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ing country; the fords of Jordan, towards which the invaders fled, were guarded, and a terrible slaughter of the intercepted multitudes ensued. Pursuing his victory, Gideon passed the river, and carried the war into the enemy's territory; and two and twenty thousand men, amongst whom were four princes of Midian, were destroyed in the combat.

The grateful Israelites, now restored to independence, and transported with the heroism of Gilead, offered to invest him with royalty, and to entail it on his family. But their pious deliverer declined the honour:- "I will not rule over you," said he, nor shall my sons rule over you:→ Jehovah is your king."

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While Gideon lived, and ruled over the Israelites in the subordinate capacity of Judge, forty years after his extirpation of the Midianites, the land was in peace, and the people were obedient to the laws. But it would seem that they were impatient of the restraint; for it was no sooner removed by his death, than they relapsed once more into idolatry.

CHARLES. I would not interrupt you, mother, until you had finished the life of Gideon; but I expected you would have told us what were the signs by which he was satisfied of his divine appointment.

MRS. M. I must not regale you, my son, with too. many of the streams, lest you should be content without repairing to the fountain. In the sacred writings you will be continually entertained with surprising events. There you have instruction in every various form, from the sententious maxim to the finished argument-from the simple narrative to the florid ode. At the period on which we are now engaged, we find the introduction of the fable→

since that time a favourite mode of teaching in the East. I will presently indulge you with this beautiful specimen, the most ancient extant of that class of composition.

Gideon, or Jerubbaal, as he was surnamed, because he destroyed the altar of Baal, had seventy sons, the children of many wives. After his death, Abimelech, possibly the most worthless of them all, remembering the offer of the Israelites to distinguish the family of their benefactor, repaired to Shechem, a city of refuge in the district of Ephraim, and the native city of his mother, and prevailed on them to declare him their king. The rival pretensions of his numerous brethren were at once removed, by putting them all to death-excepting only Jonathan the youngest, who escaped the general massacre, and the knowledge of its extent, only by a successful flight.

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When the shocking tale was told to Jotham, grieved and indignant at the cruel ambition of Abimelech, the son of a maid-servant, the weak submission of the Shechemites, and their base requital of his illustrious father's services, he ventured as far as the vicinity of Shechem, and, standing on Mount Gerizzim, he reproved them by the following parable :-" Hearken unto me," said he, ye men of Shechem, that God may hearken unto you. The trees went forth, on a time, to anoint a king over them; and they said unto the olive-tree, Reign thou over The olive-tree said unto them, Should I leave my fatness wherewith by me they honour God and man, and go to be promoted over the trees? And the trees said to the fig tree, Come thou and reign over us. But the figtree said unto them, Should I leave my sweetness and my good fruit, and go to be promoted over the trees? Then the trees said unto the vine, Come thou, and reign over

us.

us. And the vine said unto them, Should I leave my wine, which cheereth God and man, and go to be promoted over the trees? Then said all the trees unto the bramble, Come thou and reign over us. And the bramble said unto the trees, If in truth ye anoint me king over you, then come and put your trust in my shadow; and if not, let fire come out of the brambles, and devour the cedars of Lebanon. If ye have then dealt truly and sincerely with Jerubbaal, and with his house this day, then rejoice ye in Abimelech, and let him also rejoice in you. But if not, let fire come out from Abimelech and devour the men of Shechem, and the house of Millo, and let fire come out from the men of Shechem, and from the house of Millo, and devour Abimelech." Now, Catherine, do you give us the application of their apologue.

CATHERINE. It appears to me to say, that the nobleminded man is satisfied with the spontaneous esteem of others, the natural reward of his virtue; whilst the less deserving are often the most solicitous to conceal their insignificance under the mantle of public honours; and that the welfare of the state is not sincerely intended by those who place the mean and the vicious in the stations of trust and dignity.

MRS. M. This is the general moral, and Jotham moreover applied it directly to the Shechemites. He reproached them with their barbarous ingratitude in murdering the whole family of a man, who at the great peril of his own life, had delivered his country from intolerable oppression, and their interested conduct in promoting the son of a servant, because she was a native of their city. Their base and bloody policy, he added, would be retaliated on their own heads. Having pronounced this prophetic ad

monition, Jotham fled from the vengeance of his brother, and took refuge in Beer. A compact founded in blood could not be permanent: in the course of three years, dissention and treachery brought on a civil war between Abimelech and his subjects, in which their atrocious cruelty to the sons of Gideon was most woefully returned on their own heads.

Their city was destroyed by the tyrant, and their citizens slain: a thousand men and women at one time were put to death in a tower to which Abimelech set fire; and whilst he besieged another, his own death by the fall of a stone from the walls, and from the desperate hand of a woman, put an end to the tragedy!

The death of Abimelech restored order, and the commonwealth enjoyed peace during the administration of several succeeding judges, nearly fifty years. But their authority was insufficient to restrain the people, for they became themselves inattentive to the laws: the events of that period exhibit the most dreadful licentiousness, insomuch, that the tribe of Benjamin was at one time almost exterminated in a war with the other tribes.

CATHERINE.

How could such a deplorable event come to pass amongst brethren united by so many and such peculiar ties?

MRS. M. A shocking act of barbarity, a comment indeed on the foresight of Jacob, when he said, "Benjamin shall raven as a wolf," had been committed in Gibeah, a city of that tribe, upon two unoffending travellers, a Levite and his wife, by which the latter lost her life. The surviving sufferer made an affecting appeal to the nation, who, with one accord, declared, that "no such deed had been done since the day that the children of Israel came

up out of Egypt!" and an assembly of the principal people, from Dan to Beer-sheba, and from all the land of Gilead, was convoked before the Tabernacle of the Covenant, to determine what measures should be taken to obliterate their disgrace. Willing that the offenders alone should be punished, the assembly sent a deputation to require that they might be surrendered to the death they had merited. But the Benjamites not only refused to deliver up the murderers, but prepared with alacrity to defend them. A civil war of the most savage character ensued— five and twenty thousand of the Benjamites fell in battle, their cities were burned-their women, and even their cattle, were all slain: The city of Jabesh-gilead next fell a sacrifice to the maddened rage of the warriors, because they had neglected the summons to attend the national council.

Their vengeance thus completely sated, reason and na ture resumed their authority, and the inhuman Israelites beheld with horror the sanguinary deeds they had done.

The devastation of a kindred tribe awakened their compassion, and repentance brought them to humble themselves before the altar of that God to whom injustice and cruelty are abominable. Deprecating His anger, they presented peace-offerings, and spent the whole day in fasting and tears. A deputation was then sent to a few Benjamites, about six hundred, who had escaped from the general massacre, and concealed themselves in the caves of an immense rock called Rimmon, in the wilds of Judah. Four months they had been in this dreary abode, and were now glad to receive a conciliatory invitation to return to their homes. But what a home of desolation had their misguided brethren prepared for the unhappy exiles! Their

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