the sister whose affectionate entreaty gave the babe a mother for its
nurse? The fraternal affection which marks the family seems to indicate
more than occasional intercourse. Between Miriam and her brother there
was that sympathy which always results from an intimate association. The
princess of Egypt may have imparted to Miriam many of the
accomplishments of the courtly circle, for we find that she was skilled
in music, that she led the dance; while, in return, Miriam may have
imparted that higher knowledge and those deep truths of which her people
were the appointed conservators, and the daughter of Pharaoh may have
tasted the blessings which were held in trust for future ages.
Miriam was the only sister of Moses, and she first appears as watching
the fate of that child in whose destiny all the ages and all the nations
of earth were to have an interest. The tender care which watched the
cradle on the Nile continued through life, and from the day Moses was
saved, down to the day when Miriam died in the wilderness, she seems
ever associated with her brothers in all their efforts and designs. The
influence of the sister is peculiarly her own. It is felt in early life
in its softening, refining, and purifying tendency--in diverting opening
manhood from rude sports or gross pursuits to the enjoyments of a more
elevated and pure nature, and shedding a charm around the pleasures of
home; while, if no other ties intervene, the bonds of affection grow
stronger with each successive year.
We cannot trace the course of Miriam's life. She appears before us for a
season and then we lose sight of her for many years. She may have passed
them in the retirement and obscurity of her rural home in the land of
Goshen. She may have been counted in the train of the princess of Egypt
and shone in the court of Pharaoh. Princes may have flattered her and
nobles sued for her love. She seems never to have married,--yet her
heart may have had its own history of love, perhaps unrequited,
disappointed, or sacrificed at the altar of prudence, of conscience, or,
it may be, ambition. Oh what a tale of suffering and of enjoyment would
the history of one human heart present, if faithfully recorded!
Years had passed: childhood was gone--youth was fleeing. The brother had
attained a high distinction in the court of Egypt. He had tasted the
pleasures of wisdom and the enjoyments of science and knowledge, while,
as the adopted child of Pharaoh's daughter, he stood before the people,
the prospective heir to the crown.
Thus, in the prime of life, endowed with the richest gifts of mind and
the attractions of manly beauty, adding the polish of the courtier to
the wisdom of the philosopher--and all the adventitious advantages of
royal birth received by his adoption--there lay before the young Hebrew
a bright vista of prospective glory and honour and earthly happiness.
But not to sit on the throne of Egypt had Jehovah raised this child of
the chosen people from the death designed by their oppressor. Not to fit
him for the throne of Egypt had he surrounded him with all that was
propitious to intellectual and moral attainments and guided and watched
each step of his course from his infancy.
Deep and inscrutable must have seemed the designs of Jehovah, as, when
all was brightest, the dark clouds gathered around this favoured son of
the Hebrews, and all the promise and purpose of his saved life seemed
defeated. The hour of trial came--probably, as it generally comes,
suddenly and unexpectedly. It was the hour which was to test his
principles and prove his faith. The hour in which all the allurements of
sense, the gratification of ambition, and (it may have seemed) the
claims of grateful affection, were brought into conflict with the stern
claims of duty and principle, and in this hour he did not fail. He chose
rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the
pleasures of sin for a season. He refused to be called the son of
Pharaoh's daughter. His choice was made. He abjured the throne and left
the court. What disappointment must have fallen upon hearts who had
looked to his exaltation as a pledge of good for his race, and who saw
in his downfall the prolonged dominion of tyranny and persecution!
Yet Moses was not permitted to remain in peace, although he had sunk
into obscurity. He who was to lead the hosts of Israel through the great
and terrible wilderness--who was to endure toil, labours, and privation,
needed the nerve, the hardihood, the physical training, which could not
be gained in the luxurious courts of the Pharaohs, or in the quiet, and,
doubtless, comfortable and abundant homes of the husbandmen of Goshen.
Amid the enjoyments of home, the pleasures of study, he need not have
regretted the loss of a throne.
For many years he, who had been trained in luxury and elegance, led the
flocks of Jethro, and knew all the privations and the endurances of the
shepherd in the desert. And while his frame was thus hardened and
invigorated, while he learned to forego pleasure and endure bodily
toil, his soul was nourished by solitary meditation and high communion
with God. The philosopher can find instruction and interest in the works
of creation, but only he who adds the adoration of the worshipper to the
wisdom of the philosopher is prepared to study the works of Jehovah
aright.
What deep thought, what high imaginings, what profound reverence must
have filled the soul of the Hebrew shepherd as he watched the stars in
the silence and loneliness of the desert. As he sat, a solitary and
banished man, under the shadow of the rocks of the wilderness, how
strange, how incomprehensible must have seemed the events of his past
life. The visions of his youth, the splendour and warlike pomp of the
army or the pageant of courts, must have come over his soul like a
dream. Even to us how strange seems this long sojourn in the
wilderness, this enforced inactivity and apparent uselessness. Yet the
God of Israel was promoting his own designs both among his people and in
the heart of him who was to be their leader--weaning them from their
place of abode, and preparing them for their departure, and fitting
Moses to be their leader, guide, ruler, and lawgiver. Each dispensation
of his providence, each passing occurrence, all the thoughts, the
emotions, the solitary meditations, the reverential communion, the
occasional intercourse with the few dwellers of the desert,--like the
strokes, slight and almost imperceptible in their effect, which the
block receives from the hand of the sculptor,--all were fitting the
apparently exiled Hebrew for his high vocation as a prophet and
legislator.
And it is often thus. For many years may Jehovah be preparing his
instruments for that event to which he destines them, and which they
may then speedily accomplish. Yet this work in the soul, by which man is
prepared to co-operate with his Maker, is silent, unseen, unmarked, so
that often we may account this time as lost. And man, ignorant of his
future destiny, and of the state to which he is to be called, will ever
find it his true wisdom carefully to fulfil the present duty and to aim
at deriving instruction and benefit from each dispensation of Divine
providence, and from the ordering of each event of his life.
In the careful provision made for the training of Moses, in the various
instrumentalities used to prepare him for his appointed trust, we are
taught that by no miraculous intervention does God supersede the
necessity of the improvement of the faculties he has bestowed. The more
enlightened the understanding, the more the powers of reason are
cultivated, the more intelligently can man serve his Creator, and the
more entirely does he co-operate in the designs of Infinite Wisdom. God
does not bestow, by direct inspiration, that wisdom or knowledge which
is to be gained by the diligent cultivation of the natural faculties, to
save man the fatigue and labour of the acquirement. Those upon whom he
has most richly bestowed the gifts of spiritual wisdom have been most
careful to cultivate their natural endowments.
Both Paul and Moses were learned before they were inspired, but God did
not supersede the use of the powers of the mind by the higher gift of
the Spirit. The providential dealings of God are adapted to the laws of
the human mind, and in the government of his creatures he never violates
the principles which he has established.
The occupation of the shepherd was at length to be abandoned. By
oppression and suffering and ignominious exactions, the children of
Israel were prepared to leave their homes--the land in which they had
dwelt for centuries--and venture across the sea and into the desert.
When we remember that husbandry had been the national occupation, when
we consider how strong is the instinct which binds man to the land of
his birth and the graves of his fathers, and how strong is that bond
which attaches one to the spot he has cultivated, to the land he has
ploughed and sowed and reaped, we cannot wonder at the coercion needful
to rouse a people whose energies were all depressed, and who had been
held in check and kept stationary for ages.
But the people were ready to depart. The oppression of Pharaoh had
prepared the way for the display of the Divine faithfulness and power.
Jehovah sent his ambassador from the desert to the court of the King of
Egypt, to demand their freedom. During his long exile, most who had
known Moses in his early days, had passed away; and the few that were
left would hardly recognise in the shepherd of the desert, with his
staff for his badge of office--bearing the marks of toil and exposure,
of deep thought and solitary meditation--the young and gallant prince,
the courtier and the warrior of former days. She who had cherished him
had probably been laid in the tomb of her royal race, and the name and
the memory of Moses may have been forgotten in the palace and the court.
Yet there he stood, before the throne which might have been his seat,
the ambassador of the King of kings, bearing the stern message of
Jehovah--"Let my people go, that they may hold a feast unto me in the
wilderness." Yet wo after wo was denounced and executed--pledge after
pledge given and violated--and not until one long wail over the dead and
dying resounded through the land were the children of Israel permitted
to leave the land of Egypt. The loss of three millions of subjects, of
their labour, their tribute, and the removal of all their personal
property, would weaken and impoverish the kingdom. Every motive of
policy and pride urged the monarch to resist the demand, and thus he
suffered the penalty due to his contumelious defiance of the God of
Israel, while the judgments inflicted upon him strengthened the faith of
the Israelites. The expulsion of the Moors and of the Jews from Spain,
the banishment of the Huguenots from France, furnish similar though not
parallel cases, in modern ages; and these show that the loss of
peaceful, industrious subjects to a kingdom is like taking the
life-blood from the system. Centuries have passed, yet these nations
have not recovered--and thus Egypt must long have felt her loss.
After the tribes of Israel had passed through the Red Sea, the sister of
Moses again appears before us. When he poured forth that chant of
triumphant thanksgiving--the oldest song of nations--Miriam gave a
response worthy of the sister of the leader of the hosts encamped before
the Lord. With timbrel she led the daughters of Israel in the dance. And
well might the prophetess of Israel teach the dance of ancient Egypt to
the daughters of her people on this occasion. The representations
preserved in painting and sculpture show that this was not the gay and
voluptuous movement of modern days, but rather a succession of graceful
gestures, regulated by music, expressive of joy and emotion. Thus the
maidens of Israel offered praise and adoration; nor was it unseemly in
the warlike monarch of after ages thus to worship before the ark of the
Lord, although his pious act provoked the ridicule of the daughter of
Baal.
From this time until the day of her death, Miriam is found co-operating
with her brothers in their designs and efforts. However the earlier
years of her life had passed, she had attained to a high distinction
among her people. While she seems to have neither claimed nor exerted
authority, her rank and position, in her sphere, were as well defined
and as elevated as that of her brothers. Throughout the whole narrative
we find proofs of the high consideration with which she was regarded.
While in early life her influence as a sister had refined and softened
the rudeness and roughness of their boyhood and youth, and similar
associations with the brothers in mature years had enlarged her mind and
imparted intelligence and strength to her understanding.
During the long sojourn in the wilderness, Miriam, "the prophetess of
Israel," was probably the counsellor of the mothers and the instructress
of the daughters of her people; while between the sister and the
brothers there ever seems to have subsisted the most tender,
confidential friendship.
But, alas for imperfect woman! There was a time in which the dark
passions and malignant tempers of our evil nature so triumphed in the
hearts of Miriam and Aaron, that they arrayed themselves against Moses.
The dissension which troubled the camps of their leaders threatened to
spread and involve the multitude of Israel in all the evils of rebellion
and civil war.
During his exile, Moses had married the daughter of the priest of
Midian. The descendant of Abraham, Jethro was a worshipper of the God of
his fathers, and we have recorded proofs of his piety and wisdom. Yet
the marriage of Moses was not apparently in accordance with the views
either of his brother or sister. There is a selfish tenderness sometimes
exhibited, which leads the dependent mother or single sister to regard
with jealousy one who claims a closer tie, and Miriam may not have been
free from the infirmities of weaker natures. Yet the notices, slight as
they are, of the "Ethiopian" woman, perhaps impress few minds
favourably; and we cannot but feel that in herself she may not have been
all that the friends of the lawgiver of Israel could have wished in a
wife. Bred in the seclusion of the wilderness, she was probably
deficient both in the intelligence and the accomplishments which
distinguished Miriam. And Miriam and Aaron seem at last to have
cherished feelings of bitterness toward their sister-in-law, which were
fast extending to the brother himself.
They evidently disliked the foreigner. They may have compared the
toil-worn daughter of Midian with the high-bred maidens of Egypt, who in
former days would have welcomed the addresses of one numbered with the
princes of Egypt, or with the daughters of his own people, as offering
an alliance more worthy the ruler of Israel; and Miriam, elevated by the
distinction conferred upon her as the prophetess of Israel, conscious of
superiority in all feminine accomplishments, seems to have forgotten the
love of a sister and to have lost the humility befitting a woman.
Domestic bitterness was fast preparing the way for political
disaffection, and the dark clouds which had gathered around the tents of
the leaders threatened to burst upon the whole camp of Israel.
Then Jehovah himself interposed. As the principal offender, the
prophetess of Israel was publicly rebuked before all the congregation of
the Lord; and then, as a leper, expelled from the camp, shut out from
all human associations, in shame and solitude, Miriam, diseased and
suffering, lay for seven days. In this time she doubtless humbled
herself and repented of her sin. Yet, during this interval, the vast
multitude showed their respect by remaining stationary; and while Aaron
confessed their sin, Moses interceded for his faulty, erring, but still
be loved sister.
If the conduct and fault of Miriam are to be censured and deplored, it
is to be confessed that it was not peculiar to the sister of the leaders
of the hosts of the Lord. Women of later ages, conscious of intellectual
superiority, elevated by position, or merely distinguished by
usefulness, have sometimes been proud enough to despise the inferior of
their own sex, and to arrogate to themselves the power allotted to man;
and their awakened pride and vanity have introduced strife and confusion
into the counsels of those who were appointed to guide the people of
God.
There is meaning in this record of the faults of those whose hearts had
been, from infancy to age, knit together. While God has implanted the
natural and domestic affections, they are still to be guarded,
cherished, and cultivated. The jealousies, the petty strifes of domestic
life, the little dislikes, the unguarded tempers of those who dwell
together, have sometimes alienated hearts that have been united from
childhood. The love that has grown strong by the mutual endurance of
oppression, toil, privation, and danger, has been turned to gall by the
infusion of the constant droppings of domestic strife. Pure, unselfish
love is the spontaneous growth of a holy heart. It must be nurtured and
tended, or it will wither and die in our corrupt nature.
The afflictions and punishments which harden the hearts of those who
reject God, bring such as love his laws and character to submission and
penitence. Miriam was restored to her former usefulness, probably better
fitted for her high position, while the hearts of the brothers seem
united anew to each other and to her; and the authority of Moses,
vindicated by God, was strengthened by his own forbearing love and
disinterested gentleness. And from thenceforth, while a due subjection
was observed, there seems to have been an entire co-operation between
them.
Miriam died in the wilderness of Zin, and the brothers buried her. There
is a peculiar sadness in this separation, occurring, as it evidently
did, not long before the close of their various pilgrimages.
As we follow the inspired narrative, we are naturally impressed by the
care with which Jehovah selects and prepares those whom He intends as
the instruments of advancing the welfare of his people and his own
glory; and while this may be more clearly traced in the case of the
highly distinguished legislator and prophet of Israel, we may be
assured that it extends not less certainly to the lowest and the
humblest.
The influences by which the lawgiver of Israel was so early surrounded,
we are willing to accept as a divine attestation to the power and value
of female culture in the formation of the character.
Three women are brought distinctly before us, as connected with the
early history of Moses. The mother's high duty and privilege it was (as
it ever is) to instil into his opening mind those great truths and first
principles which are at the foundation of all excellence. Had the nurse
of Moses been an Egyptian idolatress, the character of the man had
doubtless been very different. While Moses owed all his worldly
advancement to the princess of Egypt, he derived other advantages from
being brought under the familiar influence of one who preserved, amid
the corruptions of a court, the best sympathies of our nature. A
knowledge of human character and a power of adaptation to all the
circumstances of his eventful life were thus imparted, and which could
be hardly elsewhere acquired, yet they were very needful to one who was
to fill the office allotted to him.
God has graciously ordered that while the parents and guardians are to
pass away, there are early ties which are enduring. Where families are
properly regulated, added years strengthen the bonds of natural
affection. Through all the vicissitudes of his life, the brother and
sister of Moses clung to him. We first see Miriam watching the
cradle-ark in which the infant was concealed, and she never appears
except some event in his career brings her into view. Yet, through their
long lives she was his companion and helper, participating in his
labours, soothing his sorrows, and aiding and encouraging him in his
work. She is a type of a large class--we mean the daughters and the
sisters who are not wives. Her life shows that a woman may be
honourable, useful, distinguished, and happy, and yet remain
single--that the holy duties of the wife and the mother are not the only
duties. How many homes would be comparatively unblessed but for the
presence of a dutiful daughter or a loving sister! How largely our own
age is indebted to women as teachers; women, who, like the prophetess of
Israel, while assisting their brothers to proclaim the oracles of God,
devote themselves to the instruction of their own sex, and bless men by
instructing women!
[Illustration]
DEBORAH--THE INFLUENCE OF WOMAN.
The book of Judges gives a concise view of the people of Israel for a
period of four hundred years, extending from the death of Joshua to the
birth of Samuel.
It is peculiarly interesting as showing how God deals with the nations
of the earth in visiting national sins with national punishments. It has
ever been the painful office of the historian to record the crimes and
misfortunes of mankind, and to present the outbreaks of society rather
than to note its gradual advance and improvement, or to dwell upon the
periods of peaceful prosperity. Like the records of a court of justice,
it presents the criminals and the offences and those implicated, while
the thousands of peaceful citizens are never brought to view. The flow
of human life is, like that of a mighty river, unmarked during its mild
course; but when it bursts its bounds and overflows its channel and
spreads a wide destruction, it is watched with interest and its
desolating ravages are all recorded.
Of the many women who have attained honour and celebrity amidst the
intrigues of courts and cabinets and the revolutions of empires, few
have retained the purity and the peculiar virtues of their sex. Deborah
seems to have united the sagacity and courage of man to the modest
virtues of woman. She appears before us affecting no pomp, assuming no
state. The wife of Lapidoth--one known only as the husband of Deborah,
but thus known never to be forgotten--she abode with her husband in
their own dwelling, under that palm-tree distinguished, when Samuel
wrote this book, as "the palm of Deborah," between Ramah, where Rachel
died, and Bethel, where Jacob worshipped. "And all the children of
Israel came up to her there for judgment."
The people of Israel had departed from God and from the laws of Moses,
and for twenty years they had been mightily oppressed by Jabin. During
this long period no priest called the people to repentance, no prophet
was commissioned to promise them relief.
We may imagine Deborah dwelling among her people, a devout,
strong-minded, enlightened woman. She saw their sins, she participated
in their trials, and she warned those around her of the evil of
departing from Jehovah. She recalled His past acts of judgment and of
mercy. She was well acquainted with the laws of Moses, and she
recognised in the punishment of the people the fulfilment of prophecy.
The influence of such a woman--a woman instructed in the religion of
Jehovah--a woman of faith and of prayer--would be felt, first, in her
own family, or in her immediate circle of friends; and then would
commence the reformation and the repentance and putting away of past
sins and the return to the God of Israel. And as the influence spread,
the circle extending, the whole nation would seem to have been affected,
and they naturally resorted to one whose wisdom and piety were so well
established, when any questions of their law, either civil or religious,
were to be settled. Thus the children of Israel came up to her for
judgment. They came to her--for her feet abode within her own dwelling.
Her influence extended throughout all the borders of her land, but her
presence still blest her own house. The prophetess of Israel was still
the wife of Lapidoth, and her only authority was that of piety, wisdom
and love. A more beautiful instance of a woman's true, legitimate
influence cannot be given. Quietly, unostentatiously exercised, it
penetrated through the nation and brought them back to Jehovah, and
prepared the way for the removal of their yoke.