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show them how they might bind him. So Delilah deceived him with fair words, and won from him the secrets of his heart. And he told her of the angel's message, and of the law of the Nazarite, which he was bound to observe, and he said that if the hair of his head was shaven, his strength would depart from him, and he should be like any other man.

Then Delilah sent for the lords of the Philistines, and told them to come and take Samson, for she would deliver him into their hands. And when Samson was with her in her house, she caused the seven locks of his head to be cut off while he slept. And as soon as the hair of his head was shaven, the Lord departed from Samson, and he became weak, and was like any other man; and the Philistines took him and bound him, and carried him away into their own country. And they put out his eyes, and bound him with chains, and made him grind corn in their prison.

And after a while, the Philistines made a great feast to their idol Dagon; and the lords of the Philistines, and a great multitude of people, were

gathered together in the house of Dagon. Then they sent for Samson that they might make sport with him; for their hearts were merry, because they had taken their enemy who had slain so many of their people.

Now the roof beneath which the lords of the Philistines were seated, rested upon two large pillars; and upon the roof were three thousand men and women, who had come to see Samson. And when they had brought Samson to the house of Dagon, he asked the lad who led him to place him near the pillars, that he might lean upon them. And he prayed earnestly to the Lord to remember him, and give him back his strength only this once; and the Lord heard his prayer. Then he stretched forth his arms, and took hold of the two pillars on which the roof rested, and said, "Let me die with the Philistines." And he bowed himself with all his might, and drew together the two pillars, and overthrew them. And the roof of the house which rested upon the pillars fell upon the lords of the Philistines, and upon all the people that were in it. "So the dead

which Samson slew at his death, were more than they which he slew in his life."

Then the brethren of Samson, and all the house of his father came down, and took him, and brought him up, and buried him near to Zorah, in the burying place of Manoah his father.

Judges xiii.-xvi.

A Nazarite was a person who was bound by a vow or promise not to drink wine, or strong drink of any kind, to let the hair of his head grow and remain uncut, and to keep himself at all times from all unclean things. (Numbers vi.)

Chapter XCIV.

THE SUFFERINGS AND THE BLESSINGS OF THE PEOPLE OF THE LORD, FROM THE DEATH OF JOSHUA TO THE TIME OF ELI.

VERY many years had now passed since the time when the Lord had divided among His people the land of their inheritance, the good land which He had promised to their fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

It was about four hundred years before the days of Eli that Joshua, the servant of the Lord, had died in peace. He had left the children of Israel in rest from all their enemies, serving the Lord with joyfulness and gladness of heart for the abundance of all things. At that time, "not one good thing had failed of all the good things which the Lord had spoken concerning His people; all had come to pass, and not one thing had failed thereof." But since that time of peace and joy, when Israel served the Lord in the days of Joshua, there had been many years of sorrow and suffering in that good land which the Lord had given them. For the people of the Lord had sinned, and suffering and sorrow must ever follow sin.

After all that the Lord had done for His people by the hand of Joshua, He had still left them a work to do for themselves: they had a work to do, as well as a law to observe. They had to drive out from among them the remnant of the heathen nations which Joshua had allowed to remain within their land. The Lord had given to

His people all the promised land of Canaan, and had divided the portion in which the Canaanites still dwelt, to be an inheritance for their tribes ; their enemies were given into their hands, but they were still within their land, and had to be driven forth. When the people of Israel should have grown in strength and numbers, they had to arise, and take for themselves, by the help of God, this other portion also, and dwell therein. They had to fight against the Canaanites that remained, until the last remnant of the sinner and the heathen had been utterly rooted out and destroyed from among them. And if they had been obedient to the voice of God, and had gone forth in faith to war against their enemies, with a bold heart and patient spirit, until they had destroyed them, then the Lord would have expelled them from before them, and driven them from out of their sight. Then Israel would have possessed in peace the whole land of Canaan, as the Lord their God had promised to them.

This was the trial of the people of the Lord in the land of their inheritance; and they failed under

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