And then one day she went up to where they were presenting their gifts and timidly laid her bunch of goat’s hair on the pile of offerings, and quietly, quickly slipped away.  It seemed very small on that pile of gold and silver and richly-colored weavings.  But it was the gift of her heart.  They had to have goat’s hair as well as gold.  And her offering was acceptable because it came from a willing heart.  Willingness is a heart quality.  It is the heart volunteering.

    “Our wills are ours to make them Thine.”

This was the first test.  Thirty-two thousand out of four tribes stood this test.  Gideon’s army had one great qualification at the start.

Courageous Volunteers.

Now these men are put to a second test.  The next morning God surprised Gideon by telling him that he had too many men.  If a victory was given them with so many men they would feel that they had done the thing themselves.  They would grow so large as to shut God out of their landscape.  There would be no getting along with them.  Each man would feel that he was the essential factor.  They would go back to the homefolks to tell of themselves.  God seems to know us folk down on the earth fairly well.

Now He would lessen their numbers, but in doing it He will pick out the best.  The men are encamped on the hillsides overlooking a valley.  Across the valley to the north lay the encamped armies of three nations.  They were a vast host.  They were spread out as thick as the grasshoppers of Egypt had been years before.  Everywhere you looked there they were swarming.

Gideon spoke to his men.  He said, “Gentlemen, Fellow-Israelites, there is the enemy.  Take a good look at them.”  And his followers looked, and as they looked some of them began to get scared.  They had not realized just what was involved.  Their footwear seemed to grow too large.  They were shaking in their boots.  And their eyes grew big and their faces white under the tan.

Then Gideon said, “Now, every man of you that thinks it can’t be done—­I wish you would get right out of this, and go back home.”  And he watched.  And I imagine even Gideon shook a bit inside as he watched.  They commenced to move away in squads, in scores, in fifties.  Great gaps were left in the mob of men.  Here is a fellow standing, looking.  He thinks, “It looks pretty bad, sure enough; but then, I suppose, if God is planning—­” hello, the fellow by his side has gone, and on this other side too—­“I guess I’d better go too.”  And off he goes.  Fear is very contagious.  There is great power in feeling a man by your side.  And two-thirds of them disappear over the hills.

The motto of these disappearing men was this:  “It can’t be done.”  They must have organized themselves into a society to perpetuate their own idea.  If so the society has shown great vitality.  Many of its members abide with us until this day.  No, probably they didn’t organize.  They didn’t have enough gumption to.  And such a sentiment grows like a weed without any cultivation.