he sought in various ways to kill David, who seemed to have a charmed
life; for God was with him, and no blow aimed at his life was
successful.
The king's son, Jonathan, loved David devotedly, and more than once
saved him from the wrath of Saul.
After hunting the son of Jesse, consulting witches in his desperation,
and fighting the Philistines in bloody conflicts, near Mount Gilboa,
defeated and wounded, he committed suicide by falling on his sword. Thus
ended the career of the first king of the Hebrew nation.
David, under divine guidance, went to Hebron, and was there publicly
anointed king by the tribe of Judah. But Abner, a splendid general, and
a great friend of Saul, induced the rest of the tribes to acknowledge
Ishbosheth, the only son of Saul then living, as their sovereign. Soon,
however, a quarrel with his protege, led him to join David, who was at
length proclaimed king by all the people.
After years of prosperity in war and peace, he had a sanguinary battle
with the Ammonites. This occurred in the eighteenth year of his reign.
The conduct of this war David intrusted to Joab, and remained himself at
Jerusalem. There, while sauntering upon the roof of his palace, after
the noonday sleep, which is usual in the East, he perceived a woman
whose great beauty attracted his regard. She proved to be Bathsheba, the
wife of Uriah, an officer of Canaanitish origin, then absent with the
army besieging Rabbah, the capital of Ammon. David was so fascinated
with her that he determined to add her to his royal household. He sent
for Uriah to Jerusalem. Having heard from him the particulars of the
war, which he pretended to require, the king dismissed him to his own
home. But Uriah, feeling that it ill became a soldier to seek his bed
while his companions lay on the hard ground, under the canopy of heaven,
exposed to the attacks of the enemy, remained all night in the hall of
the palace with the guards, and returned to the war without having seen
Bathsheba. David made him the bearer of an order to Joab to expose him
to certain death, in some perilous enterprize against the enemy. He was
obeyed by that unscrupulous general; and when David heard that Uriah was
dead, he sent for Bathsheba, and made her his wife. He had already
several wives, as was customary in those times; and among them was
Michal, whom he had long ago reclaimed from the man to whom she had been
given by the unprincipled Saul.
[Illustration: The Woman of Canaan.]
David, whose undisputed authority, and admiration of the beautiful
Bathsheba, deceived him, blinding his moral vision, thought all was
safe. Death and royalty seemed to cover forever his sin.
But never was a man more mistaken. God sent Nathan, a fearless, faithful
prophet, to rebuke him. So the seer went to him, inquiring what should
be done with a man who had robbed a poor neighbor of his only and pet
lamb. The king, who was really loyal to God, and just in his aims,
indignantly said that the robber should die, and the lamb be restored.
Then Nathan fixed his eye on the king, and, pointing to him, exclaimed
courageously, "Thou art the man!"
David bowed his head and wept under the pointed reproof, and began to
cry, "Deliver me from blood-guiltiness, oh, God, thou God of my
salvation."
What a fine example of faithful preaching, and of an honest hearer! This
illustration of true penitence, which is given in the picture at the
beginning of this history of the kings, suggests a good story of modern
date. Jacob, an intelligent negro, was bribed and intoxicated to make
him commit murder. He was convicted of the crime, and sent to the State
prison for life. He could not read, but a bible was in his cell, and he
learned so rapidly that soon he could pick out the words and get the
meaning. He would run his finger over each letter of the fifty-first
Psalm, especially the fourteenth verse, until he enamelled it with his
touch. The bible is still kept by an excellent man, as a relic of
prison-life. For Jacob was pardoned, went to the lovely town of C-,
N.Y., and became an eminent Christian. His monument is one of the
highest in the cemetery.
The Scriptures describe David as "a man after God's own heart." By this
we are not to understand that David always acted rightly, or that God
approved of all he did. Its meaning is, that, in his public capacity, as
king of Israel, he acted in accordance with the true theory of the
theocratical government; was always alive to his dependence on the
Supreme King; took his own true place in the system, and aspired to no
other; and conducted all his undertakings with reference to the Supreme
Will. He constantly calls himself "the servant (or vassal) of Jehovah,"
and that, and no other, was the true place for the human king of Israel
to fill. In thus limiting the description of David as "a man after God's
own heart," it is not necessary for us to vindicate all his acts, or to
uphold him as an immaculate character. But the same ardent temperament
which sometimes betrayed his judgment in his public acts, led him into
great errors and crimes. It also made him the first to discover his
lapse, and the last to forgive himself.
Domestic afflictions humbled David, and persecution by enemies
embittered his life. The kingly crown had its thorns. An only child died
in infancy. Afterwards, his handsome and popular son, Absalom, was
ambitious to get the throne of his father, and became the leader of a
great revolt, in whose conflicts he was slain.
Solomon, another son, was the heir chosen by the Lord, to the crown of
David. And when the monarch of Israel drew near the close of his stormy,
yet splendid reign, he called the intellectual, comely, and dutiful boy
to his bedside, to give him his last words of counsel and blessing.
This scene is depicted in the colored engraving. Among the paternal
exhortations to the young prince was the following impressive address:
"And thou, Solomon, my son, know thou the God of thy fathers, and serve
him with a perfect heart, and with a willing mind; for the Lord
searcheth all hearts, and understandeth all the imaginations of the
thoughts. If thou seek him, he will be found of thee but if thou forsake
him, he will cast thee off forever."
Solomon, the second king of Israel, desired and sought, before riches
and honors, wisdom from God, to govern well the people, and it was
freely given.
Under his father's sceptre, Palestine was great in martial achievements,
national wealth, and the fine arts; for the king was a poet and a
musician. Solomon was a man of peace, and during his reign the kingdom
reached its highest glory in oriental splendor and luxury. The temple he
built was a monument of munificence, skill, and royal zeal for God's
honor.
What a wonderful display of wisdom was that decision in the case of the
two women, one of whom, in her sleep, lying upon her babe, had smothered
it, and claimed the living child of the other, who lodged with her. He
knew when he sent for the executioner, and told him to cut in two parts
the live babe, giving to each a half, that the mother would be seen in
the effect of the command to slay. And so it was. The faithless woman
said let it be so; the loving, yearning mother exclaimed no, rather let
the other have the child. Solomon wisely decided the matter, directing
the attendants to give the unconscious object of controversy to her to
whom it belonged.
But this rich and popular monarch was led into sin by his unbounded
prosperity, and indulging in forbidden pleasures. Afterwards he bitterly
mourned over his folly and shameful weakness, in departing from the
living God. This varied and, much of it, wasted life, led the king, in
his sober years of declining age, to write the Book of Proverbs and
Ecclesiastes, so full of the profoundest knowledge of mankind and wisest
counsel. It is said that the Scotch are preeminently discerning and
intelligent, because they are so familiar with the Scriptures,
especially the proverbs of Solomon.
There were no more such monarchs in Israel, after David and Solomon, and
the kingdom became divided and weakened, until the Jews were conquered
and enslaved by their enemies. The expensive magnificence and luxury of
Solomon's reign, and his departures from God into idolatrous worship,
awakened the divine indignation.
A prophet was commissioned to tell the wise, yet foolish monarch that
the kingdom should be rent in twain, and the grandeur of his empire
depart before the revolt of the ten tribes from Judah, which had
absorbed the small tribe of Benjamin. Solomon was about sixty years old
when he died. He had ruled forty years, and was buried nine hundred and
seventy-five years before the advent of Christ. Rehoboam, the son of
Solomon, was made king over Judah, and Jereboam, an Ephraimite, became
sovereign of the ten tribes, who were called Israel.
How interesting and instructive the history of the Hebrews, at this
period!
They got tired of the sovereignty of God, visible only in written rules
of conduct, family government, and the prophet-judges, and desired to
imitate their pagan neighbors in the pomp and power of royalty. Under
their second monarch they quarrelled among themselves, engaged in civil
strife, and became divided, rival kingdoms. During the five hundred
years which followed, the successive kings of the two realms had, the
most of them, brief sovereignty. Some of them were excellent kings, but
the greater part were wicked and oppressive.
Pre-eminent in crime was Ahab, whose wife, Jezebel, was a fit companion.
Their names live in the world's history with a bad preeminence, like
those of Herod, Nero, and similar rulers of ancient and modern times.
The corpse of a ruler, or of the humblest subject, was ordinarily wound
in grave-clothes, and laid in a sepulchre. This, in the early ages, was
a room hewn out of a rock, a cave, or a grave which had no mound, nor
any other mark, excepting monumental stones, with no inscriptions.
The Arabian patriarch, Job, talked of kings and counsellors, who built
for themselves "desolate places," which probably has reference to
sepulchral monuments, cut out of the rock.
The expression "a sepulchre on high," is an allusion to the custom
anciently of placing the dead in tombs made in cliffs, sometimes
hundreds of feet in height--a lofty, inaccessible resting-place for the
body of a distinguished person.
Some nations of the heathen world have always burned their dead. In
Japan, recently, an American traveller witnessed this singular disposal
of the lifeless remains. A priest was placed in a sitting posture in his
coffin, and a fire built behind it, consuming to ashes the body. These
relics were carefully gathered up, and put in a safe and sacred place
for all coming time.
It is a remarkable thing that the Bible does not record any solemn
parade or imposing ceremonies over the burial of the Hebrew kings.
Of David it is written, he "slept with his fathers, and was buried in
the city of David." The same simple and impressive mention is made of
Solomon's death. Monarchs were only men--sinners to be saved by grace,
if rescued at all from the power and ruin of sin. It is hoped and
believed by Christian people that Solomon, in his declining years,
reviewed prayerfully and penitently his career, and found peace with a
pardoning God.
The sepulchre of royalty in Jerusalem, is well worthy of a visit by
travellers in the Holy Land. Some of the stone coffins lean against the
solid walls, others lie in massive richness of sculpture on the floor.
The Jews called their burial places the house of the living, because of
the expected resurrection--a beautiful sentiment, which rebukes the
dismal thoughts and mourning of many Christian persons over the newly
made graves of their departed friends.
The beautiful tomb in the "valley of Jehosaphat," is one of
comparatively modern construction, but it shows the admiration felt by
the Hebrews for Absalom, with all his waywardness.
[Illustration: Joseph Elevated to Power by Pharaoh.]
[Illustration: The Israelites Carried into Captivity.]
THE BIBLE AND THE HOLY LAND.
PATRIARCHS, KINGS AND KINGDOMS.
PALESTINE UNDER PAGAN KINGS.
The picture which introduces these pages was drawn from a scene under
the sceptre of the first monarch mentioned in the Bible.
A comparatively unimportant prince, the "King of Sodom," whose small and
wicked realm Jehovah destroyed by fire and brimstone, is mentioned.
But the empire of the Pharaohs of Egypt, was large, rich, and
magnificent. And it is a singular thing, that of this nation, and all
others of antiquity, excepting what the Scriptures contain, the early
history is little known. A great German historian, Dr. Von Rotteck,
truly writes: "The principal trait that distinguishes the first period
of the ancient world is its obscurity."
The general belief is, that the founders of Egypt went from Ethiopia,
and the Ethiopians from East India or South Arabia.
"Where did the Indiamen have their origin?" you may ask; but no man can
certainly answer. That all races sprang from Adam we have no doubt, but
the lines of descent and emigration the wisest student of the past
cannot follow.
The living oracles, in brief statements, give us nearly all the reliable
accounts we have of the early history of the "Land of the Nile," as
Egypt was called. In them we learn that while the "chosen people of
God," the only nation whose annals of growth in the number of its
population and its civilization, has been handed down to us, was no more
than a tribe of wandering shepherds under Abraham, Egypt was the home of
art, and a garden of agricultural products.
And yet the very nomades, who roamed over the uncultivated plains, like
the Aborigines of this new world, have preserved the best records of the
early condition of that ancient and wonderful empire, whose origin is
lost in the distance and darkness of Pagan antiquities.
It seems, from the tenth chapter of Genesis, that Egypt was settled by
the descendants of Noah, through Ham, his second son.
The next reference made to this remarkable country is in the twelfth
chapter, where we are told of Abraham's visit there. Again, in the
twenty-first chapter, is recorded the marriage of Ishmael to an Egyptian
woman. In chapter twenty-ninth is related the story of Joseph's
captivity and career in the capital of the Pagan monarchy. He was the
twelfth son of Jacob, and one of Rachel's two boys--lovely in his
youthful character, and the idol of his father. During a period of
repose in sleep he had a singular dream. The first was, that while the
brothers were all in the harvest-field at work his sheaf suddenly rose
upright, and the sheaves of the eleven brethren stood up and bowed to
his own. The intimation that he was to rule over them made them angry,
and they hated him.
Soon after Joseph's sleep he was disturbed by another dream. The sun,
moon, and eleven stars, rendered homage to him. The interpretation of
this was the same as that of the other, with the addition of his father
and mother, who also bowed before him.
It may seem strange that Joseph should relate any thing so complimentary
to himself. But he evidently did it in no boasting mood. He simply
narrated the extraordinary dreams, without the least idea of what was
before him.
But God saw what he did hot know, that their jealousy and enmity would
be overruled for the temporal salvation of the family and nation.
The venerable, thoughtful father, silently pondered over the singular
experience of Joseph.
The elder sons were shepherds, and fed their flocks in Shechem. How
beautiful the ingenious, dutiful character of Joseph now appears! His
father called him to go and find his brethren, to see how they were
getting along. "Here am I," was his response. That is to say: "Although
my brethren hate me, I am ready to serve you, and do any thing for
them." He went to Shechem, but they had left; and the boy wandered about
in the field looking for them. A citizen happened to see him, and was
evidently interested in the beautiful stranger, bewildered and alone,
and asked what he wanted. Joseph told him the truth of the case, when
the man said that his brothers had taken their flocks to Dotham, a few
miles distant.
He started for that place, and while a "great way off," they saw and
knew him. The conspiracy was instantly formed to dispose of the
"dreamer."
The first proposition was to kill him, but Reuben would not agree to the
cruel suggestion. His plan was to cast the lad into a deep pit, till he
could manage to get him back to his father. This less bloody way of
disposing of Joseph was accepted, and when he came near they took off
the "coat of many colors" the doting father had given him, and putting
him in a pit without water which happened to be at hand, dipping it in
blood to make his father think a beast killed him, they took it home.
Scarcely was the interesting boy weeping in his prison before a caravan
of Ishmaelites, and then of Midianites, came in sight.
[Illustration: Moses Found in the Bulrushes.]
A new idea now flashed upon their minds. They could avoid the unpleasant
consciousness of probable murder, and make something out of his sale as
a slave to the wandering traders. A bargain was soon made, and young
Joseph, casting backward a farewell look of sad reproach, was carried
away, and sold by the Midianites to the Ishmaelites, of whom Potiphar,
the captain of Pharaoh's guard, bought him for a servant. God blessed
the youth, and he was soon made overseer of the officer's household. But
Potiphar's wife was a vile woman, and because Joseph was nobly true to
God and virtue, made a false report of him, and had him put in prison.
Egypt's monarch had wonderful dreams about a famine his astrologers
could not explain; and a released prisoner, who had forgotten Joseph's
kindness in explaining a dream of deliverance, advised the king to send
for the Hebrew. The young man was taken to the palace, and gave a true
interpretation of the dreams. Pharaoh was delighted; and from his
dungeon Joseph went to the secret place of authority second to the king.
Pharaoh said: "Only in the throne will I be greater than thou." He then
put a ring on his finger, a gold chain on his neck, and arrayed him in
fine apparel. The beautiful illustration sets this sudden and splendid
promotion before us--the honor God put upon his youthful servant.
Soon the predicted famine came, for which the gifted and prudent Joseph
had made complete provision by storing up the abundant harvests. Among
the sufferers from failing crops and pasturage, was the large family of
Jacob--his sons and their households.
In their extremity they turned to Egypt. Joseph's influence was such
that the patriarch's delegation found favor with the king. The
prime-minister of Egypt knew his brethren, but they had forgotten him.
So he managed to find out all about his father's house, and made his
brothers bring dear Benjamin, when he wept aloud, and made himself known
to them all. Pharaoh sent for the whole race, and soon the Hebrew
caravan reached the fruitful land of Goshen, which was exactly suited to
the life of shepherds. Here the strangers grew in numbers and wealth,
until Joseph died, and the friendly monarch also. His successor cared
neither for Joseph nor his countrymen. He was a tyrant, and enslaved the
dwellers in Goshen. Centuries of captivity wore away, and God determined
to deliver his people, and send them back again to Palestine.
The scene displayed in this picture you will recognize at a glance.
Moses, the Hebrew babe, afloat on the Nile, in a small boat made of
bulrushes by his mother, because Pharaoh was slaying the children of her
nation, to get rid of them.
Neither the haughty and cruel monarch, nor the mother, nor the little
voyager, thought of Moses as the future deliverer of his countrymen from
bondage--the great leader and lawgiver of Israel.
We have already had glimpses of the Hebrews in the wilderness, their
progress and rulers in Palestine, after the moving multitude reached the
"promised land."
The ages of changing sovereigns, and fortunes of crimes and discipline
brought them at last to another mournful captivity.
About six hundred years before Christ, while that wicked Manassah was
king in Palestine, the monarch of Assyria--a grand and powerful
empire--invaded it, and took Jerusalem. Manassah was carried in chains
to Babylon, the splendid Assyrian capital. His son, Amon, became the
sovereign under the Assyrian conqueror, but was soon assassinated, and
Josiah took the throne.
During his reign, the King of Egypt marched into Palestine and conquered
it, killing Josiah, the king.
A few years later, Nebuchadnezzar, the Babylonian monarch, besieged and
took Jerusalem, the "City of David."
The massive walls of the cities of old was their chief protection. Those
of Babylon, according to the old Roman historians, were marvelously
great. Think of them rising three hundred and fifty feet, eighty-seven
feet in thickness, and extending sixty miles around the city! One writer
says, that two four-horse chariots could pass each other on the top.
They were built of brick, cemented together with bitumen.
They had twenty gates made of solid brass, and were surmounted with two
hundred and fifty towers.
The city had six hundred and seventy-six squares, each over two miles in
circumference. The river Euphrates flowed through the entire extent,
from north to south.
The hanging gardens, suspended from the walls, were gorgeous, and the
public buildings rich and elegant.
Such was the home of the Hebrew exiles for seventy years or more.
Quintus Curtius, a Roman, has described the entrance of the great and
victorious Alexander into Babylon, at a later period, who soon after
died there of dissipation, while yet a young man. The pleasant sketch
gives a vivid impression of the glory and pomp of this ancient capital
of Babylon:
[Illustration: Christ Declaring Who is Greatest.]
"A great part of the inhabitants of Babylon stood on the walls, eager to
catch a sight of their new monarch; many went forth to meet him. Among
these Bagophanes, keeper of the citadel and of the royal treasure,
strewed the entire way before the king with flowers and crowns; silver
altars were also placed on both sides of the road, which were loaded not
merely with frankincense, but all kinds of odoriferous herbs. He brought
with him for Alexander gifts of various kinds, flocks of sheep and
horses; lions, also, and panthers were carried before him in their dens.
The magi came next, singing in their usual manner their ancient hymns.
After them came the Chaldeans with their musical instruments, who are
not only the prophets of the Babylonians, but their artists. The first
are wont to sing the praises of the kings; the Chaldeans teach the
motion of the stars, and the changes of the seasons. Then followed, last
of all, the Babylonian knights, whose equipments, as well as that of
their horses, showed the passion of the people for luxury. The king,
Alexander, attended by armed men, having ordered the crowd of the
townspeople to proceed in the rear of his infantry, entered the city in
a chariot and repaired to the palace. The next day he carefully surveyed
the household treasures of Darius, and all his money. For the rest, the
beauty of the city and its age turned the eyes not only of the king, but
of everyone in itself, and that with good reason."
The kings and conquerors of old had no canals for boats, no railways,
and not many good roads. Consequently, their invasions and various
public enterprises were carried forward in a slow and toilsome manner.
Heavy wagons and chariots, the latter sometimes armed with scythes or
long blades for battle, were the best vehicles in use.
There were no monitors, nor fire-arms. Large swords, daggers, slings,
the catapulta and battering-ram, were the principal weapons.
The last named instrument was a massive machine with a movable beam,
crowned with a very hard end, often shaped like a ram's head, which
could be thrown against a wall with tremendous force, beating it down.