When trials are being received by Christians as the way to develop patience under the divine providence of God, when they are understood in that effect, as Sister White said in an earlier quote, that they are designed to nervous, to a determination to succeed, and when we understand them, as she said, as a means enabling us to gain the victory over self. When trials are understood that way, then they will increase and become greater and more severe as they progress. And it's this increased application of trials that removes more and more of our selfishness and purifies our souls. So not only should a Christian expect trials, if he is entering into the experience that Christ has ordained for him to enter into, he should expect for those trials to get more and more severe as he goes on. Judges 8, 24 and 29, and the purpose of these trials is to develop what Gideon lacked in this scenario. He lacked patience. Judges 8, 24 to 29, And Gideon said unto them, I would desire a request of you, that ye give me every man the earrings of his prey, for they had golden earrings, because they were Ishmaelites. And they answered, We will willingly give them. And they spread a garment, and did cast therein every man the earrings of his prey. And the weight of the golden earrings that he requested was a thousand and seven hundred shekels of gold, besides ornaments and collars and purple raiment that was on the kings of Midian, and besides the chains that were about the camels' necks. And Gideon made an ephod thereof, and put it in his city, even Ophrah. And all Israel went thither a-whoring after it, which thing became a snare unto Gideon and to his house. Thus was Midian subdued before the children of Israel, so that they lifted up their heads no more. And the country was in quietness forty years in the days of Gideon. And Jeroboam the son of Joash went and dwelt in his own house. Judges 8, 24 to 29. Gideon builds an ephod and a breastplate. He creates a counterfeit ephod and breastplate, and counterfeits what those symbolize in the true tabernacle in Shiloh. What do those symbolize? Patriarchs and Prophets 574. It was not customary for the Levites to enter upon their peculiar services until they were twenty-five years of age, although Samuel had been an exception to this rule. Every year saw more important trusts committed to him, and while he was yet a child, a linen ephod was placed upon him as a token of his consecration to the work of the sanctuary. The ephod symbolized the consecration of the priest. Patriarchs and Prophets, page 351.