Part 4 (1/2)

ANOTHER OF THE WOMEN OF OLD.

ANOTHER OF THE WOMEN OF OLD.

At the command of his mother, let it be remembered, and not because he had any particular desire to do so himself, Jacob left home and departed unto the land of his mother's people, where she told him to seek a wife.

The life of many men of the Old Testament (after they have reached man's estate, I mean) begins with a love affair, and I infer from that, that the Bible means to teach the lesson that to love is the first and best business of life, as well as the most entertaining and pleasant thing that this world ever did or ever will have to offer.

And Jacob reached the land of Laban, his mother's brother, and stopped by a well where the flocks were watered. This is the second well which figures conspicuously in a love story of the Bible, and we imagine they were the trysting places of the ancient young lovers.

While Jacob was loitering and gossiping with the young men he found there, ”and while he yet spake with them, Rachel came with her father's sheep; for she kept them.”

Now ”Rachel was beauteous and well favored,” and of course Jacob saw all this at a glance, for a man never yet needed a telescope and a week's time to decide whether a woman possessed the elements which const.i.tuted beauty in his mind or not, and so Jacob gallantly rolled the stone away from the well and watered the flock of Laban, and then, with all the boldness which characterized his future notorious career, he ”kissed Rachel, and lifted up his voice and wept.”

As there could hardly be anything but pleasure in kissing a lovely maiden, we naturally infer that Jacob was very emotional and was crying for effect, and that Rachel, with the consummate tact that all the women of the Bible displayed when managing the men, perfectly understood this, and had as little respect for him at the moment as most women have for a tearful man. A man like Jacob cries easily, and when he thus ”lifted up his voice and wept,” it is to be hoped the girl entirely understood him.

And Jacob's kiss is the first one that love ever pressed upon the lips of a blus.h.i.+ng maid--at least it is the first one that is authoritatively recorded.

At that time Jacob started a fas.h.i.+on that ”custom cannot stale,” a fas.h.i.+on that while time lasts shall be as cheap as roses, laughter and suns.h.i.+ne, as thrilling as wine, as sweet as innocence and as new as love, a fas.h.i.+on that wealth, time or country cannot monopolize, and one that is as sweet to the beggar, and sweeter too, than to the king.

[Ill.u.s.tration: (Jacob kissed Rachel and lifted up his voice and wept.)]

At the end of one short month we find him so desperately enamored that he said to Laban, Rachel's father: ”I will serve thee seven years for thy younger daughter;” and the old gentleman, seeing an opportunity to get a hired man cheap, consented.

”And Jacob served seven years for Rachel, and they seemed unto him but a few days for the love he had to her.”

What a world of devotion that one sentence reveals. As we read that we forget all about the prosaic age in which we live; forget the modern I'll-give-you-a-brown-stone-front-and-diamonds-in-exchange-for-your- youth-and-beauty-love, and believe in the kind that makes a man a G.o.d and a woman an angel, and we imagine that an affection so intense and deep that it could make seven weary years of labor ”seem but a few days” must be as constant as the flowing tide, as steadfast as the stars--and then after a while we are desperately, despairingly sorry that we have read any further than that verse because we are so sadly disillusioned.

[Ill.u.s.tration: ”AND JACOB SERVED SEVEN YEARS FOR RACHEL.”]

For a little further on we find that Jacob wasn't as shrewd about getting married as he was about breeding cattle that were ring-streaked and grizzled, and so Laban, with the cunning of a modern politician, palmed off his daughter Leah on Jacob as a bride.

But the next morning, when he discovered the trick, there were probably matinees, side-shows and circuses in the tent of Laban, and finally the upshot of the whole affair was that he agreed to serve seven years more for Rachel, and then married her also. Far be it from me to disparage Jacob's love, but we cannot help but notice that we have no inspired statement saying that the seven years he served for Rachel, after he had married her, ”seemed but a few days for the love he had to her.”

But we can't censure him for that, for as we read we discover that in his earnest and constant endeavor to save his precious person he had no time to nurture his love. For the two wives, the two sisters, were madly jealous of each other of course (and we can't blame them either, for there never was a man so great that he could be divided between two wives, several handmaids and more concubines, and be enough of him to go around satisfactorily) and they made his life a howling wilderness.

Leah, poor thing, longed for her fraudulent husband's love, and he hated her. Rachel ”envied her sister,” and ”Jacob's anger was kindled against Rachel,” and altogether the picture of their home is not very enticing, and having gotten thus far we are more than ever convinced that we do not want to follow the example of the ”holy women” of old, as Peter complimentarily, but ignorantly, calls them.

And Rachel and Leah, in order to spite and humble each other, each gave her maid ”to Jacob to wife” and strange as it may seem, he accepted them both. It was like him.

Now about this time Leah's son ”found mandrakes in the field” and brought them to his mother. We suppose Rachel had a sweet tooth from the fact that a little further on we find her offering to sell her husband for one night to Leah, for some mandrakes, whatever they were; and we notice that women held their husbands rather cheap in those good old days.

You see Rachel and Leah made Jacob a thing of barter and sale and (without consulting his desires) Leah consummated the bargain, and she went out toward the field when the harvest was progressing, and met Jacob as he came from his work tired and dusty, and informed him he must come with her, ”For surely I have hired thee with my son's mandrakes,” and he did not resent the insulting idea that he had been ”hired,” but like all the other distractingly obedient men of the Bible--he went.

Rachel next distinguishes herself as a disobedient daughter and headstrong wife by ”stealing her father's G.o.ds” without consulting or confiding in her husband, for we read that ”Jacob knew not that Rachel had stolen them.”

And Laban, Rachel's father, and Jacob had a lively altercation, and they said exceedingly naughty things to each other in loud voices, but at last they came to an agreement, and Laban said he would give up his children, grandchildren and cattle, but he was bound to have his ”G.o.ds” or know the reason why. The entire story is a curious mixture of heathenism and belief in one G.o.d.