106 BATTLES OF THE BIBLE.

bring the Israelites into bondage ; justly therefore did
they find themselves imprisoned by the Jordan, and pre-
vented from returning to their country and their freedom.

George. Ehud was a brave man.

Marianne. But was he a good man, grandfather ?
Was it right to pretend he had a message from God
and then to kill Eglon?

Grandfather. He did not pretend that he had a mes-
sage from God, for he really had one. He was com-
missioned by the Lord to execute his will upon the
oppressor of his people. Ehud was the messenger sent
by the King of Kings, and the message sent was, that
the king of Moab must die. Considered as the bearer
of a message from God, Ehud appears to us the honoured
instrument of his country’s freedom; but if we consider
him as having no divine commission, he appears only a
base assassin.

George. I do not see that, grandfather; I think it was
a very brave act, to kill the tyrant in his own palace,
amongst his own people, and march out untouched by
any of them. I cannot see anything wrong in it.

Grandfather. The boldness of an action does not
prove it to be right, George. If any one now-a-days
were to imitate Ehud, even though he were in the same
circumstances, and had the same success, he would be
an assassin and nothing more, because we live under a
different dispensation, under the pure light of the gospel,
which speaks good will to men.

Marianne. But a bad man might have done what