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, The hills of Galilee; Still on the land he loves the best, Into the Mighty Sea1: 1 The Mediterranean is commonly called in Scripture the Great Sea. On Lebanon the cedars old Her dewy tribute nature weeps, That, as in some lake's waveless face, Earth's features imaged there. 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 near the skirts of the μeya wedlov, or valley of Jezreel. 3 Byron. II. For countless as the insect throng That fills the summer fields with song, The warriors of the wilderness, With steeds and camels numberless And wafted on the echoes rife, While all around is still, The ceaseless hum of crowded life And ever as the breezes swell, Mixed with the camel's peaceful bell, For many a chief spoke impious boasts And long'd for coming day, Shall feebly draw the ebbing breath, ↑ And the Midianites, and the Amalekites, and all the children of the east, lay along in the valley like grasshoppers for multitude: and their camels were without number, as the sand by the sea-side for multitude. Judges vii. 12. III. There is one who looks down, from the wild mountain side, Are these the defenders of Israel's land? Shall the stream of the mountain pretend to restrain IV. Dauntless he stood, for his a race Some shade of doubt there ran 5 And the host of Midian was beneath him in the valley. Judges vii. 8. |