great influence on Brown." It is manifest that it had. If we read this fine story in the book of Judges in the light of Brown's long brooding over the Scriptures, and also in the light of his subsequent career and acts, noting as we go his organization of the League of Gileadites among the negroes, we find that we can understand Brown much better than we could without this knowledge. The story fired his intense spirit and prompted his actions again and again. He belonged to the epoch of Gideon rather than to the nineteenth century.
That he aspired to do for the blacks what Gideon did for the children of Israel does not prove that he was actuated by personal ambition. It indicates the stirring of a sentiment in him which was something like personal ambition; yet, if he really had a dream of earthly fame and greatness, he suppressed it, and acted as if he had no such dream. In a
