THE brief narrative of Jephthah and his daughter, contained in little more than one chapter of the book of Judges, has elicited not a little discussion. The sacrifice of a daughter by her father, in compliance with a rash vow, is so abhorrent to the feelings of humanity, that some have attempted to prove, that instead of being sacrificed as a burnt offering, she was only dedicated to a life of virgin celibacy. This seems to us a fancy which nothing in the narration justifies. Perhaps writers are led to this exposition of the account, by a desire to free the Bible from an imputation of sanctioning cruelty; a sanction supposed to be found in the simple absence of any condemnatory remark by the sacred penman. But the Bible student should be aware that in the historic parts of the sacred volume, where wrong is visited by no special judgments, the writers give only facts without moral comments. In brevity of narration and rigid adherence to simple facts, as they occurred, leaving the reader to judge of their moral character by instructions gained from its preceptive parts, the historical books of the Bible are peculiar. From the mere absence of expressed condemnation, no inference is to be drawn of the divine approbation of any act. Even in relation to the sins of David, the historian makes not a remark of his own-he simply details facts.

We have no occasion then to wrest from its obvious meaning, the simple narration of this tragic event. There is nothing to restrain us

VOL. I. NO. III.

from judging of it according to its real moral character.

Jephthah was an illegitimate child of a base woman. He had for this reason been driven by his brethren away from the land of his fathers. What his early character may have been, we have little means of judging. But we may well infer, that brought up, probably, by such a mother, there was a want of that moral training which would insure virtuous and religious principles. If his early life had been vicious, it was but the natural result of his parentage. That he possessed talents and courage of no ordinary stamp, is evident from his brief history. And these may have awakened envious feelings with his brethren, and uniting with other causes may have produced his banishment. It is not unlikely that he became the head of a band of outlaws, and acquired character as a warrior by his successes. He probably became a religious man before being called to head the army of Israel against the children of Ammon. There is no reason to believe that he had ever been an idolator, though the Jews, at this period, were frequently drawn away to the worship of the heathen deities of surrounding nations. But with his religion a large share of superstition was evidently intermingled. Of the power of the true God, and of his controlling Providence, and of his own dependence upon him, he was well aware. But of the moral attributes of this Being; of the true character of his law, and of the acts of devotion

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which would be pleasing to him, he was certainly to some extent--probably to a very great extent-ignorant. His vow was clearly a superstitious attempt to purchase the favor of the Almighty for his enterprise.

The period of Jephthah's life was a gloomy one in the annals of the Jewish nation. Only enough of the history of this people, during a long series of years under the judges, has come down to us to make visible the moral and intellectual darkness. Around them the nations were sunk in the grossest idolatry and superstitions, and while they themselves by turns acknowledged Jehovah as their Lord, we have no reason to believe that his law, in its spirituality, had any strong influence on their hearts. That a man born at such a period, of such parentage, with a childhood and youth probably so neglected, and in after years leading a life at the head of what now would be termed a lawless banditti, should have, with his religion, a large infusion of superstition, cannot be surprising. It was this that led to the rash vow and to its impious fulfilment.

But

A father sacrificing his own daughter as an acknowledgment of favor received from the merciful God, who had said amidst the thunders of Sinai, "Thou shalt not kill!" True Religion is clothed in garments of mercy and loveliness. It teaches the heart the tenderest sympathy, and awakens its kindest emotions. It binds man to his fellow by the ties of affection. Good will to men is its ever present, active spirit. It substitutes in the human heart the gentleness of the lamb for the cruelty of the tiger. It sanctifies the affection between parent and child, and warms it into heavenly ardor. It binds together the family by ties blessed with Heaven's seal. It brings the soul into rapt communion with infinite purity and love. superstition is earth in its grossness, struggling to inherit heaven in its glory. It would not win the joys of the upper world by meekness, but would purchase them with a price. It vainly hopes to win the favor of the Almighty by deeds of penance :-by self-inflicted torture to atone for moral guilt. It impiously points the great Creator to the gashes and rents of the flesh, to the quivering nerves, to the sundered ties of family and affection, as merits by which a place in his celestial courts is to be won. It does not sanctify, but it destroys nature in the heart. Spurning unbought mercy, it comes with abominations in its hand to purchase the favor of Jehovah. Mistaking the true God, it enthrones a demon of cruelty in his

place, and offers on his altar the bloody sacrifices of Moloch.

We cannot, even at this distant day, but mourn that the light of the true religion had not sufficient power to drive out the darkness of superstition in Jephthah's mind. A better instructed conscience had saved his heart a pang which all the honors clustering on his head could not assuage. A daughter-an only child, to be offered up by a father's hand a bloody sacrifice! That indeed was a piety of no ordinary depth, however mistaken, which could induce a girl in the bright morning of life, when her father, from being an outcast, had just been raised to the highest power in Israel, to voluntarily forego all the promised joys of earthly existence, in compliance with the mistaken ideas of her father's duty. She asks but two months to wander up and down on the mountains and to sigh with vain regrets that in being cut off, she leaves her father childless-with no descendant on whom his name or his honors may descend. Her filial obedience her readiness to be offered up as a burnt sacrifice rather than permit her father to break his vow, might well excite the deep sympathies of the Jewish maidens. There was, doubtless, some sustaining influence in the conviction in Jephthah's mind, that he was performing a religious duty in taking the life of a lovely and only child; but the iron must have entered his soul. He survived this cruel sacrifice only six years. It is not unlikely, that the nerves of the warrior, though strong enough to make this bloody offering, yet received a shock from which no art or medicine could restore them. If the story of his future life could be told us, we might learn that wasting grief preyed on his heart till the vital energies yielded in the conflict. That daughter in her living features, in the loveliness of her filial affection, and in her cruel death, must have been ever present to his mind. Sleeping or waking-at home or in the field of battle, she must have been in vision before him.

And where is the father when he looks on the joyous faces of his young family around him-where is the daughter reading in her father's eyes the tokens of his warm affectionthe mother as she presses the infant to her bosom-the brother as he gazes with joyous pride on the glowing cheeks of a sister, but will bless God that his word has banished the superstition which might at once sunder all these hallowed ties? Contrasting the present with the dark ages of the past-our own Chris