Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1897-02-08
LOVE STORIES OF ISRAEL.
The Old Testament Is Full of Such Stories
Says Mrs Houghton-The Love OF jacob
and Rachel. the shulamitc, David and
Michal, Ruth and Naomi

The Old Testament Is Full OF Such Stories,
Says Mrs. Houghton-The Love of Jacob
and Rachel, the shulamite, David and
Michal, Ruth and Naomi.
New York Tribune.
Mrs. Louise Seymour Houghton gave
the sixth lecture of her series on THE
Literary Study of tie Bible" at the
home of Mrs. Julius Seymour, 304 West
Eighty-sixth street. Her subject was
The Love Stories Of Israel
THE Old Testament is full Of love
Stories" she said, mot only OF hus-
band and wife, but of father and daugh-
ter mother and son, friend and friend.
All the men and women Of Israel were
lovers, sometimes so pure and fawless
as to be types Of the divine love, and
sometimes only broken lights OF that
reality.
1--WE come to this study" she con-
tinued. "in a rather unsympathetic
frame of mind, many Of our illusions on
the subject having been destroyed by
the erotic novel and the scientific study
Of human relations, but it is all the
more profitable on that account. Our
researches into the history Of ancient
peoples have shown that marriage
among them was merely a question Of
barter and sale, pursuit and capture,
and it is therefore particularly refresh
ing to find in a past as remote as that
of our oldest records pictures of welded
love so perfect that they were used to
figure the divine favor. 1t was not all
tyranny and sensuality, for Jacob serv-
ed seven years for Rachel, and they
seemed to him but a few days for the
love he had to her; Rebecca went Of
her own free will to her unseen lover,
and Elkanah comforts his childless
wife with the words, Am l not better
to thee than ten sons?' while in the
Song of Songs, Which Is Solomon S,
we find the chosen people cherishing
a perfect ideal of love, strong as death,
and triumphing over all obstacles"
Regarding the Song Of Solomon"
Mrs. Houghton said that in her judg-
ment it was a drama, the disregard OF
time sequence being Of no consequence,
as that is a characteristic Of all He
brew literature and IS to be seen in the
Hebrew drama Of to-day. The plot OF
the drama she conceives to be as fol-
lows:
A peasant girl, called il the song the
Shulamite, is set by her half-brothers.
who are not particularly fond of her, TO
keep their vineyards. MY mothers
children were angry with me-" she
says, they made me the keeper OF the
vineyards" But she is very happy
there, for she is visited by her shep-
herd lover, and they are, perhaps, mar
ried. One day when she is dancing in
her garden from pure l-ghtness OF
heart she has the misfortune to be seen
by King Solomon. He Immediately be-
comes charmed with her, has her kid
mapped and placed in the charge or the
woman of his harem. These women
are dressed in the drama as daughters
of Jerusalem" Now, a place in the
Kings harem was considered to be the
highest honor to which an oriental wo-
man could attain. but it had no charms
for the Shulamite Amid all the blan-
dishments of the King and his court
she thinks only Of her shepherd, and at
last her royal lover relents and sends
her back to him.
In the meantime her brothers have
realized that they have been very care
less of their sisters welfare. They
thought she would be perfectly safe in
the vineyard, because they did not re-
alize that she was grown up. They
said they would build wall around
her and Enclose her with board OF &C.