THE DEATH OF SAMSON.
: Old Testament StoriesSamson's birth was foretold by an angel. He was to grow up a Nazarite,
forbidden to drink strong drink, neither was his head to be shaved.
His strength was very great; but his marriage was sinful, and his
doings with the idolatrous Philistines terrible. Though an Israelite
and a judge, I fear much he sinned greatly against God. On one
occasion he went to Gaza, a city of the Philistines. The inhabitants
tried to take hi
of their city. In our picture though he looks so strong, yet we see
chains on his legs, and he is blind! How came he to lose his sight and
be made a prisoner? I think it was owing to his sin and folly.
He became acquainted with a wicked woman, who enticed him to tell her
in what his great strength lay. Three times he told her falsely, but
at last he said that if the flowing locks of his hair were removed his
strength would depart. While he slept these locks were cut off, then
the Philistines burst in upon him, and when he arose to resist them,
he found that his strength was gone. Then his eyes were cruelly put
out, and he was bound with fetters of brass.
Our artist shows him blind, brought out to make sport at the
Philistines' feast. He is very sorrowful, and, I think, angry. He asks
the lad beside him to place his hands upon the pillars supporting the
house; then, his great strength returning, he bows himself with all
his might; the pillars break, the house falls, and Samson, with very
many of the Philistines, is crushed amid the ruins. Was not this a
terrible end to what might have been a noble life?
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