136

Hotels Versus Home, 148

Easy Divorce, 166

Maternity, 184

The Children's Patrimony, 198

The Mother of All, 217

Sisterly Influence, 234

Trials of Housekeeping, 252

Woman Enthroned, 268

Old Folks' Visit, 286

Home, Sweet Home, 303

The Wedding Ring.

THE CHOICE OF A WIFE.

"Is there never a woman among the daughters of thy brethren, or
among all my people, that thou goest to take a wife of the
uncircumcised Philistines?"--JUDGES 14:3.

Samson, the giant, is here asking consent of his father and mother to
marriage with one whom they thought unfit for him. He was wise in
asking their counsel, but not wise in rejecting it. Captivated with
her looks, the big son wanted to marry a daughter of one of the
hostile families, a deceitful, hypocritical, whining, and saturnine
creature, who afterward made for him a world of trouble till she quit
him forever. In my text his parents forbade the banns, practically
saying: "When there are so many honest and beautiful maidens of your
own country, are you so hard put to for a lifetime partner that you
propose conjugality with this foreign flirt? Is there such a dearth of
lilies in our Israelitish gardens that you must wear on your heart a
Philistine thistle? Do you take a crabapple because there are no
pomegranates? Is there never a woman among the daughters of thy
brethren, or among all my people, that thou goest to take a wife of
the uncircumcised Philistines?"

BEAUTIFUL JEWESSES.

Excuseless was he for such a choice in a land and amid a race
celebrated for female loveliness and moral worth, a land and a race of
which self-denying Abigail, and heroic Deborah, and dazzling Miriam,
and pious Esther, and glorious Ruth, and Mary, who hugged to her heart
the blessed Lord, were only magnificent specimens. The midnight folded
in their hair, the lakes of liquid beauty in their eye, the
gracefulness of spring morning in their posture and gait, were only
typical of