Gideon got together a large army, but God told him that only a part must fight. So Gideon picked out the three hundred bravest men and divided them into three companies of one hundred each, and put a trumpet in each man’s hand and an empty pitcher and a lamp inside the pitcher. About the middle of the night they came to the camp of the Midianites and blew the trumpets and broke the pitchers and held up the lamps and cried “The sword of the Lord and of Gideon.” The Midianites were afraid and ran about and cried out and killed one another. The Israelites ran after them and drove them out of the country. [Illustration: “THE SWORD OF THE LORD, AND OF GIDEON.”] THE DEATH OF SAMSON. Samson was the strongest man that ever lived. At one time he tore a live lion apart with his hands, at another he killed one thousand men, and at another he carried away the gates of Gaza, a city of the Philistines. But the very last thing that he did was the most wonderful of all. The Philistines had cruelly put out his eyes. At a feast where there were over three thousand of them, Samson got a boy to show him the way, and then putting his hands upon two pillars that held up the roof, and praying God for help, he pressed upon them with all his might. The pillars broke, the roof fell. Samson himself and the Philistines were killed. [Illustration: SAMSON AND THE PHILISTINES.] RUTH AND NAOMI. Naomi’s home was at Bethlehem. But one year, because there was no food there, she went to Moab with her husband and her two sons. Both the sons took wives in Moab. The wives’ names were Orpah and Ruth. After a little time Naomi’s husband died, then both the sons. Naomi started to go back to Bethlehem, and Orpah and Ruth started with her. But Naomi did not think they ought to leave their homes and advised them to stay in Moab. Orpah stayed. But Ruth said to Naomi: “Whither thou goest, I will go, and where thou lodgest I will lodge; thy people shall be my people and thy God, my God.” So Ruth and Naomi came to Bethlehem. [Illustration: RUTH AND NAOMI.] BOAZ AND RUTH. Ruth and Naomi were poor. So Ruth went out to pick up the grain which the reapers let fall at their work. The field into which she went belonged to a rich man named Boaz. He was pleased with Ruth, and let her eat and drink with the reapers. He told her never to go anywhere else, but always to come to his field, and he made the reapers let fall some grain on purpose for her. So when she came home to Naomi at night, she had a very large bundle. Ruth went to that field all through the harvest. Afterward she became the wife of Boaz. So you see Ruth did not lose anything by staying with Naomi. [Illustration: BOAZ SHOWING KINDNESS TO RUTH.] ELI AND SAMUEL.