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.

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.