Notable Women of Olden Time | Page 3

the land promised to him, and to his
seed after him. And now he left his father and his brethren, and went
with his own family, the head of his house, the future patriarch of his
race.
Yet he was not alone. The wife of his youth was by his side. In all his
wanderings, in all his cares, there was one with him to participate in his
joys and to alleviate his sorrows. With him and for him, his wife
forsook home, kindred and country. We doubt not that she too shared
the faith of Abraham; that she too trusted and loved and worshipped the
God of Abraham, and of Shem, and of Noah. Like Abraham, a
descendant of Shem,--like him too, she had been trained in the worship
of Jehovah. Yet to the faith of the true believer, there was added the

strong affection of the wife; and while Abraham went out obeying God,
Sarah followed, trusting God indeed, but leaning still upon her husband.
In all her future life, she is presented to us the wife; devoted,
affectionate, submissive; loving her husband with a true affection, and
honouring him by a due deference.
With a beauty that fascinated kings, preserving the charms of youth to
the advanced period of her life, she still lived but for her husband; and
when even the faith of Abraham failed, and he withdrew from the wife
the protection of the husband, and said, "She is my sister," Sarah
appears to have acquiesced in a deceit so unworthy of her husband and
of herself, merely to insure his safety among the lawless tribes around
them.
As we read the story of Abraham's wife, we catch glimpses of ages and
nations that were hoar with antiquity, and had passed away when our
ancient historians began the record of the past. Nation after nation had
perished and been forgotten before the profane historian began his
annals. Yet childless, still trusting in the promise of Jehovah, Abraham
wandered for many years through the land which was to be given to
him, and his seed after him. Now pitching his tent in Moreh; then
building his altar at Bethel; then driven by famine into Egypt; then
returning to his altar at Bethel,--and there separating from his nephew
Lot, because "the land could not bear" both, he fixes his abode in
Hebron.
No pictures of pastoral life are more beautiful than those presented in
Genesis; and while we contemplate the character of Abraham, we catch
occasional glimpses of his household, and of the manners of his age.
We see him exercising forbearance and relinquishing the rights of a
superior, that there might be no strife between him and his too worldly
relative. We see him leading out his own band as a prince, to rescue
that same relative,--who, tempted by the promise of large wealth, had
chosen a location full of dangers,--and, in the hour of victory, refusing
all spoil and showing all honour to the priest of the most high God.
Again he is before us, sitting in his tent in the heat of the day, and
hastening to receive strangers,--"thus entertaining angels

unawares,"--and then interceding for that city doomed to destruction for
the wickedness of the dwellers therein.
And again he appears as the prince, the patriarch, the head of his own
family, and high in honour with those around him, ever observing all
the decorum and proprieties of oriental life. We see him, too, as one
who walked with God; as the priest of his household, presenting the
morning and the evening sacrifice; as holding high communion with
God in the hours of darkness; entering into that covenant which is still
pleaded by those who claim the promise, "I will be a God to thee, and
to thy seed after thee."
This promise of a seed, from which was to spring a great nation, "like
to the stars of heaven in number," was frequently repeated, yet still
deferred. Youth, manhood, middle age, all had passed, and still no child
blest the tents of Sarah; and while Abraham still believed, and it "was
accounted to him for righteousness," Sarah seems to have felt that not
upon her was to be conferred the distinction of becoming the mother of
the promised seed. With the warm impulse of the woman, she
sacrificed the feelings of the wife and the instincts of the heart, to
promote what she doubtless believed to be the plan of God and the
happiness of Abraham. There is a deficiency of faith as much to be
manifested in the forestalling the plans of Providence as in the denial of
the promises of God: and while Abraham still trusted and waited the
fulfilment of the promise, Sarah sought, by her own device, to
accomplish prophecy and