BERT E. COWAN COLL l'l< : rO THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA I-.Y C. P. HUNTINGTON cIUNE. Recession No Class No, ^T^f UNIVERSITY THE GIANT JUDGE OR THK STORY OF SAMSON", THE SEBREI HERCULES. BY REV. W. A. SCOTT, D. J), OF SAN FRANCISCO. " There will I build him A monument, With all his trophies hung, and acts enroll 'd In copious legend, or sweet lyric song. Thither shall all the valiant youth resort, And from his memory inflame their breasts To matchless valor, and adventures high : The virgins also shall, on feastfnl days. Visit his tomb with flowers. ' ^^^ MnnonJi Burying Smnson. OF THE UNIVERSITY SAX FRANCISCO: H. H. BANCROFT & arents and Sabbath School Teachers Family training Young men govern America They arc 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. SAMSON'S FIRST LOVE THE LION FIGHT. The visit to Timnath Disappointed in Samson's choice "The last reason 1 ' of lovers Force of " she pleascth 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 Timnitc girl was "of the Lord" 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 o\\.t moving ourselves The Israelites had just cause to shake oft' the Philistine 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 linding honey in the lion's carcass Virgil, Varro and Aristotle on bees in carcasses The lion only a skeleton Kimnan's elk-horn chair Samson did not violate his Nazarite vow in 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. Thiers 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. " The thirty friends " of the, bridegroom were spies Samson's conformity to the customs of his wife's people Christianity does not teach vulgar- ity Woman's presence at feasts restrains and relincs 7'A n returned from distant lands, or with honor from many a bloody field of battle, she does not indeed in the moment of transport 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 eye 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 best, 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 afforded 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 hieroglyphic records of the private and public life of the ancient Kg> ]>- 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 us to understand many hitherto obscure Biblical passages and allusions So numerous and important are the proofs and illustrations of the INTRODUCTION. XV11 authenticity of the historical books of the Bible, gathered from the labors of modern missionaries and travellers 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 pulpits; 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. 1 ' 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 with remarkable illustrations 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 Israeliti-sh judge. I am aware, moreover, that views and objections bearing upon the "Book of Judges" and the life of the Hebrew Hercules have been put forth by Eosenmuller, Eichhorn, Maurer, Paulus, 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 XV111 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 own 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 with 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, painfully, 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 with as few signs of the scaffolding as were sufficient to give an idea of how it was 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 latt >t 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. Sjcro's Storg THE ASCENSION OF Till-: ANGEL, OH MANOAH'S SACRIFICE. ' When the flame ; \cut up I u ! '; feu frc a altai, (lie .in^-1 '.'i tin LORD ascended In the Haiut ) tin.- altar.' Page 23. UNIVEBSITY UNIVERSITY CHAPTER I. THE HERO'S STORY TOLD. " Jewish history is God's illuminated clock set in the dark steeple of time." " Most wondrous book ! bright 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 xui. 1 AND the children of Israel did evil again in the sight of the LORD ; and the LORD delivered them into the hand of the Philistines forty years. 2 ^T And there was a certain man of Zorah, of the family of the Danites, whose name ivas 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 shalt 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 Philistines. G TT Then the woman came and told her husband, 22 THE GIANT JUDGE. saying, A man of God came unto me, and his counte- nance was like the countenance of an angel of God, very terrible : but I asked him not whence he ivas, 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 ^[ 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, Art thou the man that spakcst unto the woman ? And he said, I am. 12 And Manoah said, Now let thy words come to pass. How 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 tiling: all that I commanded her let her observe. 15 ^[ And Manoah said unto the angel of the LORD, THE ANGEL'S ASCENSION. 23 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 offer a burnt offering, thou must offer it unto the LORD. For Manoah knew not that he tuas 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 was 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 such things as these. 24 f 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 GIANT JUDGE. at times in the camp of Dan between Zorah and Eshtaol. JUDGES, CHAPTER xiv. 1 And Samson went down to Timnath, and saw a woman in Timnath of the daughters of the Philistines. 2 And he came up, and told his father and his mother, and said, I have seen a woman in Timnath of the daughters of the Philistines : now therefore get her for me to wife. 3 Then his father and his mother said unto him, Is 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 me 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 T[ 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. i) And he took thereof 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 lion. 10 ^[ So his father went clown 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 5T 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 50 ? 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 tell it thee? 17 And she wept before him the seven days, while B 26 THE GIANT 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 whatz's 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 ^[ And the Spirit of the LOUD came upon him, and he went down to Ashkelon, and slew thirty men of them and took their spoil, and gave change 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 given 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 ^f And Samson said concerning them, Now shall I be more blameless than the Philistines, though I do them o a displeasure. 4 And Samson went and caught three hundred fox<-, and took firebrands, and turned tail to tail, and put a firebrand in the midst between two tails. 5 And when he had 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, with the vineyards and olives. 6 1T Then the Philistines 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 Philistines came up, and burnt her and her father with fire. 7 H 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 Philistines 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 ^ And when he came unto Lehi, the Philistines 28 THE GIANT JUDGE. shouted against him : and the Spirit of the LORD 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 If 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 thirst, 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 him. 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, whose name was Delilah. 5 And the lords of the Philistines came up unto her, and said unto her, Entice him, and see wherein his great strength lieth, and by what means we may prevail against him, that we may bind him to afflict him : and we will give thee every one of us eleven hundred pieces of silver. 6 ^f And Delilah said to Samson, Tell me, I pray thee, wherein thy great strength lieth, and wherewith thou mightest be bound to afflict thee. 7 And Samson said unto her, If they bind me with seven green withes that w^ere 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 him with them. 9 Now there were men lying in wait, abiding with her in the chamber. And she said unto him, The Philis- tines be 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. o 10 And Delilah said unto Samson, Behold, thou hast mocked me, 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 be 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. 16 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 were 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 people that ivere 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 dying them hast fulfill'd The work for which thou wast foretold To Israel, and now l.y'st victorious in death conjoined With thy slaughter'd foes, in number more Than all thy life hath slain before." O erok fakes aito fljeir Cimes. -' x rv 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. * * * * And 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. Hebrews 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 highways 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 judge, discern, command, ride, 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 pronouncing the sentence of the law in criminal cases. They were chief magistral < ~. 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 Sujffetes among the Carthagenians is of the same origin. The chiefs of the Tyrians, the Archons of Athens, and the Dictators of the Romans, were essentially the same in office 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 old man, and also elders of Israel, chief men, magistrates, without reference to their age. The modern words Signore, Se/wr, 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 JRais, JRas, 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 chief, just as our Captain is from Caput, 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 Gesenius on Heh 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 pppressors as God himself should direct. Officially, they were without father or mother and without offspring. They 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 Samsonian. I know not that there is any biography 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 relapse 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 like 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 JUDGE. was " 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 his 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 Spirit. 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 almost 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 hirnelf. 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 life 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 his 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, whilst 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 of 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. which to construct our hero, while in the other, w r e have all the fruits of a warm, eclectic fancy, fabling out of all possibilities " the higher potentialities " of a demi-godship. The Tyrian 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, traveling 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 performed 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 are told, the gods made a spring 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 Delilah are the original of the story of Nisus, king of Megara and his daughter Scylla, who cut off the fatal purple 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 *Ovid, Met., lib. viii, fab. 1. 46 JHE 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, Avill 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 1'Historie Sainte. Second. Let it be remembered in studying such a SAMS OX 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 infirmities and short comings, as well as virtues and heroic deeds. Samson was a man a sinful man. His life and exploits are recorded in an honest, truth-telling memoir. This point comes 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 like them in ages past. Fourth. All these, the apostle says, obtained a good report through faith. That is, on account of their 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 us 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 pursuing, Learn to labor and to wait. Lonqfellow's Psalm of Life. j)t it CHAPTER III. THE STORY A REVELATION INSPIRED. " This book, this glorious book, on every line Marked with the seal of high Divinity ; On every leaf bedewed with drops of love Divine. 1 " Holy men of God 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, thoroughly 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 the 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. In 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 in 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 Bible biographies to a like respect. The story then, in hand, of "the Hebrew Judge Hercules, is it an inspired 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 precepts, 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 ex pan -ion k> our mental faculties. There is nothing equal to the theology of the Bible to strengthen and pnriiV (lie 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 gilts. 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 poet, 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. We 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 pabulum on Avhich 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, we 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 GIANT JUDGE. those, and not a few, in his country and in our own, who still adhere to " the old way of teaching " who read and expound 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 apostles and our blessed Lord himself taught them. Doctrines, precepts, promises, threaten- ings, commands and duties are taught in the scriptures by biographies, or memoirs and parables. The chequered life of man is made to teach and illustrate what we are to believe and what we are to do, that we 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 well as the beauties. The Judges of Israel, and all the heroes that lived before and since Agamemnon are nothing to us, unless we 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 life, they challenge our highest attention. It is for us to draw warning and encouragement from the lives 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 suffer 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 leadof such men as Parker and Emerson. It is not enough to c^ 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 life 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 show 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. Sonic 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." It is obvious whither all this tends. The result is the same, whether we rely on man's " imier light," "religious sentiment," "n (Lions 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 llunyan and 1'uyson, 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, natural and 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 1'arker, and the N gists of German}' in general. TOO MUCH 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 it the perfection of the Mosaic dispensation. Some have found no types of Christ, no resurrection, no immortality in 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 evangelical 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 law 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 law 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 minutiae, of the tem- ple, the nails and badger's skins of the tabernacle, and 'Soe Spencer's works De Leg. Heb. pasism. In answer to him see Witsius on the Covenants, lib. iv, c. 11, 12. Also Calvin's Institute, lib. ii, c. 10. While it is certainly a great error to rob the Old Testament of its Christianity, it is au error oi'not less magnitude to despoil the distinctive doctrines of the >'ew Tes- tament by unduly pressing analogies and types out of the Old upon the New. C* 58 THE GIANT JUDGE. many such tilings, 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 with life. 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 women 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 conies to us with authority only as revealed by his holy prophets 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. They supply the best material for impressing on the mind of childhood the lessons of our holy religion. "Here mines of knowledge, love and joy Are open to our M;.'!:! : The, purest gold without alloy And gems ui\ iuely bright. The councils of redeeming grace Their sacred leaves unfold : And here the Saviour's lovely face Our raptured eyes behold RULED FROM THEIR URNS. 59 Here, light descending from above Directs our doubtful feet, Here promises of heavenly love Our ardent wishes meet." We have the authority of an apostle, that whatsoever things were written aforetime by Moses and the prophets were written for our learning. There is no fact recorded in Bible history that has not its echo still. The living world is but the recurring cycles of the past. Many of the actors on the stage of past history, are at this mo- ment exercising a great influence on the world. Hearts long since cold under the green sod have sent out pulsa- tions that are now beating, and will not cease till the sound of the trumpet of the last day. They, being dead yet speak still live by their influence on the acting generation, who will transmit their influence to the gene- rations yet to come. The great and good of all past ages lived for us. Abel suffered for us. Abraham was tried for us. The patriarchs, prophets, lawgivers, and wise men of old, " the noble army of martyrs" all lived and died for us. Every mother's babe in Christendom is at this moment under the influence of the histories of the Bible. Whatsoever was done and said from the beginning, is impressing its influence upon our hearts and actions at this very moment. If this be true in general, as it certainly is, then the biographies of the earlier periods of the Bible are worthy of our serious attention. They reveal the existence and attributes of the Creator, and teach us how men and women like our- selves feared and served God. II. It is desirable, therefore, in the next place, that we understand on what jilan or method and with what design these earlier biographies of the Hible were written. 60 THE GIANT JUDGE. We believe there is a God, a personal, a living God, who is a Spirit, infinite and eternal, in contradistinction to " the dead god of deism " and pantheism. AVe have a God to glorify and enjoy as well as a soul to save. And to enable us to do this, God has spoken to us. He has come down to us, that we may go up to him. Our Creator has come down to us in various ways and by manifold representations by appearing to the patri- archs and speaking to them and the prophets in several ways, and last of all, by his son Jesus Christ. Next to the existence of God in importance to us, is the question of a revelation from him to us as his creatures. If we have no access to him if there is no communication between us and our Creator, we are of all creatures the most miserable. Our higher nature and nobler aspira- tions are then only to make us susceptible of miseries the brute can never know. But, " God who, at sundry times and in divers manners spake in times past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds. Who is the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person." In this God-man, the infinite and the finite meet in perfect harmony. In the Old Testament as well as the New, we have both a revelation from God, and a record in which that revelation is envelope* 1. God has spoken to us, and we have a reliable record of what he has said. Hume and Gibbon, Voltaire, D'Alembert, Diderot and their associates and followers diivrlcd their attacks against Christianity itself, but for the last fifty years, the ene- mies of the Gospel have chiefly aimed to destroy the THE GREAT" QUESTION OP OUR DAY. 61 authority of its written records. They have not busied themselves so much in denying the existence or neces- sity of revealed religion, as in seeking to destroy all dependence upon its record, or the interpretation of it. They tell us quite patronizingly, revealed religion is desirable. It is a good thing, if we could only know what it is. Now we maintain that we have not merely the idea of Christianity in the Bible, but we have Chris- tianity itself, and we have a suitable, intelligible record of it, and of what it is. We may not only know that REVEALED TRUTH IS, but W6 MAY KNOW WHAT IT IS. Beyond all controversy, the great question of our day, turns upon the interpretation of the Divine Word.. It is important then for us to be acquainted with the history and proofs of Divine revelation, and to know that the Bible contains that revelation. The unerring message is invested in an infallible record. The Divine Messen- ger became incarnate in a perfect human organism. The revelation is heavenly, while the record, or history of it is earthly ; but this record was made by Divine direction. And if the Creator has really made a com- munication to our race, we have a right to expect that he would take care that it should be made in such a way as to embody and bring clown to human apprehen- sion just what he had to say to us, and that he would cause such a record of his revelation to be made and preserved, as would make known to the different gener- ations of mankind his will for their salvation. Has God spoken to us ? Can we find out exactly what he has said ? According to our view, these questions are not to be separated. For it is an impeachment of the Divine wisdom and benevolence to suppose the former without G2 THE GIANT JUDGE. the latter, and the latter of course implies the former. As it is scarcely possible in our day to over estimate the question of Divine inspiration, at the risk of repeating, we shall dwell somewhat on these questions. The authority of councils, the orthodoxy of creeds and the infallibility of popes, are of no consequence in compari- son, with the subject of inspiration, nor have we any rule by which to settle such questions, until we have found INFALLIBILITY in the Divine Word. If our Crea- tor has not revealed himself to us, we have no religion at all. And if lie has revealed himself, but allowed the record of his own revelation to be so made that we cannot know what it is he has revealed, then we are made conscious that there is such a thing as a true religion, and painfully conscious too of our need of it, but left totally unable to find it, or to know certainly what it is. But to make our answer as broad and as direct as our questionings, we say God has spoken from heaven to us, and we may know with as much absolute certainty as we can know anything, both that God has spoken to us and what it is he has said to us. Our Creator has revealed his will to us for our salvation, and we may know what it is, and what that salvation is. In the Bible we have an external revelation, and a real inspiration, and in the teachings of the same Spirit of God by whom this revelation and inspiration have been made, we have also an inward and subjective illumina- tion. The concurrence of faith in the former with personal experience of the latter constitutes us true Christians. Revelation and inspiration arc distinct; but as we receive these terms, the one implies the other. By a REVELATION AND INSPIRATION. 63 revelation we mean a communication of truth from God to man. By inspiration we mean that the Spirit of God moved the prophets and apostles who received commu- nications from God to write them out, transferring God's thoughts that were put into their minds by his Spirit into human language, and so transferring them as not to mix any error with them, or make any mistake in the use of language. We believe, then, that the Bible is God's own inspired Word, and that it is an all-sufficient rule of faith and conduct. It does not follow, however, that all the revelations that God has been pleased to make have been accompanied with the gift of inspiration to make a record of them. If we mistake not, some have had revelations in the highest sense, who did not write them out. And some have been inspired to write, who were endowed with power to work miracles, and yet probably received no revelations themselves. But all the revealed truths of holy Scripture have been trans- ferred to human language by the inspiration of God. It seems to us that one of the prolific causes of the confusion that is found in many writers on this subject is the want of distinct and clear statements as to what they mean by revelation and inspiration. Another cause doubtless is that many authors undertake to explain too much, espec- ially as to the modus of God's making known his will to us. If we are sure of the fact, may we not rest content in. the assurance that Infinite Wisdom employed the right " divers manners " 1 o make communications to our race ? We hold therefore that the sacred writers received the truths which they have recorded from God in a supernatural way, and that they were commanded by God himself to make the transcript of these truths 64 THE GIANT JUDGE. for us, and were so directed and assisted in making this transcript by the Holy Spirit, that we have in this tran- script not only a true and reliable record of God's thoughts concerning us, but the very thoughts themselves. The great question then, is not to distinguish between the revelation and the record and history of that reve- lation, but to get at what the revelation is what does it reveal ? It is of no use to believe that the revelation is itself divine., if its enveloping record is erroneous, for in that case, we can never be sure that we have a revela- tion of God's will at all. It is to be regretted that so able a writer as Soame Jenyns in exalting the importance of the " Internal Evidences of the Christian Religion," should have thought it necessary to make so marked a distinction between the revelation that God has made to us, and the history we have of that revelation. He contends that we have a heavenly message, but "it is enclosed in a fallible earthly case, by which it is indeed pollute -d." And yet, he says the human errors and imperfections of the history of this revelation do not effect its divine origin. "A diamond, though found in a bed of anud, is still a diamond, nor can the dirt which surrounds it depreciate its value or destroy its lustre." In the translation, versions and transcriptions of the ancient writings of the prophets and apostles, and in the different editions of our holy Scriptures, there are verbal inaccuracies. If there were not, they have been pre- vented by a continued miracle. And it is doubtless true, that the sacred writers have recorded some things that they did not need supernatural influence to teach to them. If Luke has copied his genealogy of the mother of our Lord from the Hebrew tables in common use at THE MESSAGE IS OF GOD. 65 Jerusalem or Nazareth, he did not require any other special divine assistance to do it, than to originate the conception of so doing. And Paul could tell his name, and how he had left his cloak and parchments at Troas without the miraculous guidance of the Holy Ghost. But even in recording such natural events, or circum- stances of common life, as they could have recorded if they had not been prophets and apostles, they were so guided and overruled, as to record nothing but what the Holy Spirit saw it best to have recorded for the end in view. We have therefore a revelation from God, and such a record and history of that revelation as God him- self caused to be written by his Holy Spirit. The Bible is the WORD OF THE ONE, ONLY, LIVING AND TRUE GOD. We cannot believe that it is "a heap of mummery and priestcraft," nor that the Creator should make a revelation of himself to man, and yet not pro- vide suitably for the communication of that revelation. It is to call in question his sincerity and wisdom, to say that he has revealed certain doctrines for the salvation of mankind, and yet made no provision for an infallibly valid vehicle of that revelation. In the Scriptures, then, of the Old and New Testaments we have the revelation of God, and the record of it, and it is comparatively easy to distinguish and separate the perfect from the imper- fect of that record. It surely is no argument against the inspiration of Isaiah, that some words in our translation should be spelled differently in different editions ; or that there should be a difference in punctuation and such other minutiae. The essential integrity of the sacred text has been preserved. The message and the vehicle of the message are from God. What God has revealed 6G THE GIANT JUDGE. has been written for us by his direction. The sacred writers were moved by the Holy Ghost to write as they did. What then have they written, and for what pur- pose did the Holy Ghost move them to write ? The Bible is no more without a design, a plan and a unity than is the universe. Though composed of two great departments, and of many different books written by dif- ferent authors, stretching over about two thousand years, and living and writing at different periods and different places, still the Bible is not a series of detached and independent documents, mechanically strung together by the hand of a compiler, nor is it a farrago of heteroge- neous fragments accidentally combined. On the contrary, it is a bonajide history. It is pervaded from beginning to end by one dominant idea. One great specific pur- pose is in view from the first word of Genesis to the end of the Revelation of John. On what plan then was the Bible written and for what purpose ? Some tell us that the Old Testament in particular is a collection of romances that the patriarchs and judges of Israel were mere Bedouin or nomadic chiefs, like the Sheikhs of the modern Arabs, and that the germ of truth was furnished by their lives, which the writer has taken, and worked up after the most approved manner of fiction. The Old Testament according to this view, is nothing but a biography of some wandering chieftains, written in the style of oriental exaggeration. Some who are ashamed of such a theory as this, modify it, by tell- ing us, the lives of the patriarchs and judges were never meant to be received as true histories at all, but as mere poetical descriptions of life and manners of early time-, somewhat after the manner of the Eclogues and Buco- WASHINGTON NOT A MYTH. G7 lies. What then becomes of the historic memoirs, na- tional festivals commemorative of actual events, and of contemporary and subsequent allusions in the history of other nations, and of the superiority of their style and of their doctrines, and of this whole class of proofs and subjects ? Another view is that the history of the patriarchs and judges is strictly true, but not of them as individuals ; but as a history of races and revolutions. Abraham, Joseph and Samuel are according to their view not the names of individuals, but ideal types of principles or of races. They are myths, that is, " ideas clothed in facts." And these myths were invented to explain subsequent events. Just as if the history of the beginning of the American Revolution about the stamp act and the tax on tea, and the battle of Bunker Hill had been invented to account for the present fact that the United States is an independent nation and separate from Great Britain. And that WASHINGTON was not an individual at all, but a name invented and made to represent the embodiment of the heroic deeds of our ancestors. It is certainly a sufficient answer to such a theory to say that the ancients were as palpable individualities as we are ourselves. It is no easy matter to refine and sublimate their flesh and blood and personal actions into mere myths. Does not primeval history deal with individualities as truly as the history of our own times ? The same philosophy that makes Homer, or Socrates, Moses or Abraham a myth, would make all the past nothing but a myth to us, and we ourselves myths to our successors. The true view is a happy deliverance from such artificial and erroneous systems. It is this : The history of Bible C8 THE GIANT JUDGE. | characters was recorded for the moral improvement of mankind, by furnishing examples of virtue and vice, the one rewarded and the other punished. In and along with this history we have an embodiment of Divine Revelation, so that the doctrines and principles revealed and the duties taught are illustrated by living examples, and the well-being of those that do well, and the ill-being of those that do evil are set forth as an encouragement to do well, and a warning to cease from evil. And the revelation contained in the Old Testament and the his- tory and record of that revelation are all so made as to be introductory to the Gospel dispensation. Moses, the law and the prophets prepared the way for the coming of Christ. It follows, therefore, that if the history of Bible char- acters is a true biography of individuals, we shall have a full face view of men and women, as they really were. Accordingly, it is not a profile picture we have, but a true full face. Their faults are recorded as faith- fully as their virtues. There is no attempt made by the sacred writers to justify or explain away every appear- ance of a fault in the conduct of those of whom they write, nor is there any tampering with the principles of morals, to excuse them. And if the specific purpose of the writings of Moses, was to prepare the chosen people for their covenant relation to Jehovali, ;md through them to prepare the ancient church and the world for the coin- ing of the long promised Messiah, still it remains true that we have a truthful record of individuals, and of divine communications made to them. THE MAIN DESIGN of the record that we have of the patriarchs, and of the chosen people of God, was to teach THE LINE OF BLESSING. 69 mankind that it was true, that God had always in some way kept up a communication with the human race. By acts, promises, commands, and manifest tokens of the Divine presence, the great idea was alive in the mind of some one, who in that particular, was a representative and depository for his race, that God was still accessible to his creatures that he was manifesting, and would CJ * still more clearly manifest himself to mankind. First he called Abraham, then the promise was to his descend- ants, and in process of time they became a great people and to them were committed the oracles of God. As mankind multiplied and spread abroad, the line became more distinctive, but as the time drew near, clearer and clearer intimations were given of the extension of the blessings of Abraham's covenant seed by the coming and kingdom of the great Messiah. Of necessity there- fore the history of the chosen people who were the depository of the divine oracles must be a record of gracious and providential interpositions, as well as of individual verities. We should expect a priori to find in it a supernatural element, prophecy and miracle, theophanies, or divine appearances in human form, as well as a record of the accidents of humanity in commu- nion with the Deity. Now it would be unnatural if there had been no imperfections to record in the lives of the patriarchs, judges, prophets and kings of Israel. And if they had not been men of like passions with our- selves, or even worse, there had been no such display of sovereignty in selecting them, as would correct their pride. The intrinsic weakness of the vessel is clearly shown, that it may be confessed that it was an act of pure sovereignty that chose them as the channels of divine 70 THE GIANT JUDGE. grace. Oftentimes their own views and cherished wishes were thwarted. Abraham's hopes in Ishmael, Isaac's in Joseph were disappointed. The promised seed came not in the line of either. The prophetic preeminence was lodged elsewhere. The patriarchs received special divine favors, not because they were perfect not because they were better than all the rest of their cotemporaries. It may be doubted, speaking after the manner of men, if Melchesidek was not more entitled to the distinction of being the progenitor of the chosen race than Abram of the Chaldees. At least, as it was not a reward for extraordinary piety that the patriarchs received such favors, so neither was it because of their transgressions, but in spite of them. It was not for their sakes, but for a far higher and greater purpose. And as a corrective of corruption and pride of despondency and presumption, a faithful nar- rative has been given of them as men, and the Divine sovereignty is manifested in their salvation, and in the manner of their treatment, as well as in the record that has been made of the revelation made to them. It was certainly a palpable lesson to the Hebrew and a power- ful corrective of his pride, to know that, if through David's race, he was of Abraham, " the friend of God," that Ishmael was not less Abraham's son, and Esau was Jacob's brother, and Moab and Ammon were the sons of Lot. The Bible is a map that traces all nations to a common origin, and shows that though their lines of descent are continually crossing one another, still God has kept his chosen people distinct, that in them he might show forth his sovereignty and the seventy of his judgments and the greatness of his mercy. BIBLE HEROES NOT SAINTS. 71 It is not necessary for maintaining this design of Bible biography, that we should deny that there were any other purposes in view. Collateral and minor ends were no doubt answered in the Pentateuch, and in the history of the Judges, and through the whole and by the whole, the ancient church is seen as a type of that which was to come. "While, then, it is a painful fact, it is nevertheless an instructive one, that we have no perfect biography in the Bible, except that of the Son of God, the Holy One. The patriarchs were all guilty of some dark sin. The apostles were not blameless. They all had their fail- ings. We must remember, however, that the Bible in recording the sins of patriarchs and apostles does not approve of their sinful acts. The Bible does not tell us that such acts were the perfect fruits of their faith. On the contrary, their creed condemned every one of their sins. Their errors were not the consequences of their religion, but in spite of it. It was not because they were pious, that they fell into such grievous skis, but because they had not piety enough to resist their own depraved inclinations and the devil's temptations. And in the fact that the sacred writers describe with impartiality both the faults and the virtues of the founders of their nation ? we have a strong proof that they wrote by the inspira- tion of God. As Jews they were exceedingly proud, and disposed to magnify everything that belonged to their nation. It must have been therefore sorely against their natural feelings to record the glaring misdeeds of their fathers, patriarchs, judges, and prophets. It was against their national pride and patriotism, to do so ; yet we find them all honest, faithful and impartial hi their 72 THE GIANT JUDGE. memoirs of the heroes of their nation. Even Morell in his Philosophy of Religion, admits that if the Spirit of God was in the Hebrew church, " then the writings which embody this religious state are inspired." But in the record of their religious state we are not to expect " a //if/her religion or a more perfect morality than actually existed in those times ; hence accordingly the imperfec- tions both in moral and religious ideas which are mixed up with all their sacred writings." Page 169. FINALLY. It is not true therefore that the Old Testa- ment is a failure. It accomplished all it was intended to do. It is not true that the Creator set up one religion for one race in the age of the patriarchs, and finding that it did not work well, tried to mend it by the Mosaic dis- pensation, and then repaired Moses' institutes by the prophets. This is the mere garrulity of obsolete Deism. The religion of the Bible is one. Christianity is as old as the creation. Abel and Noah were Christians as much as Peter and Paul. They looked forward, while Peter and Paul looked back. They anticipated the sacrifice on Calvary, while the apostles and all chris- tians since the incarnation keep it in remembrance. God's plan of revealing redemption from the beginning was to be progressive to the incarnation. The old dispen- sation was not intended to be effectual or final in itself. It was the shadow of good things to come. And the promix > fulfilled in us are as necessary as the promises given to the patriarchs. "They are like the two parts of a tally. The fathers had one part, in the promises, and we the other in the fulfillment, and neither would have been complete without the other."- -Barnes. Sams,on s Ibtnis CHAPTER IV. SAMSON'S PARENTS THE HERO PROMISED. " O wherefore was my birth 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 ?" Samson. 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 Bible, 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, ivhat does the Bible say ? Can we arrive at a reliable interpretation of the Scriptures ? 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 every 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 forty years. Here are three points to be noticed. 1. Who were the Philistines? 2. In 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 people who never possessed more than a small part of it. The name Palestina was 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, Zephaniali, Jeremiah and Ezekiel allude to them. They were partially subdued by Esarhaddon, king of Assyria, arid 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 Chalybes 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 appropriate to the holy land. It was emphatically promised to the pilgrim patriarchs. 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 Dent, ii : 2o, it appears, the Caphtorim drove out the Avim from Hazerim to Azzali, (that is, Gaza) and dwelt in their stead. If, as it seems to us, the Casluhim, Caph- torim, Cherethites and Philistines are one and the same people, then AVC should conclude that the Philistines were from Egypt, 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 appears that their guards were sometimes Philistines, Avho were known under the name of Pelethites and Cherethites. These Pelethite (Philistine) guards answered to the Capiyis among the Turks. If Caphior is not Crete, where is it? If the Philistines were, not from Egypt, whence came they? Does not their history render their Egyptian origin very probable ? Some, indeed, think that Caphtor was in the Delta. Dr. Chirk believes it identical with Cyprus, but gives no sat i.- factory rea.-on. If. as some think, Cas- luhim meant inhabitants of Colchis, then they were of v Egyptian origin; for almost all authors agree 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 Philistines 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, ser&nim, 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 religion, and spoke the same language. Secondly. It is probable the forty years 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 was 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 struggle 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 rebellion 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. xliv : 13 ; Lsa. 1:1; Deut. xxxii : 30 ; and Judges iii : 8 ; and iv : 8. Moses had told them that when they were 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. AVhen 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 o O distinctions between a divine permission and a divine appointment, founded on the vis inertice of created minds, which are as clay in the hands of the potter, are 82 THE GIANT JUDGE. really 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. Where 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 writers of the Bible ? Where 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 doing so, are you not still conscious of your own free agency ? The offer of pardon is made to you in good faith. There is no deficiency in it. The sun that melts 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 [he body acted upon by the sun, arid not owing to any change or defect in llic orb of day. Salvation is always of tlie Lord, and perdition is alwavs the work of the sinner's own hand. There is nothing O between the greatest sinner and salvation, but his own unwillingness to accept of it as a free, sorereign gift through Jesus Christ as the only redeemer. St. Augustine explains this rrti.r rrf/tmr/rni, 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 Philistines. 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 Deus in homine ipsam duritiam cordis, scd indurare eum dicitur quern mollire noluerit, sic etiam excsecare quern illuminare noluerit, et repellere eum quern noluerit vocare. 1 ' 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 lie 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. Now 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 proper 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 whole. 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 ivo?nb, 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 Samson, of Samuel and of John the Baptist, however, the consecration was made before their birth and Avas 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 Avere 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 water 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 water nourish and wine enfeeble." " Oh ! madness to think use of strongest wines And strongest drinks our chief support of health, When God with these forbidd'n made choice 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 he 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 without sin indeed, but with less guilt than one who professes to be a Christian. For having named the name of Christ, we must be careful to depart from all iniquity. If we are Christ's we must have his spirit. If Christians, we are consecrated to God as true Nazarites. The man of the world has all his good things now, and it is a miserable, poor portion. The believer's good things are to come. They are in Heaven. And he shall begin to deliver Israel. Samson only began to deliver Israel, for it was not till the days of David, that the Philistines were 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 sow, 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 : 16, 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 shall 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 proper 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 OP GREAT MEN. 89 promise is that grace shall 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 without 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 main 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 first, 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 special 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 Messiah, 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 applies at head-quarters. He goes immediately to prayer, saying, " 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 her 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 Manoali'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, ofiener prayed : " Teach me what w r e 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 ones 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 briny them up for me, and 1 will give thee tliy wages. And we answer, Lord, we dedicate them to thee, imploring thy blessing to rest upon them. I. The. care of children should begin before they are born --even before they are conceived. A celebrated physician says : " The first duty parents owe to their children 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 entailing a host of ailments upon her pos- 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 essential. 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 alarming 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 offense 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 children, prayer, deep, earnest, believing prayer is essential. The preservation of children is a constant miracle. After all our solicitude 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 audfeel 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 acquirement of 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 PRAY. 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. " Thus at the flaming forge of life Our fortunes must be wrought, Thus on its sounding anvil shaped Each burning deed and thought." E s m CHAPTER V JESUS CHRIST IN THE THEOPHANIES OF THE OLD TESTAMENT. Appeared before mine eyes A man of God : his habit and his guise Were such 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 awful majesty." Quarles' Samson. Testamentum Vetus de Christo exhibendo, Xovum de Christo exhibito agit : Novum in veteri latet, Vetus in novo patet. Augustine. " Scriptura omnis in duo Testamenta divisa est * * Jud3i Veteri utuntur, nos Novo : sed tamen diversa non sunt, quia Novum Veteris adim- pletio est, et in utroque idem Testator est Cliristus." 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 LORD, 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 LORD 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 AVE HAVE JESUS CHRIST MANIFESTED AS GOD. And the angel of the Lord came again, (verse nine). This is the same angel that appeared lirst 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, Why askcst them 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 he called WONDERFUL." Hence it is concluded, that the true meaning of the clause, seeing it is secret, is, it is ivonderful. 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 first 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 well 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 LORD. 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, when he actually manifested himself in the flesh. By these divine appearances the faith of mankind was kept alive, that in due time the promise 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 LORD," therefore, in the Old Testament is to be under- *Boothroyd, Le Clcrc, Houbigant, Michaelis, say this is ttu> true reading of the passage. In their opinion also, the name of the veil is " the well of the invisible God." The Targum of Jonathan, the 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 interpositions. They were types of the coming incarna- tion. In the form of " a man of God," or of an angel, o " 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 ; and xxxi : 1113. 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 anc/el of the LORD (JEHOVAH) appears in the bush, and E* 106 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 appears 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 face ; 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 AM 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 Angel-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 we find Isaiah applying to the Messiah in ix : 6. And again in Isa. xlii : 19, the same term --angel --that is used in the text is given to the Messiah, who is nh o called the Angel of the Covenant. See Mai. iii : 1 ; Matt, xii : 18-21. Compare also Isa. Ix : 1 ; Heb. ii : 14; and Isa. xl : .'5. There is a gradual development of truth as taught in the Bible. The existence of (lod i,^ assumed. His GOD INVISIBLE REVEALED. 107 unity and spirituality are then taught. His invisibility 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 intelli- 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 parts 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. Hebr. 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 favorable 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 O 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 high, 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 t/Ktleak, is sending or appearance, while it is not denied but that it docs signify messenger, angel. Secondly. This interpretation destroys all significance in the evident diversities of (lie Theophanies, 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 polytheism, the essential unity and spirituality of God. DIVINITY IN THE TIIEOPHANIES. 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 us 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 under the 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 ni^lit 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 Te>la;nent, Tin: SIIEKINAII. III. The leading idea of the Revelation of God in the Old Testament was, the coining of the Messiah. Other THE CENTER OF THE BIBLE. Ill oreat truths are taught or illustrated, but they are all in o o * order to prepare the way for the fulfillment 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 harmonizes. Without this purpose in view the Old Testament is but a loose, scattered, and badly arranged heap of poetry, history, morals, and memoirs. But with 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 coining Messiah. " And upon that revelation of facts, and prediction by 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. itnal life ; not embalmed and laid with reverential care aside in the grave, but arisen from the dead, and alive forevermore, 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 : o. 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 difficulties, the trials, the struggles, the temptations in which it has been in- volved, have interpreted to it its own records. * * Now there was much written for it there as with sym- pathetic 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 the years of their pilgrimage in the desert, waxed not old; yea, ac- cording to rabbinical tradition, kept pace and measure with their bodies, growing \\\(\\ their growth, titling the man as they had fitted the child, ami this, until the forty SCRIPTURAL DEVELOPMENT. 113 years of their sojourn in the wilderness had expired. Or to use another comparison, which may serve to illustrate 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 light and prominence, and then another ; anon, kind- ling the glory-smitten summit of some far mountain, and presently lighting up the recesses of some near valley which had hitherto abided in gloom ; and so, traveling on, till 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 little 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."* IV. 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 re\ - * See Trench's llulscan Lecture fur 18."):!. Lee on Inspiration substantially />,^-.iah; Dr. Wardla\\'s Discourses on the Socinian Controversy ; and Dr. W. L. Alexander's Connection oi the did ami New Tes- tament. THE OLD TESTAMENT NOT OBSOLETE. 115 elation is by the inspirititm 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- * Bretsclmeider Ilaiidb. 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 foreshadow ings of the great Incarnation. In 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."- John i : 18 ; 1 Tim. iii : 1G. 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 angd. VI. In all the viiriclic- of iniumer in which, in times past, God spake unto the fathers, THE LOGOS, THE WORD, of John i, was the EEVEALER. 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- "Y 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 (hini), and were destroyed of serpents." 1 Cor. x: 9. And again, " Behold, I send an Angel before thee, to keep thee in the way ; 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: 10, 34; vi : 29 ; x : 30 ; 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 Old Testament. As Christ is emphatically he 'iclnnn God liatli 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- sa^-es from Dr. Mill and Prof. Olshausen. o " 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 Jacob 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 like 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 lives 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 plan 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 himself 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 re-institute " to build again" " not to perpetuate 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 , and the stability and completeness of both depend THE GREAT RULE OF LIFE. 121 on their 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 up 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 fulflller 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. 3rd. 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 was 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 communion 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 life 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 pilgrim, 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 past 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 trials 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 word 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. JfsmHg Sacrifice aifo CHAPTER VI. THE FAMILY SACRIFICE AND CONFERENCE. " 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 Bethl'em, promise and portend some good : Mixt was his bright aspect, as if his bi'eath Had equal errands both of life and death, : Glory and mildness seemed to contend In his fair eyes." Quarles, IN Judges xiii : 10, 11, the angel 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 runs 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, Manoah 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 how 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 him ? 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 : 11.) 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 several times replies to what was in the minds of his hearers, rather than to any objec- tion stated, or question really put, so far 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 -upreme 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. The; re 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 know that he was an angel of the Lord. 130 THE GIANT JUDGE. And besides, if lie 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. ^j ^j t? The objection that Manoah was not a priest, and therefore had no right to offer 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 acceptance 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. Kor 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 : G ; where it is most unquestionably applied to the Messiah, who 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 wondrously. 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 form of a proper name, but the 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 kneiv that he was an angel of the LORD. See our engraving. And Manoah said unto his wife, We shall surely die, because we have seen 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 Manoah 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 offer 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 sufficient, 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 Ms wife said unto him, If the Lord were pleased 134 THE GIANT JUDGE. to kill 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, will 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 would 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 history and in the events of every day life, if he did not offer 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 us. 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: It is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Jesus Christ came into the world 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 Son to die for us, while we were yet his enemies ; how much more will he not give us all 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-offering for us, though he knew no sin, that we 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. fife of % DOT CHAPTER VII. THE LIFE OF THE HERO BEGUN. " There are tones that will haunt us, though lonely Our path be o'er mountain 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, like moonlight, can brighten With a light that is clearer than day." And the woman bare a son, and called his name Sam- son. The original is Shimskon, 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 the 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 was 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. External 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 Spirit of God. The only dif- 142 THE GIANT JUDGE. ference between the moving of the Spirit of God upon the heart of a child now, and among us, and upon Sam- son, lies in the bearing that it had in his case upon his mission as a judge and an avenger of his people. The Holy Spirit was bestowed in an extraordinary measure in Old Testament times, upon those persons whom the Lord had chosen to perform great deeds for the deliver- ance of his people. The original for began to move him at times, is peculiar. According to Diodati, it means, to inspire magnani- mous thoughts into him, and give him a miraculous strength of body and courage, and to incite him to do great and more than human acts. The radical word means an anvil, and the metaphor seems to be drawn from the repeated and somewhat violent shocks of the smith's hammer. Thus did the Spirit of the Lord stir up Samson. His call was clear, repeated, and urgent. The twenty-fifth verse seems to say that a camp was formed between Zorah and Eshtaol, to give some check to the Philistines ; and when the Hebrews went out for drill, or to make a demonstration against the enemy, young Samson went out with them, and by various man- ifestations of strength and courage, gave intimations of what he would do when he should become of age. This was the bright sunny morning of our hero judge. Alas ! that it was so short. He grew, and the Spirit of the Lord began to move him, inspiring him with the purpose and preparing him for the deliverance of his people. The sequel discloses, however, the painful fact that Samson did not meet the possibilities of his destiny. His char- acter was not equal to his gifts. His history is a riddle, the unravelling of which is a warning of great signifi- YOUNG MEN ADMONISHED. 143 cance to YOUNG MEN, especially to such as have had pious parents, and begun life with high religious hopes. His name is a miracle and a by-word a glory and a shame proclaiming divine sovereignty and mercy, and at the same time the awful severity of divine goodness. As Samson's manhood is not such as his youth prom- ised, let no child of pious parents push away this history, and say, I shall never disappoint my parents. Do we not read of one who, with quite as much indignation as it is prudent for any young man to express, said, in ref- erence to a wicked thing, Is thy servant a dog that he should do this thing ? and yet he did do that thing. Your baptismal covenant, young man, can hardly bind you more strictly than Samson's circumcision and Naza- ritish vows bound him. Nor have you any right to con- clude that the gracious movements of God's Spirit will be more effectual and persistent in you than they were in him. It is true, you may have had advantages which he had not and yet it is equally true that many young people, brought up as piously as yourselves, have for- gotten their Bibles, and forsaken the house of God, and made shipwreck of the faith and hope of their parents. It is painfully true that some of the children of great promise, and high hopes, have turned out very badly. Their sun has gone clown into the night of sorrow and death while yet it was high noon ; nor have they fallen alone. They have crushed the hearts of their parents, and brought their gray hairs with sorrow to the grave. Let the biography of this extraordinary man, then, be a warning to all the young, of the terrific whirlpools, and sunken rocks, on which so many adventurers have made shipwreck for time and eternity. 144 THE GIANT JUDGE. The principles taught in the foregoing remarks, and suggested by the early training of our giant judge, are of universal importance ; but especially so in a new coun- try, and in the infancy of a State. A great teaching philosopher of antiquity* asserts, and correctly, too, that he who is about to be a good man in anything whatever, ought immediately, from childhood, to practice, when engaged in playful and serious pursuits, the very things suited to the particular object he has in view. Plato's idea is, that he who is about to make himself a good farmer, should have playthings that teach him about the tilling of the ground. And he that is to be a house- builder, should play at building children's houses. And his parents or guardian should provide him with the im- plements, as toys that should teach him familiarity with the future employment of the tools belonging to the art he is to pursue. The teacher of children should endeav- or to make the plays and pleasures of the child intro- ductory to his future life. If a boy is to be a soldier, he should be taught to walk, ride, endure fatigue, and the like things in his sports. The child should be taught what he is to do when he is a man. This princi- ple is generally acknowledged, and yet among nominal Christians nothing is more apparent than the neglect of children AT HOME. It is not merely the neglect of fam- ily religion that I deplore, but of all proper family nur- ture and admonition. I am thoroughly persuaded that a very large proportion of the laivlessness, iniquity, and corruption of the times may be traced to the want of subordination and instruction in our families. The hope * Plato, the Laws, book i. EARLIEST LESSONS MOST DISTINCT. 145 of the state and of the church is of necessity centered in the young. It is a most imperative duty, then, to bring them up in the way they should go. In wisdom the Creator has arranged that the family should be the first and greatest of all educational agencies. The home, and then the school room, and the house of worship, are instrumentalities that make us what we are. The home is first and most important ; there is the root that feeds the life ; there the precious metal is first moulded into shape which may afterwards be rasped and polished, but not recast. There lines may be traced on a yielding and pliable nature, that become as enduring as if sculptured on stone. The lessons of our earliest home are wrought into the structure of the mind, and give to it shape and coloring more or less indestructible. The mind of the little one, in the mother's arms, is like a daguerreotype plate, that receives whatever image is first cast upon it. No subsequent impressions can ever be so distinct. And so susceptible is the tender mind, that it is ever taking impressions. In the granite rocks we find preserved from ages so long past that we cannot name their date, impressions of the tiniest leaves of the forest. So it is often the case that words uttered carelessly sink into the soul, and may be traced upon its every fibre forever afterwards, as if written with a pen of iron, and the point of a diamond. A breath covers the frosted window with an icy film, and a word, or a cruel suspicion, or a wicked gesture or picture, may forever crust the mirror of a young heart. But not only is the young heart peculi- arly susceptible of impressions, but it is, alas ! prone to evil rather than good. This is true of all men until they are taught of God. But in the young there is a pecu- G 146 THE GIANT JUDGE. liar aptitude to receive good impressions. Evil habits are not then formed ; the passions are not then glowing like a furnace ; evil associations have not then preoccu- pied the affections. This is the time to open the heart to truth, and turn it to God. These opportunities are beyond all price. Hear the lesson, parents and Sunday school teachers. All history, all analogy, and all experience prove that institutions alone cannot keep a people free. It is in the intelligence, social morality, and religious spirit of the people that lies the hope of our continuing to have a free and salutary form of government. It is as plain and true as that there is a sun in the heavens, pouring his light upon our fields and mountains, and ripening our fruits and harvest, that our rapid growth and great pros- perity are to be ascribed to moral causes our religious- ness of character, and our free and wisely constructed institutions. Whenever we lose our social ethics and t religious spirit, AVC shall find the days of the Republic numbered, and the reign of corruption, anarchy, and tyranny commenced. FAMILY TRAINING is a theme that cannot be exhaust- ed. Even when nothing new is elicited in urging its importance, it is well to bring old truths again and again before the public. As in building the pyramids, stone was laid upon stone, and course upon course, until the huge pile arose, and then it was finished from the top downwards; so at home and in earliest years the work of education is begun. And long afterwards, by line upon line, and precept upon precept, here a little and there a little, the mind is developed, and the moral character formed. The importance of proper training YOUNG MEN OUR GOVERNORS. 147 at home, and in earliest years, is greatly enhanced among us by the fact that our country is in a great measure governed by young men, and that our young men leave home early ; and yet almost all the education many of them receive is obtained at home and from the primary school. And when they leave home they are exposed to many dangers : they are not only from home, but many of them are without proper female society ; they are in the season of the passions ; they are ambitious of fame and wealth. It is vastly important, therefore, that they be well established in right moral principles. How else can we expect them r& resist the fascinations of vice, or escape the corruption of a weakened moral sense, from the infidelity that prevails ,around them? Much has been done by our schools, Lyceums, lecturings, libraries, and pulpit efforts, for the young, but we are not satisfied. The results attained are not commensurate with our hopes, nor with the ur- gencies of the case. Crime is still on the increase. The present course of a very large number of our youth I dare not say how large a proportion is not hopeful. The future of American youth, physically, mentally, and socially, is not hopeful. The prospect is one of dimin- ished stature and strength. The hastening to be rich, the excess, and extravagance, and dissipation of the pres- ent generation are likely to enia.il feebleness and luxury on that which is to come ; nor is this true only of those who have had vicious parents. The ranks of such are every day increasing from the thresholds of piety. Are there not now among the profane many that wnv brought up in the homes of industry and prayer ? \Ve do not read aright if violence and forgery, intemperance and lewd- o 148 THE GIANT JUDGE. ness, profane and obscene language, robberies, murders, divorces, and suicides, have not become so common as hardly to awaken our surprise. The society of our day is diseased it is corrupt- -it is rotten- -it is " a shame and a lie." A fearful malady is at work, and sad con- sequences are to be apprehended. Thinking men, earn- est minded, large hearted men are sad, and some are even despairing. How is it that so much parental love and care, anxiety and toil, produce no more fruits ? In the next generation who are to be our successful merchants, our legislators, statesmen, and learned and great men ? If the moaning of life is neglected, if the young are physically debilitated, and morally depraved, and their minds dark and ignorant, how can we avoid a rapid movement on the downward road ? To have any fears on such a subject is painful to a well disposed mind. It fills us with horror to think of the calamities that are, sooner or later, measured out to corrupt communities by a retributive providence. As parents and patriots, and much more as Christians, we should consider the dangerous tendencies of excessive devotion to money making and sensual delights. If pa- rents are devoted to an increase of stocks and dividends, so as to neglect the mind and social affections if their ambition is to occupy a palatial residence, keep a superb equipage, and deck their daughters in the stillest crino- lines, richest furs, and most costly silks, and have their sons drive the fastest horses, and drink the most costly wines then what will their grandchildren be, if they have any? Will not the spirit of the fathers become stronger and more sordid, and more injurious as it descends to the children ? What, then, can be done ? THE SUNDAY SCHOOL'S PLACE. 149 1st. Why, a more healthy, vigorous kind of literature can be put into the hands of the young. In popularizing science, our school systems are almost emasculated. Our children are fed on namby pamby stuff, when they should have honest hard bread and sound meat. In making a royal road to scholarship easy, we have denied them the gymnastics of the mind, and too many of them have stumbled over the ass' bridge, or are stand- ing still upon it. The Peter Parley literature of our schools should be exiled to the islands of the southern Pacific. 2dly. Our children should be taught everywhere and always, that knowledge, mental power, discipline of thought, and not a mere parrot recital at an examination, is the thing to be gained by going to school. Dr. John- son said that it was a great thing gained when a child knew there was such a place as Kamschatka. All knowledge tends to profit. 3dly. Family government and training must be re- sumed. One of the sources of the evils of the times is in the relaxed state of family government. As the common schools and Sabbath schools have prevailed, and have been made to take the place of family teachings, so the influence of parents has dimin- ished. Now if the common schools and Sunday schools are made substitutes for family government, then it were a misfortune that they have ever been established. It is not their vocation to take the child altogether from parental training. Their true place is auxiliary to the parent. They are to help the parent, but not to super- sede him, or in the smallest degree weaken his influence. 4thly. In the family training of children there must 150 THE GIANT JUDGE. be a more earnest simple inculcation of moral precepts. In becoming enlightened and liberal, we must distinguish between a proper regard for religious truth and absolute indifference. The religious principles of the families of a nation give character to its morals and mental activi- ties. All the blessings of civilized life may be traced to our private dwellings to our homes and to our mothers. The corner stones of our churches and of the state are our hearthstones, guarded by lawfully wedded forms of conjugal love. " Let our temples/* says one, " crumble, and our academies decay ; let every public edifice, our halls of justice, and our capitals of state, be levelled with the dust, but spare our homes. Let no socialist invade them with his wild plans of community. Man did not invent, and he cannot improve or abrogate them. A pri- vate shelter to cover in two hearts dearer to each other than all in the world ; high walls, to exclude the profane eyes of human beings ; seclusion enough for children to feel that mother is a holy and a peculiar name this is home ; and here is the birth place of every virtuous impulse, and every sacred thought. Here the church and the state must come for their origin and their sup- port. Oh, spare our homes ! " Yes, our HOMES must be cherished as the most sacred spots we have on earth. Here we may teach our chil- dren how to regain ten thousand little E dens, by inspiring them with a love for the beauties of nature and of art, and with love to mankind and their blessed Creator. I should have been an atheist, said John Randolph, but for the recollection that my mother used to take my little hands in hers, and cause me to say, on her knees, " Our Father which art in heaven." But to make home the HOME THE SEAT OF LOVE. 151 fountain of such influences, it must be truly the seat of the affections. Some parents seem to move among their tender olive plants with so much haughty dignity, and cold precision, that they remind me of the lofty and cragged peaks of the icebergs that are sometimes found floating among the island gardens of the tropics. Their presence is always known by the chilliness of the air. I am persuaded it were better to put out our children's eyes than to crush their affections in the nursery. It were better that a whole family were carried off by the plague, than that it should live without a heart. Rather let the young heart burst out in glee, and song, and sym- pathy. Teach the little one to hate only " sin, dirt, and the devil," and to love everything beautiful and good. Let the warm emotions of the little heir to immortality gush out for the cow that givers him milk, and for the dog that guards his father's door, and allows his tiny fingers to pinch his ears, and gouge his eyes. Teach your children to hate vice, and to love the robin and the rose, their country and their God, and then you may commit the government to their shoulders. And let the young prize the principles of their pious parents, and heed their solemn warnings against the fascinations of vice. Prize them, brother, 'twill not last forever, And, once escaped, it will return never! It is the morning : work while la->ts its light ; Ye cannot toil so cheerily at night. Jt is the time of sowing; let the seed Produce the harvest that your soul will need. And it is the planting time ; be sure the root Be such as bears the most delicious fruit." amson's Jfirst f oit mfo \\t lion |i|)i. CHAPTER VIII. SAMSON'S FIRST LOYE AND THE LION-FIGHT. " Yet truth to say, I oft have heard men wonder Why thou should'st wed Philistian women rather Than of thine own tribe ; fairer, or as fair, At least of thy own nation, and as noble." Samton. IN the last chapter we had a glance at the early piety of the great Israelite. The spirit of God was upon him in the camp of his countrymen near his native city. His religion, however, does not seem to have flourished long. His journeys to Timnath, though marked with deeds of miraculous strength are the beginnings of his trouble. The fourteenth chapter tells us how he went down to Timnath, and fell in love with a Philistine damsel. Tirn- nath was near the sea side, hence the expression went doivn. Though this city belonged to his own tribe, it was at this time in the hands of the Philistines. It had once belonged to Judah, but had been transferred to Dan. It was some fifteen miles north-east of Eshtaol, and twenty west from Jerusalem. Its possession now by the Phil- istines was a reproach to the Israelites. Either they hud not driven them out originally as they should have done in the time of the conquest under Joshua and Caleb, 156 THE GIANT JUDGE. or the Philistines had returned and re-occupied it. How- ever this may have been, there was at this time free intercourse between the Philistines and the Hebrews. The population w^as probably mixed, but the Hebrews were under tribute to the Philistines. In considering Samson's choice of a wife we are con- scious of a feeling of painful disappointment. We had a right to expect Manoalis son would have made a bet- ter selection. In choosing a Philistine we begin to see his lower nature acting the tyrant. But it were well if domestic history in modern times did not present many instances of similar stubborn ess. In such matters, the fancy of young people is often the supreme law. Louis the fourteenth was not more head-strong and dogmatic when he said, that his heavy guns were the last reason of kings, than is the mere fancy of the eye in youth. Samson's falling in love, was in the ordinary way : " And he saw a woman of Timnath," and she pleased him well. Hebrew, " For she is just right in my eyes." Some inter- preters think the original implies something more than she was agreeable to his fancy. Possibly it may mean, that he was moved by the Lord to this alliance, seeing that it would furnish a proper occasion for him to begin his deliverances. The Hebrew YASHAR, may mean not only that she was beautiful, fascinating in his eyes, but also that she was fit, right, appropriate in regard to the great work which he had to accomplish. It' this sense be adopted here, then Samson was prophet enough to understand the popular doctrine of availability. He had regard to an ulterior and higher purpose than gratifying his taste. This does not necessarily imply, however, that he did not love this woman. Prudence and affec- SAMSON'S PARADOXES BEGIN. 157 tion may coexist. Nor do I see anything wrong in his making his love for this woman subservient to the great patriotic mission for which Providence had raised him up. But surely it was a strange beginning. The prom- ised deliverer of Israel takes a wife from their hereditary enemies. But was not this a fair prologue to the rest of his life ? He was a man of paradoxes. We do not wonder that his pious parents were aston- ished at his wish to take a Philistine woman to wife. They were national enemies. And the angel had said he should deliver Israel. They would therefore natur- ally inquire, how is this ? Is our deliverance to begin with an alliance ? We are not to touch anything unclean ; our child is a Nazarite; and yet he wishes to marry a heathen ! This is the beginning of the riddle. Js there never a woman among tJiy brethren ? is the natural inquiry of such a father and mother. As he was so especially consecrated to God, it must have seemed peculiarly improper for him to make such an alliance. But Sam- son was not in a reasoning mood. His love for the Philis- tine maid was as ardent as his strength was great. The brave love heroically. As a good son, he consults his parents, and asks their approbation ; but, then as is too often the case, he pressed his own desires too obstinately. When his parents remonstrated against such an alliance, he replied to his father, saying, Get her for me, for she pleaseth me well. Still, let us not forget that he did con- sult his parents. This showed his regard for them and for the law of God. Before he paid his addresses to the young woman, or said anything to her parents, he laid the affair before his own parents. As yet his marrying was not a foregone conclusion. Thus far he is a noble 158 THE GIANT JUDGE. example for all young persons. Doubtless there would be many more happy marriages, if pious parents were more reverentially consulted, and if such unions were more generally formed with due regard to the divine will. Obedience to God in marrying as well as in other things is the way of happiness. In seeking a Philistine wife, even in the most favora- ble light we can take of the affair, Samson was treading on doubtful and dangerous ground. Their law expressly forbade the Israelites to marry among those nations that were cursed and devoted to destruction. It does not appear, however, that the Philistines were numbered among the doomed Canaanites. They were of Egyptian origin. The spirit of the Hebrew law, however, was plainly against such alliances, for the Philistines were idolaters and foreigners. It is true the law that forbade an Israelite to marry a heathen, was a ceremonial law, or a police law one that related to their national policy. It was not one of the laws of the Decalogue. It was not a moral law. It might therefore be changed, or sus- pended. In what sense was it of the Lord that he sought the Timnite damsel for a wife as an occasion against the Philistines ? It is seldom the sacred writers give rea- sons for what they record, but the fourth verse seems to be parenthetical, and designed to explain why Samson's parents declined consenting to this marriage. It is clearly implied that if they had known that this was God's will, they would at once have acquiesced. They did agree to go with him to Timnath, as we find from the following verse, to see more about the matter, and finally gave their consent. Some think they went with Samson SAMSON'S MARRYING FANCY. 159 because he told them plainly his motives, or that in some way, they understood the thing was of the Lord. But if the divine prohibition against such an alliance was repealed for the time, making for special reasons his case an exception, how is it that the historian does not inform us of this fact ? Why does not Samson tell his parents that the law is repealed in this case ? There is not even a hint of any such thing. The statement that this alli- ance was of the Lord does not excuse Samson from all responsibility. The match was of his own seeking. He acted as a free agent in going down to Timnath. He was not carried there by angels, nor did God miracu- lously excite his love towards the Philistine dame. But God, seeing Samson's choice, determined to bring good out of it he determined that his attachment to a Phi- listine woman should be overruled, so as to be the occa- sion of his beginning to deliver Israel. Some are even ready to believe that Samson feigned an attachment to this woman, and only designed from the beginning to make an occasion or get an excuse for attacking the Philistines. This is not consistent with the original. His love for her Avas sincere, but doubtless he desired also to avenge himself and his countrymen upon her people as soon as a fit opportunity should occur. That it was of the LORD, that he sought an occasion against the Philistines, does not make God the author of it. Samson was permitted to exercise his own free will, and to follow his fancy in choosing a wife, and God in the exercise of free agency and sovereignty, made his choice subservient to the fulfillment of the promise made to his mother, that he should begin to deliver Israel from the hands of the Philistines. The Philistines 162 THE GIANT JUDGE. and what his own propensity moved him to do. Think yon, that he prayed to God to direct him as to the pre- cise method of his procedure against the Philistines, or being persuaded that it was the divine will for him to seek a quarrel with them, did he trust to his own judg- ment as to the means ; and in the meantime concludes that he will find the occasion of the quarrel in gratifying his passion for a Philistine maid ? It is certainly true that men sometimes so deceive themselves, that they pray for guidance from the Lord, while at the same time, their course is fixed. In their own hearts what they will do is a foregone conclusion. They pray for the divine will to be done, and do their own will. They pray for light to follow providence, and rise from their knees and go straightway out to lead providence. They bow their knees before God, but not their souls. And regard- ing iniquity in their hearts, their prayers are not heard. TV hate ver it does or does not mean, the fourth verse can- not teach that God prompted Samson to transgress. God cannot tempt any man to evil. For at that time the Philistines had dominion over Israel. What is the force here of the illative for ? In some sense it certainly expresses the idea that Samson was moved to find a pretext for avenging his people on their enemies. Schmid, and some others, understand it thus : the Philistines, by the art of war, were the con- querors ; they had dominion over the Israelite.-, and it was not right for them to rebel against existing power, unless some fresh overt act of oppression was committed. The idea, then, is, that though suffering under a tyranny, yet it was necessary for them to have a just r;iu.-e for endeavoring to shake off the yoke ; and that it would CAUSES OF THE REVOLUTION. 1 G3 have been unlawful for them to rise against their con- querors without such a cause. Our fathers of the Rev- olution of 17 7 G, sought diligently to justify their Declar- ation of Independence and separation from the mother country, by stating to the whole world their reasons. They recited the acts of the Imperial Parliament that were unlawful, unjust, and oppressive. They had sought repeatedly, and in various ways, for redress, but in vain. They were spurned from the throne, and their only hope was in revolution. The same is true of the revolution of 1G88. It is unquestionably true that the Bible is very strong against insubordination and rebel- lion. But I have yet to see the proof that it enjoins, absolutely and unconditionally, the duty of passive obe- dience. The danger of our times, however, is all in the contrary direction. In Samson's case there is at least the appearance of singular prudence and moderation ; " that although he had ample grounds in the divine com- mission implied in the very fact of his being raised up and set apart as a national deliverer, yet, to avoid offense, he will not undertake the work till a just and legitimate cause of war occurs." In verses five, six, and seven, we have the first display of our hero's miraculous strength. His parents at first objected to the match, but afterwards went down with him to Timnath, either hoping that something would occur on the way, or when they should arrive, by which they could divert him from his purpose ; or they went in his behalf to arrange for the wedding. Substantially this is the manner of conducting such affairs still' in the <~j East. Sometimes the proposal is made, however, in a different style. A young fellow says to a father, such 164 THE GIANT JUDGE. another father will give so much with his daughter, how much will you give if I may marry yours? Ordinarily all such negotiations are carried on by the parents of the young people. The leading idea is of bargain and sale. The dower or the purchase money has more influence than the affection of the parties, or their fitness to make each other happy. Among the aborigines of the southern States, and perhaps the same custom obtains all over the continent, when a man wants a wife he does not make the applica- tion in person, but sends his sister, or mother, or some other female relative, to the relations of the young woman he desires for a wife. They consult the male relations, and if they approve they give a favorable answer. The bridegroom then sends a blanket, and such other articles of clothing as he is able, to the females of the family of the bride. If they accept this present, the match is made. And when he has made a crop and gathered it, and made the season's hunt, and brought home the meat, and put all this into his wife's hands, the marriage ceremony ends, and she is bound as his wife. ( See White's statistics and description of Georgia, p. 29.) As his father and mother were on their way down to Timnath, Samson goes aside into the vineyards belong- ing to the town, probably, says Henry, to gather grapes; bul another, more poetically inclined, says Samson wished "to gain the pleasure of a lonely thought." ]>ut he h.nl neither the pleasure of a lonely thought, nor of out ing grapes, for "a young lion came and roared agninst him." I believe this is the lirst, but certainly not the last time allusion is made in the Bible to lions. In the subsequent THE LIONS OF THE BIBLE. 165 books of the Bible they are frequently mentioned as be- ing found in Palestine and adjacent countries. In the life of David, and in the history of the exploits of his mighty men, they are several times mentioned. On a snowy day one of his worthies killed two lions in a pit. The disobedient prophet was killed by a lion ; and the overflowings of the Jordan drove lions from their hiding places in the thickets on its banks. Historically the proof is strong that lions were numerous in ancient times in Asia Minor. They live to be old, and multiply rapidly. It is true, however, that but few if any are to be found there at the present time. The monks of Mount Sinai told me, in 1851, that lions still prowled through the sandy plains, and over the mountains of the peninsula. But even if not a single lion could now be found in west- ern Asia, the text may be true ; for numerous instances can be ^eited of the disappearing of wild beasts from countries where they were once numerous. The hippo- potamus was once on the lower Nile, but is not there now. The Lotus is believed to have been a native of India, but flourished a long time on the Nile, and then disappeared. The slabs, cylinders, walls, columns, and tombs of the ruins of Chaldea, Assyria, and Egypt prove that lions were well known in ancient times. Hunting lions and killing lions is often represented. They are found still on the banks of the Tigris, the Euphrates, and in the Syrian deserts. Our engraving copied from Loftus* work on Susiana, and from a clay tablet of Sinkara, proves that such encounters were not unknown in ancient times. In this tablet we have a picture of an almost every day occurrence among the ancient Chalde- 16G THE GIANT JUDGE. ans. Here we see a lion disturbed in his feast on a bul- lock, by a man armed with a club and hatchet. The lion roaring and lashing his tail, with mane erect, is ex- tremely spirited. This clay tablet, which we take from Mr. Loftus' volume, dates back almost to the days of the Judges, and was found not a thousand miles from Tim- natli. I do not say this tablet is a picture of Samson, COPY OF CLAY TABLET FROM SIXKAEA. but we have only to suppose that the man represents Samson, but without a hatchet and club, for lie had noticing in his hands, and that the lion was disturbed at his breakfast on figs, pomegranates, and grapes, instead of an ox, and we have a spirited illustration of our text. Then 1 arc at least seven Hebrew terms signifying a lion, expressive of the different ages of that animal. Kephirm the text however, signifies a young lion in full SAMSON'S GREAT MODESTY. 1G7 strength, and therefore a dangerous adversary. Samson seems not to have been aware of his presence till the very moment when with open month he came fiercely at him ready to devour him. As the lion never roars in the presence of an enemy except when ready to spring upon him, it is obvious his danger was imminent. The lion roared against him, that is, was about to seize him and tear him to pieces. Samson was now twenty-two years old, but it was not in his own strength that he pre- vailed over the lion : " The spirit of the LORD came mightily upon him, and he rent him as he would have rent a kid." That is, supernatural influence excited his body and his mind to an extraordinary degree of energy. As the danger was immediate and extreme, so the divine help was instantaneous. This adventure was singularly prophetic. It was well calculated to inspire him with courage, and to awaken faith in himself and in God. As the king of beasts was as weak as a kid in the sinewy arms of the weaponless hero, and his body soon lay breathless on the ground, so could he with divine assis- tance overcome the oppressors of his people. It is remarkable that both Samson and David had a lion encounter as a kind of preparation for their conflict with the Philistines. See our engraving opposite page 1G8, representing Samson in the act of rending the lion. But he told not his father or his mother what he had done. He deemed it best to keep to himself for the present this evidence of God's favor. Perhaps he thought if he told his parents, the Philistines might hear of his great strength, and be more on their guard against him. He judged it best not to arouse their jealousy at present. His modesty and self-control are commendable. In rejoin- 1G8 THE GIANT JUDGE. ing his parents with as much humility and composure as if he had not performed a great feat, \ve see the true hero. He was as modest as he was brave. Great talk- ers, noisy boasters are seldom good for any thing else. Such was Goliah of Gath, but the victory was with the modest son of Jesse. Hall suggests that if Samson's parents had been behind the hedge witnessing the fight with the lion, they would not have troubled themselves any more about his mar- riage. They would have concluded his life was lost, for what could an unarmed man do with a lion in his fury ? And sure enough, if the tawny adversary had found nothing but a man's strength in his antagonist, it had been an easy victory. " But the spirit of the Lord came upon Samson." And now " if his bones had been brass and his skin plates of iron," it would have been the same thing. He would have rent him as if he had been a kid. The Creator who made the lions stand in awe of Adam, Noah and Daniel, could easily subdue this one before the giant Hebrew. Let us remember that the most dangerous lion in the way of duty is not the one that springs upon us from the wayside, but the one that lives within us. The strongest lion we have to fight, is the old Adam within. u Deny thyself, and take thy cross, Is the Kedeemer's great command : Nature must count her gold but dross, If she would gain this heavenly laud. The fearful soul that tires and faints, And walks the ways of Cod no more, Is but i->tccnicd almost a saint, And makes his, own drstnictLon sure." SAMSON KILLING THE LION. Who tore the lion, as the lion tears the kid." Page 168. 'fottfncss flat of % Strong. H M CHAPTER IX. SWEETNESS OUT OF THE STRONG. " But one sad losel soils a name for aye.' 11 Childe Harold. THE fourteenth chapter of Judges opens with an engagement of marriage. We are now going to the wed- ding, but on our way we have meat out of the eater and sweetness out of the strong. We are now at the begin- ning of the end. After a time Samson returns to take the woman of Timnath to wife. The Hebrew here signi- fies after some days, probably after a year. For it was the custom of those days in the East, as it is still, for ten or twelve months to elapse between the betrothment and the marriage. During this time the espoused wife remained with her parents preparing her dresses and ornaments for the wedding. Thus Samson went down with his parents, and the engagement was made, and now he returns to be married. And on his way as he passes the vineyards where he had killed the lion, he turns aside to see the carcass, and behold it was full of bees and honey. His astonishment at finding the lion's carcass thus replenished is well represented in our wood cut. Though Samson was not a " word-doughty knight," he 172 THE GIAXT JUDGE. vats a close observer. He kept thinking of past provi- dences although he was on his way to his wedding. The motives that prompted him to turn aside to see the lion's rurcass are not stated. But in pondering his ways as he v, as going to Timnath, it Avas natural that the sight of (lie vineyards where God had delivered him out of the j'OAver of the lion, should have excited his gratitude. It was well that a sense of God's goodness revived within him. The dangers we have escaped should not be for- gotten. When we are bereaved, Ave should be careful not to lose the benefits designed by forgetting the hand I hat afflicts ; and when God preserves our friends or raises us up from threatened death, surely thankfulness should iill our hearts. All God's mercies all his providences to us should be monuments of our gratitude. 1. Some raise a difficulty here by saying that the honey of the ancients was the expressed juice of dates. This may be true of some of their honey, but surely it is not denied that honey bees are as old as Moses. The Hebrew name for bees is from a root that signifies to ride, to speak, to lead, and was probably given to them because of the perfection of their government. And he took thereof in his hands, implies according to the orig- inal, that he wrested the honey from the bees- -that he had to fight with them to get it. And he gave of the honey-comb to his parents ; but said nothing to them as to where and how he had obtained it. 2. Some confusion is found in ancient authors about the liking or disliking of bees for dead bodies. A gen- eral opinion once prevailed among the heathen that honey bees were generated in carcasses. 1 Y/y//7 is quoted for such an opinion. " But here," says he, " they behold HONEY IX THE LION'S CARCASS. a sudden prodigy, and wondrous to relate, bees thro up; ; all the belly, hum amid the putrid bowels of the cat;:.-, pour forth with the fermenting juices from the bu . sides, and in immense clouds roll along ; then swa. .1 together on the top of a tree, and hang down in a cli; - ter from the bending boughs." Varro is quoted for ; directly contrary opinion. He says, "the bee never pi,., down in an unclean place, or upon anything that em" an unpleasant smell. They are never seen like fl !.., feeding on blood or flesh ; while wasps and hornets ; i delight in such food, the bee never touches a dead bo ! . So much do they dislike an impure smell, that when o.. > of them dies, the survivors immediately carry out ;.., carcass from the hive, that they may not be annoyed - the effluvia." And Aristotle says: "The bee will ;-. > alight upon a dead carcass, nor taste the flesh." It is not our business to harmonize Aristotle, Var. .;. and Virgil, nor to settle the dispute among their lean; scholiasts. It maybe that these contradictory opimo have arisen from vague traditions concerning Sam < bees. It is a well known historic fact that directly co . tradictory traditions sometimes flow from one and :!. same fountain. "All errors from truth proceed. 11 But an examination of the text does not decide in fuv..-r of either of these theories. It does not say the is were generated or developed in the lion's carcass. T:. . \; was "a swarm of bees and honey in the carcass o! ;.- ; lion," but it is not said the bees were hatched th< : >. Nor is it said that the lion had just been killed, or the flesh was putrid. The contrary is made to a< ;,;'.:/ 174 THE GIA:NT JUDGE. from the statement, that it was " after a time, he returned." It must have been as we have shown about a year after the lion was killed, that the bees were found in its skele- ton frame. This was quite time enough, for the birds and beasts of prey to have eaten the flesh off from the bones, and for the hot sun and parching winds of Asia to have completely dried them. Ants and vultures also are very numerous in Asia, and may have helped to prepare the carcass for the bees. The traveller over the plains of this side of our continent has often seen lying on the road side the bony frame of an ox or of a horse covered with a whole skin, while the flesh was eaten out, or consumed, leaving quite an appropriate place for a hive of bees. I do not see that there was anything more offensive to the delicate sense of the bee in the bare bones of the dried frame of the lion, than there is in the elk horn chair of our old pioneer (Mr. Seth Kin- man) which he has recently presented to the president of the United States. Nor are we without evidence of bees having settled themselves in a human skull and in tombs. It is well known that they are very ingenious, and can accommodate themselves to whatever kind of habitation may be at hand wherever they are. Hillocks, crevices of the rocks and hollow trees and holes in the earth have furnished them hiving places. Jonathan, David's friend, we are told came upon a bee-hive in the woods, where the honey comb was dropping from the trees to the ground. 1 Sam. xiv. I fancy the lion's dried frame was a place very much to their liking. It was in a secluded spot, among vines and flowers. And the dry bones saved them a good deal of scaffolding. Herodotus says positively that " bees have swarmed in HONEY IS GOOD THOUGH SWEET. 175 dry bones." When therefore the caviler at our story has settled his account with the " hoary father of history," then we may have more patience to talk with him about his objections to the natural history of the Bible. The supply of honey was another proof of God's providential interference, and should have taught Samson that God's blessings are often far beyond our expectations. He looked to see the skeleton of the dead lion, and behold it was full of honey. 3. In vindicating Samson from violating his vows in taking honey from the carcass of the lion, we must remember that honey was not a prohibited article. A Nazarite might use it. And then, as we have seen, the lion's carcass was not now foul or unclean. There was no legal pollution in touching the bones of an ani- mal bleached by the winds and rains of twelve months. Honey, says Hall, is honey still, though in a dead lion. And though accidentally met with, and found in a place that was once ceremonially unclean, it was not to be rejected. The grace of God is the more precious if the vessel is unworthy. It is a weak device of the devil to persuade us to neglect the honey, because we do not like the lion. The treasure is in earthen vessels, that the excellence may be of God, and not of man. It is sound theology as well as common sense, to receive and enjoy our heavenly Father's gifts with thankfulness whenever they are bestowed upon us. Honey is not to be despised because it is sweet, nor the light because it is pleasant. Religion does not consist in making every thing sour and bitter. It is God's will that we should be happy, and rejoice in the use of the good things he gives us. But it is a sin to abuse any of his gifts. 17G THE GIANT JUDGE. So his father went down unto the woman : and Sam- son made there a feast ; for so used the young men to do. They are married. The self-will of the young man prevails. His fancy was of more avail than anything else in the universe. Nor are we without similar exam- ples among our every-day sort of people. The ingre- dients are just the same, only put together in smaller quantities, so that ordinary men are without the charac- teristic intensity of Samson. They are quite as guilty of earthly passions, but without his heroism. But here is the beginning of the end. Samson married is Sam- son in trouble. The bane of his life was his fondness for Philistine women. But is this a reflection on God's institution of marriage ? Is Samson's unwise choice an argument against wedded life ? By no means. The abuse of a good thing does not prove that it is really evil. The marvellous Hebrew is now in bad company. At his wedding " He gathered revellers from far and near, The heartless parasites of present cheer." His wife was a heathen. She had not been brought up in the ways of godliness. She had never studied Sam- son's catechism, nor offered sacrifices to the God of Abraham, as he had done, and as his parents had done before him. There was no community of feeling be- tween them. On every subject there was a want of sympathy. He was a Hebrew, she was a Philistine. He worshipped Jehovah, she worshipped Dagon. In politics and religion they were altogether antagonistic irreconcilably so. There was no evidence indeed that she had any fancy for him. Her wishes seem not to SAMSON FINDING HONEY. "And on his way as he^passed the vineyard where he had killed the lion, he turns aside to see the carcass, and behold it was full of bees and honey." 1'a.^c 170. PIETY A WOMAN'S <;I.OKY. 177 have been considered at all. Nor doe.- slie seem to have had anything to say in the matter. It is strange that Samson should have been so fixed on marrying a woman without any true religion. Piety is woman's highest beauty and greatest protection. A man without religion is bad enough a poor reprobate without peace ; but a womnn without religion is still more revolting. She is "a flame without heat; a flower without per- fume." Amid all the trials, storms and tribulations of this world, without religious faith, she is " a drift and a wreck." Who that has ever experienced the sw r eet truthfulness and abiding love of a godly mother, or a pious wife, or a " sister dear," whose being is in her brother's and in her devotion to her heavenly Father, can fail to appreciate the worth of piety in woman ? Let us have irreligion anywhere else rather than in our mothers, wives and sisters. They are our guardian angels, and if they become ministers of evil, all men are lost. It is only where the altars of family worship rise amid tliv} toils of trade and art, and the hearth-stone glows with domestic love, that we expect a permanently prosperous community. So vastly important is this whole subject important in a social and patriotic point of view, as well as from a Christian stand-point that I dwell here a little by way of illustration, on the Influence of marrying and of married life in, France. And I do so the more, because it has not received the attention, in my humble opinion, that it deserves. The statesman and historian, M. Thiers, in his history of the French Revolution, ex- pressfs the belief that the corruptions and troubles of H* THE GIANT .J France are to be ascribed to the influence of her women during and subsequent to the reign of Louis XIV. lie considers it the great misfortune of France that at the period of the Revolution, all the Bourbons of France, Naples and Spain were under the influence of their wives and mistresses, who were not the women for their times. It is a curious and highly suggestive fact, that from 1789 to the present time, it lias been necessary to reduce the mini in tun height for enlistment in the troops of the line of France. In 1789 it was Jirc feet one inch French measure. After twenty-five years of con- stant war after the battle of Waterloo, the tninunnni was reduced to less than four feet ten indies ; and in 1830, to four feet nine inches. And during the reign of Louis Philippe it was again reduced. And if tin- same stature of the armies of Louis XYi. were required for the soldiers of Louis Napoleon 111., more than one hundred and twenty thousand men would have to be dismissed from the line. These statements are chiefly taken and abridged from the North British Review for 1857. They are abun- dantly corroborated, however, by the current reports of France on the subject, and by the English Reviews for the years 1856 and 1857 generally. In the years from 1831 to 1837, 504,000 youths were admitted, and 159,1 MM) rejected from the army of France, because of physical defects. And for the next six years, from 1839 to 1845, the deterioration was even greater only 486,000 were admitted against 191.000 rejected. As we read history, it is clear that the Copts, (ireeks, Ital- ians and Spaniards as races have deteriorated ; while the Germans, the Russians and the Anglo-Saxon, that is WHAT FRANCE AVANTS. 179 the British, Irish, Scotch and Americans are still vig- orous and advancing in poAver as nations. But how is it with France ? Her emperor at present gives law to Europe. The French are a most extraordinary peo- ple. We are prepared to give to them the full meed of fame to which they are entitled. In many things they are emphatically a most wonderful people. But as a nation, their own statistics show they are not adA^ancing in the same ratio as their neighbors on the continent beyond the Rhine, nor across the channel. At the head of the civilization and political poAver of the age, hoAV is it that their own army reports show such a marked deterioration in their physical man ? I seek not at present any further solution of this question, than to look at it from a moral and religious point of A T iew. And the explanation is found in the words of one of her own great statesmen : France wants religion. Yes, France has consumed her A T ital energies. She has exhausted herself for glory. Like lands forced to ex- traordinary fruitfulness until they are so consumed that even chemical appliances can no longer bring forth the harvest. Wars and the loss of life and energy, and the consumption of the healthy subsistence of the people by an enormous army, explains in part this exhaustion. But the cause is higher still- -lies deeper still. It is found in a disregard of the la\vs of God in respect to the family. In France the sexual passions are sub- sidized to science, and licentiousness is governed by a philosophical police, " and in Paris one child in eA T ery three is born out of wedlock." Though the social, martial and intellectual status of France may at this moment be as high as it ever was, 180 THE GIANT JUDGE. yet her own statistics show an obvious physical deterio- ration. This deterioration, according to their own army figures, has been going on regularly for almost seventy years. And why ? Because the FAMILY is not in France what the Bible teaches us it should be. The Bible does not govern the social habits of the French. The Creator, who has the residue of spirits in his hands, and could therefore have created many women for one man, made man male and female. " And wherefore one ? That he might seek a godly seed." Mai. ii : 15. The all wise Creator says, also, " It is not good for man to be alone." These ordinances of the Supreme, many of our philosophical neighbors disregard. And if they do not claim that it is good to be alone, they will at least be free from the virtuous ties of the family relation. Our idea of a home they entertain not. They live on the boulevards and in the restaurants. Marriage is either never contracted, or if at all, late in life, and then few children are desired, and even these few are brought up by hired nurses. And the very causes, moreover, that lead to this neglect of marriage strongly tend to the most pernicious physical results. The unrestrained indulgence of lust and gaiety are so expensive, that a lawful family cannot be supported at the same time ; and besides, such indulgences weaken and destroy the constitution. Samson in part illustrates our position. He had no children. If he had married according to the usual custom of his country, and brought up a family, he would have been a far better citizen, a more happy man, and not have come to a violent death. Politicians and philosophers may a 1 feet to smile at our simplicity ; but from the lights before us, it is palpable WOMAN'S INFLUENCE ON SOCIETY. 181 that France in physical stature has deteriorated, while her neighbors of different social habits have not, and in the abuse of the social feelings which the Creator has ordained, and in the want of family organizations on Bible principles, we find causes quite sufficient to explain the diminished stature and physical defects of her masses. The society of women is a necessity of national exist- ence, physically and morally. If " a man discovered America, it was a woman that equipped the voyage." And so it is everywhere. No matter who it is that executes, he was born and trained by a woman. Every Columbus that has left his mark in the world, was fur- nished by his Isabella mother, who for that purpose laid aside her- jewels, it may be her personal comforts, cer- tainly her vanities and time-consuming fashions. Writers on the penal colonies of Great Britain tell us there is but little hope of a female convict unless she marries and becomes a mother. And it is quite as well known that men who are not restrained by the ties of home, and the influence of virtuous women are almost hope- less. The intercourse of the sexes has been appointed by the Creator. It is, then, of the first importance to society that it take place under wise regulations. God's laws cannot be improved. Then let the wedded lamp burn brightly and cheerfully where it is already kindled ; and if in any of our homes it has grown dim, let it be relumed. And let him be regarded as an enemy to God and man, who discourages marriage and advocates celibacy, or who corrupts society by weakening the bonds of the family which God hath joined together. Cjic Mttoing Pfole aito C CHAPTER X. THE WEDDING RIDDLE AND TRAGEDY. " Hail, wedded love, mysterious law, true source Of human offspring, sole propriety In Paradise of all things common else : By thee adulterous lust was driven from men, Among the beastial herds to range ; by thee, Founded in reason, loyal, just, and pure, Relations dear, and all the charities Of father, son, and bi-other first were known. Perpetual fountain of domestic sweets Here love his golden shafts employs, here lights His constant lamp, and waves his purple wings, Reigns here and revels ; not in the bought smile Of harlots, loveless, joyless, unendeared, Casual fruition; nor in court-amours, Mixed dance, or wanton mask, or midnight hall, Or serenade, which the starved lover sings To his proud fair, best quitted with disdain." Milton. IN the last chapter we went down to Samson's wedding. Let us stay awhile at the feast, and when tired of flow- ing cups and sparkling wit, we shall have one of those tragedies that marked the earlier administrations of our giant judge. His introduction to the bench was scarcely less distinguished than his exit from it. " So his father went down unto the woman ; and Samson made there a feast ; for so used the young men to do. 186 THE GIAXT JUDGE. " And it came to pass, when they saw him, that they brought thirty companions to be with him." His father did not go alone ; but as the head ( Sheikh ) of the family, leading them to the wedding, he alone is mentioned. The Chaldaic version has the sense of the passage exactly : " Went down relative to the affair of the woman." The thirty companions, under the pretense of friendship, were really spies. Many of the courtesies of the world, as well as of politicians, are hollow and thankless. " Open defiance is better than false love." It was the duty of these " children of the bridegroom," as his " friends," to make the company happy. The chief one was called " the governor of the feast," as we see in the marriage in Cana of Galilee. Such was the condition of the Hebrews at this time, that their oppres- sors would naturally be suspicious of any Hebrew of such noble bearing and prestige as Samson. The Phi- listines were probably somewhat acquainted with his conduct in the camp of Dan, and would watch him closely, even at his marriage feast. 1. I do not see anything wrong in Samson making a feast, as the young men used to do. It belonged to the bride and her friends to say what its details should be. In so far, then, as he could comply with the customs of her people, without sinning, we find no fault. We may concede prejudices, but cannot compromise a duty. We may surrender our likings, profits, or preferences, but we may not surrender a principle. And 1 do not sec but that it is lawful and proper to conform, in things not sinful, to the customs of those with whom we live. If in the marriage feast there was any recognition of idols, or heathenish ceremonies, then Samson did wrong to WOMAN'S SOCIETY REFINES. 187 submit. Some commentators so understand the history, but I do not see any evidence of idolatrous rites in the marriage or the feast. In teaching us to fear God and keep his commandments, the Bible does not require us to be proud, mopish, rude, supercilious, or ill behaved. In becoming a Christian a man does not cease to be any the less a gentleman. The want of genuine politeness is no proof of true religion. A careful examination of ancient history is a full veri- fication of the customs alluded to in the text. The Phi- listines, early Egyptians, and ancient oriental nations, were not Turks in their treatment of women. They were more liberal as to the social position and privileges of their females than modern orientals are. Women, in ancient times, mingled with the men at their feasts, as they do now with us. The monuments of Egypt prove this, as well as the history of the ancient Chaldeans, Persians, Greeks, and Romans. Nor can it be shown, historically, that their presence was a disadvantage rather the reverse. It has been said by one ( Thackeray ) of the most observing of men, and withal a great humor- ist, and, as far as may be, removed from the stupid prose of the orthodox pulpit, that " all men who avoid female society have dull perceptions, and are stupid ; or have gross tastes, and revolt against what is pure. Your club swaggerers, who are sucking the butts of billiard cues all night, call female society insipid. Poetry is insipid to a yokle ; beauty has no charms for a blind man ; music does not please a poor beast, who does not know one tune from another. It is better for you to pass an evening, once or twice a week, in a lady's draw- ing room, even though the conversation is rather slow, 188 THE GIANT JUDGE. and you know the girl's songs by heart, than in a club, tavern, or in the pit of a theatre. All amusements of youth to which women are not admitted, rely on it, are deleterious in their nature." Woman's society is necessary to correct the pride and selfishness of men, for a man is bound to be respectful to a lady. And it is a great point gained for elevating a man's character, and securing his good morals, when he is compelled to feel that there is somebody besides himself whose feelings and tastes are to be consulted somebody besides his lordly self to whom, he must be respectful and attentive. It is well known that men are better behaved, in every respect, when restrained by woman's refining presence. The same customs alluded to in our history are found still in the East. Islam has not sensibly affected the usages of the Arabs, Turks, Hindoos, Persians or Africans, except where some peculiar religious rite is concerned. It is not probable that the institutes of Moses made the Hebrews differ from their Canaanite neighbors in their general customs - - only where their religion prescribed a difference. Oriental Christian women -in Nazaivih and Damascus for example - - are not distinguished materially from mohammedan women in their dress and social habits. Women in our mission churches in mohammedan countries, are separated from the men by a wall or screen when at worship. 2. At weddings it was common to have games, riddles, and the like amusements. " 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 changes of garments. ANCIENT CUP-QUESTIONS. 189 " But if ye cannot declare it me, then shall ye give me thirty sheets and thirty changes of garments. And they said unto him, put forth thy riddle, that we may hear it. " And he said unto them, Out of the eater came forth meat, and out of the strong came forth sweetness." An old scholiast on Aristophanes is quoted by J)r. Clark, as saying that it was " a custom among the ancient Greeks to propose, at their festivals, what were called griphoi, riddles, enigmas, or very obscure sayings, both curious and difficult, and to give a recompense to those who found them out, which generally consisted either in a festive crown, or a goblet full of wine. Those who failed to solve them were condemned to drink a large portion', of fresh water, or of wine mingled with sea water, which they were compelled to take down at one draught, without drawing their breath, their hands being tied behind their backs. Sometimes they gave the crown to the deity in honor of whom the festival was made ; and if none could solve the riddle/the reward was given to him who proposed it." The classics abound in enigmas proposed at such entertainments. The Greeks excelled in them. The solution of these " banquet-riddles," or " cup-questions," was always highly applauded, and a failure implied a forfeit. Is there any reason why the Greeks did not borrow from Samson's country, by the way of Egypt? And may we not take a profitable lesson from the ancients, as to our social entertainments ? It were a much better way to spend our time at seasons of merry- making, in expounding enigmas and riddles, than in slandering our neighbors, or in gluttony or excessive drink. At our weddings let there be entertainment for 190 THE GIANT JUDGE. the mind, as well as employment for the palate and the heels. It is something to avoid all foolish talking and vain jestings, and all filthiness of speech, as an apostle enjoins ; but it is more to improve the time for gaining knowledge and strengthening good resolutions. It is surprising how intelligent some men are merely from skill in conversation. They read hardly anything, but from being associated with well informed persons, and being good listeners, and skillful in asking questions, they acquire a vast amount of useful and important information. Our social habits and opportunities should be diligently employed in doing and receiving good. At the wedding all goes on merrily. Sport and play are in the ascendant. The cup-questions were as spark- ling as the cups. Many were the passages at wit. At last Samson is aroused. He says I will propose a rid- dle. He pits his wit against the whole of his compan- ions. If they solve his riddle he is to pay thirty changes of raiment. If they failed, they are to pay him one change of raiment apiece. The advantages were clearly on their side. They could lose but one change each, while he puts in peril thirty. The strong and the great may afford, however, to be generous, but Samson had an odd humor generally of putting himself against great odds. No doubt he thought himself sure of victory. No body but himself knew about the bees and the honey. Why should he not win ? The combination of incidents implied in his riddle was certainly rare, if indeed they had ever been found before. But as in all good riddles, the explanation was palpable, beyond di.-pute, as soon as given. It was like Columbus' solution of making an egg- stand on end on the table. As usual on such occasions, PRESSING THE SOLUTION. 191 as soon as the riddle was propounded, almost every one fancied his ingenuity was competent for the solution. There was much guessing, and many knowing looks among the guests. But the meaning still eluded their grasp. Six days of the seven during which the solution must be given, or the forfeit incurred, have past. Their pride and avarice are excited. They could not brook the idea of being defeated by a young, long-haired, rough looking Hebrew. Nor was it to their taste to part with their fine wardrobes. Nor were they at all scrupulous as to the means they might employ. They were shrewd enough to see in what direction Samson's weakest points lay. Therefore they said unto his wife, " Entice thy husband, that he may declare unto us the riddle, lest we burn thee and thy father's house with fire." The alternative was not a very appropriate one for the honey- moon. It Avas rather rough language for her country- men to use if she did not get them out of this difficulty. They do not seem to have had any regard for the inno- cence of those they were ready to destroy no regard for human life. It may be that much more may have been said and done than appears from the record. Surely such an appeal would not have been made even by Phil- istines, to a young bride, unless the case was deemed a desperate one. Nor can I think, that even a Philistine wife would betray her newly acquired husband in a moment and for a slight cause. Her countrymen must have been very urgent. They must at first have been indignantly repulsed, and have often appealed to her patriotism, and love for her kindred, before she could have entertained their treacherous proposals, and yielded at last under the pressure of their cruel threatenings. 192 THE GIANT JUDGE. 3. The forfeit was thirty sheets and thirty change of garments. The Hebrew for sheets is sedinim, hence the Greek sindon, fine linen. The term here means body garments, dresses, shirts rather than sheets probably garments answering to the kumja and kaftan of the Arabs. The kumja is the shirt that hangs down outside of the drawers to the knees. The kaftan is the coat with open sleeves. Others think the sheets of the text are the chaykes of the Arabs answering very nearly to the Scottish highland plaid. The marginal reading shirts is in this case the better translation. For how could Samson obtain thirty sheets from the slain Phil- istines of Askelon? They were from home. They can hardly be supposed to have brought their beds with them. Besides, if they did, each one would have had two sheets, and Samson need not to have killed but fifteen. But he killed just thirty, to obtain thirty shirts and thirty changes of garments. " And he went down to Askelon, and slew thirty men of them, and took their spoil, and gave change of gar- ments unto them which expounded the riddle." Their spoil, or apparel the garments they had on, including shirts and cloaks, though not here expressly mentioned. He obtained from them what he needed to pay his forfeit. It may be after all these shirts were the flowing robes of persons of quality. It is highly proba- ble the men whom Samson slew were men of rank, and if such their garments were full and costly. Isaiah uses the same Hebrew term for the splendid dresses of the great in his day. These mantles or shawls, as we should call them, were generally made of wool, though some were made of linen. The young man in the gospel, who THE NUPTIAL JOY. 193 followed our Lord, when laid hold of, fled naked, leaving " the linen cloth." This does not mean that he was abso- lutely naked, when he left his plaid. But rather than remain a prisoner, he slipt off his mantle as a man might now do his loose cloak, and ran, leaving it in their hands. A similar explanation belongs to Peter's throwing off his fisher's coat or tunic. The meaning is not that he was in a state of absolute nudity, but deprived of the usual mantle or flowing garment. 4. Let us hear how they proceed with the solution. On the seventh day, the last day of the marriage feast, but not till just before the going down of the sun, they said to Samson, " What is sweeter than honey ? and what is stronger than a lion ?" See verses fifteen and twenty inclusive. In Bible times, in Bible lands, as it is still, it will be remembered that weddings were occasions of great ceremony. The feasting usually continued seven days. Laban, in Gen. xxix : 27, 28, refers to Leah's week of nuptial ceremonies which could not be inter- rupted by the espousal of Rachel. The Greeks and Romans called the marriage week of feasting " the nup- tial joy," and did not allow any work to be done, other than what was necessary to carry on the entertainment, nor permit any signs of mourning. It was also the cus- tom to make and receive presents during the nuptial feast, particularly on, the third day. In patriarchal times the bride's father always presented his daughter with a female slave for a handmaid, who was to be inseparable from the family. She was to nurse the mother and the little ones, and to be faithful to her old master's daughter, if all the rest of the world should forsake her. Other presents were also exchanged according to the wealth i 194 THE GIANT JUDGE. and rank of the parties, consisting generally of jewelry, couches, beds, vestments and all sorts of things reckoned needful for house-keeping. And Samson's wife wept before hint wept before hint t/ie seven days while the feast lasted. Her weeping was not out of affection for him. Her tears were crocodile tears, or they were tears of terror for her own sake. She loved him not. She said, however, "Thou dost l;ut 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 tell it thee ?" Is not this the address of a jealous or teasing wife still ? AY hen she wishes to have expressions of endearment, does she not hypothecate charges of want of love for her against her husband, that she may have the pleasure of hearing him deny them ? Nor is she less skilful than Samson's wife in instituting a rivalry between herself and the children of her and especially of his own people. And is not Samson's answer just the type of an honest heart of a great and true man ? In a simple, straight for- ward way, he assures her that he had not kept the secret from her from any want of affection. For he had not t/ told it to his own father or mother. Samson's reply is a proverb still in the East. When any one Avishcs to excuse himself from telling a secret, he .-;ivs, u Why ! I have not told it either to my fat her or my mother : how then can I tell it to you ?" " My friend, do tell me the secret." " Tell you ? Yes, when I have told my parents." (See Roberts, and others.) The idea that Samson wished to impress upon his wife w p as, that he had not treated her with any disrespect or coldness. It is as if CAN A WOMAN KEEP A SECRET. 195 he had said : I have been long with my father and mother. They have uniformly treated me with kindness. They have done a great deal for me much more than I shall ever be able to do for them. They are worthy of my fullest confidence. I love them dearly, and yet I have not told them this secret. How then can I tell it you? If I tell it to you, will I not show a want of respect for them? I fancy the human races are very much the same in all ages and countries. And although it is heterodox, I should think it about as difficult a thing for a man in modern times to keep a secret as for a woman. I am not sure, but when great interests are involved, women are more trust worthy than men. Their firmness and ready wit in emergencies are proverbial. A Hindoo pro- verb says : " to a woman, tell not a secret." But shall we believe a heathen saying, rather than the experience of a Christian age ? Samson's heathen wife is not our model. And besides, as it has been shrewdly remarked, if Sam- son could not keep his own secret, how could he expect his wife to do it ? Strange that he was " fool enough to suppose that another would be more faithful to him than he was to himself." Indeed, under all the circumstances, it is wonderful he did not suspect treachery. What just grounds had he to trust in a Philistine woman ? "Whether she prevailed on a promise of secresy or not, the history does not say. If so, the promise was soon broken. It was made to deceive. But who would believe the word of a faithless wife ? And yet how can she be resisted ? She pleads and weeps, and accuses him of not loving her. In such a contest, who is always victorious? May not a woman's tears prevail espe- 196 THE GIANT JUDGE. cially when that woman is a young wife and the husband uxorious as only Samson could be? Some allowance should be made for the Israelitish judge. Who that ever witnessed a similar strife, can wonder that the strong man did not stand out against her tears ! Young, lovely and his bride ! Few men of strong minds would have held out any better than the giant judge. To us his greatest weakness seems to have been his blindness o in not seeing the net that was set for him. He must have been one of those honest, simple hearted, unsus- pecting great souls that cannot apprehend the depths of the cunning, nor the meanness of the selfish and pusil- lanimous. And after all, there is a manly, a heroic necessity to rely on the truth and tenderness of woman's nature. In childhood and youth, in manhood and old age, she is man's truest friend. In sickness and sorrow, in works of charity and in acts of piety, she has too often proved herself to be man's angel of mercy, to be traduced by the heartless wretch who is incapable of appreciating her worth. All men are not Samsons, nor are all women like the Timnite bride nor like Delilah of Sorek. Those who are the loudest and the most profane in their com- plaints of the weakness of women, are the very men who have themselves done the most to corrupt them. Woman is man's other self without her he is nothing. She is his blessing and his joy both in the sunshine and beauty of the world, and in its darkness and sorrow. Who, ye revilers of womankind who were your mothers? And besides, has woman no wrongs --no cruel, outrageous wrongs to avenge, and to avenge only by pouring out to your faithless sex the cup you yourselves have drugged first for her ? PLOUGHING WITH HIS HEIFER. 197 5. The solution is given at the appointed hour. Grimly exultant the men of the city, just before the sun went down on the seventh day, said unto Samson : What is sweeter than honey? and what is stronger than a lion? In a moment he saw he had been betrayed. " And he said unto them, If ye had not ploughed with my heifer, ye had not found out my riddle." Josephus paraphrases the interview thus : They said to Samson, " Nothing is more disagreeable than a lion to those that light on it, and nothing is sweeter than honey to those that make use of it," To which he replied : " Nothing is more deceitful than a woman ; for such was the perfidious per- son that discovered my interpretation to you." He meant, doubtless, that without the assistance of his wife, they could not have told the riddle. And on this plea, he might have disputed whether they were entitled to the forfeit. If ye had not ploughed with my heifer was prob- ably a common metaphor, or proverb. It seems to have been used with two shades of meaning, one that of licen- tious intercourse, and the other merely of familiarity. A similar phrase is found in several Greek and Latin writers, in which the idea of guilt is perhaps always implied. Rabbi Levi, the Syriac and the Septuagint, understand the expression to imply a guilty intercourse with his wife. Calmet says the Hebrew expression declares her infidelity as a wife. Samson then meant to say, if my wife had been faithful to my bed, she would not have betrayed my secret. With all due respect to such high authority, I do not believe this is the idea. The original does not necessarily convey the idea of wantonness, if it allows it at all. And his return to be reconciled forbids such an interpretation. The idea is 198 THE GIANT JUDGE. this Samson compares his wife to a young heifer not yet fully subdued to the yoke --not yet learned to go patiently not yet obedient. This explanation, though it may not be elegant, mitigates her offense, and is fully sustained by the original and the context. I am fond of many of the old writers. They have often and justly been compared to the precious metals in masses. They are the nuggets. I find some of them witty and severe on Samson's weakness for a Philistine woman. One of them, describing Samson's folly says : " And yet whom the lion could not conquer, the tears of a woman have conquered. Samson never betrayed infirmity but in uxoriousness. What assurance can there be of him that had a Philistine in his bosom ! Adam the most per- fect man, Samson the strongest man, Solomon the wisest man, were betrayed with the flattery of their helpers. As there is no comfort comparable to a faithful yoke fel- low, so woe be to him that is matched with a Philistine." And again, " ever since Adam's experiment with Eve, Satan hath broken many a man's head (and heart too) with his own rib." Nobody but Hall could have said this ; but a poet almost as quaint, has furnished the fol- lowing prayer for young men about to fall in love. " Lord, clarify mine eyes, that I may know Things that are good, from what is good in show; And give me wisdom, that my heart may learn The difference of thy favors, and discern What, truly good, from what is good in part ; With Martha's trouble give me Alary* s heart." 6. Though betrayed and badly treated, Samson scorns to complain, but goes right off to procure the means to pay his forfeit. He was neither a cruel husband nor a repudiator. THE ASKELON SLAUGHTER. 190 " And the Spirit of the Lord eame upon him, and he went down to Askelon, and slew thirty men of them, and took their spoil, and gave change of garments unto them which expounded the riddle." By the Spirit of the Lord coming upon him, we are to understand, that he was inspired with the courage and strength to perform the following feat. He made Aske- lon his wardrobe, and brought thence the wager of gar- ments for the winning Philistines, lined with the blood * of their own countrymen. We know not the causes that led to this pitched battle between Samson and the men of Askelon. Samson may have had a few warriors with him. If he had not, the odds was very great against him. Nor must we forget that the Philistines were at war with Israel. There may have been a nominal truce between Dan and the Philistines of Timnath, and war still raging between the Hebrews and the Askelonites. The United States may be at peace with the Sioux, and yet the Apaches be carrying on their robberies and scalpings. And we must also remember that in this case, as when Moses slew the Egyptian according to the Noachian precept, Samson was not slaying merely for his own pleasure, nor merely to gratify any personal ill will. He was fulfilling his commission to deliver Israel. The Philistines were idolaters they were ene- mies to God as well as to him and his countrymen. For their sins they had been already tried in the court of Jehovah, and convicted, and were now under sentence, and Samson was appointed high sheriff to execute the sentence. His acts were therefore by the direction and assistance of God. The Hebrew government in this heroic age was a pure theocracy. Samson was God's 200 THE GIANT JUDGE. lieutenant general, commissioned to execute judgment upon the Philistines. Their crimes were also sins, for JEHOVAH was both the true God and the acting king of Israel. The punishment on the Philistines was, first, because of their sins against God ; yet as God's messen- ger, the executioner of the divine sentence upon them, Samson was also revenging his own injury and his national wrongs. As to the hypercriticism urged by some, that as Sam- son was a Nazarite, he could not have touched the dead bodies to get their garments, it may be answered, that as he was acting under the influence of the Spirit of the Lord, he may have had a dispensation in this case, to do what on ordinary occasions he could not have done, just as our Lord explains the law of the Sabbath ; or the prohibition may not have extended to a Nazarite for life, but only for a limited period or better still, as he was chief magistrate, he could have had no difficulty in obtaining men to strip off their clothes and carry them for him to Timnath. 7. Samson's " anger was kindled and he went up to his father's house." Anger is as natural as a smile. His wife's treachery was a just cause of anger, and his going up to his father's house at this time showed unusual pru- dence and forbearance. When he returned to Timnath to pay the forfeit, he seems not to have seen his wife-. But lordly as Achilles and quite as angry and proud in his own self consciousness of unmerited wrong and impul- sive ferocity, he strides off home to his father and mother. It was not wise for him to trust himself in his wife's presence when the sense of his wrongs was so warm within him. He probably feared he might commit some THE SACREDNESS OF MARRIAGE. 201 great outrage, if lie remained in Timnath. It is to his praise that he thus restrained himself, and that when his anger did burst forth in consuming fire, it was not so much on account of his own wounded pride, as to avenge his countrymen. Patriotism and piety are conspicuous in his heroic deeds. And in his lingering at home we see traces of filial love and of early piety. Yet for some reason or other, he does not seem to have made his parents his confidents. He neither told them how he was moved by the Spirit of the Lord, nor did he ask their advice about his plans against their enemies. But Samson's wife was given to his companion, whom he had used as his friend. That is, she was given by her father and the chiefs of the town in marriage to his first groom's man. Although she had but little liberty in the matter, still no doubt she was glad the Hebrew was gone, and that she was the wife of his friend. How far Samson was justified in leaving his wife is not alto- gether clear from the text. Most probably he did not intend a final separation, although this was the result. The whole history is not written out. Many interpre- ters, inconsistently and strangely, in view of their under- standing of the eighteenth verse, blame him as much for leaving his wife, as for . marrying her. It is a most practical and important matter for us to guard against the demoralization of society by allowing too slight causes to break the nuptial bands. Certainly one of the great sins of our times is the facility of obtaining divorces. Too little sanctity and permanence is attached to the marriage relation. Marriage is a sacred institution. It is a gift from heaven to man before there was any sin. Its purity lies at the foundation of our prosperity. The 202 THE GIANT JUDGE. maraiage relation ought not to be dissolved for any slight cause not from mere whims or fancies, or momentary passions, nor on account of imaginary wrongs. I could wish our statutes and our practice were more strict on this subject. The lesson has often been drawn from Samson's mar- riage that Christians should only marry in the Lord. Samson's case is indeed an admonitory one. Hereditary enemies allied by the most sacred and endearing bonds a Nazarite, one peculiarly set apart to the service of God united in matrimony to an idolatress. Speaking after the manner of our times, we should say, a fair face and a warm fancy made sad work with the strongest man's piety. The warning of the good bishop on mixed marriages, although scarcely ever heeded, is worth a repetition. " I wish," says he, " Manoah could speak so loud, that all our Israelites might hear him. Is there never a woman among all thy brethren, or among all thy people, that thou goest to* marry a stranger to God and religion ?" It were often better to attend our children's funeral than their wedding. Marriage is always a solemn event. Even when the choice has been agreeable to all parties, the future is an unopened volume. A veil of awful mystery hangs before the altar of marriage, which Omnipotence alone can penetrate. There is no surer way to a broken heart, to unutterable woe and an early grave, than to marry a fool, or a man without correct principles, a sot, a spendthrift, a knave, or a debauchee, though rich as Croesus, as clever as Byron, or as hand- some as Absalom. jje of ilje CHAPTER XI. THE JUDGMENT OP THE FOXES. " 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 fire, he let them go into the standing corn of the Philistines, and burnt up both the shocks, and also the standing corn, with the Tiueyards and olives." AT wheat-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 tdfc^skelon 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 ^prnfields 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 applicable to wolves, hyenas and jackals as to fox-.-s. 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 shualim 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 little 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 passage. 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 Shual, 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 with animals of this species. They lurk in companies of two or three hundred on the borders of the desert, and in the 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 fighter, 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 ivork to be 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 FOXES PLENTY. 209 animals are not meant at all. They say that the true Hebrew word is not shualim, but schoalim, 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 ? And Caesar 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 one thousand wild boars, one thousand does, one thousand ostriches, one 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 three hundred bears. 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 Judean 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. Faster, lib. iv : vers. 679.) And took fire-brands. Our word lamp is probably through the Greek lampos, from the Hebrew original in this place, lapidim,OY, as it is in the Chaldee and Syriac, lamfjidim. These lampidim were a kind of torch, Ham- beau, or burners, made with pitch. The animals seemed to be tied together in pairs, 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 with. 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 w r ith 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 uncertain 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 attached 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 town 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 waste 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 & jus- tifiable 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 this is not sufficient, our hero bore a divine commission before he was born, to do the Philis- 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 as a private person, nor taking the law into his oun hands, nor assuming the sovereignly 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 wronged 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 warlike than his own countrymen. Their fields 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 afflicting 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- ins; foxes as instruments of his vengeance, Samson ~ C2 ' 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 different. 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 ? When the Philistines saw their cornfields, vineyards 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, the Philistines burnt the Timnites. They must have felt that Samson hr.d 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 done. The fire-brands of the running foxes were not so destructive as the fire of dissension kindled between the Philistines. 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 fair 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 burn her and her father's house with fire, 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 Caesar'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 PRINCIPLE 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 OF T! ^ UNIVERSITY 1 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 property 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. Gunpowder 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 Robespierre lived only long enough to see the death of Danton 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 m?n 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 bitter. 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 pardgn 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. CHAPTER XII. THE JAW-BONE SLAUGHTER. " My 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 poet could not raise it against a foe ; and " Where to the hip the inserted thigh unites, Full on the bone the pointed marble lights; Through both the tendons broke the rugged stone, And stripped the skin and erack'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 than 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 fighting with their chosen weapons. But it is probable the fear of the Lord THE PRINCIPLE OF 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 which 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 Rehoboain built a fortress, or fortified a town near the rock Etam, which was called by the same name. This place was within the territory of Judah, between Tekoah and Bethlehem. And according to Josephus, who calls it Ilethan, it was fifteen miles from Jerusalem. The rock probably gave name to the town, and Avas famous 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 shelter 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 1634 when the 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, with 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 surrendered. From the twentieth verse "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 It is countrymen appear 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 here inferior also as warriors, and except when led by some champion under miracu- lous impulses, they were 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 SAMSON BOUND AT ETAM. 225 Samson their prisoner. They were more anxious to sac- rifice him to their enemies than to follow him in a glori- ous struggle 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 we come up, 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, and that we are not able to shake it off ! Why then are you con- tinually insulting and provoking them ? Do you not know that 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 JUIHiK. 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, Avho voluntarily surrenders himself to them, to deliver him into the hands of the Philistines. It was nothing that Samson was not of their tribe. He u'as a Hebrew. It was nothing that Washington was of Vir- ginia rather than of Massachusetts. He was an 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 Cor tlieir not rally- ing to his standard Iliat are not allogelher groundless. It is said, that Samson was nol really a tit leader, because SAMSON'S STRENGTH MIRACULOUS. 227 his intellect was weak and his character sadly inconsist- ent. Though of gigantic physical strength, his character was not well balanced. But was 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. That he was naturally strong, and of pow- erful muscle, we admit ; but his great strength ivas 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 was 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 his 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, he 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 new cords is very strongly expressed in the original. His bands loosed ; that is, melted from his hands. They became 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 two new cords with which they bound Samson fast, when the Spirit of the LORD came mightily upon him. Listen now to the savage yell-, of the Philistine hosts as they saw the great Hebrew bound and coining to them from the rock from which 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 sinffin" 1 after the manner of his times a stanza, in com- O O * memoration of his own exploits. " With the jaw-bone of an ass, heaps upon heaps, With the jaw of an ass have I slain a thousand men." The beauty and force of this verse can hardly be appre- ciated without a knowledge of the original, where 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 a 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- ters by laying them " heaps upon heaps " with a jaw- bone. And called that place Ramath-Lehi. Twice before it is called Lehi by anticipation. Lehi was used for brev- ity's sake. Such contractions were common with He- brew proper names. Jerusalem was called also Salem. liamath-Lehi means " the hill of the jaw-bone," or "the casting away of the jaw-bone." For here he cast away the jaw-bone out of his hand. He did not value this singular, but exceedingly effective weapon as much as Sir Walter Scott did Rob 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 was in the jaw- hone, and there came ivater 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 Lehi, 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-kore, that is, the well af him 232 THE GIANT JUDGE. that cried ; " Invocation well." Tradition still points out the stream that gushed from the grotto of Lehi for the refreshing of the Hebrew warrior. We close this chapter with 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 shoutings 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 immediately into a trans- port 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 DOIXft 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 opportunity 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 is, then, no statute of limitation within which process against the sinner must begin, or within which his cause must be 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 was a divine hand. He was sent against the Philistines, and would 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 which 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 their safety. No length of time, nor flight, nor distance from the place of sinning can give any true relief. Nothing but 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. lie that confesseth and forsake th his sins shall find mercy. Cjre DreaHul Relapse from (Stoat. CHAPTER XIII. THE DREADFUL EELAPSE FROM ETAM. 1 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 ?" Samson. 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, porne, 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 woman 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- ^resses were often of an abandoned character. And some contend that this Gazite woman was 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 chapter 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 wisdom 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 Philistia 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- tempt for the gate to kick it down, or too much refine- ment, for he lifts 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 weight. 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 top 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 fcnrful warning to ;ill 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 SAMSOX CARRYING AWAY THE GATES OF GAZA " And Samson lay till midnight, and avos at midnight, anil took the doors ol the gate of the city upon his shoulders and carried them up to the top of an hill that is before Hebron." Page 240. tfNi- ~ IT 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 life. 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 faithful 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 Etarn, 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 ah" ve ? 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 pree'm- 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 marry a Philistine, 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 sat \- lied revenge ? Or did he go up to Etam sulky and proud 4 like Achilles to his tent on the ^Egean 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 mingling of some of these WHY HE DWELLS IN 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 was 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 failures 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 which no prayer or sacrifice can avail, for which there is no forgiveness. There is a point of rebellion beyond which no pardon can be extended. God's Spirit does sometimes cease to strive with 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 o 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. Worclly 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 sprouting, 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 ordinary 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. TJiey 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 been extinguished. There is no truce in the war 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 Itcy in diMs f a. CHAPTER XIV. THE FATAL SLEEP IN DELILAH'S LAP. "At length to lay my head and hallow'd pledge Of all my strength in the lascivious lap Of a deceitful concubine, who shore me Like a tame wether, all my precious fleeces, Then turn'd me out, ridiculous, despoil'd, Shaven, and disarrn'd among mine enemies." Samson's Confession. FROM the fourth and following verses of the sixteenth chapter, we have Samson's next adventure. It is with a celebrated beauty of great histor'c 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 beautiful Delilah. Milton ignores the woman of Gaza altogether, nor is there any reason to believe she was Samson's wife. But in all his love affairs there is a singular dis- regard for the daughters of his own people.* And this *"Le foiblesse du coeur de Samson, dans toute cette histoire, est encoro plus etonnante que la force de son corps. 1 ' Calmet. 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 Delilah usually represent her with auburn hair, 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 lords 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 Israelites 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 afflict 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 tying. 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 ivas 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 beguilement. I. The Philistine lords did not profess to wish to kill Samson, but only to bind him to afflict Mm; that is, according to the Hebrew, to humble him, to bring him low. " Entice him," said they, " and see wherein his great strength lieth." Literally: For what 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 poet represents her r>- r,leading her cause before her eyeless husband in the i .-<-a. On the great principle that we must give to *-\ ; ry 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 blacker than he really is. In allowing her to plead as tu' great poet does, her love of country and devotion to h'-'- 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 undefiled," as established by law and under the sanction of our holy religion, are continually praising the faithfulness and devotion of free- 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 no be heathen as she was. It was no doubt in reference to just this class of women, who are so much praised 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 UNIVERSITY 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 bind 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- ceisfunibus. 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. Now 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, but Samson broke the withes as a thread of tow is broken ivhen 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 Delilah 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 wore 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 hiin urnicnx 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 oft SAMSON SHAVEN AND AFFLICTED. 261 the seven locks 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 BARBERS OPPERATING. beard or hair without awakening 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 Nazarite relation to God, whose : 262 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 would 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 were 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 was 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." IlalL There may be those who think that Samson could not have been so easily overcome. It is wonderful that alter 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 nattered 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 clays, 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 Sorek, 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 ivomb. 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. drat front % Irison Ulill of CHAPTER XV. A GRIST FROM THE PRISON-MILL OF GAZA, " In that tale I find The furrows of long thought, and dricd-up tears, Which ebbing, leave a sterile track behind, CTer which all heavily the journeying years Plod the last sands of life where not a flower appears."' CJiilde Harold. WHEN Josephus sajs Samson was a prophet, he 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 stragglings of higher prin- ciples, both in prosperity and adversity. But he has fallen -sadly fallen through the fascinations of an un- godly, unprincipled woman. The tempest 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." Delilah'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 helpless 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 the 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 exposed 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 rayless, never again to kindle with 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 defiant departure from the same city with its doors upon his shoulders ! And the Philistines put out his eyes. "We 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 arid 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 Herodias' daughter. The evidence is full that such acts of cruelty were com- mon in ancient times. And 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. M. Bonomi, in his "Nineveh and its Palaces," (p. 169,) furnishes us with a drawing from Khorsabad, that 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. PUTTING OVT THE EVES. king 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 ^- \r ; cords fastened to the upperlips of the other captives, who are man- acled and fettered, and standing behind the one whose eyes are 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 Rob Signeen. AY ho knows but that this is the history of ki-ng Zedekiah from II. Kings illustrated ? At least, in the picture we easily recognize his fate, and the putting out of Samson's eyes. And bound Mm 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. AVe 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 inscriptions 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 wholly 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 Susiana, p. 269. See also 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 MILT, 'Eyoloss in FOUMKV'iToX >TOM-;>. rl 7 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, if 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. Samson's life very properly leads us to the purify, sacredness and stability of the marriage relation. The family is the foundation stone for national weli-bein^. We must at any price, at any and every sacrifice, pre- serve out 1 Christian homes, as the fountains of principle and piety. And never was iliere 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 andtri;> j religion are not taught in our HOM.KS. Thorough train- ing and instruction mii5t 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 nnd 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, much is required. He that knows his Lord's will, and does it not, shall be beaten ivith many stripes. 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, mu*t be regarded as contributing also to its welfare and glory. The received maxim, then, that it is easier and cheaper 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 another time she was compelled to seek protection against her- * London Quarterly Review, October. 1852, p. 168. 320 THE GIAXT .H:I><;F. self under the banner of Venice. And then again from an abortive attempt to form a Republic, the lonians threw 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 born, 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 by their own countrymen" This was certainly very remarkable lan- guage 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 that 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. Smith and Gibbon had told us that there would never again be 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 influence. 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. JSIow in the 322 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 V 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 principles 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 letter.-:, speaking of his dependence on God's providence. And throughout his life, we have " the composure of the Areopagus carried into the struggles of Thermopylae" 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, s< ing that it is given to her by the Great Father of all spirits more than to any other to unseal the fountain of / its being and form the channel in which it is to flow forever? The mother's example and lessons arc the. passages of experimental divinity and social philosophy that are never forgotten. ly them we both live and RESPONSIBILITY OF YOUNG MEN. 323 die. The tribute which one of our Chief Magistrates, JOHN QDINCY ADAMS, paid to his mother, expresses what almost every 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, remember your responsibility for your influ- ence upon, society. You are invested with an immor- tality that you cannot lay aside. When 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 : u 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 with a willing mind : for the LORD searcheth all hearts, and understand- eth all the imaginations of the thoughts : if thou seek him, he will he found ofthee: if thou forsake him, he witt cast thee off forever. UNIVERSITY 14 DAY USE RETURN TO DESK FROM WHICH BORROWED LOAN DEPT. This book is due on the last date stamped below, or on the date to which renewed. Renewed books are subject to immediate recall. 23May'65J D ^ r*~ f~* "* o o ... * ,.- CM C9 MAY 2665 -11 Aw LD 21A-60m-3,'65 (F2336slO)476B General Library University of California Berkeley VB 12844