rule which even yet is not half understood to be the best as well as the
safest for the guidance of appetite and the development of bodily
strength. The absurdities commonly accepted by mothers and by those who
only desire some cover for the indulgence of taste are here set aside.
A hero is to be born, one who in physical vigour will distinguish
himself above all, the Hercules of sacred history. His mother rigidly
abstains, and he in his turn is to abstain from strong drink. The
plainest dieting is to serve both her and him--the kind of food and
drink on which Daniel and his companions throve in the Chaldean palace.
Surely the lesson is plain. Those who desire to excel in feats of
strength speak of their training. It embraces a vow like the Nazirites,
wanting indeed the sacred purpose and therefore of no use in the
development of character. But let a covenant be made with God, let
simple food and drink be used under a sense of obligation to Him to keep
the mind clear and the body clean, and soon with appetites better
disciplined we should have a better and stronger race.
It is not of course to be supposed that there was nothing out of the
common in Samson's bodily vigour. Restraint of unhealthy and injurious
appetite was not the only cause to which his strength was due. Yet as
the accompaniment of his giant energy the vow has great significance.
And to young men who incline to glory in their strength, and all who
care to be fit for the tasks of life the significance will be clear. As
for the rest whose appetites master them, who must have this and that
because they crave it, their weakness places them low as men, nowhere as
examples and guides. One would as soon take the type of manly vigour
from a paralytic as from one whose will is in subjection to the cravings
of the flesh.
It soon becomes clear in the course of the history that while some forms
of evil were fenced off by Naziritism others as perilous were not. The
main part of the devotion lay in abstinence, and that is not spiritual
life. Here is one who from his birth set apart to God is trained in
manly control of his appetites. The locks that wave in wild luxuriance
about his neck are the sign of robust physical vigour as well as of
consecration. But, strangely, his spiritual education is not cared for
as we might expect. He is disciplined and yet undisciplined. He fears
the Lord and yet fears Him not. He is an Israelite but not a true
Israelite. Jehovah is to him a God who gives strength and courage and
blessing in return for a certain measure of obedience. As the Holy God,
the true God, the God of purity, Samson knows Him not, does not worship
Him. Within a certain limited range he hears a divine voice saying,
"Thou shalt not," and there he obeys. But beyond is a great region in
which he reckons himself free. And what is the result? He is strong,
brave, sunny in temper as his name implies. But a helper of society, a
servant of divine religion, a man in the highest sense, one of God's
free men Samson does not become.
So is it always. One kind of exercise, discipline, obedience, virtue
will not suffice. We need to be temperate and also pure, we need to keep
from self-indulgence but also from niggardliness if we are to be men. We
have to think of the discipline of mind and soul as well as soundness of
body. He is only half a man, however free from glaring faults and vices,
who has not learned the unselfishness, the love, the ardour in holy and
generous tasks which Christ imparts. To abstain is a negative thing; the
positive should command us--the highest manhood, holy, aspiring,
patient, divine.
XX.
_SAMSON PLUNGING INTO LIFE._
JUDGES xiii. 24-xiv. 20.
Of all who move before us in the Book of Judges Samson is pre-eminently
the popular hero. In rude giant strength and wild daring he stands alone
against the enemies of Israel contemptuous of their power and their
plots. It is just such a man who catches the public eye and lives in the
traditions of a country. Most Hebrews of the time minded piety and
culture as little as did the Norsemen when they first professed
Christianity. Both races liked manliness and feats of daring and could
pardon much to one who flung his enemies and theirs to the ground with
god-like strength of arm, and in the narrative of Samson's exploits we
trace this note of popular estimation. He is a singular hero of faith,
quite akin to those half-converted half-savage chiefs of the north who
thought the best they could do for God was to kill His enemies and bound
themselves by fierce oaths in the name of Christ to hack and slaughter.
For the separateness from others, the isolation which marked Samson's
whole career the reasons are evident. His vow of Naziritism, for one
thing, kept him apart. Others were their own men, he was Jehovah's. His
radiant health and uncommon physical energy even in boyhood were to
himself and others the sign of a divine blessing which maintained his
sense of consecration. While he looked on at the riot and drunkenness of
the feasts of his people he felt a growing revulsion, nor was he pleased
with other indications of their temper. The frequent raids of
Philistines from their walled cities by the coast struck terror far and
wide--up the valleys of Dan into the heart of Judah and Ephraim. Samson
as he grew up marked the supineness of his people with wonder and
disgust. If he did anything for them it was not because he honoured them
but in fulfilment of his destiny. At the same time we must note that the
hero though a man of wit was not wise. He did the most injudicious
things. He had nothing in him of the diplomatist, not much of the leader
of men. It was only now and again when the mood took him that he cared
to exert himself. So he went his own way an admired hero, a lonely giant
among smaller beings. Worst of all he was an easy prey to some kinds of
temptation. Restrained on one side, he gave himself license on others;
his strength was always undisciplined, and early in his career we can
almost predict how it will end. He ventures into one snare after
another. The time is sure to come when he will fall into a pit out of
which there is no way of escape.
Of the early life of the great Danite judge there is no record save that
he grew and the Lord blessed him. The parents whose home on the
hill-side he filled with boisterous glee must have looked on the lad
with something like awe--so different was he from others, so great were
the hopes based on his future. Doubtless they did their best for him.
The consecration of his life to God they deeply impressed on his mind
and taught him as well as they could the worship of the Unseen Jehovah
in the sacrifice of lamb or kid at the altar, in prayers for protection
and prosperity. But nothing is said of instruction in the righteousness,
the purity, the mercifulness which the law of God required. Manoah and
his wife seem to have made the mistake of thinking that outside the vow
moral education and discipline would come naturally, so far as they were
needed. There was great strictness on certain points and elsewhere such
laxity that he must have soon become wilful and headstrong and somewhat
of a terror to the father and mother. Lads of his own age would of
course adore him; as their leader in every bold pastime he would command
their deference and loyalty, and many a wild thing was done, we can
fancy, at which the people of the valley laughed uneasily or shook their
heads in dismay. He who afterwards tied the jackals' tails together and
set firebrands between each pair to burn the Philistines' corn must have
served an apprenticeship to that kind of savage sport. Hebrew or alien
for miles round who roused the anger of Samson would soon learn how
dangerous it was to provoke him. Yet a dash of generosity always took
the edge from fiery temper and rash revenge, and the people of Dan, for
their part, would allow much to one who was expected to bring
deliverance to Israel. The wild and dangerous youth was the only
champion they could see.
But even before manhood Samson had times of deeper feeling than people
in general would have looked for. Boisterous hot-blooded impetuous
natures grievously wanting in decorum and sagacity are not always
superficial; and there were occasions when the Spirit of the Lord began
to move Samson. He felt the purpose of his vow, saw the serious work to
which his destiny was urging him, looked down on the plain of the
Philistines with a kindling eye, spoke in strains that even rose to
prophetic intensity. At Mahaneh-Dan, the camp of Dan, where the more
resolute spirits of the tribe came together for military exercise or to
repel some raid of the enemy, Samson began to speak of his purpose and
to make schemes for Israel's liberation. Into these the fiery vehemence
of the young man flowed, and the enthusiasm of his nature bore others
along. Can we be wrong in supposing that in various ways, by plans often
ill-considered he sought to harass the Philistines, and that failure as
a leader in these left him somewhat discredited? Samson was just of that
sanguine venturesome disposition which makes light of difficulties and
is always courting defeat. It was easy for him with his immense bodily
strength to break through where other men were entrapped. A frequent
result of the frays into which he hurried must have been, we imagine, to
make his own friends doubt him rather than to injure the enemy. At all
events he became no commander like Gideon or Jephthah, and the men of
Judah, if not of Dan, while they acknowledged his calling and his power,
began to think of him as a dangerous champion.
So far we have the merest hints by which to go, but the narrative
becomes more detailed when it approaches the time of Samson's marriage.
A strange union it is for a hero of Israel. What made him think of going
down among the Philistines for a wife? How can the sacred writer say
that the thing was of the Lord? Let us try to understand the
circumstances. Between the people of Zorah and the villagers of Timnah a
few miles down the valley on the other side who, though Philistines,
were presumably not of the fighting sort there was a kind of enforced
neighbourliness. They could not have lived at all unless they had been
content, Philistines for their part, Hebrews for theirs, to let the
general enmity sleep. Samson by observing certain precautions and
keeping his Hebrew tongue quiet was safe enough in Timnah, an object of
fear rather than himself in danger. At the same time there may have been
a touch of bravado in his rambles to the Philistine settlement, and the
young woman of whom he caught a passing glance, perhaps at the spring,
had very likely all the more charm for him that she was of the strong
hostile race. History as well as fiction supplies instances in which
this fascination does its work, family feuds, oppositions of caste and
religion directing the eye and the fancy instead of repelling. In his
sudden wilful way Samson resolved, and his mind once made up no one in
Zorah could induce him to alter it. "The thing was of the Lord; for he
sought an occasion against the Philistines." Perhaps Samson thought the
woman would be denied to him, a straight way to a quarrel. But more
probably it is the outcome of the whole pitiful business that is in the
mind of the historian. After the event he traces the hand of Providence.
As we pass with Samson and his parents down to Timnah we cannot but
agree with Manoah in his objection, "Is there never a woman among the
daughters of thy brethren or among all my people that thou goest to take
a wife of the uncircumcised Philistines?" It was emphatically one of
those cases in which liking should not have led. An impetuous man is not
to be excused; much less those who claim to be exceedingly rational and
yet go against reason because of what they call love--or, worse, apart
from love. General rules are with difficulty laid down in matters of
this sort, and to deny the right of love would be the worst error of
all. So far as our popular writers are concerned, we must allow that
they wonderfully balance the claims of "arrangement" and honest
affection, declaring strongly for the latter. But yet such a difference
as between faith and idolatry, between piety and godlessness, is a
barrier that only the blindest folly can overleap when marriage is in
view. Daughters of the Philistines may be "most divinely fair," most
graceful and plausible; men who worship Moloch or Mammon or nothing but
themselves may have most persuasive tongues and a large share of this
world's good. But to mate with these, whatever liking there may be, is
an experiment too rash for venturing. In Christian society now, is there
not much need to repeat old warnings and revive a sense of peril that
seems to have decayed? The conscience of piously bred young people was
alive once to the danger and sin of the unequal yoke. In the rush for
position and means marriage is being made by both sexes, even in most
religious circles, an instrument and opportunity of earthly ambition,
and it must be said that foolish romance is less to be feared than this
carefulness in which conscience and heart alike submit to the imperious
cravings of sheer worldliness. Novels have much to answer for; yet they
can make one claim--they have done something for simple humanity. We
want more than nature, however. Christian teaching must be heard and the
Christian conscience must be re-kindled. The hope of the world waits on
that devout simplicity of life which exalts spiritual aims and spiritual
comradeship and by its beauty shames all meaner choice. In marriage not
only should heart go out to heart, but mind to mind and soul to soul;
and the spirit of one who knows Christ can never unite with a
self-worshipper or a servant of mammon.
Returning to Samson's case, he would possibly have said that he wished
an adventurous marriage, that to wed a Danite woman would have in it too
little risk, would be too dull, too commonplace a business for him, that
he wanted a plunge into new waters. It is in this way, one must believe,
many decide the great affair. So far from thinking they put thought
away; a liking seizes them and in they leap. Yet in the best considered
marriage that can be made is there not quite enough of adventure for any
sane man or woman? Always there remain points of character unknown,
unsuspected, possibilities of sickness, trouble, privation that fill the
future with uncertainty, so far as human vision goes. It is, in truth, a
serious undertaking for men and women, and to be entered upon only with
the distinct assurance that divine providence clears the way and invites
our advance. Yet again we are not to be suspicious of each other,
probing every trait and habit to the quick. Marriage is the great
example and expression of the trust which it is the glory of men and
women to exercise and to deserve, the great symbol on earth of the
confidences and unions of immortality. Matter of deep thankfulness it is
that so many who begin the married life and end it on a low level,
having scarcely a glimpse of the ideal, though they fail of much do not
fail of all, but in some patience, some courage and fidelity show that
God has not left them to nature and to earth. And happy are they who
adventure together on no way of worldly policy or desire but in the pure
love and heavenly faith which link their lives for ever in binding them
to God.
Samson, reasoned with by his parents, waved their objection royally
aside and ordered them to aid his design. It was necessary according to
the custom of the country that they should conduct the negotiations for
the marriage, and his wilfulness imposed on them a task that went
against their consciences. So they found themselves with the common
reward of worshipping parents. They had toiled for him, made much of
him, boasted about him no doubt; and now their boy-god turns round and
commands them in a thing they cannot believe to be right. They must
choose between Jehovah and Samson and they have to give up Jehovah and
serve their own lad. So David's pride in Absalom ended with the
rebellion that drove the aged father from Jerusalem and exposed him to
the contempt of Israel. It is good for a man to bear the yoke in his
youth, the yoke even of parents who are not so wise as they might be and
do not command much reverence. The order of family life among us,
involving no absolute bondage, is recognized as a wholesome discipline
by all who attain to any understanding of life. In Israel, as we know,
filial respect and obedience were virtues sacredly commended, and it is
one mark of Samson's ill-regulated self-esteeming disposition that he
neglected the obvious duty of deference to the judgment of his parents.
On the way to Timnah the young man had an adventure which was to play an
important part in his life. Turning aside out of the road he found
himself suddenly confronted by a lion which, doubtless as much surprised
as he was by the encounter, roared against him. The moment was not
without its peril; but Samson was equal to the emergency and springing
on the beast "rent it as he would have rent a kid." The affair however
did not seem worth referring to when he joined his parents, and they
went on their way. It was as when a man of strong moral principle and
force meets a temptation dangerous to the weak, to him an enemy easily
overcome. His vigorous truth or honour or chastity makes short work of
it. He lays hold of it and in a moment it is torn in pieces. The great
talk made about temptations, the ready excuses many find for themselves
when they yield are signs of a feebleness of will which in other ranges
of life the same persons would be ashamed to own. It is to be feared
that we often encourage moral weakness and unfaithfulness to duty by
exaggerating the force of evil influences. Why should it be reckoned a
feat to be honest, to be generous, to swear to one's own hurt? Under the
dispensation of the Spirit of God, with Christ as our guide and stay
every one of us should act boldly in the encounter with the lions of
temptation. Tenderness to the weak is a Christian duty, but there is
danger that young and old alike, hearing much of the seductions of sin,
little of the ready help of the Almighty, submit easily where they
should conquer and reckon on divine forbearance when they ought to
expect reproach and contempt. Our generation needs to hear the words of
St. Paul: "There hath no temptation taken you but such as man can bear:
but God is faithful Who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye
are able." Is there a tremendous pressure constantly urging us towards
that which is evil? In our large cities especially is the power of
iniquity almost despotic? True enough. Yet men and women should be
braced and strengthened by insistence on the other side. In Christian
lands at least it is unquestionable that for every enticement to evil
there is a stronger allurement to good, that against every argument for
immorality ten are set more potent in behalf of virtue, that where sin
abounds grace does much more abound. Young persons are indeed tempted;
but nothing will be gained by speaking to them or about them as if they
were children incapable of decision, of whom it can only be expected
that they will fail. By the Spirit of God, indeed, all moral victories
are gained; the natural virtue of the best is uncertain and cannot be
trusted in the trying hour, and he only who has a full inward life and
earnest Christian purpose is ready for the test. But the Spirit of God
is given. His sustaining, purifying, strengthening power is with us. We
do not breathe deep, and then we complain that our hearts cease to beat
with holy courage and resolve.
At Timnah, where life was perhaps freer than in a Hebrew town, Samson
appears to have seen the woman who had caught his fancy; and he now
found her, Philistine as she was, quite to his mind. It must have been
by a low standard he judged, and many possible topics of conversation
must have been carefully avoided. Under the circumstances, indeed, the
difficulty of understanding each other's language may have been their
safety. Certainly one who professed to be a fearer of God, a patriotic
Israelite had to shut his eyes to many facts or thrust them from sight
when he determined to wed this daughter of the enemy. But when we choose
we can do much in the way of keeping things out of view which we do not
wish to see. Persons who are at daggers drawn on fifty points show the
greatest possible affability when it is their interest to be at one.
Love gets over difficulties and so does policy. Occasions are found when
the anxiously orthodox can join in some comfortable compact with the
agnostic, and the vehement state-churchman with the avowed secularist
and revolutionary. And it seems to be only when two are nearly of the
same creed, with just some hairsbreadth of divergence on a few articles
of belief, that the obstacles to happy union are apt to become
insurmountable. Then every word is watched, each tone noted with
suspicion. It is not between Hebrew and Philistine but between Ephraim
and Judah that alliances are difficult to form. We hope for the time
when the long and bitter disputes of Christendom shall be overcome by
love of truth and God. Yet first there must be an end to the strange
reconcilings and unions which like Samson's marriage often confuse and
obstruct the way of Christian people.
There is an interval of some months after the marriage has been arranged
and the bridegroom is on his way once more down the valley to Timnah. As
he passes the scene of his encounter with the lion he turns aside to see
the carcase and finds that bees have made it their home. Vultures and
ants have first found it and devoured the flesh, then the sun has
thoroughly dried the skin and in the hollow of the ribs the bees have
settled. At considerable risk Samson possesses himself of some of the
combs and goes on eating the honey, giving a portion also to his father
and mother. It is again a type, and this time of the sweetness to be
found in the recollection of virtuous energy and overcoming. Not that we
are to be always dwelling on our faithfulness even for the purpose of
thanking God Who gave us moral strength. But when circumstances recall a
trial and victory it is surely matter of proper joy to remember that
here we were strong enough to be true, and there to be honest and pure
when the odds seemed to be against us. The memories of a good man or
good woman are sweeter than the honeycomb, though tempered often by
sorrow over the human instruments of evil who had to be struggled with
and thrust aside in the sharp conflict with sin and wrong. Very few in
youth or middle-life seem to think of this joy, which makes beautiful
many a worn and aged face on earth and will not be the least element in
the felicity of heaven. Too often we bear burdens because we must; we
are dragged through trial and distress to comparative quiet; we do not
comprehend what is at stake, what we may do and gain, what we are kept
from losing; and so the look across our past has none of the glow of
triumph, little of the joy of harvest. For man's blessedness is not to
be separated from personal striving. In fidelity he must sow that he may
reap in strength, in courage that he may reap in gladness. He is made
not for mere success, not for mere safety, but for overcoming.
We are not finished with the lion; he next appears covertly, in a
riddle. Samson has shown himself a strong man; now we hear him speak and
he proves a wit. It is the wedding festival, and thirty young men have
been gathered--to honour the bridegroom, shall we say?--or to watch him?
Perhaps from the first there has been suspicion in the Philistine mind,
and it seems necessary to have as many as thirty to one in order to
overawe Samson. In the course of the feast there might be quarrels, and
without a strong guard on the Hebrew youth Timnah might be in danger. As
the days went by the company fell to proposing riddles and Samson,
probably annoyed by the Philistines who watched every movement, gave
them his, on terms quite fair, yet leaving more than a loophole for
discontent and strife. In the conditions we see the man perfectly
self-reliant, full of easy superiority, courting danger and defying
envy. The thirty may win--if they can. In that case he knows how he will
pay the forfeit. "Put forth thy riddle," they said, "that we may hear
it;" and the strong mellow Hebrew voice chanted the puzzling verse:
"Out of the eater came forth meat;
Out of the strong came forth sweetness."