The central Presbyterian. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1856-1908, 1881-06-22
OAr Contributors.
Another Peep at Moses, Married
Life.
BY REV. s. E. ARSON, OF ROME, GA.

has your correspondent, R. R. H." step
ped forth to champion the cause of Zip
porah. l admire his gallantry. My first
impulse, upon reading his defense of the
great lawgiver's wife. was to sheath my
sword and yield up to him the field with
ITS spoils and honors. But some of his
criticisms have placed me in an attitude
that is too awkward to be pleasant. JUS
tice to myself moves me therefore to ask
the privilege of a brief rel oinder.
In the first place, R. R. H" charges
me with blunder in calling Jethro
rich prince" He says: "Jethro was
the priest of INDIAN" and 1T is strange
that the learned author of A Peep
should adopt the idea of a prince from
the Hebrew word, after the strong evil
dence in favor of the priest furnished
by Gesenius." Well, did 1 say that
Jethro was not priest? No one knows
better than " R. R. H." that the Hebrew
word rendered "priest" according to an
ancient opinion also signifies prince"
And Bush, Clark Henry, Gill, and others
unite in regarding Jethro as something
more than priest. All these are ripe
scholars; and they all call him a prince
of indian. Kitto also calls him prince;
speaking of him in one place as an "Arch-
bishop" in another as native Sheik, 3"
and makes mention of his powerful in
fluence." Jethro bore the two-fold Office
of prince and priest Of indian, just as
Melchisedek was both king of Salem and
priest of the most high God I knew
that he was priest as well as prince;
but because it suited the purpose of my
story better to view him in his princely
rather than in his priestly character,
did so view him. That was all.
Again, "R. R. H. blames me for MAX
ing no allusion to zipporah's six sisters
who accompanied her to the well W here
she first met Moses. beg these six sis
tiers pardon for the slight. But I really
did not think that the necessities of nv
story required the mention Of any save
Zipporah: 1t appears from st. Matthew
that there were tacO blind men who sat
by the road that led out of Jericho yet
st. Mark mentions only one to wit, Bar
timeus, the son of Timeus. But shall we
criticise st. Mark because he makes no
allusion to the other blind man?
r. R. IL. grows quite warm in his
criticisms of my sketch of the scene at
the inn. He finds in zipporahs conduct
there no trace of I" bad temper, nothing
"shrewish and violent in her disrosi-
ton" She is "only performing in a
somewhat expeditions and unceremonious
manner the rite of circumcision, which
Moses, knowing how imperative was the
requirement Of God that this rite should
be. performed, ought long ago to have
done himself" What I don't think
there is plain man living who would
gather such an impression from the re-
cord. If it be the true design of the pas
sage to represent Zipporah in the act of
rescuing heaven-appointed rite from
the contempt into which it had fallen in
Moses family.and through Moses negli
gence, how grievously has this gentle,
sanity woman been misjudged by some
OF our best men. DR.. @. G. Jones saws
she circumcised her son in a fit of aader.
Kitto says: "Zipporah, having, it APP
pears, reluctantly yielded to the cere-
mony, exclaimed: Surely bloody hug
band thou art to mel A bloodv hus-
band How would the average man like
to be called bloody husband? 1 don't
think it is very pretty pet name. Again
Kitto says: "This event seems to have
caused some alienation" q don't wonder)
g for Moses sent his wife back to her
father, by whom she is again brought to
her husband while in the desert, when q
reconciliation took place, which was rati-
fed by religious rites" Chalmers opin-
ion is that Moses neglect to circumcise
his son was caused by "the opposition
and remonstrance Of his wife" Matthew
Henry attributes Moses neglect to the
same cause, and says that her passion
ate words were expressive Of her dislike
to the ordinance Of circumcision. And
then this most sanity of all our exnosi-