Israel proved ineffectual, the shepherd's sling and stone slew the giant.
"Cry aloud: for he is a god: either he is talking, or he is pursuing, or he is in a journey, or peradventure he sleepeth, and must be awaked."
The result of this trial was decisive. The voice of convinced Israel exclaimed: "The Lord, he is the God! the Lord, he is the God!" Methinks the echo of their great shout reaches us over the buried ages. With it also comes the injunction of the victorious prophet, "Follow Him." Is He not deserving of the fealty of all His creatures? Are they not fashioned by His hand—supported by His love? Doth not His faithfulness surround them? Are not His mercies new every morning, fresh every moment? Linger they not through the shades of every evening, the watches of every night? His power and goodness are plain to the comprehension of the simplest one at His footstool, and by all ties, natural, moral, and divine, they are bound to serve Him.
Whence, then, this indecision—this balancing on a point of such clearness and importance? Is it not fatal to the interests of time—to the welfare of eternity? Here we dwell in God's garden, refreshing ourselves with its fruits, its fragrance, and its bloom, yet doubtful whether to thank and obey Him, or to clasp the hand of His enemy.
It was not always thus. There were Christians of
