why have ye done this ?-Wherefore I also said, I will not drive them out from before you; but they shall be as thorns in your sides, and their Gods shall be a snare to you." The children of Israel, grieved to the heart at the justness of these reproaches, lift up their voice and wept: and "there," it is added, they sacrificed unto the Lord" (JEHOVAH).

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This appearance is the natural and fitting prelude -judging by the usual tenor of ancient Scriptureto the severe inflictions which, on a perseverance in their evil, He subsequently pours down upon them. Nothing can be more strictly natural, nor in more ordinary course, than that having imposed a certain code of laws on the nation, He should Himself take care that they were duly observed. If severity and sorrows are to fall upon them, we should expect, that He would be the instrument of their affliction; nor can we suppose, unless Scripture give a direct authority for the supposition, that they would be put forth by any other Being, than by Him, who having reproached and menaced them for their contumacy, puts his menaces at length into execution. It is therefore only carrying on the idea in attributing to Christ the language which is written at the fourteenth verse,"And the anger of the Lord was hot against Israel, and he delivered them into the hands of spoilers that spoiled them, and he sold them into the hands of their enemies round about, so that they could not stand any longer before their enemies. Whithersoever they went out, the hand of the Lord was against them for evil, as the Lord had said, and as the Lord had sworn unto them: and they were greatly dis

tressed. Nevertheless, the Lord had raised up judges, which delivered them out of the hands of those that spoiled them."

During the two succeeding centuries, the Israelites, with varied fortunes, suffer under the effects of this anger and these menaces. At one time, they are grievously oppressed; at another, they triumph under the auspices of a leader, chosen by God, and inspired for the protection of his people. In the intervals they enjoy a rest and tranquillity, which the frequent recurrence of their criminality causes to prove precarious. At length however a time arrives, in which Christ deigns again to manifest his presence, and to prove that, as formerly, He still continues to govern; still to preside; and still to protect.

The people had been sorely vexed by the Midianites; they had come up in such vast multitudes as wholly to overwhelm the people of Israel. They had stript the land of its flocks and its herds ;-had destroyed its harvests and reduced the nation to such a state of timidity and humiliation, that the very corn which each family consumed, was hidden as treasure and threshed by stealth.

Amongst those who were crushed, and who groaned in secret against his oppressors, was a man of Ophrah, in the tribe of Manasseh, named Gideon. He "threshed his wheat by the wine-press, to hide it from the Midianites." He appears to have been of no great note in his tribe; remarkable for no deeds which have been thought by the historian worthy of being recorded; but he had a soul fraught Judges vi. 11.

with that mingled piety and strength of purpose, which adapted him for the great work of his nation's deliverance and God selected him as the person to whom he would manifest his presence. The event is thus recorded;-"There came an angel of the Lord, and sat under an oak which was in Ophrah, that pertained unto Joash the Abi-ezrite; and his son Gideon threshed wheat by the wine-press to hide it from the Midianites. And the angel of the Lord appeared unto him, and said unto him; The Lord (JEHOVAH) is with thee, thou mighty man of valour."

We allow that there was nothing in this appearance which would at first sight betoken the Divine character of the person. Nothing to dazzle the imagination; or overpower the mind by a sense of the exceeding greatness of the angel. The character assumed was probably that of a prophet or holy man of Israel; one who had come from a distance to deliver the will of God; and to one under that semblance, the first reply of Gideon appears to have been made. It was in the language of respect, which a man would naturally use, when addressing a person, who he believed invested with a divine commission; and who had come by an inspired impulse to acquaint him with the will and determinations of God. But it was also given with a freedom, almost amounting to remonstrance, which, however natural in man to use to man, would be wholly unfitting if used to Deity. There is, indeed, nothing either in the manner or reply of Gideon, which would induce us to believe that any higher idea of the person had entered into his mind, than that of a

prophet. He did not, as Moses and Joshua, fall down and worship, as if conscious that he stood in the presence of an angel of the Lord; nor did he preface his answer with those expressions of devotional submission, which would be natural to such an impression. His mind dwelt less upon the Majesty of the messenger, than on the forlorn and destitute state of the nation; and he exclaimed in answer, “Oh, my lord, if the Lord (JEHOVAH) 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." The angel, as the colloquy proceeds, endeavours to raise him from his despondency, and to infuse a courage into his mind which should be the harbinger and prelude to noble deeds. He succeeds. Gideon becomes more assured in himself, and more convinced of the prophetic character of the messenger. His humility is the sole obstacle to his free reception of the message. He requires "a sign" that he has been selected by the Lord for his great charge; and after the custom of the East, urges on him the rites of hospitality. "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." He is directed to place all on a rock; probably a huge stone near the oak, on which he sat. No sooner is it done than he "" "put forth the end of the staff that was in his hand, and touched the flesh and the unleavened cakes; and

there rose up fire out of the rock and consumed the flesh and the unleavened cakes." The angel at the same moment vanished. Then was it, that the truth first flashed on the mind of Gideon. He saw that he was no earthly prophet, but an angel; and when he perceived it he cried out in his alarm, "Alas, O Lord God! for because I have seen an angel of the Lord face to face. And the Lord (JEHOVAH) said unto him, Peace be unto thee; fear not; thou shalt not die. Then Gideon built an altar there unto the Lord, and called it Jehovah-shalom."*

It would be superfluous to argue on the fact of this being a real-visible-and personal appearance; since the whole mode and tenor of the conference sufficiently declare it. It is impossible to interpret it otherwise. It was no vision. It was a converse held face to face; a truth which receives an almost indisputable proof from the evident misapprehension of Gideon as to the real character of the angel until the very moment, when he palpably revealed it by his ascension into heaven. In the mind of the historian-so fully was he convinced of the supremacy of the angel - it was declared long before. He declares it in the very first reply of the Divine visitor. In answer to the remonstrance of Gideon, it is stated that, "The Lord (JEHOVAH) looked upon him and said, Go in this thy might, &c."- but in the mind of Gideon the real nature was mistaken until the departure from his sight. Considered calmly, and without prejudice, this descent can be regarded in no other light than as one of the usual means adopted in the history of Israel to fulfil the promises which

* "Peace from the Lord."