ADVERTISEMENT.

“THE Rev. THOMAS SEATON, M. A. late Fellow of Clare Hall, bequeathed to the University (in 1738) the rents of his Kislingbury estate, now producing clear £40. per annum, to be given yearly to that Master of Arts who shall write the best English Poem on a sacred subject. The Vice-Chancellor, the Master of Clare Hall, and the Greek Professor (who are the disposers of this premium) determine the subject, which is delivered out in January, and the Poem is to be sent to the Vice-Chancellor on or before the 29th of September following. The Poem is to be printed, and the expense deducted out of the product of the estate: the remainder is given as a reward to the composer."

CAMBRIDGE, October, 1889.

The above PREMIUM was this year awarded to JOHN MURRAY,

M.A. of Trinity College.

GIDEON,

OR

TRIALS OF FAITH.

FIRST TRIAL.

DOUBT.

......

"For the time would fail me to tell of GIDEON, &c...... Who THROUGH FAITH subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, waxed valiant in fight, turned to flight the armies of the aliens. Ep. Heb. xi. 32, 34.

I.

ON Jezreel's plain the sun has set,
But his last beams illumine yet

The hills of Galilee;

Still on the land he loves the best,
He lingers, e'er he plunge his crest,
Behind old Carmel's rose-clad breast,
Into the Mighty Sea1:

1

The Mediterranean is commonly called in Scripture the Great Sea.

On Lebanon the cedars old

Still wave their giant tops in gold;
While nearer, Hermon's dewy hill,
Gilboa, and mount Tabor, still
Give back his parting ray:
But gradual on the mountain's side,
The dark'ning shadows upwards glide,
Till, like the falling brave3, at length
In one last blaze he pours his strength,
Then dies at once away.

Her dewy tribute nature weeps,
While high o'er head the azure sleeps,
So deep, so clear, so fair;

That, as in some lake's waveless face,
Fancy might almost seem to trace

Earth's features imaged there.
And lo, as if she mocked the eye-
As the bright legions of the sky
Come rushing on the sight,

Ten thousand rays of baser birth

Seem answering back to them from earth;
Till not a heavenly light

But finds a sister spark below,

And heaven and earth are all a-glow

With cressets of the night.

2 Hills situated on or

Jezreel.

3 Byron.

near the skirts of the μεγα πεδιον, or valley of