y face, and she is singing a song of
welcome.

Father and daughter come face to face. The girl is perplexed, and the
general strains her hard to his heart. He is father and mother to her
at once, and she is all he has. And the cup is bitter almost beyond
the drinking. And he says, "Alas, my daughter, you have brought me
very low." And he tells her his story. And the girl with sweet
resignation understands, and the great sacrifice is made.

Jephthah was a hard man, you say. Do not judge him in the light of the
twentieth century. Judge him in the light of the day in which he
lived. And remember this, that he had the manhood to keep his promise.
Remember that he had the sturdy courage to pay his vow. "I have opened
my mouth unto the Lord, and I cannot go back." Oh, the world is saved
by the "cannot" men, by the men who have big impossibilities in their
souls. Joseph says as he faces the temptation of his life, "I cannot
do it." The apostles ordered to keep silent, say, "We cannot." And
Jephthah with breaking heart and tear-wet face, tempted to break his
vow, says, "I cannot go back."

Oh, I know what we would probably have done. We would have said to
ourselves, "Nobody knows that I made that vow anyway, nobody but God.
I made it in the secrecy of my own heart. I never breathed a word into
any human ear. If I go back on it, it will not matter so much. It is
simply a promise that I made to God." This man had not told his vow.
It was a secret between himself and his Lord. He was not driven to the
performance of it by public opinion. He was not urged to it, as flabby
Herod, "for the sake of those that sat with him." He was urged to it
by his own unstained conscience and his sterling manhood.

Or he might have said, "I made the vow, it's true, but I made it under
pressure. A great danger was threatening and a man is not to be held
responsible for a vow he makes in the presence of danger." Did you
ever get frightened when a storm was on and promise God things, and
then go back on it? Of course you have. We have been false to one
another, some of us. How many of us have been false to God! How far
is this old hero ahead of ourselves!

Think of the vows that you have made as members of the church. You
have not even fulfilled the vow you made to your groceryman. Some of
you have not paid for the clothes that you have on, and never will.
Some of you have made pledges to the church and have forgotten