i l'nl^t•l•:ro^\ a' -J No. Case,. -77^^;:;" No. Stielf, -5ecti< No. Sfielf, -Secti^b:,,^^- '}"■ No. Book,- ---J 7^-- 'L .B^-^ sj S4 « <0 y ,y^ £ -i.^ -c.-^^--^ %^C^ /21 t r C€,4^ ^(f7">£. //y / //£ 9^ l^ /'-e-in 4 ^ THE GIANT JUDGE STORY OF SAMSON, HEBREW HERCULES. By Rev. W. A. SCOTT, D.D. OP SAN FRANCISCO. " Tlierc -u-ill I build liim A monmiieut, With all his trophies hung, and acts enroll'd In copious legend, or sweet lyrick song. Thither shall all the A-aliant j'outh report. And from his memory inflame their breasts To matchless valor, and adventures high : The virg-ins also shall, on feastful days, Visit his tomb with flowers. "—J/a»oa/j Burying Scmnon. SAX FRANCISCO: WHIITON, TOWNE & CO., PRINTERS AND PUBLISHERS, No. 151 Clay Street, near Montgomery. 1858. Entered according to Act of Congress in the year of onr Lord, 1858, Bt wiiitton, TOWNE & CO. For the Author, in the Clerk's office of the District Court of the United States, for the Northern District of Califoiiiia. ILLUSTRATIONS, 1 SAMSON TAKEN BY THE PHILISTINES, 1 2 MANOAH'S SACRIFICE, 21 3 CLAY TABLET FROM SINKARA, 16G 4 SA3IS0N RENDING THE LION AS A KID, 168 5 SAMSON FINDING THE HONEY, 177 6 THE FOXES, 216 7 SAMSON CARRYING OFF THE GATES OF GAZA, 240 8 ASLEEP IN DELILAH'S LAP, 257 9 THE UPRIGHT LOOM, 259 10 BARBERS OPERATING, 261 11 PUTTING OUT HIS EYES, 270 12 SAMSON GRINDING AT THE MILL, 273 13 DAG ON , 291 14 THE FISH GOD 292 CONTENTS CHAPTER I. THE HERO'S WONDERFUL STORY 'TOLD. Israel's social condition— A Deliverer promised— The Angel's visits— IMan- oah's solicitude- His Sacrifice— Tlie domestic conference— Samson's visit to Timnath and the espousal— Tlie lion adventure and the bees— The wedding ilddle and the tragedy— The foxes— The hip and thigh slaughter— Tlie jaw-bone massacre — The giant Judge in toils at Gaza — He visits Sorek— Surrenders to Delilah's fascinations— His repentance —The fearful catastrophe 29 CHAPTER II. THE HEROIC JUDGES AND THEIR TIMES. All the facts recorded in such a part of the Bible as the "Book of Judges''' not necessarily of a direct religious bearing, yet of gxeat value. The times of the Hebrew Judges a striking commentary on the necessity of a permanent government— The tenn Judges — They were magistrates — Jehovah's lieutenant-generals — Rcpi'escnted by Suffetes of the Cartha- ginian and Arabian i^\\eiY^\%— Sheikh, Hais, Elder, Cwptain derived— The Judges were not hereditary nor chosen \i\ the people — They left no successors, nor had they any predecessors— Samson's history most wondrous even in an extraordinary age— His whole history a struggle between duty and passion— a conflict between the fixed principles in- stilled into his mind bj' his pious parents and his besetting lusts— Our story an epic— " Samson Agonistes" a splendid drama— His strength supernatural, and not owing to his hair, or to the size of his hody—Oiant only in strength- His peculiarities human, but developed in an extra- ordinary measure, as Saul was of the people but above them in stature — Samson's spiritual histor3- only a skeleton — Di*. Bruce 's biography of Samson— His analysis of his charactei'- Many people not so well ac- quainted with his character as they suppose- His history is something more than that of "the Scottish Chiefs." Samson and Hercules— The disadvantages under which the Hebrew is compared with the VI CONTENTS. Greek— The Hebrew is the orifjiuial— Some parallel points between the Hebrew and the Greek Hercules— Authors referred to for full particu- lars on these points— Bible biogi'aphies are truthful, but the sins of its heroes are not approved of— The apostle commends only their faith in God 35 CHAPTER III. THE STOKY A REVELATION INSPIEED. This topic belongs preeminently to our times— Scottish theology on the Scottish mind— Hugh Miller's estimate of the pulpit— The ministry has furnished the pabulum of Scotland— The old way of teaching the people still desirable— Bible biographies chequered, because true to life and adapted to our capacities— iSot to be read as school-boy tales or fanciful stories, but as the meinoirs of the lives of men— true men who lived in our world, and lived for us, and with whom we are in actual sympathy —The Old Testament is depreciated from tAvo sources, by early heretics and by over-zealous converts — Spencer and his opponents— The true view of the typical character of the Old Testament- Inditference to spiritual religion lies atthebottomof this neglect of the Old Testament —The attack of Hume and of the French Encyclopoedists was against Christianity— Now the attack is against the Recokds of it— The Bible contains a Revelation from God, and is that Revelation — The Record is reliable and its meaning can be ascertained — The Bible is a connected, hannonious history, and not a myth or a fable— lis main design— Short- comings of its hei'oes to be expected from a full face picture — The mtirm- ities of Bible men faithfully recorded, but not approved— The honesty of the writers— Morell on their hnperfections— The Bible not a failure. 51 CHAPTER IV. SAMSON'S PARENTS-THE HERO PROMISED. The Philistines, whence came they ?— The name Palkstike derived from them— Its meaning— Caphtor, is it Crete "i—'YliQ forty years' oppression — Meaning of the Lord " delivered " or " sold " them into the hands of the Philistines—" God sovereign and man free."— St. Augustine on the sense in which God "hardens" a sinner's heart— God's authority the end of controversy— Samson's father and mother— Their character— The angel's address to Manoah's wife— The prohit)iti()n laid upon her— The Divine rule in regard to sui)eniatural help— The Nazarite— JCot a Nazarene, nor a hermit— Bishop Hall on the temperance of Samson's mother— Special holiness for special divine missions— Tlie hero child only " to begin " the deliverance— Jacob prophesied of Samson on his death bed— Afflictions are God'sgi-aciousopportunitios— Why the angel appeared to the woman-wife rather than to the husband — Intense desire in the East for eliildron— Dedication of our children to God— Their edu- cation begins before tliey are born— Hereditary character, physical and moral— proper idea of training youth— I'arental example— Instruction and prayer— IManoah our teacher— Where we may find help for our great work— His strong faith and prompt obedience 75 CONTENTS. Vll CHAPTER V. CHRIST IN THE THEOPILVXIES OF THE OLD TEST^OIENT " The Angel of the Lord " is Jehovah, the Sent One—" The Wonderfll" of Isaiah, and the same who revealed himself as the Lokd God of the patriarchs— God is invisible, yet has made some manifestations of Him- self palpable to the senses— The Angel-Jehovah is the Messiah, who is the Christ of the New Testament— The Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments are an organized and complete whole— a revelation from God teaching one and the same religion— Trench on past development- Lee on Inspiration— The Old Testament not a failure— The Logos, the Kevealer iu all dispensations — but especially identified with the Angcl- Jchovah— The Messiah— Christ is the Sent One of both Testaments— Dr. Mill and Olshauscn on the fulfilling of the ha.w— Lessons of this chap- ter— Isi. Vindication of the plan of Divine Revelation— Our Lord ful- filled, did not destroy— The Old Testament is the basis of the New— It is the landscape whose beauties can only be seen by the light of the Gos- pel— 2nd. The Old Testament therefore to be studied as well as the New— 3rd. We are very near to God in both Testaments— but nearer in the New than in the Old — 4th. A pilgrim-like air is breathed upon us from Bible studies — Are we travelling home to God and going to meet our kindred that have past over Jordan ?— 5th. How wonderful and gracious is the divine condescension ! 101 CHAPTER VI. THE FAMILY SACRIFICE AND CONFERENCE. The angel's intei*view with Manoah and his wife— Does not deny that he was God, but speaks and is spoken to, and of, as he appeared to be, " a man of God." — Manoah authorized to off'er divine Avorship — The angel's name is "WONDERFUL "—The sacrifice on the rock— The domes- tic conference after the angel leaves them— The popular idea that a man could not see God and live— Manoah's alarm characteristic of the human heart— The wife's orthodox reply— The safe rule— A suspicion of God's sincerity in the Gospel is an impeachment of his infinite good- ness—All needful grace implied in the offer of a SAVIOUR— Consola- tion for the aged 127 CHAPTER Vn. THE LIFE OF THE HERO BEGUN. The name, Samson— Divine blessings early descended upon him— Divine influence both gracious and miraciUous— The same Spirit now regener- ates—The Spirit moving him in the training camp— Gi-eat hopes not re- alized—Plato on the importance of earl.y education— Neglect of family education a prevailing erroi-- The tendency to lawlessness must be cor- rected AT home— Imperishableness of early impi-essions- HOME is the fountain of sweet influences— All history speaks with one voice on this subject— Mere institutions are not sufficient— They are nothing without VIU CONTENTS. character— The " tones that will haunt us "— Ilaudolph's safety against French Atheism— Lesson and encouragement for parents and Sabbath School Teachers— Family training— Young men govern America— They are chiefly educated at home— Retribution on parents— What can be done to prevent crime— Sunday schools not substitutes for home train- ing— OUK Homes must be saved— Home the seat of love 139 CHAPTER VIII. SAMSO^f'S FIKST LOVE— THE LION FIGHT. The visit to Timnath— Disappointed in Samson's choice—" The last reason" of lovers- Force of "she pleaseth me well"— The pious parents yield to the head-strong son— Still Samson was not wholly wanting in filial reverence— The Philistines not doomed Canaanites— In what sense his choice of the Tinmite girl was " of the Loi'd "—Was Samson sincere in his love ?— God is sovereign and man free- Samson not possessed of prescience— Must distinguish between what God moves us to do, and OUT moving oui'selves— The Israelites had just cause to sh.akc ofl" the Philisthie .yoke— The damsel betrothed— Oriental custom illustrated by our aborigines— Encounter with a lion— Tablet from Sinkara— Such en- counters with lions not uncommon — Samson not " a tongue-doughty knight," but a man of deeds rather than of words 155 CHAPTER IX. SWEETNESS OUT OF THE STRONG. Going to the wedding— The pleasant surprise- Hebrew name for bees ex- presses their skill in government— It is well to observe Providences — Samson's astonishment at finding honey in the lion's carcass— Virgil, Varro and Aristotle on bees in carcasses— The lion only a skeleton— Kinman's elk-horn chaii-- Samson did not violate his Nazarite vow iu taking the honey — Christians have a right to the good things of the world which God gives them to enjoy with thankfulness— Strange that Samson should marry a heathen— Piety is the glory of a woman— M. Thiei's on the women of the Bourbons— Remarkable deterioration in the stature of the French army— Causes— Polygamy not designed in the creation— Samson had been a better citizen as the husband of a Hebrew woman— Woman's influence on society 171 CHAPTER X. THE WEDDING RIDDLE AND TRAGEDY. " Tlie thirty friends " of the bridegroom were spies — Samson's conformity to the customs of his Avife's people— Christianity does not teach vulgar- ity— Woman's presence at feasts restrains and refines- TZ/aoleray on female society— Philistines were not Turks— "BaiKiuet riddles," or "cup (juestions "—Aristophanes t)n— A lesson for our merry makings at weddings— Sumsou is aroused to propound lus ridiUe—" The thirty CONTENTS. IX sheets" — "The nuptial joj' " — makhig presents — His 'wife shedding crocodile tears— The teasing wife— The oriental proverb— Women un- justly accused of not being- a])le to keep a secret— Only the vile tra- duce woman— The riddle solved— Joseph us' paraphrase— Ploughing with his heifer— Its meaning— A nugget fi-om Bishop Hall— Samson not a repudiator— Malies Askelon his wardrobe — Acts not as a mere private citizen, but as civil magistrate with the Divine commission in his hand — He was Jehovah's lieutenant general or high sherifl— Did not violate his Nazarite vow in taking the spoil— Angry and proud as Achilles he pays the forfeit and strides off home— His bride is married to his first groomsman— Marriage a sacred and solemn institution— Divorces not to be granted for slight causes— The lesson against mixed marriages— A wedding as solemn as a funeral..... 185 CHAPTER XI. THE JUDGMENT OF THE FIRE-BEAND FOXES. Samson relenting— His disappointment— The revenge— Cavils about the foxes removed— The fox of the Bible— Numerous in Palestine— Samson an expert hunter— May have had help and as much time as was need- ed—No miracle required here— Kennicott and Saurin at fixult— S,ylla, Caesar and Pompey's wild beasts— The original of Ovid's storj^ of the Roman custom of the burning of the fox— Hebrew ftre-brand the original of our lamps— Calmet and Kitto on the appi'opriateness of the agents of the conflagration— Corn-flelds vast open plains without intei-vening fences— Coyotes could do the same woi-k of destruction here— Capt. Clapperton on the burning of to-wms by buzzards— Dr. Kitto criticised— The law of wai'- An illustration from the Comanches— Samson's meth- od singular, but effective— No authority here for a private citizen tak- ing the law into his own hands— No moral guilt in killing two birds with one stone — The fearful law of betribx'tion — Rejmard versus the Phil- istines—The retribution on Samson's wife inhuman and barbarous — American institutions can only be destroyed b.y the fire-brand of dis- sension — The awful rule of Pi'ovidence — Modern illustrations — Phalaris and J/ar«i— True principle the only expediency — The way of trans- gressors always hard — No fugitive escapes Heaven's police — The only remedy is pardon from the great Redeemer 205 CHAPTEE XII. THE JAW-BONE SLAUGHTER. " Hip and thigh " explained— Principle upon which Samson slew the Phil- istines—Rock Etam— French in Algeria— The Emir Faccardine— Sam- son's countrymen a sad spectacle before Etam— Why did not the men of Judah rally under Samson's banner?— Not excused because he was a Danite— Washington an American though a Virginian— size and strength of body not absolutely inconsistent with mental and moi-al energj^— The perfect man is " a sound mind in a sound body "—Sam- son's character was not well balanced— He was not the man he should have been— The new cords as cinders— The pspan— Ramath Lehi— The CONTENTS. jaw-bone lesscarcil lor than Rub Roy's sun— Tlie tliirst—Josephus' ex- planation— The fountahi not in the jaw-bone, butjn the place called Lehi— The lesson from the l*hilistines shouting on the eve [of their de- struction is, that the pros2)enty of the wicked is not a blessing— DclAys of Providence do not change the demerits of sin— The Supreme judge punishes fvom principle— not from passion— In the Divine government no statute of limitations debarring process or execution of sentence— The Divine rule of judgments is like that of grace— That only is right which is accordhig to God's will— The long-suffering of God is salva- tion—Pardon is the sinner's only safety 221 CHAPTER XIII. THE DREADFUL RELAPSE FROM ETAM. City of Gaza, ancient and modern— The Gazite woman— Rahab a zonah, that is, an inn-keepei-- Schleusncr on the term— Why did Samson go to Gaza ?— His danger and escape— The Syrian door—" Who shall roll us away the stone " explained— The hill that is bcfoi-e Hebron— Review of Samson's life. from the top of the rock Etam, and his strange descent thence to Gaza — A revival of his iimer life in Etam — His mother's anx- ious interrogations— Why retire to Etam— Himself reflecting- The Spirit of God not easily discouraged— The seed may be long sprouthig but not lost — Affliction generally necessary to recovery after a relapse — SauTiSon's inner life not peculiar— official character not identical with saving experiences— Moses prepared by solitary meditation in a wilder- ness for his great mission — Samson did not backslide in a moment — His age an aggravation of his fall at Gaza— Besetting sins die hardl.y— The warfare and philosophy of success— Lusts of the flesh peculiarly dan- gerous—Samson went to Gaza and thence to Sorek hi a sadly " con- sumptive state "—One shi leads to another— The aggravation of Sam- son's case— Our responsibility great 237 CHAPTER XIV. SAMSON IN DELILAH'S LAP. The valley of Sorek— Samson now of mature age— His weakness for Philis- tine women— Delilah, her name significant- Her pictures— Fancied re- semblance to Queen Dido — Was Samson's wife — Philistine lords — Na- ture of their govennnent— The lai-ge bribe— Heathen supei-stitions— Samson's lies and vexation— The beguilement connnenced— Delilah's viiidiiatlon— Her pleas in Milton— Dangei'ous poets and essayists — The wile disparaged for the mistress— Solomon's bad company explains his sad experience with womankind— Delilah's curiosity lier best excuse — Withes, " tugs " and ropes— The loom experiment— The oriental upright loom from the monuments of Egypt— The secret told— The I'hilistine lords sunnnoned— The fatal sleep— Picture of a man asleep ui>on the knees of a woman— Barbcrs—i)icture from the monuments of Egypt— In what sense his strength was in bis long hair— His terrible mortillca- tion— How ho was overcome— Tlie Jiistory of his full not incredible- Flight from sucli f emi)tations Mio only safety 276 CONTENTS. XI CHAPTER. XV. A GRIST FROM THE PEISOX MILL OF GAZA. Samson a prophet— A Sebastapol fall— The sad contrast between his depar- ture from Gaza and his return— His tortiirings by the Philistines- Eye- punishment in Persia— Such barbarity common in ancient times— Pic- ture from Khorsabad— Fetters of brass— Ancient oriental implements chiefly copper — Excelled in hardening copper — Analogy between an- cient Chaldeans, Egyptians, and Philistines— Custom of keeping prison- ers to grace a triumph— An illustration from Southey's Brazil— Ameri- can aborigines — Samson grinding at the mill — Degradation of his employment— Ancient mills— Sympathy for the pi-isoner— Lessons of gratitude and warning— I. We see God's singular forbearance — Success not impunity— Aggravations of Samson's fall— Our guilt in repudiating baptismal obligations— II. Samson lost his strength in an unconscious manner — Quarles' dipt dove — III. Progressive downward tendencj- of sinning— Begun with improper nse of his senses— Consumption of his inner life— Lost his strength before he was aware of it, and without in- tending it— Character is always a gi-owth- The oak— The fire-side the ivorld's greatest university — The most imperishable pictare is the first dra'^^^l on the heart— Family culture our greatest hope— Our Homes the Republic's imperishable pillars— IV. Our reluctance to give up all hope of sharing in our father's religion at last— Samson was loath to give up the badge of his consecration— His heart was lost before his hair- The gradual process of coming to the point to allow our locks to be shorn — Way of transgressors is of necessity hard— Purgatory in this world- The winding sheet of souls 278 CHAPTER XVI. THE FINAL CONTEST AND TRAGEDY. More hope of Samson in prison than in Sorek— His hair begins to grow— Recovers his commission— The outward sign corresponding to the in- wai-d grace— Samson's experiences— Milton's description of the feast to Dagon — Oannes is Dagon — The symbolic historv^ of Babylonia— Bas- relief of Dagon from Khorsabad— Dagon on the doorways of Nimroud and on Assyrian cylinders and gems — Mr. La3'ard's agate— Berosus, Lucian, Diodorus Siculus — National deities — Philistme's house of Avor- ship— The two pillars explained— /Sir Christopher Wren's solution- Such edifices common— The fall rf/d make a profound impression— Its shape resembled a horse-shoe— Ruins of Verona, Nismes, Athens, and the Colosseum in proof— So also Tacitus, Pliny, and Dr. Shaw— The summing up a complete vindication of the text— Bible histories neither impossible nor improhuhle — The errors of supei-stition — Consistent grati- tude of the Philistines— Their shouting was Samson's signal for pro- found humiliation— Heathen always judge of our religion by the con- duct of our travellers and merchants— Samson attends the feast and makes spoi-t— THE PRINCIPALS appear in the contest— Samson's agony — His pra.ver— Resolves to die a martjT, if God is pleased to ac- cept him as such—Objections to his prayer answered— P/jwrii?/*".? and CONTENTS. habitudes and not emotions and iXy'mg articnlations to be vecoivcd as proofs of our acceptance with God— Samson's catechism was not like ours as to the lex ialionis—llc had not the example, teaching, and dying prayer of Jesus before him, as we have— His dying prayer and last acts were in perfect harmony with his commission from heaven 287 CHAPTER XVII. THE EriLOGlIE AND ITS TEACHINGS. Tlie late Dr. Samuel Miller— The tree must not be too straight— A bow un- bent makes a straight jacket- 6Ve;«cns Alexandrinus on the love of the wonderful— The Stagirite also— The stone-blind not so hopeless as the Avillful blind— Wonderful talcs and Fairy stories to be allowed to chil- dren—All the books wc want— Samson a nccessarj' and profitable study, even if we should pi'cfer another for a horo— Milton's Agonistes not equal to the occasion— Samson's view of the conflict— He dies not as a suicide but as a martyr— dies as he begun his career, fulfilling his com- mission and the promise made to his mother— G'o^^a still teaching— Its ruins a treasure-house— 1st. God's long-suftering and justice illustrated —2nd. God is still sovereign— As truly supreme in America as in Pal- estine— 3rd. The divine government is one of eternal, immutable princi- ples—Thesc principles are as truly active in modern as in ancient times —In Washington's life as in that of JMoses- In our sti'cets as well as in the orbits of the heavenly bodies— rrayer is thci-efore as availing in San Francisco as in Solomon's temple— 4th. Retribution follows ex- hausted mercy— 5th. Samson's life is truth both objective and sub- jective— 6th. Sin is a steep and slippci-y precipice— Every transgressor is under the infatuation of sin— Whoever indulges a sinful desire sleeps in Delilah's lap, to aAvake shorn of his strength— All sins are links together — Conscience an India rubber affair — Straining at a gnat and swalloM'- inga whole caraivan— The hissing millstone round the libertine's neck— 7th. Samson's character badly balanced—A want of symmetr^^ a great defect in Christian character— 8th. Constitutional sins peculiarly dan- gerous — 9tli. The purity of the marriage relation must be preserved — Our Homes are God's foundation stones of national greatness— Thorough training and instruction essential in a Kepubhc— Education a national as well as an individual blessing— The Ionian islands a striking illustra- tion—An eloquent paragrai)h from MacaHlay—\(Si\\. Samson is a pictorial of a motlier's anxietj^ and influence — Washington formed by his mother on Sir MatthCAV Hale's model— /o/f?? Quinni Adams' tribute to hismothor — Finally, IJcsponsibility of young men for their influence on socictj'. . . 307 PREFACE. The same motives that prompted me, fellow-citizens, to offer you through the same publishers of this city " The Wedge op Gold, or AcHAK Ksr El Dorado," influence me in venturing to send forth the following pages. And I hope it will not be considered out of place for me here to say that I am profoundly thankful for the favor with which that little work has been received, not only on this coast, for which it was chiefly intended, but also in the East, where it has already gone through a second large edition. The feelings with which " The "VVedge of Gold " were submitted to you are more intense now, because of the increase of our population and the rapid flight of time. I frankly confess that I have an earnest desire to preach from the press to those who are scattered and toiling far from home, through our mountains and valleys, that I cannot reach with my voice; and to those who may hear it, I would preach again after it is silent in death. Life is uncertain, and at best will soon be spent. The mere utterances of the mouth are necessarily circumscribed in the hearing, and even when received, they are lodged in a treacherous memory. But what is printed remains, and has a chance to live. Firmly per- suaded that the purity and sacredness of marriage, and the social elevation and well-being of families, and the more thorough training and home education of children, especially in new States, lie at the foundation of all true national prosjierity, I have labored earnestly in the following pages to explain the history of Israel's Giant Judge with fidelity to the text, and to make such reflections thereon, as I hum- bly hope may, with the divine blessing, promote domestic happiness, XIV PREFACE. family piety, sound learning and true religion. My only hope of my country and of the world, is the Bible. An earnest faith in it and a sin- cere adoption of its principles are a present and an eternal salvation. Our artists have, I think, admirably succeeded in giving us illustra- tions eminently suited to the text. All the pictures I remember to have seen of Samson and Delilah, even those of Rubens, Guido and David, are historically incorrect. But our illustrations are strictly in conformity with the history and customs of the country, and of the times, as explained by tlie best interpreters, and by the latest researches of antiquarians and monument readers San Francisco, December, 1857. INTRODUCTION In this little volume I have a definite end in view. I candidly ac- knowledge that with me, the reality of Bible histories is an indispen- sable condition to faitl^in the doctrines and precepts of Christianity. It is my purpose therefore, so far as the subject seems to come properly within the reach of these pages, to consider the history of Samson as a true history, explain its meaning, and apply its principles. Unless bibli- cal memoirs are strictly true — a record of things as they were, and of facts as they did occur — if the men named are nations or myths, and not individuals — if the miracles wrought by Moses and Samson are mere natural phenomena or figures of speech ; then I have no confi- dence that the doctrines of the Bible are from God. I am well aware that some do not like the subject I have chosen — they would prefer Joseph or Daniel as a hero. Others are ready to pronounce the effort as useless — and some consider it as " an idle at- tempt to collect evidence " on a subject that does not admit ol proof; and others will charge me with maintaining most uncritical, ignorant, unphilosophical, baseless assumptions in regard to the histories of the Bible, and the literal interpretation of the scriptures. But as Keil in his preface to Joshua expresses it, I am persuaded : " The great want of the church, at the present day, is a clear comprehension of the meaning of the Old Testament, in its fullness and purity, in order that the God of Israel may again be universally i-ecoguized as the eternal God, whose faithfulness is unchangeable, the one living and true God, who per- formed all that he did to Israel for our instruction and salvation, having chosen Abx-aham and his seed to be his people, to preserve his revela- tions, that from him the whole world might receive salvation, and in him all the families of the earth be blessed." The great Augustine in his one hundred and sixtieth sermon is correct in saying most emphatically, "Novum Testamentum in vetere velabatur : Vetus Testamentum in novo revelatur.'" If the gospel of Jesus C'hrist XVI INTRODUCTION. is therefore the only way of Salvation, the historical reality of the Old Testament must be fully established. It is true, that the good things of which in the old economy we have only the shadoios have come in all their precious realities: but it does not follow that the old economy is wholly obsolete. IVhen a fond mother folds in her arms a living son returned from distant lands, or with honor from many a bloody field of battle, she does not indeed in the moment of transj^ort turn from the living face to gaze on the cold picture. The artist may not choose to study his subject in twilight, when he may have it in the full blaze of day. And yet, that fond mother may by the help of the portrait dis- cover some line of beauty in her son's face, which she had not observed without it : and the artist may find that some sharp and simple outlines of the mountain or of the palace ruins are brought much more impres- sively before his ej^e against a twilight sky than in the glare of day. The great truths of Christianity stand up boldly in the history of God's ancient people, just as the lofty headlands of a dim and distant coast are seen from the sea; though more clearly stated in the New Testa- ment. But the distant view is not without grandeur and importance. And as the best and in fact the only way to remove darkness from a room, is to let in light, so it seems to us the l^st, if not the only way to save the Old Testament from rationalism and a Christless interpre- tation on the one hand, and the extravagancies of pietism on the other, is to promote its true understanding; and in order to this we must vin- dicate its authenticity and come to its true interpretation. But this cannot be done by ignoring altogether the schools of Neological criti- cism, nor by allegorizing and finding types of Christ in everything. I am perfectly sure that in regard to modern science, historical discove- ries and antiquarian researches, we may rest securely on the position of our distinguished countryman (Lieut. Maury): ''I have always found,"' says he, "in my scientific studies, that when I could get the Bible to say anything upon the subject, it aiforded me a firm founda- tion to stand upon, and another round in the ladder by which I could safely ascend." Within the last fifty years, and even within less than half that period, wonderful progress has been made in nearly all the branches of sacred literature. Profound grammatical and lexicographical researches have made us better acquainted with the Hebrew and cognate tongues. The customs and institutions of Oriental nations are now quite familiar to us. Ancient writers and monumental records are interpreted with much more accuracy than in ages past. By being able to read the hieroglj'phic records of the private and public life of the ancient Egyp- tians, we know more of " the court of the Pharaohs than we do of the Plantagenets." And these records afford important, though undesigned confirmations of the historical verity of the Old Testament, and enable lis to understand many hitherto obscure Biblical passages and allusions. So numerous and important are the proofs and illustrations of the INTKUDUCTIUN. XVll authenticity of the liiytorical books of the Bible, gathered from the labors of modern missionaries and trav ellers in the East, and from the readings of the inscriptions on the monuments of the Nile, Tigris and Euphrates, that our Bible dictionaries and commentaries will all have to be re-written. Many of them have been superseded already. Im- portant as they have been, I hope it will not be considered ungrateful in me to say, that the chief commentaries in our language of a former age, are destitute of the refreshing breath of science and without the lights of such patient and thorough research into antiquity as charac- terises our day. This was rather their misfortune than their fault While we shall ever thank God for their able and pious labors, it is but true to say, that they wrote sermons about rather than expositions of the sacred text. Most of the old commentators are too much given to spiritualizing rather than expounding the word of God. We cannot have too much of Christ in our puli)its; but the spirit of our age calls also for his- torical and critical studies in order to the successful presentation of " Christ and him crucified." And if, in preaching from the sacred records^ we dismember them, and in our zeal to find evangelical doctrines, fail to apprehend the mind of the Spirit, then we do great injustice to revelation. We should avoid extremes, for doubtless there is a way to avail ourselves of the results of modern criticism, so as to combine the orthodox faith of former ages with the science and ripened fruits of modern times. The wonderful discoveries of our day furnish such a weight of evidence in favor of the historic realities and accuracy of the divine records and of the literal fulfillment of prophecy, that they actually form a new and extensive class of Evidences for Christianity. These discoveries are, however, so recent, and so diversified and scattered, that they can hardly be said yet to be classified or arranged. Nor is this species of evidence by any means complete. But enough is known to convince candid and intelligent readers that the ancient historians and monumental records of the East do furnish us Avith remarkable illusti-ations of the sacred writers, and undesigned coincidences so striking, so numerous and so minute, that it is difficult to escape from the conviction that the Bible books are both genuine and authentic. Let it be kept, however, distinctly in mind, that in the following pages there is no attempt to go over the whole field just referred to. By no means. I have not travelled out of the sacred record concerning Samson. I have only attempted to sum up and arrange together so much of the results of biblical re- searches as seemed to me to belong to the life of the Israelitish judge. I am aware, moreover, that vieAvs and objections bearing upon the " Book of Judges " and the life of the Hebrew Hercules have been put forth by Eosenmuller, Eichhorn, Maurer, Baulus, Strauss and others, adverse to those defended in these pages, which I have not thought of sufficient importance or pertinency to be named at all, lest it should XVlll INTRODUCTION. seem to the sturdy, honest Bible readers of our own country that we were fighting men of straw. And besides, if we have succeeded in vindicating and making good our interpretations, theirs must fall to the ground. I do not suppose it is a valid objection against publishing a book that other volumes on the same subject have preceded it. For every man has his oivn anointing, and no one else can do the work to which providence has called him. Many valuable commentaries and volumes of Bible Illustrations have been published, and those named in the following pages are especially recommended, with the hope that if they are not already in every library and family, they soon will be. It is but justice to say, however, that I am not ac- quainted Avith a single work on the plan of this one, or that occupies the place it is designed to fill. In the preparation of these chapters, I have endeavored, if I may so express myself, to saturate my mind and heart with the spirit of the original text, and with the writings of the most approved critics and interpreters of it, and, as far as I was able, to exhaust them in whatever I deemed available for explaining and pre- senting in a brief way the true meaning of the narrative. I suppose it to be the duty of every conscientious interpreter of the word of God to study it, as the old divines express it, j)an?/i^?Z7/, and to use freely the best helps within reach, for enabling them to show the people the way of salvation. The Hebrew has been carefully studied; but as Hebrew Bibles are now within the reach of all who desire to see the original, we have not printed it in our pages. We thought it best to present the edifice Avith as few signs of the scaffolding as were sufficient to give an idea of how it Avas built. The collection of facts and customs from Bible Lands used as illus- trations of the text have in most cases been verified by my own personal researches and observations in the East, and by the latest readings of oriental monuments, so far as they have any bearing on our narrative. I have sought to remove objections, and to bring home the truth. Our aim is the conversion of the heart to God by pouring light upon it. And if it shall please God to bless the under- taking, to HIM be all the praise, through Jesus Christ. Amen. Clje lew's Storg €sih HE ASCENSION OF THE ANGEL, OK JIANOAH'S SACKIFICE. '' When the flame went up toward heaven from oflf the altar, the angel of the ORD ascended in the flame of the altar. ' rage 23, CHAPTER I. THE HERO'S STORY TOLD. ■' Jewish histoiy is God's lllumiiiatca clock set in the dark steeple of time."' •' Most wondrous book ! brijAht candle of the Lord ! Star of Eternity ! The only star By which the bark of man could navigate The sea of life, and gain the coast of bliss Securely." Judges, Chapter xiii. — 1 And the cliildren of Israel did evil ao;ain in tlie siorlit of the Lord ; and tlie Lord delivered them into the hand of the Philistines forty years. 2 ^ And there was a certain man of Zorah, of the family of the Danites, whose name was Manoah ; and his wife was barren, and bare not. 3 And the angel of the Lord appeared unto the woman, and said unto her, Behold now, thou art barren, and barest not: but thou slialt conceive, and bear a son. 4 Now therefore beware, I pray thee, and drink not wine nor strong drink, and eat not any unclean thing : 5 For, lo, thou shalt conceive, and bear a son ; and no razor shall come on his head: for the child shall be a Nazarite unto God from the womb : and he shall begin to deliver Israel out of the hand of the Pliilistines. 6 % Then the woman came and told her husband. 22 THE GIANT JUDGE. saying, A man of God came unto me, and his coiuite- linnce.was like the countenance of an angel of God, very terrible : but I asked him not whence he was, neither told he me his name : 7 But he said unto me, Behold, thou shalt conceive, and bear a son ; and now drink no wine nor strong drink, neither eat any unclean thing: for the child shall be a Nazarite to God from the womb to the day of his death. 8 IF Then Manoah entreated the Lord, and said, O my Lord, let the man of God which thou didst send come again unto us, and teach us what we shall do unto the child that shall be born. 9 And God hearkened to the voice of Manoah; and the angel of God came again unto the woman as she sat in the field : but Manoah her husband was not with her. 10 And the woman made haste, and ran, and shewed her husband, and said unto him. Behold, the man hath appeared unto me, that came unto me the other day. 11 And Manoah arose, and went after his wife, and came to the man, and said unto him, At't thou the man that spakest unto the woman ? And he said, I am. 12 And Manoah said. Now let thy words come to pass. Plow shall we order the child, and how shall we do unto him? 13 And the angel of the Lord said unto Manoah, Of all that I said unto the woman let her beware. 14 She may not eat of any thing that cometh of the vine, neither let her drink wine or strong drink, nor eat any unclean thing: all that I commanded her let her observe. 15 ^ And Manoah said unto the angel of the Lord, THE ANGEL S ASCENSION. Zo I pray thee, let us detain thee, until we shall have made ready a kid for thee. 16 And the angel of the Lord said unto Manoah, Though thou detain me, I will not eat of thy bread: and if thou wilt oiFer a burnt offering, thou must offer it unto the Lord. For Manoah knew not that he tvas an angel of the Lord. 17 And Manoah said unto the angel of the Lord, What is thy name, that when thy sayings come to pass we may do thee honor? 18 And the angel of the Lord said unto him, Why asketh thou thus after my name, seeing it is secret? 19 So Manoah took a kid with a meat offering, and offered it upon a rock unto the Lord : and the angel did wondrously ; and Manoah and his wife looked on. 20 For it came to pass, when the flame went up toward heaven from off the altar, that the angel of the Lord ascended in the flame of the altar. And Manoah and his wife looked on it, and fell on their faces to the ground. 21 But the angel of the Lord did no more appear to Manoah and his wife. Then Manoah knew that he ivas an angel of the Lord. 22 And Manoah said unto his wife. We shall surely die, because we have seen God. 23 But his wife said unto him, If the Lord were pleased to kill us, he would not have received a burnt offering and a meat offering at our hands, neither would he have shewed us all these things, nor would as at this time have told us sueh things as these. 24 ^ And the woman bare a son, and called his name Samson ; and the child grew, and the Lord blessed him. 25 And the Spirit of the Lord began to move him 24 THE GTANT JUDGE. 4 at times In the camp of Dan between Zorah and Eshtaol. Judges, Chapter xiv. — 1 And Samson went down to Timnatli, and saw a woman in Timnath of the daughters of the Pliihstines. 2 And he came np, and told his father and his mother, and said, I have seen a woman in Timnath of the daughters of the Phihstines : now therefore get her for me to wife. 3 Then his father and his mother said imto him, 7s there never a woman among the daughters of thy breth- ren, or among all my people, that thou goest to take a wife of the uncircumcised Philistines? And Samson said unto his father. Get her for me ; for she pleaseth mc well. 4 But his father and his mother knew not that it was of the Lord, that he sought an occasion against the Philistines : for at that time the Philistines had dominion over Israel. 5 ^ Then went Samson down, and his father and his mother to Timnath, and came to the vineyards of Tim- nath : and, behold, a young lion roared against him. 6 And the Spirit of the Lord came mightily upon him, and he rent him as he would have rent a kid, and he had nothing in his hand: but he told not his father or his mother what he had done. 7 And he went down and talked with the woman ; and she pleased Samson well. 8 If And after a time he returned to take her, and he turned aside to see the carcass of the lion : and, behold, there was a swarm of bees and honey in the carcass of the lion. 9 And he took th('r(Hif in his hands and went on eating, THE RIDDLE PROPOUNDED. 25 and came to his father and mother, and he gave them, and they did eat : but he told not them that he had taken the honey out of the carcass of the hon. 10 ^ So his father went down unto the woman: and Samson made there a feast ; for so used the young men to do. 1 1 And it came to pass, when they saw him, that they brought thirty companions to be with him. 12 ^ And Samson said unto them, I will now put forth a riddle unto you : if ye can certainly declare it me within the seven days of the feast, and find it out, then I will give you thirty sheets and thirty change of garments : 13 But if ye cannot declare it me, then shall ye give me thirty sheets and thirty change of garments. And they said unto him, Put forth thy riddle, that we may hear it. 14 And he said unto them. Out of the eater came forth meat, and out of the strong came forth sweetness. And they could not in three days expound the riddle. 15 And it came to pass on the seventh day, that they said unto Samson's wife, Entice thy husband that he may declare unto us the riddle, lest we burn thee and thy father's house with fire : have ye called us to take that we have? is it not so? 16 And Samson's wife wept before him, and said, Thou dost but hate me, and lovest me not; thou hast put forth a riddle unto the children of my people, and hast not told it me. And he said unto her, Behold, I have not told it my father nor my mother, and shall I telHVthee? 17 And she wept before him the seven days, wliile B 26 THE GIAXT JUDGE. their feast lasted: and it came to pass on the seventh day, that he told her, because she lay sore upon him: and she told the riddle to the children of her people. 18 And the men of the city said unto him on the seventh day before the sun went down, What is sweeter than honey? and whatis stronger than a lion? And he said unto them, If ye had not plowed with my heifer, ye had not found out my riddle. 19 1" And the Spirit of the Lord came upon him, and he went down to Ashkelon, and slew thirty men of them and took their spoil, and gave c^ ange of garments unto them which expounded the riddle. And his anger was kindled, and he went up to his father's house. 20 But Samson's wife was give?! to his companion, whom he had used as his friend. Judges, Chap. xv. — 1 But it came to pass within a while after, in the time of wheat harvest, that Samson visited his wife with a kid ; and he said, I will go in to my wife into the chamber. But her father would not suffer him to go in. 2 And her father said, I verily thought that thou hadst utterly hated her ; therefore I gave her to thy companion : is not her younger sister fairer than she? take her, I pray thee, instead of her. 3 H And Samson said concerning them. Now shall I be more blameless than the Philistines, though I do them a displeasure. 4 And Samson went and caught three hundred foxes, and took firebrands, and turned tail to tail, and put a firebrand in the midst between two tails. 5 And when he liad set the brands on fire, he let them go into the standing corn of the Philistines, and burnt SAMSON ON THE ROCK ETAM. 27 up both the shocks, and also the standing corn, mth the vineyards and ohves. 6 ^ Then the Phihstines said, Who hath done this? And they answered, Samson, the son in law of the Tim- nite, because he had taken his wife, and given her to his companion. And the Phihstines came up, and burnt her and her father with fire. 7 ^ And Samson said unto them. Though ye have done this, yet will I be avenged of you, and after that I will cease. 8 And he smote them hip and thigh with a great slaughter : and he went down and dwelt in the top of the rock Etam. 9 % Then the Philistines went up, and pitched in Judah, and spread themselves in Lehi. 10 And the men of Judah said. Why are ye come up against us? And they answered. To bind Samson are we come up, to do to him as he hath done to us. 11 Then three thousand men of Judah went to the top of the rock Etam, and said to Samson, Knowest thou not that the Phihstines are rulers over us ? what is this that thou hast done unto us? And he said unto them, As they did unto me, so have I done unto them. 12 And they said unto him. We are come down to bind thee, that we may deliver thee into the hand of the Philistines. And Samson said unto them, Swear unto me, that ye will not fall upon me yourselves. 13 And they spake unto him, saying. No; but we will bind thee fast, and deliver thee into their hand : but surely we will not kill thee. And they bound him with two new cords, and brought him up from the rock. 14 f And when he came unto Lehi, the Philistines 28 THE GIANT JUDGE. shouted against him : and the Spirit of the Lokd came mightily upon him, and the cords that were upon his arms became as flax that was burnt with fire, and his bands loosed from off his hands. 15 And he found a new jawbone of an ass, and put forth his hand and took it, and slew a thousand men therewith. 16 And Samson said, With the jawbone of an ass, heaps upon heaps, with the jaw of an ass have I slain a thousand men. 17 And it came to pass, when he had made an end of speaking, that he cast away the jawbone out of his hand, and called that place Ramath-lehi. 18 ^ And he was sore athirst, and called on the Lord and said. Thou hast given this great deliverance into the hand of thy servant : and now shall I die for tliirst, and fall into the hand of the uncircumcised ? 19 But God clave an hollow place that was in the jaw, and there came water thereout ; and when he had drunk, his spirit came again, and he revived : wherefore he called the name thereof En-hak-kore, which is in Lehi unto this day. 20 And he judged Israel in the days of the Philis- tines twenty years. Judges, Chapter xvi. — 1 Then went Samson to Gaza, and saw there an harlot, and went in unto her. 2 And it was told the Gazites, saying, Samson is come hither. And they compassed him in, and laid wait for him all night in the gate of the city, and were quiet all the night, saying, in the morning, when it is day, we shall kill liim. 3 And Samsom lay till midnight, and arose at mid- THE JUDGE IN DELILAH's TOILS. 29 night, and took the doors of the gate of the city, and the two posts, and went away with them, bar and all, and put them upon his shoulders, and carried them up to the top of an hill that is before Hebron. 4 ^ And it came to pass afterwards, that he loved a woman in the valley of Sorek, Avhose name was Delilah. 5 And the lords of the PhiUstines came up unto her, and said unto her. Entice him, and see wherein his great strength liethy and by what means we may prevail against him, that we may bind him to afHict him : and we will give thee every one of us eleven hundred pieces of silver. 6 ^ And Delilah said to Samson, Tell me, I pray thee, wherein thy great strength lieth, and wherewith thou mightest be bound to aflElict thee. 7 And Samson said unto her, If they bind me with seven green withes that were never dried, then shall I be weak, and be as another man. 8 Then the lords of the Philistines brought up to her seven green withes which had not been dried, and she bound liim with them. 9 Now there were men lying in wait, abiding with her in the chamber. And she said unto him, The Philis- tines he upon thee, Samson. And he brake the withes, as a thread of tow is broken when it toucheth the fire. So his strength was not known. 10 And Delilah said unto Samson, Behold, thou hast mocked mo, and told me lies : now tell me, I pray thee, wherewith thou mightest be bound. 11 And he said unto her, If they bind me fast with new ropes that never were occupied, then shall I be weak, and be as another man. 30 THE GIANT JUDGE. 12 Delilah therefore took new ropes, and bound him therewith, and said unto him, The Philistines he upon thee, Samson. And there were liers in wait abiding in the chamber. And he brake them from off his arms like a thread. 13 And Delilah said unto Samson, Hitherto thou hast mocked me, and told me lies : tell me wherewith thou mightest be bound. And he said unto her, If thou weavest the seven locks of my head with the web. 14 And she fastened it with the pin, and said unto him, The Philistines be upon thee, Samson. And he awaked out of his sleep, and went away with the pin of the beam, and with the web. 15 ^ And she said unto him. How canst thou say, I love thee, when thine heart is not with me ? thou hast mocked me these three times, and hast not told me wherein thy great strength lieth. 1 6 And it came to pass, when she pressed him daily with her words, and urged him, so that his soul was vexed unto death ; 17 That he told her all his heart, and said unto her. There hath not come a razor upon mine head ; for I have been a Nazarite unto God from my mother's womb : if I be shaven, then my strength will go from me, and I shall become weak, and be like any other man. 18 And when Delilah saw that he had told her all his heart, she sent and called for the lords of the Philis- tines, saying, come up this once, for he hath shewed me all his heart. Then the lords of the Philistines came up unto her, and brought money in their hand. 19 And she made him sleep upon her knees ; and she called for a man, and she caused him to shave off THE HERO JUDGE TAKEN. 31 the seven locks of his head ; and she began to afflict him, and his strength went from him. 20 And she said, The Philistines be upon thee, Sam- son. And he awoke out of his sleep, and said, I will go out as at other times before, and shake myself. And he wist not that the Lord was departed from him. 21 ^ But the Philistines took him and put out his eyes, and brought him down to Gaza, and bound him with fetters of brass ; and he did grind in the prison house. 22 Howbeit the hair of his head began to grow again after he was shaven. 23 Then the lords of the Philistines gathered them together for to offer a great sacrifice unto Dagon their god, and to rejoice ; for they said, Our god hath deliv- ered Samson our enemy into our hand. 24 And when the people saw him, they praised their god : for they said. Our god hath delivered into our hands our enemy, and the destroyer of our country, which slew many of us. 25 •And it came to pass, when their hearts were merry, that they said, Call for Samson, that he may make us sport. And they called for Samson out of the prison house ; and he made them sport : and they set him between the pillars. 26 And Samson said unto the lad that held him by the hand, Suffer me that I may feel the pillars where- upon the house standeth, that I may lean upon them. 27 Now the house was full of men and women ; and all the lords of the Philistines loere there ; and there were upon the roof about three thousand men and women, that beheld while Samson made sport. 32 THE GIANT JUDGE. 28 And Samson called unto the Lord, and said, O Lord God, remember me, I pray thee, and strengthen me, I pray thee, only this once, O God, that I may be at once avenged of the Philistines for my two eyes. 29 And Samson took hold of the two middle pillars upon which the house stood, and on which it was borne up, of the one with his right hand, and of the other with his left. 30 And Samson said, Let me die with the Philistines. And he bowed himself with all his might ; and the house fell upon the lords, and upon all the peojile that were therein. So the dead which he slew at his death were more than they which he slew in his life. 31 Then his brethren and all the house of his father came down, and took him and brought him up, and buried him between Zorah and Eshtaol in the burying-place of Manoah his father. And he judged Israel twenty years. " Living or d3'ing thou hast fulfill'd The work for which thou wast foretold To Israel, and now ly'st victorious in death conjoined With thy slaughter'd foes, in number more Than all thy life hath slain before." €\t perok |u%es im)i \\m Cimes. CHAPTER II THE HEROIC JUDGES AND THEIR TIMES. " Know ye the land where the cypress and myrtle, Are emblems of deeds that were done in their clime, Where the rage of the vulture, the love of the turtle, Now melt into sorrow, now madden to crime ?" Bride of Abydos. And what shall I more say ? for the time would fail me to tell of Gideon, and of Barak, and of Samson, and of Jephthah ; of David also, and Samuel, and of the prophets : Who through faith subdued kingdoms, wrought righteous- ness. * * * * ^n(j these all, having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise : God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect.— i/fi6r«f 5 xi, 32-40. As the Life and Exploits of Israel's Giant Judge are described in " the Book of Judges," and as he was himself one of the most remarkable of this extraordinary class of men, it may be well to say something of these heroic Judges and of their Times. Their history is an important link in Israel's ancient story. For though some of the facts here recorded seem not to have a direct religious interest, still as fragments of family and national history, they are exceedingly valuable. It was import- ant, at least until the Messiah should come, to preserve the distinctive tribal lines and history of the Hebrews. And even in our times, apparently unimportant facts recorded in the earlier books of the Bible have been of 36 THE GIANT JUDGE. great value in ethnology and philology, and for the gen- eral history of mankind. In the history of " The Judges," we have a striking picture of the disorder and dangers of a country without a well established government. In those days when the people had no " vision," that is, when they were without prophets to instruct them ; and when there was no gov- ernment, but " every one did that which was right in his own eyes :" — then, " the liighways were unoccupied, and the travellers walked through by-ways." There is no liberty, where there is no law. There is no pro- tection for property " throughout the purple land, where law secures not life." Hebrew for Judges is from the verb to jiidge, discern, command, rule, execute punishment. In the East judg- ing and ruling were generally connected. And sitting in judgment is still one of the principal duties of an oriental sovereign. The term Judges when used in the Bible in reference to those heroes that God raised up between the days of Joshua and David to be the saviors of their country is equivalent to Rulers. And this is the common use of the term, Judges, in the days of Samson, and up to the gift of a King. It appears from the life of Samuel, however, and also from Judges iv : 5, that these Judges (Shophetim) did sometimes act as Judges merely, and not as judges and executioners of their own sentences. The main idea then of these Judges, is not the literal one of a judge seated on a judicial bench, and i^ronouncing the sentence of the law in criminal cases. They were chief magistrates. The Judge for the time being was the head of the nation. Jehovah was the King; the government was a The- THE JUDGES AND THE SHEIKHS. 37 ocracy, and the Judges were his Lieutenant Generals, or his Deputies. According to Gesenius the name Siiffetes among the Carthagenians is of tlie same origin. The chiefs of the Tyrians, the Archons of Athens, and the Dictators of the Romans, were essentially the same in ofRce as the Hebrew Judges. The Arab Sheikhs cor- respond very nearly to them, except that they have not the Supernatural commission of the Israelite magistrates. The term Sheikh means an old man, hence a chief, a lord, a man of eminence. The Hebrew Zakayn signi- fies an 4)ld man, and also elders of Israel, chief men, magistrates, without reference to their age. The modern words Sig7iore, SeJior, Seigneur, derived from the Latin senior, are used in the same way.* The Elders of Israel were also their Sheikhs. The history and use of the modern Arabic name Hats, Has, for the master of a ship, illustrates the use of the appellation of elders and rulers. It is evidently from the Hebrew Rosh, head or chiefjjust as our Cap^amis from Oaj9z<#, the head. And in the same way, we find the Greek Presbuteros, Pres- byter, meaning an aged person and then one that held an office in the Synagogue and now holds one in the Christian church. The Judges of Israel were, however, neither heredi- tary, nor were they chosen by the people. They were in every case raised up on some extraordinary occasion to execute some divine judgment upon Israel's wicked oppressors, or to fulfill some specific mission. They kept no court, had no standing army, and received no pay. They had neither the pomp, nor the ceremony usually * See Gesenins on Heb. Zakayn . 38 THE GIANT JUDGE. attached to the head of a State. Nor had they the power to make any new laws, nor to change the old ones. Their mission was altogether a peculiar, a distinct- ive one. In the history of civil rulers they stand out in solitary prominence as Melchisedec does in the his- tory of the priesthood. Their only authority was to execute the laws, and effect such deliverance of the chosen people from their heathen oppressors as God himself should direct. Officially, they were without father or mother and without offspring. Tliey had no predecessors, and they left no successors. The government of the Judges continued about four hundred and fifty years. And if Samuel be considered as a prophet as well as a judge, and Eli a priest as well as a judge, we may consider Samson not only as the giant judge of Israel, but as the last of that peculiar order of governors. Samuel, it is true, judged Israel, but he did not begin to act as a judge till forty years of age, and during the greater part of that time, Saul was king. It is, therefore, with much propriety, that the " first book of Samuel is otherwise called the first book of Kings." The history of Samson occupies four out of the twenty chapters of the book of Judges, and is more fully written out than that of any of the others. His history is surprising even in an extraordinary age. In several particulars he was the most distinguished of the Hebrew Judges. And though never at the head of an army, nor on a throne, nor prime minister to any earthly potentate, it were difficult, perhaps impossible, to name another Hebrew that loved his country with more fervid devotion, or served it with a more hearty good will, or who was a greater terror to its enemies. His deeds and A GRAND EPIC. 39 his errors were Samsoman. I know not that there is anj biogi-aphy so completely characteristic, or more tragical than his. It is full of stirring incidents and most marvellous achievements. His whole life consists of a good beginning preannounced, and a relaj)se from early piety into a long, dark and terrible conflict, in which we find a mother's piety and a father's faith in battle array with constitutional and besetting sins ; but at last they prevail, and the sun that shone on him in his youth shines on him in his old age and gilds his dying exploits with terrible glory. He seems to us hke a vol- cano, continually struggling for an eruption. In him we have all the elements of an epic ; love, adventure, hero- ism, tragedy. Nor am I aware that any Bible character has lent to modern literature a greater amount of meta- phor and comparison than the story of Samson. The " Samson Agonistes " of Milton has been pronounced by the highest authority to be " one of the noblest dramas in the English language." It reminds us of the mystic touches and shadowy grandeur of Rembrandt, while Rembrandt himself and Rubens, Guido, David and Martin are indebted to the Hercules of the Judges for several of their immortal pieces. I am aware that some look upon Samson merely as a strong man, just as they do upon Solomon as a wise man ; but find nothing supernatural in either. They forget that it was the special inspiration of the Almighty that taught Solomon wisdom above all other men. They do not consider that the moving of the Spirit of Jehovah gave extraordinary strength to Samson for special pur- poses. It does not appear that his stature or limbs were of gigantic proportions. His strength, on the contrary, 40 THE GIANT JUDCrE. Avas " hung in his hair," the weakest part of his physical frame, to show that it was the special gift of God. It is, therefore, wholly in regard to liis strength, I have called him the Giant Judge of Israel. His peculiari- ties are not remarkable, because of any thing that we perceive foreign to fallen humanity in the kind or com- position of his passions and besetting sins, but in the fierceness and greatness of their strength. Saul, the son of Kish, was of the people and among them — ^he was of their flesh and bones ; — but he was a head and shoulders above them. It is just so with Samson. Ordinary men now have the same besetting sins — passions of the same character, but they are diminutive in comparison with him, and are without his supernatural strength. It must be confessed in the outset, that Samson's spiritual history is very skeleton like. We have only a few time worn fragments out of which to construct his inner man. Now and then, and sometimes after long and dreary intervals, and from out of heavy clouds and thick darkness, we catch a few rays of hope, and rejoice in some signs of a reviving conscience and of the presence of God's vSpirit. Possibly no part of the Bible has given occasion for more raillery than the book of Judges. And perhaps no name in that book has given point to more infidel jests than that of Samson. " His character is indeed dark and ahnost inexplicable. By none of the Judges of Israel did God work so many miracles, and yet by none were so many faults committed." As no Bible hero is so remarkable for strength, so none are so remarkable for weakness as Samson. His faults and passions were like himelf The Apostle, however, in Hebrews xi, settles the question as to his personal piety DR. bruce's analysis. 41 and salvation at last, by enrolling him in the list of heroes distinguished for faith and glorious deeds. But as an old writer has said, he must be looked upon as " rather a rough believer." A recent Scotch author (Rev. Dr. Bruce in his biography of Samson, a work very highly spoken of in his country) divides his Hfe into three periods. The first, his youth, when all was pros- perous and he was truly pious. This period extends to his marriage, when his second period begins, which is marked by liis fall, and is very dark. In which period, like David, he made sad shipwreck of the faith — " and strangely enough from the very same blinding and beguiling, and peculiarly brutalizing lust ; and yet like David also and some others, he escaped at the last as by a hair's breadth — the Lord forgiving his iniquity, wdiilst yet He took vengeance on his inventions." The third period, he denominates the period of his penitence, recovery and triumphant death. This period, the revival of his graces and gifts as a christian, begins with the growing of his hair in the prison. This author dwells chiefly upon Samson's history as an illustration of chris- tian experience. He endeavours to illustrate the con- tinual struggle between good and evil in the human soul, sometimes the one predominating, and then again the other, the evil drawing down its own punishment, and the good at last prevailing. He makes Samson a strik- ing instance of " the delivery of the body to satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit might be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus." Now it is undoubtedly true, that the strugglings of " this mighty and marvel- lous Israelite," with his wild passions and his better resolutions — his conflicts with most hurtful lusts and 42 THE GIANT JUDGE. convictions of duty, do well illustrate the Apostle's war- fare between the flesh and the spirit ; but, it may be fairly questioned whether this is the main design of his history, as it is given to us. According to Dr. Bruce, Samson was not so much a type of Christ as of the conscience of a believer quickened by his spirit, and contending for the mastery over those carnal passions which are well represented by the tyrant and treacher- ous Philistines. I like not to dwell on Samson as a type of Christ. We must at least guard against remov- ing him so far from us by reason of his uniqueness of character, as to forget that he was a man of like passions with ourselves. We must carefully discriminate in his life between what God moved him to do, and what his sinful passions moved him to. I fear a disposition to neglect the Old Testament characterizes our times. True indeed, most people in Christendom suppose them- selves well acquainted with the character of Samson. They at least know he is called the strongest man, and that he killed a lion, slept in Delilah's lap, and killed a great many Philistines at his death. This they may know, and yet not be able to form a true estimate of his character, or draw from his history those important lessons, which it teaches. Doubtless many have read Samson's history just as they do that of " the Scottish Chiefs," or of King Philip. They have found in Sam- son the wonderful deeds of a giant Ishmaelite, ever ready for a border fray, fiery and fierce, and of extra- ordinary strength, and nothing more. This were to lose very much of what the Holy Spirit certainly designed us to learn from this memoir. The Lord raised up this heroic Israelite for us. He threw into him a miraculous SAMSON THE ORIGINAL HERCULES. 43 composition of strength and energy of passion and called them forth in such a way as to make him our teacher. And besides being a hero, he was a believer — a chris- tian, a member of the Body of Christ, his church, which is his kingdom. God raised him up for our learning, and made him, as it were, " a mirror or molten looking glass," in which we may see some of our own leading features, truthfully portrayed, only on an enlarged scale. And if we differ from him, or from other great sinners, who but God hath made us to differ ? In all, if in any thing we are not as bad as others, it is not owing to ourselves, but to the sovereign grace of God. First. Our studies of the biography of Israel's Giant Judge, lead us to the conclusion that he is the original of the heathen Hercules. Many authors have written on heathen mythology, «and dwelt on the exploits of a demi-god, known by the name of Hercules. Every ancient nation seems to have thought it necessary to give themselves a remote origin, and to people the dim shadows of a fabulous antiquity with heroes and demi- gods as their progenitors. Every ancient nation had its own Hercules. Some authors speak o^ forty and some of sixty heroes or demi-gods of this name. In some writers of distinction, both ancient and modern, we find a labored comparison of the Greek Hercules, with the Hebrew Samson, and not always to the advantage of the latter. In some particulars, as in " the choice of Her- cules," as it is called, in which, he is represented to have preferred virtue to pleasure, the heathen demi-god is morally superior to the Hebrew. The difficulty of making such a comparison, lies chiefly in this, that in the one we have historic verities only as materials out of 44 THE GIANT JUDGE. whicli to construct our hero, while in the other, we have all the fruits of a warm, eclectic fancy, fabling out of all possibilities "the higher potentialities" of a demi-godship. The Tjrian or Phenician Hercules is, however, gener- ally admitted to be the oldest, and for the construction of this demi-god in Asia Minor, there is but little doubt the heathen used their traditions of the Hebrew Moses, Joshua and Samson. In those early days there was much more intercourse, — travehng and trading among the tribes of Asia and Africa, than is generally supposed. Saint Augustine expressly affirms, that the heathen nations forged their respective Hercules after the history of Samson became known, first in Egypt, then in Phe- nicia, and lastly in Greece. There is no proof of any fabulous Hercules before the time of Samson. The points of parallel between the' Hebrew Judge and the heathen Hercules may be summed up after the follow- ing order : 1. The name Samson signifies the sun. And accord- ing to Macrobius this is the meaning of the name Hercules. This is denied by some. 2. The birth and actions of both, or of all, are super- natural. 3. Samson begins his career by rending a lion as if he were a kid, and Hercules slew the terrible lion of the Nemean forest, and strangled enormous serpents, and perforaaed many other most wonderful exploits. 4. The heathen Hercules is also compared to Joshua in casting down stones from heaven, and in some other points. 5. The jaw-bone of Samson becomes a club in the hands of Hercules. HERCULES AND SAMSON'S DEATH. 45 6. The fable imitates fully the original as to the foun- tain of water in Lehi. When Hercules had slain the dragon that guarded the apples in the garden of the Hesperides he well nigh perished of thirst in the deserts of Libya, and to save him, we ai'e told, the gods made a spnng of water gush forth from a rock, which he struck with his foot. 7. The prevailing weakness of Hercules was precisely the besetting sin of our Israelitish judge. Both in the original and in the fable, an inordinate love for women leads both heroes into unexampled troubles and exploits, and finally to ruin. It will hardly be doubted but that Samson and DeUlah are the original of the story of Nisus, king of Megara and his daughter Scylla, who cut off the fatal purjjle lock upon which victory depended, and gave it to Minos his enemy, then at war with him, who by that means destroyed both him and his kingdom.* 8. And both died in a similar and extraordinary manner. The story of Hercules' death, as given by Herodotus, is to the following effect, namely: having fallen into the hands of the Egyptians, he was con- demned to die by being sacrificed to Jupiter. Accord- ingly he was adorned as a victim, and led with much pomp to the foot of the altar, where, after permitting himself to be conducted thus far, and stopping a moment to gather his strength, he fell upon and massacred all those who were assembled to be, either actors in, or spectators of this pompous sacrifice, to the number of many thousands. In the history of the Hercules of Herodotus there is *0vid, Met., lib. viii, fab. 1. 46 THE GIANT JUDGE. considerable confusion, if not some positive contradic- tions ; yet it seems to me, no one upon a candid and full comparison of the heathen Hercules with the Hebrew Samson, and remembering at the same time, the ac- knowledged source of the Greek stories, will fail to admit that the Hebrew is the original. This analogy is abridged from the books, and is a remarkable instance of how much the heathen have borrowed from the Bible, and of how they have corrupted and disfigured the orig- inal. The Greek history of Hercules exactly resembles all their other histories of their gods and heroes, which are a vast mass of fables, often incoherent, but accumu- lated on a skeleton or frame-work of truth. It is easy to see that they have united the Hebrew traditions of Joshua and Samson into one story, and added such inventions as suited their national vanity and mytho- logical ideas. Perhaps as good an embodiment of as much of heathen traditions on this point as is generally necessary, is more accessible in Dr. Clark's Commentary of Judges xvi, than any where else. Dr. Clark is not a safe expositor, but his learning and memory were pro- digious, and many of his pious, practical remarks, are excellent. Those who may wish to examine this curious subject for themselves should consult at least in addition to the ordinary works on Mythology, Faber on origin of Idolatry ; Prideaux's Connections ; Augustine's City of God ; Jaquelot on the existence of God ; Ovid's Meta- morphoses, book eighth, and book fourth Fasti ; Josephus' Antiquities ; Herodotus' Euterpe ; Varro and Cicero on the nature of the Gods ; Selden de Diis Syris, and Lavaur's Conference de la Fable avec I'Historie Sainte. Second. Let it be remembered in studying such a SAMSON A SINNER SAVED. 47 biography as this of the Giant Judge of Israel, that we should expect, and could not indeed have any other than one that records injfirmities and short comings, as well as virtues and heroic deeds. Samson was a man — a sinful man. His hfe and exploits are. recorded in an honest, truth-telling memoir. This point tomes up again in the next chapter in considering the design and method upon which the earlier Biblical memoirs were written. Third. It is not to be inferred then by any means, that in making mention of Samson, the Apostle approved of all that he did. Nor indeed of any of the other cham- pions of faith whom he names. All that he commends is his faith. All that he here speaks of is the faith of the ancients. It was not his purpose to give a full account of these worthies. He was not writing their history. He was not called upon in this connection to speak of their imperfections ; but to show that however great their faults may have been, they were remark- able for their confidence in God. By reciting this muster roll of the old champions of faith, the Apostle sought to awaken the courage of the Hebrew believers of his day by bidding them remember what faith had achieved for men and women hke them in ages past. Fourth. All these, the apostle says, ohtairied a good report through faith. That is, on account of theii' confi- dence in God. They were accepted of Him, and are commended by all the pious. The procuring cause of pardon and acceptance from the beginning, was the blood of the Lamb, slain from the foundation of the world. This they received by faith — not the reality, but the promise. They believed the promise as if it were ful- filled. They did not actually see its fulfillment, but 48 THE GIANT JUDGE. they did look forward in perfect confidence to its fulfill- ment, and consequently received the blessings promised as if the great promise had actually been fulfilled. Lives of great men all remind iis "We can make our lives sublime, And departing, leave behind us Footprints on the sand of time. Footprints that perhaps another. Sailing o'er life's solemn main, A forlorn and shipwrecked brother, Seeing, shall take heart again. Let us, then, be up and doing, With a heart for any fate ; Still achieving, still pui'suing. Learn to labor and to wait. Longfellow's Psalm of Life. Cl^t Bki^ n: |itl)cI;itioii Insptb. r CHAPTER III. THE STORY A REVELATION INSPIRED. " This book, — this glorious booli, on everj- line Marlied with the seal of high Divinity ; On every leaf bedewed with drops of love Divine." Holy men of Clod spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.— 2 Pet. i . All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrin , for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness; that the man of God— a christian man— may be perfect, thorou;4hly furnished unto all good works.— 2 Tim iii : 16, 17. It is not the purpose of this chapter to consider the evidences of Christianity in general, nor to offer proofs of the inspiration of God in tlie Bible. Our undertak- ing is a more limited one. In the previous chapters, we have a wonderful story of heroic times. And though it is remarkable even in a collection of marvellous rec- ords, still it belongs to a series of biographies that we are accustomed to look upon with great reverence. Li so far then as we may be able to explain in what sense the recorded story of the life and exploits of Israel's Giant Judge is a revelation from God, made m a supernatural way, and transferred to human language by an extraordinary or miraculous degree of inspiration, 52 THE GIANT JUDGE. we shall not only justify the reverence with which we are wont to treat this sacred story, but establish the claims of all the l>il)le biographies to a like respect. The story then, in hand, of the Hebrew Judge Hercules, is it an hispired record, and on what plan, and for what purpose were such Biblical memoirs written ? It is proper to consider these questions, since there are those who still assert that the Old Testament is either totally unconnected with the New, except by a mere chance, or that it has ceased to be of any importance. This asser- tion argues either ignorance, or a false conception of spiritual Christianity, or an inordinate zeal to support certain dogmatic views of religion. Still it is thrust upon us so often and with so much urgency, that it is well for us to consider the place of Bible biogra- phies, ESPECIALLY OF THE EARLIER TIMES, IN THE HISTORY OF MANKIND. Why should we then as christians study the Old Tes- tament ? I. In answering this question, it were perhaps enough to say, that the doctrines and i)recepts, principles and duties which are taught in and illustrated by the lives of Bible characters, are found to be the best manual in existence for developing and strengthening, refining, elevating and giving expansion to our mental faculties. There is nothing equal to the theology of the Bi])le to strengthen and pui'ify the human mind. The divinity of the Scottish Knox has given breadth and power to the Scottish mind. He gave Scotland her schools and an open Bible, and Scotland has well improved his gifts. It is " from scenes like these," so touchingly described in the Cotter's Saturday Night,—" Old Scotia's grandeur THE PABULUM OF SCOTLAND. 53 springs, that makes her loved at home, revered abroad." And the Cotter's Saturday Night reminds us that the late Mr. Hugh Miller, in one of his essays, which are his ablest productions, quotes with approbation, the remark of Gilbert Burns, brother of the j^oet, that " it was not from the parish school that the people of Scot- land derived their higher education, but from the parish pulpits. It was to their ministers, not to their school- masters, that the Scotch owed both their sober and their severe thinking." " Never," continues Mr. Miller, " was the strong common sense of Gilbert Burns, which was as much a gift of nature as the genius of his brother, more unequivocally manifested than in his remark on the real source whence the Scotch people had derived of old the tone of high moral sentiment by which they were char- acterized, and their severe semi-metaphysical cast of thinking. An earnest Calvinistic ministry had been their real teachers. AYe well remember a class of intel- ligent and thoughtful men, now nearly all passed away, who had received their only teaching from the church and from the Bible ; nor can we avoid regretting, when we think how much they formed the salt of the Scottish people, that the class should be so well nigh an extinct one. The pahulimi on which they fed and grew strong still survives, however ; and when we hear from the pul- pit, powerful and original thinking that awakens thought in others, while at the same time it ensures the diffusion of an element of earnestness, ^ve recognise in it the old teaching, which made the people of Scotland what they were when at their best." Yes, " the pabulum " still sur- vives and if we mistake not, the class so much admired by the geologist is by no means " an extinct one." There are 54 THE OIANT JUDGE. those, and not a few, in his country and in our own, Avho still adhere to " the old way of teaching " — who read and exjiound the word of God, and cause the people to understand its meaning. It is no doubt true that the influence the pulpit once had almost entirely to itself, is now shared with the Sab- bath school, the colporteur and the printing press ; still the " power of the pulpit " in preventing crime, and in promoting virtue and religion, is very great. Like the life-giving principle of the air, it is everywhere, and yet scarcely recognized. Doubtless there is much ineffici- ency in the pulpit, but is there none in the pews ? But few ministers of the gospel are as able and successful as they should be, but are the hearers of the word efficient doers ? The main business of the pulpit is to bring the Divine Word home to the conscience — into living con- tact with the mind and heart of the hearers. And if we are not greatly mistaken, the best way to do this, is " the old way of teaching," that is, of teaching the people as the prophets and a})Ostlcs and our blessed Lord himself taught them. Doctrines, jirecepts, promises, threaten- ings, commands and duties are taught in the scriptures by biographies, or memoirs and panibles. The chequered life of man is made to teach and illustrate what we are to believe and what Ave are to do, that Ave may inherit eternal life. The biographies of the Bible are living lessons. They are not perfect as pictures, but true to the life, giving the blemishes as Avell as the beauties. The Judges of Israel, and all the heroes that lived before and since Agamemnon are nothing to us, unless Ave recognise them to be men of like passions with ourselves — " our loftier brothers, but one in blood." To read or OUR LOFTIER BROTHERS. 55 preach of the thousands who have lived before us, " in the grey dawn of time," as if we were reciting some unmeaning hearsay story, is to fail altogether of a proper appreciation of the mind of the Spirit in causing the biographies of the Bible to be written. The Hebrew historians by one single touch, one little incident, chroni- cle the state of a man's mind or a period of his life, and expose at one view the naked anatomy of the human heart. There are no such biographical memoirs any- where else as we have in the Bible. As studies of the natural history of man's inner hfe, they challenge our highest attention. It is for us to draw warning and encouragement from the hves of holy men of old, who did battle for the right, both against themselves and the world, and who sometimes fell, and then, after many a struggle, rose again to the conflict, and after a life-long quarrel with sin and the enemies of God, gloriously triumphed. If we read their lives aright, as we work at the " flaming forge of life," we shall '' Know how sublime a thing it is To sutler and be strong." A studied depreciation of the scriptures of the Old Testament has ever marked the course of rationalism in the old world, and is one of the most unfavorable symptoms of the theological movements of our own country, especially of New England, under the lead of such men as Parker and Emerson. It is not enough to take out of them all true evangelism. The inspiration of the prophets is made nothing more than the inspiration of genius, such as is common to an artist, a poet or an orator. On the contrary, we hold that the scriptures are 56 THE GIANT JUDGE. of God in the highest sense of inspiration, and that they testify of Christ and of eternal hfe through Him. Some heretics in ancient times held that the Old Testament was the work of a secondary evil principle or deity, that was in perpetual warfare with the eternal fountain of good.* According to this view the Jewish system was to be regarded as essentially defective and positively evil — carnal and debasing. Consequently Christ came not to fulfill, but to destroy — and that in fact, the New Testament is something wholly new, different from and in contradiction to the Old Testament. On the other hand, some of the first converts from Judaism to Christi- anity, insisted on the continued obligations of the law of Moses, not only on converted Jews, but also on con- verted Gentiles. They insisted on circumcision as well as baptism — on obedience to Moses as well as to Christ in order to salvation. This error the great apostle who wrote the epistle to the Hebrews, has most happily cor- rected, and so corrected as to shoAv us the use of and the difference between the two dispensations. * Marcion and his followers rejected the Old Testament altogether. Schleier- macher and his school deny its inspiration. Some of them even go so far as to say that " an owl is as much inspired as Isaiah was." They all contend that there is no higher inspiration than "christian consciousness." Jt is ol)vious whither all this tends. The result is the same, whether we rely on man's "inner light," "religious sentiment," "religious intentions," "spiritual in- sight," or "christian consciousness." If these or any of them be supreme, then the writings of the prophets and apostles are no more inspired'than are the recorded views and feelings of r>un\an and Payson, or of christians gener- ally. And if so, we are without any infallible rule of faith and manners. What we have regarded as a revelation supematurally made is nothing better than the light of nature. Indeed, na/wra? awA revealed religion become to us one and the same. The English and the French deists of the last century were but lit- tle, if at all, further from the truth, than Newman and Parker, and the Neolo- gists of Germany in general. TOO 3IUCH ALLEGORIZING. 57 Spencer* and his followers rob the Old Testament of its Christianity, and not a few evangelical authors on the other side have betrayed an inclination to over estimate the perfection of the Mosaic dispensation. Some have found no types of Christ, no resurrection, no immortality ni the Old Testament ; others spiritualize almost every- thing in it. Both extremes are to be avoided. Ever since the days of Origen, the cause of truth has been more or less embarrassed by allegorical interpretations of scripture. The fault, in our judgment, of many evangeUcal writers is that they find types, where, oftentimes, we should be taught only by suggestion, or by way of accommodation. A too liberal or a too literal rule of interpretation may be alike erroneous. If the Protestant enhances the dis- tinction between the laAV and the gospel, the Romanist underrates it. And both have a theory to support, or dogmatical prepossessions to defend. The true view is, that the law is a schoolmaster to bring us to Christ, who fulfilled the lavf and the prophets, and by one offering of himself he hath perfected forever them that are sancti- fied. See Heb. x: 12-14. There are types as well as prophecies, in the Old Testament. But every incident or word of it is not so to be interpreted. The Mosaic economy was typical and preparatory to the gospel. But the mi7iutice of the tem- ple, the nails and badger's skins of the tabernacle, and '•See Spencer's works De Leg. Heb. pa^i.sra. In answer to him see Witsius on the Covenants, lib. iv, c. U, 12. Also Calvin's Institute, lib. ii, c. 10. Wliile it is certainly a great error to rob the Old Testament of its Christianity, it is an error of not less magnitude to despoil the distinctive doctrines of the is'ew Tes- tament by unduly presshig analogies and types out of the Old upon the New. C* 58 THE GIANT JUDGE. many such things, were not types. A brave man is compared to a lion, but it were ridiculous to press the analogy, and figure out his resemblance to a lion and find the counterpart of the lion's mane and claws. An indifference to revealed truth, if not to spiritual religion, lies at the bottom of this depreciation of the Old Testa- ment. For no book of the Bible is a mere dry statement of the past. They are all instinct Math Hfe. Even the list of hard names are of importance. Genealogical tables are of use in tracing out the promises and veri- fying their fulfillment. Our only sure guide is the written word of God. We are to listen to what God has said — what doctrines and duties he has taught in the lives of holy men and Avomen in olden times, not as recorded by fabulists, but as recorded by men moved to write by the Holy Spirit. The voice of all antiquity is not the voice of God. The voice of God comes to us with authority only as revealed by his holy pro^Dhets and by his own son, Jesus Christ and his apostles. He is then but poorly qualified to appreciate the gospel, or to teach it to others as a minister, or Sabbath school teacher, who is a stranger to the treasury of truth contained in the Old Testament. Nor are the narratives of the Old Tes- tament fit only to instruct adults. Tliey supply the best material for impressing on the mind of childhood the lessons of our holy religion. " Here niiiics oCkiioM Icdjro, luvo and j(jy Arc opv'ii to our siplit; The piirt'st gold Avitlumt alloy And gems divinely bright. The cninuils of rcdccminp; ain$0ii's ^mwh — C|c pwo Uromiscir. CHAPTER IV SAMSON'S PARENTS THE HEliO PROMISED. " O wherefore -nas my birtli from heaven foretold Twice by an angel ? . Why was my breeding order'd and prescrib'd As of a person separate to God, Design'd for great exploits ?" —Sainson. In a previous chapter I have considered at some length the plan, method and design of the biographies of the Scriptures, especially of the earlier ones, and have attempted to set forth briefly the true nature of the reve^ lation and inspiration of the Bil)le, which not only con- tains the word of God, but is the word of God itself. This has been deemed a necessary introduction to the inspired history which it is our purpose now to explain, because confessedly in our day, the question is, what does the Bible reveal ? As a book, as the book, and as a vol- ume of history it has its place in the world, from which its enemies have despaired of ever being able to remove it. The great question therefore now is, what does the Bible say ? — Can we arrive at a reliable interpretation of the Scriptures f Most certainly. We have a revelation from God, and an inspired record of that revelation. And this revelation and record are both made in such a way that we may know the will of God for our salva- 76 THE GIANT JUDGE. tion. As we believe with Bishop Horsley that e very- word of the Bible is from God, and every man is inter- ested in it, so it is our purpose in these chapters on the " Life of the Hebrew Hercules," to give a condensed commentary upon the text, and draw from it the life of our hero. We shall introduce to you therefore without further ceremony Samson's parents receiving the promise of the hero-child. What then was their political condition, and how were they circumstanced as to their neighbors ? And the children of Israel did evil again. That is, according to the Hebrew, added to commit evil, the evil of the idolatry of the surrounding heathen, which in their case was both treason and impiety. And the Lord deliv- ered them into the hand of the Philistines forti/ years. Here are three points to be noticed. 1. Who were the Philistines? 2. Li what sense did their oppression of Israel con- tinue forty years ? 3. What is the meaning of the phrase, " And the Lord delivered them into the hand of the Philistines ?" First. The Philistines are believed to have been a colony from Egypt. The old name Palestina is supposed to be a corruption of Philistia. If so, the whole land of promise derived one of the names by which it is desig- nated from a peoj^le who never possessed more than a small part of it. The name Palestina Avas first applied to the strip of country lying along the Mediterranean from Lydda to Gaza ; then to that part of Canaan between the sea and the Jordan, and finally to the whole country ; so that the land of promise, Judea, Canaan and Palestine became synonymous. PHILISTINE SUPERIORITY. 77 It is evident that the Philistines in the days of the judges, and probably in the days of the patriarchs also, were superior to any of their neighbors. They were certainly a powerful people in Abraham's day. This we should expect, if they were an Egyption colony, for the ancient Egyptians were altogether the most civilized and the best people of their day. Some suppose the Philis- tines were the Arabians expelled from Egypt, and known as " the Shepherd Kings," on account of whose depredations on Egypt, every shepherd was reckoned " an abomination." As a proof of their superiority, we may observe that it is said in Samuel iii : 19, 21, that in the beginning of Saul's reign no smith was found in Israel, so that the Israelites were obliged to go down to the land of the Philistines to sharpen their ploughshares, coulters, axes and mattocks.* Even after David's conquest, we read of the Philis- tines as a powerful people. They rose in rebellion against Jehoram, and made great slaughter in the land of Judah during the reign of Ahab. They were again brought into subjection by Hezekiah. The prophets Isaiah, Amos, Zephaniah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel allude to them. They were partially subdued by Esarhaddon, king of Assyria, and afterwards by the king of Egypt, and still more reduced by Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon. The Persians, and then the Greeks under Alexander the Great overran their country. Some allu- sion is made to them in the days of the Asmonean Princes, and then they are lost from history. ♦According to Virgil, the best tempered steel in early ages was from the iron works of the Chalybes. "At Clialybes nudi ferrum." Does not this want a commentator '? 78 THE GIANT JUDGE. According to the Greek translation of the Bible, the name Philistine is not Hebrew. They understood it to mean strangers, or men of another tribe. If this be correct, the name is singularly ap}3roi3riate to the holy land. It Avas emphatically promised to the pilgrim patriai-chs. From Amos ix : 7 and Jeremiah xlvii : 4, learned men think that the Caphtorim were descendants of Mizraim, father of the Egyptians. Gen. x : 13, 14. And from Deut. ii : 23, it appears, the Caphtorim drove out the Avim from Hazerim to Azzah, (that is, Gaza) and dwelt in their stead. If, as it .seems to us, the Casluhim, Caph- torim, Cherethites and Philistines ai-e one and the same peo}>le, then we sliould conchide that the Philistines were from Egy2)t, and that the most influential part of them came to the main land of Syria from Crete. As the Cherethites and the Cretans are the same, are we not authorized to identify Caphtor and Crete ? See Ezekiel XXV : 16 ; Zeph. ii : 5 ; 1 Sam. xxx : 14, 15. From the history of the kings of Judah, it ai)pears that their guards were sweied to the Capigis among the Turks. If Caphtor is not Crete, where is it ? If the Philistines were not from Egypt, whence came they? Does not their history lender their Egyptian origin very probable ? Some, indeed, think that Ca})htor was in the Delta. Dr. Clark believes it identical with Cyprus, but gives no satisfactory reason. If, as some think, Cas- luhim meant inhabitants of Colchis, then they were of Egyptian origin ; ibr almost ail authors agi-ee that Colchis was peopled from Egypt. '' And Pathrusim, and THE FORTY YEARS* OPPRESSION. 79 Casluhim, out of whom came Philistine and Caphtorim." Gen. x: 14. The government of the Phihstines was spasmodic and changeable. In the time of David and in the days of Abraham, they had a king ; but during the administra- tion of the Judges, they had a government very similar to that of the Hebrews. Their five great cities consti- tuted so many states, each having its own chief. These chiefs are in our text called lords. The term, seranim, is found only in the plural. Sometimes, however, they are found confederate together, making common cause against their national enemy. They were essentially one people. They had the same laws and rehgion, and spoke the same language. Secondly. It is probable the fortyyears date from the ascendancy of their enemies as recorded in the tenth chap- ter, verses six, seven, and eight. That is, from Eglon to Samson, including the twenty years of his administration. The case seems to stand in this way : the Philistines, who were the most powerful of all their enemies at that time, had tyrannized over the Israelites for twenty years, when Samson appeared as their deliverer. During this twenty years they had suffered oppression without any redress, or any one to deliver them. Samson arose and acted as their champion for twenty years, which make the forty years of the text. It must be confessed, how- ever, that the chronology and dates of this period are not very clearly stated. The connexion of the text is with the period occupied in the previous chapters. In the beginning of this thirteenth chapter, the writer seems to turn back, and speak again of the previous oppressions of his countrymen by the Philistines, in order to intro- 80 THE GIANT JUDGE. duce Samson as their champion. And hence, he says, that from the beginning of this particular ascendancy of the Philistines to the death of Samson when he finished his deliverance, for the Hebrews, it yvas, forty years. Thirdly. After Shamgar's exploits as recorded in a previous chapter, the Hebrews had a little repose. But now as they have again departed from the living God, so the Philistines are again commissioned to punish them. The Lord delivered them into the hand of the Philistines. The strug-gle between the Hebrews and Philistines was one of great obstinacy and vicissitude. It was a border war. Neither was able wholly to subdue the other. In the second chapter, fourteenth verse, the enemies of God's chosen people are called spoilers ; that is, rob- bers, such as were the plundering Canaanites. The term also means, oppressors in general. And to them it is said, the Lord sold the Israelites. The Hebrew for sold signifies " to alienate the possession of anything for a valuable consideration." It is sometimes used, however, without the annexed idea of an equivalent rendered. When, therefore, as in this passage : " the anger of the Lord was hot against Israel, and he sold them into the hands of their enemies around about them," the meaning is not that the Lord made the Israelites to sin, but that he withdrew from them his peculiar protection, and that he did this because of their rebeUion against him. The scriptures often represent the withdrawing of God's favor as the greatest calamity that can befall a nation or an individual. See Ps. xHv : 13; Isa. 1:1; Deut. xxxii : 30 ; and Judges iii : 8 ; and iv : 8. Moses had told them that when they Avere disobedient to the Lord, he would withdraw from them his peculiar presence, which GOD SOVEREIGN MAN FREE. 81 was their only safety. The delivery of the Hebrews, therefore, into the hands of the Philistines, was nothing but the fulfillment of the solemn threatening made to their fathers and repeated to themselves. It was but the execution of the just sentence of God, who was then their king, for their disobedience. And to secure this execution, it was only necessary for the divine protection to be withdrawn. When left to themselves they were an easy prey to the warlike heathen. The absence of the sun leaves us in darkness. God is not the author of sin, nor can men blame their Creator with their evil ways. Learned theologians have recourse to various intermediate explanations by which to reconcile divine sovereignty and man's free agency. But it is quite sufficient for me to know that God is sovereign and man is free. And though I were not able to perceive how God " sold " the Israelites into the hand of the Philis- tines, and that yet it was for their own sins, or how Pharaoh hardened his own heart, and that God hardened Pharaoh's heart ; yet still, I am persuaded of both facts, and hold them both to be consistent with ethical and mental philosophy. What if there be a transcendental difficulty in such a harmony ? Is there not just the same in every question that is any how connected with the origin of moral or physical evil ? It is doubtless true that God is sometimes represented in the Bible as doing what he only permits. And yet I am frank to say that I feel no necessity for, nor do I take pleasure in dwell- ing on such theological distinctions. I see not that these distinctions between a divine permission and a divine appointment, founded on the vis inerticB of created minds, which are as clay in the hands of the potter, are D* 82 THE GIANT JUDGE. reallv any relief. These metaphysical distinctions do not relieve human accountability from the difficulties that mental philosophy, or the light of nature throws upon it. The only explanation of the difficulty is the authority of God for the facts. Nor am I able to find such distinctions in the word of God. Wliere do the scriptures qualify or attempt to explain and harmonize the statements about Pharaoh's heart ? Why should our theologians be more jealous of the divine character than the wiiters of the Bible ? Wliere is our faith ? is not God just and is he not sovereign ? May we not rest satisfied with the facts stated by inspired men upon the authority of God ? Is it not true every Lord's day, that some of you listen to the divine word, and that hearing it with indifference, or with aversion, you refuse obedience, and thereby harden your own heart under the very process that was graciously designed to soften it ? And in dohig so, are you not still conscious of your oAvn free agency ? The offer of pardon is made to you in good faith. There is no deficiency in it. The sun that 7uelts one substance hardens another ; not because the sun is in any respect another and a different body to the one from what it is to the other. The ground of the different and diverse effect is in the nature of the body acted upon by the sun, and not owing to any change or defect in the orb of day. Salvation is fdways of the I>ord, and i>erdition is always the work of the sinnei-'s own hand. Tliere is nothing .between the greatest sinner and salvation, but his own unwillingness to accept of it as a free, sovereign gift through Jesus Christ as the only redeemer. St. Augustine expUiins tliis crvx criticorum, by saying Samson's father and mother. 83 " God does not harden men by infusing malice into them, but by not imparting mercy to them. God does not work this hardening of heart in man, but he may be said to harden him whom he does not soften, to blind him whom he does not enlighten, and to repel him, whom he refuses to call."* From the second verse, we learn that Samson's father belonged to the tribe of Dan, and the town of Zorah, which seems to have been a border town between the territories of Dan and Judah, and near the country of the PhiHstines. Joshua xv ; 33. Eusebius says Zorah was ten miles from Eleutheropolis. Calmet thinks the Zorites of 1 Chron. ii : 54, and the Zorathites of 1 Chron. iv : 2, belonged to Manoah's town. Barren and bare not is the usual Hebrew affirmation emphatic. " Thou shalt die and not live." " And he confessed and denied not." " But Sarai was barren : she had no child." All we know of Manoah impresses us with the belief, that Josephus is correct in saying that he was a man of great virtue, had but few equals, and was without dispute the principal person of his country in his day. His wife's name is not recorded in the Bible, nor by Josephus. He says, however, that she was celebrated for her beauty and her piety. Samson's father was a man of extraordinary faith. He is the only one of whom the Bible speaks, that received a promise from an angel or prophet without *Non obdurat Deus impartiendo malitiam,sed non impartiendo misericor- diam. Non operatur Deua in homine ipsam duritiam cordis, scd indurare eum dicitur quem mollire noluerit, sic eliani exctecare quem illuminare noluerit, et repellere eum qu«m noluerit vocare."— Epis. 194, ad Sixtum. 84 THE GIANT JUDGE. hesitation or doubt. Abraham required some proof. Sarah " laughed." The Shunamite woman said to Elisha, " Nay my Lord, do not he unto thine handmaid." Zachariah said, " Whereby shall I know this ?" and was struck dumb for his unbelief until John the Baptist was born. And Mary, the mother of our Lord, said, " How can this thing be ?" But when Manoah is told by his wife and then by the angel what is to take place, he believed without any hesitation, and only desired to be instructed as to how they were to bring up the promised child. And the angel of the Lord appeared unto the woman, and said unto her, behold now, thou art barren, and barest not : but thou shalt conceive, and bear a son, Noiv therefore, beware, I pray thee, and drink not wine, nor strong drink, and eat not any unclean thing. For, lo, thou shalt conceive, and bear a son : and no razor shall come on his head ; for the child shall be a Nazarite unto God from the womb ; and he shall begin to deliver Israel out of the hand of the Philistines. — Verses 3, 4, 5. And the angel of the Lord, that is, " the Son of God himself," according to Diodati and most evangelical com- mentators. Of this matter we shall speak again in the next chapter. The angel told the woman what she already well knew — what was indeed the cause of great grief to her — not to upbraid her or aggravate her grief. There is no reproach cast upon her in the angel's address. His purpose was to give her confidence — to convince her that he was a true prophet, and competent to make the promise of a son — and that she ought therefore to believe his words. Like a skillful medical man, he describes first the disease, that he may inspire his patient with TRUE RULE OF MIRACLES. 85 confidence in his sympathy for him and ability to apply the j)i'oper remedy. Our blessed Lord followed the same method in arresting the attention of the impotent man at the pool. He awakened him to the fact of his presence and assured him of his sympathy and inspired him with hope by asking him if he would be made lohole. And he told the woman of Samaria enough of her life to convince her he was a prophet, and prepared her at last to confess that he was the Messiah himself. The prohibition in the fourth verse does not imply that she had been guilty of excess. Nor is it intimated that such things were not lawful at other times and to other persons. It is true some meats were regarded as unclean among the Jews. The distinction of clean and unclean animals is at least as old as Noah, and no doubt as old as sacrifices. But it was especially forbidden to a Nazarite to touch anything unclean. The angel would have her understand that the sanctifying of her child was to begin with herself From her conception, the child was to be regarded as consecrated in an especial manner to God. And if during her gestation and nurs- ing, she was thus abstemious, the extraordinary strength of the child would be the less liable to be ascribed to any false or fictitious cause. There was a natural fitness in the prescribed regimen and temperament to produce a healthful child, but his superhuman strength cannot be accounted for from merely natural causes. A miracu- lous agency was employed, as we shall see in the unfoldings of his history ; yet it was then as in many other cases, the divine rule, that the ordinary natural means should be used. Miracles do not supersede, but go beyond and above ordinary agencies. There is 86 THE GIANT JUDGE. always a harmony between divine efficiency and human agency. A Nazarite unto God from the womb, means one set apart and consecrated especially to the service of God. There is no connection between a Nazarite and a Naza- rene. The latter means an inhabitant of Nazareth, the town of our Lord's parents. But a Nazarite was one wholly devoted to God. And of such it was especially required, that they should not shave their head. The law of the Nazarite can be found in Numbers vi. Though expected to be a person of uncommon self denial and sanctity, the Nazarite was not a recluse, nor an ascetic. He did not live in a cell, nor on a pillar, nor in the wil- derness. He might eat, drink, marry and live in society as other men, excepting that he was to avoid all ceremo- nial pollution, and especially never to come in contact with a dead body. The vow to abstain from wine and not to shave the head might be for a limited time or for life. In the case of vSamson, of Samuel and of John the Baptist, however, the consecration was made before their birth and was to continue till death. I believe Samson is the first person mentioned in the Bible by name as an actual Nazarite. Like Isaac, Samuel and John the Baptist, he was the only son of a mother long childless. " Mercies long waited for, often prove signal mercies, and it is made to appear they were worth waiting for, and by them others may be encouraged to continue their hope in God's mercy." — Henry. The mother of Israel's only giant drinks nothing but water, and the child himself tastes nothing but " Adam's ale." " And never did wine," says the pious Hall " make TEMPERANCE IS STRENGTH. 87 SO strong a champion as Avater did here. The power of nourishment is not in the creatures, but in their maker. Daniel and his three companions kept their complexion with the same diet wherewith Samson got his strength ; he that gave power to the grape, can give it to the stream. O God how, how justly do we raise our eyes from our tables unto thee, which canst make Avater nourish and wine enfeeble." Oh ! madness to think use of strongest wines And strongest drinks our cliief support of health, When God with tliese forbidd'n made clioice to rear His mighty champion, strong above compare, Whose drink was only from the liquid brook." Special holiness eminently becomes special appoint- ments to divine service. Special care in food and drink was required of her who was to be the mother of Sam- son. The man of the world may take his full scope and deny himself nothing. And verily he hath his reward. He may indulge the pride of his heart and the lust of his eyes, not Avithout sin indeed, but Avith less guilt than one Avho professes to be a christian. For having named the name of Christ, Ave must be careiul to depart from all iniquity. If Ave are Christ's Ave must have his spirit. If christians, Ave are consecrated to God as true Nazarites. The man of the Avorld has all his good things noAv, and it is a miserable, poor portion. The believer's good things are to come. They are in Heav^en. And he shall begin to deliver Israel. Samson only began to deliver Israel, for it Avas not till the days of David, that the Philistines Avere entirely subdued. Begin to deliver seems here to mean, some deliverance — pledges, specimens of what their God was able to do for them, 88 THE GIANT JUDGE. and proofs that although they had been so grievously- oppressed by the Amorites on their eastern border, and now by the Philistines on the west, still he had not wholly forsaken them. The deliverance begun by Sam- son was most timely. This was the darkest hour of their oppression. Their condition was most humiliating and their enemies most insultingly cruel. It was God's time for Moses to come, when the tail of bricks was doubled. " Cum latera duplicantur Moses adest." Begin to deliver also suggests that God's usual method is to work gradu- ally. He has ordered that one shall soav, and another reap. One lays the foundation, another brings forth the capstone with shoutings, crying grace, grace unto it. Samson was the first hero of the tribe of Dan. Jacob in his dying blessing had said : " Dan shall be a serpent by the way, an adder in the path, biting the heels of the horse, so that his rider shall fall backwards." Gen. xlix : 1(5, 17. And as the name Dan signifies judge or judg- ment, it has been suggested, that it was a divine foretell- ing of Samson, that Jacob uttered in dying, when he said, Dan shall judge his people. That is, of this tribe sliall arise a distinguished judge. And this could be no other that Samson. The prophecy related to the fortunes and exploits of Dan's posterity, and not to himself per- sonally, and was fulfilled more remarkably in Manoah's son, than in any other man of his tribe. As the terri- tory of Dan bordered on the cities of the Philistines, it was natural for them to be the most exposed to their depredations. It was therefore })roper that the avenger and deliverer of Israel should arise out of this tribe. We see also that afflictions are occasions for God's appearance. Divine help is always opportunely. The SONS OF GREAT MEN. 89 promise is that grace sliall be given to us not before, but according to our day. Only the sick really know the blessings of recovery to health. If Manoah's wife had not been in grief, the angel had not been sent to comfort her. It has been happily remarked that in the Bible angels and prophets were often sent with glad tidings to women that were Avithout children, and in much sorrow on that account. And it has been asked why was this, and why were the sons thus promised so distinguished, since but few great men have sons equal to themselves ? There is an answer to all the points of this inquiry with- out impeaching either the justice or goodness of God. The inferiority of the sons of great men may be owing to the weakness of the mother, or to the neglect of their early training. It is well known that some distinguished men have married women not at all their equals, nor fit to be their companions. And it is quite as well known, that great men are so occupied with public cares or so diligently employed in the pursuit of knowledge, that their own children are often neglected. The mahi point in hand here, however, is the illustration that God's gra- cious deliverances are always opportunely sent. I am aware that various conjectures have been made to satisfy the rather over curious, if not profane infidel question — Why did the angel appear to the wife rather than to the husband ? No reason is stated. Nor do I see that we are under any obligations to vindicate our narrative for this omission. The fact of the angel's appearance is recorded. But we do not know whether he was sent to the woman-wife, because it was her reproach rather than her husband's that she was not fruitful — or whether it was because she was to endure the pain of parturition ; 90 THE GIANT JUDGE. or because she took the matter more to heart than her husband did. If we must find a reason, the last is most to our mind. For it is always true, that God's mercies are well-timed and properly directed. The history of the pious proves conclusively, that if Satan ply his heavy batteries upon the weakest, God does not fail to address consolation to those that are most in need. The promises of God are like a certain kind of bridge ; the more heavy the pressure upon them, the stronger they are. The believer is fortified abundantly with exceeding great and precious promises. Eve was the most dejected ; to her therefore was the promise especially addressed. It is not said, Adam's seed ; but the seed of the woman shall bruise the serpent's head. Manoah's wife is the most troubled, to her therefore is the divine messenger sent ; and sent to her^rs^, because the announcement to a bar- ren woman of the birth of a distinguished son, would impress her and her husband and countrymen with the idea that such a son was from the Lord, and designed by him to be a special blessing. All children are divine gifts. They are God's heritage. They come only at his bidding. But when some sj^ecial mission was designed, it was proper to give distinction to the appointment. Secondly. A son given under such solemn promises and instruction would be better taken care of. A gift thus made would be more highly valued. The education of children is a fearful responsibility. And even the best mothers need divine help and admonitions. In the East it is still considered a disgrace and a mark of divine displeasure, to have a childless house. Among the ancient Hebrews the desire for children was rendered even more intense than among other nations, because of THE GOOD WIFE. 91 the promises. Every Hebrew wife seems to have hoped she would be the mother of the jNlessiah, or at least of his progenitor. Vows and prayers and expensive cere- monies were resorted to as a means of prevailing upon God to give them children. And to this day, in the schools of the East, boys may be seen with elf locks, which are memorials of vows to God for favor granted in their gift. See verses six, seven and eight. Man of God, that is, a holy prophet. Very terrible, that is, accord- ing to Diodati, " majestical, glorious and sparkling with light." The woman seems to say, his countenance was so like that of an angel of God — so commanding, so awful, and inspired me with such awe, that I feared to ask him any questions. " Samson had not a better mother than Manoah had a wife." As a good wife, she at once told her husband of God's messenger. And Manoah at once apphes at head-quarters. He goes immediately to prayer, saying, " O my Lord, I pray thee, let that man of God my wife speaks of come again, and tell us fully how we are to bring up the child." He had not seen God's messenger. He has yet but a meagre account of the interview ; but his faith takes hold of the promise, nothing doubting. Josephus thinks, but without authority, that Manoah's mind was disturbed by what his wife had said of the man of God, and that he wished to have some further knowledge of this strange visitor. There is not a sylla- ble, however, to warrant any such jealous suspicion. On the contrary, his desire was to obtain information as to the bringing up of the child. His wife in all things seems to have been dutiful, confiding and affectionate. She reports at once, as a good wife should have done, 92 THE GIANT JUDGE. the angelic message to lier husband — doubtless because she wished him to share in the joy of such a promise, and desired his help to keep all the admonitions given to her. She seems to have been so overjoyed at the announcement that she was to have a son, that she ran away from the man of God, hastening home from the field, without asking him how she was to bring up a child to whom so important a mission was committed. And surely Manoah's solicitude to have more full instruction from the angel was well. For the care of children is a very great concern. Happy would it be for us as a people, if all our parents, like this pious Danite, oftener prayed : " Teach me what we shall do to the child that shall be born to us." From Manoah and his wife let us learn the duty and privilege of dedicating our little 07ies to God. He has a property in us and our households that cannot be destroyed. Nor does he ever relinquish or alienate his rights to our children. It is therefore our duty to acknowledge him in our families, and to dedicate to him the children he has given us. This dedication is a solemn covenant, as well as a sacrament. In it God says to us : Take these little ones and bring them up for me, and 1 will give thee thy wages. And we answer, Lord, we dedicate them to thee, imploring thy blessing to rest uf)on them. I. The care of chiklren should begin before they are born — even before they are conceived. A celebrated ])hysician says : " The first duty parents OAve to their cliildren is, to convey health and strength, a good con- stitution of body and mind to them, as far as it is in their power ; by a proper care of their own health, and CARE FOR CHILDREN BEFORE BIRTH. 93 a conscientious abstinence from vice and excess of every kind." The ancient Romans were extremely careful as to the health and condition of mothers. If ignorance as to the effect of a mother's health and state of mind on the constitution of her child could ever be plead as an excuse for entaihng a host of ailments upon her pps- terity, it surely cannot now be offered ; for by means of the press and of public lecturing, the whole subject has been popularized — perhaps too much so. At least, igno- rance is no longer an excuse. And if the laws of nature on this subject are well understood in their application to the lower animals, why should they be neglected or despised in man ? Health of mind and body should be a prerequisite of marriage. And the most enlightened attention should be bestowed on women during their child-bearing. This subject deserves the most serious consideration from patriots, philanthropists and chris- tians. The civil, intellectual and moral well-being of our nation is and will be greatly affected by a proper regard to it. It is not a matter of doubt, or a point yet to be discussed. It is already demonstrated that many diseases, tempers, dispositions and habits are hereditary. " Many of the ill habits of body that children bring into the world with them are owing to the irregularities of their mothers ; (and of their fathers) and most of the diseases of which so many young children die, arise from a bad mass of blood communicated to them." " Women with child ought conscientiously to avoid what- ever they have reason to think will be any way preju- dicial to the health or good constitution of the fruit of their life." — Henry. II. The proper idea of educating children is to fit 94 THE GIANT JUDGE. them for the duties of life and the realities of a fast- coming eternity. To do this they must be trained. Training combines, first, both instruction and govern- ment. Its field is both the mind and the body. It reduces to life the precepts which are to regulate them when they are grown. To train a child properly, is to form it again into the image in which man was created. It is to recover it from the ruins of the fall. This can- not be done at once. But it can be begun, and the completion will follow in heaven. To train a child requires patience, faith, courage, perseverance and divine assistance. Secondly. To bring up a child in " the nurture and admonition of the Lord," instruction and example are essefitial. It is the nature of a child to imitate what is around it. The influence of example is as certain as the action of the air upon its body. Influences educate the child long before it is large enough to be sent from home to school. It is in the unwritten, unspoken teach- ings of HOME in our tenderest years that our destiny has its beginnings. Every word, tone, look, frown, smile and tear, witnessed in childhood, performs its part in training the infant for eternity. Instruction should begin early, but let it be oral, and consist chiefly of a few moral precepts, Bible stories and chaste fables. A great error in our times is the pressing of the infantile mind ; cramming the memory with what the child does not understand, and at the same time so conferring and cramming it as to prevent the proper physical develop- ment, and impair the reasoning faculties. Another of the alaiTning evils of our day is the circulation of de- moralizing publications. Earnest warning and entrea- DANGERS OF BAD BOOKS. 95 ties on this subject have often fallen from this pulpit. But the warning cannot be too often repeated. The influence of immoral prints and books is calculated more than anything else to corrupt the morals and enfeeble the intellects of the juvenile portion of our country. To circulate such publications is a serious oifense against God and man ; and yet I greatly fear it is a growing evil ; nor do I see any corrective so available, so poten- tial and so practicable, as family government and in- struction. Let the home be for amusement, plea- sure, KNOWLEDGE AND RELIGION AS ATTRACTIVE AS POSSIBLE. Thirdly. In the bringing up of childi*en, prayer, deep, earnest, believing prayer is essential. The preservation of children is a constant miracle. After all our sohcitude and pains-taking, and watching and heart bleeding, we have to trust them to God. We are shut up to wrestling with God, as the last resort saying, peradventure they may live, or as Abraham himself, that Ishmael might live. Parental solicitude is not only justified, but expressly enjoined in God's word. The apostle speaks of it, as a great commendation of Timothy and of his mother and grandmother, that from his infancy he had been made acquainted with the Scriptures, which were able to make him wise unto salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. Train up a child, says Solomon, in the way in which he should go, and when he is old, he will not depart from it. He is not prepared to discharge his duties to himself, his country and his God, as a parent, who does not see and feel that the art of education is both the most impor- tant and difficult in the world. It has been so considered 96 THE GIANT JUDGE. by many of the greatest men that have ever lived. Many of the greatest minds and largest hearts have spent their wisdom and strength in advancing the education of man- kind in morals and religion. Fourthly. By Manoah's example, we are taught where to obtain aid and direction in bringing up our children. As soon as he is informed that he is to have a son, he falls to praying that he may know how to order the child — to know what he should do unto him. Verses eight and twelve. " When I see the strength of Manoah's faith, I marvel not that he had a Samson to his son ; he saw not the messenger, he heard not the errand, he exam- ined not the circumstances ; yet now he takes thought, not whether he should have a son, but how he shall order the son which he must have." — Hall. It is true that we are eminently blessed with elemen- tary school books, and the schools of our country, espec- ially for young children and the acquirementof a practical education, are not surpassed by those of any other nation. But it deserves to be always kept in mind, that in educa- ting there is no book that can take the place of the word of God, and no means that can be made a substitute for prayer. It is the great business of a parent to secure a sound mind in a sound body for his child, and then to baptize him day by day with heavenly influences in answer to prayer. And surely it is of such children we may hope, as patriots and as followers of Christ, that they will be deliverers of Israel. The age of miracles is past. We have no right to expect angels to tell us what to do unto our children. We have a more sure word of prophecy (instruction). The divine word is ever speaking to us, saying this is the way, walk ye in ENCOURAGEMENT TO PRAT. 97 it. Conscience, enlightened by the divine word and spirit, is also constantly teaching us the way in which we should go. The Bible direction is to acknowledge God in all our ways and he will direct our steps. Manoah's mind was aroused by his wife's tidings ; and his faith was at once strong ; and being all the more encouraged by the favors already given, he prayed to God to teach him more fully what he was to do. And though secret things belong to God, revealed things belong to us and to our children. And whenever the soul bows down before the Father of spirits earnestly seeking to know his will, in some way or other, he will teach us his paths Psalm XXV : 8. ' Tlius at the flaming forge of life Our fortunes must be wrought, Thus on its sounding anvil shaped Each burning deed and thought. Itsiis Cljrist in tlje itljMpjiaraes. CHAPTER V JESUS cnrasT m the theophakies of the old testament. *' Appeared before mine eyes A man of God : his haljit and his guise Were sucli as holy prophets used to wear; But in his dreadful looks there did appear Something that made me tremble ; in his eye Mildness was mixt with a'O'ful majesty." QuarJes' Samson. Testamentum Vetus de Christo exhibcndo, Novum deCIiristo exhibito agit: Xovum in veteri latet, Vetus in novo patet. — Augustine. " Scriptura omnis in duo Testamenta divisa est ♦ * Judfei Veteri utuntur, nos Novo : sed tamen diversa non sunt, quia Xovum Veteris adim- pletio est, et in utroque idem Testator est Christus." Lactantius, Div. Inst, iv: 20. In verses eight and twenty-one, inclusive, of the thir- teenth chapter, we have a more detailed account of the appearance of the angel of the Loud, than is to be found in any other part of the Bible. For this reason as well as on account of the great intrinsic merit of the sub- ject, the narrative of Samson is suspended till the next chapter. Angel is rather a term of office than of nature. This term is used in the Bible to denote a messenger both human and spiritual, and also impersonal agents, as winds, fires, remarkable dispensations, &c. It seems to 102 THE GIANT JUDGE. denote any vehicle or medium by which the Creator made known his presence or executed his will. There are evil as well as good angels, and sometimes it is thought, angel of the Lokd means a personification of divine judgments. (See Bush's notes on Gen. xvi : 7 ; xxiv : 7 ; and Ex. iii : 2.) The most frequent applica- tion of this term is undoubtedly to the special manifesta- tion of the Lord to the patriarchs and prophets. The Shekinah is called the angel of the Lord. Ex. xiv : 19. But in all such visible symbols of the divine glory, Jehovah himself, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the very same that appeared in the bush, and by whose good will Joseph was preserved, is to be considered as present. " The angel of the Lord" is literally the Angel-Jehovah, or Jehovah, the Sent One, and is none other than God manifest, the Lord Jesus Christ. In the Bible, God the Father is never spoken of as sent, but the Messiah is so represented in the Old Testament, and Christ is so spoken of in the New Testament, and actually claims himself to have come from and to be sent by the Father. In finding therefore that the angel of the Lord is Jehovah, God, the Lord himself, we shall establish our proposition ; that in the Theophanies of the Old Testament we have Jesus Christ manifested as God. And the angel of the Lord came again, (verse nine). This is the same angel that appeared first to the woman, and the same that appeared to Abraham, Lot, Moses Joshua, Gideon and others, and is the Messiah-Christ. In the eighteenth verse, " the angel of the Lord said unto him, AVhy askcst thou thus after my name, seeing it is secret." Here the Hebrew word for secret is the THE ANGEL OF THE PATRIARCHS. 103 same that Isaiah uses for wonderful. Isa. ix : 6. " And his name shall be called wonderful." Hence it is concluded, that the true meaning of the clause, seeing it is secret, is, it is wonderful. The angel then means to say that, his name Wonderful, signified that he was the promised Messiah. In Genesis xxii : 11, the same appellation is used. " And the angel of the Lord called unto him out of heaven, and said, Abraham, Abraham," and yet in the jfirst verse of the same chapter it is said that it was God who tempted Abraham, and commanded him to sacrifice his son. See also verses fourteen, fifteen, sixteen, which clearly identify the angel of Jehovah and God as one and the same. And in Gen. xxiv : 7, the angel of the Lord is identified with God himself. The same thing is clear from Ex. iii : 2, 6, 10, 14; Numb, xx : 22; Judges ii: 5; and vi : 11-40; 2 Samuel xxiv: 16; 2 Kings xix : 35 ; 1 Chron. xxi : 12. Now these Scriptures taken together prove in the first place, that Hagar, Abraham and Moses, believed God to be invisible, and yet that they had certain direct com- munications from him. There was either a shape or voice, or both — or some representation of God made to them visibly — some divine manifestation that came in some way within the reach of their senses ; and this representation was called the " Angel of Jehovah," " the angel of his presence," and was identified with Jehovah himself — received the worship and acknowledged the attributes and performed the same works which the Scriptures ascribe to God. The invisibility as Avell as the spirituality of the supreme being is explicitly taught in the Bible — in both 104 THE GIANT JUDGE. the Old and the New Testaments. See Ex. xxxiii : 20 ; Jobix: 11; John i : 18, and verse thirty-seven; Rev. i : 20 ; Col. i : 15 ; Heb. xi : 27 ; I Tim. vi : 16. And yet according to numerous texts of Scripture, God has been pleased at various times and in different places, to put himself in communication with mankind. He has caused his voice to be heard and his shape to be seen. In Gen. xvi : 7, we have the first distinct divine mani- festation revealed by name. Here the epithet is the one so often used in the Old Testament — angel of the IjOUD. And it is evident from the text that Hagar understood the angel of Jehovah to be Jehovah himself. For she called the name of the Jehovah that spake unto her, thou God of visibility.* These manifestations of God were made in a way suitable to the senses and capacities of man. The divine glory was of necessity veiled. And hence the manifestation was called " the angel of God's presence." That is, his messenger. So much of God- head was manifested as the creature could bear. And by this method of revealing himelf, it pleased God to keep open a communication with our race, until the full-. ness of time came, Avhen he actually manifested himself in the flesh. By these divine ai)})earances the faith of mankind was kej)t alive, that in due time the jiromise should be fulfilled, and the Word should become flesh, and the seed of the woman bruise the serpent's head. And in the second place, the appellation " angel of the Loud," therefore, in the Old Testament is to be under- ♦Boothroyd, Lo Clcrc, Houliiirant, ]Michaelis, say this is the true reading of the passage. In their opinion also, the name of the "Nvell is " tlie well of the invisible God." The Targuni of Jonathan, tlio Greek, Arabic, Chaldee and Syriac have it thus. THE ANGEL IS THE MESSIAH. 105 stood as meaning the Messiah. Such divine appearances were manifestly pledges of God's continued good will to men. They were evidences of his repeated gracious interj)ositions. They were types of the coming incarna- tion. In the form of " a man of God," or of an angel, it was Jesus Christ, that appeared to the patriarchs, as a pledge of his future coming into the world as the long promised Messiah. The angel that redeemed Jacob from all evil, he represents as identical with the God before whom his fathers had walked, and who had fed him all his life long. And he also makes his vows to this angel as the God of Bethel and the same who spoke to him in Padan-aram. And Hosea speaking of this angel of Jacob, identifies him with Jehovah. See Gen. xlviii : 15, 16 ; andxxxi : 11-13. Jacob's language is remark- able : " The angel which redeemed me from all evil,'* by which he does not mean a creature, — does not mean another and a different being from the God of his fathers, but an expletive of the name God. Is it scriptural usage then for God to be called by the name. Angel ? In Jacob's earlier life, we have an instance. He wrestled with an angel at the ford Jabbok till the breaking of day, and yet he says speaking of this angel at Peniel, " I have seen God face to face." In the divine revelation to Abraham of the doom of the cities of the plain, Jehovah himself, or God the Son, is clearly to be recognized in one of the angels. In the third chapter of Exodus, we have one of the most illustrious recorded appearances of the angel of the Lord to be found in the Bible. Here the angel of the Lord and God, and Jehovah are inter- changeable. In the second verse he who is called the angel of the Lord (Jehovah) aj)pears in the bush, and E* lOG THE GIANT JUDGE. in the fourth verse he is called Lord (Jehovah) and God. And in the sixth verse, the same Angel-Jeho- vah who ap})ears in the bush and is called Lord and God, speaking of himself says : " I am the God of thy father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. And Moses hid his fiice ; for he was afraid to look upon God." And in verses eleven and twelve, Moses said unto God, addressing the angel of the Lord, of the first verse, who was in the bush, and in the fourteenth verse — " God said unto Moses, I am that I AM ; and he said. Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I aji hath sent me unto you." And in the next verse repeats that he is the Lord God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Through- out the whole narrative and dialogue of Moses' call and inauguration into office as deliverer of Israel, the angel of the Lord is Jehovah, and in this appearance of the Lord God, we recognize no other personage than the angel of the Covenant, the angel of Jehovah's presence, who is Messiah-Christ. The An gel- Jehovah, who dwelt in the glory-cloud, and who pledged himself to conduct the Hebrews to the land of promise, the apostle tells us expressly was Christ. 1 Cor. x : 9. We have seen that the angel professes in the eighteenth verse that his name is the same, that Ave find Isaiah applying to the Messiah in ix : 6. And again in Isa. xlii : I'J, the same term — angel — that is used in the text is given to the Messiah, who is also called the Angel of the Covenant. See Mai. iii : 1 ; Matt, xii: 18-21. Compare also Isa. Ix: 1; Ileb. ii: U; and Isa. xl : 3. There is a gradual development of truth as taught in the Bible. The existence of God is assumed. His GOD INVISIBLE REVEALED. 107 unity and spirituality are then taught. His invisibiUty and yet palpable manifestations are asserted. Repeated proofs are given that Jehovah was not the mere tutelar God of the Hebrews. This was one of the great truths demonstrated by the awful controversy between Moses and Pharoah, which was indeed a conflict between Jeho- vah's prime minister and the gods of Egypt. No inteUi- gent and attentive reader of the Bible can fail to discern that a distinction is made between Jehovah as invisible and Jehovah as manifested to men. In many jjarts of the Old Testament we find an exalted being, introduced as "the angel, servant, or messenger of Jehovah," who speaks of himself as distinct from the invisible and eter- nal Jehovah, and yet assumes to himself the honors, attributes and works of Jehovah, and suffers himself to be addressed as God. Now how are we to understand these passages in which "the angel of God" is thus introduced ? 1. Herder (Geist. Ilebr. Poesie ii : 47) says this phrase is a mere figurative mode of announcing some great phenomenon. In our humble judgment this is so contrary to common sense, and is so entirely foreign to the plain meaning of the texts, that no refutation is required. 2. Some tell us this angel of the Lord was a mere created angel, who spoke in the name of Jehovah. This is the opinion of some of the fathers, as Origen and Jerome, and of Le Clerc and Grotius and of Socinian, Unitarian and Neological writers. But as Hengstenberg has most judiciously said, quite a satisfactory reason can be found for this singular confluence of opinion, in adopt- ing this interpretation, for each one though differing on 108 THE GIANT JUDGE. almost every other point, thought that such an interpre- tation was ftivorable to his system of theological opinions, and was therefore at all hazards to be received as true. "We have serious objections to this interpretation, and regard it as incorrect. First. Because the idiom of the Hebrew limits the phrase to one angel. Literally the phrase is, " the angel of Jehovah." This cannot be fairly an appellation of created angels. Secondly. The Bible does not teach that any creature, however liigh, or under any circumstances, should personate the Creator. Thirdly. In several of the passages referred to, we have found that " the angel of Jehovah " is called God, and Jehovah. Even Gesenius admits both in his Thesaurus and in the last edition of his Lexicon, that " the angel of Jehovah " is identified with Jehovah himself. " Some- times the same divine appearance which at one time is called the angel of Jehovah is afterwards called simply Jehovah." 3. We know that Sack, De Wette and others of a like theological complexion, advocate the opinion, that " the angel of Jehovah " is simply a periphrasis for Jehovah himself, and that the phrase should be rendered, not the angel or messenger, but the appearance of Jeho- vah. We would urge as objections to this interpretation : First. It is by no means proved, that the true mean- ing of the word maleak, is sending or appearance, while it is not denied but that it does signify messenger, angel. Secondly. This interpretation destroys all significance in tlie evident diversities of the Tiieophanies, which seem to us to have been made with the direct intention of proving in the midst of an idolatrous age and in the face of ])olytheism, the essential unity and spirituality of God, DIVINITY IN THE THEOPHANIES. 109 and yet the equality and identity of " the angel of Jeho- vah " with Jehovah himself. Thirdly. This view of the phrase does not aid lis to any intelligent view of the distinct personalities that appear in 'the narratives of the Theophanies, nor to the apprehension of the use of the plural form in the name of God. Again, in the creation, and the distinct personalities found in the narratives of the Theophanies, and in the use of the phrase " spirit of God, or of the Lord," so often found in the Bible, it seems to us great violence is done to the idiom and grammatical structure of the Hebrew tongue, to say that we have only a periphrasis of God himself, or a divine attribute, but not a divine person. Almost all commentators agree that in the second verse of the third chapter of Zachariah, the incom- municable name of Jehovah is directly given to the angel of Jehovah spoken of in the first verse. Even Maurer and Hitzig agree to this. Rosenmuller's interpretation, " vocatur legatus de nomine principis sui," is directly contrary to scripture usage, and may well be styled " a pure fiction." 4. The true interpretation of the phrase, " angel of the Lord," and the only one that reconciles all the pas- sages in which it occurs and the allusions made to it in the Bible, is this, namely : that the angel of Jehovah in the Old Testament is Jesus Christ, who as Jehovah's servant, messenger or angel, was manifested before the incarnation as a proof that his heart was on his great work of redeeming men, by becoming a man, and a pledge that he would come in the fullness of time, and be actually born of a woman, made under the law, to 110 THE GIANT JUDGE. redeem them that were mider tlie law. (Gal. iv: 4.) The angel of the Lord then in the Theophanies of the Old Testament was the Messiah sent from God, who was the Word that was God, but became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth. From heaven he came, of heaven he spoke, Dark clouds of gloomy night he broke, Unveiling an immortal day. That our views may be the more clearly understood, we repeat and sum up what we believe the Bible teaches on this subject. I. There is one, only living and true God. This one supreme and only living and true God is alike and equally the God of the New Testament and of the Old Testament. The religion of the two great divisions of the Bible is one religion. The Bible is not a heteroge- neous or contradictory mass of old or obsolete writings, but a harmonious and organized whole, each part per- fect in its place and of its kind. II. The only living and true " God is a Spirit, infinite, eternal, unchangeable, invisible," He has condescend- ed, however, in times past, to speak to the fathers by the prophets, and by his Son Jesus Christ, and his apos- tles. He made known his will to the patriarchs, pro- phets, and apostles, by his Spirit, operating directly on their minds, by dreams, visions, voices, ecstacies, sym- bolic acts, appearances or manifestations in the form of an angel, or by some representation of his glory, which is called in the Old Testament, The Siiekinah. III. The leading idea of the Revelation of God in the Old Testament was, the coming of the Messiah. Other THE CENTER OF THE BIBLE. Ill great trutlis are taught or illustrated, but they are all in order to prepare the way for tlie fultilliiieiit of this prom- ise. And the substance of the New Testament is a record of Messiah's coming, and therein of the fulfillment of the old Testament Scriptures. The great design, therefore, of the Old Testament has been accomplished. The Hebrew dispensation, with the divine oracles, prepared mankind, both negatively and positively, for the appearance of the Messiah, the world- redeeming God. The purpose of divine revelation is stated in the first promise in the garden of Eden, and~is prosecuted through the whole of the old dispensation. The testimony of Jesus is the bond of union, and center in which all the Old Testament hannonizes. Without this purpose in view the Old Testament is but a loose, scattered, and badly arranged heap of poetry, history, morals, and memoirs. But ivith such a purpose revealed, and running through all its history, we can understand how it teaches, typifies, promises, and predicts a great salvation through the Ineffable Incarnation. The whole scope and end of prophecy was the testi- mony of Jesus. The entire history of God's revelation in Old Testament times, is nothing but an utterance pro- phetic of a coming Messiah. " And upon that revelation of facts, and prediction hj facts, is grounded that series of predictions by words, which God has been pleased to communicate in a supernatural manner, by his special agents."* " In the historical, the didactic, the prophet- ical portions of the New Testament, we discern the Old Testament, the old law, living again, in a new and spir- * Lee on Inspiration. 112 THE GIANT JUDGE. itual life ; not embalmed and laid with reverential care aside in the grave, but arisen from the dead, and alive forevcrmore, like its own divine Founder." Stephen and John, and the saints in glory, are then with Moses and Elias, as the apostles were with them on the mount of transfiguration. They all sing alike the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb. — Rev. xv : 3. The Bible, as a history, testifies of Jesus. And the two great divisions of the Bible, the Old and New Tes- taments, are indissolubly connected, and of co-equal au- thority. Jesus Christ is the central point to which all the rays of revelation converge, and from which they again flow by the ministrations of his own Eternal Spirit. An able author of one of the Hulsean lectures, speak- ing of the past development of the Scriptures, holds the following beautiful language : " This treasure of divine truth, once given, has only gradually revealed itself; how the history of the church, the difllculties, the trials, the struggles, the temptations in wliich it has been in- volved, have interpreted to it its own records. * * * Now there was much written for it there as with sym- l)athetic ink, invisible for a season, yet ready to flash out in lines and characters of light, whenever the ap- pointed day and hour had arrived ; so that in this way the Scripture has been to the church as their garments to the children of Israel, which, during all tlie years of their pilgrimage in the desert, waxed not old ; yea, ac- cording to rabbinical tradition, kept pace and measure with their bodies, growing with their growth, fitting the man as tliey had fitted tlie child, and this, until the forty SCRIPTURAL DEVELOPMENT. 113 years of their sojourn in tlie wilderness had expired. Or to use another comparison, which may serve to ilhistrate our meaning: Holy Scripture, thus progressively un- folding what it contains, might be likened fitly to some magnificent landscape, on which the sun is gradually rising, and ever as it rises is bringing out one headland into hght and prominence, and then another ; anon, kind- ling the glory-smitten summit of some far mountain, and presently hghting up the recesses of some near valley w^hich had hitherto abided in gloom ; and so, traveUng on, tiU nothing remains in shadow, no crook nor corner hid from the light and heat of it, but the whole prospect stands out in the clearness and splendor of the highest noon. " The true idea of scriptural development is this, that the church, informed and quickened by the Spirit of God, more and more discovers what in Holy Scripture is given her ; but it is not thus that she unfolds by an independent power anything further therefrom. She has always possessed what she now possesses of doctrine and truth, only not always with the same distinctness of con- sciousness. She has not added to her wealth, but she has become more and more aware of that wealth ; her dowry has remained always the same, but that dowry was so rich, and so rare, that only little by little she has counted over and taken stock and inventory of her jew- els. She has consolidated her doctrine, compelled thereto by the provocation of her enemies, or induced to it by the growing sense of her needs. She has brought to- gether utterances in Holy Writ, and those which, apart, were comparatively barren, when thus married — when each had thus found its complement in the other — have 114 THE GIANT JUDGE. been fruitful to her. Those which, apart, meant Kttle to her, have been seen to mean much when thus brought together, and read each by the light of the other. In these senses she has enlarged her dominion, her dominion having become larger to her."* ly. It is not true, then, that the Almighty has al- lowed any of his dispensations to prove a failure. It is not true that the religion of Eden proving a failure, another and a new one was tried ; and then, when the patriarchal faith failed, the Creator again tried to meet the wants of our race, by patching up the patriarchal religion with that of Moses ; and was again obliged to add the teachings of the prophets ; and, finally, becom- ing tired of the old religion altogether, he superseded it by introducing Christianity. This is as false as it is blas- phemous. There is a perfect harmony throughout the Bible. Augustin has well said, " Deus opera mutat, nee mutat consilium." (Conf i : 4.) In all the various modes used for communicating the divine will, we find but one and the same religion — the Pentateuch, the Pro- phets, the Psalms, the Gospels, and the Epistles are given to us by one and the same Spirit of Inspiration. The revelation is from God, and the record of that rev- * See Trench's Ilulsean Lecture for 1853. Lee on Inspiration siil)stantially passim, but particularly p. 113. Mr. Lee is of Trinity College, Dublin. His work, however, is published in this country by Carters, of >cw York. It is an able, learned, and earnest work. With a little more arrangement it would be more valuable. Sabbath School teachers and young students may consult, also, with great advantage on this subject, Magee, on the Atonement; llenstenberg's Christology: Litton's Bampton Lectures for 1856; Bishop Ilurd on Prophecy; Owen on the Hebrews; Dr. J Pye Smith's Test, of the Messiah; Dr. Wardlaw's Discourses on the Socinian Controversy ; and Dr. W. L. Alexander's Connection of the Old and New Tes- tament. THE OLD TESTAMENT NOT OBSOLETE. 115 elation is by the inspirition of the Holy Spirit. The Bible not only contains the Word of God, but the Bible is the Word of God, who is our Maker and final Judge. Though the writers of the Bible are scattered over more than twenty centuries, its several books are but different members of one organized whole, and each member is perfectly adapted to the great purpose of the divine Author, and pointing all the time to him as the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have received the atonement. It certainly cannot follow because, as Bretsclmeider* states, and truly, that the doctrines of God and morality are far more perfectly taught in the New Testament, by Jesus Christ and his Apostles, than in the Old Testa- ment ; that, therefore, the old Testament is obsolete. This were to say that the lad were lost in the man. The morning and the evening are but one day. But the morning twilight is in order to the noon-day splendor. To say that the Old Testament is superfluous, and of no authority, in the church of God, because, in spirituality and higher morals, it has been surpassed by the New Testament, is absurd. A boy's grammar was just the book he wanted when he had to learn the elements of language. And in manhood the grammar of his youth is not superfluous or lost because he embodies all the knowledge it contained, and even more. The elements of language are not superfluous to the language matured. If the promises, types, and predictions of the Old Tes- *■ Bretschneider Haudb. der Dog., i, § 159, quoted by Lee, on Inspiration, p. 100. 116 THE GIANT JUDGE. tament be arranged, therefore, as stars, in clusters and constellations, we can readily see how one arose in Eden, and another to Enoch, and another to Noah after the flood, and another to Abraham, and another and another, till the whole heavens became luminous, when the star in the East guided the wise men to the infant Redeemer at Bethlehem. V. We are now prepared, I trust, to say that " the Angel of the Lord," the Angel of Jehovah's presence, and the divine manifestations made in the Old Testament were foreshadotviiiffs of the great Incarnation. Li them the Son of God declared that his delights were with the sons of men from all eternity, and was manifesting forth his glory in such measure as was proper to keep alive the promise of his coming, when the fullness of time should arrive. And in the application of the appellation Angel of Jehovah to the Messiah, we have a proof of the divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ. " No man hath seen God at any time ; the only be- gotten Son, which is the bosom of the Father ; he hath declared him." "He is God manifest in the flesh." — Jolmi: 18; 1 Tim. iii : 16. It is not, therefore, without reason that the learned are of the opinion that this ninth verse is of peculiar con- struction and emphasis, meaning that it was the Lord God himself to whom Manaoh prayed, who hearkened to his voice, and then appeared to him and his wife, and that he appeared to them in the person of his Son, veiled as an angel. VI. In all the varieties of manner in which, in times past,- God spake unto the fatliers, the Logos, the Word, of John i, was the Revealer. This is emphat- WHO IS THIS ANGEL? 117 ically true of the revelations made by the Angel-Jeho- vah. In the revelation of the divine will " by facts, by words" and by appearances, or visible forms of the divine glory, of which record is made in the Old Testament, there is a constant reference to the Author of Creation, implying by such a reference the right and power to make all such revelations; but the most remarkable manifestation of the Logos, " the Word," in the Old Testament, if I am not greatly mistaken, is this of the Angel-Jehovah. This is the mysterious personage who appeared to Abraham, " the friend of God," who rejoiced in seeing Messiah's day. And in the various passages of script- ure in which the appearance of the Angel of Jehovah is described, we find him using the first person, and speak- ing, and acting, and receiving homage and worship, not as a distinct person from, but as the manifestation or visible operation of the Godhead. The Angel of the Lord, then, is to be understood as Jehovah-Jesus in his visibility. And in this manifestation of Jesus Christ in the Theophanies of the Old Testament, we have, in some degree, an explanation of how he came to be " the desire of all nations ; " for it is well known that heathen nations of old, both savage and civilized, had some no- tion of the incarnation of their gods, and of the neces- sity of such incarnation. If we are not mistaken, Messiah Jesus is expressly called an Angel, the Angel of the Lord, in the Old Tes- tament, and plainly so represented in the New. In ad- dition to the texts which represent the Logos as the Revealer of God, there are some that speak of the same personage as an Angel, the Angel. The promise to Mo- 118 THE GIANT JUDGE. ses was, that on the withdrawal of the Lord himself, as he appeared to him at first, " my presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest." And Isaiah says, " In all their afflictions he was afflicted, and the Angel of his presence saved them." Ex. xxxiii: 14, and Isa. Ixiii : 9. And the Apostle says, referring to the Israelites, " Neither let us tempt Christ as some of them also tempt- ed (Jiim), and were destroyed of serpents." 1 Cor. x: 9. And again, " Behold, I send an Angel before thee, to keep thee in the Avay ; beware of him, and obey his voice ; provoke him not, for he will not pardon your transgressions ; for my Name is in him." This is clearly a promise of a distinct divine person, who was to go with them. The same, doubtless, who appeared in the pillar cloud. This whole class of texts is explained still further by referring to Hebrews iii : 1 : " Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our profession, Christ Jesus." Now the etymology of the term apostle shows that it is identical in signification with angel. But one part of the Apostle's argument in this epistle is to show Christ's superiority to angels ; there was, then, a reason why he should not use in this place the ordinary term, but the corresponding one. Both angel and apostle mean one sent. Our Lord repeatedly spoke of himself as one sent, or come from the Father. John iii : IG, 34 ; vi:29;x:3G;xx:21, and elsewhere. The apostle's ar- gument, and the design of the whole epistle, require that we understand his allusion in this place to be to the An- gel of Jehovah — of the divine presence spoken of in the Gld Testament. As Christ is emphatically he whom God hath sent, so he says : Let us consider the Apostle THE ANGEL HIGH PRIEST. 119 and High -Priest of our profession — and we shall see that in Christianity we have a Messenger from God, who is higher than the angels of the Old Testament — who is the Angel-Jehovah himself The Old Testa- ment saints were believers in the same Redeemer that Stephen saw, standing on the right hand of God. I beg to conclude this subject by quoting the following pas- sages from Dr. Mill and Prof. Olshausen. " The Angel of the Lord who preceded the children of Israel from Egypt, in the cloud and in the fire, was the Lord himself, (agreeably to Ex. xiii: 20, 21, and xiv: 19, 20 ; Numb, xx: 6, etc.,) possessor of the incom- municable name, Jehovah ; and that this Angel of the Covenant, as he is termed in Mai. iii: 1, Gen. xlviii : 15, 16, etc., is the uncreated Word, who appeared in visible form to Jacab and Moses, and who was, in the fullness of time, incarnate in the person of Jesus Christ, is the known undoubted faith of the church of God, and need not to be enlarged on here. This same uncreated Angel, in whom was the name of the Lord, is promised by the mouth of Moses." Olshausen, in one of his tracts on "The deeper sense of scripture," beautifully illus- trates the sense in which the old dispensation, the law and the prophets, is fulfilled in the New Testament : " The law, with all its ordinances, is hke a grain of seed which includes in itself the whole law of the formation of the plant. Should the plant spring up, the grain of seed must die ; a power which would cause it to continue in its isolated subsistence, would be just as destructive as the Judaizing teachers, with whom Paul was forced to contend. But notwithstanding such a fact, the law of the germ which Hves no longer, invisibly penetrates the 120 THE GIANT JUDGE. entire plant ; so that in the plant's concentrated forma- tions, the law, renewing its youth, repeatedly presents itself again in the fruit. Thus the law was apparently dissolved by Christ, but only in order to be fulfilled in its spirit in every iota." In conclusion, 1st. Our aim in this chapter as in the third has been to vindicate the pla7i of God's revelation as well as the revelation itself, by showing that infinite wisdom has not made any mistake in the different dis- pensations from Adam to Christ. Our blessed Lord never let a hint fall from his lips that any part of the Old Testament was done away. On the contrary, he made it the basis of all his teachings, as did his apostles after him. And throughout his whole ministry, he rep- resents himseh' as fulfilling in his person and office, the scheme of divine love as revealed^ in the law and the Psalms and the prophets. The Old Testament and his own sayings are alike imperishable. (See Matt, xxiv : 35 ; and Luke xxiv : 44.) He came into the world to fulfill all righteousness and make an end of transgression by offering himself a sacrifice to God, to satisfy divine justice, and reconcile us to God. And in doing this all things were fulfilled which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the Psalms concerning him. He came therefore not to annihilate, or abrogate, but to confirm and 7'e-institute — " to build again " — " not to j)erpetuate the former scheme, but to extend and to develop it." The glorious Architect in the New Testa- ment brings out clearly the original design of the Old Testament, which had not before been so clearly seen The Old Testament is the basis on which the New is erected, and the stabihty and completeness of both depend THE GKEAT RULE OF LIFE. 121 on tlieir connection. The Old was the shadow of good things to come, which gave certain assurance of the real- ity of the good things to come, and some idea of their nature, size and proportions. The New Testament is the embodiment and the record of those good things. From Genesis to Malachi we have the outline of the picture, and from Matthew to John the divine, we have its filling uj) and coloring. And the whole is the record of a great and precious salvation. The whole history of the Jewish people, their ritual and government, is one grand prophecy of the future Redeemer. The Old Testament is as full of the Messiah, the age of the world considered, as the New Testament is full of Christ. " Abraham, the saint, rejoiced of old When visions of the Lord he saw; Moses, the man of God, foretold This great fulfiller of his law. The types bore witness to his name. Obtained their chief design, and ceased : The incense and the bleeding lamb. The ark, the altar and the priest." 2nd. Let us then study the Old Testament as well as the New. " The word of God, which is contained in the Old and New Testament, is the only rule to direct us how we may glorify and enjoy him." Valuable helps for studying the Bible are now hap- pily within the reach of Sabbath school teachers and the heads of families. Bible dictionaries, concordances, maps of the holy land, Bible illustrations and oriental travels may be consulted with great advantage. But above all, let us ever pray for the illumination of the divine spirit on the sacred page, and let us search it with the docility and trustfulness of a little child. 122 THE GIANT JUDGE. 3rcl. One can hardly fail to be impressed, as we are studying the Bible, especially the record of patriarchal times, and of the appearance of the angel of the Lord, with the idea that we are very near to God. We seem to see his form among the trees of Eden, and to hear his voice as he calls to Abraham on Mount Moriah. The riven peaks of Mount Sinai seem yet to speak of his awful glory. It Avas the Lord's hand that shut Noah into the ark, and as an angel he talked with the patri- archs, and by his spirit, he dwelt in the prophets. But in the New Testament we are brought nearer still to God — to God on a throne of mercy, whence we may obtain forgiveness and grace for every time of need. 4th. The lives of Old Testament worthies in such close comnRuiion with God breathe also a pilgrim-like air. They declared plainly that they were seeking a better country, that is, an heavenly ; and God was not ashamed to be called their God, for he hath prepared for them a city. See Hebrews xi. Are we then like them, pilgrims and strangers ? Is our home in heaven ? Our home is where our heart and treasures are. But as our Hfe is a journey, on what road do we travel, and whither does it lead ? On the busy, dusty, jostling high road of humanity, we find many turns and many rough places, and many a weary hour and many a dark and heavy storm lowers over it. But cheer up, fellow i)ilgrim, many are on the same road with you. Many have travelled it before you, who are now safely arrived in glory. There is one who ])ast along this same road, travelling in the greatness of his strength, and as he overcame, so does' he give grace and glory to all who follow in his footsteps. You are every hour coming nearer to your OUR HOME IS HEAVEN. 123 home, where storms will cease, and the weary will be forever at rest. If the night is long and dark, the morn- ing will only be the more joyful. If, as pilgrims, you endure hardships in the wilderness, the land of promise will be all the more pleasant because of these ti'ials by the way. 5th. How truly astonishing is the divine condescen- sion. The long-suffering of our God is our salvation. As he has been pleased to give us the sacred word, we are not to expect angelic visitors to teach us our duty. The divine Avord is a sufficient rule to teach us what to believe, and what to do, to be saved. The spirit that was in the prophets and apostles is promised to us. The great Messiah has come. We have seen his glory, as of the "only begotten of the Father. And are we not, some of us, witnesses of his grace and truth — that he hath power on earth to forgive sin ? Let us ever adore him as our Saviour, and to him be glory forever. Amen. ^k imU Buxikt m)i (Konferra«. CHAPTER VI. THE EA^illLY SACRIFICE AND CONPERENCfi. " In his face Terror and sweetness labored for the place : Sometimes his sun-bright eyes would shine so fierce As if their pointed beams would even pierce The soul, and strike the amaz'd beholder dead; Sometimes their glory would disperse and spread More easy flame, and like the star that stood O'er BethFem, promise and portend some good : Mixt was his bright aspect, as if his breath Had equal errands both of life and death : Glorj' and mildness seemed to contend In his fair eyes."'— Q/utrles, In Judges xiii : 10, 11, the aiiffel is called a man. In doing so the writer follows the woman, and both speak of him, as he appeared to them. He is called a man, not as expressive of his true character, but as he appeared to them. As soon as the angel appeared the second time to the woman, she respectfully entreated that he would wait till she could go and fetch her husband. And having obtained assurance that he would tarry, she rims for Manoah. The pious of those days were familiar with angelic visitors, who appeared in the form and usual dress of prophets or men of God. Sometimes they were distinguished by a peculiar majesty and sublimity of 128 THE GIANT JUDGE. appearance. Pictures of angels still represent them with glory around their head. It is only in the emblematic descriptions of them, that they are said to have wings. It is a mistake to represent this angel with wings and in a white robe, as all the pictures do that I have ever seen. In our engraving of Manoah's sacrifice the artist has given us a spirited picture which has the merit of exact conformity to the text. In verses twelve and fourteen, Manoali responds amen to all the angel says. As if he had said, let all you have promised to my wife come to pass. I believe. But hoio shall we order the child, and how shall we do unto him, — Hebrew, what shall be the rule (Mishpot) by which we shall govern and teach liim ? In the fifteenth and twenty-first verses, inclusive, we have the conference of the angel with Manoah and his wife, and their sacrifice, and the angel's ascent into heaven. Bread, in the sixteenth verse, is to be taken as it is often in the Bible, for food in general. (2 Kings vi : 22, 23 ; Math, vi : 1 1 .) It is not easy to see the connection of this verse, if we suppose that all the conversation is recorded. If all is written that passed between them, then this verse seems to be an answer to what was in Manoah's mind, rather than a reply to anything he had actually said. The same thing is found in the New Testament. Our Lord' s(!veral times replies to what was in the minds of his hearers, rather than to any objec- tion stated, or qiicstion really pui, ho i'ar as the record goes. The angel does not deny that he was a man, nor does he deny that he was God. He speaks to Manoah in the. character that he knew Manoah understood him to be. WORSHIP GOD ONLY. 129 and reminds him that sacrifices must be offered to Jeho- vah only. Just as when our Lord said in reply to one who addressed him as " good Master," Why callest thou me good, there is none good but one, that is God. He did not deny that he was God, or affirm that he was not himself good, the supreme goodness. He meant to say, so supreme in goodness is God, that comparatively it is not proper to say that any one else is good ; and besides, if I am really what you say I am, then why do you not receive my testimony ? In all such places, the answer is obviously made according to the state of the mind of the person addressed, and not intended to express the truth as known to the speaker. The angel replies there- fore to Manoah according to the light Manoah had. He does not forbid him to sacrifice, nor does he tell him he must not sacrifice to him. He does remind him, how- ever, that if he offered sacrifice, it must be to God. As though he had said to him, be careful that your sacrifice be in sincerity and truth, and in just the way that God has appointed ; otherwise it will not be acceptable in his sight. The angel says, I have no need of this food. And if you are going to offer a sacrifice, offer it to Jehovah only. There is then no angel worship here. The Hebrew of a kid for thee, more literally is, a kid before thee. Manoah may have intended a mere act of hospi- tality first, and that then they would unite together in worship, and offer up a part of it as a burnt offering. Manoah may have remembered how Abraham offered to render worship before an angel, and have desired to imitate him. And yet he was in doubt, if indeed he had any suspicion of the angelic character of his visitor. He did not yet knom that he was an angel of the Lord. 130 THE GIANT JUDGE. And besides, if he had intended to worship an angel, he did not do so. The apostle John, and the prophet Daniel also, we remember, were prevented from render- ing homage to angels. The objection that Manoah was not a priest, and therefore had no right to ofter sacrifice, belongs to that obsolete idea, that almighty grace is straightened, and can flow only in one narrow channel. He who made Melchizedek a priest and king, could make Manoah a priest. The command or permission of the angel was sufficient authority, and the accei)tance of the offering is proof that it was rightly done. Christ Jesus himself is a priest not after the Aaronic model. He came not of the tribe of Levi. And yet he is exalted above all law- givers, priests and angels, and set down at the right hand of God, a Prince and a Saviour and a Priest to appear in the presence of God for us. What is thy name ? In Hebrew, who is thy name ? In the Bible, name is sometimes equivalent to nature^ essence and glory. Is Manoah rebuked here for unhal- lowed curiosity? I do not see wherein he was guilty. There is nothing intended to be improper, impertinent, or irreverent in his manner or language. Nor does it appear that he had been told before, or could have learned in any way, that the name of the visitor was not to be known, but was secret, wonderful, ineffable. The same Hebrew word here translated secret is rendered wonderful as has been already stated in Isaiah ix : 6 ; where it is most unquestionably applied to the Messiah, Avho is Christ. The idea expressed here is one of wonder at superhuman works, or on beholding miracu- lous interpositions. And Manoah and his wife looked THE ANGEL DOING WONDROUSLY. 131 on in astonishment, as the angel did loondrously. Bush's paraphrase is to the point : " You have scarcely any real occasion to inquire as to my name, (nature) ; it is obvi- ous from the words, promises, and actions already wit- nessed and yet further to be displayed, that I am, and am therefore to be called Peli, the admirable one, the great worker of wonders, the master of miracles. The original has the ybrm of a proper name, but ihe force of an appellative." May not the angel have wished to convey to their mind that he was the angel promised in Ex. xxiii : 20, 21 ? Have we here anything more than an epitome of the conversation held between the angel and Manoah and his wife ? For the true character of this angel, see the preceding chapter. The meat-offering, in the nineteenth verse, is not a happy translation. It should be a " flour-offering," such as the law prescribed. And offered it upon a rock, just as Gideon did. The stone table is still shown at Naza- reth, said to have been used by our Lord. Detached rocks of the proper size for a table or an altar abound throughout the country. Mounds of earth or stones were used as altars in the earliest times. And while Manoah and his wife were offering their sacrifice unto the Lord, the angel did wondrously. Angel is not in the original, but it is rightly supplied. There is no doubt of the meaning. It was the angel that did wondrously. The Hebrew for wondrously is the same word trans- lated secret in the preceding verse. The angel therefore acted according to his name. Being wonderful in his nature, it was natural for him to perform wonderful things. What the wonders were, we are not told. Prob- ably among the things which he did was to manifest more 132 THE GIANT JUDGE. of his divine glory, and to cause fire to fall from heaven as on Abraham's sacrifice, and Elijah's ; or to come out of the rock, as the angel did who appeared to Gideon, to consume the offering. As the smoke of the sacrifice went up toward heaven, the angel ascended in the flames, as if they were his chariot. And now Manoah's con- viction is perfect. His mind no doubt had been gradually- opening to the truth. But now he knew that he was an angel of the Lord. See our engraving. And Manoah said unto his wife, We shall surely die, because we have seeji God. Verses twenty-two and twenty-three. 1. Here is a domestic conference, in which the wife is the best counselor. A common notion prevailed among the ancient Jews that it was death to see the face of God, or of an unveiled angel. Manoah's fears were probably excited by this prevailing notion. He may indeed have had in his mind what the Lord said to Moses, when he entreated to see his glory : " Thou canst not see my face ; for there shall no man see me and live." Jacob also speaks of his wrestling with the angel, and of his having seen God face to face, and yet his life was preserved as something" wonderful. Gen. xxxii : 29, 30. Manoah's apprehensions then were not wholly groundless, yet we cannot but admire the faith and com- posure of his wife. 2. Manoah's alarm was true to fallen humanity. Guilt is always suspicious. Adam and Eve were afraid and hid themselves when they heard the voice of the Lord God in the garden. So INIanoah and his wife, instead of looking up to heaven thankfully, fell down upon the earth half dead with fear. It is our infirmity god's surpassing mercies. 133 to pervert divine blessings into omens of evil. Our eyes are so weak that we are confounded with what should comfort us. We are prone to find death in the vision that God gives us announcing life. We write bitter things, while God writes unspeakably precious promises. The limits of grace and goodness are made by ourselves, and not by our heavenly Father. He is infinitely better to us than our own hearts. His mercies surpass our largest hopes. The gospel ofter is made to us in per- fect good faith. Salvation is always of the Lord. And damnation is always the sinner's own work. The guilt of perdition rests on the sinner's own head. God is a sovereign. Grace is sufiicient, and the sinner is free. 3. The wife's reply, verse twenty-three, is nobly put and ably applied. Her reasoning is remarkably correct. Her theology is as sound as if she had been educated by the Synod of Dort, or by the Westminster Assembly of Divines. It is precisely the style of reasoning David adopted when he was in trouble. He often calls upon his soul to hope in God for the future, by remembering the divine goodness in times past. Moses used the^ same plea for an extension of divine forbearance and patience towards the rebellious Israelites. And Paul used the same train of argument to prove the final and complete triumph of a believer. " God commendeth his love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. For if when we were sinners, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son ; much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life." Rom. v : 8-10. But his wife said unto him, If the Lord were pleased 134 THE GIANT JUDGE. to hill US he would not have received a burnt offering and a meat offering at our hands. This the husband in his panic seems to have forgotten. But the wife continues to remind him how the Lord had showed them also all things concerning the birth and education of their son, and had told them of the great commission he was to execute as Israel's deliverer. Hence she concluded it could not be that they were to die. The accomplish- ment of the promise implies that the Lord would not kill them. If the Lord were pleased to kill us now, he would not have shown us such things as these at this time. It is a safe method for us to follow — to plead God's past mercies as a ground of hope for the future. His rule is grace upon grace. He that has, receives more. It is not irreverent to say that he who gave his Son for us, will with him give us all things. Is it then reason- able to fear that he who has preserved us forty years will fail us for the next twenty, if our pilgrimage should con- tinue so long? He who made you, aged friend, and gave his Son to redeem you, Avill not suffer you to perish for the want of meaner things. And the feeling of your need of his grace, is a proof that he is waiting to be gracious. Even the anxious inquiry after salvation proves that the work is already begun. Penitential pangs are not natural, but gracious, and argue that God has laid his hand upon us. And he is a rock. All his works are perfect. He will not leave his work of grace half finished. Nor Avould he have told us such things of his love and grace — he would not have manifested such unwillingness to destroy the impenitent, as we find in the Scriptures, nor have exercised such long-suffering DIVINE SINCERITY. 135 and patience as we see in liistoiy and in the events of every day life, if he did not oifer pardon and eternal life to us in perfect good faith on the terms propounded in the gospel. And surely the argument from past experience should be a satisfactory one. Experience worketh hope, and hope maketh not ashamed. Romans v: 4,5. Is it not an impeachment of the divine sin- cerity, to fear that if God begins a good work, he will not complete it ? If he has preserved us so long — borne with our waywardness and pardoned our transgressions, may we not trust him, for time to come ? May we not trust in the loving-kindness of him who so loved us as to give his Son to redeem us ? It cannot be that supreme benevolence tantalizes us — 'keeps us as the Philistines did Samson to make sport of us on some great occasion. If so, why has he ever opened our hearts to our need of salvation ? Why do we feel our guilt and desire to escape from the wrath to come ? Surely he would not have showed us all these things, nor would he at this time have told us such things as these, if the Lord were pleased to kill lis. Surely he would not have announced to us the glad tidings of the gospel — would not have made to us such full and free offers of mercy, if he were not pleased to accept us. Surely there is honesty in the declaration: Jt is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptatio7i, that Jesus Christ came into the ivorld to save sinners — even the chief of sinners. God's accept- ance of the sacrifice of his son, Jesus Christ, is a pos- itive proof that his merits and mediation are available for us. According to the Scriptures, Christ died for our sins and rose again for our justification, and now appears in the presence of God for us as our High Priest and 136 THE GIANT JUDGE. ever-living Intercessor. Paul, in all his epistles, but especially in the epistle to the Hebrews, insists upon the fact that Christ is now seated at the right hand of the throne of God, as conclusive that he is superior- to Moses and Aaron and all the angels. And the evidence more- over of his acceptance at the right hand of God is ren- dered complete by the coming of the Holy Spirit to take of the things which are his, and show them unto us — con- vincing the world of sin, of righteousness and of judgment. And since God has not withheld from us his only Son, but hath commended his love to us, in that he gave his vSon to die for us, while we were yet his enemies ; how much more will he not give us ail things on account of the gift of his Son ? Wherefore we beseech you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God ; for he hath made him to be sin — a sin-oiFering — for us, though he knew no sin, that w^e might be made the righteousness of God in him. Wherefore Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered without the gate. Let us go forth therefore unto him without the camp, bearing his reproach. . Heb. xiii : 12, 13. ^\t fife of i\t J)txa Ifpn. CHAPTER VII. THE LIFE OF THE HERO BEGUX. There are tones that will haunt us, though lonelj' Our path be o'er mountam or sea; There are looks that will part from us only When memory ceases to be ; There are hopes which our burden can lighten, Though toilsome and steep be the way; And dreams that, lilce moonlight, can brighten With a light that is clearer than day." And the woman hare a son, and called his name Sam- son. The original is Shimshon, from the root Shamash, to serve. The Hebrew for sun, Shemesh, is probably from the same root, and means a little servant, that is, a little sun. But why did they call him Shimshon (Sam- son) ? What relation had he to the sun ? Schmid and others say his parents so called him in allusion to the shining of the angel's face, like the sun, when he first appeared to his mother. Others, and more properly, say, because of the resplendent brightness that surrounded the angel as he ascended out of their sight, after the sacri- fice. Some assume that maternal fondness selected this name as a proper one for an only son. As there is but one sun, so she would have but one Samson. By what- ever process his parents arrived at the name, whether 140 THE GIANT JUDGE. by the etymology, or derivation, hinted at, or by some other, they no doubt intended the name of their child to be expressive of their gratitude, and a proof of their pious acknowledgment of the divine favor shown them. Samson's history, like that of Esau and Ishmael, be- gins before his birth, and like that of Moses, Samuel, and Solomon, is recorded from his birth. Like Jeremiah, he was set apart to a great work from his mother's womb. There seems, however, to have been nothing extraordi- nary in the manner of his birth. The child is always father to the man ; but in some this is more apparent than in others. It was so with Samson. " The presa- ges of the womb and the cradle are commonly answered in the life ; it is not the use of God to cast away strange beginnings." — Hall. • The record of his childhood and early youth, which is also true of many of the world's great men, is scant. He grew, and the Lord blessed him. That is, such divine blessings rested on him that it was plainly to be seen he was under God's peculiar protection. We cannot help feeling, however, some desire to know more of his boy- hood, that we might see how tlie child was father to the man. The man was most extraordinary ; how was the boy? Did his companions, in the streets of Zorah, nameless and unknown, see anything in the long-haired boy that predicted he w^as to be the lion-killer, and the slayer of the lords of the Philistines ? And the Lord blessed him — caused him to grow in stature and strength. Extei-nal providences favored him, and he was under internal divine influences. '* And the Spirit of the Lord began to move him at times in the camp of Dan, between Zorah and Eshtaol.'* THE spirit's first MOVING. 141 That is, while he was yet young — yet at home with his parents, and subject unto them, the Spirit of God moved on his heart, causing him to feel the humiliation of his countrymen, the hatefulness of their subjection to such a people as the Philistines, and exciting in him strong desires to do something for their deliverance. From his tenderest years God began to prepare him for the work to which he was called. It was a great honor to have something to do, and a great mercy to be prepared to do it. The divine influence on him, I apprehend, was both gracious and miraculous. True, the power to work mir- acles, and the gift of prophecy, were not always and nec- essarily connected with an experience of grace. They ought, indeed, always to have been found united ; but historically we know they were not. Nor are eminent gifts and attainments now always found in connection' with personal piety. When the Spirit of the Lord moved the child Samson, I suppose we are to under- stand that he was regenerated, and that such ideas were put into his youthful mind, and such strength imparted to his growing frame, as God saw would best fit him for his future work. And it is just so still. It is as true now as it ever was, that God renews the heart by his Spirit, and providence prepares us for the work to which he calls us in this world. The Holy Spirit that moved the patriarchs, and prophets, and judges, in days of old, is not another Holy Spirit, but the same, the very same that came down on the day of Pentecost, and that opened the heart of Lydia, at Philippi, and dwelt in Paul and in John the divine. Regeneration is always an act of omnipotence. True holiness is never produced in us but by the Spiiit of God. The only dif- 142 THE GIANT JUDGE. ference between the moving of the Spirit of God upon the heart of a ,Di>\t lubpciit of % Jfees. CHAPTER XI THE j;mGMENT OP THE POXES. " And Samson caught three hundred foxes, and took firebrands, and turned tail to tail, and put a firebrand in the midst between the two tails. And when he had set the brands on Arc, he let them go into the standing com of the Philistmes, and burnt up both the shocks, and also the standing corn, with the vineyards and olives." At luheat-harvest, which in Palestine is about the time of Pentecost, when there is much rejoicing in the country, Samson visited his wife with a kid. We have seen that when he was betrayed by his wife, he left her in great disgust, and went to Askelon and slew thirty Philistines and paid his forfeit, and then went home and remained a good while with his parents. In the mean time his anger cools, and his affection begins to return, and not knowing that his wife had been given to his friend, (probably the very person to whom she had revealed the riddle,) he takes a kid, or fawn, and returns to be reconciled to her. His father-in-law was doubtless sincere in offering him his wife's sister in her stead. This was the best indemnity he could make. From the case of Laban, who, after he had cheated Jacob with Leah, gave him Rachel, we see that it was not unusual for a man to marry two sisters. It was 206 THE GIANT JUDGE. probably to correct abuses of this kind that the law of Moses was afterwards enacted. Samson's forbearance is to be noted, as also his effort at reconciliation. Even his purpose to avenge himself, in the third verse of the fifteenth chapter, seems to be the utterance of a patri- otic judge, rather than of an aggrieved husband. If he had meditated retaliation merely for his personal inju- ries, his wife and her father were the parties to have been chastised. But he felt that it was as an Israelite chiefly that he had been injured, and as such he would be more guilty than even the Philistines, if he did not avenge this national insult. His manner of avenging himself was extraordinary, singular, and effective. His agents were one hundred and fifty pairs of foxes, with firebrands tied to their tails, which burned their corn, and vineyards, and olives. In the time of wheat-har- vest, the corn was partly standing, and partly gathered into shocks ; all dead ripe, and of course easily burned. Infidels have attempted to be merry over Samson's foxes and the burning cornfields of the Philistines. But let such remember that the corn was not maize or Indian corn, but wheat, which when ripe could be easily burned, either standing in the field or gathered into shocks. And as to Samson's ability to catch so many foxes, let it be observed : 1. That the Hebrew shualim may comprehend not only foxes, but wolves and hyenas. The Bible name for fox is supposed to be derived from its habit of bur- rowing or dwelling in holes in the earth, and may be as ni)plicable to wolves, hyenas aijd jackals as to foxes. The Septuagint and the Vulgate both understand the animal in this place to be the fox. It is true that a FOXES VERY NUMEROUS. 207 different Hebrew word is used for the jackal ; but it is probable the' term shualhy), included this animal also. Hasselquist and some other naturalists have thought the shualim of Palestine, the foxes of Samson, was an animal between a wolf and a fox — " the little eastern fox," as they denominate it, and not our ordinary fox. When hungry, this animal is said to devour httle chil- dren, and even old and feeble persons. The Hebrew name ayim, for jackals, signifies howlers, and is equally appropriate to all this class of animals. It is only by the context that we can tell what kind of animals are meant in a given j^assage. 2. But taking the term here in its comprehensive sense, as we well may, there is no doubt but that the country was full of foxes. The Scriptures often speak of them in the Holy Land. Their cubs ruined the vineyards, according to the Song of Solomon, ii : 15. " Take us the foxes, the little foxes that spoil our vines." And Jere- miah laments that the foxes had taken possession of the hills of Judea. Lam. v : 18. And Ezekiel compares the numerous false prophets of his day to the same animals, xiii : 4. And in the first book of Samuel, a portion of this very country is called Slaial, that is the land of foxes — famous for the number of these animals found in it. And a neighboring city belonging to one of the tribes of Israel was called Hazar-shual ; that is, the abode or habitation of the fox. Every traveller through the country to this day, confirms the testimony of Bochart, Bellonius and Morizon, that it swarms Avith animals of this species. They lurk in companies of two or three hundred on the borders of the desert, and in tlie ruins of old towns, and in the ledges of the rocks. 208 THE GIANT JUDGE. 3. Samson was no doubt an expert hunter as well as a terrible figliter, and well skilled in taking foxes. And then, as a chief magistrate, he could have employed as many men to assist him as was necessary. When Neb- uchadnezzar is said to have built the great Babylon, and Solomon to have built the temple at Jerusalem, the meaning is not that they did all the work with their own royal hands. They did not lay a single brick, stone or timber themselves. But they caused the work to he done. There is no necessity then to prove that Samson caught all the foxes himself. Nor, 4. Are we restricted to any short or definite period of time in which the foxes must have been taken. It is not said they were all caught in one hour, one day, or one week. He may have been several months in cap- turing them, for any thing the text says. 5. Some say, though I do not attach any importance to the suggestion, that a miraculous agency was employed in bringing the animals to Samson, as in causing them to come to Adam to be named, and to Noah into the ark. It is not denied that God can control the instincts and guide the propensities of beasts, birds and fishes. This we see in Daniel's lions, Noah's doves, and Peter's fish ; but when there was no necessity, so to speak, for divine interposition in a miraculous manner, I prefer not to call for it. In theology, as in philosophy, there is no useless expenditure of Omnipotent energy. But a mir- acle is none the less a true miracle, because the means by which it is wrought are natural. The converging of the natural agencies in force on the desired point and for an avowed purpose is sufficient to make a miracle. Some, as the learned Kennicott and Saurin, think that LIONS, BEARS AND FOXP:S PLENTY. 209 animals are not meant at all. They say that the true Hebrew word is not shualim, but schoalwi, signifying handsful of corn or sheaves. It is only out of respect to such names that this interpretation is referred to all, for it is, in our humble judgment, wholly without sup- port, either from etymology, or the context, and contrary to the common sense view of the passage. Nor is such an interpretation in any way necessary. For surely it is not so unheard of and incredible a thing, to have col- lected such a number of these animals in ancient times as to destroy the credibility and literality of our story, because it contains this statement about the foxes. Did not Sylla show at one time to the Romans one hundred lions f And C^s,ar four hundred, and Pompey six hun- dred ? The history of Roman pleasures, according to the books, states that the Emperor Probus let loose into the theatre at one time o?ie thousand wild boars, 07ie thousand does, one thousand ostriches, otie thousand stags, and a countless multitude of other wild animals. At another time he exhibited one hundred leopards from Lybia, one hundred from Syria, and th^ee hundred hears. When the ca viler settles his hypercriticism with Vopiscus' life of Probus, and with Roman history generally, we shall then consider whether our story should be rejected as incredible because of its three hundred foxes. It has also been proven by learned men that the Romans had a custom, which they seem to have bor- rowed from the Phenicians, who were near neighbors of the Philistines — if they were not Philistines them- selves — of letting loose, in the middle of April, (the feast of Ceres) — the very time of wheat-harvest in Pal- estine, but not in Italy — in the circus, a large number 210 THE GIANT JUDGE. of foxes with burning torches to their tails. Is Sam- son's the original, or did he adopt a common custom of the country ? The story of the celebrated Roman vul- pinaria, or feast of the foxes, as told by Ovid and others, bears a remarkable similarity to the history before us, ascribing the origin of this Roman custom to the follow- ing circumstance : A lad caught a fox who had stolen many fowls, and having enveloped his body with straw, set it on fire and let him run loose. The fox, hoping to escape from the fire, took to the thick standing corn which was then ready for the sickle ; and the wind blow- ing hard at the time, the flames soon consumed the crop. And from this circumstance ever afterwards, a law of the city of Rome required that every fox caught should be burnt alive. This is the substance of the Roman story, which Bochart and others insist took its rise from the burning of the cornfields of the Philistines by Sam- son's foxes. The Judcan origin of the custom is cer- tainly the most probable, and in every way the most satisfactory. Commemorative institutions or fetes always have their origin in facts. Of this we may be well assured, though the record of the original facts and even the facts themselves should be lost through the lapse of time. (See Ovid and his Scholiasts. Fastor. lib. iv : vers. 679.) And took fire-brands. Our word lamp is probably through the Greek lampos, from the Hebrew original in this j)lace, lapidim^ or, as it is in the Chaldee and Syriac, lampidim. These lampidlm were a kind of torch, flam- b(^au, or burners, made witli pilch. The animals seemed to be tied t()g(itlier in })airs, tail to tail, by cords of mod- erate length, and, the torch fastened to this cord about FOXES WITH FIREBRANDS. 211 midway. See our engraving. How these animals thus treated would act, we may easily comprehend from what almost every one has seen in the mischievous experi- ments that are sometimes made by tying fire-crackers, or squibs or tin pans to the tails of dogs. This, how- ever, is a cruel and ungenteel sport, that I hope none of our Sunday school boys will ever have anything to do w^ith. Be kind to animals. It is at least well known that the whole fox race is prone to range about houses and fields, and when frightened, as these were, to run for cover to the thickest corn, if standing, or for the sheaves or stacks if gathered, and being vexed by the pain of the fire, they would first worry, and snap and fight, and run at cross purposes, and so spread the con- flagration, until we are quite ready to conclude with Calmet, " that nothing could be better adapted to pro- duce a general conflagration, than this expedient of com- bustion-communicating jackals. We must therefore suppose these burners were at some distance from the animals, so as not to burn them, and that they burnt long without being consumed.*' I am not aware that any experiment has ever been made to see how foxes would act tied tail to tail with a fire-brand between them. But Dr. Kitto, (to whose Biblical Illustrations I would especially refer the reader for much valuable information on this and kindred topics,) says he once saw two dogs so tied together, and that they at first pulled in contrary directions, and made no head way at all ; but at last ran off parallel with considerable speed. And it is presumed foxes are as sagacious as dogs. At first there may have been some indecision and uncertahi turnings, but very soon each 212 THE GIANT JUDGE. couple found that the only way to reach cover, was for them to run together in parallel lines, distant from each other by the length of their tails and burning brands. And thus the very purpose was all the more effectually carried out. The fox is a swift runner. And when tied together as in this case, they were sure to run this way and that way, and to spread the fire all over the fields. Nor could they readily escape to the woods, or to their holes in the rocks, where the fire-brands would have been extinguished. Most of the animals probably per- ished, or if they escaped, fled from the country. It will be remembered that the cornfields of that country were not separated by high fences, or deep ditches or hedges, but extended as now in Celo-Syria, or Esdraelon, as far as the eye can see, one vast level, un- broken plain of waving grain. One hundred and fifty pairs of such animals, running with flaming torches to their tails, would very soon set an immense plain in a blaze. It certainly would not be a difficult matter to burn up a whole county of ripened wheat or barley in this state by turning loose three hundred coyotes into the fields with fire-brands tied to their tails. The tying of the animals in pairs may have been to prevent their reaching cover too soon. And besides, if the fire-brand had been attaclicd to them singly, the tail would have fallen to the ground, and the brand would have soon died out ; but being sustained by the tension between the pair, the brand flamed out, and burnt all the better for their rapid motion after it was once kindled, and so the greater would be the damage. Frequent fires occur to this day among the towns of the interior of Asia and Africa, that are kindled and THE BURNING JUSTIFIED. 213 made to spread from town to tmvn by their enemies tying a burning cotton thread to the tail of a large species of buzzard, which flies to the thatch of the houses when set adrift.* Dr. Kitto says of the burning of the harvest-fields, that as bread is the staff of life, if any other man than Sam- son had done it, he should have been " hanged " — " that it looks like both a religious and social sacrifice, deliber- ately to Avaste and destroy it." Now if it would have been right to hang any other man for doing what Sam- son did under the same circumstances, then Samson should have been hanged. But where is the authority for hanging or taking away life for any crime except that of murder ? And besides, I do not see the affair in that light. Was not Samson the divinely commissioned deliv- erer of Israel ? Were not the Philistines at war with Israel ? Had he not then a right to cut off their sup- plies ? It is allowed in war to deprive an enemy of the means of subsistence. If the Camanches should ever confederate with the dusky warriors of the plains and mountains, and the saints of the modern Sodom and Gomorrah, and pour down their thousands upon Contra Costa, and threaten this city and coast with destruction, captivity and slavery, would it not be right for the gov- ernor of the state, or the commander-in-chief of the Pacific division to consume the grain and cattle and stores that were likely to fall into their hands, or to prevent them from obtaining such supplies, and thus drive them back to their mountain fastnesses ? Would not this be s^jiis- tijiable method of liberating the state from their depre- *Capt. Clapperton's Journal of his Second Expedition, p. 274. 214 THE GIANT JUDGE. dations ? But if tlS is not sufficient, our hero bore a divi»e commission before he was born, to do the Phihs- tines all the harm he could. This must end the strife. The method adopted we have admitted was a singular one, but it was very effective. Samson's commission was to deliver Israel from the Philistines. He was raised up to be a judge, called and appointed by God him- self, who was then the only king of Israel, to execute judgment on the Philistines. He was not acting a*, a private person, nor taking the law into his oun hands, nor assuming the sovereignty of the state. It was his duty to prosecute the mission for which God had raised him up. True, he is now the more ready to begin it, because he has personal wrongs to avenge. But he feels that it is as an Israelite that he has been insulted and wa'onged in the matter of his wife, and his patriotism and the honor of his God require him to punish them. His enemies are numerous and more wai'like than his OAvn countrymen. Their fi^ds are full of ripe corn. The country abounds in foxes. These animals are swift runners. Why may he not use them as his agents in aflliicting the Philistines? Why may he not rid the country of so many of these noxious animals either by thus destroying them, or frightening them away, and at the same time avenge his personal wrongs by punishing the Philistines in the way that would bring upon them the highest ridicule and contempt ? I see no reason why he might not kill two or three birds with one stone. In this history we have a most remarkable illustration of the terrible law of retribution which the Supreme Ruler of the universe has ordained, the presence of which runs like a flame of fire through all the history and FEARFUL LAW OF RETRIBUTION. 215 through all the dispensations of providence. In select- ing foxes as instruments of his vengeance, Samson selected the animals, which of all others, were the most appropriate to the nature of the insult. Foxes are cun- ning ; and it was through their wit the Philistines had prevailed against him. It was not Greek with Greek, but Reynard versus the Philistines. They had won the garments by stratagem, and now their cornfields are burned by foxes. But the judgments of God that begin on a man's property, if not arrested by penitence and forgievness soon take hold of his person. This was the process even with Job, and with the Egyptians, though in them the attributes illustrated are ditferent. From the murrain among their cattle, the Lord proceeds until the first- born is slain. And if judgments begin at the house of God, what will be the end of the ungodly, who obey not the gospel ? AVhen the Philistines saw their cornfields, yineyards and olives destroyed, they at once understood how and for what it was done ; they therefore came and burnt Samson's wife and her father, inflicting upon her the very death threatened, and to escape which she had betrayed her newly married husband. Because Samson had burnt their fields of corn, tlie Phihstines burnt the Timnites. They must have felt that Samson hrd been unjustly treated, and hoped by this means to appease him. The retribution upon Samson's wife and father was most inhuman and barbarous, and in every way out of all proportion in its severity. It does not appear that either of them had any thing to do with the burning of the cornfields, yet their own countrymen burn them 216 THE GIANT JUDGE. for what the Hebrew Samson had clone. The fire-brands of the running foxes were not so destructive as the fire of dissension kindled between the Phihstines. There is nothing more pleasing to the enemies of free institutions than to see their friends pulling each other by the ears. No other hands but our own can ever pull down and destroy the temples of justice, liberty and religion erected for us by our blessed fathers in this fiiir land. Union is our strength. Samson's wife in trying to avoid Scylla fell into Cha- rybdis. She betrayed her husband, because she feared her brethren would hum her and her father's house with Jire, and yet by their hands she was burned with fire and her father also. She leaped into the flames she meant to avoid. The Jews who crucified our Lord did just the same thing. They professed to proceed against him to put him to death as Coesar's friends, lest the Romans should come and destroy them. And they suc- ceeded in crucifying him, but the Romans came, and burnt their temple and city with fire. It is still the rule of providence, that as men measure to others, so it shall be measured to them again. It should be eternally before our minds, that true rRiNCiPLE is the only EXPEDIENCY. What God does is right. What he com- mands we must do. His will is the supreme rule. Our duty is obedience. All history, both sacred and profane, shows that the evil that men do in trying to escape by continuing to sin — by doing wrong to correct a wrong — by doing evil that good may come, even when their motives are admitted to be good — always meets them sooner or later in their flight. Sin added to sin only enhances guilt. The history of the dishonest and the MEN THEIR OWN DESTROYERS. 217 licentious is an illustrated commentary on this rule. Those that hasten to be rich, by resorting to dishonest means, and have accumulated i3roperty by fraud, do not generally long enjoy it. They seldom retain their gains, and if they do, how can they enjoy them haunted with a guilty conscience ? The general rule is, that Haman himself hangs on his own gallows, and not Mordecai. It is a singular and significant providence that so many of the inventors of means for taking the life of their fel- low men, should have perished by their own inventions. Gunjijowder was the death of its inventor ; Phalaris was destroyed by his own " brazen bull." The regent Mor- ton who first introduced the " Maiden," a Scottish in- strument of decapitation, like the inventor of the Guil- lotine, perished by his own instrument. The same Is true of Brodie, who induced the Edinburgh magistrates to use the " new drop," the same still in use. Marat, the bloody minded, died from the assassin's dagger. Danton and Robespierre conspired the death of Vergni- aud and of his republican confreres, the noble Girondists, and then Rohesjnerre lived only long enough to see the death of Danion before perishing himself by the same guillotine. The duke of Orleans, the infamous Egalite, voted for the death of Louis XVI, and not long after- wards was guillotined himself The wicked are taken in their own net. They fall into the ditch their own hands have digged. " Bloody minded and deceitful men shall not live out half their days." Sinning is a sure paymaster, and if delayed, the interest compounds rapidly. It is not necessary to adjourn to the court of futurity to know that sin is an evil thing and hitter. The way of the transgressors against both natural and moral laws is NOW J 218 THE GIANT JUDGE. hard. The day of reckoning follows hard after sinful indulgence. Nature is inexorable. Her outraged laws must be avenged. The libertine and the drunkard find it to be so. Their bodies and minds soon bear the marks of guilt and punishment. Passions and appetites abused soon change the body into a prison for the soul. No fugitive escapes the police of God and nature. The pen- alties annexed by the Creator to the violation of the laws of our physical constitution are as awful as they are inevitable. Sooner or later, at home or abroad, on land or sea, conscience will awake and seize the guilty ; and abused nature will cry out, and fearful retribution will fall upon them ; or if not in this life, it will be all the more fearful because it falls upon them beyond the grave, where no repentance, nor acts of pardon are- known. But this is the day of grace. This is the hour of pardon. There is a great Redeemer, the Lamb of God, who taketh away the sin of the world. And if we confess our sins to God, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. The blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin. ^Ije lafo-^'one SIaiig|t(r. CHAPTER XII THE JAW-BONE SLAUGHTER. " Mj^ life hath been a combat, And every thought a wound, till I am scarr'd In the immortal part of me." — Manfred. " And Samson said unto them, Though ye have done this, yet will I be avenged of you, and after that I will cease. And he smote them hip and thigh with a great slaughter. And he went down and dwelt in the top of the rock Etam." The reader will please read the fif- teenth chapter of Judges from the seventh verse to the end. Homer's heroes were never at a loss for weapons, for with whatever kind of arms they began to fight, they always finished by throwing stones. The " fierce Tydides" scrupled not to throw a rocky fragment so great that two men in the degenerate days of the j)oet could not raise it against a foe ; and " Where to the hip the inserted thigh unites, Full on the boiie the pointed marble lights; Through both the tendons broke the rugged stone, And stripped the skin and ci'ack'd the solid bone." Iliad, Lib. v : 375-378. The traveller from Thun to Grindelwald in the Ber- nese Alps, is shown to this day the huge stones with which the Swiss Samsons have been wont to amuse 222 THE GIANT JUDGE. themselves. They are not so large, it is true, as the mountains which the giants are fabled to have plucked up and used as javelins in their wars ; but they are of very " considerable size." The learned give various explanations of this hip and thigh slaughter. Good critics say that the text literally means, that in their running away from Samson, he kicked them down, and then trod them to death ; and thus his leg or thigh was against their hip. Some say that Samson's fighting was after the method of Greek wrestling or African tripping and tumbling. Others will have it, that " hip and thigh " is the Hebrew way of say- ing hors de combat ; and others still more liberal render it, he defeated them " horse, foot and dragoons ."; and still further, some think the meaning is, that their cavalry becoming unmanageable, the horses trampled them to death, crushing their heads, arms and bodies under their feet, and thus the horse's hoofs broke their thighs. But it is not historically proven that horses were in use at this time in Palestine. I do not know of a better trans- lation of the passage tha» the following from a Genevan minister, already referred to several times in this volume, John Diodati : " Pie made a great slaughter without any weapons, hurling them against the ground with spurns and with thrusts with his knees." Gesenius considers the phrase as a proverbial expression, meaning that he smote them with a great slaughter, cutting them all to pieces and scattering their limbs promiscuously. It was certainly a most extraordinary battle. One, and he unarmed, contending with many thousands, and these thousands covered with armor and fii^rhtino- with their chosen weapons. But it is probable the fear of the Lord THE PRINCIPLE OP^ HIS KILLING. 223 fell on them as soon as Samson began to deal his terrific blows, so that in their panic they trampled down, and bruised and rendered unfit for service even a greater number than were killed outright. Though translators differ as to the application of some of the words found in this passage, all agree in the general meaning. Pro- verbial phrases are always hard to explain after the language in which they have their origin ceases to be a living tongue. It is much more important to notice the principle on whjch Samson acted than to explain how he smote them. The history of this fight is brief We are not told how, nor on what account they met. Generally Samson's move- ments against the Philistines were aggressive ; but here, I think they attacked him. No doubt they were always ready for any opportunity to seize his person, or to kill him. But when they came upon him he slew them " hip and thigh with a great slaughter." He was not acting as a mere private person, even if he were entirely alone. He was the chief magistrate, and commissioned from heaven to execute divine sentence upon the Philistines. And he dwelt in the top of the rock Etam. From 1 Chron. iv : 3, 33 and 2 Chron. xi : 6, it would seem that Rehoboam built a fortress, or fortified a town near the rock Etam, which was called by the same name. This place was within tlie territory of Judah, between Tekoah and Bethlehem. And according to Josephus, who calls it Hethan, it was fifteen miles from Jerusalem. The rock probably gave name to tlie town, and was famou-^ for its natural strength, or safety as a place of retreat. David sought refuge often in the caves of Engedi, (Ain Jiddy). The strongholds of the hill country of Judea, 224 THE GIANT JUDGE. were its caves and holes In the rocks. 1 Sam., chapters xxiii and xxiv. In the millitary operations of the French in Africa a few years since, a number of Arabs took sheher in a rock cavern, and so ably defended themselves, that they had at last to be destroyed by making a fire in the cave's mouth. In 1G34 when tlie Sultan ordered the Bashaw of Damascus to make the rebel Emir Faccardine a pris- oner, the latter shut himself up in the hollow of a great rock, A\dth a small number of his officers. The Bashaw besieged him several months, but at last when he had made all necessary preparations to blow up the rock, the Emir sun'endered. From the twentieth vei^e — "And he judged Israel in the days of the Philistines twenty years," — it is to be inferred that during all his administration the Philistines were troublesome. It was his mission only to begin the deliverance of his people. The Philistines ,were har- assed and weakened, but not wholly overcome. Their yoke was not broken till the days of David. While Samson is in the cave of the rock Etam his countrymen ai)pear to have been in a very humiliating condition. We have found that at a subsequent period they were inferior to the Philistines as manufacturers, and obliged to go to them to get their axes and coulters sharpened. They appear liere inferior also as warriors, and except when led by some champion under miracu- lous impulses, they wei'c not able to stand before them in battle. From the confession of the men of Judah in the eleventh verse, it is clear their spirit was broken, and their heart was as water. Their only desire was to escape farther annoyance from the Philistines by making SAMSOX BOUND AT ETA^^I. 225 Samson their prisoner. They M^ere more anxious to sac- rifice him to their enemies than to follow him in a glori- ous straggle to victory or death. After the evidence they had of his power to deliver them, their pusillanimity seems almost incredible. Why are ye come up against us ? said the men of Judah to the Philistines. We pay our tribute punctually : we have committed no new offense. True ; said the lordly Philistines, we have no new cause of complaint against you. But there is a Hebrew harbored among you, or dwelling in your territory, who has done us a great deal of mischief. To bind Samson are ive come uj), to do to him, as he hath done to us. And then the men of Judah, three thousand strong, went to the top of the rock Etam to bind Samson to deliver him into the hands of the Phil- istines. Shame, ye men of Judah ! Why did you not rather put your giant judge, Jehovah's lieutenant-general, at the head of your forces, and strike a blow for God and liberty ? And they said to Samson, Do you not know that we are under the yoke of the Philistines, fmd that we are not al:)le to shake it off ! Why then are you con- tinually insulting and provoking them ? Do you not know tliat we must smart for all your provocations ? But now mark the hero's reply. He speaks with becom- ing magnanimity. He does not upbraid them as he might very justly have done for their want of honor and courage ; but generously forbearing all reproach, stipu- lates only that they shall not lay hands on him them- selves. I have done to them, says Samson, only as they have done unto me. But swear unto me, that ye will not fall upon me yourselves, and you may bind me, and deliver me into their hands. J* 226 THE GIANT JUDGE. Samson must have been strongly posted to render it necessary for so large a force to come to take him, or they must have had a most extraordinary idea of his strength and courage. It is a mooted point with com- mentators whether he had a body guard of tried men, or was alone. I should think from the nature of his office and from this whole history that he was alone, and with- out any warrior band. But I see no reason why he could not have delivered himself from the men of Judah, as easily as he did soon afterwards from the Philistines, except that he had no divine commission to kill his countrymen. Nor is there any evidence that he had any wish ever to imbue his hand in their blood. His mis- sion was specific. Nor can I find any justifiable excuse for his cousins, the men of Judah. The Philistines were their oppressors. They were the enemies of their fathers and of their religion. God had raised up Samson to be a deliverer. Why then did they not now strike for their altars and their sires, their wives and their little ones ? Instead of this, with craven heart, they bind their God- sent champion, who voluntarily surrenders himself to them, to deliver him into the hands of the Philistines. It was nothing that Samson was not of their tribe. Be luas a Hebrew. It was nothing that Washington was of Vir- ginia rather than of Massachusetts. He ivas cm Ameri- can. And we, though of different states, are all Americans. We have one father, one constitution and one destiny. In the stipulation also that they would not fall upon him themselves, there is still greater shame. I am painfully aware that some excuses are alleged for their not rally- ing to his standard that are not altogether groundless. It is said, that Samson was not really a fit leader, because Samson's strength miraculous. 227 his intellect was Aveak and his character sadly inconsist- ent. Though of gigantic physical strength, his character was not well balanc^ed. But Avas his intellect weak in the inverse ratio that his body was strong ? Now even if we admit that such is the ordinary law of mankind, it does not follow that it must have been true in his case. For as has already been remarked, Samson does not appear to have been of gigantic stature, nor to have had gigantic strength, except when the Spirit of the Lord moved him. Tliat he was naturally strong, and of pow- erful muscle, we admit ; but his great strength was miraculous. It could not therefore have impaired his mind on the principle suggested above. It is true that great physical powers are sometimes possessed by those who have but little mental energy, and less moral char- acter ; but has any law of nature been discovered making a large man or a strong man a bad man ? If a strong body must be the dwelling of a weak mind, we have been erroneously taught — that the perfect man is a sound mind in a sound body. We admit that Samson's mental energy and moral sense strike us as dwarfish in compari- son with his great bodily strength, Not to such a degree, however, as to excuse the men of Judah for not trusting in him as God's agent. Though a strong man, Samson was not a truly great man. Speaking from our starting- point of his history, we should say, his attacks upon the Philistines were badly planned, and the results wholly insignificant. He v/as a man sadly wanting in self-con- trol, mental discipline, and refinement of conscience. His two great passions were love and revenge, and both always directed towards the same people, and both badly managed. He seems to have done nothing towards the 228 THE GIANT JUDGE. accomplishment of bis great mission, except when under some supernatural impulse. The victories of Barak, Gideon and Jepthah near his own time, were of more enduring brilliancy and effect. The fact is Samson was not the man he ought to have been. He suffered his sen- suality to mar his otherwise greatness of character. His own countrymen did not rally to his standard. They had not confidence in him. His character was so spas- modic, be acted so by fits and starts, that they distrusted his prudence. And are they much to be blamed for withholding their confidence from a man who was so often the slave of his own senses ? A pretty face or a few tears were quite enough to unman him. He was a teetotaler in one way, but very intemperate in another. If wine did not ruin him, women did. The elders of Judah and the warriors of his own tribe might then well hesitate to risk their fortunes and lives under the com- mand of one, who could repeatedly sacrifice the most important interests to a woman's sighs and reveal his holy secret at the importunities of a quasi wife. The utter worthlessness of the two neio cords is very strongly expressed in the original. His hands loosed ; that is, melted from his liandi. They hecame as flax that was burnt with fire. That is, they were like flaxen ropes burnt, still retaining their coil and shape, but without strength ; mere cinders, which as soon as touched, fall to pieces. So worthless were the tv/o new cords with which they bound Samson fti.st, when the Spirit of the Lord came mightily upon him. Listen now to the savage yells of the Philistine hosts as they saw the great Hebrew bound and coming to them from the rock fi'om whicli they were not able to THE NEW JAW-BONE. 229 fetch him. But their shout was his signal for action. Rending the new cords as burnt flax, " he found a new jaw-bone of an ass, and put forth his hand and took it, and slew a thousand men therewith." The new of the text is applied by some, not to the jaw-bone, but to the carcass, and rendered tabid or putrid. If so, then the idea is, that the body being in a putrid state, he could the more easily separate the bone from the integuments, and thus procure such a bone as would be most fit for execution. But if the term new is applied to the body, it is also true of the jaw-bone, and its being new was of importance, for it was therefore heavy and tough. It would bear harder blows without breaking. And never was there a more terrible weapon than this jaw-bone in Samson's hand. Never did an ass's jaw-bone do such service since the foundation of the world. The sixteenth verse is Samson's pean, or hymn of triumph. Though rather a silent man, and heretofore as modest as brave, there is nothing censurable in his sins-ino; after the manner of his times a stanza, in com- memoration of his own exploits. " With the jaw-bone of an ass, heaps upon heaps, Y/ith tlie jaw of an ass have I shxhi a thousand men." The beauty and force of this verse can hardly be appre- ciated without a knowledge of the original, v/here we have a paranomasia on the identity of the terms for ass and a heap. The point seems to be in Samson's saying, that the Philistines fell under his blows with the jaw- bone of an ass, as tamely as if they themselves had been stupid asses — "heaps upon heaps." " A thousand " here is not necessarily to be under- 230 THE GIANT JUDGE. stood as fi definite number, but denoting a great many. The young women in singing David's praises when he came as " the conquering hero " from the killing of Goliah, said, he hath slain his " tens of thousands," when in fact he had killed but one person. He was, it is true, a giant, who was worth ten thousand common Philistines. To have slain so many with a Damascus blade would have been a prodigious feat ; what then shall we say of its being done with the jaw-bone of an ass ? No doubt, fear helped him. The Philistines seeing Samson's cords broken, remembering what he had done at Askelon, and struck with terror at the tremendous execution of his giant arm ; and expecting that now all the armed thousands of Judah would join him, and that they would all be dead men, they fled, and in their dis- orderly flight many of them were killed. The victory, however, was not in the weapon, nor in Samson's arm, nor because of the Philistines' terror. It was God that nerved his heart and strengthened his arm. The armed men of Judah could have furnished Samson with a sword ; but greater contempt was cast upon these idola- tors by laying them " heaps upon heaps " with a jaw- bone. And called that place Ramath-Leld. Twice before it is called Lehi by anticipation. Lehi was used for brev- ity's sake. Such contractions were common with He- brew pro])er names. Jerusalem was called also Salem. Ramath-Lehi means " the hill of the jaw-bone," or " the casting away of the jaw-bone." For here he cast away the jaAV-bone out of his hand. He did not value this singular, but exceedingly effective weapon as much as Sir Walter Scott did Ivob Roy's long gun, which is to THE INVOCATION WELL. 231 be seen in the armory of Abbottsford. Samson was not a good collector of relics. That new-old-jaw-bone would be a fortune in our day. The excessive thirst of which he expected to die, or to be obliged to surrender to the Philistines, was the natural consequence of excessive fatigue. Josephus thinks this dreadful thirst was brought on him for his pride, in not acknowledging God in his triumphal song. Heaps upon heaps, / have slain a thousand men, said he ; but not a word of praise to Jehovah for helping him. God was not recognized in the affair at all. Like -Nebuchadnezzar, saying. Is not this great Babylon that I have built ? And the judgment of God fell on him from heaven till he was humbled to acknowledge the sovereignty of the Most High. Whether this is the proper explanation of Samson's thirst or not, pride is a great sin, and high looks are an abomination to the Lord. But God clave a hollow place that tvas in the jaw- hone, and there came water thereout. Here is an error in our translation. The fountain of water was not in the jaw-bone. The mistake of our translators, who are generally so correct, was doubtless made in this way : The same Hebrew word is rendered both LeJd, a proper name, and also jaw-bone. The mistake therefore was in confounding the name of the place for the instru- ment of the victory from which the place derived its name. The meaning is, God clave a hollow place of the rock or earth at Lehi, and a fountain gushed forth and continued to flow up to the time of the writing of the history. And in memory of the deliverance, the fountain was called En-hak-hore, that is, the well af him 232 THE GIANT JUDGE. that cried; "Invocation Avell." Tradition still points out the stream that gushed from the grotto of Lehi for the refreshing of the Hebrew warrior. AVe close this chapter w^ith a lesson from the shouting of the Philistines on the eve of their terrible slaughter. Their defiant shout was the knell of their complete overthrow. And it is still true that a dreadful sound is in the ears of the wicked : in prosperity the destroyer shall come upon him. Job xv : 21. The triumphing of the ungodly is short. Their prosperity is their de- struction. Had there been as many devils as there were Philistines, when the Spirit of the Lord came upon Samson, he would have turned their vshoutings into wail- ings quite as easily. Never are the ungodly more to be pitied than when their prospects seem to be the bright- est. Their fancied security is their ruin. We are told that more vessels are lost in a fair gale than in tempests. Nothing is so much to be feared as a sinner's apparent peace. Present impunity does not argue the abatement of the divine wrath. The delays of providence do not change the nature of sin. It remains intrinsically the abominable thing that God hates. In the very nature of things it is impossible that sin should any where or at any time meet with his approbation. The patience of God does not therefore imply any mitigation of the enormity of wrong-doing. It is no proof of divine indif- ference to sin, that God does not instantly express his abhorrence of it, and pour out his wrath upon the offender. Men may kindle innnediately into a trans- ])ort of passion when insulted ; but God is not a man, and therefore we are not consumed. He punishes sin, not from passion, but from principle — not to revenge EVIL DOING A JUDGMENT. 233 himself for any injury he sustains from sin, but in order to maintain a righteous government — such a government as is necessary for the happiness of his creatures. Such an administration is also agreeable to his infinite holi- ness. And the punishment of sin will only be the more severe, because of the aggravations of abused mercy- Delay in a human government may lessen the certainty of punishment, by leaving room for escape, or for the loss of oiDportunity or ability for inflicting the punish- ment ; but it is never so with God. One day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. There t's, then, no statute of limitation within which process against the sinner must hegin, or icithin which his cause must he tried and the sentence executed. Nay, though the final sentence against an evil work is sometimes delayed, and therefore the hearts of men are more fully set to evil, still the accusation begins in most cases immediately. Conscience speaks out. Violated laws plead against the transgressor, and his ways are found to be hard. Evil doing is itself a judgment. And the delay to execute the sentence against evil doing is some- times a part of the sentence. The delay, if not im- proved, is not a blessing. As in divine mercies, the rule is grace upon grace, one favor received thankfully, drawing another, so it is with punishments ; if not im- proved — one stroke draws down another. It were often a great mercy to arrest the guilty in their career of crime. There is something awful in being given over to blindness of mind and hardness of heart, to treasure up wrath against the day of wrath, by abusing the long- suffering, and patience, and goodness of God. The men of Judah were restrained from laying their hands 234 THE GIANT JUDGE. upon Samson. And the Philistines in shouting for joy at his surrender, were not able to touch him. Wicked men are often not so bad as they would be, if they were not restrained. They are not more cruel, simply be- cause they cannot be. Even in Samson's forbearance towards his own countrymen, there Avas a divine hand. He was sent against the Philistines, and Avould not therefore touch his spiritless countrymen. O that men would remember that a thing is not good simply because it seems to prosper, but because it is according to the will of God. That only is right ivhich God commands. Sin is evil, not because it is punished, but because it is disobedience — it is something forbidden. Any delay, therefore, of sentence against evil doers, instead of en- couraging them to continue in sin, should melt them to penitential sorrow. Instead of lulling them into secu- rity, it ought to alarm them. Nothing but pardon secures tlieir safety. No length of time, nor flight, nor distance from the place of sinning can give any true relief. Nothing hut pardon can save the sinner. He must be forgiven, or sink to endless perdition. But there is for- giveness with God, that he may be feared. He that confesseth and forsaketh his sins shall find mercy. Clje ^reaHiil ^iekpse from €imi CHAPTER XIII. THE DREADFUL RELAPSE FROIT ETAM. ' But what availed this temperance, not complete, Against another object more enticing? What boots it at one gate to make defense, And at another to let in the foe ?" — JSamso7i. In the first three verses of the sixteenth chapter of Judges, we have a brief account of Samson's visit to Gaza, and of what befel him there. Then went Samson to Gaza, a city about sixty miles southwest from Jeru- salem, and only a few miles from Askelon. It is one of the oldest cities in the world, and is always represented in the Old Testament as a place of considerable import- ance. It was once a city of great wealth. The present town is beautifully situated on a hill, amidst gardens of olive and date trees. The houses are mostly of stone, but its inhabitants are poor. Its chief articles of trade are cotton and soap. The Hebrew term zonah, and its corresponding one in Greek, porjie, which is applied to the woman of Gaza, is a word of uncertain signification. Our word harlot is not a word of doubtful meaning, but the Hebrew zonah is not always its equivalent. There is nothing in the 238 THE GIANT JUDGE. history of Rahab that renders it probable that she was a woman of bad reputation. She entertained the He- brew spies, and afterwards became the wife of the Hebrew prince Salmon. Matt, i : 5. She was an inn- keeper. If the term zonah, then, was ever applied to her in a bad sense, it must have belonged to a previous period of her life, for there is no evidence, nor any probability that she was an abandoned w^oman at the time the Hebrew spies entered Jericho. Naturally, as strangers, and on a mission of so much peril and import- ance, they would seek a house of private entertainment, such as Rahab kept. The Chaldee calls the woman that Samson lodged with an innkeeper. Schleusner says the word may mean one that prepares and sells food, and receives strangers to entertain them. Some think it means an idolatress, because women that were idola- tresses were often of an abandoned character. And some contend that this Gazite woman w^as not the host- ess at all, but that Samson met her accidentally at the inn where he stopt. And it must be remembered, also, that in those times female innkeepers trafficked with their personal charms at the same time that they enter- tained travelers. The original for harlot is, then, not without difficulty; and it may be almost rash to hazard an opinion where there is a difFerence.between so many learned men. But in view of all the authorities within my reach, I conclude our translators are correct ; and consequently this woman was not Samson's wife, and his conduct at Gaza is a most painful specimen of imperfect morality, and full of warning. Truly there is no man so deep but he has some shallow place. WHY IS SAMSON IN GAZA. 239 The previous chaiDter is full of adventure, but the vicissitudes of our hero are by no means ended, though it is twenty years since his victory with the jaw-bone, and his deliverence from dying thirst at Lehi ; still we find trouble following trouble, and no loisdom gleaned from the past. His last years do not bear scrutiny as well as his earlier ones. Considering his mission, and his relation to the Philistines, it is difficult to understand his motives for going into one of their principal cities. It can hardly be supposed that his meeting with the Gazite woman was anything more than accidental. To see her could not have been the main purpose for which he went to Gaza. As he must have been well known, it is passing strange that he should have trusted himself in one of their strongholds, and then should have behaved so imprudently. How could one of his stalwart frame — whose name was a raw-head-and-bloody-bones in all the village stories of Philis^ia — and of Nazarite hair and beard, have expected to escape notice ? It was scarcely necessary for any one from Askelon or Timnath to have pointed him out. At all events, it was soon whispered in the streets of Gaza that Samson was come ; and, either because they did not know just where to find him, or being afraid to seize him at once, they set sentinels at the gates. They now felt sure that they had caged the lion, and Samson, though not where he should have been, was not insensible to danger. Aroused at mid- night by the whispering and gathering in the streets, and suspecting what was intended, he proceeds straight to the gates, and carries away the doors and posts upon his shoulders. The guards were either terror smitten, and not able to face him, or were asleep. They made 240 THE GIANT JUDGE. no resistance, and he seems to have had too much con- temj^t for the gate to kick it down, or too much refine- ment, for he Ufts it off by mere force, and lays it on his shoulders, and carries it away to the top of a hill towards Hebron. The doors of Bible lands are not shaped into an arch, nor fitted into the wall or facing as with us. They had not our hinges. The door fell into sockets below, and was fastened in a projecting bracket above. Such were the doors of Egypt and of the Holy Land. The sepulchres of the Nile and of Jerusalem are proof; and a knowledge of this fact explains the anxious inquiry of the devout women coming to our Lord's tomb, " Who shall roll us away the stone ? " That is, lift it out of the groove or socket. The great difficulty in opening such doors was their vjeight. Samson's strength must, there- fore, have been prodigious, since, according to the text, he lifted the heavy town gate, bars, brackets, beams, posts and all, and carried them to the toj) of a distant hill. The text does not mean that he carried the city gate all the way to Hebron, which was at least twenty miles from Gaza ; literally, " to the top of a hill which looketh towards Hebron ;" but we cannot now identify it. These brief historical notes- are perhaps sufficient to explain the text. Let us, then, pause with two histori- cal periods before us, and review our story from the top of the rock Etam, and from the top of the hill towards Hebron, where Samson put down the gate of Gaza. These two historic points comprehend twenty years of his life, and a review of them is a fearful warning to all fitful professors of religion, and to all backsliders. Here we. see a character great and marvelous for supernatural exploits, spoiled, through a spiritual relapse, and by SAMSON' cai:eyi::g aw at GATZS OF GAZA " Ard Ssmgon lay till miunight, ard r.ros at irif'^". Tit, rrd toc\ t^c c-oo^s of the jrate of tho city rL:'cn M3 ryicu^'J'.ors and carried U::m i:p to tlic top of an hill tlir.t is before Ilebrcn." Fasc 2'.0. Samson's mother inquiring. 241 inconsistencies. Remarkable as is the heroic age of Israel's judges, Samson is certainly the most remarkable of them all. And after all we scarcely get a clear view of his inner hfe. So thick and heavy are the clouds that hang over him, that if an apostle had not given him a place among spiritual heroes, we should have despaired of him altogether. It is true, however, and in this there is hope, that amid all his fearful backslidings, he never seems to have forgotten his commission against the Phil- istines. His conscience was kept faitliful to this behest by his own passionate hatred of them. But this is only another proof of God's sovereignty, which maketh the wrath of man to praise him, even as the appetite and relish for our food proves his wisdom and benevolence. It was not enough to make food nourish us ; God has made it agreeable to us. So he is pleased to make our duty and our interest in the long run lie in the same line. Duty is pleasure. While Samson dwelt in Etam, I take it there was a revival of grace in his soul. If so, it was a most criti- cal and deeply interesting period in his life. Suppose we climb up to the top of the rock, and from his retreat look back to the home of his innocent youth at Zorah, and inquire how his mother takes all these things. Ah, his mother ; is she yet aUve ? Then how many conflict- ing fears and hopes must have filled her mind ! Myste- rious and wholly inexplicable events have marked her son's life. She remembers well the angel's bright appearance, and how he rode up towards heaven on the smoke of their accepted sacrifice, as if it had been a chariot — and how earnestly she had been commanded to demean herself, and to bring up the child as one preem- K 242 THE GIANT JUDGE. inently consecrated to God, and to be a deliverer of the chosen people. She thinks over and over his strange fancy for the woman of Timnath, and how it was not at all agreeable to her and her husband, that he should many a PhiUstine, but that they submitted, hoping it was of the Lord. She is now, too, acquainted with the lion adventure, the bees, and the honey. She recollects the wedding ceremonies, feasting, and riddles, the divorce and the terrible tragedies at Askelon and at Timnath. She wonders how all this is to fulfill his mission. She hopes, as only a parent can hope ; a thousand times does she think over the past, and try to read the future ; a thousand times did she interrogate herself, saying, Can this be my Nazarite boy ? Are these things realities, or visions and dreams ? "Where are they all to end ? When will the mystery be explained ? O how I loved that child ! What great hopes I entertained of him ! If she had not been a mother of faith and principle equal to her comprehension and penetration of judgment, she could not have sustained herself under such trials. But what of the hero himself? Think you he retired in disgust from the hip and thigh slaughter? Or did he dwell in the top of the rock Etam for safety ? Or after the manner of the lion, having torn as many struggling victims as he could, did he leave them mangled and dying, and seek this solitary abode to gloat over his satisfied revenge ? Or did he go up to Etam sulky and proud, like Achilles to his tent on the JEgean shore ? Or like a wild Bedouin or Camanche, having revenged his wrongs, does he seek his mountain home, to scowl defi- ance upon his pursuers from his impregnable fortress ? There may have been a minghng of some of these feel- WHY HE DWELLS IX ETAM. 243 ings in his breast, when he went up to Etam ; but I think his purpose was to escape for a time from all worldly excitements. He was weary of the battle ? He felt his life to be a mystery. He was astonished both at his successes and his short comings. He saw the mighty power of God in his victories, and his goodness in his own deliverance. He wished, therefore, for a sheltered place — for a quiet and safe retreat for prayer and medi- tation. Impetuous as he was — tumultuous as his life had been — he w^as not thoughtless. He has not wholly escaped from the influence of his mother's early lessons, and his father's fervent prayers. He still feels that Nazarite vows are upon him, and though painfully con- scious of many sad foilures in duty, he has still a deep yearning of soul toward God, and an earnest desire to fulfill his mission, so as to secure the divine approbation. There is with him still space for repentance, and for renewing of his vows. In his retirement, conscious of his many failures, restless thoughts, " Like a deadly swarm of hornets armed," must have often rushed upon him. Piety, patriotism, and personal feelings were all working together in him to fulfill his mission. For we must not suppose that God's Spirit is easily discouraged, and departs wholly from a man when he falls once, or even several times, into sin. There is, indeed, a sin unto death, a sin for w^hich no prayer or sacrifice can avail, for wdiich there is no forgiveness. There is a point of rebellion beyond w^hich no pardon can be extended. God's Spirit does sometimes cease to strive wdth men. Ephraim may be left to his idols, because he would not leave them. Men may quench and grieve away the Spirit of God by which they might be sealed 244 THE GIANT JUDGE. to the day of redemption. But the general rule is, that God's long-suffering is as apparent as his sovereignty. He bears long with the children of men. The Holy Spirit does not abandon the sinner for a slight offense ; and sometimes we see a spiritual resurrection after many long years of apparent death. The good seed sown lies long under the cold snows that have fallen from the mountains, but it has not perished. Wordly entangle- ments and passions have bound it up like the pitched mummy cloths of Egypt ; but the seed still has the liv- ing germ within it ; and at last it springs up in the soul, and blooms into eternal life, it may be, long after the careful parent that sowed it in faith, and watered it with many tears, has entered into rest. Sometimes, also, we see the piety of youth reviving, and again budding, after it has seemed to have suffered a grievous blight, and even to have been uprooted forever. Dear parent, after all the frustration of your hopes — after repeated disappointments, hope on — never despair — the root to this very hour that you have planted and watered, though it be long in sjDrouting, may continue alive ; and yet, " through the scent of water it may bud." We shall do well, also, to remember that it is not without affliction that youthful piety is generally recov- ered after a relapse. The forcing heat of a furnace may be required, after years of decline, to make the tree " sprout again and send forth its boughs as a plant." It is not the mere scent of water, nor the ordinary shower, nor the ordinaiy gleams of sunshine, that can revive the plant and make it live in freshness. It is often only the furnace of affliction that can bring us back from back- slidings. SAMSON'S GRACIOUS EXPERIENCES. 245 I apprehend Samson's experience of grace was not miraculous. Believers in all ages are liable to tempta- tions and relapses. None of them are saints upon earth. The representative or official character of the judges, prophets and apostles is not to be confounded with their personal piety; and consequently, their experience as believers is to be considered as a fair ensample for us — their experience of the grace of God — their penitence and faith — their hopes and trials — are to be considered as if they were merely believers, and apart from their official characters. David and Paul as individuals be- lieved and repented, and were subject to like conflicts with ourselves. The same is true of Moses and Sam- son. When Moses killed the Egyptian, he fled to the wilderness. An undefined future lay before him. He followed his natural feelings, but was most graciously guided. There, in "meditative solitudes," he communed with God, and pondered over the condition of his coun- trymen, until the hour came for him to be commissioned to deliver them. And Samson in like manner, not find- ing his countrymen sympathizing with him — finding that they did not rally around him, and say, lead us against the Philistines ; the Lord is with you ; he has raised you up to be a judge in Israel, and an avenger of his people — ^ finding that they were so degraded that they would not second his efforts for their deliverance, and somewhat, no doubt, with the same kind of feelings that Moses had, when he broke the tables of the law — he betook himself to retirement in the rock Etam. I therefore conclude that then, in the beginning of the sixteenth chapter, does not mean that he went to Gaza, and made himself vile immediately after the great deliv- 246 THE GIANT JUDGE. erance God had wrought for him at Lehi. Surely a considerable time must have elapsed after such an expe- rience of God's goodness, before he could have fallen into such a quagmire. Then here seems to indicate that at or near to the end of his administration of twenty years, he went to Gaza, and soon after to Sorek. His exploit at Lehi awed the Philistines so that for some twenty years they were comparatively quiet. The time that intervened between Samson at Lehi and Samson fallen at Gaza, adds to his guilt, for he must now have been about forty years of age, and of a varied experience, and should have been more on his guard than to have fallen into the toils of the Gazite woman. In his fall, we see that besetting sins are deceitful and die hardly. They have as many lives as a cat. When we are ready to suppose them dead, a slight occurrence may awaken them to a vigorous life. In our narrative there is an ominous silence as to how Samson was employed for almost twenty years. All this time he did nothing. It is no wonder then that his inner man has fallen into con- sumption. And as is always the case, in the proportion that his spiritual life grew weaker and weaker, his sen- sual grew stronger and stronger, until his constitutionally besetting lust broke forth again, as a fire that has only been smoldering, when it was supposed to have bee^ extinguished. There is no truce in the Avar between the flesh and the spirit. The one or the other is prevailing. If the house of David waxes stronger, then the house of Saul grows weaker. And the reverse is just as true. Samson's inner life is no doubt the exact type of thou- sands now. Many suppose when they have experi- enced some special deliverances as Samson did at Lehi, HOW THE CITADEL IS TAKEN. 247 and have had some evidence of the grace of God, that their besetting sins are overcome ; when in fact, they have only retired, and are waiting in ambush just beyond gun shot, till an opportunity is presented, for them to return and take the fort by storm, as Samson's did with him at Gaza. It were well, to learn from Samson's sad experience to be on our guard against besetting sins, especially of the grosser kind. And there is the more need for watchfulness against the lusts of the flesh, because they are favored in their approaches to the citadel of the heart and conscience by many less constitutional sins, or sins less suspected of being so flagrant and vile, which, however, when indulged prepare the way for their return, and for their violent onset. In the presence of professed friends, the excitement of good feeling, your own self confidence, a sense of security, and obscuration of divine holiness, a faint view of God's law, and the strong plead- ings of nature within — then is the moment when consti- tutional sinful propensities arouse themselves with a fearfully increased fierceness. And it is just in this manner and by such slow approaches, and by such care- fully prepared entrenchments the heart is taken. Let all who fancy themselves secure, remember the dreadful warning of Peter — "that if after having escaped the pollutions of the world, through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning." The triumphing of Samson's baser passions at Gaza and Sorek was most certainly preceded by a decaying, consumptive state of his religious character. His piety had almost withered away before he went to Gaza. And 248 THE GIANT JUDGE. it is always thus. One sin leads the way to another. A decay of spiritual life allows greater liberty to the lusts of the flesh. Indolence, gluttony, worldliness, drunk- eness and the pampering of any of the lusts of the flesh are all of kin. They are links in the same hellward dragging chain. The entanglement is not perfected all at once. Absence from the prayer meeting follows the neglect of closet prayer. And a growing neglect of divine worship is followed by a want of relish for God's word, and by a listlessness or want of interest in religious matters, and by a greater degree of pleasure in worldly things ; and now the way is fully prepared for carnal nature to rise in rebellion, and with a fiercer frenzy be- cause of its long apparent quiescence or imprisonment, seize on the spoils. The course of backsliding is fear- fully rapid and agonizing in the end. Please read Eph. vi : 10-18 ; and Col. iii: 1-15. Let him that think- ETH HE STANDETH TAKE HEED LEST HE FALL. f |e iM Skp in §t\ik\'s lap. CHAPTER XIV. THE PATAL SLEEP IN DELILAH'S LAP. " At length to lay mj' head and halloAv'd pledge Of all my strength in the lascivious lap Of a deceitful concubine, Avho shore me Like a tame wether, all my precious fleeces, Then tura'd me out, ridiculous, despoil'd, Shaven, and disarm'd among mine enemies." Samson's Confession. From the fourth and foUowmg verses of the sixteenth chapter, we have Samson's next adventure. It is with a celebrated beauty of great historic interest, belonging to the vale of Sorek, which probably took its name from the brook that ran through it and fell into the sea near Askelon. This vale was rich and populous, and prob' ably occupied by the best class of the Philistines. The myrtle, the vine, acacia, oleander, olive, pomegran- ate and orange were familiar to the eyes of the beautifuj Delilah. Milton ignores the woman of Gaza altogether, nor is there any reason to believe she was Samson 'ts wife. But in all his love affairs there is a singular dis- regard for the daughters of his own people.* And this ♦ "Le foiblesse dd coeur de Samson, dans toute cette histoire, est encoi' plus etonnante que la force de son corps."— Calmei. 252 THE GIANT JUDGE. may be one reason why his " course of love " never ran smoothly. " He always matched improperly, and he was cursed in all his matches." His conduct now, how- ever, is the more mysterious, because he is no longer the young lover, " sighing like a furnace ; " but of mature years and experience — the same man who went down to Timnath some twenty years ago, as strong in muscle, but weaker in character. And though his enemies could not find out what constituted his great strength, they were not slow in discovering where his weakness lay ; and as ordinary measures had not enabled them to get the secret of his strength, they resolved to overreach him through his fondness for a woman of their own nation. Of Delilah's father and mother, education and pre- vious character, we know nothing. And I believe she is never mentioned in the Scriptures after her connec- tion with Samson. We do not know what became of her. The name Delilah is believed to signify humilia- tion^ bringing down to shame, that which humbles and debases. We are not able, however, to explain how her parents happened to give her at birth a name so truly significant and prophetic of the events of her life, that give her a place in the world's history. Were they under a prophetic impulse in giving a name to their child ? We are only sure of the historic fact. The names of the Bible are all, probably, descriptive or sig- nificant, as oriental names are still, and as all names were originally. The pictures of Dehlah usually represent her with auburn ha\r, fair complexion, medium stature, a bewitching eye and a voluptuous expression. Artists have no authority for such a picture, however, beyond ■WAS DELILAH HIS WIFE. 253 their imagination and the presumption of the record before us. We think our engravings of Delilah with Samson asleep in her lap, and as she appears when he is taken by the Philistines, both happily expressive of her character and surrounding circumstances. I have always fancied a striking resemblance between her and Queen Dido. Some have doubted whether Delilah was of Philistine parentage. Hebrew tradition and Josephus, however, assert that she was, and this I think the text implies. Some doubt, also, whether she was ever Samson's wife, or only his concubine. Milton considers her his second married wife, which seems to me most likely. It is true, however, she is no where called his wife ; and if she were his wife, it may be pertinently asked, why did he not take her home to his own house ? Though his married wife, as I think, she was chosen from wrong motives or upon corrupt principles. His choice was made in violent passion, rather than from prudence or out of regard to the religion of his fathers. As a Philistine, she belonged to a wicked and idolatrous people. The lord?, of the Philistines were the chiefs of their five principalities : Gaza, Gath, Askelon, Ashdod and Ekron. And though these principalities were consid- ered in most respects sovereign and independent, yet in their wars against the Israehtes they were generally, perhaps always, united. At this time they were con- federate against the Hebrew champion, and diligently watching for an opportunity to get an advantage over him. As soon, therefore, as they heard that Samson had formed an alliance with Delilah, they offered her a large bribe if she would get from him the secret of his 254 THE GIANT JUDGE. Strength. Each chief promised to give her eleven hun- dred pieces of silver, if she succeeded. Five thousand, five hundred pieces of silver was a considerable sum of money in those days. If these pieces, as it is probable, were shekels of silver, the sum was about three thousand dollars. The heathen are all superstitious. Even the Greeks and Romans, with all their enlightenment in philosophy and in the arts and sciences, were the slaves of terrible superstitions. The people of the East generally are given to charms, incantations, signs and omens. As Samson did not owe his extraordinary strength to the size of his body, the Philistine lords seem to have conjectured that it must lie in some amulet or charm, and that the supernatural power he wielded depended on his continued possession of some magical ring or word ; and that if they could in any way get this secret from him, then they could easily make him their pris- oner and put him to death. " And Delilah said unto Samson, Tell me, I pray thee, wherein thy great strength lieth, and wherewith thou mightest be bound to afiiict thee ?" " And Samson said unto her, If they bind me with seven green withes, that were never dried, then shall I be weak, and be as another man." Verses six and seven and to the twentieth, inclusive. I have nothing to say in defence of Samson's lying. It seems to me, after all that commentators have said in explaining the text so as to excuse at least in part his trifling with Delilah, that she was correct in saying to him that he told her lies. Yes, lies is the word, neither white nor little, nor over the shoulder ; but honest Eng- HOW FAR DELILAH WAS CORRUPTED. 255 lish lies. Nor need I explain how his soul was vexed unto death, for he is neither the first nor the last man whose soul has been vexed to death by an ungodly woman. Let us then at once attend to the enticement, the repeated temptation, the struggling of the strong man in the toils of an artful woman, and the success of the heguilement. I. The Philistine lords did not profess to wish to kill Samson, but only to hind him to afflict him; that is, according to the Hebrew, to humhle him, to bring hitn loiv. " Entice him," said they, " and see wherein his great strength lieth." Literally: For ivhat cause his strength is so great. Much as Delilah may have been to blame, I should think she did not intend to do all she did. She did not expect the consequences to be what they really were. She did not see the ultimate purpose of her seducers. Nor did she know that Samson would in fact be so powerless, and that they would tear out his eyes — those very eyes that gazed upon her in such rap- turous love — and load him with chains and carry him off to grind in the mills of Gaza. No; surely, if the proposition had been made directly in all its naked cru- elty, to kill him, or to maim him for life, as he lay in her lap, the offer of the eleven hundred pieces of silver would have been spurned. And is it not possible that she was jealous, or feared that he would prove fickle and incon- stant, as his sex too often do, and leave her; and that she designed that her countrymen should succeed against him, only so far as to impose some temporary restraint, and that thus she should be able to hold him securely the longer with her soft toils ? It were difficult to prove that she was not moved by some such 256 THE GIANT JUDGE. considerations ; and yet it requires a great deal of cour- age to affirm that she really loved Samson, and did not design to ruin him, but only the better to keep him near her. It is thus, however, the great j^oet represents her as pleading her cause before her eyeless husband in the prison. On the great principle that we must give to every one his due, it is necessary to allow Mrs. Delilah Samson the benefit of these suggestions. The cause of virtue and truth is never promoted by making Satan Uacker than he really is. In allowing her to plead as the great poet does, her love of country and devotion to her heathen god, and that she did not know the ruinous consequences to which her conduct would lead, we must not be understood as holding her blameless. The high- est authority has given the most truthful picture of the strange woman, whose ways are the chambers of death, and the going down to hell. The young have special need to be put on their guard against a class of writers who for the purpose of pulling down the pillars of society, and destroying the sanctity and blessedness of the mar- riage relation and of " the bed undeliled," as established by law and under the sanction of our holy religion, are continually praising the faithfulness and devotion oifree' love women, who are made saints or angels to the dis- paragement of lawful married wives. If there is one such, there are ten thousand as heartless, as mercenary, and as treacherous as Delilah, though they may not be heathen as she was. It was no doubt in reference to just this class of women, who are so much jDraised by some of our poets and popular essayists and eulogists of theatres, that the wise man said, recording his own bitter experience : " One man among a thousand have I found EXPERIMENTS WITH WITHES AND ROPES. 257 (upright and to be trusted) but a woman among all these have I not found." Ecc. vii : 28. If Solomon had kept better company, his experience would have enabled him to make a better record of womankind. The best excuse I can make for Delilah is, that out of curiosity" — the very same thing that is thought to have wrought such mischief with our first mother — she desired to experiment with her" husband, and find out the secret of his extraordinary strength, but expecting every time that he would be able to extricate himself from all difficulty — not believing it possible that his enemies could finally and fatally prevail against him. 2. " If they hind me" said Samson, " with seven green withes that were newly dried. Withes, according to the Hebrew here, may have been any kind of tough, pliable wood, twisted into ropes. The Septuagint says they were cords made of rawhide, and so the Vulgate, nervi- ceis funibus. It is probable the first cords or ropes used were thongs cut from rawhide, twisted and dried. Tugs are extensively used, even in our day, instead of iron chains, for drawing the plow, cart, harrow, and wagon in Africa, and many other parts of the world. I have seen ropes made of the fibres of the bogwood, in Ireland, and of young hickories, hazels, or oziers, in our South- ern and Western States. In India wild buffaloes and elephants when first caught are bound with green withes. When green they are exceedingly strong, but when dried they are brittle and good for nothing. New ropes, withes, and the sacred number, seven, seem all to have been suggested by his knowledge of their superstition, ideas of a charm, or spell, for such things were used in heathen incantations. The monuments show that flax 258 THE GIANT JUDGE. was used long before this time in Egypt, and ropes of hemp may also have been in use ; but those made of fibres of trees, or of switches, were not and are not still superseded. 3. Noio there were men lying in wait, abiding with her in the chamber, or rather hidden in the inner apartment, not present in the same room, who rushed out upon him, hut Saynson broke the withes as a thread of tow is broken when it toucheth the fire. So his strength was not known. The experiment with the new ropes resulted as the one with the new withes had done. But still Dehlah persists, and he tells her to weave the seven locks of his head with the web. Biblical scholars tell us this thirteenth verse ends abruptly, that it should be as the Septuagint has it, closing with directions how to fasten his hair, just as she accordingly does, as we are told in the next verse. This is certainly the sense. The seven locks probably means the seven divisions into which his hair was platted. As a Nazarite he was obliged to wear his hair long, and as a matter of comfort, it was necessary to weave it into locks, or distinct folds, and the number seven being sacred it was adopted. It was equivalent to all his hair. And she fastened it, that is, his hair in its seven fold form, to the loom, winding it about the yard beam, as is plain from the verses following. 4. This third experiment was a much more danger- ous one than the preceding ; it approached so near to his awful secret that we begin to tremble for him. He is now beginning to handle sharp edged tools. The circle is growing smaller and smaller with fearful rapid- ity! He tells his enchantress if his long locks were woven around the beam of the loom, he would be as HIS LOCKS IN THE LOOM. 259 another man. And she, to make the experiment more sure, fastened the web to the floor or wall with a pin. But as he was still possessed of the mark of his cove- nant with Jehovah, so the Philistines could not prevail against him. He dragged the whole loom, web, pin, beam and all by his hair. The monuments of Egypt prove that the loom was known before this period. Our engraving of an upright loom, copied from the monuments of Egypt, shows __ how Delilah could weave his locks to the loom, and fast- en them down to the floor. The looms of the East are still much more -simple and primi- tive than ours. But does Sam- son now arouse himself, and say, I have trifled long enough ? Away fair tempter, I cannot stay any longer on this dangerous ground ; I cannot sin against God, and do so wicked a thing as to betray my secret. Alas ! the woman's importunities prevail. " He told her all that was in his heart." So great was his infatuation that, like the moth, he approached nearer and nearer to the flame, until he was consumed by it. He told her of his wondrous birth and eventful life, and divine deliverances ; that he was a Nazarite, and that the preservation of his long hair was a test of his obe- dience, and a token of the divine presence to aid him rPRIGHT LOOM. 260 THE GIANT JUDGE. whenever opportunity presented for executing justice upon her countrymen ; and that if his hair were shaven he would be as another man, because by such a sin he would deprive himself of the divine power that was vouchsafed to him as long as he was faithful to his vows. She saw, by his earnest tone, and subdued and sincere manner, that he was no longer amusing her, but had actually told her the secret of his strength. But instead of being favorably impressed by this mark of his confi- dence, or moved from her satanic purpose of pressing her experiments by this proof of his honesty, and of his ardent love for her, she immediately took measures to betray him. Accordingly she makes such positive assur- ances to the Philistine lords that they are not to be trifled with this time, that they hurry up to Sorek with the money in hand. And she tells them that he has told me at last the secret of his heart, and they counted out the money. And sure enough, this time her plan succeeds, as I would fain hope, even beyond her own wishes. 5. And she made him sleep upon her knees. At noon, in the East, it is very hot, and the inhabitants are in the habit of taking a siesta. This short repose is usually taken by a son in the lap of his mother, or by a husband in the lap of his wife. The climate and fixtures of their domestic establishments are suited for such a luxury. The woman sits on a divan, or mat, or carpet, cross- legged, and the man lays himself down with his head in her lap, " and she gently taps, strokes, sings and soothes him to sleep." This is well represented by our artist in the engraving. And she called for a man, and caused him to shave off SAMSON SHAVEN AND AFFLICTED. 261 the seven lochs of his head. Most, if not all, the pictures I have ever seen of Samson in Delilah's lap, represent her with a pair of scissors, cutting off his hair with her own hands. This is altogether wrong. It may well be doubted whether scissors were then in use. It is, how- ever, well known that barbers by profession are nearly as old as the creation. They are found operating on the oldest monuments of the Nile ; and the monuments of the Tigris and Euphrates, as well as of Egypt, prove that wig wearing was very common in a very remote antiquity. The Arabian Nights and Oriental tales speak of barbers as belonging to an ancient and important profession. The embalming surgeon of Egypt seems to have been also a common barber. Our engraving of barbers operating is copied from the monuments of Egypt. While Samson sleeps, the bar- ber takes off his sacred locks. So skillful were the barbers of the East, that they are said to have been able to take off a man's BAKBEKs oppERATixG. ^gj^j,^ qj. j^^ir wlthout awakcnlug him — rather to have lulled him to sweeter sleep by the operation. 6. I do not understand Samson to say, in the seven- teenth verse, that his great strength existed essentially in his hair. All Nazarites had long hair, but they did not all possess superhuman strength, nor strength in propor- tion as their hair was long. Samson is not, therefore, to be understood as saying that his hair was essentially his strength, or that his strength was natural, but that his hair was the mark of his Nazai-ite relation to God, whose ?62 THE GIANT JUDGE. Spirit imparted to him his miraculous strength. He meant that his long hair was a proof of his obedience, and of his covenant with God, from whom he derived and would always derive strength so long as he was obedient to him. And consequently, if he were disobe- dient, and his hair were shaven, then the Nazarite vow that consecrated him to God would be broken, and God w^ould abandon, him, and he would become weak as another man. The secret was now out, and the plot was speedily executed. And she began to afflict him, and his strength went from him. This she did herself, before she called for the Philistines, to see whether he w^ere really weak now as another man. And though she is now convinced that he has lost his strength, she still probably thought it was only for a little time, and that in actual extremity he would recover it again. How deep must have been Samson's mortification ! How terrible his agony and disappointment, to find that he had broken his vows, and was indeed forsaken of God ! At first he w^as not conscious of his awful fall. " He awoke out of his sleep, and said I will go out as at other times before, and shake myself. And he wist not that the Lord was departed from him. But the Philis- tines took him and put out his eyes, and brought him down to Gaza, and bound him with fetters of brass ; and he did grind in the prison house." See engraving of the Philistines taking Samson. His sleeping was accursed, and more accursed his waking. " He that sleeps in sin must look to wake in loss and weakness." — Hall. There may be those who think that Samson could not have been so easily overcome. It is w^onderful that after he had been three times tried, and had found each time that HOW SAMSON WAS TAKEN. 263 the Philistines were lying in wait, within call, to come upon him, that he allowed Delilah to dally with him a fourth time, and then told her the real secret of all his strength. His infatuation was most extraordinary ; but inordinate and unlawful attachments of this kind have generally been found to be at the bottom of the most horrid and revolting deeds in the chronicles of strong men. Remember David, and beware of the weakness of human nature. But it is not to be supposed that we have here a full account of all the interviews or conversations that past between Samson and Delilah. He was a judge in Israel, and however Samsonian his passions may have been, it is not at all likely that he surrendered without a struggle. We know that she had to apply all her arts repeatedly. She watched for moments most favorable to her designs. She found out by what arts of- soft dalliance she could obtain the greatest influence over him. She resorted to every means of lulling his suspicions. He seems not to have known of the bribe, nor at first of her inter- course with his national enemies. And even after he found that she had the Philistines lying in wait to rush upon him, as soon as she fancied he had told her his secret, he was easily persuaded that it was all in jest. Perhaps she flattered him, and told him she loved to see him displaying his great strength, and making sport of the Philistines. Nor did he fall in a moment, nor in an hour. Doubtless several days, it may be weeks or months, intervened : time enough for his resentment to cool, or for removing his suspicions, and for her to ply all her arts of persuasion and blandishment. Once and again he visits Sor'ek, and every time she gains some 264 THE GIANT JUDGE. new point of influence over him. She conducts the siege with admirable skill. Every time she advances her rifle pits, and brings her sharp shooters nearer, until at last the strong citadel is completely invested. Simple minded and confiding as he was strong, he is at last sur- prised and taken. We have no record of his internal conflict, but the battle in his great soul must have been a terrific struggle before he yielded. There seems to have been less prudence, and not so much firmness as he displayed with his first wife. He gave his Timnite bride at first a flat refusal when she attempted to get his secret. But he had not courage to give a direct and emphatic no to Delilah at all. He tried to answer her by telling her to bind him with green withes and new ropes. And when the faithless wife thought she had succeeded, and said, " the Philistines be upon thee Sam- son," to her astonishment he was as strong as ever. And again she plied her arts, and succeeded in lulling his suspicions, until he told her all his heart, and said / have been a Nazarite unto God from my mother's womb. How are the mighty fallen ! What a confession to be made in the lap of Delilah ! What a sad commen- tary upon his education and youthful hopes ! Why did not the very utterance of such words arouse him to a sense of his shame ! Why did he not flee as for his life ! Strange that he was so infatuated that he did not even now, at this late hour, break away at all hazards from the enchantress. But it is just so now. He that departs from God hardens his heart and sears his conscience, and soon falls into the fatal habit of disregarding the warnings of his conscience and of God's word. To dally with Delilah is fatal. The only safety is flight. % §xwi ixm\ t\t f risoii Pill of ia^a. CHAPTER XV. A GUIST FROM THE PRISOX-JIILL OF GAZA. " In that tale I find The furrows of long thouglit, and drictl-up tears. Which ebbing, leave a sterile tracli behind, O'er which all heavily the jovimeyiug j-ears Plod the last sands of life— where not a flower appears.'" C'hilde Harold. When Josephus says 8am8oii was a prophet, lie means that he was raised up by a particular providence, and set apart to God's service as a Nazarite, and had an extraordinary commission from God for avenging his people : and not that he had any prophetic revelations. Such revelations were not made by him ; nevertheless he was a great teacher. In him we see the workings of human nature, and the deep strugglings of higher prin- ciples, both in prosperity and adversity. But he has fallen — sadly fallen through tiie fascinations of an un- godly, unprincipled woman. The temj^est that had so often before nearly made shipwreck of our giant judge, has at last stranded him on the beach. And scarcely was Christendom more convulsed at the fall of Sebas- topol, than was all Philistia at the capture of Samson. " The Philistines took him, and put out his eyes, and 268 THE GIANT JUDGE. brought him down to Gaza, and bound him with fetters of brass ; and he did grind in the prison-house." DeHlah's fourth experiment succeeded, perhaps, even beyond her expectations ; and when the Lord departed from Samson, instead of being able to carry away the doors of Gaza on his shoulders, he is now led thither a heli^less captive — blind and in chains. How sad the change ! but more humiliating far the cause of this change, than the ignominy of his external sufferings. Now the very arms that once wielded the heavy new jaw-bone with such terrible effect, and rent asunder the new cords and withes as burnt tow, are bound hard and fast in fetters of brass. An insulting guard of un- circumcised Dagon worshippers taunt and goad him along the weary road down to Gaza : Aha ! this is the way you carry off our doors from the city gate, is it ? Don't you wish you could find another jaw-bone ! Cow- ardly wretches ; but yesterday ten thousand of you could not stand before him, nor could you now, had he only been faithful to his God ! But such is always the way of transgression — such are always the consequences of departing from tlie living God. Those sacred locks that had been tenderly cherished by his mother, and hitherto so much cared for by himself, are left in Sorek, the spoils and the sport of a faithless woman and her accomplices in crime. His gait and bearing are not now as of yore. That head, so long adorned with glossy locks, sealing his birth-consecration to Jehovah, is now bald, and exi)osed to a Syrian sun. His steps, once so steady and so firm, are now feeble and tripping. The eyes, that once gazed upon the heavens in rapt devo- tion, and were wont to speak flames of love, or shoot PUTTING OUT HIS EYES. 269 forth the fire of anger, are now raj^less, never again to kindle Avith the light of the sun. Newly blind, he hob- bles along, not having yet learned how to walk without his eyes. How different his return from his defi^ant departure from the same city with its doors upon his shoulders ! And the Philistines put out his eyes. Y»"e are told that in Persia, it is the practice of the king to punish a rebellious city by exacting so many pounds of eyes, and that in fulfilling this order, his executioners go and " scoop out from every one they meet, till they have the weight required." Learned authors agree in saying that the common way of putting out the eyes among the Greeks and Asiatics, was, " by drawing or holding a red-hot iron before them." This awful custom is still known in Asia and Africa. Sometimes, but not usually, the eyes were cut out, and sometimes dug out with a dagger and carried to the king in a basin, after the man- ner of John the Baptist's head to Ilerodias' daughter. The evidence is full that such acts of cruelty were com- mon in ancient times. A nd sometimes, history informs us, the executioners ordered to destroy the eyes of prisoners were so careless that the prisoners were so butchered as to lose their lives under the operation. 3L Bonomi, in his "Nineveh and its Palaces," (p. 1G9,) furnishes us with a drawing from Khorsabad, tliat illustrates this savage barbarity. Our engraving is copied from the sculpture on the chamber of the palace of the king. The central figure is the king himself, and before him are three prisoners, the foremost one on his knees in a most beseeching attitude, and the other two standing behind in humble posture, begging for mercy. The 270 THE GIANT JUDGE. kin«j is thrusting? the point of his spear into one of the eyes of the suppliant before him, while with his left hand / he holds the ends of y cords fastened to the ^ iipperlips of the other captives, who are man- acled and fettered, and standing behind the one PUTTING OUT THE EYES. whosc cjcs arc about to be put out. The king is attended also by his cup- bearer and officers of state, bearing sceptres ; by a eunuch and the chief governor, or Rah Signeen. Who knows but that this is the history of king Zedckiah from II. Kings illustrated ? At least, in the picture we easily recognize his flite, and the putting out of Samson's eyes. And bound him with fetters of brass. The Philis- tines were so terribly afraid of Samson, that they not only put out his eyes, but bound him. Though his arms were now as feeble as any other man's, yet his bodily presence was to them as king Edward's skin and armor were to the border clans. They were determined that if by any means his strength should return to him, so that he should break the fetters with which he was bound, yet he should not have eyes to see how to use it. The brass of the text is copper, for as yet the factitious metal known to us as brass was not in use. We have ample proof, however, of the use of copper in remote ages for many purposes to which iron is now applied. COPPER CHAINS AND UTENSILS. 271 Ancient monuments show conclusively that chains, fet- ters, instruments for labor and for cooking, knives, axes, and vases, dishes and dice-boxes, hammers, chisels, adzes and hatchets, daggers, rings, prisoners' fetters and strong chains were all used by the ancients. Such articles and a bowl of bitumen overlaid with copper and a piece of lead, have been brought from the ruins of the Tigris and Euphrates, and are now in the British Museum. Those brought from Tel Sifx in ancient Babylon by Mr. Loftus,* seem to have been the stock in trade of a cop- persmith, whose forge was near by. Copper was used in ancient Egypt, where the art of hardening the points of their copper instruments seems to have been more perfectly known than it is in the present day. The obelisks of the Nile are covered with hieroglyphics, and yet they are so hard, that it is with great difficulty any inscriptions can be cut on them with our tools. The cutting of the French inscrij)tions on the obelisk set up by Louis Philippe in the Place de la Concorde, is in proof of this. We find the Israelites using copper abundantly in building the tabernacle. Though iron was not wliolly unknown to the ancients, it was not much used. It will be readily remembered, however, that the Bible speaks in several places of chains and fetter of brass (copper.) See, particularly, Psalms xlix : 8 ; 2 Kings xxv : 7, and the history of Manasseh and Hezekiah. Mr. Layard thinks the fetters of the prisoners at Nineveh were of iron, but it is generally conceded that the mon- uments prove that those of Egyptian prisoners were of * Loftus' Travels and Researches in Babylonia and Snsiana, p. 269. Layard's Nineveh— passim. 272 THE GIANT JUDGE. copper. Mr. Loftus thinks that the Chaldeans were a colony from Egypt. The best authorities, as we have seen, agree that the Philistines were of Egyptian origin. It were a deeply interesting subject, but one that does not come within my present purpose, to trace out from ancient history and the readings of recent discoveries, the striking similarities that exist between the ancient Egyptians, Assyrians and Philistines. Modern re- searches and discoveries all tend to corroborate the unity of the human races, and their dispersion from a com- mon cradle, according to the tenth and eleventh chapters of Genesis. I think this is the first time the Bible speaks of put- ting out any one's eyes. And the first time that we have mention made of a prison since the record of Pha- raoh's round house, in the history of Joseph. The sculptured records of the East prove, however, the great antiquity of the usages referred to in the text. The ancients were in the habit of keeping some of their prisoners to grace a great feast or triumphal procession, and in the mean time of heaping upon them every pos- sible insult and cruelty that life could bear. In Southey's Brazil we have an instance which, perhaps, illustrates more accurately the treatment bestowed upon Samson by the Philistines than any other given by the books. A prisoner was tried and then commanded to jump, while his captors " laughed and shouted, saying, see how our meat is jumping. He asked if this was the place where he was to die. No, his master replied ; but these things were always done to prisoners. Having seen him dance, they now ordered him to sing ; he sung a hymn. They bade him interpret it, and he said it was SAMSON GRINDING AT THE MILL. -Eyeless in Gaza at the mill with slaves, To griud iu l^razeu fetters under task." CRUELTIES OX PRISONERS. 273 in praise of God. They then reviled his God; and their blasphemies so shocked him that he admired in his heart the wonderful indulgence and long-suffering of God towards them." It is well known that the Indians of America delight in such cruelties. They inflict wounds on their prison- ers, and treat them in the most cruel manner, that they may see how much courage they have, and enjoy their writhings of pain. Sometimes the prisoners are made to run the gauntlet, or to dance and sing through the most exquisite sufferings from wounds or from the slowly consuming flames, until death releases them. The history of the " Oatman Family," recently pub- lished, is a thrilling illustration of their barbarous treat- ment of prisoners. Such, doubtless, was the spirit and manner of the Philistines with Samson. In the mean time Samson is not only bound, but made to grind at the mills as a slave, and as a slave of the state. His condition was in every respect a most painfully aggravated one — much more so than if he had been reduced to servitude in a private family, whose self-interest, if no higher motives were found, would prompt them to mild treatment. Here is the original of imprisonment at hard labor. I presume this is the first instance of penitentiary labor on record, and I think it is the only instance in the Bible of imprison- ment and hard labor united. The oriental custom with prisoners Avas either a summary execution, when not reserved for a triumph, or condemnation to perpetual servitude. From Lam. v : 11 and Isa. xlvii : 2, it ap- pears that the Chaldeans made such of their Hebrew captives as they wished especially to degrade to grind in 274 THE GIANT JUDGE. the mill. Herodotus says that the Scythians put out the eyes of all their prisoners of war, and made them milkers of their cows. Probably they considered blind slaves better for milking, and for grinding, somewhat as we put a blind horse, or a blind-folded one to turn the wheel in sawing wood, and for the performance of like rotary work. See Melpomene cap. 2, and Kitto's Illus- trations, p. 417, etc. In Zanzibar and Eastern Africa, as well as in por- tions of Asia and on many of the islands of the sea, this kind of primitive mill and the mortar are the only instruments in use for grinding. The Cassada root, ground or pounded, is the staple food of the poorer classes. The mill consists of two flat circular stones, some two feet in diameter. " The one is convex, hav- ing a hole through which the grain passes, and is sup- ported upon the other, which is concave, by a firm peg. To the upper stone is affixed a handle, by which it is kept revolving by two women sitting on opposite sides of the mill." (Osgood's Notes, p. ^1Q>.) So necessary was the mill considered in a family, that according to the law of Moses, " no man shall take the nether or the upper millstone to pledge, for he taketh a man's life to pledge." That is, his life and that of his family depended on his having a mill by which to pre- pare their bread. The same law substantially prevails among us. The constable cannot take by a suit at law the miner's tools, the farmer's plough, nor the mechanic's saw and chisel. The prophet expressed the utter desolation of Baby- lon by saying : " The sound of the millstone shall be heard no more at all." That is, it shall become a mass DIFFERENT KIND OF MILLS. 275 of ruins. The means of subsistence shall wholly cease. This prophecy has been literally fulfilled. All that is now to be seen in the marshes and by " the standing pools " of Babylon, are ruins, a solitary traveller and a few flitting, robbing Bedouins. . Mills are probably as old as looms, and both go back to remotest times. Hand-mills resembling those of the most ancient monuments are still in use in China, Africa and the East generally. Our engraving is a correct picture of such mills. Grain was first prepared for bread probably by boiling it and then bruising it in a mortar. The mortar and pestle are still in use among the abo- rigines of this continent for pounding or grinding acorns and grain into meal. And the opinion prevails among not a few, that meal obtained in this way is sweeter than that ground in our common mills. The Anglo-Saxons of an early period used the same kind of mills that are found in the East, and this may be another proof of what Dr. Prit chard affirms in a recent work, the Asiatic ori- gin of the Celts. The first mills were probably turned by women, slaves and prisoners, and in process of time by oxen and donkeys, and then by wind and water, and now by steam. Several allusions are made in the Bible to women grinding at the mill which are explained in the custom just described. The Philistines designed by making Samson grind at the mill to show their vin- dictive contempt for him. In making him grind with women and slaves for their sport, they also made him work for us. For his eventful history helps us to under- stand somewhat more fully the awful verities of God and the sublime teachings of a world to come. Blind and grinding at the mill — a close prisoner and in tern- 276 THE GIANT JUDGE. ble suffering, lie is entitled to our deepest sympathies. His condition is a deeply impressive illustration that the Scriptures of God speak truth in warning us that if we sow to the flesh, we shall of the flesh reap corruption — a harvest of sorrow. Every step of Samson's life warns us of snares in which our own feet may be taken. Along the line of his dark passage from a religious edu- cation and early piety, till we find him " Ej'eless in Gaza, at the mill with slaves !" a prisoner in the temple of the heathen fish-god, there are many points where we should ruminate ; and as we look through the window upon his gloomy cell, and hear the shouts of derision in the streets, our gratitude should be excited for the preventing grace of God that has made us to differ. In following him there are many sharp turns and dark windings and slippery places, where we have great need of the light of the sanctuary to keep our own feet from falling. I. In Samson's history we see the wonderful forbear- ance of God, notwithstanding his misuse of great mercies and of supernatural strength. Though he has often fallen, and his life thus far sadly disappoints us, still he was not powerless till he gave up the secret of his strength. Strange, that at his time of life, when the fires of youth should at least have so far cooled down as to be under the control of reason, he should go from Gaza to Sorek. But he was not an exception to the rule, that " because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil." With Samson, as with AGGRAVATION OF SAMSON's FALL. 277 men now, success made him confident and careless in sinning. Continued prosperity in evil-doing is frequently assumed to be a tenure in perpetuity of the blessings which are thus abused ; whereas such abuses enhance every moment the guilt that will be all the more terrible in its results because the judgment has been delayed. Samson's consecration to God before his birth; — his birth twice heralded by an angel; — his early and most careful religious training; the prayers, sacrifices, and pious ho^DCs of his godly parents ; and God's grace given to him in his youth, and all the miraculous strength he had received — all his experience of divine power and goodness through an extraordinary life, only enhanced his guilt, and gave poignancy to his grief as we see him at Gaza. The light of nature accuses all men of sin, so that they are without excuse ; but Samson's sins were the more aggravated because they were committed after repeated warnings and singular deliverances. He sin- ned against the seventh commandment, and under the historic light of signal vengeance upon the nations of old for their uncleanness. He could not have been ignorant that it was for licentiousness the world was destroyed by a flood, and the Canaanites accursed, and twenty-three thousand of the children of his own people had been slain, leaving their bones to bleach on the sand on their way up from Egypt. But if we see the wonderful for- bearance of God in Samson's history — what shall we say of the divine patience in our own ? Except the power to perform miracles, we have as much as he had to enhance our responsibilities. The greater the degree of gospel light that shines on us, the more is our obligation increased, and our guilt augmented, if we are disobedient. 278 THE GIANT JUDGE. Instead of Nazaritlsh vows, we are under solemn baptis- mal obligations, which extend over our whole term of life. Samson's long hair was the sign or test of his obe- dience. So is our baptism. Dear reader, are you sure you are not guilty of wiping away the sacred drops by which you were publicly dedicated to God, as Sam- son was shorn of his locks by disclosing the secret of his strength ? Have you not at the age of maturity refused to confirm the confession of faith and vows made in your behalf at your baptism by your parents ? And are none of you still wearing the outward badge of your covenant with God, who are living" in known sin ? Do you not remember that as baptised persons you are under solemn pledges " to crucify the flesh with its affections and lusts, and to live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present evil world ?" II. Samson lost his great strength in an unconscious manner. His frame was not convulsed when the barber removed his locks. No sobs revealed the fact that he had become as another man. He slept on just as other men sleep, but when he awoke, he is as other men, sav- ing that he is now more degraded. When the Philis- tines come upon him he finds himself really as weak as other men, and was soon overpowered. " Even as a dove, whose wings arc clipped for fljing Flutters lier idle stumps, and still relying Upon licr wonted refuge, strives in vain To quit her life from danger, and attain The freedom of her air-dividing plumes; She struggles often, and she oft presumes To talvC tlic sanctuary of tlic open fields; But, finding that her hopes are vain, she yields — Even so jioor Sainson."— /See Quarle$ in Ki(to,p. 413. TIT. Samson\^ history is a pictorial of the progressive HIS SOUL IN CONSUMPTION. 279 dowwnard tendencies of sinning. Glorious were the hopes of his infancy. Brightly shone his morning sun in the camp between Eshtaol and Zorah ; but soon he is astray at Timnath, and then repentant on the toj) of Etam, then sinning at Gaza, but deHvered by the great mercy of God, but only delivered to go to Sorek, and to fall a victim to Delilah's fascination. And in his case, too, we see that the j^^'ogress was made through the senses, and that the organ of sense chiefly oifending was made the chief sufferer. He went down to Timnath and saw a woman that pleased him. His eyes led him astray. But as yet, though smitten, he can hardly be said to have begun his wayward course, for he goes and consults his father and mother about the woman. But time for deliberation and the indulgence of his parents only strengthens his passion for the maiden. From seeing her he talks with her, and his parents talk for him, and at last he is married, but he does not regain paradise by marrying a PhiKstine. For a good while we know but little of him ; doubtless he has found much to regret, but still is far from being established in grace, for by and by we find him very unexpectedly at Gaza, in a most shameful career of guilt ; and when delivered by supernatural strength, he is delivered only to go and involve himself more deeply than ever with another Philistine woman. Truly his conduct almost paralyses our attempts at explanation. No doubt his overt acts of sinning were preceded, as is always the case with backshders, by a gradual and secret consumption of his inner life. Our surprise is not so much at his shameless fall in Gaza, as at his back- sliding so rapidly as to allow himself to fall at Sorek so 280 THE GIANT JUDGE. soon again after his miraculous deliverance from the Gazites. But the stupifying and hardening process and deceitfulness of a course of sinning is seen, also, in his gradual approach to ruin in sporting with Delilah. There was a sort of " method in his madness," but all tending to his fall. He tells her to bind him " with seven green withes," as thou gli jestingly he had said, bind me with a straw, you know I am so fond of you, you can do anything you wish with me. And when he tells her to weave the seven locks of his head, we find him sporting with sacred things. Now it is plain he is lost. His enchantress is within the guards ; the sentinels are all past ; a little more cunning and perseverance, and she wins. " She has allured him to the brink of the precipice, where his senses reel and sicken, and get to be quite useless, and as good as abandoned him." As he decayed in spiritual life, so the Lord departed from him. But like most miserable backsliders, he was surprised that the Lord had really forsaken him. He fancied he could have proceeded with perfect impunity to such extremities. He was not prepared to find himself forsaken. But his experience soon convinced him that he had not only lost the graces and gifts with which he had been endowed, but as he struggled and fell under the rude grasp of his blood-thirsting enemies, he finds that the Lord had indeed departed from him. And, doubtless, if we could read the inner history of thousands of living men who are ful- filling the lusts of the flesh and of the mind, we should find that their departure from the principles of their pious education liad been quite accurately typified in Samson's downward course. There is something alarm- ing and mournful in the fact that the pious resolutions THE AVORLD's greatest UNIVERSITY. 281 of many men, and the feelings of tlieir early years, will not be awakened till tliey are on a death bed, or at the judgment seat of Christ. "We are prone to forget that strength of character in evil or in good is a growth^ and may be a slow and imper- ceptible growth. The oak is called the monarch of the forest, but it is not of mushroom growth. First the acorn sprouted, the tiny leaf appeared, the rains bathed it, the winds rocked it, the sun gladdened it ; and as it grew its capacities enlarged, and its arms were stretched out for more air, and dew, and sunshine, and its roots went down deeper into the earth, to draw up from thence the necessary sustenance and support. Frosts and snows became as efficient educators as light, and air, and dew ; and after many changing seasons of day and night, cold and heat, sunshine and storm, the tree was crowned monarch of the forest. And so it is in the education of our children. Their development is by degrees ; their mental and moral powers are a growth as Avell as their bodies ; and all the discipline and educators of the world in which they live are necessary to give them strength and beauty. They must be cared for and protected — they must receive discipline and culture from misfo - tunes as well as from success. They will have to pass through long dreary days as well as through bright and joyous ones. Books and men, persons and things, the whole Hving world of art and of nature, is constantly giv- ing them lessons. And more than everything else, the example of their own parents and immediate associates. The fireside is the world's greatest university. The great masses of mankind do not receive the honors of a col- lege, but all are graduates of the hearth. The learning 282 THE GIANT JUDGE. of the books and the lectures of university halls may molder and rust in the storehouse of memory, but the simple lessons of home, enamelled upon the years of childhood, defy the decay of years. In attempting to clean and restore an old 2:>ortrait, it sometimes happens that a brighter picture is revealed beneath the old one. So it may be with youth and manhood. The first pic- ture on the canvass is the one drawn in our tenderest years, and though it may be covered over by others, it is imperishable ; and as time ripens, and we approach nearer to eternity, it will shine through the outward picture, and perhaps wholly eclipse it. Early impres- sions are the strongest, and the last to fade from the memory. The home fireside is the greatest institution God has furnished for the education of our race, and his truth is the most powerful agent for enlightening and forming the mind. We have said before and we repeat it again, it is upon FAMILY CULTURE AND TRAINING, morc than anything else, we place our hope for the future of our country. Corruption is the plague of Republics. It makes them weak, and then they fall an easy prey to a military des- pot. Nor is any system of mere morality and civiliza- tion sufficient to stand against the corrupting influences of wealth segregated from Christianity. History also proves, beyond cavil, that it is not enough to cry out against corruption when it comes. It is then too late. Demosthenes did this. Cicero did the same ; and yet both Athens and Rome perished. Resistance was made too late. The only effectual stand that can be made against it is in the nursery. Our homes must be the TRAINING PLACES OF VIRTUE AND RELIGION. The PJELUCTANCE TO GIVE UP THE LAST HOPE. 283 mother and the father must be the great teachers of the household. The father must raaintam discipline and morality, and the mother must instil the sweet lessons of pious sentiments, and of stern morality amidst a corrupt- ing and sensual age. When all our wives are " chaste, keepers at home," and thorouglily awake to their high behests as the mothers of the model Republic ; and instead of fluttering in silk for public admiration, make it a paramount duty to teach their sons the principles of honor, patriotism, and integrity, then we shall underwrite with confidence the perpetuity of our liberties. Then as patriots and friends of the Great Redeemer, we must increase our contributions and personal efforts to advance true religion in the w^orld. We must not sit still in inglorious ease until the ruins of our distinc- tive institutions bury us and the hopes of mankind invested in us. We must be up and at the powers of avarice, prejudice, selfishness, ignorance, and irrehgion. No time is to be lost. While we sleep the enemy sows tares ; and besides, the day is far spent already, and the night cometh when no man can work. IV. Once more, the downward course of the Hebrew judge illustrates our reluctance to give up the last badge of our Nazarite consecration. We find him disgustingly in dalliance with sin, and yet keeping, as it were, to the very last moment the outward sign of his covenant rela- tion to God. His vows were for life. But in those cases where the Nazarite covenant v.'as for a limited period of life, the expiration of that period w^as signalised by shaving the head. When Samson, therefore, told his religious secret, he took the formal step to separate him- self wholly from his God. Long since his heart had 284 THE GIANT JUDGE. fearfully backslidden, but the foi-m of liis religion he still held to with dogged pertinacity. The substance of his covenant he had long since lost, but the seal of it he now throws to the devil. I do not wonder, children of pious parents, that you are unea.-y if living in sin under such vows as rest upon you. Nor do I wonder that you are reluctant to part with the last lochs that bind you to the God of your fathers. But beware, I beseech you, of sceptical books, licentious pictures, scoffing companions and of the strange w^oman. Forsake not the house of God. Cleave to your mother's Bible. Once you begin the way of the backslider, you will find it is upon " slip- pery places," and that every step becomes more and more slippery, and the precipice darker and deeper. " The mind that broods o'er guilty woes Is like the scorpion girt b}' fire,— So writhes the mind remorse hath riven, Unfit for eartli, undoomed for heaven ; Darkness above, despair beneath. Around it flame, within it death." We hope Samson was saved from Satan's snares, but it was as a brand plucked from the burnings — saved as by fire. Shame, remorse, unavailing regret, resentment at Delilah's baseness, and a crushing sense of the dishonor he had brought upon religion, were quite enough to make a purgatory for his soul. It is here and in this world the torturings of the impenitent begin. The giant judge is now a flaming beacon on the brow of ruin. Eyeless and grinding like the vilest slave ; but liis bodily suffer- ings and his disgrace are nothing to his mental anguish. The pains of hell got hold of him. Beware, O beware of the Justs of the flesh, which " Weave the winding sheet of souls, And lay them in the urn of everlasting death." ®|)e Jfiitiil Contest aii^ Crajjeitg. CHAPTER XVI THE I'INAL CONTEST AND TrvAGEDY. " All the contest is now 'Twixt God and Dagon. This day tlie Philistines a popular feast Here celebrate m Gaza ; and proclaim Great pomp, and sacriflce, and praises loud To Dagon, as their God :— "With sacrifices, triumph, pomp and games. Of gj'mnick, artists, wrestlers, riders, runners, Jugglei's, and dancers, anticks, munmiers, mimicks. Samson is dead. How died he ? deatli to life is crown or shame. ' ' MiUon. In verses twenty-one and thirtietli, inclusive, of the sixteenth chapter of Judges, we have a remarkable trag- edy upon a feast — a tragedy, however, not as is often the case at feasts, from the fiends that lurk in the wine cups ; but as a judgment of God upon Dagon and his followers, in vindication of his prime minister and for the deliver- ance of his people. At the beginning of this great feast the Israelitish judge was in a sad plight. His eyes have been put out, and loaded with brazen fetters he is made to grind at the mill. And yet it were better for him to be thus employed than to have liis eyes and lie in Deli- lah's lap. Better for him to be grinding at the prison mill in Gaza, than to be in Sorek. He was more bhnd 288 THE GIANT JUDGE. with his eyes in Delilah's lap, than he was without them in the prison — a greater slave when he served her than when he ground meal for the Philistines. He saw not his sins, till he had no eyes. Then he began to receive the true illumination. Then he began to repent, and as he repented and was forgiven, his strength began to return to him. " God chasteneth us as sons. He loveth us bleeding ;" and when we have smarted enough, we shall feel his loving-kindness. There was a just retribu- tion in putting out his eyes, for they were the instru- ments of his sinning. It was the lust of the eye that led him astray. But now this organ will lead him no more into temptation. Howheit the hair of his head began to groio again, after it was shaven. It was natural that his hair should grow again, but as the mere hair of his head did not constitute essentially his superior strength, so we must look for his power in the coming conflict to a supernatural source. He lost his strength because by losing his hair he had put himself out of his " condition of Nazariteship." He had violated his birth consecration. By disobedience he lost his strength ; but by sovereign mercy, the grace of repentance is given to him ; and as his hair grows, which was natural, so his strength returns, which is super- natural, and returns in the proportion that he increased in grace, and was restored to the divine favor. Con- vinced of his gi'eat sin in this whole affair — sensible of his weakness and folly — again in his right mind, peni- tent and earnestly imploring forgivness, and renewing his vows with a deeper sense of his own unworthiness and dependence upon almighty grace than ever before, he is again at peace with God. But the wretched Phil- istint'.s knew nothing of alj tlii^^. Tjicy k;iw not the strug- glings of his great soul, and were ignorant of the growth of his^ inner life. They were incapable of appreeiating his anguish of .'Spirit, cAcn if thf^y perceived it. And it is even so now; tiic life of a true beliCverisin part hid- den ft-om the world. His principles, joys and sorrows, hoi)es aiid fears, the men of the world do not under- stand, neither can they, ibr they arc spiritually diiscerned. Samson is now chiefly concerned wiCii his own heart. The loss of his eyes, and the labor of turiihig the mill, and the gibes and coarse laughter of his old enemies were nothing to liini, in c.om[)arison witli his soul's conflict. He heeded not the outer world. His wlioie soul is now intent on reeoveriu-g God's i'a\'Oi'. And as he grew in true repentance and re-d€votement_j so his &trengtli l)egan to return to hirn, and his liair which was the sign of his covenant wdth God and of his hold upon omnipotent power began to grow also. In his recovery, therefore, we have a correspondence between the outvrard sign and the inw^ard grace. The progressive growth of his hair intimates his frogressivQ re[>€ntance towards God, and his growth in the divine favor. As his recovery pro- gressed, his meditations in his gloomy cell and in his toil at the prison mill must ha^^e been exceedingly varied and his feelings intense — now of self reproach, and then of hope ; nov^■ of keenest grief, and then of riyoicirig in the overpow^ering sense of divine foi*giveness, and in the da waning hope, that y^t he shoidd be able to signalise in some remarkable way the termination of his mission a^ a deliverer of Israel. His experience in his dreary dark- ness and almost hopeless drudgery, must have Iseen like his life in general, an extraordinary one. \\ is not tbi- '2\jO the til ant judge. US to picture out the tumults, dcspairiiigs and liopcs, and at last rejoicings of his soul. It was doubtless with him as it is with believers now ; all his mere reasoning failed, and he was compelled to seek refuge in the precious promises of him that is able and willing to forgive us our sins, if we confess and forsake them. For the blood of his son Jesus Christ cleanseth us from all sin. II. But wicked as the Philistines were, they were a rehgious people, according to the religion of their nation. " Then the lords of the Philistines gathered them together, for to offer a great sacrilice unto Dagon their god, and to rejoice ; for they said, Our god hath delivered Samson our enemy into our hand. "And when the people saw him, they praised their god ; for they said, Our god hath delivered into our hands our enemy and the destroyer of our country, which slew many of us." Some think the nanie of this Philistine god, Dagun, is from a Hebrew word that signifies corn or wheat, and that Dagon was therefore the Syrian god of husbandry. PJdlo-Biblius in the translation of Sanchoniathon, says expressly that Dagon means Siton, the god of wheat. And that as the Hebrews have no feminine names to signify goddesses, Dagon is equivalent to Ceres, the hea- then goddess of agriculture and plenty. It is at least curious that Ceres is represented on some medals of Syracuse as part fish. And an Eg}^ptian medal repre- sents the goddess of i)lenty, as a woman with a cornu- copia in her hands, Avitli tlie tail of a fish, and feet of a sea calf or crocodile. Others maintain that the Philis- tine Dagon was the Saturn, the Jupiter or the Venus of the Greeks. There is a great variety of opinions on tlie THE SEA «3^0D OF ASIA. subject, and also as to the exact form of the god Dagoii. Berosus says that Oannes had a fish's body, a human liead, and a human foot. It is probable tliat Oes and Oannes are one and the same, and that Oannes is Da^oii, who according to tradition was originally a monster that came out of the Red Sea. It is quite certain that an ancient fable related that Oannes, who was half a man and half a fish, came to Babylon and taught the arts, letters and astronomy, and afterwards returned to iha sea, and that he was called Odacon, that i,s O Dagon, the Dagon, the great fish. Is this the symbolic history of the colonization of Babylonia from Egypt — the com- ing up of people from the overflowing Nile by the way of the Red Sea, who brought with them a degree of civili- zation then unknown on the Tigris and Euphrates ? I: is very probable. Or if this is not the true explanation, is this fiible the story of Jonah in a heathen dress, Baby- lon beirig substituted for Nineveh, and preaching repen- tance, after the iiiamier of some modern preachers Jiot so far away as Babylon, made to mean teaching the arts, and sciences ? Or are all these traditions and fables derived from some crude sto- ries of Noah and the ark that floated over the valley i>AGON. of tjjg Euphrates, and were then carried east and west from the plains of Shinar ? The god described by Berosus is to be seen in a bas-relief of Khorsabad i-epresenting a naval engagement or the siege of a city on the sea coast. The figure is placed ^92 THE GIANT JUDGE. among the fi.sli. (See our engi-aving.) The cap whicli is siiriiionnted by a flower in shape like the fleur-de-lis, signifies the sacred character of the image. The right Imnd is I'aised after the manner of the representation j* of the "winged deity. The same figure is frequently found on Assyrian gems and cylinders. The entrances vf two doorways at Nimroad discovered by Mr. Layard, arc formed by two colossal bas-reliefs of Dagon, or the fish-god, as in our engrav- ing. These figures are large and combine the human shape with that of the fish. The head of the fish forms a mitre for that of the man, while its scaly back and fanlike tail fall as a cloak behind, exposing in front the human legs and feet. TJiey bear the sacred em- blems, the basket and the cone. Such figures are found also on antique cyl- inders and gems from Khoi-- sabad and Nimroud, th(^ originals or casts of which are now in the British mu- seum. Mr. Layard has •"fSr' also in his possesion a fine Assyrian agate with the same figure entire cut upon it. " Colonel Rawlinson says he has read the name Ba- r/on among the gods of Assyria in the cuneiform inscrip- TIIE FISn-GOP. DAG ox AiiOXO; HKATHEN AUTUOKS. 293 tioiis." The proof is then complete that there \vsls such a god in Asia Miilor and Assyria. The Dagon of the Phihstines evidently resembles the figures of the Assyr- ian sculptures and cylinders. If y.^e had no other proof, the discoveries of Mr. Laj-ard and of his co-iaborers establish the fact that the y/orship of such a god as Berosus describes, who is the god of the text and of 1 Samuel (v : 4) prevailed in Mesopotamia and Chaldea and the country of the Philistines. Aft(^r very careful examination of all the authorities Avitliin my reach, I am coniident there is notiiing in the text that is not abundantly sustained by ancient history and recent discoveries. The most probable derivation of tlie name Daaon is from Bag, a fish. Some heathen writers seem to have spoken of the same god under the name Dereeto, and some by the name Astarte. At least they have ascribed the same form and attributes to a divinity knovv^n by each of these names. According to Lucicin^ this god was iirst a fish with i\, man's head, and then with a woman's head. Diodoriis Siculus" says this god hafj " the head of a vroman, and all the rest of the 1,'ody was like a fish."^ Milton, both in liis Paradise Lost and in Samson Agonistcs makes Dagon " a sea-idol," part man and part fish. There is a well known passage in Plorace's Art of Poetry, which I have not a doubt is an allusion to the idea then prevailing of this sea-god 1 Liician de Dca. SyriCi. 2 Diodorus Sicu!u.«, lib. ii. 3 The learned Calmet says the same: " Dcshict in piscGiii imilicv formo'^.i supeme." Consult also Seldeii de Diis Syris, c. 3, dc Dagonc. '/"he fragments of Berosus referred to may be seen in Cory's Fras^monts : p. 30, as preserved by Apollodorus. See also Bcjr's coiiimeiitary and AbarJjanel's on 1 Samuel: J.ayard's Xincveh and its Jlemains, English ed. vol. ii, p,4oi'), 7. Also Layurd's Di-^covevics, second expedition, Xew York cd. p. 344, etc. 294 THE OTAXT JUDGE. Dagon. Supposing, sajs he, a painter join a human liead to a hor.se's neck ; or, in Francis' translation : " Or if he gave to view a beauteous maid Above the waist, -witli every charm array'd, Sliould afoul fish her lower parts infold, A^'ould you not ssiiilc siicli pletures to l>chold ?" Nor should we forget the fact in [)roof of this fish-god's worlliip on the eastern sliore of the Mediterranean, that there were at least two cities in Palestine, called Beth- Dagon, that is, the house or temple of Dagon. Joshua XV : 41 ; xix : 27. One Avas in Judah and one in Asher. It appears in the text that the captivity of Samson was to the Philistines a proof that their god had gained the victory over his God. And in 1 Sam. iv : 7 and v : 2, they are found indulging in the same exultation, confi- dent from the ark having fallen into their hands, that Dagon was superior to Jehovah. In hke manner the Assyrians, 1 Kings xx : 28, fancy that they had been defeated because they had fought with the Israelites in tlie hill country, seeing that the God of Israel Avas a God of the hills, whereas their gods Avere gods of the valleys. And Pharaoah's haughty defiance of the poAver of Jehovah clearly implies that he tliought him merely the national god of the Heljrews, and gi-eatly inferior to his OAvn gods, and therefore he Avould not hear his voice, nor let Israel go. Ex. v : 2. I have dwelt thus minutely, perha])s too much so, on this point in order that Ave might, if possible, suggest the method of hai'monizing ancient Avriters and modern dis- coveries concerning the fish-god of the East. And in doing so Ave find Avhat Ave know also from other sources, that each nation Avas supposed to have its OAvn divinities, SIR CHRISTOPHER WREX. 20.0 who went to Avar with them, and synijiathized with their lieroes in fight, and were either victorious or vanquished as might l)e the fate of their mortal representatives. And 1 trust also this synopsis of what seems pertinent to tlie understanding of tlie text, vriil show hov.' ancient fables and traditions corroborate Bible history, and bear their testimony to the verities of I'evelation. III. We are now introduced lo (lie god of this '" sol- emn feast." Let us c(msid<'n- the house of tJieir worship and its dovmfall. From the text \\i- Iciirn that \\\'.\ house in which the Philistine lord-; wiM'e gariiei-ed together to olfer a great sacrifice unto Dagon. their god, was fidl of men and women, and that it stood on and wa^ borne up by ""two middle pillars." But I tiiink the labor of the learned to prove that this house had but two pillars, all lost. It is not historically true that the ancients made any such structures resting only on two pillars. And so fai' as the liistory l)efoi-e us is concerned, there may luiAe been as many pillars to the house of Dagon, as there are in th(^ hall of the thousand pillars of Constantinople, or in the great hall of Karnak, and yet tlie two centre pillars being the key to the building, may have so borne it up, that it maybe said to have stood on them, and when they were pulled down, the whole edifice fell to th" ground. Sir Christopher Wren's explanation of the structure and fall of this edifice is this, he says: '"conceive a vast roof of cednr ])eams resting at one end upon the walls, and centering at the other upon one shoi't arcliitrave tliat united two cedar liillars in the middle. ( )ne })illar would not be suilicient to unite the ends of at least one hundred beams that tended to tije centre ; therefore I say, there 'j'OiJ fiti' CrLA^r JIDCE. niM.sl luive been a short archiinwe resting upon hvo pil- lars, i!})on wiiic'li nil the Ijer.ms toi-xliug to the centre miglitbe supported. I^ow if Samson, by his miraculous strength, pressing on one or botli these pillars, moved it from its basis, the whole roof must of necessity fall." (Hewlett's Bible, quoted by Bush in loco.) These re- marks fi'om so en\inei'.t an arclritect are commended to (he attention of tliose wlio deny thnt Uw. ancients built such strnctures at all. or if tiiey did, Samson could not have demolished such a o.se in the mmmer described in \\ie text, i do not, iiowever, see the necessity of decid- ing whether the riiilislines' building were n temple or a mai-ket or a palace. We know that the Egyptians had temples and palaces longbeibre this, and we have found that the Fliilistines were of Egyptinn origin. It is aL-o known that t-'niples, market phices and palaces wer«i sometimes ail united together. Tiie same custom ob- tained subsequently in Greece and Home. I am awai'e tlicit it is urged as an objection lo the Itistoric •>-crity of the text, that if such ;i building had been demolished in this v/ ay, gi*eater [ji'ominence would have been given to sucii a ca.Lastroph<.'. But the text does not state that all the building fell. -It m:iy be that only the wing or pro- truding portion opposite to the grand entrance^ in which the lords and their families were assembled fell. And besides liow do v\e know that it did )in( make a prot'ounil sensation in ;dl til.' siu'ioi-nding Country? Where are the amials of I he l*hi]isiinc.;junu)ies that say it did not ? It is fairly infciTcd from the l(^xt tljat it did mnke a 'profound impre^sion; for the warrior thousands of .Fhil- istia made no resistance to Samson's bretiu-cii, who came and took av.-ay his body from the ruins, and burled him ANCIENT AMPHITHEATRES. 297 in the sepulchre of his father Maiioah, as a prince and a great man in Israel. At least we are bold to sa}- that there is not a syllable uttered or fairly implied from our record that is inconsistent with the known usages of that age and country. The proof is complete that the ancients constructed vast sacred enclosures. They were generally a kind of amphitheatre or arena, the first tier of which usually came near or quite together (m pillars at or opposite to the main o})ening. The first and lowest tier converged somewhat like the heels of a horse-shoe upon the pillars at the lower side, and rose rapidly behind. Within the walls and under the seats were numerous cloisters or stalls. The seats receded in regular tiers from the open court which was for the wild beasts and wrestlers or gladiators. Sometimes a portion of the court and of the seats was covered with a flat or gently declining roof. Tiiese amphitheatres were the hirgest structures of the ancients. They were computed to have been large enough to hold from fifty to eighty thou^^and spectators. The ruins of these of Athens, iSismes, Verona and Rome which still exist, prove their magnitude. There is no diflieulty then in finding room for the multitude of men and women to witness the sport of the Hebrew captive, nor in explaining how the build- ing, or a portion of it, rested on two main key pillars. 'Nor are ^ve without collateral evidence. Tacitus in his Annals (lib. vi : ^2) tells us of an amphitheatre that fell almost in the same way as this house of the Philistines. And Pliny (His. Nat. xxxvi : 15) says two theatres at Rome, built by Caius Curio, were large enough to hold all the Roman people, and yet so constructed as to depend upon a single, hinge or pivot for support. And Dr. AT* 298 IHr. GIANT JL'DGli:. Shaw in his travels and observations in the Barbary States and Levant, says that lie "frequently saw the inhabitants of Al^^iers diverting themselves upon the Dey's palace ; which, like many more of the same quality and denomination, has an advanced cloister over against the gate of the palace, made in the form of a large pent- house, supported only by one or two contiguous pillars in the front, or else in the centre. In such open struc- tures as these, the great officers of state distribute justice, and transact the public affairs of their provinces. Here, likewise, they have their public entertainments, as the lords of the Philistines had in the temple of their god. vSupposing, therefore, that in the house of Dagon was a cloistered building of this kind, the pulling down of the front or centre pillars which supported it, would alone he attended with the catastroi)he which happened to the Philistines.'- Bearing in mind these historic facts — that the ancients used large buildings for the transaction of business, for holding public assemblies, for games, feasts and religious ceremonies — that such structures were made sometimes round, and sometimes nearty in the shape of a horse- shoe, so that the building was made to rest mainly on two or a few pillars in the foreground or portico, as an arch rests upon a key stone — and then consider the great weight of such an assemblage as was on the roof — and bear in mind, that Samson pulled or pushed one of tliese pillars with Iris right hand and the other with his left, and called at the same time upon his God, who strengthened him ; and we have no diificulty in believ- ing that at least iwa portion of the building containing the lords came crashing down with great violence, kill- THE kaerativp: credible. 299 ing them and erusliiiig those tliat were below, amongst whom was Samson hhnself. It is not at ail necessary tiiat we should be able to point to a building now in the East exactly like this one. The essential parts of such a structure are to be found, and historically we know such buildings were used by the ancients, and that simi- lar catastrophes have occurred in other places. Every- thing known of ancient times and of surrounding nations corroborates the truthfuhiess of the Bible narrative as an authentic history. It must not be overlooked, however, that Samson pulled down the building by the Spirit of the Almighty. Bible histories are not incredible, because they are not impossible, nor under the circumstances are they improbable. The hand of Jehovah was in them. Who then can say they are impossible ? The Almighty is never at a loss for agents or means by v;hieh to serve his people and fulfill his purposes. Samson, now penitent and forgiven, has his commission restored to him, and in the last acts of his life as in his earlier days, we find him again performing exploits as God's agent. IV. The superstition of the Philistines misinter- preted the cause of their success against Samson. It was not because their god had prevailed over Samson's God, but because Samson had disobeyed his God. It was owing to his sinning, and not to Dagon's superiority that he was helpless in their hands. The barbarians of Melita fell into a similar mistake in regard to Paul. It is the nature of all superstitions to make mistakes by arousing false fears, leading to wrong conclusions, and ascribing effects to causes which do not exist. Accord- ing to their theory and practice on this occasion, when Samson smote them " hip and thigh with a great slaugh- 800 THE GIANT JUDGK. ter," and when he slew them " heaps upon heaps with the jaw-bone of an ass," they should have said, " Our god has failed us." When smarting under Samson's blows, they should have said, where is now our god f Why does he allow our enemy to prevail ? But to their praise be it said, we find them more ready to bless than to curse their deity. Whatever may be thought of their idolatry and cruelty, they cannot be charged with ingrati- tude. They did not forget to ascribe their success to their god. They knew that it was Delilah that had betrayed Samson into their hands, yet as they sliouted the praises of Dagon, they said " Our god hath delivered our enemy into our hands." In their gratitude they are a model to us. Generally men claim all their prosperity as due to themselves, but cast the blame of their mis- carriages upon their bad luck, which is their way of accusing providence. This is both unjust and sinful. As on a former occasion, so here, their shout was Samson's battle cry. No doubt, their boisterous praise of Dagon was a great mortitication to liim. He knew they ascribed their success against him to their god, and regarded his fall and disgrace as a proof that Dagon had triumphed over Jehovah. Ah ! the dishonor that he felt he had brought upon his religion was his keenest grief. His captivity, blindness, and bodily sufferings were nothing to him in comparison with his agony for having sinned against the living and true God. It was true then, and it is true now, the heatlien judge of the christian's God, not so much by his creed and catechism as by his conduct and condition in the Avorld. The man- ners and modes of dealing witli the heathen practiced by merchants and travellers form the heathen ideaof chris- SAMSON MAKING SPORT. 301 tianity more directl}' than any other source of influences " And it came to pass when their hearts were merry, that they said^ Call for Samson that he may make us sport. And they called for Samson out of the prison- house, and he made them sport : and they set him ha- tween the pillars." Milton says Samson at first refused to attend their feast to make sport before Dagon, but being at length persuaded imoardly that it was an occasion from God, he went. They had power to compel his attendance whether he would or not. He was powerless in their hands. It is not stated here what kind of sport he was to make. The Septuagint and Josephus think their purpose was to insult him, and make him a laughing- stock. According to the Septuagint, "they buffeted him." Josephus says : " He was brought out that they might insult him in their cups." At all events, they would have no other sport but from the great Hebrew. He who had been their terror, must now be their play. Every man, woman and boy could now laugh at the blind hero, that had once been their most fearful enemy. Scorn is added to misery : insult to injury. No doubt Samson was ready to wish himself deaf as well as blind, that he might not hear their cruel jests and horrid blas- phemies. ~\7hether Samson amused them first with some attempts at extraordinary strength, as he was made the butt of their jests or not, he did at List make sport for them with a vengeance. In the East it was common at their feasts to have athletic sports. But now that the heathen have triumphed, will not God arise ? Now that Samson has repented, as did Peter with many bitter tears, and is forgiven — and his •»0l? ini: (HANT JUDftE, liair lijis grown tind he is again in covenant witli liis God, how shall his enemies cseape ? Fcr if judgment begin in God's own house and upon his own chosen ser- vants, wdmt shall be the end of the ungodly, who obey not his voice ? Surely it is the hour of long pent up and terrible vengeance. May not Samson now vindi- cate the superiority of Jehovah over the false Philistine god ? Yes ; the whole scene is now changed. The contest is no longer between the Hebrew judge and the Philistine lords, but between Dagon and Jehovah. The battle is now to rage on Mount Olympus, and Troy is to be lost or won in heaven, and not on the dusty plains below. From Hebrews xi, it is clear tliat Samson's prayer (twenty-eightli verse) was the prayer of sincere failii. It was through faith he pre- vailed. If he liad not been truly penitent, and had not been accepted of God, his last prayer could not have been successfuh His struggle of mind must have been great. But out of desT)air he gathered hope, as his ene- mies increased in their boisterous blasphemy. The case seemed a desperate one. The temple is full of men and w^omen, making themselves merry at his ex- pense, and in blaspheming the living God. He begins again to feel the Spirit of God stirring him as in years long since past. His sun of Austerlitz again rises. He remembers that the great commission from heaven announced for him before he was born, was to begin to deliver Israel from the Pliilistines. He asks himself, may it not l)e that now I shall be aide to vindicate llie su})eriorIty of God Almiglity over ihis wretched idol, whom his enemies are worshipping ? May it not 1)6 that for this hour I have been spared, and that now HOW BIMSOX DIED. 308 I may most wonderfully redeem my great eommission ? And he called upon the Lord, and he said, Lord God, remember me, L pray thee, and strengthen me, 1 pray thee, only this once, God. And lie toolc hold of the two middle pillars upon which the Jiovse stood and on which it was borne up, of the one with Ids right hand, and. of the other ivith his left, and said, IM me die vjith the Philistines. Solemnly re-dedicatinp: himself to God, consecrating his life as a patriot and a martyr, if God would now be ' pleased to accept it, as the last, best and only oiFering he had to make — praying this once more to be heard, and that he might die w^ith the Philistines, fulfilling in his last act and dying moment the terrible mission for which he had been raised n'p ; and as he prayed he bowed himself v/ith all his might, and the house fell upon the lords and upon all the people that were therein. So the dead which lie slew at his death were more than they which lie slew^ in hi:i life. Neither Leonidas nor Lord Nelson had a death so terribly sub- lime. His was not the suicide's death, but that of a martyr vfho consecrates himself to death, if such is God's will, in the performance of duty or the mainte- nance of truth. The result pwoves that God did gra- ciously condescend to hear his prayer, and to accept his consecration. For without direct supernatural power he could not have thus prevailed over his enemies. V. It hcis been objected that Samson's last prayer is not the prayer of a dying chrisiian — that it breathes the spiiit of revenge, v/liich is wholly unbecoming a pious man at any time, and much less so in his dying moments. To this w^e reply : 304 THE GIANT JUDGE. 1st. However comforting it may be to a dying man himself and to his surrounding friends to utter nothing but pious words, ecstatic hopes and fervent supplica- tions — however desirable it may be to die in the full assurance of heaven, almost in sight of the celestial city, as Stephen did — still such experiences and dying deliverances are not required to prove our acceptance with God. A man may be a godly man, and die with- out such ecstatic, joys. The operations of the divine spirit are manifold. Our experience and utterances of inward life are molded very much by our temperaments and style of education. Holiness is essential to the en- joyment of God. And holiness is a hahitude, rather than a spasm or temporary emotion. And ordinarily this spiritual hahitnde is tlie growtli of a life of prayer and godliness under the culture of tlie divine spirit. The life and faith, and not the feelings of a man in his dying moments, are to be taken as exponents of liis state in the sight of God. 2(1 ly. Samson was educated out of the law of the Lord, wliich required "an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth." Retaliation was his catechism. I do not now consider why such was the law of Moses. The fact is certain. But it 4s equally certain that our Lord alludes to this very law of Moses, and changes it, say- ing, it shall no longer be "an eye for an eye ; " but I say unto you, " resist not evil with evil; pray for your enemies ; forgive them ; do good to them that despite- fuUy use yon., that you may become the children of your fatlicr whicli is in lieaven." Samson had not then ])cf()ro him, as we have, the exam})le of the meek and siitfering man-Almighty. He had not his history in the sAMSON A SOJ.DIER. OUO garden, and in Tiiafe's Iial], and on the cross. He had not heai'il the prayer, nor anj such an one : " Father, forgive them, for they know not v.hat they do." It is not feir, therefore, for us to pronounce on the prayer of the penitent and dying judge from our stand-point of gospel light, bm according to the light of Moses' dis- pensation. We should not expect him to die as Paul (lid. His mission and character ])elong wholly to a different dispensation. 3dly. We must remember that Samson's prayei* v/as in keeping with his divine comniisslon. As a soldier, he dies in the heat of the battle v»'ith his armor on. If it was right for hiiii to bear Jiis commission to destroy the Philistines for the vindication of God and the de- liverance of Israel from their oppressors, then his death rims in the loay of cluUj. He -NS^as sent to execute divine judgments on the oppressors of God's people. He did not, therefore, tlirow his life away. He did not lay rash hands upon himself. He did not know wliat the final result would be^ but as every other soldier who goes into battle for his country and for -the truth of God, he puts his life in jeopard3^ He takes it in his hand, ready at any nioment to oifcr it up as a sacrifice. As his hair had grown, liis experience of divine grace had in- creased ; until now, when God's enemies were Jit the very highest [loint of exultation and defiance, the Spirit of tlie Lord moved him once more — first, to say, Lord God, rememher mey I pray thee ; onlj this once, O God, and tlien n.ioved him to lean against the pilUvrs and take liohl of tiiem, and at the same time stirred liim up to further prayer, saying. If such is now the divine v»^ill, in fulfilling my commission, let me even die with oDG TTIK GTANl .ICDOK. the Philistines. And the Lord lieard his prcayer, ac- cepted tlie offering of his body and sonl, and in his deatli lie slow more than in JiU his life. " Sam.soti hath quit him.solf Like Sismson, and hcroiely hath fiuished A liic heroic." CHAPTER XVII. THE EPILOGUE AXD ITS TEACHINGS. " Like a A'isitant From th' other world, he comes as if to liauiit Th\- guilty soul with dreams of lost delight, Loug lost to all but memory's aching sight :— As when the spirit of our youth Returns in sleep, sparkling with all rlie truth And innocence once ours, and leads us back In mournful mockery, o'er the shining track C>f our young life, and points out every ray Of hope and peace we've lost upon llio way." LuUa Roulh. The late venerable Dr. Miller of Princeton, N. J., who was one of the most perfect and well balanced men as a scholar, tlieologian and christian gentleman this countiy has ever produced, used to saj, that if a student had sense enough to bear it, it was an advantage to put him to studying a text book that required some correc- tions, for the detection of the errors and their correction helped amazingly to keep up the attention, and draw out his own resources. There is certainly such a thing as being so straight as to lean over. There may be so much straining of rules as to destroy all tlie benefits of disci- pline. Children were made to play as well as study, to lauirh heartily as well as to think seriouslv. The bow f)08 THV. GIANT JLDGK. always bent is sonielimcs converted into a straight jacket. To laugh well is a medicine for the body and the mind, and to be able to vjonder ivcll is a great blessing. One lof the old fathers, and may his shadow never be less, Clemens Alexandrinus, says : " The beginning of truth is to wonder, for this proceeds from conscious ignorance." The old Stagy rite had taiiglit almost thesnme thing before the Alexandrine was born, when he said, it is by wonder- ing men begin to love philosophy and to grow wise. (Metaph. 1, 2, Arist.) It is true, hov/ever, that there is a kind of foolish wonder, that does not promise much good — but even that is not so hopeless as ignorance so proFound as to be unconscious of its own existence. It Vv'ere better men should be astrologers than that they should be so stupid as not to know that there are any stars over their heads. I sliould rather undertake to t(3ach those that are stone-blind, than those who are so stupid and indolent that they will not open their eyes ; for the stone-blind feel and acknowledge their blindness, and may learn to read without eyes ; Avhereas the others are so self-sufficient and content with their blindness that they either deny that they are blind at all, or declare it ])est to be blind. Nothing is so hopeless as ignorance too complete to wonder ; for then tliere are no errors that may lead to a knowledge of truth. If the begin- ning of wisdom is to fear God and know ourselves, then may we say that the faculty to wonder is a shadow of something beautiful and good to come. I do not belong to the school that would blot out from our juvenile litera- ture the seven wise men of (TOtham, lUue Beard, Jack the giant killer, IJobinson Cru-oe, the Arabian Nights, and fairy tales in generaL By no means. In judicious SAMSON'S LIFE PllOriTABLE. 8U9 hands this species of literature is invaluable ibr training and purifying the j^outhful mind. It were far better to excite the love of the marvelous, and even of tlie terri- bly sublime than of the gross and sensual. After the nursery period well em})loyed, some five or six authors are quite enough to trjrin the intellect and heart. ^»\^}io needs to know more than lie can leani from the Bible, Homer, Dante, Shakspeare, Bacon, and Milton, and a few standard historians ? The sacred story of Israel's giant judge is a wonder- ful one. but it is as true as marvelous. It is a simple earnest, straight forward narrative of a man — a real man, and of what he did, and of what befell him in just such a v/orld as we live in, and among men, women and children exactly such as we are. We believe the Bible Samson is the original of all the stories of Hercules that fill so many pages of heathen literature. And by excit- ing attention to his life, Ave hope, on the love of the won- derful to plant a lever that shall turn the whole heart to truth. Joseph, Daniel, Nehemiah and various other Bible heroes are more to our liking; but, if ''there is," as the bard of Avon saj^s, " a history in all men's lives," I fancy Samson's is not an exception, and as his biogra- phy has been given to us by the Holy Spirit, it is our duty to remove objections to it, and see what it teaches us. As alread}^ intimated, Samson's acts are more for our wonder than for our imitation ; nevertheless impor- tant principles are unfolded in his history. Much as Milton's Samson Agonistes is to be admired as a whole, it seems to us, he v.diolly fails to appreciate his character. The dying speech which he puts into his mouth as he pulls down the temple is not true to the text, nor worthy olO THE GTAXT JUDGE. of the occasion. It falls far below our idea of Samson ill tliat awful moment. His enemies were in force around liim, mocking liim and his God. He knew that it was their custom on such occasions, after they had satisfied themselves with feasting and sport, to sacrifice their chief prisoner to their gods. In this great extrem- ity, therefore, he betook himself to prayer for grace to triumph in a martyr's death, if the Lord would be pleased to grant him such an honor. Having eyes now to see him who is invisible, he said : "• O Lord God, I pray thee think upon me ; O Lord God, I beseech thee strengthen me at this time only. For thy great name's sake — for thy glory among the heathen, help me, O Lord, help me this one time." It was zeal for the divine glory, and to retrieve the honor of the God of his fathers, that had been tarnished by his fall, that made him so anxious now to die in such a way as to fulfill in his death more fully than he had done in his life, the mission for which he had been raised up. As he knew he Avas now about to die, he seized this as the last opportunity to deliver Israel and show that Jehovah and not Dagon was the true and living God. In his death scene, therefore, we see fast by his side again the presence of the Angel — " Who from his fathcr'.s fioM Rode up in tlames From oft' the altar, Avhorc an oftcring burn'd As in a inny colunm cliarioting." When dying we see him filled again with — •'That Spirit that first rushed upon him in the camp ol' Dan."' The lordly city of Gaza speaks then to us historically, from a period beyond which t]\e memory of man runneth gaza's ruins still teaching . 311 not. It was once the treasure-house of a Persian con- queror, as indeed its name is supposed to signify. But how its name came to be prophetic of its treasures, we know not. True, Fhihstine Sheiivhs, Arabian Emirs, Assyrian, Persian, Egyptian, Greek and Roman con- querors and kings have battled for its gates. Saladin the magnificent and Richard the lion-heart, and Napo- leon the great took some of life's stern lessons under the skies that still look down on Gaz i. Ancient Gaza is all in ruins — shapeless, nameless ruins — capitals, archi- traves, columns, cornices and marble floors, the cedar, fir and acacias, alabaster and granite, that once echoed to the shouts of the worshippers of the great fish god, though now unlettered still utter forth a loud and distinctly articulate voice. Its stores of wine and oil, and treas- ures of jewels and costly spices are no more ; but Gaza still has for us treasures more valuable — lessons of in- struction and warning — not only to those who are driv- ing through life with a Jehu speed in fulfilling the lusts of the eye and the pride of the mind ; but for all, old and young, and of every class. The marvelous career of the giant judge, and his tragical end is a lesson for our every-day life. 1. Samson s life illustrates God's long-suffering and mercy. When evil doers are allowed for a time to go on in prosperity, they should not presume, for there is a righteous God, that judgeth in the earth ; and when his judgments fall on the guilty, he will cut short his awful work in terrible righteousness. But mercy is remem- bered amidst deserved wrath. The penitent is not there- fore to despair, for God is merciful as well as just. Samson may fall into the hands of the Philistines ; even 312 THE GTAXT JUDGE. the ai-k of God inaj be in the camp of the uiieirciim- cised, and be brought into the tein})le of their great Dagon ; but Jehovah is still supreme over all the gods. His arm is still omnipotent. There is indeed no god but God. TIk; idols of the heathen are all vanity and lies. The ruins of the house of the Philistine lords and the dismembered image of Dagon in his own temple before Jehovah's ark are directly in proof, that their god is not as our God, even our enemies themselves being judges. 2. Jehovah is the only sovereign. His government is supreme overall tribes and nations. The history of the Canaanites, Philistines and Hebrews proves that it is Jehovah's pleasure to take cognizance of all his creatures on earth — to observe and rule over them as families, peoples and individuals. As all the spokes of a wheel turn round when the wheel revolves, so a general provi- dence necessarily implies a particular oversight of all the universe. How eise could there have been any proph- ecy, or fulliHment of promises ? \n the prophecies fal- lilled, and in those yet to be accomplished, we find an individual and a national application. The prophecies referred sometimes in part to the personal histor}'^ of the individual, but general!}^ orchielly to his posterity. This is true of Abraham, Ishmael, Esau and Jacob. Hence the distinctness with which the line of their descendants was preserved. It were a great gain for the politics and economics of communities and nations, if the providence of God were more distinctly recognized. Every chaj)- ter of our national history is replete witli proofs of God's presence. His hand has written all our history. 3. Again, it appeal's that God governs the world upon eternal jjrincipleh — and not from fancy or ])nssion. These DIVINE LAAVS APPLIED. 313 principles are still in actual operation. A priori we should argue that such must be the divine government of the universe. And historically we find it preeminently so. The Creator is as really supreme over modern nations, as over ancient nations. Jehovah was as truly the God of Washington as of Moses, only Moses was his lieutenant in an age of miracles. It is as true now as it was then, that sin defiles a land, and that God blesses obedience and punishes disobedience to his laws. Divine laws in morals are as immutable as in physics. God is just as supreme in the streets of the city as in the path- ways of the planets. His ear is as open to prayer now in San Francisco as it ever was in Solomon's temple. And happiness everywhere, in heaven and earth, is nothing but a full hearted, cheerful harmony with the will of God. In keeping his commandments, there is great reward. 4. When patience has done its perfect work — when the hour of retribution has fully come, then there is no escape from the Ahiiighty. The universe itself in ruins and in heaps upon heaps upon the guilty could not hide them from the all-seeing eye, nor prevent him from bringing them to judgment. The old world, the Egyp- tians, the cities of the plain and the history of the chosen people, as well as of the Philistines and Canaan- ites proves this. 5. But Samson's life illustrates divine laws in their application as well as in theory. In solving the riddle of his character we have truth objective and subjective. The glimpses we get of his spiritual life are sad enough. His weakness and inconsistencies ars so mortifying as to be almost incredible. His infatuation for Philistine 314 THE GIANT JUDGE. women rendered liim apparently blind to their heathen- ism and their enmity towards Israel. Philistine maids frequently vanquished the champion that was to deliver Israel out of Ihe hands of their oppressive countrymen. An old writer very nearly expresses the facts of this history, when he says, it was not so much Samson that overcame the Philistine men, as PhiUstine women that conquered Samson. 6. Sin is an awfully steep precipice, and as slippery as steep. I know we are ready to cry out at Samson's stupidity and Delilah's impudent treachery. And truly never was a man so overcome by flagons of wine, as this Nazarite was by his love for Delilah. We are almost ready to think Samson must have been void of common sense, when, after she had betrayed him three times, he should listen to her fourth proposal, and actu- ally yield. And yet are there none of you, that have yielded to temptation not only three times, and then a fourth time, but ten times ten ? Is not every trans- gressor against God'* laws as stupid as our infatuated judge ? Sinful pleasures lodged and entertained in our bosoms are as dangerous and as treacherous as Delilah. In our better moments we know they aim at nothing less than our destruction. We know the wages of sin is death, and yet we yield ! Every one that yields to the intoxicating cup, to the strange woman's smiles, or to the demon of fraud or of gambling, is like Samson sleeping in Delilah's lap, to wake up bereft of strength and peace of mind. Thrice the armed Philistines came out of their hiding-place to bind him, and yet he yields to the fourth temptation. Oh, what madness ! Fly at once. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. But THE LIBERTIXE's HISSTXG MILLSTONE. 315 if you parley with him, he will bind you fast in his chains. All sins hang together like links in a chain. Delilah was a heathen. She had not the fear of God before her eyes, and as she wanted virtue, it is not strange that she was perfidious. And so like india-rubber is conscience now-a-days, that, if it is used at all, it is easily stretched, and though hard to be washed clean, it is nevertheless often turned. So naturally and lovingly do sinful ways run together and follow each other, that men do often educate their conscience to call good evil, and evil good ; and " compound for sins they are in- clined to, by damning those they have no mind to." If, in straining at the gnat, they do not swallow a camel the first time, they will soon be able, from repeated trials, to swallov/ the whole caravan, gnats and all. The liar is not satisfied till he steals. And the thief soon kills ; the drunkard is as lewd as he is full of wine, and she that traffics with her personal charms is as false as she is vile. And he- that dwells with a concubine, to avoid the manly responsibilities of a lawful family, finds in the end that instead of having a jewel around his neck, he has bound himself, soul and body, to a burning mill- stone, that is dragging him hissing down to the pit. A person given up to one sin is sold to iniquity. By yielding to one sin, a greater susceptibility is created for others, and in the same proportion he is shorn of strength to resist temptation and to maintain his hold on virtue. He that does not make it a matter of con- science to abide by right principles in everything and every where, is not to be trusted in anything. 7. We see that an ill-balanced character is a sadhj de- 31 G THE GIANT JUDGE. fective one. If Samson had been as prudent as he was stronc^, as pious as he was patriotic, what a splendid hero he would have been ! But symmetry of character is also sadly wanting in modern times. Some are re- markable for their zeal, who make their public concern for the conversion of men cover their want of attention to their own families. But can a man be called of God to one duty at the expense of another — and in this case of a prior and paramount one ? Others are re- markable for their denominational or church zeal, but their daily walk is so irregular, that even when they are not absolutely guilty of moral delinquencies in the sight of the law, their advocacy of religion is not a recom- mendation. Others are text-quoting defenders of the Bible, but the light that is in them is smothered. The word of God dwells in them, but is not friutful. They are cold as icicles. Another takes the Bible for his directory. He loves its truth, and he has some experi- mental knowledge of divine grace in his heart ; but he is so ill-tempered, so peevish, so irritable, that the sym- metry of his character is destroyed. Men admit his sincerity of purpose, but wonder that so good a man should be so weak as to allow himself to be carried away with passion. O how much would the church gain if all its members were complete in Christ ! 8. In Samson's life we see that constitutional sins are peculiarly dangerous. It is true God employs men as his agents, who are not perfect. Even great men are not without errors. Believers on earth are not saints glorified. In the course of this work it has been inti- mated several times that we have only a skeleton history of the giant judge. Of long periods we have no me- THE nation's foundation STONES. 317 moir at all, and of great achievements we have but a simple record of the fact. His faults are detailed. His good deeds not so fully chronicled, jf we may say so without irreverence, our narrative does not seem to take pleasure in his exploits, but simply to set forth how divine sovereignty overruled them. His attachment to the Timnite, his fall at Gaza, and his blind affection for Delilah, and his conflicts with the Philistines are re- corded so far as seemed to be necessary to furnish us with the proof that the promise to his parents was faith- fully kept, and no more. It seems almost as if infinite wisdom here illustrated how sorry an agent might per- form mighty deeds, and how sovereign grace could at last reign where sin had abounded. 9. Samsoti's life very properly leads us to the purity^ sacredness and stability of the marriage relation. The family is the foundation stone for national well-being. We must at any price, at any and every sacrifice, pre- serve our christian homes, as the fountains of principle and piety. And never was there an age nor a people with whom so much depended upon the maintenance of sound principles and of true religion in the family as with us. If we yield here all is lost. Our public in- stitutions will be as the new cords on Samson's arms, mere cinders, if the principles of high morality and true rehgion are not taught in our homes. Thorough train- ing and instruction must be given to the children of this Republic. And this work must be begun early at home, and continued long at home, and the school must never supersede the home. We have found Manoah's solici- tude about the bringing up of his angel-announced son natural and proper. It is a great mistake to consider 318 THE GIANT JUDGE. the education of a child an individual blessing rather than a general one — personal, rather than social. The advantages of education are indeed personal, and just in so far as they are a blessing to the individual mem- bers of society, in the same degree they are a bless- ing to society itself. The Bible teaches us that no one has a right to segregate himself from his fellow-men, with Cain-like indifference, for their well-being. But an educated mind has extensive relations with the world. It is then contrary to the first and highest claims of humanity that it should refuse to shed its benign influences upon society. Nay, it is impossible to escape such a responsibility. Intellect can no more exist without responsibility than matter without gravi- tation. Responsibility is as inseparable from our indi- vidual existence as our personal identity. Escape from it is as impossible as annihilation. We must, then, meet it as men, and justify the claims of God and man upon us, or turn traitors to the society of the universe and its ineffable Creator. In the measure, therefore, that we are blessed with talents, faculties and attain- ments, are our responsibilities increased. Where much is given, inuch is required. Be that knows his Lord's will, and does it not, shall be beaten with many strijjcs. As the glory of a State is but the aggregated glory of its several citizens, so whatever contributes to the men- tal enjoyment, social worth, productive industry, com- mercial reputation for integrity, and to the moral elevation of the individual members of the State, must be regarded as contributing also to its welfare and glory. The received maxim, then, tliat it is easier and clieaper to prevent crime than to vindicate the laws and reform THE IONIAN ISLANDS A WARNING. 319 the transgressor, should be universally put into practice. The vices of ignorance and depravity cost the State more than school-houses and teachers. The public safety under a free government requires that all the youth be instructed in knowledge and morality. And in attaining such blessings the greatest good of individ- uals is identical with that of the community. For a number of years there has been no want of energy on the part of the press of Great Britain and this country in advocating the enlightenment of the people in order to the enjoyment of free institutions. We are almost wearied with references to Greece and Rome, and the attempts at Republics in past ages by people not capa- ble of preserving freedom, nor indeed able to compre- hend what it is. The Ionian islands is a remarkable instance, however, that is not so often referred to. Their history is a striking illustration of the hopelessness of a people undertaking to govern themselves without the requisite intelligence, morality and religion. They have played very nearly the same game for many years. " Three times, at very wide intervals, has Corfu, (the ancient Corcyra,) found it necessary to abnegate, more or less completely, a political independence of which it was incapable, and to place itself under the sovereignty or protection of the power which in each of those re- spective ages was mistress of the seas."* At one time Corcyra was obliged to seek abroad refuge from her own selfish policy and her own internal factions by throwing herself into the arms of Athens. At anotlier time she was compelled to seek protection against her- * London Quarterly l!(»vieAv, October, 1852, p. 168. 320 THE GIANT JUDGE. self under the banner of Venice. And then again from an abortive attempt to form a Republic, the lonians thrcT^" themselves at the feet of Russia, then of France, and finally passed under the protectorate of Great Britain. In 1802 they sent M. Naranzi as envoy to Alexander^ Emperor of Russia, begging that with an " imposing armed force," he would save them from the cruel sufferings of their attempts at self-government. They directed their envoy to say to the Czar : " That the inhabitants of the seven islands, who had attempted to establish a republican form of government, are neither horn free, nor are they instructed in any art of govern- ment, nor are they possessed of moderation so as to live peaceably under any government formed hy their own countrymen'' This was certainly very remarkable lan- guaore for a people having intelligence enough to struggle to be free, and yet not able to govern themselves. But all history is a demonstration of its correctness. Italy and France, Central and South America are monu- ments proving to all the world that sanctified intelli- gence among the people alone can save them from the cruelties of self-government. Mere knowlege is not enough. There must be constitutional laws, and right principles must be deeply implanted in the bosoms of those tliat would be free. Men can not govern them- selves unless they abide immutably by the laws and constitution that guarantee their freedom. The great English historian, (Macaulay's speech at Edinburgh,) has in his usually happy way described the very danger we so seriously apprehend. " I remember," says, he, " that Adam Smitli and Gibbon had told us that there would never again l)e a destruction of civilization by DUTY OF CHRISTIAN MOTHERS. 321 barbarians. The flood, they said, would no more return to cover the earth ; and they seemed to reason justly, for they compared the immense strength of the civilized part of the world with the weakness of that part which remained savage, and asked from whence were to come those Huns, and from whence were to come those Van- dals, who were again to destroy civilization ? Alas ! it did not occur to them that civilization itself might engender the barbarians who should destroy it. It did not occur to them that in the very heart of great capi- tals, in the very neighborhood of splendid palaces, and churches, and theatres, and libraries, and museums, vice and ignorance and misery might produce a race of Huns fiercer than those who marched under Attilla, and Vandals more bent on destruction than those who followed Genzeric." 10. Samson is a pictorial of a mother^ s anxiety and injiuence. We have no powers of analysis sufficient to disintegrate the virtue, and freedom, and prosperity of modern Christendom, so as to show the proportion and amount of its well-doing and well-being that is dis- tinctly to be traced to the influence of christian mothers ; but it is paramount to all other sources of power. For example, who can measure the forming energy of Washington upon the destinies of the American peo- ple and of the world ? And yet in the chronicles of the invisible world the character of that great patriot was formed by the training of his mother. And upon examination, we find his mother's favorite author to have been the great christian judge, the English Sir Matthew Hale. The identical copy she used is still cherished as an heir-loom, in the family. Now in the 822 THE GIANT JUDGE. " Contemplations " of Sir Matthew Hale we have an essay on ''The Good Steward," and a series of '' Medi- tations " on the Lord's Prayer. And in these works of the learned and pious judge, we find the germs of Washington's great character. These works were his mother's manual when she was training him for the high destinies for which a supreme providence was pre- paring him. Here we have the very jtrinci'ples taught, and the very 'precepts inculcated, that were fitted to pro- duce the traits characteristic of the American patriot. Moderation, self-control, sobriety, integrity, and a well- balanced judgment, and an habitual recognition of God's will and dependence on an overruling providence, have great prominence in the Briton's pages. And these are the very elements of Washington's character. More than one hundred times we find him in his letters, speaking of his dependence on God's providence. And throughout his life, we have "the composure of the Areopagus carried into the struggles of Thermopylre." The beauty and the glory of his character is its combi- nation of integrity, moral goodness, heroic courage, with judicial sagacity and serenity amid all the fierce conflicts of a great and successful Revolution. What mother is there, then, who is not willing to forego some, or all of the pleasures of fashion, and spend her strength in teaching, and toiling, and praying for her child, see- ing that it is given to her by the Great Father of all spirits more than to any other to unseal the fountain bf its being and form the channel in which it is to flow forever ? The mother's example and lessons are the passages of experimental divinity and social philosophy that are never forgotten. By them we both live and RESPONSIBILITY OF YOUNG MEN. 323 die. The tribute which one of our Chief Magistrates, John Quincy Adams, paid to his mother, expresses what ahnost everj one feels to be true. " It is due," said he, " to gratitude and nature, that I should acknowl- edge and avow that, such as I have been, whatever it was, such as I am, whatever it is, and such as I hope to be in all futurity, must be ascribed, under provi- dence, to the precepts, prayers and example of my mother." Finally. We beseech you, young men, because you are strong, rememher your responsibility for your infiu- ence upoa society. You are invested with an immor- tality that you cannot lay aside. AVhen you die and leave the world into which you have been born, your influence will walk the earth and represent you where you person- ally will be known no more. Aim then by God's help to be a fountain of good influences and not of evil. In Samson you have a solemn warning against the wiles of the strange woman of whom Solomon has said : " I find more bitter than death the woman whose heart is snares and nets, and her hands are bands ; whoso pleaseth God shall escape from her ; but the sinner shall be taken by her." Forget not your dedication to God, nor disappoint the just expectations of your friends. Ponder well what your country expects of you. Remember your patri- mony and your age. Fill your minds with objects illustrious as your antecedents are hopeful. You are surrounded by living voices calling you to maintain the principles and faith of sires past into glory. Put on the whole armor of light, and by self-control, and by high principles, and by an incorruptible love for truth and for 324 THE GIANT JUDGE. your country, rebuke whatever billows may rise to threaten the ark of your fathers, and make them roll at your feet soft as the swelling of a summer's sea. Serve well your generation according to the will of God, and then when you are laid to rest, though it be far from the home of your youth, and in dust that knoweth not the bones of your fathers, still you will rest in peace, and the everlasting God will be your eternal portion. What- ever good you do in the world will live and come home with its harvest of glory at the judgment day ; and whatever evil you do, if not repented of and forgiven, will go on increasing its guilt until it is garnered on your heart amid the awful realities of eternity. They that turn many to righteousness shall shine as the stars of the firmament forever and ever ; and they that have turned many to evil shall burn as pyramids of fire, embosoming like so many unquenchable molochs, the souls of those they have seduced from truth and innocence and drag- ged down to ruin, and the curses of all good men and of all the holy angels, and of God Almighty shall fall upon them forever and ever. And thou, my son, know thou the God of thy father, and serve him with a perfect heart and loith a willing mind: for ^^eLoRD searcheth all hearts, and understand- eth all the imaginations of the thoughts : if thou seek him, he will be found of thee: if thou forsake him, he will cast thee off forever. DATE DUE ■R^^^^Slgl } 1 DEMCO 38-297 ^t^i!;. BS580 .S15S4 The giant judge: Princeton Theological Seminary-Speer Library 1 1012 00011 5578 n