Notable Women of Olden Time
A >> Anonymous >> Notable Women of Olden Time[Illustration]
NOTABLE WOMEN
OF
OLDEN TIME.
WRITTEN FOR THE AMERICAN SUNDAY-SCHOOL UNION.
PHILADELPHIA:
AMERICAN SUNDAY-SCHOOL UNION,
1122 CHESTNUT STREET.
_Entered according to Act of Congress in the year 1852, by the
AMERICAN SUNDAY-SCHOOL UNION,
in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the Eastern District
of Pennsylvania._
_No books are published by the AMERICAN SUNDAY-SCHOOL UNION without the
sanction of the Committee of Publication, consisting of fourteen
members, from the following denominations of Christians, viz. Baptist,
Methodist, Congregationalist, Episcopal, Presbyterian, Lutheran, and
Reformed Dutch. Not more than three of the members can be of the same
denomination, and no book can be published to which any member of the
Committee shall object._
CONTENTS.
PAGES
THE WIFE--(SARAH) 7
THE WIFE UNLOVED--(HAGAR) 35
THE PARTIAL AND INTRIGUING MOTHER--(REBEKAH) 63
THE RIVAL SISTERS--(LEAH AND RACHEL) 89
THE AFFECTIONATE SISTER--(MIRIAM) 119
THE PROPHETESS--(DEBORAH) 171
THE ARTFUL WOMAN--(JEZEBEL) 187
THE AMBITIOUS WOMAN--(ATHALIAH) 205
THE ORPHAN QUEEN--(ESTHER) 231
THE WIFE--SARAH.
[Illustration]
Within a few centuries after the flood, while some who had witnessed the
sin and the destruction of the antediluvian world were still living,
Jehovah saw fit, in accordance with his designs of eternal wisdom, to
separate Abraham from his brethren, calling upon him to leave the land
of his birth and go out into a strange land, to dwell in a far country.
He was to pass the rest of his days as a sojourner in a land which
should be thereafter given to a people yet unborn,--to a nation which
was to descend from him.
Abraham was a lineal descendant of Shem, who was doubtless still living
while "the father of Abraham yet abode with his kindred in the land of
the Chaldees;" and from the lips of his venerable progenitor, Abraham
himself may have first received the knowledge of the true God, and have
learned lessons of wisdom and obedience, as he sat at his feet. Shem may
have conversed with Methuselah; and Methuselah must have known Adam; and
from Adam, Methuselah may have heard that history of the creation and
fall, which he narrated to Shem, and which Shem may have transmitted to
Abraham; and the history of the world would be thus remembered as the
traditional recollections of a family, and repeated as the familiar
remembrances of a single household.
Tales of the loveliness of Eden,--of the glories of the creation,--of
the blessedness of the primeval state,--of the days before the fall;
remembrances of the "mother of all living" in the days of her holiness,
when she was as beautiful as the world created for her home, in all the
dewy sweetness of the morning of its existence,--of the wisdom of man
before he yielded to the voice of temptation, when authority was
enthroned upon his brow, and all the tribes of the lower creation did
him homage;--of the good spirits who watched over to minister unto and
bless them;--of those dark, unholy and accursed ones, who came to tempt,
betray and destroy them,--were recounted as events of which those who
described them had been the witnesses. And from the remembrances thus
preserved and transmitted by tradition, each generation obscuring or
exaggerating them, have descended what we call fables of
antiquity,--great facts, now dimly remembered and darkly presented, as
shadowed over by the mists of long ages.
How must the hearts of the descendants of Shem have thrilled as they
heard from him the history of by-gone times--of a world which had passed
away! How much had the great patriarch of his race, himself, beheld? He
had seen the glory and the beauty of the world before the flood. It was
cursed for the sin of man, in the day of his fall--but slowly, as we
measure time, do the woes denounced by God often take effect, and,
though excluded from Eden, the first pair may have seen little change
pass over the face of the earth. The consummation of this curse may have
been the deluge; and those who dwelt on the earth, before this calamity
swept it with its destroying wing, may have seen it in much of its
original beauty; while those who outlived that event witnessed a
wonderful change.
From that frail fabric, the ark, which proved the second cradle of the
race, Shem had beheld a world submerged,--a race swept off by the floods
of Almighty wrath. He had heard the shrieks of the drowning, the vain
prayer of those who had scoffed the threatened vengeance, the fruitless
appeal of those who had long rejected mercy. As the waves bore up his
frail vessel, he had seen the black and sullen waters settle over
temples, cities and palaces; and he had gazed until he could behold but
one dark expanse of water, in whose turbid depths were buried all the
families of the earth--save one.
Those he had loved and honoured, and much which, perhaps, he had envied
and coveted--the pride, the glory, the beauty of earth--all had passed
away. And after the waters subsided, and the ark had found a
resting-place, what a deep and sad solemnity must have mingled with the
joy for their preservation.
How strange the aspect the world presented! How must the survivors have
recalled past scenes and faces, to be seen no more! How much they must
have longed to recognise old familiar places,--the Eden of Adam and
Eve,--the graves in which they had been laid! For doubtless Seth and his
descendants still remained with their first parents, while Cain went out
from their presence and built a city in some place remote. The earth
which Noah and his descendants repeopled was one vast grave; and what
wonder that those who built above a race entombed, should mingle fancy
with tradition, and imagine that the buried cities and habitations were
yet inhabited by the accursed and unholy. Such have been the fancies of
those who darkly remembered the flood; and as the wind swept through the
caverns of the earth, the superstitious might still imagine that they
heard the voices or the shrieks of the spirits imprisoned within.
Shem seems to have far exceeded his brothers in true piety, and the
knowledge of Jehovah was for many generations preserved among his
descendants, while few or none of them ever sank into those deep
superstitions which debased the children of Ham. And it is beautiful to
remark, that the filial piety which so pre-eminently marked him has ever
been a prominent trait among all nations descended from him. Thus
receiving his impressions of the power, the truth, the awful justice of
Jehovah, from one well fitted to convey them,--and taught the certain
fulfilment of promises and of threats,--Abraham was early inspired with
that deep reverential and yet filial love, that entire confidence,
which led to the trusting obedience which distinguished his character.
Yet, from his very piety, sad must it have been when the command came to
leave the plains of Mesopotamia, and go out a stranger and a pilgrim
into distant lands, to become a dweller among those who were fast
apostatizing from the true faith. "But by faith he obeyed," and by his
obedience he has given us an example and illustration of faith, which
has been held forth through all succeeding ages. To be the child of
Abraham, to walk as he walked, is, after the lapse of thousands of
years, the characteristic of the true worshipper of God.
Guided by an Omniscient hand, trusting in an Almighty power, cheered by
that mysterious promise, which, as a star of hope shining in the hour of
deepest darkness, still rose to higher brightness as it guided the long
line of patriarchs, kings, and prophets, until it settled over the
manger of Bethlehem, and was lost in the full glory of the Sun of
righteousness,--Abraham girded his loins and prepared for a departure to
far distant lands.
At first, attended by his father and brother, he sojourned with them in
Haran; and the family pitched their tents in that spot which was to
become in future ages the battle-ground of nations, when the proud eagle
of imperial Rome was trailed in the dust, and her warriors and her
nobles fell before their fiercer foes. Long ages have intervened since
the tents of this Syrian family were pitched by the side of the waters
of Charan; and midway between their days and ours, were these waters
discoloured with the blood of those who fell in the battle of Charae, so
disastrous to Rome, ever haughty, and then exulting in the height of her
prosperity. A few wandering shepherds now lead their flocks in the plain
in which Sarah and Abraham dwelt, and where Cassius and his legions
fell. But a short sojourn was permitted Abraham here. "Arise and depart,
for this is not your rest"--and again he listened to the command from
above, and gathered his flocks and servants, and girded his loins, and
set his face towards the land promised to him, and to his seed after
him. And now he left his father and his brethren, and went with his own
family, the head of his house, the future patriarch of his race.
Yet he was not alone. The wife of his youth was by his side. In all his
wanderings, in all his cares, there was one with him to participate in
his joys and to alleviate his sorrows. With him and for him, his wife
forsook home, kindred and country. We doubt not that she too shared the
faith of Abraham; that she too trusted and loved and worshipped the God
of Abraham, and of Shem, and of Noah. Like Abraham, a descendant of
Shem,--like him too, she had been trained in the worship of Jehovah. Yet
to the faith of the true believer, there was added the strong affection
of the wife; and while Abraham went out obeying God, Sarah followed,
trusting God indeed, but leaning still upon her husband. In all her
future life, she is presented to us the wife; devoted, affectionate,
submissive; loving her husband with a true affection, and honouring him
by a due deference.
With a beauty that fascinated kings, preserving the charms of youth to
the advanced period of her life, she still lived but for her husband;
and when even the faith of Abraham failed, and he withdrew from the wife
the protection of the husband, and said, "She is my sister," Sarah
appears to have acquiesced in a deceit so unworthy of her husband and of
herself, merely to insure his safety among the lawless tribes around
them.
As we read the story of Abraham's wife, we catch glimpses of ages and
nations that were hoar with antiquity, and had passed away when our
ancient historians began the record of the past. Nation after nation had
perished and been forgotten before the profane historian began his
annals. Yet childless, still trusting in the promise of Jehovah, Abraham
wandered for many years through the land which was to be given to him,
and his seed after him. Now pitching his tent in Moreh; then building
his altar at Bethel; then driven by famine into Egypt; then returning to
his altar at Bethel,--and there separating from his nephew Lot, because
"the land could not bear" both, he fixes his abode in Hebron.
No pictures of pastoral life are more beautiful than those presented in
Genesis; and while we contemplate the character of Abraham, we catch
occasional glimpses of his household, and of the manners of his age. We
see him exercising forbearance and relinquishing the rights of a
superior, that there might be no strife between him and his too worldly
relative. We see him leading out his own band as a prince, to rescue
that same relative,--who, tempted by the promise of large wealth, had
chosen a location full of dangers,--and, in the hour of victory,
refusing all spoil and showing all honour to the priest of the most high
God.
Again he is before us, sitting in his tent in the heat of the day, and
hastening to receive strangers,--"thus entertaining angels
unawares,"--and then interceding for that city doomed to destruction for
the wickedness of the dwellers therein.
And again he appears as the prince, the patriarch, the head of his own
family, and high in honour with those around him, ever observing all the
decorum and proprieties of oriental life. We see him, too, as one who
walked with God; as the priest of his household, presenting the morning
and the evening sacrifice; as holding high communion with God in the
hours of darkness; entering into that covenant which is still pleaded by
those who claim the promise, "I will be a God to thee, and to thy seed
after thee."
This promise of a seed, from which was to spring a great nation, "like
to the stars of heaven in number," was frequently repeated, yet still
deferred. Youth, manhood, middle age, all had passed, and still no child
blest the tents of Sarah; and while Abraham still believed, and it "was
accounted to him for righteousness," Sarah seems to have felt that not
upon her was to be conferred the distinction of becoming the mother of
the promised seed. With the warm impulse of the woman, she sacrificed
the feelings of the wife and the instincts of the heart, to promote
what she doubtless believed to be the plan of God and the happiness of
Abraham. There is a deficiency of faith as much to be manifested in the
forestalling the plans of Providence as in the denial of the promises of
God: and while Abraham still trusted and waited the fulfilment of the
promise, Sarah sought, by her own device, to accomplish prophecy and
insure the blessing.
In accordance with the usages of those around her, she gave her handmaid
to her husband to be his wife, "that their children might bless her
age." She doubtless felt herself strong enough in love to Abraham and to
Hagar to believe that her affection would embrace their children. But
when the trial came, and all the instincts of the heart, all the
feelings of the wife revolted, she proved that this violation of a
heaven-appointed institution brings only sorrow and strife. Yet there
was no alienation between Sarah and Abraham. The wife of his youth was
ever dearer to him than the mother of his child.
At length, however, the promise was fulfilled. Sarah became a mother.
Many years had passed since she had left the home of her fathers. The
days of man were now much abridged, and she was fast approaching the
ordinary limit of human life; but we may suppose her cheek was still
fair and her brow smooth, and that she still retained much of the beauty
of youth.
With a wondering joy, Sarah gazed upon the child so long desired--the
child in whose seed "all the nations of the earth" were to be "blessed."
And she said, "God hath made me to laugh, so that all who hear shall
laugh;" and while those that heard that Sarah "had borne Abraham a son
in his old age," wondered at an event so strange, Abraham must have
pondered the prophecy which had revealed to him the destiny of his
race,--perhaps foreseeing that Star which was to rise in a still distant
age, and apprehending, however dimly and faintly, something of the
mysterious connection between the birth of the child and the promise
given in the hour of the curse--the blending of the fate of his race
with the eternal plan of mercy and redemption.
There is an instinct in our natures which leads us to rejoice at a
birth; but, could Sarah have foreseen the destiny of her race, tears
would have mingled with her smiles. Wonderful has been the past history
of that people, strange their present condition, while the future may
develop mysteries still more incomprehensible.
In the hour of rejoicing over the new-born babe, past transgression
brought forth its legitimate fruits. Sullenness and strife were
brooding in the bosoms of the Egyptian bond-woman and her son; and the
quiet eye of the mother saw all the danger arising from the jealous hate
and rivalry of the first-born of Abraham.
If the decision was stern, it was needful. "Cast out the bond-woman and
her child, for her son shall not be heir with my son, even with Isaac."
Harsh words,--but it is better to dwell peacefully asunder, than
together in strife and bitterness. The malignant passions which led
Ishmael to mock, might soon be stimulated by the mother to
murder,--chafed and irritated as she was by the constant presence of the
child who had supplanted her own. From the time of the departure of
Hagar from the household of Abraham, peace seems to have rested upon it.
Prosperity attended him. He no longer wandered from place to place. He
remained in Hebron, sojourning with Sarah and her child.
Many years passed,--years of peaceful quiet and happiness seldom
allotted to such an age,--while they trained their child in the nurture
of the true God, and were honoured by the princes around him, who sought
to enter into league with him, for they saw that "God blessed him in all
that he did."
Once again God saw fit to test the faith of Abraham by calling upon him
to offer his son--his only son Isaac, whom he loved--as a sacrifice; and
Abraham obeyed the divine command, and thus doing, uttered that prophecy
which has thrilled so many souls, "God will himself provide a
sacrifice." In this trial, Sarah seems not to have been called to
participate. The mother was spared the agony of feeling that her only
child was to be offered as a sacrifice--that the hope of her life was to
perish.
"Sarah was an hundred and twenty years old, and she died." The dark
shadow of death is, sooner or later, to fall upon each household.
Abraham seems to have been at a distance--perhaps in the charge of some
of his numerous flocks--when he was recalled to Hebron by news of
Sarah's death. And he came to mourn over her. The remembrance of her
maiden beauty and modesty, the grateful recollection of all her conjugal
devotedness, filled his soul. If light and immortality were brought to
light in the gospel, still the divine rays were faintly reflected in the
former dispensation, and the eye of faith even then penetrated the thick
darkness of the grave.
And now, after these long years of promise and waiting, Abraham takes
possession of the land which God had given to him and to his seed. He
asks, however, but a small portion,--a tomb, a place for his dead,--and
a more beautiful description of a scene of mutual deference, of regard
for rights and respect for character and position, was never penned
than that which records the negotiation between the bereaved patriarch
and the children of Heth. With the touch of magic, the whole scene is
before us. The bereaved patriarch, courteous in grief, bowing in the
presence of the sons of Heth,--the deep respect, the kindly sympathy,
manifested by those who, strangers to his religion, felt the claims of
his character,--mingled with that deep awe which the visitation of death
ever inspires.
The last scene was now over, and Sarah has first taken possession of
that home to which she was to be followed by her husband and their
descendants. One by one they take their places by her side,--unwelcomed,
unquestioned,--
"Where none have saluted and none have replied,"--
and yet where all are gathered at last. We see her not as a sister or a
daughter. She is not known to us in the house of her father. Sarah is
only presented to us as the wife of Abraham. And as a wife the apostle
has held her up to her own sex as a model and example. "Even as Sarah
obeyed her husband, calling him lord,"--exclaims the apostle, exhorting
the wife to due deference. The deep, fervent affection of the heart led
to that outward manifestation of honour so beautiful and becoming; and
as the only love which can be enduring is that which is founded on
respect, so it is the highest happiness of the wife to be able truly to
honour him whom she is bound to love and obey.
When the heads of a household are thus united in warm affection and
mutual respect, the influence will pervade the whole circle, and the
family of Abraham presented a beautiful picture of such a household. The
numerous members composing a large family were governed by one who
provided for their sustenance, led them forth for the defence of
rights, or the redress of injuries, or the rescue of the captive; and
who officiated as the priest as well as ruler of his household. In such
a community, the character of the head would be impressed upon the whole
people; and it was with obvious meaning that Jehovah exclaimed, "I know
him that he will command his household after him." It was by example
that admonition was made availing. And the wife was ever ready, with her
ardent and trusting love, to aid and co-operate. Hastening, when he
welcomed the stranger, to prepare the feast, she was ever ready to
receive his guests and add her efforts to his hospitality.
Hatred, strife, and mutual alienation so often cloud over the unison of
wedded life, and cause its sun to set in darkness, that few spectacles
can be presented more beautiful or more delightful than the old age of
wedded life, soothed by true affection and mutual kindness. It is more
touching than the glow of youthful passion. It proclaims the presence of
high moral worth. It is never found in the habitations of the unholy.
The love which thus survives the glow of youth, which bears the storms
and the trials of life, must be founded on truth, on unimpassioned
esteem, on approved integrity; and those alone who love God supremely,
love each other unselfishly.
While Sarah honoured her husband, she too was treated with proper
deference. Her counsels were ever heeded, her voice had its due
influence, and he still deferred to her wishes. It is beautiful to note
the increasing estimation in which she is held. Sarai, "the mistress,"
betokened her station as the head of a household; and as years brought
honours, and an enlarged sphere of duty, and a more elevated position
among the people around them, Sarai was changed into Sarah--_my lady_.
Her husband, in addressing the former Sarai as Sarah, "my lady,"
gracefully returned the honour she bestowed when she called him "lord."
By such manifestation of mutual respect and love, the chain of family
affection is kept bright.
As the household of Abraham was the household of faith, ordained as the
model for all ages, it is well to analyze the elements which composed
it, and to trace their combined influence. There was the conjugal union
of the true worshippers of Jehovah, animated by the same hopes, governed
by the same principles, whose hearts were united in the strong bonds of
natural affection. There was the confiding, unfailing affection, the
deep, reverential respect, and due obedience of the wife. There was the
tender love, protecting care, the unwavering faith, the honourable
deference of the husband. The religion of this household was the
religion of faith and of obedience,--a religion which led them to
forsake all at the command of God, which taught them to rely upon his
promises, to fear his threatenings, to plead his grace, to trust his
mercy, while it was a religion which led to a due observance of all the
relative duties of life, which taught the exercise of that impartial
justice, careful benevolence, disinterested kindness, and ready
hospitality to those without the family; and of steady love, of
affectionate kindness, of sympathetic forbearance to the members of the
household within. The family of faith, where faith is pure, will ever be
a family of love; and as true piety is the best security for family
happiness, so family love is the best nurse for family piety.
There are many families among us who aim at being families of faith, who
profess to walk in the steps of Abraham, to imitate his example. Let
such not confine themselves to the manifestation of his peculiar faith,
to his trust and dependence alone. Let them walk as he walked before his
household, in the fear of God and the love of man, in the careful
fulfilment of every relative and social duty, in the daily
exemplification of a tender and loving spirit, carefully avoiding or
removing all sources of division. Let that piety which unites them to
God, be a bond, encircling all and drawing them near to each other.
By the cultivation of the simple domestic virtues, by the daily, quiet,
self-denying trials, by the observance of the thousand decencies, the
unaffected proprieties, the unostentatious efforts to bless and
comfort,--by the elevating influence of personal example,--by the
breathing atmosphere of a holy spirit,--the family is to be made the
household of faith, the nursery of the church.
Direct instruction and formal efforts and stated observances are
neither to be forgotten nor to be remitted; but these can only be made
effectual by the living exemplification of a spirit of love, a life of
holiness. It will ever be found true that he who prays most loves
most.
[Illustration]
HAGAR--THE WIFE UNLOVED.
The Hebrew patriarch led his flocks and herds, surrounded by his large
household, from Haran to the land of the Canaanites; from thence to that
of the Philistines, down into Egypt; wherever so numerous a family and
such large flocks could find sustenance--water and herbage. And as he
thus sojourned, many of the poor of these lands flocked to him for
employment and support; and while he bought the services of the parents,
the children born in his house became members of his family, were
trained as his servants, and were subject to his authority as the master
of the household, the prince among his people, the patriarch of his
tribe.