"Hold thy peace," they said to him, "lay thine hand upon thy mouth, and go with us, and be to us a father and a priest: is it better for thee to be a priest unto the house of one man, or that thou be a priest unto a tribe, and a family in Israel ?”.

The children of

Jonathan had no fault to Micah; he had taken him in when he was houseless, and had treated him with unvarying kindness; but he who had been false to his God could not be expected to be true to any earthly friend; he was such a low minded man, that his own interest was the highest point at which he aimed. He accompanied the Danites with a joyful heart. As soon as Micah discovered the theft, he gathered his neighbours together, and set out after the robbers. Dan, having cattle with them, could not travel very fast, so they were overtaken by Micah and his company. The robbed Ephraimite, confident in the justice of his cause, called out to them. The Danites turned round and asked what was the matter. Micah accused them of having taken away his most valuable treasures, his gods and his priest. The children of Dan made no attempt to excuse what they had done. They did not offer to make up to the man for his loss; they contented themselves with telling him that if he were not quiet at once, they would kill him and his family. This was enough.

Micah, seeing that they were too strong for him, returned to his house.

Marianne. I am sorry for poor Micah, he was very ill

used.

Grandfather. If the loss of his idols shewed him his own folly in trusting to them, and led his heart to the true God, it would be no loss at all, but gain. The children of Dan then marched to Laish, which they speedily conquered. They seem, indeed, to have met with no resistance in killing the inhabitants, and burning the city. They built another city in its place which they called Dan. This is a conquest of which we think with no pleasure, for these false Israelites established idolatry as soon as they established themselves.

George. There is not very much war in that story, grandfather.

Grandfather. Very little. Another which took place about the same time would please you better in that respect. I am afraid there will not be time to tell it tonight.

George. I think there will; that has not been a long one; it is not late.

Grandfather. Well I shall begin it at any rate.

Marianne. But, grandfather, before you begin another story, I wish to ask, could not Micah get the priest and the other men punished for taking away his images?

Grandfather. No, Marianne, he could not get them punished, because "in those days there was no king in Israel, but every man did that which was right in his own eyes." It is a sad proof of the wickedness of the human heart, that when we are told every man did what was right in his own eyes, we know it means that the people were going very far wrong. The other story I

am to tell you presents a dreadful picture of the wickedness of the times. A Levite was travelling from Bethlehem-Judah to Mount Ephraim. His wife was

with him, and his servant, and they travelled on asses. When they were near Gibeah, a city belonging to the tribe of Benjamin, the sun went down. They could not pursue their journey in the dark, so they entered the city, intending to remain there till morning. Inns were not common in those days, and as no one offered them a night's lodging, the travellers could not make a better of it than to sit in the street. While they were sitting there an old man came up to them. He had been working in the fields all day, and now that the evening had come he was wending his way homeward. Rest is pleasant after labour; we cannot know how pleasant it is until we have laboured. That industrious old man would enjoy the comforts of his home far more than the idle people of the place who did nothing but mischief all day. Though he lived in Gibeah, the old man did not belong to Gibeah; he was an Ephraimite. When he saw the Levite sitting in the street he asked him to what place he was bound, and from what place he had come. The Levite told him, and added that no one had offered him shelter for the night; shelter was all he required, for he carried with him provender for the asses, and food for himself, his wife, and his servant. Heartily did the old man from Mount Ephraim offer him, not only a lodging, but insisted on supplying him with everything else that was needful for comfort. No doubt this offer

was thankfully accepted by the Levite, and they all went together to the old man's house. Notwithstanding the kindness of their host, they got little peace under his roof. The wicked men of the place beat at the door, and succeeded in getting the wife of the Levite away with them. They injured her so much that she died. When her husband opened the door in the morning, he saw her lying dead. He lifted up her body, put it on an ass, and journeyed homeward. Then, instead of burying the remains of his poor wife, he divided her into twelve pieces, and sent a piece to each tribe of Israel.

Marianne. What a horrible thing for the man to do, grandfather; why did he do it?

Grandfather. You must remember that I told you at this time there was no king in Israel; there was no one to punish offenders; and it was not right that offenders so notorious as these Benjamites should pass unpunished. As there was neither king nor judge to whom the Levite could appeal for justice, his only plan was to engage all the people of Israel to espouse his

cause.

Marianne. But he might have sent to tell them about it without sending a piece of his wife's body; that was such a horrible thing.

Grandfather. It certainly does seem so to us, but it was agreeable to the customs of the times. It was common, when one wished to bind other persons in an engagement to assist him, to send to each of these persons a piece of a dead body; those who accepted of a

piece were considered to have entered into a strict bond with the person who sent it. The body so divided was generally that of an animal which had been offered in sacrifice. The children of Israel unanimously responded to the call of the Levite; they gathered together as one man; four hundred thousand men of war appeared before the Lord in Mispeh. They called the Levite before them, and asked him to explain this dreadful business. He related the circumstances, the hearing of which determined them to go up against Gibeah. None of them thought of returning to their homes till they had avenged this wrong, but they sent a tenth part of their whole number to bring the food that they would require while they were engaged in the war. In the next place, they sent messengers to the Benjamites, asking them to deliver up those wicked people who lived in Gibeah, scarce deserving the name of men. Yet bad as they were, their part was taken by all the tribe of Benjamin, who paid no attention to the request of the other tribes, but prepared themselves to oppose them in battle. The number of the children of Benjamin who were men of war was twenty-six thousand; among these were seven hundred men left-handed, who could sling stones to a hairbreadth, and not miss.

George. Twenty-six thousand was a very small army to oppose four hundred thousand; the Benjamites would be sure to be beaten.

Marianne. Of course they would, because the Israelites were in the right.