SAMSON CARRYING THE GATES OF GAZA. THE GIANT JUDGE OR. THE STORY OF SAMSON. BY REV, WA. SPOTT, D, R, i 5 OF SAN FRANCISCO. 1 There will I build him A monument, With all his trophies hung, and acts enrolled In copious legend, or sweet lyric song. Thither shall all the valiant youth resort, And from his memory inflame their breasts To matchless valour, and adventures high : The virgins also, shall, on feastl'ul days, Visit his tomb with flowers." Samson Agorristes. PHILADELPHIA: PRESBYTERIAN BOARD OF PUBLICATION. NO. 821 CHESTNUT STREET. , 5" Entered according to the Act of Congress, in the year 1858, by JAMES DUNLAP, TREAS., in the Clerk's Office of the District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. STEREOTYPBD BT JESPER HARDING & SON, INQUIRER BUILDING, SOUTH THIRD STREET, PHILA. Ubwy CONTENTS. PAGE CHAP. I. THE HERO'S WONDERFUL STORY TOLD, . 11 II. THE HEROIC JUDGES AND THEIR TIMES, . .21 III. THE STORY A REVELATION INSPIRED, . 29 IV. SAMSON'S PARENTS THE HERO PROMISED, . 49 V. CHRIST IN THE THEOPHANIES OF THE OLD TESTA- MENT, ........ 69 VI. TflE FAMILY SACRIFICE AND CONFERENCE, . 88 VII. THE LIFE OF THE HERO BEGUN, . .97 . VIII. SAMSON'S FIRST LOVE THE LION FIGHT, . 109 IX. SWEETNESS OUT OF THE STRONG, . 121 X. THE WEDDING RIDDLE AND TRAGEDY, . 131 XI. THE JUDGMENT OF THE FIRE-BRAND FOXES, . 146 XII. THE JAW-BONE SLAUGHTER, .... 158 XIII. THE DREADFUL RELAPSE FROM ETAM, . 170 XIV. SAMSON IN DELILAH'S LAP, .... 181 XV. A GRIST FROM THE PRISON-MILL OF GAZA, . 192 XVI. THE FINAL CONTEST AND TRAGEDY, . 209 XVII. THE EPILOGUE AND ITS TEACHINGS, . 224 (3) INTRODUCTION. IN this little volume I have a definite end in view. I candidly acknowledge that, with me, the reality of Bible histories is an of indispensable condition to faith in the doctrines and precepts the Christianity. It is my purpose therefore, so far as subject seems to come properly within the reach of these pages, to consider the history of Sarnson as a true history, explain its meaning, and true apply its principles. Unless biblical memoirs are strictly a record of things as they were, and of facts as they did occur if the men named are nations or myths, and not individuals if the miracles wrought by Moses and Samson are mere natural or of then I have no confidence that phenomena figures speech ; the doctrines of the Bible are from God. I am well aware that some do not like the subject I have chosen they would prefer Joseph or Daniel as a hero. Others are ready " to pronounce the effort as useless and some consider it as an idle attempt to collect evidence," on a subject that does not admit of and others will me with most uncriti- proof ; charge maintaining cal, ignorant, unphilosophical, baseless assumptions in regard to the histories of the Bible, and the literal interpretation of the scriptures. But as Keil in his preface to Joshua expresses it, I " am persuaded that The great want of the Church, at the present day, is a clear comprehension of the meaning of the Old Testa- ment, in its fulness and purity, in order that the God of Israel may again be universally recognized as the eternal God, whose faithful- ness is unchangeable, the one living and true God, who performed all that he did to Israel for our instruction and salvation, having chosen Abraham and his seed to be his people, to preserve his reve- lations, that from him the whole world might receive salvation, and in him all the families of the earth be blessed." 1* (5) 6 INTRODUCTION. The great Augustine in his one hundred and sixtieth sermon is correct in saving most emphatically, Novum Testamentum in vetere " velabatur : Vetus Testamentum in novo revelatur. The New Testa- in is in ment was veiled the Old ; the Old Testament revealed the New." If the gospel of Jesus Christ is therefore the only way of salvation, the historical reality of the Old Testament must be fully established. It is true, that the good things of which in the old economy we have only the shadows, have come in all their precious realities : but it does not follow that the old economy is wholly obsolete. When a fond mother folds in her arms a living son returned from distant lands, or with honour 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 discover 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 impressively 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 more stated in the ; though clearly New Testa- ment. But the distant view is not without grandeur and import- ance. And as the best, and in fact the only way to remove dark- ness 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 interpretation on the one hand, and the extravagan- cies of on the is to its true pietism other, promote understanding ; and in order to this we must vindicate its authenticity and come to its true interpretation. But this cannot be done by ignoring altogether the schools of Neological criticism, nor by allegorizing and finding types of Christ in everything. I am perfectly sure that in regard to modern science, historical discoveries, and anti- quarian researches, we nmy 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 INTRODUCTION. 7 to say anything upon the subject, it afforded me a firm foundation 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 Egyptians, 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 under- stand many hitherto obscure Biblical passages and allusions. So numerous and important are the proofs and illustrations of the authenticity of the historical books of the Bible, gathered from the labours of modern missionaries and travellers in the East, and from the readings of the inscriptions on the moijuments of the Nile, Tigris, and Euphrates, that our Bible dictionaries and commenta- ries will all have to be re- written. Many of them have been super- seded already. Important 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 characterizes our day. This was rather their misfortune than their fault. While we shall ever thank God for their able and pious labours, 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 spiritual- izing rather than expounding the word of God. We cannot have too much of Christ in our but the of our calls pulpits ; spirit age also for historical and critical studies in order to the successful pre- " sentation of Christ, and him crucified." And if, in preaching from the sacred records, we dismember them, and in our zeal to find evangelical doctrines, fail to apprehend the mind of the Spirit, 8 INTRODUCTION. then we do great injustice to revelation. We should avoid ex tremes, 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 favour of the historic realities and accuracy of the divine records and of the literal fulfilment, 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 caiadid 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 coin- cidences 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.