^ Charles Brown, in Youth and Life, 202.
198 UNCONSCIOUS LOSS
i And it was not only without the help of the people but in
j spite of them that Samson had to deliver the land. The
/) Israelites, instead of flocking to Samson's standard and seconding
his effort to throw off the Philistine yoke, bound him and gave
him into the hands of the Philistines, complaining bitterly that
he had brought them into trouble with their masters, and willing
' to buy peace at the price of Samson's life — ^just as the Pharisees
said of our Lord: "If we let him thus alone, the Eomans will
come and take away both our place and our nation"; and
S subsequently gave Him up bound to the Eomans. They would
\ not strike a blow in defence of their own liberty, still less in
\ defence of their champion. These 3000 men of Judah, armed and
^i equipped, stood by as idle spectators whilst Samson burst the
bonds they had bound upon him, and, snatching up the only
weapon he could see, the jawbone of an ass, fell upon the common
w enemy, and slaughtered as many as did not flee.
Count me o'er earth's chosen heroes, — they were souls that stood alone.
While the men they agonised for hurled the contumelious stone,
Stood serene, and down the future saw the golden beam in- cline
To the side of perfect justice, mastered by their faith divine,
By one man's plain truth to manhood and to God's supreme design.^
ii. After.
1. "The Lord was departed fipm him.'' Why? ^Thqi^weje twcL causes— an inward and an . out^ward ; .^and^jas always, .the outward was subordinate to the. inward and ^peaded.upon it.
(1) The inward cause. — It is true that the evolution of moral life in history bids us apply a different standard of judgment to the lives of the heroes of the old-time faith from that which we apply to those of the new. Yet it does not require the neglect or reversal of this principle to see that the life of Samson fell very far short of the moral possibilities of his day and race.
"l^or I^ have been a Naziiite^untp. God-^rom mj mother's womb." _A. Nazirite ! — and wlxat manner fiJLmani \sas hg ? He was a separated and consecrated maB^Jbi_yiiijwas.,tiLeJa» of -ihe
* Lowell.
JUDGES XVI. 20 199
Nazirite — "He shall separate himself from wine and strong drink ; he shall l>e .holy, All the days of his separation he is holy unto* the Lord." The vow pi the Nazhite was. essentially a vowJ^Q abstain frojn.flesl^y Justs. He wa,s to hold hinwilf pure_ as Go(i'sjnstrument; he_,was not to yield his^m^mbers un^o_$vilf he was to nurture his life in Spartan severity and simplicity ; he was to attain self-reverence, self-knowledge, self-control, and from that discipline his whole body and soul were to derive strength.
Without any disparagement to the character of Sap son, one may fairly say that his keeping of the Nazirite vow had all along been marked by adherence that was letter-perfect rather than spiritually faithful. He had been temperate in the direction of his vow.
Desire of wine and all delicious drinks, Which many a famous warrior overturns, He could repress; nor did the dancing ruby Sparkling, outpoured, the flavour or the smell. Or taste that cheers the hearts of gods and men, Allure him from the cool crystalline stream.
But in that direction only. In others he had been weak.
The Nazirite vow, rightly understood, was a divinely -given basis for moral development, a prophecy through outer separate- ness of spiritual consecration. Nor could any man be said to have drunk of its spirit who rested in the details of ritual, and did not seek to penetrate to its essence — consecration to God. The consecration of the Scriptures is never a mere separating from something ; it ,is ^also a separating to something, a shutting- upM3f_a man to God. What poverty of meaning must have been assigned to the words " separate unto the Lord," " holy unto the Lord," when they could be supposed to be fulfilled by a life admitting of the sensual irregularity of this Hebrew chief !
It was here surely that the seeds of defection were sown — in the poor -external conception of holiness belonging to the time, above which Samson, although one of the heroes of faith enumer- ated in the Epistle to the Hebrews, never rose. But at length that defection reached the outward life. And here let us remember that charity bids us think that only a strong and vital
200 UNCONSCIOUS LOSS
.spirit of obedience could sustain the burdensome restrictions which the national code laid on the pious Hebrew, and especially upon the Nazirite ; so that, however little intelligent grasp of the further purport of the vow there was in Samson's life, there was in the faithful literal observance of it some evidence, conscious as he was of the Divine commission given him, that he was more than a mere ritualist.
(2) The outward cause. — When _t.he inner HfeoiLiion^st service \ waa^eakeflM,..fiy§nJh^outeiLConf Qxe^ condition.
Uaidjy3on_Sam3onjg^as n^it^mai^^^^^ The thing that seemed
jVithin his power, that seemed most easy — to maintain the secret
ff his God-given strength — proved beyond him, and the strong lan was ensnared by wiles that would not have caught a child. ^ It seemed to be a trifle whether a man's hair was to be permitted to grow, or was cut off. In itself it was a trifle — infinitely unimportant. But it was not a trifle in the light of its associations. Samson knew that it was no trifle : he had no mind to betray to Delilah what he knew to be the secret of his strength. Behind the commonest acts in life, it often happens, there cluster infinite issues;,- a whole moral world may be at stake : heaven or hell may await us behind a deed done, a word spoken, a consent or a refusal, — and these petty acts at once become momentous ; their importance is measured by their results. What could matter less in itself than whether a man was or was not circumcised ? " Neither circumcision availeth anything," said the Apostle, " nor uncircumcision." But let circumstances change : let it be maintained by a powerful school in Galatia that no Christian can do without circumcision, and the meaning of the act changes too : " Behold, I Paul say unto you, that, if ye receive circumcision, Christ will profit you nothing " (Gal. V. 2).i