DEBORAH-REBEKAH'S NURSE: A CHAPTER FOR SERVANTS.* LET us read the account of the death and burial of one who was an old servant in the oldest family on earth. In the thirtyfifth chapter of the Book of Genesis you will find these words:-"But Deborah, Rebekah's nurse, died, and she was buried beneath Bethel, under an oak; and the name of it was called Allon-bachuth," which, as we learn from the margin of some of our Bibles, means "the oak of weeping." It is nearly 4000 years since that old nurse was laid in her tomb in the quiet valley near Bethel. Many a noble-born, and princely woman has come and gone since then! Many a woman, accomplished and beautiful, has made a great stir on earth, agitating human hearts, corrupting human souls, not unfrequently disturbing kingdoms, — proud, selfish, haughty, ambitious, ungodly, and all have passed away, leaving here no trace behind of their existence-no more than the meteor which flashes for a moment across the wintry sky. On this side of the grave, though not on the other, they are utterly forgotten and unknown. But that old nurse, who was so long ago in the family of an old shepherd, is known to Christendom, and her history forms a part of the written history of the world! Think what a sore travail for Fame has been under the sun since it first shone upon mankind! What a pushing aside of others; what a trampling of them under foot, what a fierce striving and struggling from youth to old age; what lying, cheating, intriguing and murdering, has there been by man's cursed Self, to please self, vaunt self, and worship self, and seat it upon the throne of the world! It has almost made history the record only of cruelty and crime, written in tears and with blood. What gigantic attempts has this great puffed-up Self made not only to possess the earth while it lived here, but to possess the minds and the imagination of all coming generations when it From "Deborah, or Fireside Thoughts for Household Servants.' By Rev. Norman Mac. Leod, Glasgow. Edinburgh: T. Constable & Co. (In the press) died and went elsewhere, and if not to gain their reverence, at least to excite their envy! It has reared gorgeous palaces and stately temples ;-erected beautiful statues, elegant obelisks, enormous pyramids, and wonderful tombs ;-carved or painted stories of battles and conquests on marble and on granite walls-and all to leave a name! What do you, what does any one of us know about the hundreds who thought that they had thus secured their immortality? Absolutely nothing. Yet the name of the old Nurse, Deborah, has survived the wreck of ages! How many cities, and kingdoms too, have risen, flourished, and perished, since her death! Nations have shaken the earth, and broken its silence, as did the Israelites when passing through the desert, and, like them, have departed, and left it to silence again. Greece and Rome, great Babylon the aged, and Nineveh, older still, have all commenced their career, and flourished and perished since the days of Deborah; and we see, as in a long procession, stretching through thousands of years, kings and emperors, priests and warriors, with their pride of rank or birth, of learning or conquest, greedy of fame and the honour of ages, accompanied by uncounted millions of men and women, who spent long lives on earth, coming out of darkness into the world, and then passing after a while into darkness again; and we know nothing whatever of any of them. Yet we know something about this Deborah!-an old nurse, who never thought she would be remembered after the master and mistress whom she had loved were gone, or the children whom she had fondled on her knee had followed them;- an old servant, whose highest ambition was to do the will of her God and her master's God;-to be herself good, and to make the family circle happy by her goodness;-an old nurse, who never saw grander sights than shepherds' tents and shepherds' flocks, or the glory of suns rising and setting over the green hills of Palestine; yet who, without knowing it or seeking it, has acquired a fame far old nurse, and the family in which she served, and the place where she was buried, and the tears shed at her funeral; all this seems, perhaps, a very singular and exceptional case. Why should we think so? Whence have we learned such views of God's character, and of His dealings with the children of men as to make us think so? Not, certainly, from the Bible, but I fear from our own dark thoughts, and from the way in which "great people" or great kings" are necessarily obliged to act towards most poor and unknown ones, from the impossibility of their being able to attend to everything, or of being acquainted with every one, even if they wished to aid them. But every page of the Bible tells us of a God great and mighty,—indeed, whose greatness is unsearchable, and whose glory, in all its fulness, is in greater than has fallen to the lot of kings | apostles? But that He should notice an or queens. Her name is engraven by the finger of God on a monument grander than any in Egypt, and which never can be covered by the sands of the desert, never broken into dust by the destroying invader, or obliterated by the corroding hand of time. And now, as if what we have read about her had happened yesterday, we see that funeral; the family group meeting in the pastoral valley beneath Bethel; around them the sleeping hills; overhead the calm sky, it may be with ministering angels as silent spectators; while, with hearts filled with touching memories of the olden time, the good family servant is laid, with all honour, in the tomb, and old men and young drop their honest and manly tears over her body, as the old oak rains the dew-drops from its heart and all its branches, over its mother earth-and so great and sincere was this sorrow, and so willing was comprehensible by any creature,—yet the family who experienced it to keep such a tribute of affection in remembrance, that they called the place Allon-Bachuth, "the oak of weeping!" The great Master of us all, too, sympathized with the feelings of that family circle, and has been pleased to record their servant's name and burial, so that wherever the gospel is published, of His love to man in every age, it should be told what this humble woman hath done. Verily, blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth." "The humble shall hear thereof and be glad!" Does this notice of Deborah in the Bible seem strange to you? Does it seem strange, that the great and mighty God, the Creator of the heavens and the earth, the King of kings, and Lord of lords, should take such notice of an old servant, and, as it were, deign to mention so humble a person in a book like the Bible? You would think it quite right and natural, perhaps, that He should take care of the universe in general, but not, perhaps, of this world in particular! -or if of this world, yet specially only of great nations and cities in it—or if of men and women, yet of none but of great people, like kings and queens, or of some very good people, like patriarchs and of One who, just because He is so great and glorious, sees, and knows, and takes care of all things. "To whom will ye liken ME, or shall I be equal? saith the Holy One. Lift up your eyes on high, and behold who hath created these things, that bringeth out their host by number: He calleth them all by names, by the greatness of His might, for that He is strong in power; not one faileth." And is it this great and powerful Creator and Upholder of the starry heavens who can. not consider the manner of life and the condition of the poor? and who must from the number and grandeur of His works pass by their cause? So, alas! men often think. But hear His own gracious words which follow those I have just quoted: "Why sayest thou, O Jacob, and speakęst, O Israel, My way is hia from the Lord, and my judgment is passed over from my God? Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? there is no searching of His understanding. He giveth power to the faint, and to them that have no might He increaseth strength!" It was this "Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth," who gave such com mands through Moses as shewed His remembrance of the wants of the weakest of His creatures, and of the poorest of His people, and that there cannot be anything indifferent to Him, or beneath His notice, merely because it is trifling in the world's estimation. Hence such commands as the following:-"If thou meet thine enemy's ox or his ass going astray, thou shalt surely bring it back to him again. If thou see the ass of him that hateth thee lying under his burden, and wouldest forbear to help him, thou shalt surely help with him.” "Six days thou shalt do thy work, and on the seventh day thou shalt rest; that thine ox and thine ass may rest, and the son of thy handmaid and the stranger may be refreshed." "Thou shalt not seethe a kid in his mother's milk." "If a bird's nest chance to be before thee in the way in any tree, or on the ground, whether they be young ones, or eggs, and the dam sitting upon the young, or upon the eggs, thou shalt not take the dam with the young." "Thou shalt not muzzle the ox when he treadeth out the corn." "And if thy brother, an Hebrew man, or an Hebrew woman, be sold unto thee, and serve thee six years, then in the seventh year thou shalt let him go free from thee. And when thou sendest him out free from thee, thou shalt not let him go away empty thou shalt furnish him liberally out of thy flock, and out of thy floor, and out of thy wine-press: of that wherewith the Lord thy God hath blessed thee thou shalt give unto him. And thou shalt remember that thou wast a bondman in the land of Egypt, and the Lord thy God redeemed thee: therefore I command thee this thing to-day. This God is our God! He is, if I may use the word, as thoughtful of His creatures in Britain now, as He was of those in Palestine then; and men and women in the dark and crowded lanes of our cities, and in our quiet homes or busy factories, are as known and cared for, and as precious in His sight, as were those to whom these commands were first addressed. "Have we not all one Father ?" ones of the earth, in God's sight, are the good, and this rank we can all rise to, if we wish it. The good are His precious jewels, though often in a rough and poor setting of clay-His treasure, though often in a very common earthen vessel, the stars in His sky of glory, though the world may admire much more the brilliant meteors generated by corruption, and that lead only to quagmires. God is, therefore, "not ashamed to call them brethren." He will "lift the poor," if they be humble and good, "out of the dunghill," while He will "pour contempt upon princes," if they are proud and wicked. We need not wonder, therefore, that the God who tells us nothing about the history and doings of mighty kings and kingdoms which have passed away, has yet considered Deborah worthy of notice, in order to testify how much He valued, and desired to honour, as He will ever do, a good servant who filled that place faithfully and well in which He had placed her. Cheering thoughts these are, I think, for us all! I cannot help impressing them upon working people especially, who are apt to say, like Jonah, "I am cast out of thy sight!" For what, indeed, does this big and busy world know or care about any of us at this moment? Our names are unknown; we are lost in the crowd of life; "our way is hid" from men, and when we die, few will miss us even for a time, while to the great world we cease to be, as the leaf does which falls from the tree into the stream, and is swept into the great sea. But then comes the happy thought, the great God knows us, cares for us, and will keep us, if we will only know Him truly, love Him sincerely, and serve Him faithfully. "I am poor and needy, but the Lord thinketh upon me." "O Lord, thou hast searched me, and known me. Thou knowest my downsitting and mine up-rising: thou understandest my thought afar off. Thou compassest my path, and my lying down and art acquainted with all my ways For there is not a word in my tongue, but, lo, O Lord, thou knowest it altogether. Thou hast beset me behind and Consider, further, that the truly great before, and laid thine hand upon me." This great and blessed lesson of God's be. There is one Old Testament story knowledge of every person, and His which I cannot help recalling to your peculiar love to the good, is taught not memories if you have forgotten it, and to merely by such a passing incident as this point it out to you if you know it not, as which is recorded of Deborah, but by it beautifully illustrates the view of God's very many things in Scripture, regarding character which I wish servants, and those who were His friends, whom He those engaged in common every-day lablessed, and has rendered for ever memor- bour, to understand and believe, because able. You know, for example, how He I fear such true thoughts of God are not calls himself, and is yet worshipped by so familiar to us as they ought to be, and, us as the "God of Abraham, Isaac, and therefore, working people especially have Jacob;" and these men were but humble not the strength and comfort they would shepherds who pitched their tents, and otherwise possess if these were kept in pastured their flocks, wandering over the their minds and hearts. The story I quiet hills of Palestine. And among allude to is this. There came a time in those mentioned in the Bible, whose the history of the Jewish nation, four lives we best know of all who ever lived, hundred years or so after King David were such as Eliezer, Abraham's faithful was dead, and just before they were carservant, who went for a wife to Isaac, ried away for the last time into captivity, and brought back Rebekah, and Deborah when nothing less than the most terrible with her; and Joseph, the slave boy, who chastisements could do them any good. was sold to Potiphar, and with none to The people, the priests, and the king were help him in a heathen and wicked land, all equally bad, and sunk in shocking but alone and solitary, behaved with wickedness. Lying, cheating, robbery, such noble faithfulness to his master, and murder, every kind of injustice and pious loyalty to his God; and Moses, tyranny, with the grossest indecency, pre"the man of God," also the shepherd for vailed. God raised up one of the noblest forty years in the hills of Midian, and men who ever lived, the prophet Jerewho, because he was "faithful in his miah, to warn them, and, if possible, as house," went to heaven, and was honoured a last attempt, to lead them to repentance to appear again with Jesus in glory; and reformation. The prophet was a and that, too, on one of the hills of the man of the warmest heart, and most old land he had left 1400 years before. gentle and tender feelings, with deep love We have also such domestic histories as to God and to his country; and what he that of the afflicted but poor Naomi, and saw, and what he suffered from his her affectionate Ruth, in which every- brethren, almost broke his heart. But it thing is so minutely detailed that we came to this at last, after a long series of enter Bethlehem with the widowed tormenting accusations, suspicions, and mother, and sorrow with her; and gaze persecutions, that the man of God was with admiration on her sweet daughter- sent to prison, which seemed to have been in-law as she gleans among the yellow in one of those cruel places now only barley sheaves; and trace the wondrous found in barbarous lands-a dungeon, providence by which her great-grandson more like a deep pit, or the bottom of a was called from following the ewes great tower, from the top of which he was with young, and became King David, the lowered down into mud and water, there mighty minstrel, who has led the worship to starve and die. Was there no one to of the Church of Christ, and will do so plead for the Prophet? Could no pious till time shall be no more! Were not priest be found, as a true witness for these, and indeed almost every worthy God, and for the glory of self-sacrifice, mentioned in the Bible, great and grand, who would even say a good word for the not because they were rich, high in rank, Prophet, though it might possibly cost or learned-none of which we may ever him the king's ill-will or his own life? be; but because they were good, true, The temple was full of priests, but they humble, godly, that which we may all were all silent about Jeremiah. Could the crowd by Heaven's Ambassador to receive a message from Heaven's King was the negro slave! The righteous God had marked his conduct; was pleased with him; and did not forget him amidst Lord. Go and speak to Ebed-melech the Ethiopian, saying, I will surely deliver thee, and thou shalt not fall by the sword, because thou hast put thy trust in me, saith the Lord!”* O blessed revelation of one who is, "of a truth, no respecter of persons: for in every nation he that feareth him and worketh righteousness is accepted of him!" This is He whose eye is on every servant, and who will bless and protect all, whether bond or free, white or black, who, like the Ethiopian, will do what is right, and put their trust in God? no prince be found noble enough, and word, indeed, for Jerusalem and its brave enough to defend the right? The people,-" Thus saith the Lord of hosts, princes had ceased to be princely, and the God of Israel, Behold, I will bring had become selfish and profane. Was my words on this city, for evil and not there no one, then, from among "the for good!" But will no one escape? chosen people of God," the "people Is there no word of comfort for any? called by his name," who could honour There is. God sent a message of mercy that name by being just and true, and to one man in that city, but he is not lift up their manly voice in the street, among the priests of the temple, nor for righteousness' sake, though they among the princes round the throne, nor were not members of sanhedrim or syna- is he the king, sitting by the gate of gogue? "Like priest like people!" Benjamin. The person selected from They had a name to live, but a name only. The spirit of religion had fled the body was corrupt and dead from the crown of the head to the sole of the foot! And there was the king, too, better than most in the city, the calamities which were about to overbut weak and wavering; with fair inten-whelm Jerusalem. "Thus saith the tions, but irresolute of purpose. Will no one fan the spark of good in his heart, and bid him stretch forth his hand and remove the blot on his land, by freeing the best man in it from that vile dungeon? Yes; one man there is in that city who has a conscience that tells him the right, and a heart that feels it, and a brave soul that is willing to risk all, and do the work which both conscience and heart call him to! That man went to the king, "when sitting in the gate of Benjamin," and he said, "My lord, these men have done evil in all that they have done to Jeremiah!" Who was this bold man who dared thus to startle the king's conscience, and defy the power of the princes, and cast contempt on the priests, and he alone among the people? He was no Israelite, but a stranger and foreigner-not a priest or prince, but a servant a slave-and I suppose, too, a negro slave! It was "Ebed-melech the Ethiopian, who was in the king's house;" and who came out of the king's house," to say these stirring words to his master! -Noble man-The Lord blessed his good service, and gratified his good heart, by enabling him to bring the poor Prophet out of the deep dungeon-to do which, however, he required ropes, and the assistance of thirty men. Now, let us mark the sequel of the story. Some time after this, the Word of God came to Jeremiah, and it was a terrible 66 I cannot conclude these first thoughts upon God's knowledge of and sympathy with goodness, though found among those unknown and uncared for by the world, without directing your attention to the revelation of the same blessed truth in the New Testament. Who are its heroes? such men as the shepherds, to whom Gabriel, the Angel of God, accompanied by the host of heaven, announced the birth of the Saviour, while they were fulfilling their humble and peaceful calling in watching their flocks by night; and such men, too, as the fishermen of Galilee, who left their all, followed Jesus, and revolutionized the world; and such servants as Onesimus, who were "beloved" by St. Paul. Who are its heroines? poor women like the Virgin-Mother, Elizabeth her cousin, and See Jeremiah xxxviii. xxxix. |