STRENGTH AND WEAKNESS. 135

they put away the strange gods from among them, and
served the Lord. The Ammonites assembled an army
and marched into Gilead, that part of the country of
the Israelites which lay nearest to them. The Israelites
too assembled an army, and asked Jephthah the Gilead-
ite to be their captain. Jephthah, after spreading the
whole matter before God in prayer, beseeching from
Him direction how to act, and a blessing upon his un-
dertakings,—after doing this, the Gileadite entered upon
his duties as leader of the armies of Israel. Let us
imitate the example of Jephthah in commencing all our
undertakings with prayer.

George. Was Jephthah a brave man, grandfather ?

Grandfather. We are told that he was a mighty man
of valour. Yet, though fearless in war, Jephthah did
not love war for its own sake; he desired peace when it
could be innocently obtained. It is no mark of a
cowardly spirit to use every lawful means of keeping
out of strife. Jephthah sent messengers to ask the
king of the Ammonites why he had come to fight
against the children of Israel. The king of Ammon
probably never before thought of a reason why he fought
against the Israelites ; it was enough for him that he
enriched himself with their spoil; whether it was just
to do so he did not consider, but it is easy to find an
excuse for what we wish to do; so when Jephthah sent
to ask a reason for his conduct, the king of the children
of Ammon managed to find one which at first sight
appeared reasonable enough. He said that the Israelites