Silent Conflict

: Hebrew Heroes

The maiden kept her silent promise; faithfully she obeyed the hest of

Hadassah. Seldom as possible did she enter the room which communicated

with the hiding-place of Lycidas, and never save in the company of her

aged relative. Zarah's wheel was carried to her sleeping apartment;

heat and discomfort were made no excuse for leaving the more secluded

portions of the small and inconvenient dwelling. Zarah, a voluntary

p
isoner, avoiding seeing him who appeared to her to be an embodiment

of all that was beautiful in form, and brilliant in mind, one whose

society resembled the light which glorifies every object on which it

may fall.



And Zarah did not, as many maidens in her place might have done, punish

Hadassah for throwing her influence into the scale of duty, by showing

her the extent of the sacrifice which she had required. The young

girl, while her heart was bleeding, struggled to maintain a serene and

placid mien. Hadassah never heard Zarah sigh, never surprised her in

tears. No duty was neglected, no work left undone; nay, Zarah spun

more busily than ever, for the support of the stranger was a drain on

the scanty resources of Hadassah, and to work for him and pray for him

was the sole indulgence which Zarah could allow herself without

self-reproach. She tried--how arduous was the effort!--even to turn

her thoughts from the subject which was to her as the forbidden fruit

was to Eve. The chasm which divided Abraham's daughter from the

heathen was one over which, as Zarah knew, it would be sinful to throw

even the rainbow bridge of imagination. She must force her mind from

approaching the dangerous brink. How many of the Psalms of David,

always those most mournful in their tone, Zarah repeated to herself, to

bring solace to her spirit by day, or sleep to her eyelids by night.

While Judas Maccabeus was maintaining a gallant struggle against the

enemies of his country, conquering, but through much stern endurance,

Zarah, with the same faith and obedience as animated the warrior, was

keeping up a more painful fight against the heathen in her own gentle

heart.



There was one subject of thought, and that a distressing one, to which

Zarah's mind most readily reverted when she would turn it from the

channel into which it was ever naturally flowing. This was the mystery

connected with the fate of Abner her father. The few words which had

escaped Hadassah in an unguarded moment, were as the dull red light

which a torch might throw on the sides of some yawning pit, whose

depths are left in profound darkness. Often had Zarah yearned to know

more of her father, how he had died, for she had once deemed him dead,

where his dear remains had been laid,--all that concerned him was of

deep interest to his only child. But any attempt to break through the

reserve which sealed the lips of Hadassah had evidently occasioned such

acute distress that Zarah had long since given up the hope of gaining

information from her. Anna had entered the service of Hadassah, since

the Hebrew lady had quitted Bethsura; the attendant knew nothing, and

therefore could tell nothing, of what had previously occurred in the

family. Solomona, when she had paid occasional visits to her

kinswomen, had never given Zarah an opportunity of speaking on so

delicate a subject. Once when Zarah had ventured to ask the question,

"Did you know my father?" Solomona had appeared not to hear it, and had

instantly started some quite irrelevant topic of conversation. Abishai

doubtless knew much about the brother of his wife, but Zarah shrank

from questioning him; from his fierce impetuosity of character, he was

not one to draw out the confidence of a gentle and timid girl. Zarah

almost felt as if her uncle disliked, and for some reason which she

understood not, regarded her with mingled pity and contempt. Thus the

daughter of Abner, cut off from all means of gaining reliable

information, was thrown back on her own conjectures. A vague doubt

which had lately arisen in Zarah's mind, but which had always

heretofore been repelled as treason to a parent's memory, was given

form and substance by the faint exclamation which grief had wrung from

Hadassah, "_Must I know that misery twice._" Many slight circumstances

then recurred to Zarah's memory to confirm her suspicions, especially

the anguish which Hadassah had betrayed at the burial of Solomona, when

a strange pang of envy had seemed to intensify that of bereavement.

Zarah was as one bending lower and lower over that pit of which she

longed, yet dreaded, to sound the depths, straining her eyes to

penetrate the darkness, while trembling to think what horrors that

darkness might hide.



"Is it possible that my father may yet be breathing on earth,

living--the life of an apostate!" The idea haunted Zarah like a

spectre. There was only one hope which had power to lay it: "If

living, he may be spared for repentance. God is merciful; He judgeth

not severely; He delighteth in receiving His wanderers back. Did not

Nathan say to penitent David, 'Thou shalt not surely die;' was not even

the guilty Manasseh restored to his throne? Oh, the son of the pious

Hadassah, a woman of such faith and prayer, can never be lost!" After

such meditations, the burdened heart of Zarah would find relief in

fervent supplications for her father. Her filial affection came to the

aid of her religious obedience. "God will not hear prayers," thought

Zarah, "from one in whose heart an idol is enshrined. For my father's

sake, as well as my own, let me strive to give unreserved obedience to

my Lord."



So, endeavouring to overcome one grief by the help of another, and to

cast a veil over both, Zarah passed weary day after day, letting no

murmur mar her offering of meek submission. She would even speak

cheerfully to Hadassah, and sing to her songs of Zion, which the aged

lady delighted to hear. There was one song especially dear, in which

Hadassah had herself woven prophetic promises into verse. The rhymes

might be rude, and altogether unworthy of their theme; but when softly

warbled by Zarah's melodious voice, they appeared to the aged listener

like the very breathing of hope.





LAY OF ZION.



"Jerusalem, thou sittest in the dust,

God's heavy judgment on thy children lies;

But He in whom their fathers put their trust

Shall bid thee yet, as from the grave, arise.[1]

Oh, Zion, discrowned Queen!

A throne awaits for thee;[2]

For glorious thou hast been,

All glorious shalt thou be.[3]



"Behold the white-winged ships from Tarshish strand,[4]

Shall bear thy sons and daughters o'er the wave;



All nations call thee blessed, delightsome land,[5]

Which God of old to faithful Abraham gave.[6]

Oh, Zion, &c.



"Ephraim with Judah God shall then restore,[7]

The Hand that severed, now uniteth them;

Ephraim shall envy, Judah, vex no more,[8]

All shall rejoice in thee, Jerusalem.

Oh, Zion, &c.



"Assyria, Egypt, shall with Israel join,[9]

(The land where Daniel trod the lion's den,

The land where Pharaohs bowed at Apis' shrine),

Oppressors once--but more than sisters then.

Oh, Zion, &c.



"God shall a wall of fire round thee abide,[10]

To guard thee as the apple of the eye;[11]

Rejoicing as the bridegroom o'er the bride.[12]

For He hath pardoned thine iniquity.[13]

Oh, Zion, &c.



"The mountains may depart, the hills may shake,[14]

But nought thy Saviour's love from thee shall sever,

The mother may her sucking child forsake,

God thy Redeemer shall forsake thee never.[15]

Oh, Zion, discrowned Queen!

A throne still waits for thee;

For glorious thou hast been,

All glorious shalt thou be."







[1] Isa. lx. 1.



[2] Isa. xxii. 23.



[3] Isa. lx. 13, 14.



[4] Isa. lx. 9.



[5] Mal. iii. 12



[6] Gen. xiii. 15.



[7] Ezek. xxxvii. 16, 17.



[8] Isa. xi. 13.



[9] Isa. xix. 24.



[10] Zech. ii. 5.



[11] Zech. ii. 8.



[12] Isa. lxii. 5.



[13] Isa. xliv. 22.



[14] Isa. liv. 10.



[15] Isa. xlix. 15.



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