them at all. Yet still willing to try for the third and last time, the power of man against his Maker, he leads Balaam to the top of Mount Peor, where the same ceremonial gives the sanction of truth, and the majesty of power, to the words of the prophet; and here it is that he pours forth for the last time, a blessing, still richer and more unlimited than before, beginning with the beautiful and poetic language,

How goodly are thy tents, O Jacob, and thy tabernacles, O Israel! As the valleys are they spread forth, as gardens by the river's side as the trees of lign aloes which the Lord hath planted, and as cedar' trees beside the waters.

To those who are best acquainted with the poetry of the human heart, the sad history of Jephthah and his daughter affords particular interest, told as it is in language never yet exceeded for simplicity and genuine beauty, by any of the numerous writers who have given us, both in prose and verse, imaginary details of this melancholy story.

And Jephthah vowed a vow unto the Lord, and said, if thou shalt without fail deliver the children of Ammon into mine hands,

Then it shall be, that whatsoever cometh forth of the doors of my house to meet me, when I return in peace from the children of Ammon, shall surely be the Lord's, and I will offer it up for a burntoffering.

So Jephthah passed over unto the children of Ammon to fight against them; and the Lord delivered them into his hands.

And he smote them from Aroer, even till thou come to Minnith, even twenty cities, and unto the plain of the vineyards, with a very great slaughter. Thus the children of Ammon were subdued before the children of Israel.

And Jephthah came to Mizpeh unto his house, and behold his daughter came out to meet him with timbrels and with dances: and she was his only child; beside her he had neither son nor daughter.

And it came to pass, when he saw her, that he rent his clothes, and said, Alas, my daughter! Thou hast brought me very low, and thou art one of them that trouble me: for I have opened my mouth unto the Lord, and I cannot go back.

And she said unto him, My father, if thou hast opened thy mouth unto the Lord, do to me according to that which hath proceeded out

of thy mouth; forasmuch as the Lord hath taken vengeance for thee of thine enemies, even of the children of Ammon.

The character of Samson displays in a powerful manner that combination of strength and weakness, which too frequently produces the most fatal and irrevocable ruin. It is a character well worthy of our greatest poet, yet one, to the interest of which, his genius could add nothing, and (what is saying much) could expatiate upon without taking anything away. We first behold Samson as the man before whom the Philistines trembled, after rending the lion, and scattering thousands with his single arm, stooping to the dalliance of a false and worthless woman-three times deceived-wantonly and wickedly deceived, yet trusting her at last with the secret of his strength. Next, betrayed into the hands of his enemies, we find him,

And lastly, as if this punishment were not sufficient, he is led forth and placed between the pillars in the public hall of entertainment, to make sport at the festival of his enemies, rejoicing in his weakness and his bonds; where the indignation of his unconquerable soul finally nerves him for that tremendous act of retributive vengeance, by which the death of Samson is commemorated.

The story of Ruth is familiar in its touching pathos, to every feeling heart; as well as intrinsically beautiful to every poetic mind. What for instance can exceed the description of the separation of the sisters, when their mother entreats them to leave her.

And they lifted up their voice and wept again: and Orpah kissed her mother-in-law; but Ruth clave unto her.

And she said, Behold, thy sister-in-law is gone back unto her peo. ple, and unto her gods: return thou after thy sister-in-law.

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.

In speaking of poetry as it relates to the passions, and to the minor impulses, and finer sensibilities of human nature, as well as to the scenes and circumstances most calculated for their developement, we have no hesitation in pointing out the life and character of Saul, as one, abounding perhaps more than any other in the Scriptures, with poetical interest. The book of Job is one of poetry itself, yet the character of the sublime sufferer does not afford the variety exhibited in that of Saul. Prostrate in the dust of the earth, and still holding communion with the Deity, we behold him as an isolated being, struck out from the common lot, and set apart for a particular dispensation, whose severity was sufficient to fill a more human heart with bitterness. But the experience of Saul is that of a more ordinary man, with whom we can fully sympathize, as we go along with him through those great national and social changes, by which men of common mould are often placed before the world in a point of view so striking and important, as to entitle them to the name of great. We recognize in the king of Israel the same motives and feelings by which men in all ages have been influenced; yet while we speak of him as a less extraordinary character than Job, it is only so far as the features of his character are more intelligible and familiar to our observation and experience; for everything recorded of him in his eventful history, bespeaks a mind imbued at the same time with power and sensibility, and a soul capable of the extremes both of good and evil.

We behold him first a simple youth-a choice young man, and a goodly, so unconscious of the high honour which awaited him, that when Samuel emphatically asks, " Is not the desire of the people on

thee, and on all thy father's house ?" he answers with perfect humility and simplicity of heart,

Am not I a Benjamite, of the smallest of the tribes of Israel? and my family the least of all the families of the tribe of Benjamin ? wherefore then speakest thou so to me?

Yet,

it was so, that when he had turned his back to go from Samuel, God gave him another heart.

We have no reason to suppose an ambitious heart, but rather a heart enlarged with a conception of the favour of the Almighty, and filled with the spirit of prophecy, and with all heavenward aspirations; so that, under a sense of the responsibility of sending forth as a king, an edict among his people, he built an altar unto the Lord, and asked counsel of God before he went down after the Philistines. Thus far we find him obedient as a man, and faithful as a sovereign; for his heart was yet uncorrupted by the temptations which surround a throne: but the power of leading and governing others, soon produced its natural and frequent consequence--a disposition to be guided by his own inclination, and to resist all higher authority. Thus, when commanded to go and smite the Amalekites, and utterly to slay both men and women, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass, he spared Agag and the best of the sheep, and of the oxen, and of the fatlings, and of the lambs, and all that was good, and would not utterly destroy them; thereby transgressing the great paramount law, no less necessary for the right government of an infant mind, than for an infant world--the law of obedience.

Then came the word of the Lord unto Samuel, saying,

It repenteth me that I have set up Saul to be king: for he is turned back from following me, and hath not performed my commandments. And it grieved Samuel; and he cried unto the Lord all night.

And when Samuel rose up early to meet Saul in the morning, it

was told Samuel, saying, Saul came up to Carmel, and, behold, he set him up a place, and is gone about, and passed on, and gone down to Gilgal.

And Samuel came to Saul: and Saul said unto him, Blessed be thou of the Lord: I have performed the commandment of the Lord. And Samuel said, What meaneth then this bleating of the sheep in mine ears, and the lowing of the oxen which I hear?

And Saul said, They have brought them from the Amalekites: for the people spared the best of the sheep and of the oxen, to sacrifice unto the Lord thy God; and the rest we have utterly destroyed.

Then Samuel said unto Saul, Stay, and I will tell thee what the Lord hath said to me this night. And he said unto him, Say on.

And Samuel said, When thou wast little in thine own sight, wast thou not made the head of the tribes of Israel, and the Lord anointed thee king over Israel?

And the Lord sent thee on a journey, and said, Go and utterly destroy the sinners of the Amalekites, and fight against them until they be consumed.

Wherefore then didst thou not obey the voice of the Lord, but didst fly upon the spoil, and didst evil in the sight of the Lord?

After this reproof from Samuel, Saul again endeavours to justify himself by proving that the reservation he had made was solely for the purpose of sacrificing to the Lord, when the prophet emphatically asks,

Hath the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams.

To Samuel, who seems hitherto to have stood in the capacity of an intercessor between him and the Divine Majesty, Saul now humbles himself, and entreats that he will pardon his sin, and turn again with him, that he may worship the Lord. And when still rejected, he humbles himself yet more, and prays (Oh! how naturally!) that at least the prophet will honour him before the people, that the world may not witness his degradation. And now Samuel yields, but we are told soon after that he came no more to see Saul until the day of his death; nevertheless he mourned for him, and the Lord repented that he had made Saul king over Israel.