Miriams Schooling and Other Papers | Page 2

way open before them, and the
very waves which were to overwhelm them rose like a wall and became
their safeguard. But he himself had seen nothing of this kind, and he
almost doubted if the tales were true, and if times had not always been
as they were then, all events happening alike to all, and hardly
believing that God had ever appeared to man.
The angel did not answer him, but looked him in the face, and said,
"Go in this thy might, and thou shalt save Israel from the hand of the
Midianites: have not I sent thee?" My grandfather, Joash, was one of
the poorest men of his tribe, and as for my father, nobody had ever
thought anything of him, nor had he thought anything of himself. He, a
solitary labourer, unknown, with no friends, no arms; he to do what the
princes could not do! he to lead these frightened slaves against soldiers
who were as the sand for numbers! It was not to be believed, and
yet--there sat the angel. It was broad noon; in the shade of the oak his
light was like that of the sun. It was not a dream of the night, and he
could not be mistaken. Nay, the angel's voice was more sharp and clear
than the voice in which we speak to one another--a voice like the
command of a king who must not be disobeyed. Yet he comforted my
father. "Surely I will be with thee," he added, "and thou shalt smite the
Midianites as one man." If the Lord was to be with him, my father need
not have hesitated, but in truth he did not care for the duty which was
thrust upon him. He would have been glad to do anything for his
country which was within his power, but he did not feel equal to the
task of leading it against its oppressors, nor did he covet it. He would
rather have endured in silence and died unknown than take such a

weight upon his shoulders, for he was not one of those who desire
power for power's sake. The apparition, too, was so sudden. The angel
was there with his divine face looking steadily at him, with eyes so
piercing that no secret in the inmost soul could remain hidden from
them, and the man upon whom they were turned could not even think
without being sure that his thought was known. Yet my father doubted,
and this dread of the task imposed on him increased his doubt. Yes; he
doubted an order given him at midday by a messenger sitting in front of
him flaming with heavenly colour. It might after all be a delusion. He
prayed, therefore, for a sign, and then as he prayed he thought he might
be smitten for his presumption. But the angel was tender to his
misgivings, and said he would wait for the offering which was to test
his authority. My father went into the house and brought out a kid and
unleavened bread, and presented it. The angel directed him to put the
flesh and the cake on the rock and pour out the broth. He did so, and
the angel then rose, and stretching out the staff that was in his hand,
touched the flesh and cakes. No sooner had he touched them
than--wonder of wonders!--a fire leapt up out of the rock; they were
consumed before his eyes, and the angel had departed. A great terror
overcame my father, for it had always been said that it was impossible
for man to look upon a Spirit from the Lord and live. He was left alone,
too, with the message, but without the Comforter, and he cried unto
God in despair, not knowing what to do. As he cried, a word was
spoken in his ear soft and sweet, like the voice of the aspen by the
brook; soft and sweet, and yet so sure: "Peace be unto thee; fear not:
thou shalt not die." Then he rose and built an altar, to mark the sacred
spot where God had talked with him and he had received his divine
commission. There it is to this day in Ophrah of the Abiezrites. As you
pass it, remember that where those stones now stand the Most High
conversed with him whose blood is in your veins.
As yet Gideon was without any direct orders, but that night he heard
again the same soft, sweet voice, and it commanded him to build
another altar upon the highest point of Ophrah, to throw down Baal's
altar, and upon the altar to the Holy One to sacrifice the second of the
bullocks belonging to Joash, the bullock of seven years old, burning it
with the wood