An article by Louise Knight Wheatley entitled “Gideon’s Three Hundred” in “Love is the Liberator”, March 2016 (page 34) helped me better understand this week’s Bible story (https://downloads.plainfieldcs.com/Magazine/Love_is_the_Liberator_11.pdf). Highly recommended!
Here are a few nuggets:
“Those who were chosen were those who, in their eagerness to hasten the attack, quickly dashed up the water with their hands and hurried on. No wonder the host of Midian fled! Gideon’s “three hundred” stands for that high quality of mental alertness which always wins.
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There is a subtle mesmerism in numbers to which the Christian Scientist has constant need to keep himself awake.
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Someone has defined the need of the moment as “not more Christian Scientists, but better ones.”
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Gideon’s “three hundred” is here today, for it simply means a condition of thought expressed in fidelity, in love, in earnestness, in consecration, in steadfast devotion. It is quality rather than quantity. It is that for which Mrs. Eddy once sent out an imperative call, as found in “Miscellaneous Writings” (p. 176): “Are we duly aware of our own great opportunities and responsibilities? . . . What will you do about it? … Will you doff your lavender-kid zeal, and become real and consecrated warriors? Will you give yourselves wholly and irrevocably to the great work of establishing the truth, the gospel, and the Science which are necessary to the salvation of the world from error, sin, disease, and death? Answer at once and practically, and answer aright!” And Gideon’s “three hundred” answered.”
We are constantly reminded of this important message through the teachings of our church and in our watches. It is the way to follow in Jesus’ steps, the “straight and narrow way” that infinitely blesses the faithful as they work to bless others.