H. MORE.

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Original.

THE MOTHERS OF THE BIBLE.

BATHSHEBA.

A summons from the king!  What can it mean?  What can he know of her?  She is, indeed, the wife of one of his “mighty men,” but though he highly esteems her husband, he can have no interest in her.  She meditates.  Her cheek pales.  Can he have heard evil tidings from the distant city of the Ammonites, and would he break kindly to her news of her husband’s death?  It cannot be.  Why should he do this for her more than for hundreds of others in like trouble?  Again, she ponders, and now a crimson hue mounts to her temples—­her fatal beauty!  Away with the thought—­it is shame to dwell upon it—­would she wrong by so foul a suspicion the Lord’s anointed?  She wearies herself with surmises, and all in vain.  But there is the command, and she must be gone.  The king’s will is absolute.  Whatever that summons imports, “dumb acquiescence” is her only part.  She goes forth in her youth, beauty and happiness—­she returns—­

* * * * *

Weeks pass, and behold another message, but this time it is the king who receives, and Bathsheba who sends.  What is signified in those few words from a woman’s hand, that can so unnerve him who “has his ten thousands slain”?  It is now his turn to tremble and look pale.  Yet a little while, and he, the man after God’s own heart, the chosen ruler of his people—­the idol of the nation, shall be proclaimed guilty of a heinous and abominable crime, and shall, according to the laws of the land, be subjected to an ignominious death. He ponders now.  Would he had thought of all this before, but it is too late.  The consequences of his ungoverned passion stare him in the face and well nigh overwhelm him.  Something must be done, and that speedily.  He cannot have it thus.  He has begun to fall, and the enemy of souls, is, as ever, at hand to suggest the second false and ruinous step.

* * * * *

Another summons.  A messenger from the king to Joab.  “Send me Uriah the Hittite.”  It is peremptory; no reasons are given, and Joab does as he is bidden.  Unsuspecting as loyal, Uriah hastens on his way, mindful only of duty, and is soon in the presence of his royal master, who, always kind, is now remarkably attentive to his wants and thoughtful of his interests.  He inquires for the commander of his forces and of the war and how the people fare, and it would almost seem had recalled him only to speak kindly to him and manifest his regard for the army, though he had not himself led them to battle.

But though unsuspecting and deceived, the high-minded and faithful soldier cannot even unwittingly be made to answer the end for which he has been summoned, and after two days he returns to Joab, bearing a letter, of whose terrible contents he little dreams and is happy in his ignorance.