families, or clans, felt to be needed. For the first, Moses had provided; but nothing had been determined as to the latter. But Joshua, impressed by the magnitude of the country occupied, its infinite capacities and the necessity for the cohesive force of a truly national spirit, gathered the people in two large masses on the opposite, confronting mountains of Ebal and Gerizim, where he commanded them to recite aloud, responsively, the true conditions of permanent national independence.

Such a scene, transacted about twelve hundred years before the First Punic War, and a thousand years before the birth of Socrates, is unique in the world's history. When did any other nation thus pledge itself to a high religious life as the recognized conditions of prosperity, wherein disobedience to parents, inhumanity to the blind, to strangers, widows, and orphans, and even removal of the landmarks of neighbors, were made crimes as well as murder? Even modern legislation is slowly striving toward a standard as generous, exalted, and pure.

It was then his work accomplished, his duty donethat Joshua, appointing no successor to his dignities and claiming no rank for his family or heirs, calmly retired to his inheritance, to spend the closing days of his life in modest privacy, satisfied to remain a contented citizen of the mighty Hebrew Commonwealth.

CUNNINGHAM GEIKIE.

NOTE. The late J. Dorman Steele, in his "Ancient and Mediæval Peoples," justly states the strategical movements of Joshua, as follows: "Joshua's plan of crossing the Jordan, capturing Jericho, taking the heights beyond, by a night-march, and delivering the crushing blow at Bethoron (Joshua, x. 9), was a masterpiece of strategy, and ranks him among the greatest generals of the world. His first movement placed him in the centre of the country, where he could prevent his enemies from massing against him, and, turning in any direction, cut them up in detail.”

The principle is the same which illustrates the military character of Washington, as defined in Part v., No. 6, of this volume. — ED.

11. RUTH AND NAOMI.

No story in the progress of the Hebrew nation is more pathetic in its sentiment and incidents than that of the great-grandmother of King David, - Ruth, the daughter-in-law of Naomi, a Hebrew widow. Thirty generations later, the recognized family line closed with the birth of Jesus.

FAREWELL? Oh, no! It may not be;
My firm resolve is heard on high!

I will not breathe farewell to thee,
Save only in my dying sigh.

I know not that I now could bear .
Forever from thy side to part,
And live without a friend to share
The treasured sadness of my heart.

I will not boast a martyr's might

To leave my home without a sigh,
The dwelling of my past delight,
The shelter where I hoped to die.
In such a duty, such an hour,

-

The weak are strong, the timid brave;
For love puts on an angel's power,

And faith grows mightier than the grave.

For rays of heaven serenely bright
Have gilt the caverns of the tomb;
And I can ponder with delight

On all its gathering thoughts of gloom.
Then, mother, let us haste away

To that blest land to Israel given,
Where faith, unsaddened by decay,
Dwells nearest to its native heaven.

For where thou goest, I will go;

With thine my earthly lot is cast;

In pain and pleasure, joy and woe,

Will I attend thee to the last.
That hour shall find me by thy side,
And where thy grave is, mine shall be:
Death can but for a time divide

My firm and faithful heart from thee.

W. B. O. PEABODY.

12. DAVID, THE PATRIOTIC KING.

(B. C. 1056-1014.)

THE Conquest of the "Promised Land" did not prevent long and painful contests with adjoining nations, hostile to the Hebrew sway and impatient of a moral influence so repugnant to their licentious and cruel habits, their idolatry, and their thirst for power. But at last peace prevailed throughout their borders. The limits of the Hebrew kingdom, after it succeeded the original commonwealth in form of government, had been Dan and Beersheba, on the north and south. But David reigned from the river of Egypt to the Euphrates, from Gaza on the west to Thapsacus on the east. The whole region between the Mediterranean and the Euphrates had been ablaze with war at the same moment. The address of Joab before the first battle of Medeba, gave the key to the feeling which animated the people, - 'Be of good courage, and let us play the man, for our people and the cities of our God!"

Zeal for Jehovah as their God, and for their country and brethren as His land and His people, had become a deep-rooted passion in every heart. It was, in fact, a revival of the ancient fervor of the days of Joshua, such as had burst forth in the darkest days of the past. This enthusiasm might have been chilled and well-nigh lost

when the nation was in close contact with heathenism; but in the lonely mountain valley of central Palestine, and in the secluded pastures of Judah and the South, the heart of the people still beat sound.

The great deeds of Deborah, Gideon, and Jephthah, would have been impossible but for the slumbering religious life which they knew how to arouse to a vigorous enthusiasm. This latent fervor and hereditary loyalty to Jehovah had been at last rekindled in such power that it henceforth became the passionate, almost the fanatical glory of the nation.

Of this restoration of the spiritual glory of Israel, David, the anointed of Samuel, was a supreme illustration. In an age especially Puritan, says Geikie, he was the prominent representative of its spirit. With him, as with it, religion was the first thought in all relations in life, public or private. The whole community - citizen, soldier, magistrate, and king — alike moved in an atmosphere of the supernatural. All that was most heroic in David's age arose from this trust in God, and it fired the souls of the Maccabees, centuries later, for man never rises to his grandest or noblest in war, except when he believes in the sacredness of the cause for which he contends.

David was never more at the height of his glory. His enemies had been subdued. He had now a vast empire. Alliances were sought by neighboring powers; but with every temptation to play the part of the Eastern tyrantdespot, he bore himself, on the whole, with a tender moderation which never invaded the ancient liberties of the nation, endeared him in life, and made his memory sacred among his people forever.

His errors and faults never weakened his devotion to country; and his loftiest songs, of sweetest measure, were of Zion's heights and the deeds of the fathers.

SELECTIONS FROM GEIKIE.

13. THE PATRIOT KING IN MOURNING.

(B. C. 1023.)

KING David's limbs were weary.

He had fled

From far Jerusalem; and now he stood,

With his faint people, for a little rest
Upon the shore of Jordan.

Oh, when the heart is full, when bitter thoughts
Come crowding thickly up for utterance,

And the poor, common words of courtesy
Are such a very mockery, how much

The bursting heart may pour itself in prayer!

He prayed for Israel; and his voice went up
Strongly and fervently. He prayed for those
Whose love had been his shield; and his deep tones
Grew tremulous. But oh, for Absalom!

For his estranged, misguided Absalom,

The proud, bright being, who had burst away

In all his princely beauty, to defy

The heart that cherished him! for him he poured,

In agony that would not be controlled,

Strong supplication; and forgave him there,
Before his God, for his deep sinfulness.

The pall was settled! He who slept beneath
Was straightened for the grave; and as the folds
Sank to the still proportions, they betrayed
The matchless symmetry of Absalom.
The king stood still; then throwing off
The sackcloth from his brow, and laying back
The pall from the still features of his child,
He bowed his head upon him, and broke forth
In the resistless eloquence of woe :