of Moses, contained in Deut. vi. 20-25. The education given by this martyr mother to her sons, is an exact illustration of the manner in which these ordinances were obeyed, including also the instruction in the history, theocracy, and claims of Israel down to the times in which they lived. And how could this be, if the Jewish female were lowered by social treatment to the position of a slave or heathen, on whom no responsibility, no religious duty devolved. Be the narrative itself truth or tradition, it matters not; the ancient fathers would never have given woman that influence and elevation in tradition, which had not its foundation in truth—would never have made her occupy that position in tradition which the ordinances of the law forbade. This consideration is most important to us; for we are now rapidly advancing to the period, whence it is said Modern Judaism, in contradistinction to Ancient Judaism, takes its rise. There will be many perhaps to agree with the theories formed on Scripture, already brought forward; but to declare it is Modern, or what is termed Rabbinical Judaism, which they condemn. We hope to satisfy such enquirers, that even in rabbinical Judaism, there is no foundation whatever for the degradation of woman.

And what were the "wages" received by the martyr mother, for thus "nursing her boys for God"? Could it be their earthly tortures, their agonising deaths? Alas, what female heart, in its first natural weakness, will not shrink and quiver, and feel, if such must be her wages, how can she nurse her child for God? How may she instil such feelings, if torture and death must be their reward. Why are obedience, constancy, allegiance, virtue, said to be acceptable to the Most High;

when such is their earthly end, and the sinful, the faithless, the apostate are spared and enjoy? Let us ponder on what was the support, the hope, ay even at that moment the triumph, of Hannah.* Did she feel as if that trial's intolerable agony, were indeed her "wages"? We know not how a frail weak woman could thus have looked on, and instead of unnerving them by cries and sobs, encouraged them to suffer still. God gave her power (it was not in humanity), and so increased the strength, the might, the vividness, of those hopes beyond the grave, which she had felt and realised so long, that the blessedness awaiting her children with their God, seemed palpably revealed. The veil of flesh, of corruption, was rent from her mortal eyes, and all which the Lord had prepared for those that love Him, unseen by human eye and unheard by human ear, was through her pure FAITH disclosed; nothing else could have so sustained her, or given the immortal spirit such dominion. We are expressly told "she stirred up her womanly thoughts with a manly resolve." Consequently we know and feel, that she had all a woman's nature. "Take thy death," she bade her youngest born, that I may receive thee again in mercy with thy brethren." Had an angel from Heaven spoken in her ear these words, she could not have believed more strongly. "The Lord will of His own mercy give you life and breath again," she had before said; and if she had fear when she exhorted her youngest born, it was, not that he should pass away from her earthly love, but by his acceptance of the tyrant's proffers, be lost to her in Heaven; Faith, Trust, Hope, these then were her sus

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* She is so called in Rollin, through I know not from what authority he takes the name.

tainers she had brought up her children not for Earth, but for Heaven; not for Time but for Eternity; and she knew that she should receive her wages, not from Earth but in His presence, for whom her boys were martyred ; and can we doubt for a single moment that those “ wages were received-can we believe in the God of love, whom Pentateuch, Psalms, and Prophets, all reveal, and yet allow the faintest shadow of an unbelieving thought to come across our minds? Can we with a sceptic's fearful scorn, refuse faith in another purer lovelier world, where such noble and faithful spirits receive their promised recompense, because to the finite sight, hearing, and wisdom, of frail poor humanity, it has not been visibly, or palpably revealed? No! no! stagnant and indifferent as Israel may sometimes appear, he never has thus fallen, never can reject that unutterably consoling revelation of immortality, which became his own glorious heritage, long long ages, before it was vouchsafed to the Gentile world.

By the words, "Last of all, after the sons, the mother died," and no mention of tortures, we may hope that, if the tyrant commanded her death, it was comparatively easy, or, which is our own belief, that the Eternal, in His infinite mercy, Himself called her to rejoin her sons, never, never more to be separated from them. The spirit might be supernaturally strengthened, to make manifest such firmness and faithfulness as would exalt the glory of the Lord; but the physical powers must have sunk beneath it. And if the tyrant did indeed put the seal to the work of butchery by slaying her, he did but forestall the death which would inevitably have come-and his cruelty in this instance was mercy.

It may be said, that striking as this narrative is, it cannot bear upon us now, either as guidance or example, and that, even if it could, it would be impossible for us to imitate the heroism of which we read. Earnestly we trust that such manifestations of faithfulness are indeed no longer needed.

Yet that mother's lessons may still be to us as guidance-may teach us how we should instruct our children, so as to provide them against the arrows of misfortune, which, ere life close, may assail them, either through bodily affliction or mental woe. Religion, real spiritual religion, will not find resting in the human heart unless infused-unless made the first great object in childhood: not to affect with gloom, but inexpressibly to deepen the enjoyment and hilarity of youth. Affliction may do the work for us in riper years, and bring the soul to its God-because earth has become a voidits former pleasures dashed with poison; but, oh! it is a fearful thing, when we wait for affliction to teach us our God-when sorrow must be sent to bring us to Him. If the mother would but look forward-would but sometimes think that the sweet and smiling babe upon her lap, the laughing girl and merry boy now playing in such shadowless glee around her knee, may one day be bowed down in sorrow, exposed to bodily pain-to bereavement-to one or more of the numberless sorrows ever incidental to humanity: nay, to privation of health, of sight, of use of limb-will they not, must they not seek to provide them with some unfailing refuge, some fadeless hope and inward consolation? Why are they so anxious to provide for their temporal welfare, to secure provision for earthly wants, resources

of education, enjoyment, ambition, wealth?-why fill the infant mind with every branch of learning, and train it to think, and calculate, and act? Why be so careful of all these things, did not the thought of the Future guide the workings of the Present-did not love itself become ambition, and future hope inexpressibly heighten present enjoyment? And these thoughts, these hopes, are natural, and right: but why provide only for a future of Success and of Joy? These things may be. It may please our Father in Heaven to fulfil the mother's every wish, and make her child's future as smiling as its present; but it may equally please Him to try that cherished darling in the ordeal of adversity; and then, if he have only been provided for a future of prosperity, O what shall sustain him? How How may he bear up against the trials which may be his, as well as of thousands of his fellows? No! Mothers of Israel: let us ever train our children for a future, and strengthen them for sorrow as well as for joy. Should we think our duty done did we provide them only with summer clothing, and expose them unprotected to the wintry blast and howling storm? Might they not with justice. reproach us in the first tempest, if we bade them thus set forth on the journey of life? However smiling as far as the eye can pierce, is not the horizon enveloped in such mists, that we know not whether it conceal sunshine or storm-and shall we send forth our beloved ones provided only for the one?

Let it not be thought that, to inculcate piety--that clinging love of and confidence in God, the only support in mental or bodily affliction-demands a relinquishment of the buoyant light-heartedness of childhood.