■^■P**
l&*>
■
i v;- ■■■■ :;l!ii
(/////
|
. \ |
|||
|
: |
II ESt |
||
|
'L |
|||
|
J |
«Um»I |
in*** I |
|
PTFU |
rr*
I
r
V
c-.
^
^VPf
M
vii^?
-, a**
■
WBHBKm
C* K \i< * 4
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, Shelf_j?„4
IMTED STATES OF AMERICA.
£^31«^
:?,£%
M. >T ""» c
&2
S jw\3
^SS^fe:
rA*,\^-
m:
GRANDPA'S STORIES FROM THE WONDERFUL BOOK.
Delightful Stories
OR
HOME TALKS -^WONDERFUL BOOK
A SERIES OF ONE HUNDRED DELIGHTFUL FIRESIDE STORIES, IN THE CHATTY, CONVER- SATIONAL STYLE, IN WHICH GRANDPA GOODWIN NARRATES THE MOST WON- DERFUL OCCURRENCES RECORDED IN THE SACRED VOLUME IN A MANNER TO CHARM THE YOUNG FOLKS BY THE REAL ROMANCE THEY CONTAIN, AND AT THE SAME TIME SOW THE GOOD WHEAT OF DIVINE TRUTH IN FERTILE SOIL.
REV. GEORGE A. PELTZ, D. D.
FORMERLY ASSOCIATE EDITOR SUNDAY SCHOOL TIMES, ETC., ETC.
RICHLY ILLUSTRATED
HUBBARD BROTHERS, Publishers,
PHILADELPHIA, PA.
—
Copyright, 1888, by Hubbard Brothers.
PREFACE.
This book is unique in some important respects. Bible stories have been told in the words of the Bible and in the sermonizing or didactic style, but seldom have they appeared in the real language of the household and in the sprightly, conversational manner of an intelligent family group about the home fireside.
This home style is that which childhood craves, which childhood understands. Not to be read to nor preached at is childhood's de- light ; but to be talked with, to have questions answered and expla- nations given, to give and take in the bright word battles of the home circle. For the lack of this attractive, nineteenth-century style, books of Bible stories and the Bible itself lie neglected and unread bv numbers of well-meaning people. To popularize the rich treas- ures of the Book of Books is the aim of Grandpa Goodwin's Stories.
In developing the fireside conversations of the book representative characters have been chosen. Grandpa himself, Mrs. Reed, Mary, Carrie, and Charley are just such people as live everywhere. There is not an unreal character in the entire group, and the stories are looked at through the eyes of childhood. They are clothed in the language of home ; they are brightened with the queries and com- 1 v
vi PREFACE.
ments of a company of wide-awake juveniles ; and yet, in them all there is a scrupulous regard for truth and a constant pursuit of the profitable. To children these stories will prove a genuine delight ; to parents or teachers a valuable help.
The source whence these stories are drawn is at once the most ancient, the most varied, and the most authentic in the world. It commands a wider and more profound reverence than any other volume extant. Its narratives diverge widely from the beaten paths of nineteenth-century life, but they invariably lead to the higher grounds of a nobler and happier career. To effectively present these romances of sacred writ in the most attractive form, the reader is introduced into Grandpa Goodwin's home. Sitting there and chatting with him and his dear ones, many a happy hour will be passed and many a precious lesson will be learned.
The power of illustration has also been brought to bear in this volume. It is adorned with nearly two hundred elegant engravings, about half of which are full-page size. The value of such a pictorial presentation of truth will be incalculable to the children and their maturer friends. Every one of these illustrations throws light upon the text with which it is used, and the one result of the volume must be entertainment and proht.
CONTENTS.
I.
Page
THE WEEK OF WONDERS; or, Making Great Things out of Nothing, 27
Genesis i, I — 31 ; Hebrews xi, 3.
II.
A PEEP INTO PARADISE ; or, Happy People in a Happy Home, 36
Genesis ii, 1 — 25 ; Revelation ii, 7 ; xxii, I — 5-
III.
FEASTING ON FORBIDDEN FRUIT; or, Trifling with a Serpent 40
Genesis iii, I — 21.
IV.
LEAVING A HAPPY HOME; or, From Peace and Plenty to Toil and Tears, ... 46
Genesis iii, 22 — 24.
V.
BURNING THE FIRST FRUITS; or, A Wicked Brother's Brutal Deed, 51
Genesis iv, 1 — 8 ; Hebrews xi, 4.
VI.
THE VOICE OF tfiOOD; or, A Strange Cry from the Ground 56
Genesis iv, 9 — 16; Matthew xxiii, 35 ; Hebrews xii, 24.
vii
viii CONTENTS.
vn-
Pag» GREATER AND RICHER; or, From Farm Life to City Splendor, 60
Genesis iv, 16 — 24.
VIII. ALONE, YET NOT ALONE; or, The Unseen Companion of a Singular Man, .... 64
Genesis v, 21—24; Hebrews xi, 5, \
IX.
A HUNDRED YEARS* JOB; or, A Marvelous Piece of Joiner Work, 69
Genesis vi, 1—22; Hebrews xi, 7 ; I Peter iii, 20; II Peter ii, 5.
X.
TOO WICKED TO LIVE; or, The Greatest Storm on Record, 74
Genesis vii, 1— 24; Matthew xxiv, 37— 39.
XI.
THE BOW OF BEAUTY; or, A Token of Good Things to Come 7&
Genesis viii, I — 22; ix, I — 17.
XII.
MAKING FUN OF HIS FATHER; or, When Wine is in Wit is Out, 83
Genesis ix, 18 — 29.
XIII.
TOO BIG A JOB ; or, A Sudden Change of Plan, 87
Genesis xi, 1 — 9.
XIV.
SURPRISED AND DELIGHTED; or, The First Sight of a Splendid Inheritance, . 91
Genesis xi, 26 — 32; xii, I — 20.
XV.
TRUE NOBILITY; or, Stooping to Conquer 95
Genesis xiii, I — 18.
CONTENTS. ix
XVI. '
Page
HOME FROM THE FIGHT; or, Royal Honors for Victors, 101
Genesis xiv, I — 24.
XVII.
LESSONS FROM THE STARS ; or, A Grand Future Foretold, 104
Genesis xv, 1 — 6; Hebrews xi, 11, 12.
XVIII.
FAMILY TROUBLES; or, The Serpent in the Home, TT" 107
Genesis xvi, I — 16; xxi, I — 21; xxv, 9 — 18.
XIX.
THREE WONDERFUL GUESTS; or, Entertaining Angels Unawares, 112
Genesis xviii, I — 33.
XX.
EVERYTHING DESTROYED; or, Fleeing from the Burning City, 116
Genesis xix, 1 — $& ; Deuteronomy xxix, 23.
XXI.
A TIMELY RESCUE; or, The Child of Promise Saved, 120
Genesis xxii, 1 — 19; Hebrews xi, 17 — 19.
XXII.
A QUEER COURTSHIP; or, Why Supper was Delayed, 124
Genesis xxiv, I — 67.
XXIII.
SHARP PRACTICE; or, Diamond Cut Diamond, 130
Genesis xxvii, I — 45 ; Hebrews xi, 20.
XXIV.
THE WONDERFUL LADDER ; or, A Stairway to the Skies, 135
Genesis xxviii, 1 — 22; John i, 51.
x CONTENTS.
XXV.
Pagr
WHICH HE LOVED BEST; or, Seeking One and Getting Two, Ho
Genesis xxix, I— 30; xxx, 25—43; xxxi, I — 5S-
XXVI.
A FAMOUS WRESTLING MATCH; or, The Victorious Cripple, 144
Genesis, chapters xxxii — xxxiii.
XXVII.
THE FRUITS OF ENVY; or, Bartering Away a Brother, 148
Genesis xxxvii, 1 — 36.
XXVIII.
FROM PRISON TO POWER; or, Good Brought Out of Evil, 153
Genesis, chapters xxxix, xl, xli.
XXIX.
HUNGRY AND HELPLESS; or, Boyhood's Dreams Fulfilled, IS6
Genesis, chapters xlii — lxvii.
XXX.
HARD TIMES; or, Much Work and Little Pay, . . . l62
Genesis, chapters xlviii — 1; Exodus i, 1 — 16.
XXXI.
A WAIF ON THE WATER; or, Floating Into Fortune, 165
Exodus, chapters ii, iii.
XXXII.
A STRANGE SNAKE STORY; or, One Swallowing A Multitude, 17°
Exodus iv, 1 — 23; vii, I — 12.
XXXIII.
FLYING FOR FREEDOM ; or, A Marvelous Deliverance *73
Exodus vii, 12 — 25; chapters viii — xv.
CONTENTS. xi
XXXIV.
Page
HANDS UP; or, How They Won the Battle, . . 180
Exodus xvii, 8 — 1 6.
XXXV.
A POOR EXCUSE; or, What Came Out of the Fire, 183
Exodus, chapters xix, xxxii.
XXXVI.
THE GORGEOUS TENT; or, Worship in the Wilderness, ii
Exodus, chapters xxv — xxxi, xxxv — xl ; Numbers xvii.
XXXVII.
LIFE FOR A LOOK; or, Thousands Cured Though Fatally Bitten, 193
Numbers xxi, 4 — 9; II Kings xviii, 4; John iii, 14, 15.
XXXVIII.
FORTY YEARS A GENERAL; or, Surrendering a Great Commission, 197
Numbers xx vii, 15—23; Deuteronomy xxxiv; Joshua i, I — 18; v, 13 — 15.
XXXIX.
WATER HEAPED UP; or, The Wonderful Crossing, 202
Joshua, chapters iii, iv.
XL.
VICTORY AND DEFEAT; or, Why They Conquered and How They Fled, . : . . . 206
Joshua, chapters vi — viii.
XLI.
DIVIDING THE INHERITANCE; or, Realizing a Great Possession, . . 210
Joshua, chapters x — xix.
XLII.
STRENGTH TURNED TO WEAKNESS; or, How the Mighty Fell, 214
Judges, chapters xiii — xvi.
xii CONTENTS.
XLIII.
Page
I NDVING DEVOTION; or, Two Loving Hk arts 219
Ruth, chapters i — iv.
XLIV.
BRAVE DEEDS OF A SHEPHERD BOY; or, Fit to Become a King 224
I Samuel xvii.
XLV.
A RUGGED WAY TO THE THRONE; or, Patience and Forbearance Rewarded, . . 230 I Samuel, chapters xvi — xxxi; II Samuel i.
XLVI.
THE WAYWARD SON; or, Troubles and Trials About the Throne, 236
II Samuel, chapters xiv — xviii.
XLVII.
GREATEST AMONG KINGS ; or, Splendor Dazzling a Queen 240
I Kings i, 5 — 53 ; chapters ii — x ; Matthew vi, 28 — 30.
XLVIII.
THE RIVAL KINGS ; or, Rough Roads for Royal Feet, 245
I Kings xi, 26 — 43 ; chapters xii — xiv.
XLIX.
MIRACULOUS FEEDING; or, Strange Supplies in Dire Distress, 249
I Kings xvii, I — 24; Luke iv, 25, 26.
L.
THE PLOWMAN'S APPOINTMENT; or, Called to a Great Office, 254
I Kings xix, 15 — 21 ; II Kings, chapters ii — iv.
LI.
THE LITTLE CAPTIVE ; or, What a Serving Maid May Do, 259
II Kings v, 1 — 27.
CONTE.\'IS. xni
LII.
Page
THE MYSTERIOUS PANIC; or, Abundance for Starvation, 263
II Kings vi, 24—33; vii, 1—20.
LIU.
THROWN FROM THE WINDOW; or, A Wicked Queen's Fearful End 267
II Kings ix, 30—37.
LIV.
GOOD AND BEAUTIFUL; or, A Godly Queen's Noble Act, 270
Esther, chapters i — x.
LV.
SATAN LET LOOSE; or, Suffering Without Sinning, .275
Job, chapters i, ii, xlii.
LVI.
UNCOMFORTABLE QUARTERS; or, The Runaway Brought Back, 280
Jonah, chapters i, ii; Matthew xii, 40.
LVII.
THE DISAPPOINTED PREACHER; or, Prophecy not Fulfilled 284
Jonah iii, iv; Matthew xii, 41.
LVIII
FOUR NOBLE BOYS; or, Right Better than Royalty, 288
Daniel i, I — 21.
LIX.
FAITHFUL AND FEARLESS; or, Braving Death for Duty's Sake, 293-
Daniel, chapters ii, iii, vi%
LX,
THE MYSTERIOUS MESSAGE; or, Panic at the Feast, 298
Daniel v, I — 31.
xiv CONTENTS.
LXI.
Pace
WONDERFUL BABES; or, The King and his Herald 303
Luke i, 5— 80; ii, 21—40.
LXII.
CHRISTMAS CAROLS; or, Heaven and Earth Rejoicing, 308
Luke ii, 1 — 20.
LXIII.
LED BY A STAR; or, A Long Way to Worship 313
Matthew ii, I— 23.
LXIV.
PUZZLING HIS TEACHERS; or, Youth Wiser than Old Age 317
Luke ii, 41 — 52.
LXV.
A BACKWOODS PREACHER; or, Crying in the Wilderness, 32*
Matthew iii; Luke iii, 1 — 20; John i, 18 — 37; Matthew xiv, 1 — 12.
LXVI.
THE WONDERFUL WATER- JARS; or, Serving His Friends 32?
John ii, 1 — 11.
LXVII.
CHOOSING COMPANIONS; or, How the Lord Got His Helpers, 333
Matthew x; John iii, I — 21.
LXVI II.
A DEN OF THIEVES ; or, Turning the Rascals Out, ... 33S
John ii, 13 — 17; Matthew xxi, 10 — 13.
LXIX.
WALKING ON THE WAVES; or, Lord of the Seas 342
Matthew viii, 23 — 26; xiv, 22 — 33; Mark vi, 45 — 51.
CONTENTS. xv
LXX.
Page
THE GREAT OCULIST; or, Sight for the Bund, 347
Matthew ix, 27 — 31 ; xi, 4, 5; Mark viii, 22 — 25; x, 46 — 52; John ix, I — 41.
LXXI.
GETTING AT THE DOCTOR ; or, Odd Ways of Gaining a Cure, 352
Mark v, 24 — 34; Luke v, 18—26.
LXXII. THE CHILDREN'S FRIEND ; or, Jesus Among the Little Ones, . 357
Mark v, 21 — 43; ix, 17 — 29.
LXXIII.
CALLED BACK FROM THE GRAVE; or, Victories over Death, 363
Luke vii, II — 15; John xi, 1 — 54.
LXXIV.
THE ROYAL SHEPHERD; or, Love for the Lowly, 369
John x, I — 18; Luke xv, I — 7.
LXXV.
SCATTERING SEED ; or, Evil Among the Good, 374
Matthew xiii, I — 30, 36 — 43.
LXXVI.
WONDERS OF YEAST; or, The Power of Influence, 380
Matthew xiii, 33.
LXXVII.
FINES AND FRUIT TREES; or, Shall we Cut it Down ? 384
John xv, I — 8; Luke xiii, 6 — 9.
LXXVIII.
SEEKING IN EARNEST; or, Bound to Win 389
Matthew xiii, 44 — 46 ; Luke xv, 8, 9.
xvi CONTENTS.
LXXIX.
¥>■■-
A ROYAL WELCOME; or, The Wanderer Home Again, 396
Luke xv, 11 — 24.
LXXX.
TOO LATE ; or, Rejected at the Door 40r
Matthew xxv, 1 — 13.
LXXXI.
GENEROSITY ABUSED ; or, Forgiveness for the Forgiving, 405
Matthew xviii, 23 — 35.
LXXXII.
WORK AND WAGES; or, Settling with the Servants, 409
Matthew xx, 1 — 16.
LXXXIII.
ANOINTING JESUS; or, The Good Work of Two Women, 414
Luke vii, 36 — 50; John xii, 1 — 7.
LXXXIV.
THE TRIUMPHAL MARCH ; or, A Worthy Welcome to the King, . 419
John xii, 12 — 16.
LXXXV.
GATHERING DARKNESS; or, Love and Sorrow Strangely Blended 424
John, chapters xiii — xviii; Mark xiv, 26 — 52.
LXXXVI.
BETRAYED AND BOUND; or, Still Deeper Darkness, 430
Luke xxii, 39 — 54; Matthew xxvi, 30 — 56.
LXXXVII.
MIDNIGHT ADVENTURES; or, Deserted and Denied, 435
Mark xiv, 53 — 72; Luke xxii, 21 — 34, 54 — 62.
CONTENTS. xvii
LXXXVIII.
Page
A MOCKERY OF JUSTICE; or, Overawed by a Mob, 440
Matthew xxvii, I — 32; Mark xv, I — 21; Luke xxiii, 1 — 32; John xviii, xix, 1 — 16.
LXXXIX.
IT IS FINISHED; or, The Tragedy Completed, 447
Matthew xxvii, 34 — 66; Mark xv, 22—47; Luke xxiii, 33 — 56; John xix, 17 — 42.
XC.
THE OPENED TOMB; or, From Death to Life Again, 454
Matthew xxviii; Mark xvi; Luke xxiv, I — 49; John xx, xxi.
XCI.
THE CONQUEROR'S RETURN; or, A Marvelous Ascension, 461
Luke xxiv, 50 — 53; Acts i, 1 — n.
XCII.
TALKING IN STRANGE TONGUES; or, Power from on High 466
Acts i, 12 — 26; ii; iv. 32 — 37; v. I — 11.
XPTIT.
POWER IN A NAME; or, A Lame Man Caused to Leap, 473
Acts iii, 1 — 26.
XCIV.
FREED FROM PRISON; or, Doors Opened without Hands, 478
Acts xii, 1 — 23.
XCV.
PICKING UP A PASSENGER; or, The Right Man in the Right Place 483
Acts viii, 26 — 40.
XCVI.
A BONFIRE OF BOOKS; or, Strange Honors for True Men, 489
Acts xiv, 8 — 18; xix, I — 20.
xviii CONTENTS.
XCVII.
Pacb
IN THE PATH OF DUTY; or, Tears and Terrors Powerless, 495
Acts, chapters xx — xxvi.
XCVIII.
THE IMPERIAL CITY; or, The End at Hand 500
Acts, chapters xxvii, xxviii.
XCIX.
LESSONS FROM NATURE; or, New Views of Old Subjects 506
Isaiah xxxii, 2; Song of Solomon ii, I ; Luke xii, 4.
C.
THE VENERABLE PRISONER; or, Broad Views from a Narrow Island, 51*
Revelation, chapters i — xxii.
List of Illustrations.
Grandpa's Stories from the Wonderful Book, Frontispiece.
Pagh
Philip Doddridge Taught by Pictures (full page), 26
Emerging from Chaos, 31
Dominion Over Created Things, , 39
Hiding from the Lord, 43
Expelled from Paradise, 47
Toiling for Daily Bread, 49
Burning the First Fruits, 52
Slaying His Brother, 53
Fleeing from the Dead (full page), 57
Building a City 62
Walking Heavenward (full page), 65
The Boatbuilder Taught, 71
The Dove Sent Forth (full page), 77
Coming Ashore 79
The Bow of Beauty, 81
Cursed be Canaan, 85
Scattering of the Nations 89
A Splendid Outlook, 92
Abram's Magnanimous Offer (full page), 97
Blessing the Victors, 102
Seeing Stars, 105
Banished from Home, 109
Entertaining Angels, 1*5
A City on Fire _, "7
xix
x x L IS T OF ILL US TRA TIONS.
Pacb
A Narrow Escape, 122
Seeking a Bride, 125
Meeting a Husband, 127
An Oriental Well-scene (full page), 129
The Wrong Man Blessed 133
The Wonderful Ladder, 137
Fixing His Wages, 141
Off for Home, . . • 143
A Strange Wrestling Match, 146
Reconciliation, 147
A Wicked Sale, . 150
Before the King 154
In the Place of Honor • 157
The Unknown Brother (full page) 159
A Glad Meeting, 161
Hard Times 163
Rescuing a Waif, 166
Slaying the Tyrant, 167
Burning, yet not Consumed (full page), 169
Sticks Turned to Snakes, 171
Death in every House, 174
Buried in the Sea (full page), 177
Celebrating Victory (full page), 179
Winning the Battle (full page) 181
Worshiping a Calf, 185
Mount Sinai (full page), 187
The Tent of Worship 189
Carrie's Plan of the Tabernacle 130
Blossoms on a Rod, 191
The Healing Serpent (full page), 195
The New Commander, . . 198
The Commander-in-Chief, . . • 201
Waters Heaped Up (full page) -203
LIST OF ILL USTRA TIONS. xxi
Pag* Carry Out the Memorials (full page), 205
The Falling Walls of Jericho, 207
Recovering the Stolen Treasures (full page), 209
Five Kings in a Cave, 211
Dividing the Land by Lot, • 213
Samson Slaying his Foes, 215
Fall of Dagon's Temple, 218
Ruth and Naomi, 221
Ancient Israelites at their Meal (full page), 223
Bearding the Lion in his Den (full page), 225
Gathering Ammunition from the Brook (full page), 227
The Giant Beheaded (full page), . 229
God's Chosen King Anointed, 231
Sparing a Sleeping Foe, 233
Death of Israel's first King (full page), 235
Curses on a King, 237
David's Charge to his Son (full page), ' 241
Royal Courtesies Interchanged (full page), . » 243
Dividing the Kingdom, 246
Death of the Young Prince (full page), . . . . • 248
Supplied in the Wilderness (full page), 250
Supplied in the City (full page), 251
Life for the Dead Boy, , 253
The Mocking Children (full page), 255
A Marvelous Jar of Oil (full page), 257
View of the Jordan, .• 260
Gehazi's Terrible Penalty (full page), 261
Lepers Viewing the Deserted Camp (full page), 265
Thrown from a Window, , 268
Scribes at their Work (full page), 271
Mordecai in Honor (full page), 273
Job in Sorrow (full page), 276
Job in Prosperity, 279
2
xxii LIST OF ILL USIRA TIONS.
Pag/
Tossed into the Sea 281
Preaching in Nineveh, 285
Nineveh's Great Palace , 287
The Young Teetotalers (full page), 289
The Youthful Counsellor (full page), 291
In the Den of Lions, 296
The Proud King's Outlook (full page), 297
The Mysterious Handwriting (full page), 299
Destruction of Babylon (full page), 301
John's Birth Foretold 304
Mary and Elizabeth Rejoicing, 305
The Babe in the Temple, 307
The First Christmas Carol 309
Chapel of the Nativity (full page), • 310
Telling the Good News, 311
Led by a Star (full page), 315
The Boy in the Temple, 319
The Backwoods Preacher, 323
Reproving the Soldiers, 324
"Behold the Lamb of God!" 325
A Joyous Feast (full page), 329
View of Cana (full page) 331
The Night Interview, 334
" Go ye and Preach," 335
Driving Out the Peddlers, 339
View of the Sea of Galilee (full page), 343
Walking on the Sea (full page), 345
Two Persistent Blind Men " 349
The Oculist at His Work (full page), 351
A Successful Seeker (full page), 353
Lowered through the Roof (full page), 355
A. Helping Hand for a Boy (full page), 358
A Helping Hand for a Girl (full page) 361
LIST OF ILL USTRA TIONS. xxiii
Page
Life for a Dead Young Man, 364
View of Bethany (full page), 365
Life for One Dead Four Days 367
The Fond Sheep-owner (full page), 371
Bringing Back the Lost One (full page), 373
Scattering Good Seed (full page), 375
Doing Mischief (full page), 379
Wonders of Yeast (full page), 383
Lessons from the Vine (full page), 385
Shall We Cut it Down ? (full page), 387
Seeking Hidden Treasures (full page), 390
Buying the Splendid Pearl (full page), 391
Search for the Coin (full page), 395
Home Again (full page), 398
Too Late; or, The Foolish Virgins (full page), 403
The Forgiving King (full page), 4°7
Dissatisfied with their Wages (full page), • 413
Jesus Anointed by Mary Magdalene, 4*5
Anointed by the Sister of Lazarus, 4*7
The Triumphal March, • 421
View of Jerusalem (full page), 423
Garden of Gethsemane (full page), 42*>
Agony in the Garden (full page), 429
Arrested and Bound, 433
The Fearful Denial (full page), 437
Pilate's Mockery of Justice, 442
On the Way to Calvary, 444
The Sorrowful Way (full page), 445
Church of the Holy Sepulchre (full page), 449
Laid in the Tomb, 453
Mary at the Opened Tomb, 45°
The Joyful Meeting, 457
The Wayside Talk (full page), 459
xxiv LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
Pagb
The Meeting by the Sea 463
Return to the Father, 465
Descent of the Comforter, 468
Bringing in the Money (full page), 47 1
The Discarded Crutches (full page) 475
An Unexpected Liberation (full page), 481
A Helpful Companion, 4^5
Philip's Fountain 4-87
Mistaken for Gods, 49°
A Bonfire of Books (full page), 493
A Tearful Parting 49^
Pursued by a Mob (full page), 499
Ancient Style of Ships 5°'
The Appian Way (full page), 5°3
Paul and his Son in the Gospel (full page), S°S
Shadow of a Great Rock, 5°7
Lily of the Valley, 5°8
Caring for the Birds (full page), 5"
The Outlook from Patmos (full page), 5*3
Grandpa Goodwins Stories
from
The Wonderful Book.
PHILIP DODDRIDGE TAUGHT EY PICTURES.
THE WEEK OF WONDERS. 27
THE WEEK OF WONDERS ■
Or, MAKING GREAT THINGS OUT OF NOTHING.
""T "T THEN Grandpa comes I will ask him," said little Charley \/\/ Reed to his sister Carrie, who had been telling him how * * the world was made. Her teacher had told her that God made all things out of nothing. Carrie was but two years older than Charley, yet she thought herself quite competent to be his teacher. But Charley was full of questions, and it was not many minutes before he had completely puzzled Carrie, and it was his unsatisfied curiosity about this making of the world that prompted his resolution to ask Grandpa about it.
Carrie and Charley, with their older sister Mary and their mother,, lived at Grandpa's house, their father being away from home much of the time attending to business. Grandpa, or " Grandpa Goodwin," as many persons called him, was Mrs. Reed's father, and he was very fond of his "little pets," the grandchildren. But his fondness was not of a foolish sort. It did not show itself in candies and cakes half so often as in kind and wise words and acts, which made the children happier and better. They believed in Grandpa. They were sure he knew everything, and that he could do everything that was worth doing. Grandpa Goodwin did know a great many things, for he had always loved to read good books and to listen to wise men, and he had a wonderfully happy knack in telling what he knew.
Charley waited very impatiently for Grandpa's return. He had never seen anything made out of nothing. His top, he argued, was made out of wood and iron. His pocket-knife was made of iron and steel and bone. His shoes were made of leather.
28 GRANDPA GOODWIN'S STORIES.
and leather was made of skins, and the skins had grown on cows So Charley thought over very many things, but they all were made out of something. Then he thought how big the world was and how many things were made up in it. Where did all the dirt come from, and the rocks that make the great mountains ? Then he thought about the ocean, which he had seen at Long Branch, and he wondered where all the water came from. So his ideas grew bigger and bio-orer, and there were so many things he wanted to ask about that he wished and waited and looked and longed for the sight of Grandpa hurrying home. At last Charley did see him coming, and ran to meet him. Hardly waiting for the kiss Grandpa stooped to give him, he broke out very eagerly with the question, " Where did God get things to make the world of, Grandpa ?"
Grandpa Goodwin was too wise a man to answer such a big question carelessly. He never gave the children a false or evasive answer. He used to say, " When a child wants to learn, then is the time to teach." So Grandpa did not answer Charley's question, but roused his curiosity still further by asking, "How many things did God need to make a world ?"
"Oh! I don't know," said the boy, "but ever so many things, I'm sure. There are stones and trees and dirt and water and horses and — oh ! I don't know, Grandpa ; but tell me, where did God get them ? Did He make them out of nothing ? Carrie said He did, but He didn't, did He ? He couldn't do that, could He, Grandpa ?"
By this time they were fairly in the house, and Grandpa felt more than ever that what he might say should be wisely said, so he told Charley that after supper they would sit down for a good talk on how God made the world.
When supper was over the family gathered in the sitting-room about the centre-table, on which a bright light burned. Grandpa was in his easy-chair, while Charley, restless and eager, was close beside him. Carrie looked a little anxious, as though half afraid that her well-meant lesson of the afternoon would prove incorrect. Mary
THE WEEK OF WONDERS. 29
had brought her Bible, which she opened at the first chapter of Genesis, so that she might see what was there said about the creation. Mrs. Reed sat in her sewing-chair doing some fancy work, and anticipating a pleasant evening.
"Now, Grandpa," began Charley, "do please tell us how God made the world. I am almost crazy to hear all about it."
"To tell all about it," replied Grandpa, "is more than any man can do. We have neither time nor knowledge for so great a task. But I can tell you many things about it, and shall do so very willingly. To give us a fair start, will Mary please read the first two verses of Genesis?"
Mary had her eye on the place in an instant, and read : " In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void ; and darkness was. upon the face of the deep : and the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters."
" When was the beginning ?" asked Carrie, who had listened very intently to these verses.
" Nobody knows when it was," said Grandpa. " It was very, very long ago when God began His work upon the heavens and the earth."
"But," interposed Mary, "my Bible says it was four thousand and four years before Christ."
" Your Bible does not say so, Mary. The notes put in its margin by the good men who edited it say so ; but this is no part of what God said. Those good men wanted to make the Bible plain for its readers. They figured out that Adam was created four thousand and four years before Christ came, but that time is probably far too short. The beginning, however, was long before Adam was created."
" Why," said Carrie, " did not God make all things in six days ?"
" Yes, Carrie, but not in six short days such as we have. A day may be a very long period of time. God's seventh day of rest from crea- ting has lasted six thousand years already. If the other days were as long, thirty-six thousand years passed between the beginning and
30 GRANDPA GOODWIN'S STORIES.
the time of Adam's creation. The fact is, that many more years passed— how many, nobody knows. But that far-off beginning was not God's beginning. He never had a beginning. He is eternal. He always did live, and always will live. And in that beginning God was able to create the heaven and the earth."
" What does create mean, Grandpa ?" asked Charley.
"Mary may read you an answer from the dictionary. That, I think, will give the clearest and best explanation."
" Create," said Mary, who quickly found the word, "means — to bring into being ; to form out of nothing ; to cause to exist."
" Yes," said Grandpa, " and that is exactly what God did. He did not take a quantity of material and make it into a sun, a moon, a star, or a world, but He brought them into being ; He formed them out of nothing; ; He caused them to exist, as the dictionary explains « create.' In Hebrews xi, 2, it is said, ' Things which- are seen were not made of things which do appear ;' that is, nothing appears any- where out of which the things we now see — the heavens and the earth — were made."
" This verse in Hebrews," said Mary, who had turned to the text quoted by Grandpa, " also says, ' The worlds were framed by the word of God.' What does that mean ?"
" It means that they were made, not by any work or effort of God, but simply by His command. The third verse of Genesis tells us, ' God said, Let there be light ; and there was light.' In one of the Psalms we read, ' He spake, and it was done ; He commanded, and it stood fast.' "
" I told you so, Charley," shouted Carrie, who was delighted to find her afternoon's teaching approved by Grandpa.
"Well," said Charley, "that's a new way to make things. 'He spake, and it was done.' I wish I could make things I want so easily. I'd speak for a lot of 'em, I know."
" But what is meant by this," asked Mary, as she again read from Genesis — "'The earth was without form and void'?"
THE WEEK OF WONDERS.
31
" Simply that it had none of the regularity and beauty we now see. But God was taking care of it. His Spirit was there bringing things into proper shape. At first total darkness rested everywhere, but God spoke, and light broke in, showing for the first time the difference between day and night. Thus much was done in God's first day of creatine."
"His Monday," said Carrie, " for it was His first work-day."
" And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.'''' — Genesis i, 2.
" Yes, you may call it so," said Grandpa, " only remember it was not a day of twenty-four hours, but — what?"
" A very long day," they all answered, Mary adding the remark, "Thousands of years long."
"What was God's Tuesday's work?" asked Charley, catching at the new way of naming God's days.
32 GRANDPA GOODWIN'S STORIES.
"When that clay began," resumed Grandpa, "a dense steam or mist wrapped the whole world. It was far worse than in our fog- giest days. But this steam was cooling, and as steam cools it becomes water. This water gathered on the surface of the earth and soon began to trickle into the deeper places, where creeks, rivers, lakes, and seas began to form. The lighter masses of steam floated upward as clouds, leaving the open space, called the firmament, which we see between the clouds above and the earth below. This clear- ing away of the vapor and forming of water and clouds was God's second day's work."
"God's Tuesday's work, Grandpa," said Charley; "you forget the name. But oh ! what a queer-looking world it must have been !"
"Yes," said Grandpa, "but it soon began to look better, for on the third day — Wednesday, I should say — the waters gathered together more and more, leaving parts of dry land standingoutas islands and continents. Then God spoke again, and plants began to grow. All kinds of trees, flowers, and herbs appeared ; but Mary may read about this from the story in Genesis."
In an instant Mary's eye was upon the eleventh verse, and she read : " And God said, Let the earth brine forth erass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit-tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so. And the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his kind : and God saw that it was good. And the evening and the morning were the third day."
"That was perfectly splendid !" said Carrie, as Mary ended.
"That's so," said Charley, with real boy emphasis, "and everything was bran new, wasn't it ?"
" Yes, there was not a dead tree, nor a rotten branch, nor a dried leaf, nor a withered flower in all the world. All was fresh and beauti- ful. It was springtime all over the world, the grandest springtime the world ever enjoyed. There were plants growing then which
THE WEEK OF WONDERS. 33
were bigger than any we now see. Prints of their trunks, stems, and leaves are often found in what are now the solid rocks. Coal is but the hardened remains of these plants which then grew so large and in such immense quantities. And God made all those plants with their own seeds, so that each of them would produce other plants like itself. To do this was as if a watchmaker should make a watch, which, after running awhile, would open and push out of itself another little watch, which would grow, and in its turn would bring forth still another little watch, and this another, and so on and on for hundreds of years. What would you think of a man who could make such a watch ? But God made all the varieties of the vegetable world, and every variety, whether great or small, has power to produce other plants like itself, and so the earth has been kept green and beautiful ever since the Wednesday of God's great creative week."
"Oh! my," cried Charley, as Grandpa paused in his description; " I never thought of that. How splendid the flowers are !"
" Rather, Charley," said Mary, " how splendid God is who created all thes? wonders."
" Let me repeat for you two verses of an old poem, by N. P. Willi's," said Mrs. Reed, who for some time had ceased from her work a^d had been an attentive listener :
" ' The perfect world by Adam trod Was the first temple built to God ; His fiat laid the corner-stone, He spake, and lo ! the work was done.
" ' He hung its starry roof on high, The broad expanse of azure sky; He spread its pavement green and bright, And curtained it with morning light.' "
" Beautiful indeed," exclaimed Grandpa, " and true as it is beautiful."
"Thursday's work I don't understand," said Mary, glancing at her Bible. " God made light on the first day, but on the fourth day
34 GRANDPA GOODWIN'S STORIES.
He made the sun, moon, and stars, ' to give light upon the earth,' the seventeenth verse says. Why were they needed to give light, when light had already been given ? Or, rather, how could there be any light at all before they were created."
"I don't wonder at your questions, Mary," said Grandpa. "Many older heads have been puzzled at that point. Light had come to the earth, but because of the dense vapors, the sources of light had not appeared. We have light on cloudy days, though we do not see the sun. But when the mists cleared away, and the open firmament appeared, then the sources of light became visible, as if at that moment they had been newly made."
" Oh ! I see," said Mary. " God made them appear on that day."
" Just so. If a person had been looking on to report what occurred, he would have described this day's work just as the Bible does. Indeed, when God showed Moses how the world was made, so that Moses might write it in the book of Genesis, He probably snowed a series of visions, each giving a new view of the progress of creation, and each forming a new day in this week of wonders."
" The Friday of that week was a great day, wasn't it, Grandpa ?" said Mary, looking up from her Bible, " for then God made all the birds and fishes."
" Yes," said Grandpa. " Up to this time there was no living creature in all the world — no beasts in the forests ; no birds amone the trees ; no fish in the waters ; no reptiles in the grass ; no insects in the air. But the earth was ready for animals to live upon it, and so God spoke again. In an instant flocks of birds rose in the air, flitted among the branches, or waded in the streams. And fishes at once began to stir the brooks, the rivers, and the seas. For the first time, a chorus of praise went up to God from the throats of birds. Life abounded everywhere, and every creature was full of praise."
" Oh !" cried Charley, " that was splendid ! Mother took me to see ever so many stuffed birds and fishes in the museum, and they were
THE WEEK OF WONDERS. 35
so pretty — all colors and shapes and sizes — and God made all of them, and lots more, and did it all in one day. That's something grand, I declare !"
" Yes, Charley, and many other kinds of birds and fishes — far more than are found in all the museums of the world. The splendid colors of humming birds, peacocks, cockatoos, birds of Paradise, and innumerable others, were all the work of God in that one day "
" Well, I am sure God loves pretty colors, then," said Carrie, " and pretty forms too, for what can be prettier than birds with their gay plumage ?"
"And their sweet voices, too," said Charley, " for what can be sweeter than the sinking of birds ?"
" But we must hasten to the last day," said Grandpa, glancing at the clock. " On the sixth day God made all the land animals, birds only excepted. Creatures with wings, and those with fins, were already living, but now the great beasts of the forest were created. Some of them were far larger than any known to us. The cattle, too, were created on this day, and all creeping things. Over the hills the flocks then scampered for the first time. In the meadows the cattle grazed, and beasts of prey ranged through the forests. None were old or lame or sick. It was a glorious world, but God had one more glory to add. This was the creation of man. He was formed to be ruler over all other created things, and to be the companion and loving servant of the Creator Himself. But we must stop for to-night. To-morrow, if you wish, we will take a peep into Paradise, and see man in this happy home."
The "good nights" were then said, and well pleased with their chat on the week of wonders., the little party scattered.
36 GRANDPA GOODWIN'S STORIES.
A PEEP INTO PARADISE;
Or, HAPPY PEOPLE IN A HAPPY HOME.
"1 TERE we are !" shouted Charley; " all ready for our prom-
I I ised peep into Paradise."
-*--*- " Glad to see you," answered Grandpa Goodwin, as he
seated himself in his easy chair. " Let us see what Paradise means."
" I have it !" exclaimed Mary. " I found it in the dictionary. It means (i) The Garden of Eden, in which Adam and Eve were placed; (2) A place of bliss — a region of supreme delight ; (3) Heaven."
"Very good, Mary. The word first meant a beautiful piece of country, such as we see in the great parks of our cities. The Bible does not give this name to Adam's home, yet it is so appropriate that by everybody the Garden of Eden is called Paradise. The ac- count given of this garden is very short. We are simply told that God planted it eastward in Eden, that it was well watered every- where, that ever}'' tree pleasant to the eye and good for food was there, that it was, in short, what its Bible name means — a garden of Eden — that is, a garden of delight.'"
"And don't we know anything more of how it looked?" asked Carrie, with evident disappointment.
" We do not know, but we can fairly imagine a great deal of how it looked. This is what the great English poet, John Milton, did in his wonderful book called Paradise Lost. From the many splendid gardens he had seen before he became blind he selected the most beautiful things and put them all together in his imaginary garden of Eden. Your mother may read us some of Milton's descriptions of Adam's happy home in Paradise."
A PEEP INTO PARADISE. 37
Mrs. Reed, on Grandpa's suggestion, turned to her well-used copy of Milton and read several selections. Among them these :
"In this pleasant soil His far more pleasant garden God ordain'd; Out of the fertile ground He caused to grow All trees of noblest kind for sight, smell, taste — And all amid them stood the tree of life. ' '
" Concerning the stream which watered the garden," continued Mrs. Reed, " Milton speaks thus: "
" 'Rolling on orient pearl and sands of gold, With mazy error under pendant shades Ran Nectar, visiting each plant, and fed Flow'ers worthy of Paradise, which not nice art In beds and curious knots, but nature boon Pour'd forth profuse on hill and dale and plain.'
" Again, in describing the splendid groves of Paradise, Milton speaks of them as —
' ' ' Groves whose rich trees wept odorous gums and balm, Others whose fruit burnish'd with golden rind Hung amiable. . . .
Betwixt them lawns, or level downs, and flocks Grazing the tender herb, were interposed, Or palmy hillock, or the flow'ry lap Of some well-watered .valley spread her store, Flow'rs of all hue, and without thorn the rose.' "
Mrs. Reed laid down her book. The children were all attention, for she had read so clearly that they could catch the meaning of every word. Then Grandpa resumed his talk.
" Into this beautiful home Adam and Eve were put, not to live in idleness, nor yet to work hard, but, as the account says, to dress the garden and to keep it — a pleasant and beautiful business, I am sure. Nothing1 could be more delightful."
38 GRANDPA GOODWIN'S STORIES.
" How happy they must have been there with their (lowers and fruits ! But it must have been lonesome to have no neighbors and no children there."
" They had God very near and very kind to them, Carrie," replied Mrs. Reed, " and that was the best of company. They did not know what it was to miss neighbors and children, never having had them to enjoy."
" Yes, and God Himself was delighted with the service and society of Adam and Eve," said Grandpa. " Plants were splendid, but they could not think or feel. Beasts and birds could think and feel, but they could not love God. Their gorgeous colors, mighty strength, swift motions, and sweet songs were grand as they could be ; but man was made in God's own grander image ; he was as much like God as a created being can be like the one who made him."
"Adam and Eve were born giown up, weren't they, Grandpa?" asked Charley, catching at a new idea.
"Well, yes; that is, they never were children. They had neither father nor mother, brothers nor sisters. They ruled Over all other living- creatures on the earth, and God brought these creatures to Adam, and he named them as to him seemed best. Animals were not fierce and quarrelsome then as many of them now are, but they dwelt together in peace. Eden was a loving and happy home for all who were there, whether man or beast."
" I wonder Adam and Eve did not stay there forever," said Carrie. " They must have been so happy."
" If they had stayed forever all of us would live there now, wouldn't we? I'd have had my letters directed to Charley Reed, Paradise, Garden of Eden ; I would."
"That's a great idea," answered Mary. "They did not stay though, and we are not there, I'm sorry to say. But how long did they stay there, Grandpa ? "
" We do not know ; probably not very long. But there is a Paradise for us, though that was lost. We can find kindred bliss elsewhere.
A PEEP INTO PARADISE.
39
Several times in the Bible this name is given to the happy home beyond this world. In Revelation ii, 7;itis called the Paradise of God. From this verse we learn that the tree of life is in this Paradise. Such a tree was in Eden also, but after man sinned and was sent out of that beautiful place an angel kept him from going back to that tree to eat of it. In the heavenly Paradise, however, all may eat of that tree and live forever. Adam's Paradise had a river, and the Paradise of God has its river of the water of life. God walked in the first Paradise, and Adam and Eve served Him there. In the new Paradise saints see God's face and serve Him day and night. But the best of all is, that into the heavenly Paradise nothing shall ever enter that can harm and de- file us. Into the Garden of Eden a tempter did enter, and both Adam and Eve sinned and lost their home ; but none shall sin in heaven nor lose that precious home. With the Bible's help we may peep into the heavenly Par- adise, and we also may be the
happy people who shall dwell'" Have-dommion over the fish of the sea, and over the
x *■ J l x fowl of the air, and over every living thing that
there and be blessed forever." moveth upon the earth."— Genesis i, 28.
40 GRANDPA GOODWIN'S STORIES.
FEASTING ON FORBIDDEN FRUIT;
Or, TRIFLING WITH A SERPENT.
" /^~^\ GRANDPA!" began Carrie, as the family came together
1 1 after tea ; " I have thought so much to-day about Adam
^— ^ and Eve. What a pity it was they did not stay in their happy home ! Why were they sent out of Eden, anyway ? I don't see what great harm there was in eating that fruit."
" Probably no harm at all in merely eating that fruit. I do not suppose it was poisonous, or unwholesome even. The harm was in disobeying God. He forbade them to eat that fruit ; they disobeyed and did it deliberately. It was as clear a case of refusal to obey as ever occurred."
" Yes, I know that," replied Carrie ; " but then it was so little a thing — just to eat some fruit that looked so nice."
" If it was so little a thing, the greater was the folly of not allowing God to have His way about it. But it was not so little as it seems. God had said, Do not eat. Adam and Eve each said, I will eat. It was pure, simple, inexcusable disobedience of God. Wasn't it, Carrie ?"
"Well, yes, Grandpa. I know it was; I must admit that. But why did God let them get into so much trouble about so little a matter?"
" If we really love a person we show it, not by doing things which are easy and pleasant to ourselves, but by doing things which are hard, which require self-denial, but which please or help the person we love. You show love to your mother, not by eating your food and enjoying your play, but by leaving your play to serve her, or by
FEASTING ON FORBIDDEN FRUIT. 41
omitting some favorite article of food when she thinks it may do you harm. So Adam and Eve showed their love to God, not by enjoy- ing all that they were free to enjoy, but by doing without the one thing which God forbade. Some test of their love was necessary, and God made it just one little thing. The result showed that they did not love and honor Him enough to yield that one little point. They preferred their own way to God's way."
" Well, Grandpa," said Carrie, in more of a submissive manner, " I think I understand it better. They ought to have obeyed God; but I am sorry all the same."
" We are all sorry about it, darling. A great deal of trouble has come to the world from that willful disobedience. It turned the lives of men into a wrong direction at the very start. It was the pebble in the brooklet's bed which turns the course of the entire stream. And all this trouble came from trifling with a serpent."
"Well, I don't understand that," said Mary. "I read about that serpent in Genesis iii, and I don't know what it means."
" To help us understand, suppose Mary reads Revelation xx, 2," said Grandpa.
Mary quickly found the place and read : " He laid hold on the dragon,, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years."
" Here we see who is the serpent that did the harm. It is the source of all evil and the opposer of all good, known as Satan or the devil," said Grandpa.
" But wasn't there any snake in the business, then ?." asked Charley, seemingly disappointed at this explanation of the story.
" Perhaps not," replied Grandpa. " Satan may have entered into a genuine snake, and so have quietly glided up to Eve and talked with her ; or. he may have made himself look like a snake, and so have come near her ; or he may have come to her in a gliding, stealthy way simply, as a snake would approach, and so have sug- gested his evil ideas. This is my own notion of the case. He came
42 GRANDPA GOODWIN'S STORIES.
to her as a snake comes to its prey — stealthily, wickedly, with murder in the heart. When, later in the scene, God pronounced a curse upon the serpent, it was not meant for snakes, but for the old serpent, the vile snakelike tempter Satan."
"Then Eve did not really see a snake crawling around and did not really hear it talk," said Carrie, seemingly much relieved to "-et rid of the snake.
" Probably not," said Grandpa. " The serpent with which she tri- fled was Satan; and she did trifle with him. He came asking a ques- tion as to what God had really forbidden. He really was twittino- her on the fact that she could not do all she pleased, because one thing had been forbidden. Eve answered very well at the start, but when she was about through she used a little sentence which looks suspicious. God has said of this tree, Thou shalt not eat of it. Eve adds, Neither shall ye touch it. God had not said this, and it looks as though Eve were seeking something to complain of, as if she were exaggerating what God had forbidden. On hearing this Satan flatly contradicts what God had said. God's words were, In the dav thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die. But Satan said, Thou s'halt not surely die. It seems strange that Eve would listen to such' talk. She must have known it was wrong ; but she did listen and Satan talked on, telling her how much wiser and better she would become if she ate the fruit of this tree, and making her think God was not good in keeping so good a thing from her. Then Satan left her, but the poison of his talk was working in her mind. Mary may read to us from the sixth verse, which shows what happened and how it came to pass."
While all listened eagerly Mary read as follows: "And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise ; she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat ; and gave also unto her husband with her, and he did eat."
" That was too bad," said Carrie, with a sigh and a very sad face.
FEASTING ON FORBIDDEN FRUIT.
" Yes," said Grandpa ; " instead of resisting Satan and driving away every evil thought, she lingered about the tree, looked on its fruit, thought of the' benefits Satan promised, and at last took and ate the fruit, then ran off to find Adam and persuade him to do the
" Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God amongst the trees of the
garden." — Genesis iii, 8.
same. When they had done the wrong, they felt ashamed. Then they thought of God and were afraid. So they worried through the day till the sun began to set and the cool of the day — that pleasantest of all times in a beautiful garden — drew near. But Adam and Eve found no pleasure in that lovely evening. Their hearts were filled
44 GRANDPA GOODWIN'S STORIES.
with fear and their cheeks were flushed with shame. Tears gathered in their eyes, the first tears ever shed in the world. They wondered what God would say and what was the meaning of His threat, thou shall surely die. At last God came and they heard His voice, but in- stead of bounding joyfully to meet Him they skulked away to a hiding- place. Then God called to Adam, Where art thou ? God knew where Adam was, but He wished by this call to make Adam know his sad and fallen condition. Then God came near to them in their hiding-place. There they were among the bushes crouching to the ground, their heads bowed down, their tears falling, their hearts full of fear, and the old serpent near by gloating over their unhappy fate. How wretched to God's pure eyes the world must then have seemed! The song of birds, the fragrance of flowers, the glitter of leaves, the sport of beasts, must to Him have seemed a fearful mockery since man, the lord and master of them all, was crushed with sin and shame."
" O Grandpa !" cried Carrie, " why didn't God forgive them on the spot and let them start over again ?"
" God was quite willing to forgive them, and I have no doubt did freely do so," said Grandpa ; " but for them to start over again, as they were before they disobeyed, was as impossible as for me to start over again as a boy, or for a cripple to start over again with sound limbs. They had sinned, and never again could they be innocent. In some other way they could be saved, I am sure, but not as persons who had never sinned."
" I see," said Carrie, " that first good chance was lost, and they could not get it back again."
" Yes ; and God must show His disapproval of the wrong they did," said Grandpa, "just as a kind and loving mother must punish a child who does wrong, and so, when Adam made an excuse for hiding himself, God pushed His questions closer, and Adam, seeing he could not escape, confessed, I did eat ; but, said he, the woman Thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree. In this way he tried to put the blame first on Eve, and also on God who
FEASTING ON FORBIDDEN FRUIT. 4o
gave him Eve. That is the way the wicked do. They seldom confess themselves at fault ; somebody else, or possibly God Himself, is to blame. God condemns nobody without giving them a chance, so He asked Eve about it and she blamed the serpent. Then God told them the results of their wrong doing. On the serpent he pro- nounced a curse more bitter than that upon any creature in existence. He was doomed to crawl, to eat dust, to be hated, and at last to have his head crushed ; which shows the loathing every good man should have for Satan, much as everybody hates snakes and tries to crush their heads."
" I wish they were all killed," said Charley, " and old Satan, too. I don't see what they are for, anyhow."
" Next God turned to Eve," continued Grandpa. " She was in sor- row enough at that moment, but God said He would greatly multiply it. Not only would He add to it, but He would multiply it; yes, multiply it greatly ."
" Poor Eve," sighed Mary, " she must have been sorry enough. And it was her first sorrow, too. She had not been used to it, had she, Grandpa ?"
" No, but she soon came to know enough of it ; and as for Adam, God said that in sorrow and in the sweat of his face he should eat his bread until he died. The very ground was cursed so that thorns and thistles would spring up rather than flowers and fruits. Such was the result of feasting on forbidden fruit and trifling with a serpent."
" Let me add a word in closing, children," said Mrs*. Reed. " You may think Satan very powerful, as he really is, but James, in his Epistle, says, Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Which of you is determined to resist him ?"
" I,"" shouted every child, and with good resolves they scattered for <-he night.
46 GRANDPA GOODWIN'S STORIES.
LEAVING A HAPPY HOME;
Or, FROM PEACE AND PLENTY TO TOIL AND TEARS.
WHEN the family were again assembled, Carrie began with the exclamation : " Poor Eve ! I have been so sorry for her. I could have cried a dozen times to-day. Where did they go after they sinned ? and what did they do ?"
" I am glad," answered Grandpa, " that you have thought so much about her. Let it warn my little girl never to disobey God."
" I'm sure I never want to," she answered, in a most serious tone, Charley adding, " No'r do I ;" and Mary, " Nor I."
" And now," said Grandpa, drawing a roll of paper from his pocket and opening it upon the table, "here is a picture by a fam- ous illustrator of Bible scenes. I want you to look at it carefully and then each tell me what seems the most striking- thine in it. Let Mary tell first."
" They all look so sorry, Grandpa. See poor Eve ! , Adam can't bear to look up at all. And the angel seems grieved. The dog, even, looks worried and as if he wondered what it meant. Why the old serpent himself looks sorry, though I guess it's more mean and ashamed that he looks. But oh ! they are so sad !"
" Just see the thorns and the thistles outside that gate," said Carrie, " and the stones. Inside there were none of these, were there, Grandpa ? Now they will have to work among briers and all sorts of troubles, won't they ?"
"See that big bird," said Charley, "he's pecking Eve's head, isn't he ? and there's another flying over them and squalling at them ;
LEA VING A HAPPY HOME.
47
and there's a wasp or hornet after them, too. O my ! It's too bad all these things had to happen. And there's that old snake. If I were Adam I'd pick up a stone and whack him on the head, so I would. I wouldn't have him crawling near me. But, Grandpa, what
" The Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was
taken.'''' — Genesis iii, 23.
a queer old sword the angel has. It looks as if it was splitting all to pieces."
" That, my boy, is the flaming sword which turned every way to keep Adam and Eve from the garden. We read about it in Genesis iii, 24," said Charley's mother, who was gazing at the picture.
48 GRANDPA GOODWIN'S STORIES.
" The saddest thing Adam and Eve knew up to that time," re- sumed Grandpa, "was the leaving of their happy home. Within that place of beauty were peace and plenty ; without were toil and tears. Eve's lament on leaving Paradise, written by Milton, from whom we have already quoted, is one of the saddest utterances ever spoken. Your mother will favor us with part of it."
Mrs. Reed took up her Paradise Lost and read as follows :
" O unexpected stroke, worse than of death ! Must I leave thee, Paradise ? thus leave Thee, native soil, these happy walks and shades, Fit haunt of God's ? Where I had hoped to spend, Quiet, though sad, the respite of that day That must be mortal to us both. O flow'rs, That never will in other climate grow, My early visitation, and my last At ev'n, which I bred up with tender hand From the first op'ning bud, and gave ye names, Who now shall rear ye to the sun, or rank Your tribes, and water from th' ambrosial fount ?
From thee
How shall I part, and whither wander down Into a lower world, to this obscure And wild ? How shall we breathe in other air Less pure, accustom' d to immortal fruits ?"
"Beautiful! but oh! how sad!" said Mary; Carrie meanwhile wiping her eyes.
" Well, my dears," said Grandpa, " you have caught at about all the points of the picture. That was the saddest moving that ever a family made. They had no furniture or baggage, but they had a heavy load on their hearts. And now that they are out of Paradise, I will show you another picture. What is this ?" asked Grandpa, as he unrolled another engraving and laid it upon the table.
"Why, there are Cain and Abel," exclaimed Charley, in an instant — " Abel with his mother, playing with lambs ; Cain giving an apple to his father."
LEA VING A HAPPY HOME.
49
" How tired Adam looks," said Carrie, " and his hair is all matted over his face, as if he was sweating dreadfully."
" Notice," said Grandpa, " the work he is at. There is a great thistle, there a thorny bush, and there a heap of stones. Adam
" In the sweat of thy face shall thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground." — Genesis iii, 19.
has a poor, roughly-made hoe, with which he has been trying to dig out the stones and to cultivate the ground. Cain seems to notice that his father is tired, and offers him fruit to refresh him. Eve seems sad as she looks upon her little boy, for I suppose she thinks of where he might have.been had she not trifled with the serpent."
50 GRANDPA GOODWIN'S STORIES.
" Why did they need so much fence as I see in this picture ?" asked Mary. " There was nobody to come and steal, nor any-other person's land into which their sheep might get."
"True, but that fence suggests some other sad truths. Even the gentle sheep were not disposed to live quietly with them now. And other animals were not disposed to leave the sheep unharmed. The peace and plenty of Eden were gone. Fences and force had become necessary. Toil and tears were the lot of Adam and Eve, and of all their children."
" O dear, it does seem too bad that so much trouble should have come to them," said Carrie, whose sympathies were fully aroused. " But they ought to have obeyed God, and I guess they often wished they had done it."
" And that, too, was God's wish," interposed Mrs. Reed. " I have no doubt He felt about Adam and Eve as He felt about His people at a later day, when He said, O that thou hadst hearkened to my com- mandments ! then had thy peace been as a river, and thy righteous- ness as the waves of the sea."
4< And may we have righteousness and peace that way, by heark- ening to God's command ?"
" Most certainly, Carrie," answered her mother. " That is the glory of the Lord's gospel, and you may fully enjoy it."
"Before we separate, mother," said Mary, "sing that hymn about the peace that floweth as a river, please."
" With pleasure, darling," was Mrs. Reed's reply. Then she sang Mrs. Crewdson's beautiful verses, which begin:
" Oh ! for the peace that floweth as a river,
Making life's desert places bloom and smile; Oh ! for the faith to grasp heaven's bright forever, Amid the shadows of earth's little while I"
BURNING THE FIRST FRUITS. 61
BURNING THE FIRST FRUITS;
Or, A WICKED BROTHER'S BRUTAL DEED.
"/~\NE of the pictures we looked at last night," said Grandpa, I 1 after some other conversation had occupied a little of the
^ — ^ evening, " showed us the first two boys who ever lived. Cain, the elder, was with his father, probably trying to help work the ground. He grew up a farmer — a tiller of the ground, as the Bible calls him. Abel was with his mother, among the sheep, of which, probably, she took care, and he grew up a shepherd — a keeper of sheep. Cain was probably a stronger, rougher, lad than Abel. He was more like the father ; Abel more like his mother."
" I never did like Cain," said Carrie. " I always thought Abel was a orreat deal nicer."
" Cain, no doubt, was a very troublesome boy. He was self-willed and passionate, and his parents knew nothing of the way in which such a boy should be trained. He became tyrannical and abusive as he grew older ; for nobody suddenly becomes a murderer. The heart is full of murder long before the hands do the deed. By the continual indulgence of wicked feelings, Cain was prepared for his dreadful crime, and killing Abel was only the natural result. Such a son must have been a great trouble to his parents ; he added ter- ribly to their many* other sorrows."
" But did they not teach Cain and Abel to love and serve God ?" asked Mary.
" I have no doubt of it," responded Grandpa ; " for the very occa- sion of Abel's death was that both he and Cain offered sacrifices, and Abel's pleased God, while Cain's did not."
52
GRANDPA GOODWIN'S STORIES.
" What are sacrifices ?" asked Charley.
" They are gifts to God," explained Grandpa. " Cain brought fruit from the fields and Abel brought lambs from his flocks. These were the first results of their work and the best offerings that could be found by either of them. To show that these gifts were entirely for
" Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto the Lord. And Abel, he also brought of the firstlings of his flock, and of the fat thereof" — Genesis iv, 3, 4.
the Lord, they were laid on a heap of stones called an altar and were entirely burned. Solemnly burning the first fruits of a man's ground or flocks was offering sacrifice to God."
"Why did God want such nice things to be burned?" asked Car-
BURNING THE FIRST FRUITS.
53
rie. " I should think they ought to be saved. The poorer things might very well be burned."
" Why," replied Mary, " God ought to get the best, and unless it was burned up it would only be a make-believe gift ; for the man would have it for himself after all."
" It came to pass, when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother, and slew
him." — Genesis iv, 8.
" You have the right idea," said Grandpa. " Adam and Eve had
taught this to their boys, both of whom came to sacrifice to the Lord.
Abel came with a loving desire to please God, and God was pleased
with him and his offering. Cain came in some other spirit. Maybe
4
54 GRANDPA GOOD WIN" S STORIES.
he was grudging his gift to God and wishing he could keep it for himself. For some reason, however, God was not pleased with Cain nor with his offering. How God showed that He was pleased with Abel we do not know. Perhaps He kindled fire on Abel's altar by a flash of lightning, or He possibly made the fire burn free and clear, or He may have appeared in a visible form to Abel, speaking words of approval which both Cain and Abel could hear. Cain was not so honored, and on this account he became very angry. The Bible says his countenance fell — that is, he looked very long-faced and sullen about it. God saw all this and talked kindly to him, encouraging him to do right, and promising to accept him if he did so. But Cain remained sullen and angry and went away plotting evil against his brother and not trying at all to do as God wished. And so Cain watched his chance, talking angrily with Abel and bully- ing him whenever they met. No doubt Abel tried to persuade his brother to do right ; but this made Cain all the more angry. One day they met out in the field, far away from home. That was Cain's chance. Full of angry passion, he started up and killed Abel on the spot."
" That was awful !" exclaimed Carrie, as Grandpa paused.
" Yes," continued he, "and Cain did it deliberately, having planned it for days. It was murder in cold blood, not in haste, nor to save his own life. Abel was the first dead man of the world and Cain the first murderer. When Abel ceased to breathe, when the color left his cheek and his eye became set in death, Cain must have suf- fered more than tongue can tell. What had happened he could not understand. He had never before seen death. He hurried from the place, but God was after him, calling, Where is Abel thy brother? Cain did not hesitate to lie, but answered positively, I know not ; and then, as if to silence God, he asks, Am I my brother's keeper? So saying, he hurried away from the dead Abel, and tried to hurry away from God, too."
"It seems to me," said Carrie, " that nobody could be more wicked
BURNING THE FIRST FRUITS. 55
than Cain. He killed his own brother, and so good a brother, and killed him just because he was good."
" It would be hard to find anything more wicked," added Grandpa, "but John, the beloved disciple, seems to be afraid that we may be as wicked and warns us against being like Cain. Mary, read i John iii, n, 12, please."
Mary found the place in a moment and read: "For this is the message that ye heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. Not as Cain, who was of that wicked one, and slew his brother. And wherefore slew he him ? Because his own works were evil, and his brother's righteous."
"If we don't love one another are we like Cain, then, Grandpa?" asked Charley.
"Assuredly so. And if we prefer evil works to righteous works we are like Cain. We'may never kill a person, much less a brother, but without love for the holy and the good we are, like Cain, of that wicked one, as John says ; that is, we are children of Satan."
" Or, as the hymn declares," chimed in Mrs. Reed :
" Love is the golden chain that binds The happy saints above ; And he's an heir of heaven that finds His bosom glow with love."
"Well, I'm not going to be like Cain," was Charley's emphatic declaration as he gathered up his books preparatory to going off to bed.
" Nor any of us, I trust," added Carrie. " People who quarrel and fight, who beat and kill each other, all belong to Satan's family. For my part, I prefer better company."
"Good girl!" and "Good night!" were Charley's parting shouts.
66 GRANDPA GOODWIN'S STORIES.
THE VOICE OF BLOOD;
Or, A STRANGE CRY FROM THE GROUND.
h
" ' ~^ VER since last night," began Mary, when the family was again seated in the sitting-room, "I have fancied 1 could see Abel lying dead in the field where Cain had left him. It was an awful sin for him to kill Abel, wasn't it?"
"And I," said Mrs. Reed, "have been thinking of his poor mother. I am sure Abel was a loving boy, who always hurried home when his day's duties were done, and who always greeted his mother with a kiss. On the morning of his death he left home alive and we'll, full of hope and love, and she had thought of him often as the day passed by. At last evening approached and she expected him to supper; but he did not come. She looked out from the door, but could not see him. I can imagine all the worriment of her motherly heart as darkness came and Abel had not returned. She had lon^ been afraid that Cain would do harm to Abel ; now she is sure of it, for Cain, too, is away. So she spends the night in anxiety. Adam only half sympathizes with her. He thinks it will come out all right and goes to sleep, but Eve is wide awake. Morning comes, and out they go to seek the boys. Abel's sheep are wandering without care ; Cain's work lies unfinished ; but where are the bro- thers? Eve sees something yonder. It is Abel lying on the ground. Is he asleep ? She hurries to him. Adam follows. They reach jhe body. It is battered and bloody. It is cold and dead. Eve calls, but Abel does not answer. She lifts his head, but it drops limp and heavy from her hands. She calls, and calls again, but no answer comes. Then she weeps, O so bitterly, over her dear, dead
FLEEING FROM THE DEAD.
58 GRANDPA GOODWIN'S STORIES.
boy. This is what I have thought of all day, until my own eyes have been full of tears lor that poor bereaved mother."
When Mrs. Reed ceased speaking, the children were in tears. They sat without a word for a few minutes and then Grandpa broke the silence by quoting God's words to Eve : " I will greatly multiply thy sorrow."
"Grandpa," asked Charley, as if anxious to change the subject, "where did they bury Abel?"
" I don't know, my boy, but I suppose they did bury him; probably right where they found his body. It must have been a very sad fu- neral, and it was the first in the world. They probably straightened out the cold, stiffened limbs, washed away the blood, wrapped the body in skins, and then covered it with earth. All around was still, but from that ground there rose to the ear of God a voice, for He said to Cain, The voice of thy brother's blood crieth unto me from the ground."
" What does that mean ?" asked Carrie. " Blood cannot speak, Grandpa."
" No, my child ; but to God's mind there was such a demand that Cain should be punished that it seemed as if every drop of Abel's blood had a voice which cried out for vengeance. To kill a human being is an awful crime, and especially to kill one so pure and good as Abel, and to do it simply because of his goodness. God heard that cry of Abel's blood, and, so far as Cain was concerned, God put a special curse on the ground. Cain was a farmer, but no more was the earth to yield her strength to him. However skillfullvand hard he might toil, he would not get a full return. And he was to be restless and unhappy, becoming a fugitive and a vagabond, a wanderer on the earth, a tramp, a man whom all should hate and none should love."
"That was a fearful punishment," said Mary, with a shudder.
" So Cain felt, for his answer to God was, My punishment is greater than I can bear. He was afraid, too, that even his kindred would
THE VOICE OF BLOOD. 59
want to kill him, but this God would not permit. For men to go on killing one another would never -do ; so God put a mark on Cain that everybody should know him, and God said that any one killing Cain should suffer seven times more penalty than was already in- flicted on this wicked man. Then God sent Cain, the first murderer, out into the world, away from his own people, to wander alone, and to be forever full of fears and anxiety."
" I'm glad I wasn't Cain," said Charley, as Grandpa was called away by a visiting friend. " I guess he felt like killing himself too, and it's a pity he didn't do it."
" Possibly not so great a pity," answered Mrs. Reed. " That would have been to add self-murder to the murder already com- mitted. Two wrongs never make a right, you know. The true course for him would have been that of humble repentance and sin- cere reformation. God would have forgiven him ; and while Cain could never have undone the great crime "of his life, he could have done much to prevent a similar crime in others, and he could have spent his days in doing good. But we have no account that he did any such thing. He was full of remorse and dread of penalty for his sin, but he did not love and practice any better ways."
" I don't wonder that John, who was so full of love and so good a man, warned people against going in the way of Cain. I'm sure I never want to be like him in any respect."
" Well said, Mary," answered her mother. " May we all walk in the better and nobler ways !"
60 GRANDPA GOODWIN'S STORIES.
GREATER AND RICHER;
Or, FROM FARM LIFE TO CITY SPLENDOR.
WHERE did Cain go after he killed Abel ?" asked Charley, as Grandpa entered the sitting-room. " He went away toward the East as a lonely wan- derer, into a strange place called the land of Nod, or the land of the vagabond, from the fact that he, the chief of vagabonds, went there to live."
" With whom did he live?" asked Mary. " Who was there, Grandpa, in that land ?"
" Nobody at that time, so far as we know, but after a while brothers and sisters of his, with their children, came that way and settled. One of them Cain afterwards persuaded to share his hard lot and be his wife."
" I wouldn't have married him," shouted Carrie, with an earnest- ness that made the others laugh heartily, at which Carrie colored up and said even more earnestly, "Well, I'm sure I wouldn't want any- thing to do with such a man, much less to keep house for him."
" Cain may have become a far better man," said Mrs. Reed, sooth- ingly. "Very wicked persons sometimes become very good."
"Yes, I know," answered Carrie, "but I'd rather take my chances with somebody who always had been very good."
" I hope my little daughter will remain as wise when she is grown up, and when some son of Cain may put her principles to the test."
" Never fear for me," was Carrie's merry reply. " But, really," continued she, "why did Cain go off? Why didn't he stay just where he was ?"
GREATER AND RICHER. 61
" We 'are sure," continued Grandpa, " that when Cain started he wanted to get away from God and from all talk about Him. This is what he meant in Genesis iv, 1 6, where it says, Cain went out from the presence of the Lord. He could not get away from God, for God is everywhere ; but he could get away from his father and mother and from the other children which they probably had at that time. By so doing he would have no one to remind him of God and of his own sin. That was what he then wanted."
" Ah," said Mrs. Reed, " Cain's attempt to get away from God recalls these verses :
" Is there throughout all worlds one spot, One lonely wild, where Thou art not ? The hosts of heaven enjoy Thy care, And those of hell know Thou art there. Awake, asleep, where none intrude, Or 'midst the thronging multitude — In every land, on every sea, We are surrounded still with Thee."
"Very true," added Grandpa, "and worthy to be remembered by us all. After Cain married he roamed about the countrv, ^ettino- his living by cultivating the ground as best he could. Years went by, and Cain had children and grandchildren. His family became very numerous, and he was a great and rich man among them. Some of his descendants were shepherds and herdsmen, having im- mense flocks and many cattle. Others were musicians, and some were mechanics who wrought in brass and iron. With all this growth about him it is not strange that Cain made up his mind to build a city, which he did, calling it Enoch, after his eldest son."
" I wouldn't have done that," said Charley. " I think the country ■ is a heap better than any city."
" But, Charley," replied his good teacher, " Cain had two special reasons for doinp- this. God had sentenced him to be a vagabond and a fugitive, having no home anywhere ; but if by building a city
62
GRANDPA GOODWIN'S STORIES.
Cain could settle himself and no more wander up and down the earth, he would be glad enough of it. And then he was a farmer, but for him the ground was specially cursed. He never prospered at this work; but if he could get into a real estate business, selling
"And he builded a city, and called the name of the city after the name of his son, Enoch" —
Genesis iv, 17.
town-lots and houses, he mi^ht do a great cleal better. So Cain had special reasons for quitting his farm-life and seeking rest in city splendor. How much he really gained by it nobody knows, for the Bible says nothing more about his history."
" Don't we know anything more about him ?" asked Carrie.
GREATER AND RICHER. 63
" Only this," said Grandpa, " that from the closing verses of Gen- esis iv, it is quite certain that Cain himself was killed by Lamech, one of his own descendants. This Lamech did kill a man, and in speaking of it he says, If Cain shall be avenged sevenfold (which God had said should be if any man killed him), truly Lamech seventy-and-seven- fold. In speaking thus he seems to make himself the one who re- ceives the penalty for killing Cain, and who may himself expect an even greater protection because he was in so much greater peril."
"So Cain died a violent death, as Abel did, and by one of his own kindred, too," said Mary, in a thoughtful way. "Well, I think he deserved it if ever any one did."
" Do you think Cain ever was happy after he killed Abel ?" asked Carrie.
"I do not think he could have been," replied Grandpa. "As the head of a large family many would honor him. In his work of build- ing a city he would rule over many men, but no doubt he carried a sad heart and a cheerless face. Possibly his disposition became better. He may have learned to control his hasty temper; but the man that Lamech killed had wounded him, and was killed for that reason. That man probably was Cain, who, it seems from this, still struck and beat others when aroused to anger. If Cain was not the man whom Lamech killed, however, still murder was committed in the city of Enoch, and a city where murder is, is a city where there are other fearful crimes. So Cain did not escape from sin and its penalties by means of his city life. There is but one city where such escape is possible, that is the heavenly Jerusalem. Amid its splendor sin is unknown and sorrow never comes."
"That is the place of which the hymn tells, isn't it, Grandpa? I mean the hymn, Jerusalem the golden."
" Yes, darling, and we will sing a verse or two of that same old hymn before we say good-night." Then they sang with real earnest- ness and went to their beds to dream of the holy city.
64 GRANDPA GOODU AYS S I OHMS.
ALONE. YET NOT ALONE;
Or, THE UNSEEN COMPANION OF A SINGULAR MAN.
" T" HAVE but a little while to spend with you this evening," said Grandpa, as he seated himself in his favorite chair ; " but I
-*~ would feel that something was lacking in the day's work if we did not have our little talk about a Bible story. I want to tell you about a very singular man who had a companion whom nobody saw. Can you guess to whom I refer?"
Guesses were made by all the children, and holy men of every period were' named, but the correct name was not given. Grandpa then asked, "What was the name of the city built by Cain ?"
"Enoch," was shouted in reply by the entire group.
" After whom did Cain name that city ?"
" After his eldest son."
'•'Yes," continued Grandpa, "and some years after that there was another Enoch, and he it is of whom I will now tell you. His father was Jared and his son was Methuseleh, who is famous for what ?"
" For being the oldest man that ever lived," answered Carrie.
" How old did he become ?"
"Nine hundred and sixty-nine years," answered both the girls.
" Yes ; Methuseleh became very aged and his father was very godly. Read what was said of him in Genesis v, 24."
The place was quickly found, and Mary read, "And Enoch walked with God ; and he was not, for God took him."
" When you are coming home from school, Carrie, with which girls do you walk ?" asked Grandpa.
" With those I like."
WALKING HEAVENWARD.
66 GRANDPA GOOD WIN* S STORIES. ■
"With those you like and who go your way," added Mary.
Carrie assented, saying, " Of course, I don't walk with girls who go another way any more than I walk with girls who stand still."
" Well, now," interrupted Grandpa, "just that is the idea I want you to get about Enoch. As he walked with God, three things are true of him and God. What are they ?"
"They both walked," answered Mary. "They did not stand still."
" Yes, they did walk ; that is, both of them made progress. Neither God nor men stand still. Men q-o on becoming better or worse all the time. This is their walk. We are all walking-. We are eoine on — you children to manhood and womanhood ; your father and mother to old age; I to my end, which is not far off; all of us, I trust, are ooina- to a better world. What other thin«f is true since Enoch walked with God ?"
" God and he loved each other," answered Carrie.
" Yes, they were pleased in each other's society. That Enoch should be pleased with God's company is not surprising, but it is strange that God should be pleased with the society of any man ; but in Hebrews xi, 5, it is expressly said that Enoch pleased God, so we need have no doubt at that point. God and he kept very close together, for they were well pjeased with each other. Now, what other fact is sure since Enoch walked with God ?"
"Why, Enoch went God's way,", said Charley. "I guess God wouldn't walk in any man's way ; He's too great for that."
" Correct," said Grandpa. " God has His own perfect way of thought, feeling, and action, which He could not and would not change to suit a man or an angel. Enoch shaped his thoughts, feel- ings, and acts so that they should be like those of God. In this way they thought alike, felt alike, and acted alike. Enoch would not go into any way where he could not keep company with God Wicked peo- ple might coax him, everything in other ways might look very bright and pretty, but he walked with God, though he walked alone."
" Enoch must have been kind of lonesome, walking that way."
ALONE, YET NOT ALONE. 67
" Yes, Charley, I presume he was lonesome as men judge of lone- someness, and yet he never was alone, though he seemed to be. He always had a companion whom nobody else saw, but who to him was very real, very near, and very dear. Sometimes he would lift up his eyes as if charmed by some beautiful vision, but other people saw nothing; sometimes he would look so glad, but others knew not why ; he often would talk tenderly, but others knew not to whom ; they thought him very queer ; they called him a singular man ; but his unseen companion heard his words and spoke tenderly in reply. So Enoch was happy, though the reason for it the world did not know."
" Grandpa, I should think Enoch would have become tired of so singular a life, even though God did walk and talk with him. It seems to me I would want companions whom I could see and talk with as I see you and talk with you and others."
" But, Mary, he did not tire of it. We are told in Genesis that he walked with God three hundred years ; so he held out pretty well, didn't he?"
" I should say so," answered Mary, smiling. " But the story also says, He was not, for God took him. What does that mean ?"
" Turn to Hebrews xi, 5, and you will see precisely what it means."
Mary turned to this verse and read aloud : " By faith Enoch was translated, that he should not see death, and was not found, because God had translated him."
" Oh !" exclaimed Carrie. " He was not found anywhere on the earth, because God had taken him up to heaven."
"Yes, God had translated him ; that is, had taken him out of. this into another world," added Grandpa. " But long before he was taken there were places where he was not. Can you name some of them ?"
"Taverns," began Charley. "In bad company," said Carrie; and so they rattled in their answers until theatres, horse-races, beer-shops, ball-rooms, street-corners, and many other evil and doubtful places
G8 GRANDPA GOODWIN'S STORIES.
had been named. Then Grandpa remarked, " He who walks with God has pleasanter paths than such places afford, and these paths Enoch found."
" How queer it must have seemed to people who knew Enoch when all of a sudden he disappeared," said Charley.
" Yes, to them his was a mysterious disappearance. They did not find him where he used to eat and sleep and walk and pray. They sought him everywhere; they found him nowhere. The reason was, God had taken him."
" But why did God take him in this unusual way ?" asked Mary.
"The reason given in Hebrews is, that Enoch should not see death. That terrible experience God determined to spare this dear companion of his."
" That was good," said Carrie. " I wish more of us might be spared that too. But if we please God as Enoch did we might be spared as he was, I suppose ?" ■
"And how may we please God ?" asked Mrs. Reed, looking ten- derly at the happy young faces before her.
" Walking where God wants us to," said Charley.
"Yes," answered she, "and the Bible tells us where this is. We must read His word and keep His ways ; then will we meet our re- ward, whether we die or, like Enoch, are translated."
"That reminds me," said Mary, "of two beautiful verses by Bonar. I learned them because I liked them so much:
" Thy way, not mine, O Lord ! However dark it be ; Oh! lead me by Thine own right hand, Choose out the path for me.
" I dare not choose my lot ; I would not if I might ; But choose Thou for me, O my God [ So shall I walk aright."
A HUNDRED YEARS' JOB. 69
A HUNDRED YEARS' JOB;
Or, A MARVELOUS PIECE OF JOINER WORK.
SEVERAL evenings had passed and Grandpa had been unable to meet the children for their chat on Bible subjects, but at last he was again with them, and they clamored earnestly for another story.
" Well," said the kind-hearted old gentleman, " of whom shall we talk to-night ?"
o
" Of anybody you please," said Mary. " Everybody interests me when you talk about them."
" Thank you, Mary," said he, smiling. " I will tell you about a man who, at five hundred years of age, began a job which lasted a century. He was a great-grandson of the oldest man that ever lived. Who was that man ?"
" Methuselah !" shouted they all.
" But," added Grandpa, with a merry twinkle in his eye, " how could he be the oldest man when he died before his own father ?"
" Why, he couldn't," said Charley, very positively, " or his father would have been the oldest man."
" I know, Grandpa," shouted Carrie, clapping her hands. " His father was Enoch, who didn't die at all."
" Oh ! yes, I forgot," said Charley. " So he did — J mean, so he didn't — for God took him to heaven without dying."
" But who," asked Grandpa, " was the man who undertook this big job of work when he was so old ?"
Silence rested on the company for a moment, and then Mary spoke up somewhat doubtfully : " You mean Noah, don't you ? It took 5
70 GRANDPA GOODWIN'S STORIES.
hirn a hundred years to build the ark, but I didn't think he was so old when he began."
•• You have hit it, Mary. I mean Noah," said Grandpa. " He was one of those singular men who walked with God, as Enoch did. And the Bible calls him just and perfect, and says he found grace, or favor, in the eyes of the Lord. The rest of the world was so wicked that God determined to destroy all men and animals, but Noah and his family God determined to save. For this purpose God set Noah at that marvelous piece of joiner work — the building of the ark. No person sympathized with the good man in his queer undertaking, though many must have helped him. I am sure the people laughed at him and called him a crank ; but Noah worked away in faith, as it is said in Hebrews xi, and moved with fear, too, for he fully believed that the flood would come, and so he pushed on with his work."
" What was the shape of the ark ?" asked Mary. " I have seen ever so many pictures of it and no two of them are the same."
" Nobody can answer that positively," replied Grandpa. " It is not likely that it had a rounded prow, like modern ships, for such work was then unknown, in all probability, and such a prow would have been useless, as the ark was not to sail and to be steered. A great covered, scow-like affair, a sort of floating barn, would have answered every purpose, and is probably more like the ark Noah built."
" How big was the ark ?" was the next question. This came from Charley, whose mind ran to the practical side of things.
" That is not positively known," replied Grandpa, " because the length of the cubit in which its size is stated is not entirely clear. But we are sure that the ark was at least four hundred and fifty feet long, one hundred and fifty feet wide, and forty-five feet high, and that its appearance was more like an immense block of warehouses than an ordinary ship."
" Why was it made so big, Grandpa, when only one family was to sail in it ?" asked Carrie.
" Because," said Grandpa, " with that family there needed to be
A HUNDRED YEARS' JOB.
71
kept, for a year or more, enough domestic animals to serve for sacri- fices and for all future needs of men until another supply could be raised. Birds, also, and many other living creatures were to be kept there, and immense quantities of provisions were needed for them while in the ark and to supply them for a considerable time after they
"And Noah did according unto all that the Lord commanded him." — Genesis vii, 6.
should leave it. The greatest ship ever built was the Great Eastern, which has about the same carrying capacity as had Noah's ark."
"How did Noah manage to build such a monstrous affair, with nobody to help him?" asked Mary.
72 GRANDPA GOODWIN'S STORIES.
" He worked on it for a long time," said Grandpa. "Xo doubt his family and servants worked with him, and at times other help was hired as needed. Very likely, the neighbors would occasionally lend a hand, by way of a frolic if for no better reason. They cared little for his supposed freak, but went on in their own ways, eating, drinking, and carousing right before Noah's eyes, and under the very shadow of the ark worshiping their dumb idols, while he was hard at work."
" But how could Noah get everything just right ?" asked Carrie. " I think he would have made lots of mistakes."
" God showed him how to do it. The wood to be used, the height of the stories, the number and size of the rooms, the window, the door — everything, in short, was directed by the Lord, to whom Noah was always attentive and obedient. That was the way by which he avoided mistakes," said Grandpa.
" But why didn't other people come and help Noah, and get saved in his ark ?" asked Charley.
" Simply because they did not believe God," was the reply. " I am sure Noah urged them, for Peter calls him 'a preacher of righteousness,' and Paul says he ' condemned the world,' so we may judge that he was not silent. He did preach. At his work and in his rest, he told the story over and over, and warned the people of the coming flood. Every blow of his axes and hammers was a call to men to turn from their sins and be saved, and yet nobody came. That is why only Noah and his family were saved. Nobody else was willing to enter the ark."
"' When the work was all done," asked Charley, " did the flood come ri^ht off?"
" No. . The ark was finished, the rubbish was cleared away, and it stood complete, but unoccupied, until God one day said to Xoah, ' Come thou and all thy house into the ark.' Seven days were then allowed them to get settled in the great boat. It was a busy week. Xoah's family, the beasts, the birds, the food, the seed, everything
A HUNDRED YEARS' [OB. 73
needed for the long voyage and die wonderful change which was at hand, was brought and stowed away safely; and then the 'Lord shut him in ' and shut out all the world besides. So the hundred years' job was ended, the ark was occupied, and everything was ready for the threatened flood."
"Oh! tell us about that," cried Charley.
" Yes, do, please do," echoed Mary and Carrie ; but Grandpa shook his silvery head and said, " Not to-night, my dears. To-mor- row night we will talk about that, if nothing prevent."
"I remember," said Mrs. Reed, "a little tract I saw when I was a girl. Its title was NoaJis Carpenters^
"Noah's carpenters!" exclaimed the children, Mary asking, "Who were they, pray?"
" Why," answered their mother, " the men who at one time and another did work on the ark. Though they helped prepare the vessel which saved Noah and his family, yet they themselves were lost. They built an ark, but for them it did no good. They are dead, but many of the same stock live to-day."
" Why who, mother, are like them to-day ?" asked Carrie. "I don't know anybody who is so foolish."
" Don't you, darling? Let us see. Sunday-school children who gather in the poor or contribute their money to send tracts and books to the destitute or to aid the work of missions, and yet do not for them- selves enter the ark of God's full service, are like Noah's carpenters. Parents who instruct their children in the doctrines of the gospel, and yet fail to illustrate these doctrines in their lives and to seek a personal interest in the Lord's work, are like Noah's carpenters."
" Oh ! I see, I see," answered Carrie, " and I, for one, will try to be in the ark."
"And I," answered Mary; to which Charley gave his not uncom- mon," Me too."
74 GRANDPA GOODWIN'S STORJES.
TOO WICKED TO LIVE :
Or, THE GREATEST STORM ON RECORD.
"T"'VE been thinking about the people who were shut out of the ark, Grandpa," said Carrie, opening the conversation of another -*- evening. " Why were they shut out and drowned ?"
" Because the world had become so full of wickedness that God determined to destroy all its inhabitants. They were too wicked to live. God gave them time to repent though. For a hundred years or more work on the ark went ahead, and Noah preached to them. But they did not become better; so at the end God shut them out of the ark and they all perished."
" Mustn't they have felt awfully when they saw the ark shut?" said Mary.
"I doubt it," replied Grandpa. "The final loading up of the ark was probably a great frolic for them. Getting in the animals and provisions was like a circus day in a country town. Everybody turned out to see the sights. Some may have had misgivings ; but there was no sign of a storm, so they quieted their fears. Perhaps a few had anxiety in the stillness of the night which followed, but when clouds began to gather and torrents of rain to fall, then, no doubt, they were full of fear and wished themselves safely in the ark."
"It must have rained mighty hard to make a flood big enough to drown everybody."
"It did rain hard, sure enough, Charley." replied Grandpa — "so hard that the Bible says, The windows of heaven were opened. Win- dows mean flood-gates — gates which keep back floods of water. It rained as if such gates were opened in the skies, allowing fearful
TOO WICKED TO LIVE. 75
torrents of water to be poured upon the earth. It may be that up to that time rain had" never fallen, which would make these torrents a fearful surprise. It is said also that the fountains of the great deep were broken up ; that is, the waters rolled in over the land as if their banks had been washed away. Men then lived east of the Mediter- ranean Sea where a slight sinking of the ground would permit water to flow from the Black and Caspian Seas on the north, from the Pa- cific Ocean by way of the Red Sea and Persian Gulf on the south, and from the Mediterranean Sea on the west. By causing the land to sink even a little, this whole country would quickly be under water deep enough to cover every hilltop."
" But I don't see, Grandpa, how the sinking of that one part of the earth could make a flood all over the world."
" I do not suppose there was a flood over all the world, Mary. All the world inhabited by man was flooded. What need was there of more ? What the Bible says applies to this narrower limit just as well as to the entire world. Nor do I suppose all existing animals went into the ark. Why should they ? All such as might be destroyed by the flood went in and were saved."
" That's a new idea," exclaimed Mary, " but I must admit it seems to be right."
" Were n't there lions and tigers in the ark, Grandpa ?"
" Why should there be, my boy ? They live far beyond where the flood reached and were in no danger of being blotted out, even though some of them were drowned. I don't believe any wild animals were there, though in this opinion I have against me all the picture-books and Noah's arks of the toy stores."
" Pshaw ! the ark wasn't half as grand, then, as I thought it was."
"You thought it was a menagerie, didn't you, Charley?" asked Mary, with a laugh. Charley made no answer, but looked cross.
" How long did the flood last?" asked Carrie.
" Rain fell forty days and nights, but the ground continued to sink even longer, and the flood rose forty days more. Then the waters
76 GRANDPA GOODWIN'S STORIES.
stood over the hilltops for a hundred and fifty days. Then they began to flow. off as the land rose again, and at the end of seven months the ark rested on the top of Mount Ararat. In two more months lower hilltops appeared. In forty days more Noah sent out a raven, which found plenty of dead bodies to feed on and did not return to the ark. Next he sent out a dove, which found nothing- suiting its pure tastes, so it came back. After another week the dove was sent again, and this time it brought back a branch from an olive tree, which showed that the trees were budding. In another week the dove was sent again, but it did not come back. Noah then knew that the ground was fit for man to live upon. It was one year and ten days from the time Noah went into the ark till God told him to go out of it."
" Mustn't there have been fearful suffering during that flood?" said Carrie, sadly.
" No doubt there was," replied Grandpa. " When rain began to fall and water to flow in from the seas the people were startled, but they hoped it would soon be over. The first night must have been terrible. Driven from their houses, they huddled together on higher ground. Men, women, children, cattle, sheep, horses, dogs, and even wild beasts, were there. All were wet, cold, shivering, panic-stricken. The awful night dragged through only to bring a day of terrors. Cattle bellowed, sheep bleated, dogs howled, men shouted, women screamed, children cried. Some, caught in the rushing waters, were quickly drowned; others clambered to higher places, and were there overtaken by the rising waters ; some reached the highest hilltops, but death reached them even there; some died from fright, some from exposure, some from hunger, but more by drowning. Men, beasts, birds, and serpents clustered on the highest places, all strugcrling for life. Still the waters rose until every trace of life was gone except the ark, which floated in safety over a deluged world."
" That was awful," said Charley. " I'm glad I wasn't there."
THE DOVE SENT FOR1 H.— By Bore.
78 GRANDPA GOODWIN'S STORIES.
THE BOW OF BEAUTY;
Or, A TOKEN OF GOOD THINGS TO COME.
" S s RANDPA, yau said it was a year and ten days that Noah I -y was in the ark. But the ark rested on the mountain long ^-^ before that. Why didn't Noah go out of the ark sooner?"
" Noah did not go into the ark, Carrie, till God commanded it. al- though the ark had been finished for some time ; nor would he go out of it till God commanded it, though he knew the earth to be dried. He obeyed God in all things. Neither his own opinions, his curiosity, nor anything else was allowed to rule him. He waited till God said, Go forth of the ark. Then he and all that were in the ark did go forth, and right glad they were to do so, I am sure. I can imagine how the birds soared, the animals capered, and Noah's family sang praises as they came down the gangway of the ark and stood once more on dry land."
" They must have been glad to walk ■out again after having been shut up more than a year."
"Yes, Mary. And what do you suppose was the first thing they did after leaving the ark?" asked Grandpa.
" I know what I would have done," said Charley. " I would have ran off to see how things looked after the flood and to see what I could find."
" Many other people would have done just so, Charley," added Grandpa ; " but Noah and his sons began rolling great stones together with which to build an altar. They then took one of every suitable beast and bird, and having killed them beside the altar, the)1 burned their bodies as an offering to God. This showed their grati-
THE BOW OF BEAUTY.
tude, and God was pleased. It was no great thing, but it came from loving hearts. It was like the loving little things which children do sometimes, and which make their parents very happy. As the smoke of those sacrifices went up to heaven, the Lord was pleased that He should be remembered in that way."
" And Noah went forth, and his sons, and his wife, and his so?zs' wives with him." — Genesis viii, 18.
" God had been very good to them and they ought to be good to Him," said Carrie.
" And yet," remarked Mrs. Reed, " we are not always willing to serve God first. We usually please ourselves and then ask how we
80 GRANDPA GOODWIN'S STORIES.
may please God. With Noah God was first — as He always should be."
"So well pleased was God with Noah and his children," resumed Grandpa, "that He promised them many excellent things. They were to become a very numerous family; to rule over all crea- tures; to eat any food they wished; their lives were to be pro- tected, and never again was the world to be drowned. This last point was the great dread of men just then. The flood had been awful ; it had washed away all the people of the world except those in the ark ; but now, having promised that another flood should never come, God gave a token or sign of that fact. But Mary may read of this from Genesis ix, 12-16."
Mary's Bible was at hand, and she read as follows : " And God said, This is the token of the covenant which I make between me and you, and every living creature that is with you, for perpetual generations. I do set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a token of a covenant between me and the earth. And it shall come to pass, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the bow shall be seen in the cloud : and I will remember my covenant, which is between me and you, and every living creature of all flesh; and the waters shall no more become a flood to destroy all flesh. And the bow shall be in the cloud ; and I will look upon it, that I may remember the everlasting covenant between God and every livino- creature of all flesh that is upon the earth."
"Wasn't there any rainbow until then ?" asked Charley. "I suppose not," said Grandpa. "The rainbow is caused by the sun shining through drops of rain, the colors thus produced being thrown on a screen of cloud beyond. It had probably never rained till the flood came. No rainbow could have been seen, then, up to the time Noah came out of the ark. But rain was to fall after that, and with rain comes the possibility of a rainbow, and that was always to be a token of God's crood-will."
" Well," remarked Mrs. Reed, " I never understood that rainbow.
THE BOW OF BEAUTY.
81
It certainly was a very appropriate as well as beautiful emble'm. Where better could God write His promise never again to destroy the earth with a flood than on the very clouds out of which comes the rain ? Whenever again I look at a rainbow I shall be glad of God's promise, of which it reminds me."
" I do set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a token of a covenant between me and the earth."—
Genesis ix, 13.
"And so shall I," added Mary. " And I," " and I," said the other children.
" Did any of you notice, as Mary read a moment ago, what God said He would do when He looked upon the rainbow ?"
82 GRANDPA GOODWIN'S STORIES.
None answered; but Mary's eye ran over the verses, and she shouted : " Well, really, Grandpa ! God said, I will look upon it, that I may remember the everlasting covenant. As if God could foro-et anything !"
" Not that He was in danger of forgetting unless the bow reminded Him," said Grandpa ; " but that when we look on the rainbow we may think of God and know that He looks on it also and thinks of us."
" That is perfectly splendid !" exclaimed Carrie. " He and we look at the same beautiful bow and think about each other. Don't we?"
" There are two references to the rainbow in the book of Revela- tion. You have the idea of the natural rainbow so clearly that I would like your opinions of these others. Revelation x, i, tells of a mighty angel coming down from heaven, clothed with a cloud and having a rainbow up'on his head. What do you think this means?"
"That he comes as clouds come," answered Mary; " to bring a storm ; but that he will not destroy everybody, for the rainbow is there."
"Well explained, my girl! You will soon do for a teacher. But, Carrie, what think you of Revelation iv, 3 ? There we read of a great throne set in heaven and the great King sitting upon it. But it is said, There was a rainbow round about the throne. What do you understand by that?"
" Why, that while God is King and does rule over all, still the great object about His throne is the rainbow, which He has made a token of good. So nobody need be afraid of Him, but everybody may love and come to Him."
"Well said, Carrie!" added Grandpa. "Let us all, when we look to God, remember the rainbow, and when we look to the rainbow, let us remember God."
MAKING FUN OF HIS FATHER. 83
MAKING FUN OF HIS FATHER;
Or, WHEN WINE IS IN WIT IS OUT.
" "\ ~\ THAT became of Noah and his children after the flood ?" \/\/ began Carrie on the next evening after the rainbow * talk. " I have wondered all sorts of queer things."
" We do not know much about them," said Grandpa, as he ad- justed his glasses ; " and what we do know is not entirely pleasant. They came out of the ark full of praise to God and went to work with energy. Before the flood they had been shipbuilders for a hundred years or more ; but that job was done, and Noah went to farming. They had no friends or neighbors, but were just a family by themselves. Before long they had troops of little children play- ing around and making their homes happy. Of course, they wanted some, fruit on the farm ; so Noah set out a vineyard — and a splen- did one it was, no doubt. In due time grapes were gathered and the juice was preserved. It was a pleasant and wholesome drink, and they put away some of it for future use. But in time grape- juice will ferment and become intoxicating wine ; and this happened with the grape-juice of Noah's vineyard. One day Noah wanted grape-juice, and in drinking it he found its flavor had changed. But it was very pleasant, and, ignorant of its effects, Noah drank on until he became drunk and fell over on his tent-floor in a heavy drunken sleep. Good man that he was — able as he had been to dis- regard the opinions of all the world for a hundred years and to work at that ark — yet when he drank wine he sank helpless to the ground and lay there in shame, like the commonest drunkard."
" That was too bad," said Carrie, her quick sympathy taking in
84 GRANDPA GOODWIN'S STORIES.
the situation. " It reminds me of the saying, When wine is in wit is out ; for I'm sure Noah lost his wits when lie took that wine."
"Any man loses his wits that way," said Grandpa. "Intoxicating drink has spoiled more good men and ruined more happy homes than any other ten causes."
" He ought to have joined our temperance society," said Charley. "We boys don't mean to lose our wits."
"That Noah became drunk is very sad," continued Grandpa. " But that, I think, was an accident. He did not know the strength of what he drank. But as he lay there in his drunken stupor, his second son, Ham by name, came along and saw his father. Instead of feeling an honest grief or shame, he ran off to tell his brothers — as though it were a good joke, a thing to laugh at. He really made fun of his aged father instead of trying to conceal his pitiable condi- tion. Ham's conduct was not an accident. It was a base, unworthy act ; and God is angry with every child who does not honor his father and his mother."
" What did the other fellows say ?" asked Charley, much inter- ested in the unfolding of the plot. " Did they make fun, too. We boys make fun of drunken men often."
" Not they, Charley," answered Grandpa. " Noah was their father and they honored him, even if he was drunk ; so they took a large garment like a cloak or shawl, and holding it between them, they went backward into the tent and covered it over their father so that not even themselves should see the condition in which he was. They were not disposed to make fun, but rather to hide their father's wrono-."
" Thev were noble, ^ood sons !" cried Mary, in a burst of enthusi- asm. ■ " I like them for that."
" What did Noah say when he woke, Grandpa ?" questioned Charley, anxious to get at the end of the case.
" He slept — we know not how long — and when he awoke he found out what had been done. He was covered with that varment, and
MAKING FUN OF HIS FATHER.
85
he naturally asked who had put it over him, and why So the truth came out, and Noah was indignant. He spoke some terrible words ; but he spoke them, not in anger of his own, but for God, who was anory too. Ham had a favorite son named Canaan. I am sure he
" Noah awoke from his wine, and hnezct what his younger son had done icn/o him : and he said. Cursed be Canaan. — Genesis ix, 24, 25.
loved his son very much and would rather have suffered himself than have had his dear boy suffer. But Noah said, Cursed be Canaan ; a servant of servants shall he be. Ham heard- these words, and the precious son was doomed because of the father's sin. Ham had grieved his father, and in turn was to be grieved in his own son." 6
86 GRANDPA GOODWIN'S STORIES.
"But in what way was Canaan cursed, Grandpa? What harm came to him ?" asked Carrie.
" From him descended those nations — the African, for instance — which have always been the servants and burden-bearers of the world."
"That seems too bad," said both girls, together. " But Ham was a mean, bad man," added Mary, to which Charley added a very solemn " That's so."
" On the other two sons," continued Grandpa, " Noah pronounced blessings, and said that Canaan's children should be their servants. All we know more about Noah is that he lived until he became nine hundred and fifty years old and then died."
" Why, Grandpa," continued Carrie, in a serious way, " I thought no good man could get drunk."
" No good man willingly does anything which debases himself and sets a bad example to others, which drunkenness certainly does. Accidents may happen, as to Noah ; tastes for intoxicating drink may be inherited, as in the children of drunkards ; men may be so weak morally as to be unable to resist temptation, but still it re- mains true, as Solomon said, Wine is a mocker, strong drink is raging, and whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise."
" That reminds me, Grandpa, of some verses from Proverbs which I learned because they seemed so good and true. May I repeat them?"
" Certainly, darling. I would gladly see each of you so firm that your wits would never go out because wjne came in."
Mary then repeated from Proverbs xxiii, 29-32, these words: "Who -hath woe? who hath sorrow? who hath contentions? who hath babbling ? who hath wounds without cause ? who hath redness of eyes ? They that tarry long at the wine ; they that go to seek mixed wine. Look not thou upon the wine when it is red, when it giveth his color in the cup, when it moveth itself aright. At the last it biteth like a serpent and stingeth like an adder."
TOO BIG A JOB. 87
TOO BIG A JOB ;
Or, A SUDDEN CHANGE OF PLAN.
H
OW did it come, Grandpa," began Mary, " that the people of the world got so far apart in their looks and their lan- guages ? If they all came from Noah, it seems to me they would be more like each other than they are."
" That is a very natural question, my child. We have seen all the people of the world as one family, in one ark, and on one farm, and yet we now find many races of men very different from each other in looks and in languages, as you say. While Noah still lived his children and grandchildren became very numerous, and scattered in all directions in search of good places to live. Toward the east, where the Euphrates and the Tigris rivers flow, they found a splen- did level country, very rich in soil, and here many of them settled. By and by they concluded to build a city, as Cain had done before the flood. The soil was good for making bricks. They found also plenty of bitumen, or pitch, which they used as mortar to cement the bricks together, and so they built their city. As they went on an- other great idea struck them. Some one proposed to build a tower that should reach to heaven, and at this big job they went."
" How foolish ! Why, they couldn't reach heaven, could they ?" " No, Carrie, that was too big a job. The great pyramid of Egypt is only some six hundred feet high. That is the greatest work of man so far as height goes, and yet it scarce reaches the lowest clouds. But they probably did not expect to build so high that they could step off into heaven from their top story. It is more probable that their idea was to build so high that they would be safe from another flood."
88 GRA NDPA GOOD WIN ' S S TORIES.
"But God had said there shouldn't be another flood," said Charley.
" True; but people do not always believe what God says, and these people seem to have forgotten God entirely, for when the building of the tower was proposed they said, Let us make us a name. They had no regard to God, but wished only to make themselves famous."
" Why," said Carrie, " I always thought that tower — the tower of Babel, I mean — was to honor God, like the steeples on our churches."
" No, dear ; it was to honor its builders, and nobody else. They did have one other idea — they might be attacked by enemies, in which case the tower would be a splendid place of safety. In its upper stories they could so defend themselves that no enemy could reach them. This would prevent their being captured or scattered from that place. But God is never at a loss for a way to baffle bad men. He saw what they were doing and heard what they said, and He made His own plan for doing just what they did not want done."
" But, Grandpa," interrupted Charley, " what harm was there in wanting to stay in a nice place ?"
" None at all, my boy ; God did not object to that. But He saw how proud and selfish they were getting, and He said, Nothing will be restrained from them which they have imagined to do. He knew that they would not stop to ask whether a thing was right or wrong, whether it pleased God or not, but if they wanted it they would go at it — so God decided to scatter them. And how do you suppose He did it? He changed the language each leader spoke, so that not one of them could understand another. There they were at their work, talking as usual, giving and receiving orders, but suddenly one spoke' words no one else understood. The others suppose him to be in fun and answer him in fun. But no one understands what the others say. Every man thinks himself to be talking sense and others to be talking nonsense — so they talk and jabber in the worst way."
"Ha, ha, ha," roared Charley. "What fun that must have been!"
" Not much fun for them," replied Grandpa, smiling at the boy's
TOO BIG A JOB.
89
Sflee. "The fact is that men would not stand much of that without getting angry. It is quite likely that some did lose their tempers and that they came to blows."
" Ha, ha, that's so," said Charley, slapping his hand vigorously on
" So the Lord scattered them abro'ad front thence upon the face of all the earth : and they left off tt
btdld the city." — Genesis xi, 8.
his knee. " Big time they must have had quarreling and fighting each other, Guess they didn't work much more that day."
" No, nor any other day. They gave up that job and left off to build the city. Such a sudden change of plan men seldom make5 and never was a change made for so odd a cause."
90 GRANDPA GOODWIN'S STORIES.
" But couldn't any one understand another? Did every one have a new language ?" asked Mary.
" For each one to have his own language and understand nobody else would have split thern entirely into fragments. The probability is that each family had its own language, so that when a man packed his tools and went home from the tower he found his own folks quite able to talk with him. This would only make each the more certain that his talk was correct and that the others were all wrong. They had known but one language up to that time, and they had no idea that there could be another."
" Ha, ha, ha," burst out Charley again in a most boisterous man- ner ; " what a time the boys must have had trying to talk ! I'll bet they made faces and called hard names before they quit."
"And the mothers, too," said Mrs. Reed, "when they tried to ex- plain things and make peace among the children, what a time there must have been !"
"And the girls, too," said Carrie; "dear me! I'm glad I wasn't there. I don't like quarrels and making faces."
" You see," said Grandpa, " that the elements of a first-class row soon gathered in that city, and the only thing that could be done was to separate. The very thing they once meant not to do they now were glad to do. God brought this about by His skill and power. He knows just how to overturn the best laid plans of the wicked."
" I don't wonder," said Mary, " that the place was called Babel. That means confusion, and things did get rather mixed there."
" And our word babble, meaning the noises made by babes, came from the same word," said Mrs. Reed. " The people there babbled — used sounds without meaning — one to another."
" So it came to pass that families were separated one from another in location as well as in language," said Grandpa. " Living for ages in different lands, under different conditions of food, water, shelter, and employment, permanent changes were made in the appearances of the people, such as Mary asked about when our chat began."
SURPRISED AND DELIGHTED. 9*
SURPRISED AND DELIGHTED;
Or, THE FIRST SIGHT OF A SPLENDID INHERITANCE.
TERE is another Bible .picture," said Grandpa Goodwin, un- rolling an engraving and spreading it on the table. " I -*- -*- want you to look it over carefully and tell me what you suppose it to show."
After a good deal of looking and talking, the children agreed they could not tell. Nothing in the picture reminded them of anything they had read or heard of in the Bible.
Grandpa then followed with the question : " What to you, Mary, is the main thing of this picture ?"
" The angel who is directing the company. He seems to be point- ing them to the country off to the left, toward which they are all looking."
" And who are the persons riding, Carrie ?"
" I don't know their names," replied she ; " but there is an old man in the middle with a young man and a young woman. They look surprised ; but whether at something pleasant or not, I'm not sure."
"What have you to say about the picture, Charley?"
" I was wondering about those boys who are cutting capers in front of the donkeys. They'll get run over if they're not careful. Any- how, I'd rather walk than ride a donkey. But if I were there, I'd get on one of the camels. I'd like to ride on a camel."
"You get the points of ,the picture very well," said Grandpa; "but what it represents you don't catch. Mary, please read Genesis xii, 4, 5."
Mary turned as directed and read thus : " So Abram departed, as
<J2
GRANDPA GOODWIN'S STORIES.
the Lord had spoken unto him; and Lot went with him : and Abram was seventy and five years old when he departed out of Haran. And Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother's son, and all their substance that they had gathered, and the souls that they had
" They went forth to go into the land of Canaan; and into the land of Canaan they earned —
Genesis xii, 5.
gotten in Haran ; and they went forth to go into the land of Canaan ; and into the, land of Canaan they came."
" We can all tell now who the people are," said Mrs. Reed, as Mary finished the verses, to which the children responded by point- ing out one and another of the persons, and saying, as the did so :
SURPRISED AND DELIGHTED. 93
"That's Abram;" "And that's Sarai ;" "This is Lot;" "Here are the servants;" "Here are the flocks," and so on until almost every point of the picture was covered by some one. Then Charley asked : " Who's boys are these ? — Abram's ?"
" No," answered Grandpa ; " Abram haa no boys ; nor had Lot — so far as we know. They are probably children of some of the ser- vants ; but Abram allows the lads to cut capers, as you put it, and to have a good time as they journey on."
" Do, Grandpa, tell us the story about Abram. I want so much to hear about this journey," said Carrie ; and the others heartily seconded her request.
On this invitation, Grandpa settled himself in his chair and began : ''About four hundred years after the flood, when the inhabitants of the world had again become very many, there was a man named Abram, who lived at Ur, in the land of Chaldea, away to the east of Palestine. When he was over seventy years old, God told him to leave his own country and all his kindred and go to a place which should be shown him. Where that place was, or what it was, Abram did not know. But he started, as Paul says of him, Not knowing whither he went."
" Good for him !" exclaimed Charley. " He wasn't afraid to travel if he was old. Was he ?"
" No. But though he started so well, he did not fully obey God and leave his kindred ; for he took Terah, his father, and Lot, his nephew, with him. No doubt he loved them ; but he had been told to leave them, and he ought to have done just that. When they had gone about half way on their journey they stopped at a place called Haran^ where, after a delay of two years, Terah died. After his death Abram started again to go into Canaan, and into Canaan he did go, as Mary read. As he entered this land from Haran he passed along the hills at the foot of the Lebanon mountains, and off to his left, as shown in the picture, the promised land could be seen. Its hills and valleys ; its famous river, the Jordan ; and its great lake, the Sea of Galilee —
94 GRANDPA GOODWIN'S STORIES.
all were clearly seen. Abram had always lived in a flat country, so that the view of this splendid, rolling land must have been to him particularly charming. It would surprise and delight him at every step of his journey. Charmed by his new surroundings, Abram journeyed on into the very heart of the country. Wherever he stopped on his way he built an altar and worshiped God, who had so kindly led him. This is the journey shown in the picture. It was one in which they had reason to be happy every moment."
"So I think," said Charley. "And now I don't wonder the boys are dancing along in such a jolly way."
" But no man's path is always full of sunshine," resumed Grandpa. " Abram soon found that his two years' delay in Haran was to cost him very dearly. A famine was just then beginning in Canaan. The water failed, the grass dried, and no food could be found. Had Abram reached there two years sooner he would have been ready for this trouble. But what could a stranger do who had just arrived in the country? So Abram could not stop in Canaan. He had to move on and on toward the south and southwest, until he came to Egypt. Here was plenty of food. But after a while he had trouble with the King, who wanted to marry Abram's wife. Abram could not stay there any longer ; so back again he went to Canaan, sorry enough, I am sure, that he had lost those two years at Haran."
"Guess the boys didn't dance so much that time," said Charley, with a shrug of his shoulders.
" Probably not, Charley," added Grandpa. "But when they got back to Canaan the famine was over and all the country was green and beautiful. Then Abram was ready really to settle in the land and the boys were ready once more to cut their capers."
"All's well that ends well," added the boy, feeling that the end was all that could be desired.
TRUE NOBILITY. 95
TRUE NOBILITY;
Or, STOOPING TO CONQUER.
" T \EFORE Abram went into Egypt," began Grandpa, as the r^A family was awaiting the expected talk, " he had stopped at a -*■ — place called Bethel. It is up on the highlands of Palestine, northeast of the city of Jerusalem. Toward the east of Bethel this high ground falls off rapidly to the plain of Jericho. This plain is a rich, broad piece of land, east of which the Jordan flows. The Jordan is very crooked and rapid, rushing and tumbling on its way from the Sea of Galilee on the north to the Dead Sea on the south. From Bethel one looks down upon the river winding through its beautiful green banks and stretching away mile after mile in either direction. On that high ground, overlooking the beautiful river scene below, Abram and Lot pitched their tents when they came back from Egypt. Both of them had become very rich, having immense flocks of sheep and herds of cattle, with tents, slaves, silver, and gold. Indeed, they had such great possessions that the place where they settled was not big enough for them; and their servants, for the want of room, fell to quarreling and fighting among themselves. This was a great grief to Abram. The old inhabitants of the land saw it and sneered at him and his religion because his servants behaved so badly. Abram at last determined to stop this disgraceful conduct, and how do you suppose he did it?"
:i I know what I'd have done if I'd been Abram," responded Charley, shaking his head with a decided air — " I'd have bounced every fellow that quarreled. I wouldn't have had such chaps about the place." " 1 think he would have done better to clear out Lot bag and bag-
96 GRANDPA GOODWIN'S STORIES.
gage," said Mary, warmly. " God did not tell Abram to take Lot, anyway, but to leave him. Abram brought Lot along, and had been a good, kind uncle to him, and now that Lot had grown rich he had grown saucy too. It was mean of him to let his men interfere with Abram's. Abram had the best right there. God called him, but didn't call Lot."
"Well! well!" exclaimed Grandpa, with an amused look, "Abram's interests are not likely to suffer in your hands, Mary. But what you say is really very forcible. The probability is that Lot came with Abram solely because he saw a chance to make money. When he and Abram had come to be in each other's way, Lot should have stepped out of the way."
"Abram would have done just right had he driven Lot off," sug- gested Carrie.
" He might have done that," answered Grandpa, " or he might have talked with Lot and insisted on his going, or he might have claimed the land as his by gift from God. Then, too, as the younger, Lot should have given way to his elder and superior, as Abram certainly was; but Lot did not move in the matter. He did not seem troubled over the quarrels of the men nor concerned about what the neighbors thought. At last, therefore, Abram called Lot aside, and what, sup- pose you, he said ?"
" Get away, or I'll blow you out," shouted Charley.
" Oh ! no, Charley ; Abram did not talk like a thoughtless boy," in- terposed Mrs. Reed, "and I am glad he did not."
" Mary may turn to Genesis xiii, 8, 9, and see what he said," added Grandpa.
Mary found the place and read as follows : "And Abram said unto Lot, Let there be no strife, I pray thee, between me and thee, and between my herdmen and thy herdmen; for we be brethren. Is not the whole land before' thee ? Separate thyself, I pray thee, from me. If thou wilt take the left hand, then I will go to the right : or if thou depart to the right hand, then I will go to the left."
ABRAM'S MAGNANIMOUS OFFER.
98 GRANDPA GOODWIN'S STORIES.
" Wasn't that splendid ?" exclaimed Mary, as she finished reading. " That was really noble, wasn't it, Grandpa ?"
" It certainly was. Abram did show true nobility in this offer. Instead of clamoring for his rights or acting selfishly, he waived them all and at once settled the trouble. In short, he stooped to conquer. He made himself the less that he might secure peace, and in so doing he became immensely the greater. He acted ac- cording to a rule which Jesus put into words 2,500 years later, when He said, Whosoever will be great among you, let him be your min- ister ; and whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant."
" What did Lot say, Grandpa ? I think he must have felt flat when Abram talked to him that way."
" He does not seem to have felt flat, Charley. He looked down into the beautiful Jordan valley ; he saw how green it was and how well watered, and said he, I'll take this for my share. He was quick to fall in with Abram's offer. That he owed anything to his uncle does not seem to have occurred to him. Abram must have felt that Lot was selfish and mean, but he nobly granted Lot his choice, and that day the two rich chieftains separated from each other."
" Good riddance to him," exclaimed Mary.
"But he was not rid of him, my child," said Grandpa. "Abram had a great deal more trouble with Lot, of which I will tell you. Lot was not lono- in oratherinor all his live stock and other treasures together, and soon was on his journey down the hillside to the plain below. Over the southern end of this plain little cities were scat- tered ; and though he left his flocks and herds on the plain of Jeri- cho, he himself moved on toward Sodom, the very worst of those cities, and there he pitched his tent. The men of Sodom are said to have been wicked and sinners before the Lord exceedingly. That is the Bible statement about them, and yet among those vile persons Lot went to live with his family."
" Why did he do such a foolish thing ?" inquired Carrie. "I should
TRUE NOBILITY. 99
think he would want to keep as far as possible from such persons. He had plenty of room in the fields, hadn't he, without going to that city?"
"Why he settled there we can readily judge," was Grandpa's an- swer. " Lot went into the valley to make money. It was a warm, unhealthy place, but it promised large profits. Sodom was the chief city of the vicinity, and for this reason was an attractive place for him, and his family who had seen but little of city life. Lot was not quite willing to go at once into the city to live, but he set up his tent near it. By one writer of the Bible he is called a righteous man. He did not plunge headlong into so wicked a place as Sodom, but pitched his tent outside the city, and yet near by. The next news we have of him, however, is that he had really gone into the city to live. He had taken a house there, and was settled among its vile inhabitants."
"That's the way people do," said Carrie. "They don't mean any great harm, but once started, on they go, and do far worse at the end than they ever meant to."
"Yes," said Grandoa, " entering into sin is like entering- into a net. The danger seems small at first, but once in, every moment makes matters worse and fastens the captive tighter — so Lot became entan- gled, and directly we find him sitting at the gate of Sodom. The gates of a city were cool, sheltered places, where idlers loved to sit and talk and see the passers-by. Lot had become so far like the men of Sodom that he sat and chatted with them in these public places. He was quite at home among them. He had become more and more entangled in their net. Then his daughters married and settled in Sodom ; but so far did Lot fall from the right and the good way, that when he tried to warn them of danger because of their sins he seemed to them as one that mocked. His influence with his own children was gone, and the people of the city spoke contemptuously of him. Everybody despised him."
" He did indeed get into the net, sure enough," said Mary, as she
100 GRANDPA GOODWIN'S STORIES.
heard this sketch of Lot's history. " How could he enjoy such a life after being so long with Abram ?"
" He did not enjoy it. See what is said of him in 1 1 Peter ii, 8," said Grandpa.
Carrie took the Bible this time and read as follows : " For that rio-hteous man dwelling among them, in seeing and hearing, vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds."
" He was a big goose to stay in such a place and be vexed every- day. I'd have moved," said Charley.
" Why he did not move we can only imagine," answered Grandpa. " He was probably making money and living in luxury — so he stayed, right or wrong, happy or unhappy. Better far is it not to enter the net at all, not to go near that which is wrong. Keep away off from it, as a careful driver keeps from the edge of a precipice. Do not enter the outer circles of a whirlpool, then the centre of it will never swallow you."
" May I add a quotation from Solomon ?" said Mrs. Reed. " My son, if sinners entice thee, consent thou not."
"What about my daughter, if sinners entice thee ?" asked Charley, laughing.
"Solomon knew the daughters would be all right," answered Mary, as the party broke up in a merry mood.
HOME FROM THE FIGHT. 101
HOME FROM THE FIGHT;
Or, ROYAL HONORS FOR VICTORS.
■ ^TT'^ELL us about Abram and Lot, Grandpa. I want to know more of what happened to them," said Carrie on the next, -*- assembling of the family in the sitting-room.
" How do you suppose," asked Grandpa in reply, " that Abram treated Lot after they separated ?"
" I know how I would have treated him," said Mary. " I would have let him totally alone: I would never have spoken to him again ; I would never have cared to see him. He was too mean for any thing."
" So would I — only worse," exclaimed Charley.
<: Well, we will see what Abram did," replied Grandpa. " Sodom and the cities about it were subject to a great King known as the King of Elam. But they rebelled against him, and would not pay him any more money for taxes. So this King and three others came one day and attacked the cities of the plain. They made short work of the soldiers who came out to fight them. Then they stole all the valuables they could find and carried off Lot and many other people as prisoners."
" Served Lot right," exclaimed Charley ; " he had no business to live there."
"By and by Abram heard what had happened to Lot. What do you suppose he then did ? He did not say, Served him right, nor, It's1 none of my business. Oh ! no ; he gathered together his own men who could serve as soldiers and other men who were his friends, three hundred and eighteen in all, and away he went in pursuit of the vie- 7
102
GRANDPA GOODWIN'S STORIES.
torious King of Elam. After a chase of about a hundred miles, he overtook and beat him completely and took back the prisoners and all the stolen goods. So Abram saved Lot and recovered all the treasures of those cities of the plain."
" Ani Melchizedek King of Salem brought forth bread and -wine : and he was the priest of the most > high God." — Genesis xiv, 18.
"He was just grand!" exclaimed Mary, who was an ardent hero- worshiper.
" I wish I had seen that fight," said Charley. " It would have been splendid fun to see those fellows chased over the hills, dropping all the nice things as they ran."
HOME FROM THE FIGHT. 103
"When the fight was over and Abram's men had rested, he began his march home, and everybody on the way was anxious to do him honor. The King of Sodom, who had escaped capture at the time of the battle, went out a long way to meet Abram and his men ; and well he might. They had done a great thing for him. Another great King named Melchizedek came out to meet them also. He was King of Salem. He was so noble and good and so honorable a priest of God that the Lord Jesus Himself is called, a priest after the order of Melchizedek. This King- brought out food and drink for the soldiers, and in the name of God pronounced blessings on Abram. So as they came home from the fight royal honors were bestowed upon them everywhere, and it must have been a happy day for them all. Melchizedek's men brought jars of \yine and baskets of bread, and Abram's men brought the treasures they had recaptured, a tenth of which he gave to Melchizedek to be used in the service of God."
"What was Lot doing all this time?" asked Carrie.
"Standing around, I suppose," said Grandpa. "He probably picked up the sword of some dead man, so that he too might look like a soldier now that danger was over. But he must have been very glad to be free again, and must have realized how good and grand his dear old uncle was. The King of Sodom was so grateful that he urged Abram to keep all the recaptured treasures for himself. But Abram. was too independent for that; he would not take a thread or a shoestring. He did his part from a generous and noble heart, and he was generous and noble to the end."
"That's so," shouted Charley. "They ought to have made him President, so they ought."
Laughing heartily at Charley's republican honors for the old patri- arch, the little company separated, each thinking of Mrs. Reed's good-night text, which she read from Matthew v, 44, 45 : " Do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute you, that ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven."
104 GRANDPA GOODWIN'S STORIES.
LESSONS FROM THE STARS;
Or, A GRAND FUTURE FORETOLD,
LET us go out to the porch," said Grandpa, as the family rose from the supper table. " It is a clear night and we will enjoy looking at the stars."
This request seemed a little odd ; but nobody questioned it, and in a moment all were looking heavenward upon stars which seemed especially bright in the dark-blue heavens.
" Let us count them," said Grandpa, after a moment's silent looking.
'• Count them !" said Mary. "That's more than any of us can do."
With this all agreed ; so Grandpa proposed that, as they could not count the stars, they should go again to the sitting-room. Won- dering at his unusual conduct, they re-entered the house, and when all were seated, Grandpa began : " One night Abram and the Lord had been talking together very lovingly, and Abram opened his heart on a matter that puzzled him. It had been promised that he should have many descendants, who should become a great people. But the fact was that Abram had no child at all. How that promise was to be fulfilled Abram did not see ; so he made free to ask the Lord about it. Then the Lord led Abram out of the house. It was a clear, bright night, and God said, Look, now, toward heaven and count the stars. Could Abram do any better at this than we did a few minutes ago ? The skies of Palestine are very clear and more stars are visible there than here. We could not fairly begin to count the stars we saw. Could Abram have done any better?"
" Why, no," said all at once.
LESSONS FROM THE STARS.
105
"Just so ; and when Abram gave up his effort to count, then God said, So shall thy seed be."
" Wasn't that a beautiful way for God to teach Abram ?" said Mary.
"Yes; and Abram believed it just as God said it. This pleased God all the more, and He went on to assure Abram that he should
" And he brought him forth abroad, and said, Look new toward heaven, and tell the stars, if thou be able to number them. And he said unto him, So shall thy seed be." — Genesis xv, 5.
possess all that land. He also foretold many important things about Abram's descendants, and finally told Abram that he should end his days in peace and be buried at a good old age."
" That was lovely, wasn't it ?" said Carrie, who had made Abram's.
10G GRANDPA GOODWIN'S STORIES.
affairs her special delight. " But, Grandpa, what great nation is it that descended from Abram ?"
"The Jews — or Israelites, as they prefer to be called; a people that has held together from Abram's time till now, though it has suffered more persecution and harsh treatment than any other nation1 of the world."
"Why, I don't think the Jews are so many that they can't be num- bered," said Mary. " My geography gives their number as six hun- dred thousand, while some nations have eight or ten times as many."
"True; but the Jews have been a people continuously for nearly four thousand years. Who can tell how many of them have lived in all that time ? And remember one other thing : Abram's seed, or descendants, are not those who bear the name of Israel only. Real servants of God — those who love Him from the heart — are the true Israelites, the true children of Abram ; for see what Paul says in Galatians iii, 29." . Carrie found the verse and read as follows : " And if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise."
"Oh! I understand," exclaimed Mary. "Abram was so very good that all good people are called his children."
"Yes," added Grandpa; "and when we feel discouraged at the great number of evil people in the world, we need only to look to the stars, as Abram did. We may be sure that those who love and serve God can no more be counted than can the stars."
"That is a grand encouragement," said Mrs. Reed. "It reminds me of those splendid words of the hymn :
" ' Ten thousand times ten thousand, In sparkling raiment bright — - The armies of the ransomed,
Throng up the steeps of light.' "
"And that," said Grandpa, "is but the echo of those Bible de- scriptions of the occupants of heaven as an innumerable company, a multitude which no man could number in that throng."
FAMILY TROUBLES. 107
FAMILY TROUBLES;
Or, THE SERPENT IN THE HOME.
" "T "T THAT would you think if I should tell you a story that
\/\/ would make you feel displeased with Abram ?" asked
* Grandpa Goodwin, as the children gathered about him.
" I should be very sorry," said Mary, " for I think Abram was just splendid."
" So should I be sorry," chimed in Carrie, " for he is so nice."
"Tell us the story, Grandpa," urged Charley; "I guess we can stand it."
" Well," began Grandpa, " I suppose we may talk over this stoty, since God for some grood reason has allowed it to 2^0 into the Bible. Abram's wife had a servant-maid named Ha^ar. She was dutiful and well-behaved, and Sarai at last urged Abram to marry this maid and have two wives. It was an odd thing for her to urge, but she did it, and Abram yielded and married Hagar. It was quite common in those days for men to have several wives, though the Bible never approves such conduct. This second marriage soon brought trouble" into Abram's family. It let Satan, the old serpent, right into his home."
" I should think it would," said Mary; "but Sarai was very foolish to ask Abram to do such a thine."
" And he very foolish to do it," continued Grandpa. " for no sooner was Hagar recognized as his wife than her head was turned by her new honors, and she despised the very woman whose influence had made her what she was. Then Sarai became jealous and ran to Abram with sore complaints against Hagar. Abram hardly did
103 GRANDPA GOODWIN' S STORIES.
right by Hagar either, for he said to Sarai, Do to her as it pleaseth thee. Now Sarai was pleased to abuse Hagar, and abuse her she did, until in sheer desperation Hagar ran off into the woods away "from Abram and his people."
" That was a shame !" exclaimed Mary, indignantly ; " but I blame Sarai most. She was real ugly, and had no business to treat Hagar so."
" What happened to Hagar out in the woods ?" asked Charley. " Did Indians o-et after her?"
" No, Charley. There were no Indians there ; but an angel of the Lord got after her, and that was a great deal better."
" What did he say ?" asked the boy, who anticipated some great adventure of tliis lone woman in the woods.
" The angel found her sitting by a well of water, where she had stopped for rest and drink. On his asking where she was going, she told him ail about her troubles. Then he told her to go back, be patient, and all would come out well, because the Lord had heard her cry and would care for her. Then Hagar said, Thou God seest me ; and trusting this fact and saying these words over and over in her heart, she went back to her home, and for several years after this we hear of no more trouble."
" That was real kind of the angel," said Carrie ; " but then angels are always kind, aren't they, Grandpa ?"
"Yes, darling; it is their business to minister to the children of God ?".
"What happened after that?" inquired Charley, feeling that the story had not yet topped out just as he had anticipated.
" Years ran on, and a son of Hagar's had become a large, strong lad. His name was Ishmael. Sarai, too, had a son, named Isaac. One day Sarai gave a great party in honor of her boy, and in the midst of the enjoyment what did she see but Ishmael making faces at Isaac and mocking him. She was very angry at this, and demanded that Ishmael be sent away from the house at once, and his mother
FAMILY TROUBLES.
109
with him. That boy and her boy should not live together. One or the other must go. That was an awful trial for dear, kind Abram. What could he do ?"
"Let Sarai clear out herself and take Ike along," answered Char- ley, with promptness and decision.
" And she departed, and -wandered in the wilderness of Beersheba." — Genesis xxi, 14.
"I'm not so sure about that," said Mary ; "but Hagar was not to blame. Boys will be boys; and I suppose Ishmael was full of fun and didn't mean any harm. He wouldn't have hurt little Isaac, I'm sure. Sarai needn't have become so cross about it."
110 GRANDPA GOODWIN'S STORIES.
" I don't like her, any way," said Carrie. " She was an old mischief- maker — that's what she was."
" I don't suppose Abram was very clear as to what was best in the case," continued Grandpa ; " but he went to God with his trouble, and God told him to do what Sarai asked and He would make it all right for Hagar. So, early the next morning, Abram sent Hagar off, giving her food and water, and Sarai, no doubt, rejoiced to be rid of her and her saucy boy. It was a terrible trouble in a family, and none but God could in any way lighten it."
" It must have been all right, for God approved it. But it don't seem so; does it, Grandpa?"
''No, Mary; it does not seem right. It was grievous to Abram, and I am sure it was terrible to Ha^ar and Ishmael. But God undertook to bring good out of it, though it seemed so full of evil."
" What did He do ? I'm sure I don't see what could be done," added Carrie.
" Hagar and the boy started and journeyed on in the wilderness until their provisions were gone and they were thoroughly tired. So faint did Ishmael become that Hagar laid him in a shady place under the bushes, supposing he was about to die. She could not bear to sit there and see his agony ; so she went off a little way and wept aloud, while the boy, too, sobbed and moaned in his sufferings. Then she heard a kind voice asking, What aileth thee, Hagar? what aileth thee, Hagar? It was God's voice, and He assured her that the lad should be saved and should become the head of a oreat nation. Looking up, as she heard this good news, she saw a well near by. It took her but a moment to fill her pitcher, give the sick boy a drink, and bathe his hot head. Soon he was much better, and he lived, grew, became a famous hunter, and at last married a woman of Egypt, which was his mother's native land."
"And is that all we know about him?" asked Charley.
"We know." answered Grandpa, "that many years after, when his father died, Ishmael and Isaac met in sorrow and buried him. We
FAMILY TROUBLES. \\\
know, also, that Ishmael became very great and that his descendants, the Ishmaelites, were a brave and strong people, so that the outcast boy had no reason to grieve in the end. The Arabs, probably, are descended from him, and through him they claim Abram as their father. They believe that Ishmael was offered in sacrifice by his father, on a mountain near their sacred city, Mecca. When Mo- hammedan pilgrims go to that city they visit this mount in honor of Ishmael. If they desire to make a perfect pilgrimage, they also listen to a sermon at this place and offer a sacrifice of their own. Ishmael's burial-place is pointed out near Mecca, and the claim is made that Abraham once visited him in this city and helped him rebuild its temple, which had been destroyed by a flood. Ishmael lived to be one hundred and thirty-seven years old and to become very famous."
" This is far better than I expected," said Mary ; " but God, not Sarai or Abram, made it come out so well."
" God's hands are good hands in which to leave our affairs," said Mrs. Reed. " As the Psalmist says, Commit thy way unto the Lord, trust also in Him, and He shall bring it to pass."
" That's what I'll do," added Charley. " He did so well for Ish- mael I'll let Him try me."
"If you really do, Charley," said his mother, "I'm sure He'll make a good job of it ; so I hope you'll let Him try."
"About one hundred and twenty years ago," added Grandpa, ""Michael Bruce, a Scottish poet, died, being only twenty-one vears of age. Among many beautiful verses he left are these :
" How happy is the child who hears Instruction's warning voice, And who celestial wisdom makes His early, only choice.
" For she has treasures greater far Than east or west unfold, And her rewards more precious are Than all their stores of gold."
112 GRANDPA GOODWIN'S STORIES.
THREE WONDERFUL GUESTS;
Or, ENTERTAINING ANGELS UNAWARES.
" •^""'VX.RRIE, turn to Hebrews xiii and read the first two verses," I said Grandpa.
^— "^ Carrie turned as told and read these words: "Let brotherly love continue. Be not forgetful to entertain strangers : foi thereby some have entertained angels unawares."
" What is unawares?" asked Charley.
"Unawares," repeated Mar)'; "why, unawares means without thinking. They entertained angels without supposing them to be angels."
" Can either of you tell of a person who once entertained stran- gers without suspecting them to be angels, but who afterward found them to be really such?" asked Grandpa.
Nobody answered ; so Grandpa went on : " One very warm day Abram — whose name God had lately changed to Abraham — was sitting at his tent-door, resting and cooling- himself, when suddenly three men appeared. He hastened forward to. meet them and bowed most politely. They were entire strangers to him, but he offered to entertain them, and they consented to stop. So Abraham had water brought for them to wash, and while they rested under a tree near by, he had meat and cakes cooked ; then the table was set in a shady place, and while the strangers ate, Abraham stood by to see that all their wants were supplied."
"Who were these men?" asked Carrie, whose curiosity was rising with the story.
" Abraham did not know, nor did he ask. No doubt he wondered,
THREE WONDERFUL GUESTS.
113
but he was too gentlemanly to question them. Maybe he suspected whom they were, but he kept still and served them as best he knew how. The fact is that one of them was the Lord Himself, who after- ward was known as Jesus ; the others were angels who went with
" He took butter, and milk, and the calf which he had dressed, and s t it before them ; and he stood by the?u under the tree, and they did eat." — Genesis xviii, 8.
Him to do His bidding. Abraham did not know these facts, how- ever. He entertained the angels unawares."
"It was Abraham, then, that Carrie read about!" exclaimed Mary. "1 see now. I can answer that question the next time you ask it, I'm sure. But why did God change his name from Abram to Abra-
114 GRANDPA GOODWIN'S STORIES.
ham. I don't see much difference between them. I prefer Abram; it's shorter, and don't seem so old-fashioned."
" There is a difference, though ; and God made the change to honor this loved servant of His. Abram means a hkrh or noble father; but such a father might have no more than one son. Abra- ham, however, means the father of a great multitude. God made this change because, though Abraham had no child, yet he was to have many descendants and be widely honored. Sarai's name, too, had been changed to Sarah. Sarai probably meant co7itcntious or quarrelsome — a name that seems well applied in her earlier life. Sarah means princess, and well describes the honor into which she was brought at the end as the mother of many nations."
"What did the angels do at Abraham's?" asked Charley, seeming not to enjoy the digression about the change of names.
" After some cheery words to Abraham and Sarah, they started on their way, Abraham going with them to see them safely started. They took the road toward Sodom, and as they went their conversa- tion made Abraham sure they were not mere men, but real messen- gers of God. They were going to Sodom and Gomorrah to see whether there was anything good in those cities. If not, they meant to destroy them. This they told to Abraham, knowing him to be a true friend of God's. When they came to the brow of the hill the angels passed on, but the Lord remained with Abraham. Then Abraham began to plead that Sodom might be spared. He thought of Lot and his family and was anxious to save them. The Lord promised to spare Sodom if fifty righteous persons should be found there; then, on Abraham's further pleading, He agreed to spare the city if forty-five righteous persons should be found there ; then if forty; then if thirty ; then if twenty ; then if ten. Having made this promise, the Lord left and Abraham went back to his tent."
" How large were those cities, Grandpa ? — as large as New York or Chicago ?"
" By no means, Mary. Sodom was the chief of them and was the
THREE WONDERFUL GUESTS. 115
seat of the local government, but at most it had only a few thousand inhabitants. Its residents were chiefly shepherds or small farmers, having plenty of idle time on their hands and having no great ambi- tions to excel in any way. Satan finds some mischief still for idle hands to do, you know, and these idlers became very low and vile." " It was a mean city to live in ; and a mean set of people," said Charley, very positively. " I'll bet there were a sneaking set of boys in that old town. I'm glad it wasn't my home."
" How did Abraham feel, I wonder, after being in such company and having such talk ?" was Carrie's half-questioning meditation, as Grandpa paused.
"I am sure he felt honored by having entertained such guests and having had an interview with the Lord Himself. But he felt awfully concerned for Lot. It may be Abraham blamed himself more or less for having brought Lot from his early home in Chaldea into this land ; but, whether he did or not, Lot was in terrible clanger. Abraham had done all he could to save him; but would he be saved? This was uncertain. The chances were sadly against him. It looked as though all was a;one."
"Well, was he saved?" exclaimed the children.
" Of that we shall talk to-morrow evening. Meanwhile you will do well to remember what we read at the beginning this evening about entertaining strangers."
" And let me remind the children also," added Mrs. Reed, " that on one occasion two hospitable men entertained a stranger who proved to be even greater than angels."
"Where was that, mamma, and whom did they entertain?" asked Carrie.
" Read the last chapter of Luke, and see for yourself."
"Oh! I know," exclaimed Mary. "It was the disciples at Em* maus who entertained the Lord."
"Yes, darling, you are right."
116 GRANDPA GOODWJN'SSTORILS.
EVERYTHING DESTROYED;
Or, FLEEING FROM THE BURNING CITY.
" '^ T" THAT became of Lot?" asked Charley, before the family \ /\ / had time to be fairly seated. " I haven't thought of any- * * thing else to-day but of those angels going to Sodom, and I've been wondering whether Lot trot off."
"When the two angels reached the gate of Sodom," began Grandpa, :< the first man to meet them was Lot. He was sitting at the eate, and as he saw them come near, he went forward and saluted them in friendly style and asked them to come and lodge with him. After a little urging they consented, and Lot took them home to supper, little thinking that he was entertaining angels."
"I wish some of them would come to our house," added Charley. J* I'd give them my bed to sleep in, I would."
"Lot felt that way too, Charley," resumed Grandpa; "but before they had time to go to bed a mob of low, vile fellows, whose conduct had given Sodom so bad a name, gathered about Lot's door and wanted to see his guests, really meaning to do them harm. Lot went out to talk to the men and quiet them, but the miserable fel- lows turned on him, mocking him and attempting to beat him. Then the angels interfered. Opening the door they jerked Lot away from the mob and caused a sudden blindness to fall upon the men, who groped around for the door, howling at Lot and his guests and strug- gling with each other until completely wearied out, when they gave up their effort and scattered to their homes."
" I guess Lot thought he had angels about him when they pulled him in. It was lucky for him they were there," said Mary.
EVERYTHING DESTROYED.
117
"They'd have killed Lot but for the angels," added Carrie.
" After this affair die angels did not debate long as to what was to be done with Sodom. They sent Lot off to the houses of his married daughters to warn them to flee before the city should be destroyed.
" Escape for thy life ; look not behind thee, neither stay thou in all the plain ; escape to the mountain, lest thou be consumed."' — Genesis, xix, 17.
But alas ! Lot had not talked that way before, nor lived that way. ' He had said nothing about danger because of sin. He had acted a.^i if Sodom was the best place he knew, and he had stayed there to make money. To his sons-in-law he seemed as one that mocked when he suddenly became concerned for their safety; they would not
113 GRANDPA GOODWIN'S STOR U.S.
*
go, nor would their wives. So Lot went back home alone, while the young folks probably laughed at their father's excitement and went off to their beds. As day began to dawn the angels urged Lot with his wife and two unmarried daughters to rise and fly lest they should be consumed ; but they were not in a hurry. No alarm of fire had been sounded; they saw.no token of danger — so they lingered until the angels seized them by their hands and hurried them away outside the city's gate, telling them to hasten and escape for their lives ; not to look back nor to stop in all the plain, but to flee to the mountains, lest they should be consumed with the city."
"I suppose they hurried fast enough then. I'm sure I would have- done so had I been there."
"It would seem so indeed, Mary but it was not so. Lot did not want to go to the mountains, so he begged permission to go to Zoar, another little city. For Lot's sake Zoar was spared, and the angels hurried him toward it. Lot's wife did not want to go at all. She had been told not even to look back, but back she did look, and in- stantly she was changed into a pillar of salt. Just how this was done we do not know, but she disobeyed, and for that she was destroyed. Lot and his daughters then hurried on, frightened, out of breath, and stripped of all their goods except what they carried in their hands. No sooner had they reached Zoar than fire and brimstone rained down upon Sodom and Gomorrah, burning up everything, and totally destroying the cities, the surrounding country, the- cattle, and all the people."
" Did Abraham know the city was burned up?" asked Carrie, with evident concern.
'' Doubtless he did," responded Grandpa. " I do not suppose he slept much that night after the Lord left him. At any rate, Genesis xix, 27, says that he went up early in the morning to the place where he stood before the Lord, and he looked toward Sodom and Gomorrah, and lo ! the smoke of the country went up as the smoke of a furnace. He then found out for a certainty that ten righteous persons had nol
EVERY! BING DESTROYED. 119
been discovered in Sodom, but whether Lot had been destroyed he did not know."
" What became of Lot and his daughters ?" asked Mary.
" His was a sad end. He lost all his property in the fire; his mar- ried daughters and their husbands were burned up ; his wife was turned into a pillar of salt on their way to Zoar ; and he, with his two daughters, reached there weary, bereaved, destitute, and terror- stricken. But they were not contented. For some reason he feared to dwell in the city. Perhaps he feared another fiery shower ; per- haps the people were unfriendly and abusive. But he was afraid to stay — so he and his daughters went off to the mountains, as they were ordered to do at the first, and made their home in a cave."
"Oh! my," exclaimed Carrie; "just to think of it! and he was once so rich ! How awfully his daughters must have felt to become so poor and live in a cave !"
" Why didn't he go back to Abraham ?" asked Charley. " Rich uncles are always nice to go to."
" He would have been ashamed to do that," said Mary.
" I judge he was," replied Grandpa, " for we have no account that he ever did go back, but he continued to live in the cave. His daughters, dissatisfied with everything about them, acted very badly for a time, and then they drop out of the Bible narrative and we hear no more about them."
" Don't you know what became of Lot ?"
" No, Charley ; his is one of those cases which end in darkness. After his changeful life it is to be hoped he found the eternal rest, but no man knows how it fared with him."
"That is a sad ending to the story," said Mary, very seriously; Mrs. Reed adding the words from Paul, " The love of money is the root of all evil."
120 GRANDPA GOODWIN' S STORIES.
A TIMELY RESCUE;
Ok, THE CHILD OF PROMISE SAVED.
I
HAVE been thinking so much about Lot and the trouble he must have been to his good uncle," began Mary, as the family gathered once more for their after-tea chat. "I think Abraham must have become sorry that ever he saw Lot."
" Rather, that ever he brought Lot into Canaan," interrupted Grandpa, "for there is where the trouble began. God told Abra- ham to leave his father's house and his kindred ; but Abraham took some of his kindred along — this nephew, Lot, among them — and he became a constant trouble. I suppose Abraham loved Lot and was unwilling to leave him behind. But Abraham outgrew that love of men in preference to God ; he came at last to where he would obey God if he had to kill his own son in doincr so."
" Oh ! yes," exclaimed Carrie. " He came near killing Isaac, didn't he, Grandpa? But it was queer of the Lord to tell Abraham to do such a thing, wasn't it?"
"Not so queer, possibly, as my little girl supposes. You see that Abraham, because of love to his father and nephew, had not done just as God told him. He loved them more than he loved God. But by the trouble they caused him he learned that it is better to obey God at any cost than to please one's self. That Abraham had really learned this hard lesson, and that he would obey God in any- thing, God now meant to prove."
"Why should God do that?" asked Mary. "Did not He know that Abraham would obey?"
" Yes ; but Abraham did not know it for himself until God tested
A TIMELY RESCUE. 121
him, and the world would never have known it without this trial. God meant the test to be a hard one. Read to us, Mary, from Gene- sis xxii, 2, and see just what God did demand ?"
In a moment Mary had found the place and read: "And He said, Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah ; and offer him there for a burnt-offerino- upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of."
" That was an awfully hard thing to ask," said Carrie. " But Abra- ham knew God didn't mean for him to do it; didn't he, Grandpa?"
" Certainly not. Abraham was in solemn earnest. He meant to do all God commanded this time. That he expected to kill Isaac is clear from Hebrews xi, 19, which tells us he did it, accounting that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead. So he expected Isaac to go among the dead — to die, in other words — and he believed that God would bring him back to life at some time and in some way, so that God's promises concerning Isaac might be fulfilled. God put His command in a very hard form : Take thy son, thine only son, Isaac, whom thou lovest, and offer him for a burnt-offering. God meant to make Abraham see all the terribly hard things in this act of obedience; and he was to obey at once, for God said, Take now thy son and offer him. So Abraham was to kill his dear boy, drain the blood from his body, and then burn it ; for in this way the burnt-offering was made."
"That was a dreadful thing to ask of a father," said Carrie, with a si udder.
•' I wouldn't have done it if it had been me."
"That's where you and Abraham differ, then, Charley," said Grandpa, with a smile ; " for he rose early the next morning and started. There was no disobedience this time ; he now meant to do just what God had ordered. It was a two days' journey ; but they went, with wood split and knife sharpened, until they came to the appointed spot. What they talked about on the way is not told, except that Isaac said, Behold the fire and the wood : but where is the lamb for the burnt-offering? This question shows that the boy
122
GRANDPA GOODWIN'S STORIES.
did not know his father's errand. His inquiry must have cut Abra- ham to the heart. He could not control himself so as to tell all, but he answered, My son, God will provide Himself a lamb for a burnt- offering. So they came to the place of sacrifice, where they rolled
"And Abraham stretched forth his hand, and took the knife to slay his son. And the an~el of the Lord called unto him out of hcavin, and said, Abraham, Abraham." — Genesis xxii, 10, II.
together some great stones for an altar, on which they arranged the wood so that it would burn freely. Then came the fearful moment. It must be done. God had said it. Abraham will obey. He tied Isaac's hands, laid him on the altar, took the knife, stretched forth his own hand to strike the blow and kill the boy ; but, as he paused
A TIMELY RESCUE. 123
a moment, probably in prayer,, a voice rang out, loud and clear: Abraham ! Abraham ! Here am I, said he ; here in the place to which God sent me ; here, doing the work God ordered ; here, ready to know and to do His will, though my heart aches and breaks."
"Well, I never understood how good and grand Abraham was in that. I couldn't help thinking he was very cruel ; but now he seems to be just right," said Mary.
"So God thought; for read what the an^el wno liac[ called him says in verse 12."
Mary read : " And he said, Lay not thine hand upon the lad, neither do thou anything unto him : for now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son, from me."
. " How glad Abraham must have felt at that ! I guess he said, Thank you, in real earnest," said Carrie.
" I guess it didn't take him long to untie Ike, upset the old altar, and start back home," added Charley, with a glow of enthusiasm.
" So far as upsetting the altar is concerned, that they did not do. Abraham at that moment saw a ram caught in the bushes by his horns ; so he took the ram and offered him instead of Isaac for a burnt-offering unto the Lord. Then God spoke again, repeating the old promises and giving Abraham some new ones, also, because he had obeyed so nobly."
" He deserved it, too. Nobody could have had a harder trial, and nobody could have met it more splendidly."
"You are right, Mary," added Grandpa. "After this they started home — a happy couple, I am sure."
"Which of you," joined in Mrs. Reed at this point, "can tell me of another Father who really did offer as a sacrifice His Son, His only Son, and One whom He dearly loved?"
None of the children answering, she turned over the leaves of the Bible to John iii, 1 6, and read : " For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life."
124 GRANDPA GOODWIN'S STORIES.
A QUEER COURTSHIP;
Or, WHY SUPPER WAS DELAYED.
"~T ^V 7~HAT a good time Isaac must have had with the boys
\/\/ after he got home again," said Charley, when the family
* * met once more. " If my father had most killed me and
I had got off all right, I'd have had something to tell them, I knew."
" I trust the boys did enjoy listening to him, and that he enjoyed telling them," said Grandpa, " for the story ought to have made better boys of them. But there was another scene in Isaac's life, which possibly may interest the girls more than the boys."
" O Grandpa ! do tell us," shouted both girls at once, Mary adding the declaration that she was " dying to hear it."
" It is about a queer courtship, or the way Isaac got his wife."
" Splendid !" exclaimed Mary. " Do go on. I'm dying more than ever to hear about it now."
"Well," resumed Grandpa, "Isaac's mother died and left him a well-grown lad, some forty years of age."
" A venerable old bachelor, I should say," laughed Mary.
" But .boys did not grow up so fast then," continued Grandpa. "Isaac was probably gaining some young lady acquaintances among the neighbors, who really worshiped idols and were very wicked people. Abraham did not like the idea of his son marrying one of these women, so he called his head servant and sent him to the land called Mesopotamia, where Abraham himself had been born, that he might there find a wife for Isaac."
" Ha ! ha !" laughed Charley. " That old chap of a servant was to do the courting, was he ?"
A QUEER COURTSHIP.
125
" So it seems, Charley, and Abraham gave him plenty of camels and servants, with gold, silver, precious stones, rich robes, and other costly and elegant things, and then made the servant take a solemn oath to do all he had been told, and so started him on his lone and very odd errand."
"And the servant ran to meet her, and said, Let me, I pray thee, drink a little water of thy pitcher. And she said, Drink, my lord." — Genesis xxiv, 17, 18.
" Why was he so sure that any nice girl would come so far to marry a man she had never seen ?" asked Carrie, adding, seriously, " I wouldn't do it, I know/'
126 GRANDPA GOODWIN'S STORIES.
" Oh ! that was the way of doing then," said Grandpa, " and they do pretty much that way even now in those lands."
" Glad I don't live there!" exclaimed Mary.
"So am I glad you don't live there," said Grandpa, "for then we could not have our pleasant evening talks. But the old servant started, and after a long, long journey of many days, he came to a city called Nahor, after Abraham's own brother, whose descendants were settled all around that place. Here he had been told to seek a wife for Isaac. ^ And how do you suppose he began ?"
" Why, by asking questions about the nice young girls of the place, of course," said Mary.
" No, not a question did he ask. Just outside the city was a well, and the women were accustomed to come there in the cool of the day for water. There the old servant's caravan stopped ; and having prayed that God would guide him, he decided that when the women came to the well he would ask for a drink from their pitchers. If any one of them gave him a drink and also offered to fill the water troughs so that the camels might drink, he would take that as a sure sipn that she was the one for Isaac. It was a strange thing for him to expect any young woman to offer to do, for camels drink enor- mously, and to draw water for a herd of them was a tremendous
task."
»
" It was a pretty good test though, for anybody obliging enough to do that would be good and kind, I'm sure," said Mary.
" Yes, that is so. The old servant had not long to wait, for directly some of the women came, and he asked for a drink. Then one bright, pretty girl at once lowered her pitcher from her shoulder on to her hand that he might drink from it, and she also offered to draw water for the camels. So surprised was the good old man that he let her go on drawing water until the camels were satisfied. Then he gave her a splendid gold ear-ring and two beautiful bracelets, and asked her whose daughter she was, and whether her father could keep him for the night. She told who she was — a grand-
A QUEER COURTSHIP.
127
daughter of Abraham's brother — and then she ran home to tell of the strangers who were coming-. Possibly the rich gifts she had. received helped the welcome, but sure it is that her brother Laban ran out to the well and urged the strangers to come right along, as everything was ready for them and their beasts. The camels were quickly
'■ What man is this that walkelh in the field to meet its f" — Genesis xxiv, 64.
unladen and fed, and supper was soon ready for the old servant. 1 But,' said he, 'I will not eat until I have told mine errand.' So he. kept supper waiting while he told who he was, why he came, and what had happened at the well. When he was through they all agreed that
128 GRANDPA GOODWIN'S STORIES.
the matter was from the* Lord. Then the old servant handed out a splendid lot of presents to each of the family, after which they took supper and spent a happy evening together."
" And was she really engaged to Isaac so quick as that, and she had never seen him ?" asked Mary, with astonishment.
" Even so. Rebekah (for that was her naine) was willing, and who was more concerned than she ? Early next morning the old servant wanted to be right off to Isaac. The family very naturally wanted him to stay a few days, but he was urgent and Rebekah agreed, so off they started for Isaac's home in Canaan. Her old nurse, Deborah, went with her, as did her servant maids, and so, mounted on camels and escorted by Abraham's men, the bridal party began its march to the far-off, and to them, unknown land."
" That was a queer performance," said Carrie. " And what was Isaac doing all this time ?"
"He was anxious and impatient, I am sure, for he moved up toward the north a little to meet the caravan as it should be return- ing. One evening, as we are told in Genesis xxiv, 6^, ' he went out to meditate in the field.' He went in the direction which the old servant would naturallv take in returning;, and as Isaac looked, 'behold! the camels were coming.' At the same moment Rebekah saw him and asked who he was. Then she drew a veil over her face, got down off her camel, and in another moment Isaac, her future husband, was at her side."
" Suppose they had not liked each other, wouldn't it have been awful ?" said Carrie.
" But they did like each other. Isaac loved her, and she was a comfort to him, and she went to live in his mother's splendid tent, and Abraham was glad that Isaac had found so good a wife in so odd a way."
" That is a nice story," said Carrie. " I shall certainly tell it to ali the girls in school to-morrow."
ex
■B^^^a^j^i
goffigftf
REBEKAH AT THE WELL.
130 GRANDPA GOODWIN'S STORIES.
SHARP PRACTICE;
Or, DIAMOND CUT DIAMOND.
" T TOW did Isaac and his wife get along after that queer court-
R Hj ship ?" asked Carrie, when Grandpa was seated with the
■*-- -*- family.
" Very well in their young days, so far as we know. He loved her and she was a comfort to him, which is a good record for a man and his wife. But things were not smooth and happy as they became older, I am sorry to say."
" Why, what happened to them then ?" asked Mary. " It seemed to me they were just a splendid couple. They should have lived in comfort to the end of their days."
"Trouble came in this way. After they had been married a good many years they had twin boys, whom they called Esau and Jacob. Even as babies these boys were very unlike each other. Esau was red-haired, and had plenty of it too, so that his hands and arms were like a hairy garment. He grew up to be a great hunter, living out- of-doors in a bold, roving way. Jacob was smooth- skinned and of quiet manners, staying about in the house and enjoying his mother's society."
" He was a mother's bov," said Charlev, with something of con- tempt in his manner; but catching himself in an instant, he added " But if his mother was like my mother, I don't blame him a bit."
'•Jacob became his mother's favorite," continued Grandpa, "while Esau was a pet of his father's, chiefly because he captured so much fine game, of which his father was very fond. So the father favored and petted one son and the mother favored and petted the other.
SHARP PRACTICE. 131
In this way trouble is sure to come. Neither boy was slow to see with which parent he could best get along, so Esau ran to father and Jacob to mother with their complaints or requests. Soon things in that home became unpleasant. Trickery, deceit, falsehood, and favoritism grew fast. The family was divided into two parts, each planning against the other, each using sharp practice to outwit the other. It was diamond cut diamond, as the common phrase puts it; trust and comfort departed."
" I'm sorry to know that," sighed Carrie. " I thought Rebekah was so good. I didn't think she could do an ugly thing."
" But she did, Carrie. Like ourselves, she was only human, and liable to do wrong."
" What wrong did she do, Grandpa ? I want to know all about it, and yet I don't want to know ; but tell me, what was it she did?"
" Well, my dear," resumed Grandpa, " it was the custom in that land for the elder son of a family to receive twice as much of his father's property as any other son."
" That's the kind of a son I am, the elder son," said Charley, be- tween Grandpa's sentences.
" The father generally gave a special blessing to this son, so that he became rich in property and in his father's good-will also. Of right this honor belonged to Esau, but Jacob envied it, and he and his mother talked and schemed to get it. One day Jacob had a splendid mess of beans just smoking hot from the fire. As he was about to eat this savory food, in came Esau from a hunting trip, and he was both tired and hungry. He asked Jacob for the dish of beans he was about to eat, and Jacob said, Sell me this day thy birthright. That was a big price for a mess of beans ; but Esau was a tired, hungry boy, and he thought he was about to die any way for the want of food, so he said to himself, What profit shall this birthright do to me? He thought his last hour had come unless he should oret food at once, so he sold his birthright, and by a solemn oath turned it over to Jacob."
132 GRANDPA GOODWIN'S SI OKIES.
"The foolish fellow!" exclaimed the "iris.
O
"Why didn't he go into the kitchen and get something for him- self?" asked Charley, certain that he could have managed things far better than Esau did.
"The fact is," said Grandpa, "that Esau cared very little for the honor and privilege that were his. He despised his birthright, as we are told in Genesis xxv, 34, and having eaten his fill, he rose up and went his way without regret for having parted with it. Whether his father knew that Esau had sold the birthright we do not know, but he loved Esau and the venis.on Esau brought him, and he decided to give him the blessing, right or wrong. One day he told Esau that the time had come that he should have it, but he demanded that Esau should go and kill some venison and dress it; then, after eating it, the blessing would in due form be given. If Esau had been true to his bargain made with Jacob, he would have told all about it then, but he said nothing and hurried off to kill the deer and feed his father. So he tried his sharp practice in the case."
"Well, I don't like him for that," said Mary. "He sold out to Jacob and swore that he would stand by his bargain ; so he ought to have done it." *
'That would have been honorable," replied Grandpa; "but Re- bekah was sharp too. It was diamond cut diamond. So she hur- riedly cooked some goat's meat, seasoned it as Isaac liked to have venison seasoned, then hunted up some of Esau's old clothes and put them on her pet boy. His hands and neck she covered with goatskin and so sent him to his father, who was blind, that he might get the blessing ahead of Esau."
"That was mean; I don't like her either," was Mary's emphatic comment.
" Mothers will do anything for boys," said Charley, looking rogu- ishly at his mother and sisters.
" Mothers ought never to do a wrong thing for either boys or girls," replied Grandpa, " but Rebekah did it. She sent her boy to deceive
SHARP PRACTICE.
133
his blind father, and ohc planned and helped the deception from first to last. When all was ready, Jacob went in carrying the goat's meat to his father, who was surprised that Esau should be back so soon. So he asked, Who art thou, my son ? That was a hard question for
" It came to pass, as soon as Isaac had made an end of blessing Jacob . . . that Esau his brother came in from his hunting.'''' — Genesis xxvii, 30.
Jacob to meet, but he met it with a lie, saying, I am Esau, thy first- born. The blind old man was suspicious that all was not right, and wanted to feel his hands. When he felt the rough goatskin and the clothes and smelt the odor of the garments, he was satisfied, though
he said the voice was Jacob's. Once more he asked, Art thou my 9
134 GRANDPA GOODWIN'S STORIES.
very son Esau ? And Jacob said, I am. Then Isaac blessed him, kissed him, ate die food, and was content. But hardly was this done when in came Esau. Then there was a scene. Esau cried aloud and begged for a blessing, while the old father trembled all over and knew not what to do. At last he said, I have blessed him, and he shall be blessed. Then Esau begged piteously for some other bless- ing, and his father gave him one full of comfort, and yet Jacob was to&be chief. He and his mother had gained the prize. The blessing of the firstborn was his."
" But, Grandpa, I don't see why the firstborn should be any better than any other child," said Mary. "I don't think I'm so great just because I was born before Carrie and Charley."
" Good girl !" shouted Charley ; " but you're our big sister all the
same."
" You know, Mary, that the King, in countries so ruled, is always the firstborn son, or his firstborn son, and so, not by second sons, but by the first in each family, the titles and honors are handed down. It was so in Jacob's time. Then, too, he who is the head of the family, its prince or chieftain among the patriarchs, needed more property to maintain his larger establishment ; so the firstborn needed to be the most liberally provided for."
"I'll bet Esau was mad at Jacob." said Charley.
"Yes, I suppose he was," continued Grandpa. "It is said that he hated Jacob because of this trick, and vowed to kill him when their father should die. In this way a sad, sad home was made."
"I'm real sorry," said Carrie; "but they all did wrong, didn't
they ?"
"Yes," interposed Mrs. Reed, "and let us learn to keep our home happy by always doing right."
" We'll try," was the answer all gave with real earnestness.
THE WONDERFUL LADDER. 335
THE WONDERFUL LADDER;
Or, A STAIRWAY TO THE SKIES. .
' "T "T THAT happened to Jacob after he got that birthright?" \/\/ asked Charley before Grandpa had fairly settled him- * * self in his easy-chair. " Did Esau hurt him ? I've been wondering all day how their quarrel came out."
" Xo ; Esau did not harm him," replied Grandpa. " But Jacob's mother was afraid harm would come to her pet boy ; so she made an excuse to send him away to her father's until Esau's anger should cool off. She told Isaac that she feared Jacob would marry a young woman of the land where they were dwelling, and this she thought would never do, so she proposed that he go off to Padan-aram and there get a wife. Isaac approved the plan and Jacob started. He had a long and lonesome journey before him. No doubt he was somewhat homesick, for he had never gone far from his mother be- fore. His father, too, was so aged and feeble that Jacob could hardly expect to see him again, and his mother possibly might die before he should get back ; then, too, Esau hated him bitterly and was ready to kill him at the first chance he should find."
"I don't wonder Jacob felt badly," broke in Charley. "Seems to me I'd have stayed home and tried to make it up with Esau."
'•So should I," said Carrie. "I could not have enjoyed any such birthright."
" Nor was Jacob happy, my dear," resumed her kind Grandpa. " There had been so much trickery and deception in the whole affair that his conscience must have troubled him, and nobody can be happy with an accusing conscience. But Jacob trudged on — fearful, won-
1 36 GRANDPA GOOD WIN ' S STORIES.
dering, and penitent, too, I am sure — until night came, and he lay down to sleep with nothing but a stone for a pillow."
"A hard pillow, I should think," said Mary.
"Yes ; it was a hard case all through. But sweet sleep and pleas- ant dreams often come on hard beds ; and so it was with Jacob that night."
" What did he dream ?" asked Carrie.
" He had the nightmare awfully," said her brother.
"No," said Grandpa, "not the nightmare, but a wonderful dream, a beautiful dream — a dream that Jesus Himself refers to in one of His talks."
" What was the dream, Grandpa ? I am interested in dreams! They are so nice, I think. Do tell us !" exclaimed Carrie.
" Mary may read about it from Genesis xxviii, 12, 13."
In an instant Mary had the place and read: "And he dreamed, and behold, a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven : and behold, the angels of God ascending and descending on it: and behold, the Lord stood above it, and said, I am the Lord God of Abraham thy father, and the God of Isaac : the land whereon thou liest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed."
" Well, that seems very queer," said Carrie. "Jacob had acted so meanly about the birthright, and yet God treats him so nicely."
" That is why I spoke so positively about Jacob as penitent. Had he not been so, God would not have favored him ; but for Abraham's sake and Isaac's sake, God was ready to bless even Jacob and to assure him of that blessing in this splendid dream."
"That is just like God," said Mary. " He is so good and so for- oqvinor"
" But what was meant by that ladder?" asked Charley. "I don't see any good it did. It was very pretty, but it was just a dream."
"A dream, indeed, Charley," replied Grandpa; "and yet a dream which God sent to teach Jacob some great lessons."
"What lessons?" asked the boy, eagerly.
THE WONDERFUL LADDER.
137
" Why, think a moment, each of you, and see for yourselves what such a dream taught."
" It taught that there is an open way between heaven and earth," said Mary.
• And he dreamed, and behold a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven ; and behold the angels of God ascending and descending on it." — Genesis xxviii, 12.
" And that God's angels go back and forth between God to men," said Carrie.
" And that God stands at the top and watches all that goes on." said Charley.
" And that the road to heaven is direct," said Mary.
138 GRANDPA GOODWIN'S STORIES.
" And even when you're asleep it's all the same," said Charley.
"Well done, my little dears!" exclaimed