resontment of injuries, e.nd "insolent joy," born of ovennuch prosperity ha<l been aroused by his successes. His request for the gold rings which formed a' portion of the people's prey. e.nd the making therewith e. costly ephod, without any direction from God or knowledge that he was doing what would be acceptable to him, showed a pr.,sumption fe.r removod from the trustful docility which had been so beautiful a feature i11 his previous conduct; and we see a departure from the simplicity of his early life in his many wives and concubines, e.nd in his connivance at the irregular concourse of the Israelites to Ophrah for a semi-idolatrous worship before the ephod, which conduced to his own worldly dignity, and was perhaps a source of emolument to him. These things are undoubtedly blots in Gideon's fame. On the other hand, hii; pious moderation in refusing the hereditary kingdom offered to him, the persist- 1>nt "goodness which he showed to Israel" to his life's end, as we may safely con- clude from the le.at verse of the chapter, the good government by which he gave rest to the land for forty years, and the continued repression of Baal-worship as long as he lived, are all evidences that he maintained his integrity before God, and never forfeited his claim to be a servant of God ; and it is in entire agreement with this view that we read that he " died in a good old age, and was buried in the sepulchre of Joe.ah his father," words by which the sacred historian evidently means to set before us the picture of one who, under God's favour, was happy in his death, as be had been in his lifA. Nor can we doubt for a moment what it was which held him up in the slippery path of worldly greatness. If God left him, as he did Hezekiah, "to try him, that he might know all that was in his heart," he did not leave or forsake him wholly. The faith in God which had carried him down to the Midianite ce.mp, though it may have been dimmed, was never extinct. The com- munion with God, if less fresh and less constant, was never wholly interrupted. His belief the.t God is, e.nd that he is a rewarder of them that seek him, once so deeply graven upon his heart and confirmed by his experience, never, we may be sure, departed from him. "Faint, yet pursuing," me.y probably describe the war- fare of his soul e.t the most unfavourable times of bis life. For ourselves, let us rise from the contemplation of Gideon's career with the firm determination to shake off those things which may be a snare to us, and not to slacken our pace in the pursuit of those things which are above. It is by constant prayer that our faith must be kept alive; it is by resolute resistance to those manifold lusts which war against the soul that our spirit must be kept free for holy obedience, and the eye of our mind kept clear to discern between the precious and the vile. We must keep a close watch against the first buds of those sinful dispositions in our hearts which are stimulated into growth by objects of carnal desire, or by wrongs or insults or taunt- ing words, and we must nip them in the bud by crucifying the flesh with its affec- tions and lusts. And if we find ourselves prosperous in this world, if riches increase, if friends multiply, if all goes well with us, if the world smiles upon us, if we are rising in consequence, in power, in tlie estimation of men, if new soim:es of gratification are opened to us, and life puts on its gayest, gaudiest colours for us, then above all it behoves us to be on our guard, and to maintain the supremacy of the love of God within us. Then let us humble ourselves before the cross of Christ; then let us bring the glories of the kingdom in full view, till the glories of earth pale before them; then let us strive more earnestly than ever to feel how immeasurably the pleasure of doing the will of God iiees above the pleasure of pleasing ourselves, and how far the happiness of obedience to God's law transcends the happiness of yielding to our own desires. Such a victory over ourselves will be far more glorious than the conquest of ten thousand Midianites, and ours will be e. richer booty than the richest spoils of kings.
HOMILIES BY VARIOUS AUTHORS. Vera. 22-27.-Noble self-abnegation. The whole situation naturally described. In the flush of victory the impulse is to honour Gideon, and secure a permanent connection with the glory of his no.me by establishing a hereditary monarchy in his family. This honour be refuses. We he.ve herir- l, G~NEROUS BUT MIST,tl.KEN GRATITUDE. It was o n~tural impulse in the soldiers, 94 THE BOOK OF JUDGES. (CH. 1'111, 22-35.