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GUSTAVE DORE
THE
BIBLE GALLERY ILLUSTRATED
GUSTAVE DORE, With Memoir
of
Dork and Descriptive Letter-press
TALBOT
New
W. CHAMBERS, D.D.
York, London and Paris,
CASSELL & COMPANY,
By
O. M.
DUNHAM,
INTRODUCTION.
For famous
centuries the Scriptures have furnished the galleries of
Europe deprived
of the
tament and the New, they would lose
at least
French painter and designer, Gustave Dore, after talent to the sacred volume.
much vigor
Were
for artists.
The
one-half of their masterpieces. illustrating various secular works,
In this he displayed great
entire work, in
added greatly two
folio
volumes,
is
The
companion
to God's
price, will,
it is
The
too large and costly for general circulation.
volume a
selection of
one hundred of the choicest to furnish
all
mation needed for the proper understanding of the persons or incidents portrayed.
a useful
great
devoted his
power and richness of imagination and
and these are accompanied by a descriptive narrative intended
being furnished at a moderate
the
to his celebrity.
publishers, therefore, have issued in this tures,
themes
of conception, united with a wonderful facility and swiftness of execution.
illustrations of the Bible
The
favorite
works which have been suggested by the Old Tes-
hoped, find
its
way
into
pic-
the infor-
The book
many homes, and prove
most holy Word. T.
W.
C.
GUSTAVE DOr6. Paul Gustave Dor^ was born painter was '
still
nt
Strasburg on the
infancy of Dore was therefore,
Rene Delomie
It is
not
La
But he
known when Dore
when only
He
equally ignorant on the subject
is
They allowed him
draw
to
—according
Once, in a composition of verse
and place
tells the story
hesitate to give Gustave the
himself
first
and departed, taking
Philippon, exclaims Delorme,
"Who
number
of the
when
Journal poiir Rire
at
his great desire to stay in Paris,
pour
abounded
^V^lile solecisms
to Paris, provided
As soon
and of
The one had
for
its
on the slope of the walk
on the margins of his
gave the professor, by way of translation, a copies of his
in the ;
comrades, Dore had
little
and M. Grandmottet, the professor, did not
he obtaiiied prizes
as he
was situated
office
showed him a remarkable
descended
set of
how he had escaped from
and study drawing and become an
the hotel to
artist,
at ihe
end of his quarter.
at
the hotel, he escaped
de
la Bourse.
The boy
and presented
Judge of the surprise of drawings, among which was a series of " The Labors
in the Place
Very surprised, the editor talked with the
I, sir."
Bourg, and
him
portfolios.
whose
Rire^
the little schoolboy
'"Twas
did this?"
to take
box sundry
in his
alone to the editor of the Journal
of Hercules."
hills of the
place.
encourage the boy to work, his father promised
all
slide
pictorial annotations
— Dore
alone thoroughly understood and rendered with correctness the scene described by the historian
received his laurels
romantic
but before he was eight years of age he
and the other represented a boy's
in his copy-books,
Delorme, who
to
drawing representing with rigorous exactitude the murder of CHtus.
To
;
The
department of the Ain.
viz., tlie
entered the Lyce'e, or grammar-school of Bourg, preceded by his reputation of draughtsman, and his masters had the
sense not to thwart his vocation.
grammar.
ilit:
eleven he designed two pictures, showing at once facility and humor.
subject the inauguration of David's statue of Bichat, the eminent anatomist, called the Bastion.
chef-lieii nf
forgets the wonderfully impressive architectural features both of Strasburg
learned to draw, and he himself
could use his pencil with ease, and
and was sent, while the future
wa9. a civil entrinccr,
and now
Bresse,
under the influence of two striking natural objects,
tells us,
Vosges and the grander mountains of the Alps.
His father
of Janun.17, 1833.
6tli
a child, to Bourg, the capital of ihe ancient province of
who
little fellow,
told
come and present himself.
and he feared
that
him how he had seen
He
a
confided also to him
he would be taken back to Bourg, because his
father found education too expensive in the schools of Paris.
Philippon was an excellent man, and listened attentively to the
your parents,
An
who
are
no doubt anxious, and ask your father
Museum
account must he leave' the precincts of the
"The suffice
scholar,
little
come and
to
and then
see me.
"Leave me your
said to him,
believe
I
all
dra\^'ings, return
to
you desire could be realized."
hour afterwards Philippon declared to the father of Dore that the vocation of the child appeared really extraordinary— that on no
Labors of Hercules," assuring him
amply
to
at the
Louvre
of the
same time
;
and, that things might be
that the price of these drawings,
made
and those
easy and pleasant, he would publish
that
Gustave Dore could make, would
pay for his schooling at the Charlemagne.
This incident occurred with a friend of his mother,
in the
autumn
Madame
of 1847,
Herouville,
who
when
the boy
lived in the
was about fourteen, and
Rue
St. Paul,
finally led to his
two steps from the
remaining
He
in Paris.
stayed
college.
Besides such spontaneous work as from time to time rejoiced the eyes of his appreciative professors, the pencil of Dore during those student days was regularly employed by his friend,
These and
M. Philippon,
in
producing illustrations for La Caricature and the
"Conies Drolatiques," helped much
his subsequent designs to Balzac's
to
make
his
name
Jownal pour Rire.
familiar in the art-world,
and
to lay the
foundation of his great reputation. In the
meantime came the days of June,
insurrection of the
Faubourg Saint Antoine. and massacres, was not
barricades, shootings
men animated by
the deadliest passion.
1848,
and the Impressionable
What drew him politics,
Dore', taking
to this volcanic quarter,
which have
little
up his post
in the Street of St. Paul, assisted at the
however, with
Here, indeed, was a school for studying the
live
Dore was
swift to take advantage with his pencil of
humanity conducted self-preservation.
itself
It
when loosened from
all
its
turbulent inhabitants,
model, both singly and
muscle, whether in grimy face or bared arm, was to be seen under almost eveiy conceivable attitude on,
its
its
improvised
significance for him, but the terrible spectacle of contending bodies of
;
in groups.
The
play of
and while the war of revolution went
ever-varying phase, and to lay up for future artistic use the knowledge of
conventional restraints and thrown back on the primeval instincts of
was doubtless under such circumstances that
his
strife,
marvelous faculty for tumultuous grouping was
first
how
bloodshed, and
quickened into
active exercise.
From
1S4S
to
1852 Dore, according to Delorme, studied with
much
assiduity
and courage whatever belonged
to the
technique of painting,
GUSTAVE DORE. and
1S54 he exhibited for the
in 1853 or
The
Sickly Child."
phantly a
first
one with
little
time two pictures,
first
and the other
fresh, round, rosy cheeks,
" The Family of the Mountebanks," and
viz.,
The second had
was a picturesque composition.
picture lies in the mournful look of envy which the second
for subject the
carries in her
mother throws
arms a poor,
at the
He
and
a high opinion, for the future,
said at the time that
and time has placed
it
The
thin, puling infant.
of
whom
leads trium-
touch of nature in the
BataUle de I'Alma," " Le "Soir," and "
La
Prairie."
work both Theophile Gautier and Edmond About had
this
would have been an undoubted success had
impHmatw' on every word
its
— " La
Of
it.
Thriving Child and the
first.
At the Universal Exhibition of 1S55 Dore was represented by three pictures
would have exhibited a fourth, " Riccio," but there was no room for
"The
meeting of two mothers, one
They prophesied
been shown.
it
of
him
great things
they wrote.
In 1856 the English public was introduced to a version of the old French romance of " Jaufry the Knight and the Fair Brunissende
Tale of the Times of King Arthur," original
and the
;
which appeared
says Mr. Oilier,
and were re-issued
1861,
familiar with the
"
is
The Wandering Jew," brought
—
over 136
" Purgatorio
"
of the glamour of
full
still
romance as the
more imaginative,
:
a
text of his
weird-like,
and
the publication of his illustrations to Dante's "Inferno,"
till
by Messrs.
in this country
as
out the following year, was
height of his fame as an illustrator was not reached
full
in Paris in
became
art-lovers
which Dore had contributed twenty pictures
publication of "
folio
But the
startling.
to
Cassell, Petter
and Galpin in 1866. French and English " The number of Dante designs,"
and " Paradiso," issued by the same publishers in 1868.
an astonishing number, considering their excellence, their variety, the extraordinary height and range of their
conceptions, and the pictorial elaboration of their handling." But, strange to say
and original
— and
the fact has never been noticed by any of his biographers
was declined by one of the most eminent firms
series,
his undertaking the publication of the work, he
of
its
proving profitable.
money
— that there would be no demand for Dante with
On Spaniard
his is
" Don Quixote."
merged
Its
in that of the
"
and " Paradiso
Dore was made
15th of August, 1S61, Gustave
the
was not the
His arguments were
all in
that
he was certain
Dore, like
vain.
all
a Chevalier of the
say,
at his
own
to lose his
great men,
had
The "Inferno"
" sixty.
Legion
370 drawings so enhanced the text of Cervantes
Frenchman, and we invariably
chance
slightest
work published
published, took the world by storm, and the edition was exhausted in a few days.
contained seventy-six drawings, and the " Purgatorio
produced
that there
him from such an undertaking, assuring him
such large designs.
of this truly magnificent
first
not to be deterred from his purpose, and proposed to have the
In vain the publisher, as a friend, tried to dissuade
The book was
" Inferno," the
took his drawings to the publisher, and proposed
was assured with a smile of well-bred commiseration
M. Dore, however, was
risk.
a belief in himself.
— the
When Dore
in Paris.
of
Honor; and two
years afterwards, in 1S63, he
referring to this edition, the glory of the great
that, in
" Dore's Don Quixote."
At the request of Messrs. Hachette and Co., the publishers of the works just enumerated, he produced forty-four works for Chateaubriand's " Atala, " forty-eight large compositions and 250 heads of pages for the Fables of La Fontaine, 300 engravings illustrating Spain, 150 doing a like service for London, forty designs for Coleridge-s " Ancient Mariner," and the illustration of these multitudinous subjects he brought a vividness
unequaled
And Ijeen fitly
occupied
whole history of
in the
yet these
thirty-six for
Tennyson's " Idylls of the King."
and spontaneity of
of imagination, a readiness
all
that
Holy
In 1866 appeared the
Dore has done.
artist's life as
a
work
which has
Bible, with nearly 250 illustrations,
The production
of illustration."
of these engravings
Dore no less a period than four years, and the cost of drawing and engraving alone amounted to more than $75,000.
same year was completed the edition of Milton, executed expressly
]ifetim*e.
-Several years
ago
a collector in Paris,
who was
eagerly seizing
all
He
does not
In the
Various other works have also
and Galpin.
for Messrs. Cassell, Petter
been produced since, illustrating writings of standard authors, both English and French. has made in his
To
pencil,
art.
by no means represent
described as " the culminating and vastest work of the
M.
and fecundity
know
himself
how many
designs he
he could get of his published sketches, had then
ascertained that there were over 20,000 in existence.
Turning
Dore's paintings, captious
to
transient affairs that
an injustice. fixion,'
"
Do
had been dashed
critics,
than Dore.
work
so creative
He
and they
will then
my
have some idea of what
who know Dore
much
pictures, without
are aware that he
is
\\\^
a
and
his
hand
so ready, are apt to speak of
the lighter hours of relaxation
drawings and sketches, and labor
The Neophyte,"
for
example— whiuh,
'
Christ Leaving the Prretorium,'
conscientious labor?
the way,
is
The Night
make
Let them try to
as
him
of the Cruci-
a mere outline on a
morning.
among
and regards
of the most unflagging mental activity,
—and he
far into the early
'
painting oi such canvases means."
man
and recreation are over
Ijy
them
very reasonably complains that in this respect people do
and no one was ever more vividly impressed with the force of what Hippocrates said about
When
at his
etching of "
is
they think," he will say, " that I can paint such subjects as
Those, on the contrary, as great realities,
because his intellect
without either thought or care.
the 'Francesca da Rimini,' or any of
large canvas themselves,
his
off
is
life
as full of animal spirits as a
life
boy— he
will often
His patience and fastidiousness are remarkable.
the largest
plates in existence,
and
will
and work
being short and
art
long
resume
His grand
one day be prized as one
GUSTAVE DORE. art— was
of the rare things in
His friends thought
He made
the source of endless trouble.
mere wanton fastidiousness
it
elczmt etchings of this subject before
to destroy plate after plate, especially as
he was
with the twelfth
satisfied
"many of them were very successful
;
!
but Dore
thought no labor too great to satisfy himself.
The all
inventive faculty of Dore
had become the fashionable rage and beautiful, that
simply unrivaled, and his pencil
is
geniuses worthy of the name, he
first
in
Like
Europe.
his
Dore ever painted, we have already alluded.
tion
In wood-engraving he has raised up quite a school in Paris.
They
say that,
him, and
when
man
they please him, no
to the grief of his soul the
is
engraver has
1S77,
his"La Gloire"of
sculpture he ever executed year.
A
1878,
and
his
— occupied
commence
to
" L'Effroi
the place of
youth personifying Genius or Glory
wreathed him.
Dore
is,
There
is
Beethoven
talking to conjuring, he
is
fair for
being stabbed
He
in this
;
lie
fair, his
Though no
is
to the heart
manner
1878
rather under than over the middle height
bound and a
and
start,
is
likely to
as his
for
;
it
is
he employs tliem.
does not satisfy
that
plaster group of " Fate and Love
Indeed his
it.
how
;
but then he
a peculiar life,
"La Gloire"— the
is
Salm
ot
second group of
in the laurels with which she has
liis
the age.
He
"
Fame."
the look of
none the
an admirer
less
and accomplishments, from
social qualities
studio— said, indeed,
is
to be
tlie
broad-shouldered and firmly k:nit.
largest in
Napoleon
\vas a favorite with
Ben Jonson's time would have
in
upward and
the mirthful
in all
his great
intellect of
" in the
was the most poetical and most touching group of the
by Fame, who hides her dagger
and piano, and
imagine
haunt of the rank and fashion and
There
fact,
work
of setting forth the price that has to be paid for
violin
easily
stranger to the love of laughter and the joys of
frequently with a
all
was, as we have seen, the intimate friend of Rossini, but he
and one can
eyes dark, quick, and penetrating.
and destroys
rejects
lie
he has already achieved
Empress Eugenie, and on more than one occasion designed and directed what and revels. In stature Dore
but
;
By such works
fame.
in the Salon of
he sings well, plays well on the
;
simply charming
his musical sfin'es are the frequent
has the entire control over these gentlemen— in
his labor over again.
" of 1879,
honor
an eternal and terrible truth
moreover, an amateur musician.
of the music ot
is
He
kinder or more liberal than
Again, as a sculptor, Dore' does more than bid
and
most assuredly the
its broadest sense. Years before etcliing famous plate of " Rossini, taken after Death," so vigorous, yet withal so lender To the plate of his " Neophyte," which is perhaps the finest piece of color and characteriza.
Dore had produced
it is,
has rarely been equaled.
it
in its creative character is
many-sided, and in his case the word artist must be applied in
is
Paris— and and the
III.
masques
bfcen called their
His complexion <
is
fresh
defiant pose about the air and set of his massive head.
mood
is
by no means always
pres(ent.
be succeeded as suddenly with thoughts serious and grave.
Of
Whe n
it
does come
it
is
the two moods, however.
and especially physical, conformation of the man shows a predisposition towards the bright aind active in life. Dore several times attempted the ascent of the Matterhorn, and on one occasion he climbed outside to the sunlimit of Rouen
the general mental,
i
recording tp some authorities, of Strasburg) Cathedral. dria.
The multitudinous moral and
and conditions of men, but
intellectual facets of
in
Holy Writ,
all
activities of this
which the man
manner of moods and fashions and
all
weird sorrows of the Wandering Jew.
sjbhme
One with
is
kind
that is lovely in the field or awe-impressing in to the practice of the artist,
(
formed enable him
he
still
all
(or,
scarcely likely to suiffer from ;nnui or hypoclionto reflect
times, from the gross animalism
La Fontaine and Dante, Rabelais and Milton,
drawbacks the hypercritical may attach
is
and reproduce not only
all
kinds
and vulgar wants of Sancho Panza
to the
that is glorious in legend, tender in poetry, or
the lightning-scathed crag,
come
remains the most universal,
if
readily to his call,
and whatever
not the greatest, pictorial expresser
the world has yet seen.
Gustave Dor(! had to some extent passed out of the blaze of public fame during the book-illustration,
and
in these
while, his health failed,
In his
own
line
days
and he died
he has
left
it
at
is
last
few years of his
book-illustration, rather than picture-painting, w-hich gives
Pau on the 23d of January, 1SS3,
no equal, and indeed
1
at the early
age of
fifty-one.
an
life.
He
did less in the
artist the greatest notoriety.
way
A Iter
of .1
:
THE EXPULSION FROM THE GARDEN. The
illustration represents
and he placed
at the east of the
what
stated in Genesis
is
every way, to keep the way of the tree of pencil of the artist.
The
Its
24
iii.
"
:
So he drove out the man
garden of Eden cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned life."
mournful contrast with
all
This pathetic scene has often attracted the that preceded
enough
is
to touch
any
heart.
drama: of exile has often been repeated in the world's history, but never so sadly as in the
experience of the
first pair,
when
" They, hand in hand, with wandering steps and slow
Through Eden took of the thoughtful
But the interest
their solitary way."
the matter
in
is
far
The
more than mere sentiment.
expulsion from the garden signalizes the great fact in the history of mankind, that the race not what
it
was once.
better than they of theologians,
now
is
The
Human
are.
all
nations point back to a period
depravity, so far from being a
a spontaneous and universal conviction.
moralists like Cicero
totle,
traditions of
and Seneca, historians
and deep-seated
of this wide-spread
record of Moses.
Had
Man was
evil,
made
there
is
has reached every sin
Adam
;
But he
member
failed
and Eve fleeing
in
all
shame and
sees the cause and the type of his
own
it,
as does
no clear and
intelligible
answer save
in
the
a sinner, but, on the contrary, in his Maker's image.
and
of the race.
and so death passed upon
bear witness to
But when we seek for the cause
he continued to retain that image, none of the long train of
would have appeared.
by
not
mere dogma, the invention
Philosophers like Plato and Aris
like Tacitus, all
every religion that ever appeared on the face of the earth.
is
when men were
"
fell,
By one man
men, for that terror exile
ills
which
afflict
the world
and thus was introduced the deadly virus which sin
all
entered into the world, and death
have sinned."
In the sad picture of
from their holy home, each of their descendants
from the favor and fellowship of God.
But the same volume which discloses to us the expulsion from the primeval garden, also reveals the
way
of return.
Eden has disappeared
forever, but
its
place
is
taken by a better
region where the curse never comes, and where they that enter go no more out forever. it is
IS in
written (Rev.
ii.
7),
"To him
that
the midst of the paradise of God."
overcometh
will
I
give to eat of the tree of
life,
For which
THE EXPULSION FROM THE GARDEN.
THE MURDER OF GENESIS
The
sad truth set forth
Ahenation from God given
in
fice,
when
Genesis,
ship, the latter
is
in
ABEL.
IV. 1-15.
the preceding page
is
here ilkistrated in the most striking way.
ahvays followed by mutual estrangement.
was accepted, the former
not,
— the one coming as a sinner with a
which pointed to the great truth of expiation, the other with an unbloody
and even the gracious expostulation of
his
the contrary, he went from bad to worse.
Envy
and slew him."
Apostle John brother.
in his
And
We
offering,
and hatred
led to hatred,
for wor-
bloody
Maker made no impression upon
at his
12) says:
(iii.
wherefore slew he him
Because
?
"Cain was his
ill-
his mind.
to
obduracy
are not left in doubt as to the origin of this fratricide
First Epistle
sacri-
which
Cain rose up against Abel
"
before God, and the issue was the shedding of a brother's blood. his brother
Lord
Cain became angry
contained no suggestion of unworthiness or the need of pardon. success,
On
According to the record
the two brothers, Cain and Abel, appeared before the
of the
The
wicked one, and slew
own works were
evil,
and
his
his brother's
righteous."
The
has chosen to represent that point of time when the murderer, having accom-
artist
plished his
fell
purpose, turns to look upon the result in the
His attitude and is
his
lifeless
form prostrate before him.
countenance betray the incipient remorse which
is
to
There
have no end.
no need to portray him. as Ary Scheffer has done, wandering on a desert path with Nemesis
hovering over him
He
in the
shape of an angel with a drawn sword.
denial can be
blood
made
And
to the voice within.
is
in his breast.
what, what shall wash out the stain of a brother's
?
Well does the writer of the
last Epistle in the
aggravated sinners of his time as those " the
Nemesis
may, when brought to account, deny that he has knowledge of his brother, but no such
first
murderer, him
who
set
New Testament
who have gone
in the
way
(Jude
is
hope
if
they repent and believe.
better things than the blood of Abel. of expiation.
verse i) describe
They
imitate
the evil example of yielding to pride, impenitence, envy,
hatred, and malice, until at last he defiled the earth with innocent blood.
there
i.
of Cain."
The
For there
is
Yet even
for such
a blood of sprinkling which speaketh
latter cried out for retribution, the
former
testifies
THE MURDEK
Oij'
ABEL.
THE DELUGE. GENESIS
The of
the deplorable consequences of the Fall as shown in the family
last picture set forth
Adam
one exhibits those
this
:
VII.
evil results
on a far wider
exceedingly wicked, and crimes of violence abounded. flesh
became
perish in
ripe for destruction,
own
its
which, terrible as
The whole
scale.
against such a result the
was, yet had a merciful side, since
it
became all
Lord sent a
visitation
preserved a remnant, and so saved the
This was the Flood, which has sometimes been considered as
race.
earth
extend that
far did this depravity
and unless God interfered the human family would utterly
To guard
corruption.
it
So
But
strictly universal.
the language of Scripture, as explained by the usage of subsequent writers, does not require us to hold
more than
sweep away
all
that the
judgment was not
the contemporaries of Noah.
the best established facts of history.
local
but general, and extended
That such a general deluge did
Indeed no supernatural event recorded
sustained by such varied and abundant outside evidence as
occurrence
is
and the
ment upon
isles of
a sinful race.
Assyrian clay tablets of a flood
The
enough is
the Bible
in
to
one of is
tradition of such an
found everywhere, not only among Babylonians, Persians, Hindoos, Chinese,
Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans, but vians,
this.
far
occur,
and an
in
ark.
all
over the Western Continent,
among Mexicans,
the Pacilic, and almost always with the ethical idea that
it
Peru-
was a judg-
Within a few years a fresh confirmation has been gained from some the British It is
Museum,
the translation of which presents a vivid narrative
quite impossible that a tradition so wide-spread should have no
historical foundation.
The
picture before us gives a specimen
from the roaring vation.
and
all
many
antipathies be swallowed
Ample warning was given
side the ark in
flood,
of the
sad
tragedies which
must have
Rational and irrational beings would alike seek some refuge
occurred at this awful period.
were taken by surprise.
the overwhelming catastrophe.
of the
impending
up
in
stroke, but
the one effort for self-preser-
none regarded
Old and young, fathers and mothers, were
it,
and
all
out-
alike involved
THF
IlKl.UGE,
NOAH CURSING HAM. GENESIS
The
illustrations of
human
depravity
still
IX.
Even
continue.
in
the family so remarkably pre-
served from the deluge which engulfed a race, there crops out the irrepressible tendency to go
Noah, the preacher
astray.
so far as to
become the
overcome by drink
of righteousness, the
make unconsciously
as to
occasion to an equally shameful exhibition of
For Ham, who
first
one
faithful
man
of his generation, deviated
The second head
victim of a base bodily appetite.
filial
irreverence on the part of his youngest son.
witnessed the unseemly sight, instead of covering
with pleasure to his brothers.
was so
of the race
a shameful exposure of his person, and this gave
They, on the contrary,
v.'ith
it,
related
it
apparently
modesty hid from
reverential
This circumstance gave occasion to the prophetic utterance set
sight their father's disgrace. forth in the illustration.
The words
of
Noah have sometimes been So
drunken man's wrath.
far
from
that,
abundantly justified by the records of history. cumstance, to set forth, terity.
The
profanely described as the mere expression of a
they are a divine forecasting of the future, and one
The
Spirit of
God
took occasion, from
was
true religion
first
given to and continued
in the children of
wards Japhet was enlarged and entered into the tents of Shem, sharing descendants of
and
otliers
Ham, on
—were
all
this cir-
broad outline, the destiny of the three great streams of Noah's pos-
in
the other hand
— Canaanites,
subjected to the yoke, and
Shem, but
after-
The
his blessings.
Phcenicians, Carthaginians, Egyptians,
sooner or later became servants to their
brethren.
The
curse of
Ham,
so graphically depicted in Noah's uplifted
nance, was pronounced not
because he was walking
in
upon the
original culprit, but
the steps of his father's impiety and
the people directly derived from him, and bearing his name,
the hereditary foes of the covenant people. for the
And
arm and frowning counte-
upon Canaan sin,
who should
thus Israel,
:
partly,
no doubt,
but chiefly because in the future
when engaged
it
was
become
in the struggle
promised land, would be encouraged by recalling the primeval prophecy that their
foe sliould be
made
a servant of servants.
NOAH CURSING HAM.
THE TOWER OF The all,
new development
eleventh chapter of Genesis informs us of a
having lost the true unity of the race
sought another
in
in its
BABEL.
common attachment
a haughty and splendid material empire.
and make themselves a name, they would build a walled and
found
The
head to the clouds.
lifted its
in the
to the
To
human
of
one
with a citadel which
vast and imposing structures, of which remains are
fashioned after what
is
Father of
keep themselves together
fortified city,
The
Babylonian plain, strikingly corroborate the account given by Moses.
ing outlined in the illustration
Men,
pride.
God and
is
known
been the usual type of
to have
public edifices in the regions of the Tigris and the Euphrates, and
still
build-
more than a
therefore
is
mere fancy sketch.
The means which God employed
How
confound their speech.
this
to
check the impious efforts of the tower-builders was to
was done we are not informed, whether by an inward or an
outward process, by altering the associations of words with things or by producing differences
Nor have we any means
of pronunciation
and
itself is certain.
That God was able
own word
unity
The
declares.
sudden end came
to
all
in op|30sition to
The
dialect.
race
to effect
was torn apart as
could 'nave been
in
it,
no other way.
fact
his
A
God.
The many
statements of Genesis are wonderfully confirmed by modern philology.
by general consent, resolved into three great
are,
commonly
and Turanian.
called Semitic, Aryan,
Yet, widely as these three stocks
families,
differ, Prof.
Muller says that nothing compels us to believe that they had separate independent begin-
nings either for the material or the formal elements of their speech. state the
source of
A
That he did do
plans of building up one great permanent center of social and political
hundreds of inflected languages
Max
it
The
of solving the problem.
no one can deny.
it,
same thing all
positively,
and
insist
that
all
tlie
Other eminent scholars
facts point directly to
ohe
common
the existing varieties of language.
pleasant counterpart to the sad scene of alienation and division in the picture before us,
showing how men became strangers and enemies to each other, effusion at Pentecost, enabling the disciples to speak thia to
Rome.
all
is
seen in the miraculous
the various languages used from Par-
Christianity practically repeals the curse of Babel by causing the Gospel to be
preached to every nation and kindred and tongue and people.
THE TOWER OF
BAF.EL.
ABRAHAM ENTERTAINS THREE STRANGERS. GENESIS
The
picture represents the
appearances which
God made
to
XVIII.
opening scene of one of the most remarkable of the many-
Abraham.
was for the purpose
It
him the promise that Sarah should bear a son beforehand of the impending
The wings.
It is
doom
of
Sodom and Gomorrah.
has misconceived the narrative
artist
representing Abraham's visitors as angels with
in
and one
of
them was the Angel
of the Covenant,
but they did not so appear
in
the
They were
true that they were angels,
the Lord himself;
form, having assumed bodies for the occasion.
he sat at the door of his tent
in the
"entertained angels unawares."
was
effectually
the direction of the
way.
At
cities of
He
we
Then
rebuked and apparently overcome.
Then
the
before
To seems
God
left off
set forth in
distance on their
Lord revealed
to
Abraham
in
behalf of the
succeeding ages.
It
his awful
doomed
cities:
is
say.
This was an
on one hand displaying the
and on the other furnishing a
noteworthy that Abraham
left off
asking
conceding.
entertain angels, in
men
the two angels proceeded on their mission
spiritual character of the heir of the promises, all
(xiii. 2),
by tradition to be Kaphar Baritka, from which one can see the
humble but importunate prayer
to
Hebrews
Abraham accompanied them some
Sodom and Gomorrah.
model of intercession
c,
before Abraham, as
toward Sodom, while the Lord remained to hear what Abraham had to
generous and
i.
human
ran to meet them, offering the hospi-
are told in the Epistle to the
a ravine, the party stopped, and the
purpose respecting
in
In the course of the interview that followed. .Sarah's unbelief
the plain, and
a certain point, said
Dead Sea through
as
instance.
first
They suddenly appeared
heat of the day.
and thus,
tality suited to the occasion,
of the promise
of confirming afresh to
her old age, and also of informing him
in
much more
the Angel of the Lord,
is
indeed a great privilege, and
character for such an eminent believer as the father of the faithful.
Yet the Lord
Jesus more than once declared that any act of kindness done to his people because they are his people,
is
This being
so,
done
to himself,
and
will
be so recognized and proclaimed
humble modern believers may have
as great an
in
the great day.
honor as Abraham himself-
ACKAIiAM ENl'EKl'AlN.i iUKLL
M
1
l<A.\(jLRS.
I'HE
DESTRUCTION OF SODOM. GENESIS XIX.
The
two angels who, according
Sodom, arrived there of
in
to the prececHng narrative, left
their dreadful errand to destroy the city,
whether
mocked
his faith at the
was
Abraham and went toward They warned him
the evening, and were hospitably received by Lot.
feeble, or his
to depart with all
mind warped by the indifference of
warning, he lingered until at
and brought him forth without the
and he allowed to take refuge
and urged him
last,
but.
:
who
with friendly violence, the angels seized him
Even then he entreated
city.
speed
his sons-in-law
that Zoar might be spared,
His request was granted, and the picture represents him
there.
on either arm, and fear and alarm expressed on every
as pressing forward with a daughter
feature of his countenance.
As soon
The Lord
Zoar the dreadful destruction commenced.
as he entered
Along with
and brimstone out of heaven.
this
a subsidence of the ground, so that the waters of the upper lake flowed fertile
and populous
plain,
and formed^ what
is
rained
now
in
upon the former
the southern portion of the
Dead
tlie
horror of
above, flames beneath, flames treasures,
and even the very
tliat
doom
around
all
soil itself,
— so sudden, ;
calamity.
This was Lot's nearest
in
so complete, so overwhelming; flames
swallowed up by the
An
so looking,
was
than that of the
when the storm struck
her.
injunction of our Saviour, "
It
cities, for
was
Remember
that dense
of a furnace.
"
Lot's wife."
going down
if
her heart
The dashing
incrusted
she had begun to
like a ship
of the
unwilling follower of the rescuing
lost.
sulphurous rain seems to have suffocated her, and then
doom was worse
all
smoke
the picture presents the most pitiable victim
relative, his wife.
Sodom, and,
Of
fiery visitation.
angels, she, in direct violation of an express injunction, looked back, as to the unclean things of
lan-
men, women, children, domestic animals, houses,
population, at sunrise nothing was seen but dense clouds of smoke, like the
Bat the figure standing alone
Sea.
No
Into this pool of burning bitumen and seething waters the guilty cities sank forever.
guage can depict
fire
tremendous storm there appears to have been
flee,
in
Almost saved
still
her whole body.''
and was almost
sight of port. is
clung
spray of the
not saved.
in
salt,
Her safety
Hence the
.
THE DESTRUCTION
THE EXPULSION OF HAGAR. The
incident
is
related in the twenty-lirst chapter of Genesis.
celebrated by a feast, at which the son of Hagar, infant
promise.
heir of the
mother and son should be
command, yielded away.
It is this
his
now
Sarah was grieved
At
cast out.
personal
the mockery, and
Abraham demurred, but
first
artist
of Isaac
was
demanded
that both
afterwards, at the divine
and the bondwoman, with her
preferences,
sad dismissal that the
at
The weaning
a lad of fifteen years of age, derided the
child,
was sent
represents with spirit and effectiveness.
But the
water which Hagar received was probabi}' not
an earthen
in
jar,
as
shown
the picture, but
in
in a kid-skin, as is usual in the East.
At
first
sight this
seems a very harsh and inexcusable proceeding.
But
is
it
to
be remem-
bered that the wilderness into which Hagar was sent to wander was not a desert, but simply a region which, though not profitable for cultivation, was, to a large extent, well suited for
pasture
and
;
Besides,
to
be sent thither was, by no means, to be consigned to destitution and death.
Abraham had a
of the son of the
harm should come
divine assurance that no
bondwoman
will
make
I
could rely upon that word which never for Ishmael's good, as, indeed,
)-et
a nation, because he
had
we know was
is
failed him, that the expulsion
the case.
But
it
"
to the lad.
thy seed."
was necessary,
And
He
also
therefore
would turn out for the
peace of
the household, that the separation should be made, and that tlius should be given, ages in
advance, a living illustration of the inherent incompatibility between the the spirit of liberty.
sented
in
(See Galatians
iv.
This
22-31.)
mere legalism
mockery
;
of Ishmael prefigured the
law against those
severe as
seemed
it
The bondwoman
the freewoman the blessed Gospel, with
letter of the
life
spirit of
bondage and
incident of patriarchal
miniature the workings of God's providence, afterward to be exhibited
proportions in the history of the Christian Church. of
little
to be,
who
filial
typified the servile spirit
largeness and liberty
trusted only in the promise.
spirit
which
repre-
grander
;
and the
waywardness and sharpness of those who gloried
was only an assurance
should yield to the joyous,
its
life
in
The
in
the
casting out of Hagar,
that the slavish, task-work view of a religious
is
the natural product of grace.
.^
THE EXPULSION OF HAGAR.
HAGAR The
experience of Hagar,
As she waniered
ing.
to die with thirst.
bow-shot
off,
when
THE WILDERNESS.
IN
first
sent forth into the desert, was anything but encourag-
about, her supply of water
Despairing of
relief,
that she might not see his dying struggles.
and has often attracted the pencil
most conspicuous
The
feature.
more
lad
is
capable
brother that caused the
;
e.xhausted,
and her boy seemed
situation
A
mother's love it
own sad
only of his is
expulsion from the parental home,
said
human help proves instinct, often so It
is
vain,
and prayed
Abraham's God.
is its
but Hagar, no
of his infant suffering,
Nor may we
that she resorted to the only resource left
In such circumstances prayer
doubt,
when is
an
strong as to overpower the convictions and habits of a lifetime.
a pleasing relief to the sadness of the lonely scene to
afforded.
The unbecoming conduct
had endured, and the angel
A
to
not faithful to
and the consequent
although nothing
point,
fate,
a
affecting,
perhaps the strongest passion
of the child's wretched condition, and wept bitterly.
upon the
is
was Ishmael's profane mockery
Hagar thought only is
was deeply
illustration here given
may have thought
and though
The
like
down
represents well the maternal anguish which
it
for her son than herself.
of which our nature
The
of the artist.
the details of the Scripture narrative, but
doubt, wept
became
she led him to a sheltering bush, and then sat
of
of
mother and
God appeared
child
was
with succor just
know
sufficiently
when
that timely relief
was
rebuked by what they
the case seemed hopeless.
supply of water was furnished, and cheering assurances were given, not only as to the pre-
servation of the lad's that from
life,
but also as to the fulfillment of former promises (Genesis xvi.
him should spring
a posterity that could not be
numbered
for multitude.
lo),
HAGAR
IX
Till'-
WII.niiRNEs
THE TRIAL OF THE FAITH OF ABRAHAM. GENESIS XXII.
We land.
are here confronted with an act of faith which has never been surpassed in any age or
Abraham was commanded
to offer a
reason, afterward repeatedly forbidden
heathen
in
to lose this son
Isaac
mand he
A
command.
more
He
be true, but every
man
felt,
possible natural
all
was sad
It
for
Abraham
be himself the executioner.
to
all
but also in a peculiar
ties,
Througli him alone was Abraham to obtain the cove-
;
if
deadly
in
he holds
fast the
Abraham obeys
If
conflict.
promise by sparing
the com-
he disobeys
his son,
up
to the level of the crisis.
It
did not
become him
to debate
God
as the greatest of his descendants said, ages afterward, " Let
His obedience was prompt and
a liar."
He
with flesh and blood.
did not
tell
He
decisive.
did not confer
Sarah, lest a mother's heart should overflow, and. with a
Nor
torrent of tears, seek to stay his hand.
He
thou lovest."
painful situation can hardly be conceived.
patriarch's faith rose
with his Maker.
necessary.
thing abhorrent to nature and
the possession of the land, an innumerable seed, and a world-wide spiritual
:
frustrates the promise
Yet the
whom
saddest of
;
by
to his father not only
Thus command and promise come
blessing.
the
;
—a
word, and practiced only by debased
worse, in this case, was the character of the vic-
sadder to lose him by violence
as the heir of the promise.
nanted blessing
it
sacrifice
in his
thy son, thine only son, Isaac,
was endeared
manner
What made
agonies of despair.
"Take now
tim.
human
by God
did he even
tell Isaac,
until the disclosure
became
took the three days' journey, reached the appointed spot, made the needful
preparations, and stood, with uplifted arm, to
His heart trembled, but
the fatal stroke.
inflict
not his hand.
What
lay at the
bottom of
affection, or the fever of
ligent
and mighty
fore absolutely just
faith.
and
this inflexible course
Was
?
Abraham right.
believed in
Unable
God
as the
Unable
to see
the progenitor of countless millions, he yet believed that
strength of faith that upheld him.
"By
promises
off"ered
called,
faith
up
No wonder
tried, offered
his only begotten son, of
God was
that the
able to raise
man who
it
So we are assured
Abraham, when he was
accounting that
coldness of heart, lack of natural
whom him
so believed
Judge
?
No
but an
;
of all the earth,
intel-
and there-
any reason for a command which wrung
to see
heart, he believed that there was a reason.
17-19):
it
an inflamed conscience seeking a costly expiation
it
up,
was
was
how
Isaac,
would come in the
if
slain,
to pass.
Epistle to the
his
could become It
was sheer
Hebrews
(xi.
up Isaac; and he that received the said,
That
in Isaac shall
thy seed be
even from the dead."
called
"the friend of God," and no wonder
that his faith was gloriously vindicated by the intervention of the Angel of the Lord.
^
THK TRIAL OF THE FAITH OF ABRAHAM.
THE BURIAL OF SARAH. GENESIS
One at
of the few sites in Palestine about which there
Mohammedan
Jewish, Christian and
Hebron.
oldest
known
Wales was admitted
of the
The
first
;
The
of Heth.
Abraham's early home
5), as
Ur
in
is
of the
mode
woman
one of "the holy
women
of
mentioned
whom we
as led
still
used
in
have much
Oriental regions. detail in the Scripture,
She was married
the sacred volume.
in
of old
who
is
she mentioned,
life,
and
away from the cave
at
of his sight.
had lived so many years
in
It
test
The
it is
certain that
illustration,
its
with fine
him.
El
it
in actual fee,
The name by which
Klutlil,
i.
the Scripture,
e..
"The
except this sepulchre.
it is
known
to-day, as
it
his
his faith, that,
taste, rep-
beloved dead
although he
length and breadth confirmed to him over
and over by God's covenant and oath as the sure possession of of
Abraham
had been performed, yet once
and the strength of
the land, and had had
in
his
death was greatly concerned to
after the funeral rites
shows the
all
the First Epistle of Peter
in
trusted in God," and
more turning back, with an eager and sorrowful gaze, toward the place where was buried out
owned any
of
was allowed to enter the cave
Chaldees, and was the faithful companion of
secure a permanent resting-place for her mortal remains.
him
visitor,
of bargaining
clung to her with hearty affection throughout
resents
The mosque over when the Prince
but Moslems until 1862,
particulars of this, the first legal contract recorded
She had her shortcomings, yet
wanderings. (iii.
first
woman whose age
as the only
and
patriarchs, with their wives
the resurrection.
given in the twenty-third chapter of Genesis, and are said, by those familiar with
distinguished as the
is
the cave of Machpelah,
is
unite in recognizing this as the
all
occupant of the tomb was Sarah, whose death gave occasion to the purchase
the East, to correspond exactly with the
Sarah
till
but neither he, nor any subsequent
ground from the sons
in history, are
all
no dispute,
where the three
buried near Bethlehem), sleep
the cave was most jealously closed against
is
traditions
burial-place in the world, the spot
who was
(save Rachel,
itself.
XXIII.
But Hebron
is
his seed, he himself
never
inseparably identified with
has been for centuries
among
the Arabs,
is
Friend," in allusion to that honorable appellation thrice given to him in
The Friend
of
God.
TUli BUKIAI. OF SARAH.
ELIEZER AND REBEKAH.
The
twenty-fourth chapter of Genesis contains a circumstantial account of the marriage of
Isaac, all the particulars of
the
in
Abraham
East.
which are
Eliezer, tlie elder of his house
was
Eliezer
intrusted.
among
find
of the promise.
The steward
his master's
of tlie
resents
him seated by the
of his piety
is
help, asking that the
one he
whom first
who
had answered
his
not, tell
me
;
that
of Eliezer are as
until
prayer, "
daughter's marriage. if
who
all
of
As soon
I
at a well to
that region.
that he asked
And
if
:
But here the simplicity
The
beautiful
will deal
he found united
her
in
that he
all
the character of the extraordinary
visifor.
tlie
cause of his coming, and
kindly and truly with
of his master.
the
whom
where he was welcomed and provided
turn to the right hand or to the tlie faith
may be
maiden
a pleasing exterior, a kindly disposition,
home
to the house,
ye
was the
it
the illustration rep-
and had obtained the consent of Bethuel and
eminent as
and arrived
which
and more, turned out to be Rebekah,
And
Abraham.
he had made known
And now
may
a suitable wife for the heir
importance of his errand, he invokes divine
of the
as she told at
away, to
far
for his long journey,
His prayer was heard.
him
nephew
but with
that he had
all
receives and responds to his request for a drink,
for Isaac.
Laban came and brought him
But he would not eat
in
is
for the wife of his master's son
and the approval of God. tor,
Aware
did for
the daughter of Bethuel, the
deemed necessary
who would be
curb, while his camels are in the distance.
damsel
addressed, and
it still
whom
and then sent
faithful,
set out with large provision
his prayer.
Lord designs
the
kindred one
to resort for water, as
shown by
or confidential servant, to
Here he stopped outside the gate
safely at the city of Nahor.
custom
— the steward,
prevail
still
the person chiefly interested,
put under solemn oath to be
is
Mesopotamia, to
women
accordance with manners and customs that
in
consults not with his son,
left."
The
my
how
Laban
master,
tell
intelligence
the Lord their
to
me
and
;
and
fidelity
r^^p,3||j
ELIEZER AND REIiEKAH.
ISAAC BLESSING JACOB. GENESIS XXVn.
The of
patriarchal blessing
of Plato, that Socrates,
ing power
;
God,
when
dying,
body
that state
in
On
the contrary, this blessing stands by
informed his children how and
various kinds, but to
in
its
was
chief object
this channel,
and
if
Abraham, of that
although
Rebekah
left
it
just before his death,
and included events of
by which the world-wide blessing
be made the father would announce final
it.
Lord
The
to secure his
to defeat his determination.
irreversible.
was
end
in
his
own way, but
son,
and never saw him again
in
life
;
it
Rebekah soon
and Jacob was driven
was not allowed
could not be reversed.
into
exile,
lost
is
f^ebekah looking away
in
was defrauded by
anxious apprehension
return before Isaac had finished bestowing the coveted boon.
But
her favorite
Laban, deceived by his sons, and mourned, for years, the loss of his beloved Joseph. the picture
at
Mother and son should have
their misconduct
Jacob received the blessing, and
sorely visited the wrong-doing of the parties concerned.
in
effect-
divine purpose had been from the beginning, as announced
God
female figure
Hence
For God
benediction of their father.
(xxv. 23), that " the elder should serve the younger."
to the
men
prophetic
was gained by Jacob through a gross and inexcusable fraud practiced by him
the suggestion of his mother. to
in
to be explained that the blessing of Isaac, depicted in the illustration, it
depart-
promise was to be effected
would speak through him, and the utterance thus made would be made
ual,
itself
it is
devoted
Naturally, but not necessarily, the first-born son to
the anxiety of Jacob and Esau concerning the
it is
spirit of
a divine appointment by which the
to
inspiration took a wide range
change were
a
itself as
made
to define the channel
be conferred upon the human family.
Thus
nor merely a prayer
which men have most of the foresee-
what manner the execution
Sometimes the prophetic
through them.
would be
will,
an elevated consciousness which manifests
father of each family in the line of the promise
was
in
good
not to be explained by the saying
nor by the doctrine of some of the moderns, that the
;
in anticipation, soars to
foresight.
was
of
It is
nor by the doctrine of Pythagoras, that the soul sees the future when
ing from the of
was not an ordinary expression
unusual solemnity, but an authoritative prediction.
lest
The
Esau should
irrf
V
.-lA
s}\ j
ISAAC BLESSING JACOB.
JACOB TENDING THE FLOCKS OF LABAN. GENESIS XXX.
The
and well-favored Rachel for
of the pastoral life of the patriarchs
on
of Jacob (Gen. xxxi. 38-41), that there toil
frost
by
and severe exposure. night,
As he
filled
its
says:
"
—which
In the day the drought
was the price Laban put upon her.
It
to serve yet seven years more, in order to gain the
and could not wonder
if it
was meted
scene
yet the
his
to
is
It
seven years of this
younger daughter
him
in place of
of his heart.
as he
the language
involved continu-
consumed me, and the
first
was a sore retribution
woman
to gain the
a fair expression
we know from
side to the service.
he was deceived by the substitution of the elder daughter
deceit,
The
her water-jar.
And
is
the midst of his flock, while she
in
poetical side, although
was another
Jacob but a few days, for the love he had to
by
sits
and sleep departed from mine eyes."
laborious service
all,
He
his wife.
stands by the well, from which she has just
ous
performing the service by which he
illustration represents the patriarch
"beautiful
to
—seemed
him
to
that, after
the younger, and had
But he had begun
had measured to others.
life
JACOB TENDING THL
I I
OCks
Ul
1
\1
V\,
JOSEPH SOLD INTO EGYPT. GENESIS XXXVII.
This animated and expressive youngest son of Jacob
and a
suffer exile, bondage,
inhuman and barbarous crime
own brethren
of hopeless
life
?
The
picture sets forth a sad picture of liuman depravity.
sold by his
is
toil.
They were
for a slave,
How
and carried
came these men
off to
Egypt
to
to perpetrate such an
not heathen, nor degraded Canaanites, but, as
grandchildren of Abraham, the friend of God, had been brought up under the pious traditions
The
of three generations.
sciously,
and yet
is
reason
given
is
They gave way
brethren envied him."
more purely
have some appearance of good. breath of the old serpent.
It
in
than any other.
evil
But envy has no such feeds
upon the
which
and thus becomes what Solomon
led to hatred,
and hatred
is
calls
it,
"
his
often cherished almost uncon-
is
Anger, revenge, covetousness, claim to It is evil
shelter.
fact that others are
instead of drawing from this motives for imitation or thankfulness, it,
"And
(Gen. xxxvii. ii):
a single clause
to a passion
Rottenness
in
mourns over
the bones."
The
the next thing to murder.
unalloyed.
It is
good or prosperous it
;
the but,
and grudges
In the present case
ten brothers stained their
it
own
name, perpetrated a horrible wrong upon the young and innocent Joseph, and, for long years,
darkened the
life
of their venerable father.
Yet even here there cruelty
was bringing
working.
He
is
All this tissue of envy, malice,
a bright side to the event.
to pass the designs of
Him who
intended to seclude His people, during their plastic period, from contact with
the corrupt nations of Canaan, and, for this end, chose
Egypt
chosen seed should be transformed from a family into a nation. in
Accordingly God's hand was
securing this transfer.
in the
itself.
acknowledged
;
pit,
the proposal of Judah
It
was time
whole proceeding first
which the
for the first step ;
not that he
to last, as they
them-
but that he ordered the circumstances of which their wickedness availed
Their pasturing
suggestion of the
as the country in
own from
influenced the brothers to their crime, for that was their selves
and
excellent in counsel and mighty in
is
in
Dothan, Joseph's mission, their sight of him
in
the distance, the
the opportune arrival of the Midianitish traders, Reuben's absence and
—
all
these were links in the chain which led to the result.
Yet
this
does
not lessen the atrocious wrong-doing of the brothers, for they were free and voluntary throughout. " is
As
Both sides of the transaction are well presented for you, ye
thought
this day, to save
evil against
much people
me
alive."
;
but
in
God meant
it
Joseph's
own words (Gen.
unto good, to bring
it
1.
20)
to pass as
:
it
JUSKI'II SOI.IJ
INTO
KGVl'T.
;
JOSEPH INTERPRETING PHARAOH'S DREAM. GENESIS XLI.
This well-drawn and the scene
—the
the attendants
striking picture
is
admirable for
building, the columns, the figures
— are
occurred he was not only
On
man
in
all
The
Egypt, next after the king.
The
and the insignia
occurrence
;
in the
when
Hebrew
how he had been
reason was that the monarch, the
ears swallowed ine
by seven thin
ears,
relieved, in a similar embarrassment,
The king
youth, a slave of Potiphar.
informed him that his dream of seven
fat kine
One
it
of
certain
swallowed by seven lean kine, and seven good
denoted seven years of plenty followed by as many of fam-
The
the plenteous years in reserve for the period of famine. of
by a
sent in haste for Joseph, who, on his arrival,
and he advised the appointment of one supreme executive
;
it
evening he was the
previous night, had had a double dream, which none of his diviners could interpret. his chief officers related
of
itself is of
the morning of the day
but a prisoner and a slave
in private life,
All the details of
verisimilitude.
wall, the dresses,
keeping with the manners of ancient Egypt.
in
great interest as the turning-point of Joseph's career.
foremost
its
on the
officer to store the surplus of
advice was taken, and the author
received the appointment.
A
modern book
remarks upon
of note
this narrative, that " the wise
men
of
Egypt must
indeed have been fools not to understand these symbols, which embraced both the animal and
This
vegetable wealth of the land."
is
only natural but simple and easy after
but who, previously, could have
nothing else? " It
is
not in
The
me
has been stated
it
;
and we are
He
Joseph expressly disclaimed any power of his own. :
God
therefore,
dreams
in
our day.
mere delusion
impart information
of divine providence
this,
said (_Gen.
xii.
and i6),
Formerly the dream was a mode of divine revelation, and
to
its
character.
No
such vouchers
be frightened or elated by what occurs
in that
way
;
but that he does not,
and human experience.
It
is
is
note this forget that there are very
now
in sleep.
admitted by
all
exist,
and
God,
of course,
it
is,
careful observers
true that there have been cases in which
remarkable dreams have been followed by corresponding occurrences
ensues.
wise after the fact
shall give Pharaoh an answer of peace."
proper means were afforded for attesting
who
all
conjectured that the twofold dream meant just
occurrence related here gives no countenance to superstitious notions as to the sig-
nificance of
may
Of course the explanation seems not
a strange saying.
many more
cases in
in
actual
life
;
but they
which no such correspondence
JOSEPH INTERTRETING PHARAOH'S DREAM.
;
KNOWN TO
JOSEPH MAKING HIMSELF
HIS BRETHREN.
GENESIS XLV.
This admirable manners
illustration,
drawn with the same
prolonged through seven chapters of the book of Genesis.
tive
Aristotle,
who quotes
striking examples from
none, however, nor does ing simple
all
in
What
dramatic elements
it
the governor's palace
itself,
is
which the chosen seed developed
in a literary
and human freedom
its
it is
For a long time prior
permission of
it
—
all
to the scene depicted
But
the
But he gave secret
irresistible proof, saying, "
known only
every form
is
trial
;
it
yet
to the closing
it
is
far
more
so in
by
of the procedure
counteraction,
its
So,
modification,
its
the combination of divine purpose ;
the folly of sin
;
the keenness of
many more, render
in
the story of
the illustration, Joseph had practiced a
come
for
quite overpowered tears.
to themselves
must be
bowed and every
I
am
throwing
They
the
mask
could not believe
Joseph, whomjj'^? sold into Egypt."
—hidden carefully even from Benjamin.
their long-lost brother himself.
face covered.
off
Joseph, so that, excluding
His brethren were told that he was
they had sold as a slave twenty-two years before.
of this guilty secret
And
preparation for the chosen land.
evil, its
time had
he made the announcement with flowing
whom
in
these points, and
indeed, the wonderful speech of Judah
the boy
!
interesting.
laborious and painful self-restraint.
strangers,
Canaan down
was a constituent part
the discipline of sorrow and
temptation, and the wa)- to overcome
Joseph as profitable as
what varied characters
step in
first
the safety of unswerving rectitude
;
tale,
upon mature and accom-
or dramatic point of view, It
sinew and muscle
The
too, with the incidental details. :
relat-
The
art.
what passions, good and bad,
!
contrasts,
from the
spell
has quoted
Moses,
us.
!
providential aspects, direct and indirect.
conversion into good
same magic
contains
what eloquence, what pathos, what vivid
Yet, striking as the narrative
and,
one before
the Poetic of
in
He
has constructed a story equal to any product of the dramatic
scholars. !
Joseph's discovery of
the dramatic poets.
literature furnish any, superior to the
naturally the whole histor)' unrolls
scene
its
Homer and
rivets the ear of listening children, lays the
exhibits
how
facts,
It is
drama, and, as such, are carefully discussed
effective features of a story or a
plished
and
life
Such recognitions or discoveries have always been esteemed the most
himself to his brothers.
which
Egyptian
fidelity to the details of
as the preceding, presents the denouement or unfolding point of the interesting narra-
The
No wonder
it.
Here was a
other possessor
that, in the picture
J
'n.nJ
'II'
JOSEPH MAKING HIMSELF
KNOWN TO
HIS BRETHREN.
MOSES
THE BULRUSHES.
IN
EXODUS
NoTHixr,
is
more remarkable
which human wickedness
Another
Joseph.
is
is
made
furnished
in
11.
the developments of divine providence than the
in
to defeat
A
itself.
was seen
signal instance
the graphic illustration before
way
in
the history of
in
Pharaoh, alarmed by the
us.
rapid increase of the cliildren of Israel, gave orders that every male child should be slain as
soon as born
yet this cruel edict gave occasion to the training and jjreparation of the very
;
man who was
to lead Israel in
fair to
God,
c. in his view,
/.
who judges
said, in
truly),
Acts
vii.
20, to
to a pious pair of the
be "exceeding fair"
and the mother seems
and a sign that
as a peculiar token of divine approval,
ing him.
There was born
triumph out of Egypt.
house of Levi a child of extraordinary beauty,
God had some
Accordingly she hid him for three months, and when
to
have regarded
common
in
She constructed a
little
concealment was no longer
this
Egypt, but now wholly extinct.
asphalt of the
Dead Sea) and
pitch,
this ark, as
was
placed
it
called, she
chest of rushes,
c, of the papyrus,
/.
but, as the sequel shows, at a place
some
once very
This was daubed with slime (the bitumen or
and thus made water-tight. it
this
special purpose concern-
possible, she resorted to an expedient which, although trying to her feelings, yet offered
prospect of deliverance.
(///.
Having put the
child into
the reeds on the bank of the Nile, not at random,
in
whce
Pharaoh's daughter was accustomed to bathe,
accordance with a custom which, although now wholly unknown
P2gypt, once
in
in
was very
prevalent there, as appears by the monunKmts.
Then occurred
the scene set forth
heart was touched by
the Hebrews' children
mined
to bring
it
its tears.
;
in
tlie
The exposure
but she was so
The
picture.
royal lady
saw the
led her at once to conclude that
won by
child,
and her
was one of
it
the attractiveness of the babe that she deter-
up, notwithstanding the king's prohibition.
The
mother were
services of the
secured to nurse the child for the princess, and so Moses was put upon that course which had such marvellous in a palace.
phen (Acts
results.
Born a
As an adopted son vii.
was proverbial
slave,
22) that he was, "educated in
the ancient world.
course of Moses, the most illustrious ration
was needed
his mother.
and under sentence of death, he was spared and reared
of the princess, he in all
would
the
Such was the
name
in
the
for his e.xtraordinary mission,
be, of course, as
wisdom fact,
Hebrew
we
are told by Ste-
of the Egyptians," a
and
is
it
annals.
and he received
it
apparent
An
wisdom that
in
the whole
extraordinary prepa-
by means
of the device of
r
>' t
?!•,
)
'
^-^
lg^-'.\^sg-/-cS
MOSPS
IX
THE BULRUSHES.
THE WAR AGAINST GIBEON. JOSHUA
The
conquest of Canaan, after the reduction of Jericho and Ai, was accomplished mainly
by two great
victories gained
of southern
Palestine
The
surprise.
by Joshua
one
:
at
Gibeon, over the confederate tribes and kings
Merom, over
the other at the waters of
;
In both cases the attack
people of the north.
by
X.
a similar confederation of the
was made suddenly, and the enemy was taken
leader of Israel was not only a
man
of integrity, faith,
and prayer, but
also
a born soldier, endowed with the decision, promptness, courage, foresight, and unconquerable
which are requisite for success
will ral
and acquired,
to lead
Joshua was just as well qualified by
in war.
his gifts, natu-
an army, as Moses was, by his character and training, to legislate for
a people.
The
first
two great battles was fought
of these
kings were encamped against Gibeon,
An
like a thunderbolt.
immediate rout was the
complete by a storm of great hailstones, which
sword of the conquerors. on,
and threaten a
But
in
Gibeon.
Joshua having learned that
The
result.
the work.
It
was greatly important that the
Joshua was inspired
command
to
moon
and had
avenged themselves upon
Well does the historian add,
that the
Lord hearkened unto the voice
no excuse.
there
is
upon
its
or after
— an
For
it
it,
made
all
astronomical
the
theme
that
to the usual
we need
method
to hold
is
of Scripture,
change
in the
no believer
appearance of the
in
skies.
his existence can
circumstances, that
it
That
of a man." for
which
it
optical pause of the
light, so that there
was
the rest of the world there was no
To
That God was able
deny or doubt.
there was no
which describes things according
was simply an
phenomenon which supernaturally prolonged the foes.
And
arrest of the revolution of the earth
that there
time for Israel to complete the overthrow of their
"
to stand
and derisive remarks,
of severe
by no means implies a sudden
According
axis.
to their appearance,
sun
it
account has often been
fruits
still,
their enemies."
like that before
full
set forth in
forth their light " until the people
the sun and the
They shed
The
than even the
and hence occurred the remarkable interposition
those heavenl)' bodies obeyed his order.
day
made more
discomfiture was
inflicted a greater loss of life
five
upon the foe
fell
the thick of the pursuit the shades of night began to draw
fatal interruption of
of the victory should be gathered,
the illustration.
at
a night march froni Gilgal, and
made
to effect this astounding miracle,
was
must have wrought a mighty increase
a fitting thing to
do under the
of the zeal of the people,
contributed largely to their success, seems apparent on the very face of the matter.
and so
SISERA SLAIN BY JAEL. JUDGES
For twenty whose
IV.
years the Israelites had groaned under the oppressive yoke of a Canaanite king
Lord was pleased
to
this
sell
mighty potentate into the hands
When
prophetess directed the campaign.
the call went forth for
sheltered himself in his creeks by the seashore, and flocks to the lives in the
high places of the
Ten thousand
field.
Deborah and Barak,
at
homeward toward Kedesh,
whom
of thickened milk,
when he was overborne by him
his temples, fastening said, "
meet him, and
ment
of this promise
Reuben preferred the
all
his host,
An
away on
foot,
num-
in
and naturally turned
and, on the way, took refuge in the tent of Jael, the wife
he had been
peace.
at
She received him hospitably, gave
fatigue and sleep, she took a tent-pin and drove
When
to the ground. I
around
impetuous charge upon the enemy
and covered him with a mantle as he lay down
Come, and
is
to the
Asher
bleatings of his
notwithstanding their superiority
Sisera, the captain of the host, fled
of Heber, the Kenite, with
him a cup
come
of these hardy mountaineers rallied
Mount Tabor.
resulted in the annihilation of Sisera and
bers and equipments.
the people to
all
inspired
But Zebulun and Naphtali were a people that jeoparded their
shock of arms.
the standard of
An
woman.
of a
Gilead remained passive beyond the Jordan.
help of the Lord, only a few complied.
his steps
The
extended from the northern boundary of the land down to the river Kishon.
rule
will
Barak came up
in
us.
Then,
to rest.
into
and through
hot pursuit, Jael went to
show thee the man whom thou
the subject of the picture before
it
seekest."
Her
fulfill-
She has drawn the curtain and
disclosed the mighty chieftain lying dead on the earth Jael
personal
performed the bloody deed not from personal malice nor from
wrong
to revenge,
the people of God, with whose
life
her
cruelty.
own and
that of her race have
become
ruthless warrior lies before her, the violator of a thousand laws of right, and the
him
Shall she allow
to recover strength, recall his scattered troops,
erable oppression of former years to the recent victory, for
freedom and
of a soldier, but
and God, and Sisera
by the hand
yet join
friends of
God
in
of a
women
identified.
enemy
of
and again renew the
A
God. intol-
or shall she, with one bold stroke, put the finishing touch
and end forever the career of
Israel
nounces Jael blessed above
may
?
She has no
But Sisera represents to her the oppressor of
no by-ends to seek.
woman. ;
lies
Israel's
most formidable foe?
pinned to the earth
Viewing the matter
— smitten in
She decides
not by the sword
this light,
Deborah
pro-
and we, while regretting and reprobating her falsehood,
celebrating her intrepidity, her zeal, and her deliberate preference of the
to his enemies.
tiiSEUA SLAi:^ BV jAEL.
DEBORAH'S SONG OF TRIUMPH. JUDGES
The sioned
illustration represents a
The
found attention.
artist
tional, for
"a
she was
the foreground, with uplifted hand and impas-
mentioned
who
Her
in Scripture.
The
sat
in
internal affairs
took the lead who, spirit
in
in a
great national
like a torch
could
exaggerate the
way excep-
to her
women were God
in
came the
interrupted
in
crisis.
when men
Her name
despaired,
is
the center of the land, some-
tribes for
came
conspicuous to the front
for Israel, kindling their languid hearts.
her
dwelling within her.
judgment.
But not
and domestic disputes did she decide among the people, but she
times of distress,
was
artist
Spirit of
under the palm-tree called by her name, which was
where between Benjamin and Ephraim, and only
with eager interest and pro-
position was in every
subjective nature and position of
and she was elevated above her countrymen by the
case,
listen
Indeed no
prophetess," and prophetic functions were assigned to no one of the
Judges before Samuel.
She
in
her, stand those
has not exaggerated.
of the only female judge
power
female figure
on either side of
face, while,
V.
among
those eminent
and organized
As an organ
also
women Her
victory.
of the divine
impulses she became the rallying point of her countr\-men. and communicated to them her
own
moral energy, so that they were ready, when headed even by a woman, to defy the master of nine hundred chariots of iron.
Some women
are great in words, others in deeds.
Her well-known Song Pindar,
it
stands almost by
surpasses in dignity,
a well-ordered
fire,
formerly exhibited
Deborah was distinguished at least eight
and princes as a
fit
as
would do honor
audience for such a
to
recital,
she recalls the prodigies
when thou wentest
forth out of Seir.
AVlicn tliou marcliedst out of the field of F.dom,
The
earth trembled, the heavens also drojined.
Yea, the clouds dropped water.
The mountains melted Even
both.
the most cultivated age.
:
" Lord,
in
hundred years before
and pathos every other ode, ancient or modern, and yet has
symmetry and beauty, such
A.fter inviting kings
Produced
itself.
at the
presence of the Lord,
that Sinai, at the presence of the Lord, the
God
of Israel."
DEBORAH'S SONG OF TRIUMPH.
JEPHTHAH MET BY JUDGES
The
plate represents one of the
the deepest
most pathetic events
man marked
of
daughter seeking plunging him into
with a stain by his birth, having been driven from his home, went
a neigliboring region, where, gathering to himself a
became a
tunes, he
A
in all literature.
becomes the means
affliction.
Jephthah, a off into
XI.
father, unconsciously
and congratulate her
to praise
DAUGHTER.
HIS
sort of freebooter.
His reputation
number
for daring
and
men
of
of desperate for-
arms induced
skill in
his
countrymen, when contending with the Ammonites, to send for him to be their leader, offering to
make him head over
ail
ing battle, sent a formal
the inhabitants of Gilead.
demand
He
for the withdrawal of the
renewed the demand, with an elaborate statement
of its
accepted their
grounds
—a
that he could not have been the wild, lawless, reckless person that
Ammonites
The king
of the
doing
made a solemn vow
so,
that, in case
to his
house
his
before join-
was declined,
circumstance which shows
some
writers have imagined. ;
but, before
he returned successful, he would offer to the Lord his
He was
house to meet him.
very great slaughter upon the national foes.
As he returned
nation.
this
refusing to yield, Jephthah proceeded to attack him
whatever came forth from the doors of inflicted a
offer, but,
enemy, and, when
But
his
vow had
successful,
and
a verj' tragic termi-
daughter came out to meet him with timbrels and
dances.
The
illustration represents
the victory, and eager to
her with her companions engaged
welcome him by whose valor and
skill
it
in
the joyful celebration of
had been gained.
can be more affecting than the contrast between her jubilant ecstasy and the dreadful
which
it is
piety,
and yet
Parallels
to subject her. this
;
is
without blame, simply indulging the natural impulses of
to
filial
very song of triumph renders her the victim of her father's rash vow.
have been traced
Sophocles
She
Nothing
doom
in
the Iphigenia of
Homer and
y'Eschylus,
but these classic fables lack the touching element
maiden herself who unwittingly provokes the tragedy, and of exultation into the pit of despair.
falls,
in
in
and
in
the Antigone of
this narrative, that
it
is
the
a moment, from the height
'
>p<^>
JEPHTHAH
MF;1'
BY HIS
1
>AL:(_;HTER
;
:
JEPHTHAH'S DAUGHTER AND HER COMPANIONS. JUDGES
For many
centuries
XI.
was an almost universal opinion that the daughter
it
But
actually slain by her father's hand, and then burned as a sacrifice.
so horrible that, for ages past,
instead of being sacrificed, she
But the words father's
has been vehemently contested, and
it
was shut up
offer for a burnt-offering"
to the religion
and repeatedly forbidden sins for
But neither
Yet the incident
that she asked is
as thus
terrible fate, in
engaged that the its
keep
his
in
Hence the
vow nor
its
fulfillment
were expressly
sacrifices
therefore, for the great
artist represents her, in
young maiden was not
free, as
and the heroic submission
of perpetuating his family,
while the latter seems cheerfully to
;
lot in
All
the gorges of the mountains.
sweet and mournful picture,
his
of
and
in
It
which
contrast to the preceding illustration.
\-ivid
the slaughter of an unwilling victim, as
Roman Forum,
when
but the willing offering of a
she supposed, her father and her country from a terrible obligation.
exhibition of pure obedience and overpowering love has attracted the attention of
One
several poets.
generous victim "
word
order to bewail her
the Gaul and the Greek were buried alive in the
devoted heart to
The histo-
view of the victory achieved over the national enemies.
posture and expression, forms a
sacrifice of the
hope
deliberately renounced the
was a short delay,
every figure, by
The
There was no excuse,
illustrates the stern resolution of the father
sacrificed his parental feelings in order to
have accepted her
his
way.
and the
this
in
in this case.
The former
the daughter.
was
hold that,
Divine Word, and the practice of offering them was one of the
which the Canaanites were destroyed.
wrong which was done
still
his return,
Human
which [ephthah acknowledged.
in the
many
admit of being interpreted
whatever met him on
rian says that " he did with her according to his vow."
were agreeable
Jcphthah was
separate house and kept in perpetual celibacy.
in a
of the narrative are too plain to
vow was "to
of
this conclusion
in
Though Be I
of them.
Lord Byron,
the virgins of
the judge
Salem lament,
and the hero unbent
have won the great battle for thee,
And my
in
his
Hebrew
Melodies, voices the thought of the
these stanzas, addressed to her father
father
and country are
free.
"
When
this
When
the voice that thou lovest
Let
blood of thy giving has gushed,
my memory
And
forget not
still
I
is
hashed,
be thy pride,
smiled as
I
died."
SAMSON SLAYING THE" JUDGES
The
longest and the deadliest of the enemies of the chosen people were the Philistines,
who occupied
They made
the strip of sea-coast on the south-west of Canaan.
at the close of the period of the Judges,
Hezekiah.
They were
rich
neighbors.
The weight
of t'leir hostility
tory lay between
and were not
finally
their appearance
extinguished until the time of
and powerful, and bore inveterate hatred toward their
them and the
was most
hill-country,
and
felt
by the small
was out of
it
tribe of
this
He was womb,"
/.
i\,
coming declared that he should be
" a
children,
in
private
the people, but
The
life.
own
"
natural force.
his
The
own
The
itself
Spirit of the
as.
Samson, the prodigy
The
panions, and, as
nation ful
:
way
we
Timnath
to
a
in
co-operation with the rest of
alone, without an army,
and with-
to
move him
described
in
mythical legends, but a divine
young
it
at times," as
manifested
itself in
one connected with the fortunes has his Pagan counterpart
far apart as
are told, no weapons.
but, in this case, the
exam-
Lord began is
heaven and
sets forth the first occasion in
illustration
(Jn the
force.
is
of strength,
moral ends of the two heroes are as
He
with the prophets,
always has a purpose, and that purpose people.
their election, as, for
This was because the Lord blessed him, and not because
deeds,
in
razor earlier
but Samson was chosen from birth, and
right arm.
This was not a demoniac frenzy, such as
impulse manifesting
;
others wrought their deliverances
Samson simply with
out followers, fought and delivered. of his
work before
to a certain extent for their
Jephthah had been a successful military leader
grew up
No
separated from the rest of the nation by a peculiar consecration.
Judges had been prepared
and the
God from
Nazarite unto
should come upon his head, neither should he drink wine nor strong drink.
up.
terri-
tribe that the deliverer
when they had long been without
gi\'en to his parents at a time
revelation which announced his
ple,
Israelitish
Dan, whose
His name was Samson.
came.
the
LION.
XIV.
lion
in
he grew
words.
Hercules
It
covenant
of the ;
but the
earth.
which Samson displays his extraordinary
roared against him, and .Samson had no com-
Ordinarily such a meeting could have but one termi-
man was endowed
with supernatural power.
And
so the youth-
hero seized the furious beast and rent his jaws asunder as easily as one would have rent a
kid of the goats.
The
event was not a mere meaningless marvel, but was intended partly to
give occasion to the famous riddle which led to such sad results to the Philistines, and partly as a preparation of the
young man
for his
subsequent gigantic feats of strength.
SAMSON SLAYING THE LION.
SAMSON AND DELILAH. JUDGES
Samsox,
one sense the strongest of men,
in
in
woman.
men with an
His whole history
and always, as
sex,
is
inextricably
whom
the Philistine maiden of Timnath,
with the national foes
whom
his downfall
She appears
to
bound up with adventures
he married and
then the courtesan of Gaza,
;
rying away the gates of the city
by
;
his folly
and
who
lost,
or
connection with the of Israel.
and who caused
First
was
his first conflict
led to his extraordinary exploit in car-
was accomplished.
have been of great personal beauty, but utterly mercenary
He
been superior to the ordinary snares of sensuality.
and went
in
city,
blandishments of a
and, finally, the well-known Delilah, of the valley of Sorek,
entanglement with her admits of no excuse.
ters,
resist the
would seem, with strange women, not the daughters
it
physical and
could carry off the huge gates of a
jawbone, but he could not
ass's
The
another was the weakest.
He
the moral in him existed in an inverse ratio. slay a thousand
XVI.
after Delilah " as an
and Samson's
But he was a mere simpleton
to
in these
have mat-
ox goeth to the slaughter," with brutish unconsciousness of
Even
and danger.
;
was no longer young, and ought
still
he could
great desire of the Philistines was to ascertain the secret of his strength.
Samson
sin
after repeated evidence of her treachery,
not tear himself from her company, and at last she succeeded.
The
was no giant strength
;
like the
heathen Cyclops, else they would have been at no loss to explain his
nor were his shoulders sixty
ells apart, as
the Rabbins say.
They, doubtless, sup-
posed that there was some occult magical charm by which he accomplished his exploits, and that,
if
they could discover
Delilah a liberal
sum
this,
(equal to
means could be taken
many thousand
ascertain the secret, so as to enable
them
to
he knew would be vain.
and
at last succeeded.
tress stands
by him
lover.
At
it
money
subdue their enemy.
and began to work upon the affections of her attempts, and three several times
to render
dollars of the
first
powerless. of our time)
They
offered
she would
if
She accepted the proposal, he amused himself with her
mocked her and her employers by suggesting methods which
Delilah redoubled her entreaties, and vexed him " almost to death," Just here
in all
is
the juncture represented in the illustration.
her personal fascination, with folded hands and an
quiet expectation, while he looks up at her, holding in one
cause of his extraordinary
feats.
The temp-
air of
meek and
hand those locks which were the
This they were not by any incantation or charm, but simply
as the symbol of entire consecration to God.
SAMSON AiND UhLiLAH.
THE DEATH OF SAMSON. JUDGES
Nowhere
what has been
is
close of Samson's
A
He
life.
more
called the irony of fate
signally illustrated than in the
had always displayed the pranks, as well as the strength, of a
mocking tone pervaded
light, jocose,
XVI.
all his
criant.
procedures, as in the riddle he propounded, the
use of jackals to devastate the cornfields, the employment of a jawbone as a weapon of war,
and the succession of quaint devices by which he turned the plans
But when he was
into derision.
prisoner in a
He who
mill,
at last entrapped,
robbed of
and her friends
of Delilah
his strength,
the Philistines brought him forth, on a gala-day, to
and made a blind
make
sport for them.
had once so successfully ridiculed them becomes himself a laughing-stock.
But the sport cost the people dearly.
For Samson pulled the house down over tectural description
Their jubilant their heads.
building thus overthrown.
of the
structed as to rest, in a great measure,
upon two
had a very tragic termination.
festival
It is
not possible to give a definite archi-
All
we know
that
is
it
was so con-
Between these Samson stood
central pillars.
while undergoing the mockery and insult of his foes, and afterward he asked and obtained
head, which had been shorn, had
him the return
The
mer power, and
So eager
is
At
for
all
The
events he prays
vengeance upon those
his desire for this
him and endows him
The
end that he
figure of
mere outward
illustration describes the result.
which the
artist
whom
fact did not secure to
are not a species of magic.
to
Samson
that he might have
prays for remembrance, for recovery of his for-
he had been raised up to subdue or destroy.
willing to perish with the Philistine^.
God
hears
Samson bows
His aim was
ruin, vivid as
they
are,
a sepulcher, and "the dead
he slew
himself, with a pillar in either arm,
terrific crash.
The broken
pillars
and
and tumbling
has drawn, as well as the fleeing crowd, and the bowed and straining
him who causes the
than they
:
lib-
time the hair of his
this
as of old.
The temple becomes
reason.
this
gifts of Scripture
whom
is
once the entire building collapses with a
capitals
But
again.
was only a sign of consecration, and perhaps suggested
hair
a return of prosperity.
at
grown
of supernatural strength.
By
upon them.
erty to feel the pillars and obtain rest by leaning
in his life."
can hardly equal the terror of the scene.
whom Samson
slew at his death were more
His act has sometimes been called
to gain a great victory for Israel,
was willing to make, and did make, the
sacrifice.
and
if
this cost
suicidal,
him
his
but without
own
life,
he
THE DEATH OF
SAMSOTST.
NAOMI AND HER DAUGHTERS-IN-LAW. RUTH
The site in
little
book
Ruth has
of
I.
been compared to one of the beds of wild flowers, exqui-
justly
beauty and variety of hue, which are found
in
every part of Palestine.
ing contrast to the book of Judges, which immediately precedes
from one to the other lus to the fresh
is
from the dark,
like a transition
and beautiful landscapes
It
is,
was
rigidly secluded
from the
word and
in act, that
account of the way
and to pass
;
scenes of a tragedy of yEschy-
terrific
rest of the
Every part
of
it
was indeed a people that dwelt
Israel
world
in
order that the chosen seed might
Yet there are constant intima-
be kept pure until the time came for a universal dispensation. tions, in
an interest-
It is
our Canon
moreover, a testimony to the humane and com-
prehensive aim underlying the Mosaic institutions. It
in
of a pastoral idyl of Theocritus.
breathes the spirit of repose and love.
alone.
it
And
there was hope for the outside nations.
here
we have an
which a daughter of the uncircumcised Moabites was introduced into the
in
became a member
fellowship of the people of God, and
of the line
from which sprang the most
illustrious of Israel's kings.
Elimelech, driven by famine, emigrated, with his wife and two sons, from Bethlehem to the fields of
Moab. where
his sons intermarried with
lowed the household. years
Naomi was
left
First Elimelech died,
women
with her two daughters-in-law.
One
women
all
set out to
their kindness to the
Orpah, complied with the suggestion, and turned back weeping.
refused and clave to Naomi.
This
is
the scene the picture sets forth
:
in
accompany
dead and to
bade them return home, where better prospects awaited them than any she could
of them.
fol-
the end of ten
Learning that the famine had ceased
But on the way the mother, while acknowledging
herself,
At
his sons.
her native land, she proposed to return thither, and the younger her.
But misfortune
of the country.
and then both of
The
offer.
other
Orpah turning away,
with her hands to her face, but Ruth clinging, with intense affection, to her husband's mother.
When Naomi have become
bade her imitate the example of her classic as the utterance
of an
sister-in-law,
she refused in words which
leave thee, or to return from following thee: for whither thou goest, lodgest, I
I
will die,
part thee
Neither
will
lodge
and there and me."
self-interest,
:
thy people shall be
will
I
be buried
Intense as
is
:
the
my
"
intense and sacred affection.
people, and thy
Lord do so
to me,
the love here shown,
I
will
God my God
and more it
is
nor hope, nor vanity mix themselves up with
Urge me not
to
go; and where thou
also,
:
where thou if
diest,
aught but death
purely moral and spiritual. it.
NAUiMI
AND HER DAUGHTKKS-1N-LA\V.
RUTH AND RUTH
BOAZ.
II.
This picture represents a scene which occurred very soon
Naomi had
back to Bethlehem. means.
In her destitution, Ruth, as the younger and better able to bear fatigue, proposed to
go and glean
in the
22
xxiii.
Deut. xxiv.
;
19),
was
left
field of
While she was
came
them the
The Lord
bless thee
But soon Boaz observed among the reapers a new form
— and
since she
saken
stor\'.
home and
which the
name and
with you!" and they reply-
distinguished by her appear-
origin, but also her propriety of in
who
it
The
was.
has chosen to represent.
The
overseer
conduct and her diligence,
her work since the morning.
which, of course, he must have heard, of the young Moabitess
friends in order to attach herself to
artist
—one
he inquired of the overseer
had been almost uninterruptedly engaged
recalled the
work, the proprietor, Boaz,
!"
ance and bearing as a stranger not only mentioned her
A
who was
beautiful greetings which, in their
"The Lord be
mouths, were more than a mere form, he saying, ing, '
at
Israel
and the widow.
a wealthy and influential citizen,
also a distant relative of her deceased husband.
the reapers, and exchanged with
consented, and the
the beneficent law of
for the stranger, the fatherless,
kind Providence directed her steps to the
to visit
Naomi
harvest-held what might serve for their needs.
^•oung stranger went forth to gather that which, according to
(Lev.
women came
two
the
after
returned, as she said, " empty," without friends and without
Naomi and Naomi's God.
beautiful
maiden stoops
Boaz
who had
It is this
for-
p~:nt
the foreground,
in
gathering the scattered stalks, and the reapers are carrying away the bundles, while Boaz standing near,
made
conversation with the overseer.
the train of the wealthy proprietor.
commencement.
its
to
in
in
may
child of
Moab,
more worthy
domestic virtue.
it
Ultimately, as
marriage, and became progenitors of our Lord.
and Ruth were united
well be
doubted whether the whole
to receive that honor, each of
in
accordance with
to treat her courteously,
occasionally, something from the bundles for her to glean.
was a pair
to
was
to continue in his field, but
the young men
is
background are the camels, which
issue of the interview
Boaz not only permitted her
go elsewhere, and gave directions
fall,
The
In the
tribe of
charged her not
and even to all
And
let
know, Boaz
although one
Judah could furnish a
them being conspicuous
for every social
and
RUTH AND
boa;:.
THE RETURN OF THE ARK. I
This
striking
illustration
Ark
thorouo-hl)' surprised b)- the vision of the
them
in
a cart
drawn by lowing
party
a
exhibits
SAMUEL
of
VI.
interrupted
reapers
of
the Covenant
The
kine, without a driver.
in
in
work and
their
the distance, coming toward
varied postures of the persons in
the foreground indicate a pleased astonishment.
The tle
explanation
by the
is
this
:
sent for the ark to go with
months
.Several
Philistines, instead of
before, the Israelites having been defeated in bat-
humbling themselves before God, and thus securing
them
to the
conflict,
presence of an object so sacred would secure
the
in
then-,
his favor,
mere
superstitious belief that the
succes.s.
But
God rebuked
their super-
The
Philistines
were delighted with their success, and carried the ark off as a distinguished trophy.
But they
stition
by .sending another defeat, and allowing the ark
soon found that their gain was a took the ark
—
A
loss.
to x^shdod, to Gath, to
itself to
be captured.
disease smote the people.
fearful
Ekron— the same
determined to send the cause of their trouble back to that this ino-s,
was the right course, they put
and then attached the
reasoning that
road toward
if
the
Israel,
dumb it
cart to a
yoke
its
original pl^ce.
cart,
of milch kine,
of
The
represented
God
In their terror they
To
satisfy
themselves
together with certain golden offer-
whose calves were shut up
what would be
at
home
;
their natural course, took the
might be assumed that the ark was the cause of their troubles.
neither to the right liand nor to the sight,
upon a new
beasts, contrary to
experiment succeeded perfectly.
This was the
it
The hand
result followed.
was heavy upon both small and great, and there was a deadly destruction.
Wherever they
The
kine followed a straight course to Bethshemesh, turning
left.
in
the plate as surrounded with a blaze of radiance, which
attracted the attention of the reapers, and filled
them with extreme
ark was a constant source of humiliation and shame, and
manner, would, of course, be greeted with rapture.
its
joy.
The absence
of the
return, in such an extraordinary
'*»!"
.^.„J
SAUL AND DAVID. I
The
scene depicted
is
Saul, the king of Israel.
The
the
first
He was
SAMUEL
expression of what became the master-passion of the hfe of
envious of David, and determined to get him out of the way.
occasion of this feeling was very simple.
listines, ally, at
XVIII.
After the successful campaign against the Phi-
the troops engaged returned in triumph to the cities of Israel. the gates by companies of
women, who, playing on the
They were
music, chanted in responsive chorus rhythmic lines adapted to the occasion.
every strophe came this refrain,
Very
sands."
likely
more
is
this
in.
But the sensitive soul
Samuel had foretold the taking
him, took offense at the implied preference of David, and he murmured, "
dom?"
The thought was
gall
own
the end of
than an expression of joy, with such
always prone to indulge
inclined to be suspicious since
unto David ten thousands, and to
At
Saul hath slain his thousands, and David his tens of thou-
nothing more was meant by
exaggeration as strong emotion the
"
met, gener-
tabret and dancing to their
me
but thousands
and wormwood to
;
of the
of Saul,
kingdom from
They have
ascribed
and what can he have more but the king-
his heart,
and the next day, instead of being
soothed by the music of David's harp, he aimed a javelin at the head of the musician, escaped only by dexterously evading
its
point.
who
![i»jiU^':
SAUI,
AND
DAVID.
DAVID SPARING SAUL. SAMUEL
I
We
have the same parties
The
case
was
this
The
:
relief
;
but, singularly
here David generously forbears to
David had gone enough,
fell
to
Engedi, pursued
entirely into his power.
from the mid-day heat he went into the very cave where David and
his
men were
David's companions regarded the occurrence as a providential opportunity for end-
concealed.
ing the strife by putting Saul to death.
He would
light.
life
king, learning that
him at the head of three thousand men, Seeking
the preceding illustration, but the circumstances are
There Saul was seeking David's
widely different. take Saul's.
in this as in
XXIV.
kingdom by the
But he could not bring himself to consider
bide God's time, and not allow
it
So he contented himself by cutting
assassination of his predecessor.
tion of Saul's robe, which he could easily
the king," and having arrested his attention, evil design, and, as
proof of
it,
made an
pointed to the skirt which he held
drew
off his
men
;
off
as
it
had found them.
lord
hand, which he had
in his
Saul was appar-
his head.
but David was unwilling to trust himself to
the keeping of one so impulsive and suspicious, and returned to the cave.
them both
When
My
earnest protestation of his innocence of
taken from his robe when he might just as easily have taken ently melted in contrition, and
that
otT a por-
do without disturbing the monarch's repose.
the king rose and passed out to join his troops, David followed him, and cried out, "
any
in
it
be said of him that he had come into the
to
The
interview
left
But David had furnished a signal example of self-control
and forbearance, and Saul had rejected another inducement
to forsake his
malicious perse-
cution.
The
striking scene
Palestine where
around. cipitous ers.
The cliff,
is
well presented in the illustration.
men converse
artist,
There are very many places
deep gorge which
it
therefore, has placed the king, with his serried
would take hours liost.
to
in
go
on the top of a pre-
while David stands on a lesser elevation behind, attended only by his few follow-
Holding up the fragment
skirt of
easily across a
thy robe
know thou and
in
my hand
:
see that there
sinned against thee
;
of the royal garment,
for in that is
I
he
cries, "
My
father, see
;
yea, see the
cut off the skirt of thy robe, and killed thee not,
neither evil nor transgression in mine hand, and
yet thou huntest
my
soul to take
it."
I
have not
DAVIU SPARING
AAIIL.
—
DEATH OF SAUL. I
Never
did the promise of a fair and noble
Israel's first king.
He seemed
and
in stature.
he did
will as
of Jehovah,
But
and thenceforward
the end he committed a
sin,
As he
where.
answereth
me
said,
was one
his life
of constant moral deterioration.
thrown away.
He
When
in others.
Philistines
all
who
unhappy
make war
about to join battle
king,
and there was no strength
afraid,
The
but
left in
to fell
him.
God
against me, and
in the
plain of Esdra-
forewarn him his
is
fall
into superstition.
woman
of
his
Gilboa.
Here a great multitude was
slain,
to fall alive into the
dispatch him at once.
He
refused,
vant followed his e.xample.
But he made
camp.
out, at last, to return to his
and among them the three eldest sons of Saul.
The
hands of
and then Saul
artist
fell
over the Saul
by
their charioteers, Saul
his foes,
besought
upon
sword and
his
represents the scene as
victims of madness and despair l)'ing pierced by their
own weapons,
it
his
was sore
armor-bearer to
died.
And
his ser-
was accomplished
:
the
while the foes are dashing
hill.
fell
with
all
his sins
upon
his
head
his last act a sin
;
but his generous
celebrated the sad event in a beautiful ode which has been admired in every age.
is
The
impending doom.
whole length on the ground and was sore
of Philistine archers, or hard-pressed
wounded, and, dreading
in
In this
of Endor, not to guide
next day the Philistines charged the Israelite army and drove them, up the heights of
Amidst the shower
when
me and
departed from
In his perplexity he resorted to
forsake the true religion generally
king, hearing the fearful words,
until at
made him shudder, and
been decided by arms, he found no helper any-
however, the Lord was pleased to use the sorcery of the
or comfort the sorrow-stricken
His splendid
went from bad to worse,
no more, neither by prophets nor by dreams."
necromancy, just as case,
all
rest of the nation in intellect, heart,
and disobedience drew down upon him the frown
self-will
fate of Palestine has
"The
ripen into such bitter fruit as in the case of
the thought of which would once have
which he had severely punished
where so often the
life
tower as much above the
to
opportunities and ample resources were
elon,
SAMUEL XXXI.
a great
man
is
rival,
To
carried to his tomb, the most appropriate music for the occasion
David,
this day, is
found
the exquisite composition which seeks to express, in sound, this lament of David, and which
known
as "
The Dead March
in
Saul."
DEATH OF
SAUL.
THE DEATH OF ABSALOM. 2
The
"In
Greek
Israel there
all
Absalom was highly favored
history.
was none
in
every way, yet came
was the very flower and pride
In personal appearance he
shameful end.
nation.
XVIII.
son of David reminds every reader of the handsome, dissolute, and unprin-
third
cipled Alcibiades of to a
SAMUEL
to be so
much
praised as
Absalom
of the
whole
for his beauty;
even to the crown of his head there was no blemish
from the sole of
his foot
addition
he had a pleasing address, quick perception, and decided force of
this
to
Offended
his father for severity of
at
treatment for his
To
criminal ambition, he determined to seize the crown.
In
him."
in
will.
own misconduct, and animated by end he practiced
this
all
a
the arts of
an accomplished demagogue, courting the favor of the people and undermining the authority
At
of the king.
length, after )-ears of preparation, he set
up
his
all
When
quarters.
from
the news of this formidable revolt
his capital in haste
and
distress,
and made good
Absalom, meanwhile, entered Jerusalem of
them
He
very offensive manner.
in a
were gathered.
and make a firm stand for
ers,
with the
command
and David's troops were
effort
came
the
wood he was caught by tree,
and
Mahanaim, beyond Jordan.
triumph, and assumed
some
royal rights,
all
by a secret friend
collect his friends
meet him.
successful.
the head
his
to the ears of the king, he fled
his escape to
stroke, but to wait
to his death in the singular
an overhanging
to
adherents from
and end the contest by a decided
to deal gently with
raim,
his
was, however, cunningly induced,
his crown, so that
large and well-appointed force to
Hebron, won
in
This delay gave David opportunity to
of David, not to pursue his father at once until all his troops
in
came
standard
and gathered
his side David's confidential counselor, the wise Ahithophel,
when Absalom
crossed the Jordan there was a
This force was committed to three trusted lead-
Absalom.
Battle
Absalom sought
method shown
— possibly
in
was joined
in the
to escape
by
the illustration.
Eph-
of
but
the
in
As he rode through
entangled by his long hair
mule passed from under him.
wood
flight,
—
in
the boughs of
In this position he
was found by
Joab, who, forming a circle of his ten attendants around the tree, pierced his heart with three darts.
His body was then thrown into a huge
pit
and covered with a heap of stones,
those which used to be formed over the graves of grievous malefactors.
And
shameful end and dishonored grave of a king's son, the best-looking and most popular his generation
ingratitude.
;
this the
deserved recompense of bitter revenge, boundless
self-will,
like
was the
this
man
and
of
filial
THE DEATH UF ABSALOM.
DAVID MOURNING OVER ABSALOM. 2
While
the battle in the
where he had parted from and as he
safe ?"
To
son,
my
The
Ephraim was going morning.
son
!
life,
David remained
on,
were
all
the place
my
and goes up son,
my
to his
own
!
would God
I
man
deliverance, forgets gratitude,
chamber with a great and exceeding
son Absalom
;
forgotten in his eager concern
had died
for thee,
bitter cry,
"O
Absalom,
my
O
!"
clasped hands of the central figure in the picture, and the averted face, well express
the father's agony, at which the attendants gaze in consternation. grief
in
All day long he waited for intelligence
the sad truth comes out, he forgets his
faith,
son Absalom
XVIII.
each messenger that comes he puts the same inquiry, " Is the young
And when
submission, and
my
of
his troops in the
sat watching, his throne, his people, his
Absalom.
for
wood
SAMUEL
had ample reason.
no such assurance his father there
is
When
David's passionate burst of
Bathsheba's infant died he could say, "
possible here.
Absalom's sun had gone down
remained a bitter remembrance
—a life-long sorrow.
in
I
shall
go
to him," but
thickest darkness.
How many
To
fathers since
have, by a foolish indulgence of their children, or by an unreasonable rigor, laid up for themselves an equal
and remediless grief
1
~
I
ii^igr
I
DAVID MOURNING OVER ABSALOM.
SOLOMON. This imposing
figure represents the wisest of
went before him,
men
in
He
the ripe maturity of his days.
came
and
excelled
all
power.
His peaceful empire extended from the river of Egypt to the Euphrates, and he held
that
a port at the head of the
These wide
the west.
Sea,
Our Saviour
uses the phrase, "
was none more expressive.
But the
Nothing
artist, in
indicates sits.
Solomon
his stables,
the picture before
them
But the
us,
genius
in
abundance
;
the literature he produced.
is
and
to
This led to a display which became proverbial.
were
all
term of comparison, for there
his court, his porch, his throne, his banquets,
on the most magnificent
seems to leave
all
scale.
these external things out of view.
columns and the architrave of the apartment where
one hand, and the pen. or
and what
to the east
an ample revenue, so that the precious metals and
in all his glory," as a
save, perhaps, the
roll in
the extensive authorship ascribed to him. ful
in
Solomon's buildings,
even
his gardens, his chariots,
after him, in riches, honor,
whence there was extensive commerce
brought
gems abounded on every hand.
sparkling
the king
Red
territories
as well as all that
stylus, in the other,
bring up to view
Songs, proverbs, and treatises came from his
preserved in the canonical Scriptures
is
fruit-
only a portion of
THE JUDGMENT OF SOLOMON. KINGS
I
III.
In Solomon's youth the Lord appeared to him
God
The young monarch
should give him.
judge thy people, that
The Lord
a choice. a proof of
in
it
him with a dead dead one the
"Then and
tlie
said.
me
Nay
;
a sword.
The one
O my
And
in two,
lord, give
is
my
my
son
and
di\'ide
slaj' it
:
;
she
Then
it.
make such
Two
mothers came before
was hers and the
child
is
And
half to the other.
in
no wise slay
And
the mother thereof.
is
the dead:
the king
the king said,
Then spake
upon her
But the other
it.
and they feared the king
for the}'
:
the
son,
and
said,
Let liv-
Israel heard of the judg-
all
saw that the wisdom of
The
has conveyed verj' justly the sentiment of the occasion.
final.
is
And
the living.
the king answered and said. Give her the
hand, announcing his wise decision
uplifted
The
executioner, with
ing child in the other, has his face turned to the monarch
The
false
mother stands
drawn sword as
if
in
youthful king,
—a
one hand and the
seeking to
in
keen-sighted
know whether
liv-
the
by, indifferent, or rather well-pleased, at the result;
but the other feels the j-earnings of her maternal heart, and in
able to judge this thy
is
son that liveth, and thy son
half to the one,
her the living child, and
robes, stands, with
is
who
do judgment."
in him, to artist
This
the dead, and
is
and give
appeal to the instincts of nature.
decision
for
they brought a sword before the king.
ment which the king had judged
official
:
the living child was, unto the king, for her bowels yearned
ing child, and in no wise
The
saith.
but thy son
be neither mine nor thine, but
his
good and bad
think that he must have been already very wise to
and a living one, each claiming that the living
Divide the living child
God was
and bade him ask what
other's.
woman whose
it
night,
the extraordinary scene exhibited in this picture.
said the king,
Bring
diicern between
dream by
Give thy servant an understanding heart to
assured him that his request was granted, and at an early period he had
child
other saith,
she said,
may
I
One would
so great a people?"
in a
said, "
falls
down
imploringly, expressing
every line of the figure anxious desire.
There
is
an oriental tradition that Solomon once peaceably adjudicated between two claim-
ants to the
same treasure by determining
the other.
But
that the son of the one should marry the daughter of
this story falls far short of the
one described
in the picture.
lllgip"":--"'"*^ iJllniltT"
''II
Arff't-iV^'
.<»p*?pi''pi-^xyi-^
I,'
i
r
•"
111
THE JUDGiMKiM OF SOLOMON.
:
THE CEDARS DESTINED FOR THE TEMPLE. KINGS
I
Ix the magnificent trations of divine
Hymn
V.
of Creation, the 104th Psalm, the writer,
wisdom and power,
among
the specific
Of these he
cites the trees of the forest.
illus-
selects a single
species as pre-eminent "
The stately
The
trees of the
The
cedars of Lebanon, whicli he hath planted."
Lord
are satisfied (with moisture),
No
reasons of the selection are not far to seek.
and durable and variously
other tree of Palestine
is
so large and
Besides being an ornament to any landscape, the
useful.
cedar could be fashioned into the mast of a ship, or the beams of a house, or the celling of a temple, or a coffer for merchandise. the
temple and the second
first
floated
down
to Joppa,
;
in
It
was the wood
employed
chiefly
in the
construction of
whom it was And when Herod made
both cases obtained from the Tyrians, by
and thence carried overland
to Jerusalem.
those repairs and enlargements which were almost equivalent to a third temple, the stone he
used was white marble, but the
modern
visitor to the
Haram,
wood which had
Formerly cedars existed
cedar, from the forests of
he walks
by Mohammedans
Virgin, long since converted
carved ceiling of red
wood was
at Jerusalem, as
in
the
same
down
into the
known
anon, technicall}' to be, in
One who of
number as "
Mosque
of a
dozen or more.
The
Cedars,"
is
in
Still
enormous
by
travelers, as, indeed,
and their extreme
size,
the illustration very
Some
gigantic trunks, which have been sawn through near the ground. prostrate.
there are found, in different
of these, on the western slope of Leb-
alwa^'S visited
trees, their
has seen them finds the sketch
One
busy workmen give great animation to the scene.
lie
of El Aksa, sees overhead a
great abundance, and vast forests covered the sides of the twin
view of the number of the
ming those which
to-day the
origin.
ranges of Lebanon, but these have long since disappeared. places, groves to the
And
Lebanon.
the nave of the Church of the
life-like.
The
are drawing
it
deserves
antiquity.
varied groups
down
with ropes
Others are hewing and trim-
In the foreground two wains, with large,
awkward wheels,
are
loaded with huge trees and drawn by long trains of horses, which the drivers are guiding as circumstances require, while the mounted inspectors are giving their orders, and groups of laborers are watching the progress of the work.
confused, and
it
The
picture
is
crowded with
figures,
but not
represents what must have occurred time and again in the forest slopes of the
White Mountain, Lebanon.
THE
Cl-DARS DI
sn^ED TOR THE TEMPLE
THE PROPHET SLAIN BY A KINGS
I
The
incident to which this picture refers
LION.
XIII.
a part of the
is
against the. idolatrous worship instituted by Jeroboam, at Bethel. state,
was offering incense on the
whom
before him a prophet to
He
this special purpose.
was not
What
upon
child of the
offered
it
by a
ordered his arrest
;
but,
Lord
the
behold
book gives no name.
to receive hospitality,
to address the king, but the altar, the
thus saith the Lord."
was that the
calf,
there suddenly rose
had come from fudah
He
O
altar, altar,
one day be
of division
in
and
"
sin.
anger, with outstretched hand,
that he could not
draw
it
he was compelled to ask the prophet to entreat the Lord to restore his hand.
was complied with and the hand at
The prophet
restored.
for
was not even
priests of this altar should
The king
hand withered so
his
He
made
king, in his royal
going or returning.
dumb monument said
house of Judah.
!
While the
he had erected to the golden
altar
the sacred
prophetic protest
first
in to him,
The
and
request
then, according to his orders, set out
once to return home, without eating or drinking.
But an old prophet residing
communication with him.
to that effect,
Bethel went after him, and, by falsely pretending a divine
at
persuaded the stranger to return to Bethel, and eat and drink
But, while they were sitting at the table, behold the old prophet announced to his
visitor a true
message from God,
sepulcher of his fathers.
And
so
that, for his disobedience, it
came
to pass.
he should not be buried
As he journeyed
a lion
in
the
met him and slew
him, and then stood by the carcass, just as the illustration represents, only the artist has neglected to put the ass
in.
The
narrative states that the lion waited quietly, disturbing neither
the ass nor any that passed by the wa}^ only, nor did
He
did the
work he was appointed
to do,
he hinder the old prophet when he came and took up the body to
carrj-
and that it
to the
city for burial.
Thus was emphasized, If
in a
most remarkable way, the prediction against the
God was so prompt and severe against
his
own chosen
servants
altar at Bethel.
when they disobeyed
his
commands, how much more would he be against those whose apostasy was open and manifold, establishing an idolatrous worship of the
both the letter and tablet of stone
spirit of the
most debased and debasing character, and violating
command which was thundered from
by the finger of God?
Sinai and written on a
THE PROPHET SLAIN BY A
LION.
ELIJAH DESTROYING THE MESSENGERS OF AHAZIAH. KINGS
2
related in the Gospel of
It. is
51-56) that on a certain occasion, when the Lord
(ix.
from Galilee to Jerusalem, desired to pass through a village of the Samari-
way
Jesus, on his
Luke
I.
he was refused permission, whereupon James and John asked
tans,
down
fire
from heaven upon these offenders, even as Elijah
Forbearance belonged to
mission was not to destroy, but to save.
ment being reserved
The
for the future.
if
he wished them to
call
His
But he rebuked them.
did.
his present course, judg-
case to which the impetuous disciples referred was
the one set forth in this picture.
King Ahaziah, having sent messengers
to consult a Philistine
deity whether he should
recover from a disease which afflicted him, was surprised by their sudden return.
met a man who sent them back with a rebuke and an ominous message. ing the description of the strange apparition, perceived that bite,
whom
the prophet of
Troop
arrest him.
each successive
upon me],
let
fire
came against the
summoned him
" If
I
to
solitary
man, but
in
vain.
So he sent
[as
you
me and
call
of horses
and men,
fiery shower. in
fifty."
Even
There was no
And
Such a procedure belonged Elijah.
He
rible
of
all
accents are
each case the destruction was instantaneous and
in
fact of retribution.
the
fire,
but
in
the
things, the wrath all
of love
Twice
God
or
total.
the old dispensation, and to the times and character of
to
was a messenger of rebuke and repentance.
and display the quake, nor
in
and
the illustration, well express the wild
was the terrible infliction sent, before the soldiers learned the folly of contending with commissioned messengers.
as the
delay,
dismay which must have seized the troops when overtaken by the bolt from heaven.
his
to
captain of
yet seek to lay violent hands
come down from heaven and consume thee and thy
The confused forms
The
descend and accompany them to the king, but the
be a man of God
prophet spake the heavens opened and down came the
no escape.
They had
king, on learn-
could be only Elijah, the Tish-
he had heard from his father and his grandfather.
after troop
fifty
simple answer was,
it
The
But the Gospel
still,
small voice.
Lamb
of the
and mercy, and
it
—but
is
It
was his duty to sound the alarm
does speak of wrath
this
woos men by
It
neither in the hurricane, nor the earth-
is
in the
invitations
future.
— even that most For the present
terits
and promises, and God's sun
shines and his rain descends upon the evil and the good, the just and the unjust.
ELIJAH Di;STKOVT\-G
IIIE
MESSEMiKKS UF AlIAZIAH.
ELIJAH'S
ASCENT
A CHARIOT OF FIRE.
IN 2
KINGS
II.
Jesus, the son of Sirach, said of Elijah that " he rose up as a
torch"
—words
finely descriptive of
his
vehement nature and
none
is
like him.
subject to like passions as
and
months, and, when he prayed again, the heaven gave
its fruit
(James
soaked
in
again his
v.
water call
;
17,
his
word blazed
as a
He was
the
career.
.Single-handed he confronted king and queen, a court and a nation.
He was si.x
and
For intense action and concentrated energy
burning and shining light of the old dispensation. there
fire,
brilliant
iS).
At
we
are, yet,
his call fire
when he prayed,
rained not for three years
and the earth brought forth
came down upon Carmel and consumed a
and afterward, when armed bands sought
brought forth from the skies
it
rain,
fiery thunderbolts
to lay
sacrifice
hands upon him, once and
which consumed them
all.
When
the Lord revealed himself to him in the awful solitudes of Sinai, one of the displays was a
devouring
fire
fitting that a it
like that
which enveloped the mount
The
is
the day the law was given. sort.
It
was
And
had.
narrative of the sacred historian
ing on the road beyond the Jordan, of
in
course so peculiar and wondrous should have a termination of the like
fire,
is
simple but effective.
when suddenly
:
so the heroic
man
disappeared from earth.
in
amazement
at
it.
Yet
a thousand years after his entrance; into
respecting the decease he was to accomplish at Jerusalem
of
God.
life
God
took him.
which had pre-
heaven he once more appeared on
In the brilliant transfiguration of our Lord, he, with Moses,
giver, so the great representative of the prophets
This
the thrilling spectacle.
Like Enoch, he was not, for
This translation was the completion and crown of the heroic and saintly
Son
and horses
the .sweeping clouds, the winged horses, the
prophet with outstretched hand, and Elisha fallen
ceded
fire
and parted them both asunder, and Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven.
the scene the artist has essayed to represent
And
Elijah and Elisha were walk-
there appeared a chariot of
comes
comes
(Luke
forth to
to ix.
earth.
meet him and converse 30).
do honor
As
the great law-
to the well-beloved
ELIJAH'S ASCENT IN A CHARIOT OF KIRB,
THE DEATH OF JEZEBEL. KINGS
2
The Israel,
deities, in place of
by
all
his predecessors in
Jehovah.
his wife [ezebel, a
sin
In this deliberate apostasy he
to her husband.
of feebler will than desire, but Jezebel
was seconded, or rather prompted,
Ahab had some
was bold and unrelenting.
scruples remaining, and
She derided the weak-
ness of her husband, and cared nothing for perjury or murder to secure her ends.
she had put
Ahab
"The dogs
shall eat Jezebel
accomplished.
in
forth, and. after
But
after
possession of the dearly-gained vineyard of Naboth, the prophet declared
by the wall
Yet when Jehu,
by the queen-mother from one throw her down.
in
by enthroning Baal and Ashtoreth, Phoenician
Tyrian princess, who appears to have been to him what Clytemnestra
was to j^gisthus, or Lady Macbeth
was
was Ahab, who not only continued the calf-worship
principal antagonist of Elijah
but excelled
IX.
He
of Jezreel."
after slaying her son,
of the
was obeyed,
as
is
windows
Nothing seemed more unlikely
to be
drove up to Jezreel, and was addressed
of the palace,
he called upon her attendants to
represented in the spirited illustration.
She was
cast
being trampled under the horses' hoofs, was devoured by the wild dogs, which
are seen in the bottom of the picture, waiting to tear her in pieces. to a fearful but merited end.
A
bold,
bad woman came
DEATH OF JEZEBEL.
ESTHER COXFOUXDIXG HAMAX. ESTHER
Martin Luther once
exclusiveness.
God
its
is
its spirit
of revenge, its omission of the
result the
But
whole action moves.
not there, his finger
uerus. the sleepless night,
work
The
is.
is
it
upon
when
the facts occurred.
who
and the long delay of the
So
his attention.
of
its
been
said, that
if
the
name
of
connects together the quarrel of Ahas-
lot, is
is
object to
God. and the earthly plane on
compelled to recognize
and perhaps the more
far as its exclusiveness
And
name
They
in later times.
certain, as has often
dullest reader
of a divine Providence,
thrust
book had ever
said that he wished that neither Esther nor her
and similar opinions have been uttered by others
existed,
which
VIII.
distinctly just
in
the final
because
it is
not
concerned, that belongs to the period
the revengeful feeling shown
is
a pattern of what
is
to
be
avoided rather than imitated.
Moreover, there stor}-.
What in
is
much
to kindle
and stimulate
in the
course of the central figure of the
her that was •glorified by the genius of Handel, and sanctified by the a loftv patriotism she showed
unto the king, and
king's favorite
I
The
if
I
perish.
artist
I
What
perish
'' I
pietj" of
a generous self-sacrifice in the words. "
And what
Racine.' I
will
go
courage, in attacking, as she did, the
has exaggerated nothing in the splendor of the architecture, the
spirited pose of Esther, the kindling
Haman.
I
wrath of the king, and the downcast
air of
the wretched
ESTHER CONFOUNIJINIJ
HA-*
ISAIAH.
This
is
the greatest of the prophets of speech, as Elijah
ances are greater in tity.
number than those
This was owing,
of
in part, to the length of his
the period in which he appeared, but mainly to his in
all
is
life,
own
forms of prophetic expression, and are great
utter-
quality as in quan-
in
the height of his social position, and
magnificent genius.
in
His
of those of action.
any other, and excel as much
all.
Whether
it
is
His oracles take
mere
narrative, or
vivid description, or didactic reasoning, or impassioned appeal, or direct invective, or tender entreaty, that
employs
and original mind.
his pen, the result
is
His frequent references
the same.
Everything bears the stamp of a great
to the great future Deliverer are so
many
have acquired for him the name of "the Evangelical Prophet," and have rendered
No
almost as dear and as familiar to Christians as the Psalter. set forth the glory of the
triumphant Messiah, whose name
is
The two
sides of the picture put together
as to
book
other inspired writer has so
called
"Wonderful;" no other
has given, with such melting pathos, the experience of the suffering Messiah, the Lord to bruise.
his
make
whom
it
pleased
the most marvelous com-
bination the earth has ever seen.
In the illustration stretches before
Isaiah kneels on a naked rock,
him a wide sweep
of vale
rapt
in
devout meditation.
and upland, of bright skies reflected
in
There waters
beneath, but he neither sees nor hears anything but the voice of the Lord speaking in the quiet
communion.
;
THE DESTRUCTION OF SENNACHERIB'S HOST. 2
The rence
KINGS XIX.
picture represents a fearful overthrow
wrought by an angelic being.
related both by the prophet Isaiah and by the author of the
is
The
Book
awful occur-
Sen-
of Kings.
nacherib was threatening the destruction of Jerusalem, and had used insulting words respecting
God
the
In answer to the prayer of Hezekiah, the
of Israel.
and speedy deliverance.
angel of the Lord went out and smote
and
five
attack
learned
This was
thousand."
by human
foes,
men have
in
done
all
Herodotus learned
The
artist
in
camp
of the Assyrians an
a single night.
It
was
health,
some
in
"
The
hundred and fourscore
not, therefore, a nocturnal
The
There was no disturbance, no alarm. and
in
the morning were
men do
contain no reference to this event, for
which, under
the
imagined, but a direct visitation of God, like that which
in their usual
of complete foe.
nor a terrible storm, nor a pestilence, nor a simoom of the desert, as
the first-born in Egypt.
were
Lord gave assurance
This was wrought by the destruction of the invading
Egypt from the records
all
in
one night slew
all
entire host at night-fall
The Assyrian monuments
corpses.
not take pains to record their defeats
;
but
of that country a story of Assyrian discomfiture
disguise, resembles in several particulars the Scripture narrative.
admirably depicts the confusion, the wild dismay of the host as they
beneath the avenging arm of the messenger of the described in the well-known stanzas of Byron
"The
:
like the
wolf on the fold,
And
his cohorts
And
the sheen of their spears was like stars on the sea
When "
down
Assyrian came
the blue
were gleaming
wave
in purple
rolls nightly
Like the leaves of the forest when
That
and gold
;
on deep Galilee.
Summer
host, with their banners, at sunset
is
green,
were seen
:
Like the leaves of the forest when .'\utumn hath blown,
That
,"
host, on the
morrow, lay wither'd and strown.
For the Angel of Death spread
And
his wings
lie
prostrate
But the scene has been vividly
skies.
on the
blast,
breathed in the face of the foe as he pass'd
And
the eyes of the sleepers wax'd deadly and
And
their hearts but
chill.
once heaved, and forever grew
'" '
still
DESTRUCTION OF SENNACHERIB'S HOST.
BARUCH. JEREMIAH XXXVI., XLV.
This name lation after the
is
well
some time
written
known
manner in
as the title of a
very well informed, as
we
book
in
the Old Testament Apocrypha, a compi-
prophets, and also as attached to a spurious Apocalypse
the course of the
personage of some note
cal
Hebrew
of the
first
in canonical
century
learn from Josephus
and
;
But
a. d.
Scripture.
he stood
in
in
Baruch springs from
his close
the same intimacy as Elisha with Elijah, or
also to be a
He
land.
medium
of
The
shared, too, his imprisonment until the
upon the
fate of
his
brother, Seraiah, held an honorable
artist represents
God.
He may ment. self
?
He
seems rapt
li.
59).
Timothy with
made by
the
But the chief interest
Paul.
mouth
and
It
of the
was
whom
his office to
weeping prophet,
As
to
fall
what followed
of the city,
and afterward was compelled
this removal, the
same impenetrable obscu-
master and scholar. him,
and surrounded by the precious of
will,
histori-
communication between him and the king and nobles of the
with him to go into Egypt. rity rests
an
of a distinguished family,
and confidential relations with Jeremiah, to
receive and record the disclosures of the divine
and
really belongs to
was
position in the court of Zedekiah, Judah's last king (Jerem.
now taken
it
He
in
in
the illustration, as reclining amid the bare walls of a prison,
rolls
on which
it
had been
his privilege to
inscribe the
words
meditation, and his countenance has a sad and careworn expression.
be musing on the high hopes he once cherished for himself, and their total disappoint-
For the divine utterance Seek them
not."
to
him
is still
on record, " Seekest thou great things for thy-
EZEKIEL PROPHESYING. EZEKIEL
This prophet,
like
Jeremiah, was also a priest, and, like him, was sent to a gainsaying
His name denotes "the strength of God," and
people.
the prophets,
is
seizes the singular
the
amber
lightning's flash,
emblems
fire,
bull
of
human
rolling
selves.
to
"
restoration of God's
hard of face and
favor.
This
midst, with solemn earnestness
with
is
It
—the eagle-winged
and complicated forms with mystic
they move,
it is
with the speed of the
thunder or the din of an army.
Countless eyes
name Ezekiel
speaks. vision.
He came
to speak to
His countrymen threw the blame of their exile upon God, and not upon them-
They were
mere
"whether they
Assyrian palaces.
halls of the
be reinforced by such a gigantic
bitter experiences of the Captivity,
rather
When
among
His imagery
and the sapphire throne which crowns the whole aptly suggests
awful and mysterious occupant in whose
unwilling ears.
into strange
and rainbow brightness.
and with the sound of
The prophet needed
sculptors.
dignity and brute strength combined
—and weaves them
indicate boundless intelligence, its
very appropriate to one who,
one who had wandered through the vast
human-headed
wheels, and
is
what Michael Angelo was among painters and
colossal, like that of
lion,
III.
II.,
curiosity
will hear, or
is
shown
than
stiff
of heart
;"
and wholly averse well in
shown
every
in
trait
;
any deep moral
whether they
hardened, rather than softened, by the to the penitence indispensable to the
the
Ezekiel stands
illustration.
but the hearers seem interest.
will forbear."
But
his
listless,
message
in
the
or attending is
to speak,
EZEKIEL PKOrHESVING.
THE VISION OF EZEKIEL. EZEKIEI. XXXVII
Many
grand and impressive visions were vouchsafed to Ezekiel, but none so
that which in
is
The
here represented.
the open valley
—a stretch
Lord had taken Ezekiel and
Spirit of the
where a huge caravan had
of desert
left its
thrilling as
set
him down
skeletons of
man and
beast to bleach upon the yellow sands, or a vast battlefield where thousands and tens of thou-
sands had been told to
slain,
walk to and
and none
fro,
left to
They were very many and very
and, behold
feet,
air,
the bones
!
scene was hardly less dismal and revolting than to
slain, that
prophesy and
they
may
entered into these
live !"
say, "
He
Come One
lifeless forms.
Dry and
disjointed bones
together, the sinews and the flesh crept over
it
—a
in form,
but every hand
vast field of unburied corpses.
was before.
from the four winds,
O
ing skeletons, while, in the rear, are
The
some
breath,
and breathe upon these
and stood upon
picture represents
all
whom
the process
is
Vital breath
their feet, until
the steps in this wondrous
scattered in the foreground; behind in
The
But again Ezekiel received the
after another they arose
lie
of the Lord.
he had been commanded, and
obeyed, and once more the word was efficacious.
there was an exceeding great army. revolution.
and hear the word
Here they were, complete
every eye glazed, every tongue cold and silent
command
these lifeless relics the prophet was
live
there was a peal as of thunder, the earth shook
came
them, and a new skin covered the whole. stiff,
them
dry, but Ezekiel prophesied as
sounded through the desert
as his voice
beneath his
Round
bury them.
and, as he walked, to bid
complete, and
them
who
are
mov-
stand gaz-
ing at the source of this wondrous transformation, while on a height stands the prophet, con-
templating the vision.
The meaning
of the
whole
is
clear.
The bones
in the valley
were no unfitting emblem of
the race of Israel, scattered, divided from each other, and, as a nation, to
the skeleton of Judaism would
come
forth
again clothed with fresh and living beauty. future.
Yet
the body.
all
appearance hope-
But a day was coming when the grave of their captivity would be opened, when
lessly lost.
this could hardly
The power which
moldering dust
;
and
this
and
feel the
What
breath of the Divine Spirit, and be
took place
in
the valley was a type of the
be without suggesting the possibility of a
literal
resurrection of
turned dry bones into animated beings, could do the same with
passage must be counted with those of other prophets, which made
the general resurrection an accepted truth in the days of our Lord's flesh.
HIE VISION OF
KZl-KTF.L.
DANIEL. DANIEL
Under one man
of
X.
Pharaohs Joseph became Prime Minister of Egypt, and recently a
of the early
Jewish descent held the same
office in
Queen
the court of
Victoria.
Between these
there was a long succession of Israelites, who, by the singular gifts of their race, at various intervals
mounted
these
one whose
is
European
to the highest places of Oriental or life
covered the whole period of the
To many
"greatly beloved of God." the Merchant of Venice,
phal story of Susanna
;
English readers he
"a Daniel come but although he
nothing could be hid (Ezekiel
exile, is
Prominent among
states.
and who was
best
known by
called,
to judgment," borrowed, doubtless, is
from the Apocry-
spoken of as one from whose transcendent wisdom
xxviii. 3), his
name and fame
upon other grounds.
rest
character seems to have been a complete and consistent whole from his youth up.
man
of habitual prayer, of firm faith,
prosperity.
His rectitude
of conduct
accusation against him, save turn his head
The
;
in
unshaken constancy
illustration represents
him by the
book
;
His great
a
gifts
find
from
no matter of
God
did not
him proud.
side of the great river,
that bears his name.
His
He was
the same in adversity and in
was so entire that envious foes could
the matter of his religion.
his high position at court did not render
later visions recorded in the
as expressing
of
by Gabriel,
the e.xclamation in
where he received the
His attitude
deep seriousness and thoughtful meditation.
is
chief
simple but appropriate,
THE FIERY FURNACE. DANIEL
The
Hebrews speaks
Epistle to the
the violence of
fire " (xi. 34).
III.
of certain heroes of old
who by
Nebuchadnezzar had
his subjects without exception
were required to bow
erected a vast image of gold, to which
all
down, under penalty of being cast into the midst of a burning
When
who
The answer
modest firmness and our
be
it
known unto
thee,
at once flung into the
intensity
would seem it
to be
far
O
is
The
in this matter.
we
not serve thy gods nor worship the golden image
will
filled
him with
rage,
and he commanded them
sort of furnace here intended cannot certainly
it
have been inclosed of
immense to
size
some way.
in ;
As
and as these persons could be seen
be beyond the reach of harm from
the illustration has conceived the case.
artist
it,
it
in
it
by spectators who
must have been so placed as
The king and
has omitted one characteristic feature of the Scripture.
not alone, but a fourth form i.
c,
something
is
there, with
divine.
afterward became incarnate it
may very
It in
cannot be proved.
well have been the
The
result
was
forth unharmed, for the fire had no
power over
forth.
that the
monarch
They obeyed
The young men
Angel
" like
are
a son of
of the Covenant,
Their
faith
fire
men,
called the courageous
him, and behold
their bodies, " nor
were their coats changed, nor had the smell of
was absolute and complete.
at their
the person of Christ, although, however probable such a
come
singed, neither
from
his counselors,
move about
an aspect so heavenly that he seemed
the servants of the most high God, to
victory
As
it,
way
The
theophany,
to be
be known.
four persons could walk to and fro in
to
above, see the wondrous fact that, instead of being consumed, these Jews
who
not,
if
to the Inspection of persons at a distance.
open
the gods,"
be
If it
But
able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace.
king, that
fire.
enough away
In this
ease.
command
an example of
classic, as
answer thee
of
could be increased by the employment of certain means not here specified,
must have been
were
serve
But these words only
thou hast set up."
its
" \\"e are not careful to
intrepidity.
God whom we
young men has become
of the
body
great
deliberately refused to
the monarch heard of this he cited them before him, renewing the
under the same penalty.
so.
The
fiery furnace.
the citizens consented, but there were three companions of Daniel obey.
quenched
"
their faith
This illustration furnishes an instance.
was an hair
!
they came
had quenched the violence of
head
of their
passed upon them." fire.
Their
THE FIERY FURNACE.
BELSHAZZAR'S FEAST. DANIEL
The
existence of Belshazzar was once asserted to be a
made Nabonidus the
king of Babylon
last
But, in 1854, Sir
derided.
had associated
that he
part of his reign.
who was made
;
mere myth,
since profane history
and the authority of Daniel was impeached and
Henry Rawlinson read on
a cylinder of
Nabonidus the statement
son Belshazzar with him upon the throne, during the latter
his eldest
This vindicated the Scripture narrative, and explained exactly how Daniel,
next to the acting king, should be called " tJiird ruler
discovery from the Assyrian
mation would explain
words
V.
all
monuments goes
in
the kingdom."
far to sustain the position that
the other apparent inconsistencies between the
This
adequate
Scripture
infor-
and the
of credible secular historians.
This
last
king of Babylon was celebrating a profane, riotous
Surrounded by
ordinary interruption.
and
his lords,
his wives,
the sacred vessels brought by his grandfather from Jerusalem,
of the boisterous mirth, there
which met with an extra-
his concubines,
he was not
must needs give a zest to the entertainment by sending
satisfied with the usual revelry, but
only for solemn worship might be
feast,
and
made
the instruments of a drunken revel. "
was a sudden pause.
The
for
order that what had been used
in
But, in the midst
king's countenance changed,
and
his
thoughts troubled him so that the joints of his loins were loosed, and his knees smote one against another."
The
reason was, the fingers of a man's hand came forth and wrote mysteri-
ous characters upon the wall. the king be alarmed
mined
its
It
?
character.
Nobody understood
might be of good
Engaged
this conviction
summon
the
meaning, but
Hebrew
why
should
His conscience deter-
general tenor.
its
It
spoke of
doom dark and
only intensified the monarch's desire to have a fuller disclosure of
vain he asked his wise men.
he
its
omen.
he was, at the time, at a profane, dissolute banquet, there
as
could be only one explanation of
the writing or
as well as of evil
The
secret baffled their power.
And
Daniel, which he did.
Then
deadly; but
its
intent.
In
the queen suggested that
Daniel gave the explanation, prefacing
it
with a solemn warning. It
is
this
ishment
at the
The compan\'
scene which the artist sets forth.
marked with the well-known features
of Assyrian architecture.
are assembled in a stately hall
The
guests are gazing in aston-
mystic message, around which a stream of light pours
Daniel, with outstretclied hand, strikingly depicted in
is
explaining
its
solemn purport.
one of the Hebrew melodies
of Byron.
down upon
The whole
the
hall,
while
scene has been
BKLSHAZZAK'S
IJiAST,
DANIEL
THE
IN
DANIEL
Envy
was he
faithful
in his
So they persuaded the king of any
god or man save no change
effected
VII.
the hearts of the princes of Persia led to the scene here portrayed.
in
the elevation of a foreigner over
and
LIONS' DEN.
tlie
them
high to
office,
make
king,
all,
But so exact
that no colorable charge could be brought against him.
a decree that for thirty days no one should ask a petition
under pain of being
the religious habits of
in
Displeased at
they sought means to overthrow him.
cast into the
Daniel.
He
den of
lions.
This decree
prayed toward Jerusalem,
still
according to the words of Solomon at the dedication of the temple, "If they pray unto the
Lord toward the (i
Kings
viii.
case
which thou hast chosen and the house that
44), just as he
He knew
cealment.
The
city
had been
have
I
the risk that he ran, but deliberately chose to obey
was reported
who was much
to the king,
God
Once
of this fact
found
is
established, even the
encampment
monarch cannot reverse
in the survival of a similar
king (Aga
century a Persian
of this
vast
number
length,
of
was able
rather than man.
to
it.
Medes and
A
our own times.
Persian,
curious illustration In the former part
having, on an expedition, fixed his
convenient place, published an edict not to remove until the snow should
at a
became
custom
Mahmed Khan)
But the snow was unusually slow
disappear from the neighboring mountains. supplies
at con-
displeased with himself, and labored hard to
release his faithful servant from the snare, but in vain, for " the law of the altereth not."
name"
built for thy
and made no attempt
in the habit of doing,
What was
scarce.
men to
clearing
in
keep
his edict
he to do
?
To
away the snow and put
his
army
and
in melting,
escape from the difficulty he employed a that in
was
visible
No
motion.
from the camp, and
so, at
such escape was open to
Darius, and therefore Daniel was cast into the den, which was an excavation walled up at the sides
and having a space on the exterior from which the animals could conveniently be seen.
The
result
is
shown
in
the picture.
night sleepless and fasting
;
Lord was with him and shut the rageous and faithful
harming a hair of
man was
his head.
The
king, mortified at his rashness
but Daniel was as well lions'
off as in his
own
mouths, as he told the king
in the
and
folly,
The
spent the
angel of the
morning.
The
cou-
vindicated in a mar\'elous manner, the ferocious wild beasts not
His persecutors were consigned
to the fate they intended for him.
But for them there was no interposition, no invisible power holding their
house.
bones were broken ere they reached the bottom of the den.
in
check the
lions,
but
all
DANIEL
IN
THE
LIONS' DEN.
THE PROPHET AMOS. AMOS
Somewhere about 800 lous
monarch under
came forward,
whom
e.g.,
during the long reign of Jeroboam H., the able but unscrupU'
the apostate
to speak in the
VII.
I.,
name
kingdom
of Israel attained
of Jehovah, a
man who
its
highest prosperity, there
neither by descent nor training
While he
belonged to the prophetic order, but was simply one of the herdmen of Tekoah. occupied himself with the care of his
Lord reached him, and the
flocks, the call of the
countryman bore the divine message even
to those
who
sat in the seat of kings.
life
prophets do
we
abundance.
Not merely
find rustic
seems to have been of special
his
Nowhere
service.
images given with such vividness, and
originality,
numerous comparisons, but the minute
else
" a
On
the
among
the
child of nature," so to speak, there are no traces of inferiority in style or thought.
contrary, his shepherd
plain
But while
and inexhaustible
lines of conception
and
expression indicate one whose chief familiarity has been with the great picture-book of nature.
Accordingly the illustration exhibits him leaning upon his tation, with his
form brought into strong
and desolate, save the cluster of stunted cactus the outlines of a city's walls and towers.
God
staff,
and rapt
relief against a brilliant sky.
at the
The prophet
left, is
in
profound medi-
Around him
while afar
off
all is
waste
are dimly traced
alone in his silent intercourse with
--«>
THF PROPHKT AMOS.
JONAH CALLING NINEVEH TO REPENTANCE. JONAH
The
prophet mentioned here
is
III.
generally considered to have been contemporary with the
one represented on the [^receding page, but his mission was widely only his countrymen, but Jonah was sent to a heathen people
He
long line of Jewish prophets.
in the
is
—a
Amos
different.
prepared for his work
in
addressed
which he stands alone
fact in
a marvelous way.
Flee-
ing by sea to escape the presence of the Lord and avoid an unwelcome duty, the ship in which
he took passage
upon the dry
and on the third day, having been miraculously preserved, he
fish,
The
land.
deny
Jonah went
xii.
39-41
;
xvi. 4),
Nineveh, the most magnificent of
therefore a fitting representative of the whole.
reckoned by Niebulir
at
prophet began to enter
in
it
It
all
this miracle
may
the capitals of the ancient world, and
was very
and people, and
large, the circumference
and Nineveh
shall be
the act of speaking before a mixed crowd, is
cattle,
make
within
its
being
greater.
it still
It
The
vast limits.
His utterance was very short but weighty,
his message.
forty clays
Opposite the speaker
trition.
fields,
and deliver
"Yet
the one piercing cry,
him
abundantly established by the
and whoever denies
ninety English miles, while later investigators
included parks, and gardens, and
sents
is
swal-
is
vomited
is
the others in Scripture.
all
to
simple verity of these statements
our Lord (Matt.
explicit teaching of
just as well
There he
saved from wreck only by his being cast into the sea.
is
lowed by a huge
who
overthrown."
listen
The
artist repre-
with awe and apparent con-
a huge winged bull with the head of a man, while behind him
are stretched out lofty piles of building with finely-carved colonnades rising one above another.
The
cry was re-echoed from street to street and square to square, until at last
The whole people became convinced
the king on his throne of state.
vious history of the prophet (Luke
mation of his divine mission the
announcement
ingly,
the
— and the nation acted accordingly.
as an evidence that the
doom might be fast,
Everywhere was sackcloth and ashes
new
life.
The
result
The
ruin of
tical
proof that he was the
—the
God
for a century.
of the
them, a people for his possession.
heathen
also,
They
its
it
reached
The
truth.
—a miraculous
pre-
confir-
interpreted the fact of
averted by repentance.
from the king on
was that God accepted
Nineveh was postponed
"
30) was regarded as " a sign
they proclaimed a rigid and universal
stall.
after a
xi.
of
Accord-
his throne to the beasts of
cry of the penitent, and the endeavor their repentance
And
so
and revoked
God gave
and could prepare
his decree.
to his people a prac-
for himself,
even among
J
J
I
r ^
r^
^
1
1 LI
I.
JONAH CALLING NINEVEH TO REPENTANCE.
1
DANIEL CONFOUNDING THE PRIESTS OF
In the Latin Vulgate the of the Destruction of Bel
Book
of Daniel has a fourteenth chapter, containing the Historj-
and the Dragon.
always been rejected by the Jews.
"
And
in
that
;
The
thou canst not say that he
Daniel unto the king, leave,
O
king,
lumps thereof Daniel It
here.
and
I
I
said, is
in
The
;
not extant in
shall slay this
this
pitch,
he put
in
Hebrew
or Chaldee, and has
and the narrative furnishes
as a fable,
it
story set forth in the picture runs thus:
is
this
is
my
God,
:
fat,
and
hair,
Lo, he liveth
is
the living God.
staff.
The king
And
Tlien said
I
give thee
and did seethe them together, and made :
and
!"
explosion has taken place, demolishing the brazen is
me
But give
said,
the act of uttering this triumphant exclamation that the prophet
The background
the
he eateth and
the dragon's mouth, and so the dragon burst asunder
Lo, these are the gods ye worship
wondering consternation.
;
therefore worship him.
for he
dragon without sword or
and
Babylon worshiped.
of
of brass?
no living god
worship the Lord
will
Then Daniel took
leave.
of
same place was a great dragon, which they
king said unto Daniel, Wilt thou also say that drinketh
is
by attributing to Bab)lon the worship of animals, which
that country.
in
This
Jerome spoke
internal evidence of being a fiction
never was practiced
BEL.
idol,
is
n presented
and the people look on
in
occupied with buildings exhibiting the architec-
ture of the time, especially the lofty columns with the peculiar capitals and the Assyrian archi-
trave above.
DANIEL CONFOUNDING THE PRIESTS OF
BET.
HELIODORUS PUNISHED 3
Heliodorus was the treasurer
MACCABEES
IN
THE TEMPLE.
III.
of Seleucus Philopator,
and was sent by him
came
to the
Holy
City,
But as he was about
and no entreaties of the
to put
it
into execution, he
appeared a horse with a terrible other young fell
men
stood,
rider,
one on either
suddenly to the ground,
"
clad in
side,
priests could divert
accordingly
him from
his purpose.
There
was stayed by a great apparition.
armor of gold, rushing upon him, while two
and scourged him with sore
stripes.
compassed with great darkness," and speechless.
ward restored by the intercession
away
to carry
He
the private treasures deposited, for safe keeping, in the temple at Jerusalem.
of the high-priest, Onias, and,
Heliodorus
He was
after-
on returning to the king, bore
witness of the inviolable majesty of the temple.
The
incident has furnished Raphael with the subject of one of his great pictures
composition before us rider, is finely life.
is
every way worthy of
its
author.
The winged
drawn, and the figures of the two youths with scourges
The countenance
of his attendants
of the fallen leader expresses anguish
on either
sternation of the scene.
side,
with the prostrate bodies
in
and
;
but the
horse, with his avenging in their
terror,
hands, are
full
of
and the fleeing forms
the foreground, complete the con
HELIODORUS PUNISHED
IN
THE TEMPLE.
THE NATIVITY. LUKE
A is
FAMou.s prophecy of Isaiah
given, and his
name
shall
(ix.
7-20.
II.,
6) begins thus
:
"
Unto
us a child
sage of the same prophet speaks of one virgin-born, whose
God
with
Son
of
human ferent
Thus
us.
God.
is
announced the transcendent truth
Theophanies, that
form, had often occurred :
of godliness
distinct, the
person
and the great
A
child
every knee shall
The gathered
picture in
great sight.
is
is
fact in
deepest attention, especially great.
is
in
in
Old Testament.
human
human
in
the form
of
/,
c.
of the
But here
is
something
specifically dif-
laid in a
that
This it
The
manger
;
the great mystery
is
has always awakened the contrast
is
yet that child
inconceivably is
he to
whom
confess.
charming representation
The appearance
—the Incarnation
such a union that, while the natures are
occurrence.
its
of the
adoration and surprise, the shepherds
affecting circumstances
of revelation
No wonder
history.
born to obscure parents, and
a
Another pas-
name should be Immanuel,
but one, and so continues forever.
bow and every tongue is
born, unto us a son
occasional and temporary appearances of a divine being in the
the combination of the divine and
and remain
is
be called Wonderful, Counsellor, the Mighty God."
of the apartment,
mother and
child,
around
who were summoned by an
whom
are
angel to see this
and the presence of the animals, suggest the
under which the infant Redeemer was
first
shown
to
men.
THE NATIVITY.
THE STAR
IN
MATTHEW
The
first
visitors
of the
infant Jesus
THE II.,
EAST.
I-I2.
were the shepherds who watched their flocks near
Bethlehem, but the next were persons of a very different social position.
They were
wise
from the East, Persian magi, men of high rank and influence, the depositaries of nearly
knowledge and science and,
bowing the knee
They came from
of their time.
their distant
home
men
all
the
to the lowly cradle,
Their coming was not a mere
to the babe, offered their choice gifts.
aimless marvel, but a type of the long procession of divers tribes and tongues which ever since
has been continuously pressing to the Saviour's
But how came they?
What
adapted to their character and
feet.
guided them
habits.
in
long journey?
their
they detected a new orb, which attracted their attention as
appearance on the earth.
They connected
Judea should rule the world.
And
A
divine intimation
Once, while they were scanning the nightly heavens,
this with the
if
it
were significant of some new
wide-spread tradition that one born
so they set forth to find
him and do him homage.
in
When
they reached the Holy Land the stranger in the heavens reappeared, and guided them to the spot.
The
picture gives the stately procession
the sky the luminous body which
"
The
is
star
That
moving slowly
was so beautiful, large and
all
clear,
the other stars of the sky
Became
a white mist in the atmosphere.
And by
this
Of
on, while before
their guide.
they
knew
that the
coming was near
the Prince foretold in the pru|)necy.
'
them gleams
in
THIC STAR IN
THE
EAST.
THE FLIGHT INTO EGYPT. MATTHEW
It
was predicted
II.,
of the Saviour that he should be despised
prophecy began while he lay a babe
fillment of the
13-15.
in
and rejected of men.- The
the cradle.
The
suspicious Herod,
ful-
who
then ruled the kingdom of Judea, was ready to take any step to remove a presumed competitor
But a divine interposition baffled
for his throne.
his art
and
Joseph, the just man,
cruelty.
received from an angel of the Lord the direction, " Arise and take the
mother and
into
flee
foreign country entirely
point being not ited
The
Egypt."
reasons
beyond the reach
more than
si.xty
of
why Egypt was chosen Herod, and yet
miles from Bethlehem.
It
it
young
was not very
far
off,
into Greek,
and a temple was
tuary at Jerusalem.
enjoy as
The
that in the reign of built
and
It
his
was a
the nearest
was, moreover, extensively inhab-
by Jews, through successive migrations from the time of the Babylonian
became so numerous
child
are obvious.
exile.
They
Ptolemy Philadelphus the Scriptures were translated
on Egyptian
soil,
which, for a time, rivaled the true sanc-
Here, therefore, Joseph would find himself
among
his
countrymen, and
many
privileges as
flight
has been a favorite theme with artists for centuries, but the conception of the
present picture
is
it
was possible
for a
jew
in exile to have.
quite equal to the pathos and tender interest of the incident.
THE FLIGHT INTO EGYPT.
THE MASSACRE OF THE INNOCENTS. MATTHEW
Here
He
rival.
many
but as
denied
its
toward
his
It
dren
Near
sent and destroyed
But
possibility.
in
own
all
had angels
in
full
age
— probably,
— not
sword, near
it
was better
to be
scene
is
was
jealous,
Herod's hog than his
As to
to the
God.
little
ones themselves, to them applies the old motto,
Augustine
heavens to
said, "
testify,
Blessed infants
!
He
who,
at
his birth,
and the Magi to worship him, could surely
have prevented them from dying had he not known that they died not
The
He
keeping with Herod's character.
vil-
some have
so revolting that
never spared age or sex on other occasions, and was so severe
to proclaim him, the
rather lived in higher
merely the- babes,
considering the size of the
strange, therefore, that he should order the death of a score of chil-
a country village.
to the
is
it
He
of
The deed seems
number.
in
When Herod
martyrs for Jesus.
the male children in Bethlehem
children that Augustus Cesar said
not at
is
all
first
resorted to a cruel expedient to secure himself against
more than two years
as were not
and blood-thirsty.
harsh,
son.
men mocked him he
about eighteen or twenty
lage,
16-18.
are what have been not improperly called the
found that the wise
any
II,,
in
that death, but
liliss."
a painful one, but to tliose
details of the masterly picture will
who
can conquer this feeling, the groups and other
repay attentive study.
THE MASSACRE OF THE INKOCENTS.
'
JESUS QUESTIONING THE DOCTORS. LUKE
The
incident here
portrayed
is
II.,
41-51.
remarkable as being the only one recorded of
The
occurred between our Lord's infancy and his maturit}-. the general statement that he was subject to his parents.
loseph and
wa)-.
On
twelve years old. city,
in
Mary had taken
[esus with
them
their return they missed
rest of the interval
The
is
all
that
covered by
exception occurred in a peculiar
to the Passover at Jerusalem,
when he was
him from the company, and went back to the
where, after long search, they found him occupied as the illustration represents, "sitting
the midst of the doctors, both hearing them and asking them questions."
Surely
it
was a strange spectacle
a mere lad surrounded by aged and learned men, yet
:
speaking with such gravity and modesty as
filled
them with astonishment
many apartments of the temple, where the great teachers tomed
to gather,
behold an ingenuous
profound and far-reaching significance about his Father's business the precocity was natural
The
picture
is
;
and
stripling, !
who
The boy
his divine mission
like Hillel
!
In one of the
and Shammai were accus-
not simply listens, but puts inquiries of
feels that
makes
he
itself
is
in
his
Father's house and
conscious to his soul.
In him
— an appropriate intimation of what was to come.
admirable
the central figure standing,
in
composition and expression.
when Luke
says that he
sat.
'Tis a pity that the artist has put
" I'l'ljl'
W{
JESU-j
yUrslIONING THt DOClORb
jESUS HEALING THE SICK. MATTHEW
The
illustration is
The
Consolator.
and
all
manner
no mean
of disease
humanity in its
is
in
heir.
is
among
unable or unwilling to relieve.
scend the reality
rival to the
pleasing theme
IV., 23.
celebrated
the gracious
Son
the people."
There
is
work of
No
of
Man
Ary
all
manner
no danger that the most imaginative
lays his
hand upon the head
all
of sickness
him which he was
case was presented to
gathering around the healer representatives of
Here the Saviour
Schaeffer, entitled Christus
"healing
artist will tran-
the varied
ills
to
of an emaciated child
which borne
mother's arms, while above another mother carries a lad whose vacant face indicates the
lack of reason,
and below a
sick
man
a cripple presses forward to touch the
lies
hem
stretched on the ground. of the Saviour's garment,
other some friend holds up the head of one from
whom
At the
foot of the picture
on one
side,
and on the
the breath seems on the point of
departing.
These miracles
of
mercy carrying comfort and peace to so many hearts and households, are
only type of that grace which heals the yet deeper maladies of the soul, and gives assurance of a higher world, where the inhabitant never says, "
forever ended.
1
am
sick,"
and the days
of
mourning are
J?:SUS
HEALING THE
SICK.
THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT. MATTHEW
This discourse
is
well
the topics treated give to
known
v.,
I,
2.
as the longest recorded utterance of our Lord.
a peculiar authority and importance.
it
It is
This fact and
a popular and effective
statement of the nature of the kingdom of heaven, which |esus came to set up, and which he
had said was
just at
hand
;
and
that subject, and, in contrast,
theology or an ethical code,
it is
attracted the admiration of men.
most apt
to overlook,
between these guide
human
is
and
it
main purpose
its
a
all
Kurun
And
of divine
so,
which prevailed on
without being a system of
knowledge, which,
in
begins with beatitudes upon the classes
every age, has
whom men ;
are
and
which have done more to elevate human thought and
other teachings put together. its
delivery a
hill
on the western shore of the lake of Gali-
Hattm,'' from two horn-like heights which rise sixty feet above the plain
between them, on which there are grassy slopes
Teacher
to correct the errors
ends with a warning which none can afford to despise
Tradition assigns as the place of lee called "
compendium
It
a series of statements
action than
is
to set forth the truth.
sat as represented in the plate,
for the hearers to stand.
and uttered
his
wondrous discourse.
Here the Great
SERATON ON THE MOUNT.
JESUS BLESSING CHILDREN. MARK
The
X., 13-16.
whole Gospel scarcely records a more typical or characteristic feature of our Lord
than the one described here.
In heathenism children have no rights whatever.
times the power of the parent was absolute and irresponsible. ofi''spring
to
abandonment and
death, and philosophers
It
was lawful
deemed such
a course even praise-
worthy when the child was either deformed or weakly, and therefore gave being useful to the
In classic
to expose one's
little
promise
ol
state.
Nothing even looking
in
such a direction can be found
in
was sedulously guarded, and an
its
existence without receiving the token of God's everlasting covenant.
infant
was not allowed
Human
the Mosaic economy.
life
to enter
upon the second week Yet when
of
our
in
Lord's days infants were brought to him for his blessing, the disciples rebuked the parents.
They thought
that
it
was below the Master's dignity
they were doing him honor tlie
record runs that he was "
in
much
displeased
"
He
at their officiousness.
with their cold, haughty, and unfeeling views. itself,
and supposed that
to deal with babes,
keeping away such youthful candidates for his blessing.
He
But
had no sympathy
recognized the worth of each infant
in
as well as the instinctive yearnings of the parental heart.
Hence him from
resulted the scene graphicall}' depicted in the illustration. e\'ery
quarter
:
some borne
in
arms, others on their
own
The
little
feet,
ones come to
while the disciples
stand by, with grave and displeased looks, over against the eager and happy mothers
who
rejoice to receive for their children the benediction of the great prophet.
How
hearts have been comforted by his cheering words, " Suffer
come unto me,
of such
is
the
kingdom
of heaven."
No
forever.
is
children to
for
doubt a very large proportion of the glorified inhabi-
tants of heaven will be found to be of this class.
eighteen centuries ago
little
man}' aching
The Saviour who
ready to do the like now, for he
is
blessed the
little
ones
the same yesterday, to-day, and
lESUS BLESSING CKILURFN.
CHRIST STILLING THE TEMPEST. MATTHEW
The Lake
of Galilee lies in
there are times
On
incredible force, and the result
storm arose, awake him.
tliat
is
themselves.
rebuked them
slept,
nor did even
When wave
after
wave broke over the deck and
for their imbelieving fears
Both obeyed him
still.
The
Vv'as
the eastern
sweep over the vast table-lands
commotion At
sea.
tumult of the wind and
tlie
a mirror, but
On
rain,
the wind as
at once.
;
how it
it
"
it
seemed as
Lord save us
;
we
if
of
of the
first
when
But the disciples were alarmed, as indeed they had reason
Then he turned and rebuked
The calm
smooth as
a most dangerous
soon go down, they came and aroused him with the words,
be
usually as
one occasion, during such a storm, our Lord was crossing the
water was calm and our Lord
left to
hills
lash the waters into a furious tempest.
and gorges, down which the winds
Hauran pour with
waves.
23-27.
deep bed among the
when sudden storms
side there are ravines
the
its
VIII.,
the the
to be.
if
they must
perish."
He
could the ship go to wreck that carried Jesus
?
had been a living power, and bade the angry sea
Not only
did the
wind cease
to blow, but
its
effects also.
great and immediate.
illu.jtration vividl)-
portrays the striking scene
:
the dark night, the dashing waves, the
rocking vessel, the astonished faces of the disciples, and the calm unmoved figure of holds winds and waves
in
the hollow of His hand.
Him who
CHRIST STn.LING THE TEMPEST.
THE DUMB MAN POSSESSED MATTHEW
IX., 32.
It was written of old (Isaiah xxxv., 6), in reference to the tongue of the
dumb
should sing.
A
tlie
times of the Messiah, that then
fulfillment of this prediction
session of an evil spirit, and therefore the
more
hopeless.
the subject of the
is
But the poor unfortunate was not a mute by birth or by
tration here.
by the pos-
whom
his friends
But the Being to
brought the demoniac was one who had the same power over the world exerted upon the various forms of disease. cast out the evil spirit,
The
artist
Nothing was too hard
of spirits
which he
With
word he
for him.
is
against the misery of a
a
and then the dumb spake.
has chosen to put the occurrence at a place where a castellated
three slender palms,
illus-
disease, but
hill,
with two or
relieved against a clear sky, and the calm beauty of nature stands over
human
soul
subdued by
a foul fiend
from the
pit.
The
figures repre-
sent the imploring earnestness of the mute, and the inquiring gaze of the spectators, before
the miracle
is
accomplished which
given such power unto men,"
made "the multitudes marvel and
glorify
God who had
THE DUMB MAN
POSSESSED,
CHRIST IN THE SYNAGOGUE. MATTHEW
The
scene
is
XIII., 54.
the place of assembly in Christ's
from the time of the Captivity.
own
city,
Capernaum.
Such meetings date
Their main purpose was for the public reading of the law, with
which, of course, prayers were joined, and usually an opportunity for exhortation was offered to
whoever would
the land.
avail himself of
others speaking the word. ing,
it.
On
They
It
seemed
refused to believe
his sisters, ings.
?
in
to
men were
astonished, and asked,
They knew
him.
to
Sodom
to heed. in the
all
over
silence,
in
at
his father
Hence
Day
and
his
was so pure,
It
Whence
hath this
receive
its
man
author.
mother, and his brothers and
admit that a prophet could issue from such lowly surround-
So they could see and hear him speaking
for the land of
worship, sometimes
them something supernatural, yet they did not
and were unwilling
and yet be unwilling
Lord there were synagogues
this
His teaching produced a deep impression.
implying a continuous habit.
wisdom
in
the occasion referred to here he " taught," or rather was teach-
so fresh, so genial, so original, that this
In the time of our
Jesus appears always to have joined
of
as
shown
in the picture, as
his solemn declaration that
Judgment than
for
Capernaum.
it
never
man
spake,
should be more tolerable (Matt,
xi.,
24.)
CHRIST IN THE SYNAGOGUE.
THE DISCIPLES PLUCKING CORN ON THE SABBATH. MARK
The
11.,
23-28.
scene gives a vivid illustration of the cold,
governed our Lord's countrymen. through the grain
fields
rigid,
They observed
narrow, superstitious formalism which
the Master, with his
disciples,
walking
on the Sabbath day, and the latter plucking some of the ripe grain.
Immediately they brought a charge of transgression, not because they took what did not belong to them, but because they violated holy time.
on the Sabbath, and when the grinding, and so
childish regulations.
On It is
The law
Nor was
!
the contrary, there were scores and scores of just such pedantic
no wonder, therefore, that our Lord's principal statements con-
for the Sabbath."
course
it
follies,
showing that works of
and mercy on the holy day were always authorized by the Old Testament
well as by reason
of
extreme specimen of
this a solitary or
cerning the Sabbath were directed against their superstitious necessity
forbade plowing and grinding
rubbed the ears of grain together they did a species
came under the prohibition
their puerile extravagance.
ana
disciples
and the nature of
The Sabbath
is
things.
"
a means,
and when a means defeats
For the Sabbath was made
for
its
itself,
own avowed end
ceases to have validity, and not only may, but must, be disregarded.
as
man, and not man of
THE DISCIPLES PLUCKING CORN ON THE SABBATH.
JESUS WALKING ON THE WATER. MARK
VI., 47-52.
Jesus had sent the disciples across the lake, while he dismissed the crowds fed b}' miracle.
As they
land.
and caught
So
that
when even was come they were on
down on
rowed, however, a sudden squall struck
their vessel.
It
was the
last
who had been
the sea, while he was alone on the the lake from the
watch of the night, between three and
hills
around,
six o'clock in
the morning, and the weary boatmen had been toiling at their oars since the night before, but
though the whole distance to be rowed was only Jesus was not with them to
wa3^
still
But suddenly close
to the
broken
light of the stars, a
human form on
affriglited, for
they supposed that
tered or superstitious.
it
"
skill
of the
had availed
will
There
is
tremble at the sight of what he sup-
something
But the
spirits.
outcry, for they
This was not because they were unlet-
spirit.
The most courageous man
shrink from close contact with the world of
in
disciples'
men which makes them terror
was only
for the
Presently they heard above the noise of winds and waves the words of a well-known
Be
of
good
cheer,
which the
artist
has taken for his sketch, which well suggests the cheering Saviour, the rag-
voice tive
strength and
At once there was an
the sea.
was a
poses to be a being from the other world.
moment.
had made but two-thirds
own
boat they saw, through the gleam of the water and the
little.
were
six miles, they
the wind, and their
:
it
is
be not afraid."
I,
It
is
apparently this juncture
ing sea, and the storm-tossed boat. " Jesu, Deliverer
Come thou
my
Soothe thou
Over
!
to
life's
sea
me
!
voyaging !
Thou, when the storm of death Roars sweeping by. Whisper, '
Peace
O
Truth of Truth "
!
It is I
I
'
!
in
the narra-
'
1
¥«uiiiSiii^ I,
'
i,'i
^iM
''III,
illilllilihal^
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CHRIST'S
ENTRY INTO JERUSALEM. MARK
XL,
This picture represents an unexampled scene he had entered Jerusalem on foot and
comes
in royal state,
Nor
this accidental.
is
in
While yet
at a distance foal,
our Lord's
from the holy
garments
The
proclaim himself the Messiah, to enter the holy
in
ix.
9), as
On
all
city, as
air
previous occasions
Here, however, he with exulting shouts.
he was approaching from
the animal and set forth around the southern
of his disciples spreading their
branches of the trees and strewing them before him.
(Zech.
life.
belonging, no doubt, to one of his disciples, and,
when the commission was obeyed, he mounted some
in
the most unpretending manner.
preceded and followed by crowds who rend the
Bethany, he sent for a she-ass with her
slope of Olivet,
i-io.
city,
in
the way, others cutting
down
design was thus once publicly to
accordance with ancient prophecy
a king; not indeed politically, or in rivalry with the existing government, but
as a Prince of Peace, without arms, or trophies, or trains of captives.
Men
should see him
openly assuming the appearance and claims of the Christ of God, so that misconception would
be no longer possible.
He
therefore
favor, but accepted freely the loud
The
artist
made no attempt
to check the popular feeling in his
and frequent hosannahs.
has evidently caught the spirit of the scene, and the varied postures and gestures
of the attendant
crowd well convey the enthusiasm
of the occasion.
CHRIST'S
ENTRY INTO JERUSALEM.
JESUS
AND THE TRIBUTE MONEY. MARK
Here
is
the result of an artful attempt to embroil the Master with the
The Jews were
the unwilling subjects of the
tain persons to
him
tribute
XII., 13-17.
to ask, as sincere
money exacted by
Roman
and anxious
Caesar, or not.
If
power.
inquirers,
civil authorities.
So our Lord's enemies sent whether
he answered that
it
it
was
were lawful
lawful,
cer-
to give the
he would offend
the ultra-national party
among
other hand, he said
was wrong, he would draw down upon him the wrath of the Roman
rulers.
Danger
Yet the
it
the people, and appear to side with their oppressors.
lay on either hand,
plot utterly
miscarried.
Our Lord perceived
asked them whose image and superscription said, "
that are God's."
To
it
bore.
no reply was
possible.
between the serene countenance of Jesus and the
whom
He
the hypocrisy and malice which
directed a coin to be brought, and then
The answer
Render unto Caesar the things that this
on the
and extrication seemed impossible.
prompted the question, and answered accordingly.
whereupon he
If,
was, of course, "Caesar's;"
are Caesar's, and to
The engraving
God
the things
displays the fine contrast
sinister looks of the hypocritical
he thus foiled to their exceedine astonishment.
tempters
JESUS
AND THE TRIBUTE MONEY
THE WIDOW'S MARK
MITE.
XII, 41-44.
In one of the fore-courts of the temple was " the treasury," where were offerings of the people for the support of public worship.
their gifts.
Many
On
one occasion our Lord of all classes casting in
who were
of these "
and bestowed only
and
rich cast in gold
silver,
to express
it.
gift
our Lord
in the rear is uttering the
known and remembered wherever widow hath
that this poor all
they did cast
all
her living."
of their
in
The grounds
She might have given one her daily income.
and possess no
Her
cast
A
;
than
all
"
but she of her want did cast in
of the divine
commendation are
it
Imperfect
sacrifice to her,
I
shown
in the fact that
men managed
say unto you
all
For
that she had, even
— she gave —doubtless the entire amount cf live
all.
Irom hand to mouth, after day.
she gave to the temple treasury what
the funds, and often they were
and required very considerable
self-denial,
ill
applied
Small as the
;
gift
but
was
and hence our Lord's
People often talk of giving their mites when they do not even approach the widow's
generosity, for they give of their abundance and afterward have of her
Verily
what she received from one source or another day
piety and liberality are
was a great
ostentatiously open-
distinctly specified
two mites, but she gave both
they were for the glory of God, and she proposed to do what she could.
praise.
is
they which have cast into the treasury.
person so poor as the widow would necessarih'
capital except
cost her so much.
in
abundance
of the
who
words which have made the widow's
the Gospel has been preached.
more
being so small that
gift
In the illustration her timid,
shrinking form stands in strong contrast with the complacent Jew
And
but one poor widow came
two mites, which make a farthing," the whole
Western nations have no coin minute enough
ing his purse.
the
and observed the constant stream of persons
trumpet-shaped openings, into which the money was dropped. sat opposite the place,
received
There were numerous chests with
want and had nothino;
left.
The
enough
to spare
next meal's victuals was to be earned.
;
but she gave
THE WIDOW'S
MITE.
RAISING OF THE
DAUGHTER OF
LUKE
On
and only
his first
visit to
JAIRUS.
VIII., 41-56.
Gadara, east of the Sea of Galilee, our Lord was entreated by
the people to withdraw, which he did
;
but no sooner had he returned to his
own
than he
city
found the crowd eagerly waiting to receive him, and among them one anxious and heartstricken man, Jairus, a ruler of the synagogue,
our Saviour with
all
the Master, and the case of the suffering
touched
faith the
in
hem
of
his
over.
to him.
The
Be not
The crowd had
alread}'
father, therefore,
afraid,
woman who,
and who besought
But the crowd hung round
unwilling to face him, yet stooped and
came
that the
was bidden not
young
girl
to trouble the
had breathed her
Master farther
;
last
;
so
and
all
but Jesus said
only believe.
of relatives
begun
lay dying,
garment, and so was healed, retarded his movements
that ere he had reached the house news
was
whose daughter
the passion of a father's love, to save his child.
and friends that always throng
keeping with our Lord's purpose.
to a
chamber
of death in the East,
and lamentations, but the noise and confusion was not
their pitiful cries
So he dismissed them
John, with the father and the mother of the
wrought with a word the wondrous
girl,
restoration.
all,
entered the room where the body
The
illustration represents
Maid,
arise."
is
seen
bowed
health.
His voice recalled the departed in
spirit,
speechless agony over the couch
and
lay,
him laying
hand upon the maiden's brow, but the Gospel says that he took her by the hand and "
in
and taking only Peter, James and
his
said,
and the anguished mother whose form
received her daughter alive and in
full
"fj :^\ .^K*v$
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-_' I
'
RAISING OF THE DAUGHTER OF JAIRUS.
THE GOOD SAMARITAN. LUKE
The
X., 2(^-37.
road from Jerusalem to Jerichu leads through a wild and desolate ravine, which
Lord's time was notorious for being- infested with robbers, as for people to travel alone.
A
ing of his parables.
So
lonely road to Jericho, a priest, and after
far
lilni
a
were too
selfish
from
Levite, office,
that, the
Master
who saw
tliis
his raiment
acted as well as
neighbor? apparently
the
Jew who,
wounded man, but gave him no
was Jewish
felt.
and
Then came 9) with
iv.
He
the
relief.
distress,
Both
but they
another, a Samaritan,
He
Jews.
and that a case of
territory,
half dead.
He
traveling on the
Presently there came along
dead.
ought to have been ready to help a case of
might have
distress like this
But he did nothing of the
should be cared for by the countrymen of the sufferer.
He
my
is
a story of a
tells
left half
or too unfeeling to turn out of the way.
saw a man stripped of his aid.
Who
had asked.
belonging to a race which "had no dealings" (John
excused himself by saying that
our
accordance with the narrow prejudices of the Jewish
in
was robbed and beaten, and
were men who, from their
in
even to-day a dangerous road
is
here that the Saviour laid the scene of one of the most touch-
It is
self-righteous lawyer
supposing that the answer would be nation at that time.
it
He
sort.
asked no questions, but at once went to
spared no pains or expense
in
befriending the helpless
Stranger as he was, he went to him. bound up his wounds, set him on his own beast,
man.
brought him to an with the charge,
took care of him, and on departing the next day, gave the host money
inn,
Take
care of him, and whatsoever thou spendest more,
when
I
come again
I
will repa}- thee.
The
illustration exhibits the
generous Samaritan guiding the horse and keeping poised
in
the saddle the poor sufferer.
No
finer expression
is
to
be found
in
not to be restricted to any one race or question to be asked
is.
sacrifice, in
those
who
All
but
men admire
trouble,
is
If so,
?
Go
man all
thou and do likewise.
and there may be
much happier than
every
good Samaritan, but
are aided, but the duty remains the same.
performed, this world would be
The
to be world-wide in its sweep.
need
the
said at the close of the parable.
money and time and
genuine charity.
literature of the nature of
Is there real distress, real
aid according to his means.
what the Saviour
any class,
it is.
If
it
little
is
bound
It is
only
to render
do not remember It
may
entail self-
or no return in gratitude from
were universally or even generally
THE GOOD SAMARITAN.
ARRIVAL OF THE SAMARITAN AT THE
The
parable
is
so movino- and instructive that two illustrations of
Three hours from Jerusalem there rest
and refreshment.
It
incidents are given.
its
stands a khan by the roadside, where travelers stop for
still
was doubtless
that the Samaritan conveyed the
INN.
to a building of the
man whom he was
same
kind,
The
helping.
if
artist
not on the same spot, represents him care-
fully lifting the
victim of the robbers
to receive him,
and a female figure looks on from the balustrade above
worthy of kindness.
his beast, while the host with outspread
off
mind the thoroughness
illustration as bringing vividly before the
He
ful provision
meets
has been
all
The of
arms waits incident
is
the Samaritan's
the wants of the case, and does not leave the sufferer until every need-
made
for him.
He
beheld
Bound Set
his
him on
l!ie
poor man's need,
wounds, and with his
own good
all
spee
1
steed,
.\nd brought him to the irn.
When
our Judge shall reappear,
ThinKest thou
this
man
will
hear
" Wherefore didst thou interfere ^Vith
No "
!
what concerned not thee
the words of Christ will run,
Whatsoever thou hast done
To
this
poor and suffering one.
That
hast thou
done
to
me
!
" ?
ARRI\'.VL
OF THE SAMARITAN AT THE
INiJ.
THE PRODIGAL LUKE
The
picture gives the closing scene of wliat has been called the pearl of the parables, one
containing the very heart of the Gospel and stating
and pathos
ness, grace
wanders
comes
SON.
XV., 11-32.
off
from
is
wholly unequaled
and sinks so low as
Yet even
Jew, a swineherd.
to get " the husks," or rather
it
in a narrative,
become what was
to
in this painful situation
pods of the carob
tree,
While thus
times are eaten by the very poor.
the abundance that prevailed in the happy
yet a great prodigal,
way
and
this
It is
off his father
lavish
for the past or
He
of his
At
last
he
and was glad
loss for food,
came
distressed " he
home he had
to
to
himself,"
and recalled
Forthwith he resolved to return
left.
fulfill
saw him, and without waiting ran
upon him every token
living.
which are usually fed to swine, and some-
was not allowed
set out, but
vivid-
wayward son
things most offensive to a
all
he was at a
A
it.
in riotous
of
with confession of his shame and unworthiness, and ask even to be
he once had been a son.
which for simplicity,
the Scripture or out of
house and squanders his means
his father's
to utter want,
in
at
made
a hired servant
his purpose.
where
While he was
once to receive the returning
compassionate love, without a word of reproof
even admonition for the present.
meeting which stands before us
in
the illustration.
The poor
with bowed head, the father clasping him to his heart with a face upturned heaven, the servants hurrying from
all
directions to the
place,
outcast, kneeling
in
thanksgiving to
and the dogs barking
their
welcome.
The
parable
is
so plain that
its
meaning cannot be mistaken.
his father's house, his sin leading to
from
want and
The
sinner, a voluntary exile
suffering, at last delusions
swept away, the
sense of guilt and unworthiness aroused, the humble confession, and the returning steps home-
ward
;
than
we
then the exceeding grace of are to
ask, ready to
God
bestow a
anticipating the uttered petition, full
penitent in the position he had so recklessly abandoned.
age have been comforted by
more ready
to give
and immediate forgiveness and to reinstate the
this affecting exhibition of
How many
distressed souls in every
Divine compassion
!
Xilh I'RODIUAL SO.N.
LAZARUS AND THE RICH MAN. LUKE
The
XVI.
leading features of this parable are familiar to every reader of Scripture.
When
dressed in costly robes and lived in splendid luxury. stately funeral, but
hand there
beyond the grave he
lay at his gates a
longed to be fed with what
beggar
"lifted
full of
bosom, that
is,
a place of
The whole range particular. is
The
rest, safety,
and
is
being
in
On
torments."
rich ;
He,
man's table.
too, died, and, as
fidelity,
except
and striking
in
one point where there
man was
Not
ments.
All^that
better uses to be
we
much
are told
made
an addition
One
servant
is
given
less that
in the narrative.
that he simply lived
is
money than simply
of
It
does not appear that the rich
he was an habitual violator of any of the ten command-
to
to
He knew
himself.
consume
it
in
that there were
sensual pleasures.
He
within sight a fellow being in a wretched condition whose wants he could easily relieve.
he took no steps his selfish
he
did,
The
in this direction
and had no concern whether Lazarus lived or
unconcern for others of the same
but what he failed to do that drew Scripture nowhere
thing depends upon the
is
the beggar, and another as ready to enforce the warning with a
off
a hint of this kind
cruel or harsh,
is
every
in
The scene
which took place on earth.
not warranted by the evangelists, and mars the teaching of the parable.
scourge.
would
it
bliss.
illustration exhibits the first stage, that
represented as warning
the other
but his soul was carried by angels to Abraham's
of fiction hardly presents a contrast so complete
portrayed with great liveliness and
that
his eyes
sores which the dogs licked, and so abject that he
from the
fell
seem, had only a poor and hasty interment
up
Dives was
he died he was honored with a
condemns the
way
in
flesh
and blood that ruined him.
down heaven's
It
died.
had But
It
was
was not what
displeasure.
rich as sinners or praises the
which men conduct themselves
in their
poor as
saints.
Every-
varying circumstances.
LAZARUS AND THE RICH MAN.
THE PHARISEE AND THE PUBLICAN. LUKE
The but
great trouble with the people of our Lord's day was not the quantity of their religion,
They were very
qualit)-.
its
They were
the Pharisees.
but
all
was
own
their
cold,
excellence,
Two men as other
and looked with
went up
recital
edgment
of sin
is
finely
expressed
temple to pray.
to the
own
of his
merits.
and no supplication
accompanied with an uncharitable
His case
his sins.
is
No
directions;
the illustration before
in
and the extent of
God
that he
was not
His prayer was
his tithes.
contained no confession and no petition, no acknowl-
It
And
for pardon.
reflection
m.an
Saviour
us.
One, the Pharisee, thanked
his fasts
sense of
the proud profession of excellence was
upon a brother sinner
— "or even as And
is in
the case of a sick
such a hopeless state as he
man who
who
this publican."
yet he was
is
in
a
not sensible of
has no more pain because mortification has
in.
The
publican pursued a course exactly opposite.
He
near.
was a
smote upon
his heart in
He
prayer, asking for a great spiritual blessing.
real
stood afar off as
He
token of contrition.
It
if
offered a most
was an humble prayer,
me
"to
He
the sinner."
And
offer.
merciful to
the
word he uses
is
/.
me
t\,
the
to
draw
becoming prayer.
own
Unlike
pressing wants.
a sinner," or rather, according to the original,
was a great
that he
so he asks for mercy,
And
claim.
" lie felt
unworthy
was a personal prayer.
the Pharisee he had nothing to say about other people, but expressed his It
many
soul.
so he stands in the plate, a picture of self-satisfaction and pride.
most dangerous condition.
It
the body of the people as represented by
is,
Men were puffed up with a contempt upon others. To meet this case, the
men, and recited the number of
simply a
set
religious; that
punctilious in devout observances, and laborious in
dry and formal, a body without a
uttered the parable which
And
XVIII, 9-14.
sinner, with
bestowment
no excuse to make, no pleas to
of that to which in himself he has no
one that implies a reference to propitiation as the ground of
confidence.
The
result
was
in
accordance with the character of the prayers.
ing by his act of worship. e\'er
is.
exalted.
He
The
publican,
on the contrary, went
that exalteth himself shall be abased,
Humility
is
among
the
first
The
home
Pharisee took noth-
justified.
And
and he that humbleth himself
and foremost graces of the Christian character.
so
shall
it
be
THE PHARISEE AND THE PUBLICAN.
WOMAN OF
JESUS AND THE
JOHN
the few ancient sites in Palestine which are certainly determined
Among
known
Sychar, filled
Here our Saviour, on
his
way
neighboring city to buy bread. is
the custom for
day
to Galilee, one
As he
women
sat
in that
still
it
is
at
noon
the well
is
of
Although neglected, and sometimes
from extreme antiquity as " Jacob's Well."
up by the ignorant Mohammedans around,
water, as
SAMARIA.
IV., 1-30.
to
be visited and
its
water tasted.
rested, while his disciples
went
upon the well-curb there came a woman
To
country to this day.
to the
to
draw
her great surprise our Lord
entered into conversation with her, asking her to give him to drink, and then offering to give her the
livino-
water that springeth up unto everlasting
her previous history as living with one as the
Messiah who was to come.
and went
to the city, to tell
ished to find
The
The woman was
who gave up
and who revealed
his
his mission
it
that
own
the disciples returned they were aston-
woman
a Samaritan.
woman
and power.
doubtless was in the days of our Lord's
flesh.
At Sychar's
When Thy
O
The
Lord, to thee
lonely well,
a poor outcast heard thee there great salvation
tell.
" And, Lord, to us, as vile as she,
Thy
gracious
That mystery
At Jacob's
lips
failed to see
have told
of love, revealed well of old."
daughter
that was a sinner. well
is
given, not as
The touching
Buggestiveness. " Sweet was the hour,
They
rest for the sake of teaching the
even to a
illustration presents the scene with grace
but as
Afterward he shewed that he knew
so impressed that she left her water-pot
When
him conversing with a woman, and
of an alien race,
life.
not her husband, and proclaimed himself to her
what she had heard.
the tender grace of their Lord,
is,
who was
story
it
now
is still full
of
JESUS
AND THE WOMAN OF SAMARIA
JESUS AND THE
WOMAN TAKEN JOHN
The genuineness ceded by most
scholars that
which
was not a part
of the original writing, but
some way became incorporated with the
apostolical
tradition,
certainly a
most appropriate and
it
it
ADULTERY.
Gospel has long been questioned.
of this passage in John's
critical
IN
VIII., 3-II.
in
significant record, so
much
like
In itself
text.
con-
a genuine it
is
our Saviour's method that
could hardly have been invented.
Men
brought to him a
fallen
what was to be done with
woman whose
not
—thus
sin
his fingers
commanded
was not
it
first
his
duty to interfere with the ad-
But, determined to entrap him, they continued their questions, where-
cast a stone at her."
He
He
"
upon he arose and administered a pungent rebuke, him
that such should be stoned.
wrote upon the ground as though he heard them
expressing, in the gentlest way, that
ministration of justice.
was manifest and undeniable, and asked him
law
her, saying that the
Our Lord stooped down, and with
did not justify the
that
woman
is
without
sin
Did they themselves have
?
clear consciences
then he resumed his writing upon the ground. science,
The
went
out,
one by one, beginning
illustration
tells
the story.
as to the
among
you, let
or palliate her sins, but reminded
her accusers that they as witnesses were, by the law, to be the executioners. so
It is is
Seventh
Could they be
Commandment
And
?
But they being convicted by their own con-
at the eldest
even unto the
The crouching
penitent,
last.
imploring yet shrinking, the
scowling Pharisees, and the dignified Saviour with the marks on the ground where he wrote.
The
incident illustrates the
superhuman wisdom and grace of our Lord.
remembering how he had eaten with publicans and wash
his feet with her tears
and wipe them with her
sinners, hair,
His foes come,
and allowed a penitent harlot to
and they bring
Yet, so far from putting him to
poor woman, thee."
It is
the
not
shame they were put
Lord dismisses her
my
in
province to act the
to
shame themselves.
the most becoming way. civil
she mitrht think that her offense was light or
"
hoping
this case
induce him to say something that would either contradict the law of Moses or his
own
And
Neither do
as for the I
judge or to pronounce any sentence.
trivial,
he adds the words,
"
Go and
to
words.
sin
condemn But
lest
no more."
JESUS
AND THE WOMAN TAKEN
IN ADULTERV.
THE RESURRECTION OF LAZARUS. JOHN
The
picture
is
XI.
quite true to archseology in representing the grave as a loculus or recess cut
in tlie side of a natural
Here the
cave and closed by a huge stone fitted into a groove.
slab
is
up the daughter
of
seen thrust aside, and the sheeted dead walking forth to the surprise of the beholders.
The
event
Before, our
the third of the kind.
itself is
Lord had
Jairus soon after her death, and had resuscitated the only son of his funeral procession
was on the way
had
in
lain for
days
the tomb.
to the cemeter}'.
The whole
narrative
He
is
extremely touching.
believeth in
me
shall
never die."
deep sorrow, mingles
Coming
his
Then he meets
tears with hers,
tomb he orders the stone
to the
I
am
me, though he were dead, yet shall he
in
the other
and the Jews to
stir
"Said
I
not unto thee that
if
But what was
life
come to
forth,"
And whosoever and groaning
sister,
say, " Behold,
be rolled away.
Even
and the miracle
itself
to the deliberate
in spirit at
how he
yet
in
:
he
and her
loved him."
Martha could not
But the answer came,
God?" ears
and the miracle was accomplished.
social importance, the witnesses
The
parties
and express determination that he must all
as to the
fact.
For
The
die. in
were so well
were so many and various,
was so astounding, that from that moment the enemies
the time and the opportunity, not at
life
liveth
Lord uttered the words which reached the
Lazarus was death to his benefactor.
known, the family was of so much
away
when death
thou wouldst believe, thou shouldst see the glory of
after a thanksgiving to his Father, the
of the dead, " Lazarus,
afterwards
is
the resurrection and the live.
believe in the great blessing she was to receive, and remonstrated.
Then
;
one who
of
Jesus
meets Martha, and after receiving her implied
reproach, utters the sublime and comforting words, " that believeth
at Nain, the
But here the case was that
Perea when he hears of the sickness of Lazarus, but he does not has ensued he goes to the bereaved family.
raised
mother when
of our
Lord came
only question was as to
no other way, as they supposed,
could they save themselves and maintain the existing posture of
affairs in
church and
state.
THE RESUKKtLllUiN uF LAZARUS.
MARY MAGDALENE. MARK
The
illustration presents the
XVI,
form of a broken-hearted penitent, bowing before a skull amid
surroundings of a somber and awful character.
woman Mary
who,
of
deep abasement, bewails her
in
The
Magdala.
"possessed of seven devils,"
who were
countenances such a suspicion.
to his wants.
But
sin.
cast out
of these
it
is
in
no sense or degree a picture of
"a sinner"
by our Lord.
Nor
is
She was a woman
women who accompanied
One
therefore a just delineation of a fallen
is
is
the Scripture narrative.
in
not an impeachment of moral character.
of Galilean
It
prevalent notion that she was
which has not an atom of support
band
g.
women was
an ecclesiastical tradition
It
true that
is
Mary was
But demoniacal possession
there anything recorded of
is
Mary which
of position and means, and the head of the
our Lord on his later journeys and ministered
the wife of an important
ofificer
in
the household of
Surely such persons would not have chosen as their leader one whose
Herod Antipas.
reputation had previously been tainted.
Mary's gratitude for her deliverance from demoniacal possession led her to attach herself to the service of the
sepulcher.
And
with spices to
Master with singular
at the early
embalm
dawn
affection.
of the
first
that sacred person
She was
It is
a pity
that,
the
memory
first
And
first at
the
Even
the
as a fitting record for her extra-
sight of the risen Saviour.
of such an
eminent disciple should be tarnished
ages by being associated with houses of refuge for the fallen of her sex
been of the number.
and
which she had seen so cruelly treated.
death of Jesus did not impair her devoted attachment. ordinary love, to her was granted the
last at the cross
day of the week she went with her companions
—as
if
for so
many
she had ever
MARY MAGDALENE,
THE LAST SUPPER. MATTHEW
This theme has often been treated by is
familiar
occasion.
by copies
The
at least to
Yet
all.
XXVI,
and the famous fresco of Leonardo
artists, is
the
26-29.
work
of
Dore quite worthy
of
at
Milan
him and
of the
Master's countenance, the youthful John on his right, and the blended eager-
ness and apprehension of the rest of the group, well befit the institution of that tender and
solemn sacrament which
is
to perpetuate the
memory
of his sacrificial death
till
time shall be
no more. It is
a characteristic manifestation of the Saviour's love that " the night in which he
was
betrayed," and only a few hours before his passion, he occupied himself with what would be for the
them
comfort of his people
in instituting this
of the bod)- given to death on the cross,
the remission of sins.
which guilt
is
blessed
rite.
The broken bread was
and the poured out wine,
Both elements together were a memorial of the one great
expiated and pardon secured.
obey the dying command.
And
Each has been ready When And
rest
of
mine
on Calvar)',
God,
my
must remember
in all
to say
to the cross I turn
O Lamb I
hence
sacrifice,
thee.
eyes,
to
remind
of the blood shed for sacrifice
by
ages believers have delighted to
THE LAST
SUPPER.
THE AGONY
IN
LUKE
On
Mount
the western slope of the
which
very venerable olive
trees,
the exact spot, but
somewhere
is
of
OHves there
called the
in this
THE GARDEN. XXII.
Garden
vicinity
is still
shown an
of Gethsemane.
inclosure having It
may
or
may
some
not be
was the place consecrated by the passion
of
our Lord.
Here he bore the chastisement
On him
for a world's ransom.
the aggregated sorrows of the
widowed
collect the tears of
every
battle-field, the
of our peace.
Here he endured the
human
family, before
and
compared with which
since, are nothing.
"
Yes,
if
we
could
wives, and childless mothers, and forsaken orphans, the cries of
groans of every hospital, the shrieks of every torture-room, the unheard
sobs which have been stifled in the prison-house, and expression
travail of soul required
there rested at that hour a load of grief
—they would
all
those deeper agonies which never find
be as nothing to the single pang which wrung his heart upon that
awful night."
The face,
picture has given
but art has no
was so great that
line
it
some
of the lines of sinless
sorrow which marred the Redeemer's
long enough to sound that deep, deep sea to the bottom.
forced the sweat like drops of blood
needed a white-winged angel from heaven
The agony
out of every pore, and there was
to impart strength to his tottering bodily frame.
THE AGONY
IN
THE GARDEN.
PRAYER OF JESUS
IN
THE GARDEN OF
MATTHEW
When from
Then
sight.
a deeper shade
The
to pray.
three of
and a remoter
them
solitude,
prone on the ground, he prays that
The prayer Father, wilt."
if
it
is
remarkable for
be possible,
His human nature
overborne as he
is
let
this
slirinks
if it
its
four pass in recline
and
He
me
:
nevertheless not as
from the unutterable agony and
forms are
their
I
will,
"
;
yet
still
still,
Thrice the prayer
Meanwhile the three chosen companions are they sleep, sleep at that dread
perfect through suffering.
O my
but as thou
cries out for relief
load, he submits to his Father's will.
made
till
combination of earnestness and submission.
rouses them once and again, but is
the olive trees
there, not as the picture presents him, upright, but
cup pass from
by the crushing
the captain of their salvation
among
on the ground, while the Master presses on into
were possible the cup might pass from him.
repeated, and thrice the qualifying clause. ing.
XXVI., 36-45.
Jesus came to Gethsemane, he bade his disciples wait while he, takina; Peter, James,
and John, went forward lost
OLIVES.
is
sleep-
moment when
PRAYER OF
ji:sr:.
ix Tin: i:auii;.>:
of olives.
THE BETRAYAL. LUKE
It
XXII.
was while our Lord was remonstrating with the
torches was seen through
the olive trees and the
disciples for their sloth that the glare of
noise of the approaching soldiers heard.
Presently the whole band appeared, and Judas gave the appointed signal to the rest by going
up to the Master with the hypocritical salutation,
" Hail,
Rabbi," and kissing him tenderly.*
So was accomplished the most enormous wickedness the earth has
The enemies accomplish the people in
a
it,
if
of our
since he
Lord were
they arrested him
price of a slave.
open
in
One
and paid him
offer,
determined upon
thou the Son of
The
to
disciples offered to
?
sum
shown
fulfilled his bargain, as
whom
eagerly
—the
in
The
the illustration.
he so cruelly injured was, "Judas, betrayest
The serene sorrow and
"
They
betray him.
of thirty pieces of silver
dignified calm of the Saviour con-
with the eager and excited look of his betrayer.
plain statements of Scripture forbid the belief that
But he seems
motive than avarice. cate himself from the
condemnation were
away
with a kiss
own
for his crime the despicable
The wretched man
man
how
but were at a loss
But they were relieved from their embarrassment
da)-.
of his
only reproof he received from the Being
trast finely
seen.
his death,
had numerous friends and they were afraid of making an uproar among
most unexpected way.
accepted the
fully
to the
hand
to
of his foes.
to be followed
by
temple to cast down his
had betrayed.
This did not
who knew our Lord,
^'
When
he saw that
crucifixion,
This
is
it
he was without
the full
meaning
of the
in
some way
was not done, but that
this
remorse seized upon his
ill-gotten silver
alter the result, but
to the fact that
Judas was actuated by any other
have supposed that our Lord would
soul,
and proclaim the innocence
added sin.
word used
in
Mark
:
and
and he hurried of the
testimony to that of
his
extri-
trial
all
man he others
THE BETRAYAL.
CHRIST FAINTING UNDER THE CROSS. MARK
One
XV,,
21.
of the aggravations of crucifixion was that the victim was compelled
instrument of his torture to the place of execution. humiliation.
Our Lord was
to
carry the
not spared this added
Faint with vigils of the preceding night, with the rudeness and insults of the
crowd and the
terrible scourging,
he sank under the weight of his burden.
impatient, and seizing a foreign-born Jew, just
coming
in
The guard grew
from the country, compelled him
to
share the load.
The
finely-drawn illustration reproduces with great force the fallen form of the Master and
the sturdy limbs of his involuntary companion.
CHRIST FAINTING UNDKR THE CROSS.
a
THE FLAGELLATION. MARK
XV.,
This painful picture represents a scene from sacred person of the
Redeemer was subjected
punishment which usually preceded endurance of the thorn-crowned
ened
The
The
fain hide his eyes.
brutal scourging of artist *lias well
Roman
lictors
represented the
—
meek
every stroke, but he murmured not, threat-
felt
not.
This in
He
one would
wiiich
to the
crucifixion.
sufferer.
15.
was but one item
infliction
view of
its
relation
Messiah, in Isaiah
(liii.\
in
it is
Yet
a series.
to ancient prophecy. said of him,
"and with
long afterwards were quoted by the Apostle I^eter cause of our Lord's sufferings.
has peculiar interest to believers,
it
In the remarkable prediction of the suffering
The heavy
his stripes
(1.
ii.,
swung
rods
we
are healed"
in
the
air,
—the
and
and coming down with
tremendous force upon the Redeemer were to him torture and dishonor, but to the reverse
—words which
24), in setting forth the nature
his people just
chastisement which procures their peace, the expiation that heals and saves
their souls.
What
thou,
AVas
my
all for
Lord, hast suffered
sinners' gain
:
Mine, mine, was the transgression,
But thine the deadly
Lo
!
here I
fall,
my
pain.
Saviour
'Tis I deserve thy place
Look on me with thy Vouchsafe
to
me
:
:
favor,
thy grace.
Tipi'iilJIM^^
''
r'
/
THE FLAGELLATION.
THE CRUCIFIXION. MATTHEW
Death by
the cross was the most dreaded and shameful punishment of antiquity, one the
very name of which, Cicero
Roman
XXVII., 45-49.
said,
should never come near the thoughts, the eyes, or
citizen, far less his person.
It
was wholly unknown to the Jews
heathenism, which had no compassion or reverence for nals.
Yet
this
was the death by which the Saviour
the midst between two highway robbers, as
Although men were so
motive of the picture.
It
is
this
Darkness overhangs the
Amid
the
as man,
;
upon the worst
men was doomed
to die.
latter
Nature was
if all
undiminished affection.
else forsook
not.
The
"
Love
is
earth quaked, the
place, but a single sheet of lightning illumines
gloom are seen the mounted
him and
in
token of sympathy which furnished the
soldiers overseeing the tragedy,
while by the side of one of the rent rocks stand the veiled figures of the holy
determined, even
of crimi-
He hung
the worst of the three.
indifferent to the scene.
rocks were rent, the sun was hid.
rne figure of our Lord.
if
of
man
ears, of a
a cruelty inflicted by
fled, to
strono- as death."
women who were
stand by him to the last and to show their
THE CRUCIFIXION,
CLOSE OF THE CRUCIFIXION. MATTHEW
Here scene
to
50-53.
the artist represents the effect of one of the miraculous features of this extraordinary
— the
Roman
XXVU.,
The
tremendous earthquake which rent the rocks and shook the whole mount.
many
guard, veterans of
a well-fought
field,
ilee
in
dismay.
They
cope with mortal men, but powerless before a convulsion of nature.
merely the mounted
men
around the foot of the
The whole
In serene contrast with
cross.
They
them are the female forms seen
enough
array, not
the foreground, but the troops in the rear, are in motion as
in
ing a place of security.
are strong
if
seek-
clustering
neither fainted nor went into hysterics, but calm and
controlled maintained their loving watch unto the end.
Not even
self-
the trembling earth nor the
cleaving rocks could shake their constancy, any more than could the crowd of taunting Jews
and rough Roman
The
soldiers.
fortitude of
woman, when restmg upon
unconquerable. "
Not she with
trait'rous kiss her
Saviour stung,
Not she denied him with unholy tongue
;
She, while apostles shrank, could danger brave.
Last
.It
his cross,
and
earliest at his grave.
faith
and
love, is quite
li
CLOSE OF THE CRUCIFIXION,
.
THE BURIAL OF JOHN
AccORDiXG
to prophecy, our
by being buried. and three nights
As he [/.
e.,
according to the
enough with
Pilate to obtain the
who now showed more
he had ever done when
alive.
wherein was never man yet rock. his
A
laid.
rich disciple,
body
of Jesus,
shows the
little
sacred body, and the devout
named Joseph
the
in the
garden a new sepulcher
who had hewn
While our Lord
to
when dead than
lived
it
out
in the
he had no house of
another man's tomb.
procession, the two
women
had
same who had once come
reverence and honor to our Lord
This was the property of Joseph,
in
of Arimathea,
which otherwise would have been
Near Calvary was a garden, and
own, and when he died he was buried plate
"the Son of man should be three days
use of terms, one day and two nights or parts
In this Jesus was laid by his two friends.
The
to die, but to give full assurance of the fact
40),
With him was joined Nicodemus,
treated with ignominy.
Jesus by night, and
xii.,
Hebrew
of three days] in the heart of the earth."
influence
XIX., 38-42.
Lord was not only
himself said (Matt,
JESUS.
accompanying.
men
reverently and tenderly carrying the
"THE BURIAL OF JESUS.
THE ANGEL AT THE SEPULCHER. MAT.THEW
The
1-7.
with the
visit of
They came
The
sitting over against the sepulcher.
the
same persons
and
at first
were perplexed to know how they could get the
But they were speedily relieved from their embarrass-
There had been an earthquake caused by the descent
of an angel of the Lord, who,
coming down from the abodes of glory, rolled away the stone from the door and He, of course, as an object of sight had a human form, but that form was
A
ception.
the
record of his resurrection begins
to the place of burial.
to anoint his body,
stone rolled away that secured the tomb.
ment.
Mary Magdalene and
record of our Lord's funeral ends with the statement that
Mary were
other
XXVIII.,
brilliant
The
supernatural brightness shone out in his person and his raiment.
upon
sat
it.
beyond condazzling
purity of a heavenly state took on an outward manifestation to mortal eyes.
The
effect of this sight
Why?
dead men."
upon the guards was overpowering.
Because the consciousness of
They
"
were holy, the apparition of one from the unseen world would create no
something
of the
angel, saying, "
here
:
It
for
was
he
is
same
feeling
Fear not ye risen, as
fitting that
:
was awakened, but
for
he said
:
I
know
shook and became as
sin paralyzes the strongest arm.
it
fear.
was soon dispelled
that ye seek Jesus which
was
come, see the place where the Lord
b)'
In the
If
men
women
the voice of the
crucified.
He
is
not
lay."
an angel should be sent to annoimce an event of such transcendent im-
portance, the corner-stone of the Christian church, and of the civilization of eighteen centuries.
THE ANGEL AT THE SEPULCHER.
THE JOURNEY TO EMMAUS. LUKE
XXIV.,
13-32.
Oppo.ser.s of the Christian system have often said that the resurrection of Christ
hope which gradually assumed the appearance
actual event, but a
group
of the
our Lord to
On or
is
the day
when he
the assumption that the disciples expected
rose two of his disciples were on the
way
a village seven
A
stranger overtook them and inquired into the subject of their con-
After a natural expression of surprise at his apparent ignorance, they spoke of
Jesus as a prophet and of his condemnation and crucifixion, saying,
been he which should redeem
alive,
and
in fact
Then occurred what
Israel
;
but, indeed, beside
Then they added
these things were done."
them
Emmaus,
to
north-west of Jerusalem, and engaged in earnest discourse about the events
which had taken place.
Jesus was
was not an
conversation
rise again.
eight miles
versation.
shows how unfounded
picture
in this
The
of a fact.
that certain
all this,
"We
to-day
trusted that
it
had
the third day since
is
women had been
told
by angels that
they found his tomb empty, but him they saw not.
the illustration presents.
as (not "fools," but) dull of understanding
The
stranger,
and slow
who was
to believe
the Master, reproved
what the prophets had
spoken, and he expounded to them the Scriptures concerning himself, beginning at Moses and
going through
all
the prophets.
conceive the outward scene as
reproduce the words of him
ward
said.
it
What is
a discourse that must have been!
here set forth by the
who spake
as never
artist,
man spake?
but
who
Imagination can
of mortal
No wonder
men
could
that the two after-
Did not our heart burn within us while he talked by the way, and while he opened
to us the Scriptures
?
THE JUURiNEY TO EM.MAUS.
THE ASCENSION. LUKE
Here
He
is
portrayed the wondrous miracle by which our Lord concluded his sojourn on earth.
would not simply vanish from
would show them,
God
far as
it
lire.
disciples to the
On
tlie
Mount
his disciples as
he had done at times from his
foes.
He
could be shown, that he returned from earth to heaven, that
His translation, therefore, was not
of his disappearance, nor
chariots of
all,
as
took him to himself.
tlie fact
XXIV., 50-53.
was
like
it
like
Enoch's,
known only from
a whirlwind with horses of
Elijah's, in
contrary, having given his parting injunctions, the
of Olives as far as Bethany,
and there
in
fire
Master led
broad day and
in full
and his
view of
he was taken up into heaven, and that in the act of pronouncing a blessing upon them.
The
illustration
gives the incident with great force and beauty.
form relieved against a clear sky, seems to power.
The group below
after a cloud has received
float
with ease as
it
is
The
Master's ascending
borne upward by an inherent
stand fixed in wonder and admiration, and continue to gaze long
him out "
of their sight.
He
is
gone, and
we remain
In this world of sin and pain In
tlie
void which he has
On
this earth of
We We
have can
still
still
his
him
Seek him both
bereft.
work
his path
:
left,
to do,
pursue
in friend
;
and
In ourselves his image show."
foe,
Tin-
A,sCF,.\SlMi\.
THE MARTYRDOM OF ACTS
The
long
to
list
be one of the
first
who was
band
He
" full of
Ghost," and again as
His success excited the
were not able
hostility of
to resist the
history,
the temple as a part of
it,
early converted to the faith,
spoken of as
spirit
of
man
it
of the
among
Holy
the people.
disputed with him, but
They, therefore, dragged
delivered an eloquent speech, reciting the main
and of
of the ceremonial law
and then concluding with a
invective of the nation as re-
terrible
His
faithful utterance excited a burst of
upon him and
cast
him out
of the city
and
This the picture represents with great animation, but the utterances of the dying
the Saviour, saying, "
Lord
cried with a loud voice,
should be
who
and was chosen
and
and showing the temporary nature
does not and cannot convey.
Saviour for
of faith
blaspheming Moses and God.
wrath, and with one accord his hearers rushed
martyr
full
by which he spoke.
bellious and unfaithful from the beginning until now.
stoned him.
''
other Jews of foreign birth,
wisdom and the
Here, put upon his defense, the holy
Hebrew
is
grace and power," and doing great wonders
him before the council on suborned charges
facts of
by the Christian church begins with the name
a foreign-born Jew of deacons.
STEPHEN.
VII., 54-60.
of bloody persecutions suffered
He was
of Stephen.
ST.
whom
"
Jesus, receive
According
my
spirit;"
to the inspired narrative,
and then again, with
Lord, lay not this sin to their charge,"
he died, and furnishing a brilliant example for
" slain for
the word of
God and
for the testimony
he called upon
his last
breath he
—thus closely imitating
all
those in after times
which they held."
the
who
THE
-vr
\kT\
l^Dc)^r
of
st.
Stephen.
SAUL'S CONVERSION. ACTS
The
Apostle Paul was the yountrest
himself, "
member
of the apostolic college, or, as he describes
Yet he surpassed
one born out of due time."
Such were
ness of his labors in the Gospel.
IX.
all
his gifts natural
the rest in the extent and useful-
and acquired, such were
his zeal,
energy, decision and courage, such his generosity, humility, faith and love, such his self-sacrifice
and devotion, that
candid observers consider him one of the greatest
all
Appointed to do a work self,
as
The
no other starting
Although
man
of
unequaled importance, he
fulfilled his
ever did, upon his contemporaries and upon
point
of
his
career,
conversion,
his
fully
is
like all other conversions in its essential features,
The
circumstances.
neither age nor sex
apostle had
in
it
course,
all
set
spirits of
all
time.
and impressed him-
succeeding generations. forth
the
in
Scripture.
was attended by very remarkable
been an unwearied and unrelenting persecutor, sparing
his fiery zeal.
Having made havoc
of the church in Jerusalem, he set
out for Damascus to carry on his bloody work there, but he was strangely arrested on the way.
Suddenly
noon there shone around him a
at
exceeded that of the meridian sun.
and there he heard the
light
from heaven, a supernatural splendor which
This, as the illustration shows, struck
voice, " Saul, Saul,
why
persecutest thou
me?"
him
with his companions, he yet distinguished the words spoken, and inquiring spoke, learned that to return.
It
it
was Jesus of Nazareth.
From
that
moment
to the earth
;
Prostrated as he was
who
his unbelief
it
was
that
departed never
was some days before he received baptism, but the voice of the Lord wrought
at once the total
and irreversible change.
He who
had gone forth from Jerusalem "breathing
out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples," entered DamascTis an humbled, believing penitent.
SAULS CONVERSION.
THE DELIVERANCE OF ACTS
Of
the impetuous Peter
original twelve.
more
Yet nothing
XII., 3-19.
told us in the
is
make
in prison,
him
in
guarding the prisoner.
and the other two held Peter chained
was roused from sleep by a bright
apostle, to
him
by
as
if
arise,
Two
shown
as
moment
the whole were a mere vision.
the chains
the
city,
fell
from'
his
night
its
led
hands.
him
Peter
Then
the
seemed
it
straight through
own accord opened
before
whereupon the angel disappeared
his friends.
illustration depicts the apostle led
by the angel as he passes down the stone steps
the night dimly illumined by the moon, while the guards
his
to
of an angel
and followed the angel, although
The heavenly messenger
in
One
dungeon and the voice
they came to the iron gate, which of
and Peter sought the society of
The form and countenance
To
who were
watched before the door,
the illustration.
in
light illumining the
them, and then they found themselves at large
The
Apostle James, but
But while they were watching, the church
to their arms.
while at the same
till
slain the
of each quaternion
direction, deliberately dressed himself
one ward after another
any other of the
charge to four quaternions of soldiers,
was praying; and the deliverance took place
bidding him
of
intending to bring him forth for execution after the Passover.
sure of his victim he gave
relieve each other in
Testament than
so striking as the story of his rescue
is
The king had
from the hands of the cruel and impious Herod. he reserved Peter
New
previous history
in his
PETER.
ST.
of Peter well express the
unexpected and miraculous deliverance.
lie
around stretched out
in
into
slumber.
vague astonishment he must have
felt at
PAUL AT EPHESUS. ACTS
Roman
Ephe.su.^, the capital of the
XIX., 17-20.
province of Asia, was distinguished not only for
famous temple of Diana, one of the seven wonders of the ancient world, but or
magical
the
became proverbial
So
ment.
words are
King
Crffisus,
funeral pile
thrown
One
until
;
said to
of
did
this
of
Ephesian
Diana, on whose image
Lydia,
is
said to have muttered
and a story was told of a certain wrestler
some
letters
certain
or
mystical and
to paper or parch-
of these
charms upon
Olympia who could not be
at
"
and talismans.
his
over-
he was deprived of an Ephesian amulet about his ankle.
of the effects of the
preaching of the Gospel at Ephesus was to expose the true
Many
arts.
only renounced their trade, but gave up
its
of the practitioners of
magic and sorcery not
They
implements to destruction.
brought,
we
are
"their books," including not only the charms and amulets, but the large rolls or volumes
containing the rules and formulas of incantation.
They showed
these instead of selling them, as they might have done for a liave
that "
extend
have been written and thence transferred
character of these false and deceitful
told,
far
as a designation of written charms, amulets
These were connected with the worship unintelligible
its
its skill in all
by which man proposes to lay open the secrets of nature and
occult arts
arm himself with supernatural powers. " inscriptions "
for
amounted
many thousands
to
of dollars
—
all
books
in
their
sum which
sincerity
in
by burning
our currency would
ancient times being expensive, and
especially such as contained secrets or charms held in high estimation.
The
picture sets forth this triumpli of principle in a life-like way.
are bringing their once prized volumes and casting
encouraging the
sacrifice,
sanction to the maoical
and near by
rites.
is
them
into the
fire,
the magnificent temple
Men, one
after another,
while Paul stands above
whose goddess gave the
PAUL AT EFHESUS.
PAUL MENACED BY THE JEWS. ACTS XXI,
The
illustration sets forth
which continued for years, and in
one of the at last
incidents of that imprisonment of the apostle
brought him
the temple, where he had a right to be,
ev'en than the native
first
31-36.
it.
The whole
city
dragged out of the temple, and the tumultuous crowd were seeking to great danger,
when
the
commander
the spot with soldiers and centurions.
His presence made the
of the
was kill
stirred
him.
mob
was
bitter
;
Paul was
His
life
was
stop beating Paul, but he
some crying one thing and some
the apostle to be conveyed into the castle, but wiien they
was the violent pressure It is this
more
of the garrison, learning of the disturbance, hastened to
could' not learn the true state of the case,
commanded
Jews,
Hebrews, raised a cry against him as one who opposed the law and was
profaning the holy place by bringing Gentiles into
in
He
Rome.
to stand before Csesar at
when suddenly some foreign-born
maddened crowd
that he
had
to be
came
"borne
another.
So he
to the stairs such
of the soldiers."
exciting scene which the picture portrays, presenting in broad contrast the chief
captain at the top. the struggling apostle, the resolute soldiers and the confused mass of Jews
pressing forward toward the object of their angry hate.
^ipiiiiiiiiii|nBiiiiii|ii|niii»(i(i|iiiiiiini|ii|iiniiis^5!^^!ssB«^
PAUL MEXACED BY THE JEWS.
PAUL'S SHIPWRECK. ACTS
The in
illustration represents the
XXVII..
43, 44.
concluding scene of the apostle's
which he was carried a prisoner to Rome.
last
recorded voyage
— that
Luke's account of this remarkable voyage
is
characterized by a great fullness and exactness of nautical details, which the latest and most investigations have only served to render
critical
more surprising
themselves and more
in
For fourteen days the
conclusive as internal evidences of authenticity and genuineness.
was driven up and down the Adriatic Sea, most of the time without the
During
stars.
this
anxious period Paul, the prisoner, was the calmest
man on
board.
encouraged the passengers and crew, foretold that they would be cast away on a certain but declared that no
aground, and
all
life
escaped,
should be
lost.
And
some by plunging
so
it
At
turned out.
into the sea, others
vessel
light of either sun or
last
He
island,
they ran the ship
by trusting themselves to such
spars or fragments as they could seize. It
this
is
distance, here
point which
the artist has chosen to depict.
and there a passenger
ground with extended arm,
as
two hundred and seventy-six 25),
ful
experience,
cast
The
helpless
hulk
upon the shore, while Paul stands
recognizing the goodness of souls.
God
in
da)' in the
deep
;
in
the
the fore-
(II. Corin.
but never had he had such an event-
such a variety of dangers and such a wondrous deliverance
this voyage.
lies
in
giving to him the lives of
Thrice before he had suffered shipwreck
and once had been a night and a
xi.,
marked
if
is
in
the end, as
PAUL'S SHlFWRbC.
DEATH ON THE PALE HORSE. REVELATION
The
VI., 8.
Apocalypse have been the subject of many and varied interpretations, but
seals of the
What
the tenor of this one, the fourth, scarcely admits of any doubt. horse,
/.
c,
one of
of dissolution.
The
rider
King
or famine, but the
was Death
— not any particular form of death, such as war, pestilence,
of Terrors himself.
No
description
he appear with any emblem, as sword or spear or bow. conceive the form of the destroyer as
Attending him
tends to sublimity.
gather up the slain out measure
;
is
it
will,
and there
given of his person, nor does
is
Imagination has is
all
possible scope to
just that degree of obscurity
which
Hell (or rather Hades, the abode of the dead), ready to
— that personified abyss which enlargeth
and men's glory and
the seer saw was a pale
hue which indicates the approach
pallid or livid color, the peculiar greenish
their
itself
multitude and their
and openeth
pomp descend
its
mouth
into
it
with-
(Isaiah
v., 14).
This striking symbol has often employed the pencil of the justice.
The
piece
is
full
of action.
Amid
artist.
M. Dore has done
we
see the headlong horse
the shades of night
it
with terrible nostrils and neck clothed with thunder, the fierce rider with his resistless scythe,
and behind, the array
of
demoniac figures rushing eagerly on
their prey.
DEATH ON THK
VAI.V.
HORSE.
w^^