and Ishmael was sore athirst, and his blue eyes were dim and bloodshot, she bore him in her arms, and laid his head

"Beneath the shadow of a desert shrub;

And, shrouding3 up her face, she went away,
And sat to watch, where he could see her not,

Till he should die; and, watching him, she mourn'd:

5.

6.

"God stay thee in thine agony, my boy'!
I can not see thee die'; I can not brook*
Upon thy brow to look,

And see death settle on my cradle joy'.
How have I drunk the light of thy blue eye'!
And could I see thee die' ?

"I did not dream of this when thou wast straying,
Like an unbound gazelle, among the flowers;
Or whiling the soft hours,

By the rich gush of water-sources playing,
Then sinking weary to thy smiling sleep,
So beautiful and deep.

7. "Oh no! and when I watch'd by thee the while,
And saw thy bright lip curling in thy dream,

And thought of the dark stream

In my own land of Egypt, the far Nile',
How pray'd I that my father's land might be
A heritage for thee'!

3. "And now the grave for its cold breast hath won thee!
And thy white, delicate limbs the earth will press';

And oh! my last caress

Must feel thee cold', for a chill hand is on thee'.
How can I leave my boy, so pillow'd' there
Upon his clustering hair'!"

9. And the angel of God called to Hagar out of heaven, and said unto her, "What aileth thee, Hagar'? Arise, lift up the lad, and hold him in thine hand, for I will make him a great nation." And God opened her eyes, and she saw a well of water: and she went and filled the bottle with water, and gave the lad drink.

10.

"She stood beside the well her God had given
To gush in that deep wilderness, and bathed
The forehead of her child until he laugh'd
In his reviving happiness, and lisp'd
His infant thought of gladness at the sight

Of the cool plashing of his mother's hand."

N. P. WILLIS.

11. And God was with the lad Ishmael; and he grew, and dwelt in the wilderness, and became an archer. From him descended the nations of the Arabians, who have always been a wild people, as was foretold of them by the angel of the Lord, when he said of Ishmael, "He will be a wild man: his hand will be against every man, and every man's hand against him."

1 €ŎN'-VERSE, conversation; familiar inter-4 BROOK, endure; bear.

course.

2 WONT'-ED, accustomed

3 SHROUD'-ING, covering.

5 WHIL-ING, beguiling; deceiving.

6 HER-IT-AGE, inheritance.

7 PIL'-LOWED, resting upon, as on a pillow

LESSON III.

THE PASSAGE OF THE RED SEA.

1. FROM Jacob, the son of Isaac, were descended the people called Israelites, whose history occupies a great portion of the Old Testament. Jacob was the father of that Joseph who was sold into Egypt, and who became governor of the land under Pharaoh. But the descendants of Joseph and his brethren were reduced to bondage by the Egyptians, and treated with great cruelty.

2. At length the Lord raised up Moses to deliver the Israelites from bondage; and, in answer to the prayers of Moses, great plagues fell upon the Egyptians; but it was not until the Lord smote all the first-born in the land of Egypt,

P

save the first-born of the Israelites, and filled the land with mourning, that Pharaoh the king consented to let the people of Israel go.

3. But the Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh again, and he said, "Why have we done this, that we have let Israel go from serving us ?" And with a great army of chariots and horsemen he pursued the children of Israel, and overtook them encamping by the Red Sea. Then the pillar of cloud, which had led the people of Israel by day, removed, and stood between them and the Egyptians; and it was a cloud and darkness to Pharaoh and his host, but it gave light to the children of Israel.

4. And the Lord commanded Moses, and he stretched out his rod over the waters, and the waters of the sea divided, and rose up as a wall on the right hand and on the left, and the Israelites passed over on dry ground. But when the host of Pharaoh pursued, the waters flowed back upon the Egyptians and overthrew them, so that "there remained not so much as one of them alive."

5. "He comes-their leader comes! the man of God
O'er the wide waters lifts his mighty rod,

And onward treads. The circling waves retreat,
In hoarse, deep murmurs, from his holy feet;
And the chased surges, inly roaring, show
The hard wet sand, and coral hills below.
With limbs that falter, and with hearts that swell,
Down, down they pass-a steep and slippery dell.

6. "Around them rise, in pristine1 chaos' hurled,
The ancient rocks, the secrets of the world;
And flowers that blush beneath the ocean green,
And caves, the sea-calves' low-roofed haunts, are seen.
Down, safely down the narrow pass they tread;
The beetling3 waters storm above their head;
While far behind retires the sinking day,

And fades on Edom's hills its latest ray.
Yet not from Israel fled the friendly light,

Nor dark to them, nor cheerless, came the night;

Still in their van, along that dreadful road,

Blazed broad and fierce the brandished torch of God.

7. "Its meteor glare a ten-fold lustre gave
On the long mirror of the rosy wave;

While its bless'd beams a sun-like heat supply,
Warm every cheek, and dance in every eye-
To them alone: for Misraim's wizard train
Invoke, for light, their monster-gods in vain:
Clouds heaped on clouds their struggling sight confine,
And ten-fold darkness broods above their line.

8. "Yet on they press, by reckless vengeance led,

And range, unconscious, through the ocean's bed;
Till midway now-that strange and fiery Form
Showed his dread visage lightening through the storm;

With withering splendor blasted all their might,

And brake their chariot-wheels, and marred5 their coursers' flight. 'Fly, Misraim, fly!' The ravenous floods they see,

And, fiercer than the floods, the DEITY.

'Fly, Misraim, fly!' From Edom's coral strand
Again the prophet stretched his dreadful wand:
With one wild crash the thundering waters sweep,
And all is waves-a dark and lonely deep:
Yet o'er those lonely waves such murmurs passed,
As mortal wailing swelled the nightly blast;
And strange and sad the whispering breezes bore
The groans of Egypt to Arabia's shore."

1 PRIS -TINE, early; original.

HEBER.

13 BEE'TLING, Overhanging; jutting over.
MIS'-RA-IM, the name given by the He
brews to ancient Egypt.
MÄR'RED, impeded; impaired.

2 CHA'-Os, that confusion in which matter is 4 supposed to have existed before it was reduced to order by the creating power of 5 God.

LESSON IV.

ISRAEL UNDER THE JUDGES.

1. DURING forty years after the passage of the Red Sea the children of Israel wandered in the wilderness. Then they crossed the river Jordan, and in seven years, under the leadership of Joshua, completed the conquest of the greater part of the land of Canaan.

2. From the time of the death of Joshua to the election of Saul as king, the Israelites were ruled by judges; but often during this period they relapsed1 into idolatry, for which they were punished by being delivered into the hands of the surrounding nations. But from time to time the Lord raised up good and valiant men-Othniel, and Ehud, and Barak, and

the prophet Gideon, and Jephthah—who successively delivered them from the power of their enemies.

3. The history of Jephthah derives much interest from a sad event which changed into mourning the public rejoicings for a great victory which he had gained over the enemies of his people. Before engaging in battle he made a vow to the Lord, and said, "If thou shalt without fail deliver the children of Ammon into my hands, then it shall be that whatsoever cometh forth of the doors of my house to meet me, shall surely be the Lord's, and I will offer it up for a burnt-offering." He was triumphant; but on his return to his home at Mizpeh, who should come forth to meet him but his only child-his daughter! This sorrowful event has been well described in the following language:

4.

5.

JEPHTHAH'S DAUGHTER.

"The mighty Jephthah led his warriors on Through Mizpeh's streets. His helm was proudly set', And his stern lip curl'd slightly', as if praise

Were for the hero's scorn. His step was firm,

But free as India's leopard; and his mail,
Whose shekels2 none in Israel might bear',
Was like a cedar's tassel? on his frame.

His crest was Judah's kingliest'; and the look
Of his dark lofty eye, and bended brow',
Might quell the lion.

"A moment more',

And he had reach'd his home'; when lo! there sprang

One with a bounding footstep, and a brow

Of light, to meet him. Oh! how beautiful' !-
Her dark eye flashing like a sunlit gem-
And her luxuriant hair' !-'twas like the sweep
Of a swift wing in visions. He stood still,
As if the sight had wither'd him'. She threw
Her arms about his neck-he heeded not.
She called him "Father"-but he answered not.
She stood and gazed upon him. Was he wroth ?*
There was no anger in that bloodshot eye.
Had sickness seized him'? She unclasp'd his helm,
And laid her white hand gently on his brow,
And the large veins felt stiff and hard, like cords.
The touch aroused him'. He raised up his hands,
And spoke the name of God, in agony.