Israelitish host. First, he commanded a proclamation to be made, that every one whose courage failed him should withdraw; and that he might do so with the less shame, they were enjoined to do so early in the morning: Now, therefore, go to, proclaim in the ears of the people, saying, Whosoever is fearful, let him return and depart early from mount Gilead.' All who were afraid were permitted to depart, and they were commanded to do so early in the morning-an excuse thus being provided for their cowardice, in permitting them to skulk away unseen. No man in all that host is therefore now under any necessity of remaining. It is at the option of every man to go or remain, but considering the interests that were in peril, that they must either conquer or be bondsmen, that on their conduct it might depend whether their country should survive or fall, and in what condition their posterity would be born and live-considering these things, it might have been expected that every man would have stood firm and dauntless, and perilled his life for his religion and his country. No one, however, can foretell what masses of men will do until they are tried. Till the eve of the battle, all seemed brave soldiers; but no sooner is permission given than two and twenty thousand men depart, and only ten thousand are left behind. All of these had shown themselves men who had the cause of their God and the honour of their country at heart-men who could be trusted, who would not desert their post when it became one of peril, who scorned to outlive their country, and who would rather be laid lifeless in the bosom of its soil, than tread on its surface with fettered feet, and gaze on its beauties with a bondsman's eyes.

It might have been thought that the people were now sufficiently few; and seeing all of them had been tried, and found worthy of confidence, it might have been expected that all would have been admitted to a share in the victory. God, however, is sovereign in the choice of his instruments; and even from among a willing people he makes a selection of the persons who shall be honoured to do his work. 'And the Lord said unto Gideon, The people are yet too many; bring them down unto the water, and I will try them for thee there and it shall be, that of whom I say unto thee, This shall go with thee, the same shall go with thee; and of whomsoever I say unto thee, This shall not go with thee, the same shall not go.' To the waters accordingly they are brought, and, by the application of another test, the ten thousand are reduced to three hundred men: 'And the Lord said unto Gideon, by the three hundred men that lapped will I save you, and deliver the Midianites into thine hand; and let all the other people go every man to his place.' The rest of the people accordingly dispersed, and by these three hundred Godselected men, the Midianites were completely overthrown, as the succeeding part of the narrative shows in detail.

This portion of the inspired history is full of interest. In order, however, to its proper improvement, it is necessary to bear in mind that the miraculous interpositions of God in behalf of Israel, and all interpositions, whether miraculous or not, that are explained in his word, were designed to teach us the principles according to which God

secretly and invisibly conducts his providence, in all ages, both towards the church and towards the world; and it may be remarked, that there are few passages of scripture from which we may learn more of the general style of providence than from the account given of Gideon's army.

Proceeding to unfold, a little farther, some of the principles contained in this passage, it is suggested, at the very outset, by the general tenor of the narrative, from beginning to end, that God ought always to be regarded as the prime agent in every good work. It was God who called Gideon to the work; it was by the Spirit of the Lord descending on him that his countrymen assembled at the blast of his trumpet; it was God who tested his army; it was God who gave them the victory. All was of God; and hence it is said, 'The people are too numerous for me to deliver the Midianites into thine hand.' For me! as if the victory depended wholly on the Lord of hosts, and in no degree on the men of war. God is the grand agent in all works of deliverance. Whosoever is employed as the instrument, God alone is 'the saviour of Israel, and the help thereof in the time of trouble.' And it is so in every work that is great and good. When they were building the second temple, this was given as the encouragement, Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord of hosts.' And the Psalmist has laid it down as a general maxim: Except the Lord build the house, they labour in vain that build it; except the Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain.' This should be constantly borne in mind, both in the way of caution and encouragement. It should teach us to beware of putting means in the place of God. We should not trust in our resources when they are abundant; neither should we despair of a good cause, because they are seemingly inadequate. On this head, let us never forget two things: First, Means are nothing without God. Second, God can never want means to accomplish his own work; he can create them, and cause them to stand forth whenever they are required, and can bring about such conjunctures in providence and grace, that the little one shall do the work of a thousand, and the small one shall wield an influence mightier than that of a great nation. Sense looks to means alone; and hence it ebbs and flows proportionally to them, as the tides of the sea keep time with the approximations or recessions of the moon. Faith, on the other hand, looks to God chiefly, and, while it sees him, remains unshaken in its hope, that whatever is agreeable to his will shall be maintained, and whatever is conducive to his glory shall be accomplished, though the means of doing so may be nowhere apparent. Things seen are the strength of the world; the mighty power of the church is from the invisible One who has taken to himself that most encouraging title, THE STRENGTH OF ISRAEL. The resources of faith and sense were never better represented than in the words of defiance given by David to Goliath: Thou comest,' said he, 'against me with a sword, and with a shield, and with a spear; but I come to thee in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, whom thou hast this day defied.'

From this passage of scripture it may be inferred, in the second place, that in maintaining his cause, defeating his enemies, and delivering his people, God proceeds according to certain fixed laws, the chief of which is this, that in all things he must act so as to secure the glory to himself. The world is not moved at random, nor are its affairs huddled together in blind confusion. There is a glorious order in the multitudinous events, of the past, the present, and the future; and each of them, under the management of divine power and wisdom, shall be made to issue in most perfectly contributing its part, to the grand end which God Almighty proposed to himself in the creation of the world and the erection of a church. As we can discern the style of a great master, from perusing his works, whether he be a painter, a poet, or a philosopher, so there is a certain marked style which belongs to all the works of God-a stamp of divinity which no creature in heaven or in earth can imitate. In this age of sense, this era of physical discoveries and inventions, when the genius of man has wrought such miracles upon matter, and when everything is estimated by mechanical or political principles, it is of great importance to study the ways of God, and endeavour to comprehend the style of his procedure, so that we may learn, if the expressions may be pardoned, to know his hand, and be prevented from confounding the schemes of man with the doings of Jehovah. And where could we find a passage that enters more into the heart of the subject than this does: 'The people that are with thee are too many for me to give thè Midianites into thine hand, lest Israel vaunt themselves against me, saying, Mine own hand hath saved me?' In so far as power was concerned, God could have conquered the Midianites, by a large army as well as by a small one; and indeed, estimating the matter according to physical laws alone, a triumph would be less easily accomplished by few than by many. But the obstacle which stood in the way was a moral obstacle: God could not save by many, because doing so would have been to defraud himself of the glory, and give it unto Israel: Lest Israel vaunt themselves against me, saying, Mine own hand hath saved me.' He will not deliver them, he cannot deliver them, in a way that would give the glory to another, and not to himself. He cannot act unless to secure his own glory-to do otherwise would be to deny himself, and act unworthily of his divine and perfect excellence. God, from the nature of things, ever is, and ever must be, his own end. Of him, and through him, and to him, are all things.' And, as his own glory is his end in all things, so is it his end in every particular thing, whether in creation or providence, in his government of the world, or his government of the church. God will do whatever is for his own glory; but he cannot exert his almighty energy in securing any end, however good, when circumstances are such that the glory of it would be taken from him and given to man.

In the third place, we are taught by this passage, that, on account of the corruption of man, God sometimes finds it necessary, in order to secure the glory to himself, to lessen the existing instrumentality, before he interposes for the deliverance of his church and people.

Had God delivered Israel by means of the army which Gideon had originally collected, thanksgivings should have been offered to his name throughout all the land, and to him should have been given the undivided glory. But alas! such is the pride and selfishness of the human heart, that wherever there is the slightest appearance of superiority on the part of man, he glories in himself, bows down to his own image, offers incense to his own excellence, and with his heart, if not with his voice, sings songs of sweetest melody in his own praise. He who knows what is in man, beheld the hearts of Israel, and after making his inspection, saw that, notwithstanding the abject circumstances in which they had been placed, their pride and self-esteem still survived in full vigour, and were ready to break forth anew, exultingly, so soon as they were privileged with success: 'Lest Israel vaunt themselves against me, saying, Mine own hand hath saved me.' And how important a lesson does this read to the church of God? How loudly does it demand that we lay aside all self-seeking, and self-gloriation, and act from a disinterested and single eye to the divine glory, if we would have success in doing the Lord's work? There may be success of a certain kind, where the glory of God is not sought in singleness of heart. Popularity may be acquired, party interests may be promoted, numbers may be gathered around us, and enrolled as admirers and followers, but success with the divine blessing, success that will be lasting in its nature, success, the results of which will be permanent and good, can only be acquired in the way of seeking the divine glory, simply, supremely, and habitually, and in being denied to our own reputation. When self comes in as the chief end, or even as a prominent end, it excludes God, it lays an arrest on the arm of Omnipotence; for while God honours all who honour him, he will not lend the resources of his providence even to his own people when they are endeavouring to glorify themselves. And is there not matter for deep searching of heart in the present time? Never was the instrumentality so abundant on the side of evangelical religion, and yet in no period since the Reformation has Popery made such inroads as it has done in our days; and never since the dawn of civilisation has there been so extensive a relapse into barbarism, as there has been of late among the masses of British society. Now, how is this? May it not be that the people are too many for God to give the enemy into our hands? May there not be too much of trusting in numbers, in wealth, in learning, in influence? May there not be too much looking to man and too little looking to God? May there not be too much vaunting of ourselves over one another, or among one another, and against the Lord? With faith in our creed, with faith upon our lips, may we not be very much a generation of rationalists at heart and materialists in practice? Is it not to be feared that, very generally, there may be more faith in the means that we see, than in the God that we do not see; and that while we adhere to the creed of the apostles, and the puritans, and the martyrs of the covenant, we may want very much that spirit of faith which linked them to God, and made them strong by his strength, and when means were absent, made them feel that the triumph of

truth was as certain as when means were present-was equally certain in all periods, because an unchanging God was its real guardian, and not changeable man?

The

In the fourth place, we learn from this passage, that God not only can accomplish his ends by few and unlikely instruments, but that he often uses means for the direct and avowed purpose of lessening, and, to all human appearance, of weakening the instrumentality which he employs. It was God, and not Gideon, who directed that means should be used for diminishing the army of Israel. He immediately, and directly, used means for that purpose. And this fact has been placed on record, for the purpose of teaching us, that, though in ordinary cases where the instrumentality is diminished, man may have the only visible agency in the matter; yet, even in these, God ought to be regarded as having a wise and holy hand in bringing it about, so that he may deliver his people in a way consistent with his glory. It was a great mercy in God to diminish the army of Gideon, because, so long as it remained entire, there was an obstacle to their obtaining a sanctified deliverance. dispersion of the troops was essential to victory. It was, therefore, in the purest wisdom and mercy that Gideon's army was lessened. This may teach us that our concern is not with numbers, but with truth and duty. Are we not on the Lord's side? Then, though we had millions where we have now only individuals, this were no encouragement-the cause is doomed, and must fall. On the other hand, if we are on the side of God, if we are in the post of duty, we have no reason to be dismayed though our thousands should become hundreds, and our hundreds diminish into tens. God may permit means to be used for diminishing the numbers of those who adhere to truth; he may do so from age to age, and may thoroughly try the faith and the patience of his people; but when the cause is his own, this diminishing is in mercy, even though, in the long results of ages, his cause may be brought to the verge of extinction-for man is removing in order to make way for the suitable appearance of God.

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From this passage we learn, in the fifth place, that God wishes to have no cowards nor waverers among his adherents, and one means which he uses to diminish their numbers, is to give all the fainthearted an opportunity of withdrawing from difficulty and danger: Now, therefore,' said the Lord to Gideon, 'go to, proclaim in the ears of the people, saying, Whosoever is fearful and afraid, let him return and depart early from mount Gilead.' Every timid and dastardly person who was unwilling to abide the consequences of facing the enemies of his country was thus permitted to withdraw. The same course has sometimes been pursued by military leaders, as the dictate of sound wisdom. On that great day, when the liberties of this land were won, it is recorded that the illustrious man whom God raised up as our deliverer caused it to be proclaimed on the field of Bannockburn, that every person was at liberty to depart who was not prepared to live with him, or die with him, in maintaining the independence of Scotland. And so ought it ever to be. Those who remain of their own good-will alone are freemen; and freemen alone are worthy to fight