Vera.15--17.-Samson's weakness. Samson's weakness is twofold. Through lack of moral strength he reveals the secret of his physical strength, and is thus betrayed into the loss of this also. I. SAMSON'S MORAL WEAKNESS. This is the man's great failing, apparent through- out his history, but reaching a climax in the present incident. Physical endowments arc no guarantees for spiritual graces. Must not some of our young athletic bar- barians of the aristocracy, adored by the multitude for chest and muscle, be con- demned by true standards of judgment for contemptible weakness of character? Such weakness is far more deplorable than the bodily weakness of palsy and paralysis. St. Paul was considered miserably deficient m physical power and presence (2 Cor. x. 10), yet hie strength of soul exalts the apostle immeasurably above Samson. The moral weakness of Samson is illustrated by the circumstances of his great defeat. 1. Svn. Samson was neglecting his duty and degrading himself with those evil communications which corrupt good manners. There is nothing so enervating as the conscious pursuit of a guilty course. 2. Pleasure. Instead of toiling, fighting, and Racrificing himself for his country, Samson was wasting his hours in pleasure. Apart from the wrongness of thia conduct, the lax, self-indulgent spirit it engendered was weakening. In seasons of pleasure we are off our guard. 3. The allureme:nts of false affection. Samson can resist a host of Philistine warriors, but be cannot resist one Philistine woman. Strong against rude violence, he is weak before soft per- suasion. Pure love is the loftiest inspiration for self-sacrificing devotion; but love degraded and corrupted is the deadliest poison to purity of character and vigour and independence of action. How many saints and heroes have found their humiliation in the same snares which caught the strong Samson and the famous St. Antony I 4. Tlie self-confidence of strength. Samson plays with the curiosity of Delilah, sure ?£ the power which will come to his aid in the moment of danger, till by degrees he 1s per- suaded to betray the secret of that very power. Had be been less strong, he would have been less rash. Presumption is more dangerous than conscious· weakness (1 Cor. x. 12). II. SAMSON'S PHYSICAL WEAKNESS. This resulted from his moral weakness. In the end the faults of the inner life will bear fruit in trouble to the outer life. 1. Samson's strength was a Divine gift. He had not attained it by self-discipline nor merited it by service. It was a talent intrusted to his care to be used for God. What God gives God can withhold. 2. Samson's strength was derived from spiril,ual 1ources. Samson was not a mere prodigy of brute force. He was one of God's t.ieroi:s, and the glory of his strengtil lay in this fact, that it was the outcome of uu OH, XVI. 1-22.] THE BOOK OF .JUDGES. 173
inspirntion, The most exalted powers we have for earthly work are derived from spiritual sources. If these sources are cut off, the energies which iRsue from them will be exhausted. Samson grows weak through the departure of the Spirit of the Lord. 3. Samson's strength depended on hie observance of the Nazarite's vow. When the vow wae broken the strength fled. God hae a covenant with his people. He is always true to his side, but if we fail on ours the covenant is void and the blessings dependent on it cease. (1) The vow of the Nazarite implied consecration to God. God bestows graces on us eo long as we live to him, but our departure from him necessitates the just withholding of those graces. (2) The vow required obedience to certain regulations. These were trivial in themselves; but the obliga- tion of obedience is determined not by the importance of the commands given, but by the authority of the person giving them. Disobedience is shown not to the law, but to the authority. A small test may be sufficient to reveal this. Disobedience to God is the fundamental element of all ein, and, as in Samson' e case, it will be the sure cause of our ruin.-A. Ver. 20.-God's departure from the soul unrecognised. "He wist not that the Lord was departed from him. ' I. THE FACT. 1. There are men whom God has forsaken. No man is utterly for- saken by God ; our continued existence is an evidence of the continued presence of him in whom we live and move and have our being. But the fuller presence of God, that which secures strength and blessing, may depart. 2. His departure is the greatest curse which can fall upon a man. The consequences of it are weakness, shame, ruin. The conscious realisation of it is hell. 3. The cause of this departure of God is in the conduct of men, not in the will of God. Samson forsook God before God forsook him. God does not visit his people casually, and only for seasons ; he abides, and will never leave them (Isa. xii. 17) till they wilfully depart from him. 4. A past enjoyment of God's presence is no guarantee against bis future departure. God is not only absent from those who never knew him, he departs from some in whose hearts he has once dwelt. If the Christian has left his first love, be will find that all his previous experience of God's blessings will not secure him against the dreary night of a godless life. II. THE IGNORANCE OF THE FACT. Samson was unconscious of the fearful loss he had sustained. So there are men who retain their honoured position in Christian society and in the Church while, even unknown to themselves, the source of the life which gave it them is ebbing away. The causes of this ignorance should be traced. 1. The presence of God is spiritual, inward, silent, secret, and his departure makes no outward sign. 2. Old habits continue for a season after the impetus behind them has ceased, as the train runs for a while after the steam has been shut off. 3. God may leave us gradually as we forsake him by degrees. The fall is not sudden and violent, rather it is a quiet gliding back ; and the loss of Divine grace is not often ( as in the case of Samson) sudden, but little by little it leaves us. 4. One of the worst effects of God's departure is that it leaves us in a state of spiritual indifference. As with the death which follows extreme cold, the very fatality lies in the fact that the more dangerous our condition is, tl1e more numbed are our faculties to any feeling of distress. The man from whom God has departed has neither the keenness o.E con- science to discern the fact, nor the feeling of concern to take any notice of it. 5. The tests of God's absence are not always immediately applied. The rotten tree stands till the storm strikes it ; the corpse mocks sleep till corruption ensues ; Samson does not know of God's departure till the Philistines are on him. But though post- poned for a season, the revelation must come in the end. How much better to discover the evil first by self-examination I (2 Cor. xiii. 5).-A.