166 BATTLES OF THE BIBLE.

go, they stood in such awe of the Philistines, and very
likely Saul would have forbidden his son to go had he
been informed of the enterprise beforehand. ‘Two men
with faith in God can do more than two thousand with-
out that strengthening faith. This Jonathan knew, as
we see by what he said to his armour-bearer,—“ Come,
and let us go over unto the garrison of these uncircum-
cised: it may be that the Lord will work for us; for
there is no restraint to the Lord to save by many or
by few.” ‘The armour-bearer was quite willing to go
wherever his master led. Yet J onathan wished to do
nothing rashly. He thought it would be wrong need-
lessly to throw away his own life and that of his faith-
ful follower. He thought of a plan for ascertaining
whether or not it was right to attack the garrison. This
was his plan: He and his companion were to discover
themselves to the Philistines. If they asked them to
stay till they came to them, then they would not go up
to attack them; but ‘f the Philistines told them to go
up, the two Israelites were to regard that as a sign that
the Lord had delivered the heathen into their hands.

George. That was a strange plan. ‘They would have
had more chance of success if they had taken the Philis-
tines by surprise.

Grandfather. It might have seemed presumptuous in
Jonathan to attack the enemy with only one man to
assist him, unless he was quite sure it was the will of
God he should do so; and he knew that God could
make his will known to him even by a Philistine. When