Samson only began to deliver Israel. David was afterwards raised up to complete the destruction of the Philistines; but our Lord Jesus is both Samson and David too-both the author and finisher of our faith. When at Timnath, behold, a young lion roared against Samson. And the Spirit of the LORD came mightily upon him, and he rent him as he would have rent a kid. As he overcame this lion, so hath Christ our Lord conquered Satan, that roaring lion which goeth about seeking whom he may devour. After this he gave several instances of his great strength, and of God's being with him-slaying thirty of the Philistines at one time, and one thousand of them at another, with no other weapon than the jaw of an ass. And when he had fallen in love with a harlot in Gaza, the Philistines laid wait for him all night in the gate of the city, and were quiet all the night, saying, In the morning, when it is day, we shall kill him. And Samson arose at midnight, and took the doors of the gate of the city, and the two posts, and went away with them, bar and all, and thus made his escape-being a type of Christ's victory over death and the grave.-Judges xiv. 5, 6; xv. 13, 14; and xvi. 3, 11, 13.

And it came to pass after this, that he loved a woman in the valley of Sorek, whose name was Delilah, by whom he was basely betrayed into the hands of the Philistines, who took him and put out his eyes. "Then the lords of the Philistines gathered them together for to offer a great sacrifice unto Dagon their god for they said, Our god hath delivered Samson our enemy into our hand. And they called for Samson out of the prison house; and he made them sport: and they set him between the pillars. And Samson said unto the lad that held him by the hand, Suffer me that I may feel the pillars whereupon the house standeth, that I may lean upon them. Now the house was full of men and women; and all the lords of the Philistines were there; and there were upon the roof about three thousand men and women, that beheld while Samson made sport. And Samson called unto the LORD, and said, O Lord GOD, remember me, I pray thee, and strengthen me, only this once, O God, that I may be at once avenged of the Philistines for my two eyes. And Samson took hold of the two middle pillars upon which the house stood, and on which it was borne up, of the one with his right hand, and of the other with his left. And Samson said, Let me die with the Philistines. And he bowed himself with all his might; and the house fell upon the lords, and upon all the people that were therein. So the dead which he slew at his death were more than they which he slew in his life. Then his brethren and all

the house of his father came down, and took him, and brought him up, and buried him between Zorah and Eshtaol, in the burying-place of Manoah his father. And he judged Israel twenty years."-Note. Samson, in his death, is not to be looked upon as a self-murderer, as it was not his own life that he aimed at, but the lives of Israel's enemies, for the reaching of which he bravely resigned his own. Christ was plainly typified hereby. He pulled down the devil's kingdom, as Samson did Dagon's temple; and, when He died, obtained the most glorious victory over the powers of darkness.

It requires to be observed here, that what is recorded from the beginning of the 17th chapter of Judges to the end of the book, was not done after Samson's death, but long before, even soon after the death of Joshua, in the days of Phinehas, the son of Eleazar.-See chap. xx. 28. The events also related in the book of Ruth, concerning the domestic affairs of one particular family, took place "in the days when the Judges ruled;" and the history of the two last judges, Eli and Samuel, though placed in the first book of Samuel, may rather be looked upon as an appendix to the book of Judges.

EXERCISES.

What space of time did the government of the Judges, from Othniel to Eli, occupy? In whom was the executive power vested? Who was the first judge? Who was the next? How did he use Eglon, king of Moab? With what weapon did Shamgar slay the Philistines? From whose tyranny did Deborah deliver Israel? Who was the general of his army? What became of him? Against whom did Gideon make war? How long had the country peace in his days? How long did Tola and Jair judge Israel? How did Israel act after their death? What judge delivered Israel from the power of the Ammonites? What was remarkable in his character? Name the three judges who succeeded him? Give an outline of the character of Samson? Mention some of the circumstances in which he was a type of Christ?

CHAPTER X.

FROM THE DEATH OF SAMSON TO THE BEGINNING OF SAUL'S REIGN, A.M. 2887-2909.

Judgments Threatened and Executed upon the House of Eli-The Ark Taken-Samuel's Administration, &c.

ELI-of whom it is recorded that he judged Israel; but he is not supposed to be one of the extraordinary judges who delivered

them, but that he was made an ordinary magistrate over some part of the land. The first notice that we have of him, he and his sons, Hophni and Phinehas, were acting as priests of the LORD in Shiloh, in the days when Elkanah and Hannah his wife went there to worship, and to sacrifice unto the LORD. "Now the sons of Eli were sons of Belial; they knew not the LORD," -men of sensuality, devoted to gluttony and lewdness, and that to such an extent, that men abhorred the offering of the LORD because of them. "Now Eli was very old, and heard all that his sons did unto all Israel. And he said unto them, Why do ye such things? for it is no good report that I hear: ye make the LORD's people to transgress. If one man sin against another, the judge shall judge him: but if a man sin against the LORD, who shall entreat for him? Notwithstanding they hearkened not unto the voice of their father, because the LORD would slay them."

Full well did their father know their misconduct, and detested it to his very heart; but he did not use the rod when he might, and now they will not obey the curb. He should have rebuked them sharply; their crime deserved it-their temper needed it.

At the advanced age of eighty-eight, a prophet of God comes to Eli, who distinctly lays his sons' iniquities to the charge of their indulgent father; yea, and heartrending predictions are given too, that an untimely death shall silence their scandalous vices, and pitiable destitution shall disgrace the withering remnant of his house :-"For thus saith the LORD God of Israel, Behold, the days come, that I will cut off thine arm, and the arm of thy father's house, and there shall not be an old man in thine house for ever; and all the increase of thine house shall die in the flower of their age. And I will raise me up a faithful priest, that shall do according to that which is in mine heart and in my mind: and I will build him a sure house; and he shall walk before mine anointed." Why all this was to be done, God gives his reason in these few words :-"For them that honour me I will honour, and them that despise me shall be lightly esteemed." Thus God spake to Eli twice, yea, thrice, but no vigorous reformation follows. At last three messages from God came direct to him in one night, and these, too, sent by young Samuel. Now he seems to be aroused: his sleep is gone he waits till the morning, and hears what the Lord had to say by the mouth of his faithful servant Samuel. "Behold, I will do a thing in Israel, at which both the ears of every one that heareth it shall tingle. In that day I will perform against Eli all things which I have spoken concerning his house: when I begin, I will also make an end. For I have told him that I

will judge his house for ever for the iniquity which he knoweth ; because his sons made themselves vile, and he restrained them not. And Samuel told Eli every whit, and hid nothing from him. And Eli said, It is the LORD: let him do what seemeth him good."-1 Sam. iii. 18.

"In the midst of all these threatenings against the house of Eli there is mercy promised to Israel-'I will raise me up a faithful priest.' This was fulfilled in Zadok, of the family of Eleazar, in the beginning of Solomon's reign. He was faithful to his trust, and the high-priests were of his posterity as long as the Levitical priesthood continued. In all this, let us mark how faithful God is to His word, either in mercy or in judgment. When He begins, He also makes an end. In one day the two sons of Eli are slain in battle, where no fewer than thirty thousand footmen of Israel, in heaps upon heaps, lie slaughtered around them. The ark of God is taken. At the hearing of this, Eli himself falls from off his seat by the side of the gate, and expires in an instant. At the sametime his daughter-inlaw, giving untimely birth to her infant, had just strength with her dying breath to name him 'ICHABOD'-attesting to future ages that Eli's indulgent spirit is the ruin of his house, and the dishonour of his country. In David's time, Abimelech, the great-grandson of Eli, with eighty-four priests of his house, were unsparingly slaughtered by Doeg the Edomite; and in the reign of Solomon, when Adonijah formed a conspiracy against his throne, Abiathar the priest, the last remnant of Eli's race, was deposed by Solomon from his office; that he might fulfil the word of the LORD, which he spake concerning the house of Eli in Shiloh.'”—1 Kings ii. 27.

In conclusion, let it be observed, to Eli's praise, that the loss of the ark was the cause of his fainting, and falling down in death, not the death of his sons. He seems to say in effect, Farewell, all in this world, if the ark and God's ordinances are gone. His calm resignation to his fate, when predicted by the prophet, is also worthy of our admiration and imitation. It is well expressed in few words—“ It is the LORD." I have nothing to say against His proceedings; He is righteous in all His ways, and holy in all His works. I will bear the indignation of the LORD, because I have sinned against Him.

The last of these extraordinary judges was SAMUEL, of whom we have had some notice in the close of Eli's life. He was the son of Elkanah, by one of his wives, Hannah, a pious woman, who had no children before; "and she was in bitterness of soul, and prayed unto the LORD, and wept sore. And she vowed a vow and said, O LORD of Hosts, if thou wilt indeed look on the

affliction of thine handmaid, and remember me, and give unto thine handmaid a man-child, then I will give him unto the LORD all the days of his life. Thus she spake in her heart, only her lips moved, but her voice was not heard; therefore Eli thought she had been drunken. And Eli said unto her, How long wilt thou be drunken? put away thy wine from thee. And Hannah answered and said, No, my lord; I am a woman of a sorrowful spirit: I have drunk neither wine nor strong drink, but have poured out my soul before the LORD. And Eli said, Go in peace and the God of Israel grant thee thy petition that thou hast asked of him. Wherefore it came to pass, when the time was come about after Hannah had conceived, that she bare a son and called his name SAMUEL;" which name, some say, signifies, asked of God, others, heard of God, because the mother's prayers were remarkably heard of God, and he was an answer to them.

Hannah having weaned her son, prepares a suitable offering, and brings him up unto the house of the LORD in Shiloh, presents him to Eli, the priest, saying, "O my lord! as thy soul liveth, I am the woman that stood by thee here, praying unto the LORD. For this child I prayed; and the LORD hath given me my petition which I asked of him therefore as long as he liveth, I have lent him to the LORD." Hannah's prayer, though made in a public place, and in the presence of Eli, the priest, yet it was thus made secretly. "Her lips only moved, but her voice was not heard." What is such a prayer? It is well answered by the poet,

"PRAYER is the soul's sincere desire,
Utter'd or unexpress'd,

The motion of a hidden fire

That trembles in the breast.

PRAYER is the burthen of a sigh,

The falling of a tear;

The upward glancing of an eye

When none but God is near.'

Hannah having thus dedicated her son to the LORD, who gave him, she at the sametime offers him up with a song of gratitude and thanksgiving, in which she triumphs in God's glorious perfections, His unspotted purity, His almighty power, His unsearchable wisdom, His unerring justice, and the sovereignty of His divine providence. “And Hannah said, My heart rejoiceth in the LORD: mine horn is exalted in the LORD: my mouth is enlarged over mine enemies; because I rejoice in thy salvation. The LORD maketh poor, and maketh rich: he bringeth low, and lifteth up. He raiseth up the poor out of the dust,