What a remarkable salutation! Stealthily threshing wheat to hide it from the enemy looked not like valour! To the human eye there was everything that betrayed depression of spirit. But God's "mighty men " have ever been such as were arrant cowards in themselves, men distrustful of their own strength and wisdom in coping with the enemy-"out of weakness made strong." None are "mighty men of valour " but those to whom it has been said, "The Lord is with thee." When God calls a person by a name, He makes that person what the name imports; but He takes the most abject man of an abject tribe to make him His "mighty man of valour.” "Ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called." (1 Cor. i. 25-29.) God works not ordinarily by such; the credit would then be given to our wisdom, our influence, and the like; and it is written, "No flesh shall glory in His presence." He takes "the foolish things of the world to confound the wise, and the weak things of the world to confound the mighty; and base things of the world, and things which are despised, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are." Is Timothy exhorted to "fight the good fight of faith," it is as one "strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus." To every Christian it may be said, as Paul writes to those at Corinth, "Watch ye, stand fast in the faith, quit you like men, be strong." But again we are told to be "strong in the Lord, and in the power of His might."

"And Gideon said unto him, Oh my Lord, if the Lord be with us, why then is all this befallen us? and where be all His miracles which our fathers told us of, saying, Did not the Lord bring us up from Egypt? but now the Lord hath forsaken us, and delivered us into the hands of the Midianites." (v. 13.)

His heart has been touched, and prepared of the Lord, for the work to which he is called. He has a deep sense of the

condition of Israel upon his soul, though he is without the power to help them; and he has been comparing that condition with the title and power of the Lord. This is the way of faith. It is not for us to be comparing ourselves among ourselves; we should compare our condition with the title and will of the Lord to bless. Is not something of this sort the language of many a saint now? Can it be possible that the Holy Ghost is in the Church, whilst, at the same time, the Church is so worldly, so divided? Is it at all like what it was in the apostles' days? The answer of the Lord to the cry of Israel discloses the secret of our condition. We have sinned; we have not obeyed His voice. And, if awakened to the sense of what we have lost, ofttimes there has not been the acknowledgment of our sin in departing from God, and it has therefore only led to fretfulness and impatience, or to wrong pretensions. Gideon sees the Lord's hand to be upon His people, and that because of sin. But he identifies himself with the people. He might have said, “Israel has sinned," or "Satan has driven us here;" and then there would have been no hope. He cannot understand the Lord's presence, without making his people happy; and he at once loses sight of himself in his interest in and thoughts about the people of God, as God's people, and says, "If the Lord be with us, why has all this evil befallen us? ... the Lord has delivered us," &c.

"And the Lord looked upon Gideon, and said, Go in this thy might, and thou shalt save Israel out of the hand of the Midianites: have not I sent thee?" (v. 14.)

The Lord looked upon him. That is the first thing. The man who is really strong and mighty is he who has thus got into the secret of Israel's impoverishment. The Lord has looked upon him. The Lord has identified Himself with him, and shown His heart to be towards him. There is no limit to His might.

But does Gideon feel himself to be a strong man? No!

never before had he so known his own weakness and insignificance; never had he so felt the poverty of his father's house

as now.

"And he said unto Him, Oh my Lord, wherewith shall I save Israel? behold, my family is poor in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father's house." (v. 15.)

Thus it is always with the soldiers of faith. They have never felt their own weakness, so as they feel it when called to be God's mighty men of valour. "Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord of hosts." People often say, 'I want to feel that I am strong.' What we need is, to feel that we are weak; that brings in Omnipotence. We shall have a life of feeling by-and-by, in the glory, now we are called upon to lead a life of faith. What saint but knows, from the experience of the deceitfulness of his own heart, that had we power in ourselves, instead of in Christ, we should be something? This is what God does not intend.

His threshing instru

"Wherewith shall I save Israel?" ment would have been a poor thing indeed to look to, as that "wherewith" to go against the host of Midian. Never, we repeat, had he felt the poverty of his father's house as now. When God is about to use a man, He makes that man feel most consciously nothing in himself. If He delivers by Gideon's hand, He must have the glory, not Gideon; His must be the strength, not Gideon's. It is always as it should be, when we drop down into our nothingStrong in the Lord, we are weakest in ourselves. Can we not, almost invariably, trace our failures to self-confidence? When a believer thinks that he is going to do a feat, his failure often becomes ridiculous. God must abase that which is proud and lifted up.

ness.

"And the Lord said unto him, Surely I will be with thee.” As with David, in another fight of faith, there was no sword in the hand of Gideon; not anything "wherewith "

to go against the Midianites. But what matter of that? "If God be for us, who can be against us?" He goes not forth unarmed. 66 Surely I will be with thee, and (as a consequence of that) thou shalt smite the Midianites as one man."

Here then is the mighty man of valour, and here is his

armour.

Gideon asks a sign: "And he said unto Him, If now I have found grace in thy sight, then shew me a sign that thou talkest with me. Depart not hence, I pray thee, until I come unto thee, and bring forth my present, and set it before thee."

There is feebleness, doubtless, here; he ought to have had. simple confidence, and not have needed a sign; still, all he really cares for is having the Lord with him.

"And He said, I will tarry until thou come again. And Gideon went in, and made ready a kid, and unleavened cakes of an ephah of flour: the flesh he put in a basket, and he put the broth in a pot, and brought it out unto him under the oak, and presented it. And the angel of God said unto him, Take the flesh and the unleavened cakes, and lay them upon this rock, and pour out the broth. And he did so. Then the angel of the Lord departed out of his sight.

“And when Gideon perceived that he was an angel of the Lord, Gideon said, Alas, O Lord God! for because I have seen an angel of the Lord face to face."

Another mark of feebleness (we do not see this fear in Abraham, under similar circumstances). But the Lord will give Gideon confidence to stand before Him.

"And the Lord said unto him, Peace be unto thee; fear not thou shalt not die." (vv. 17–23.)

Is there not most important instruction for ourselves in all this? Faith has that to present to God which He can accept. Whatever our own failure, still Jesus is the same, the value of His work is unchanged. There has been of late an

awakening to a good deal of busy activity in service; but God never says to a soul, 'Peace be unto thee, fear not,' because of service. We are in danger of putting service in the place of the burnt-offering. Where this is done, the soul gets weighed down, not being able to find satisfaction in the service, instead of going on in happy liberty of spirit. Gideon's heart reassured, he builds an altar there unto the Lord, and calls it JEHOVAH-SHALOM. (v. 24.)

And now he is prepared for service. He has been under God's tutorage. He has learned where his strength is; he no longer says, "Wherewith shall I save Israel?" And the Lord has given him confidence to stand before Him. But where does He set him to work?-with the Midianites? No, not in the least. He has to begin the Lord's work at home, with that which is nearest to himself.

"And it came to pass the same night, that the Lord said unto him, Take thy father's youngest bullock, even the second bullock of seven years old, and throw down the altar of Baal that thy father hath, and cut down the grove that is by it: and build an altar unto the Lord thy God upon the top of the rock, in the ordered place, and take the second bullock, and offer a burnt sacrifice with the wood of the grove which thou shalt cut down." (vv. 25, 26.)

There judgment commences. We must "cease to do evil" before we "learn to do well." The Lord comes to us as "the God of peace;" still it is, "Down with the idols in your father's house." We may have been restless in service; but, in the midst of much doing, how little have we done this, or ever practically attempted to set up God's altar "in the ordered. place." Man's will has not been invaded. It is of the essence of wilfulness to say, 'I have a right to worship God how I like.' Obedience to God is the saint's rule and liberty. Not all the powers in the world have a title to interfere with this. And, moreover, if God says, 'Pull down the altar of Baal,' He will give strength to do it.