I recall a certain town in Ohio where I had gone to talk about an enlargement and re-vitalizing of the Young Men’s Christian Association.  Thousands of young men in the place needed just such help as that organization is supposed to provide.  I outlined the plan to a clergyman.  He said it was a good plan, there was great need, the thing should be done, “but,” he said, with an air of settling the thing, “it can’t be done in this town.”

Among others I talked with a business man.  He listened attentively, approved the plans, agreed upon the great need, and then settling back in his chair with the same air of finality, used exactly the same words, with the same emphasis, “It can’t be done in this town.”  I got that same reply from several men that day.  And I said to myself, “They are right; it can’t be done with them; but it can be done without them.”  And it was.

Irresistible Logic.

But there remained ten thousand.  These men by their staying said, “It ought to be done.  What ought to be done can be done.  What can be done we can do.  What we can do we will do.”  Here is another man standing looking at that vast host across the valley.  He is thinking that it is a desperate case, but he thinks of God’s call through Gideon.  Just then he notices that his neighbor on the left has taken to his heels, and on his right also.  That shakes him for a moment.  His heels say, “You go too.”  His heart said, “No, stay.”  He obeyed his heart.  He said, “I’ll stay if I stay alone.”

That was the stuff in these remaining ten thousand.  They stood a double test in remaining, the desperate situation seen in the presence of such an enormous army, and the desertion of their fellows.  They had courage; not only willingness but courage.  Courage is a heart quality.  Courage is the heart fighting.  It faces fearful odds and keeps right straight ahead regardless.

A prize was offered once for the best definition of “pluck.”  The definition that won the prize said, “Pluck is fighting with the scabbard after the sword is broken.”  What a picture in a single sentence!  The man is fighting with might and main in the thick of the enemy, up and down, parry and thrust, and just about holding his own, when suddenly, without a moment’s warning, the blade snaps close up to the hilt.  The game’s up now surely.  This accident decides the day. Maybe—­for some men.  But not for this fellow.  He simply sets his jaws a bit firmer as, quick as lightning, he grabs the scabbard by his side and fights with it.

Such a man can’t be whipped.  He doesn’t know when he is whipped.  And the man who doesn’t know when he is whipped, never is whipped.  No man can be whipped without his own consent.  I said courage is a heart quality.  These ten thousand were not chicken-hearted nor downhearted.  They were lion-hearted, stout-hearted.  They had hearts of oak.