HOMILETICS. Vere. 1-9.-The link of the clw.i1i. A swarm of bees light one day in the carcase of :i, li?n which had been k:ill~d in the vineyards of Thimnathah. They constmct their hive there, and make their honey. It was no doubt an unusual circumstance that the bees should form their hive in such a place rather than in a hollow tree or the cleft of a rock, but beyond its interest as a fact in natural history nobody wduld have attached any importance to it. But this action of the bees was linked to curious antecedents, and to peculiar consequences. The lion had been slain by Samson, that mysterious person of gigantic strength, whose life is such a remarkable episode in the history of Israel ; and Samson had been led to the spot where the lion was by his ill-regulated love for a daughter of the Philistines, who were the masters and oppress- ors of his country. And as to what happened after the swarming of these bees, the marriage of Samson to his Philistine bride took place after an interval just sufficient for tha bees to have filled their hive with honey, and Samson on his way to the wed- ding, impelled by a natural curiosity to see the lion which he had killed, had turned aside from his path, and had eaten the honey which was strangely found there. It was the custom of the time and of those people to beguile the long hours of the idle wedding feasts with curious questions and strange riddles. In the gambling spirit which is such a frequent accompaniment of insufficient occupation, whether among the lazaronis of Naples or the wealthy nobles of modern society, such riddles were made the occasion of wagers, and such wagers often led to deadly quarrels. In the present instance Samson's double adventure with the lion suggested to him the riddle, "Out of the eater came forth meat, and out of the strong came forth sweetness." Baffled in their attempts to guess the riddle by fair means, they set on Samson's wife to worm the secret out of him and divulge it to them. Samson at once perceived the treachery, broke with his wife, slew thirty Philistines, and took their spoil wherewith to pay the lost wager, and followed up tho feud by successive slaughters of his enemies, thus preparing the way for the eventual overthrow of the Philistine domina- tion. The point for our special remark is that a swann of bees lighting on a particular spot was an important link in the chain of providence by which the destinies of a great people were guided to independence; and the ubservation is not only a curious one, but has an important bearing upon the difficult subject (see Homiletics, eh. iii. 12-21) of the use made of men, and of men's actions, in the provi- dential government of the world. Samson in slaying the lion, and the bees in swarm- ing in its carcase, did things which were links in the chain of events which God foresaw, or fore-ordained, as he did also the effects of Samson's marriage with the Pliilistine. But just as the bees only followed their instinct in building their hive, 1,0 Samson, in fixing his affections on the Timnathite, and in attacking the lion, and in eating the honey, and in propounding the riddle, and in avenging himself for hi ■ .UH. XII', 1-9.] THE BOOK OE' JUDGES. 151
wife's treachery, was merely following the bent of his own inclinations and the lending of bis own will, though in so doing he was bringing about God's purpose for the deliverance of Israel. What, however, we have here to notice is the wonderful way in which God brings about bis own purpos~, and al~o the infinite foreknowledge of God. We look back, and we can trace the successive steps of causation, as one follows the other, like wave upon wave. But God looks forward from the beginning foresees the effect of each cause in endless succession, and so orders them as t~ accomplish bis own will. The most trivial events may be necessary links in the great chain ; and while men are blindly following their own inclinations, with little thought and no knowledge of what will come of them, God is making use of them with unerring wisdom to work out bis own eternal purposes, for the good of his people and for the glory of his own great name.