" 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.

It was a keen stroke of generalship on Gideon's part that sent the timid,
discouraged ones back home. Nothing is more demoralizing than the presence
of such people. And there was no discipline much finer for those who
remained than to feel their fellows leaving them. It's hard to be left by
those who have been in touch. It is hard to stand alone.

There is no harder test of character than that. And too there is no finer
thing to make character. Think how the fiber