tent, and smote it that it fell." "This," said his fellow, "is nothing else save the sword of Gideon, the son of Joash, for into his hand hath God delivered Midian and all the host." Well might Gideon's courage rise as he heard these words, for it was evident that God had fulfilled his promise, and had put fear and dread of them into the heart of Israel's enemies. Animated by what he had heard, Gideon first offered grateful thanks to the Lord, and then returned with fresh ardour to his sleeping band. "Arise!" he exclaimed, "for the Lord hath delivered into your hands the host of Midian." The promise of God is the assured pledge of its own fulfilment; and Gideon's faith triumphed over all obstacles, and regarded the victory as already won.

His assurance of Divine faithfulness, however, does not lead him to fold his hands in idle sloth. Gideon was too well instructed for this. He knew that although the result was in God's hands, the means for its achievement must be used, and, therefore, he sets himself carefully to work out his plans. He uses his reason, in humble dependence on the promised blessing. The fears of the Midianites had evidently been aroused, and on this suggestion he acts. Dividing his little band into three companies, and furnishing each man with a trumpet and an empty pitcher containing a lamp, he commands them to follow him to the outside of the camp, and to imitate his actions.

"What

ye see me do, that do ye; when I blow with the trumpet, then do ye blow with the trumpet, and shout, The sword of the Lord and of Gideon." Strange accoutrements these, with which to combat an army

like that of Midian. But Gideon has the full confidence of his little troop, and they implicitly obey. The war cry was more than enough to animate them when they remembered how they had smarted for having forsaken the Lord for Baal; and Gideon was now their trusted hero.

Under cover of the darkness, Gideon's little army moved on, unperceived even by the wary eyes of the sentinels. Arrived at the outposts, Gideon without delay blows his trumpet. The shrill blast is echoed by his three hundred soldiers, and re-echoed by the surrounding rocks. "The sword of the Lord and of Gideon," is shouted simultaneously by every voice, and the echoes prolong the sound. Amid the stillness of the night that startling war-cry, that fearful trumpet-blast, and the noise of those crashing pitchers, break upon the ear of the sleepers like a call to judgment. Every heart quails. In haste they rise, and Israel's valiant men hear the general stir, but true to themselves and to their God, they keep their post outside the camp. The darkness conceals their number from their foes, who, alarmed and trembling, flee in the utmost disorder. So great is the confusion, that as they rush across the plain, they smite their own friends in their mistaken haste, and leave Gideon and his brave three hundred alone in the field, to chant their grateful praises to God for this bloodless victory.

Many of those who had withdrawn from Gideon's army, returned now to chase the flying foe, and Gideon summons the men of Mount Ephraim to stop the progress of the Midianites at the waters of Beth-barab, and Jordan. Here they took the two princes of

Midian, Oreb and Zeeb, and slew them; but the kings, Zebah and Zalmunna, escaped with a portion of their army. Having accomplished this, the Ephraimites return and upbraid Gideon for not having called them before to aid him in the fight. Now that they see the issue, they would have their share of the glory. With ready tact, Gideon calls their attention to the service they had just rendered in capturing and slaying Oreb and Zeeb. What have I done in comparison of you?" he says, and by this timely appreciation, he stays the waters of strife, as we might often do, if with such wise humility we would try the soft answer which turneth away wrath.

The Israelites might suppose that their toils were now over, and that they might rest in security. Not so Gideon. His far-seeing mind looked on the probable future. Their fertile land would present a constant temptation to these invaders, and there could be no assured safety whilst Zebah and Zalmunna and their adherents were allowed to live. He takes for his motto, therefore, "Faint, yet pursuing," and with a portion of his army he promptly follows the retreating host across the Jordan to Karkor, and gains an easy victory over them.

In this, as in every circumstance of his life, Gideon showed himself to be as earnest as he was sagacious. There was no wavering nor indecision in his character, and no fitful veering about to meet changing conventionalities. Would that every professing Christian resembled him in his firmness and resolute courage on the Lord's side!

See the chosen hero of Israel now returning, weary yet joyful, to his own land. On his way a painful duty awaited him. The men of Penuel had refused the aid which he had asked for his faint and tired soldiers, perhaps from a feeling of jealousy, which is only too common a vice. For this ungenerous conduct, Gideon had threatened to punish them. Very likely they feared it, for Gideon was known to be a man of his word. The tower of Penuel he broke down, as he had said, and the men of Succoth he chastised.

Zebah and Zalmunna are now brought before their conqueror, who desires them to describe the men whom they had cruelly slain at Tabor. "As thou art, so were they," was the reply, "each one resembled the children of a king." Gideon at once recognised the portraits of his brothers; and a sense of personal injury and anger mingled with patriotic resentment, as he slew these enemies of his country and his house.

Impulsive in their gratitude to their deliverer, as they were in most things, the Israelites urge Gideon to become their king. "Rule thou over us," they say, "both thou, and thy son, and thy son's son, for thou hast delivered us from the hand of Midian." But Gideon had not been governed by ambitious motives. His patriotism had no admixture of selfishness. He owned allegiance to God alone, and he desired that his countrymen should own no other. With noble firmness, therefore, he answered, "I will not rule over you, neither shall my son rule over you. Jehovah shall rule over you." Unlike their gallant and godly leader, the Israelites wearied of the spiritual recognition of an invisible king, and this offer of the crown to Gideon was their first expressed desire for an earthly monarch.

The last recorded act of Gideon reminds us forcibly how fallible even the noblest of men are. He had refused the kingdom, but he thinks that some memorial of his victory should remain, He therefore requests

701

the people to bring the gold ornaments which they had, as is usual in war, taken from their captives, and with them he formed a priestly coat; and placed it in his own city Ophrah, where he had before built an altar unto the Lord. The wish to commemorate God's wonderful deliverance was a right and proper feeling, and if some degree of self-elation in having been the chosen hero, did mingle with his pious gratitude, we may well cast the mantle of love over this foible. But to have cast the trophy into the form of a priestly ephod argued a want of wisdom which is surprising in a man so far-seeing as Gideon. Little did he think how great would be the evil accruing to himself and to his family from this act. If it did not lead him into positive idolatry it may have estranged his heart in some measure from his God, and it is remarkable that we hear very little either of the ark of the covenant, or of Shiloh, during the government of the Judges. We learn from the history that in some way or other this ephod became a snare unto Gideon, as well as to his house, and that after his death it led the people into positive idolatry. As we read of Gideon's long, useful life, his peaceful death, and his honourable burial in the sepulchre of his fathers, it is painful to mark this shade which overspread his later days. It tells us of the necessity of unflagging watchfulness against subtle temptations, if we would be faithful unto death. The tendency to cling to visible objects of worship is natural to the human mind. The type is put in the place of the thing typified. Thus the brazen serpent became an object of idolatry, until it was destroyed by Hezekiah. In this way Roman Catholic images and crucifixes perplex the uncultured mind, which they profess to assist; and by drawing it off from God, who is the only true object of worship, they tend to rob him of his lawful homage. Well may we fear for ourselves in an age when the love of display is so common, lest forms and ceremonies take the place of devotion of heart to Him who is a spirit, and must be worshipped in spirit and in truth. Let us beware of resting in any outward forms or inward feelings of piety, instead of ever coming to God by Christ, through whose sole mediation we can find acceptance and salvation,

Sabbath Thoughts.

PRAISE THE LORD.

"O that men would praise the Lord for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men!" - Psalm cvii. 8.

Israel call on us to join in the chorus of this strain of praise. Four times in this beautiful psalm does the sweet singer of All are to unite in the glad song, for "the Lord is good to all;" and the more we are wise. and observe these things, the more shall we find cause for praise; for it is by observation of his dealings that his loving kindness will be known. It is for the wonderful works of God's providence that the psalmist here gives praise; considering in turn the cases of travellers, of captives, of sick persons, and of mariners, in each of which he traces the hand of God leading them by sore affliction to cry unto him in their trouble, and to find him the Answerer of prayer. And while we read of these sorrows and deliverances, are we not reminded of similar dealings of God with ourselves? Surely

Have we

some of the cases here related have been our own. "wandered in the wilderness in a solitary way," or been "bound in affliction and iron," or been "near unto the gates of death," thus delivered? Then, oh, let us each for ourselves praise the or been in stormy seas,-have we cried unto the Lord, and been Lord for his goodness, and not forget all his benefits !

Page for the Hanng.

ESTARE.

STARE had been a slave in the far South. When a child she had heard her mother say that Christians never die, and at once desired for that reason to become one; but she soon found, when her first sad experience came, and she was placed in a trader's hands for the New Orleans market, that to Christian principles alone could she look for strength to meet her every-day trials.

She was sold to a French lady who was a strict Catholic, and who tried to convert the girl to her own faith.

This did violence to Estare's ideas of right; and try as she would, she could not reconcile herself to the change required of her. Many a time she suffered the lash for what appeared to her mistress contrariness in not conforming to her rules of faith. Estare sought every opportunity to attend her own church, and lived a life consistent with its teachings. At last her mistress had recourse to the extreme penalty for refractory servants, and Estare was consigned to a dismal dungeon of the city prison until she should decide to forego her stubbornness and give up her heretic notions. The jailor seemed to pity her, but did his duty strictly as ordered, and the girl spent three days and nights with only rats and vermin for companions. Her time was spent in prayer, and singing hymns of cheer; so that she was much happier than her mistress, who was counting her beads and fasting at home.

Towards the close of the third day, a fellow-servant brought her two nice pillows and some bedclothes; but Estare said, * Take them back to mistress, Valina; I would not see them get spoiled here. Tell mistress I'm doin' very well in the dungeon." When Valina returned to her mistress and repeated the prisoner's words, the misguided woman relented, and was quite overpowered with emotion. The next morning she sent for Estare; and when the girl entered the room she found her mistress on the bed, her eyes swollen and red with weeping. She said, Well, Estare, what are you determined upon doing; are you ready to ask my pardon for your perversity ?" The slave replied, "I have done you no harm, mistress."

The lady seemed confused; and waving her hand, bade Estare go cleanse herself and change her filthy dress; but never again attempted to force her from her faith.

Many times did Estare find it a bitter task to do her duty, owing to petty annoyances from her mistress, yet little occasion of fair complaint was afforded her. She says that on looking back, it seems impossible to be grateful enough for the amount of patience given her; for often it was only through the assistance of prayer, unexpressed in words, that she managed to keep her spirit from breaking the barrier of principle.

At last when death visited their threshold, and laid his hand upon her mistress, she refused to be attended save by Estare; no one else could suit her, even to the adjustment of a pillow; and as her last hour approached, she called the faithful slave to bend low and catch her whispered words:

Oh, Estare, will you forgive me?"

For what, mistress? I belongs to God; when my enemies hurt me, I take it all to him. You'll have to go to him 'bout

it.'

Alas," said the unhappy woman, "the greatest offence I have to answer for is my persecution of you. God forgive me." Estare found, upon the death of her mistress, that arrangements had been made for her to receive her freedom as soon as she became of age, which would be in a few months. All her thoughts and conversation were now infused with this bright prospect, and she determined to embrace the first opportunity to "go North."

Yes," said her companions, "you'll go North to starve; what business a girl like you got goin' North?"

Estare told them that the same God reigned in New York that she had known and served in New Orleans, and she put her whole trust in him. Arriving there, she commenced the business of laundress, taking in fine muslins, etc., and soon made for herself a reputation that enabled her to take larger apartments and engage a woman in partnership. She is seventy-two now, well married, and respectably settled in life. Best of all, she has the fear of God and the love of the Saviour in her heart, and shows by her whole conduct the indwelling grace of the Holy Spirit.

SCRIPTURE ENIGMAS.

NO. XLI.

Say who are we that in successive verse,
Our acts or varied histories rehearse.

1. I formed a plot which nearly was completed;
2. And I that plot by God's good grace defeated.
3. Want drove me to a country far away:
4. I in that distant land was forced to stay.
5. I stayed at home and sung my pious songs;

6. While I went forth to avenge my country's wrong.
7. The Lord called me, I gladly left my all;
8. I followed at an angel's welcome call.

9. I wrote a book where Israel's kings were laud d; 10. And my great deeds were in that book recorded. 11, 12. Our deaths and lives will furnish lessons ample; One is a warning, one is an example. 13. I troubled much the servants of the Lord; 14. And me a king did wickedly defraud. 15. Great lamentations o'er my grave was made; 16. But e'er that time 1 in my grave was laid. 17. I served a wicked king of Israel;

18. And he my prayer did angrily repel. 19. I raised my people from their low condition; 20. And that great work was done by my permission, 21. I helped the apostles in their work of love; 22. He learned from me the wisdom from above. 23. I felt the force of that affliction sore; 24. Which I had threatened many years before. 25. My coming filled a preacher's heart with joy; 26. My leaving did that preacher's peace destroy. 27. I prophesied to the people of the Lord; 28. And my son wished to stop that prophet's word. Our names' initials tell the mournful story Which makes the cross the path to endless glory.

NO. XLII.

1. Give first the name of a valiant man whom his brethren hatod and expelled from their father's house, though they afterwards sought his aid when they were in distress?

2. Then of a spiritual son of the apostle Paul whom he restored to his former master?

3. Of an envious person whom it grieved exceedingly that there came a man to seek the welfare of the Israelites? 4. Of a mighty wrestler, a mighty prince, and father of a mighty nation?

5. Of a resident in Carmel, whose wise conduct in pacifying the resentment caused by her husband's folly, was the means of saving his life, and that of his household?

6. Of a king who was displeased with the reward which another king gave him for his services towards the completion of a magnificent edifice?

The initials will form the name of a king of whom it is recorded that no other king either before or after him fulfilled in so eminent a degree the first commandment as given by ou Saviour?

BIBLE QUESTIONS ON HUMAN CHARACTER.

NO. XV.-OBEDIENCE.

1. Name a king of Judah who spoiled a life of holy obedience by distrust of God in sickness.

2. Name a New Testament saint who avouched his obedience to God before two public assemblies.

3. Which do you consider the two greatest instances of the obedience of faith?

4. Name a good king of Judah who ended a life of general obedience to God under judicial separation from the church. 5. Name a priest and his wife who are both praised for their obedience to God.

6. What young man would you select in the history of the Old Testament as an example of the greatest filial obedience? 7. Name a young Hebrew who received a special inheritance in Canaan for his obedience to God.

8. Name two Jews who were rewarded for their obedience by being put in charge over Jerusalem.

9. What high priest was buried among the kings of Judah because he had proved himself obedient to God, and faithful to the interests of his people?

10. Name a prophet whose obedience and disobedience are recorded in the same chapter.

PUBLIC opinion, both in France and Italy, has been aroused to a feeling of natural indignation by the perpetration of another outrage like that which some years ago made the Mortara family childless, and converted their Jewish boy into an embryo Romish priest. The victim, in the present case, is named Michael Cohen, or Coën; the scene again is, of course, Rome. Young Cohen was apprenticed to one Messina, a shoemaker, who has a brother in the priesthood, and both are zealous servants of the most bigoted and fanatical party in the Romish church. Messina's shop was a rendezvous of priests and Jesuits, especially of those in forced exile from Naples and Sicily, and they aided in the conversion, by fair and foul means, of the apprentice from Judaism to Christianity. Young Cohen, who is naturally a timid boy, giving no evidence that he had been impressed by the conversations and arguments he overheard in the shop, was sent the other day, with a pair of shoes, to the house of the priest, Messina's brother, and from thence he was forcibly taken to the Hospital of Catechumens. The loud crying and opposition of the boy were only considered as the last efforts of Satan to retain his soul. The whole Jewish community in Rome were thrown into a ferment, and the parents of Cohen were indefatigable in seeking the rescue of their son. Their efforts, as well as the representations of the secretary of the Israelite Society, the French ambassador, and the professors in the College of Rome, down to the date at which we write, have proved fruitless. "The excitement in Rome is so great," says a letter from Italy, "that Messina's shop is guarded by five policemen. He parades the streets, and even defiantly strolls through the Ghetto itself. The Pope is said to have offered 1,000l. sterling for the father's consent, in order to allay the storm, and the official gazette has been obliged to speak on the subject, though insisting that young Cohen had long desired to become a Christian, and that he is now happy amid the caresses of the priests. With a refinement of malice, the father was told that he might see his son, but an interview with the mother was forbidden, an offer which the poor man dared not accept, owing to a law stringently enforced in Rome, and which all those of Hebrew birth knew right well, that any Jew daring to approach or pass this Asylum of Catechumens is immediately seized and imprisoned within its precincts for forty days, during which time he is catechised, and has to pay fines to the establishment and to his jailors." The Italian press is lifting a loud protest against the toleration of such inhuman practices on the part of the French government. The French press-the Ultramontane organs excepted echoes the complaint. Even the highest personage in the empire is said to have expressed his strong disapproval of the proceeding, and to have intimated to the court of Rome that France will not suffer abuses which shock humanity to be perpetrated in a capital occupied by her army. To do so would be to sanction them, and he will not sanction them. Should friendly remonstrances prove unavailing, an ultimatum is talked of, which it would not be prudent for the Pope to disregard.

Another case, not dissimilar to the above, is reported from Leghorn; the child, in this instance, being a girl, and of evangelical parentage. But as that city is in the dominions of the king of Italy, the kidnapper, who was a Capuchin monk, deemed it best to relinquish his victim ere he was himself brought within the grasp of the law, and she was accordingly returned to her parents. Cases of this kind, there is reason to believe, frequently occur, though the public but seldom hear of them.

An Educational Congress of distinguished Italians, versed in educational subjects, has lately met, to confer as to the best methods of teaching, the preparation of a series of school-books, the granting of diplomas upon examination to schoolmasters, and a host of kindred topics. The educational movement generally continues to excite much enthusiasm, though in the southern provinces especially the means of instruction are still lamentably deficient. But when one of the king's sons invites to his table a number of Sunday and day-school teachers, and the highest in the land give the movement their support, it can hardly fail to advance and become popularised. It does this, of course, in spite of the efforts of the priests, who work on the prejudices of parents in every possible form. It appears that, dividing the Italian peninsula into three parts, southern, central, and northern, there are, in the southern part oneeighth of the children at school, and seven-eighths as yet receiving no instruction; in central Italy, one-fifth of the children at school, and four-fifths as yet receiving no instruction; and in the northern provinces of Piedmont, of Lombardy, fourfifths are at school, and one-fifth not. Or, taking a conjunct

view of the three million children in wide Italy, more than two-thirds are receiving no instruction, while in some provinces scarcely one-eighth of the youthful population is at school. It should be added, that there is scarcely a town of any importance in which the authorities, during the last two or three years, have not shown the liveliest interest in establishing elementary schools in their various neighbourhoods, by means of their municipal funds.

From Germany we have intelligence of the meeting of two Protestant Synods in the Austrian capital. They represented, respectively, the Reformed and the Lutheran churches of the empire, and they appear to have been eighteen days in session. The Emperor assured a deputation from both bodies that his carnest desire was to see the Protestants of his empire in full possession of their rights and liberties. Encouraged by this declaration, the two assemblies conveyed to the foot of the throne an expression of their hope that the promises made in 1861 would not be allowed to remain merely upon paper. They requested, among other things, that the establishment of new Protestant churches in different parts of the imperial dominions should not be interfered with; that their pastors should be admitted into hospitals and prisons upon the same official equality as Roman Catholic priests; that it should no longer be forbidden to Roman Catholic parents to put their children to lodge with Protestants, and that the Protestant church should have its representatives in the Diet and in municipal councils. We are not informed of the Emperor's reply, but it was something for Protestant representatives to ask for concessions like these from the head of the house of Hapsburg, in the city of Vienna. We mentioned last month the forcible closing of the Protestant missionary establishments in Constantinople by authority of the Porte. On that occasion, the whole of the Turkish_converts in the capital-six in number-were arrested and imprisoned. Four of these have now been released, and two are still in custody. The Turkish authorities, it is said, intend to exile them for their own protection." This, as well as the closing of their own establishments and the treatment they received on the occasion, is made the subject of loud complaints by the missionaries, as it constitutes a flagrant violation of a treaty with the European powers. The case, in so far as it concerns the British and Foreign Bible Society, has been brought under the notice of Earl Russell, by a deputation from that institution, headed by the Earl of Shaftesbury. There is reason to suspect Romish intrigue was at the bottom of the whole affair.

Writing from Persia, the Rev. Dr. Perkins calls attention to the important fact, that the mission of the American Board in that land is aided by sixty Nestorian preachers, addressing from sabbath to sabbath a like number of congregations, the average number in attendance approaching three thousand. During last winter this number greatly increased; in many places it more than doubled. There are also four or five itinerant evangelists, who carry the gospel to many not included in these congregations. These preachers and their congregations are scattered widely, like so many beacon lights, among a hundred thousand Nestorians. The same agency is exerting an ever-increasing influence upon other nationalities-Persians, Koords, and especially Armenians. The missionaries have successfully introduced the system of Bible reading among the Nestorians, having now about twenty devoted females engaged in that work. Dr. Perkins says: "I believe this will become one of the most important means of evangelising the masses in these regions, and in a very economical way." Two of the American missionaries have been holding a series of protracted meetings on a distant part of the plain of Oroomiah. Inquirers, and large, deeply-attentive assemblies, are found at every place, encouraging the hope that the number of true conversions, within a short time, will prove to be not small. In and around Gawar, very cruel cases of oppression have occurred in which the Christians have suffered from both Turks and Koords.

From India comes a shocking account of the resuscitation of the horrors of Juggernaut. An eye-witness describes the selfimmolation of several persons under the wheels of the idol's car; but as the proceedings were speedily put a stop to, it may be hoped that a little firmness on the part of the English government will prevent the recurrence of such scenes of brutal idolatry. Other intelligence from that country is of a more gratifying character. Thus we read of the Baptist Society having commenced a mission to the Santals, one of the aboriginal tribes of India. Their agent, the Rev. R. J. Ellis, gives an interesting account of his journey to make the necessary arrangements. The Church