The Birmingham age-herald., 1902-11-10
GOSPEL IF GIDEON
 PREACHERS THEME
The Rev. pr. Dickinson Recites
 Beautiful Epic
THE NARRATIVE APPLIED
We Need the Consciousness of Gods IndwelIlng to Bring Us to Hero Ie Estate - Jehovah is
 Yet With Us.

''The Gospel Of Gideon was the theme of the sermon delivered at the First Bap- tist church yesterday morning by the pas
 tor of the church, the Rev. A. J. Dickin-
 son. The text was. Jehovah is with thee,
 thou mighty man of valor; go in thy
 might and save Israel from the bond of
 the Midian; have not I sent thee? Judges
 vi 12-14.
 pr. Dickinson said:
 When the Israelites entered Palestine
 they also entered on a new era of civil
 ization. Hitherto since before the days
 of Jacob they had been shepherds follow
 ing their fioclxs and living a nomadic pas toral life. When they entered Palestine
 they came into a land already highly de-
 veloped in agriculture. The Canaanite
 had subdued the rugged ridges and hills
 to the uses of agriculture and introduced
 a careful system of irrigation For some 1 sixty years since the decline of Egypt,
 Palestine Canaanites had enjoyed peace
 and prosperity, due to the diligent cul-
 ture of the vine and the wheat and other precious products of the field
 Like their brethren along the Phoeni-
 clan coast, these Canaanites were ad- vanced in civilization. They had estab- llshed numerous little cities, each with 1 its petty prince or king ruling over small I independent communities, which could I easily be conquered by taking them in detail Into this Canaapite agricultural | civilization Joshua led the tribes of Israel from the desert, and they soon got foothold and parceled out the land for themselves, and sent each tribe to occupy and appropriate his lot Each soon got foothold and settled down by the side
 or the native Canaante peoples to the l function of making living. The subju- l gation of the country was a long and slow process, effected by amalgamation and competition in peaceful intercourse as much as by war and enforced slavery.
 The first few years of their settlement
 must have been very critical ones.
 A New Life.
 Agriculture was new to them, settled 1 life was new. To build houses, cities, l temples maintain a state, all this was
 new and had to be learned by experience. They must feel the shock of the for l eign invader and make good their title
 to the land by defending it as their name. 1 All this Is presented to us in the book of Judges and Samuel. First comes the 1 Aromacan from beyond the Euphrates l from whom deliverance came under the | leadership of Othniel. Then came the | invasion of the Moabites and deliverance I at the hands of Ehud Then the Canaan
 ite neighbors tried to expel them and
 deliverance came at the hands of De- 1 borah, veritable Joanne d Arc. But now | a new enemy comes with such swiftness
 and unexpectedness and disappears af- | ter he has wrought desolation. For five
 years at harvest season the Bedouins,
 bands of robbers, Midionites from the
 desert on swift camels and dromedoins 1 came in great numbers, laying waste the land and plundering it and sweep on so
 rapidly that they are gone ere the tribes
 can prepare to resist them. Thus for
 five consecutive years the land has been
 ravished and reduced to direst poverty
 and misery. The Israelite tills his field, l sees it blossom and produce and then has l his harvest snatched from his grasp l just as 1t is fresh from the press and
 threshing floor. For like a scourage of locust these marauders left no suste-
 nance for Israel. neither sheep nor OK | nor ass, but they entered into the land
 to destroy it." So the new farmers saw 1 his wife and children crying for bread I and his labor feed the freebooters from | the desert. It took the heart out of the
 people and they could only hide out in rocks and cliffs and caves enough to keep soul and body together.
 A Young Farmer.
 | It was at this time that young farmer ! of western Manasseh of the tribe of Abiezer went down into his wine press | cut out in the rock to thresh out some | wheat where he would escape the notice | of these Midianite robbers. He is a
 strong kingly looking fellow that now | flays the wheat out in his hiding place. | In his soul burns the fire of blood revenge, | for the leaders of those robber bands | have slain his brothers on one of their | incursions, and on him rests the duty of
 blood revenge. oft and anon he looks out l of his hiding place in the press to see if
 he Is being observed by those Midianite | robbers Hard by the press Is the holy tree that marked the sacred spot of wor- | ship of the clan over which his father was head. There, as he peeped out of l his hiding place. he saw man sitting In | the shade.
 l He is manifestly no Midianite, but of l his own race, and so he goes back again
 to the task of threshing the wheat. Pres | ently he looks up and there stands this stranger of the sacred tree. who thus | salutes him: Jehovah is with thee, thou | mighty hero" Gideon answered, 'I pray, sir, if Jehovah is with us, why hath all | this evil befallen us? Why does He not | by some miracle deliver us as He did our | fathers in bringing them out of the op- pression in Egypt? No, Jehovah hath cast us off, and surrendered us to Mid ian." The man looked him square In the face, and he saw as 1t were Jehovah in the face of his messenger. Then spake the man in whose face was Jehovah: "Go in this might of thine and deliver Israel from Midian. Have I not sent thee?' Gideon thought, This might of mine. I have no might that I should deliver Israel My sept of Abiezer in the forest in Manasseh and this guest in my fam fly have no might, the man of God is mistaken" and so he answered:
 But the messenger of Jehovah an- swered for his Lord: "Now you have no might, no social or political power in your own tribe or in the other rrfpess but I have and surely I will be with you and you shall fight down the Midianites as one man."
 So he thought, well, yes, God and l, we can do it. If I only have Jehovah with me I will be a mighty hero, so 1 will seal my union with God here and now, and he said to the messenger of Jehovah, will you do me the favor to remain here until I bring out a meal and set 1t before you and seal our friendship? The messenger said he would, so Gideon prepared a kid and cakes and brought and set before him on a rock. Then the messenger put out his staff and touched the victuals and fire came out of the rock and consumed 1t.
 Jehovah Pleasures Him.
 Gideon perceived that he had been