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have resigned every advantage of income and profession: and when I see men willing to level themselves down to others, as well as to level themselves up to others, I admire their honesty, whatever I think of their judgment.

Now you will observe, in the case before us, that the state of the Gospel and the Church was very peculiar. You will observe, that many of these Christians had come from afar, expecting to return immediately after the festival was over; but having been unexpectedly converted there, it seemed expedient, and even necessary, that they should remain to be instructed in the things pertaining to the kingdom of God. And they themselves would earnestly desire it; and the impressions made upon them by these new sentiments, would render them for a time comparatively dead to every thing else. But is this the state of things now? Does the Gospel now have any local attraction? We are not called to wander from sea to sea, from the North even to the East, to seek the Word of God. The providence of God has now ordained, that labour shall be the common means of subsistence; and God hath commanded us to "Labour working with our hands the thing which is good, that we may have wherewith to give to him that needeth." "Let him that is taught in the word communicate unto him that teacheth in all good things." "Yea," says the Apostle, "if any man will not work neither shall he eat."

The case too, you will observe, was a voluntary one. It was a thing not enjoined by the Apostles. The Apostle mentions this in his address to Ananias · "Whiles thy substance remained, was it not thine own? And after it was sold was it not in thine own power?" As this was not enjoined at the first, so all down through the New Testament there never is any mention of its afterwards being enforced; that is, as to the letter of it; for as to the spirit of it, this is enforced upon all Christians in every age, and is enforced every where upon them in the Scriptures. There is an instance in the history of our Saviour, of one of his actions, which, by being compared with the case before us, will serve to illustrate it: I refer now to his washing the disciples' feet. This was intended to be an exemplar-" That ye should do," said he, "as I have done to you." But how was this to be? Was the Lord enforcing the performance of the act itself, or displaying the spirit of the action?-This is the question. Ferdinand was called, you know, "the divine Ferdinand;" that ineffable fool and wretch was accustomed every year to wash the feet of some beggars in the royal palace, in a silver vessel; and I understand the Pope does the same every year. "This," as an old writer expresses it," is like a traveller passing by the inn, and embracing the sign post." It is possible for a man to wash the feet, without imitating Christ; and he may imitate Christ, without washing the feet; the thing is to resemble him in the spirit of his actions; the thing is to display the condescension, and kindness, and benevolence of it. It teaches us that there is no office too mean for us to perform, when a fellow-christian requires it, and the providence of God affords us an opportunity for the discharge of it. To conclude, therefore, though we cannot engraft the levelling principle upon our text, nor draw from it an argument for a community of goods, there are three things to be deduced from it which you must keep in mind, and exemplify.

First, like them you are to hold all earthly things with a very slack hand, since you are to resign them soon, and you are to live looking, not at "the

things which are seen and temporal, but at the things which are not seen and eternal."

Secondly, you are to consider nothing of what you possess as your own. It is not your own if there be any truth in the Scriptures, you are not the proprietors of it, but you are only the stewards of "the manifold grace of God."

Thirdly, you are to devise, like them, liberal things; you are to be "willing to distribute, ready to communicate." Some in the Church are in need of temporal relief; others have the capacity of imparting this. The necessities of the saints, above all things, should be provided for: the best members of society are surely not to be disregarded. This is the law of the case-it should be suspended in every church, and continually read-" As we have opportunity, let us do good unto all men; but especially unto them who are of the household of faith." "To do good and to communicate, forget not; for with such sacrifices God is well pleased." A renewed heart should always be accompanied by a liberal hand. The excuse of some persons when called upon-that they really cannot afford it, is in one sense true, and in another false. But in the sense in which it is true, it betrays the guilt of the excuser; the man cripples himself by his mode of living, and then he pleads his inability, as an excuse for his illiberality. It is not sufficient for him to maintain a decent distinction from the vulgar; he must live splendidly; he must be magnificent; he must fare sumptuously and be clothed gorgeously every day. As to others, whatever they gain, they hoard it, and who is the better for it? Every unnecessary expense should be avoided. You should enlarge your ability to meet all the claims of Christian benevolence, by diligence in business, by economizing in your household affairs, and by self-denial. Is self-denial a thing that Christians should wonder at? Is self-denial to be disregarded by those who are the followers of Him, who "though he was rich, yet for our sakes became poor, that we through his poverty might become rich ?" Therefore, "Whoso hath this world's goods, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him?" May God command his blessing. Amen.

THE ISRAELITES' DELIVERANCE BY THE HAND OF GIDEON.

REV. J. E. TYLER, B.D.

ST. GILES'S CHURCH, MARCH 22, 1835.

"And what shall I more say? for the time would fail me to tell of Gideon."-HEB. xi. 32.

FROM the death of Joshua, through the long period of the government of their judges, the history of God's own people presents to our minds only a repetition of the same course of proceeding again and again. We were led last Sunday to cast our eyes and thoughts this way in part: and we could, I think, scarcely have avoided the impression and feeling of sorrow and shame, for the weakness and waywardness of our fellow-creatures, and of distrust in our own strength of religious principle, and perseverance in duty; and a fear, lest we also, in the treacherous weakness of our hearts, should fall from our duty, from God's love, and our eternal happiness.

The history of the Israelites at the time to which our attention is now mainly drawn, presents the following melancholy circle of events; melancholy if we contemplate man, but exhibiting justice and eternal mercy if we think of God's dealings with him. First, wilful sin and rebellion against God visited by punishments; then these leading to repentance; then repentance, followed by forgiveness at God's hands, and deliverance from their oppressors; then peace in Israel, until security engendered forgetfulness of God again, and renewed rebellion and sin. Brethren, these form the revolving circle of the extraordinary events of Palestine, through the long space of above three hundred years.

The oppression, and distress, and misery, immediately preceding the deliverance wrought by Gideon, seem to have been surpassed by none, either before or after. Consequent on the triumph over the Philistines by Barak (whose character you remember, for singleness of purpose, and love of duty for its own sake, without reference to any reward, honour, or power, present or future, in this world, formed the ground-work of our discourse last Sunday)—subsequent to his victory the land of Israel had rest forty years. My brethren, times of peace are times of temptation and moral danger to a nation and to individuals: the Israelites fell into their former guilt, doing evil in the sight of the Lord. The rod of his anger and chastisement was intrusted into the hands of the Midianites, who executed their office unsparingly. A brief, but sad picture, is drawn of their grievous oppressions. "The hosts of Midian," saith the sacred historian-"The hosts of Midian prevailed against Israel ;" and they were driven for their lives to take refuge in the mountains, and caves, and strong-holds for seven years. "When Israel had sown the land," these inveterate foes "came up with their cattle and their tents; they came as grasshoppers for multitude:

for both they and their camels were without number, and destroyed the increase of the earth, and left no sustenance for Israel, neither sheep, nor ox, nor ass :" "and Israel was greatly impoverished."

It was at the close of this dreadful visitation, that they were again brought to their senses, and in part to their duty. They applied for help to the only power that was able to rescue and restore them. "The children of Israel cried unto the Lord." The mercy and the loving-kindness of God (as many of you, my brethren, I trust know experimentally) is forced upon our pious notice in every page of the Bible, in all his dealings with man. And in answer to this prayer of the Israelites, we have a most beautiful, a most clear, and at the same time a most delicate portraiture, of his wisdom, his justice, and his mercy combined. To the suffering people he replies only by a remonstrance, convincing them of God's unrequited kindness, of their ungrateful guilt, and the justice of their punishment. "And it came to pass, when the children of Israel cried unto the Lord because of the Midianites, that the Lord sent a prophet unto the children of Israel, which said unto them, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, I brought you up from Egypt, and brought you forth out of 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 not the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but ye have not obeyed my voice." Still though God employs this heart-cutting charge against them, bringing the sins of ingratitude, disobedience, rebellion, and idolatry, fully before their face-whilst he thus humbled them to the dust, and makes them more fit subjects of his mercy, by leading them to repentance, his mercy meanwhile is wholly employed in working out their deliverance. And (blessed be his Name!) his course of dealing with individual sinners now appears often to proceed wholly upon the same principle. He visits us with severe affliction, and the voice of his Providence speaks to our outward ears only in words of reproof, and bitterness, and judgment; whilst throughout, all the while, he is only working out our salvation, convincing us of sin, calling us to himself and to our duty and by self-abasement, self-condemnation, and true repentance, preparing us for the deliverance by that Saviour, in whom alone is mercy provided.

The sacred historian does not allow a single word to intervene between the severe remonstrance of the Almighty, and the commission given to his servant Gideon, to go in the strength of the Lord, and his own, to rescue his brokenhearted countrymen from the hands of their oppressors. "And the angel of the Lord appeared unto Gideon, and said unto him, The Lord is with thee, thou mighty man of valour." In the reply to this gracious salutation, we see how far sunk and faint were the stoutest hearts in Israel. "O 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. And the Lord looked upon him and said, Go in this thy might, and thou shalt save Israel from the hand of the Midianites: have not I sent thee?" Gideon no sooner heard this summons to become the champion and liberator of his nation, than his own utter worthlessness and weakness, raised

an insurmountable obstacle in his mind; and so long had the good providence of Jehovah seemed to have withdrawn itself from Israel, that his thoughts could not rise to any strength above the power of man. "O my Lord," are his words of doubt and distrust, "wherewith shall I save Israel? Behold, my family is poor, in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father's house." But the Lord said, "Surely I will be with thee, and thou shalt smite the Midianites as one man." The views of Gideon were immediately changed, and his doubts no longer centred upon his weakness, but on the reality of the divine commission. He knew-for their own history, which the Israelites had heard their fathers tell, would leave no room for doubt-he knew that if the God of heaven, their own Jehovah, was with him, all the world would marshal themselves against him in vain. The Lord, who brought his people out of Egypt, and overwhelmed Pharaoh and his host in the Red Sea, would doubtless outstretch the same mighty arm in the overthrow of the Midianites.

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The question, therefore, of power seemed no longer to perplex him, his own anxiety was transferred to the certainty of supernatural communication. He required a sign, to assure him beyond doubt, that it was indeed the voice of the Lord God Almighty which he had heard: "If now I have found grace in thy sight, then shew me a sign that thou talkest with me." And, my brethren, let no Christian wonder, let no one blame him; his request was reasonable, and it was granted; God did not upbraid him for disobedience to the heavenly vision, or distrust of his promises. Depart not hence, I pray thee, until I come unto thee, and bring forth my present, and set it before thee," was Gideon's prayer: "I will tarry until thou come again," was God's gracious answer. And Gideon returns with his offering of flesh and unleavened cakes, and is commanded to lay them down upon the bare rock. "Then the angel of the Lord put forth the end of the staff, and there rose up fire out of the rock, and consumed the flesh and the unleavened cakes. Then the angel of the Lord departed out of his sight." Gideon's soul, like the father of his successor Samson, sunk within him at this awful display of God's immediate presence. No declaration of the law of Moses seems to have made a deeper or more general impression through the descendants of Jacob, than that no mortal could see God's face and live When Gideon perceived it he said, "Alas, O Lord God! for because I have seen an angel of the Lord face to face." "Peace be unto thee," was the gracious answer; "fear not thou shalt not die."

This miraculous call, left Gideon no room for doubt; he entered upon God's work forthwith fearlessly. His first act of zeal was to throw down the altar of Baal, and to build one to Jehovah in its stead; to cut down Baal's grove, and to consume a burnt-offering to the Lord with the wood. He first endeavours to remove the horrible guilt of idolatry from his countrymen, before he would face the enemy in the field. But alas, my brethren, for human nature, how hard a thing it is, even with God's judgments before our eyes, and under the actual suffering of his punishment, to break off wholly from inveterate sins! The people were so far brought to their senses by severe affliction, as to call upon God for mercy and deliverance: but, even up to this very time, when Gideon was commissioned to rescue them from the enemy's cruelty, they still clung with obstinate hardihood to the worship of Baal. Is it not so always? How do their relapses differ from the state of Christian hearts now; hearts, at

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