Mothers and Daughters of the Bible.

RAHA B.

BY THE EDITOR.

NOT the least among all that is clearest in the witness of the Scriptures, is the fact, that the religious service they enjoin is adapted alike to all conditions of men. While it brings "a railing accusation" against none, it holds in contempt the mere pride of wealth and power; and while it flatters none, it lifts up the poorest and most down-trodden of earth's miserable children, and seats them among the "principalities and powers" of heaven itself.

Scarcely have the Nomade-robbers received their first expulsion from Egypt, when the victorious dynasty of Menes, flushed with joy for their recovered empire, are fain to raise up a slave out of the dungeon, that he may distribute bread to nations, and keep alive the chosen race of the patriarchs in time of famine. Soon a nation of liberated slaves are seen going forth by the Red Sea, and standing before God in Sinai. And when the Prince of the tribe of Judah would choose for himself a spouse, he would not solicit favor of a princely house, whether Hebrew or foreign, but preferred Rahab, the poor inn-keeper, who had hospitably received the messengers of Israel. No where is there found among women a more illustrious instance of faith than this of our Canaanite; and this is the more enhanced when we reflect that all her earthly interests could not tend otherwise than to draw her towards her false Gods, and bar her spirit effectually from choosing her lot among strangers, whose customs and opinions would lead them to regard her as a profane and

impious woman. Alone among the inhabitants of Jericho, she not only saw the unfruitfulness of a contest with Israel, but also the worthlessness of all other service that was not paid the true God. With a candor and whole-heartedness matching well that of her memorable son when he wedded the poor exile from the land of Moab, she makes her choice at once, to become an outcast by the camp of Israel, rather than remain among the idolaters, though she may clutch, as the price of perfidy to her guests, a wealthy treasure of kingly gold. This too is done only at the hearing of what signs and wonders the Most High has wrought for his sons in Egypt and the Red Sea, at Sinai, and through all the wilderness, while she has not seen a single trace of their power, nor can know with any assurance the truth of the report.

Such is the faith that saves; not the certainty of things seen, but the conviction of things not seen. The time is not far distant when she shall see for herself how great is the Divine power toward that people of whom she has heard so much, and how changed for realities are the ills that their enemies already fear. From her lowly thatched cottage upon the city wall, hung round with mantling vines, she looks forth upon a quiet and lovely scene. On one side is the noisy city, with her hundred towers and pinnacles adorn◄ ed with gems and gold. Far as the eye can reach on the other, the whole land stretches away in a succession of hills and vallies, of verdant plains and woody copses or precipitous crags, hung to their snowy summits with vines, and darkened with olive-shades or the tops of gloomy fir. Fair gardens and tufts of feathery palms mingle with fields of lotus and roses, with figs and sycamores, and groves of balsam with mingled vines, where the bee revels in swarms, and sucks nectar from a whole year of flowers, and the sweet cane yields her juice of wild honey for the delectation of the most luxurious taste. All is fair and lovely, and the sun looks kindly down from a cloudless and dreamy air. Alas! man here too is vile, and the whole prospect darkens to her sight, for she already beholds the shadow of his terrible

wings coming to rest over the accursed ground that shall soon sweep away this whole fair microcosm with the besom of destruction, and make him an execration that shall again rear those reprobate and abominable towers to the offence of God and the corruption of man.

The strange and terrible people of Israel have now come to the sight of their promised land, glorious and near to conquest, "not by might nor by power," but by the favor of God. The dangers of the wilderness are past. The curses of Balaam are turned to blessings, and his whole college of sorcerous and unholy charmers have shared the fate of their enviers by the mouths of Nile. The armory of Sihon and Ogus have perished, and though Moses has departed from among men, yet under the leading of Joshua, they still feed on manna, and move no less irresistible towards their earthly rest than when they passed through the sea on their march to Horeb. At the close of a summer's day, two wayfaring men in foreign garb, and wearied with their day's journey, over the sultry land, come to seek a shelter for the night, and food for their hunger, in the house of Rahab. The stranger and the poor both come from God; but in Jericho, none will receive the wanderers into their houses, though by so doing, they might "entertain angels" that should rescue them like Lot out of the destruction of their devoted city. Rahab alone fears not to afford them shelter; but with the readiness of a Sarah or a Penelope, opens her doors to the strangers, and prepares a hospitable banquet in honor of their coming. The ready hands of her servants bring water for the washing of their feet, and prepare their savory repast in haste. The fatted calf bleeds, and unleavened cakes are baking upon the coals. Stores of honey and oil, and cups of rosy nectar crown the board; and with thanks for the care of Heaven, who has thus prepared them a table in the presence of their foes, they feast upon the delicacies of their fair hostess, who sits with them, and wales to each guest his portion, that she presses them to enlarge beyond their desire, while a chorus of fair damsels, her sisters, sing about them to the notes of their country's lyre.