Will you, then, draw back? God forbid ! Let me rather urge you to proceed : for, faint as ye are, ye shall surely overcome. Of Gideon's army, so far as we know, there died not one ; whilst the entire host of his enemies were slain. So shall all the powers of darkness fall before you, and not so much as a hair of your head shall perish. "It is not the will of your Father that one of his little ones should perish." In a word, " Be not weary in well-doing : for in due season you shall reap, if you faint not."]
Judo-, viii. 15 — 17. And he came unto the men of Succoth, and said, Behold Zehah and Zalmunna, with whom ye did upbraid me, saying. Are the hands of Zehah and Zalmunna now in thine hand, that we should give bread unto thy men that are weary ? And he took the elders of the city, and thorns of the tvilderness and briers, and with them he taught the men of Succoth. And he heat down the tower of Penuel, and slew the men of the city.
CONSISTENCY is essential to the character of a child of God, But pious persons are very apt to err in judging of the consistency of others : they would have been ready to condemn the conduct of Paul in relation to many things which he did at one time and forbore to do at another. We do not in general make sufficient allowance for a change of circumstances, which may not only warrant, but demand, a change of conduct. All would admire the gentleness and forbearance of Gideon, when the Ephraimites blamed him so vehemently for not summoning them to the battle against the Midianites ^ but probably they would accuse him of severity and injustice towards the men of Succoth and of Penuel : whereas his firmness in chastising these was no less proper under his peculiar circumstances, than his kindness in for- giving them. The two cases were not at all parallel : the Ephraimites at least thought honourably of the cause in which Gideon was embarked ; but the men of Succoth and of Penuel treated it with contempt. Now the cause was that of God himself: and for
a ver, 1 — 3.