right with God is
mightier than a host against God. The seventh chapter of Judges opens
with the significant word "then." You must have all that goes before
in your mind to appreciate this word. God has a plan for every life,
and all your sickness, your disappointment, your discipline, is for
something. There must be a "then" for you. It is the call of God and
the answer to it that makes real life. Compare Gideon the farmer with
Gideon the soldier, and you will see the difference in a human life.
Let one, however low or ignorant, but hear the voice of God and respond
to it, and when such an one answers God's call for his country, for the
church, or for Christ, the heroic in him is being stirred.

It is said that years ago there used to be a man in Mr. Spurgeon's
Tabernacle who never had spoken in his social meetings, for the reason
that he had a stammering tongue. One day he heard the great preacher
say that the Lord could use even the tongue of the stammerer. It sent
him to his home, and to his knees, and when he rose to his feet after
having yielded himself wholly to God, as if by miracle God gave him the
gift of speech, and I have been told that no one in the Tabernacle
spoke more to the edification of the people or the praise of God than
he.

Some years ago when John G. Woolley was delivering his closing address
on the commencement day at college a young boy heard him under peculiar
circumstances. He had walked in from the country. It was a hot day,
and to quench his thirst he had tasted the water of one of the springs.
It made him very ill, and just to escape the heat of the sun he crept
under the platform, which had been erected upon the college campus for
the commencement exercises. While there he fell asleep and was
awakened by the sound of a musical voice. Something that the
graduating student said stirred his soul, and he there made a vow that
he would be a preacher. It was God's call to him and his answer. He
has since become one of the world's most famous preachers, and his
influence has been as wide as the world itself. When the Midianites
stood against the children of Israel God called Gideon to lead an army
against them, and this text is part of this story.

The scene was remarkable. Thirty-two thousand people following
Gideon's leadership with the first flush of the battle upon them. They
were ready to march, and God said when he looked at them, "The people
are too many." They would