Lamoille newsdealer. [volume] (Hyde Park, Vt.) 1860-1877, 1868-04-08

ticking population, who loaded US down
with strings of beads, hanging them on
the pummel Of the saddle, jingling them
in our faces, holding up handful of
pearl crosses, shaking bags filed with the
mix nacks; but getting rid of them by a
stern refusal to purchase, aud finding a
quiet place, we may spend profitable
half hour in thinking over what has hap
pcned here.
Bethlehem first appears in history in
connection with the death of Rachel. Go.
ing back in Imagination 1921 years, as
chronologists rcckcn. we see Jacob with
his family journeyiug southwark to He
bron to visit his fathtr. Twenty years
before that he passed up this way in haste
to escape tie anger of his brother Esau
He has been in Mesopotamia, at the head
waters of the Euphrates. tending the
focks of his uncle. He is rich man.
His hocks ale feeding in these pastures
around the town. He has had a strange
experience of latc on the other side of TIE
jordan. With our glass we might almost
see the spot from this hill top behind Ii:
the valley of the Jabbok, in the north
east, among the mountains Of Gilcad
He was alone, his family having passed
over the brook, when thereicame a myste
rious One and wrestlcd with him such
wrestling as never before or since wa'
known--a man contending with the IAN
gel jehovah" In the darkness, Jacob
by word and act, laid bold of his antag
onist:
Come, o thou traveller unknown,
Whom still hold but cannot see
My company before Is gone,
And am left alone with thee
With thee all night mean to stay
And restle till the break OF day -
He wins the victory, and receives |
new name-'lsrael, Prince of God.
From that day till the present, his des
cendents ia every land have been callet
children of Israel
lie has reached this spot to fondie al
infant in his arms, while weeping over ;
dead mother. 1t is Beujamin's birth
place and Rachel's sepulchre. The fune
raj over. lie passes on to HEIR n,
RUTH
We. too, pass on in time four hundred
and seventeen years, and behold thes'
hills parchcd with sumner heats. Th,
clouds sweeping up from the sea brinl
no rain, harvests have failed ant
famine has come. We see ;
man taxing his wife, his two
sous, bidding farewell to his friends ant
neighbors. and going down this valley
leading to the Kedron. on his way to th'
land of Moab, where there are abundan
harvests, Ten years pass by; his boy
find wives among the maidens of Moab
Tut days of sorrow come--father and SON
are borne to the grave. The mothe
comes back to her old bome--hcr daugh
ter .inl law, Ruth. accompanying her. Sh'
has a loving heart Neither for he
friends, nor for her native land, nor fol
the religion of Moab, will she leave hel
mother in law.
What commotion in Bethlehem OF
the day their arrival the whole towi
turning out TO receive them is there il
the whole range of literature NOR
pleasing pastoral that the story of Ruth
1t is not fiction. This was the scene
That smooth plot of ground may hay'
been the property Of Boaz- for he was
rich man. If so, there the fair Moab
tess CLEANED among the reapers in tb'
month of May. the hills around COLDER
with grain, the valleys green with th'
foliage of olives. There the courtly no
bleman, walking out to see how his har
vestmcn were getting on. beheld the beau
tiful young widow. We think Of hcl
as being beautiful. because she was good
nd goodness ever has beauty Of it
own. We think of his kindness to her
of her sitting down to dinner with th'
reapers among the shcaveS; how now