bring another deliverance.[28] Another time _a piece of
a millstone_ shoved over the wall by a woman turns the tide of battle
favorably.[29] And as contemptible a thing as the _jawbone of an ass_ in
the hands of one strong man is used to slay a thousand men.[30]

Call for Volunteers.

It is of one of these, one of the most striking of these, that we are to
talk together awhile; the graphic story of Gideon and his band of three
hundred young fellows. Things were in bad shape in the nation; about as
bad in every way as they could be. This time it was the Midianites who
overran the land, and held the leaderless people in most abject slavery.
With them were joined two other nations, the Amalekites and the Children
of the East. When the crops were almost ready to harvest, these raiders
swooped in in great numbers and destroyed all the crops and drove away all
the stock.

They harried the Israelites so that life was made very miserable for them.
They were forced to flee from their farms and take refuge in caves and
dens and the fastnesses among the hills. Then, as usual, when they got
into bad shape the people remembered God, and cried for help, and, as
usual with Him, He at once forgave them and planned another great
deliverance.

First of all Gideon the leader is chosen out, and put through a bit of
schooling. That is a fascinating story of great helpfulness. Then this
trained young leader gathers his band of helpers. And we want to mark
keenly how these three hundred men were sifted out of the thousands for
service. They were sifted out. They sifted themselves out. In that army
of thousands were just three hundred who had the needed qualifications for
the bit of service God wanted done.

Look over the gathered thousands: which are the chosen three hundred? No
man knew. They didn't know themselves until the tests came. They chose
themselves out by the way they stood the three tests applied. Even so is
God ever sifting out men for service. The more difficult the service, the
higher the grade of leadership needed, the severer the test. The testing
both reveals the qualities, and in part makes them.

The first quality these men had was _willingness._ They were all
_volunteers_. When the call came they rallied to the leader's side. Gideon
sent runners, criers, out throughout that whole section. They went first
to his own family clan, then to his tribe, then to three neighboring
tribes. They said that God had called