In taking one more view of this history, we must admire the conduct of God in over-turning all the schemes of men, their wisdom, counsel, and power: that in providence as well as in grace, his wisdom, power, and faithfulness, might be clearly seen and adored by his people. His wisdom in the permission of the Fall, and its awful consequences, seems to go before, and make way for the displays of his love, mercy, power, and faithfulness. This is seen in his dispensations, generally, and particularly in grace & providence. How often has infinite wisdom permitted heavy troubles to come on the Church, to wean her from the creature—to shew her the value of Jesus, as a deliverer—and to lead her to him by many intreaties; that while we feel our strength perfect weakness, we may the more clearly discover the good hand of our God, in our support and deliverance, and give him the glory due to his name for it. The principal end God has in view in all his dispensations, is his own glory—this is the first cause and last grand end of all things—“for of him, and through him, and to him, are all things.” Had the victory we are considering been gained by well disciplined men, led on by wise, noble, valiant generals, who had often been successful in war—had this been the case, the creature would have been extolled, and God nearly forgotten. But this victory was a display of the power of Jehovah—his hand clearly seen, his mercy displayed, and all the honor given to him to whom it is due. The means, the feeble means the Lord made use of were simply, a weak un-armed man, with only three hundred men, led by him, with lamps, trumpets, and pitchers—to carnal reason a very unlikely method to conquer two hundred thousand Midianites, well skilled in the art of war. But this was God’s method, and we have a right to submit our wisdom to God’s plan; “for my thoughts are not as your thoughts, nor my ways as your ways, saith the Lord; for as the heavens are high above the earth, so are my ways above your ways.” And this victory, through such feeble means, is a confirmation of this truth—the angel Jehovah Jesus, appeared to Gideon as he was threshing wheat, in a secret place, to hide it from the enemy; and assured him, that however mean himself and family were, he should deliver Israel from their present servitude. Gideon, astonished at such an appearance, such a salutation, and such a declaration, began to ask, “How this could be?” The blessed Jesus tells him, “Surely I will be with thee.” Gideon, like the rest of God’s people, could not give God the credit of God, nor take him at his word—he could not honor him by believing on him, and prays, “If I have found grace in thy sight, shew me a sign that thou talkest with me.”—As believers in Jesus, we are called to walk by faith, and not by sight, as seeing him who is invisible, or out of sight—depending on his word, oath, and faithfulness, as the word of a covenant God, who cannot lie: this is