who escaped the general massacre, and the knowledge of its extent, only by a successful flight. 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 us. The olivetree 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 fig-tree 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. 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 Jerubaal 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 this apologue. Catherine. It appears to me to say, that the noble-minded man is satisfied with the spontaneous esteem of others, the natural reward of his virtue; while the less deserving are often the most solicitous to conceal their insignificance un. der 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. DEATH OF ABIMELECH. 161 Mother. 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 admonition, 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, dissension and treachery brought on a civil war between Abimelech and his subjects, in which their atrocious cruelty to the sons of Gideon was most wofully returned on their own heads. Their city was destroyed by the tyrant, and their citi zens 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, or they became themselves inattentive to the laws; for 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? Mother. 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 162 WAR UPON BENJAMIN. 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 nature 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 dwellings all in ruin, and their smiling fields laid waste—their females cut off and their whole substance destroyed! The regret of their persecutors could not repair those multiplied evils -and in one respect they had tied their own hands. In their phrensied indignation, at the national assembly, they had made a solemn vow, that no man in Israel should give his daughter in marriage to a Benjamite! To save their rash oath and yet do something to express their returning kindness to the ruined tribe, they sent them four hundred young women whom they had spared at the massacre of Jabesh-Gilead: still, as many were left without compa STORY OF JEPHTHAH. 163 nions, another act of injustice was undertaken to remedy the first-and to avert from themselves, the curse pronounc ed on him who should give a wife to the proscribed people. A religious festival was held annually at Shiloh, at which the maidens were accustomed to dance, in imitation of the idolatrous rites of the heathens. This was now the season, and the unmarried Benjamites were advised to repair thither, and, concealing themselves in the vineyards, seize upon the young women when an opportunity offered, and thus would their fathers remain guiltless! Catherine. Then it appears after all, that the other tribes were a thousand times more criminal than the original offenders whom they affected to punish! Mother. Thus it is, my dear, with poor human nature. We censure, without charity, the faults of others, whilst we do the same, or worse, ourselves! Catherine. Did the reigning judge remain an inactive spectator of these horrible disorders? Mother. The immorality and impiety of the Israelites during the administration of the judges, might lead us to conclusions unfavourable to the character of the latter; but the chronology of some parts of their annals is so indistinct, that we may charitably refer their greatest deviations to the times when the historian says "there was no king in Israel, but every man did that which was right in his own eyes;" or in other words, perhaps, in that interregnum which might happen between the death of one judge and the appointment of another. I do not mean to apologize for them, for the Israelites were never without an infallible monitor, had they chosen to ask counsel-but to relieve this distinguished order from the censure implied in your very obvious question. About the same period in which the transactions I have been relating occurred, we find a man sacrificing his own daughter, or otherwise disposing of her, to perform a rash vow, in direct opposition to the law and custom of his country. Fanny. To whom, mother, do you allude? Mother. To Jephthah, whose disposition of his daughter has occasioned some discussion, not altogether satisfactory at last. The Israelites, ever ready to burst from the shackles of their own divine institutions, had renewed their for 164 STORY OF JEPHTHAH. bidden intercourse with the natives, who, on their part, were ever ready to ensnare them. They married into their families, adopted their manners, and acknowledged their gods. Incense arose from their verdant hills, and their vines and palms were interwoven into bowers for Baalim and Ashtaroth, the patrons of Zidon and Syria! Insolence and domination were the fruits of familiarity with an unprincipled people, and eighteen years the deluded Israelites were repaid by the depredations of the Philistines on the one hand, and the Ammonites on the other. At length, awakened from their delirium, they acknowledged the justice that had afflicted them, and implored the pity of their Heavenly Father: and to manifest their sincerity they cut down the groves and demolished the altars they had impiously built. Resolving to drive out the invaders, they formed a camp in Mizpah and chose Jephthah for their chief. The gallant Jephthah was a Gileadite who had been driven by his brethren from his father's house because “he was the son of a strange woman”- -a gentile perhaps, and therefore obnoxious to the hatred of a Hebrew family. An enterprising spirit, which made him famous in his retirement beyond Mount Hermon on the border of Syria, and had given uneasiness to his fellow-citizens, was probably the true cause of his banishment, while the other served as a fair pretext. Fitted, by a daring soul, to conduct the projected war, he was invited by his native town to take the command of the troops, with a promise to continue him as chief, if he should subdue their enemies. Remembering their former injustice, he reproached the envoys with coming to him in their distress, and refused to assist them until he had obtained a confirmation of their offer. Before Jephthah took any hostile step, he sent to the king of Ammon to inquire why he appeared in Gilead with an army? "Because Gilead is mine," returned the king -" from the river Arnon unto Jabbok and Jordan. Those lands were wrested from me by the Israelites, when they came up out of Egypt; restore, therefore, peaceably, my right." A second message from the chief reminded him that his ancestors had lost their lands by their active opposition to the passage of the Israelites through it into Canaan: that no claim had disturbed the possession these last |