[Transcriber's Note: Pictures are positioned as they are in the original text,
often far from the related passage. The text has been linked to the picture.]


HALF HOURS IN BIBLE LANDS,

OR,

STORIES AND SKETCHES FROM THE SCRIPTURES AND THE EAST.

PATRIARCHS, KINGS, AND KINGDOMS.

BY REV. P. C. HEADLEY,
AUTHOR OF "THE WOMEN OF THE BIBLE,"
"HARVEST WORK OF THE HOLY SPIRIT,"
"THE EMPRESS JOSEPHINE,"
"MASSACHUSETTS IN THE REBELLION,"
ETC., ETC., ETC.

WITH NUMEROUS ILLUSTRATIONS.

PHILADELPHIA:
PUBLISHED BY JOHN E. POTTER & CO.,
No. 617 SANSOM STREET.

Entered according to Act of Congress,
in the year 1867, by  JOHN E. POTTER & CO.,
In the Clerk's Office of the
United States District Court in and for the Eastern
District of Pennsylvania.



 Isaac and Esau



 Job and His Three Friends.


THE BIBLE AND THE HOLY LAND.

PATRIARCHS, KINGS, AND KINGDOMS.


SCENES IN THE LIVES OF THE PATRIARCHS.


The patriarchs might be called family kings--the divinely appointed
rulers of households. They were the earliest sovereigns under God of
which we have any account. Their authority was gradually extended by the
union of households, whose retinue of servants was often large, and
their wealth very great. The founder and leader of the patriarchal line
chosen by God from the wealthy nomades, or wandering farmers of the
fruitful valleys, was Abram. A worshipper of the Infinite One, he
married Sarai, a maiden of elevated piety and personal beauty. And
doubtless they often walked forth together beneath the nightly sky,
whose transparent air in that latitude made the stars impressively--

"The burning blazonry of God!"

Upon the hill-tops around, were the observatories and altars of Chaldean
philosophy, whose disciples worshipped the host of Heaven. In the
serenity of such an hour, with the white tents reposing in the distance,
and the "soul-like sound" of the rustling forest alone breaking the
stillness, it would not be strange, as they gazed on flaming Orion and
the Pleiades, if they had bowed with the Devotee of Light, while--

  "Beneath his blue and beaming sky,
   He worshipped at their lofty shrine,
   And deemed he saw with gifted eye,
   The Godhead in his works divine."

But a purer illumination than streamed from that radiant dome, brought
near in his majesty the Eternal, and like the holy worshippers of Eden,
they adored with subdued and reverent hearts, their infinite Father.

There is great sublimity and wonderful power in the purity and growth of
religious principle, in circumstances opposed to its manifestation. The
temptations resisted--the earnest communion with each other--the
glorious aspirations and soarings of imagination, when morning broke
upon the summits, and evening came down with its stars, and its rising
moon, flooding with glory nature in her repose. These, and a thousand
lovely and touching scenes of that pastoral life, are all unrecorded.
The great events in history, and bold points in character, are seized by
the inspired penman as sufficient to mark the grand outline of God's
providential and moral government over the world, and his care of his
people.

Just when it would best accomplish his designs, which are ever marching
to their fulfillment, Jehovah called to Abram, and bade him go to a
distant land which he would show him. With his father-in-law, and with
Lot, his flocks and herds, he journeyed toward Palestine. When he
arrived at Haran, in Mesopotamia, pleased with the country, and probably
influenced by the declining health of the aged Terah, he took up his
residence there. Here he remained till the venerable patriarch, Sarai's
father, died. The circle of relatives bore him to the grave, and kept
the days of mourning. But the dutiful daughter wept in the solitary
grief of an orphan's heart. A few years before she had lost a brother,
and now the father to whom she was the last flower that bloomed on the
desert of age, and who lavished his love upon her, was buried among
strangers.

Then the command to move forward to his promised inheritance came again
to Abram. With Sarai he journeyed on among the hills, encamping at night
beside a mountain spring, and beneath the unclouded heavens arching
their path, changeless and watchful as the love of God--exiles by the
power of their simple faith in him. Soon as they reached Palestine,
Abram consecrated its very soil by erecting a family altar, first in the
plain of Moreh, and again on the summits that catch the smile of morning
near the hamlet of Bethel.

Months stepped away, rapidly as silently, old associations wore off, and
Abram was a wealthy and happy man in the luxuriant vales of Canaan. His
flocks dotted the plains, and his cattle sent down their lowing from
encircling hills. But more than these to him was the affection of his
beautiful wife. Her eye watched his form along the winding way, when
with the ascending sun he went out on the dewy slopes, and kindled with
a serene welcome when at night-fall he returned for repose amid the
sacred joys of home.

At length there came on a fearful famine. The rain was withholden, and
the dew shed its benediction no more upon the earth. He was compelled to
seek bread at the court of Pharaoh, or perish. Knowing the power of
female beauty, and the want of principle among the Egyptian princes, he
was afraid of assassination and the captivity of Sarai which would
follow. Haunted with this fear, he told her to say that she was his
sister--which was not a direct falsehood, but only so by implication.
According to the Jewish mode of reckoning relationship, she might be
called a sister; and Abram stooped to this prevarication under that
terrible dread which, in the case of Peter, drove a true disciple of
Christ to the brink of apostacy and despair.



Results of Prevarication. Peter denying his Master.


But his deception involved him in the very difficulty he designed to
escape. The king's courtiers saw the handsome Hebrew, and extolled her
beauty before him. He summoned her to the apartments of the palace, and
captivated by her loveliness, determined to make her his bride. During
the agonizing suspense of Abram, and the concealed anguish of Sarai in
her conscious degradation, the hours wore heavily away, until the
judgment of God upon the royal household brought deliverance. Pharaoh,
though an idolater, knew by this supernatural infliction, that there was
guilt in the transaction, and called Abram to an account. He had nothing
to say in self-acquittal, and with a strange magnanimity, was sent away
quietly, with his wife and property, followed only by the reproaches of
Pharaoh, and his own wakeful conscience.

Abram returned to Palestine, became a victor in fierce battles with a
vastly outnumbering foe, and was in possession of a splendid fortune.

Whether in Egypt, or in his tent on the plains of Palestine, Abram, with
all the patriarchs, was a true gentleman. We may doubt whether any
modern school of refinement in manners could furnish any nobler examples
of dignity and civility in personal learning and manners, than were the
rich dwellers in ancient Palestine. Subjects fell prostrate before
sovereigns; equals, when they met, inclined the head toward the breast,
and placed the right hand on the left breast. Of the Great King it is
written, "Come, let us bow down; let us worship before the Lord our
Maker."

Jehovah appeared to Abram in a glorious vision, talking with him as
friend to friend. He fell on his face in the dust, as did the exile of
Patmos ages after, while a voice of affection and hope carne from the
bending sky: "I am the Almighty God; walk before me and be thou
perfect." The solemn covenant involving the greatness and splendor of
the people and commonwealth that should spring from the solitary pair,
was renewed; and as an outward seal, he was named Abraham, The father of
a great multitude--and his wife Sarah, The princess. Still he laughed at
the absurdity that Sarah would ever be a mother, and invoked a blessing
on Ishmael, but evidently said nothing to her upon a subject dismissed
as incredible from his thoughts. For when the celestial messengers were
in the tent, on their way to warn Lot, she listened to their earnest
conversation, concealed by the curtains, and hearing that repeated
promise based on the immutability of God, also laughed with bitter mirth
at her hopeless prospect in regard to the marvelous prediction. And when
one of the Angels, who was Jehovah veiled in human form, as afterward
"manifest in the flesh," charged her with this unbelief and levity, the
discovery roused her fears, and approaching him, without hesitation, she
denied the fact. He knew perfectly her sudden apprehension, and only
repeated the accusation, enforced by a glance of omniscience, like that
which pierced the heart of Peter.

The group separated, and two of those bright beings went to Sodom. The
next morning Abraham walked out upon the plain, and looked toward the
home of Lot. He saw the smoke as of a great furnace going up to the calm
azure, from the scathed and blackened plains, where life was so busy and
joyous a few hours before! With a heavy heart he returned to his tent,
arid brought Sarah forth to behold the scene. She clung with trembling
to his side, while she listened to the narration of the terrible
overthrow of those gorgeous cities, and the rescue of her brother's
household, and beheld in the distance the seething and silent grave of
millions, sending up a swaying column of ebon cloud, like incense, to
God's burning indignation against sin.

They left the vale of Mamre, and journeyed to Gera, where, with a
marvellous forgetfulness of the past, the beauty of Sarah again led them
into deception and falsehood, and with the same result as before.
Abimelech, the king, would have taken her for his wife as Abraham's
sister, had not God appeared in a dream, threatening immediate death.
Upon pleading his innocence, he was spared, and expostulating with his
guest, generously offered him a choice of residence in the land; but
rebuked Sarah with merited severity.

Prophecy and covenant now hastened to their fulfillment. Sarah gave
birth to a son, and with the name of God upon her lips, she gave
utterance to holy rapture. With all her faults, she was a pious and
noble woman. She meant to train him for the Lord, and therefore when she
saw young Ishmael mocking at the festival of his weaning, she besought
her husband to send away the irreverent son, whose influence might ruin
the consecrated Isaac. Hagar, with a generous provision for her wants,
was a fugitive; and the Most High approved the solicitude of a mother
for an only child, around whose destiny was gathered the interest of
ages, and the hopes of a world.

And now, with the solemn shadows of life's evening hours falling around
her, and a heart subdued by the discipline of Providence, in the fulness
of love which had been rising so long within the barriers of hope
deferred, she bent prayerfully over the very slumbers of that fair boy,
and taught him the precious name of God with the first prattle of his
infant lips. How proudly she watched the unfolding of this bud of
promise! When, in the pastimes of childhood, he played before the tent
door, or, with a shout of gladness, ran to meet Abraham returning from
the folds, her calm and glowing eye marked his footsteps, and her
grateful aspirations for a blessing on the lad, went up to the Heaven of
heavens. At length he stood before her in the manliness and beauty of
youth, unscarred by the rage of passions, and with a brow open and
laughing as the radiant sky of his own lovely Palestine.



 Hagar in the Wilderness.


It was a morning which flooded the dewy plains with glory, and filled
the groves with music, when Abraham came in from his wonted communion
with God, and called for Isaac, and told him to prepare for a three
days' journey in the wilderness. How tenderly was Sarah regarded in this
scene of trial! Evidently no information of the awful command to
sacrifice the son of her old age was made to her. She might have read
something fearful in the lines of anxious thought and the workings of
deep emotion in the face of Abraham. But he evaded all inquiries on the
subject, "clave the wood," and accompanied by two of his young men,
turned from his dwelling with a blessing from that wondering mother, and
was soon lost from her straining vision among the distant hills. Upon
the third day he saw the top of Mount Moriah kindling in the rising sun,
and taking Isaac alone, ascended to the summit, whereon was to be reared
an altar, which awakened more intense solicitude in heaven, than any
offering before or since, except on Calvary, where God's "only be-gotten
and well-beloved Son" was slain. There is no higher moral sublimity than
the unwavering trust and cheerful obedience of this patriarch, when the
very oath of the Almighty seemed perjured, and the bow of promise
blotted from the firmament of faith!

But he believed Jehovah, and would have clung to his assurance, though
the earth had reeled in her orbit, and every star drifted from its
moorings. He prayed for strength, with his hand on the forehead of his
submissive son.

  "He rose up, and laid
  The wood upon the altar. All was done,
  He stood a moment--and a deep, quick flush
  Passed o'er his countenance; and then he nerved
  His spirit with a bitter strength, and spoke--
  'Isaac! my only son'--the boy looked up,
  And Abraham turned his face away, and wept.
  'Where is the lamb, my father?' O, the tones,
  The sweet, the thrilling music of a child!
  How it doth agonize at such an hour!
  It was the last, deep struggle--Abraham held
  His loved, his beautiful, his only son,
  And lifted up his arm, and called on God
  And lo! God's angel staid him--and he fell
  Upon his face and wept."

The years fled, the good old Abraham died, and Isaac succeeded him to
the patriarchal honors. He had two sons, Esau and Jacob. The elder
brother was irreligious, and married a heathen wife. God had rejected
him, and promised to Jacob the birthright; in other words, he was to be
the chief patriarch, through whose descendants the Messiah should come.
He was his mother's favorite boy, while Isaac clung to Esau.

When the fond father became weak and blind from age, feeling that death
was near, one day he called Esau, and told him as he might die suddenly,
to get him venison, and prepare for the solemn occasion of receiving his
parting blessing, which should secure the privileges and pre-eminence of
the first-born. The hunter went into the fields, and Rebekah recollected
that Jacob had purchased the birthright of his brother for a mess of
pottage one day when he came in from the chase faint with hunger and
exhaustion. She determined by a stroke of management to secure the
patriarchal benediction. She sent him to the flocks after two kids,
which were prepared with the savory delicacy his father loved, dressed
him up in Esau's apparel, covering his hands and neck to imitate the
hairiness of the rightful heir, and sent him to the beside of the dying
Isaac. When the patriarch inquired who he was, he replied, "I am Esau,
thy first-born." This was beyond belief, because even the skillful
hunter could scarcely, without a miracle, so soon bring in the game, and
dress it for his table. Jacob was called to his side, and he felt of his
hands; the disguise completed the delusion, although his voice had the
milder tone of the young shepherd to that father's ear. He repeated the
interrogation concerning his name, then embracing him, pronounced in a
strain of true poetry, the perpetual blessing of Jehovah's favor upon
his undertakings, and his posterity. The stratagem had succeeded, and
Jacob hastened to inform his mother of the victory, just as Esau
entered. When Isaac discovered the mistake, he trembled with excitement,
while his son cried in anguish, "Bless even me also, O my father!" That
cry pierced the breaking heart of the aged man, but it was a fruitless
lament, He was inflexible, and Esau wept aloud over his blasted hopes;
plotting at the same time, in his awakened enmity, the murder of Jacob.

This scene of deception, disappointment, and providential working, the
introductory picture brings vividly before us.

The patriarchs were generally shepherds, and when we read in the Bible
of shepherds, we have but a poor impression of their business, if we
think only of the keeping of the small flocks kept in the fenced fields
and yards of modern farmers. They made their wealth chiefly by feeding
immense flocks and herds. They had extensive open plains; and were
obliged to watch the animals to prevent their being lost, stolen by
robbers, or devoured by ferocious beasts. When it was at all safe, the
shepherds and their flocks slept in the fields, beneath the open sky, or
under the sheltering trees.



The Welcome to a Wayward Son.


If the country was infested by dangerous men or animals, the owners of
the flocks built the fold or sheep-cote. This enclosure was sometimes
merely a rude pen. The walls were of wood or stone, with a thatched
roof--if they had any at all. The shepherd follows a wayward sheep, and
brings him back to a place of safety.

Thus the Good Shepherd of souls, whose disciples, like the flocks of the
East, "know his voice," with his rod of affliction restrains the
wandering and keeps securely the trusting ones.

Occasionally a rich land owner would make an expensive fold--a kind of
town or fortress for his flocks. Keeping the sheep in the air, it was
believed improved the texture of the wool, making it softer and firmer
than when exposed to the sweating and vapors which would necessarily
result from crowding them often and long into enclosures.

Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, were among the richest shepherds of
antiquity, and stand alone in moral grandeur of character, so far as we
have any records of the Hebrew husbandmen.

The great enemy of the sheep the world over, is the wolf--a cunning,
savage, and daring creature. A lamb of the flock seems to be a dainty
feast for him. He relishes even a child; the human delicacy is quite as
delicious as the other. A mother, with three children, was once riding
in a sledge in a desolate region, when a pack of wolves came running
after her. She drove rapidly on, but they came nearer and nearer, until
their hot breath fell on her face. In her terror, she threw one of the
children to the hungry wolves, hoping thus to pacify or check them until
she could get out of their reach. Soon, however, they came galloping on,
surrounding her sledge, and she flung another upon the snow. A brief
delay, and they were once more around her, and the last child was given
to the beasts; and then she reached her home in safety.

When she told the story to her neighbors, an exasperated peasant hewed
her down with an axe, because she fed the wolves on her own offspring,
selfishly saving by the sacrifice, her own life.

How like the destroyers of human virtue, and the great destroyer
himself! Wolves in sheep's clothing, stealing upon unguarded victims,
and glorying in the destruction of all that is "lovely and of good
report." for the transitory present and endless future!

We now turn to the annals of a patriarchal life which is entirely new,
and intensely interesting--the only record of the kind in the Bible.

The inspired history introduces him in the following words: "There was a
man in the land of Uz, whose name was Job." This region was in Eastern
Arabia, and probably near the home of Abram when he was summoned by God
to leave his idolatrous friends and neighbors in "Ur of the Chaldees."

It is thought he lived not far from the time of the great founder of the
Hebrew patriarchy. Job was probably a descendant of Nahor, Abram's
brother. He was a devout, rich, and benevolent Gentile patriarch. The
princely fortune of this "greatest of all the men of the East," is
indicated by an inventory of his flocks and herds. He had "seven
thousand sheep, and three thousand camels, and five hundred yoke of
oxen, and five hundred she asses." His household was also "very great."
This mighty man was a humble servant of God; and Satan could not bear to
see his influence and prosperity; and he determined to make him the
shining mark of his enmity to God and man.

The mysterious account of his entrance upon the cruel work of attempted
ruin, is in the following words: "Now there was a day when the sons of
God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan came also
among them." The saints of that early age were called "Sons of God," but
the meaning seems to be that either Satan was permitted to appear in a
gathering of angels who, returning from their ministries of love, were
reporting to their king, and awaiting new instructions, or, it is
designed only to represent the real character and power of the tempter,
in contrast with the loyalty of God's servant.

The whole narrative bears the marks of a real history; and Jehovah is
not limited by our ideas of what he can consistently do. "My ways are
not your ways, nor my thoughts your thoughts, saith the Lord."

The devil charged Job with selfish motives in serving God. He could
afford to be religious with such rare and splendid prosperity. To show
to the universe Satan's lying malice, his loyal subject's holy
character, and to comfort his people in all the ages following, while
the discipline purified and beautified the sufferer, he told the
adversary to try the patriarch with a change of circumstances--the
severest trials; only his body must not be touched.

The gratified fiend hastened away to his attack upon the unsuspecting
friend of God, over whom he anticipated a great victory. The patriarch's
family was large, and evidently a united and happy one. They had their
anniversary festivals, which were hallowed by religious services; the
faithful and affectionate father offering sacrifices on such occasions.
The Lord was recognized amid the most joyful scenes of social life; and
not, as in many prosperous households of Christian name in all the ages
since, excluded from the circle of pleasure like an unwelcome, unworthy
guest.



The Cruel Husbandman.


The birthday seems to have been the favorite anniversary; and at the
very moment Satan left Jehovah, the children were assembled at the house
of the oldest brother. Job was not there. He may have gone away for
awhile, or not yet have joined the rejoicing company.

For a messenger rushed into his presence with the startling intelligence
that the lawless Sabeans living in the region, had fallen upon the
servants keeping the oxen and asses, and slaying them, had taken the
animals away. No sooner had the devil obtained permission to engage, in
the wicked enterprise, than he found ready agents among men. And before
the evil report was finished, another terrified, excited servant, came
in, saying that the lightning of heaven had consumed the seven thousand
sheep.

This intelligence was falling from the lips of the only shepherd who
escaped the devouring fire, when a third messenger entered, pale with
alarm, and announced the raid of three companies of Chaldeans upon the
keepers of the three thousand camels, killing all but the bearer of the
news, and driving off the beasts of burden. The trembling man was
interrupted by the sudden appearance of the fourth servant, wild with
terror, crowning the crushing tidings already received, by telling Job
that a gale from the wilderness had swept down upon the eldest son's
dwelling, where the whole family were, excepting the patriarch, and
thrown walls and roof into a common wreck, burying his ten children
under the fragments.

We cannot easily imagine the stunning effect of these reports, following
each other like successive claps of thunder from a cloudless sky. Satan
was watching the effect, ready to exult over the first expression of
repining and rebellion. But how sublime the resignation of the loyal
heart of the childless, homeless, and penniless sufferer! After the
eastern custom in time of affliction, he cut off his hair, rent his
robe, fell upon the ground, and worshipped. The lips, tremulous with
sorrow, uttered the often-quoted and beautiful words: "The Lord gave,
and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord." No
disloyal act, or foolish complaint against Jehovah, gratified the
expectant enemy of God and man. But Satan was not satisfied with the
trial of faith. He was allowed to appear before God, and in answer to
the questioning respecting the patriarch's lofty yet meek submission,
basely and meanly declared that if he had been permitted to torture the
body, he should have succeeded in proving Job to be a hypocrite. The
Lord had purposed to silence the devil, and thoroughly try and sanctify
his own child. So he told the tempter to do what he pleased, only he
must spare life.

Suddenly poor Job was covered with burning ulcers, which defiled his
form until he scraped it with a piece of broken pitcher. While sitting
in the dust, a wretched mass of corruption, he found a new tempter in
the person of his wife: She asked him if he could still "retain his
integrity," and urged him to "curse God and die." Beautifully again his
breaking heart uttered its loyalty. Charging her with folly, he
inquired: "What! shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we
not receive evil?"

The scene of sorrow is now changed. Job had three friends living in the
country not far off, who were clearly intelligent, noble men. They heard
of his calamities, and started on a visit of condolence. When they came
in sight of him, he was so changed that at first they did not know him.
They wept aloud, rent their robes, and scattered dust on their heads, to
express their overwhelming grief. There he sat, in miserable poverty and
disease, and all around him the ruins of his just before magnificent
fortune, and the bodies or graves of his sons and daughters. They
approached him, and could say nothing, but sat down with him seven days
and nights without speaking a word--an awful, expressive silence. At
length Job could refrain no longer, but in his despondency, began to
bewail his birth, and wish he had at least died in earliest infancy.
Then was opened a long, eloquent, and wonderful discussion by the
mourning company upon the providence and grace of God.

Jehovah at length spake from the rolling cloud, borne on the "wings of
the wind," and indicated his dealings with a fallen race, pointing the
debaters for illustrations of power, wisdom, and glory, to his works of
creation, from the "crooked serpent" to "Orion and the Pleiades,"
floating in the nightly sky--the wonders of ocean, earth, and air.

Among the animals to which reference is made, there are three
conspicuous ones, about which naturalists disagree--they cannot
certainly tell us what they were. These are the unicorn, supposed by
many to be the rhinoceros of the present day; the behemoth, thought to
be the hippopotamus or river-horse; and the leviathan, which answers
very well to the whale.

The description of the war horse is the finest ever written, and given
in a few words; and yet he had not been seen amid the wildest storm of
battle, bearing his rider to the flaming mouths of ordnance, and through
the leaden hail of numberless infantry arms. "Hast thou given the horse
strength? hast thou clothed his neck with thunder? Canst thou make him
afraid as a grasshopper? the glory of his nostrils is terrible. He
paweth in the valley, and rejoiceth in his strength, he goeth on to meet
the armed men. He mocketh at fear, and is not affrighted; neither
turneth he back from the sword. The quiver rattleth against him, the
glittering spear and the shield. He swalloweth the ground with
fierceness and rage: neither believeth he that it is the sound of the
trumpet. He saith among the trumpets, Ha, ha; and he smelleth the battle
afar off, the thunder of the captains, and the shouting."

He alludes to a very beautiful wonder of his forming skill--"the
treasures of the snow." Few persons imagine the marvels of the fleecy
storm that whiten the earth in winter. What a variety of perfect
crystals! and how delicate their form and finish! The ice is made of
crystals, and often gives out aeolion music at the touch of winter. Even
the frost makes fine drawings on the window panes of leaves and flowers.

But the people of Palestine and the regions around it, know little of
our northern winters. The cold season is brief, and the occasional snow
storms light, and of short duration.

After God had finished his sublime appeal, Job bowed his head low before
him, and declared that all he had known of him before, compared with
what he had learned since he was afflicted, was no more than hearing
about him; "for," he added, "now mine eye seeeth thee; wherefore I abhor
myself, and repent in dust and ashes."

Then the Lord rebuked Job's friends, because they had judged him
harshly, and "had multiplied words without knowledge," directing them to
offer a sacrifice for him.

The patriarch prospered again under Jehovah's smile, and became greater
in wealth, and family, and influence, than he was when Sat

The Vision of the Dragon Chained.


The spirit alienation from God, and of depraved desires, which ruled the
ancient pagan realms is set before us under various titles. Among them
is that of the dragon, in the engraving; which the "king of kings" shall
yet bind forever and imprison.

The fate of the proud kingdoms which ruled Palestine, teaches the world
how little importance God attaches to human glory in his punishment of
the wicked.

Egypt has scarcely more than its location and name left. Its pyramids,
one of which it is estimated employed three hundred thousand men twenty
years in building, stand in the desert places, solitary and pillaged
sepulchres.

The temple of Karnak, on the east bank of the Nile, whose massive stone
roof was supported by one hundred and thirty-four majestic columns,
forty-three feet high, and ranged in sixteen rows; the whole structure
twelve hundred feet in length, and covered with figures of gods and
heroes; is one of the grandest works of time.

Should you visit the gorges of the Theban Mountains, your feet would
stumble over the bones of departed generations. Princes, priests, and
warriors, after reposing thousands of years in their deep seclusion, are
dragged forth by poor peasants, and scattered around the doors of those
cavern-like excavations in the everlasting hills.

Lighting a torch or candle, you may wander along the rock-walled
galleries several hundred feet into the heart of the summits, on each
side of which are the apartments of death.

Inscriptions, three thousand years old, can be distinctly traced.

How little thought the Hebrews, while toiling under the shadow of
palaces, or flying at night from the mighty realm of Egypt, of what we
find to-day along the banks of the Nile!

The doom of Babylon, with that of the great invaders and conquerors of
Palestine, is equally wonderful and instructive.

Probably no nation of antiquity was more distinguished for luxury and
corrupt pleasures than this unrivalled city.

Its last king, Nabonnidus, reigned about one hundred years before Christ
appeared; and in less than that time afterward, the city walls enclosed
a hunting ground or park for the recreation of Persian monarchs. We
cannot well imagine a more complete destruction than has overtaken the
once rich and gay metropolis. The ruins are a number of mounds, formed
of crumbled buildings, and strewn all over with pieces of brick,
bitumen, and potter's vessels.

The Assyrian kings of western Asia, also invaded the Holy Land. They
ruled a vast and powerful realm, whose principal city was Nineveh, to
which Jonah was sent with a message from God.

Sennacherib, the monarch who reigned seven hundred years before Christ,
marched his armies against the cities of Judah and took them. Not
satisfied with the terms of surrender he threatened further invasion.

At this crisis, in answer to prayer, Jehovah sent his angel to destroy
the troops; and in one night the unseen messenger of destruction slew
one hundred and eighty-five thousand men.

Of this miraculous defeat a gifted but irreligious and unhappy poet has
sung:

  And there lay the steed with his nostrils all wide,
  But through them there rolled not the breath of his pride;
  And the foam of his gasping lay white on the turf,
  And cold as the spray of the rock-beaten surf.

  And there lay the rider, distorted and pale,
  With the dew on his brow and the rust on his mail;
  And the tents were all silent, and the banners alone,
  And the lances unlifted, the trumpets unblown.

  And the widows of Ashur are loud in their wail,
  And the idols are broke in the temple of Baal;
  And the might of the Gentiles, unsmote by the sword,
  Hath melted like snow at the glance of the Lord.

Now the greater part of the country which once formed Assyria, is under
the sway of the Turks.

Mosul, a missionary station of the American Board of Foreign Missions,
is believed to mark the site of ancient Nineveh.

The original inhabitants of Assyria, in modern history, are the Kurds; a
barbarous and warlike race. Some of these live in villages, and others
roam over the country. They are said to resemble, in personal
appearance, the Highlanders of Scotland.

But the most remarkable fact in regard to the population, is the ancient
church of the Nestorians, among the mountains. This Christian people
have for ages maintained their independence, defying the storms of
revolution that have swept over all the country around their mountain
home.

Dr. Grant, a missionary, thinks they are descendants of the "lost tribes
of Israel." We recollect to have seen in the hands of the venerable
missionary, Rev. Dr. Perkins, a copy of the Scriptures preserved for
many hundred years by them: sometimes hidden away, to prevent its
destruction by its enemies.

Not long ago, one of the Nestorian bishops, Mar Yohanah, visited this
country, and attracted much attention. A Jew-like, noble man personally,
and a devout Christian.

But if you look on the map of Asia, you will see that Mosul and the
Nestorian country is in Persia, and may wonder what it has to do with
Assyria. In the conquests which weakened and divided the Assyrian
empire, new kingdoms were formed; and while none can now accurately
trace the boundaries of that great monarchy, we have the later outline
of Persia. More will be said of this remarkable kingdom when we come to
the story of Mordecai and Esther.

The thrones of these ancient monarchies were, at first, no more than an
ornamented arm-chair, higher than ordinary seats, with a footstool for
the royal feet. Then it was made in more massive form and richly carved,
with steps ascending to it.

Some of the thrones were of ivory, adorned with gold; and it is
recorded, that Archelaus addressed the multitude from a throne of solid
gold--a magnificent fortune in itself. Thus gradually the throne became
the highest symbol of power, and is often applied to Jehovah's
sovereignty. He is represented as sitting upon a throne of light, and
around him continually, attending angels, veiling their faces with their
wings, and waiting to hear and obey his mandates; crying with their
voices of celestial music, "Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which
was and is, and is to come!" A "crystal sea" is before this "White
Throne" of a pure and just authority, and on it worships a resplendent
host. Every sound and sight of glory and honor, that language can
express, or the finest imagination picture, is ascribed to that eternal
royalty.

Next to the throne, the crown became a sign of authority, although it
was applied, at first, to other ornaments for the head, properly called
coronets, garlands, tiaras, bands, mitres, etc.

The idea of a kingly crown was suggested by the diadem, which was a
fillet--a mere band like that used to bind the long hair worn by the
people--but richer and of a different color. It was natural and easy,
with the increase of power and wealth, to make the crown a more costly
and showy symbol of kingly sway.

David wore a crown of gold set with jewels, he took from the king of the
Ammonites.

The more modern crowns of Asia, where all the kings reigned, of whom we
have read in these pages, are of different shapes, and some of them very
rich and expensive, ornamented with precious stones and plumes of the
rarest kind.

Crowns are also often mentioned in the Bible as an emblem of power; and
the Christian conqueror of his sins and the world, it is written, shall
have "a crown of life."

The sceptre was the third token of sovereignty. The word originally
signified a staff of wood of the length of a man's height. Later, it was
smaller in form, and often plated with gold, and enriched with various
decorations. Inclining, or holding out the sceptre was a mark of royal
favor; and kissing it by another, a sign of submission.

Jehovah's rule is mentioned frequently in the inspired record, under
this figure. "His sceptre is a right sceptre," in one of the
declarations, which even the wicked and most wretched on account of
transgression, dare not deny.

Under its wide dominion are Heaven, Earth, and Hell, not only, but a
universe whose boundaries neither man nor angel can ever reach.

"He is God over all, and blessed forever!"

How amazing the truth of such a king and kingdom! Under the unsleeping
eye of the Sovereign, the planet wheels on its axis with startling
velocity, and the insect creeps on the grain of sand. A Russian poet
beautifully sung:

  Oh, thou Eternal One! whose presence bright,
    All space doth occupy, all motion guide!
  Unchanged through time's all devastating flight,
   Thou only God, there is no God beside!

  Being above all beings! mighty one,
    Whom none can comprehend, and none explore!
  Who filled existence with thyself alone;
    Embracing all, supporting, ruling o'er!
    Being, whom we call God, and know no more!

  Thou art! directing, guiding all. Thou art!
    Direct my understanding then to thee;
  Control my spirit, guide my wandering heart,
    Though but an atom 'mid immensity.
  Still I am something fashioned by thy hand!
    I hold a middle rank 'twixt heaven and earth,
  On the last verge of mortal being stand,
    Close to the realms where angels have their birth,
    Just on the boundaries of the spirit land.

  Oh, thoughts ineffable! Oh, visions blest!
    Though worthless our conceptions all of thee;
  Yet shall thy shadowed image fill our breasts,
    And waft its homage to thy Deity.
  God! thus alone my lowly thoughts can soar;
    Thus seek thy presence--Being wise and good!
  'Midst thy best works admire, obey, adore!
    And when the tongue is eloquent no more,
    The soul shall speak in tears of gratitude.



 Ascent of Elijah.



 Elisha on His Death Bed.



THE BIBLE AND THE HOLY LAND

PATRIARCHS, KINGS, AND KINGDOMS.

HEBREW CAPTIVES; OR, MORDECAI AND ESTHER.


The next pictured scene is in the Court of Persia. It will not be
forgotten that Daniel was a captive in Babylon under the last kings, and
probably died there after the city was taken by Cyrus. Of this great
man's history as a captive we shall learn more when we go with the
prophets of God in their peculiar mission.

Nabonadrius, the son of Darius, usurped the throne after his father's
death; and after reigning several years, Cyrus, a nephew of Darius, a
Persian general who was occupied in foreign wars, turned his attention
to the reigning monarch.

He marched against the gorgeous metropolis, and besieged it for two
years in vain. He at last thought of a stratagem which displayed his
genius and boldness of action. He determined to turn the channel of the
Euphrates, which went through the whole length of the city, from the
walls where it entered, and get into the capital through the dry
channel, under the massive pile which no battering rams could crumble.
He succeeded in making a new bed for the stream, and his troops went
into Babylon over a path washed for ages by the waters of the Euphrates.

Media, a word some suppose to be derived from Madai, the son of Japheth,
was the name of a region adjacent to ancient Assyria, inhabited by
warlike hordes for centuries. The little that is said of these people in
the Bible, is in connection with the Persians. Both seemed to have
become one nation; first the Medes gaining the ascendancy, and then the
Persians. But the darkness which rests upon the origin of the Asiatic
lands bewilders the most careful historian.

The conspicuous appearance of the Medes and Persians begins with Cyrus
the Great, the conqueror of Babylon, a remarkable monarch in power,
glory, and character.

The picture of the magi who journeyed from the east to find the infant
Messiah, presents a peculiar view of the Persians and Arabians. Among
these gentile nations were men of great attainments in whatever of
philosophy and astrology there was in the world. The Ethiopian race is
represented, and it may have been that dark faces were over the
wonderful child. Color was evidently then no honor or disgrace; the man
was the object of regard or scorn. More will be said of these wonderful
travellers in the more appropriate place in the annals of Palestine.
Cyrus the first, and noble Persian monarch, was kindly disposed toward
the captive Jews, and Daniel had great influence over him. In the very
year of his conquest he issued a decree, in which, after acknowledging
the supremacy of the Lord, and that to him he owed all kingdoms, he gave
full permission to the Jews in any part of his dominions, to return to
their own land and to rebuild the city and temple of Jerusalem. No
sooner were the favorable dispositions of the king thus made known, than
the members of the latter captivity--those of the tribes of Judah,
Benjamin, and Levi--repaired in large numbers to Babylon from their
different places of residence; some to make preparations for their
journey; and others, who had no intention to return themselves, to
assist those who had. Most of the existing race had been born in
Babylonia, and in the course of years families had established
themselves in the country, and formed connections, and gathered around
them comforts which were not easily abandoned. Only a minority availed
themselves of the decree in their favor; the most of the people choosing
to remain in the land of their exile; and it has always been the opinion
of the Jews that the more illustrious portion of their nation remained
in Babylonia.

The first return caravan was organized and directed by Zerubbabel, the
grandson of king Jehoiachim, and by Jeshua, a grandson of the last
high-priest Jozadak. The number of persons who joined them was about
fifty thousand, including above seven thousand male and female servants.
Before they departed, Cyrus restored to them the more valuable of the
sacred utensils, which had been removed by Nebuchadnezzar, and preserved
by his successors, and which were now to be again employed in the
service of the sanctuary. Zerubbabel was also entrusted with large
contributions toward the expense of rebuilding the temple, from the Jews
who chose to remain behind. The beasts of burden in this caravan
exceeded eight thousand. In the book of Ezra, the names of the families
which returned to this first colony, and in those which followed, are
carefully given.

The incidents of the journey are not related. On reaching Palestine the
caravan repaired at once to Jerusalem, which they found utterly ruined
and desolate. Before they separated to seek habitations for themselves,
they raised a large sum by voluntary contributions toward the rebuilding
of the temple. Then they employed themselves in securing dwellings and
necessaries for their families; and at the ensuing Feast of Tabernacles
again repaired to Jerusalem, where sacrifices were offered on an altar
erected upon the ruins of the temple. After this the people applied
themselves zealously to the necessary preparation for the restoration of
that edifice. In a year from the departure from Babylon, the
preparations were sufficiently advanced to allow the work to be
commenced; and, accordingly, the foundations of the second temple were
then laid with great rejoicings and songs of thanksgiving. While the
work proceeded, the Samaritans manifested a desire to assist in the
work, and to claim a community of worship in the new temple. This was
declined by the Jews on the ground that the decree of the Persian king
extended only to the race of Israel.



The Magi offering Presents.


Being thus frustrated in their design, the Samaritans employed every
means they could devise to thwart the undertaking. Their origin appears
to have given them considerable influence at the Persian court; and
although they could not act openly against the plain decree of Cyrus, an
unscrupulous use of their money and influence among the officers of the
government enabled them to raise such obstructions, that the people were
much discouraged, and the work proceeded but languidly, and at length
was suspended altogether. From this lethargy they were roused by the
exhortations and reproaches of the prophet Haggai; and the building was
resumed with fresh zeal.

The new temple was dedicated with great solemnity and joy. The Jews were
allowed the free exercise of their religion and laws, and the government
was directed by a governor of their own nation, or by the high-priest,
when there was no other governor. There was, in fact, a distinct
commonwealth, with its own peculiar institutions; and, although
responsible to the Persian king, and to his deputy the governor-general
of Syria, it was more secure under the protection of the monarch than it
would have been in complete independence. The dreadful lesson taught by
the desolation of the land, the destruction of the temple, and the
captivity of the people, had effectually cured the Jews of that tendency
to idolatry which had been their ruin. But, as time went on, the
distortion of character which had been restrained in one direction broke
forth in another; and although they no longer went formally astray from
a religion which did not suit their depravity, they, by many vain and
mischievous fancies, fabricated a religion suited to their dispositions
out of the ritual to which they adhered.

Early in the reign of Artaxerxes, son of the mighty Xerxes, the Hebrews
went to work on the beloved city with a regular plan of its rebuilding,
including an encircling wall.

This king had learned by reading and traditions, the veneration which
his most distinguished predecessors had shown for the God of Israel; and
about seven years after he ascended the throne, he commissioned Ezra,
the priest and scribe, to take charge of the religious service at
Jerusalem. And he was, in reality, the governor or viceroy under the
monarch.

Those of the Hebrews who desired to do so, were invited to return with
him, and others who remained, were to pay contributions for the use of
the temple.

To this fund the king himself and his council contributed large sums of
money; and the ministers of the royal realms west of the Euphrates, were
enjoined to furnish Ezra with silver, wheat, wine, oil, and salt, that
the sacrifices and offerings of the temple should be constantly kept up;
all of which is said to have been done in order to avert from the king
and his sons, the wrath of the God of the Hebrews, who was held in much
honor at the Persian court.

An exemption from all taxes was also promised to persons engaged in the
service of the temple; but this boon did not induce any of the Levitical
tribe to join the caravan which assembled on the banks of the river
Ahava, in Babylonia: and it was with some difficulty that Ezra at last
induced some of the priestly families to go with him. The whole caravan
was composed of one thousand seven hundred and fifty-four adult
males--making, with wives and children, about six thousand persons. As a
party thus composed had little military strength, and as the journey
across the desert was then, as it always has been, dangerous from the
Arab tribes by which it is infested, they felt considerable anxiety on
this account. But Ezra, from having said much to the king of the power
of God to protect and deliver those that trusted in him, felt
disinclined to apply for a guard of soldiers; and thought it better that
the party should, in a solemn act of fasting and prayer, cast themselves
upon the care of their God. Their confidence was rewarded by the perfect
safety with which their journey was accomplished. In four months they
arrived at Jerusalem.

While Ezra, with his sealed commission from Artaxerxes, was urging on
the noble work at Jerusalem, an unexpected danger to his people in
Babylon and its provinces arose--a sudden and fearful crisis in destiny.

Among the captives there was Esther, a Hebrew maiden. The Persian king,
to commemorate his victorious and prosperous reign, extending from Judea
to Ethiopia, and embracing a hundred and twenty-seven provinces, made a
magnificent feast, which continued six months. This was to display his
power and wealth, before the nobility of his realm, and representatives
from the conquered provinces of his spreading empire. At the expiration
of this brilliant entertainment, he gave the common people, without
distinction, a feast of seven days in the court of his palace. The rich
canopy and gorgeous curtains, with their fastenings--the tall columns,
the golden couches, and tesselated floors--are described as "white,
green, and blue hangings, fastened with cords of fine linen and purple
to silver rings, and pillars of marble: the beds were of gold and
silver, upon a pavement of red, and blue, and black, and white marble."



 Our Saviour Teaching in the Temple.


Of this grandeur, in the ashes strewn by wasting ages, are imposing
remains. Modern travellers pause before "the vast, solitary, mutilated
columns of the magnificent colonnades," where youth and beauty graced
the harems of Persian monarchs.

Upon this occasion, the queen had a private pavilion for her female
guests. But during the successive days of dissipation, the mirth waxed
loud in the apartments of the king. The flashing goblet circulated
freely, and his brain became wild with "wine and wassail." As the
crowning display of his glory, Vashti, in her jeweled robes and diadem,
must grace the banquet. The command was issued, and the messenger sent.
This mandate, requiring what at any time was contrary to custom, the
appearance of a woman, unveiled, in an assemblage of men, now when
revelry and riot betrayed the royal intoxication, overwhelmed the queen
with surprise. A thousand wondering and beaming eyes were upon her
during the brief pause before answering the summons. Her proud refusal
to appear, roused the fury of Ahashuerus, already mad with excitement.
It would not answer to pass by the indignity, for a hundred and
twenty-seven provinces were represented at his court, and the news of
his sullied honor would reach every dwelling in his realm, and curl the
lip of the serf with scorn. The nobles fanned the flame of his
indignation. Unless a withering rebuke were administered, their
authority as husbands would be gone, and the caprice of woman make every
family a scene of daily revolution.

Vashti was divorced--and to provide for the emergency, his courtiers
suggested that he should collect in his harem all the beautiful virgins
of the land, and choose him a wife. Among these was Hadassah, the
adopted daughter of Mordecai. He urged her to enter her name among the
rivals for kingly favor. It was not ambition merely that moved Mordecai.
He had been meditating upon the unfolding providence of God toward his
scattered nation, and felt that there was deeper meaning in passing
events than the pleasures and anger of his sovereign. Arrayed richly as
circumstances would permit, the beautiful Jewess, concealing her
lineage, joined the youthful procession that entered the audience
chamber of Ahashuerus, where he sat in state, to look along the rank of
female beauty, floating like a vision before him.

The character of Esther is here exhibited at the outset; for when she
went into the presence of the king, for his inspection, instead of
asking for gifts as allowed by him, and as the others did, she took only
what the chamberlain gave her. Of exquisite form and faultless features,
her rare beauty at once captivated the king, and he made her his wife.

Mordecai was a man of a noble heart, grand intellect, and unwavering
integrity; there was nevertheless an air of severity about him--a
haughty, unbending spirit; which with his high sense of honor and scorn
of meanness would prompt him to lead an isolated life. We have sometimes
thought that even he had not been able to resist the fascinations of his
young and beautiful cousin, and that the effort to conceal his feelings
had given a greater severity to his manner than he naturally possessed.
Too noble, however, to sacrifice such a beautiful being by uniting her
fate with his own, when a throne was offered her; or perceiving that the
lovely and gentle being he had seen ripen into faultless womanhood could
never return his love--indeed, could cherish no feeling but that of a
fond daughter, he crushed by his strong will his fruitless passion. In
no other way can I account for the life he led, lingering forever around
the palace gates, where now and then he might get a glimpse of her who
had been the light of his soul, the one bright bird which had cheered
his exile's home. That home he wished no longer to see, and day after
day he took his old station at the gates of Shushan, and looked upon the
magnificent walls that divided him from all that had made life
desirable. It seems also as if some latent fear that Haman, the favorite
of the king--younger than his master, and of vast ambition, might
attempt to exert too great an influence over his cousin, must have
prompted him to treat the latter with disrespect, and refuse him that
homage which was his due. No reason is given for the hostility he
manifested, and which he must have known would end in his own
destruction.

Whenever Haman, with his retinue, came from the palace, all paid him the
reverence due to the king's favorite but Mordecai, who sat like a
statue, not even turning his head to notice him. He acted like one tired
of life, and at length succeeded in arousing the deadly hostility of the
haughty minister. The latter, however, scorning to be revenged on one
man, and he a person of low birth, persuaded the king to decree the
slaughter of all the Jews in his realm. The news fell like a thunderbolt
on Mordecai. Sullen, proud, and indifferent to his own fate, he had
defied his enemy to do his worst; but such a savage vengeance had never
entered his mind, It was too late, however, to regret his behavior.
Right or wrong, he had been the cause of the bloody sentence, and he
roused himself to avert the awful catastrophe. With rent garments, and
sackcloth on his head, he travelled the city with a loud and bitter cry,
and his voice rang even over the walls of the palace, in tones that
startled its slumbering inmates.



 Humility Exemplified--Giving Alms in Secret.


It was told Esther, and she ordered garments to be given him, but he
refused to receive them, and sent back a copy of the king's decree,
respecting the massacre of the Jews, and bade her go in and supplicate
him to remit the sentence. She replied that it was certain death to
enter the king's presence unbidden, unless he chose to hold out his
sceptre; and that for a whole month he had not requested to see her. Her
stern cousin, however, unmoved by the danger to herself, and thinking
only of his people, replied haughtily that she might do as she chose; if
she preferred to save herself, delivery would come to the Jews from some
other quarter, but she should die.

From this moment the character of Esther unfolds itself. It was only a
passing weakness that prompted her to put in a word for her own life,
and she at once rose to the dignity of a martyr. The blood of the proud
and heroic Mordecai flowed in her veins, and she said: "Go, tell my
cousin to assemble all the Jews in Shushan, and fast three days and
three nights, neither eating nor drinking; I and my maidens will do the
same, and on the third day I will go before the king, and if I perish, I
perish!" Noble and brave heart! death--a violent death--is terrible; but
thou art equal.

There, in that magnificent apartment, filled with perfume, and where the
softened light, stealing through the gorgeous windows by day, and shed
from golden lamps by night on marble columns and golden-colored
couches, makes a scene of enchantment, behold Esther, with her royal
apparel thrown aside, kneeling on the tesselated floor. There she has
been two days and nights, neither eating nor drinking, while hunger, and
thirst, and mental agony have made fearful inroads on her beauty. Her
cheeks are sunken and haggard--her large and lustrous eyes dim with
weeping, and her lips parched and dry, yet ever moving in inward prayer.
Mental and physical suffering have crushed her young heart within her,
and now the hour of her destiny is approaching. Ah! who can tell the
desperate effort it required to prepare for that terrible interview.
Never before did it become her to look so fascinating as then; and
removing with tremulous anxiety the traces of her suffering, she decked
herself in the most becoming apparel she could select. Her long black
tresses were never before so carefully braided over her polished
forehead, and never before did she put forth such an effort to enhance
every charm, and make her beauty irresistible to the king.

At length, fully arrayed and looking more like a goddess dropped from
the clouds, than a being of clay, she stole tremblingly toward the
king's chamber. Stopping a moment at the threshold to swallow down the
choking sensation that almost suffocated her, and to gather her failing
strength, she passed slowly into the room, while her maidens stood
breathless without, listening, and waiting with the intensest anxiety
the issue. Hearing a slight rustling, the king, with a sudden frown,
looked up to see who was so sick of life as to dare to come unbidden in
his presence, and lo! Esther stood speechless before him. Her long
fastings and watchings had taken the color from her cheeks, but had
given a greater transparency in its place, and as she st