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"Joshua therefore came unto them suddenly, and went up from Gilgal all night." \reference{Josh. 10:9}{Joshua 10:9} "It was midnight on the St. Lawrence River. In the darkness, barge after barge loaded with British soldiers floated silently down the broad river. As they were nearing their destination, the commander of the army, Wolfe, recited to the officers of his staff these lines of Thomas Gray:
The curfew tolls the bell of parting day;
The lowing herd winds slowly o'er the lea;
The plowman homeward plods his weary way;
And leaves the world to darkness and to me.
When he had finished the stanzas, he told his officers he would rather be the author of that poem than win the battle with the French on the morrow. By a mountain path the army made its ascent in the darkness from the river to the Plains of Abraham. When the sun began to shine the morning of September 13, 1759, its rays were reflected upon the bayonets and cannon of the English army. The French army fought well and courageously all that day; but their courage and heroism, and that of their gallant commander, Montcalm, were all in vain. The battle had been irrevocably lost by night. An empire, a kingdom, the dominion of North America, had been lost by night." --McCartney
General Wolfe became a "champion of the night" and changed the course of history on the North American continent by seeing and seizing the opportunity which the hours of darkness gave him. There have been other, secular, "champions of the night," as well as some spiritual "champions of the night." Joshua and King Saul both gained victories after marching their troops through the night. But the Greatest "Champion Of The Night" is Jesus. He wrestled during the night in the Garden of Gethsemane, stole a march on the devil, and gained eternal victory for us all on the Cross the next day. Every "champion of the night" has taken advantage of the hours of darkness so as to gained the crucial victory the next day. --Duane V. Maxey
The heights, that some men gained and kept,
Were not attained by sudden flight,
But they, while their companions slept,
Were toiling upward through the night.
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