Girls of the Bible

Contents

CHAPTER PAGE

I. Hagar, The Egyptian, ... 11

II. Rebekah, The Chosen of God, . . 25

Introduction

Girls who live in Christian lands owe more to the Bible than can be easily told. When heathen girl babies are born they are almost always unwelcome. Boys are greeted with joy, but girls are an occasion of grief. If a Hindu woman has a daughter before she has a son she is supposed to have fallen under the severe displeasure of the goddess, Vishnu. Her women friends come to condole with her and often her husband refuses to look at her, or to speak to her, or to notice her in any way for weeks. In China a new-born girl is considered usually only as one more child to be fed and clothed, and is often gotten rid of on that account. Sometime she is killed and sometimes left by a river bank or a roadside to be picked up by a passer-by. Christian missionaries have saved hundreds of these poor babies and have trained them *o be their efficient helpers and faithful servants of the cross.

It is a significant fact that the first convert to Christianity in Europe was a woman — Lydia, the seller of purple who was baptized by St. Paul, the pioneer missionary. Since the time of the "Apostle to the Gentiles" missionaries have accomplished a great part of their work through the agency of women and, in turn, have been always the champions of women and children.

Hebrew women from the first played a prominent part in the history of their race. Among them were poets, prophets, leaders and saviours of their people.

Miriam was second only to Moses and Aaron in the councils of the Israelites ; Deborah held the highest political office among the tribes — that of Judge, since there was no king in her day. Moreover, Deborah was a prophetess regarded with especial favor by the Lord. It was Hannah who dedicated Samuel to God, a deed which made her prominent among the mothers of Israel ; and Ruth and Esther have given their names to books of the Bible.

Women were chosen by Christ to be His friends and were instructed in religion as carefully as were the men. The venerable Anna hailed the infant Jesus as the Messiah, and an archangel announced the birth of the Holy Child to Mary, the most blessed of women.

The stories of the women and girls of the Bible are full of interest. Women, good or bad, influenced men to perform deeds from which lessons have been drawn for countless generations and they acted themselves wisely or foolishly; the records of their doings being preserved to be used as warnings or examples. A pillar of salt, which is said to be the identical one which was once Lot's wife, is still shown to travelers in the region of the Dead Sea. Her disobedience made its own monument. These other women live still in their deeds and the stories of their lives* are told as a memorial of them wherever the gospel is preached, as Christ foretold of gentle Mary who annointed his feet with costly spikenard.

Sometimes, just one act has been recorded, one picture shown. Yet that tells all that it is necessary for us to know, or more would have been written. Pondering over a few verses and reading them in the light of profane history we may find a whole story written between the lines.

Says Jesus, "Search the Scriptures; for in them ye think that ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of Me."

"Could we with ink the ocean fill, Were all the sky of parchment made, Were every single stick a quill, And every man a scribe by trade, — To write the love of God above Would drain the ocean dry, Nor could the scroll contain the whole Though stretched from sky to sky."

If AGAR, THE EGYPTIAN

Thou, God, seest me. Genesis xvi, 13.

Sarai, Abram's wife had an handmaid, an Egyptian, whose name was Hagar. Genesis xvi, 1.

Heaven must be very near us, else how can the angels be so near to us and yet so near to God ? — Schonberg-Cotta Family.

She stood beside the well her God had given To gush in that deep wilderness, and bathed The forehead of her child until he laugh'd In his reviving happiness, and lisp'd His infant thought of gladness at the sight Of the cool plashing of his mother's hand.

— N. P. Willis.

Chapter I ZiAGAH, T/iE EGYPTIAN

ONG ago, when the world was young, and there were not anything like so many people in it as there are now, lived Abraham and Sarah, his wife. Abraham was a very good man. He was called the friend of God. God had chosen him out of all the world to be the head of a great people, the children of Israel. These are the people that the Bible tells about, after the time of Abraham. It tells about other men and women, also, but chiefly about the children of Israel. Jesus Christ was descended from Abraham. So in Abraham and his children, and his children's children all the world was blessed.

Abraham and Sarah lived in far-away Asia. Asia was the cradle of the human race, the birthplace of man and woman. It was there that Adam and Eve lived, and Cain and Abel, and Noah and his

HAGAR, THE EGYPTIAN.

wife. Noah had three sons — Ham, Shem and Japheth. Shem stayed in Asia, and lived there always, but Japheth went to Europe, and he and his children lived there; and Ham went to Africa.

Abraham was a very rich man. He had great flocks of sheep and vast herds of cattle and camels, and he claimed many acres of land. He and his followers lived in tents; they moved about to find pastures for the flocks and herds. Every time that they went to a new place they took their tents with them. These were made of skins, or of stuff woven of black goats' hair, upheld by poles and ropes. The ends of the tent -ropes were fastened to short sticks or pins which were driven into the ground with a mallet. When it was time to move, the pins were pulled up, the tents were taken down and packed on the backs of camels, and soon only a few holes in the ground and a heap or two of ashes marked the place where the home had .been. The Arabs of to-day live in just such tents as did Abraham, Isaac and Jacob so long ago.

Sometimes Abraham and Sarah went to other countries to visit. It was while they were in Egypt that Abraham bought Hagar. Probably she was only a child, and she grew up in Sarah's household, almost like a daughter. She learned to cook, to spin and to sew, and to take care of the milk and to make butter.

The butter of those days was made by shaking milk up and down until the fatty parts left the whey. There is a story that Abraham's servants did not

HAGAB, THE EGYPTIAN. 13

know how to make butter until they were taught it by accident. They were fleeing before their enemies ; some of the camels were laden with provisions, and the bottles of milk got a tremendous shaking. These bottles were not made of glass like ours, or they would have been broken all to pieces; they were skins. Often the whole of a goat -skin, except the head and the feet, was used for one bottle. The skin was tanned and the hairy part left outside, the openings, except the neck, being sewed up tight. Kid-skins were used for water bottles. When Abraham's servants opened their bottles they thought that the milk was spoiled, but they tasted it and found it good with their bread ; it was butter. Afterward they made butter on purpose. Perhaps they had their camels run back and forth in order to shake up the milk, but in time they must have found a better way of doing.

In those days a man was allowed to have more than one wife, so, when Hagar was old enough, Sarah gave her to Abraham to marry. Girls marry very young in eastern countries, sometimes at ten and twelve years of age. So, much of their girl -hood is after they are married, and it is probable that Hagar was in her early teens when she became Abraham's wife. Almost everything that is said about her shows her young and thoughtless. It was a promotion for her to be married to her master and she put on airs. She believed herself equal to her mistress, which she was not, for there was a great difference between a wife who had been a slave and one who

14 HAGAB, THE EGYPTIAN.

had been free always. Besides, Sarah was old, and the mistress of the entire household. When Hagar became rude and impertinent, Sarah complained to Abraham, and he told her that Hagar was her maid and that she might do with her whatever she pleased.

The Bible says that Sarah " dealt hardly" with Hagar. The girl ran away, probably intending to go back to her old home in Egypt. She followed an inland caravan route, over which companies of merchants travelled from Egypt to far-away countries, carrying with them beautiful and costly wares. This was foolish of her, for she would have had to cross deserts and wildernesses infested by robbers and wild beasts, through which even the caravans did not go without being guarded by soldiers. Besides, how was she to get anything to eat and to drink? Wells were far apart and hard to find, and when at last she came to one, she sank down exhausted. And the Angel of the Lord looked down and saw her alone and unprotected.

When the Old Testament speaks of the Angel of God, or the Angel of Jehovah, or the Angel of the Lord, we believe that God, Himself, is meant.

And the Angel of the Lord said: "Hagar, Sarai's maid, whence comest thou?"

Of course God knew all about poor, tired Hagar, and what she was doing, for he does not forget His children, but He listened to their prayers then, as He listens to them now.

Hagar must have been very much frightened

■ i

HAGAK, THE EGYPTIAN. 17

when she heard the voice, for although God talked directly with Abraham in those far-away days, she had never heard His voice before. She must have hidden her face and have answered almost in a whisper :

" I flee from the face of my mistress Sarai."

This was before Sarah's name had been changed from Sarai to Sarah. Not long afterward the Lord appeared to Abram, as he was then called, and commanded him to be called Abraham and Sarai to be Sarah. It is by these names that we know them best.

And the Angel of the Lord told Hagar to go Dack to her mistress and to wait on her and do what she told her. But He gave Hagar a beautiful promise to take with her. She was to have a son who was to be called Ishmael.

Then Hagar knew that she was in the very presence of God, and she cried : " Is it possible that I can live after seeing God? "

And she gave the well a new name in memory of the event, calling it "Beer-lahai-roi," which means "The Well of Living and Seeing." Then she went back to Sarah as the Lord had commanded. Perhaps He softened her mistress' heart toward her, but even though Sarah were harsh again, the girl was better able to bear it. She had been comforted by God who was going to give her a son.

When the boy was born, his father called him Ishmael, as the Angel of the Lord had foretold.

18 HAGAB, THE EGYPTIAN.

Abraham was eighty -six years old when this son was given him.

Although Ishmael was Abraham's first child, he was not to be his heir. When Abraham was nearly a hundred years old he was sitting in his tent door, in the heat of the day, when he looked up and saw three men approaching. He ran to meet them, and bowed down to the ground, by way of salutation, as is the custom in the east. And he invited them to stop and rest under the trees near his tent. They consented, so he had some water brought that the strangers might wash their feet, for they wore sandals instead of shoes, and their feet were dusty and warm. Sandals consist merely of leather soles fastened to the feet by straps.

Then Abraham hastened into the tent and told Sarah to take some fine meal and make some bread quickly. The bread in those days was made in flat cakes which became stale very soon. So fresh ones had to be baked every day. And Abraham served the bread, and some meat, and milk and butter to the men under the trees, and he stood by while they ate.

And the strangers asked: "Where is Sarah, thy wife?"

And Abraham answered : 4 ' She is in the tent . ' '

Then Abraham was told that Sarah should have a son, and the strangers went on their way. They had been sent by God.

And it came to pass, as it had been said; the son was born, and he was called Isaac.

When Isaac was two or three years old Abraham and Sarah gave a feast in his honor. But Ishmael, who was quite a big boy by this time and was jealous of little Isaac, made fun of the baby and his mother. Perhaps he thought that the feast should have been in his honor, for he was the older son. Sarah was much displeased, not only with Ishmael, but with his mother, Hagar, and she urged Abraham to send both of them away.

It was not only that Sarah wanted Ishmael and his mother punished, but she was afraid that the father might care as much for Ishmael as he did for Isaac. She was Abraham's first wife, and had been a princess in her own country, and she believed that Isaac should be his father's only heir.

Abraham was grieved, for he loved both Ishmael and Hagar, and he was unwilling to send them away. But God spoke to him and told him what to do. He was to grant Sarah's request; Isaac was to be the heir, and from him were to be descended the children of Israel, the great Hebrew nation, but the Lord would take care of Ishmael and make him also the founder of a mighty people.

So Abraham arose early in the morning and told Hagar that she and her son must go away. He gave them bread to take with them, and a skin of water. Hagar put the food and drink on her shoulder and started off, followed by Ishmael. They wandered in the wilderness, perhaps for days. Soon their water was gone. We can imagine how Hagar had treasured it, making it go as far as possible. She must have felt faint and tired, yet she thought not of herself but of Ishmael who was so exhausted that he could go no farther. She was afraid that he would die.

In the great deserts people often die of thirst. Travelers tell us that there is no more terrible torture than that of doing without water. Sometimes this horrible thirst is suffered by ship -wrecked sai]- ors on the ocean. They have plenty of water around them, but it is salt and not fit to drink. In the deserts there is no water except at the oases or green spots, which are few and far between. Some oases are large enough to hold little farms which are carefully cultivated; others are so small that they consist of only a few bushes and a little grass which have sprung up around a spring or a well. The small ones sometimes disappear entirely; the hot sun withers the grass and the shrubbery, and the shifting winds cover the wells with sand.

When thirst overtook Hagar and Ishmael they were near some bushes, but could not find a well. Hagar felt that she could not bear to see her son die. So she left him under the bushes, in as shady a spot as she could find, and went off, the Bible says, u as it were a bowshot," or as far as an arrow might fly from a bow. And she sat down and began to weep and to cry aloud.

Grod heard her voice, and he heard Ishmael's also, and He called to Hagar out of heaven : " What aileth thee, Hagar ? Fear not, for Grod hath heard the voice of the lad where he is. Arise, lift up the

HAGAE, THE EGYPTIAN. 21

lad, and hold him in thine hand ; for I will make him a great nation."

It was not God's purpose to let Ishmael die, for as Abraham had been promised already, Ishmael was to live and to be the father of a mighty people. And God opened Hagar's eyes, and she saw a well of water, and she went and filled her skin and carried • water to Ishmael. We do not know whether God wrought a miracle and made a well, where there was none before, or whether there was one there all the time, and it was his will that Hagar should not see it until it was shown her.

This time Hagar did not go back to Sarah. She and Ishmael stayed in the wilderness. Hagar was no longer alone and helpless. Ishmael grew strong and tall and he became an archer. In those days there were no guns, and people shot with bows and arrows. They fought with lances and spears in close fights, but an arrow could go farther than either spear or lance.

Cities were far apart, and there was a great deal of land which belonged to nobody. Poor people in the cities were slaves to the rich, and had to do just what they told them. Their lives and the little that they had was at the mercy of the king and his servants, and there was no law to protect them. When a man wanted to be free, and was strong enough to protect himself against wild beasts and robbers, he went to the wilderness, as Robin Hood did many years later. Even rich men often preferred the life

HAGAR, THE EGYPTIAN.

in the wilderness, where they and their families were subject to no one.

When Ishmael became a man, his mother took him a wife out of Egypt, her old country. He had twelve sons, each one a prince, and one daughter. Hagar was very happy in her grandchildren.

The great nation that was founded by Ishmael was the Arabian, and his descendants occupy Arabia to this day, as well as Turkey in Asia and in Europe.

Rebekah, the Chosen of God.

The Lord shall guide thee continually. — Isaiah Iviii, 11

And it came to pass, before he had done speaking, that, behold, Rebekah came out, who was born to Bethuel, son of Milcah, the wife of Nahor, Abraham's brother, with her pitcher on her shoulder. And the damsel was very fair to look upon.

— Genesis xxiv, 15-16.

Amidst undying things,

The mind still keeps your loveliness, and still

All the fresh glories of the early world

Hang round you in the spirit's pictured halls

Never to change.

— Felicia Hemans.

Chapter n RgBEKAHTHE CHOSEN

ofGqd.

HILD-NATURE

is pretty much the same everywhere and always. Chinese girls speak a different language from American girls and they wear different clothes, but they nurse and dress dolls and play house, just as though their skins were white instead of yellow, and : v\ their eyes round instead of almondshaped. Chinese boys fly kites and spin tops and shoulder toy guns. They live on the opposite side of this great world of ours, and use chop -sticks instead of forks, and wear funny little pig -tails, but boy hearts are theirs all the same. Even the children of long ago were not very different from those of to-day.

Thousands of years ago lived a little girl named Rebekah. Her home was in Mesopotamia in Asia.

She was Abraham's grand-niece — that is, Abraham was her grandfather's brother. Before the Lord called Abraham to follow Him and become the founder of a great people, he and Rebekah's grandfather, Nahor, lived in Ur in the land of Chaldea. From Ur, Abraham went to live in Canaan, and Nahor moved to Mesopotamia. Nahor founded a city which was named after him, the city of Nahor, and there he and his sons lived.

Rebekah was the daughter of the youngest of these sons,Bethuel, and she had one brother, Laban. She was a beautiful girl with long black hair and lovely dark eyes ; her skin was very fair, the hot sun and the desert winds did not tan or roughen it. It was not because she stayed in -doors all the time that she was fair, for she used to go every day to the well to draw water. This seems to have been her especial task, although her father was a rich man and he had many servants. Rebekah was not brought up in idleness. Probably, like all other little girls, she loved to play. She must have had a doll, for even thousands of years ago there were doll -babies, and of course she played house. Laban was older than she, but he was a kind brother and he must have encouraged her in pranks and fun. But Rebekah had many things to learn. Prom playing house she was promoted to real house -keeping. She was taught to sew and to cook, to spin and to weave, to take care of the milk and to draw water. Hagar was a slave when she learned these things, but Rebekah was the daughter of a great man and she

KEBEKAH, THE CHOSEN OF GOD 27

learned them also. Then, as now, it was necessary for all girls to know how to keep house. Some girls do not think it worth while to spend time over sewing and cooking, dusting and mending, because they have people to do such things for them, but they are not wise. There comes a time when nearly every woman has to wait on herself and others, but should such a time never come, it is well to know how household tasks should be performed. No mistress can direct a servant properly without understanding the work to be done. The present Queen of England, the beautiful and gracious Alexandra, used, when a girl, to make her own dresses and trim her bonnets, and all of Queen Victoria's daughters learned to sew and to cook. The Empress of Germany is a notable housewife, and it is said that Emperor William is proud of her fruit jelly.

Household tasks were much harder and more numerous even a hundred years ago than they are now. Our great -grandmothers had to spin their own yarn and to weave their own cloth. A hundred years ago there were no matches, there was no gas, there were no ranges and no sewing machines. Most of the world's wonderful labor-saving machinery has been invented in this country. Rebekah, thousands of years ago, probably did not have to work so hard as our great -grandmothers did, for in those days living was much more simple than it grew to be as time went on. Yet she had to grind the grain for her bread and to go outside of the city for her water. Not only was there no water piped into the houses, as it is in cities now -a -days, but there were no pumps or wells in the yards as there are in the country. Every evening the girls of the place went to the well outside of the city and at it they filled their pitchers.

Rebekah grew tall and straight and strong from her daily exercise, and the skillful carrying of her heavy pitcher made her graceful and supple. By the time she was twelve or fourteen years old she was remarkably attractive, but it was not only her face and her form that were beautiful. She grew up courteous, obliging, affectionate and obedient. So she was truly lovely. A pretty face may not fall to the lot of every girl, but all may acquire beautiful characters.

Far away in Canaan, Abraham did not forget his relatives. One day he called his chief servant, Eliezer , to him and said : ' ' Thou shalt go unto my country, and to my kindred, and take a wife unto my son Isaac."

But Eliezer did not think that a girl would be willing to leave her own country and journey to a strange land to marry Isaac. And he told Abraham so.

But Abraham had an answer ready.

u The Lord Grod of heaven which took me from my father's house, and from the land of my kindred, and which spake unto me and sware unto me, saying 'Unto thy seed will I give this land,' He shall send His angel before thee and thou shalt take a a wife unto my son from thence."

Abraham was sure that God would help Eliezer in his choice, for from Isaac and his wife were to be descended the great Hebrew nation. It was important that Isaac should have a good wife. Alone, Abraham might not have made the best choice, but he was content to leave it to God. Abraham had long ago chosen to obey God in everything, and God took care of him all through his long life.

' Blest was the choice that Abraham made, When he the voice of God obeyed,

And left his kindred dear.

What though he knew not where he went, And passed his days within a tent,

He knew that God was near.

' k And when he saw the heathen round, Beneath each tree, upon each mound,

Before their idols bend, Could he enough his love express, For him who promised still to bless,

And chose him for His friend ?

" The friend of God! The angels fair No sweeter name than this could bear,

However high their state; Yet may a creature made of clay, Who will the Lord's commands obey,

Obtain this honor great."

Eliezer was an important man. Abraham was so old that he needed some one to look after his property, — his flocks and his herds, his slaves and his gold and whatever else he had. And Eliezer did this. He was Abraham's steward, for that is what a man who manages the affairs of another is called.

The steward made his preparations for the journey without troubling his master. He took ten camels and a band of men and set out, carrying with him beautiful presents for Abraham's relatives. Camels seem especially made for traveling across deserts, and are used to carry both people and goods. They are sometimes called the ships of the desert. They can go a long time without eating and drinking. Each hump is a store of fat from which the camel can draw when it needs food. On a journey the owner of the animal generally feeds it very little, often only a few beans or dates, and not those if there are any shrubs on which it can browse. As for water, the camel has two stomachs, and in one of these, which is called the honeycomb bag, are great masses of cells which store up water and keep it for a long time. When pressed by thirst Arabs sometime kill a camel for the sake of the water in this bag. A camel has keen sight and smell, and can discern water at a great distance. Its eyes are furnished with long eyelashes to protect them from the glare of the burning sun, and it can close its nostrils at will to keep out the drifting sand. Its feet have thick soles which protect them from the hot sands over which they have to travel, and there are also tough places on the chest and the joints of the legs, useful when the patient beasts kneel to receive their loads. A camel can carry twice as heavy a load as a mule; its motion is jolting and disagree - ble to those who are not used to it.

Eliezer and his camels and his men crossed the desert and came to the city of Nahor. How he found

BEBEKAH, THE CHOSEN OF GOD. 31

a wife for Isaac is simply and beautifully told in the twenty -fourth chapter of Genesis .

"And he made his camels to kneel down without the city by a well of water at the time of the evening that women go out to draw water. And he said, ' O Lord God of my master Abraham, I pray Thee send me good speed this day and show kindness unto my master Abraham. Behold I stand here at the well of water ; and the daughters of the men of the city come out to draw water ; and let it come to pass that the damsel to whom I shall say "Let down thy pitcher, I pray thee, that I may drink;" and she shall say, " Drink, and I will give thy camels drink also:" let the same be appointed for thy servant Isaac; and thereby shall I know that Thou hast shewed kindness unto my master.'