opportunist, who sought to accomplish his ends by diplomacy. If he, as
the oldest brother, had used his authority and boldly denounced the
contemplated crime, he might have averted the long train of miseries
that followed.
_Strength and depth of paternal love._--"Joseph is no more: an evil
beast has devoured him. I will go mourning for my son Joseph into the
grave." It is a piece of poetic justice that Jacob, who deceived his
father in the matter of the blessing by covering himself with the skin
of a kid, is himself deceived by the blood of a kid of the goats with
which the coat of Joseph had been stained.
In speaking of the temptation of Joseph in the house of Potiphar, it is
enough to say that the wife conspired against her husband, and
endeavored to induce Joseph to betray his master. A pretty addition to
the story is to be found in the Talmud, to the effect that Joseph saw in
imagination the face of his father before him in the moment of
temptation, and was thereby strengthened to resist.
_The light of a superior mind can not be hidden even in a
prison._--Joseph wins the favor of his fellow-prisoners, and an
opportunity is thus opened to him to exercise his talents on the largest
scale.
_Affliction chastens._--The famine had in the mean time spread to
Palestine. The shadow of the grief for Joseph still lay heavily on the
household of the patriarch. Joseph is lost; shall Benjamin, too, perish?
It is pleasant to observe that the character of the brothers in the mean
time has been changed for the better. There is evidently a lurking sense
of guilt and a desire to atone for it in the manner in which Judah
pledges himself for the safety of the youngest child. And the same
marked change is visible in the conduct of all the brothers on the
journey. The stratagem of the cup was cunningly devised to test their
feelings. They might have escaped by throwing the blame on Benjamin.
Instead of that, they dread nothing so much as that he may have to
suffer, and are willing to sacrifice everything to save him. When this
new spirit has become thoroughly apparent, the end to which the whole
group of Jacob stories pointed all along is reached; the work of moral
regeneration is complete. Jacob himself has been purified by affliction,
and the brothers and Joseph have been developed by the same hard
taskmaster into true men. The scene of recognition which follows, when
the great vice-regent orders his attendants from the apartment and
embraces those who once attempted his life, with the words, "I am
Joseph, your brother: does my father still live?" is touching in the
extreme, and the whole ends happily in a blaze of royal pomp, like a
true Eastern tale.
A word as to the _method_ which should be used in teaching these
stories. If the fairy tale holds the moral element in solution, if the
fable drills the pupil in distinguishing one moral trait at a time, the
biblical stories exhibit a combination of moral qualities, or, more
precisely, the interaction of moral causes and effects; and it is
important for the teacher to give expression to this difference in the
manner in which he handles the stories. Thus, in the fables we have
simply one trait, like ingratitude, and its immediate consequences. The
snake bites the countryman, and is cast out; there the matter ends. In
the story of Joseph we have, first, the partiality of the father, which
produces or encourages self-conceit in the son; Joseph's conceit
produces envy in the brothers. This envy reacts on all concerned--on
Joseph, who in consequence is sold into slavery; on the father, who is
plunged into inconsolable grief; on the brothers, who nearly become
murderers. The servitude of Joseph destroys his conceit and develops his
nobler nature. Industry, fidelity, and sagacity raise him to high power.
The sight of the constant affliction of their father on account of
Joseph's loss mellows the heart of the brothers, etc. It is this
interweaving of moral causes and effects that gives to the stories their
peculiar value. They are true moral pictures; and, like the pictures
used in ordinary object lessons, they serve to train the power of
observation. Trained observation, however, is the indispensable
preliminary of correct moral judgment.
_The Moses Cycle._
The figures of the patriarchs and the prophets appeal to us with a fresh
interest the moment we regard them as human beings like ourselves, who
were tempted as we are, who struggled as we are bound to do, and who
acted, howsoever the divine economy might supervene, on their own
responsibility. Looked at from this point of view, the figure of Moses,
the Liberator, approaches our sympathies at the same time that he towers
in imposing proportions above our level. Let us briefly review his
career. Like Arminius at a later day, he is educated at the court of the
enemies of his people. In dress, in manners, in speech, he doubtless
resembles the grandees of Pharaoh's court. When he approaches the well
in Midian, the daughter of Jethro exclaims, "Behold, an Egyptian is
coming!" But at heart he remains a Hebrew, and is deeply touched by the
cruel sufferings of his race. His first public intervention on their
behalf takes place when he strikes down and kills a native overseer whom
he detects in the act of maltreating a Hebrew slave. This is
characteristic of the manner in which reformers begin. They direct their
first efforts against the particular consequences of some great general
wrong. Later on they perceive the uselessness of such a procedure and
take heart to attack the evil at its source. Moses flees into the
desert. The lonely life he leads there is necessary to the development
of his ideas. Solitude is essential to the growth of genius. The
burning bush is the outward symbol of an inward fact. The fire which can
not be quenched is in his own breast, and out of that inward burning he
hears more and more distinctly the voice which bids him go back and free
his people. But when he considers the means at his disposal, when in
fancy he sees his people, a miserable horde of slaves, pitted against
the armed hosts of Pharaoh, he is ready to despair; until he hears the
comforting voice, which says, "The Eternal is with thee; the
unchangeable power of right is on thy side: it will prevail!" Like
Jeremiah, like Isaiah, like all great reformers, Moses is profoundly
imbued with the sense of his unfitness for the task laid upon him. He
pleads that he is heavy of speech. He can only stammer forth the message
of freedom. But he is reassured by the thought that a brother will be
found, that helpers will arise, that the thought which he can barely
formulate will be translated by other lesser men into a form suitable
for the popular understanding. He returns to Egypt to find that the
greatest obstacle in his way is the lethargy and unbelief of the very
people whom he wishes to help. This again is a typical feature of his
career. The greatest trials of the reformer are due not to the open
enmity of the oppressor, but to the meanness, the distrust and jealousy,
of those whom oppression has degraded. At last, however, the miracle of
salvation is wrought, the weak prevail over the mighty, the cause of
justice triumphs against all apparent odds to the contrary. The slaves
rise against their masters, the flower of Egyptian chivalry is
destroyed. Pharaoh rallies his army and sets out in pursuit. But the
Hebrews, under Moses's guidance, have gained the start, and escape into
the wilderness in safety.
Freedom is a precious opportunity--no more. Its value depends on the use
to which it is put. And therefore, no sooner was the act of liberation
accomplished, than the great leader turned to the task of positive
legislation, the task of developing a higher moral life among his
people. But here a new and keener disappointment awaited him. When he
descended from the mount, the glow of inspiration still upon his face,
the tablets of the law in his hand, he saw the people dancing about the
golden calf. It is at this moment that Michel Angelo, deeply realizing
the human element in the biblical story, has represented the form of the
liberator in the colossal figure which was destined for Pope Julius's
tomb. "The right foot is slightly advanced; the long beard trembles with
the emotion which quivers through the whole frame; the eyes flash
indignant wrath; the right hand grasps the tablets of the law; in
another moment, we see it plainly, he will leap from his sitting posture
and shatter the work which he has made upon the rocks." This trait, too,
is typical. Many a leader of a noble cause has felt, in moments of deep
disappointment, as if he could shatter the whole work of his life. Many
a man, in like situation, has said to himself: The people are willing
enough to hail the message of the higher law to-day, but to-morrow they
sink back into their dull, degraded condition, as if the vision from the
mount had never been reported to them. Let me, then, leave them to their
dreary ways, to dance about their golden calf. But a better and stronger
mood prevailed in Moses. He ascended once more to the summit, and there
prostrated himself in utter self-renunciation and self-effacement. He
asked nothing for himself, only that the people whom he loved might be
benefited ever so little, be raised ever so slowly above their low
condition. And again the questioning spirit came upon him, and he said,
as many another has said: The paths of progress are dark and twisted;
the course of history seems so often to be in the wrong direction. How
can I be sure that there is such a thing as eternal truth--that the
right will prevail in the end? And then there came to him that grand
revelation, the greatest, as I think, and the most sublime in the Old
Testament, when the eternal voice answered his doubt, and said: "Thou
wouldst know my ways, but canst not. No living being can see my face;
only from the rearward canst thou know me." As a ship sails through the
waters and leaves its wake behind, so the divine Power passes through
the world and leaves behind the traces by which it can be known. And
what are those traces? Justice and mercy. Cherish, therefore, the divine
element in thine own nature, and thou wilt see it reflected in the world
about thee. Wouldst thou be sure that there is such a thing as a divine
Power? be thyself just and merciful. And so Moses descended again to his
people, and became exceeding charitable in spirit. The Bible says: "The
man Moses was exceeding humble; there was no one more humble than he on
the face of the earth." He bore with resignation their complaints, their
murmurings, their alternate cowardice and foolhardiness. He was made to
feel, like many another in his place, that his foes were they of his own
household. He had an only brother and an only sister. His brother and
sister rose up against him. His kinsmen, too, revolted from him. He
endured all their weakness, all their follies; he sought to lift them by
slow degrees to the height of his own aims. He set the paths of life and
death before them, and told them that the divine word can not be found
by crossing the seas or by searching the heavens, but must be found in
the human heart; and if men find it not there they will find it nowhere
else. And so, at last, his pilgrimage drew to a close. He had reached
the confines of Palestine. Once more he sought the mountain-top, and
there beheld the promised land stretching far away--the land which his
eyes were to see but which he was never to enter. Few great reformers,
indeed few men who have started a great movement in history, and have
been the means of producing deep and permanent changes in the ideas and
institutions of society, have lived to see those changes consummated.
The course of evolution is slow, and the reformer can hope at best to
see the promised land from afar--as in a dream. Happy he if, like
Moses, he retains the force of his convictions unabated, if his
spiritual sight remains undimmed, if the splendid vision which attended
him in the beginning inspires and consoles him to the end.
The narrative which has thus been sketched touches on some of the
weightiest problems of human existence, and deals with motives both
complex and lofty. I have entered into the interpretation of these
motives for the purpose of showing that they are too complex and too
lofty to be within the comprehension of children, and that it is an
error, though unfortunately a common one, to attempt to use the grand
career of a reformer and liberator as a text for the moral edification
of the very young. They are wholly unprepared to understand, and that
which is not understood, if forced on the attention, awakens repugnance
and disgust. Few of those who have been compelled to study the life of
Moses in their childhood have ever succeeded in conquering this
repugnance, or have drawn from it, even in later life, the inspiration
and instruction which it might otherwise have afforded them. For our
primary course, however, we can extract a few points interesting even to
children, thus making them familiar with the name of Moses, and
preparing the way for a deeper interest later on. The incidents of the
story which I should select are these: The child Moses exposed on the
Nile; the good sister watching over his safety; the kind princess
adopting him as her son; the sympathy manifested by him for his
enslaved brethren despite his exemption from their misfortunes. The
killing of the Egyptian should be represented as a crime, palliated but
not excused by the cruelty of the overseer. Special stress may be laid
upon the chivalric conduct of Moses toward the young girls at the well
of Midian. The teacher may then go on to say that Moses, having
succeeded in freeing his people from the power of the Egyptian king,
became their chief, that many wise laws are ascribed to him, etc. The
story of the spies, and of the end of Moses, may also be briefly told.
The mention of the laws of Moses leads me to offer a suggestion. I have
remarked above that children should be taught to observe moral pictures
before any attempt is made to deduce moral principles; but certain
_simple rules_ should be given even to the very young--must, indeed, be
given them for their guidance. Now, in the legislation ascribed to Moses
we find a number of rules fit for children, and a collection of these
rules might be made for the use of schools. They should be committed to
memory by the pupils, and perhaps occasionally recited in chorus. I have
in mind such rules as these:[12]
1. Ye shall not lie. (Many persons who pay attention only to the
Decalogue, and forget the legislation of which it forms a part, seem not
to be aware that there is in the Pentateuch [Lev. xix, 11] a distinct
commandment against lying.)
2. Ye shall not deceive one another.
3. Ye shall take no bribe.
4. Honor thy father and thy mother.
5. Every one shall reverence his mother and his father. (Note that the
father is placed first in the one passage and the mother first in the
other, to indicate the equal title of both to their children's
reverence.)
6. Thou shalt not speak disrespectfully of those in authority.
7. Before the hoary head thou shalt rise and pay honor to the aged.
10. Thou shalt not spread false reports.
11. Thou shalt not go about as a tale-bearer among thy fellows.
12. Thou shalt not hate thy neighbor in thy heart, but shalt warn him of
his evil-doing.
13. Thou shalt not bear a grudge against any, but thou shalt love thy
neighbor as thyself.
8. Thou shalt not speak evil of the deaf (thinking that he can not hear
thee), nor put an obstacle in the way of the blind.
9. If there be among you a poor man, thou shalt not harden thy heart,
nor shut thy hand from thy poor brother, but thou shalt open thy hand
wide unto him, and shalt surely lend him sufficient for his need.
14. If thou seest the property of thine enemy threatened with
destruction, thou shalt do thy utmost to save it.
15. If thou findest what is not thine own, and the owner is not known
to thee, guard it carefully, that thou mayest restore it to its rightful
owner.
16. Thou shalt not do evil because many others are doing the same evil.
Bearing grudges, lying, mocking those who (like the deaf and blind) are
afflicted with personal defects, appropriating what is found without
attempting to discover the owner, seeking to excuse wrong on the plea
that many others are guilty of it--all these are forms of moral evil
with which children are perfectly familiar, and against which they need
to be warned. It is more than strange that such commandments as the
sixth and eighth of the Decalogue (the commandment against murder and
against adultery, forsooth), which are inapplicable to little children,
should be made so much of in primary moral instruction, while those
other commandments which do come home to them are often overlooked. The
theory here expounded, that moral teaching should keep pace with the
experience and intelligence of the child, should save us from such
mistakes.
To proceed with the stories, the book of Joshua offers nothing that we
can turn to account, nor do the stories of Jael, Deborah, and Gideon
contain moral lessons fit for the young. Sour milk is not proper food
for children, nor do those stories afford the proper moral food in
which, so to speak, the milk of human kindness has turned sour. The
labors of Samson, the Hebrew Hercules, are likewise unfit to be used at
this stage, at least for the purpose of moral instruction. The story of
the daughter of Jephtha, the Hebrew Iphigenia, is exquisitely pathetic,
but it involves the horrible idea of human sacrifice, and therefore had
better be omitted. The acts and speeches of Samuel mark an epoch in the
history of the Hebrew religion, and are of profound interest to the
scholar. But there are certain features, such as the killing of Agag,
which would have to be eliminated in any case; then the theological and
moral elements are so blended that it would be difficult if not
impossible to separate them; and altogether the character of this mighty
ancient seer, this Hebrew Warwick, this king-maker and enemy of kings,
is above the comprehension of primary scholars. We shall therefore omit
the whole intervening period, and pass at once from the Moses cycle to
_The David Cycle._
The first story of this group is that of _Naomi and Ruth_, the
ancestress of David. Upon the matchless beauty of this tale it is
unnecessary to expatiate. I wish to remark, however, in passing that it
illustrates as well as any other--better perhaps than any other--the
peculiar art of the biblical narrative to which we have referred above.
If any one at the present day were asked to decide whether a woman
placed in Ruth's situation would act rightly in leaving her home and
following an aged mother-in-law to a distant country, how many pros and
cons would he have to weigh before he would be able to say yes or no?
Are her own parents still living, and are they so situated that she is
justified in leaving them? Are there other blood relations who have a
prior claim on her? Has she raised expectations at home which she ought
not to disappoint, or undertaken duties which ought not to be set aside
in deference to a sentiment no matter how noble? Of all such side issues
and complications of duty which would render a decision like hers
difficult in modern times, the story as we have it before us is cleared.
All minor traits are suppressed. It is assumed that she has a right to
go if she pleases, and the mind is left free to dwell, unimpeded by any
counter-considerations, upon the beauty of her choice. This choice
derives its excellence from the fact that it was perfectly free. There
was no tie of consanguinity between Naomi and her. The two women were
related in such a way that the bond might either be drawn more tightly
or severed without blame. Orpah, too, pitied her mother-in-law. She
wept, but she returned to her home. We can not, on that account, condemn
her. It was not her bounden duty to go. Ruth, on the other hand, might
perhaps have satisfied her more sensitive conscience by accompanying her
mother-in-law as far as Bethlehem, and then returning to Moab. But she
preferred instead exile and the hardships of a life among strangers. Not
being a daughter, she freely took upon herself the duties of a daughter;
and it is this that constitutes the singular merit of her action. In
telling the story it is best to follow the original as closely as
possible. "Entreat me not to leave thee, nor to desist from following
after thee, for whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I
will lodge: thy people shall be my people: where thou diest will I die
and there will I be buried." Where in universal literature shall we find
words more eloquent of tender devotion than these? It will be noticed
that I have left out the phrase "and thy God shall be my God" for two
reasons. No matter how much we may love another person, religious
convictions ought to be held sacred. We have no right to give up our
convictions even for affection's sake. Moreover, the words correctly
understood are really nothing but an amplification of what has preceded.
The language of Ruth refers throughout to the proposed change of
country. "Whither thou goest, I will go; where thou lodgest, I will
lodge: thy folk shall be my folk; where thou diest, I will die." And the
phrase "Thy God shall be my God" has the same meaning. The ancients
believed that every country has its God, and to say "Thy God shall be my
God" was tantamount to saying "Thy country shall be my country." It is
better, therefore, to omit these words. Were we to retain them, the
impression might be created that Ruth contemplated a change of religion
merely to please the aged Naomi, and such a step from a moral point of
view would be unwarrantable. It was this Gentile woman Ruth who became
the ancestress of the royal house of David.