What is, in some respects, more singular, the Israelites were subsequently delivered from a foreign yoke by the heroism of a religious woman. This was Deborah, a prophetess, the wife of Lapidoth. For twenty years her country had groaned beneath the iron hand of Jabin, the Canaanite, of whose numerous armies Sisera was captain. Under the direction of Deborah, the Israelites, amounting only to ten thousand, joined battle with their oppressors. The adversary was completely beaten, so that not a man survived to tell the tale of their defeat; and, lest the shadow of doubt should rest upon these active operations, conducted as they were by the wise and good, they were celebrated, and thus rendered immortal, by one of the 198noblest odes on record, written, without doubt, under plenary inspiration: while pointed maledictions are levelled against those lukewarm friends whose supineness kept them from the righteous fray. Let us listen a minute. ‘The inhabitants of the villages ceased, they ceased in Israel, until that I Deborah arose, that I arose a mother in Israel. They fought from heaven; the stars in their courses fought against Sisera. The river of Kishon swept them away, that ancient river, the river Kishon. O my soul, thou hast trodden down strength. Curse ye Meroz, said the angel of the Lord, curse ye bitterly the inhabitants thereof; because they came not to the help of the Lord, to the help of the Lord against the mighty. So let all thine enemies perish, O Lord; but let them that love Him be as the sun when he goeth forth in his might.’ The result of these spirited demonstrations was of the most substantial order; for it is particularly noted that the land had rest forty years. We find, also, that Gideon and Jephthah were of the same noble line of godly soldiery. The former rescued his country from Midianitish despotism; and the latter put down the children of Ammon. ‘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.’ I scarcely need add, that the sympathy of succeeding generations has been excited by his rash and thoughtless vow connected with the virtuous and noble-minded conduct of his daughter. But his fame, as the brave and pious defender of his people, can never be tarnished.