[XXIII.]
Absalom's Hair.
IT is not without a cause that a record is preserved in those Scriptures "which are written for our learning," of the magnificent growth of Absalom's hair, which, like a golden harvest, was cut by him every year, and weighed, in the pride of his heart. It is remarkable that this very hair, this mass of rich beauty, was, through God's judgment, the instrument of Absalom's destruction.
When the prince fled on his mule before the troops of his injured father, as Absalom was passing beneath a thick oak, the branches caught his head, and suspended him between the heaven and the earth, while his mule passed on through the wood; and there in agony and terror hung the miserable sinner, unable to release himself from the fetters of his own luxuriant hair, till death came in the form of a merciless kinsman, and three darts were thrust by Joab through the heart of Absalom as he was yet alive in the midst of the oak.
There is no one in Scripture whose mortal beauty, is more vividly described than Absalom's. "In all Israel there was none to be so much praised as Absalom for his beauty: from the sole of his foot even to the crown of his head there was no blemish in him." And there are few whose characters are represented to us as so loathsome and black with sin. This suggests a natural inquiry, Was the extraordinary beauty of Absalom in any way a snare to his soul; was it a bane to him throughout his life, as well as the immediate cause of his death?
In a certain subordinate degree, perhaps, we may find that it was so. Absalom's great personal attractions probably increased the weak, doating partiality of David for his unworthy son, while they made it more easy for the prince to attain the object of his guilty ambition—"he stole the hearts of Israel."
Should we then represent beauty as a thing to be despised? Far from it. Beauty is the stamp which God hath set upon the wondrous works of His creation; deformity only entered this world with sin, and in the realms where sin is unknown, all will again be perfect beauty. Personal charms, like rank or wealth, are a talent, for they undoubtedly bestow influence; and a blessed thing is influence used for God. There is no fairer sight than that of youth and loveliness united with "the beauty of holiness," and devoted to the service of Christ.
The subject naturally opens out into that of personal appearance in general, and a little reflection upon it may not be unprofitable to those who possess few attractions, as well as those gifted with many. To appear well is a common wish, confined to neither sex, nor to any station or age. As beauty has its advantages and responsibilities, let us consider for a brief space, with Absalom's rich locks before us, what are some of the temptations to which it exposes its possessor. They seem to be chiefly these—love of dress, love of the world, love of admiration.
The first of these, "love of dress," may seem to be a folly better attacked by playful satire than by serious rebuke. It is not very often noticed from the pulpit, though it can be very little pleasure to an earnest-minded pastor to see the pews like a tulip-bed before him, where, instead of being dressed with modesty and "shamefacedness," Christian women seem to study how to evade the command to wear a covering on their heads in the house of prayer, by making that covering as slight and as fantastic as may be. Even painting the skin is not unknown amongst the women of England, though she of whom it is recorded that "she painted her face and tired her head," is assuredly one of the last whom our matrons or maidens would wish to resemble. A bold style of dress is so utterly repugnant to all our ideas of Christian devotion, that we can hardly even imagine it to have been ever worn by the holy women who ministered to our Lord.