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 of the great idol. The angel under the oak was before my father's
eyes, the soft, sweet voice, telling him he should not die, was in his
ears; but not even the Lord God can conquer our fears, and although my
father was a brave man and saved Israel, no man ever had worse sinkings
of heart than he. It was as if he had more courage and more fear than
his fellows. He did what the Lord said unto him, but he was afraid to
do it by day, for not only was his tribe against him, but his father's
house also. He took ten of his servants, and when the city awoke one
morning the altar of Baal was cast down, the altar to the Lord God
stood on the hill, and there lay on it the half-burnt logs of the image
of Baal. Our nation has never believed in Baal as it has believed in
the Lord God. How should it believe in Baal? Baal has done nothing
for it, but the Lord God brought us from Egypt through the desert, and
was the pillar of cloud by day and of fire by night. Nevertheless,
when the altar of Baal was cast down and the idol was destroyed