ephod at Ophrah, and the people had grievously sinned in joining themselves to Baal-berith. And the Lord punished them, not by giving them up to foreign enemies, but to their own base passions. Gideon had refused the authority offered him, both for himself and his sons; and it does not appear that they coveted it, either before or after his death: but Abimelech, being, on account of his birth, excluded from a share of the inheritance, and being of an ambitious and malignant disposition, resolved to set up an interest in opposition to the rest of the family. Encouraged by his mother, he endeavoured to gain the ear of the men of Shechem, by representing that his brethren intended to seize the government, and possess it with joint authority. He represented to them, that it would be better to be governed by one king than by so many petty tyrants; and insinuated, that, if they would raise him, who was their near kinsman, to the government, he would be peculiarly attentive to their interests. In this manner, by the help of his mother's relations, he acquired the government, without either merit or capacity for such an important situation, and in a total disregard of the divine law. They fell into his schemes, and gave him a quantity of silver out of the house of Baal-berith, with which he hired a set of unprincipled men, fit for any villany, and with this assistance basely murdered the whole family of Gideon, (excepting one son, who escaped him,) and then caused himself to be proclaimed king in Israel!

On hearing of the slaughter of his brethren, and the usurpation of Abimelech, Jotham, the surviving son of Gideon, went and stood on the top of mount Gerizim, (which lay near to Shechem,) and thence addressed to the men of Shechem, a parable tending to expose their foolish and contemptible conduct. As this is the first instance that occurs in scripture, of this method of imparting instruction, it may be well to observe, that a parable, or comparison, in its fullest sense, is a similitude taken from things natural, and applied to things spiritual. It is a kind of descriptive picture, which sets forth an action or event in lively colours, and conveys to the mind a perception of some important truth, to which it was before inattentive, or against which it was prejudiced. By this method, things are placed in a clearer, stronger light; a long chain of reasoning is spared; the subject is divested of such circumstances as do not properly belong to it: the truth is made palpable to reason and conscience, and, before selflove is awakened to make the worse appear the better argument, the individual is made unawares judge in his own cause, and decides against himself without intending it. This mode of instruction and application of truth has been adopted by wise men in all ages, but no where to such advantage as in the parables of scripture, especially those of our blessed Lord, who emphatically "spake as never man spake."

It must be borne in mind, that the truth of a parable lies in the instruction contained in it; the mere

outward circumstances of the parable may or may not be true, without the slightest infringement on veracity. Thus, when the gradual growth of corn, or the insrease of the little mustard-seed to the widely spreading shrub, Mark iv. 31. is made to represent the progress of religion in the human heart, and of the gospel in the world, the parable is literally as well as figuratively true. Corn does gradually advance to maturity; the mustard seed is very small, yet from it springs a shrub so considerable as to deserve the name of a tree. But when animals or plants are represented as reasoning and speaking, we must of course consider the literal circumstances related as fabulous, and look for the truth only in the instruction intended to be conveyed. The parable which Jotham used was very apt and striking; he represented the trees of the forest as resolving to select a king, and as offering the intended honour in succession to the olive-tree, the fig-tree, and the vine; each of which had excellency and usefulness to render it worthy of the appointment, if indeed the trees had wanted a king,-but each of these declined the proposal; they then fixed upon the bramble, (the most mean and contemptible of shrubs,) which eagerly accepted the distinction, and invited the other trees to come and put their trust in it-at the same time threatening, that if they were not cordial in their acceptance of it, fire should come forth from the bramble, and consume the cedars of Lebanon. Thus Jotham appositely reproved the conduct of the She

chemites towards the house of their benefactor Gideon. Gideon and his other sons had been worthy of the suffrages of Israel, if there had been any occasion to set a king over them, but they had shrunk therefrom; and the Shechemites had been so base and ungrateful as to murder the best, and so foolish as to encourage the presumption and arrogance of the basest, of Gideon's sons, a mean and worthless person, useless and troublesome as a bramble, and make him their king. Jotham then applied his parable with an appeal to their consciences, and a sagacious prognostication, if not a prophetical intimation, that much strife and mutual injury would arise from his unadvised measure.

Accordingly, Abimelech had not reigned more than three years before the very men who had been sc eager to advance him, were as eager to put him down a spirit of contention spread between him and the Shechemites, and they became mutual tormentors to each other, and executioners of the vengeance of a righteous God, for the crime, of which they had been mutually guilty, in murdering the family of Gideon.

An insurrection against Abimelech, and an at tempt to subvert his government, and to supplan him, was made by Gaal, who called himself an Hamor ite, as having descended from Hamor, the father of Shechem. This attempt, however, proved abortive Abimelech had notice of the conspiracy, and set fire to the temple of Baal-berith, where the conspirators had taken refuge, and where the whole company,