HOMILETICS. Vere. 8-15.-.Tke calm after the storm. Jephthah's day of life had been a stormy one indeed. The strife with his own brethren ; the strife with the children of Ammon ; the strife between nature and superstition, and the throbbings of a distracted heart ; the strife with the tribe of Ephraim, and the strife with a premature death under which he sunk, marked him as a "man of strife" (Ver. 2 in the Hebrew, and Jer. xv. 10-) all his days, both him and "his people.'' But now there came quiet, uneventful days both for Israel and his rulers. There is no mention of foreign foe or of domestic discord. Scenes of family life take the place of the martial muster and the bloody fight. There is nothing to record save how long the judges judged, when they died, and where they were buried. We infer, indeed, from the fact that there were judges the continual care of God for his people, and from the absence of invasion and servitude we infer that the people did not forsake God. But more than this we do not know, nor over how great a part of Israel these judgeships did extend. But the reflection cannot but arise that it is not good for a people to he in continual strife. Struggles for supremacy over enemies without, and conflict for the settlement of government at home, should have their term, and give way to enjoyment of prosperity and peace. The happiest times in a nation's life are not always those that shine the brightest on the page of history. And so in the life of the individual. Though the surface of his life be not ruffled, nor its tenor varied by nny startling changes, there may be o hidden work of God going on in the soul more momentous than the gain or loss of fortunes, or any vicissitudes of sickness and of health. Faith may be waxing stronger, and love may be burning brighter; patience may be per- fecting her work, and the spirit of meekness may be steadily go.ining ground over the spirit of wrath and intolerance; the knowledge of Jesus Christ mo.y be filling the field of the soul's vision, and the kingdom of heaven may be drawing nearer to the soul's embrace, and yet the outward life may be monotonous and uneventful. Any- how let us use the calm and untempestuous moments of our life to make undisturbed progress in the great business of 011r salvation; and in the assurance of God's umvearied love let us pursue our own quiet round of meditation, and prayer, and praise. Great events o.nd mighty deeds figure on the page of history, but the soul's progress in holiness is worthy to be recorded by an angel's pen.
Vere, 8-15.-Cf. on eh. x. 1-5.-M.
EXPOSITION. time when the things narrated occmred, CHAPTER XIII. But the end of the forty years probably Ver. l.-Did evil again. It by no means coincided with the judgeship of Samuel ; follows from this phraso tho.t this chaptor is for there was no complete deliverance in in direct chronological sequenco to the pre- the time of S11mson, only occasional checks ceding, Tµo sceno is shifted to the tribe of to the Philistine domination (see ver. 5). Dan, o.ud to the Philistines on the west, and It wns not till the <lays of Samuel that the thore is nothing to guide us 11s to the ex11ct Philistines were rnully smitten (see 1 Sam. 138 THE BOOK OF JUDGES. [CII. XIII. 1_:25.