and the enemy. As soon therefore as the opportunity presented itself they went back to their homes. Of the ten thousand who remained however, who, with the full consciousness of what the outcome might be, kept their places, the three hundred of whom we are speaking were a part. The men who went back, who availed themselves of the permission granted by the proclamation “Whosoever is fearful and trembling, let him return from Mount Gilead,” would have been glad to have the oppressors’ yoke broken, to have been relieved of the evils from which they were suffering; but they were not willing to risk anything, to expose themselves to any danger. They were timid; they were afraid of making things worse; of bringing upon themselves still greater evils. Not so however with these men. They were willing to endure hardship; to encounter danger; to lay down their lives, if necessary. The enemies were all about them, and about them in vast numbers. The record is, “And the Midianites and the Amalekites and all the children of the east lay along the valley like locusts for multitude; and their camels were without number, as the sand which is upon the seashore for multitude.” But there is no fear discoverable in these three hundred men.

 (3). They were men of faith. They believed in God. They were willing to trust God; to rest upon his promises. They knew perfectly well that, in and of themselves, they were no match for those who were opposed to them and with whom they were to measure arms; but they knew that Jehovah, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob—the God who had brought their forefathers out of Egypt and who had sustained them for forty years in the wilderness, was more than a match for them; and that it was under his direction that they were to fight. It was this element of faith in God that enabled them on that night, when the assault was made, to go forth as they did a bare handful and to take their places as indicated to them by Gideon. That their hope of victory was not in their own strength is clear from the manner in which they were armed. There was not a deadly weapon among them. There was not a single weapon of warfare, either offensive or defensive, among them. They were armed with what? The record is: “And he divided the three hundred men into three companies, and put into the hands of all of them trumpets and empty pitchers, with torches within the pitchers.” This was a strange way to equip men to do battle with powerful and deadly enemies; and yet this was the way they were armed. The smallness of their number, as well as the manner in which they were equipped for battle, show, in a very striking manner, their faith in an arm that was mightier than theirs. If it had not been that God was 

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