ANOTHER OF THE WOMEN OF OLD.
ANOTHER OF THE WOMEN OF OLD.
At the command of his mother, let it be remembered, and not because he had any particular desire to do so himself, Jacob left home and departed unto the land of his mother"s people, where she told him to seek a wife.
The life of many men of the Old Testament (after they have reached man"s estate, I mean) begins with a love affair, and I infer from that, that the Bible means to teach the lesson that to love is the first and best business of life, as well as the most entertaining and pleasant thing that this world ever did or ever will have to offer.
And Jacob reached the land of Laban, his mother"s brother, and stopped by a well where the flocks were watered. This is the second well which figures conspicuously in a love story of the Bible, and we imagine they were the trysting places of the ancient young lovers.
While Jacob was loitering and gossiping with the young men he found there, "and while he yet spake with them, Rachel came with her father"s sheep; for she kept them."
Now "Rachel was beauteous and well favored," and of course Jacob saw all this at a glance, for a man never yet needed a telescope and a week"s time to decide whether a woman possessed the elements which const.i.tuted beauty in his mind or not, and so Jacob gallantly rolled the stone away from the well and watered the flock of Laban, and then, with all the boldness which characterized his future notorious career, he "kissed Rachel, and lifted up his voice and wept."
As there could hardly be anything but pleasure in kissing a lovely maiden, we naturally infer that Jacob was very emotional and was crying for effect, and that Rachel, with the consummate tact that all the women of the Bible displayed when managing the men, perfectly understood this, and had as little respect for him at the moment as most women have for a tearful man. A man like Jacob cries easily, and when he thus "lifted up his voice and wept," it is to be hoped the girl entirely understood him.
And Jacob"s kiss is the first one that love ever pressed upon the lips of a blushing maid--at least it is the first one that is authoritatively recorded.
At that time Jacob started a fashion that "custom cannot stale," a fashion that while time lasts shall be as cheap as roses, laughter and sunshine, as thrilling as wine, as sweet as innocence and as new as love, a fashion that wealth, time or country cannot monopolize, and one that is as sweet to the beggar, and sweeter too, than to the king.
[Ill.u.s.tration: (Jacob kissed Rachel and lifted up his voice and wept.)]
At the end of one short month we find him so desperately enamored that he said to Laban, Rachel"s father: "I will serve thee seven years for thy younger daughter;" and the old gentleman, seeing an opportunity to get a hired man cheap, consented.
"And Jacob served seven years for Rachel, and they seemed unto him but a few days for the love he had to her."
What a world of devotion that one sentence reveals. As we read that we forget all about the prosaic age in which we live; forget the modern I"ll-give-you-a-brown-stone-front-and-diamonds-in-exchange-for-your- youth-and-beauty-love, and believe in the kind that makes a man a G.o.d and a woman an angel, and we imagine that an affection so intense and deep that it could make seven weary years of labor "seem but a few days" must be as constant as the flowing tide, as steadfast as the stars--and then after a while we are desperately, despairingly sorry that we have read any further than that verse because we are so sadly disillusioned.
[Ill.u.s.tration: "AND JACOB SERVED SEVEN YEARS FOR RACHEL."]
For a little further on we find that Jacob wasn"t as shrewd about getting married as he was about breeding cattle that were ring-streaked and grizzled, and so Laban, with the cunning of a modern politician, palmed off his daughter Leah on Jacob as a bride.
But the next morning, when he discovered the trick, there were probably matinees, side-shows and circuses in the tent of Laban, and finally the upshot of the whole affair was that he agreed to serve seven years more for Rachel, and then married her also. Far be it from me to disparage Jacob"s love, but we cannot help but notice that we have no inspired statement saying that the seven years he served for Rachel, after he had married her, "seemed but a few days for the love he had to her."
But we can"t censure him for that, for as we read we discover that in his earnest and constant endeavor to save his precious person he had no time to nurture his love. For the two wives, the two sisters, were madly jealous of each other of course (and we can"t blame them either, for there never was a man so great that he could be divided between two wives, several handmaids and more concubines, and be enough of him to go around satisfactorily) and they made his life a howling wilderness.
Leah, poor thing, longed for her fraudulent husband"s love, and he hated her. Rachel "envied her sister," and "Jacob"s anger was kindled against Rachel," and altogether the picture of their home is not very enticing, and having gotten thus far we are more than ever convinced that we do not want to follow the example of the "holy women" of old, as Peter complimentarily, but ignorantly, calls them.
And Rachel and Leah, in order to spite and humble each other, each gave her maid "to Jacob to wife" and strange as it may seem, he accepted them both. It was like him.
Now about this time Leah"s son "found mandrakes in the field" and brought them to his mother. We suppose Rachel had a sweet tooth from the fact that a little further on we find her offering to sell her husband for one night to Leah, for some mandrakes, whatever they were; and we notice that women held their husbands rather cheap in those good old days.
You see Rachel and Leah made Jacob a thing of barter and sale and (without consulting his desires) Leah consummated the bargain, and she went out toward the field when the harvest was progressing, and met Jacob as he came from his work tired and dusty, and informed him he must come with her, "For surely I have hired thee with my son"s mandrakes," and he did not resent the insulting idea that he had been "hired," but like all the other distractingly obedient men of the Bible--he went.
Rachel next distinguishes herself as a disobedient daughter and headstrong wife by "stealing her father"s G.o.ds" without consulting or confiding in her husband, for we read that "Jacob knew not that Rachel had stolen them."
And Laban, Rachel"s father, and Jacob had a lively altercation, and they said exceedingly naughty things to each other in loud voices, but at last they came to an agreement, and Laban said he would give up his children, grandchildren and cattle, but he was bound to have his "G.o.ds" or know the reason why. The entire story is a curious mixture of heathenism and belief in one G.o.d.
Then Jacob rose in all the confidence of perfect innocence and told him he might search the whole camp for all he cared, and he added in his outraged dignity, "with whomsoever thou findest thy G.o.ds, let him not live."
You will observe by that that it was a terrible crime to steal "G.o.ds,"
and as it is the first offense of the kind on record, you can infer what a reckless, ungovernable female Rachel must have been to do so dreadful an act.
[Ill.u.s.tration: (She hoped he would excuse her for not arising.)]
Well, Laban went like a cyclone "unto Jacob"s tent" (notice what humiliation and disgrace Rachel subjected her husband to, and what a scandal it must have raised in the neighborhood), and into Leah"s tent and into the two maid-servants" tents; but he found them not. Then he entered into Rachel"s tent.
Now she had hidden the precious little images in the camel"s furniture and sat upon them, and she said she didn"t feel very well this morning, papa dear, or words to that effect, and she hoped he would excuse her for not arising; and she probably smiled sweetly, put her arm around his neck, and finally did him up completely by kissing him tenderly; and of course, as in those days men never dreamed of asking a woman to do anything she didn"t want to do, papa dear did not insist upon her arising, and so missed his sole and only chance of getting his "G.o.ds."
It was a very serious and perhaps terrible loss to her father, and we can gather no idea from the scripture why she did it unless out of pure spite, or else she wanted to use them as bric-a-brac in the new home to which she was going.
In the history of the "beauteous and well-favored" Rachel and the "tender-eyed" Leah, we find hatred, deadly jealousy, anger, strife, dissensions and envy, but none of the forbearance, self-sacrifice, obedience, meekness and submission that we have been taught that the ladies of the Old Testament possessed, and we are almost sorry that we didn"t take the preacher"s "say so" for it, instead of studying the Bible diligently and intelligently for ourselves.
ALL NAUGHTY, BUT FAIR.
ALL NAUGHTY, BUT FAIR.
The next young lady whom the Old Testament presents for our admiration and edification is Dinah, the daughter of Jacob and Leah, who set the pa.s.sionate but agonizing style of "loving not wisely, but too well,"
and brought about one of the shrewdest military stratagems that was ever perpetrated, a terrible ma.s.sacre, and the slavery of many innocent women and children.
Several other ladies are mentioned casually and then we come to Tamar, whose father-in-law, Judah, had broken his solemn promise and defrauded her of her rights. And did she submissively consent to be deprived of her just dues? Not at all. She simply disguised herself, and by deception and a thorough knowledge of man"s nature, mixed up with a shrewd business tact, completely out-generaled her dear papa-in-law, gained her revenge, and by a sagacious artifice protected herself from the possible consequences of her folly and from future punishment by persuading Judah to give her, as a pledge of his good faith, "his signet and bracelets and staff." In short, she was the original p.a.w.n-broker of the world; and Judah left his treasures "in escrow" until he could redeem them by delivering her a kid in liquidation of his debt.
And for many days the sun blazed and faded, the stars sparkled and paled, and the moon rode high in silvery radiance; the winds and birds and flowers blushed and sang and sighed, and in due course of time Judah sent a kid to redeem his valuables, but alas! Tamar had slipped away and left no trace by which she could be identified, and Judah, who had broken his pledge, was left in suspense.
But finally the time of retribution came, as come it does and must to every possessor of a p.a.w.n ticket. The days, those bright beads on the rosary of time, were counted one by one and shadows began to gather about the fair name of Tamar. Then the whispers of suspicion grew to pealing thunders of scandal which reached and shocked the good Judah, and he rose up in his moral rect.i.tude and righteous indignation at such depravity and cried: "Bring her forth and let her be burnt."
But my lady, with a woman"s wit, had foreseen this possible denouncement and punishment, and prepared for it, and she quietly sent the articles he had left in p.a.w.n, and humbled him to the very dust with her message.
"Discern, I pray thee, whose are these, the signet and bracelets and staff?" And I will add here that there was no fire, because Tamar skillfully avoided being the fuel.
I do not relate the above to harrow up your feelings, but simply to show you the stuff the women of the Old Testament were made of.
About this time the matchless Joseph appears upon the stage of the Old Testament as the monument of masculine virtue, and lo! the woman in the case enters upon the scene in the shape of Potiphar"s wife, and plays her part in the comedy or tragedy--as you happen to look at it--in Joseph"s life.
She doesn"t come before the public with a burst of melody, a blaze of light and the enticing music of applause, but she enters softly, quietly she "casts her eyes upon Joseph" and she sees he is "a goodly person and well favored"--and the mischief is done. She lavished her wealth in all the follies, fashions and pleasures of her time to attract him; she met him in the hall, gave him roses in the garden, smiled at him from the doorway. When she slept she dreamed sweet dreams of kisses and soft hand-clasps. When she lifted her gaze to the stars, "twas his eyes she saw there. When she walked by the river"s side, the rippling waters were no sweeter than his voice. When the summer wind, perfume-laden, fanned her face she fancied "twas his warm breath on her cheek. Then she forgot husband and duty, heaven and h.e.l.l, and she listened for his footsteps, lingered for his coming, watched and waited for his smile--and all in vain.
And Joseph, who loved this woman with an incomparable love; this woman who from the eminence of her wealth, rank and beauty, in the utter abandonment of her pa.s.sion cast herself at his feet, Joseph was man enough to bend and sway and falter before her temptations, but for friendship"s sake, for honor"s sake, for the sake of her he loved, divine enough to resist them.
Out from among the seductive fables and shocking facts of history Joseph stands forth a shining example as the first man, and perhaps the last, who loved a woman so well that he refused her outstretched arms, declined the kisses from her lips, rejected the reckless invitation in her eyes, and saved her from himself. Who loved with a pa.s.sion so tender and deep that, unlike all other men, he refused to make her he loved a victim on the altar of his pa.s.sions, but would have enshrined her there a G.o.ddess, "pure as ice and chaste as snow."