmodeus is bound ; the evil doom, that hung over her like 
the pall of death, is averted ; the voice of calumny is hushed ; a 



SARA, WIFE OF TOBIAS. 193 

husband, worthy of her pure and trusting heart, is found mingling 
his prayers with hers ; the perils of the marriage-night are escaped, 
and the morning of a long and prosperous life at length dawns upon 
them both with its day-star of hope. 

None may contemplate the story of the Wife of Tobias without 
profit ; though we find it accompanied with strange circumstances, 
and recorded in an apocryphal book. Let any, who have felt the 
poignant venom of unmerited reproach ; let any, from whom slander 
has filched the priceless pearl of a good name ; let any, whom 
reiterated and mysterious calamities have impoverished, till there 
is nothing left in life to make it desirable, and the narrow house of 
death seems a welcome hiding-place let such gaze upon that meek 
and beauteous countenance, and learn that the fairest, wisest, purest 
of mankind have been subjected to misfortunes as bitter as their 
own ; let them ponder this narrative of far-gone time, and rise from 
its perusal with renewed ardor and invigorated faith ; for its enduring 
moral is this : that none " ever perished, being innocent ;" and that 
a happier destiny, even on this side of the grave, may be reserved 
for them who are " patient in tribulation," and loyal to their God ! 



JUDITH, 
i. 

THERE was a hum and stir on the plains which stretched around 
the city of Nineveh, for a mighty army was encamped without its 
walls. As the sun rose, this crowded mass of warriors gradually 
awakened from their sleep, and the murmur deepened, while the clash 
of arms arose, and voices in many strange tongues were mingled in 
one loud tumult. At length, when the day had advanced some hours, 
the city gates opened, and forth came a procession gorgeous as 
oriental magnificence could make it. It was Nebuchodonosor, king 
of Assyria, with his royal court. Gold and jewels glittered in the 
sunlight armor flashed back its rays from the burnished steel 
tiaras and helms and sparkling diadems were there while robes of 
Tyrian lustre told that kings were attending in his train. 

In the centre of the plain the royal pavilion had been erected, 
and there the king seated himself on his golden chair to survey the 
mighty force which he had called from his wide-spreading provinces. 
Six years before he had marched against the Medes, and Ecbatane 
the royal city had fallen before him, so that he had " taken its towers, 
and spoiled its streets, and turned the beauty thereof into shame." 
But the lust of conquest grows with what it feeds on, and now the 



196 THE WOMEN OF THE BIBLE. 

king of Assyria had determined to turn his arms against all who 
did not acknowledge his rule, and to make Nineveh the centre of a 
universal empire. It was for this object he had summoned the mighty 
array of warriors who now were spread over the plain, and about to 
commence their march. 

They displayed all the pomp and pageantry of Eastern warfare, 
as they defiled past the royal pavilion and paid their lowly rever 
ence to the monarch. First came twelve thousand horsemen in 
armor glittering with gold, who bore the short Assyrian bows and 
arrows, and were the chosen warriors of the kingdom. Then 
marched a hundred and twenty thousand footmen of every color and 
clime. The pale countenance of the Asiatic was followed by those 
of the swarthy Egyptian and the black Nubian, while here and there 
were seen those noble forms and intellectual faces which told that the 
magnificence of the king had even allured some from the land of 

O O 

Pericles to enter his service. And their arms were as different as 
their races. Some, like the Roman retiarius of later days, bore only 
short spears with nets to entangle their antagonists. The Medes 
with their tiara helmets, the Assyrains with huge clubs tipped with 
iron, the Bactrians with long bows of reeds, and the Scythians with 
their hatchets, marched side by side. The pale Caspians, with 
shields of hide and heavy cimiters, were followed by the negroes of 
Ethiopia, clothed in skins of the leopard and the lion, and bearing 
arrows pointed with flint. There too were the Scythians with their 
casques of network, and the Thracians armed with javelin and 
dagger, and wearing helmets of brass ornamented with horns of the 
ox. All nations were mingled in that motley array : " Parthians, and 
Medes, and Elamites, and the dwellers in Mesopotamia, in Pontus 
and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia," all were represented. Gorgeous 
standards waved above them, and their lances gleamed in the sun. 



JUDITH. 197 

The long array was closed by those beasts of burden which always 
followed in the train of an Eastern army. Elephants were goaded 
on by their riders, and the patient camels raised their lofty heads 
above the crowd. 

The camp had gone a dense cloud of dust on the horizon alone 
showed the direction of their march and nothing remained but that 
their leader, Holofernes, should make his parting salutations to the 
king. He was the satrap most trusted by Nebuchodonosor the one 
who stood nearest to the throne, and whose reputation as a warrior 
was already esteemed a presage of success to any army which he led. 
As he knelt before his master, the last instructions he received were 
brief, yet in the lofty tone of an oriental monarch. " Thus says the 
great king, the lord of the whole earth, Thou shalt march against the 
countries of the west, and order them to send me earth and water 
the symbols of their homage or I will go forth against them in my 
wrath, and cover the whole earth with the feet of my army, and give 
them for a spoil, so that their slain shall fill the valleys, and the river 
shall be filled with their dead, till it overflow. As I live, and by the 
power of my kingdom, what I have spoken, that shall my hand do." 

For weeks that mighty force marched on, trampling down every 
thing in its way. From the plains of Bectilah they entered Cilicia, 
and crossed the Euphrates into Mesopotamia, which yielded at once 
to their arms. The wilderness at the South did not shield the 
children of Ismael from their horsemen, while at the North they 
overran the fertile plains of Damascus, and the pleasant rivers which 
meandered through them were drained to supply the wants of this 
crowded host. Fear fell even on the cities of the sea-coast. Tyre 
and Sidon sent ambassadors to Holofernes to proclaim themselves 
servants of the king of Assyria, and his progress seemed to be a 
triumphant inarch, greeted with garlands, and timbrels, and dances. 

26 



198 THE WOMEN OF THE BIBLE. 

Yet even this submission gained the conquered but little favor from 
their fierce invaders. " The land was as the garden of Eden before 
them, and behind them a desolate wilderness." Onward the living 
torrent rolled, sweeping every thing in its course, till it broke against 
the hills which hemmed in the land of Judea. There the Assyrian 
camp was pitched near Esdraelon, and Holofernes halted for a month 
before he entered the hill-country. 



IL 



There was trouble and sorrow through the length and breadth of 
Judea. The broken tribes had but recently returned from their cap 
tivity in Babylon restored the worship of the temple and resettled 
their country. But they were not yet prepared for this formidable 
irruption, and began to feel as if a new desolation and another cap 
tivity awaited them. Yet they knew their source of strength, and at 
Jerusalem they proclaimed a fast, and put ashes upon their heads and 
sackcloth about the altar, and cried earnestly to their God that He 
would not give them as a prey to the enemy, and His sanctuary to 
profanation and reproach. Joachim the high priest, and all who minis 
tered at the altar, girt with sackcloth and with ashes on their mitres, 
presented before the Lord daily burnt-offerings, with the vows and 
free gifts of the people. 

On the side of a mountain, overlooking a valley through which 
the invading host of Assyrians must pass, stood the little city of 
Bethulia. It commanded the defiles, and was the first obstacle which 
could arrest their progress. To the elders of it the high priest wrote, 
and urged them to guard the entrance to their land against the ad 
vancing foe, and if possible stop them at the outset. The citizens 



JUDITH. 199 

therefore repaired its ramparts, and nerved themselves to the task, 
with the feelings of those who in Greece, under like circumstances, 
stood in the pass of Thermopylae. 

At last came the hour of trial. The camp of the Assyrians, their 
force increased by the nations they had conquered, broke up, and 
the living mass of warriors rolled through the defiles of the hills on 
their way to the plains of Judea. It was at the close of a summer s 
day, when the sun had gone down bathing every thing on hill and 
valley in a purple hue seen only by an oriental eye, that the sentinels 
on the towers of Bethulia beheld the approach of their invaders. At 
first, a distant cloud of dust announced them then a trumpet brayed 
forth then came the clash of cymbals and the noise of arms, as 
they defiled before the walls and spread themselves through the 
valley. As darkness gathered about the beleaguered city, its inhab 
itants lighted the fires upon their towers, and through the night 
watched on the walls with arms in their hands. But no attack was 
made. 

On the second day, acting under the advice of the Moabites who 
had joined his army, Holofernes advanced his horsemen to the foun 
tains on the mountain which supplied the city with water, and seizing 
them, quietly retired to his camp, leaving a force of five thousand 
men to cut off all communication with the besieged. Then followed 
days and nights of weariness, when their hearts fainted, for their 
cisterns were empty and no rain came to fill them. They could have 
gone forth gladly to conflict with their invaders, and fought with that 
wild desperation which characterized their nation when in a later 
age the Roman eagles had gathered around the holy city. But this 
was not permitted them. They were only hemmed in to die of 
thirst ; and the courage which would have risen to its height on the 
field of battle, or even amid the agonies of the stake, failed before 



200 THE WOMEN OF THE BIBLE. 

the daily evils they were called to endure. Thus four and thirty 
days passed by, till disease began to thin their ranks ; women and 
children died from exhaustion, and even the young men fell in the 
streets. Then at last arose the tumult ; and, worn out, they gathered 
in desperation about Ozias, the chief of the city, and, weeping, 
required that he should make peace with Holofernes before all had 
perished. Trying indeed was his situation, yet still while he bowed 
to the storm he pleaded for delay, and answered them, " Brethren, 
be of good courage, let us yet endure five days, in which space the 
Lord our God may turn his mercy toward us ; for he will not forsake 
us utterly. And if these days pass, and there come no help unto us, 
I will do according to your word." 



III. 



But there was one heart in Bethulia which fainted not. It was 
Judith, the daughter of Merari, of the tribe of Simeon. More than 
three years before her husband Manasses had died, and in the pride 
of her early youth she had been left a widow. Judith had all the lofty 
beauty of her nation, and in the days of its glory none excelled the 
Jewish maidens. Theirs was the dark eye which expanded as they 
spoke, and flashed out each passing emotion of the mind, united 
with the changing features they derived from their Arab blood, 
softened down and developed into the nobleness of aspect they 
assumed during ages of prosperity in Palestine. And above all they 
bore that stamp which comes from the loftiest sense of freedom 
a feeling in that day peculiar to the Jewish women. It was the early 
consciousness of their high destiny which spread a grace and charm 
about them, and lightened up their countenances with something 



JUDITH. 201 

more than mortal beauty. Each one felt that she was not a toy or 
a slave, but might become the mother of a Being who was to be 
the Light of the world. A goodly heritage too had fallen to Judith 
gold and silver, men servants and maid servants, cattle and lands 
all that constituted wealth in those pastoral days. It was no wonder 
therefore that suitors crowded around her, endeavoring to replace 
the memory of the dead by the love of the living. But none found 
favor in her sight, and the image of Manasses dwelt in her mind 
with a living and painful distinctness. She pitched a tent upon the 
housetop, and there she spent her days in prayer, wearing only 
sackcloth and her widow s apparel, and fasting except on the solemn 
festivals of her faith. 

To her in her retirement came the news that in five days the city 
was to be surrendered to the fierce idolaters, and she sent for Ozias 
and the elders of the city. They came, and beautiful was the inter 
view which took place, when woman in her feebleness was thus seen 
rising with more than man s loftiness of soul, and cheering those who 
should never have wavered in their faith. She reminded them of 
what God had done in " their fathers day and in the old time before 
them," and declared that the determination they had made was one 
which bound down His counsels, instead of patiently waiting His 
own good time for their salvation. " For," said she, " if we be 
taken so, all Judea shall lie waste, and our sanctuary shall be spoiled, 
and He will require the profanation thereof at our mouth. And the 
slaughter of our brethren, and the captivity of the country, and the 
desolation of our inheritance, will He turn upon our heads among 
the Gentiles, whersoever we shall be in bondage." " All," answered 
Ozias, " that thou hast spoken hast thou spoken with a good heart, 
and there is none that may gainsay thy words." Then said Judith 
to them, " Hear me, and I will do a thing, which shall go throughout 



202 THE WOMEN OF THE BIBLE. 

all generations to the children of our nation. Ye shall stand this 
night in the gate, and I will go forth with my waiting woman, and 
within the days that ye have promised to deliver the city to our 
enemies, the Lord will visit Israel by my hand. But inquire not ye 
of mine act ; for I will not declare it unto you, till the things be 
finished that I do." And Ozias and the princes said to her, " Go in 
peace, and the Lord God be before thee, to take vengeance on our 
enemies." 

And so they parted, and she went to her tent to prayer at the 
hour that the evening incense was offered in Jerusalem, and they 
returned to their homes. 

Night came, and the elders met her at the gate, that they might 
let her go forth. And as she went out they wondered at the change 
they saw, for she had put from her the sackcloth she had worn and 
the garments of her widowhood. A circlet of gems glittered above 
her braided hair, bracelets were on her arms, and she had decked 
herself with that profusion of dazzling ornament which makes the 
oriental costume of this day, that she might allure the eyes of all 
who saw her. " The God of our fathers," said Ozias, " give thee 
favor, and accomplish thine enterprise to the glory of the children 
of Israel and to the exaltation of Jerusalem." And they watched 
her as she went down the mountain, until she was lost to their sight 
amid the shadows of the valley. 

Soon the first watch of the Assyrians met her. She told them 
she w r as a woman of Israel fleeing from the city because it was about 
to be consumed by them, and asked to be led to Holofernes. So 
they conducted her to his tent, wondering as they went at her mar 
vellous beauty. The Assyrian satrap was reclining on his bed beneath 
a canopy woven with purple and gold, emeralds and precious stones ; 
but when they told him of the capture they had made, he came forth 



JUDITH. ^03 

to meet her, with silver lamps borne before him. As she pros 
trated herself at his feet, his servants raised her, and he asked 
wherefore she had come. Enticing indeed were the words of Judith, 
as in reply she dwelt upon his power and that of his royal master, 
and prophesied for them the empire of the earth. And from his 
enemies in Bethulia, she told him, she had fled, because they were 
about to work their own ruin. Their food was failing them, and they 
were about to seize for their own use on the first fruits of their corn, 
and the tenths of their wine and oil, which had been dedicated to 
God. Then His vengeance would overtake them, and the Assyrians 
have an easy victory. Over the ruins of the city she would herself 
lead him through Judea to Jerusalem, and there his throne should 
be established. Sweet are the words of flattery, particularly when 
they fall from the lips of beauty ! Holofernes was caught in the 
snare, and every honor was offered to Judith. His own servants 
waited on her by day, and she dwelt in a tent apart, from whence at 
midnight she always went forth with her maid, to pray in the valley, 
until her going out caused no surprise in the watchers at the gate. 



IV. 



Thus three days passed away, when Holofornes made a feast 
and sent Bagoas the eunuch to persuade the Hebrew woman to 
partake of his banquet. So he went to induce her to come to his 
lord. He would have degraded a daughter of Israel to become the 
inmate of his master s harem. Bitter indeed to her must have been 
the restraint as she listened to his words, yet she arrayed herself in 
smiles, and seeming to assent to his wishes, went with him to the 
tent. Hour after hour the banquet went on, and the prospect of 



204 THE WOMEN OF THE BIBLE. 

success exhilarated the heart of Holofornes, so that the wine cup 
was never out of his hand. In the flush of his dazzled hopes he 
forgot all prudence, and no fear whispered to him that his fall was 
near. As the evening closed his servants departed, and Judith was 
left alone with him in the tent. Yet still she pressed him to drink, 
with a fascination he could not resist, until at last, overpowered 
with wine, he sank senseless on his couch. 

Then Judith arose and nerved herself to her task. From the 
head of the bed of Holofornes she took his jewelled cimiter, and as 
its broad Damascus blade flashed in the lamps which burned around 
her, she leaned against the side of the tent, and offered up the prayer 
" O Lord God of all power, look at this present upon the work of 
mine hands for the exaltation of Jerusalem. For now is the time to 
help thine inheritance, and to execute mine enterprise to the destruc 
tion of the enemies which are risen against us." For a moment there 
was a tumult in her breast a conflict between the shrinking feelings 
of a woman, and the burning thirst for vengeance against the invader 
which fired her heart. It was like the struggle on the misty moun 
tain-side between the sunlight and the thunder cloud. Another 
instant, and it is over. The gleam of human tenderness is gone, and 
the dark storm has swept over all. Her fingers are twined in the 
hair of Holofornes, and uttering the petition, " Strengthen me, O 
Lord God of Israel, this day," she strikes, once and again the 
warm blood gushes in torrents over the couch, and the severed head 
is in her hand. Rolling it in her garments, she joins her maid who 
had watched without, and together they leave the camp. 

But not as usual did they go forth to the valley to prayer. Swiftly 
they ascended the mountain to the city, and as the gates hastily 
opened at her voice, her exulting cry was, " Praise, praise God, 
praise God, for He hath not taken away His mercy from the house 



JUDITH. 205 

of Israel, but hath destroyed our enemies by my hands this night." 
The startled city was roused from its sleep ; and as her friends 
gathered about her, and she told of all that she had done, they 
realized that God had indeed " visited and redeemed his people " 
that then, as in the days of Sisera, a woman s hand had wrought 
deliverance. As she ceased, the w r hole assembly with one heart and 
one voice lifted up that magnificent Psalm of David, " Let God arise, 
and let His enemies be scattered," and it swept in solemn melody 
over the awakened city. Thousands responded to the glorious chant 
the winds of night bore it on their wings through the valley and 
the Assyrian watchers were startled in their camp, as they heard its 
notes rolling on the air in rich harmony. 

Morning broke in gladness over the hills of Judea, and all nature 
awakened from its repose yet no sound was heard in the tent of 
Holofernes. At last Bagoas ventured to enter, and then there came 
forth one wild cry of terror, which in an instant was echoed through 
the camp. Appalled, dismayed, stupefied by their loss, fear and 
trembling fell upon all, princes and people. It was one of those 
sudden panics to which the Eastern armies were peculiarly liable 
a panic like that which fell upon the Philistines after Goliath fell, when 
at once a mighty host seemed to melt away. Their camp about 
Bethulia was broken up, and they fled in wild disorder. But their 
foes were upon them. In the night Ozias had sent through the 
land, and every where the Israelites were arming in haste to pursue 
the invaders. From the hills of Galilee, from the valleys of the 
Jordan, from the streets of Jerusalem, they poured forth, and put 
the Assyrians to the sword, till they had driven them beyond 
Damascus. 

Then came the Sabbath-time of rest and rejoicing a time cf 
triumph, when, loaded with the spoils of the Assyrians, the people, 

27 



206 THE WOMEN OF THE BIBLE. 

with the high priest at their head, gathered to do honor to Judith. 
They gave her the riches found in the tent of Holofernes his gor 
geous canopy and vessels of gold and silver. And while they mingled 
in the dance, the women crowned Judith and her maid with wreaths 
of olive ; and as all the men of Israel followed with garlands over 
their armor, they hymned her praises in one solemn and mighty 
chorus. 



Two generations passed away. Eighty golden years of peace 
had gone since God hath thus delivered his people, when slowly and 
solemnly a funeral train came from the gates of Bethulia and wound 
down into the valley. Crowds gathered around the bier, on which 
the body lay swathed in linen, and there were bitter lamentations, as 
if for one whose requiem the inhabitants of a city united to chant. 
It was the burial of Judith, who thus, after a life prolonged through 
more than a century, was gathered to her fathers. There are those 
whose life is a single action, and history easily writes their epitaph, 
because there is but one bright and salient point of which to speak. 
And so it was with Judith. The rest of a long existence had flowed 
on with nothing to mark its progress. Many had wooed her, through 
whose instrumentality the deluge of the Assyrians had been rolled 
back from their land ; yet her days were passed in widowhood, and 
now they were bearing her to the cave of Manasses. There she 
slept by the side of the husband of her youth, but she had changed 
an obscure existence for an imperishable name. For centuries the 
Jewish maidens sang her praises as they sat in their homes, or labored 



JUDITH. 207 

in their vineyards on the hill-side, and her fame was entwined in their 
legends with that of the warrior-women of the heroic age Jael the 
wife of Heber the Kenite, and Deborah the prophetess, who judged 
Israel beneath the palm-trees. 



THE MOTHER IN MACCABEES. 

AND such a mother, so full of love and piety, of fortitude and 
martyr-zeal, the world beside her has never seen. " The blessed 
among women," indeed, the mother of our Lord, we place far above 
comparison with any other ; and the name of Mary shall to all gen 
erations recall one who for ever shall be the chief of those whose 
hearts have burned with maternal love, and whose " souls have been 
pierced through with a sword " at witnessing the cruel death of the 
offspring of their wombs. But this mother her name is not on 
record ; her acts, however, form a page of history than which there 
is none more remarkable for the exhibition of female heroism. To 
relate the story in other words than those in which it has been 
embodied for the instruction of all ages, would be to weaken its 
force and lessen its interest. It may be well, however, to introduce 
it by a few prefatory remarks. 

The history of the Maccabees, which furnished the artist with the 
subject he has so successfully delineated, it is well known, is amongst 
the books called Apocryphal, so called from a Greek word, signifying 
concealed or put out of sight. They are thus distinguished by 
Protestants from the canonical Books of the Bible, or those which 
are admitted by the canon or law of the church to be of divino 
authority, because their authors are not known, and their authen- 



210 THE WOMEN OF THE BIBLE. 

ticity as inspired writings is not admitted. We hold them to possess 
greater sanctity and higher authority than works of mere human 
composition. The venerable Hooker indeed says of them, " we hold 
not the Apocrypha for sacred, as we do the Holy Scriptures, but for 
human compositions." By this expression, however, he must not be 
supposed to have esteemed such Books as Ecclesiasticus and the 
Book of Wisdom as deserving no greater consideration than the 
works of ordinary men, however pious and learned they might be. 
His intention was to state emphatically, in contradistinction to the 
opinion of Romanists, that the Apocryphal Books were not inspired 
as were the Holy Scriptures, and therefore were not of final authority 
in questions of religious controversy. The Church of England and 
the Protestant Episcopal Church in these United States have, with a 
judicious discrimination, stated their relative importance in the Thirty- 
nine Articles the sixth of which, entiled "Of the sufficiency of 
the Holy Scriptures for salvation," thus asserts : " Holy Scripture 
containeth all things necessary to salvation : so that whatsoever is 
not read therein, nor may be proved thereby, is not to be required of 
any man, that it should be believed as an article of the Faith, or be 
thought requisite or necessary to salvation. In the name of the 
Holy Scriptures we do understand those canonical Books of the Old 
and New Testament, of whose authority was never any doubt in the 
Church." Then are enumerated the Books from Genesis to Twelve 
Prophets the less. " And the other Books (as Hierome saith) the 
Church doth read, for example of life and instruction of manners ; 
but yet doth it not apply them to establish any doctrine." The 
Apocryphal Books are then enumerated, and amongst them the First 
and Second Book of Maccabees, from the second of which the sub- 
ect of the annexed portrait is taken. " These books," therefore, as 
a very learned writer, the Rev. Dr. Jackson, asserts, " though Apoc- 



THE MOTHER IX MACCABEES. 



ryphal, do not deserve to be left out in any new impressions of our 
Bibles." Another writer also, as quoted by Arnold, says, "that 
without all doubt the world could not recompense the loss of the 
books of the Maccabees, and the use of them for understanding the 
Prophets ; so inestimable is the benefit of them for that purpose." 
Arnold then proceeds to observe, that " God having withdrawn his 
Prophets, many and great revolutions happened to the Jewish state, 
and the Church of God underwent very severe and heavy persecu 
tions both from the Greeks arid Romans, in which the Maccabees in 
particular signalized themselves ; the account of which times, and of 
their conduct on the occasion, we must take from these books ; and 
therefore they are to be valued, and of the Church not unprofitably 
used, says St. Austin, for those glorious instances recorded in them 
of persons suffering such horrible persecutions with a remarkable 
patience for the testimony of God s religion, and thereby encouraging 
others to undergo cheerfully the like trial of sufferings." 

One of these horrible persecutions, and perhaps the most horrible 
of all, was that inflicted upon the mother of seven sons, who, with 
her own eyes, beheld them one after another put to a must excru 
ciating and lingering death, rather than violate the Law of God in 
the slightest respect, and who, after encouraging them with a fortitude 
unexampled to endure unto the end, and being martyred in soul seven 
successive times through the bodily sufferings of her sons, at last 
died herself. The history does not expressly assert that her death 
was upon the same day, nor yet that it was effected by the hands of 
the executioner. Still this is the natural, if not the unavoidable 
inference. Thus, then, the mother, with her seven sons, on one day 
won and wore the crown of martyrdom ; but hers, we doabt not, 
shines with superior splendor ; and though her name be lost o.i 
earth, it is recorded on the list of the noble army of martyrs in 



THE WOMEN OF THE BIBLE. 



heaven. Here follows the authentic history of her tortures, endur 
ance, and death. 



It came to pass also, that seven brethren with their mother were taken and compelled 
by the king, against the law, to taste swine s flesh, and were tormented with scourges 
and whips. But one of them that spake first, said thus, What wouldst thou ask or 
learn of us ? we are ready to die, rather than to transgress the laws of our fathers. 

Then the king, being in a rage, commanded pans and caldrons to be made hot : 
which forthwith being heated, he commanded to cut out the tongue of him that spake 
first, and to cut off the utmost parts of his body, the rest of his brethren and his mother 
looking on. 

Now when he was thus maimed in all his members, he commanded him, being yet 
alive, to be brought to the fires, and to be fried in the pan ; and as the vapor of the pan 
was for a good space dispersed, they exhorted one another with the mother to die man 
fully, saying thus, The Lord God looketh upon us, and in truth hath comfort in us, as 
Moses in his song, which witnessed to their faces, declared, saying, And he shall be 
comforted in his servants. 

So when the first was dead after this manner, they brought the second to make him 
a mocking stock : and when they had pulled off the skin of his head with his hair, they 
asked him, Wilt thou eat, before thou be punished throughout every member of thy 
body ? But he answered in his own language, and said, No. Wherefore he also 
received the next torment in order, as the former did. And when he was at the last 
gasp, he said, Thou like a fury takest us out of this present life, but the King of the 
world shall raise us up, who have died for his laws, unto everlasting life. 

After him was the third made a mocking stock : and when he was required, he put 
out his tongue, and that right soon, holding forth his hands manfully, and said courage 
ously, These I had from heaven ; and for his laws I despise them ; and from him I 
hope to receive them again. Insomuch that the king, and they that were with him, 
marvelled at the young man s courage, for that he nothing regarded the pains. 

Now when this man was dead also, they tormented and mangled the fourth in like 
manner. So, when he was ready to die, be said thus, It is good, being put to death by 
men, to look for hope from God to be raised up again by him : as for thee, thou shalt 
have no resurrection to life. 



THE MOTHER IN MACCABEES. 213 

Afterwards they brought the fifth also, and mangled him. Then looked he unto the 
king, and said, Thou hast power over men, thou art corruptible, thou doest what thou 
wilt ; yet think not that our nation is forsaken of God ; but abide awhile, and behold 
his great power, how he will torment thee and thy seed. 

After him also they brought the sixth, who being ready to die, said, Be not deceived 
without cause : for we suffer these things for ourselves, having sinned against our God : 
therefore marvellous things are done unto us. But think not thou, that takest in hand to 
strive against God, that thou shalt escape unpunished. 

But the mother was marvellous above all, and worthy of honorable memory : for 
when she saw her seven sons slain within the space of one day, she bare it with a good 
courage, because of the hope that she had in the Lord. Yea, she exhorted every one of 
them in her own language, filled with courageous spirits ; and stirring up her womanish 
thoughts with a manly stomach, she said unto them, I cannot tell how ye came into my 
womb ; for I neither gave you breath nor life, neither was it I that formed the members 
of every one of you ; but doubtless the Creator of the world, who formed the generation 
of man, and found out the beginning of all things, will also of his own mercy give you 
breath and life again, as ye now regard not your own selves for his law s sake. 

Now Antiochus, thinking himself despised, and suspecting it to be a reproachful 
speech, whilst the youngest was yet alive, did not only exhort him by words, but also 
assured him with oaths, that he would make him both a rich and a happy man, if he 
would turn from the laws of his fathers ; and that also he would take him for his friend, 
and trust him with affairs. But when the young man would in no case hearken unto 
him, the king called his mother, and exhorted her that she would counsel the young man 
to save his life. And when he had exhorted her with many words, she promised him 
that she would counsel her son. 

But she bowing herself towards him, laughing the cruel tyrant to scorn, spake in her 
country language on this manner : O, my son, have pity upon me that bare thee nine 
months in my womb, and gave thee suck three years, and nourished thee, and brought 
thee up unto this age, and endured the troubles of education. I beseech thee, my son, 
look upon the heaven and the earth, and all that is therein, and consider that God made 
them of things that were not ; and so was mankind made likewise. Fear not this tor 
mentor, but being worthy of thy brethren, take thy death, that I may receive thee again 
in mercy with thy brethren. 

Whiles she was yet speaking these words, the young man said, Whom wait ye for ? 

28 



214 THE WOMEN OF THE BIBLE. 

I will not obey the king s commandment : but I will obey the commandment of the law 
that was given unto our fathers by Moses. And thou that hast been the author of all 
mischief against the Hebrews, shalt not escape the hands of God. For we suffer 
because of our sins. And though the living Lord be angry with us a little while for 
our chastening and correction, yet shall he be at one again with his servants. 

But thou, O godless man, and of all other most wicked, be not lifted up without a 
cause, nor puffed up with uncertain hopes, lifting up thy hand against the servants of 
God : for thou hast not yet escaped the judgment of Almighty God, who seeth all 
things. For our brethren, who now have suffered a short pain, are dead under God s 
covenant of everlasting life ; but thou, through the judgment of God, shalt receive just 
punishment for thy pride. 

But I as my brethren, offer up my body and life for the laws of our fathers, beseech 
ing God that he would speedily be merciful unto our nation ; and that thou by torments 
and plagues mayest confess that he alone is God ; and that in me and my brethren the 
wrath of the Almighty, which is justly brought upon all our nation, may cease. Then 
the king being in a rage, handled him worse than all the rest, and took it grievously that 
he was mocked. 

So this man died undefiled, and put his whole trust in the Lord. 

Last of all after the sons the mother died. 



THE END. 



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