SUBMISSION AND OPPOSITION. Fi

be very careful what we promise ; but when our word
is once given, it ought on no account to be recalled, if it
be in our power to keep it, unless the keeping of it would
be a sin. '

Marianne. But when the Israelites had been com-
manded to put all the people of Canaan to death, was it
not wrong to spare the Gibeonites ?

Grandfather. The reason given for that command was,
lest the Israelites might be led away by these nations to
worship false gods. But the Gibeonites renounced their
idolatry, and became servants to the Israelites. The
chiefs of Israel evidently thought that whatever might
be the danger in keeping their oath, there would be far
greater danger in breaking it, for that would be sin.
Their example teaches us to imitate the character of the
good man who, though he promise to his hurt, yet makes
his promise sure.

George. Did the Gibeonites give up their lands ?

Grandfather. Yes; they became bondsmen to the
people of Israel, and were employed as hewers of wood
and drawers of water for the congregation and for the
altar of the Lord. They asked only life, and do not seem
to have expected more. Their humility is a pattern to us:
it teaches us to seek only for mercy—to ask for life eternal
from God ; and whatever lot he may assign for us in this
world, though we may be placed in a very low station,
let us cheerfully and diligently perform the duties of it.

George. What did the other Canaanites think of the
Gibeonites submitting themselves to Joshua ?