Anecdotes, illustrative of a select passage in each chapter of the Old Testament

Preface

The Compiler of the following Work having, with a very few exceptions, supplied, in a former publication, each chapter of the New Testament with two anecdotes, was naturally led to turn his attention to the Old Testament, with the view of completing his plan. In some of the Books of Moses, the Chronicles, the concluding chapters of Ezekiel, and some other parts of Scripture, considerable difficulty was felt in getting anecdotes to bear on particular passages, and after all, the connection may, in several instances, appear remote. The candid reader will in such cases make allowance. The Compiler has been careful not to admit anecdotes of a light and humorous kind, more calculated to afford amusement than to make any serious impression on the mind. Passages may occur to the recollection of the intelligent reader, to which some of the anecdotes elsewhere applied may be thought more appropriate; their application to these passages, however, would have displaced others from a situation that appeared the most proper.

IV PREFACE.

Unless it may have arisen from oversight, none of the anecdotes in the last editions of the other compilations of the author have been admitted into the present volume. Where the Old Testament is read through in order by children, either in a family or school, an anecdote will be found under each chapter, the reading, or relating of which, may give the exercise an additional interest, and impress some truth of the Word of God more strongly on the mind.

Edinburgh, November 1835,

ANECDOTES

OLD TESTAMENT.

GENESIS.

Chap. i. ver. 16. — God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day.

The late Dr Livingston of America, and Louis Bonaparte, Ex-King of Holland, happened once to be fellowpassengers, with many others, on board of one of the North River steam-boats. As the doctor was walking the deck in the morning, and gazing at the refulgence of the rising sun, which appeared to him unusually attractive, he passed near the distinguished stranger, and, stopping for a moment, accosted him thus : " How glorious, Sir, is that object!" — pointing gracefully with his hand to the sun. The Ex-King assenting, he immediately added, " And how much more glorious, Sir, must be its maker, the Sun of Righteousness !" A gentleman, who overheard this short incidental conversation, being acquainted with both personages, now introduced them to each other, and a few more remarks were interchanged. Shortly after, the doctor again turned to the Ex-King, and with that air of polished complaisance, for which he was remarkable, invited him first, and then the rest of the company, to attend a morning prayer. It is scarcely necessary to add, that the invitation was promptly complied with.

Chap. ii. ver. 3.— And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it.

" It is a little remarkable," says Captain Scoresby, in his voyage to Greenland, " that during the whole of the voyage, no circumstance ever occurred to prevent us engaging in public worship on the Sabbath day. In a few instances, the hour of worship could not be easily kept, but opportunity was always found of having each of the services in succession on a plan adopted at the commencement of a2

GENESIS IV.

he voyage. And it is worthy of observation, that in ad instance, when on fishing stations, was our refraining from the ordinary duties of our profession on the Sunday ever supposed, eventually, to have been a loss to us, for we in general found, that if others who were less regardful, or had not the same view of the obligatory nature of the command respecting the Sabbath day, succeeded in their endeavours to promote the success of the voyage, we seldom failed to procure a decided advantage in the succeeding week. Independently, indeed, of the divine blessing on honouring the Sabbath day, I found that the restraint put upon the natural inclinations of the men for pursuing the fishery at all opportunities, acted with some advantage, by proving an extraordinary stimulus to their exertions when they were next sent out after whales. Were it not out of place here, I could relate several instances in which, after our refraining to fish upon the Sabbath, while others were thus successfully employed, our subsequent labours succeeded under circumstances so striking, that there was not, I believe, a man in the ship who did not consider it the effect of the divine blessing."

Chap. iii. ver. 15. — I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed : it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.

During the Arian controversy, at a general meeting of the ministers of London, at Salters' Hall, Mr Thomas Bradbury had been contending, that those who really believed the doctrine of Christ's divinity, should openly avow it ; when, to bring it to the test, he said, " You who are not ashamed to own the deity of our Lord, follow me into the gallery." He had scarcely mounted two or three steps before the opposite party hissed him ; when, turning round, he said, " I have been pleading for him who bruised the serpent's head ; no wonder the seed of the serpent should hiss."

Chap. iv. ver. 8. — It came to pass, when they were in the field, that Cam rose up against Abel his In-other, and slew him.

Mr Clarke, in his Examples, relates the account of two French merchants who were travelling to a fair, and while

GENESIS YII. 7

passing through a wood, one of them murdered the other, and robbed him of his money. After burying him, to prevent discovery, he proceeded on his journey. The dog of the person murdered remained, however, by the grave of his master ; and, by his loud and continued howling, attracted the notice of several persons in the neighbourhood, who, by this means, discovered the murder. The fair being ended, they watched the return of the merchants. The murderer no sooner appeared in view, than the dog sprung furiously upon him, who being apprehended, confessed the crime, and was justly executed.

Chap. v. ver. 22. — Enoch walked with God.

Dr Cornelius, of North America, whose death was somewhat sudden, said to the writer of his life, " Tell your own dear people, from me, that they hear for eternity. Last Monday I was in the world, active, but now I am dying; so it may be with any of them. O, if they would but realize the solemn import of the fact, that they hear for eternity, it would rouse them all from slumber, and cause them to attend, without delay, to the things which belong to their eternal peace. Tell Christians to aim at a higher standard of piety, and to live more entirely devoted to Christ and his cause. When one comes to die, he feels that there is an immeasurable disparity between the standard of piety as it now is, and as it ought to be."

Chap. vi. ver. 3.— And the Lord said, My Spirit shall not always strive with man.

A young woman, who had lived negligent of the great salvation, not long before she died, burst into tears, and said, " O that I had repented when the Spirit of God was striving with me ! but now I am undone." She afterwards exclaimed, " O, how have I been deceived ! When I was in health, I delayed repentance from time to time ! O that I had my time to live over again ! O that I had obeyed the Gospel ! but now I must burn in hell for ever. O ! T cannot bear it ; I cannot bear it !" Not long before she died she said, « Eternity ! Eternity ! O, to burn throughout eternity !"

Chap. vii. ver. 9.— There went in two and two unto Noah into the ark, the male and the female, as I'ocl had commanded Noah.

$ GENESIS IX.

The dominion originally given to man over the inferior animals, is still, in a great measure, maintained, notwithstanding his fall, and consequent loss of authority over the brute creation. ii Considering the use that is made of the elephant in the East Indies," says 3Ir Park in his travels, u it may be thought extraordinary that the natives of Africa have not, in any part of this immense continent, acquired the skill of taming this powerful and docile creature, and applying his strength and faculties to the service of man. When I told some of the natives that this was actually done in the countries of the East, my auditors laughed me to scorn; and exclaimed, c Tobaubo fonnio /' — (White man's lie.)"

Chap. viii. ter. 22. — VS Tiiie the earth remaineth, seed-time and harvest, aud cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night, shall not cease.

A minister going to church one Lord's day morning, when the weather was extremely cold and stormy, was overtaken by one of his neighbours, who, shivering, said to him, u It's very cold, Sir." c ' Oh," replied the minister, u God is as good as his word still." The other started at his remark, not apprehending his drift, or what he referred to ; and asked him what he meant ? " 3Iean," replied he, u why, he promised, above three thousand years ago, and still he makes his word good, that while the earth remaineth, seed-time and harvest, and cold and heat, shall not cease."

Chap. ix. ver. 2L — Noah drank of the wine, and was drunken.

A person in Maryland, who was addicted to drunkenness, hearing a considerable uproar in his kitchen one night, felt the curiosity to step without noise to the door, to know what was the matter ; when he found his servants indulging in the most unbounded roars of laughter at a couple of negro boys, who were mimicking himself in his drunken fits ! — as how he reeled and staggered — how he looked and nodded — and hiccupped and tumbled. The pictures which these children of nature drew of him, and which had rilled the rest with such inexhaustible merriment, struck him with so salutary a disgust, that from that night he became a perfectly sober man, to the great joy of his wife and children.

GENESIS XII. 9

Chap. x. ver. 8.— Nimrod began to be a mighty one in the earth.

" What right," asks Rolliu, u had Alexander over the great number of nations, which did not know even the name of Greece, and had never done him the least injury ? The Scythian Ambassador spoke very judiciously, when he addressed him in these words : — c What have we to do with thee ? We never once set our feet in thy country. Are not those who live in woods allowed to be ignorant of thee, and the place from whence thou comest ? Thou boastest that the only design of thy marching is to extirpate robbers: thou thyself art the greatest robber in the world.' This is Arexander's exact character, in which there is nothing to be rejected. — A pirate spoke to him," adds the same historian, " to the same effect, and in stronger terms. Alexander asked him, ( What right he had to infest the seas ?' i The same that thou hast,' replied the pirate, with a generous liberty, i to infest the world ; but because I do this in a small ship, I am called a robber ; and because thou actest the same part with a great fleet, thou art styled a conqueror.' "

Chap. xi. ver. 4. — Let us build us a city, and a tower whose top may reach unto heaven.

According to Herodotus, the Tower of Babel, which was constructed of bricks of bitumen, was a furlong on each side at the base ; and Strabo adds, a furlong in height. It consisted of eight towers, built one above another, which, if proportionally high, would make the elevation exactly one mile. The ascent to the top, Rollin informs us, was by stairs winding round it on the outside ; that is, there was an easy sloping ascent in the side of the outer wall, which turning by very slow degrees in a spiral line, eight times round the tower, from the bottom to the top, had the same appearance as if there had been eight towers placed upon one another. In these different stories were many large rooms with arched roofs, supported by pillars. Over the whole, on the top of the tower, was an observatory, by the benefit of which, the Babylonians became more expert in astronomy than all other nations.

Chap. xii. ver. 8. — Abraham pitched his tent, and

10 GENESIS XIV.

there lie builded an altar unto the Lord, and called on the name of the Lord.

Mr Howard, the philanthropist, never neglected the duty of family prayer, even though there was but one, and that one his domestic, to join him in it ; always declaring, that where he had a tent, God should have an altar. This was the case, not only in England, but in every part of Europe which they visited together, it being the invariable practice, wherever, and with whomsoever he might be, to tell Thomasson to come to him at a certain hour, at which, well knowing what the direction meant, he would be sure to find him in his room, the doors of which he would order him to fasten ; when, let who would come, nobody was admitted till this devotional exercise was over. " Veryfew, 1 ' says the humble narrator, " knew the goodness of this man's heart,"

Chap. xiii. ver. 8. — Abraham said unto Lot, Let there he no strife, I pray thee, between me and thee, and between my herdmen and thy herdmen ; for we be brethren.

, Mr Richards, missionary in India, on his journey to Meerut, halted under the shade of a tree, in the outskirts of a large village, by the road-side : as he sat there, two of the Zemindars of the neighbourhood came up, and, respectfully saluting him, entreated him to act as an umpire between them, and settle a dispute, in which they had been long involved, about the boundaries of their respective lands. Mr R. declined interfering in the matter ; but intimated his readiness to give them information respecting the important concerns of salvation. Having read and explained the Scriptures, they listened with attention and delight. The disputants embraced each other with apparent cordiality, and avowed that they would dispute no more about their lands, but love each other, and strive to seek and serve God.

Chap. xiv. ver. 21. — The King of Sodom said unto >/ Abram, Give me the persons, and take the s*oods to ■K thyself.

When the Archduke Charles was on his way to Bohemia, to take the command of the army in Germany, as he approached the scene of action, he fell in with a number of

GENESIS XVI. 11

wounded, who were abandoned by their companions on the road, for want of horses to draw the carriages in their re- .. treat. The Prince immediately ordered the horses to be unyoked from several pieces of cannon that were retreating, . saying, that these brave men were better worth saving than a few pieces of cannon. When General Moreau heard of the benevolent act, he ordered the cannon to be restored, observing, " That he would take no cannon which were abandoned from motives so humane.'"

Chap. xv. ver. 6. — Abraham believed in the Lord ; and he counted it to him for righteousness.

Mr Cooper, late missionary in the East Indies, had been on one occasion preaching on Justification, at a military station on the Malabar coast ; and on giving out the hymn at the end of the service, which was the 109th of the first book of Watts, he paused and remarked, that if any one who did not come to Christ for the bestowment of this righteousness, joined in the singing of this hymn, he was only insulting God. One of the soldiers who was hearing him said, he was as if thunderstruck : a What a wretch must I be," said he, " that I am prohibited from joining in the praises of God !" He went to the barracks under this impression, and found that without an interest in Christ he was a wretch indeed ; and now, to all human appearance, he has fled for refuge to that atonement he had formerly neglected.

Chap. xvi. ver. 13. — Thou God seest me.

In a market-town in Buckinghamshire, several Christians of different denominations united to support and teach a Sabbath school in a neighbouring village. One of the teachers, who was accustomed to address the children and other attendants, on religious subjects, was one Sabbath morning, during winter, very greatly discouraged in the prospect of his duties, and entirely unable to fix on a topic for his usual address. Walking along in this disconsolate state of mind, he found written on the snow, apparently with the stick of some passing traveller, that striking passage of Holy Scripture,— " Thou God seest me." He resolved on making this the foundation of his remarks, and the happy result was the conversion to God of two of his, hearers, who became consistent members of a christian church.

12 GENESIS XVIII.

Chap. xvii. ver. 18. — Abraham said unto God, O that Ishmael might live before thee !

In the house of a good man lived his daughter and her husband, both of thern straugers to real religion, and the latter of them immoral. The affectionate exhortations, the holy life, and the prayers of the old man, which were offered every day, in the presence of this son and daughter, as often as he could prevail upon them to come to his bedside, produced no effect upon them. A child, who boarded with them in the cottage, never failed to attend on these occasions : and on the evening of the day in which the old man died, this child said to his daughter, " Mother," for so he usually called her (though no relation), "we shall have no prayer to-night, now grandfather is dead : will not you pray ?" " As I can," was the reply. The child, with much simplicity and fervour, urged her request. At length, the poor woman, overcome by her entreaties, and her mind perhaps somewhat softened by the loss she had that day sustained, made her first attempt to call on the name of the Lord. The result was happy ; for she has been a praying person ever since, and consistent in her conduct. Her husband soon after became " convinced of sin and righteousness, and of judgment to come ;" and is, there is good reason to believe, a truly pious man. This case surely affords a powerful encouragement to parents to persevere in offering up fervent prayer for the conversion of their children, in the hope that their petitions may be heard, though they may not live to witness the answer of them.

Chap, xviii. ver. 19. — I know him that he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the Lord, to do justice and judgment.

The following account is given by Milner in his Church History, of the family order observed by Eleazer, Count of Arian, in the 14th century : — " I cannot," said the Count, " allow blasphemy in my house, nor any thing in word or deed, which offends the laws of decorum. Dice and all games of hazard are to be prohibited. Let all persons in my house divert themselves at proper times ; but not in a sinful manner. In the morning, reading and prayer must be attended to. Let there be constant peace in my family ;

GENESIS XXI. 13

otherwise two armies are formed under my roof, and the master is devoured by them both. If any difference arise, let not the sun go down upon your wrath. We must bear with something if we have to live among mankind. Every evening, all the family shall be assembled at a godly conference, in which they shall hear something of God and salvation. Let none be absent on pretence of attending to my affairs. I have no affairs so interesting to me as the salvation of my domestics. I seriously forbid all injustice which may cloak itself under colour of serving me."

Chap. xix. ver. 14. — Up, get you out of this place ; for the Lord will destroy this city. But Lot seemed as one that mocked unto his sons-in-law.

Some of the unconverted inhabitants of Greenland had heard that the world would be destroyed, and as in that case they would have no where to go to, they expressed a desire to be converted, that they might go with the believers-. " But," added they, with that carelessness and procrastination so natural to man, in the things that belong to eternity, " as the destruction will not happen this year, we will come in next season."

Chap. xx. ver. 6. — Abraham prayed unto God : \f and God healed Abimelech.

Dr Thomas Brown, a physician of considerable celebrity in former days, and author of Religio Medici, says, " I never hear of a person dying, though in my mirth, without my prayers and best wishes for the departing spirit. I cannot go to cure the body of my patient, but I forget my profession, and call unto God for his soul."

Chap. xxi. ver. 23. — Now, therefore, swear unto me, here, by God, that thou wilt not deal falsely with me, nor with my son, nor with my sons son : but according to the kindness that I have done unto thee, thou shalt do unto me, and to the land wherein thou hast sojourned.

When Mr Bruce was at Shekh Ammer, he entreated the protection of the governor in prosecuting his journey. Speaking of the people who were assembled together, at this time, in the house, he says, " The great people among them came, and after joining hands, repeated a kind of prayer, of

B

14 GENESIS XXII.

about two minutes long, by which they declared themselves and their children accursed, if ever they lifted up their hands against me in the tell, or field in the desert ; or in case that I, or mine, should fly to them for refuge, if they did not protect us at the risk of their lives, their families, and their fortunes ; or, as they emphatically expressed it, to the death of the last male child among them."

Chap. xxii. ver. 10. — Abraham stretched forth his hand, and took the knife to slay his son.

The following anecdote, and remarks, are found in a note to one of President Davies' sermons. " How astonishing was the rigid justice of Brutus the Elder, who, in spite of all the passions of a father, passed sentence of death upon his own sons, for conspiring against the liberty of their country I While the amiable youths stood trembling and weeping before him, and hoping their fears would be the most powerful defence with a father ; while the senate whisper for the moderation of the punishment, and that they might escape with banishment ; while his fellow-consul is silent ; while the multitude tremble and expect the decision with horror; — the inexorable Brutus rises, in all the stern majesty of justice, and turning to the lictors, who were the executioners, says to them, c To you, lictors, I deliver them.' In this sentence he persisted, inexorable, notwithstanding the weeping intercession of the multitude, and the cries of the young men, calling upon their father by the most endearing names. The lictors seized them, stripped them naked, bound their hands behind them, beat them with rods, and then struck off their heads ; the inexorable Brutus looking on the bloody spectacle with unaltered countenance. Thus the father was lost in the judge ; the love of justice overcame all the fondness of the parent ; private interest was swallowed up in regard for the public good, and the honour and security of government. This, perhaps, is the most striking resemblance of the justice of Deity that can be found in the history of mankind. But how far short does it fall ! How trifling were the sufferings of these youths compared with those of the Son of God ! They, too, were criminals, — he was holy and free from sin. How insignificant the law and government for which they suffered, to that of the divine ! How small the good of the public in the one case to that of the other !"

GENESIS XX V. 15

Chap, xxiii. ver. 7. — Abraham bowed himself to the people of the land, even to the children of Heth.

Sir William Cooels, Governor of Virginia, was conversing one day with a merchant in the street, when he saw a negro pass by who saluted him. Sir William having returned the salutation, the merchant, in surprise, asked him, " How ! does your Excellency condescend to bow to a slave ?" " To be sure," answered the Governor, " I should be very sorry that a slave should show himself more civil than I."

Chap. xxiv. ver. 63. — Isaac went out to meditate (margin, to pray) in the field at the even-tide.

A pious young man in the army, not finding a convenient place in the barracks in which he was quartered, went, one night, when dark, into an adjoining field, for the purpose of secret devotion. Two men belonging to the same regiment, in whose breasts enmity had long subsisted against each other, were resolved to end it, as they said, by a battle, being prevented from going, during the day, by the fear of punishment. They were led by Providence to the same part of the field where the young man was engaged in his secret exercises. They were surprised at hearing, as they thought, a voice in the field at that time of night ; and much more so, when they drew nearer and heard a man at prayer. They stopped, and gave attention ; and, through the divine blessing, the prayer had such an effect on both, as to turn their enmity into love, They instantly took each other by the hand, and cordially confessed that there existed no longer, in their hearts, hatred to each other.

Chap. xxv. ver. 8. — Then Abraham gave up the ghost, and died in a good old age, an old man, and full of years ; and was gathered to his people.

The late Rev. Mr Innes of GifFord, after a life prolonged beyond the days of most men, literally fell asleep ; through life a truly peaceful man, his latter end was peculiarly so ; without the suffering of disease, or any acute pain, the pins of his tabernacle seem to have been gently loosed. Some days before, one of his parishioners, a farmer, called, and seeing him cheerful, said he was glad to see him so well, and that as mild weather was at hand, he would soon get better, and be visiting them again. He replied, " No, I wish no such flattery ; you see here a poor old man on his

1 6 GENESIS XXVII.

death-bed, but without alarm I tell you that ; hear, and tell all your neighbours, my parishioners, that my comfort now, and hope for eternity, is just the gospel of Christ I have preached to them sixty years, and there is no other." He was wonderfully composed at all times ; but a week before his death, one called, and seeing a book of small type before him, asked him if he saw to read without glasses. He said, " O, no ; I cannot read even my Bible without glasses ; but," strengthening his voice, " I am thankful that I have a Bible that I have read, and I can mind some texts that I can see and feel now, as I never did before. O, it is a precious book !"

Chap. xxvi. ver. 20. — The herdmen of Gerar did strive with Isaac's herdmen. saying, The water is ours.

3Iajor Rooke, in his travels, relates the following circumstance : — " One morning when we had been driven, by stress of weather, into a small bay, called Birk Bay, the country around it being inhabited by the Budoos, (Bedoweens,) the noquedah sent his people on shore to get water, for which it is always customary to pay : the Budoos were, as the people thought, rather too exorbitant in their demands, and not choosing to comply with them, returned to make their report to their master : on hearing it, rage immediately seized him, and, determined to have the water on his own terms, or perish in the attempt, he buckled on his armour, and, attended by his myrmidons, carrying their match-locks, guns, and lances, being twenty in number, they rowed to the land. 3Ly Arabian servant, who went on shore with the first party, and saw that the Budoos were disposed for fighting, told me that I should certainly see a battle. After a parley of about a quarter of an hour, with which the Budoos amused them till nearly an hundred were assembled, they proceeded to the attack, and routed the sailors, who made a precipitate retreat, the noquedah and two others having fallen in the action, and several having been wounded." Hence, we discover the conformity of the ancient and modern custom of buying the water, and the serious consequences that have ensued from the disputes respecting it.