But far more exalted pleasures of memory and retrospection await the Christian in a future world. Having ascended above this cloudy spot into the glory of the divine presence, it will be his pleasing and privileged employment to retrace the events of past existence, when nothing but a _remembrance_ of the struggles and conflicts of this mortal state will remain, to enhance the raptures of eternal victory. What is crooked will then be made straight, what is perplexing will become plain, what is unknown will be revealed. Amidst the songs of heaven it will heighten our blessedness to recollect the sorrows of earth as _past_--clothed in the robe of salvation and triumph, it will be grateful to recall the time when we _wore the armour_ and _strove in the field_--arrived in port, it will be inexpressibly delightful to recur to the storm as then for ever _gone by_! Deborah. Chapter VIII. SECTION I. Historical retrospect--Deborah sitting as a Judge and Prophetess under a Palm-tree--Sends to Barak to Confront Sisera--Accompanies him-- Preparations for Battle--Victorious Result--Death of Sisera--Reflections. After the death of Joshua, which occurred in the hundred and tenth year of his age, and in the two thousand five hundred and seventy-eighth of the world, the people of Israel were in a very fluctuating, unsettled condition, having no regularly appointed governor; and the book of Judges, supposed to have been written by Samuel, exhibits a striking picture of the disorders incident to such a state of civil disorganization. "Let every soul," then, "be subject unto the higher powers;" remembering that, as "rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil," while we are properly submissive to their authority, we should be grateful to God for their appointment.