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While its bless'd beams a sun-like heat supply,
Warm every cheek, and dance in every eye-
To them alone: for Misraim's1 wizard train
Invoke, for light, their monster-gods in vain :
Clouds heaped on clouds their struggling sight confine,
And ten-fold darkness broods above their line.

8. "Yet on they press, by reckless vengeance led,
And range, unconscious, through the ocean's bed;
Till midway now-that strange and fiery Form
Showed his dread visage lightening through the storm;
With withering splendor blasted all their might,

And brake their chariot-wheels, and marred their coursers' flight.
'Fly, Misraim, fly!' The ravenous floods they see,
And, fiercer than the

floods, the DEITY.

'Fly, Misraim, fly!' From Edom's coral strand
Again the prophet stretched his dreadful wand:
With one wild crash the thundering waters sweep,
And all is waves-a dark and lonely deep:
Yet o'er those lonely waves such murmurs passed,
As mortal wailing swelled the nightly blast;
And strange and sad the whispering breezes bore
The groans of Egypt to Arabia's shore."

1 PRIS -TINE, early; original.

HEBER.

13 BEE'TLING, overhanging; jutting over.
MIS'-RA-IM, the name given by the He-
brews to ancient Egypt.
MÄR'RED, impeded; impaired.

2 CHA'-Os, that confusion in which matter is 4 supposed to have existed before it was reduced to order by the creating power of 5 God.

LESSON IV.

ISRAEL UNDER THE JUDGES.

1. DURING forty years after the passage of the Red Sea the children of Israel wandered in the wilderness. Then they crossed the river Jordan, and in seven years, under the leadership of Joshua, completed the conquest of the greater part of the land of Canaan.

2. From the time of the death of Joshua to the election of Saul as king, the Israelites were ruled by judges; but often during this period they relapsed1 into idolatry, for which they were punished by being delivered into the hands of the surrounding nations. But from time to time the Lord raised up good and valiant men--Othniel, and Ehud, and Barak, and

the prophet Gibeon, and Jephthah-who successively delivered them from the power of their enemies.

3. The history of Jephthah derives much interest from a sad event which changed into mourning the public rejoicings for a great victory which he had gained over the enemies of his people. Before engaging in battle he made a vow to the Lord, and said, "If thou shalt without fail deliver the children of Ammon into my hands, then it shall be that whatsoever cometh forth of the doors of my house to meet me, shall surely be the Lord's, and I will offer it up for a burnt-offering." He was triumphant; but on his return to his home at Mizpeh, who should come forth to meet him but his only child-his daughter! This sorrowful event has been well described in the following language:

4.

5.

JEPHTHAH'S DAUGHTER.

"The mighty Jephthah led his warriors on
Through Mizpeh's streets. His helm was proudly set',
And his stern lip curl'd slightly', as if praise

Were for the hero's scorn. His step was firm,
But free as India's leopard; and his mail,
Whose shekels2 none in Israel might bear',
Was like a cedar's tassel3 on his frame.

His crest was Judah's kingliest'; and the look
Of his dark lofty eye, and bended brow',
Might quell the lion.

"A moment more',

And he had reach'd his home'; when lo! there sprang
One with a bounding footstep, and a brow

Of light, to meet him. Oh! how beautiful'!
Her dark eye flashing like a sunlit gem-
And her luxuriant hair'!-'twas like the sweep
Of a swift wing in visions. He stood still,
As if the sight had wither'd him'. She threw
Her arms about his neck-he heeded not.
She called him "Father"-but he answered not.
She stood and gazed upon him. Was he wroth ?4
There was no anger in that bloodshot eye.
Had sickness seized him'? She unclasp'd his helm,
And laid her white hand gently on his brow,
And the large veins felt stiff and hard, like cords.
The touch aroused him'. He raised up his hands,
And spoke the name of God, in agony.

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6.

7.

"She knew that he was stricken, then'; and rush'd Again into his arms'; and, with a flood

Of tears she could not stay', she sobb'd a prayer
That he would breathe his agony in words.
He told her', and a momentary flush

Shot o'er her countenance; and then the soul

Of Jephthah's daughter waken'd'; and she stood
Calmly and nobly up, and said, 'twas well-
And she would die.

"The sun had well-nigh set.
The fire was on the altar; and the priest

Of the high God was there. A pallid man

Was stretching out his trembling hands to heaven,
As if he would have prayed, but had no words-
And she who was to die, the calmest one

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And she was dead-but not by violence."-N. P. WILLIS. 8. Although the Bible tells us that Jephthah did with his daughter "according to his vow which he had vowed," yet some commentators, making the closing paragraph of his vow read, " or I will offer it up for a burnt-offering," suppose that he did not slay his daughter, but dedicated her to the Lord, and set her apart for the service of the tabernacle. The poet has made the supposition that before the appointed time of sacrifice she died, "but not by violence."

1 RE-LAPS'ED, fell back.

2 SHEK'-EL, here used for weight.

3 TAS'-SEL, cluster of the tassel-like leaves

of some species of pine.

14 WROTH (rawth), very angry.

5 COM'-MENT-A-TORS, those who write comments or explanations.

LESSON V.

RUTH AND NAOMI.

1. Ir was during a severe famine, while the Judges ruled Israel, that Elimelech, of the tribe of Judah, with his wife Naomi and his two sons, removed into the land of Moab, where the young men married. Death soon deprived Naomi of her husband and her sons: she then resolved to return to her native country, and her daughters-in-law generously of fered to accompany her.

2. On representing the difficulties they would have to encounter, one of them was disheartened, and turned back; but the other, named Ruth, persevered. And Ruth said, "Entreat me not to leave thee, or to return from following after thee; for whither thou goest I will go, and where thou lodgest I will lodge: thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God. Where thou diest will I die, and there will I be buried: the Lord do so to me, and more also, if aught but death part thee and me."

3. When Naomi saw that she was steadfastly minded to go with her, she left speaking to her. So Naomi returned, taking her daughter-in-law with her; and they came to Bethlehem in the beginning of barley-harvest. The story of Ruth pleading with Naomi has been very beautifully told in the following lines:

4. "Entreat me not to leave thee, but convert me to the truth;' So spake in sorrow and in tears the gently-chiding Ruth. 'Entreat me not to leave thee, nor unclasp thy loosening hand; I'll follow thee, my mother, to the far Judean land.' But, turning still in grief away from her young, pleading face, And sadly putting back the arms so fondly that embrace—

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'My daughter,' thus Naomi said, in measured tones and deep,
We have our Sabbaths in that land, and holy days to keep,
And there's a bound we can not pass upon that day, you know; '
But Ruth said, 'Only where thou goest, mother, will I go.'

5. "Still spake Naomi, 'Turn again-thy home is not with me ;
For Judah's children must not with the outcast Gentile be.'
Ruth answered, 'In that stranger-land with thee, oh, let me stay,
And where thou lodgest I will lodge-I can not go away.'
And then again Naomi, 'We have precepts to observe,
And from our fathers' worship are commanded not to swerve.'
Ruth answered with religious zeal, 'I bow to Judah's Lord:
Thy people shall my people be-thy God shall be my God.'

6. "And now the mother's love burst forth, and rose in accents wild;
"Turn back, beloved, oh! turn back, for think you, Ruth, my child,
Your fainting heart could ever bear the woes I number now?
They must not dim those gentle eyes, nor darken o'er that brow;
For though thy mother yields to them, yet, dearest daughter mine,
It were not meet that they should fall on such a head as thine.'
7. "Then Ruth, with sudden brightness in her mild and loving eye,
'However hard thy death may be, thus only will I die.'
But yet once more Naomi spoke, 'My daughter, for the dead
We have a house of burial;' but Ruth, still answering, said,
'And there will I be buried; and the Lord deal thus by me,
If aught, my mother, on the earth, but death, part thee and me.'
MRS. E. H. J. CLEAVELAND.

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8. On their arrival in Canaan Naomi found herself forgotten by her kinsfolk, and was obliged to depend for support on the labor of her affectionate daughter-in-law. While Ruth was gleaning in the lands of a wealthy man of that country, named Boaz, her beauty and modesty arrested his attention;

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