ly 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