Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1873-06-18

1
comes historical monument, and is spoken
of as a we'll known object. The warlike
leader of the nation comes to her submis-
sively, listens to her message as to divine
oracle, and obeys. He dares not 60 up
to battle without her, but it she will 60
he will follow her. The prophecies is a
wife, but her husband is known to posterity
only through her. Deborah was the wife
Of Lapidoth, and therefore Lapidoth is had
in remembrance even down to our nine
teenth century.
This class of prophetic and inspired
women appear to have been the poets of
their time. They were, doubtless, pos
sessed of that fine ethereal organization, fit
to rise into the higher regions of ecstasy,
wherein the most exalted impressions and
enthusiasts spring, as birds and flowers
under tropic sunshine. The Jewish woman
was intensely patriotic. She was living,
breathing impersonation Of the spirit Of
her nation; and the hymn of victory
chauted by Deborah, after the issue of the
conflict, is one of the most spirited
specimens of antique poetry. In order to
sympathize with it fully, we must think of
the condition Of woman in those days,
when, under the heel of the oppressor, all
the respects, the barriers and projections
which the laws of Moses threw around
them inspired in the Jewish woman sense
of self-respect and personal dignity which
rendered the brutal outrages which were
awarded to captives yet more intolerable.
The law of Moses commanded the Jewish
warrior, who took captive woman, to
respect her person and her womanhood. If
be desired her, it must be lawful wife ;
and even as a husband he must not force
himself at once upon her. He must bring
her to his house, and allow her month to
reconcile herself to her captivity, before
he took her to himself. But among the
nations around, woman was the prey of
whoever could seize and appropriate her
The killing of Ssera by Jael has been
exclaimed over by modern sentimentalists
as something very shocking. But let US
remember how the civilized world felt
when, not long since, the Austrian tyrant
Heynau outraged noble Hungarian and
Italian women, subjecting them to brutal
stripes and indignities. When the civilized
world heard that he had been lynched
by the brewers of Londtn cuffed and
pummelled, and rolled in the dust, shouts
of universal applause went up, and the
r ight." Deborah saw in the tyrant thus
overthrow, the ravisher and brutal tyrant
of helpless women, and she extolled The
spirit by which Jael had entrapped the
ferocious beast, whom her woman weak
ness could not otherwise have subdued.
BY an exquisite touch Of the poetess we
are reminded what must have been the
ate of all the Judean women had the ty-
rant escaped the nail of Jael
The mother of Sisera looked out at a window,
She cried through the lattice,
y by delay the wheels OF his chariot?
y by turns the raft OF his horse hoofs
Ter wise ladies answered; yea, she spa1e herself
lave they not won ?have they not divided the prev
70 every man a virgin two;
10 Slsera prey of divers colors of divers colors
and gold embroidery,
ieet for the necks of them that take the spoil"
In the reckoning of this naughty
noble Judean lady, with her
,old embroideries and raiment of needle
work, Is only an ornament meet for the
IecS of the conqueror-a toy to be paraded
n triumph. The song now rises with one
rand, solemn swell, like the break of
waves on the sea shore
SO let all thine enemies perish, jehovah
tut let them that love thee shine forth as the sun in
his strength"
And as this song dies away, so passes
ii future mention of Deborah. No other
fragment OF poetry or song from her has
Dated down from her age to US. This one
ong, like rare fragment of some deep
ca flower, broken off by storm of waters,
las aoated up to tell of her. We shall
ee, as we follow down the line of history.
hat women of this lofty poetic inspiration
Tere the natural product of the Jewish
avs ard institutions. They grew out of
hem as certain flowers grow out of certain
OILS. 1t was to this class that belonged
hannah, the mother of Samuel, and HUI
ali, the prophecies, and, in the fulness of
ime, Mary the mother of Jesus, whose
lla2nifcat was the earliest flower of the
christian era. Mary was prophecies and
oct, the last and greatest of long and
obIe line of women in whom the finer
cminine nature had been kindled into a
vlne medium Of inspiration, AMI burst
Orth in poetry and song as in a natural
anguage H. B. Store.