subjected, if we take this view of the matter, shows that they were men of force, that they were active, wide awake. They fully appreciated the circumstances in which they were placed and the necessity on their part of being active, wide awake, on the alert. Such was the character of the men of whom we are speaking. They were men of conviction--they felt, and felt keenly the evils from which they were suffering, and their minds were fully made up to endure them no longer, if by any effort of theirs they could escape them. They were men of genuine courage--they were not afraid to meet the enemy. They were men of faith--faith in God. They were men who were thoroughly reliable--who could be depended upon, to whom any duty could be assigned in the confident assurance that it would be faithfully attended to. And they were men who were active, vigorous--men of physical and mental stamina. The getting together of such a company as this was a great achievement. It wasn’t easily done. Thirty-two thousand men had to be sifted before they could be found; but they were found. When the time comes God is always able to find the men he wants to use. When the great Civil War broke out in this country, it was a singular fact, that there were three such men as Grant, Sherman, and Sheridan ready to lead the Union forces on to victory. And the same was true when the war between Russia and Japan occurred: God had already in waiting a Togo to send to the bottom of the sea of Japan the combined fleet of the enemy; and on the land an Ozama and a Kuroki to overwhelm in a succession of unprecedented victories the army of the enemy. And here God found three hundred men to do the work which he wanted done, and placed at their head a man who was worthy to lead them. GIDEON’S BAND was organized for the purpose of fighting the Midianites--the enemies that were oppressing the Jews at that time. It is not of the Jews, however, that I desire to speak at this time, but of ourselves as a race. We too have enemies--present, ever-active, and powerful. These enemies may be divided into two general classes--those that are affecting injuriously our moral and economic condition, and those that are affecting injuriously our civil and political status.