HARVARD COLLEGE LIBRARY THEODORE JEWETT EASTMAN KC 19767 1931 RICHARD CLAY & SONS, BREAD STREET HILL, LONDON, Bungay, Suffolk. PREFACE. THE NINE WORTHIES. IN old times, when brave men had little time to read, and fewer books, they still kept clusters of glorious examples gathered from all times, to light them on the way to deeds of virtue. Such were the Seven Champions of Christendom; the Dozipairs, or Twelve Peers of France; the Seven Wise Masters; and, above all, the Nine Worthies. These nine were, three from Israel-namely, Joshua, David, and Judas Maccabæus; three from Heathenesse—to wit, Hector, Alexander, and Julius Cæsar; and three from Christendom--Arthur, Charlemagne, and Godfrey de Bouillon. This last was quite a recent personage when he was reckoned among the Worthies; and whereas we live full eight hundred years after him, and have rather more knowledge of ancient history than the original inventor of the Nine Worthies, whosoever he may be, it would be hard if we could not bring together nine times nine of those noble characters, who in all times and ages have reflected back upon their brethren that Divine Image in which their first father was made. Perhaps, too, our judgment of what constitutes "Worthies" differs a little from that of him who collected the first nine. Cæsar hardly seems to us as worthy as he was great, and Hector and Arthur were JOSHUA. B.C. 1536-1426. WHAT are the qualities that make a Hero? Let us study our first hero, and we shall see them manifested in the clearest light. Courage is, as all would say, the first essential; but it must not be the mere courage of a lion or a bull-the consciousness of strength passionately exerted; it must be courage based on faith, exercised in resolute obedience and, tried by patience, as well as bold to dare. It must likewise be tender to the weak, and stedfast in its promises. And the first hero who became a leader of the wars of the LORD was surely an example of these things. 66 Hoshea, the son of Nun, was born of the tribe of Ephraim, in Egypt, in the time of the severest bondage; but the name chosen for him by his parents expressed their hope, for it signified Salvation," or, "He will save." The tribe of Ephraim seems to have been settled in a part of Egypt exposed to much danger. Indeed, the whole land of Goshen, lying between the Nile and the Wilderness, seems to have been given to the sons of Israel that they might be ready to defend Egypt from the attacks of the wild nations of the desert. Ephraim, the more favoured son of Joseph, suffered greatly in a battle between his sons and the men of Gath, who had come down to take their cattle. His three sons all perished in the fight, and the bereaved man "mourned many days," even when a son of B his old age was born to him, whom in the sadness of his heart he named "Beriah," because it went evil with his house. This Beriah was the ancestor of Hoshea, and it may be supposed, from the Ephraimites being exposed to the attacks of the Gittites, that they were settled near the borders, and thus, though in more danger from the enemies outside, would be less oppressed and forced to servile work than their brethren in the interior. At any rate their numbers were large, and their spirit does not seem to have been broken. Through all their two hundred years of suffering they had still that prime blessing that the dying Jacob had called down upon the head of Joseph, and on the crown of the head of him who was separate from his brethren; and as their choicest treasure they guarded the remains of Joseph, which they hoped yet to place in the inheritance bequeathed to him and them at Shechem. Such was the far-away hope in which the young Hoshea grew up, and when he had arrived at the prime of manhood the long hoped-for day began at length to dawn. There stood among the broken and bowed down Israelites one who long before had descended from the Royal court to share their afflictions and revive their forgotten hopes. Then Hoshea had not been born, or had been an infant, and had had no share in their rejection of the leader who offered himself. Now he was of full age, able and ready to accept the promise of deliverance which Moses had brought from the desert, from the mouth of GOD himself. "The people bowed the head and worshipped." But there was a heavy trial of patience and faith ere the time of freedom came. The first consequence of the request that the people might go out into the Wilderness only led to greater severity from their oppressors, in which the superiors, or foremen, among the |