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shrines and images of Baal represented, not a harmless illusion, but the utter demoralization of the people, "inflaming themselves with idols on every high hill, and under every green tree."* Hence their abject weakness. Their conscience had become defiled, their understanding had become besotted, their energies were paralysed by a secret sense of guilt, they became too weak and pusillanimous to offer resistance to an invader. "How should one chase a thousand, and two put ten thousand to flight, except the Lord had sold them, and their Rock had shut them up ?" It was because they had committed sin, and loved to continue in it, that their ancient strength, the offspring of faith, had left them, and they were become the helpless prey of a contemptible enemy, who stripped their fields and devastated their country with impunity.

A thousand times has this history been re-enacted since the days of Gideon. Why is it that so many of the spiritual Israel are strangers to a real, hearty cheerfulness? What mean those reproaches and fears which, like an insect swarm, settle upon the heart and devour all its verdure? How is it that the soul is invaded with detestable thoughts over which we have no power? How is it that we cannot drive out these Midianites, but are become their easy prey, and are greatly impoverished-nay, have become, perhaps, so feeble and craven in spirit as to acquiesce in their do

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minion over us? Alas, notwithstanding our baptism and our high calling, we have given our hearts to the world and sin. There is an idol's shrine in the heart, set apart for wanton revellings of a defiled imagination. There is an image of Baal in the heart, sitting, like the idol in the grounds of Joash, enthroned upon the top of a rock. There is an altar in the heart, on which we minister to our cherished idol, and do him service. Therefore it is that our years are wasted and our joys are few. The Eternal Father seeks for worshippers who worship Him in spirit and in truth; but, though the Church may not have been forsaken, our hearts have turned aside from that true inner worship to the worship of a Baal of our own choice. Therefore it is that we are delivered into the hands of the Midianites; and sad forebodings, or shivering fear, or gloomy discontent, or restless self-reproach, or devouring remorse, march up like swarming Arabs from the desert, and turn into a dreary and desolate wilderness those fields which might have smiled with plenty, and echoed with songs of happiness and praise.

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SECTION II.

THE PRAYER AND THE PROPHET.

ND the children of Israel cried unto the Lord."* We may well cling to these few words, and dwell upon them with ever-increasing gratitude. They admonish us never to despair. While the prodigal son was rioting in the far country, it might appear that he was utterly reckless, and that the last link which had bound him to his father's house was broken. Yet such was not the case. Amidst all his riots, the father's house had never been totally forgotten; and although it cost a sharp pang to return in rags, yet when roysterers and harlots had stripped him of his all, whither could he turn with such hope as to the

house of his father? Thus at length the disobedient profligates of Israel, after seven years of untold misery, "cried unto the Lord."

To whom else could they cry? Could Baal hear them in the day of their distress? Or was there any compassion in Baal? Had they not heard how God had descended to Moses in the cloud, and proclaimed His own blessed name: "The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant

* Jud. vi. 6.

in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin"? It has been a prevalent fashion to represent the God of the Hebrews as a narrow, malignant Being, implacable in vengeance and incapable of mercy; but such a notion is utterly repugnant to the whole tenor of the Jewish history, which is one long record of God's marvellous forbearance. The contemporaries of Gideon did not entertain this view of Jehovah. If they had conceived Him to be a dark, relentless avenger, would they have ventured, after openly neglecting His worship, and embracing idolatry, the sin which He had branded with His especial displeasure, to return to Him and implore His mercy in the day of their trouble? They would rather have dreaded even to mention His name, lest instant vengeance should come upon them. But so far from this, it was to Jehovah that they turned when their distress had become intolerable. Wretched and sinful, they did not give way to despair, but turned in sorrow and penitence to the All-merciful One.

Their prayer was heard and answered. But it was not answered at first in a way calculated to bring either immediate relief to the country, or immediate consolation to the people. Rather it would add poignancy to their sorrows. A Divinely commissioned messenger appeared amongst them; but for what purpose? Not to chase the Midianites, not to rally round him the soldiers of Manasseh and Naphtali, not to promise them a speedy deliverance, not even

to speak comfortable words to soothe their anguish, "The Lord sent them a prophet;" but the prophet brought no message of mercy, no healing balmnothing but reproof and conviction of sin. "Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, I brought you up from Egypt, and brought you forth from the house of bondage; and I delivered you out of the hand of the Egyptians, and out of the hand of all that oppressed you, and drave them out from before you, and gave you their land; and I said unto you, I am the Lord your God; fear (or worship) ye not the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but ye have not obeyed my voice."*

The name of this prophet is not preserved to us. Without adopting either the tradition current among the Jews, that it was Phinehas, Aaron's grandson, or the supposition of Augustine and others, that he was an angelic messenger, we are content to believe that this prophet was a man of God, of veritable flesh and blood, but whose name, like those of the messenger at Bochim, of the man of God who bore the fatal message to Eli, and of the prophet who foretold to Ahab victory over the Syrians, the sacred historian has not recorded. Neither are we informed whether he addressed the people in some vast assemblywhether he confined his message to the chiefs of the tribes—whether he roused the nation, like John the Baptist, by assuming an austere appearance, and by preaching in unfrequented places—or whether he

*Jud. vi. 8-10.

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