Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1883-08-18
TIE BIoGRAPBIsr OF THE OLD Tss-
FAMgET.


There is kind of heroic candor and i'm.
partiality belonging to the early ages Of
history which cannot well be emulated in
our more intricate condition of society.
The biography of the Old Testament is a
model of this primitive method. AS soon
as the primeval age, in which we see darkly
men as trees walking, gigantic figures
family perceptible, In dim largeness OF
existence unlike ours, is over, how clearly
and with what complete human consist
ence does the wonderful history of Israel,
the wandering nation, begin in the great
figure of Abraham setting ont upon his
journey in nsmadic freedom, not knowing
where he is going, his flocks and herds
trudging behind, his beautiful wife wrapped
in her veil, yet not 20 closely but that
King Abimelech sees her and the patri-
area betrays q weakness, which, had he
been modern, would have been either
concealed or excused, or brought against
him, with babble of contending tongues.
Neither this divergence nor any other does
the ancient Scripture leave out. There is
no explanation, no softening down. The
man was the Father of the Faithful, good
man, the best man of his time, the friend
.
and yet there was a moment when his
courage and integrity failed him. The
primitive writer does not separate this
event from the context, or apologize for it,
or represent it as the object of lifelong
repentance. He records it precisely as he
records the arrival of the three wonderful
guests, whom Abraham, standing in the
cool evening at his tent door, perceives to
be more than men. The one scene and the
other are set before US with equal brevity,
without hesitation in the one case or vain
glory in the other, in the clear setting of
those Oriental skies and desert scenes.
The patriarch had his faults they stand
there as they happened, like his virtues.
no one asking pardon or attempting to &C.
count for them. Moses, too, the great
prophet, the chosen guide and law.giver-
he who talked with God and brought the
shining tables of the law out of heaven,
and reflected in his own dazzling coun-
tenance the glories he had seeu-neither Of
him is there any picture of perfection.
Sometimes his heart fails him, sometimes
he is presumptuous and arrogant, though
the most patient OF men. His sudden pas
sion, his brag of that power which is not
his but Gods, are told like the rest,
plainly, without shrinking and without ex-
aggeration. David is made up of
faults, a man out Of date, belong
ing rather to the Middle Ages than
to that primitive time, full of gen.
erosities and chivalrous traits, but also
full of guile when necessity or inclination
moves him, of hot and undisciplined pas
sions, of love and self.indulgence, re-
deemed only by that openness to convic-
tion, that self-abAsemens and impassioned
penitence which are "after Gods own
heart" Not one word of excuse for all
these evil deeds says the primitive impair
tial record. His crime, his grief, his pun
ishment are all before US 20 speak for
themselves. There is no moraliss to say,
"These were the manners of his time. ="
All is set down as it happened, for our
Judgment. We see the man of impulse
moved by touch, with all his senses keen
and unbridled ; loving, SHINING, repenting,
yet with something gracious about him
that wins all hearts letting his enemy go
with high generosity, scorning to take ad-
vantage of sleep and WEAKNESS; pouring
out before the Lord, in an outburst of noble
and grateful emotion, that pitcher of water
from the well OF Bethlehem which had
been bought at the peril of mems lives, and
was too precious draught for him. The
story is absolutely impartial, nothing hid,
nothing unduly dwelt upon, the one part
balancing with the other. Such impartial
ity is incompatible with modern manners,
Had such an episode as that of Uriah the
Hittite occurred in the life of any modern
General, how sedulously would one class of
historians have concealed or slurred it over.
how bitterly another dragged it forth and
put it in the front of every other incident
of his life, -[Contemporary Review.